Wicked Domestic

Oh-em-gee.  I have a serious love affair with fish.  If you told me that I could never have red meat or chicken ever again, but I could have fish, I’d shake your hand and say okay.  Maybe it’s because I live on the coast where seafood is a-plenty, or maybe it’s because my Mum always served fish for dinner when we were kids.  But, who cares? It’s delish and uber healthy, so bring-it-on.

I’ve been eating a wicked lot of salmon lately, so I thought I’d throw some lovely, briney scallops back into the ring.  I saw a recipe recently for sweet potato rosti at one of my fav blogs, Healthy Food for Living, and have been drooling over the thought of crisp, shredded pieces of sweet potato goodness.  I didn’t happen to have the patience to make the “rosti” part so instead I made hash.

I threw some nice wilted spinach on top of the hash, a few pan-seared scallops and a generous drizzle of chipotle lime yogurt drizzle.  I’m totally loving the idea of using plain, non-fat greek yogurt as a base for creamy sauces instead of sour cream or mayo.  Toodle-loo fat, what up creamy deliciousness?  Here’s what I did (serves 4):

1 HUGE sweet potato (probably about 3 regular sized)

2 shallots, diced

2 jalapenos, diced

3 eggs, beaten (I didn’t have any eggs, so I used 3/4 cup of liquid egg whites)

1 small frozen package of frozen spinach, defrosted

1 lb. sea scallops

2 cups non-fat plain Greek yogurt

1 T. chipotle powder

1/2 lime

I told you the sweet potato was huge, right?  It totally Beetlejuiced Jameson’s head in comparrison.

First off, I made the chipotle drizzle first, so that the flavors could marry a bit.  Take 2 cups of the greek yogurt, add in the chipotle  and a nice squeeze of lime.  Mix and set aside.

Meanwhile, either sautee or micro the spinach until nice and warm.  Keep it warm until you’re ready to serve.

Then you want to dice up the shallots and jalapeno (I left the seeds in) and sautee in a little olive oil on medium heat for about 3 minutes.

While that’s working away, shred the sweet potato on a box grater (until you have a mini Mt. Everest), put it in a kitchen towel or cheese cloth and squeeze the living hell out of it to express all of the water.  Once that’s done, add the potato to the shallots and jalapeno.

To get a nice crisp char on the potato, make sure it’s getting as much contact with the hot pan as possible.  Sautee and flip the potatoes for about 10 minutes or so.

While the hash is cooking, grab your scallops and pat then dry with a paper towel (the dryness attributes to the crispness when you pan fry).  Sprinkle on some salt and pepper then add to a medium hot saute pan with a little olive oil.  Cook for about 3-4 minutes a side.

Now onto assembling!  Take the hash and make a little bed of it on your plate.  Then top that with a hefty helping of the wilted spinach, top with scallops and drizzle the chipotle/lime mixture.

Queue the instant hunger pains.  The crispy sweet potato hash and the creamy chiptotle cream make this dish feel decadent, but it’s totally healthy and filling.  Scrumptuous!

- Jackie

For a moment, please consider the lentil.  The protein packed legume is used heavily throughout the vegetarian world for its hardy flavor and beefy consistency.  As my wedding date slowly creeps up, I’m trying to eat super healthy by excluding a lot of animal fats and proteins, so vegetarian and vegan meals right now are totally up my alley.  I’m even considering the idea of the “vegan until dinnertime” diet by Mark Bittman of the New York Times.  It’s exactly how it sounds: you eat a vegan diet until suppertime rolls around and then anything goes!  I don’t know if I can ditch my Chobani yogurts as my mid-morning snack, but we’ll see what happens.  Anyways, back to the lentils.

Of course, my bff Martha Stewart had an ab fab recipe for mediterranean veggie burgers with mint yogurt sauce and a carrot salad that I thought sounded awesome.  Particularly because they feature my other new bff, lentils!  This burger was super satisfying and truly delicious.  Here’s what I did:

4 medium carrots, grated

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 scallions, thinly sliced

Coarse salt and ground pepper

5 whole-wheat hamburger buns I used 100% whole wheat sandwich thins)

2 cups lentils, cooked and cooled

1 large egg

1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup plain low-fat greek yogurt

1 head Bibb lettuce (I used baby spinach leaves instead)

First off, I made the mint yogurt sauce so the ingredients had time to marry.  In a bowl, combine yogurt, half of the mint, and one tablespoon of the lemon juice; season with salt and pepper.   I also threw in a few chopped scallions too.  Set the sauce in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

To make the carrot salad, grate the carrots (either by hand or if you’re blessed enough to have a large food processor with a grater attachment) and put in a large bowl.  Toss with two tablespoon of lemon juice, one tablespoon olive oil, s&p and half of the scallion.  Set that aside.

Now onto the burgers!  Take one of the hamburger buns (unless you are also using the sandwich thins, then I would use two buns since they are less dense) and pulse it in the food processor.  To the bread crumbs, add half of the lentils, remaining mint, remaining scallions, egg and s&p and combine.  Transfer the mixture to a bowl and add remaining lentils.  By processing only half of the lentils, it gives the burgers some nice texture since half of the lentil are still whole.

Divide the mixture into fourths, form into patties and grill for about 4 minutes on each side.  Toast the buns  and top with the spinach or lettuce and the mint sauce.  Don’t forget the carrot salad on the side!

These burgers are wicked tasty and seriously healthy.  If you wanted to omit the bun and just serve on a bed of baby spinach, that would be great too!  This meal may not be vegan, but it’s probably one of the tastiest vegetarian meals I’ve had in a while.

- Jackie

Cheesecake happens to be one of those desserts that I zero interest in making myself.  My fiance dreams about the stuff nightly, yet there’s no way I would put the time and energy into the tasty treat.  And it doesn’t hurt that there’s easily 300 plus calories and countless grams of sugar, it’s not exactly on the menu of my wedding diet.

While flipping through Bethenny Frankel’s book, “Naturally Thin“, she has a recipe for faux cheesecake including whipped cottage cheese and dark chocolate chips.  It’s sweetened with vanilla extract and honey.  BINGO!  Game, set, match.  This is my kind of cheesecake.  Here’s what I did:

1/2 cup whipped cottage cheese or low-fat ricotta cheese (I accidentally got regular low-fat cottage cheese and it was still really good.  I think the texture was a little off, but it did the trick)

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1 t. honey

1 T. dark chocolate chips

Mix it all together and serve chilled in a ramekin.  This serves one, but it’s easily doubled.

You couldn’t find an easier dessert recipe…well maybe other than “take fudgicle out of freezer and eat”.  Which sounds pretty delicious.

You can swap out a few different ingredients with this recipe too.  Instead of vanilla extract, try almond extract.  And instead of chocolate chips, try slivered almonds.  Don’t have honey?  Use Maple syrup.

I love all of Bethenny’s super healthy recipes that are basically lower fat versions of  our favorite foods.  Next recipe on my list?  Low-fat mock-a-mole (made with mashed peas in place of a lot of the avocado).  Check out some of her recipes here.

This healthy faux cheesecake is definitely going to be a repeat!

- Jackie