Eggplant Parma-Pizzettes

I miss pizza... oh do I miss pizza. *wistful sigh* I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and made it with great anticipation thinking longingly of the homemade pizza I used to make, completely ignoring the mixed reviews it got.

Caveat: A pure substitute for pizza its definitely not. The eggplant will never be similar to the consistancy of a pizza crust, nor will it ever be anything resembling crispy no matter how thin you slice it (and I found out the hard way that the recipe calls for 1/2" slices for a reason... much thinner and they fall apart taking them off the cookie sheet.)

But if you think of it as more of an eggplant parmesean done in individual slices, its actually rather tasty. The original recipe suggested toppings such as canadian bacon, but the eggplant slices are small enough that I just went with a chunky pasta sauce and cheese.

1 eggplant, sliced in 1/2" slices
olive oil
salt
black pepper
1 tablespoon pasta sauce per eggplant slice
shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Put eggplant slices on cookie sheet, brush tops with olive oil & season to taste with salt & pepper. Bake for approximately 4 minutes. Flip over slices, brushing fresh side with olive oil & seasoning with salt & pepper. Bake for another 4 minutes.

Spread 1 tablespoon pasta sauce over each slice, sprinkle with parmasean cheese. Broil 2-3 minutes until cheese is golden brown & bubbly.

Ranch Fish

another based on Dana Carpender's 500 Low Carb recipes, this was astoundingly tasty for as easy as it was. Jay took one bite and said "Can we have this again? And regularly!" I used tilapia but any mild white fish would work.

2-4 8 oz. white fish fillets
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons white wine
1 package dry ranch dressing mix

Whisk together ingredients (except fish) together in a glass measuring cup until well blended. Spray cookie sheet or casserole dish (my cookie sheets didn't have any lip on them to hold the liquid) with non-stick cooking spray. Put fish fillets on cookie sheet. Pour mixture over fish.

Broil for approximately 10 minutes.

Stuffed Peppers

I found this on LowCarbLuxury.com, played with it a little, based on what I had in my kitchen at that moment and was amazed at how tasty it came out. The only thing I really miss about the stuffed peppers from my childhood is the sauce to put over maqshed potatoes, but all in all, it's a satisfying low carb version. I used chicken chorizo that was on special at the International Market that week but any sausage would work.


4 large bell peppers, cut in half, tops, seeds & inner membranes cleaned out
1 lb ground sirloin
1 lb chicken chorizo (or sausage)
1 small onion, diced (my Hamilton Beach chopper was great for this)
6-8 smallish Roma tomatoes, diced
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
oregano, pepper & fennel seed to taste
6 ounces reduced fat Feta cheese, crumpled
1/2 cup grated parmesean (or romano)cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook ground sirloin and chorizo over medium heat. Drain thoroughly. Add onions, garlic, tomatoes, garlic and spices and simmer 20 minutes on low.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Fill pepper halves with meat mixture and top with the cheeses.

Bake 30 minutes or until cheese is browned and bubbly.

Lin's Coffee Gelatin

Our favorite Asian restaurant serves an absolutely divine Thai coffee gelatin dessert. Knowing that Thai coffee usually uses sweetened condensed milk, I decided to experiment with a lower carb version.

8 cups strong coffee, freshly brewed
4 tablespoons Splenda (or sugar-free flavored syrup such as gingergread syrup)
4 packets unflavored gelatin
reduced sugar vanilla coffee creamer to taste

Mix hot coffee, Splenda and gelatin thoroughly. (Note: if gelatin is not thoroughly dissolved, the bottom will be rubbery). Chill until set. (For company, chilling in 1/2 filled wine glasses is a nice touch.)

Pour a tablespoon or two of reduced sugar coffee creamer over the gelatin before serving.

Gingerbread Syrup

I found the original version of this on allrecipes.com, but swapped the sugar and honey for Splenda & Spenda Brown Sugar. It came out great and we love it in coffee, or as a flavoring for Lin's Coffee Gelatin or Riccota Cream. I usually make a double batch of this to keep on hand.

1 cup water
1 cup Splenda
1 tablespoon Spenda brown sugar
1 tablespoon diced ginger (or 1" fresh ginger sliced)
1 tablespoon cinnamon (or 1 cinnamon stick, broken up)
8 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (or whole allspice berries)
1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg


Combine water, Splenda and Splenda brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Stir in spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Cool for at least 20 minutes. Strain through a double layer of cheese cloth or fine mesh sieve.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage

This recipe was originally from my father and took surprisingly little alteration to make it low carb friendly. Use turkey bacon to make it more South Beach friendly, but you'll probably need to add a little oil to sautee the cabbage in, since turkey bacon provides very little grease.

4 servings

1/2 head (approximately 4 cups) red cabbage
4 slices low sodium bacon or turkey bacon
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons splenda
oil as needed (if using turkey bacon)

In skillet large enough to hold the cabbage, cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pan.

Add cabbage to bacon grease (you may need to add a little oil if using turkey bacon) and sautee until tender-crisp.

Add cider vinegar and Splenda, sautee for another minute or so for cabbage to absorb flavors.

Crumble bacon over skillet, mix well & serve.

Cucumber Raita

Raita at its simplest and most popular is cucumber, mint and yogurt. But I've always found that to be lacking something to my tastebuds. The Indian grocery that I frequent sells "Raita Masala" which I add to the following recipe to give the flavor a little more complexity. If you don't have access to an Indian grocery, this tastes just fine without the Raita Masala.

1 cup plain lowfat yogurt
3/4 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh mint
1 tsp raita masala (optional)

Mix ingredients and chill. Serve with the grilled tandoori spiced chicken (or any other spicy dish as a bit of balance)

Grilled Chicken with Tandoori Spices

I originally found this in a cookbook for quick weekday meals. Upon a second look I realized that it was about as South Beach diet friendly as anything on their official website, so I tried it and it was an immediate hit. And it smells so wonderful while its grilling!

Note: The first time I made this, I made the mistake of dropping the oiled chicken into the plate of spice mixture and coating it as tho the spices were a breading. Big mistake! It was 5 alarm spicy and would have been a disaster if my partner didn't adore really spicy food.


1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teasoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt substitute
4 skinless boneless chicken breasts (or 2 boneless thighs = 1 boneless breast)
2 teaspoons olive oil


Mix spices together in a bowl. Brush both sides of each piece of chicken with oil and rub the spice mixture evenly over both sides.

I grill these on the George Foreman grill for about 9-10 minutes.

Serve with Cucumber Raita

Spicy Hummus

I hadn't made Hummus in years, but got tired of paying $3.49 for a little container in the grocery store. Trader Joe's has a wonderful roasted red pepper hummus, but sadly there are no Trader Joe's in my current location.

So I pulled out my hummus recipe from college and started to experiment. What follows is an spicy version of the rather bland original.

1 can (2 cups) chick peas, drained
2/3 cup tahini paste
5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 teaspoon thai chili garlic paste
1 teaspoon paprika

Note: I have a little 3 cup Hamilton Beach chopper that I make hummus in, but if you're a purist on texture, you'll probably want to use a "real" food processor.

Puree chick peas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, chili paste, paprika & 3 tablespoons of olive oil until desired consistancy. If it needs to be thinned, use some additional lemon juice.

I try to make this a day before I want to eat it, since hummus always does better with some time to settle, but I've also made it to take somewhere right before I went out the door and its still gotten raves. I think its especially good with cucumbers because of the balance between the spicy and cool, but I've never tried it on a vegetable that I didn't like it with.

Shake additional paprika over top & drizzle with olive oil just before serving if you want to be fancy.

Bulgogi (Korean Marinated beef)

There are probably as many recipes for Bulgogi as there are cooks that make it. When I saw a recipe for "inauthentic" Bulgogi in a low carb cookbook, I went back and took a look at the recipe I've had since college. With a simple switch of Splenda for sugar & low sodium soay sauce for standard, the recipe I loved and had been cooking for years was low carb & back in my repertoire.

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup low sodium beef broth (or water if you're out of beef broth)
2 scallions, including greens, sliced diagonally
1 teaspoon Splenda
5 tablespoons chopped garlic (or to taste -we really really like garlic)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons thai chili paste
2 lbs beef (to be more authentic, the thinner the better, but I tend to use whatever cut looks good at the market that week)

1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 tablespoon butter

Melt butter in small skillet on medium, add sesame seeds and saute for 2-3 minutes or until sesame seeds are golden brown.

Combine all ingredients in a large ziploc bag (you can use a casserole dish if you prefer, but I like the convenience of the ziplock and marinades always seem to saturate better in a ziploc bag.)

Add beef. Press excess air out of bag & zip shut. Marinate in fridge overnight.

I grill mine on a George Foreman grill for 3-7 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cut of meat. It also tastes wonderful grilled over charcoal or a wood flame. (but both of those methods take significantly more work than the Foreman grill)

Cauliflower in Cheese Sauce

The basis for this was again Dana Carpender, but the first time I made it, I realized while the cauliflower was in the microwave that I was short on parmesean, so I used 1/2 low fat cheddar instead. The original recipe called for 1/2 a cauliflower to serve 4, but the quantities below are for a full cauliflower and its so tasty, we never seem to have leftovers.

1 cauliflower, sliced into small pieces
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup shredded parmesean cheese
1/2 cup shredded low fat cheddar
salt & pepper to taste

Put cauliflower slices in microwave safe dish with 3-4 tablespoons of water. Cover and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Spray large skillet with non-stick cooking spray, heat on medium and add cauliflower. (Drain off excess water, if any.) Add heavy cream, cheeses, salt & pepper. Mix well, cover and let simmer 5-7 minutes on medium low.