Dawn's Version of Mexican Seafood Soup

Original Recipe: Mexican Seafood Soup

I used pre-cooked lobsters...

and pre-cooked snow crab legs

a lot of work and mess for a little bit of meat ;)

and even more work for a little bit of lobster meat ;)

more work taking the tails off of the pre-cooked shrimp (I just use it because it is affordable)

cooking down the garlic, olive oil, onion and tomatoes

and the finished result...

worth every bit of the work to make!!! :D

"a bowl of heaven"

this is a quite expensive little soup so is not something I will make often 

but I absolutely enjoyed it and was quite happy to find that everyone else did too! :)

Good CALL! :)

Holy Hannah!

It is the middle of August already!
Time is just flying by and it's been a very exciting and busy summer!
A week or so ago I made a foil pack for camping which I've decided will be our August LUNCH because it was quite tasty and I will do it again! ;)
At the end of the month we'll have a party for my birthday and I'm going to make Mexican Seafood Soup to share with my friends and family so it's going to be the August SUPPER recipe.
I challenge my chickie (that's Sara) to come up with an easy BREAKFAST recipe we can use for August! ;)
THEN hopefully the kids will get back in school and we'll get back to a slower routine! :)

Dawn's Version of Chili Cheese Fries

Original Recipe: Chili Cheese Fries

Ok I know the possibility of making chili cheese fries completely healthy is pretty slim but I will settle for a slightly healthier version! I LOVE chili cheese fries and while i don't intend to eat them OFTEN I would like to enjoy them SOMETIMES. So this is what I came up with:

I used a store bought bag of fries and baked them but for a KIDNEY FRIENDLY version they should be cut from fresh potatoes and soaked twice first to remove the potassium.
If you are feeling adventurous they could be coated with a wee bit of olive oil and a NO salt herb mix and then baked till crispy.

I made a monterey jack cheese sauce ...original recipe here: Queso Blanco
What I really did was tweak a parmesan cheese sauce I always make for tortellini and used the green chilis from the Queso Blanco recipe. So I cooked about a cup maybe a bit more of monterey jack shredded, about 1/2 cup of half and half, about a Tbsp of margarine, a can of green chilis and a little bit of flour to thicken the sauce. (for tortellini cheese sauce it is 1 small carton of whipping cream, 1/2-1 cup of parmesan cheese-I use "shaky cheese", 1/4 cup or bit less of butter and parsley flakes...this is NOT kidney friendly and I do NOT eat it often but I admit it is a guilty pleasure because I LOVE it!)

And the chili was:

ground chicken, spices (chili powder etc. SouthWest Spice), garlic, onions, red/yellow peppers, black beans, one can of chipotle flavoured brown beans, 2 chopped tomatoes 

and a tiny bit of bbq sauce for added flavour

to make a more kidney friendly version substitute chick peas (garbanzo beans)

and because I used tomatoes instead of soup or sauce as I would usually it is also kidney friendly because much of the phosphorous is removed! ;)

Dawn's Version of Shrimp Pasta Salad

Original Recipe: Shrimp Pasta Salad

Forgot to take a pic :(

Diabetic Version: use whole wheat pasta

Kidney Friendly Version: NO salt, less oil

This is a delicious and easy recipe that is healthy. If you have issues with gout you may have to refrain from having shrimp but I'm not bothered by it so I quite enjoyed this one! :)

Dawn's Version of Meatloaf

Original Recipe: Favourite Meatloaf

I haven't made this yet because it's been too hot to cook in the oven but I'm going to soon...it's a recipe for burgers I found that I've tweaked to be a meatloaf instead and is very healthy and kidney friendly.

CHERRY MEATLOAF

1/2 small sweet onion (Vidalia or Walla Walla), chopped small
1 lb of lean ground beef
1/2 cup dried cherries, finely chopped
1/2 cup bread crumbs (white)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup Cherry Ketchup (recipe follows)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
Press into a greased bread loaf pan and cover with Cherry Ketchup.
Bake in preheated oven at 350C for 40 minutes to an hour.

DIABETIC VERSION: substitute whole wheat bread crumbs
substitute raw sugar in the ketchup

CHERRY KETCHUP

Our Plan

We both like to try new recipes and sometimes play around with them to sort out newer, healthier and better versions for our families so we decided to share a blog, choose recipes for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner to begin with and each of us tweak them into a slightly modified version.
Hopefully we'll come up with some fun and delicious new ideas and recipes that are low-fat, kidney friendly, diabetes friendly and maybe even kid friendly!
Keep an eye out....we're working on three recipes now!