Recipe for Easy Guacamole Tostadas

Easy Guacamole Tostadas could be a quick meatless dinner idea!

One of my earliest memories of Mexican food is visiting a tiny little restaurant called Tampico's in downtown Salt Lake City.  I went there with some high school friends, and we tried exotic-to-us dishes like guacamole, enchiladas, and refried beans, which none of us had ever eaten before!  The restaurant is now long gone, but my fondness for the guacamole tostadas I first had at Tampico's remains to this day, and they're something I'll splurge on occasionally if I'm eating in a Mexican restaurant.  My version of this traditional Mexican specialty switches the usual corn tortillas for toasted low-carb flour tortillas for a low-glycemic version of this favorite dish that's perfect for Meatless Monday.

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Friday Night Photos: Caputos on 15th and 15th in Salt Lake City

This photo shows some of the amazing meats and cheese at Caputos on 15th and 15th.

A few months ago I went to lunch at Caputos new location on 15th and 15th with a few foodie friends.   This was back when we could enjoy sitting outside on the patio and soaking up the late summer sunshine.  I loved the food when I visited Caputo's by Night, so I was excited to give their new place a try.

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Recipe for Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cookies with Almonds and Coconut Oil

These delicious Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cookies are my kind of Halloween Cookies!

Everywhere I look on the internet these days I'm seeing Halloween cookies.  I'm talking about those traditional frosting covered, nicely-decorated, Jack-O-Lantern or goblin-shaped sugar cookies that moms bring to school on Halloween day.  Halloween-themed sugar cookies may be fun for kids but they've never really been my thing, and for something tasty to eat on Halloween I'd choose these Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Pumpkin Cookies with Almonds and Coconut Oil over traditional sugar cookies every time.

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Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Kroger CARBmaster Yogurt

If you live near a Kroger store, this is a great low-sugar yogurt!

Are you a label reader? I'm a committed label reader, and the first thing I look for on a label is how many grams of sugar the product has.  This tasty yogurt has only 3 grams of sugar in 6 ounces of yogurt (and only four total carbs.)  I've been eating this for years and it's one of those things that are always in my fridge, so I think it deserves a spot on my list of Kalyn's Kitchen Picks, where I feature food products I'd happily buy over and over.  

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Recipe for Vegetarian Lasagna with Kale and Mushroom-Tomato Sauce

This vegetarian lasagna with kale may not be that photogenic, but it was delicious!

Recently I was having lunch with some blogging friends and we started talking about casseroles.  We all agreed that casseroles can be delicious and family-friendly, but they're also very hard to photograph!  I think lasagna may be at the top of the hard-to-photograph list, but this Vegetarian Lasagna with Kale and Mushroom-Tomato Sauce was so delicious I had to put some in the freezer right away so I didn't eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it was gone.  You may think I'm turning into the Kale Whisperer, because this year I've used kale in a Kale and  Feta Breakfast Casserole, my new favorite pasta dish, and Kale and Romaine Caesar Salad.  Yes, I do love kale, but if you're not a kale fan you can try this lasagna recipe with Swiss chard, collard greens, or spinach substituted for the kale. 

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Friday Night Photos: The Garden in Fall (2011 Garden Update #11)

The vines that grow along my garden fence are beautiful in the fall.

In the mornings I have a little window of opportunity for taking garden photos before the sun starts to peek over the east fence and the garden has too many light and dark spots to get a good photo.  This morning I barely made it out in time, but I'm glad I managed to get one shot of the beautiful Fall color on the vines that grow along my garden fence.  Truth is, I don't especially like those vines, but they do redeem themselves every fall.  It's getting pretty cold here, but every year I always have a hard time completely saying goodbye to the garden.

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CrockPot Recipe for Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew with Coconut Milk

This Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew with Coconut Milk was made in the crockpot.

I'm the kind of cook who has a hard time following a recipe without changing it up a bit.  In this case, the recipe started out as a sweet and spicy pork stew I spotted in Real Simple Magazine, and ended up as this Sweet and Spicy Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Stew with Coconut Milk.  I confess, I changed just about everything, except the idea of using the CrockPot to make a sweet and spicy stew!  I ate this over brown rice for a delicious one-dish meal, but you could also eat the stew plain, with a salad or some bread on the side.

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Recipe for Indian-Style Red Lentils with Ginger (Red Lentil Dal)

I'm not claiming this recipe for Red Lentil Dal is 100% authentically Indian, but it's easy and delicious.

One of the classic dishes in Indian cuisine is dal (also spelled dahl, daal, or dhal.)  There are endless variations of this dish of split legumes or dried beans, simmered with spices until they are falling-apart soft and then often combined with a mixture of oil or ghee, fried onions, peppers and more spices.   The world dal refers to the cooked dish and also the split legumes or beans it's made of and in various parts of India different types of dal are eaten with rice, vegetables, or Indian flatbreads such as Roti.   I suppose the Mexican dish of refried beans is something you could compare this to if you're completely unfamiliar with Indian food, although that's an enormous simplification of something that's such a vital part of Indian cuisine.

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Friday Favorites: Five Favorite Pumpkin Recipes

For Halloween or Thanksgiving, here are my five favorite pumpkin recipes!

This morning I was at the grocery store and a nice woman behind me in line had the most perfect pumpkin I'd ever seen.  Suddenly I was seized with a serious attack of blogger guilt.  Here it's already October 14 and lots of blogs are going into pumpkin recipe overdrive, and I haven't made one single thing this year using pumpkin.  The truth is, I'm not the biggest pumpkin fan in the food blogging world, but I have made a few things with pumpkin through the years that turned out to be winners.  If I'm not a big pumpkin fan and I'm telling you I love all five of these recipes, you know they have to be good!  Let's start the pumpkin recipes with the Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins with with Pecans shown above that I made last October.

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Recipe for Pop-Eye Eggs with Cheese and Salsa

This recipe is my grown-up and diet-friendly version of what my mother called "Pop-Eye Eggs."

I had the kind of mother who always sent her kids to school with a hot breakfast in their tummies, even though she was cooking for twelve!  Most of the time it was an easy-to-make hot cereal like oatmeal, but sometimes mom would cook things like pancakes or French toast.  And when it was a very special breakfast, we'd have Pop-Eye Eggs.  We called them Pop-Eye Eggs because the yolk of the egg looked like an eye popping out, but eggs fried inside a hole cut in a piece of bread are called by a large variety of names including Toad in a Hole, Eggs in a Basket, Eggs in the Hole, Eggs in a Blanket, Bird's Nest Eggs, Cowboy Eggs, Bull's Eye Eggs, Gas House Eggs, and Sunshine Toast.  If your mom used to make something like this, I'd love to hear in the comments about what you called it.

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Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Williams-Sonoma Garlic Chopper

Thanks to my friend Margarethe who gave me this garlic chopper that I've come to love!

 When I posted the recipe for Julienned Zucchini Spaghetti with Quick Sausage, Tomato, and Basil Sauce I showed some minced garlic and hinted at a handy garlic chopper I'd gotten as a gift from my friend Margarethe.  Now that I've had the chopper a bit longer, I am completely in love with this little tool, so I decided to officially make it one of my Kalyn's Kitchen Picks.  Of course, chopping garlic by hand is no big deal and it's something I never minded doing before I had this handy gadget.  But this little chopper goes from garlic clove to perfectly chopped or sliced garlic in about two seconds!

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Recipe for Curried Sauteed Cauliflower

This Curried Sauteed Cauliflower is called Gobi TakTakin in India, where it's sold on the street.

(Updated with new photos and better instructions, October 2011.)   Back in the early days of my blog I did a whole series of recipes adapted from Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World.  This international cookbook has dishes that Bittman traveled around the world to sample, and I think I've liked every recipe I've made from the book.   This dish of chopped cauliflower sauteed with red onions, cumin seeds, and curry powder is called Gobi Taktakin in India, suppposedly because of the "tak-tak" sound made by knives of the street vendors when they chop up the cauliflower as it cooks.

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Recipe for Kale and Romaine Caesar Salad

I would make an entire meal of this Kale and Romaine Caesar Salad

I promised I'd try to have meatless dishes on the blog for Meatless Monday mornings, and when I made that promise I was thinking about meatless main dishes like the Mediterranean Tostadas I featured last week.  But then I made this Kale and Romaine Caesar Salad with my nephew Jake, and we absolutely could not stop eating it.  The idea of combining kale and Caesar dressing came from Tuscan Kale Caesar Slaw from Bon Appetit Magazine, and it wasn't until we were about to make it that I thought of combining thinly-sliced romaine lettuce with sliced kale in the salad.  I loved the way the romaine toned the kale down just a bit and the combination of dark-green kale and lighter romaine was pretty too.  I'd consider this a meatless recipe but it's not vegan because the dressing has a tiny bit of anchovy paste and the salad has Parmesan.  (If you prefer you can substititute soy sauce for the anchovy paste.)   I loved this Caesar dressing recipe with no raw eggs, but Jake and I both agreed that even if you cheat and use my favorite bottled Caesar Dressing (or your own favorite vegan Caesar dressing) this will still be an amazingly delicious salad.  And when I make this again (soon!) I'll just eat a huge bowl of it for a meal, which I've decided entitles it to be in the spotlight for Meatless Monday.

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Five Things on Friday (10-7-11)

Photo of Flower Power Eggs from Apron Strings

It's been a while since I've shared a Friday collection of internet wanderings and this was definitely an emotional week on the web, with the loss of a true American genius making many of us reflect on just how computers have impacted our lives.  Keep reading for the latest collections of links I think are worth a click sometime this weekend.

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Recipe for Sausage and Lentils with Fried Sage

This classic dish of Sausage and Lentils with Fried Sage is a meal I'd always find comforting!

(Updated with better photos and added to Recipe Favorites, October 2011)  I first made this comforting dish of Sausage and Lentils with Fried Sage back in 2006.  That recipe definitely needed an update, so recently Jake and I made it again to take new photos and we also enjoyed eating it!  The recipe was inspired by one in The Silver Spoon, a classic Italian cookbook that I think every serious cook should own.  The addition of fried sage was my idea after seeing it on restaurant menus, and the fried sage was a wonderful addition to this dish.  Sage is something I have growing abundantly for most of the year, and when you fry it the sage flavor intensifies just a bit as the leaves are transformed into crispy morsels of sage-flavored goodness.  But if you like Italian Sausage and Lentils but don't have fresh sage, this dish would still be very good without the sage. 

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Recipe for Mediterranean Tostadas with Hummus, Feta, and Kalamata Olives

I've decided this Mediterranean Tostada is my new favorite thing to have for lunch!

Earlier this year I served hummus at a wedding shower, and it quickly become evident that we have both hummus lovers and hummus haters in the same family.  Of course I love hummus, so I'm the biggest cheerleader for the hummus lovers.  I can't imagine a hummus variation I wouldn't like, but most often I just have my favorite hummus from Costco, and I can easily make a lunch out of a generous scoop of hummus, some pita bread, and a green salad.  When I'm infatuated with ingredients like I am with hummus, sometimes recipe ideas swirl around in my head and a good one comes out, and I think these Mediterranean Tostadas with Hummus, Feta, and Kalamata Olives are one of my best recipe ideas ever!

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South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes Round-Up for September 2011 (Low-Glycemic Recipes)

Kalyn's favorite Phase One Recipe for September 2011 was Julienned Zucchini "Spaghetti" with Quick Sausage, Basil, and Tomato Sauce.

Every month I do this round-up of the Phase One Recipes I've posted or spotted on other blogs during the month, and every month it seems hard to believe a whole month has already gone by.  That feeling is even stronger this time as the calendar switches from September (the month of perfect weather in Utah) to October (which seems just a little too close to the actual arrival of winter.)  I trust I am not the only one who has this feeling of life zipping by too quickly?

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