Super Salmon

I love this salmon recipe. This is one of my picky first grader's favorite dishes.

The quote from hubby: "Are you sure this is healthy? This tastes way too good to be healthy."

Ingredients:
One large salmon filet (Costco's are delicious)
"I can't believe it's not butter" spray
Lemon pepper

Directions:
Cover a cookie sheet (or something similar to it) in tin foil. Lay salmon flat on top. Spray with "I can't believe it's not butter" all over the top, season liberally with the lemon pepper. Broil uncovered on low for 25-35 minutes in the oven until delightfully crispy on top, but flaky, moist, and tender inside.

Olive Garden Salad

My friend Allison has salad dressing running through her veins. I know I can always count on her for a yummy salad recipe. She gave me this awesome recipe that was originally from sisterscafe.blogspot.com. It turned out just like the Olive Garden! Yummy!
(Using fat-free mayo and light corn syrup, this dressing is only 34 calories for 2 tbs of dressing!)
Olive Garden Salad Dressing:
½ c. mayonnaise
1/3 c. white vinegar
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 Tb. corn syrup
2 Tb. Parmesan cheese
2 Tb. Romano cheese
¼ tsp garlic salt – or one clove garlic, minced
½ tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp parsley flakes
1 Tb. lemon juice
1 tsp white sugar

Salad:
1 large head romaine lettuce
slices red onion
black olives
2-4 banana peppers
2 small tomatoes, quartered (I actually used grape tomatoes, cut in half)
½ c. croutons
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

For homemade croutons:
4 slices sandwich bread
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tb. butter
salt and pepper
dried parsley flakes

Mix all dressing ingredients in a blender until well mixed. If this is a little too tart for your own personal tastes, add a little extra sugar, but don't overdo it!

Chill one salad bowl in freezer for at least 30 minutes. Put lettuce in bowl. Place on top of lettuce red onions, black olives, banana peppers, tomatoes, and croutons. Add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese if you like, and add plenty of Olive Garden Salad Dressing on top.

For the homemade croutons:
Cut off crusts of sandwich bread, and cut bread into cubes. Melt butter in small saucepan and add minced garlic. Toss sandwich cubes in the butter and spread out in a pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper and parsley flakes to taste. Bake for 15 minutes at 350°, turning half way through baking.

I did not make the croutons, but I think I will try it next time!! And I will use an electric knife to cut them!

Cottage Cheese Pancakes With Orange Butter Sauce

I fell in love with this dish from my friend Hilary C. at a breakfast recipe exchange several years ago. It is delicious and hearty. I get easily overwhelmed by traditional pancakes and usually start looking for the bacon and eggs after a few bites to counteract my sugar-headache; I can eat a dozen of these without feeling sugared out. The high-protein content of these pancakes combines very well with the sweetness of the orange sauce, or any syrup really. The pancakes have a beautiful texture and they do not taste "eggy".

Pancakes

6 eggs

2 cups of cottage cheese

1 or 1 and 1/2 cups flour

Mix together in a blender until smooth. You might have to stir a few times with the power off to make sure it is blending thoroughly. *Update: I now blend the eggs and cottage cheese in a blender -- without the flour. Then pour the mixture into a bowl. Add flour and use a handmixer to beat until smooth. Use a 1/4 cup scoop to make 15 pancakes. Drop onto the griddle and spread it out a little with a spoon. Makes 15 pancakes at 98 calories each.

Pour on griddle and cook on medium heat. These take a litte longer than normal pancakes. Cook till golden brown. Makes approximately 16 4-inch pancake medallions. They reheat just fine in the microwave! A nice make-ahead breakfast.

Orange Sauce*

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup orange juice (Simply Orange is kinda pricey, but it really does have the orangey-est result. I use any kind of oj and it tastes delicious!)

4 T grated orange peel (optional: I have never done this because I never have spare oranges on hand --and I'm lazy-- but it may add even more to the yummy orangeness and I plan to do it some day)

Melt butter and sugar in saucepan, being careful not to let it burn. Add orange juice and set mixture aside to cool for 5+ minutes. Add eggs. Bring to little bubbly boil and boil for one minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat, pour sauce through a strainer to catch any eggs you accidentally scrambled. I would add the orange peel here (if you are going to use it), since it will get strained out if you do it earlier. Then warm the sauce again for another minute or so. Serve over cottage cheese pancakes.

*Sauce can be frozen and scooped out of freezer bag in desired serving increments if you make this in large enough quantities that you want to save it for a later date. Just reheat on stove or in microwave.

Spinach Pasta Salad

I originally got this yummy recipe from my sister, Heather. I love it and make it all the time. I have been working on it for a few years, tweaking to maximize taste and texture while minimizing caloric content. I'm there!*

Salad:
1/2 lb. rotini pasta, cooked al dente, drain, rinse in cold water
1.5 C cooked chopped chicken
4 cups fresh spinach, shredded/torn
1/2 C black olives, chopped in 1/4’s
2 oz. Feta cheese, crumbled
1.5 cups diced tomtatoes (grape tomatoes, YUM!)
1/2 C monterrey jack cheese, shredded

Dressing:
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
4 Tbs olive oil**
5 Tbs vinegar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbs honey
1 clove garlic, minced

Blend dressing ingredients. Pour over mixed salad. Refrigerate 20-30 minutes before serving. Salt to taste at table.

*This makes 12 delicious 1-cup servings, 178 calories each. Not bad for all that pasta and cheese!

**If the dressing is too tart, add another Tbs of olive oil.

No-Cream Creamy Potato Soup

I make this super-delicious soup all winter long. I have tweaked this and tweaked this to (what I consider) perfection. It's very flavorful. NO butter and NO cream!! (And no "floury" taste!) This recipe makes 9 generous 2-cup servings, only 242 calories each! 242 calories for 2 cups of creamy soup?? Can't beat that! Don't let the nutrition fool you: it's powerfully delicious and gets gushing reviews whenever I serve it.
INGREDIENTS

6 cups peeled and cubed potatoes*
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups diced carrots
5 cube chicken bouillon
4 cups water
1 tbs dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt**
2 pinch ground black pepper
2 Tbs all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
2 cups chopped ham (or hamburger)

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot, add potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, chicken bouillon, water, parsley flakes, salt, and pepper and simmer covered until vegetables become tender (approx 45-60 minutes. Carrots take the longest.) Stir occasionally.

When veggies are tender, in a separate bowl (or food processor) mix flour and milk. Once it is well blended, add to soup mixture and cook until soup becomes thick (approx 5-7 minutes).

Take a potato masher and gently smash around the pot, just enough to squash some of the potato chunks, but not all. It makes the soup creamier!

Stir in cheese, cooked ham or hamburger and simmer until cheese is melted (approx 1-3 minutes). Serve! Yummy!

*Try not to make any changes until you have tried it this way first! Adding more potatoes, water, or milk totally changes the end result. When you are boiling the veggies, it may look like there is not enough water. Trust in the process!!

**Add more salt if needed, but remember that with leftovers, the salt will have had a chance to leak out of the ham, so be careful you don't overdo it!