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Spring Break Brings College-Age Kids back Home
 Hurry for Curry - Curried Vegetables with Brown Rice Over the spring break, my college-age son and his girlfriend visited. I love to see them and hear all about school, but they do pose a challenge on the culinary front. They are both vegetarians, and while I do prepare vegetarian meals several times a week such as black bean tacos and stuffed potatoes, I wanted to create gourmet style meals for their visit. For complete recipe: Continue reading Low Fat, Vegan, Curried Vegetables with Brown Rice
What to do with all those leftover dyed and painted Easter eggs? My kids used to love to color, dye, and paint hard-boiled eggs, but they
 Dyed Easter Eggs Make Great Egg Salad and Deviled Eggs groaned when it came time to eat them. Only real chocolate eggs graced their lips at Easter. We generally had several egg decorating sessions in the weeks leading up to Easter. Luckily, the paints and dyes used in the commercial egg coloring kits are non-toxic, so I didn’t worry about eating eggs tinged with yellow, purple, blue, or green.
This is one of my favorite recipes for making egg salad using leftover Easter eggs. One final note, always keep the eggs in the refrigerator after decorating so that there is no risk of spoiling. For egg salad and deviled egg recipes:
Continue reading What to do with Hardboiled Easter Eggs?
 Sweet and Spicy Ham Steak - A Small Crowd Pleaser Why bother with a whole ham when a steak will do just fine for a small crowd. This ham steak is seasoned with brown sugar and a dash of cayenne pepper to give it a little kick. I have family members with particular palates, so I need to go easy on the spicy seasonings, but you can add more or less cayenne depending on the taste preferences of your diners. I’ve used a Niman Ranch Ham steak because it only has 110 and 4 grams of fat for a 3-ounce serving, a nutritional bargain for pork, the other so-called white meat; in addition, Niman Ranch products adhere to these strict guidelines for all their products:
- Humanely Raised on Sustainable
- Never Given Antibiotics – Ever
- Never Given Any Added Hormones – Ever
- Fed All Vegetarian Feeds
Continue reading Easter Ham Dinner for a Small Crowd
 Perfect Bread Pudding for Easter Bread pudding is one of my favorite comfort desserts; alas, I generally don’t eat foods with lots of refined carbs, but I’m making an exception this Easter. I’m visiting family for Easter Brunch, two families, in fact, celebrating on both Saturday and Sunday. I love using challah bread as the base for my bread pudding. (Carbs and refined flour be dammed.) Challah bread is made with more eggs than traditional breads and is sweetened with honey. The bread is soft and just scrumptions. You’ll recognize challah by its shape. It’s formed by braiding three pieces of dough together before baking. The outside is a golden brown, and the inside is light yellow from the abundance of eggs used in the dough. For the complete recipe: Continue reading Low Fat Challah Bread Pudding Sweetened with Maple Syrup and Raisins
 Inexpensive Alternative to Roast Lamb or Ham Low Fat Shrimp and Mushroom Forget the costly leg of lamb or ham for Easter dinner. Today, most of us are on a budget, so skip that high-cost dinner and entertain family and friends with brunch instead. This fairly inexpensive egg-based strata is fancy enough so that no one will notice that you’ve been counting your pennies. Think if a strata as a layered bread pudding. This variation is savory. Seafood is mixed with woodsy flavored mushrooms, garlic, and onions, along with fresh chopped Italian parsley. You can use any combination of seafood including shrimp, crab, scallops, or even smoked salmon will do depending on your diners’ preferences. In addition to its low cost, it’s low in fat, and fancy enough for a special occasion. Serve with fresh fruit salad, chilled asparagus salad, and turkey bacon on the side. For complete recipe:
Continue reading Easter Brunch on a Budget – Shrimp and Mushroom Low Fat Strata
 Frugal Fare - Tacos with Ground Beef and Black Bean Filling I generally add black beans to my taco meat to increase the volume and make two main dishes. Granted, we are a family of three, but you could stretch this to create two main courses for a family of four by adding two cans of black beans to the mix.
I start by browning one pound of ground beef. To reduce the fat content, pour the meat into a strainer and allow to drain in a bowl, then rinse with hot water. For recipe:
Continue reading How to Stretch One Pound of Ground Beef – Taco Night and Baked Potato Night
I recently was having company for dinner. I know the wife casually from a professional organization that I joined; I never met her husband, but he sounds like a nice guy whom my husband would like. So I asked myself, what should I do when I’m entertaining guests for the first time, and I don’t want to spend a fortune or spend all my time in the kitchen. I also want to stick with my philosophy to cook fresh and eat healthy.
 Quick and Easy Pork Chops - Sure to Please This quick main course dish is ready in a matter of minutes, it’s fancy enough for guests, and it won’t break the bank. Of course, I checked with them ahead of time to ensure that they eat pork. For the complete recipe: Continue reading Quick, Low Fat, Pork Chops with Easy Balsamic Mustard Sauce
 A Dinner fit for Leprechauns and Everybody else too! For years and years, I’ve avoided the traditional St. Patrick’s Day menu of corned beef and cabbage. At 19 grams of fat per 3 1/2-ounce serving, corned beef is no nutritional bargain. Over the years, I developed alternative low-fat recipes using just a smidgen of corned beef in scalloped potatoes or stuffed cabbage, but while those recipes were tasty enough, they were too time consuming and involved than the traditional one-pot, corned beef and cabbage dinner.
I discovered extra-lean corned beef made from the round instead of the brisket just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The flavors are so similar that you can’t tell the difference. Each 4-ounce serving is just 120 calories, 40 calories from fat and only 4.5 grams of fat (1.5 saturated.) That’s comparable to skinless chicken breast, so corned beef and cabbage are back on the menu. Corned beef, however, is extremely high in sodium, so avoid this meal altogether if you’re on a reduced sodium diet. If you’re following a low-carb diet, eliminate the carrots and potatoes and double the quantity of cabbage. For the complete recipe: Continue reading Low Carb and Low Fat Corned Beef and Cabbage – Have it Your Way
 Savory Eggplant Dish Appeals to all - Vegetarians and Non-Vegetarians My son was coming for the weekend and bringing his girlfriend to visit. I know that she’s a vegetarian, and I know that throwing a veggie burger in the microwave is one solution to my dining dilemma, but not necessarily the best one. I want her to feel welcomed and offering good food is my way of showing her that she should feel right at home. I paged through my old recipes and found this one for Eggplant au Gratin. The dish is substantial enough to satisfy meat-lovers and meat-shunners alike because of its firm texture and flavorful cheese topping. For the complete recipe: Continue reading Low-fat Roasted Eggplant Appeals to Meat-Lovers and Meat-Shunners
 Get the Edge with French Onion Soup I just bought a brand new, 7-inch, Santoku knife. When I got home, I wanted to try it out, so I took out a bag of sweet onions and began to chop, slice, and dice. Before I knew it, I had cut up four onions in a matter of minutes. What do you do with a bunch of cut up onions? Make French onion soup, of course. For complete recipe: Continue reading Sweet Onions Make a Low-fat Soup and Economical Meal
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