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.)

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.

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites, and this Spicy Cabbage Salad with Tomatoes, Radishes, and Celery is one of those amazing salad combinations where the sum is so much greater than the parts.  And since we're welcoming March with a new header featuring cabbages, this salad is perfect for that reason as well.)

The minute I saw the Puerto Rican Cabbage Salad on Champaign Taste, I knew I was going to make some version of this salad, since I adore cabbage salad, and cabbage is one of The World's Healthiest Foods.  When I made the salad I loved it, and it got two thumbs up from my sister Val and brother-in-law Jon as well, and I'd say this salad is already destined to be a favorite.  After doing a little internet research about Carribean cabbage salads, I did tweak the recipe a bit, upping the crunch factor with radishes, adding some chopped celery leaves and green onions, and using just a touch of lime juice in the dressing.  With those changes I don't know how authentically Puerto Rican the recipe is, so if you're a food purist you may just want to call this "cabbage salad."  No matter what you call it, if you try this recipe I predict you'll love it just as much as I do.

For a few months now I've been working with my brother Rand (the design guy) and the fabulous Jennette (web designer and coder extraordinaire) to create a new look for Kalyn's Kitchen. (Thanks guys!)  Rand and Jennette are two of the smartest and most talented people I know, and I'm excited to reveal the new design and explain how the new features can help you find the kind of recipes you're looking for on the site.

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter you might have noticed that a few weekends ago I was enthusiastically sharing about a  food photography workshop hosted by my good friends and amazing photographers, Todd Porter and Diane Cu of White on Rice Couple.  I've heard Todd and Diane talk about food photography at several blogging conferences, so I knew the workshop held in their fabulous food photography studio outside Los Angeles would be informative, but I never imagined how life-changing it would end up being for me.  Two days of listening to the experts, watching demonstrations, and practicing new shooting methods really got me thinking outside the box on my personal food photography journey.

Plus Todd and Diane had visited my house on the tour for their gorgeous cookbook, so they could help me with one of my biggest photography challenges, which is too many big windows in the rooms where I normally shoot.  When I got home, I bought black foam core boards and clamps the very next day!  A few food bloggers have been asking me about the workshop, so I thought I'd share some highlights  and a few of my photos.    

(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.

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions February 2014.)   For me this was one of those weeks where I was glad when it ended!  First of all I woke up sick on Monday and all week I've been coughing, congested, and feeling low energy.  Maybe that's the reason every new recipe idea I've tried has either been a complete flop or something that I know can be good but needs more work.  I'd say the cooking highlight of the week was re-doing the photos for this Stir Fry with Pork and Veggies that I first made back in 2007, and even though I was sick it tasted good too.  I used pork, but you could also make it with chicken, tofu, or just stir-fry the veggies.

I made this Chicken, Black Bean, Avocado, and Radish Salad with Lime and Cilantro several times to get the flavors just right, and when I was making the final version (with the addition of radishes for color and a little crunch) my brother Mark, his wife Lisa, and their daughter-in-law Lindy dropped by just as I was starting the recipe.  I convinced them to hang around while I made the salad and took photos, which might be the best excuse ever for a rather messy-looking bowl of salad that could have been styled a bit more carefully!  Being close enough for family members to drop in is just one of the things I absolutely love about the new house.  And by the way, I fed my visitors this salad, as well as leftovers from a casserole that hasn't made it to the blog yet, and both dishes were definitely a hit!

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.)

(Updated with better photos, plus instructions for using either dried or canned beans, February 2014.)  If you're someone who might be inclined to turn up your nose at the mention of lima beans, stay with me for a minute here.   I first made this soup with Florida Butter Beans, (a type of heirloom baby lima bean, also known as Calico Pole Beans) that I bought in San Francisco from Rancho Gordo Beans.  The Florida Butter Beans are creamy and delicious, and if you can find those (or something similar) I highly recommend making this soup starting with dried beans that you've soaked overnight.  But when I decided this recipe *must* have an updated photo, I decided to try it with canned butter beans from the supermarket, and I was happily surprised at how good it was that way too.  If you still can't wrap your mind around the idea of butter beans or lima beans, try the soup with a different type of white bean!

(Today's pick for the month of  Daily Phase One Recipes (as well as Phase One Fridays) is this favorite Split Pea Soup with Ham, Bay Leaves, Epazote, and Red Bell Pepper that's one of the soups I've been thinking about trying in the new electric pressure cooker I got for Christmas.  You can see all the 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.)

I've been a long-time fan of split pea soup, but I always made it with carrots until I tried this experiment of replacing the carrots with sweet red bell peppers, for a split pea soup that's not only delicious and colorful but also a Phase One recipe for the South Beach Diet.  Score!  I used a fairly generous amount of ham and red bell peppers in proportion to the split peas, so you can have this for Phase One, even though split peas and lentils are a limited food.  Of course if you're just craving split pea soup and don't care about Phase One, go ahead and make it with carrots if you prefer.

An amazingly-delicious salad that's a real treat for Phase One!

(For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.   This salad is a recipe where I subbed sugar snap peas for carrots to make it Phase One, and it's something I could eat over and over.  If you're not a cilantro fan, I'd just use more green onion.)

I'm always a fan of cruciferous vegetables, so when I saw a recipe in Cooking New American with red cabbage, chicken, and cilantro, of course I wanted to try it. I love the flavor and crunch of red cabbage, and when I'm making a lettuce salad for lunch, it's one of the first things I'll add. In this salad red cabbage was the main ingredient, and I realized too late it would have been nice to use my beloved mandoline to get the cabbage a bit thinner, but even with slightly thicker cabbage, you can tell I loved this flavor combination:

(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.

You can't go wrong with any of my leftover turkey ideas, but this delicious salad with leftover turkey (or chicken) is an especially good option for anyone who wants to get right back on the healthy eating plan after the big day of indulgence.  This Phase One salad features leftover chunks of turkey with a dressing that's partly made with non-fat Greek yogurt and seasoned with Indian spices.  The finishing touch is chopped cilantro, but if you're not a cilantro fan I would just use more green onion.