Category Archives: Vegetables

Appetizers, Easy Brunch Recipes, Gluten Free (GF), Healthy, Ketogenic, Paleo, Vegetables

Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms

July 28, 2017 Jolyn Leave a comment

Here’s a delicious and simple appetizer that even your guests on
gluten-free, Ketogenic, Paleo and Atkins diets can enjoy.

Ingredients:

24 mushrooms
4 tablespoons tomato sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Your favorite pizza toppings (pepperoni, sausage, bell pepper, onion, tomato, basil, etc.)

Directions:

Remove stems from mushrooms and clean mushroom caps with a damp paper towel.
Place mushroom caps on a lightly greased baking sheet and fill with tomato or pasta sauce. My favorite is Trader Joe’s
Bruschetta.
Top with mozzarella cheese and your favorite pizza toppings.
Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes, until cheese is melted and nicely browned.

Enjoy!

TIP: If cooking for only a few people, use large Portobello
mushrooms to create personal sized crust-free pizzas. Bake the mushrooms for 5 minutes before adding toppings.

Bacon, Casseroles, Easy Brunch Recipes, Gluten Free (GF), Ketogenic, Vegetables

Cheesy Bacon Brussels Sprouts

February 3, 2017 Jolyn Leave a comment

Here’s great way to introduce people to Brussels sprouts: roast and smother them in bacon and melted cheese —
the sprouts, not the people, that is.

This recipe came from 12Tomatoes.com — one of my favorite recipe sites. Check it out for lots of yummy dishes. Here’s how I made it:

Ingredients
1½ pounds Brussels sprouts, halved
8 oz bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
½ cup fontina cheese, grated
¾ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg
1 sprig fresh rosemary, minced (I’ll use a little less next time)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Makes 6 servings (or 3 if you’re like me!)

Directions
1. Toss Brussels sprouts in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and place in a large baking dish. Roast at 400˚ for 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Whisk together the egg, cream, rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder and red pepper flakes. Stir in cheese.

3. Add a little more than half of the bacon to the sprouts and cover with the creamy cheese mixture. Stir to combine.

4. Top with remaining bacon and maybe a bit more cheese.

5. Bake at 350˚ for 20 to 25 minutes until cheese is bubbly.

Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Bacon, Easy Brunch Recipes, Ketogenic, Paleo, Vegetables

The Creamiest Creamed Spinach

January 14, 2017 Jolyn Leave a comment

Between the cream and the bacon, you may forget you’re eating your spinach. This recipe is perfect for your guests who are following a Ketogenic or Paleo diet.

Ingredients

2 slices bacon
3 mushrooms, sliced
½ medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
salt & pepper, to taste
9 oz bag fresh baby spinach
¼ cup cream
2 oz cream cheese, cubed

Directions

1. Fry bacon until almost crisp; drain and cut into bite-size pieces.

2. Over medium heat, sauté mushrooms, onions and garlic in the bacon drippings until onions are soft. Add bacon.

3. Season with salt and pepper and add entire bag of spinach.

4. Stir to combine, then reduce the heat to low and cover pan with a lid so spinach can steam 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Add cream and cream cheese, and stir until cream cheese is melted and spinach is evenly coated.

This recipe makes about 4 servings. Multiply as needed.

Appetizers, Easy Brunch Recipes, Vegetables

Mashed Potato Bites

November 3, 2016 Jolyn Leave a comment

Quick, easy and oh-so-yummy!

Since there are NEVER left-over mashed potatoes in my house, I simply used a container of prepared mashed potatoes from the
grocery store. 2 cups of those, 3 eggs and 3/4 cup of shredded
parmesan cheese. Stirred it together, plopped it into greased mini-muffin tins, topped with a little more cheese and baked at 400
degrees for 20 minutes. OMG! So good!

You could add spices, chives, bacon bits, ham, different cheeses or anything else that sounds good to you, but believe me, this simple version was delicious.

TIP: Let rest 5 minutes and then run knife around the edges to
encourage them out of the muffin tin.

Appetizers, Bacon, Easy Brunch Recipes, Vegetables

Mini BLT Cups

August 15, 2016 Jolyn Leave a comment

For a simple and fun hors d’ouevre, these Mini BLT Cups do the trick. They also fit in well with a ketogenic or paleo diet.

The ingredients are B—bacon, L—lettuce, and T—tomato, of course. But you also want to include some type of creamy dressing:
mayonnaise, aioli, chipotle mayonnaise, Ranch dressing, etc. I settled on cream cheese and was very happy with that choice.

TIP: Get the largest cherry tomatoes you can find. They still need to be small enough to be a single bite, but if they are too small, they are tough to hollow out and stuff.

Bacon, Breakfast, Casseroles, Cauliflower, Chicken, Easy Brunch Recipes, Healthy, Main Dishes, Vegetables

Chicken Cauliflower Casserole

August 14, 2016 Jolyn Leave a comment

This Cauliflower Casserole was a big hit with my brunch guests while helping me to stay true to my ketogenic lifestyle. The recipe came from CavemanKeto.com, and I highly recommend his website for wonderful recipes to support ketogenic and paleo diets.

Ingredients:

10 to 12 chicken thighs
1 head of cauliflower, chopped
16 oz cheese, shredded (I used a Mexican cheese blend)
6 green onions, chopped
6 thick slices of bacon
1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium green pepper, sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 oz heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bake chicken thighs and shred or cut into cubes (I baked them in a large baking dish with a little water at 350° for 60 minutes.)

2. Brown the bacon and cut into small pieces.

3. Cook the cauliflower (I used the microwave on high for 5 minutes).

4. Sauté the peppers and onion slices until tender.

5. Combine all the ingredients (except 4 oz of cheese) in a very large bowl.

6. Press mixture into a large greased casserole dish and top with the remaining cheese.

7. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes at 350° and then five minutes more without the foil.

You can prepare the casserole ahead and refrigerate overnight, but let it sit at room temperature 20 minutes before baking.

Dips and Sauces, Easy Brunch Recipes, Vegetables

Saffron Tomato Confit

July 29, 2016 Jolyn Leave a comment

Saffron Tomato Confit is a luscious way to use tomatoes that
perhaps aren’t as pretty as they once were. It brings out their flavor intensely and can be served on toast, over meats, or as a sauce for pasta. Best of all, it’s extremely simple to make.

Ingredients:
1 pound cherry tomatoes
½ cup olive oil
1 pinch saffron (about 20 threads)
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Sauté tomatoes in olive oil over medium-high heat. Add saffron, salt and pepper.
When the tomatoes start to blister, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for one hour, stirring every ten minutes or so.
Remove pan from heat and let cool for about 20 minutes before serving.

This is delicious served warm, room temperature or chilled and can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

A Note About Saffron: Saffron is a very expensive spice because
1) it’s fabulous and 2) it is an extremely labor-intensive crop. The great news is that a little goes a long way. You can learn more about it at http://www.courierpress.com/features/saffron-is-expensive-but-its-taste-is-worth-the-price-ep-443079344-324670731.html.

Appetizers, Easy Brunch Recipes, Vegetables

Stuffed Mini Sweet Peppers

April 24, 2016 Jolyn Leave a comment

For a yummy Southwestern appetizer, just make your favorite recipe for stuffed peppers and use mini sweet bell peppers instead of large ones. Here’s the recipe I used:

Ingredients:
12 to 14 mini sweet bell peppers
1 cup white rice, cooked
1/2 lb ground sausage (or ground beef)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
10 cherry tomatoes, finely diced
8 oz shredded cheese (cheddar or Mexican blend)

Slice peppers in half lengthwise, remove seeds and inner spines, rinse, dry and lay in 9″x13″ baking dish.

2. Saute sausage, onion and garlic until browned.

3. Add rice and tomatoes to the sausage mixture and stir well.

4. Stuff each pepper half and return to pan.
MSSP--Stuffing

MSSP--Ready to Bake

4. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove foil, top with shredded cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.
MSSP--Baked

To prep ahead: Slice and clean the peppers and store in zipped bag in frig up to two days ahead. Make the stuffing mixture the day ahead and store in the frig.

Breakfast, Easy Brunch Recipes, Vegetables

Sweet Potato Hash

February 19, 2016 Jolyn Leave a comment

“I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam.” –Popeye

The internet is great for so many things, but one of the problems is too much conflicting information and difficulty determining which website should be believed. Take, for example, the difference
between yams and sweet potatoes. Some websites claim emphatically that there is no difference, that a sweet potato is a yam and a yam is a sweet potato. Others claim just as emphatically that they are distinctly different, from different parts of the world and should be cooked differently. Here’s a website I found interesting in case you want to explore the topic further, though I make no claim that it’s accurate: http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-yams-and-sweet-potatoes-word-of-mouth-211176.

After spending waaaay too much time researching the issue and
asking produce department clerks, I’ve stopped caring. I just pick the ones I want when shopping and use them interchangeably. My mouth and my stomach certainly don’t care what I call them.

For this recipe I used two yams(?) and two sweet potatoes(?), and it was delicious

1. First I skinned and cubed the tubers and cooked them in boiling salt water until just tender, about 10 minutes. Then I drained them and laid them on paper towels to dry.

2. In two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat, I sautéed red bell peppers, red onions, green onions and garlic until tender, about 8 minutes.

3. Then I added the yams/potatoes to the pan, seasoned them with salt and pepper and gently stirred to combine. I turned the heat up to high and let the vegetables sit untouched so the potatoes would crisp up. After about five minutes, I flipped them and let them crisp on the other side for a few minutes.

If not serving bacon elsewhere in the meal, you could certainly add it to this hash.

A hearty, healthy dish that can be made the day before and refrigerated. Reheat before serving.

Appetizers, Dips and Sauces, Easy Brunch Recipes, Vegetables

Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip

December 7, 2015 Jolyn Leave a comment

Quick, easy and tasty Hot Artichoke Spinach Dip

Ingredients:
1 cup thawed, chopped frozen spinach
1½ cups thawed, chopped frozen artichoke hearts
6 oz. cream cheese
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Tip: I like to chop the artichokes while
they are halfway between frozen and
thawed — easiest to cut at that texture.