Category: Recipes

Sugar Crusted Pecans

~ Emily ~ 1 Comment

There’s really too much to say about how good these Sugar Crusted Pecans taste.

A low, slow bake in the oven makes the nuts toasty underneath their sweet, sugary coating.  Using egg white to bind the pecans and sugar together creates the crispy texture I find so addicting.

If there are any pecans that survive my constant grazing, I use them to top salads or oatmeal.

Aside from the pecans, the ingredients are kitchen staples.  Plus, a simple “Rule of One” makes the recipe easy to remember: all the ingredients have an amount of one – 1 pound, 1 cup, 1 tablespoon, etc.

Sugar-Crusted Pecans

  • 1 lb pecan halves
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk egg white and water until it becomes frothy.

Add pecans and stir until all nuts are moistened with the egg white mixture.

Sprinkle sugar and salt over nuts and stir to coat.

Pour nuts onto prepared jelly roll pan, spreading them into an even layer.

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring often to avoid burning.

Cool in pan.  Store in an airtight container. (I usually keep mine in the freezer)

Christmas-Eve Salad

~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

ATTENTION: 90 days until Christmas!

Three months from today is THE day.  I am almost tempted to wear my Charlie Brown Christmas tree t-shirt or the one that has a Rudolph nose that actually glows red.  Needless to say, Christmas and I have a tight relationship. I listen to Christmas music the minute it becomes socially acceptable (no, tolerated…) and look forward to Christmas craft magazines hitting the shelves.

In order to celebrate the nearness of Christmas without overwhelming people with yuletide cheer, I am expressing my enthusiasm via today’s salad recipe.

The original recipe came from Southern Living, but it’s been long enough since my family first tried it that I don’t remember whether Christmas-Eve Salad was the original name or became the name after we ate it on said date.

My mom has tweaked it over the years and now it’s a go-to in our salad repertoire.  In fact, it was the first meal I made for The Hubs in our new place!  The colors are festive and there’s enough protein from bacon and cheese to make it a light entree.

A note on the cheese choice: string cheese may seem like an odd option, but it creates the perfect size pieces of mozzarella with little hassle.  Plus, the discs add visual contrast to the otherwise diced ingredients.

Christmas Eve Salad

adapted from Southern Living // serves 4

Salty bacon, creamy avocado, and toasty walnuts are what set this spinach based salad apart.  Not only do the colors reflect the festive season, the ingredients truly create a holiday in your mouth.

Give this salad an even lighter touch with a few simple substitutions.  Use light string cheese and fat free Catalina (Kraft makes a great one!)

The ingredient amounts listed below reflect my preference for salads with a pretty even greens to mix-ins ratio.  Feel free to play around to get it perfect for your salad palette.

1 (12 oz) bag baby spinach, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, diced

1 avocado, diced

2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half

4 sticks string cheese, sliced 

1 cup walnuts

8 strips bacon

Catalina salad dressing  

Cut bacon strips into 1/4 inch wide pieces.  Fry until crispy.  Let excess grease drain off on paper towels.

Toast walnuts in a skillet over medium heat.  Stir occasionally.  Remove from heat when they become fragrant and lightly browned. Let cool while you prep other ingredients.

Chop spinach.  Dice red pepper and peeled avocado.  Cut tomatoes in half, discarding seeds if desired. Unwrap string cheese.  Slice horizontally to create thin discs.  Chop cooled walnuts.

Place spinach, red pepper, avocado, tomatoes, string cheese, walnuts, and bacon in a serving bowl.  Toss with Catalina dressing.

Banana Cream Smoothie

~ Emily ~ 3 Comments

Living right across the street from a state-of-the-art gym has increased my workout regularity, so, I’ve been on the lookout for good “recovery” foods.  Normally my recovery habits include chocolate and bread.  My much more workout savvy husband finally convinced me those weren’t the best foods to replenish the nutrients I loose running and such. Foiled.  He suggested an electrolyte drink like Accelerade (gag!) and/or starchy fruit.

Since I despise Accelerade, I compromised and settled on a meal replacement shake mix.  I’m cheap, thus, given the option between Slim Fast and generic, I went with generic.  Not a bad choice if I do say so myself.  The French Vanilla (Kroger) variety tastes exactly like cake batter!  I had been mixing it with almond milk, which was quite satisfying, but had a banana lying around and decided I might get “recovery” brownie points if I included a fruit in my shake.  Plus, I just purchased a food processor and wanted to give it a whirl…

I’m not normally a pureed banana fan.  In fact, it’s only been in the last few years that I would classify myself as a banana fan at all.  Something about a malleable, potentially mushy, substance was always off-putting to me.  (What’s with me and my weird food texture aversions? Refer to carrot confession…)  With the help of copious amounts of peanut butter, I began to build a tolerance, then a liking, for the ubiquitous yellow fruit.

My jogging scenery: sun setting behind the Spokane River along the Centennial Trail.

After my 4+ mile jog along the Centennial  Trail yesterday evening, I broke out the Cuisinart and downed the results.  Three ingredients and a minute of prep yielded a frothy, stick to the side of the cup concoction that I would be happy to recover with anytime.  It tastes like a banana cream pie in smoothie form.  All for 250 calories.  Score!

Banana Cream Smoothie

1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (I used Almond Breeze)

1 medium (6″-7″) banana

1 scoop vanilla shake mix (French Vanilla Kroger brand or Slim Fast)

Peel banana and place in blender or food processor.  Add almond milk and shake mix.  Blend until smooth.  Pour into glass (chilled would be lovely) and enjoy!

Yield: 1 smoothie, 250 calories

Adding a tablespoon of peanut butter to this smoothie would be utterly delicious.  Regular peanut butter would make the smoothie 345 calories, Better N’ Peanut Butter would make it 300.

Greek Yogurt Ranch Dip

~ Emily ~ 3 Comments

At the risk of sounding a tad bit crazy, I have to admit that I’ve always found raw carrots difficult to eat.  All those orange fibers don’t seem to go down without a fight.  No matter how much I chew or how small the carrot is to begin with, swallowing is quite the challenge.

After some trial and error, I discovered that a little lubrication helps the consumption process.  My favorite carrot combination is ranch dressing, but sometimes I feel bad about eating those healthy veggies slathered in preservative-heavy bottled dressing (especially since I go with the processed light version).

Yesterday, a perfect storm of circumstances led me to create a better version of my go-to snack.  Our belongings are still in transit which means no kitchen supplies except two knives, two forks, and paper plates.  We subsist on food out or food we can whip up with minimal gear required.  On a recent grocery store trip, a two-pound bag of baby carrots found its way into our Fred Meyer cart, along with Greek yogurt (on sale!) and a packet of ranch dressing mix.

A quick stir (with a knife, of course) and short stay in the fridge later, there was a thick, creamy, ranch dressing substitute waiting to guide those carrots down my gullet.

Plus, greek yogurt has more protein compared to salad dressing or sour cream*

Ranch Greek Yogurt Dip

  • 1 (16 oz) container 0% plain greek yogurt (Chobani is my favorite)
  • 1 – 2 (1 oz) packets of ranch dressing mix

Mix contents of dressing packets into greek yogurt until evenly dispersed.  Dip away!  Flavors will be more pronounced over time.  I used two packets of dressing mix because greek yogurt is a strong base flavor, but one is totally sufficient.

This dip would be a great substitute for mayonnaise on a sandwich.  It would also make a killer alternative to the mayo/sour cream in this Parmesan Crusted Chicken recipe floating around Pinterest.

* Per 2 tablespoons: light ranch dressing – 0g protein, light sour cream – 2 g protein, greek yogurt – 3g protein