Stuffed Peppers with Cabbage:ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday.More South Beach Success Stories.

It's so nice that Sweetnicks started ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays so we can all focus on eating our veggies and anti-oxidant rich foods. Every week I'm having fun thinking of something to make for this event. This week my local store had red peppers on sale for $1.00 each, and I hadn't had stuffed peppers for a while, so I decided to experiment. I did a couple of things that were new for me. First, I (gasp) did not pre-cook the peppers. That meant they were cooked by roasting, which I thought gave a great flavor and kept them a bit more tender-crisp than normal stuffed peppers. Second, I put a good bit of finely diced cabbage in the stuffing to notch up the nutrition a bit, since cabbage is one of The World's Healthiest Foods, at least according to the list by the George Mateljan Foundation. I added brown rice and cremini mushrooms to the stuffing for even more nutrition. The long baking time to get the peppers roasted caused the Italian Sausage flavor to go all through the stuffing. These were quite simply the best stuffed peppers I've ever made.

I had a phase one recipe for stuffed peppers, but now that I am eating more complex carbs, I wanted to adapt the recipe a little. I read a few recipes from Foodieview and Epicurious to get ideas for a new recipe, but ultimately I created this recipe as I went, my favorite way to cook.

Stuffed Peppers with Cabbage
(4 servings, or 8 servings as part of a bigger meal)
4 large red bell peppers
2 links hot Italian Sausage (turkey sausage is lower in fat and just as tasty)
1/2 pound ground chuck
1/2 onion, diced small
1-2 T olive oil
1 T minced garlic
8 oz. diced cremini or portabella mushrooms (if you must use regular white mushrooms, be sure to cook off all the liquid)
2 cups very finely chopped cabbage
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup coarsely grated parmesan, plus 4 T for topping peppers
salt, pepper

Saute Italian Sausage and ground chuck in large frying pan until well browned, breaking into small pieces with turner as it cooks. Remove meat, pour out fat, and wipe out pan. Add 1 T olive oil, heat 1 minute, then add onion and saute 3 minutes. Add minced garlic and saute 2 minutes. Add mushrooms, basil, and oregano, and saute 3 minutes. When mushrooms are soft, add cabbage and more olive oil if needed, and saute until soft, about 3 minutes more. Add meat back into pan and heat through. Turn off heat and mix in brown rice and parmesan cheese. Season mixture with salt and pepper.

Turn on oven and heat to 350 F. Find a glass dish just large enough to hold the peppers so they will stand upright. Cut off stem end of each pepper and remove seeds. (Save the stem end pieces for another use.) If the other end is not reasonably flat, cut off a thin layer to make a flat bottom on each pepper. (Usually some need this and some don't.) Fill each pepper with stuffing, packing it in tightly with a spoon. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes to one hour, until peppers are fairly soft. When peppers seem nearly done, put about one tablespoon coarsely grated parmesan on the top of each pepper, and bake uncovered 10-15 minutes more, until cheese is browned.

(Note: I baked my peppers for one hour at 350 F before I added the cheese, but it was in a toaster oven, which I sometimes think takes longer to cook things through. You want the peppers to still be a tiny bit crisp for best flavor, so adjust the time accordingly.)

This is a perfect South Beach Diet dish for phase 2 or 3, especially if you use brown rice and be careful to use turkey Italian Sausage and a low fat ground chuck. To make a great meal, all you need to add is something like Cucumbers Caesar and maybe some Slow Roasted Asparagus.

More South Beach Success Stories

Since so many people start diets in January, this month I have been asking readers to tell me about their success on the South Beach Diet so I could share it for those who are just starting to eat the lower carb way. January ends today, but here's one last story I got from a reader who uses the online identity Sheeijan:

Over a year ago I started the South Beach Diet. I don't know how many pounds I lost in all because I refused to weigh myself initially (I was too scared of what the scale would say). But I can say that I went from a size 12 to a size 2. I'm only 5 feet 2 inches, so I don't fit into the "10 pounds = 1 size" theory. My guesstimate is that I've lost about 30 pounds in all. When I started the diet my goal was a size 6, something I had not seen since college, which was over 10 years ago. But it was so easy to just keep going after I hit my initial goal, until now I'm looking the best I've ever looked, and I feel the healthiest ever in my life.

Interestingly enough, I initially started with the Atkins Diet, but after about a week I switched (to South Beach) and never looked back. I've managed to keep the weight off (which can sometimes be the hardest part), and I owe it all to the SBD lifestyle and websites like yours. I only became acquainted with your website in particular a couple of months ago, but I already love your recipes and they help keep me interested in cooking low carb, healthy things instead of taking the easy way out with fastfood or high calorie takeout. So, thank you Kalyn! Your hard work and efforts are truly appreciated.

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Weekend Herb Blogging #17 Recap:More New Herb Bloggers

Once again it's the weekend and time to Recap herb bloggers posting about herbs, plants, veggies and flowers. A few minutes ago I suddenly had a sign from the universe: after nearly two hours spent typing, the entire recap suddenly disappeared from my computer, never to be seen again. "Shorter!", the universe said to me. "Shorter is better." So this may be the first of shorter recaps every week. Seems like an idea whose time has come.

Toronto, Canada Last week I declared that herb blogging is not just for the weekend as long as you send the link by Sunday, and Ruth from Once Upon a Feast took me up on it. On Thursday she posted about a wonderful Mediterranean Omelet with dill and fennel as well as a delicious sounding ginger and black mushroom soup.

Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy At the beautiful Italian blog Lucullian Delights, Ilva was making Salad with Fish, Rucola, Pine Nuts and Herb Vinaigrette. Arugula is one of my favorite tastes, and this salad looks divine.

Bangalore, Karnataka, India Lera from Myriad Tastes has been a long time reader of WHB, but Rice Dish Flavoured with Dill Leaves is her first WHB entry, and it looks delicious. Besides the dill, Lera uses masala powder, coconut and cashews to make this rice really special.

Singapore From the great blog Mana Makan - The Feast Crusade, Stephanie is celebrating the Chinese New Year with an interesting soup called Hou Xi Fatt Choy. Metaphorically the soup's name means "To Wish That Everything Will Prosper" and Stephanie shows us amazing photos of ingredients like black sea moss and Tientsin cabbage.

Melbourne, Australia It's a Weekend Zucchini Emergency at the home of master photographer Ed Charles from the blog Tomato. Ed has three zucchini plants which are going wild producing zucchini and he's running out of recipes!

New York City, New York, U.S.A. Another great photo shows up on the blog of Paz from The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz, this time of carrots. Paz' cousin used the carrots combined with chicken, red and green peppers, black olives, tomatoes, onion, and garlic to make a tasty stew called Calderada de Galinha.

Cambridge, England, U.K. From the well-written blog Gastronomy Domine, Squeezeweasel has been exploring Angelesey Abbey Gardens where she found plants that flower all winter such as witchhazel and viburnum. She also reports about making beer using the sap of the beautiful silver birch trees.

Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. Another new herb blogger was Felicia from The Web Sorceress Cooks, who brings us two great recipes using ginger. To see her great photos of Chile Chicken with Cashews and Scallion Ginger Rice, be sure to click on the links.

Jersey, Channel Islands, U.K. From the beautifully designed blog Rice and Noodles, Mae brings us holy basil and an amazing photo of Pork Holy Basil. Although it's from Thailand, holy basil (also called bai gkaprow, sacred basil or hot basil) is different from what is commonly called Thai basil.

Texas, U.S.A. From Heather's Space, Heather is thinking about a garden space for next year so she can grow more things like the beautiful red rose she shows off this week. Heather reports that egg shell water on blooming plants will produce more blooms, an idea I hadn't heard before.

New York City, New York, U.S.A. We're glad to have the Chocolate Lady from the fascinating blog In Mol Araan join us again this week. She spotlights Cilantro, used in Avocados with Cilantro, a wonderful sounding dish not to be confused with guacamole.

Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. On my own blog this weekend, I wrote about how to cook fresh artichokes and Mom's Artichoke Dipping Sauce, a great memory for me from childhood. I also included a little artichoke research for those who are interested, but forgot to mention that artichokes are an Anti-Oxidant Rich Food!

The weekend is nearly over, but you still have time to visit Sweetnicks to check out Weekend Dog Blogging and Eat Stuff to check out Weekend Cat Blogging. Also, don't forget to visit Weekend Cookbook Challenge after February 3 to see the great things people have whipped up from neglected cookbooks.

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Weekend Herb Blogging #17: Artichokes.Fresh Artichokes with Mom's Dipping Sauce

I grew up in a family where most of us considered fresh artichokes to be a delicacy, thanks to a wonderful mom who cooked them, even though we had a family of ten kids to feed. It wasn't until I was well on the way to adulthood that I realized that some people didn't eat artichokes, and had no idea how to cook them. The artichoke is interesting in that when you eat them fresh, you have more left than you started with, or so it seems! Only the stem, heart (base where the leaves grow), and the very inner tips of the leaves are edible, but those parts are delicious. Online I was able to find an abundance of artichoke information, including the fact that Marilyn Monroe was once crowned artichoke queen. In the U.S. lots of artichokes come from California. A good source of vitamin C, folate, dietary fiber and minerals, artichokes are quite nutritious. Of course all vegetables are best fresh, but canned artichokes can be very good in things like breakfast casserole or frittata. Today artichokes are still one of my very favorite foods, and very low in carbs too!

I always choose artichokes with the longest stem I can find, since the stems are tasty. I cut off the stem and cut the artichoke in half. The very center contains fuzz and inedible parts called the "choke".

Here the choke has been trimmed away carefully with a sharp knife. This is the only part of the cooking process that is at all difficult.

When artichokes are trimmed, put in large pot with a heavy lid (single layer is best, but not totally necessary). Put a few inches of water in the bottom of the pot and bring to a boil. Then cover artichokes and steam for 45 minutes, or until the stem piece can be pierced quite easily with a fork. Let artichokes cool slightly while you make Mom's dipping sauce.

Mom's Dipping Sauce for Artichokes
(enough for 2-3 artichokes)
1/2 cup mayo (do not use light or fat free)
1/2 cup sour cream or light sour cream (do not use fat free)
1 1/2 - 2 T fresh lemon juice

Mix together and serve with artichokes. You need more sauce than you might imagine because there are a lot of little pieces of the artichoke to dip. Artichokes are also good cold with this sauce. Hot artichokes are also delicious served with melted butter.

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Weekend Cookbook Challenge:Corned Beef with Veggies and Horseradish.I'll Be Herb Blogging Tomorrow.

(Here is a new version of this recipe with a much better photo, updated on St. Patrick's Day, 2007.)

There are so many food blogging events, no one can possibly participate in all of them. But when Alicat from Something So Clever and Sara from I Like to Cook announced Weekend Cookbook Challenge last month, I committed to myself that I would do this event every time. Possibly it was cookbook buying guilt that made me commit; I have so many cookbooks and I use so few of them. And when I do use them, I'm likely to change the recipe quite a bit.

This challenge the theme is Winter Comfort Food, and the first thing I thought of was soup. But I have been showing so many soups on the blog recently, and soup is one dish where I'm least likely to use a recipe. After some thought I settled on Corned Beef and Veggies, one of my very favorite foods.

Corned Beef is a dish eaten in the U.S. on St. Patrick's Day, although it may be less popular in Ireland, according to some sources. The Corned Beef sold in the U.S. is pickled in brine and then cooked by boiling. Usually less tender cuts of beef such as the brisket are prepared this way.

According to Wikipedia on corned beef, one of the most common dishes made from corned in the U.S. or Canada is the Reuben Sandwich. I love corned beef, but the South Beach Diet advises avoiding the brisket (due to the fat content) and also doesn't recommend eating lots of foods with nitrates or high salt content. For this reason, Corned Beef would be something I eat only one or two times each winter, when I need some comfort! I do trim the fat very religiously, and look for the leanest one I can find when I buy it. I also avoid the potatoes that would be traditionally served with this, but I still feel very comforted when I eat my corned beef with cabbage, carrots, and horseradish sauce

In the U.S., most beef labeled "corned beef" comes with a spice packet. But for this challenge I decided to seek out a recipe. I used one of my rarely-used cookbooks, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Bittman gives directions for stove-top cooking, but I used a Crock Pot slow cooker.

Corned Beef with Veggies and Horseradish Sauce
1 corned beef, 3-5 pounds (flat cut preferred)
1 bay leaf
1 head garlic
3 whole cloves
10 peppercorns
5 allspice berries or small pinch ground allspice
1 whole onion

Veggies:
1 head cabbage, cut in 4 pieces
1-2 cups carrots, cut up if large
(You could add onions if you wish)

Horseradish sauce:
3/4 cup mayo, lite mayo, or sour cream (or use a combination)
2-3 T cream style horseradish

Trim all visible fat from corned beef and place in bottom of crock pot. Pour in enough water to cover, add spices and cook on low for about 6-7 hours. When you can pierce corned beef fairly easily with a fork, pour out most of the liquid, remove onion, and add cabbage and carrots. Cook on high about 1 hour, or until veggies are tender. (If you're in the kitchen you might want to put the carrots in for a while, then add the cabbage.) You can remove the meat for part of the cooking time if you feel it is getting too done.

Optional - To make a flavorful "au jus" type sauce to serve with the meat: While veggies are cooking, skim cooking liquid and simmer to reduce by half or more. (I taste it to decide how concentrated to make it. It can get too salty if you simmer too long.) If you are needing extra comfort, you can wisk a tablespoon or so of butter into the au jus when it has been reduced to the desired consistency. I find I don't need that any more, but it does give a good flavor.

Horseradish sauce: Combine mayo, sour cream, or a mixture with horseradish and wisk together. I would advise starting with a smaller amount of horseradish and tasting, then adding more until you get the amount you prefer. (You can replace some of the mayo or sour cream with milk if you want a thinner sauce.)

When veggies are done to your liking, cut corned beef across the grain and serve with vegetables and sauce. I would serve this with a simple light salad so as to not further antagonize the South Beach Diet police.

Weekend Herb Blogging #17

Weekend Herb Blogging is not just about herbs, it's about learning more about plants from all over the world. I'll be posting my own herb blogging post tomorrow. If you're a blogger and would like to participate, check out the Weekend Herb Blogging Archives to see some of the interesting things from past weeks. Please send the link to me by e-mail (kalynskitchen AT comcast DOT net) since links left in the comments tend to bump the sidebar down. I need it by midafternoon on Sunday, Utah time, to be able to publish the recap by Sunday evening. You can use the WHB logo if you want, but it's completely optional. If plants of herbs are just not your thing, check out Weekend Dog Blogging at Sweetnicks or Weekend Cat Blogging at Eat Stuff.

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I Hope You're Not Sick of Me Yet:Seven Things Meme.Weekend Herb Blogging #17.

First, a friendly reminder about Weekend Herb Blogging, the blogging event that happens every weekend on Kalyn's Kitchen. WHB is about bloggers all over the world helping each other learn about new herbs, plants, veggies, or even flowers or trees. If you're a blogger who is interested in participating, please check out the Weekend Herb Blogging Archives for more details. If you're participating, please send the links to my e-mail (kalynskitchen AT comcast DOT net) because links left in the comments have been bumping my sidebar down in Internet Explorer.

Now, time to meme. I'm not quite sure how I got to be so popular with the memes recently, but Stephanie at Mana Makan - The Feast Crusade, Anthony at Anthony's Bachelor Kitchen, and Kimbie at Chocolate Chip Kimbie have all tagged me for this meme. It seems like I've done a lot of memes lately, and I hope people are not too sick of hearing about me!

Seven Things To Do Before I Die:
1. Learn a lot more about photography.
2. Learn to speak a foreign language.
3. Visit India.
4. Visit Thailand.
5. Visit South America.
6. Visit Scandinavia.
7. Visit lots and lots of other places.

Seven Things I Cannot Do:
1. Vote for conservatives.
2. Engage in small talk for more than few minutes.
3. Sleep in past 7:00 A.M.
4. Keep my opinion to myself.
5. Save money.
6. Follow a recipe exactly.
7. Stop buying cookbooks.

Seven Things That Attract Me To Blogging:
1. Fulfills my desire to share recipes with other cooks.
2. Good excuse to buy cookbooks.
3. I like seeing my name in print.
4. Very, very fun meeting people around the world.
5. Enjoy the creative challenge of coming up with things to cook.
6. Love taking photos of food, although I am not that good at it.
7. Love being part of a community of people who love food.

Seven Things I Say Most Often:
(To put it in context, these are things I say to my students.)
1. "I changed my mind."
2. "That's a good problem to have."
3. "Quit reading so much!" (a joke - said to kids who read incessantly.)
4. "Clean your desks off."
5. "Ka-ching!" (When they get 100%)
6. "Money, honey!" (When they earn class money.)
7. "You just got a fine." (When they break the rules.)

Seven Books I Love
1. The Weight of Water
2. The Time Traveler's Wife
3. The Handmaid's Tale
4. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Sophie's Choice
6. The Hours
7. House of Sand and Fog

Seven Movies/DVDs That I Watch Over And Over Again:
1. I
2. Never
3. Watch
4. Movies
5. More
6. Than
7. Once (well, almost never.)

Seven People I Want To Join In Too:

I hope that Stephanie, Anthony, and Kimbie won't be offended if I don't tag people. I've taken so ridiculously long to do this, that I've completely lost track of who has already done it. How about if we say, anyone who wants to do it, consider yourself tagged. If anyone chooses to tag themself, leave me a comment and I'll add in a link for you so people can find it.

Weekend Herb Blogging

Sugar High (NOT) Friday #15:Low Carb Cheesecake Two Ways.

When Sam of Becks and Posh announced that for the dieting month of January, Sugar High Friday would be designated as Sugar High (NOT) Friday, I was a bit intrigued. Since I don't really eat sugar, except for a small nibble of chocolate now and then, Sugar High Friday was a blog event I was never going to be able to enter. But Sugar (Not) High Friday was right up my alley. At least it could have been, except for the fact that I'm not especially into desserts. Not that I don't like them, but I just like other food much more. This lack of interest in sugary treats may be partly why it was fairly easy for me adapt to a lower carb way of eating for the last 18 months, losing 42 pounds in the process, and getting my cholesterol level down to where I no longer need medication. Through my experience with the South Beach Diet, I came to re-think everything I had ever known about nutrition.

In my new paradigm of eating, sugar, white flour, and potatoes are bad, complex carbohydrates are good, and fat is much less harmful than I once thought. Still, even without sugar, either of these cheesecakes are something that I would make only for a very special occasion, maybe once or twice a year. That's especially true of the Atkins No-Bake cheesecake recipe, since, unlike Atkins, the South Beach Diet does advise restricting saturated fat. I know that some people consider Splenda harmful, but I use it in small amounts, and since I don't eat sweet foods a lot, I'm not worried about it. When you check Google, you can find information on the testing of Splenda and how natural sugar is used to create Splenda. There has also been quite a bit of evidence that buzz about the danger of Splenda came from the sugar industry. You can also find as much as you would care to read about the dangers of Splenda. Using it or not is something everyone should make up their own mind about. I'm not selling it or trying to promote it, but using it in small amounts helps me avoid sugar, a product I consider to be much more harmful.

All that said, both of these cheesecakes are quite delicious. I used "No Sugar Added" cherry pie filling for the topping, probably not officially approved by either The South Beach Diet or Atkins, but it only had 6 carbs in 1/4 cup, more than enough to give a yummy cherry topping to a piece of cheesecake. I don't count carbs so I'm not attempting to figure out the exact carb counts for these cheesecakes, but both are pretty low.

This recipe was adapted slightly from Dr. Atkins Quick and Easy New Diet Cookbook. I was given the recipe by a great teacher from my school who had tried Atkins once and reported this was something she enjoyed as a low carb treat.

Low Carb No Bake Cherry Cheesecake
(6 - 8 servings)
12 ounces cream cheese, allow to soften at room temperature at least 1 hour
2 packets different sugar substitutes (recommended 1 Splenda and 1 Equal for best flavor.)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup Wilderness No Sugar Added cherry pie filling. (You will not use the whole can. Freeze the rest for another time.)

Beat heavy cream in a bowl until it forms soft peaks. In a different bowl, using electric beater, combine softened cream cheese, sugar substitute, and vanilla. Beat whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, using low speed of electric mixer. Transfer mixture to 6-8 individual small ramekins or glass dishes and chill at least one hour. This will keep in the refrigerator for several days.

To serve: Top with 2 T No Sugar Added cherry pie filling.

Note: The Atkins book claims that when different types of artificial sweeteners are used they "have a synergistic effect, therefore, less is needed." I don't know about that claim, but 2 packets was plenty of sweetener in this for me.

This recipe was adapted from Carlean Johnson's Six Ingredients or Less Low Carb Cooking, a book I have used a few times. For this recipe I cut the Splenda in half and omitted a sour cream topping which had even more Splenda.

Fantastic Cheesecake with Cherry Topping
(12 servings)
3 T low sugar graham crackers (optional, I'm not sure I would bother with them next time)
3 8 oz. packages cream cheese (softened at room temperature 1 hour)
4 large eggs
3/4 cup low fat sour cream (do not use fat free)
1/2 cup Splenda
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 can (20 oz.) Wilderness No Sugar Added Pie Filling

Preheat oven to 350. Crush graham crackers to get 3 T fine crumbs. Spray 9 X 12" glass casserole dish with nonstick spray, then coat with graham cracker crumbs if using. Discard loose crumbs. In bowl, use electric beater to blend cream cheese at low speed until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time and mix well. Add sour cream, Splenda and lemon juice and mix until smooth. Pour into pan and bake 35-40 minutes until just barely firm. Don't overbake. Chill several hours before using. Serve with 2-3 T cherry pie filling on top.

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Second Helpings:Lentil, Rice, and Sausage Soup.More Phase One Success Stories.

This is a post for my new feature "Second Helpings" in which I show how you can make a second dish from a recipe I have previously featured on Kalyn's Kitchen. Above is the Lentils, Rice, and Sausage dish which I turned into the delicious soup below. I featured the recipe for Lentil, Rice, and Sausage Casserole as part of a Weekend Herb Blogging post on lentils. It was tasty, and I froze the leftovers. Recently I wanted something more warming, since it was kind of a dreary day in Salt Lake City. I was going out shopping, so I used my Crock Pot to turn the casserole into a delicious soup, which I ate topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese for a great dinner when I returned home. Lentils and the Uncle Ben's Converted Rice in this recipe are both considered "good" carbs for phase two or three of The South Beach Diet.

Second Helpings:
LENTIL, RICE, AND SAUSAGE SOUP
(4-5 generous servings)

2-3 cups leftover lentil, rice and sausage casserole (see link above for that recipe)
4 cups chicken stock (or 4 cups water with 2 T chicken soup base)
1 can diced tomatoes with juice (I recommend Muir Glen canned tomatoes if you can find them)
1 T dried basil
1 tsp. ground fennel (optional)
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 bay leaves

Put all ingredients in crock pot and heat on low setting 4-6 hours or on high setting 2-3 hours. This could also be cooked on a low simmer on top of the stove for about one hour. Do not overcook or the rice will get mushy. Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese if desired.

If you like the idea of learning how to make something from leftovers, another blog that does this is Recipes from a Gluten Free Goddess, where Karina does leftover gluten free leftover transformations.

More Phase One Success Stories
I've been asking people to let me know if they have had success with the South Beach Diet, and yesterday I got this comment from Rene:

On my second week of Phase 1, mainly because I started reading this "food" blog a while ago :-) and figured what the heck, maybe this South Beach thing will work. I've lost about 8 pounds, my boyfriend has lost around 10. I can't tell you how much your blog has helped, with yummy recipes, fun reading and cool products (I started using Dreamfields pasta last year even before the diet because of reading your blog). We've been eating your version of the breakfast muffins (thanks for the two wrapper suggestion) from day one.
THANK YOU THANK YOU!

The South Beach Diet has been so life-changing for me personally that it's wonderful to hear from others who have had a similar experience. Rene, you are so welcome! Although I consider Kalyn's Kitchen mainly a food blog, not a diet blog, I love knowing I have helped someone else find a healthy way of eating that helps them lose weight.

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Breakfast Casserole Many Ways and Your Phase One Success Stories.

I stared the South Beach Diet in the summer of 2004, when school was out and I was home every day. One of the first things I started making regularly was breakfast casseroles, a combination of meat, cheese, veggies, and eggs, baked in the oven and then reheated in the microwave for breakfast. You can see a lot of yummy breakfast casserole combinations in Kalyn's Kitchen Recipe Archives for Eggs and Breakfast Dishes, but none of them have a photo. Since I seem to have quite a few new readers who are just starting some kind of lower carb eating plan, I thought you might like to see how good this looks. I'm giving you the recipe for the combination I made most recently, but the variations to this recipe are endless.

The dish used in this food photo was a gift from my sister Pam which is ironic, since she's the one person in our family who absolutely can't stand eggs. Even as a tiny girl, she would wrinkle up her nose and spit them out. She never has started liking them to this day.

Breakfast Casserole Many Ways
18 eggs
2 T milk or half and half
1 T (or less) Spike Seasoning
salt, pepper to taste
1/4 cup sliced green onion
1 1/2 cups ham, diced in small pieces (or use other breakfast meat of your choice, for low carb, do not use honey ham)
1 1/2 cups grated cheese (I like low fat sharp cheddar)
8 oz. low fat cottage cheese, rinsed so whole curds remain (optional, but this is very good in it)
8 oz. sauteed mushrooms (or other parboiled veggies of your choice)

Preheat oven to 375. Spray 10 X 14 glass casserole dish with nonstick spray. In bottom of casserole dish layer meat, veggies, cottage cheese, green onions and cheese. Beat eggs with cream, Spike Seasoning, salt, and pepper until whites and yolks are well combined. Pour eggs over meat/cheese mixture, then stir gently with a fork so that all the ingredients are evenly distributed in the eggs. Bake 45 minutes, or until eggs are firmly set and top is lightly browned.

This freezes very well. To reheat, microwave about 3 minutes. It is good with sour cream and salsa on top.

Your Phase One Success Stories

Although I consider Kalyn's Kitchen to be mainly a food blog, not a diet blog, I know that at this time of year I have a lot of readers who are just starting some kind of lower carb eating plan. I talked earlier about how on the South Beach Diet I consider phase one to be so important because losing weight quickly is so motivating, and I asked people to e-mail me if they wanted to share their success with phase one. I heard from "M", a reader who wants to remain anonymous, but who shared that she has lost 16 pounds in three weeks and is doing fine sticking with the diet. She also sent me a recipe for low carb cookies which I will be testing and sharing soon. My brother (and blog icon designer) Rand also reported that he and Bradley have each lost about 15 pounds in 16 days. (For the record, Rand and Bradley don't want to lose more than 20 pounds total, so they are close to their goal in only a few weeks.) Woo Hoo. Very exciting.

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Arugula and Sweet Mini Pepper Salad:ARF/5-A Day Tuesday

I really love it that Sweetnicks is inspiring us all to cook more healthy foods with her Anti-oxidant Rich Foods/5-A-Day Tuesday event. It's great to have an incentive to make you think about cooking something a bit healthier. This recipe is so simple it's almost an oxymoron to call it a recipe. I first made it just to eat, without really a thought that it was something to share on the blog. But it was so delicious, with the sharp flavor of the arugula providing the perfect balance for the sweet taste of the mini peppers, that I made it again, took a photo and made sure I kept track of the recipe. Since I buy these sweet peppers in a rather large sized package at Costco, it's good to have multiple uses for them. This is something I'll be making often.

The combination of arugula and pepper is just something that I thought of, but the dressing recipe for this is Mary's Perfect Salad Dressing, which I have written about numerous times on my blog. It was perfected by my gorgeous friend Mary, who went to high school with me *some* years ago.

Arugula and Sweet Pepper Salad

2-3 cups baby arugula (I buy the pre-washed kind, but wash if needed)
6-8 sweet mini peppers - package says "piment doux"
(preferably mixture of red, yellow and orange)
Mary's Perfect Salad Dressing - 1 serving:
1 - 1 1/2 T best quality olive oil, enough to coat greens
(Be sure the olive oil says EXTRA VIRGIN and FIRST COLD PRESSED on the label if you want the best flavor.)
Juice of 1/2 lime, about 1-2 tsp.
(or use lemon juice, but the lime is really great)
About 4 drops of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Put washed arugula in a bowl. Trim peppers on both ends, and use a small paring knife to cut out the seeds. (There are not many seeds in these sweet mini peppers.) Cut peppers into rings. Toss arugula with olive oil, the drizzle on lime juice and red wine vinegar, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, and toss again. Arrange pepper rings over arugula and enjoy!

This is a perfect recipe for the South Beach Diet. You could serve this with something like Greek Meatballs, Roast Chicken with Cilantro and Lime, Janet's Mustard Chicken, or Curried Chicken on the Grill with Cilantro chutney. (Those last two recipes are from before I entered the digital camera age.)

Who Knew Low Carb Could Taste So Good?
Don't forget that Simply Recipes is doing low carb foods for the month of January. Elise just posted the low carb recipes that she found on other blogs for week three. Once again, it's a great list, so be sure to check them out.

Food Recipes Cooking Low Carb Recipes
South Beach Diet Recipes Low Glycemic Index Recipes