Crab Cakes made lighter

Often high in fat and calories, this recipe from Hungry Girl keeps the flavor but eliminates the guilt.

Crab Cakes  
Ingredients:
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tsp. finely chopped parsley
Dash each salt and black pepper
8 oz. (about 1 cup) canned lump crab meat, drained
2 tbsp. finely chopped onion
2 tbsp. finely chopped celery
1 tsp. chopped garlic
2 tbsp. reduced-fat cream cheese
3 tbsp. egg whites or fat-free liquid egg substitute
1 tbsp. light mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsp. Hellmann's/Best Foods Dijonnaise (or another creamy mild Dijon mustard)
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. light whipped butter or light buttery spread (like Brummel & Brown)
Optional: additional Dijonnaise (for dipping), lemon wedges (for squirting)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.

In a medium-large bowl, combine breadcrumbs, parsley, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Add crabmeat, onion, celery, and garlic. Mix until uniform.

In a medium bowl, stir cream cheese until smooth. Add egg whites/substitute, mayo, Dijonnaise, lemon juice, and butter. Whisk until smooth and uniform.

Using a rubber spatula, fold cream cheese mixture into crab meat mixture.

Evenly form mixture into 4 balls, and place on the baking sheet, evenly spaced. Flatten each one into a patty about 1-inch thick.

Bake for 8 minutes.

Carefully flip patties. Bake until firm, lightly browned, and cooked through, about 8 more minutes.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

Serving Size: 1 large crab cake (1/4th of recipe)
Calories: 119
Fat: 3g
Sodium: 368mg
Carbs: 8g
Fiber: 0.5g
Sugars: 1g
Protein: 14g

Lemon Bars with two ingredients

Lemon Bars

Phoenix has lemon trees all over so it's easy to make all kinds of lemon goodies. The trees are loaded down now and ready to pick.
Also try Lemon Rub Pie page 178 in Tastes & Treasures cookbook.

Two Ingredient Lemon Bars


Ingredients:
1 box angel food cake mix

22 ounces lemon pie filling



Directions:
 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cake mix and pie filling together in a large mixing bowl.



 Spread mixture into greased 9×13 baking dish.



 Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly golden. Expect for these to be more of a cake-like texture than other lemon bars.



 Top with powdered sugar and finely-grated lemon.


Options: try apple or cherry pie filling too.

Makes about 15 bars.

thanks to recipeswithlove

Very Lemon Bread from Rancho de la Osa

Rancho de la Osa gave us this wonderful recipe for Tastes & Treasures cookbook. The fascinating history of the Guest Ranch is told in the cookbook. It began as a Jesuit mission outpost in the late 1600s. If only those walls could talk . . .

The Very Lemon Bread was almost gone by the time I got to take a photo of Mariamne Moore with her tasty treat. Also volunteering at our cookbook booths, Mariamne has been a tremendous help in promoting Tastes & Treasures and the Historical League.

Our January Historical League meeting was packed and the luncheon was well received.

Very Lemon Bread

Bread Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Lemon Glaze Ingredients:

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

For the bread, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Mix the sugar, butter and lemon extract in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, beating until just blended after each addition. Fold in the lemon zest and pecans. Pour into greased and floured 5 X 8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

For the glaze, blend the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in a bowl until smooth. Drizzle over the cracks int he warm bread that form while baking.

Makes 1 loaf. Decorate with slices of fresh lemons and blueberries. Yummm.

Note: Before adding glaze, it really helps to take a fork and make deep punctures from the top of the loaf pan. Then the glaze flows down through the entire loaf.

When using fresh lemons instead of lemon extract, you need to cut back slightly on the liquid (milk) used since fresh lemons are not as concentrated. We used 1/3 cup milk.

Shrimp Salad

Bonnie Newhoff is one of the best cooks in the League. She uses fresh ingredients from her garden when she can and isn't afraid to experiment with recipes. This salad was a welcome addition at one of our meetings.

Green Salad with Shrimp page 174 Tastes & Treasures

2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons white vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 or 3 avocados, sliced
2 pounds small shrimp, cooked and peeled
1 bunch spinach, trimmed
1 head romaine, trimmed and leaves separated
1 head iceberg lettuce, trimmed and leaves separated
1 pound bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled

Combine the oil, cottage cheese, onion, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, peppercorns and cayenne pepper in a blender or food processor and process until mixed. Combine the cottage cheese mixture, avocados and shrimp in a bowl and mix gently. Chill, covered, for 8 to 10 hours. Rinse the spinach, romaine and iceberg lettuce and wrap in damp clean kitchen towels. Chill for 8 to 10 hours.

Tear the greens into bite-size pieces. Combine the greens and the shrimp mixture in a salad bowl and mix gently. Sprinkle with the bacon and serve immediately.

Serves 8 to 10