I have tried a zillion recipes for marinara sauce, but they didn’t have that tang of the canned sauce that I like (Hunt’s Garlic and Herb sauce), so I kept using that, occasionally trying a new sauce recipe, but always going back to the canned stuff. Recently, a friend told me that she uses some balsamic vinegar in hers to give it that kick. I decided to try her recipe (with a few tweaks), and oh, man, am I glad that I did. The balsamic not only adds that tang, it somehow makes the sauce taste both fresh and simmered all
[Continue reading Super Quick and Easy Marinara Sauce Recipe]
I don’t know if this would actually count as a recipe. A few weeks back, they had some wonderful little angel food cakes at Costco. They came in packs of 12 for $5 and some change, and they only had 120 calories apiece — and no fake sugars or weird chemicals. We loved them, but when I went back to buy more, they were gone.
Yesterday, they were back. I picked up two packs, and threw one in the freezer. The other pack, we opened for dessert last night. We just went simple: I whizzed about
[Continue reading Strawberry Sauce for Mini Angel Food Cakes]
Going through my freezer the other day, I noticed that I had a package of salmon fillets from Costco. Score! Salmon is one of our favorite foods. Visions of Salmon with Primordial Ooze danced in my head. The only problem was that there were only three fillets, and there are four of us. Looking around the cupboards and fridge, I decided to make a salmon spinach salad with a little bacon on top. It was really tasty – and pretty, too!
Salmon Spinach Salad with Bacon
Salmon Spinach Salad with
[Continue reading Salmon Spinach Salad with Bacon Recipe]
Low-fat potatoes au gratin? Okay, let’s say lower-fat instead.
One of my favorite parts of Easter dinner is ham with potatoes au gratin. My (former) usual potatoes au gratin came out to over 500 calories and 25 grams of fat per serving, though! And I’m too close to 30 pounds lost since my diagnosis on December 8 — and I really want to reach that milestone. Well, I want it, but not enough to forego au gratin potatoes altogether!
Luckily, I had stuff on hand to try to come up with a lower-fat version, and they were
[Continue reading Low-Fat Potatoes Au Gratin Recipe]
This is a family staple – my mom used to make it (a little differently) when I was a kid, I make it for my kids, and my grown daughter makes it for herself and her boyfriend. I think we each put our own touch to it.
This is absolutely an Americanized version of goulash – it’s nothing like the Hungarian kind. I’m not even sure why we call it goulash, except for the paprika. It does make a great budget-stretcher, though – I’ve made with as little as a quarter pound of meat and no one complained.
This also freezes well and
[Continue reading Goulash Recipe]
I use bananas in a lot of recipes — banana muffins, smoothies, banana bread, empanadas, more muffins, fruit salsa, and more. It can be a problem having bananas of the right ripeness around, though. It seems like there are a whole bunch of almost-ripe bananas, and then, as if by magic, there are one or two overripe bananas. The minute they get ripe, the boys want to eat them, but the second they start to turn brown (which is when they start getting really good, in my opinion), none of the kids want them anymore. And one or two bananas isn’t
[Continue reading Freezing Banana Slices]
A couple weeks ago, spiral hams were on a ridiculous sale, so I bought one and we had a lovely, decadent dinner, with ham and mashed potatoes and rolls and applesauce. We also had enough ham left over for a second dinner, plus meat for lots of sandwiches, and a ham bone to freeze for soup. I made our favorite, split pea soup.
Split Pea Soup
Split Pea Soup
1 pound of split peas
2 quarts water
Ham bone
1 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, smashed
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. thyme
Rinse
[Continue reading Split Pea Soup Recipe]
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