All posts by Rene Averett

Main Dish, Recipes, Seafood, Vegetables & Salads

About that Salmon Salad

Photo: Salmon and Bacon Salad

Heavy winds and rain are blasting my area as we approach the end of March. (I think it came in like a lion, but not sure it will depart like a lamb.) We can only hope April looks more like spring than March has. When the month started, I promised to post the recipe for a great salmon salad. Then it totally slipped my mind as I started getting more of the St. Patrick’s Day recipes up. But here it is. This works great if you have left-over salmon, or you can grill a piece before you make it. You can also use canned or packaged cooked salmon.

This is another yummy recipe from Paleo Leap’s web site, so it is good for Atkins, South Beach, Keto, and Paleo.

1 cup Salmon, grilled and flaked (8 oz)
1 hard boiled Egg, diced
1 Mini Pepper
1/2 Avocado, diced
2 slices Bacon, cooked and broken into pieces
1/4 Onion, minced
2 tablespoons Mayonnaise (homemade or your preference)
1 pinch Cayenne Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Lemon Juice
1 tablespoon fresh Parsley, minced or 1/2 teaspoon dried Parsley
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 drop liquid Sweetener
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups of fresh greens (Spring mix lettuce, spinach, arugula – your choice)

To make the dressing:

In a bowl, add the mayonnaise, parsley, lemon juice, cayenne, sweetener, and olive oil then whisk until it is blended.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the salmon, diced eggs, bell pepper, avocado, and red onion. Add the mayonnaise mixture and toss it together gently. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Divide the greens into two bowls, then top with half the salmon mixture into each bowl. Serve.

Makes two healthy servings.

TIP: If you’d rather have shell fish, make this with shrimp, crab, or lobster instead of salmon. It will work just as well.

Image: Nutrition Info

Beef, Breakfast & Brunch, Main Dish, Recipes

Sooo good! A delicious Corned Beef and Asparagus Breakfast

Image: Asparagus and Baked Eggs

Well, this is a little late for a St. Patrick’s Day brunch, but who needs that excuse to make a tasty breakfast with sliced corned beef? You can also substitute in Canadian bacon or slices of turkey. I found this recipe in my excursion looking for paleo recipes that are also low in carbs. And It’s also low enough to satisfy the keto fans. Of course, I made a minor change or two, such as the extra seasoning and adding a garnish of avocado, but those are optional.

St. Patrick’s Day Brunch Asparagus and Eggs

4 Eggs
1 Leek, sliced
1/2 bunch Asparagus. sliced
4 slices Corned Beef, quartered
1/2 teaspoon Garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Tomato, Garlic and Basil seasoning (optional)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 Avocado for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F.).

Slice the vegetables and cut the corned beef slices into quarters. (If your corned beef is a small cut, then just cut in half.)

Heat a teaspoon of oil in a skillet that can go to the oven.

Add the garlic and leek to the skillet and stir cook for two minutes. Then add the asparagus and all of the corned beef pieces except 4. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes until the asparagus is almost tender.

Put the four pieces of corned beef on top, one in each section of the pan. (I used a square pan, so each corner had a piece of corned beef in it.) Press down on the corned beef piece to make a small well, then crack an egg into the corned beef. Repeat with the other three sections. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Photo: Asparagus with eggs in the pan

Bake for 5 to 6 minutes until the egg white is fully set. If you like your yolk non-runny, cook about 7 to 8 minutes.

If you wish, sprinkle a little cheese over the top before servings. Makes two servings or four servings if you’re not super hungry or want even lower carbs.

TIPS: This may be made with bacon in place of the corned beef. Use four or more slices. You can also use Canadian bacon, ham, or turkey slices.

Based on a recipe at PaleoLeap.com.

Desserts, Recipes

Irish Cream Ricotta Cheesecake Tops St. Patrick’s Day

Photo: Irish Cream Ricotta Cheesecake

Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Oddly, it’s one of those holidays that tons of people celebrate whether they have even an ounce of Irish blood or not. That’s because it’s fun! Irish music can get your toes tapping or move you to tears. Then you toast the Irish and have another beer or an Irish Coffee or whatever floats your boat. The point is, people get together and have a good time.

The same thing applies to eating some great Irish-styled food on March 17th. Sure, lots of it isn’t actually Irish food, but it’s the spirit (sometimes in actuality) that contributes to the festivities.

While I’ve made an Irish Cream Cheesecake before, here’s a different version drawing on the ricotta-style cheesecake.  I adapted this from the basic recipe and used a combination of real Irish Cream and sugar-free Irish Cream Syrup to give it the yummy flavor. You could make it with all Irish Cream (add about 1 net carb per slice) or with all sugar-free Irish Cream syrup (subtract about 1 net carb per slice). While it makes six good-sized slices, I find that one-eighth of the cake is enough to satisfy me, but I’ve given the nutrition information for both size options.

Irish Cream Ricotta Cheesecake

Adapted by Rene Averett

8 oz. Cream Cheese
1/2 cup whole milk Ricotta Cheese
3/4 cup Sugar Substitute
2 Eggs
2 tablespoons Irish Cream
2 tablespoons sugar-free Irish Cream Syrup
2 tablespoons Low Carb Flour, Almond Flour, or Soy flour,
or 1 tablespoon Coconut Flour
3 tablespoons Butter, softened
1/4 cup Heavy Cream or Sour Cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F.) Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit a 6″x6″ spring-form pan and spray with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and ricotta cheese until well mixed. Add the sugar, eggs, lemon mix, vanilla, flour, and butter. Mix until smooth and creamy. Stir in the heavy cream or sour cream last.

Pour the mixture in the cake pan and smooth.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave for another 30 minutes. Let sit to cool about 10 minutes. Remove from spring-form pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to cool before serving.

Makes six to eight servings.

Irish Cream Chocolate Sauce

2 tablespoons Sugar-free Irish Cream Syrup
2 tablespoons Sugar-free Chocolate Topping (Walden Farms)

Mix together and drizzle over the top of each slice as you serve it. Top with a dollop of whipped cream.

To make your own sugar-free chocolate syrup, add 2 tablespoons unsweetened chocolate, 2 tablespoons sugar substitute, and 2 tablespoons hot water together, add a bit of vanilla extract and stir until you have a syrup. To thicken it a little, cook in microwave for about 30 seconds, then stir again and let cool.

Here are more recipes on this site for more St. Patrick’s Day dining options:

Not Quite Traditional Corned Beef Hash

 

 

Photo: Corned Beef Pie Corned Beef Cottage Pie

 

 

Photo: Irish Benedict Irish Benedict Brunch

 

 

Photo: Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage Corned Beef and Cabbage

 

 

Photo: Irish Soda Bread Irish Soda Bread – low carb

 

 

Photo: Irish Apple Cake Irish Apple Cake

 

 

For even more foods for St. Patrick’s, type in Irish in the search box to get more recipes. Erin go Bragh to you all!

Main Dish, Recipes, Seafood, Vegetables & Salads

Scintillating Salmon with Orange Sauce

Photo: Salmon with Orange Basil Sauce

PK’s new doctor recently suggested she try the paleo diet to improve her health. With this pronouncement in mind, I took a look at some of the paleo recipes and chose some that I thought I could adapt to low carb that would suit both of us. As a result of this quest, I will be posting more recipes that work for both low carb like Atkins and South Beach as well as ones that work with keto and paleo.

This is a delicious recipe that I found as Orange Rosemary Salmon at PaleoLeap.com. I didn’t have any rosemary, so I substituted basil. Dried basil at that. But it worked exceptionally well, and we loved the flavor of this dish. I grilled the salmon on my new Copper Chef stove-top grill, which worked perfectly, and I cleaned it up in just a few minutes after I was done. Yay for that! I even grilled the asparagus spears along with it. The side serving that looks a bit like rice is actually riced kohlrabi, which is amazingly delicious when cooked with a bit of broth, butter, and basil.

If you were going true paleo, you would use all fresh ingredients and your chicken stock would be made from chicken bones. I, on the other hand, made mine from Better Than Bullion.

Orange Basil Salmon

Atkins, Keto, and Paleo-friendly

2 salmon fillets (about 1/2 lb)
1 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh Basil, minced 0r 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Use a grater or zester to scrape the orange skin until you have 1 teaspoon of orange zest. Cut the orange and squeeze out as much of the juice as you can from one large orange. I use a little of the pulp as well since I like to have it in my sauce. Combine the orange juice, lemon juice, chicken stock, and zest.

Heat the grill on high heat until hot, then turn to medium heat. Brush the salmon fillets with a little olive oil then season with salt and pepper. Place on the grill with skin side up and cook until the salmon is about half-way done, about 5 minutes. Flip so the skin side is down and continue to cook another 4 to 5 minutes. (Time will vary based on the heat and thickness of the salmon.) Add any vegetables to the grill at this point.

On another burner, heat up a saute pan and add a teaspoon of olive oil or cooking fat. Cook the garlic and fresh basil in it for a minute or so. If using dried, add it to the orange juice mixture. Pour the juice and broth into the pan and stir well. Lower the heat to medium-low and add salt and pepper to taste, about a pinch of pepper and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. Stir and cook until the mixture begins to thicken.

Meanwhile, check on the salmon as you work and turn any vegetables that need it. When the flesh looks done all the way through, use a pancake spatula and slide it between the skin and the meat. The salmon will lift off easily. Transfer it to a serving plate and spoon or pour half the orange sauce over the top.

Serve with vegetables and riced cauliflower or kohlrabi. Makes two servings.

Photo: Riced kohlrabi

Riced Kohlrabi with Basil

1 medium (4″) Kohlrabi
1/4 cup Chicken Broth or Better Than Bullion
1/2 teaspoon dried Basil
Pinch Salt
1 tablespoon Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, or Butter

Prepare this before you begin the main meal.

Peel kohlrabi, cut into cubes and put in the food processor. Pulse until the vegetable is chopped into rice-sized pieces.

In a skillet, add oil or butter, then add the kohlrabi. Stir and cook for about a minute, then add the broth, bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Add water if it is too dry. The kohlrabi will take about 20 minutes to cook until it is tender. Add seasonings about part way through.

When done the kohlrabi should look like rice in texture. Makes about three half-cup servings.

Nutrition: Salmon with Basil Orange Sauce

 

Main Dish, Poultry, Recipes, Soups and Stews, Vegetarian

Delicious Turkey Ragout feeds the soul

Photo: Turkey & Vegetables Ragout

A rainy night or two ago, I pulled a package of frozen turkey from the freezer and pondered what I could throw together with it that suited this chilly night. I had canned tomatoes, an eggplant that needed to be used, and some of the mini-peppers in my fridge. So I threw this saucy dish together. It’s not quite a ragu nor is it a ragout exactly, but it’s closer to the latter, so that’s what I decided to call it. It’s a lovely combination of meat, vegetables, and sauce with Italian seasonings.

For my seasoning salt, I used Emeril’s Essence, but any seasoning salt will work. I also used red onion, which brings a bit more sweetness than a white or yellow onion, but any of them will work. In fact, this is a versatile recipe, so if you don’t care for eggplant, substitute in another vegetable, such as summer squash or mushrooms. Of course, you can also use ground beef in place of the turkey. For a vegetarian option, omit the meat and add in more vegetables, like the aforementioned mushrooms or chopped kohlrabi. Be aware that replacing the turkey with additional vegetables will increase the carb count a little.

Turkey and Vegetable Ragout

1 lb. Ground Turkey
1 15-oz. can Diced Tomatoes
1 tablespoon Garlic, minced
1/4 cup Onion, chopped
1 cup Eggplant, cubed
3 Mini-Peppers, sliced
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1/4 cup Water or White Wine
1 teaspoon Oregano
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon ground Pepper

In a large saucepan, brown the ground turkey, chopping into small pieces as it cooks. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onions are translucent.

Add the eggplant and peppers and continue to cook another few minutes, stirring a few times, then add the canned tomatoes and 1/4 cup of water (or white wine). Add all the seasonings and stir the whole pan together.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and let cook for about 20 to 30 minutes until the liquid is reduced to a delicious sauce and the vegetables are tender. Taste the sauce and adjust any seasonings.

Serve with cooked zucchini noodles. You can either buy these in the frozen food section or make your own with a spiralizer or a vegetable peeler. Or you can do a wide shred with a food grater.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Info for Turkey Vegetable Ragout