Spinach Stir Fry

Since Bob and I started eating vegan, I've been looking for different ways to incorporate leafy greens into our meals other than as a dinner salad. We love salad, but everyone needs variety! I decided to make a stir fry the other night and just started throwing in different things that I thought would taste good. And it did!

Spinach Stir Fry

1 bag baby spinach, rinsed and dried
1/3 cup shredded carrots
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can water chestnuts, drained
1/2 onion, sliced thin
1 medium bell pepper, whatever color you want, sliced (I used frozen sliced mixed peppers)
2 tablespoons raw cashews (or almonds, peanuts, etc.)
Low Sodium Soy Sauce
4 ounces whole grain spaghetti noodles (or rice noodles) (I use Hodgson Mills)
salt, pepper, and ground ginger, to taste

Water saute the carrots, garlic, water chestnuts, onion, and bell pepper until veggies are tender-crisp and water is almost gone. (Water sauteeing is putting a little water into your skillet and sauteeing your veggies this way and not using oil) Add seasonings and soy sauce and continue to saute veggies. When veggies are cooked, add spinach and nuts. You may add more soy sauce, to taste. Let spinach wilt slightly and serve up!

Note: Add other vegetables you like, these are just what I wanted in mine. Also, try adding a teaspoon or so of peanut butter before you add the spinach. Let it melt, then add the spinach and nuts. If you don't want to use pasta, this would be great with barley or even quinoa!

Brownies

Okay, Lynn, here's a brownie recipe from BariatricEating.com. I haven't made them (they're not safe in my house!), but all of Susan Maria Leach's recipes are wonderful.

Brownies - Splenda version

This simple brownie recipe uses easy to find ingredients and tastes delicious. Give it a try. I often bake this recipe in a loaf pan for thicker brownies.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder (Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa is the best and available in many supermarkets)
2 large eggs
1 cup Splenda Granular
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans - optional

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Melt butter and cocoa in a small saucepan over low heat stirring until smooth - remove from heat to cool. Beat eggs in a medium bowl until thick and smooth, add Splenda, vanilla, and salt - stir in cooled chocolate mixture. Fold in flour and walnuts.

Pour into an 8 inch square pan that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until firm but still slightly soft near center. Brownies are best when slightly under-baked. Cool before cutting into 2 inch squares.

Trail Mix

I have low blood sugar and always carry almonds in my purse. But sometimes I feel like jazzing it up a little. This is a nice, simple whole grain trail mix that will perk you up when you're draggin'. It's whole grain, but still carbs, so this is better for those on maintenance. AND this is not something I keep around. This is great for a football game or party but it can call your name if it's hanging around too long, so be careful!

Trail Mix

2 ounces Cheerios
2 ounces Wheat Chex
2 ounces Corn Chex
2 ounces un-roasted, unsalted almonds
2 ounces chopped walnuts
1 ounce raisins
1 ounce dried cranberries
1 ounce oat bran sesame sticks (from Fresh Market)
1 ounce chili lime cheese crackers (from Fresh Market)
1 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Cover.

I like it plain, just the way it is, but Bob likes to shake some ranch flavor popcorn seasoning on it. The cheese flavor would be good too!

Turtles Candy!

I love turtles candy, but the sugar free I can buy in the store has so many sugar alcohols they just tear me up. Can't even eat one! So this morning I was thinking about the ingredients in turtles and realized that I could probably make a pretty decent copy...not the same, but good enough to satisfy me. Note that there are no amounts listed in the ingredients. This is, so far, a "by gosh and by golly" recipe. I'm sure there are other turtle fans out there and wanted to get the recipe posted as soon as possible. So, for now, you'll just have to make it by remembering the texture and thickness and gooeyness of a real turtle.

Turtles

Smucker's sugar free caramel syrup
Almond flour
Instant oatmeal
Dry roasted (with sea salt) peanuts
Dry roasted (with sea salt) almonds
raisins
Smucker's sugar free chocolate fudge topping

Mix some almond flour with the caramel syrup until somewhat thickened. Add some oatmeal until it's pretty thick (almost as if you were going to roll it into balls). Add the peanuts, almonds and raisins (hey! some coconut would be good in there too!) and mix until well mixed and nice and thick. Add more flour or oatmeal to thicken more if you want to roll into balls.

Spray an ice cube tray with Pam and drizzle some fudge topping into the bottom of the compartments. Spoon some of the caramel mixture on top then smudge (technical word!) some more fudge topping. Put the ice cube tray in the freezer until solid enough to pick up and eat.

Mine are in the freezer now and you know I will eat my share as soon as they are ready. If they come out good, I think I'll get some mini cupcake paper cups and put them on a tray to freeze in the paper cups.

I actually cheated "just a little" and left a taste in the mixing bowl...Hey! that's the cook's prerogative, right! I gotta tell ya, even if they don't harden correctly, they taste awfully good! I'll update as soon as I taste the final result!

Update: Hmmm...I didn't know that ice cream fudge topping wouldn't freeze? Duh! Have another idea that won't add a bunch of sugar alcohols and will try that soon. Meanwhile if anyone else has an idea, let me know!!!

Waldorf Salad With a Twist

My daughter, Janet went to Pennsylvania for a few days this week. When I picked her up at the airport we decided we were hungry so we stopped at Ruby Tuesdays right outside of Charlotte. We both had soup and salad (my white bean chicken chili is better than their's and mine comes from a packet!). But what I really wanted to talk about was their Waldorf Salad. Wow! It was really good! I've had problems eating apples since my gastric bypass, but didn't have any trouble with this dish. Maybe a combination of the apples being chopped and also in a sauce so they were moist. I've never made a Waldorf Salad, so I looked on the Betty Crocker website. I mean, really, you know Betty Crocker knows how to make it! I had to change it...you already knew that! LOL! Here's the link to Betty's original recipe.

Waldorf Salad With a Twist

1/4 cup Kraft Light Miracle Whip
1/4 cup Dannon Plain Low Fat Yogurt (or non fat)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Almond Breeze almond milk
1 Granny Smith apple, coarsely chopped
1 Gala apple, coarsely chopped

2 medium celery stalks, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1 small box Sun-Maid dried cranberries

Mix mayonnaise, yogurt, lemon juice and milk in a medium bowl. Stir in the apples, celery, nuts and cranberries. Serve over salad greens if you like. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers.

Note: This recipe does not make a lot of sauce. If you like more sauce than "barely covered" just double the mayo, yogurt, milk and lemon juice.

These are the dried cranberries I use.