Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Grilled zucchini replaces the cucumbers in this delicious Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad!

 
(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  For four weeks in a row now I've gotten zucchini at the farmers market, so I think zucchini season is officially here and it's time to make this Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad!  This is a simple idea, but it's something I've made over and over since I came up with it years ago.)

When I visited Athens in 1998, I ate salads with cucumbers, tomatoes, green bell pepper, cucumbers, onions, and Feta cheese, always served with a dressing that combined red wine vinegar, olive oil, and dried Greek Oregano. In Greece this combination was usually called Village Salad, but in the U.S., any salad with those ingredients would be called Greek Salad. This grilled zucchini version of an American-Style Greek salad is something I came up with years ago when my garden had lots of zucchini and tomatoes, and not many cucumbers. Grilling the zucchini with olive oil and Greek Seasoning, and then brushing on some vinaigrette dressing as it cooks adds wonderful flavor to the salad, even if it's not authentically Greek. If you have surplus zucchini in your own garden, give this idea a try.

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Grilled Fusion Chicken (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

This Grilled Fusion Chicken has a great combination of flavors.

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, July 2014.)  Back in the early days of my blog I wrote about how to make juicy grilled chicken breasts that are perfect every time and I followed it up with some grilled chicken recipes.  Here's a recipe from back then that I adapted from Sunset Magazine, and really enjoyed the result.  I made this again recently with my niece Kara so we could take some new photos, and we changed the ingredients just slightly to give it even more flavor.  In the new photos I'm pairing it with a simple salad of cucumber noodles I made with my Spiralizer.

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Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Make "noodles" from zucchini and use them for this Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad; so delish!

When I posted Three Ways to Make Noodles from Zucchini and Other Vegetables, I promised to share some new recipes using the noodles, and I've made this Zucchini Noodle Mock Pasta Salad several times now, and gobbled it up every time.  This recipe is a low-carb and gluten-free offspring of my Pasta Salad with Italian Sausage, Zucchini, Red Pepper, and Olives, a recipe I've been making for years and years for family parties.  This mock pasta salad could be served as a side dish, but since it has turkey Italian Sausage included, I'd be happy with a big bowl of this for a delicious low-carb dinner.

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Three Ways to Make Noodles from Zucchini and Other Vegetables (and Recipes with Vegetable Noodles)

Low-Carb Zucchini "Noodles" are delicious and easy to make.

Have you noticed how many cooks are suddenly making "noodles" from zucchini and other types of vegetables?  I think the abundance of vegetable noodles popping up everywhere is mostly due to an amazing machine called the Spiralizer.  I'm a little obsessed with my Spiralizer lately, so watch for a few dishes with vegetable noodles coming up soon on the blog. But for those who don't want to spend nearly $35.00 for a machine to make noodles, there are actually several less expensive noodle-making gadgets that work pretty well.  I have three different cooking tools that make noodles from vegetables, so I thought it would be a fun Meatless Monday post to compare them for anyone who's curious about vegetable noodles.

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Pan-Grilled Chicken with Green Olive, Caper, and Lemon Relish (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

Easy pan-grilled chicken with a flavorful green olive relish and Mediterranean Salad with Hummus Dressing on the side.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this easy Pan-Grilled Chicken with Green Olive, Caper, and Lemon Relish is delicious and quick to make on a stove-top grill pan, or grill it on an outdoor grill if you prefer.  It's really the green olive, caper, and lemon relish that makes this special for me and I think the relish would be great on pork chops or fish as well.)

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Fish Taco Cabbage Bowl (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

Jake and I loved everything about these Fish Taco Cabbage Bowls!

I have high standards about what recipes actually end up making an appearance on Kalyn's Kitchen, so if you see a recipe here you know I really enjoyed the dish.  And then in that growing collection of recipes I enjoyed, occasionally something pops up that's a complete wow!  These Fish Taco Cabbage Bowls were so delicious that when my nephew Jake and I tested the recipe, we both kept saying over and over how good they were.  The Fish Taco Cabbage Bowls are definitely an offspring of the Sriracha Beef Cabbage Bowls I made last year, also a wow for me.  Obviously I love cabbage, so if you're not a cabbage fan this may not be for you. However, if you like fish tacos with slaw and spicy mayo dressing give this a try and I bet you'll love it just like I did for a quick and healthy dinner!

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Baked Eggs Skillet with Avocado and Spicy Tomatoes (Paleo, Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

This Baked Eggs Skillet with Avocado and Spicy Tomatoes only needs a few minutes in the oven.

I'm always looking for new low-carb breakfast ideas, and recently when I had avocados in the fridge that needed to get used I came up with this Baked Eggs Skillet with Avocado and Spicy Tomatoes.  If you're wondering why my avocados were in the fridge, back in 2009 I shared a life-changing discovery that ripe avocados will stop ripening and last for several days longer if you store them in the fridge.  (Please tell me I'm not the only one who can't resist those bags of avocados at Costco and then has a hard time remembering to use them?  If you have the same problem, this trick of putting avocados in the fridge will really help!) I'm totally in favor of avocado for breakfast, and this was a quick and delicious breakfast for two that only needs about 10 minutes in the oven.

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Chicken Salad with Basil and Parmesan (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

If you have basil in your garden, don't miss out on making this Chicken Salad with Basil and Parmesan!

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, July 2014.)  This Chicken Salad with Basil and Parmesan is something you should make when you have lots of basil in your garden, because through the years I've learned you just can't put too much chopped basil in this salad.  I finally found a good sunny spot to relocate the herb pots I used on the deck last summer, and I'm happy to say I have lots of fresh basil this year, so when I cooked with my niece Kara recently we made this favorite basil-loaded chicken salad recipe to update the photos.

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Power Greens Breakfast Casserole with Feta and Mozzarella (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Power Greens Breakfast Casserole with Feta and Mozzarella has a whole pound of greens!

When I shared the recipe for Power Greens Salad with Blueberries and Almonds, I raved about how much I love the Power Greens mix of chard, kale, and Spinach I've been getting at Costco.  And if you know my food preferences at all, you might have guessed I'd be making some kind of breakfast casserole with this delicious mix of greens.  In the last couple of weeks I've made this Power Greens Breakfast Casserole with Feta and Mozzarella four times, so that's a sign of how much I like it!  And last weekend my friend Sean from Punk Domestics stayed at my house when he was in town for the Alt Conference, and when I fed him some of the leftovers for breakfast, he gave the recipe a thumbs up.  I actually used a full pound of the greens mix in this, which helped balance out the generous amount of cheese!  I think the combination of cheeses here went really well with the variety of greens, so if you like the idea of starting out the day with a healthy dose of greens, give this a try!

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Raw Zucchini Salad (Zucchini Carpaccio) with Lemon, Herbs, and Goat Cheese (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Use small fresh-from the garden zucchini to make Raw Zucchini Salad with Lemon, Herbs, and Goat Cheese.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  I've been seeing small perfect zucchini at the farmer's market for the last two weeks now, so it seems like a perfect time to make this Raw Zucchini Salad with Lemon, Herbs, and Goat Cheese.)

Zucchini Carpaccio is a dish I've been intrigued by since I first heard about the idea of thinly slicing zucchini and then marinating it in a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice, so I have no idea why it's taken me so long to try it. It was the Carpaccio of Raw Zucchini from Sidewalk Shoes that finally pushed this dish to the top of my list. Pam used a recipe from Tyler Florence, but I ended up making my own version, heavy on lemon and herbs, and with the addition of a little goat cheese, since I'm always in favor of goat cheese in a salad!

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Leftover Chicken Salad with Mustard, Hearts of Palm, and Olives (Paleo, Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Use leftover grilled or rotisserie chicken to make this Leftover Chicken Salad with Mustard, Hearts of Palm, and Olives.

When it's summer, grilled chicken breasts are always on the menu at my house.  And if I'm going to take the time to prep the chicken, marinate it, and then grill it, I'm probably going to make extra grilled chicken for leftovers.  I already have 20 Summers Salads to Make with Leftover Chicken, but that doesn't stop my brain from coming up with more ideas.  Not long ago I made Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken for a big family party, and with some of the leftover chicken I made this Leftover Chicken Salad with Mustard, Hearts of Palm, and Olives.  Not only was this a delicious low-carb salad, but if you choose ingredients carefully it's Paleo, Whole 30 approved, and gluten-free.  If grilled chicken isn't on the menu at your house, this would also be delicious with leftover rotisserie chicken, the ones that jump into your basket when you're at Costco.  Enjoy!

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25 Favorite Healthy Cucumber Salads to Keep You Cool

Summer means cucumbers, and here are 25 Cucumber Salads to eat all summer long!

How do you feel about cucumbers?  I'm always kind of shocked when someone tells me they don't like them, but then I realize maybe those cucumber-adverse people have only had grocery store cucumbers.  Those overly large waxy creatures are a poor substitute for fresh garden cucumbers, which are loaded with a delicate flavor that I just love.  If I don't have cucumbers from the garden I love the mini Persian cucumbers that you can buy at Costco, or the European cucumbers that are available all year.  As soon the weather gets hot I start craving cucumber salads.  Back in 2011 I posted ten favorite cucumber salads, but four years later I have a lot more favorites, so I'm updating this post to share 25 Favorite Healthy Cucumbers Salads to Keep You Cool.  Hope you enjoy trying some of them!

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Green Chile Turkey Taco Salad with Peppers and Avocado (Paleo, Low-Carb, Gluten Free)

This Green Chile Turkey Taco Salad with Peppers and Avocado has a dressing that's seasoned with green chile salsa.

I'm a big fan of taco salad, so recently when my niece and cooking assistant Kara was doing the Whole 30 challenge, I thought it would be fun to come up with a taco salad that's Whole 30 approved.  I also wanted a taco salad that didn't have beef, and this delicious Green Chile Turkey Taco Salad with Peppers and Avocado is the combination we came up with.   Simmering the meat with green chile salsa and other seasonings, using a little of the same salsa to add flavor to the dressing, plus adding green and red bell peppers and finely chopped fresh Poblano chiles to the salad greens gives this salad a lot of savory chile flavor with just a little heat.  Kara and I both loved the flavor of this turkey taco meat mixture; if you have family members who don't want salad it would be delicious inside tortillas for regular tacos as well.

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Cuban Flank Steak Recipe (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

Flank steak is delicious when it's marinated in Cuban flavors and grilled.

 (For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites,  and this Cuban Flank Steak is one of my most-used ways to cook beef on the grill.   If you're grilling for a beef-loving Dad this weekend, I can promise this will be a hit!)

In one of my previous lives, before I became a food blogger and a South Beach Dieter, I used to be president of my local teacher's association, aka the teacher's union. This was a demanding high-pressure job that I sometimes loved, sometimes hated, but one thing I did enjoy about the job was the chance to travel. I went all over the U.S., and it was in Miami Beach that I had my first experience with Cuban food. I loved the way beef and pork were marinated in lime juice in the Cuban cuisine, so a few years ago I tried to re-create that flavor in this flank steak. If you like flank steak, give this flavorful Cuban-style marinade a try!

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Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Italian Sausage, Tomatoes, Kale, and Basil Vinaigrette (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

You won't miss the pasta in this Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Turkey Italian Sausage, Tomatoes, Kale, and Basil Vinaigrette.

I guess I'm having a little fling with cauliflower because this Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Turkey Italian Sausage, Tomatoes, Kale, and Basil Vinaigrette is the latest in a string of fun cauliflower experiments.  In the last few months I've shared Cheesy Baked Cauliflower Tots, Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Feta, and Fried Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp, and all of them had that special something that means the recipe is going to be a repeater in my kitchen.  That's also true for this latest cauliflower experiment where I used roasted cauliflower as the base of the salad and combined it with browned turkey Italian Sausage, cherry tomatoes, and barely wilted kale.  If it's a bit hot to use the oven where you are, use a toaster oven to roast the cauliflower.  (And I should probably be sharing something like this pasta salad the week of Father's Day, but unless dad is a cauliflower-avoider, I promise this salad is so delicious you won't even miss the pasta!)

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Recipe for Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

It only takes the tiniest bit of bacon to add great flavor to this Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this flavorful salad dressing with a little chopped bacon is something I've been making for years.  The recipe has been hanging out way back in the archives on the blog since 2005 without a single photo, and I finally remembered to take some pictures to update the post!)   

Spinach salad with bacon is a culinary classic, and in the very early days of my blog I came up with this spinach salad that features a slightly creamy dressing with chopped bacon.   It only takes the tiniest amount of bacon to make this Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing really taste amazing, and I use pre-cooked bacon and then crisp it in the microwave and blot away as much fat as possible, so if you're someone who normally avoids bacon because of the saturated fat, please do not call the bacon police!  There are endless combinations of ingredients you can add to the salad besides the bacon dressing, but sliced mini-peppers, olives, sunflower seeds, and Feta like you see in this photo is probably my favorite.  And if you're not adverse to a little bacon once in a while, this bacon dressing is also fantastic drizzled over sliced tomatoes!

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Roasted Barramundi with Tomato and Olive Relish (Low-Carb, Paleo, Gluten-Free)

My niece Kara and I both loved this Roasted Barramundi with Tomato and Olive Relish.

A few weeks ago I had a fun cooking day with my gorgeous niece Kara, and we came up with this recipe for Roasted Barramundi with Olive Relish.  The recipe was so good that Kara has already made it at home (and sent me the photo) before I managed to get it up on the blog!  We tried this out when Kara was doing the Whole 30 eating plan, and for people who care about such things this recipe is completely in line with Whole 30 or Paleo eating, and it's also South Beach Diet Phase One.  But even if you don't care the tiniest little bit about any of that, you should make this because it's amazingly delicious, and easy to make after a long day at work.  If it's getting warm where you live, I recommend roasting the fish in a toaster oven to keep the kitchen cool.

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World's Easiest Grilled Zucchini and Sausage Kabobs

It just doesn't get much easier than these Grilled Zucchini and Sausage Kabobs!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this recipe for World's Easiest Grilled Zucchini and Sausage Kabobs is something I've made over and over with beef, chicken, or turkey sausage.)

It's time to be breaking out the grill, and unless you're brand new to my blog, it's probably pretty obvious that I love grilling.  But some nights you just want an easy dinner, so I hope you enjoy this updated recipe for kabobs that I've used many times with different types of sausage, and truly, these have to be the easiest kabobs in the world. There are a few ways you can do the kabobs, depending on how much time you want to invest, but even if you just stick the sausage and veggies on skewers, brush with Italian salad dressing, and grill, this is a pretty good tasting easy dinner.

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Fried Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp, Sugar Snap Peas, and Red Pepper (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Can Be Paleo)

I'm pretty excited about this recipe for Fried Cauiflower "Rice" with Shrimp, Sugar Snap Peas, and Red Pepper!

More than four years ago I first made Cauliflower Rice, a dish of finely chopped cauliflower that's sauteed and eaten as rice, and I liked it but for some reason I didn't get inspired to experiment with it much more.  Then the Pinterest exploded with ideas for cauliflower rice, and I got intrigued with the idea again.  Recently I found myself with cauliflower, sugar snap peas, red bell peppers, and cooked shrimp all in the fridge on a day my nephew Jake was coming to cook, and we experimented a bit and came up with this recipe for Fried Cauliflower Rice with Shrimp, Sugar Snap Peas, and Red Pepper.  Not only did we absolutely love this (even Jake, who is definitely not a cauliflower fan) but it was so good that I quickly ate my leftovers for breakfast the next day, wishing I had more.

If you absolutely hate cauliflower, this is probably not for you.  But if you like cauliflower, even just a little, I promise you will be totally surprised at how delicious grain-free cauliflower fried rice can be.  I was trying to make a dish that's as close as possible to authentic fried rice, which I think is partly what made it so good, and it may be helpful to read about The Principles of Chinese Cooking before trying this if you haven't done much stir-frying.  But as long as you have all your ingredients prepped before you start to cook, and remember to keep stirring when the heat is high, this is actually not that hard to make. And if you're someone who loves fried rice but is trying to avoid carbs, this might become your new favorite recipe!

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Baked Eggs and Asparagus with Parmesan (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

If you like baked eggs and asparagus, you'll love this combination for an easy breakfast.

This recipe for Baked Eggs and Asparagus with Parmesan is a quick-and-easy breakfast idea that can be on the table in about twenty-five minutes, and this will be a hit with anyone who likes runny egg yolks and asparagus.  Timing is everything for this recipe, and there are a few tricks to make sure the egg whites cook quickly enough so the yolks are still runny, but if you follow my tips in the recipe your eggs should come out perfectly.  I made this one morning when the asparagus in the fridge was calling my name and I was waiting for my nephew Jake to come for a cooking day, (probably unconsciously inspired by my favorite Baked Eggs with Mushrooms and Parmesan.)  Then I made it again the next day to write down the exact times to I could share it here.  Jake and I both loved this; hope you enjoy!

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