Seared Scallops and Spring Greens

This little ditty is a lovely lunch medley on the lighter side. For those meat-lovers, crumble a slice of turkey bacon on top and add jalapenos for a little extra ZING!

Here's what you'll need to get started:

Sear the scallops for a few minutes. Julienne or chop the red pepper. Drizzle with dressing, and you are ready to go!

OPTIONAL:

Mmmmm.

Which came first: The Turkey or the Egg?

After boiling eggs for a LONG time (none of this 8 minute stuff - I like to be able to peel them), use a butter knife to slice through the white and find the yolk to remove it whole.
Use a potato masher to mix shown ingredients. To make it creamier, add a bit of fat free half and half.


Fill . . .













































Boil for 45 mins. Done when a knife comes out clean.




Let the heat do the work, and after they cool a bit, peel with your thumb.
A little skin keeps it real . . .





























Mash away with shown ingredients until they are creamy. Low sodium, fat free. . .



















Smoked turkey cooks for a couple of hours when thawed, and is fail proof. Put in fridge 2-3 nights before hand to thaw, or just cook it longer. Foil in the bottom, make a foil tent, and tuck in at the sides.






















































Voila!
NOTE: Let it cool for an hour and remove meat rather than storing the whole bird. If it goes in the fridge hot, it may not cool down properly.

Christmas Dunch

Last night we didn't eat dinner. We ate Valdosta, Fruit Festives, Onion Strips, sourdough baguettes with Boursin and Bruschetta, Snickity Pizza Puffs, and 100% fruit snacks. These are our pseudo junk foods. Three Metro Mint waters topped off our evening grazing. Today we enjoyed a lovely little feast, pictured here only partially - it was magnificently diverse, including 20 or so chaffing dishes with eggs, potatoes, vegetables, french toast, bread pudding, rice pudding, pork loin, teriyaki chicken, salmon, brisket, and a slough of other items. On the chopping block was a honey ham unlike any other, prime rib (far from a personal favorite), and LAMB. I have a weakness for lamb, especially when it was prepared with rosemary and dijon, which it was!!!

This apple, fennel, and cabbage salad was rather nice, although the spinach salad above won my vote. I never waste time on pasta salads. I have yet to rave over a pasta/mayo entourage.











The brie was some of the best I have tasted, along with the gouda. Hiding on the back of the left platter is a sundried tomato and mozzarella salad that captured my fancy.

Fruit and breads filled this table, along with a herd of gingerbread moose:

The Seafood Sleigh: Crablegs, anyone? Unfortunately the shrimp was not shelled, so we spent our calories elsewhere.











The mussels were insanely delicious, and were ALMOST as good as the clams . . .

. . .But the real winner of the seafood table was the fresh salmon, smoked the night before Christmas!

The baked salmon was also pretty good, but fell short of its buttery smoked counterpart.

Shown here are a few of the items that jumped ship onto my plate.

Now, normally sweets are not my thing. They don't even appeal to me for the most part, but let me take you on a PARTIAL tour of the delightful sugarplum cinema so splendidly played out for the Christmas buffet.

I did not dare go near the chocolate dipping fountain, so that is missing, along with several other shots of hand-made danishes and other sweet treats.

What did I favor? This is a SMALL plate, I will have you know. Clockwise from 12:00 - Tiny Rice Crispies (did they put rose water in them?) I took 1/3 of one, but the cream puff between 12 and 1 didn't survive. The chocolate bon bons at 3 were shared with the hubby, and they were bon-bon-heaven. I took a tiny bite of that smattering of bread pudding at 4, and barely touched the French Yule Log between 5 and 6. I had a similar response to the lemon bar between 7 and 9 - I couldn't quite locate the lemon in there. The apple rice pudding at 11 stayed mostly on the plate, given its mushy consistency, and the best part of the chocolate pecan pastry at the center of the universe was the ganache with which it was topped.

Ironically, the gingerbread moose was quite nice, although during dinner, C reached over and said, "Okay, let me have the leg off your camel." I looked bewildered at him, and proceeded to correct this horrendous mistake. We both had a good laugh.

Cranberry Feta Almond Salad

If you can handle the zing of fresh cranberries, top your salad with a few perky reds! Encore by Balsalmic Breeze from last night's munchins. A whole head of romaine chopped this morning made for a quick toss-together for lunch at work!

Simply Perfection

Holiday time, study time, no time. This is a great little toss-together. Add a side of fresh pineapple as a colorful compliment to the tangy tomato and balsamic. I do apologize for the shoddy pics - iPhone cameras simply don't do justice to food photography with those brownish reds and washed out yellowed hues.

Boil.

Toss and spritz.

Enjoy!

400 Calorie Bacon Cheeseburger

As foto-rific as possible, this is a great speedy "fast-food" favorite on the healthy side, and for a minimal number of calories.


Bun: 180 cals, (25 fat cals)
Or go light and eat wrapped in lettuce
Meat: 150 cals, (40.5 fat cals)
Cheese: 30 cals, (0 fat cals)
Lettuce + Onion: 5 cals, (0 fat cals)
Turkey Bacon: 35 cals, (25 fat cals)
Total Calories: 400 (90.5 of which are fat cals)
By comparison: 609 cals (308 of which are fat cals)

Toast by broiling until golden brown1/4 lb of 96% Lean Ground Beef, topped with fat free cheese

Animal rights activists, shield your eyes. Our bird digs beef.