Are you still longing for another ladle-full of steaming soup? Some piping hot melty pizza fresh from the oven? Anything with pasta and savory tomato sauce?
Yet, we are being reminded that spring is just around the corner!
In Eastern North Carolina, there are daffodil, tulip tree, red bud, and Bradford Pear in bloom, but we are stuck in near freezing temps at night.
If a sunbeam shines, we throw a party!
Hard to crawl out of winter’s hibernation mode; and even harder to shake off those holiday pounds for swimming suit weather.
What to do?
I have a couple new ideas – along with a blast from the past – that could help our dilemma.
Comfort food without a big carb hit. Let’s see what this looks like.
The first recipe – Yogurt Barley and Herb Soup – comes from my dear friends in California, Betty and Jane. Way back when, we attended Sacramento State College, (now California State University at Sacramento).
If ‘barley’ makes you wonder where my gluten-free mind went, fear not. I will give you a gluten-free option – although it’s not quite as chewy.
Short of Egg Drop Soup, I never had a soup that featured a serious egg component. That’s one thing that caught my interest – this soup has staying power. You’ll not be roaming around the kitchen for a snack two hours later!
Yogurt, Barley or Quinoa, and Herb Soup
Ingredients
4 cups water if using barley – OR – 1 cup of water if using quinoa
3 cups water – OR – the equivalent – in salt free chicken broth
¼ cup barley – OR – ½ cup quinoa
4 eggs
2 Tbs. flour – OR – gluten free all-purpose flour
2 cups plain yogurt – NOT Greek yogurt
1 Tbs. onion flakes
1 tsp. garlic salt
½ tsp. thyme
2 cubes bullion – (*) if using water instead of broth
1 ½ tsp. seasoned salt
½ tsp. mint flakes
2 Tbs. butter
2 tsp. parsley
Method
For barley: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add barley. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain and set aside.
For quinoa: Add the quinoa to one cup boiling water. Simmer covered, until all moisture is absorbed – about 20 minutes. Set aside.
In saucepan using a wire whip, blend the eggs with your choice of flour, beating well.
Add yogurt and blend.
Add remaining 3 cups of either water or broth. I recommend the salt-free broth so the salty bouillon cubes can be avoided.
Add remaining ingredients (except barley or quinoa) and whisk together until blended.
Heat almost to a boil, stirring constantly. Do not boil. Reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened – about 2 minutes.
Stir in barley or quinoa and heat another minute.
Serve. The original recipe card says to invite a hungry Russian peasant! This is a hearty soup and is best served fresh and will serve 3-4 with no leftovers.
There’s just something about pizza… yet it often is a source of some really bad ingredients for healthy eating and always presents with a serious carb hit. Even if you switch to gluten-free flour versions, there is a large carbohydrate factor.
I had heard about cauliflower crust recipes, but I just wasn’t motivated to tackle that from scratch. Fortunately, I stumbled upon this Caulipower frozen crust the other day. One third of a crust has just 26 grams of carbohydrate, so if you eat a half like I do, it’s still in an acceptable range.
These crusts are individually wrapped so it’s easy to use just one while keeping the other one protected and frozen. I definitely plan on referring to these again in the future. Let me know what you think.
Pizza sauce is actually good for us! The concentrated tomato concoction imparts lots of antioxidant lycopene – great for heart health and reduced cancer risk – as well as a great source of vitamin C, potassium, folate, and vitamin K.
Look for a brand of pizza sauce low in sugar, no high fructose corn syrup or alphabet soup preservatives. I prefer Classico brand. I’ll use almost ½ of their small jar on one of these pizzas.
Caulipower Pizza
Ingredients
1 Caulipower frozen crust
Lots of pizza sauce
Better meat choices: Cooked ground turkey or grass fed ground beef – maybe a bit of ground Italian sausage
Add some heat and/or flavor to the meat while sautéing the crushed red pepper flakes, anise, and Italian herbs
Sliced olives – a source of good fats and flavor
Knock yourself out for colorful veggies: Red/orange bell peppers, purple onion, and spinach
Grated cheese
Method
You know the drill.
Preheat oven per package instructions.
Unwrap the Caulipower crust and place it along with the cardboard underneath onto a cookie sheet.
Decorate! Sauce. Meat. Goodies. Cheese.
Bake according to package directions.
Enjoy!
Okay. That leaves us with a blast from the past. After sharing this with my California friend, Betty, she has received nothing but raves about this appetizer. It’s so easy to serve at home and to take to a party. With March Madness ramping up, this will become your go-to recipe for – dare I say – healthy snacking!
Zucchini Dipping “Bread/Crust” gets dipped in …you guessed it – Pizza Sauce! We already know how good that is for us. You’ll like this easy recipe I originally saw on Delish but has many iterations on the internet.
I treat this as a concept recipe. Rarely have I used three zucchini. Also zucchini vary in size. Usually it’s one good sized zucchini, one egg, a dash of this and that. Here’s the original recipe.
Zucchini Dipping Bread from Delish
INGREDIENTS
3 medium zucchini, or about 4 cups grated zucchini
2 large eggs
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
3 c. shredded mozzarella, divided
1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 c. cornstarch – I use arrowroot or tapioca flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp. freshly chopped parsley
Marinara, for dipping
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 425º and line a baking sheet with parchment. On a box grater or in a food processor, grate zucchini. Using cheesecloth or a dish towel, wring excess moisture out of zucchini.
- Transfer zucchini to a large bowl with eggs, garlic, oregano, 1 cup mozzarella, Parmesan, and cornstarch and season with salt and pepper. Stir until completely combined.
- Transfer dough to prepared baking sheet and pat into a crust. Bake until golden and dried out – 25 minutes.
- Sprinkle with remaining 2 cups mozzarella, crushed red pepper flakes, and parsley and bake until cheese is melted – 8 to 10 minutes more.
- Slice and serve with marinara.
Whew! Three recipes in one post! I’m trying to make up for lost time.
Don’t forget to use our Blabbermouth Chocolates discount code just for our readers! Some Costa Rican Coffee/Chocolate is melting in my mouth right now! Mmmmmm! The Blabbermouth folks are giving our readers 10% off their first order. See the previous post for details in case you missed it!
In health, soup, pizza sauce, and chocolate-
Deidre