Crispy Shrimp Bites

Love these crispy little bites of seasoned shrimp! They are crispy on the outside but tender and full of flavor on the inside. If you haven’t tried Szechuan pepper before, give it a try. It has a little peppery bite, but it is also almost floral and makes your mouth tingle.  You can customize this any way you want such as using hot pepper instead of bell pepper for some added heat. I’m not using a dipping sauce with these, but some mayo mixed with Thai sweet chili sauce might be nice.

Ingredients (makes about 18 bites):

1 pound of raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon fish sauce

½ teaspoon sesame oil

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon Szechuan pepper, crushed

1 egg white, beaten until foamy

2 green onions, finely chopped

¼ cup red bell pepper, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons rice flour

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

Cooking spray

2 Tablespoons canola oil

Directions: Chop half of the shrimp into small pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Place the other half of the raw shrimp in the food processor and pulse until well blended. Add the pulsed shrimp to the chopped shrimp. Stir in the soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, Szechuan pepper, egg white, green onions and red bell pepper.

Stir the rice flour and cornstarch into the shrimp mixture and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Spray a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray and add 1 Tablespoon of canola oil. Place the heat on medium-low-ish. My heat is at 3.5 out of 10.

With dampened hands, take a golf ball size of the shrimp mixture and pat it into a small patty.  Place about 9 bites in the skillet and cook about 4-5 minutes per side. Be very gentle when turning them so they don’t break apart. Repeat with remaining Tablespoon of canola oil and shrimp mixture.

Light and Cheesy Vegetable Gratin

Winter doesn’t want to let go here, so something creamy and cheesy fits the bill. This is a lot lighter than mac and cheese or potatoes gratin, but still warm and filling. The beauty of this is that you can change out the veggies with whatever you have like broccoli instead of cabbage.

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

2 Tablespoons light margarine

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups low fat milk

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup fat free shredded mozzarella

½ cup shredded gruyere or Swiss cheese

For the vegetable mixture:

Cooking spray

2 teaspoons canola oil

3 slices ready cook turkey bacon, chopped

1/3 cup diced onion

1 garlic clove, minced

½ cup chopped cabbage

1 (16 ounce) package frozen cauliflower florets

5 ounces spinach (I used ½ of a 10 ounce package of frozen cut leaf spinach, thawed)

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 3 quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Set aside.

Sauce: In a medium saucepan, melt the margarine over medium heat and then stir in the flour. Cook for 2 minutes and then slowly whisk in the milk. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and bring to a boil. Boil for two minutes, whisking constantly and then turn the heat to low.

Whisk in the mozzarella and Swiss, adding just a bit at a time and stirring until each bit is melted before adding another. When all of the cheese is melted, remove from the heat and set aside while you prepare the vegetable mixture.

Vegetable mixture: Spray a large, deep skillet or wok with cooking spray and add the canola oil over medium heat. Add in the onion and cook for 3 minutes or until the onion begins to get soft. Add in the garlic and cook for a minute. Toss in the chopped turkey bacon and then add in the cauliflower, spinach, cabbage and mushrooms. Cook, stirring often, for about 7-12 minutes or until all the vegetables are soft and the mixture is fragrant.

Stir the sauce into the vegetable mixture and pour into the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle the top with parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the sides are bubbling and the top is slightly golden.

Baked Crab Rangoon

I know I am supposed to start out with how amazing these are and that they are the best things I’ve ever eaten, but I can’t. The only reason not to call these ‘as good as a restaurant’ is that they lack that huge crunch that deep fried rangoons have. Having said that, you should know that I am all in for the flavor and these babies deliver! Plus, there is a whole lot less fat and calories than deep fried rangoon with full fat cheese. There are still some crispy bits of won ton, but that creamy filling gets me every time. This filling is, in my opinion, spot on.

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package won ton wrappers (you will have maybe 8 or 10 leftover, but you need to buy the full package or you will run short)

2 (8 ounce) packages light cream cheese, softened

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon soy sauce

2 green onions, diced very fine

1 (8 ounce) package crab flavored surimi (packaged ‘fake crab’ that you can find near the seafood), diced very fine

Water

Cooking Spray

Directions: Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and pop it in the oven while it pre-heats. This helps the bottoms of the rangoons to get crispy.

Meanwhile, prep by filling a small cup with water-you will want this to dip your finger into for sealing the rangoons. Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the cream cheese, garlic, soy sauce, green onions and finely chopped surimi.

Lay out a sheet of wax paper and lay out 6 won ton wrappers at a time. Keep the remaining wrappers covered with a damp paper towel-they dry out fast. Put a teaspoon or so of the crab filling in the middle of each wrapper and dip your finger into the water. Using that dampened finger, dot just a bit of water around all edges of the first wrapper. Go light on the water-less is better. And just do one wrapper at a time-this makes for less time for the wrapper and water combo to turn into glue..

To fold, fold two corners together to make a triangle. Then, dot a single spot of water on the fullest part of the Rangoon and fold the two outside tips over the top. Of course, you could make any shape you want, but I like folding them up so there is less wrapper without filling. Remove these 6 to the side of your wax paper sheet and prep 6 more. Note: this makes about 40 rangoons, so you will need to repeat these steps.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and spray with cooking spray. Place 12 rangoons at a time on the sheet and spray the rangoons themselves with cooking spray. Repeat for the remaining rangoons.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on how dark you want them to be. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with whatever sauce you want-I really like sweet and sour sauce with a bit of hot Chinese mustard.

Lower Fat Swedish Meatballs

I have a few preferences when it comes to Swedish Meatballs. I think that all of the flavor should be in the meatballs to begin with and the sauce should just be the drippings from the meatballs with a little broth and half and half. I think that the meatballs should be perfectly soft and smooth, so I use grated onion and a little half and half and then really knead the mixture to get a consistently smooth meatball. I think it also helps to chill the dough to let everything combine before cooking. A little espresso powder in there gives the meatballs more depth.

Ingredients (makes about 55 small meatballs):

2 slices bread (I’m using Healthy Life® white bread)

1/3 cup fat free half and half

1 pound lean ground beef (93% lean, 7% fat)

1 pound ground turkey breast

1 egg

1/3 cup fat free half and half

1 teaspoon beef base (like Better than Bouillon®)

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

1/3 cup grated onion

Fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon instant espresso powder (optional)

1 Tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped fine (or 2 teaspoons dried)

½ teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Cooking spray

1 cup beef broth

1/2 cup fat free half and half

Directions:

In a small bowl, tear the bread into tiny bits and add 1/3 cup fat free half and half. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the beef, turkey, egg, 1/3 fat free half and half, beef base, Worcestershire, grated onion, pepper, salt, espresso powder, parsley, allspice and nutmeg. Get in there with your hands and knead the meatball mixture for at least 4 minutes, until everything is completely soft, smooth and blended. You shouldn’t see any bits of beef or turkey or onion or bread—maybe just a few flecks of parsley here and there.

Chill the meatball mixture for 30 minutes.

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and heat over low to medium-low heat. Working in batches and with dampened hands, roll the meatball mixture into golf ball size rounds and cook in the skillet about 5-7 minutes. Turn (I use two teaspoons to make sure they don’t break apart) and cook another 7 minutes. Your timing may be different than mine—break a meatball open to make sure it is cooked through before removing the batch from the skillet. Also, you may need to re-coat the skillet with cooking spray between batches, or you may want to add a few teaspoons of beef broth to the bottom of the skillet.

Remove each batch to a plate and continue until all the meatballs are done. Leaving the drippings in the pan, slow add the beef broth, scraping up the bits on the bottom of the skillet. Add in the last 1/2 cup of fat free half and half. Bring to a boil for 1 minute and add the meatballs back in. Cook, at a boil, for another 5 minutes, turning the meatballs into the sauce from time to time. Turn off the heat and serve hot.

Note: You may have too many meatballs to add them all back into the skillet. In that case, put the meatballs into a large serving dish and spoon the sauce over. Personally, I’m saving some of the un-sauced meatballs in the fridge to add to a Japanese style broth and vegetable soup later in the week.