Margaret's Lower Sugar Zuchini Bread (featuring Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb)

his is the last of the Laughing Cow recipes and for this one we didn't put the cheese in it but on it!

Like I said before, the original plan was to have an exotic pork smashed meatball topped with the cheese but alas the recipe went terribly wrong somewhere. It was dry and crumbly and just didn't taste very good (PLEASE NOTE: See? Even I have recipe fails sometimes!).

Thankfully Margaret had two loaves of wonderfully yummy smelling zucchini bread on which we could try our Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb cheese. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Nik, traditional zucchini bread is sweet. You put garlic & herb cheese on it???"

Notice that in the recipes I suggested for the cheese (Savory Cheesecake w/ Sausage & Crab Topping and Grilled Pear with Herb & Cheese topping, respectively) I've played with the notion of how sweet, savory and salty go together. Many folks see "cheesecake" and think dessert, but my savory cheesecake is more like a healthy, comfort food dinner. And many people might scrunch their noses at a pear stuffed with cheese and basil then drizzled with caramel but then you'd be missing out on some intense culinary pleasures.

So bottom line: Play With Your Food, people! It can be very rewarding.

Again, I'm going to send you to Margaret's blog, Feed My Sleeve, for the full recipe BUT I wanted to provide a few swap notes:

• You can use an equivalent amount of Carbquik or Atkins Mix (note this product is being discontinued by Atkins! I'm so sad! But that is to say the price in that link is NOT the normal price. If you come across a bag locally, grab it!) for the flour she suggests, although it's noteworthy that she made hers with wheat flour which would be acceptable if you are making it for the family. Again, your guts, your home, your choice!
• If you use CQ or Atkins alone you do not need to add the baking powder called for in Margaret's recipe. It already contains baking powder.
• However, if you want to replace any part of the CQ/Atkins with protein powder (in this case I think 2 or 3 scoops in place of 1/2 c. of flour would probably work fine) you need to leave that baking powder in!
• For my dumpers: Splenda Brown Sugar Blend does have some real sugar in it. Take heed! If you want to avoid all sugar, get your favorite sugar substitute for baking. Since Splenda measures 1:1 for sugar just measure your sugar substitute against sugar and you should be fine. You don't necessarily need a brown sugar substitute (although you may want one for the sake of color). In traditional recipes, brown sugar is used when a certain texture is desired (the molasses in brown sugar can make things more dense, surfaces more crispy, etc.) or for color. 

Since Margaret endowed me with a HUGE zucchini from her garden that's held up well through my recent travel, I think I actually might try my hand at making mini-zucchini loaves (much like my mini-banana loaves) out of Atkins Mix. If I do, I shall report back!

Margaret's Chicken Roulade featuring Laughing Cow Light Swiss

This recipe is dedicated to all those people who think that eating tasty, healthy food has to be laborious.

Margaret is here to tell you that's not true!

She was our fabulous host for the Laughing Cow cheese party and a great friend of mine!

This is the picture of her chicken roulade, but I'm sorry, I'm gonna send you over the her new blog, "Feed My Sleeve" for the recipe and instructions. Be sure to bookmark her page as she's going to feature her world-class cooking (she cooked for Gordon Ramsey as an audition for Master Chef!) from a weight-loss surgery perspective!

But here also are a few "bonus" pictures, taken by my very own Grade Diva! (My oldest daughter)

Margaret spreading the Laughing Cow cheese onto her pounded chicken breasts.

Margaret rolling up the roulades after stuffing them with asparagus and other yummy veggies! (You can use whatever you like.)

This roulade sauce also doubled as the topping for the savory cheesecake!

...and of course I have to give a shout out to Widget, Margaret's impossibly adorable dog!

Grilled Pears with Herb & Cheese Topping (featuring Laughing Cow White Cheddar Cheese)

I'd love to tell you I thought of this recipe all on my own. That it was some figment of my imagination bourne of my vast culinary experience that I just knew would hit the palate the right way.

But I'd be lying.

In truth this recipe is an amalgamation of a bunch of things I've seen: on Food Network, in magazines, at fancy dinner events. So I can't say with confidence that this was an original idea so much as I can say that I guard my food memories very well. Which, to be fair, is a skill!

This was another of the recipes we made at my Laughing Cow cooking party. Fresh off the defeat of "Pork Meatball-gate" I was feeling a bit less than confident about my recipe skills. But we forged on and I'm so glad we did because this was yummy! It's easy to make but feels gourmet. It's savory, sweet, chewy and crunchy - it hits all the pleasure zones!

Grilled Pear with Herb & Cheese Topping
(Makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil + 1 tbsp. melted butter
• 2 pears, cut in half, cored and seeded
• 1/3 c. ricotta cheese
• 4 Laughing Cow White Cheddar cheese wedges
• 1 tbsp. basil (we used fresh leaves from Margaret's plant), rough chopped
• 4 tbsp. sugar-free caramel sauce
• 1/3 c. sliced almonds

Directions:

Combine olive oil and butter in a bowl then, using a food brush, brush the cut side of the pear and grill about 7 minutes or until tender and it's developed grill marks.

In a bowl, combine ricotta and Laughing Cow cheeses and mix thoroughly. Add basil and mix again. Refrigerate mixture until ready to serve.

Set a dry skillet (meaning no non-stick cooking spray) over medium heat and allow it to get hot. Add almond slices and gently toss about 3 minutes or until slices darken and you can smell the almonds. Remove from heat.

To assemble the dessert, place a pear on a plate, fill the cavity with the ricotta/cheddar mixture, drizzle with caramel and top with toasted almonds!

This was one of those desserts that was really complex and I loved it. The basil really stood out and tasted fresh against the slight salty-ness of the cheese, which complimented the caramel and the almonds gave the thing a "pie crust" kind of feel.

My advice? Make this next time you have someone over to dinner. It looks gorgeous, it tastes divine and it will put you squarely in the dinner host(ess) hall of fame!

Wait...why is Bariatric Foodie making recipes with Laughing Cow Cheese?

So earlier I jumped right into my Laughing Cow recipes without much explanation of how that recipe (or the ones that follow) came to be.

See, I stalk certain products online. I Tweet about them. I engage with their Facebook pages. I don’t really have a purpose in doing this except to form a good relationship and let good products know that I love them. Such is the case with The Laughing Cow.

You might remember that I encountered “The Cow” at Fitbloggin’ in Portland. Just in case your sun does not rise and set on my life, here’s a short (I swear, 8 seconds, a record!) of how it all went down:

After I got back I was going through all my conference literature (because I AM that geek who does that) and I saw a leaflet from The Laughing Cow. So I decided to Tweet them and see if I could maybe get some coupons for their cheeses. I always have TONS of recipe ideas and thought it’d be fun to see if some would work with this versatile, spreadable cheese.

So I Tweeted them and they Tweeted me back and offered to let me try some cheese! I gave them my address thinking they were sending coupons (although if I was thinking with the other side of my brain it might have occurred to me that one can now email coupons) and a few days later this arrived at my office:

Yeah. This totally blew my mind. I didn’t know you could FedEx cheese!!!

Now if you haven’t already guessed this about me, I’m the kind of person who likes to share. So the idea of me having all this cheese by myself was not nearly as appealing as gathering a group of Foodie friends and all of us having cheese together! And so the Laughing Cow Cheese Cooking Party was born.

My friend Margaret hosted at her gorgeous home. I asked each friend who attended to “sponsor” a recipe (basically buy the ingredients). Margaret offered up one recipe, I suggested three more for that day. We’d get together and cook them, laugh, talk…you know…the wonderful stuff that happens in the kitchen. So this is the result:

Now let’s talk about experimentation. See that wonderful zucchini bread? That was something Margaret had already made because she had a bumper crop of zucchini in her garden. Originally the fourth recipe was to be a Hawaiian pork slider. And I prepped it up. It had such potential! 

But the slider was…not good. This is why I am adamant about testing recipes a few times before posting, Foodies. So that you can avoid the mishaps that I have so very often in the kitchen! So I’m going to keep working on that slider and will post once it’s right. But for now, I’m going to post the other recipes over the next few days. Each of these recipes got a wonderful reception from all party guests and I hope you’ll enjoy them too! 

Stuffed Portabella Mushroom featuring Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb Cheese

Dear Foodies who hate mushrooms:

While I do not apologize for this dish, I understand. You feel about mushrooms the way I feel about… … (trying to think of something I don’t like…) … oh, terragon! I hate terragon. So yes, I can empathize!

But rest assured the other Laughing Cow recipes I developed are mushroom free and delicious. Check back throughout this week as I share how Bariatric Foodie imagines the possibilities with The Laughing Cow!

To everyone else:

So I bought this Portabella Mushroom. And I’d never cooked one before so I was a bit nervous about the whole thing. I mean I’d eaten one before and loved it but never cooked one. I asked for suggestions on Facebook and Twitter but finally I decided, you know what, I’m gonna use what’s in my refrigerator! I have an abundance of veggies that need using and it seemed wasteful to go out and buy more food, especially considering I’m leaving town in two days!

So here’s what I came up with.

Nik’s Baked Stuffed Portabella featuring Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb Cheese

Ingredients

• Non-stick cooking spray
• 1 Portabella mushroom, cleaned, stemmed and “spongy part” gills removed
• 2 tbsp. diced onions
• 2 tbsp. finely diced zucchini
• 2 tbsp. finely diced yellow squash
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 2 wedges Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb cheese
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp. Herbs de Provence (or fresh herbs of your choosing work well too!)
• 1 heaping tablespoon your favorite shredded cheddar cheese
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Clean outside of mushroom with a damp paper towel and then spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Use salt and pepper as desired.

Spray down a small skillet and sautee the onions, squash, zucchini and garlic until just tender.

In a bowl, thoroughly mix together Laughing Cow wedges and egg. Add vegetables.

Place mushroom in a baking pan that’s been coated with nonstick and pour egg/cheese/veggie mixture in. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until egg mixture is set, cheese is brown on top and the mushroom has flattened considerably.

I garnished with fresh diced tomatoes (I liked the pop of color).

WARNING: A full-size Portabella is going to yield more than one serving. My advice? Let it cool for a few minutes and slice it like a pizza. It keeps for 2-3 days in the fridge and if you’re ok with reheated food, this reheats well in the microwave. If you’re not good with reheated food then you might consider either halving the filling recipe and using baby bellas OR sharing this recipe with someone you love, who also loves mushrooms.

Enjoy!