Ashley’s Favorite Sauces: Super-Quick Low Calorie Cheese Sauce

I know I did a cheese sauce already, but I’m using a different one today, because I have seven pounds to lose - DOWN THREE AND A HALF ALREADY, in the last ten days!! - and when the weight’s got to come off, the earlier cheese sauce just won’t do!

This is that earlier recipe, basically a roux with cheese  - although I did it in the microwave, so it’s not a “proper” roux - Basic White Sauce/Basic Cheese Sauce

I’m using broth and cornstarch in this one to cut the milk, flour, and butter calories.

*Gluten-free-ers, as always, be careful of the broth, bouillon, or broth base! Make sure they’re marked GF. (I use Orrington Farms broth bases; they’re marked GF on the front of the label.)

This is great in a quick macaroni and cheese, or on top of vegebles. I'm using it on two heads of cauliflower today. The whole recipe below made a nice amount for two heads of cauliflower, and that's the reason for the 1/4 C serving size.

SUPER-QUICK LOW CALORIOE CHEESE SAUCE

14 oz chicken broth, or water and broth base/bouillon

1 1/2 C skim milk

2 T cornstarch 

1 C finely shredded cheddar cheese

Heat the broth or broth base/water in the microwave 2 minutes in a four cup measure.

Stir milk and cornstarch together; add to heated broth. Heat to boiling.

 *I usually set the microwave for two minutes, whisk, and then another two minutes. It will usually start boiling that second two minutes. Keep an eye on it; it will boil over fast.

Whisk in cheese. Let stand for two minutes.

If needed after standing, whisk in some more milk to thin.

Yield: 3 cups

Serving Size: 1/4 C

Calories per serving: 50

Creamy Spinach Pasta with Shrimp

CREAMY SPINACH PASTA WITH SHRIMP

1lb brown rice pasta

2lbs fresh spinach leaves

12oz shrimp, peeled and deveined 

4 shallots, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

6oz Neufchâtel cheese, softened

Fresh Parmesan, for serving

Parsley, for serving

Cook pasta according to package directions, reserving 1C pasta water when you drain it. Add 6oz Neufchâtel cheese to hot pasta water; whisk until smooth.

Microwave spinach in large bowl with 1/4C water, covered, until all is wilted.

Toss spinach and pasta together in large serving bowl.

Sauté shallots and garlic in pan spray. Add shrimp. Sauté until just barely pink. Add to serving bowl, along with the reserved pasta water/Neufchâtel cheese. Toss.

Serve hot, topped with fresh Parmesan and parsley.

Servings: 8

Calories per serving: 290

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This is my FAVORITE way to eat Brussels sprouts, here, and super simple: roasted with nothing more than pan spray and a quick grinding of salt and pepper.

To sheet-pan roast your Brussels, get them trimmed up: tough outer leaves removed, and halved.

Pan spray your sheet pan, and lay out your halved Brussels sprouts, cut side DOWN.

I use olive oil pan spray, and spray the tops of the Brussels sprouts again before they go in the oven.  You'll want to salt and pepper them after you use the pan spray. I like using salt and pepper grinders; I buy sea salt in a grinder too. 

PRO TIP, HERE: IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT, CUT <OUT> THE OLIVE OIL. 

I use olive oil pan spray for virtually EVERYTHING now except salad dressings! And I’m down over a hundred pounds: I’m telling you, it WORKS.

Roast them in a preheated oven at 425 until nicely carmelized on the bottoms. You can see here. Usually 20-24 minutes.



ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS
Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halvedOlive oil pan spraySea salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 425. Spray a sheet pan with pan spray; place Brussels cut side down on sheet pan. Spray the tops of the Brussels with pan spray. Grind salt and pepper over the tops of the Brussels, to taste.
Roast at 425 20-24 minutes, until browned and carmelized on the bottoms. Serve hot.

Wilted Spinach with Soy Sauce and Sesame Seeds

STEAMED SPINACH WITH SOY SAUCE AND SESAME SEEDS

40oz fresh spinach

3T soy sauce

3T sesame seeds

Steam spinach in a large microwaveable bowl, in batches, covered. Steam 4 minutes at a time, stirring between each, until all spinach is steamed.

Toss with soy sauce and sesame seeds. Serve hot.

Roasted Green Beans with Balsamic and Parmesan

I used four pounds of green beans, but I’m halving the recipe for you, here!

ROASTED GREEN BEANS WITH BALSAMIC AND PARMESAN

2 lbs green beans, rinsed and trimmed

2 shallots, minced fine

2 T balsamic vinegar

2 oz shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425.

Coat sheet pan with olive oil baking spray. Place green beans on sheet pan; top with minced shallots. Spray again with cooking spray.

Roast 15-20 minutes, stirring once. Toss with balsamic vinegar and shredded Parmesan. 

Serve hot.

NOTES FROM A FOOD BLOGGER

I have decided I need a page of just NOTES. I keep marking things down in my Trello to-do list item “BLOG,” but I’m never finding convenient place to get those out to everyone.

—Crumbling bacon: First Note. If you need crumbled bacon for a recipe? BAKE IT. Getting bacon uniformly crisp enough to crumble without burning it in a skillet is a bit of a trick, and doing it in the microwave to that degree of done-ness will get you tough bacon. Toss it on a cookie sheet and stick it in the oven. I do it at high heat - probably 425 or so - and just keep an eye on it, every five or ten minutes. 

—Food Scales: Note #2. If you are trying to stay healthy or lose weight, I am telling you, you NEED to invest in food scales. We Americans just EAT TOO MUCH. We eat way too much of the processed stuff on our grocery store shelves, too, but our main problem with this obesity epidemic is that we just EAT TOO MUCH.  Take a look at the size of the portions the restaurant serves you, the next time you eat out, if you don’t believe me. They’re craaaaaazy. Divide it in half before you start to eat! 

    Food scales help you be more mindful of your food. I’m terrible about just eating chips or nuts and not paying a bit of attention to what or how much I’m eating. Weigh it out! Especially helpful for those healthy-but-high-calorie foods like cheese and nuts. 

—And my beloved air-popped popcorn popper: last Note for tonight. 

    This makes the healthiest snacks EVER. Popcorn is a whole grain, which is super-important for us celiacs and anyone who’s trying to go gluten free, and there are lots of things to put on popcorn that have no calories. Spray butter is tops! I break my no-processed-food-rules for spray butter. 

    Try Parmesan or rosemary on it.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER WITH HERBS AND BACON

I fully intended to make - had even thawed the bacon for - this recipe from June, A Hungarian-Style Sheet Pan Cauliflower with Bacon.

However, the tub of Greek yogurt I’d thought I was going to use had obviously been in my fridge too long.

I am never one to go running out to the store for one ingredient on Saturdays, when I’m doing my cooking.

I improvise.

So? New Recipe. 

It turned out well. 

Of course, anything with bacon and cheese is going to turn out pretty good!

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER WITH HERBS AND BACON

2 head of cauliflower, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces

4 oz bacon

Thyme, to taste

Rosemary, to taste

Freeze-dried chives, to taste

Dried Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup

Place the cauliflower on a sheet pan coated with pan spray. Place the bacon strips on top of the cauliflower florets. Roast at 425 for 20 minutes, stirring once.

Place the cauliflower in a large mixing bowl. Crumble the bacon over the cauliflower; top with herbs and Parmesan. Mix well. Serve hot.

Skillet Enchildas

Totally making up the recipe; I’m figuring I can delete the draft of the post if a mish-mash of Southern Living and Eating Well fail me!  

EDITED: this turned out GREAT. 

Doing this while my usual Saturday cooking of bulk vegetables cools on the table. I always, always do bulk vegetables on Saturdays to eat for the week: there’s actually an additional six pounds of InstaPot’d green beans in the fridge already.

—If you want to keep the weight off on a gluten free diet, it’s almost a necessity to figure SOME way around that. This is mine!

Enchiladas: I’m making chicken ones.

A pound of chicken breast tenders, cleaned and diced into bite sized pieces. Sautéed in a cast iron skillet on the stove. Skip the oil! Pan spray if you must use something. My cast iron is seasoned well enough I don’t need anything.

A 12oz bag frozen chopped spinach, microwaved according to package directions, and drained. (I didn’t squeeze dry, though.) Added to the skillet.

My father, who is doing my grocery shopping right now due to COVID, absolutely could not find gluten free enchilada sauce for me. He was doing my trick of calling companies while standing in grocery store aisles! Best he could get was Old El Paso, which said there was no wheat added TO it, but they couldn’t say there was no wheat IN it. [Love it when they can’t tell you what’s in your food, right? Clean your stupid manufacturing lines between products!] So. I am making do, and making my own!

About a cup of salsa (I didn’t measure), 4 T minced garlic, a 28oz drained can of diced tomatoes, a bit of chili powder (probably about 1/4 t), and probably 1 1/2 t cumin: all spices to taste. 

Simmered over medium heat until a good bit of the liquid is absorbed, 8-10 minutes.

*Time enough for an angry phone call to my mother, in other words, asking if THEY owned a damned can opener that bloody well WORKED and where in the DEVIL they got it, as a matter of fact. This one of mine led to the diced tomato juice all over the counter, and sink, and dish towel, and got thrown angrily in the TRASH. Frustrations of a food blogger, yes?* I wasn’t actually timing it. About this-conversation long, LoL.

I added a can of nonfat refried beans in at this point.

I usually make my own - I’ll get you guys that recipe one of these days - but I only had one container of those left in my freezer, and it had about twice the amount I wanted. So I grabbed a can out of the pantry. 

—ConAgra brand is good about labeling; if anyone needs the GF. I have a “May Contain: Soy” on here, which means it does not “May Contain: Wheat,” from these folks. Rye, barley, and/or oats would not be a worry in beans.—

I had grated an 8oz block of Monterey Jack cheese. Half got stirred into the skillet with the beans and 6 torn corn tortillas. 

—Make sure your corn tortillas are LABELED gluten free!! Check last week’s post on the grits Eggs in Purgatory over Cauliflower Grits for a note on the ground corn issues for us gluten-free folks!—

If your skillet is not oven-safe, transfer your enchiladas to a dish that is, here.

Top with the other half of the cheese and broil until melted and starting to brown.

—Reasons I love cast iron: truth! I used no oil, not even any pan spray, and even though I simmered all the liquid out of it and had to add more halfway though, even though it had all that cheese? It just WIPED CLEAN. Love it!

SKILLET ENCHILADAS

1 pound chicken breasts

12oz bag chopped frozen spinach

1 cup salsa or pico de gallo 

1 28oz can diced tomatoes, drained

4 T minced garlic (about 4 cloves), to taste

1/4 t chili powder, to taste

1/2 T cumin, to taste

1 can nonfat refried beans

6 corn torilllas, marked GF if necessary

8oz shredded Monterey Jack, divided

Trim and dice your chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. Sauté in oven safe nonstick skillet (if you have one), using pan spray if necessary.

Add the drained spinach. Stir in salsa, drained tomatoes, garlic, cumin, and chili powder. Preheat the broiler.  Summer over medium heat until most of the liquid is absorbed, 8-10 minutes.

Add half the cheese and the refried beans. Mix well. Tear the tortillas into the skillet. Stir. 

Transfer to an oven safe dish at this point if your skillet cannot go in the oven.

Top with the remaining cheese. Place under the broiler until melted and starting to brown, about 5-7 minutes.

Servings: 7

Calories per serving: 285