Eating Healthy From Scratch Is Not HARD

Moo Goo Gai Pan

2026-03-15T14:23:02.746-07:00

The Moo Goo Gai Pan is a really whatever-goes kind of recipe… whatever vegetables you want, however much chicken you want… it’s the sauce that makes the stir fry, here. So I’ll tell you what I used, and make other suggestions you can use or not, as you like.

MOO GOO GAI PAN

Ingredients

I used:

Four pounds of broccoli florets,

Two 8oz cans of sliced water chestnuts (drained),

And about a pound and a half of chicken breasts, cut into stir-fry size bites.

Other common vegetables to go in this recipe include:

Carrots (sliced into rounds or coins)

Snap peas

Mushrooms

Green onions for garnish

For the sauce: (You can half this if you need to)

1C hot water

2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger (I used the Dorot frozen crushed ginger cubes, 2 of them)

1T cornstarch

2 or 3T of soy sauce (I used 2 but wish I had used more!)

Whisk your sauce together in a small bowl or 4 cup measure. Sauté your veggies in groups in your wok until everything is tender crisp, removing as they get done to do the next vegetable. Sauté your chicken until just done.

Re-whisk your sauce and add to the wok, lowering the heat and stirring until the sauce thickens. (If it becomes too thick, add a few tablespoons of water at a time to thin it out. Mine did!) The result you are looking for is a flavorful glaze for the stir fry, not much of a ‘sauce’ really.

Return veggies and chicken to the wok, and toss until everything is coated with the sauce. Add the sliced water chestnuts. Serve over rice if you want (I’m watching the calories so I didn’t want!) and top with green onions.

Brownie Peanut Butter Pie

2026-02-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

I made this sugar free, for the diabetics in our family, and made it in a 9-inch springform pan because that was what I had that seemed to be about the right size. If you don’t want it to be sugar free, use the sugars in my brownie recipe here: Almond Flour Brownies, and use powdered sugar in the peanut butter filling. I use Sucralose for my sugar free substitute, and used it in both the brownie crust and the peanut butter filling.

BROWNIE PEANUT BUTTER PIE

Brownie Ingredients

3/4C unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s is GF)

3/4C almond flour (I use Blue Diamond)

Roughly 1/4C cornstarch (it might have been closer to 1/3C, it kind of ‘poofed’ on me)

3/4C Sucralose

1t baking powder

A shake or two of sea salt

3 eggs (…did I use 4 eggs? Now I can’t remember. I’ll try and come back and edit.)

1/4C canola oil (or some kind of light vegetable oil)

1t vanilla extract

Peanut Butter Filling

1C Creamy Peanut Butter - find something without added sugars, I used Smuckers Natural Creamy Peanut Butter

1 package (8oz) Neufchatel or regular cream cheese, softened

3/4C Sucralose (use a full cup if you want it sweeter)

1 package (8oz) Zero Sugar Cool Whip, thawed in the fridge overnight

For the Brownie Crust:

Preheat your oven to 350.

As usual, I forgot that step.

Measure all your dry brownie ingredients (cocoa powder, almond flour, cornstarch, Sucralose, baking powder, salt) into a bowl, and mix well.

Crack your eggs into a large mixing bowl, and beat them with a fork. Add the other wet ingredients, the canola oil and vanilla, and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients (I did this in two batches) and stir until blended.

Pan spray your 9-inch springform pan or a deep dish pie pan.

Pour your brownie mix in and spread it around. I needed to pan-spray my fingers and spread it out.

Bake for six minutes. Remove from oven, and let it cool completely.

For the Peanut Butter Filling:

Beat the peanut butter with the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer, if you have one. Once smooth, add the Sucralose and beat again. (It started to get almost crumbly on me at this point.) Then add the Cool Whip, and beat until just mixed. Keep scraping down the sides!

Pour the filling onto the brownie crust, and smooth out the top with a spatula or knife. I sprinkled more of the cocoa powder on top, just to make it pretty.

Quick Chicken Florentine

2025-10-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

I didn’t get a picture of this one, sadly enough… maybe next time I will remember to get a picture for you!

A great ‘diet’ dish for dinner - extremely quick, low calorie and low carb, and very tasty!

It would be a good way to use up some leftover rotisserie chicken, too… just another thought.

QUICK CHICKEN FLORENTINE

Ingredients

2lbs chicken breast, cleaned and thinly sliced

Pan spray

A bit of salt and pepper

Some shallots, diced fine (stores usually sell these packaged in twos or threes - use whatever you’ve got)

4 large cloves garlic, minced

2/3C white wine or chicken broth

2lbs fresh spinach

2/3 cream or half and half (I used fat free half and half)

4 teaspoons corn starch (1 heaping tablespoon)

Coat a cast iron skillet or other heavy nonstick skillet with pan spray. Season your chicken with salt and pepper, and cook until done, turning frequently to ensure they don’t stick. Transfer to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium. Add your garlic and shallots, and cook until fragrant, probably 30 seconds or so. Add the wine or chicken broth, scraping up any browned bits. Add the spinach in batches, stirring often and adding more as it wilts.

In a measuring cup, mix the cream or the half and half and the cornstarch. Add it to the skillet with the spinach once the spinach is all wilted. Cook until thickened, stirring frequently so it doesn’t stick. Add the chicken back in and serve hot.

*This says it served four, but those would be mighty small servings for a ‘dinner portion,’ in my opinion.

My Homemade No-Guilt French Fries

2025-07-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

See, the thing is, potatoes really are pretty healthy, in and of themselves.

The problem with potatoes is all the junk we DO to them.

So if you want to eat potatoes - cook potatoes!

When I want to indulge in french fries, I make french fries, because otherwise if I'm eating french fries that have been drenched in oil and salt, I only allow myself a few.

They're really not hard, if you can keep your fingers out from under the knife!

Buy a BAG OF POTATOES.

I buy the Yukon gold ones, because they taste like butter, without adding any calories!

Win-Win.

Scrub them, cut out any bad spots, then start chopping them up into your preferred french fry size. I like a fry that's somewhere between the itty-bitty fast food ones and the big steak fries, myself, but you do you! Try to keep the size fairly even if you can. They'll cook better that way.

I toss the fries into a great big bowl as I'm cutting them. That's because when they're all cut, I spray them with OLIVE OIL PAN SPRAY - note that! I do not toss them in oil! - I spray them with pan spray, toss them, give them another coat, toss them, spray them again, until they're all coated.

I use LAWRY'S SEASONED SALT on mine. I do the same thing in that great big bowl, once they're all coated with pan spray, toss the seasoning salt on the top ones, toss them around, salt the top ones, toss them, and so on.

I have wire baskets for my oven, copper wire baskets that came as a set with copper baking sheets, so I bake my fries in my wire baskets so they crisp on the bottom too. A regular metal cookie sheet or baking sheet will do just fine, you might just want to turn them more often so they crisp all over.

I bake them at 400, stirring every 10 or 15 minutes, until they're done.

How long they take depends on how thick you've cut your fries! Just taste-test!

Steak Fettuccine

2025-06-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

This was simply marvelous - fancy dinner time!

I used petite sirloin steaks. Sirloin was what my original recipe called for, and petite sirloins fit better on my little George Foreman grill. I don't have an outside grill here at my condo. Feel free to substitute any kind of steak you like, and cook it however you like!

STEAK FETTUCCINE

Ingredients

1lb fettuccine

12-16oz sirloin steak (or whatever kind of steak you’d like)

Oil, salt and pepper for the steak, if that’s the way you like to cook it

2T butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

2T all purpose flour (if you are GF, do NOT use nut flour here!)

2C milk (or thereabouts, you’re making a roux)

1/2C grated or freshly shredded Parmesan

1 1/2C cherry tomatoes, halved

4C baby spinach

Fresh parsley, for garnish

(It called for a balsamic glaze, but I am NO GOOD at making balsamic glazes, so I skipped that.)

Cook your pasta, according to package instructions.

I am not going to tell you how to cook your steak. I am not the expert steak-cooker in my family! I toss them straight out of the package onto my little George Foreman grill, and take them off when they look done. I let them rest, cut one open to check for done-ness, and go from there. —> Not real great instructions, huh? Just cook your steaks however you like to do it!

Let the steaks rest. You’ll slice them later to go on top of the pasta.

Melt the butter in a large (LARGE) sauce pan. Add the garlic, sauté for a bit. Add the flour, stir around until it’s absorbed into the butter. Start adding your milk a little bit at a time; once it’s thickened, add a bit more milk, and so on until you’ve got a sauce. Add the Parmesan and tomatoes.

While your sauce is cooking, wilt the spinach in the microwave. My recipe said to do that in the saucepan, but let’s face it, there’s no saucepan in the world big enough to really wilt spinach except four leaves at a time. Fresh spinach just takes up too much room!

Get out a great big pasta serving bowl.

Toss your hot pasta with the wilted spinach and the sauce. Top with the parsley and a little bit of extra Parmesan. Add your steak slices. I tossed it a bit more; you can always serve with the steak nicely arranged on top, however you want.

Serving size: 6 to 8

[If I figured calories for this, I didn’t write them down to save them! I’ll make it again and edit for you. It was definitely worth making again!]

Flourless Fudge Cake with Ganache

2025-05-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

For gluten free folks, this cannot be BEAT.

If you’re diabetic, I made it with sucralose, and so the only sugar was what was in the chocolate itself. Also marvelous!

The ganache is so simple I don’t know why I haven’t tried it before! This is going to become a favorite cake topping, I do believe.

This time I used semi-sweet chocolate chips. The next time I make it I’m going to try and find my favorite dark Belgian chocolate chunks - wish me luck on that, they’re not always available! But I think they’d be marvelous in this.

The photo is my aunt’s, she’s the one who got me this recipe! Her cake plate is definitely a prettier presentation than mine, and besides, she got a picture before most of hers was gone, lol.

FLOURLESS FUDGE CAKE WITH GANACHE

Cake Ingredients

Pan spray

One stick butter

1C semisweet or dark chocolate chips

3/4C sugar (or sucralose, if you’re diabetic!)

A grind or two of sea salt

1T espresso powder (Delallo’s is GF)

1t vanilla extract

3 eggs

1/2C cocoa powder (Hershey’s is GF)

Ganache Ingredients

1C semisweet or dark chocolate chips

1/2t vanilla extract

1/2C heavy cream (often sold as heavy whipping cream, or whipping cream)

Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with baking spray. (I’m buying a spring-form pan to make this next time.) Use parchment paper if you want, but I didn’t need to.

Melt the butter and the chocolate chips in the microwave, 15 or 20 seconds at a time. Stir until smooth. Add the sugar, salt, espresso powder, and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Beat your eggs in a small bowl, then add them too. Store until smooth. Add the cocoa powder, and again, stir until smooth.

Pour the batter into the cake pan and spread it out evenly. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. The recipe said 24-26 minutes, but that was too long in my oven.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Then put a wire rack over the top of the pan, and flip it all over to unmold the cake onto the wire rack to finish cooling.

Once the cake is COMPLETELY COOL, you’re ready to mix up the ganache.

In a medium bowl or 2C measure, combine the chocolate chips and vanilla.

In a microwave safe bowl, warm the cream. You want it hot but not bubbling: I did 45 seconds.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and let it sit 2-3 minutes until the chips are mostly melted. Then stir until smooth.

Spoon the ganache over the COMPLETELY COOLED cake, spreading it out to cover the cake and drip over the edges. Let it stand for at least an hour to set the ganache.

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Peanut Sauce

2025-05-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

Where do you use a peanut sauce? Good question!

I first typed it up as a sauce for dipping spring rolls. Also good as a lo mein sauce, or any stir fry - I really like it on the stir fry’s with rice noodles!

PEANUT SAUCE

Ingredients

1/2C smooth peanut butter

1/4C soy sauce (be careful of your soy sauce if you are GF! It’s usually made from wheat. Get something specially marked GF)

1/4C water

1T rice vinegar (not seasoned! Just straight rice vinegar)

1T sugar or maple syrup

1t minced garlic

(Optional) Crushed red pepper

Whisk peanut butter, soy sauce, and water together until smooth. Add other ingredients, and stir until well mixed.

Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce

2025-05-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Spring rolls are a much lighter appetizer than the fried variety, and go together ever so much quicker! I made mine with a peanut sauce, because the chili-garlic sauce I tried to buy ended up way too spicy for me (and everyone else at the bridal shower I took these to). But chili-garlic sauce was one of the options that my recipe gave to eat spring rolls with, so go get yourself a jar of chili-garlic sauce if you like spice!

A quick overview of how spring rolls go together:

1. Cook your noodles and prep your fillings.

2. Soften each wrapper in warm water, then add your fillings.

3. Fold the ends in, and roll each spring roll. Moistening them in warm water makes them sticky, so rolling them and squeezing them together to make them stick is all you need!

4. Prep your sauces.

Where to find spring roll wrappers? That’s a good question! My neighborhood Walmart that delivers groceries to my porch each week is carrying them now. If you have an Oriental Market, they would have them too. [Actually, if you have an Oriental Market within driving distance, you need to go check it out for more than spring roll wrappers, especially if you’re gluten free. They have THE BEST rice out there, and the prices on their rice noodles can’t be BEAT.]

VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS

Ingredients

2oz vermicelli rice noodles (I used the noodles from a package of Thai Kitchen Instant Rice Noodle Soup)

16 rice wrappers

16 large shrimp, cooked and cut in half

Chopped lettuce

Chopped fresh mint leaves

Chopped fresh basil leaves, fresh Thai basil if you can find it

Chopped fresh cilantro, if you’re somebody who doesn’t think it tastes like soap (I am)

Gather all your ingredients. Make sure everything is prepped, chopped, and cut.

Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse WELL in cold water.

Fill a large bowl with warm water. You need a bowl with a flat bottom, large enough for the rice wrappers to fit in. Warm is fine, it doesn’t have to be boiling. Your hands are going in this!

Dip one wrapper in the warm water to soften for a few seconds.

Lay it flat on a cutting board. Place two shrimp halves in a row across the center. Add some cooled noodles, lettuce, and fresh herbs. You want this in a row down the center, leaving enough space on each end to roll it in.

Fold the uncovered ends down toward the middle, then roll tightly. I rolled them basically like a burrito, if that helps anyone. The moist rice wrapper should be sticky enough to stick to itself, so you should be able to have it hold once you roll it up. If it’s not, reach back into the warm water with a finger or two and moisten it a bit more.

Repeat with remaining wrappers.

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

1/2C smooth peanut butter

1/4C soy sauce (be careful of your soy sauce if you are GF! It’s usually made from wheat. Get something specially marked GF)

1/4C water

1T rice vinegar (not seasoned! Just straight rice vinegar)

1T sugar or maple syrup

1t minced garlic

(Optional) Crushed red pepper

Whisk peanut butter, soy sauce, and water together until smooth. Add other ingredients, and stir until well mixed.

Baked Florentine Pasta

2025-04-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

This one was a GEM. Nice and easy, finished up under the broiler, and oh so good! Nice and cheesy just like a casserole should be, and that’s even using low fat dairy so it’s not a calorie splurge, can you believe it? I cut a whole huge 9x13 into 8 dinner servings and they were only 315 calories each!

A note on the spinach - how much?? Well. Lots! Fresh spinach really cooks down. I used two Sam’s Club bags of fresh spinach, and they were huge. Bulk bags. My original recipe called for 2 10oz bags. However much you like spinach. Get a lot.

BAKED FLORENTINE PASTA

Ingredients

16 oz Tinkyada pasta (if you need GF) - I used the spirals to soak up the sauce

4oz Neufchâtel cheese (that’s the lower fat cream cheese, use regular if you can’t find it), softened

3/4C grated Parmesan cheese (3oz)

A bit of ground nutmeg (I didn’t measure)

2C fat free half and half

1T olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

Fresh spinach - how much? See note above.

2T flour*

4oz part-skim shredded mozzarella

Fresh parsley, for garnish

*NOTE ON THE FLOUR: if you’re GF, you want to use 1-to-1 GF baking flour or rice flour here. NUT FLOURS WILL NOT WORK.

Preheat your oven to 350. (I forgot this, as usual.)

Coat a 9x13 pan with pan spray. Coat it WELL. Cheese sticks.

Cook your pasta according to package directions, making sure not to cook it past al dente. You don’t want it getting mushy in the oven!

Drain your pasta in a colander and return the pot to the stove.

While the pasta is cooking, mix the cream cheese, Parmesan and nutmeg together as well as you can. I had to use the back of a spoon. Stir in the half and half. Set aside.

Back to the pasta pot you returned to the stove.

Add the oil and garlic, and heat until the garlic is fragrant. Add your spinach in batches, and stir until it’s all wilted. (I had to cover the pot and let some of it steam.) Add the two tablespoons flour, stirring it into the spinach until the spinach is coated and the flour pretty much disappears.

Remove from heat.

I moved it over to the other side of my stove.

Add the pasta back in - run some hot water over it in the colander if it’s started sticking together.

Add the sauce. Stir until everything is well mixed.

Now comes the tricky part: get all that into your 9x13 without spilling it everywhere.

Top with the mozzarella. Cover tightly with foil, and bake until heated through, 15-20 minutes.

Take the foil off and turn the broiler on.

Broil until browned on top - you can see my picture above! - about 4-5 minutes.

Take out of the oven and garnish with parsley to serve.

Servings: I got 8, but they were heaping dinner-size servings. It freezes well!

Calories: 315

Shrimp Scampi

2025-04-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

My grandmother's recipe! This is copied out in my mother's handwriting, so you can see her 'Mama's Recipe' at the bottom - this goes back a ways! Wonderful flavor --

SHRIMP SCAMPI

Ingredients

Finely chopped garlic - LOTS

1 small jar chopped pimento

2 sticks butter (or part olive oil)

3/4 C white wine

Rosemary leaves (crush) - sprinkle lightly

Lemon juice of 2 lemons

Simmer 2 hours (or as long as you can).

This recipe says for 7, cook 80 shrimp (20-25 count). DO NOT OVERCOOK. Pull the pan off the heat and eat them as soon as they turn pink!

We eat ours over steamed rice.

White Lasagna with Chicken, Spinach, and Artichokes

2025-04-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

This recipe, the way it was originally, was ONE COLOSSAL MESS. I ended up with a pan and a half of lasagna trying to straighten it out! We had enough for the family and the condo association, both.

I will try to get the quantities right, but this one will probably still need edited!

WHITE LASAGNA WITH CHICKEN, SPINACH AND ARTICHOKES

Ingredients

14oz chicken broth (or broth base and water, Orrington Farms broth base is gluten free)

1 1/2 C milk (I use 2% for this)

2T cornstarch

Shredded Parmnesan - I used store-bought shredded fresh Parmesan for this, not Kraft grated

4oz cream cheese, softened

1 15oz container ricotta

1 1/2 to 2 C diced cooked chicken, rotisserie chicken or grilled chicken or whatever you've got

1 10oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped

Basil, fresh if you've got it (I didn't), plenty out of your spice cabinet if you don't have fresh

1 package gluten free lasagna noodles (good luck!)

Lots of shredded mozzarella. I have no idea how much I wound up using. It's lasagna, after all.

1 8oz package sliced Provolone

Preheat your oven to 350.

Cook your lasagna noodles according to package directions. Bonus points if you were able to find gluten-free lasagna noodles that are oven-ready, that don't need boiled first! But usually, we're just happy enough to find GF lasagna noodles, we'll take whatever we can get.

Make one recipe of Ashley's Italian Wedding Sauce with the chicken broth, milk, and cornstarch in a 4-cup measure. Stir in the Parmesan. I didn't measure. Maybe 3 or 4 ounces?

In a large bowl, stir together your softened cream cheese, ricotta, chicken, spinach, artichoke hearts, and basil. Add a bit of the cream sauce - I used maybe 1/2C?

Cover your pan with pan spray. This didn't stick too bad, but it is lasagna, after all!

Layer a bit of the sauce, noodles, the chicken mixture, mozzarella, slices of the provolone, and more sauce until all are layered. Cover pan with foil.

Bake 45 minutes and remove the foil.

I baked it about another 15 after that. The recipe said another 25. Whatever looks right! You want it a little browned and bubbly.

Creamy Lemon-Pepper Shrimp Pasta

2025-03-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

Do me a favor, and keep in mind when you’re cooking: Nobody ever manages to keep it ‘all together’ in the kitchen, okay? I promise you, that’s only on TV.

In truth, everything manages to get done at once - the pasta pot starts boiling - the shrimp need taken up - and you realize you managed to forget to set a timer for those baked potatoes you stuck in the overn for next week’s lunches - all at the same time!

And THAT was a good night, tonight!

On a really chaotic night, I let my cast iron skillet get too hot, it starts smoking when I put something in it, the smoke alarm goes off - this is hooked into my professional alarm monitoring, you understand - so then I’ve got THEM calling, to see if I need the fire department! - and I’m trying to climb on a chair, to get the batteries out of the smoke alarm to shut IT up - and my beloved little dog Hamilton is wandering around in circles adding to the noise, because his ears can’t stand the smoke alarm.

In short? YOU ARE NOT ALONE. YOU ARE STILL A GOOD COOK. And dinner gets done beautifully anyhow!

CREAMY LEMON-PEPPER SHRIMP PASTA

Ingredients

1 lb. pasta (I used Tinkyada spirals)
Olive oil pan spray
1 lb. large
shrimp, peeled and deveined (I took the tails off too, I don’t like shrimp tails in pasta)
3/4 tsp.
salt (I used my sea salt grinder)
1/2 tsp.
black pepper (I used my pepper mill)
6 Tbsp.
lemon juice, divided, plus wedges for serving
2 Tbsp.
butter
3
cloves garlic, minced
1
(8-oz.) block cream cheese, cubed
1/4 cup
freshly chopped parsley leaves (I used dried, my fresh parsley isn’t large enough to cut this season yet - it’s only March!)

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta water, and return to pot. (If you’ve got a pasta pot, mine sat in the sink in the colander-pot until I was ready for it.)
Meanwhile, coat a large heavy bottomed skillet (cast iron is my preference) with pan spray. Over medium-high heat, add shrimp and season with ¾ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, until shrimp is pink and just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice and toss to coat. Remove shrimp from skillet. (I put them in my large pasta serving bowl where I was going to be tossing all this together and covered them with foil to keep them warm.)
In the same skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add remaining ¼ cup lemon juice and cook, until reduced by half, 1 minute. Whisk in ¾ cup reserved pasta water and cream cheese. Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly, until cream cheese is completely melted into the sauce. (I had to get a spatula and kind of smash the cream cheese to get it smooth.)
Even though I’ve got an huge cast iron skillet, the pasta plus the shrimp were not going to fit in there to toss it all together. I added them pasta to my shrimp in my big pasta serving bowl to toss is all together, and added the sauce on top of that. If you can fit it all in your skillet, that’s actually where my directions told you to toss it! You can add more reserved pasta water if necessary to loosen sauce. I didn’t need to.
Season to taste with more salt and pepper. Garnish with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.
Servings: 6
Calories: 460

Lemon Parmesan Pasta with Spinach

2025-02-07T18:14:00.000-08:00

I didn’t get a picture of this one… sorry! I’m working without a microwave in the kitchen at the moment, so I’m a bit distracted.

LEMON PARMESAN PASTA WITH SPINACH

Ingredients

1lb pasta

Get a lot of spinach. I used a Sam’s bag. Spinach cooks down.

4 large cloves garlic, minced

2C chicken broth (I use Orrington Farms Broth Base)

4T lemon juice

Lemon zest, if you like to zest lemons (I don’t)

1 1/2C sour cream (I used light)

1C Parmesan cheese (buy a block and grate your own, for this recipe)

Fresh Parsley, for garnish

You were supposed to toss in a tablespoon of butter, at the end. I forgot.

Cook your pasta according to package directions. I’d wilt your spinach in the microwave, myself, but since I don’t have a microwave at the moment, I waited until the pasta was done, pulled it off the heat, stirred the spinach in to wilt it, and then drained it all together. It worked.

Get out a large skillet and coat with pan spray. Heat your garlic until it’s fragrant, then add your broth and lemon juice. Simmer until reduced by about a third. Add the sour cream; whisk until blended. Add the Parmesan, a bit at a time, STIRRING CONSTANTLY or it will clump on you!

Toss pasta and spinach with the sauce. This is where you were supposed to add the butter, parsley, and lemon zest; all I remembered to add was parsley, but it still tasted marvelous!

Servings: 7

Calories per serving (with butter!): 400

Cheese Puffs (Gougères)

2025-01-20T16:03:00.004-08:00

These marvelous little treats are much simpler than they look, and would be equally at home on a party appetizer table or with a simple dinner of soup!

They were originally a wheat-flour recipe, so that would work fine; I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour, and that worked just fine too.

One thing you are going to want to do is have everything measured out - grate your cheese, measure your flour - have everything measured out in little bowls before you start heating anything on the stove. Everything goes together QUICK, and you don’t want to lose too much water to evaporation, once you start.

My recipe said you could play around with this a bit - try other hard cheeses in place of the Gruyere, try other spices as add-in’s, that sort of thing - but I haven’t done any of that yet! Let me know if you do, and I’ll go back and edit them in, if they turn out well for you.

COMING BACK FOR EDITS: I made a double batch with aged white cheddar, some garlic powder, and a few shakes of parsley. They were MARVELOUS!

Cheese Puffs

Ingredients
1/2 cup
water
4 Tbsp.
butter
1/2 tsp.
salt (I used regular table salt so I could measure exactly)
1/2 tsp.
granulated sugar
1/2 cup
all-purpose flour
2
large eggs
1/2 cup
freshly grated Gruyère

Preheat oven to 400° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, salt, and sugar, and bring to a boil. Add the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms. Continue to cook until dough pulls away from the pan and forms a ball, and a film develops on the bottom of the pot, about 2 minutes.
2. Transfer dough to a bowl and continue to mix with a wooden spoon to cool slightly, 1 minute. Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing until smooth and fully incorporated after each addition. (You’re supposed to stop mixing once the dough is thick enough that it falls slowly when lifted with a spoon. That never happened for me.) Fold in Gruyere.
3. Use a small (2 teaspoon capacity) cookie scoop to create small, inch-wide mounds on prepared baking sheet, about an inch apart. (I needed some pan spray on my fingers and the cookie scoop for this.) Top with more gruyere and bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Yield: 15 cheese puffs, about 60 calories each

Rocky Road Cookies (Soft)

2024-12-22T17:57:00.000-08:00

You will note that we have a distinction up here now between Soft Rocky Road Cookies and Crispy Rocky Road Cookies! The family decided they wanted Rocky Road cookies again for Christmas, but this time they wanted a SOFT cookie, so here we go — soft cookie it is!

SOFT ROCKY ROAD COOKIES

Ingredients

3 cups Ashley’s Gluten Free Flour Blend

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

1 C cocoa powder (Hershey’s is marked GF)

2t baking soda

1/4 t salt (I just give it a few grinds from my salt grinder)

1 C butter (2 sticks), room temperature

4 eggs

2t vanilla extract

2/3 C chocolate chips (I used semi sweet mini chips)

2/3 C chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

2/3 C mini marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix your dry ingredients (down to salt) all together in a bowl, and stir until blended.

I didn’t have time to let the butter soften: this is what microwaves are for! Add vanilla extract and eggs to the butter, and whisk together.

Slowly add the dry ingredients, and stir together. A stand mixer might help you here, but I don’t have one! My arm was sore, whipping the lumps out.

Add chocolate chips, nuts and marshmallows, and fold in.

Use a cookie scoop or a spoon to DROP cookies onto a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Press each cookie down slightly. (These are very much DROP cookies. Dough will be sticky!)

Alternatively, you can wait until you’ve dropped the cookies onto your parchment paper and press the marshmallows, chocolate chips, and nuts into the top.

Bake 7-10 minutes, adjusting as necessary for the size or your cookies. Let them rest on the cookie sheet five minutes, then move to a rack to finish cooling.

The Famous Christmas Fudge

2024-11-21T20:56:00.000-08:00

Life is too short to hoard recipes, I decided today: you want to give the famous Christmas fudge a try, here it is, and more power to you!

I actually thought the recipe was pretty much fool-proof, to tell you the truth, but a choir member of mine (who is usually behind the deep-fryer at any church function, turning out hot apple hand pies, so a pretty stellar baker!) has trouble getting it to come out. Who knows.

Here goes: This is it!

Sum total of <EVERYTHING> you will need for one pan of fudge.

One small (18oz) peanut butter,

One thing of frosting - this one is cream cheese, but whatever works -

A spatula,

A bowl to mix them in,

And I use a loaf pan to cool the fudge in, because it’s a good size.

Take the lids off the frosting and peanut butter. If you can get the foil totally off without tearing it, that’s ideal, because that means you can put it in the microwave just like it is. If the foils tears, scoop it into the bowl before putting in the microwave.

DO NOT PUT THE FROSTING OR PEANUT BUTTER CONTAINERS IN THE MICROWAVE WITH ANY FOIL STILL STUCK ON THEM.

It all peeled off these nicely, so next we put them in the microwave for 45 seconds each!

[Ignore the second peanut butter there; I was making two batches at once.]

Once you’ve microwaved both your peanut butter and your frosting, pour them into the bowl together and stir until they’re well mixed.

I usually coat my loaf pans with pan spray. Not sure if that’s necessary? But that’s what I do.

Pour the fudge into a load pan. Cover it with foil, and set it aside to cool overnight or for a day or so.

And then all you have to do is cut it, once it’s set up!

People love it, they really do. Hence the ‘Famous’ moniker. I’ve been giving it as gifts for years now. ❤️

Most of us really don’t need more ‘stuff’ at Christmas, but everybody appreciates Christmas candy!

Balsamic Bliss Bowls

2024-11-19T17:53:00.000-08:00

One of the lunch bowls I meal-prep on weekends!

For this one, I use brown rice that I make in the Instapot (recipe is here: Instapot Quinoa OR Brown Rice). For six lunches, I use a cup and a half of brown rice, which in the Instapot works out to just over a cup-and-three-quarters of water or broth. You can always make the full two cups and have leftovers, of course!

I also used deli chicken this time, though sometimes I will use rotisserie chicken if I have it; fresh mozzarella; and the balsamic tomatoes.

The green beans were just cooling on the counter next to my rice bowls in this picture, but if you’re interested in my green bean recipes, they are here (Roasted Green Beans) and here (Instapot Green Beans)!

BALSAMIC BLISS BOWLS

Ingredients for 6 bowls

Brown rice, cooked (for six lunches, I cook a cup and a half of brown rice)

8oz fresh mozzarella

Deli chicken or rotisserie chicken (I use 2oz per bowl)

Cherry tomatoes (as many as you’d like!)

A few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

Go ahead and cook your rice, however you want to do that. Divide between six bowls.

*If you’re counting calories, it’s the equivalent of 160 calories per bowl I’m aiming at: a half-cup’s worth of uncooked rice. That’s how calories are measured on my bag of rice!

Roughly cut up your fresh mozzarella into bite-sized pieces. I use 8oz because that’s how it’s usually sold, no other reason! Divide equally between your six bowls on top of your rice.

Dice your chicken, again dividing between the rice bowls.

Cut all the cherry tomatoes in half and place in a cast iron skillet. (I don’t have a problem with them sticking at all in mine?) Drizzle a couple tablespoons of a good balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes, and turn the heat to medium. Keep stirring every couple of minutes until the tomatoes release their juices and turn kind of ‘sauce-y.’

Divide the tomatoes up on top of your rice bowls.

Servings: 6

Calories per serving: 335

Seafood and Spinach Dip

2024-10-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

Rich and Creamy Shrimp and Crab Spinach Dip with Garlic and Parmesan

SEAFOOD AND SPINACH DIP

Ingredients

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped

1/2 pound lump crab meat

12 oz frozen spinach, thawed

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

Pan spray, to cook the shrimp

Tortilla chips (or whatever, crackers or bread if you’re not GF) for serving

Directions:

Cook the Shrimp: Coat a cast iron skillet with pan spray; add shrimp and cook over medium heat until pink and fully cooked.

Prepare the Dip: In a large mixing bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, minced garlic, Old Bay seasoning, salt, and pepper. Mix until smooth and well combined.

Add the Seafood and Spinach: Stir in the cooked shrimp, crab meat, spinach, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese until everything is well incorporated.

Bake: Preheat your oven to 375°F. Transfer the dip mixture into an oven-safe dish and spread it out evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the dip is bubbly and golden on top.

Serve: Remove from the oven and let the dip cool slightly. Serve warm with tortilla chips (or whatever, if you’re not GF) for dipping.

Kcal: 300 kcal per serving | Servings: 8, the original recipe said

Pumpkin Cups

2024-09-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

I made these sugar free, because my dad’s diabetic and I’m fighting my weight again right now, and they turned out MARVELOUSLY. Feel free to use regular instant pudding (2 3.4oz packages of pudding mix and 3C milk) and Cool Whip instead of sugar free, though, it wouldn’t make any difference!

I had also considered the thought of tossing this in a pie crust and calling it a ‘no-bake pumpkin pie,’ so that might be something to think about trying, too —

PUMPKIN PUDDING CUPS

Ingredients

1 1.5oz sugar free instant vanilla pudding mix

1 15oz can plain pumpkin purée

2 1/2 cups milk

2t pumpkin pie spice, plus more for garnish

Sugar free Cool Whip

In a large bowl, whisk together pudding mix, pumpkin puree, milk, and the 2t pumpkin pie spice. (I had to start this out with a spatula and then get the whisk to smooth it out.) Let sit 5-10 minutes to thicken slightly.

Spoon into pudding cups or small bowls. Let chill at least one hour. Mine chilled overnight.

Serve topped with Cool Whip and sprinkled with pumpkin pie spice, for garnish.

Servings: well, my recipe said six. I got maybe twice that? I guess it depends on how big your bowls or pudding cups are.

Appetizers: Roasted Shrimp

2024-09-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

SUPER-duper easy. And a make-ahead recipe, because they have to be chilled! Wonderful for a party or guests.

ROASTED SHRIMP

Raw shrimp, whatever size and quantity you want

Olive oil, about 2-3T per pound of shrimp

A bit of sea salt

Preheat oven to 350.

If your shrimp are not peeled and deveined, go ahead and do that. Toss in a bowl with the olive oil until all are lightly coated.

Place in a single layer on a sheet pan or baking dish. Sprinkle LIGHTLY with sea salt.

Bake for 5-7 minutes or until just pink.

Serve chilled.

Copy-Cat Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo

2024-09-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

The main difference between the Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo and my own Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Alfredo is the garlic: a ‘true’ Alfredo traditionally only has the three ingredients, cream, butter, and cheese. The Olive Garden adds a good bit of garlic to theirs, as anyone who has eaten there knows! It’s awfully good, so when I found this recipe I definitely wanted to give it a try.

If you make it plain, the way the Olive Garden serves it, you will only get 4-5 servings out of 14 or 16 oz of pasta, and it will have about 850-900 calories a serving if you top it with extra cheese.

My diet does not allow that, I don’t know about yours!

So I made the ‘additions’ of some sautéed shrimp and some steamed broccoli florets. Quite a few broccoli florets, as a matter of fact! Enough of these healthy kind of additions (sautéed or wilted spinach and grilled chicken would be good too!) will spread out the servings from a pound of pasta from 4-5 to 7-8, and that’ll cut that massive load of calories in half.

You see how many extra servings I got out of this? It reheats much better than a ‘traditional’ Alfredo, too!!

A NOTE ON THE CHEESE: You will want to use a block of fresh Parmesan and grate it yourself, for this recipe! It needs to be that finely grated to melt into the sauce properly.

Copycat Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo

Ingredients
1 lb.
fettuccine (I used 14oz, because that’s how Tinkyada packages their fettuccine)
3
cloves garlic, grated or minced
1 tsp.
freshly ground black pepper, plus more for taste
8 Tbsp. (1stick)
butter, divided and cut into tablespoons
1 c.
heavy cream or half and half
1/2 c.
Parmesan, grated plus more for serving
Freshly chopped parsley, for ganish

Directions

Follow instructions to cook fettuccine, subtracting about 2 minutes from the cook time to start testing it, to ensure the pasta is al dente. You REALLY do not want mushy pasta for this one! Reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water.
After you’ve drained your pasta, melt 1T of the butter in the hot pasta pot. I turned the heat back on about medium-low. Add garlic and black pepper and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until the garlic is fragrant. Don’t let anything burn!
Whisk in heavy cream and the rest of the butter. Bring the cream mixture to a simmer and let it simmer about 2-3 minutes. The recipe said it was going to thicken slightly. Mine didn’t.
Add the 1/2C Parmesan and cooked fettucine to the pasta pot and toss until the cheese is melted and the pasta is fully coated. (I added my shrimp and broccoli at this step.) Add 1/2C or so of the pasta water and simmer for an additional minute tossing until the sauce is glossy and cohesive. The starch in the pasta water should thicken the sauce. Add more pasta water if needed to get the sauce the right consistency.

Move pasta to a serving bowl and garnish with freshly grated Parmesan and parsley for serving.

Garlic-Butter Roasted Cauliflower

2024-09-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

Do you ever try a recipe, and get about halfway through it, and think, ‘These people never tried this thing!’?!

This was one of those…

Nothing worked.

So!

I have trialed-and-errored it for us, and it sure TASTES great.

Garlic, butter, olive oil, and Parmesan - on roasted cauliflower - marvelous!

GARLIC-BUTTER ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

Ingredients

1 large head cauliflower

3T butter

1T olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3C Parmesan

Parsley (I didn’t measure the parsley)

Preheat the oven to 400.

Cut your cauliflower into bite sized pieces in a large bowl. Melt the butter in the microwave, I used a small glass measuring cup so I could pour it easily, and stir in the olive oil. Toss the cauliflower with the butter and olive oil until it is coated evenly. Add the minced garlic, and toss it all again until mixed well.

Spread the cauliflower out on a sheet pan. [Do NOT use parchment paper for this recipe! It will get soggy and tear apart on you!] Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes, stirring two or three times, until done. Add the Parmesan and parsley when it comes out of the oven.

Sour Cream Quiche with Hash Brown Crust

2024-09-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

SOUR CREAM QUICHE WITH HASH BROWN CRUST

Ingredients: Crust

Cooking spray

20oz hash browns

1/2C (2oz) sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

2T butter, melted

1/2t garlic powder (I didn't measure)

Salt and pepper (again, I didn't measure)

Ingredients: Filling

1T corntarch (Argo brand is marked GF)

6 eggs, divided

2C sour cream (I used light)

1C milk (I used 2%)

2T Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper (again, didn't measure)

8oz bacon - I used Canadian bacon, or you can cook and crumble regular bacon

Dried chives

1C (about 4oz) sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Crust Assembly:

You do the crust first in this recipe.

Preheat your oven to 425. Spray a casserole dish or 9" springform pan with pan spray.

Place frozen hashbrowns in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave until soft and until all moisture has evaporated. I did this two minutes at a time.

Add the other crust ingredients to the bowl with the hashbrowns. Stir well. Spread evenly into the pan and up the sides. Bake until the edges are starting to brown, about 40 minutes.

Quiche Assembly:

Turn your oven off for a bit while you prepare the quiche filling. You're going to bake your quiche at 375, so it can have a few minutes to cool down a bit.

In a large bowl, mix cornstarch with one egg until no lumps remain. Add the remaining 5 eggs; beat until smooth. Add sour cream, milk, mustard, salt, and pepper. I needed to get out a whisk to get mixed smooth.

Spread half of the cheese across the bottom of the crust. Top with bacon (whichever kind you're using) and sprinkle liberally with dried chives. Pour egg mixture over this. Top with remaining cheese.

Bake quiche at 375 until edges are set and there is just a slight jiggle in the middle when shaken, about 40-50 minutes. Allow to cool 30 minutes before sliding a knife around the edges and serving.

Can be served hot or at room temperature.

Serves: 8-9

Appetizers: Spinach and Artichoke Dip

2024-09-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

A crock pot recipe for spinach and artichoke dip! This one is super-easy, and a real favorite for my family.

INGREDIENTS

12oz bag frozen chopped spinach

1 14oz can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped

8oz cream cheese (low fat works great)

3/4C shredded Mozzarella

1/2C grated Parmesan

1/4C milk

Place all ingredients in the crock pot in this order, roughly cutting the cream cheese into chunks as you add it. Place the lid on the crock pot and set to high.

After an hour, mix the ingredients together. Cook for another hour, and it should be ready to serve!

Spinach and Pea Carbonara

2024-08-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

I actually thought I had this one as a blog post already! This is a favorite ‘quick’ comfort-food dinner for me; it’s been a doozy of a week, it’s 8:17pm, and I need something easy for dinner. I’m using Canadian bacon in this, because I had some in the freezer. Regular bacon, browned and crumbled, will work; so will an Italian cured ham, like prosciutto or pancetta; or just regular ham!

I am using 14oz of pasta because Tinkyada fettuccine comes in 14oz packages. 16oz of pasta works equally well, no problems at all.

SPINACH AND PEA CARBONARA

Ingredients

14oz Tinkyada fettuccine

Fresh or frozen spinach (I used about 32oz fresh spinach, wilted)

12oz frozen peas

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Carbonara (which includes the bacon in there)

That’s it!

Cook your pasta according to package directions. Toss the frozen peas directly in the colander; drain the pasta over them.

Cook the spinach. Wilt it if it’s fresh; microwave it (or whatever you like to do) if it’s frozen.

Toss the peas, pasta, and spinach together with the sauce and the bacon!

And there you go.

Servings: 7

Calories: 400

I spilled the package of Canadian bacon juice while cooking.

I obviously did not clean it up as well as I thought I did:

Hamilton is so excited he is giving himself SNEEZE ATTACKS!

Eating Healthy From Scratch Is Not *HARD*

Moo Goo Gai Pan

Brownie Peanut Butter Pie

Quick Chicken Florentine

My Homemade No-Guilt French Fries

Steak Fettuccine

Flourless Fudge Cake with Ganache

Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Peanut Sauce

Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce

Baked Florentine Pasta

Shrimp Scampi

White Lasagna with Chicken, Spinach, and Artichokes

Creamy Lemon-Pepper Shrimp Pasta

CREAMY LEMON-PEPPER SHRIMP PASTA

Ingredients

Directions

Lemon Parmesan Pasta with Spinach

Cheese Puffs (Gougères)

Cheese Puffs

Ingredients

Rocky Road Cookies (Soft)

The Famous Christmas Fudge

Balsamic Bliss Bowls

Seafood and Spinach Dip

Pumpkin Cups

Appetizers: Roasted Shrimp

Copy-Cat Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo

Copycat Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo

Directions

Garlic-Butter Roasted Cauliflower

Sour Cream Quiche with Hash Brown Crust

Appetizers: Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Spinach and Pea Carbonara

Eating Healthy From Scratch Is Not HARD