Food Archives - Real Maine Mom

April 29, 2020 by Lisa

The BEST Cauliflower “Potato” Salad!!

I wont be surprised if you tell me that cauliflower is not a favorite side dish for you and your family, but I feel like I might surprise you if I tell you that at my house it is a shining star! No joke, this is now my husbands favorite side dish for a BBQ!! And my 2 year old loves it too!

Now, not only is a cauliflower potato salad a low carb, keto-friendly option, but once you make this I am pretty confident you are going to want to make it all the time.

I am about to let you in on a little secret about making this turn out delicious… you need to bake the cauliflower. If you don’t bake the cauliflower, don’t expect this to come out the same.

This recipe will make enough for a side dish for about 3- 4 people, but it will taste great the next day too if you want make extra to have some leftover, or to make ahead for a party.

What you will need:

1 large head of cauliflower, chopped into small cubes or small florets, leave the small stems)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2-3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1/4 of a large onion, diced (amount per your liking)
1-2 stalks of celery, diced (amount per your liking)
About 2/3 Cup Mayonnaise (I prefer Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise)
3/4 tablespoon yellow mustard (you could sub dijon)
3/4 tablespoon white vinegar (you could sub apple cider vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley (optional)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (I like to use Sea Salt)
1/4 teaspoon pepper, black

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil, and lightly spray with non-stick spray of your choice.

In a large bowl, coat the majority of your cauliflower in the melted butter. Pour the buttered cauliflower onto the pan, and bake for 10 minutes.

While the cauliflower is baking, you can boil your eggs if you have not done so already.

Remove cauliflower from oven and place back in the large bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour, or until chilled. Add the chopped eggs to this bowl to chill along with the cauliflower.

I usually dice my onions now and add them to the bowl, along with the celery.

Next, mix together the ingredients for the dressing. (Doing this ahead of time will ensure a consistent flavor once added to the salad without having to over-mix the salad in an effort to combine ingredients). In a small bowl or medium measuring cup, mix together the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, paprika, parsley, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Add sauce to the other cooled ingredients and stir.

Tip, this dressing doubles as a great dipping sauce for meats, french fries or an awesome spread for your cheeseburger if you are looking to mix things up… but obviously make less sauce for these things 🙂

Lastly, watch your family gobble it up! As you dream of what their reactions will be let me tell you… It is not one of things where anyone will say “WHAT??!! I didn’t even notice this was not potato!”, it will be more like, “I didn’t know cauliflower could taste this good, let’s buy this more often! Potato who?”

Like any potato salad, it can be served as a side with many things, but my favorite is something from the BBQ- hamburgers, chicken, sausage- you know what they like! Enjoy!!

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October 28, 2019 by Lisa

Easy & Delicious Bacon Wrapped Scallop Meal in Under 30 Minutes

If you don’t have a go-to recipe yet for bacon-wrapped scallops, I would highly recommend trying this recipe. This is my go-to recipe because the scallops are cooked to perfection each time, and it is quick and easy. Also, I personally don’t love using a broiler because of grease splatter and smoke, and this recipe does not call for the broiler.

Note: if you keep reading beyond the scallops recipe you will see the process I follow for the whole meal pictured above. This entire meal takes only 30 minutes (or less) from start to finish.

Preheat the Oven to 425

First, preheat your oven to 425 degrees F, and prepare a foil-lined cookie sheet, with cooking spray.

Prepare the Bacon

Then I prep the bacon. I know you can never really have too much bacon, but in my opinion, it can overpower the scallops if the ratio of bacon to scallops is too high. For this reason, I like to cut each piece of bacon in half lengthwise. This gives you plenty of length to go around the scallop more than once, but cuts the amount of bacon that you need in half.

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Prepare the Glaze

While the bacon cools, use a small-medium size bowl to prepare the glaze. You could choose to skip this step, and or season the scallops as you prefer at this point, but here is what I like to use:

Because we are currently eating “keto”, I like to combine 1/8th cup of melted butter, about a tablespoon or less of lemon juice, a couple teaspoons of minced garlic, a tablespoon (or so) of soy sauce, and another tablespoon (or so) of keto-friendly maple syrup. Feel free to use regular syrup if you are not on a keto diet. I don’t actually measure these out, just combine them to your taste/liking.

Prepare & Wrap Scallops

Lay the scallops out on a couple sheets of paper towels and pat them dry. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Wrap the bacon around each scallop and secure each with a toothpick.

Glaze the Scallops

Dip both sides of each bacon-wrapped scallop in your sauce, and then place on a lightly greased, foil-lined, cookie sheet.

Note: If you are following the entire meal recipe, stop here and take a few moments to prep the asparagus (directions are included below) as you can bake it at the same time as the scallops.

Bake for 12-15 Minutes

Any longer and the scallops with be overcooked. I usually check them to make sure they are opaque at 12 minutes. My sweet spot in my oven seems to be 13 minutes for perfectly cooked scallops.

Want to Make the Whole Meal?

Easy Bacon Wrapped Scallop Meal in Under 30 Minutes!

Oven Baked Asparagus

Since I am already baking, I usually like to bake some asparagus at the same time. This is my favorite way to cook and enjoy asparagus. I simply snap the ends off of each piece where they naturally break, rinse, dry, and then I roll them in a very thin layer of extra virgin olive oil on a foil lined cookie sheet. Season to your liking, but I personally like to just sprinkle some Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt on them and throw them in the oven at 425 for 12-15 minutes (Yes, the same as the scallops) or until they are nice and crispy. I like to give these a roll halfway through baking.

Riced Cauliflower

I never said I was a chef. This one is super easy, and is a great side, especially if you are on the keto diet. If not, maybe you would prefer a real rice? Anyways, I just purchase riced cauliflower out of the freezer section at the supermarket and follow the directions on the package. I like this particular kind because it is already seasoned with lemon and garlic and it pairs really well with the rest of this meal. Cook this while your scallops and asparagus are baking. Once cooked, sprinkle with some salt and pepper and top with soy sauce. Yum! Garnish as you like- I chose to slice a cherry tomato and display as a heart. Enjoy!

September 27, 2019 by Lisa

My favorite Keto Recipe to Date: Banana Nut Keto Muffins

Admittedly, I have tried a quite a few keto recipes. After all, we have been on the diet for 5 months as of the date this post was written (read more about this on my post on how I finally lost the baby weight) and though cravings are minimal, sometimes I just miss certain things.

When the weather starts to cool off here in Maine it is like a cue for us moms to begin using the oven again and to start baking (am I right?). I didn’t want this year to be any different just because we are on a “diet”.

You know what I havent had in a long time? A banana. Honestly, I had not had a muffin either. I wanted both.

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So, you may be asking yourself the same question I did. How do you make banana keto nut muffins if you can’t eat bananas? Well, this keto recipe genius Joe Duff (The Diet Chef) helped me to discover Banana Extract. So I popped onto Amazon and 2 days later I had the secret ingredient I needed to make Banana Nut Keto Muffins.

Also, the Diet Chef suggested using this almond flour but I did substitute with Blue Diamond brand and it worked out just fine.

Now to deal with my husband who is asking me to bake up our 3rd batch of these this week… and he’s calling for a double batch. Should I give in?

The Diet Chef has tons of amazing keto-recipes. Check him out and his recently released cookbook too! I like to follow him on instagram @thejoeduff for his latest recipes.

The BEST Cauliflower “Potato” Salad!!