300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes (34 page)

1/8 small red onion, sliced paper-thin

salt and pepper

Put the 2 tablespoons (28 ml) of the olive oil, plus the vinegar, orange extract, mustard, Splenda, onion, and garlic in your blender or food processor and run until smooth and creamy. Put this by the stove.

Drain and measure the artichoke hearts. Snip the livers into two or three chunks each, depending on size, and dust them with salt and pepper. Put your spinach on a plate, slice the onion, and put it on top.

Okay, it's cooking time: Give a medium-sized heavy skillet a shot of nonstick cooking spray and put it over medium heat. Add the last tablespoon (15 ml) of olive oil and slosh it around to coat. When it's hot, throw in the livers and sauté until the surfaces are
seized
and the blood stops running but take care not to overcook. They should still be pink inside. Add the artichoke hearts and dressing and stir until everything's just warm through, scraping up the tasty brown bits from the bottom of the skillet. Pile the livers and artichokes on the spinach and eat.

Yield:
1 to 2 servings, assuming 1, it will have 714 calories, 55 grams fat, 32 grams protein, 24 grams carbohydrate, 9 grams dietary fiber, and 15 grams usable carb.

Ham-Pecan Salad with Apricot Dressing

Always read the labels and buy the lowest-sugar ham you can find—they vary quite a lot in carbohydrate content. This recipe assumes ham with 1 gram per 3 ounce (85 g) serving.

5 ounces (140 g) cooked ham, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

2 tablespoons (20 g) diced red onion

1/4 cup (28 g) chopped pecans

2 tablespoons (28 g) mayonnaise

2 teaspoons low-sugar apricot preserves

1 teaspoon spicy brown or Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon soy sauce

Mix together the ham, celery, onion, and pecans in a mixing bowl. Combine the mayonnaise, preserves, mustard, and soy sauce and pour this over the ham mixture. Mix well and serve. This is really nice on a bed of lettuce.

Yield:
1 serving, with 15 grams of carbohydrates and 4 grams of fiber, for a total of 11 grams of usable carbs and 29 grams of protein.

Buttery Ham-Pineapple-Pea Salad

You know how it is with ham: The whole family loves it until they see the leftovers
again.
Here's a great way to turn leftover ham into a whole new dish. If you don't have any leftover ham, you can buy a chunk of precooked ham at the grocery store.

1/2 head cauliflower

1 small red onion

3/4 cup (124 g) pineapple chunks, fresh or canned in juice

1 cup (130 g) frozen peas

8 ounces (225 g) cooked ham

2 tablespoons (28 g) butter

2 tablespoons (28 g) DaVinci sugar-free pineapple syrup

2 tablespoons (28 ml) rice vinegar or white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon or lime juice

2 tablespoons (22 g) spicy brown or Dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

Run the cauliflower through the shredding blade of your food processor. Put the resulting cauli-rice in a microwaveable casserole with a lid, add a couple of tablespoons (28 ml) of water, cover, and nuke on high for 6 minutes.

While that's happening, swap out the shredding blade for the S-blade. Peel your onion, whack it into chunks, and throw it in. Pulse until it's chopped to a medium consistency. Dump this in a big mixing bowl.

Put the food processor bowl back on the base and throw in the pineapple. Pulse until it's a medium-coarse consistency—you still want recognizable chunks of pineapple; you just want them to distribute through the salad. Dump this in the mixing bowl as well.

Measure the peas and throw them in, too. No need to thaw them—the hot cauliflower will do that, and the peas will help cool the salad.

Cut your ham in small cubes. (Or you could chop it in the food processor, but I like cubes somewhere between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch [6 to 13 mm].) Add them to the bowl.

Somewhere in here the microwave will beep. Haul out your cauli-rice, uncover it, and drain it very well. Add it to the mixing bowl and throw the butter on top of it so it will melt. Toss the whole thing, making sure the butter gets distributed well.

Now mix together the pineapple syrup, vinegar, oil, lemon or lime juice, and mustard. Pour over the salad and toss again. Salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Yield:
4 servings, each with 253 calories, 16 grams fat, 13 grams protein, 16 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams dietary fiber, and 13 grams usable carb.

Italian Roast Beef Salad

What a great meal, all from deli roast beef! Feel free to use leftover steak in this instead, should you happen to have any.

2 quarts (57o g) bagged European or Italian blend greens

1/4 cup (40 g) thinly sliced sweet red onion

1/4 medium green pepper, sliced into small strips

3 tablespoons (45 ml) extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic or 1 clove garlic, crushed

1 1/2 tablespoons (23 ml) balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon spicy brown or Dijon mustard

1/4 cup (30 g) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

4 ounces (115 g) sliced deli roast beef

2 tablespoons (18 g) toasted pine nuts

Place the greens, onion, and green pepper in a large salad bowl. Combine the oil and garlic, pour over the salad, and toss well. Stir together the balsamic vinegar and mustard and set them aside.

Crumble the Gorgonzola (if you didn't buy it precrumbled) and add it to the salad.

Slice the roast beef into strips and throw it in there, too. Pour the balsamic vinegar mixture over the whole thing and toss very well. Pile onto 2 serving plates, top each with a tablespoon (9 g) of pine nuts, and serve.

Yield:
2 servings, each with 19 grams of carbohydrates and 9 grams of fiber, for a total of 10 grams of usable carbs and 27 grams of protein.

You'll also get 1,153 milligrams of potassium and 247 milligrams of calcium, plus almost three times your daily requirements of vitamins C and A, and 100 percent of your daily requirement of folacin.

Hamburger Salad with Sundried Tomato and Chipotle Dressing

Yes, it's a main dish salad with a whole hamburger plunked on top. And a fine thing it is, too.

3 slices bacon

12 ounces (340 g) ground chuck

1/2 cup (115 g) mayonnaise

5 sun-dried tomato halves

1 chipotle chile canned in adobo

1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon (15 ml) cider vinegar

2 tablespoons (28 ml) olive oil

1 bag (10 ounces, or 280 g) Italian blend lettuce

3 cups (60 g) arugula

1/4 red onion

Start preheating your electric tabletop grill.

Lay your bacon on a microwave bacon rack or in a Pyrex pie plate and nuke on high for 4 to 6 minutes or until crisp.

Make three hamburger patties and set them by the grill, ready to go.

Put the mayonnaise in your food processor with the S-blade in place. Snip your tomato halves into your food processor (you can chop them instead, but I find snipping them with my kitchen shears quicker and easier.) Add the chipotle and a teaspoon of the adobo sauce, the garlic, the vinegar, and the olive oil. Turn on the processor!

By now your grill is hot. Throw in the hamburgers and set a timer for 4 to 5 minutes.

Go turn off the food processor; you should have dressing.

Okay, we're getting to the finish line: Dump the lettuce and arugula into a big salad bowl. Pour on most of the dressing, reserving a few spoonfuls to top the burgers.

Toss and toss and toss until everything is coated. Pile the salad on three plates.

Slice your onion quarter paper thin and distribute it between the three plates. Crumble a slice of bacon over each salad. When the burgers are done, put one on each salad, top with the reserved dressing, and serve.

Yield:
3 servings, each with 720 calories, 67 grams fat, 25 grams protein, 9 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams dietary fiber, and 6 grams total carb.