Healthy Desserts: Red, White & Blue-berry Strawberry Cannoli

One of my absolute FAVORITE weight loss surgery friendly desserts are my Strawberry Cannoli. Red, ripe strawberries filled with protein packed ricotta cream. I usually dip the ricotta filled ends in unsweetened cocoa, shaved sugar free chocolate, unsweetened coconut or nuts to mimic my childhood favorite Sicilian dessert. Sometimes I make a coffee flavored filling but since it's the 4th of July I thought a little red, white and blueberry was in order...

Weight Loss Fitness Bariatric Surgery Friendly Recipes Cooking Menus
Shelly's Red, White & Blue Strawberry Cannoli

12 Large Red Ripe Strawberries, washed & cored
12 Blueberries
1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Torani Syrup (I used SF Vanilla)
dash of Cinnamon

Optional toppings (for days other than the 4th of July)
Unsweetened Coconut
Grated Sugar Free Chocolate
Chopped Nuts (Chopped Pistachios, Pecans, or Hazelnuts are great)

Wash and core strawberries. Leaving a hollow in the berry. Set aside.

Mix ricotta, SF syrup and cinnamon together till well combined. Spoon mixture into a snack size Ziploc bag. Seal.

Cut end off and pipe mixture into hollowed strawberries. Place a fresh blueberry on each end.

Post-ops beware... you better hide a few of these suckers or make a double (or triple) batch because they will get gobbled up by non-ops before you can get to the dish.

Strawberry Dessert Sugar Free Weight Loss Surgery Diabetic
Hope everyone is having a GREAT weekend.
Happy 4th of July! Be safe.
Remember your pets... loud booms and bangs are so scary for them.
✩✩ God Bless America! ✩✩

Post Weight Loss Surgery Menus: A day in my pouch

Yesterday in post weight loss surgery eating...

Breakfast: Remember the Cherry Baked Pancake I made a few weeks ago. Here's a Blueberry version. Both were super yummy. Still trying to decide which was my favorite.

Shelly's Baked Blueberry Pancake (Clafoutis -ish)

2 cups Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
2 Tablespoons Sugar-Free Torani Syrup (SF Vanilla, Almond, or Blueberry all would be great)

Batter
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Cottage Cheese
3/4 cup Milk
1/2 cup Multigrain Pancake Mix (I use this)
1/4 cup Strawberry Protein Powder
1/4 cup Sugar Free Torani Syrup (I used SF Vanilla)

Saute blueberries and 2 T of SF syrup for a few minutes till slightly softened. Arrange in a Pyrex baking dish or deep pie plate (any size around 8x8x2 would work) that has been sprayed with Pam non-stick spray. Whiz the batter ingredients in a blender till smooth. Pour batter over top of the berries.

Bake at 425 for about 25 minutes or until puffed and lightly golden brown.

Serve a wedge with a squirt of Homemade, No Sugar Added Whipped Cream and/or a drizzle of warmed SF Maple Syrup. A piece topped with a dollop of sweetened Fage Greek Yogurt is great too.

Lunch: Was busy working and needed something easy... it doesn't get much easier than this. I could live on this simple tuna salad. It's the tuna. It's unreal. If you hate tuna. Try this tuna. It's life-changing. No seriously, it is.


Shelly's Tuna, Cukes & Cheese

1 can Tuna Fillets, packed in Olive Oil, drained (I use Roland Ventresca Tuna Fillets)
1 Cucumber, chopped
1/4 teaspoon Oregano
1 cup Mini Fresh Mozzarella Balls (sometimes called perlini)
Kosher Salt to taste
a few twists of Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar (any fruity vinegar will do)

Mix everything together. That is all. Great for a beach or park outing or for work because it only gets better as it sits and no mayo to spoil.

Dinner: Friday's I do a veggie drawer clean-out in preparation for the Farmer's Market purchases on the weekend. A lonely leek made it into this Broccoli Cheese Soup.

Shelly's Broccoli Cheese Soup

1 Leek, light green & white parts only, diced
1 Yellow Onion, diced
4 Green Onions, diced
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1 (16 oz.) bag Frozen Broccoli, steamed
1/2 teaspoon Thyme
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
a few twists of Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon Multigrain Pancake Batter (I use this)
1 cup Milk
2 cups Chicken Broth
1 cup Cheese, grated (I used a combo of cheddar and Parmesan)

Steam and puree broccoli in a food processor till finely chopped. Set aside.

Saute leek and onions till golden. Add garlic cook 1 minute more. Add broccoli and seasonings. Make a well in the center and add butter and pancake mix. Cook for 1 minute. Add milk and broth. Cook covered for 30 minutes on low. Stirring occasionally. I whizzed it smooth with this super cool gadget. You could leave it chunky or blend it in a regular blender in batches then dump it back into the pan. Add cheese cook 5 minutes more. Serve with optional toppings: a sprinkle of French Fried Onions (those Durkee Green Bean Casserole ones) and a dollop of...

Shelly's Greek Yogurt Sauce

2 oz. Fage Greek Yogurt
1 Tablespoon Mayo
dash Seasoning Salt
1/2 teaspoon Greek Seasoning

Mix together.

Snacks: As always too much coffee and 2 scoops of my Strawberry Protein Ice Cream with a drizzle of Smucker's Sugar-Free Strawberry Topping and Land o Lakes SF Whipped Cream for dessert.

For those of you that are new to the blog... I do these day in my pouch posts once a week or so. These are foods that are OK on my plan. Be sure to always follow your medical posse's advice. Click here for info on how to find nutritional values on an Eggface (or any other) recipe.

Mmmushrooms

Dinner last night was soooo good. I picked up some big white stuffing mushrooms at the store. I was planning on making my Crab Stuffed Mushrooms (which are to die for) but when I got home I remembered I had taken down some ground turkey to defrost the night before. I debated chopping up my perfect stuffing mushrooms and making my Asian Lettuce Cups but it seemed sad after carefully picking out the best shaped stuffers.

This is what I came up with. OMG these rock! Make 'em.

Shelly's Mexican Stuffed Mushrooms

1 Yellow Onion, diced
2 Green Onions, diced
1 clove Garlic, minced
1/2 pound Ground Turkey
1 Tablespoon Southwest or Taco Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
1 (4 oz. can) Mild Green Chilies, drained
1/2 cup Cottage Cheese
1 Tablespoon Mayo
a few dashes of Hot Sauce to taste (I prefer Cholula)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
a few twists of Black Pepper
1/2 cup Mexican Blend Cheese, shredded
12-15 Large Stuffing-size White Mushrooms

Clean and remove the stems from 12 to 15 Mushrooms. Chop up stems if not to woody. Set aside. Saute onions and mushroom stems till golden. Add turkey and cook till no pink is seen. Add garlic and seasonings and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Add cottage cheese, mayo and hot sauce. Add to meat mixture.

Mix till well combined. Stuff mixture into mushroom caps. Arrange on a lightly oiled Pyrex dish or baking sheet. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

These would be great made ahead for a party and warmed up just before guests arrive. Perfect weight loss surgery friendly appetizer. Since size of mushrooms will vary, any leftover mixture would be great on a Tortilla Pizza or heated up with an egg for breakfast. I served these for dinner with a cucumber and homegrown tomato salad. It was a delicious and packed with protein meal.

Speaking of tomatoes. My garden is starting to produce a steady stream each day. Nicely staggered. Though I have a feeling next week I may be inundated. Here were the first little beauties of the season...

There is nothing like a just-picked, warm from the sun tomato. One of life's little pleasures.

Protein Ice Cream Birthday Cake

Here's some proof these protein ice cream cakes are easy to make: I made this cake one-handed. My sister called me to wish me a Happy Birthday as I was making it. I guess I could have told her I'd call her back but I just kept on chatting away phone in one hand, ice cream cake making going on with the other. I think it came out pretty cute despite the lack of a hand. It definitely tasted yummy!

Yep, I made a wish!
Nope, I can't tell... you know the rules ;)

Weight Loss Surgery Bariatric Surgery Dessert Recipes Diabetes Diabetic Vertical Sleeve Gastric BypassShelly's Strawberry Protein Ice Cream Cake

You need:
Stainless Food Ring
Protein Ice Cream
Sugar Free Cookies or Protein Bar, crumbs
Sugar Free Torani Syrup
Optional toppings: Smucker's SF Strawberry Topping or SF Jam
Homemade No Sugar Added Whipped Cream

Amounts will vary based on how big a cake you make.

Crush Sugar Free Cookies and add enough SF Syrup to make it clump. I needed about 8 cookies and 1 Tablespoon of Syrup. Place food ring on a plate. Fill base with cookie mixture and press to cover bottom (about 1/2 to 1 inch high.) My protein fudge would work great for the base too.

Fill with Protein Ice Cream you get right out of the machine (soft serve stage) Cover with plastic wrap and freeze till hard. Unmold. I used a warm (nuked 20 seconds) damp dish towel to warm sides and the ring just lifts off.

Decorate if desired. I used Strawberry Topping and Whipped Cream. Other options: Sugar Free Hot Fudge Sauce, Nuts, Fresh or Frozen Fruit, Crushed SF Candy.

My cake makes 4 big wedges. Great for a post-op birthday celebration.

The Protein Ice Cream flavor I used...

Shelly's Strawberry Protein Ice Cream

1 cup Vanilla Soy Milk (or Regular Milk)
2 scoops of Strawberry Protein Powder (or Vanilla)
2 Tablespoons Sugar Free Torani Syrup (I used SF Strawberry)
4 Strawberries, mashed

Mix together milk, protein, and syrup. If you use Vanilla Protein Powder be sure to use Strawberry Sugar Free Torani. I used this gadget to mix it up. It makes it airy and lump free. If you don't have one just toss it in a blender on super high. You want it fluffy almost double in size. Pour into ice cream maker. Add strawberries about 5 minutes before done. Follow your machine's instructions for freezing. You can eat it right away it is soft serve-ish (use it at this stage for Protein Ice Cream Cake making) if you want scoops put it in the freezer to set for an hour. After that hour it will be hard (like rock hard - this is do to the lack of fat content) just nuke it 25 seconds to bring it back to scoops.

More Eggface Protein Ice Cream flavors
Protein Ice Cream 101 Tips

Other Eggface Protein Ice Cream Cakes:

Shelly's Chocolate Mint Protein Ice Cream Cake
Shelly's Oatmeal Cookie Protein Ice Cream Cake
Shelly's Caramel Apple Protein Ice Cream Cake
Shelly's Pistachio Protein Ice Cream Cake
Shelly's Vanilla Bean Protein Ice Cream Cake
Shelly's Candy Cane Protein Ice Cream Cake

More Ways to Celebrate Birthdays Post Weight Loss Surgery