Intermittent Fasting Diet Plan Example

Right before I sat down to write out this recipe, I dug back in my fridge and pulled out the leftovers of this Low-Carb Turkey Casserole with Mushrooms, Mozzarella, and Cauliflower Rice, heated it in the microwave, and gobbled it down for lunch.   And oh boy, was it ever a delightful lunch.  I'm pretty proud of this recipe, and with good reason because I tried multiple times with Kara to come up with a tasty casserole that used cauliflower rice instead of rice, and the first three times, we ended up with a casserole that tasted okay but was really watery.  For this keeper version we skipped the turkey stock and used a thick sauce of sour cream, mayo, Dijon, Parmesan, Mozzarella, and spices, and it held the mixture together with just enough cheesy creaminess to make it good!

This new phase one recipe for Italian Sausage Soup with Green Pepper, Chickpeas, and Pesto is something I came up with a few weeks ago when I found turkey Italian sausage on sale at the store and I wanted a hearty comforting soup that I could make and eat for dinner that same night.  I've made a few soup variations with similar flavors, but what made this soup especially enjoyable for me was an idea that popped into my head to mash some of the chickpeas so they kind of dissolved into the soup.  (I like chickpeas, but I don't always like biting into a whole chickpea in a bowl of soup or a salad.)  I shared some of this with Jake when he came to cook with me, and we both thought it was a keeper!

If  you saw the Phase One Recipes Round-Up from yesterday, you know I made the commitment to post Daily Phase One Recipes during January again this year.  I hope this is useful for anyone (like me!) who's getting back on track in the new year.  And since this is my third year of Daily Phase One Recipes for January, I'm going to share Phase One Flashbacks every day (after the recipe) to spotlight the Phase One Recipe I posted on that day in 2012 and 2013.  So healthy January, here we come!  (If you're not a South Beach Dieter, Phase One recipes are often Low-Carb or Paleo, and they're always delicious, even if you're not trying to lose weight.)

I'm developing an obsession with Delicata Squash, so forgive me for a minute while I rave on about this delicious user-friendly variety of squash.  And if you're wondering how a squash can be user-friendly, it's because you can eat the skin of Delicata squash, unlike other winter squash varieties!  How cool is that?  I got so excited I almost typed it in all caps, which is a blogging no-no. Delicata Squash is also lower in carbs and higher in fiber than many types of winter squash.  Best of all, it's absolutely delicious, and I love using it for an easier option when I'm too rushed to peel and cut up a butternut squash.

I came up with this Delicata Squash and Sausage Gratin by default when my nephew Jake and I were trying a recipe idea with a sausage and green pepper mixture stuffed inside Delicata squash, and we ended up with far too much stuffing for the amount of squash we had.  So we went to Plan B and made a casserole with the roasted squash, sausage-pepper mixture, and cheese.  Jake isn't the biggest fan of winter squash but he agreed it was really, really good, and when my first photos weren't that great I made this again with my niece Kara who also loved it.  If you like winter squash in general, I bet you'll love this recipe as much as we did!

Do you like sweet potatoes?  My nephew and cooking assistant Jake has never really been a fan, but when we made this simple recipe for Roasted Spicy Sweet Potatoes and Chicken Sausage, he loved it just as much as I did.  This no-fuss recipe was inspired by my love of Sweet Potato Fries, plus a really delicious new low-fat chicken sausage from Costco (with no nitrates!)  Every cook needs some quick and easy dinner ideas for this time of year, and this is pure comfort food without much effort.

It's been more than four years since I first tried Cauliflower Rice, but I'm barely starting to explore the possibilities with this idea of substituting low-carb grated cauliflower for rice.  (So many recipes; so little time!)  I'm a huge cauliflower fan so I love the cauliflower rice on its own.  But I know some people don't love cauliflower like I do; however even for people who aren't big of fans of caulflower I think many of you might enjoy these Low-Carb Cauliflower Rice Southwestern Stuffed Peppers with Turkey and Poblanos, where there are a lot of other flavors to season the cauliflower.  Be sure not to skip the addition of finely chopped Poblano Chile Peppers (also called Pasilla peppers in many U.S. stores.)  The Poblanos are just barely spicy, but they add a wonderful flavor to the chopped cauliflower.  

I used red, yellow, and orange bell peppers for a colorful dish, but green bell peppers are abundant in gardens right now and they'd also be delicious in this.  I created this recipe with help from my niece Kara, and we both thought the cauliflower rice was delicious with the other flavors here.

A few years ago I bought a Kuhn Rikon Pressure Cooker, and shared a few Pressure Cooker Recipes on the blog.  So when my sister Pam got a new Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker, and my friend Barbara started a blog about using the electric pressure cooker, I really didn't think I needed another pressure cooker.  Then I got a couple of Amazon gift cards, and the next thing you know, a new electric pressure cooker arrived at my house!  So far I've only used it to make chicken stock, and then this amazing soup, but I'm already pretty infatuated with the new electric pressure cooker.  If I had to pick one feature, it would be the way you can set the time and walk away, knowing the pressure cooker will stop cooking and release the pressure, even if you forget about it.   

Since there's no flour, butter, milk, or cream, this delicious Pressure Cooker Cauliflower and Mushroom Soup with Parmesan is perfect for our month of Daily Phase One Recipes, and it's also my Meatless Monday recipe for the week.  (You can see all the Phase One Recipes from the month by clicking Daily Phase One Recipes.  Check after the recipe for Phase One Flashbacks from this day in 2012 and 2013.)

In December many food blogs are featuring an ongoing series of sugary treats, and I've been resisting the Christmas cookie baking fever for a few weeks now.  But every year at Christmas I try a few new recipes to add to my collection of Low Sugar Desserts for those of you who have a sweet tooth but are trying to limit sugar in your diet.

These Low-Sugar and Flourless Chocolate Coconut Drops do have a small amount of semi-sweet chocolate chips that keeps them from being sugar-free, but I switched out the powdered sugar for Stevia In the Raw Granulated Sweetener and used unsweetened coconut to create a chocolate cookie with less than 4 grams of sugar each.  These cookies were easy to throw together, and if you're a chocolate fan I think you'll enjoy them for a holiday treat.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this salad is something I've made over and over since my sister Pam first told me about it.  I wasn't too fond of the original photo of the finished dish, so when I made it again recently I also updated the photo; enjoy!)

I love the way social media spreads good ideas around the web, and this salad is my version of one my sister Pam got from a friend, who found it on Pinterest.  The e-mail I got from Pam had just a list of ingredients and some suggestions, so when I made the salad I kind of made up my own directions.  Then when I got ready to post my salad, I wanted to credit the source if I could find it, and when I copied what Pam had sent me and entered it into the search on Pinterest I found Avocado Chicken Salad from Becoming Betty.  My version has larger chunks of chicken and avocado, and I made the lime and mayonnaise into more of a dressing, while the original version is more mixed together.  This salad was so good that the amount I made above didn't even last a day at my house (although I *did* have help eating it from Jake.)  If you like these ingredients, I promise this salad is going to be a keeper!

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.

I've been making zucchini noodles with the Spiralizer all summer long, and I need to get busy sharing the new recipes I've come up while some of you have a surplus of zucchini.  I created this Chicken Pesto Zucchini Noodle Salad with help from my niece Kara, and we both agreed it was easy to make and really tasty.  What bumped up the flavor here was marinating the chunks of chicken in the pesto vinaigrette for a few hours before we tossed the salad together, along with additional pesto vinaigrette that's tossed with the noodles.  I've been making Basil Pesto with Lemon with the basil I'm growing in big pots along my front sidewalk, but if you don't have homemade pesto this salad will still be delish with pesto from the store.  You could also make a dairy-free or Paleo version of this by switching the dressing to Basil Vinaigrette made with homemade vinaigrette.

It's October, but before we transition completely to fall eating, there are going to be more warm days and for most people, definitely a few more weeks of summer veggies from the Farmers Market or garden.  This round-up of 25 Deliciously Healthy Low-Carb Recipes from September 2014 has recipes I've been collecting all through the month of September with lots of good ideas for those garden veggies, so here's hoping you'll find a new recipe or two that might become a favorite. Every recipe linked here is Low-Carb and Gluten-Free; notes after the recipe title will tell you if I think it would be approved for South Beach Phase One, Paleo, or Whole 30 eating plans.  All photos are from the blog that's linked to the recipe.  Enjoy!

(You can check out the photo index page of low-carb recipes for even more Deliciously Healthy Low-Carb recipe ideas!  To find more round-ups like this one, visit the Deliciously Healthy Low-Carb Recipe Round-Ups Index Page, click the label Monthly Low-Carb Recipe Round-Up, or visit the Pinterest Board for Delciously Healthy Low-Carb Recipes.) 

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites. Phase One Recipes are also Low-Carb and Gluten-Free.  This recipe was updated October 2012, with better photos, better instructions, and the addition of Hemp Hearts for added nutrition, and now I wouldn't mind updating the photos again so I think meatballs are on the menu this weekend!)

When I first tried these meatballs back in 2009, ground turkey was something I'd been working hard to gain an appreciation for, since it's low in saturated fat (therefore South Beach Diet friendly.)  Now I've been using ground turkey in meatballs and meatloaf for quite a few years, and these meatballs with lots of ground herbs and Romano cheese are still one of my favorites.  In this updated version I added a small amount of hemp hearts to the recipe to bump up the nutrition, but that's completely optional.  The meatballs are a little soft to work with, and you do have to watch them so the cheese doesn't burn when you're frying them, but if you want a flavorful meatball that's Phase One, low-carb, and gluten-free, I think this recipe is a keeper!

Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Pecorino-Romano Cheese is an easy side dish that only needs 20 minutes in the oven.

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Pecorino-Romano Cheese is easy and delicious.  This recipe was updated with new photos, November 2014.)

Here's another recommendation from the big list of Carb-Conscious Thanksgiving Recipes I've been spotlighting this month.  If you don't want a richer broccoli dish like Broccoli Gratin with Swiss and Parmesan, this roasted broccoli with lemon and Pecorino-Romano cheese is lighter, but just as flavorful. What makes this recipe so good is the way the broccoli gets tossed with lemon juice after cooking so the hot roasted broccoli soaks up the lemon flavor, then gets kicked-up with the slightly assertive flavor of Pecorino-Romano Cheese. Best of all, this cooks in 20 minutes, so you could throw it in the oven while you're carving the turkey and making gravy.

I've been a little distracted by the new design for Slow Cooker from Scratch, and now it feels like I went to bed in November and when I woke up there were less than two weeks until Christmas!  And I do have a few new holiday recipe ideas I want to share before things get too crazy, starting with these Sweet Potato Appetizer Bites with Feta and Green Onions.  Yum!

I love this combination of flavors, and if I went to a holiday gathering or Superbowl party and found a table loaded with sweets and chips staring me in the face, I would be so excited to find a deliciously healthy option like this to eat instead.  The hardest part of making these might be finding the thin sweet potatoes, but you can make them into two-bite nibbles if needed!  (And I do try to focus on meatless main dishes for Meatless Monday, but I could make a meal out of these, so this is my Meatless Monday idea for the week.)

I don't think there's any doubt that holidays are more challenging for dieters or people who need to limit sugar than day-to-day eating, and holidays like Valentine's Day that are strongly associated with sugary treats can make even the most steadfast person lose their resolve.  Through the years I've tested a lot of low-sugar or sugar-free chocolate treats, but not many of them have been good enough to make it on to the blog.  Here's a collection of the chocolate treats that made the cut and many of them are also gluten-free as well.  I hope one of these can help you celebrate Valentine's Day without completely abandoning your diet; just click the link under the photo to see each recipe.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and all during November I've been spotlighting vegetables and salads that I'd love for Thanksgiving.  Now it has been brought to my attention that not everyone wants salad for Thanksgiving (you know who you are) but personally I'd love a salad like this to balance out the other higher-carb foods.  Check out the my Top Ten Thanksgiving Recipes or all the other Thanksgiving Recipes if you're still working on your menu!)

I love hearts of palm, a tasty and low-carb delicacy that I learned to like years ago when I worked at Le Parisien, a French Restaurant in Salt Lake that's no longer in business.  For years I would rarely buy them at grocery store prices, but that changed when Costco started selling them in two-packs of 25 oz. jars at a price that was a lot more affordable.  Now they're something I always have in my pantry.  Still this Rich Salad with Hearts of Palm, Avocado, and Radicchio includes avocado, radicchio, butter lettuce, and pine nuts, all things that aren't really everyday ingredients which may be why it's called Rich Salad!  But when you need something for a special dinner party, this is a delicious salad that's sure to impress, and if you can get those two-packs of hearts of palm from Costco, you can have it a little more often.

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!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.)  This recipe for Baked White Fish with Onions, Peppers, Olives, and Feta is one I came up with in the very earliest days of my blog, and it's a favorite quick dinner that I've been making it for years. You can make this with any type of mild white fish, but I probably use Tilapia the most, and using a topping with finely chopped red onion, red bell pepper, green olives, and Feta adds a lot of flavor to the mild-flavored Tilapia.  If you're not  a Tilapia fan, use any any mild white fish such as halibut, orange roughy, cod, or sole.  There's a small amount of mayo spread over the fish to keep the topping on, and that also keeps the fish moist when it's baked at a high temperature.  It's important to start with room-temperature fish pieces, so the fish cooks quickly without the topping ingredients getting too done.  If green olives are a non-starter at your house, try it with capers instead, but please try this way of cooking fish if you like these flavors and I bet it will become a repeater at your house too!

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!

Then 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!

 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!)