Recipe for Roasted Asparagus Wrapped in Ham

Roasted asparagus wrapped in slices of lean ham.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This roasted asparagus wrapped in ham tastes perfect this time of year.)

It's a sure sign of Spring when recipes featuring asparagus start popping up on the food blogs. Both of the markets where I shop regularly are selling low-priced asparagus, so I've been having fun experimenting with it lately. I've seen recipes using asparagus paired with prosciutto or bacon, but to make it more South Beach Diet friendly I thought I'd try asparagus roasted with lean ham. The smoked and slightly browned ham paired wonderfully with the barely roasted asparagus, and this is something that would make a nice addition to a menu for Easter brunch or lunch.

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Recipe for Sauteed Chicken Cutlets with Sage and Capers

These Sauteed Chicken Cutlets with Sage and Capers are easy for a work-night dinner.

(Updated with improved and step-by-step photos, March 2012.)  I first posted this recipe for Sauteed Chicken Cutlets with Save and Capers back in 2005, when I made it for a quick after-work dinner after a busy day teaching school.  I'd had it on my list of recipes needing updated photos for quite a while, so when I recently found myself with two chicken breasts thawed in the fridge and thinking about something for dinner, it was a win/win decision to cook it again.  I made this when it was nearly dark outside, so I used my Lowel Ego Lights to take the photos, and although I prefer natural light, I'm happy with the new photos compared to what I took in 2005 with the little point and shoot camera I had then.  Best of all, I liked the chicken as much as I did the first time, and this was a great dinner.

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Recipe for Lentil and Barley Greek-Style Salad with Tomatoes, Feta, and Capers

A wonderful meatless barley and lentil salad to welcome spring!

I bet I'm not the only salad-obsessed person who starts thinking about new salad combinations as soon as the weather gets warmer.  It's no secret that I love salads of every type, but I think grain and bean salads are especially nice in spring, when it's not really hot weather but you're getting in the mood for lighter meals.  I loved the idea of a salad combining barley and lentils, and it worked perfectly with the tomatoes, Feta, capers, and a Greek-style vinaigrette for a lovely meatless salad.  There are many types of lentils, and you can probably use any green or brown lentils here, but I used lentils du puy, a green lentil from France that holds its shape well in a salad.

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Nick's Chipotle Grilled Shrimp with Black Bean Salsa

(Dedicated to the memory of Nicholas Rhodes 7/3/26 - 3/21/12)

(Updated March 2012:  When I started my blog in 2005, one of the first people who shared a recipe with me was Nick Rhodes, the father of my good friend Mary.  Nick passed away suddenly this week at the age of 85.  Nick was still active and very involved in life, and he will be greatly missed.)

When my friend Mary told me her Dad was going to send me a recipe for the blog, I was sure it would be good. After all, Nick was a great cook; I had tasted his Pastitsio at Christmas, and it was fabulous. When Nick sent me this recipe for Chipotle Grilled Shrimp with Black Bean Salsa, I couldn't wait to try it, and I wasn't disappointed. Nick told me he originally tasted this at the El Dorado Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and after a few tries at home he came up with this recipe.

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Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Sun Pix Hearts of Palm

Hearts of Palm are one of my favorite ingredient for spring and summer salads!

I may have let out a tiny squeal yesterday when I saw that my Costco had Sun Pix Hearts of Palm back in stock!  If you're not familiar with Hearts of Palm, they're a tender and flavorful vegetable that come from the center of the stems of palm plants.  They're labor intensive to harvest, so even though domesticated Palms are now grown for this crop, they're still not that common.  I rarely buy them at the regular grocery store where they're ridiculously expensive, but each year I stock up when Costco gets them as a seasonal product.  A two-pack of these 25 oz. jars was $8.59 at my Costco yesterday.  Costco in Utah sells these in the spring and summer, and then stops stocking them in the winter, so every year I wait for them to appear again!

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Recipe for Pan-Fried Asparagus Tips with Lemon Juice and Lemon Zest

This simple and amazingly delicious recipe for Pan-Fried Asparagus Tips has only 3 ingredients!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites. This recipe for lemony pan-fried asparagus tips is something I make over and over.)

Every spring I look forward to the arrival of low-priced asparagus in the grocery store. I love asparagus and I'm definitely a convert to the "less is more" approach when it comes to cooking it. I've tried a lot of good asparagus recipes, but I'm not sure any of them can beat this simple pan-fried asparagus with only three ingredients: asparagus, olive oil, and a lemon. To make it even better, I like to use just the asparagus tips for this recipe, and save the thicker parts of the asparagus stalk to cook using a different method. If that doesn't work for you, cook the thicker parts of the asparagus stalks for a couple of minutes before you add the tips.

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Recipe for Sauteed Tilapia with Parmesan Crust

This tasty method for cooking Tilapia finishes it with a crust of mayo and Parmesan that's browned under the broiler.  (On the side is Creole-Spiced Rice and Kale.)

(First posted in 2006; updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions in March 2012.)  If you haven't tried Tilapia, it's a very mild flavored white fish which is easy to cook.  I love to use Tilapia because it's inexpensive compared to most fish, but admittedly it can be a little boring if you don't do something to add flavor.  This recipe uses a flavorful fish rub before the Tilapia is sauteed and then the fish is brushed with a tiny bit of mayo, sprinkled with Parmesan, and finished under the broiler for a delicious result.  Of course if the budget doesn't matter so much, you could use any type of white fish filets to make this.

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Recipe for Vegan Picadillo Lentil Stew with Sweet Bell Peppers and Green Olives

A delicious lentil stew with sweet bell peppers, green olives, and a touch of spiciness.

I'm always looking for ideas featuring lentils so when I spotted  this Picadillo Lentil Stew in The South Beach Diet Super Quick Cookbook I loved the sound of a stew with lentils, sweet bell peppers, green olives, onion, garlic, chile powder and a hint of cocoa powder.  Then when we tried the recipe Jake and I kicked it up a little, adding oregano, some canned tomatoes, a bit of Green Tabasco Sauce and extra  green olives.  We ate this with a big dollop of Greek Yogurt and a generous shake of green Tobasco, and it made a satisfying meatless dish that we loved from the very first bite, but just skip the Greek yogurt for a vegan dish.

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Saturday Snapshots: Trimming the Perennial Herbs in Spring (2012 Garden Update Number 1)

Nothing says Spring like perennial herbs starting to show some green!

Salt Lake has been having spring-like weather lately, so on one of those warm days I went out in the garden and trimmed most of my perennial herbs, making way for the green shoots to appear.  When I mentioned on Twitter that I'd been trimming herbs, a few people asked about how to do it, so I thought I'd share how my herb beds looked after their spring trimming.  Nothing gets me more excited about summer than the appearance of fresh herbs in the garden, so I love seeing those little spots of green!  (Links to gardening sites contained within this post are purely for information purposes and are not meant to be an endorsement of the site.)

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Recipe for Janet's Mustard Chicken

My sister Janet's Mustard Chicken is tasty and easy enough for a work-night dinner.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This recipe for Mustard Chicken from my sister Janet is something I make over and over.)

The Denny family has a lot of good cooks besides myself, and this is a recipe I got from my sister Janet many, many years ago. It's quick and easy enough for a work-night dinner, but very tasty. I remember Janet making this in the kitchen at my parent's house, long before I ever heard of low-glycemic cooking or the South Beach Diet, and then sometime in the early days of my blog I realized that if you use low-fat sour cream and low-fat mayo like I did, this is a nice South Beach friendly main dish. If you're not on a diet, go ahead and make it with the high octane mayo and sour cream, but it will be delicious either way.

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Recipe for Marinated Pepper Salad with Garbanzos, Olives, and Feta

Sweet Mini-Peppers are marinated overnight and then combined with garbanzos, olives, and Feta!

(Updated with step-by-step photos and better photos, March 2012.  I first posted this in 2006 after I met Utah blogger Erin of Erin Eats.)

When Erin featured a recipe for marinated bell peppers, as soon as I read it that Erin's recipe for marinated peppers was something I had to try. I changed Erin's recipe just a bit and then used the peppers and left-over marinade to make this wonderful salad, which tasted like the best antipasto salad you've ever tasted.  I used Parmesan when I first made this back in 2006, but now I am sold on crumbled Feta cheese with this combination.  The marinated peppers would also be great just to keep in the fridge to add to any type of green salad.

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Recipe for Baked Salsa Rice with Green Chiles, Lime, and Cilantro

Baked Salsa Rice with Green Chiles, Lime, and Cilantro!

It took a couple of tries to get this Baked Salsa Rice just right, and by the final version I had added canned green chiles, lime juice, a pinch of cumin, and extra cilantro to the inspiring recipe for a rice dish that I'd happily make any time as a side dish for any meal with Mexican flavors.  You could also add my version of Rubio's Pinto Beans on the side or wrap the rice and beans into a burrito, and eat this as a vegetarian meal.  The rice is just slightly spicy, but if you're someone who likes a bit more heat just add a little Green Tabasco Sauce or your favorite hot sauce when you eat the finished rice.  This would also be great with a little grated cheese melted over the top if you'd like.

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Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Better Than Bouillon Organic Vegetable Base

If you don't have time to make your own vegetable stock, this product is a good substitute.

You may have noticed there's a little more emphasis on meatless recipes around here the last six months or so.  No, I'm not planning to become a vegetarian, but I am trying to use less meat in my cooking.  And truthfully, some of my very favorite foods are vegetables, and with increased evidence that less meat is good for our bodies and good for the planet, it's not something I find hard to do.

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Recipe for Asian Lettuce Wraps (or Cups) with Pork, Napa Cabbage, and Red Bell Pepper

These Asian Lettuce Cups with Pork, Napa Cabbage, and Red Bell Pepper were really a treat.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  These Asian Lettuce Wraps with Pork, Napa Cabbage, and Red Bell Peppers are something I've made over and over when I'm doing Phase One.)

Tonight for dinner I'm looking forward to eating leftovers from these lettuce wraps for the second time, and if you saw how much food accumulates in my fridge you'd realize that means these lettuce wraps are really good!  We're doing Phase One Recipes for the month of January, and I think flavorful lettuce wraps are really a treat for Phase One.  This recipe was adapted from The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook, and the recipe was for lettuce rolls, but when I couldn't get the lettuce to roll up very well I switched gears and decided to make them lettuce wraps.  If you like the idea of lettuce cups or lettuce wraps for phase one (or any time you want a healthy meal without many carbs) there are some other good ideas after the recipe.

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Recipe for Thai-Style Spicy Cabbage Slaw with Mint and Cilantro

Even in the winter when you have to buy the mint, this Thai-Style Cabbage Slaw is worth the splurge!

Mint is something I have in abundance in the summer, and it's so prolific that I'm glad I have a garden bed divided into thirds so the mint is contained.  Maybe it's because I have so much free mint in the summer, but I have a hard time buying mint at the grocery store, and I saved this recipe for Thai-Style Cabbage Slaw months ago, thinking I would try it in the summer when I had mint begging to be used.  Then every time I looked through recipes I had saved, this one was calling to me, until finally I paid a ridiculous price for mint at the store and tried it.  This was another of those recipes where Jake and I were absolutely raving the entire time we devoured four servings of this (and we had eaten lunch about 30 minutes earlier!)  If you like Thai flavors, I'm guessing this salad might become one of your year-round favorites, even if you have to remember to buy mint!

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Lentil Soup Recipe with Ground Beef and Brown Rice

An easy and tasty soup made from ground beef, lentils, and brown rice.

(This post was updated with step-by-step photos and better photos of the finished soup in March 2012; the recipe was first posted in 2007.)   I originally made this soup on a day I was too sick to go the store, and I don't think there's anything that tastes as good or as comforting as soup when it's cold outside. The weather in Utah has been so mild this year that we've only had a few days that were soup weather, but on one of those days I made this soup and enjoyed it that night for dinner.  I have a few containers in the freezer now for those snowy days I'm sure are still going to come.   I did add some balsamic vinegar to the finished soup this time, and I loved the way it perked up the flavor so I'm updating the recipe to add that.

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Slow Cooker Recipe for Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos with Lime

Use your slow cooker to make the filling for these Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos with Lime.

Long before I had a new slow cooker site, I was a fan of using the slow cooker even for short cooking times if I had something to do and didn't want to have to watch the food.  The filling for these Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos could have been cooked in a pan on the stove, but they cooked perfectly in the slow cooker while I was out of the house for a few hours, and when I got home dinner was ready.  I used low-carb flour tortillas to make burritos, but you could use whole wheat tortillas as well.  The spices and lime juice that I added to the sweet potato and black bean mixture were what made these burritos delicious, and I served them with more lime to squeeze on at the table, plus a generous shake of Green Tabasco Sauce.

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Recipe for Roasted Cabbage with Lemon

This Roasted Cabbage with Lemon is a perfect side dish for corned beef, but I'd eat it any time of year!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.   This Roasted Cabbage with Lemon was first posted in March 2010, and I've made it many, many times since then.)

My friend Robin lives about 45 minutes away from Salt Lake, so sometimes when she has an early morning meeting she stays at my house. Last Friday was one of those nights, and since Robin loves cabbage I knew it would be a perfect time to test this recipe. I first spotted Roasted Cabbage with Lemon on a blog called Eat Repeat and bookmarked it to try, and then when I was talking to my friend Mary (another cabbage lover) she told me how she roasts red cabbage, so you can bet I'll be trying that soon as well.

Robin and I loved this roasted cabbage so much I made it again the very next day to take photos for the blog. If you like cabbage at all, I'm guessing you'll love it too. And if you're going to be cooking Corned Beef and Cabbage next week for St. Patrick's Day, I recommend cooking the cabbage this way and serving it with the corned beef.

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South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes Round-Up for February 2012 (Low-Glycemic Recipes)

Effie's Easy and Amazing Cottage Cheese Salad with Za'atar was my favorite Phase One Recipe for February.

I'm so happy to see the calendar has flipped over to March.  And I don't care if we need the water in Utah, I'm voting for the start of spring-like weather!  We're going to be welcoming March with a new blog header featuring cabbage, created by my talented brother Rand, and of course when the month changes I share all the South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes I've found on other food blogs or posted on Kalyn's Kitchen the previous month.  Even though February is the month of chocolate and cookies, I managed to find a lot of tasty phase one ideas.   And for people who are interested in Phase One recipes, this month I started a new feature called Phase One Fridays where every Friday night I feature a Phase One recipe that's one of my personal favorites.

(You can use the label Low-Glycemic Recipe Round-Ups to see all the posts like this one.)

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