How can we cook low carb for Easter?

[Billie]

Thought we could work on a great low carb recipe for Easter with everyone's input. It could be a dinner or an Easter brunch.

At our house, prior to low carb, Easter dinner was marked of course by GOBS of chocolate and candies and the meal itself most often took on a spring celebration kind of feel.

We used to always have ham, maybe a ham with pineapple or a brown sugar sauce, it seems coming from my memory here a waldorf salad, usually augratin potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, fresh baked rolls and I am thinking it was rhubarb pies.

Everyone has different holiday suggestions but maybe we could come up with a low carb Easter dinner or brunch with contributions from everyone.

Brunch for me is the easiest it might include, omelets made to order, or egg/sausage casseorle, or low carb waffles with fresh strawberries, or eggs benedict sans english muffin with fresh asparagus and a cheese sauce, maybe a small glass or paleo punch.

What are some other ideas?

[Mitra]

If it's available in time, I'll be roasting a leg of the first spring lamb of the year. I'll do spinach if I can get some, otherwise it will probably be chard.

[Billie]

Ah Janet that sounds lovely and very traditional here as well. And fresh baby spinach sounds great, what's for dessert?

[Mitra]

I wouldn't use baby spinach if I can get some that's a bit bigger, because the baby spinach, while it's good for salads, tends to turn a bit mushy when it's cooked.

To tell the truth, I'm not all that interested in dessert. When I was growing up, my mother made one every day, but most days only my father ate any of it. My mother, brother and I didn't bother. If we were still hungry, we'd rather have seconds of the main course.

If I want to make the dinner a bit fancier, a bit more of an occasion, I'd add some pre-dinner nibbles (olives, roasted almonds, maybe a glass of dry sherry), a better than everyday wine with the meal, then a salad (either green or maybe fennel), then cheese (which could be dressed up with some grapes, celery & walnuts).

[Gaelen]

This month's issue of the free online e-zine Low Carb Luxury just came, and it's packed full of ideas for spring holiday menus. You can view the magazine here:
http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/magazine/lclnewsvol07-no4.html

Enjoy!

[Gaelen]

Well, it's the Saturday before the holiday, so all of the celebrity cooking shows are revealing their Easter menus.

Paula Deen's may be my favorite:

racks of lamb (I'd grill them, but she did hers in a cast-iron skillet on top of the stove and then finished them in the oven)
tomato-cucumber-mint salad (sounds just awesome!)
zucchini custard bake (I ran this one through Mastercook, and it came out as 6g protein and 3g ECC and served 8...I'll post the adaptation as a veggie side dish)

Paula also made homemade chocolate covered easter eggs, but I don't think there's any way to make them low carb. ;) Here's the link to her menu; scroll down for the recipes:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_pa/episode/0,,FOOD_10234_42970,00.html

Emeril's menu includes:

Portuguese Chicken, Lemon and Mint Soup, and
Yogurt Marinated grilled lamb

His recipes are here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_14937,00.html

Watching both shows made me hungry for lamb--so even though I'm heading to my sister's for easter dinner, I'm thinking that finding some lamb at the grocery store this week is the right way to make a special feast. And if the zucchini looks good, I'll be taking my version of Paula Deen's Zucchini Custard bake to the family dinner.

[Billie]

We are food channel addicts--I think Gabe thinks he should have a show! :D We fall asleep to Iron Chef and Emeril every night--well I do!

But for Easter we decided to do something a bit unorthodox and have invited friends over for steaks on the grill, a mushroom/asparagus risotto (better be careful not to indulge too much there). Someone is bringing dessert and someone else salad. I think we may do chicken/veggies skewers for appetizers. And probably some kind of fun drink, we have been experimenting with raspberry martini's lately.

I am trying to like lamb :confused: --I raised sheep as a kid and still can't do it. We raised beef too, don't seem to have a problem there! :)

[LisaS]

a delicious grilled item is butterflied leg of lamb with plenty of olive oil , rosemary and garlic - and I'm sure a lc mint sauce could be arranged -

I'd probably grill asparagus while the meat was resting and add a lemon sauce to it afterwards - and berries with cream for desert - or maybe something like a lc Pascha cheese but with a berry sauce instead of spread on kulich.

[Billie]

Lisa that sounds like a great menu. I love that this program makes you think! It can be as easy as you want it, grill a steak or a burger, or it can be fun and innovative. Looking good on that recipe, my mouth is a bit drooling reading your thoughts and Gaelen's links!

[hawk]

Billie, I raised sheep too. What is mushroom/asparagus risotto? Steaks on the grill soounds good and simple. If I can swallow by then.If not It may be scrambled eggs.

[Mitra]

We had a wonderful roast leg of lamb a few weeks ago - with anchovies, garlic and rosemary. I will definitely do it again, but for Easter we'll probably have the first very young spring lamb of the season, which has a lovely delicate flavour that would just be overwhelmed by all the usual garlic and rosemary flavourings, so I'll keep it simple (maybe a little bit of mint), and save the stronger flavours for later in the year, when the lambs are older and have a more robust flavour.

[spiderdust]

Looks like it's that time of year again!

Our Easter meals are different from the ones my mother used to make... she served a brown sugar and mustard glazed ham, cheesy scalloped potatoes, broccoli, gelatin salad, dinner rolls, and this elaborate cake.

My household tends to be really busy, so our Easter menu nowadays is simple, but still really nice. We're lucky enough to live in San Francisco's Bay Area and have access to all kinds of produce in season. We have a spiral sliced ham, artichokes or asparagus (maybe some broccoli for the pickiest eater), a green salad with edible flowers, deviled eggs (if we feel industrious), and berries with cream for dessert.

[Inez]

My daughter loves duck, so that tends to be our holiday meal more often than not. My husband doesn't like duck unless it's smoked, so he always smokes it on the grill. Last Easter I made a sauce of Gran Marnier, LC Marmelade and Soy Sauce for the duck and served Strawberry Spinach Salad and Asparagus with Curry Butter from Dana Carpender's newest 500 recipes -- both are out of this world! We had lemon pavlova for dessert.