Chicken Spinach Dip Served 3 Ways

 

Original Chicken Spinach Dip "Casserole"

 

Chicken Spinach Dip Frittata

 

Chicken Spinach Dip Pizza (half and half with a supreme pizza.)

This was so good! I'm trying to think of more casseroles that are low-carb, but it's hard because the carb is sort of what holds the casserole together. I don't think it really is a casserole without rice or noodles! Even so this was made like a casserole and it tasted great. I did make pasta on the side for my kids and hubby. The great thing is that the first night I ate it in a bowl by itself, the second night we had it as part of a fritatta and the third night we had it as a pizza. This was spread out over the week, not back to back. I even just served some of the leftovers over fried eggs one morning to jazz up my eggs. Basically this was very versatile and delicious!
-Amanda

Chicken Spinach Dip "Casserole"

1 pint of mushrooms
1 bag frozen spinach, defrosted and drained well
1 yellow onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated mozzerella, fontina or other favorite cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 block of cream cheese, room temperature

In a big bowl, mash the cream cheese, heavy cream, cheese and cottage cheese (or ricotta.) Add in the frozen spinach and mix well. Meanwhile saute mushroom and onion in a large skillet in some olive oil or butter until nice and caramelized. After it's cooled down, add to the cheese mixture. Mix in the shredded chicken. Pour in a casserole and bake at 375 for 20 minutes until cheese gets browned and bubbly.

Salsa Seafood

Have you discovered Pinterest yet? I heard friends talking about it a while back and didn't really think too much of it. Then I got an invite and have become a Pinterest Addict. I love the inspiration it provides across the board. Whether from new dishes to try, new crafts, new ways to organize your house, inspirational quotes, humorous and beautiful photos, whatever your interest, Pinterest has it covered. All this to say, I came across an appetizer on there that was the inspiration for this dish. Following it's link back took me to some diet website, but since we don't do low-fat here on this blog, I glammed it up a bit... I mean, I want a dish that'll keep me full until breakfast, not have me searching the fridge for snack food at 10pm. Adding real, healthy fats to your diet, keeps you satisfied and keeps you away from sugary cravings. (Except chocolate... just kidding... sort of.)

(By the way, this made extra salsa, but I didn't really know how to scale back, and salsa is great on a lot of things, so it's okay to have extra in my book! It'll probably make an appearance on my eggs tomorrow.)
-Amanda

Salsa Seafood

Salsa
4 roma tomatoes
1/4 red onion
jalepeno (how ever much you want)
cilantro
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp avocado oil (or olive oil)
1/2 lime juice
salt

Cut tomatoes really small. I got rid of the juice from 3 of my tomatoes and left the juice of the last one. Mince up the garlic and the onion. Mix the tomatoes, garlic and onion in a small bowl. Add finely chopped jalapeno. Squeeze lime juice over top and the avocado oil. Stir, add salt as needed and refrigerate to let flavors marry.

Seafood

4 filets of fish, I used flounder. Cod or Orange Roughy would be good too.
1/2 lb of shrimp
lime juice
ground cumin
salt

Marinade the shrimp and fish in a few pinches of cumin, salt and lime juice for 15-20 minutes. Grill fish in a non-stick pan until it is firm and starts to flake off. Cook shrimp until plump and pink. Place on a plate, top with salsa, avocado and drizzle more avocado oil and lime juice on top.

Gyro Salad

I love gyro sandwiches and crave them every once in a while. I love lots of green flavors, but they are usually so strong that I only want them occasionally. Well, gyro meat is a creature all in itself and I don't think it'd be too easily recreated in the home kitchen, but I decided to use the main flavors of the dish and make a salad. I was going to make some soaked wheat pita bread, but well, I'm back on a low-carb kick today so I skipped the bread and just served up a salad. Okay, this looks complicated, but it literally took 15 minutes to cook! You can make the spice mixture ahead of time.
-Amanda

Gyro Salad

Meat:
1 lb of ground lamb (I got mine from Sloane Creek Farm.)
2 tbsp Greek Spice Mixture*
1/2 lemon

Spice Mixture*

1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp curry
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

Tzatziki Dressing:

1/2 cup Greek yogurt, strained to thicken
1/2 juice of a lemon
3/4 of a cucumber grated
1 tbsp fresh mint, minced
1 small garlic clove, grated
1 tbsp olive oil
salt

Salad:

Lettuce
feta cheese
cucumber
tomato
red onion
kalamative olives

Mix spices together. Use 2 tbsp and sprinkle on raw lamb meat. Squeeze in 1/2 a lemon. Mix well and let marinate in fridge for 1-2 hours. Saute in a pan on medium high heat until done. It was pretty greasy, so I just drained a bit of juice out when I scooped onto the salad.

While meat is cooking, mix up the tzatziki dressing and chop up vegetables for the salad.

Quick Brownies

Now, quickly made food often has lots of nasty chemicals and preservatives.  However, lately I have caught the train for brownies in a mug.  A quick chocolate fix with no nasty scary stuff.  I bet you could experiment with this and switch out the white sugar with a more wholesome unprocessed sugar.  This recipe is from Food & Whine, however the original recipe calls for 4 Tablespoons of sugar and I find that two is sufficient.    I also find that if you use whole wheat flour the end result tastes just as chocolaty and delicious.

-Jules

Brownie in a Mug
4 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar (I'd substitute palm sugar, which is less processed)
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
2 Tbsp. canola oil (I'd substitute out coconut oil for a Real Food recipe)
2 Tbsp. water
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Put everything in the mug and mix well.  Put it in the microwave for about a minute.  It should still be wettish looking.  Feel free to get creative.  I found peanut butter chips mixed in or peanut butte spread right on top before microwaving is especially yummy.  Get crazy Ya’ll!

Grain Free French Toast Muffins

Those that know me, know I don't bake. So why I decided to try and make up a muffin recipe all by myself is beyond me. And then to make the leap to making it grain free? Crazy I tell you. But it worked! I think next time I'll go for 20 minutes instead of 25, because they got a little too brown on the bottom, but the middle was light and fluffy, slightly sweet and hit the spot. I am right proud of myself if I do say so!
-Amanda

Grain Free French Toast Muffins

3/4 cup of almond flour
2 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
5-10 drops of stevia
1 tbsp palm sugar

Mix everything together in a big bowl EXCEPT the palm sugar. Scoop into paper lined muffin tins, about 3/4 full. Sprinkle a bit of palm sugar on the top of each muffin. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. While still hot, add a pat of butter to the top of each muffin to soak in. This made 8 muffins.

Please if you try this, let me know what you think and if you made any changes!

*I submitted this post to Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday!

Another Seafood Chowder

I had shrimp scampi on the menu for this week, but when I got to the store the shrimp wasn't too cheap but the wild caught haddock was on sale for $3 a pound! I got a bit of shrimp anyway, some haddock and then picked up some clams from the frozen section. This is a very simple seafood chowder. Mostly seafood, potatoes, cream, milk, spices and chicken stock. A bit of parsley for color. Here is a different recipe, I posted a while back.