GFGF: Season of Renewal

This week we are sharing recipes that sets your culinary hopes for the New Year. In 2022 I hope to go back to my healthy eating which, sadly, I have neglected since Thanksgiving. KETO has been my friend for most of 2021 and it is that I am going back to.

One of my favorite things to make is the Broccoli salad. It is super simple to make. Really doesn’t need a recipe and the dressing is delicious.

The only part of the recipe I ever follow is for the dressing.

Raw broccoli and cauliflower florets. Chopped green onion. Sunflower seeds. Chiopped pecans. Shredded cheese. Crumbled bacon in just about any amount you like to taste. (If not on KETO you can throw in some dried cranberries.)

Dressing:

• 1 cup real mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/4 cup granulated erythritol (sugar)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and mix into the other ingredients.

I usually make at least 1/2 more of the recipe just to be sure I have enough. I love this salad. And make it often.

This is the last post for Good Friends Good Food. But we have revived Eating with Ellie (Krieger) and Wednesdays with Donna Hay. Both are healthy food chefs. And many of their recipes are easily adaptable to KETO. YAY!!

You can access our blog posts each week.

Kayte

Peggy

Ulrike

We also all are members of Tuesdays with Dorie where we are working our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Dorie.

If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Y’ALL!!

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GFGF: GREENS

GREENS!!

Now, before you think of lots of vegetables that are green consider the vegetable “GREENS“. This includes only one category of veggies. Leaves: Collards, Mustard, Turnip. Those are what, in the south, we call greens. And I cook them a lot for the Man. Me, not a fan. So when Donna chose GREENS I knew it would be just for the Man.

And they are not easy to photograph for a pretty picture.

These are easy to prepare. Boil water. Season with salt. Add cleaned and stripped (from the tough stem) leaves. Bring to a boil.

But before you do that you need to fry some bacon and then sautee some onion in the bacon grease. This you add to the greens as they cook.

See. Easy.

I am curious as to how the rest of the Good Friends cooked their greens.

Donna

Kayte

Ulrike

Peggy

Ellen

Nancy

In two weeks we are cooking Fresh Shell Beans. Stay tuned.

 

Whole 30 Thursday: Salmon

Yes, I’m a wee bit lot late with this post.  It was supposed to be here last Thursday but I just didn’t get to it.  Patience, Grasshopper!

Last week’ recipe from the Whole 30 Fast and Easy cookbook was Ancho-Clementine Salmon with  Herbed Sweet Potato Fries and, like all the other recipes I have tried in the book, it was quite tasty.

The salmon was rubbed with a mix of orange zest, oregano, garlic powder and salt.  The recipe also called for ground ancho chile powder but I don’t use/like that so I used some cajun seasoning and cut back on the salt.

The fries were tossed with EVOO, oregano, garlic powder, rosemary salt, pepper and thyme.

All of it made for a delicious lunch that was ready in no time.

The recipe is on page 126.

Kayte is getting ready for school these days so she’ll get to this eventually.

While we will not be posting the actual recipes from the book (we encourage you to honor the author and to buy the book so that you can own the recipes yourselves), we will share our photos and  ingredients and comments on each. If you would like to join in, just leave the link to your post so we can come and read all about it.  Even if you aren’t eating Whole 30ish, the recipes and food are wonderful and fit into any meal plan.

 

{EwE} Sauce it Up!

This week Kayte wants us to be SAUCY!!  Cook anything with a sauce.  Easy enough.

I went with Ellie’s salmon in aromatic tomato sauce with swiss chard spinach.  I am not a fan of chard so subbing spinach was easy.

And totally delicious.  A nice sauce made with diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, roasted red peppers, and whole red chili peppers.  I don’t like REALLY hot food.  Spicy, yes, but not tongue burning so I left out the chili peppers.  But since I did that I used Ro-tel diced tomatoes with green peppers.  Plenty hot and plenty spicy.  And lots of flavor with the coriander and cumin.

Ellie suggested  eating this over couscous but since I am trying to stay pretty compliant with Whole30 program.  It was perfect just by itself.

The recipe is from Ellie’s So Easy (page 195}.  You can also find it HERE if you want to try it.

For more Saucy dishes -> Sauce it Up.

We don’t publish the recipes.  Please buy Ellie’s books and cook along with us.  The weekly themes are on the right of Eating with Ellie.  We publish every Thursday.

 

{EwE} It’s a Garden Party!

This week, thanks to Peggy, we are having a Garden Party at Eating with Ellie.  And what better time than late Spring before it gets rather warm for the summer.

A Garden Party doesn’t have to be fancy.  It can be just good  food shared with friends outdoors.  In light of that I brought a simple Apple Crisp for dessert.

Not bad.  I used Fugi, Golden Delicious, and Pink Lady Apples.  The topping is supposed to be a dough of sorts but, since I wasn’t totally focused when I made it, it turned out to be a sweet oatmeal topping.  How on earth I forgot the butter and oil and water is beyond me.  I didn’t have my mis en place ready I supposed. But it was still good.  It was especially good with some Vanilla Ice Cream melting on top of the warm crisp.

I bet some blueberries would be good in this….

I will make this again – with ALL the ingredients next time.

The recipe is from Ellie’s Comfort Food Fix. {page 280} Also HERE!

More dishes for the Garden Party?  Visit Eating with Ellie.

 

{EwE} Chicken Curry with Green Beans

I don’t think Kayte’s idea was Shakespeare when she chose As You Like It as our theme this week. But it was the first thing I thought of.  If it was, I would have fixed something very British for today’s Eating with Ellie.  But, no!  I went with something I really like – as I like it – CURRY!!

Specifically Ellie’s Chicken Curry with Green Beans.

I only made used two thighs rather than 8 but I made the regular amount of sauce.  I always make extra sauce.  Especially when the sauce is CURRY!!!

Ellie listed boneless, skinless thighs for the meat cooked in an onion, garlic, ginger, coconut sauce with lots of mild curry powder.

This was absolutely delicious AND….AND it is Whole30 compliant.  I could eat this every day.

Win/Win!!

The recipe is on page 187 of Ellie’s You Have it Made. 

Want more? -> As You Like It

 

{EwE} SHRIMP!

This week’s theme, thank you, Kayte,  is Mom’s Favorite because Mother’s Day is Sunday.

I thought about what my Mom’s and my Grandmothers’ s favorite dishes were and I honestly don’t think they had one.  Any of them.  Maybe back in those day’s , pre- WWII and the early 1950s people didn’t think of a FAVORITE food as long as they HAD food.  Unlike today cooking and eating was just something you did.  Not something you really thought about.

As for me,  I would have to say I do have a favorite food – seafood – specifically SHRIMP with a good rib-eye coming in second.  With that in mind when I went for MOM”S Favorite I went for mine – I am a Mom!

Ellie’s OVEN-FRIED SHRIMP

DELICIOUS!!  And easy to make.  The peeled shrimp are dipped in flour, then eggwhites, then rolled in whole-wheat breadcrumbs seasoned with thyme, .emon zest, salt and cayenne.  A little bit of bite with ton’s of flavor.  They were super crunchy without all the mess of frying and the calories of the oil.  Thank You, Ellie!!!

The recipe is from Ellie’s Comfort Food Fix.  page 185.

More Mom dishes -> Mom’s Favorite

Like to join in with us cooking with Ellie Krieger’s recipes.  Just click over to Eating with Ellie.  The weekly themes are on the right.  We don’t publish Ellie’s recipes but know you would love to have her books.  And lots of her recipes are on line.

 

{EwE} Apple Cookies

This week’s theme for Eating with Ellie is Apples.  We’ve been cooking with Ellie for so long that we, or at least I, are running out of yummy recipes in some categories.  Like apples.  I had planned to make the Apple Crisp from Comfort Food Fix but we were invited to a Church Supper and I made dessert and I still had some left so I had to make something LESS sweet and less like dessert.  Too many sweets in the house means trouble.

Enter Ellie’s Harvest Breakfast Cookies. These cookies are huge and more like a muffin in cookie form.

Each cookie uses almost 1/2 cup of batter so they are quite large.  And they are chock full of apples, cranberries blueberries {because I couldn’t find my cranberries} along with pecans and dried cranberries.  They are supposed to contain rolled oats as well.  I noticed my cup of oats on the counter just as I was putting the cookies in the oven.  oh, well.

They are sweet but not too sweet.  The only sweetener is 1/2 cup of Maple Syrup.  These are on the menu for breakfast in the morning.

The cookies are in Ellie’s you have it made.  page 45

More apples -> An Apple a Day…

We would love to have you join us for Eating with Ellie.  The themes are listed on the right of the Eating with Ellie page.  We don’t print the recipes.  We’d rather you bought Ellie’s books.  She has 6 out now.  And they are all good.

 

{EwE} Easter Eats

Easter is almost upon us.  A glorious time of the year.  While it is a time of joy it is also a time of struggle.  Not an important struggle.  Just trying to plan an Easter menu when there are so many likes and dislikes in tastes.  Usually we have ham.  And rolls.  And a veggie.  But this year I’m not planning the meal.  The Daughter is.  No worries here.  This year!!

One of the veggies we usually have is a sweet potato dish.  Sauteed.  Fried.  Baked.  This year something different.  Ellie’s Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Orange Essence. Not very different you say.  It’s not the dish – it’s the orange essence.  NOT a usual flavoring in our sweet ‘taters.

This is the way my Mom used to make them.  But I make them with pecans, brown sugar, and pralines.

Not to say I didn’t like Mom’s.  I just got used to making them differently.  Ellie’s is very close to my Mom’s.

Mashed sweet taters with a touch of brown sugar, nutmeg, orange zest, and orange juice. Just the right amount of everything.

The recipe is simple to make and comes from Ellie’s The Food You Crave  page 267.   It’s also HERE!

Thanks, Kayte, for this week’s theme.

Need more Easter Eats -> Eating with Ellie.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter!

 

{EwE} SPRING IS HERE!

It’s SPRING!  I LOVE Spring!  Flowers!  Planting the Garden.  Cool days and nights.  Fresh Spring Veggies.  Spring Fruits. I know there aren’t many but what is Springy is always fresh and delicious.  Each region of the US has a different growing season and different fruits and veggies available.  The South has a nice long growing season so were are more fortunate than some areas.

Since it has been a busy week I went with something quick and simple for Peggy’s pick this week – Spring Harvest.

Cauliflower “Rice” Pilaf

Since I am still doing the Whole30 program for 90% of my meals this fit in perfectly.  And only four main ingredients:  cauliflower, pine nuts/almonds, onions and parsley.  It was perfect with some leftover Black Pepper Chicken.  

I did make one change.  Ellie called for OO for sauteeing the onions and cauliflower but I decided to use some toasted sesame oil instead.  It added a little Asian flair to the rice and a little bite.  Good!

The recipe is from Ellie Krieger’s You Have it Made.  page 306.

For more Spring Harvest visit Eating with Ellie.

And if you want to cook/bake along with us the weekly themes are listed on the right of the Ellie page.  We don’t publish the recipes.  We would rather you purchase Ellie’s books.