leanKitchen » Ham

Alternative Ham Glaze

leanKitchen — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 06:11:01 +0000

If you’re like me, you’re celebrating Easter Sunday today. And if you’re like me, your traditional ham is glazed with sugar (brown and white), maple syrup, bourbon, honey, molasses, you name it!

A good alternative is simply mustard (yellow, Dijon, horseradish, etc.), but if you simply cannot go without the sweet:

Puree 1 can of crushed pineapple with 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, and spread over the ham within the last 15 minutes of cooking. YUM!

Pineapple for glazing

Perfect holiday ham, with far less guilt!

“Hoppy” Easter, everybody!

Smokey's Smoked Salmon-Wrapped Cream Cheese n'Cukes!

leanKitchen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:44:26 +0000

So on the Warp Speed Fat Loss low carb day, there’s a derivative of a smoked salmon wrapped around cream cheese. While I love the idea of things wrapped in other things, particularly cream cheese (or…any cheese, really), I find smoked salmon gag-a-licioius, and used turkey bacon instead. To make it supportive, I peeled and cut cukes into small strips, put the turkey bacon (cooked) down, a dollop of cream cheese in, a strip of the cuke in the middle, and rolled it up for a DELICIOUS snack! You can use smoked salmon, prosciutto (one of my favorite things on the planet, FYI), turkey, or pretty much any lean, thin meat (or veggie, like red lettuce). If you have a higher fat allowance, you can also roll it in grated parm to kick things up a bit.

But…”Smokey’s” Smoked Salmon-Wrapped Cream Cheese n’ Cukes?? Sheesh, Nedah, could you possibly come up with a longer name?? And, who the heck is Smokey?

Smokey

Smokey’s a four(-ish) month old BEAUTIFUL kitten (that I adore, and want in my own home, but alas, my landlord at this point would probably kill me) who loves to snuggle and purr up to me when I volunteer at the Shelter. So what’s Smokey’s story? Smokey was found in a trailer park with 10-15 other cats under a vacant trailer. I can’t say more wonderful things about this little sweetheart. His personality and attributes (long hair, playful, teasing traits) remind me so much of my own cat, Jackson. They’d be such good friends, but again, since I’d like to avoid death-by-landlord* I feel the need to ask my readers: Are you looking for a precious, sweet, beautiful kitty to be a wonderful, permanent member of YOUR family?

Well, you can download an application for him here, or get more information by calling the shelter at 802-741-PETS (7387) or e-mailing info@kingdomanimalshelter.com. There are more adoptable kitties here, if Smokey isn’t quite what you’re looking for.

*For the record, my landlord isn’t the homicidal type, not in the least..I just had to throw the personal jab out there because I know he reads this blog!

Quick Prep Roasted Cauliflower with Ham

leanKitchen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:27:20 +0000

I probably eat ham three times a year, but when I do, I love the bold, smoky, salty flavor. And roasting veggies is one of my favorite ways to serve them. This recipe was just destined for creation! : )

This past Easter, I had a cinnamonny dessert of some sort rubbing up against the ham on my plate. Upon tasting it, I discovered ham and cinnamon were an awesome flavor combination, and so I tried roasting cauliflower (let’s face it; it’s a fairly bland veggie) with ham and cinnamon. The results were fantastic.

First, I preheated my oven to 400 degrees. I then took a head of cauliflower and chopped it up into florets, and then into a roasting pan like this:

Breaking up the head of Cauliflower

In my oven, roasted vegetable perfection happens at 400 degrees F, so before breaking up the cauli, preheat the oven. After putting it in the roasting pan, I diced up a low-sodium ham steak. Before adding the ham to the cauliflower, I tossed enough olive oil in to lightly coat the veggies. I took half a lemon, and squeezed that over the top too, to bring out the flavor combination. I added the ham, mixed it up with my hands, then sprinkled on salt (not much, ham is pretty salty itself), pepper, and cinammon to taste. Depending on your head of cauli, a pretty good rule of thumb is you want to see the spices you add on BEFORE roasting, so a pretty healthy amount of cinammon is in order. * Seasoning before roasting is key, because that way the veg takes on the flavors desired during the roasting process.

I then put the whole thing in the oven until the ham had darkened in color, and the tops of the cauliflower had browned up nicely like this:

Roasted Cauliflower with diced Ham and Cinnamon

Let it rest on the countertop for a couple of minutes, and then serve, and enjoy!!

P.S…This is really good the second day around, too!

*I’ve used pumpkin pie spice, and curry with cumin, too. The curry/cumin combination brings out the smokiness in the ham, and is a deep, savory alternative to this dish. Delicious that way, too.