« Recipe Inspiration | Main | Iced Chai »
April 29, 2006
The Magic of Fat Free Ricotta
Thanks to all for your wonderful inspiration! I am looking forward to trying your recipes and variations on them! As usual, just asking for help seemed to help out a lot. I was struck with inspiration tonight, and made a delicious dish of red peppers stuffed with leeks, fat free ricotta, garlic, eggwhite and tomato sauce. Side of eggplant and eggwhite to bring up the protein, topped with flax and olive oil to bring up the fat and served with eighteen grams of hazelnuts. MR had two peppers, I had one. He had the eggplant/eggwhite side dish and the nuts -- I had my salad with yogurt. Both of us enjoyed our meals.
Fat free ricotta is an incredibly versitile ingredient. Whip it into a fritatta for a creamier dish... put it in a lasagna or a pizza for a high calcium, low calorie Italianish treat... mix it up with a dash of Splenda for a CR friendly "whipped cream." The possibilities are endless.
I am contemplating making a FFR creation in the food processor tomorrow. I might blend artichoke hearts with FFR and garlic powder to make an artichoke puff of sorts, and use it to top eggplant. Sprinkle with chopped shiitake mushrooms and oregano, cover with tomato sauce, bake, a voila -- eggplant artichoke puffs!
The best FFR dish ever, IMHO, is the CR'd "Nutella" pear pizzas. You remember -- low carb tortilla topped with FFR, Walden Farms' chocolate sauce, diced pears, hazelnuts, and hazelnut oil. A dessert as good as any I've had in a fine restaurant, and I've been to some good restaurants. I think I'll make it next week when CNN comes to interview me and MR...
Meanwhile, Mom is doing well. I took her out for her first adventure post-surgery today. We went to Subway for lunch, to the drug store, to the Bath and Body Works where she bought me some very exciting shower gels and lotions (for those of you who are junkies: Japanese Cherry Blossom, Magnolia, Fresh Vanilla) and then to Barnes and Noble where we read the books and had coffee.
I still have tons of work to do this weekend... about 200 calls to be exact to remind nurses at our largest hospital about a rally we have coming up on Thursday for Nurses' Day. And I have to do the cleaning. A two story house with two cats can accumulate fur very quickly. But Mom is feeling well enough to be on her own tomorrow, so I'll be spending the day the way I like to spend Sundays -- hiding in the house with MR and not going out. Even though both of us spend much of Sunday working, it's still nice to have one day a week when we're always in earshot of each other. I work so much that it seems like we barely see each other during the week. I do make an effort to get home for dinner when I can, but more and more that's happening less and less. Still, MR is the world's most understanding organizer's boyfriend, and he's always happy to see me when I come home.
The cats, on the other hand, are less understanding. Philo seems to need to be petted between four and five am, which isn't too bad since we get up at five anyhow. She did great at the vet's on Friday, and next week we will find out the results of her bloodwork. She's healed nicely from her unfortunate meeting with Kieffer back in January.
Now off to read the other CR blogs, then to bed!
Posted by april at April 29, 2006 8:15 PM