Shrimp and Black Bean Salad with Cilantro, Cumin, and Lime (Gluten-Free)

I love the combination of flavors in this Shrimp and Black Bean Salad with Cilantro, Cumin, and Lime

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and I love this Shrimp and Black Bean Salad with Cilantro, Cumin, and Lime.  Photos for this recipe were updated May 2014 and I'm so happy to have better photos for this favorite salad!)

Shrimp, black beans, cilantro, and lime. It's a combination that goes together so well that you could easily come up with hundreds of recipes featuring this quartet. I bought a big bag of cooked frozen shrimp from Costco, and this was a salad I made for lunch after thinking to myself, hmmm, what else can I make with shrimp? The ingredients were determined by what I had in the fridge and pantry, as well as a well-documented love for cilantro, and this recipe has cilantro in the dressing and more cilantro in the salad, which is just fine with me.  If you're not a cilantro fan I think you could still get a pretty good result with thinly sliced green onion replacing the cilantro in the dressing and just using a little more green onion in the salad, but I wouldn't use parsley in place of cilantro here.

Click to continue reading

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!

Click to continue reading

Thoughts on the Documentary Fed Up, and Things I'm Thinking About on Tuesday (5-20-24)

I thought I knew a lot about sugar and the obesity epidemic, but this movie was a real eye-opener.

I'm going to start things out on a serious note this week.  Over the weekend I saw the documentary Fed Up, and even though I've been on the anti-sugar bandwagon for many years, I was still stunned by the degree to which over-consumption of sugar is making Americans sick, and even more bothered by the claims of political maneuvering that's gone on to prevent the government from making people aware the dangers of too much sugar.  And I'm not the only one thinking about this; cookbook author and food expert Mark Bittman talks about Fed Up in the New York Times, calling it An Inconvenient Truth About Our Food, and well-known chef and blogger Michael Ruhlman writes On Seeing Fed Up (and you can watch the trailer there.) Also the blog U.S. Food Policy has a piece with links to facts about the diagnosis and potential solutions, and this opinion piece from The New York Times on Why We're Always Hungry supports many of the points in the movie.  Whether you're a parent, someone who has struggled to lose weight, or just someone trying be as healthy as possible, I highly recommend seeing this movie.

Now, on to a few more things I've been thinking about . . .
Click to continue reading

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!

Click to continue reading

Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce (Low-Carb)

Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce is a delicious way to cook this fun vegetable.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  This recipe for Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce was updated with new photos and step-by-step instructions, May 2014.)

The Japanese vegetable called Broccolini is something I discovered by accident in 2006 when I become obsessed with broccoli rabe and tried for weeks to get my local store to order it. One of the produce managers sold me broccolini instead, and when I tried it in this Stir-Fried Broccolini with Oyster Sauce I discovered I love broccolini, and have been cooking it ever since. Broccolini is a natural hybrid between broccoli and Gai Lan or Chinese Kale and since I first found it this Asian vegetable has become more common in U.S. stores.  You may also find it called Baby Broccoli, and regular broccoli can also be used in this recipe as well.  (I also think you could substitute something like Hoisin Sauce for the Oyster Sauce and use vegetable stock, which would make this a vegan dish.)

Click to continue reading

Baby Arugula Salad with Turkey Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Strips (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

Baby Arugula Salad with Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Strips reminds me of one of my favorite pasta dishes.

I'm trying to get better about using up little bits of things that are in the fridge, and a few weeks ago I found myself with just two links of spicy turkey Italian Sausage and no idea how to use it.  I sat down in my office chair and paged through a few cookbooks and quickly spotted a recipe for Spinach Salad with Italian Sausage in Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh.  I didn't have spinach, but I had one of those little tubs of baby arugula, and since I love Spaghetti with Italian Sausage and Arugula, I thought maybe a salad with baby arugula and Italian sausage might be a winner as well.  If you're a fan of arugula, I promise this Baby Arugula Salad with Turkey Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Strips is really wonderful; I thought all the flavors here were perfect together.

Click to continue reading

Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Beanitos Bean Chips

When you simply must have a crunchy chip, these healthy Beanitos chips made from beans are really good.

I'm a huge fan of dried beans, and I don't think there's any doubt that the fact that they're allowed for Phase One of the South Beach Diet was one of the things that convinced me that this way of eating was a good fit for me.  So when someone told me about Beanitos Bean Chips in a conversation on the Kalyn's Kitchen Facebook Page, I was definitely interested in trying them.  Now a few months have gone by and I've tried all the flavors I can get in my local Harmon's or Dick's Market, and I can report, these chips are really good!  (In fact, they may be a little too good, if you know what I mean!)

Click to continue reading