Archive | Dressings and Sauces

6 Ingredient, Dairy-Free Pesto

By Ami on May 13, 2019 in Dressings and Sauces

I’m a big fan of gardening. Now before you start to picture me Joanna Gaines style, know this: I’ve killed way more than I’ve grown. I’ve planted a garden faithfully every summer for eight years. It’s only been in the last two that we feel like things are really going well. That said, I still kill things. Though since we had a 5-month-old puppy last summer who thought the garden was his personal sandbox, I’m not taking all the blame. Now that he’s older, I have a lot of hope for this summer.

One thing I’ve always struggled with is basil. I love basil! Everyone says it’s easy to grow, yet basil and I… we have a strained relationship. But there are many aphids who thank me for my willingness to keep trying. Last summer I planted our basil right next to the tomatoes. It worked! We had so much basil! I was overjoyed.

My very favorite thing to do with basil is make pesto. I used to think pesto was fancy and that only Food Network stars should make it and use it as a fancy schmear on plates of perfectly braised meat. The truth is, pesto is extremely easy and fast to make.

That’s good news, because I can’t find a high-quality, diary-free pesto that fits in my budget. I love pesto with dairy but sadly, my gut and skin do not. Because I want to make those two things happy, I steer clear of dairy.

This means I have to make my own pesto and I’m happy to say, the cheese does not make the pesto. It’s still AMAZING without the cheese. My cheese-loving, pesto-fanatic husband doesn’t even notice the difference.

This pesto is a part of my weekly meal prep. I always have some on hand. It comes together with just six ingredients (one of which is salt) and only dirties one dish; the food processor. So you don’t even have to chop anything. I love the 21st century.

So hopefully I’ve sold you on this pesto. Now what do you do with it? Everything! My favorite way is to coat my spaghetti squash in it. YUM! We also use it over chicken and steak, and as a salad dressing.

Adding a few spoonfuls to an Italian soup is also incredible like I do in my Italian Sausage Soup (click here for recipe). You can also toss this with some cucumbers and cherry tomatoes for a yummy side dish.

So if you have a garden, go out and plant some basil and give me all your gardening tips!

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Avocado Lime “Everything” Sauce

By Ami on April 2, 2019 in Dressings and Sauces

I have a confession. When I was young, I did not like avocados. Saying that now makes me want to shake the shoulders of my younger self, but it’s true. I still remember the day I tried avocado again. I was at a pizzaria in Idaho and for some reason I decided to order the pizza with avocado. I wasn’t even pregnant, so the random compulsion to eat an avocado was completely out of the blue. I was hooked! I’m not sure why I didn’t like avocados before. It may have been my form of childhood rebellion (my parents are so lucky). Who knows? But I’m thankful I tried an avocado that day.

Now I eat avocados in every way possible. I make them into pudding and frosting, puree them in smoothies, eat them on toast, make them into guacamole and now this perfect sauce.

I call this an “everything” sauce because it fits to well with everything. We’ve used it as a spread for a sandwich, a salad dressing, a chip dip, on top of a burger, and a meatball dip. It’s so versatile! It’s like the little black dress of sauces.

This weekend we went to a restaurant and I sneaked in a jar so I didn’t have to deal with restaurant dressings loaded with unhealthy fats and sugars. Yes, I’m that woman who carries sauces in her purse. I used to make fun of my mom for bringing her no-calorie spray salad dressing to restaurants. Remember those dressings?! I’m so glad we’ve moved beyond that.

Let’s talk about juicing limes for a bit. I love lime juice but limes are often stubborn and don’t want to give up their juice. Here’s the secret. First, warm up your limes. I usually stick them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds. Once they’re warm, roll them on the counter with your hand to loosen them up a bit. This is the only way I get limes to give me their juice.

However you decide to use this sauce, I’m sure it deserves a place in your fridge.

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Homemade Roasted Red Pepper Cauliflower Hummus

By Ami on September 10, 2018 in Dressings and Sauces, Healthy Snacks

I love hummus! I eat it on veggies, on wraps, on hot dogs (way better than ketchup) and on a well-rounded spoon. I decided I wanted to make my own, but I also wanted to up my veggie consumption. Since vegetables are amazing and we all need more, I’m always trying to find a way to get more in my diet. So I decided to replace the beans with roasted cauliflower and see how that worked out for me.

My life will never be the same. It’s DELICIOUS! If you’re not a big fan of cauliflower, give it a try and see what you think. The addition of tahini and the red peppers, plus the smoky flavors from the cumin and paprika cover any cauliflower taste and make this amazing! I mostly use this as a vegetable dip for broccoli and carrots, upping my veggie intake even more. This is also delicious with crackers or plantain chips. If you’re sensitive to tahini, cashew butter works as well, but the tahini gives it a bit more flavor. If I use cashew butter, I sometimes add a bit more cumin and paprika.

I’m also willing to make this homemade “hummus” because it’s super easy to make, freezes well, and lasts longer in the fridge than traditional hummus. Because I line my sheet pan with parchment paper, the only big dish I have to clean is the food processor bowl.

I just throw it all in together to mix, so there is no order to the ingredients. The only part that takes effort (if you can even call it effort) is scraping down the sides of the food processor bowl between blending. If you don’t have a food processor, feel free to use a blender. Just make sure to continue to scrape down the sides.

I’m so happy with the results, I plan to change up the flavors and see what else I can come up with. Stay tuned!

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No Sugar BBQ Sauce

By Ami on September 8, 2015 in Dressings and Sauces

BBQ sauce makes any meat better. Pour it over chicken, that’s all you need for a great dinner. Pour it over a pork roast and, voila; pulled pork. Smear it on hamburgers and they’re suddenly the best hamburgers ever. My daughter uses BBQ sauce like most kids use ketchup, so we go through a lot of it in our house. While I’m totally okay with adding strange things to food to get kids to eat them, I’m not okay with the sugar content of most condiments. This is especially true for BBQ sauce. When we made the change to a healthier lifestyle, I knew we couldn’t give up BBQ sauce. That’s when I began the quest to make a no-sugar BBQ sauce. Not only did I succeed, but my husband says this is the best BBQ sauce I’ve ever made and my daughter gave it her stamp of approval.

First let’s look at a typical bottled BBQ sauce. The sauce we bought before we made our own, contains 32 grams of sugar in 1/4 C with high fructose corn syrup being the first ingredient. That is crazy. My BBQ sauce has less than 3 grams of sugar in 1/4 C and tastes delicious.

This is also an easy recipe. I didn’t want a recipe that required a lot of sauteing, dish washing and vegetable chopping, so I made it simple. Just throw all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. Yes there are a lot of ingredients, but they are likely things you have in your pantry. If you don’t like an ingredient, leave it out.

I like to store it in a mason jar (or a washed, glass peanut-butter jar since we have a million of those sitting around) and stick it in the fridge. This will stay good for about a two weeks.

One night we had some left over pork roast and needed a quick dinner. I threw the roast leftovers in a slow cooker with the BBQ sauce and we had dinner. It’s almost too easy.

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Better than Restaurant Pico de Gallo

By Ami on August 7, 2015 in Dressings and Sauces

Whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant, I always load whatever I’m eating with pico de gallo. Did you know pico de gallo is healthy? And did you know it’s extremely easy to make? I know that now and my life is much better because of it.

Here are my top five favorite uses for pico de gallo:

Rather than spending a lot of time making a salsa or buying one full of preservatives, make a batch of pico de gallo and use this in place of salsa for tortilla chips.
Use it on top of enchiladas, tacos, quesadillas or nachos to make them taste extra fresh and yummy.
Top a salad with pico de gallo instead of dressing. Eating healthy means a lot of salads, so this helps to change things up a bit
Grill a chicken breast and top it with pico de gallo. If you’re like me and make a big batch for the week, this makes dinner extremely easy.
Stir pico de gallo into some brown rice for an easy side dish.

Now I’m sure you’re curious how to make it, so here we go. Pico de gallo has only 4-5 ingredients, plus salt and pepper to taste. I say 4-5 because the jalapeno is optional. I opt out because I have kids who aren’t fans of spicy food and I’m a spice wuss. At least I’m confident enough to admit it.

Start by chopping equal parts roma tomato, red onion and cilantro. Make the pieces as large or small as you like, but try to make them uniform. If you’re adding a jalapeno, remove the seeds and finely chop it. Stir this all together and squeeze in the juice of two limes. Now add salt and pepper to taste. That’s it!

This is easy and versatile enough to whip up every week. And this is one of those fabulous recipes that gets better as it sits. Since I love the stuff so much, I’d love to know your favorite uses for pico de gallo.