Today was an excellent day! Slept in until 10, attended a laparoscopic surgery skills workshop (starting to get more and more interested in surgery!), taught some high schoolers about how the heart works while walking them through a dissection of a sheep heart, and caught up on the lectures that I missed this morning! I'm still trying to figure out my groove, but this seemed to work out well. Sleeping in is always a plus!
I mentioned in yesterday's post that I would post about my Thanksgiving recipes. 2/3 of the things I made came from recipes I found on Pinterest! (of course!)
Unfortunately we didn't take pictures of the stuffing (what were we thinking?! we always document!) but I made a basic, but delicious, sourdough stuffing that my sister had previously made. You can find the recipe
here. We left out the mushrooms (and the 2 tbsp of butter that would have been used to cook them) because my brother is allergic to mushrooms. But with my sister's mushroom gravy on top, it was perfection! One serving made just enough for 7 adults and 2 kiddos.
Now on to what we DID document, because recipes aren't complete without drool-worthy pictures!
Low-Fat Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Everyone loves spinach-artichoke dip, right? Too bad that restaurants make it with so much oil and cream and cheese (and cream cheese) that the nutrition info is downright scary! This recipe uses fat-free Greek yogurt, low-fat cream cheese, and very little Parmesan cheese, but tastes every bit as good as the restaurant stuff!
Original recipe
here. I tweaked it just a bit.
Ingredients:
Olive oil or regular cooking spray (PAM)
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic (or more if you like garlic)
9 oz fresh or frozen spinach
12 oz artichoke hearts
8 oz low-fat cream cheese
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
3 tbsp low-fat Parmesan cheese, grated
1 tbsp chives
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
12" round bread loaf
Dice onion and mince garlic. Spray cooking spray on a nonstick or cast iron pan and add onion. Saute onion until translucent and add garlic. Saute mixture for about a minute, then add spinach. If using frozen spinach, be sure to squeeze out any excess liquid before adding it to the pan and cooking for about 2 minutes. If using fresh spinach, cook until it is just wilted. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.
If you're going to be serving the dip right away, preheat the oven to 350F. If you have a food processer, use that for the following steps. We just had a small mini-prep processer so we had to do a couple batches. Put the artichoke hearts and the cooled spinach-onion-garlic mixture into the food processor and chop until you reach desired consistency (some people like chunky dip!). Add the cream cheese and Greek yogurt, and whirl together. This can also just be done in a bowl. Add the cheese, chives, and pepper, and mix.
Hollow out your bread and spoon the mixture in. Don't throw away the bread innards! Chop them up and place them on a baking sheet along with the bread bowl and bake for 20 minutes. The mixture can also be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you're ready to add it to the bread and bake. Time to enjoy!
Roasted Honey-Lime Shrimp...or not?
I love shrimp! It's probably my favorite seafood, and it's always delicious. I found this recipe and just had to try it! Except technically, I haven't actually tried it, because...I forgot to add the honey to the marinade. I realized it the second we were taking them out of the oven. The upside is that they still tasted amazing! So I guess there are two recipes in this...leave out the honey for some tangy Lime Shrimp!
Original recipe
here. The recipe serves 2 people with 1/2 pound of large shrimp. We had 7 adults and 2 kids, so we quadrupled the shrimp and used more garlic, but kept everything else pretty much the same. There was no need to quadruple the olive oil or lime juice - there was plenty of marinade to go around, and the shrimp was definitely not lacking in lime flavor!
Ingredients:
1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp honey (apparently optional!)
juice of one small lime
zest of one small lime
2 cloves garlic (or more!)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Combine the marinade in a large plastic bag. Add the shrimp and let it marinate in the fridge for 30-60 minutes (don't do much longer, because the acid in the lime will start to cook the shrimp). You can cook them in a pan, but it would have taken forever to do that with 2 lbs of shrimp, so we roasted them and it was super quick and easy (and easy cleanup!). Preheat oven to 400F. Line a pan with foil and spread the shrimp out in one layer. Roast for about 8-10 minutes, watching them closely near the end to see when they turn pink. Serve and enjoy!
UPDATE: I've made this shrimp two more times, both times with the honey, and it's really good!
And just to close it out, here's a pic of our turkey. Nom!!!
