Grilled Steelhead Trout Chowder

Peggy Leave a comment

I’ve been making this chowder ‘base’ for many years.  It was actually a recipe my father created when I was in high school.  Daddy was the real cook in the family.  I can only emulate his well-honed culinary skills now that he is gone.   I’m not very fond of dill, and yet (Who’d a thunk?) this is one of my all-time favorite seafood chowders to this day.  

Today’s chowder creation uses what I have on hand:  leftover Grilled Steelhead Trout.   Other fish varieties work nicely in this chowder as well.  Remember to add your fish last, right before serving, to prevent total break-down.  

The flavor balance of the fish, wine and dill in this recipe is quite delicate, so this is one fish chowder I would NOT recommend adding additional shellfish to this chowder lest this delicate flavor marriage be lost in just another seafood chowder combo.   Did that once and the fish-dill flavor marriage was no longer there.  Dill just doesn’t seem to complement shellfish quite like it does whole fish.  My original recipe called for 2 c. diced potato, not allowed on a low-carb regimen.   I substitute diced red radishes, parsnips, daikon radish  or rutabaga for the potato stand-in here.  If you’re up to the starchy veggie rung of the OWL carb ladder, I myself prefer rutabaga.  

Added note: I regularly make seafood stock from all my shrimp/lobster shells (simmered 30 min. in water) and keep frozen at all times in 1 & 2 cup jars.  Makes a recipe like this easy to put together.

A nice variation on this recipe is to use a little coconut milk for some of the cream.  I find the bacon simmering in this adds enough saltiness for us, but by all means, add more if you feel it needs it.   🙂  Induction friendly recipe if wine is omitted.

INGREDIENTS:

6 slices bacon, coarsely chopped

3 oz. onion, chopped

¼ c. parsley, chopped

¼ tsp. dill seed

2 sprigs fresh dill

1 qt. seafood stock

1 c. heavy cream

14 oz. Grilled Steelhead Trout, cut into 1″ chunks

½ c. dry white wine (omit if on Induction phase)

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

¼ tsp. black pepper

2 cups red or white daikon radishes, diced

DIRECTIONS: On high heat, brown bacon in large stew pot until just done, not crisp.  Add onion and sauté until onion begins to brown and caramelize.  If you wish to add a starchy vegetable, pass on the potatoes and add lower carb diced rutabaga, daikon radish, red radishes, turnip or rutabaga.  Be sure to add those values in to the nutritional info provided below.  Add all remaining ingredients except the fish and cream.  Allow chowder to come to a boil and then immediately lower heat.  Simmer 30 minutes or until all vegetables added are tender.   When tender, add fish and cream.  Continue simmering on lowest heat just long enough for fish to go opaque.  Do not overcook lest the fish fall apart and gets lost in your liquid.  Won’t hurt the taste, but somewhat less attractive visually.  I usually add right before I want to serve the chowder.   You can turn the fire off awhile before adding the fish and cream with no harm to final soup.  Thicken with your favorite thickener if not thick enough for your preference.  Garnished service bowl with a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 5 large bowls, each containing:

180 cals, 9.86 g fat, 3.25 g carbs, 0.66 g fiber, 2.59g NET CARBS, 22.4 g protein, 993 mg sodium (can be reduced with less bacon)

Flounder with Cajun Crawfish Topping

Peggy Leave a comment

I love seafood but sadly, I can’t eat a lot of it anymore. The phosphorus and potassium content of most fish and shellfish wipes out my daily allowances for these macronutrients real fast! And the sodium is off the charts for all seafood, but they do live in salt water before we catch and eat them, so I get it.

I’m trying very hard now to adhere to the Chronic Kidney Disease diet limitations. It’s sure not easy! This dish I created tonight does just barely come in under my total daily limits. It is also low-carb (so many of my recipes now are not low-carb), so I thought I’d share this one with my subscribers. It was so good I know you’re going to like this one! It was inspired by a dish I ate years ago in Lafayette, Louisiana at Chef Paul Prudhomme’s sister’s restaurant, known as Prejean’s. Mine was not exactly as I remember hers, but it was very similar in taste and appearance, so I’m pleased nonetheless.

This recipe a lot of cream, but it Atkins Induction limitations, because each serving only contains 1/3 of the 1/2 cup of cream i the entire recipe. Paleo followers will have to sub in coconut milk for the cream; Primal Blueprint folks may want to reduce the cream, but will be able to enjoy this tasty dish once in awhile.

INGREDIENTS:

3 4-oz. filets of flounder or sole (or other mild white-flesh fish)

8 oz. fresh or frozen crawfish tail meat

1/2 c. heavy cream

1/2 c. water

1 tsp. my salt-free Seafood Spice Blend (more if you like it real spicy)

Light dusting of Xanthan gum to thicken to your preference

Chopped green onions

DIRECTIONS: Place fish on non-stick pan. Brush or spray with a bit of oil. Broil for 3-5 minutes (depending thickness. Remove from oven. While they are broiling, place 1 T. butter in a non-stick skillet and melt. Add crawfish, water, cream, spice blend and sauté until crawfish turn opaque and curl. Lightly dust the surface of the mixture with xanthan gum and simmer, stirring constantly, allowing it to thicken. Dust again if necessary. Plate the fish on platter. Spoon 1/3 of the mixture over each filet. Top with chopped green onions and serve at once. Seafood has enough sodium in it you should not have to add any salt to this dish. Enjoy! This is both tasty and quite filling! I could only fit in a salad with a delicious Asian Carrot Salad Dressing (not my creation, but click for the author’s tasty recipe) without going over my daily nutrient limits. This would be also delicious served with a seasoned cauliflower mash, yellow summer squash or your favorite eggplant side dish.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION: Makes 3 servings, each containing 3 oz. cooked fish and 2.7 oz. of cooked crawfish. Each serving contains 379 cals, 1.87 carbs, 30g fat, 27g protein, 506mg phosphorus, 441mg potassium and 598mg sodium

Peppered Cowboy Ribsteak (or rib roast)

Peggy Leave a comment

Peppered Cowboy RibsteakWe love to buy “Cowboy Ribsteaks”, or what some call hatchet  steaks.  What it is is a bone-in rib steak about 3″ thick.  We bought one for my New Year’s Eve birthday dinner last year and just loved it.  Yes, I’m a New Year’s Eve baby.  We used my dad’s favorite peppered beef grilling marinade on it and WOW, was it ever good!  My husband grilled it about 15 minutes on a side and it was medium-rare to perfection!  I’m planning on this being our Christmas Eve dinner, so thought I’d re-share with my readers.

This marinade recipe was truly my Dad’s creation and we often say his “pride and joy”.  In his 83 years on this earth, he never found a marinade he liked better.  I confess I have not either.  It’s unique; it’s DELICIOUS!  You grilling fanatics MUST try this recipe sometime!  This recipe makes enough marinade for an 8 lb. boneless rib roast if you’re having holiday dinner guests, but my “Cowboy Steak” is much more reasonable size for just the two of us, about 3.5 lb.  I made up a half recipe of marinade for this smaller cut of meat.  This meat marinade isn’t as tasty reheated, so leftovers are best consumed in steak sandwiches, unheated.

This marinade also is great on a nice lean chuck or sirloin roast.   It is Atkins friendly (after you finish Atkins Induction 2-weeks).  Leaving out the wine just isn’t an option for this recipe, so wait until the Atkins OWL (On-going Weight Loss) Phase to enjoy this wonderful hunk of grilled melt-in-your-mouth perfection.  I guarantee, this is so good you’ll be fighting over who gets the two end slices, just like we did when I was growing up.  🙂

MARINADE INGREDIENTS: (remember, it is not all consumed)

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. paprika

1/8 c. low-sodium soy sauce (1/4 c. if you can tolerate the sodium, I don’t though)

1/2 c. dry red wine (I use burgundy or claret generally)

1 T. tomato paste (or tomato sauce)

1½ T. coarse ground black pepper (or enough to entirely coat your meat thickly)

DIRECTIONS:  Pound the coarse ground black pepper over all surfaces of a nice rib roast or extra thick rib steak using the butt of your palm or a meat cleaver. Use less pepper if doing a smaller piece of meat. Place meat in glass dish. I drizzle marinate every half hour (as often as you can remember to stop and do it) most of a day (minimum 6 hours). Most efficient way to marinate without disturbing pepper coating is to use a basting brush. Do not touch the meat with your brush, or you’ll wipe all the pepper off! Hold it over the meat and let it drip off the brush. When surface is soaked, put in refrigerator to marinate.  Baste hourly with my drip method until cooking time.

COOKING:  This recipe really is not good cooked inside in an oven. Not sure why, but trust me on this one, it just isn’t, so grill it for sure.  It seems the marriage of the marinade with charcoal smoke makes this recipe flavor profile so magical.

Prepare your charcoal fire and when coals are white hot, set the meat slightly off to the side (not directly over the coals).  Discard marinade now and do not baste again during cooking so raw meat juice doesn’t contaminate your meat at the end of cooking. You need to grill a 3-3½# piece of meat for about 30 minutes total time (15 minutes on a side) for medium-rare (125º internal).  Larger roasts of 4-6# will take around 20 minutes on a side.  If cooking a 6#-8# roast for a large dinner party, I would cook for 60-80 minutes total cooking time, (30-40 min per side) checking often with meat thermometer until an internal temp of 125º is reached for medium rare.  You should turn the meat every 10 minutes during cooking.  Rib roast/steak is best if not cooked past medium-rare or medium stage unless you like dry, tough meat.  I take mine off when my meat thermometer reads 120º degrees and let it sit on my cutting board for around 5-7 minutes to “rest” before slicing to avoid juices being lost when sliced.  Always remember that a piece of meat over 3# will continue to climb to higher temps while resting on the board (why I err on the side of removal at 120º).

This recipe always gets the WOWS when I serve it so I hope you folks will try it sometime! You won’t be sorry you did!

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:  The marinade is discarded when you cook the meat.  No further basting should be done while cooking as there is now raw meat juice in the marinade.   Calculating how much marinade is consumed is difficult.  It would also be impossible for me to know how many servings you are able to get out of your roast.  So I’m providing the totals for the entire batch of marinade and you will have to see how much it makes and how much is left in the pan before discarding to determine roughly how much is staying on the meat and thus consumed by how many people you are serving.   Most of the sauce goes down the drain, to be perfectly honest, so you’re getting mostly sodium from the soy sauce and a few carbs from the wine and tomato paste that cling to the surface of the meat (a little more if you get the end slices).  The figures below DO NOT INCLUDE THE MEAT.

The entire batch of marinade has:

131 cals, 0.7g fat, 18g carbs, 4.6g fiber, 15.4 NET CARBS (entire batch), 5.5g protein, 1070 mg. sodium

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Peggy 2 Comments

Click to enlarge

Went to the store this morning and bought 3# of ground pork to make a batch of my homemade breakfast sausage.  The commercial not only is getting pricey these days, but it invariably has more sugar, sodium and seasoning than I like.  I used to make my own years ago and kind of got away from doing so.   But am going to get back to making it myself to control what’s in it so I can keep to my Kidney Disease Diet.  🙂  This recipe is Induction friendly.  Any ground pork will do, but what I buy pre-ground is labeled “reduced fat” and is so lean, it appears to be center cut loin.  This is great with breakfast eggs or your pancakes.  I like to crumble to make sausage gravy over a low-carb muffin/biscuit.  It’s also good with a nice green salad for lunch!

I highly encourage you to mix up the recipe and cook a little test patty and taste for levels of the various spices and peppers.  Everyone’s taste is different and you may prefer more of any or all of them.  I like a mild sausage most of the time.  You may prefer yours spicier!

INGREDIENTS: 

3 lb. fresh ground pork

3 T. bacon grease

1 T. +1 tsp. Poultry Seasoning

1 tsp. ground thyme

1½  tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

1½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

½ tsp. salt (I actually use less as I’m very sodium sensitive)

DIRECTIONS:  Using either your hands or a fork, blend all ingredients in a large mixing bowl like you would a meatloaf, until the spices appear to be uniformly mixed throughout.  I like to weigh my patties so I know exactly what I’m eating when  go to log my food intake.  I measured out exactly 22  2½-oz. balls of meat onto plastic and then formed them into patties onto plastic wrap.  I like to do 4 patties to a package.  These are large patties and each one is equivalent to two typical patties made from commercial sausage.  However you decide to package yours, when wrapping, make sure there is a film of plastic between each patty.  That way, after they’re frozen in a gallon plastic zip bag, you can pop off just the number you need with the tip of a knife while they are still frozen!  Then they defrost pretty quickly in the warm skillet.  For convenience, I store all my homemade sausage recipes in the freezer this way.  You will never ever again have any spoil in the refrigerator because it got pushed to the back and you forgot it was even in there.  Been there; done that.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 22  patties  (2 oz raw), which cook up slightly less than 2 oz.  Each contains:

180 cals, 14.9 g  fat, 0.38 g  carbs, 0.13 g fiber, 0.25 g NET CARBS, 10.5 g  protein, 90 mg sodium

Major Life Change for Me

Peggy 11 Comments

I got told last month I have Chronic Kidney Disease, Stage 3. For those that understand, my Estimated Glomerular Filtration rate is 50, or a kidney function test of 50%. Now having said that, I have brought it up to 52% watching a very strict Kidney Diet (not pleasant) the last two weeks (and lost 13# as well). Hope both improvements are a trend! But the Stage 3 CKD diagnosis will stay on my record for the foreseeable future since kidney function naturally declines in everyone as they get older. I turn 77 on New Year’s Eve. “And There You Are” as the Brits say so often. That’s the condensed version.

Now for the expanded version……..On a Kidney Diet, I not only have to track the usual suspects: Calories, Carbs (net only), Fat, Protein and Sodium………..but I must also track Phosphorus and Potassium like a hawk! And man, after 1 weeks search effort on-line, I only found ONE food tracker that would give me those 2 minerals. It’s called Happy Forks. You might want to check it out sometime. Sadly, this website only displays the food you type in to search and has no capability to list my item searches in a Daily Totals or anything like that. Really not happy about all this. I created a spreadsheet that I do this on daily, but what a pain in the patookus!! But I’m finding shortcuts that are helpful.

Talk about going back to square one. It’s like the last 16 years of my low-carb life just got erased and I get to start all over again. All my old and new recipes I will have to slowly calculate again including the Phos and Pot for every ingredient in them. I wonder if I will live long enough to do that, quite honestly. But it is what it is and I will have to resign myself to coping with all this.

If that’s not bad enough, I can no longer have many nuts, can’t bake with almond flour, can’t use coconut products, Can’t use most of the low-carb flour substitutes I have been baking with these past 16 years (and I just stocked up on several of them)!!! All those specialized ingredients right out the window (all but wheat protein isolate and whey protein in very small amounts). I’m supposed to use regular wheat flour, Einkorn flour, oat flour, barley flour or rice flour.

Another slap in the face is this diet doesn’t allow me to have more than 3-4 oz. of protein in a serving, but I’m finding in order to keep my Phos and Pot under the daily limits of Phos <800mg and Pot <2000mg, I usually can only have 2-3 oz. maximum meat at my evening meal! And can’t fit in much bacon or sausage (only homemade, salt free, lower fat sausage). 😦

Another gripe for me: I’m a big veggie eater and so many of my fave green veggies like spinach, kale and other greens, broccoli and a bunch of other veggies are at the top of my ‘difficult to fit into my daily limits’ list. Pumpkin and squashes are high in Phos and Pot as well. 😦 Practically ALL foods have those two minerals in them, and some are over 250 mg per serving!!

Seafoods are THE WORST!!!! Even as few as 5 boiled shrimp, or 5 oysters on the half-shell, and almost NO backbone fish, except salmon, which is pretty low in Phos & Pot. They want my sodium under 2000mg per day. Seafood is about the only thing that sends my sodium above 1500-1700mg/day. Beef and Pork are just as bad in the Phos & Pot department!! So I am having to eat mostly Chicken, turkey and the occasional small amounts of shellfish.

I have to really watch the veggie intake as well, eliminating the ones like spinach & tomatoes (horrible Phos & Pot numbers), which heretofore I cooked with a lot. Many of my red-sauced Italian foods and Mexican foods are ‘verboten’ unless I use almost no sauce on my portion.

I invested in a divided casserole dish so I can sort of limit or eliminate problem ingredients on my side, and fix the dish regularly for my husband on the other side of that baking dish. That is helping a lot during preparation.

So I’m still in the bemoaning my plight phase of this, but I’ll get over it. But still trying to figure out just exactly what’s a girl CAN eat and stick to the limits sthey want to see you consuming to avoid further decline. Rarely so the kidneys snap back once the damage is done.

Needless to say, I haven’t been able to post many new recipes of late because logging my food is a full-time job!! Clearly I won’t be posting new baked goods my low-carbers could have, since I have to use more conventional flours now. I am toying with the idea of setting up an additional blog (with just Kidney Diet Recipes), but not sure I can handle that just yet. Will let my followers know if I set a new kidney diet recipe blog. For now I’m taking the easy/lazy way out and just visiting sites that have some ‘allowable’ recipes already designed and calculated.

I have calculated what I am preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner and can have my 3-4 oz. turkey and a cup of dressing, no problem. I I’ve even found an acceptable apple and cherry pie recipe to try on the DaVita website.

Takes me most of the day to search foods, calculate and load the data to my spreadsheet, so all I can say is it’s a darned good thing I’m retired. If I were still working………what a nightmare that would be.

Let me also take this opportunity to wish all my loyal low-carb followers a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Roaster Oven Turkey

Peggy Leave a comment

Roasted Turkey (done in a roaster oven)

We’re moving on up to Turkey Day!!  I originally bought my roaster oven because my large oven went out one Thanksgiving.  My mother and granny used to roast theirs in a roaster oven because they thought they came out more moist!  Well, I’m a believer now and plan to resurrect my roaster oven to make mine this year.   If you don’t own a roaster oven, they are excellent for extra oven space when you entertain or during holiday gatherings and your oven is full to the brim.  In the summertime, you can set them on the patio and cook food without heating up the kitchen, too!  I’ve now baked cakes, muffins, cookies, and meats  in mine just beautifully!  And they are getting so cheap, one can be had for as little as $30 some places and sales!  I paid $60 for my first one, when $60 was worth a lot more than it is today!  Great investment!

You pretty much go about roasting a turkey in one just like you would do in a regular oven, other than the fact that I cover my wing tips and drumstick tips with foil when I first put the bird in the oven.  Comes out delicious, moist and tender every time.  More moist that the usual traditional oven roasting method, in my opinion.  The skin doesn’t get quite as crispy, but as you see in the photo above, it does brown nicely.  Turkey is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto, Primal and Paleo diets alike.

INGREDIENTS:

1  12-13 lb. turkey, thawed (follow chart on wrapper for a larger bird)

4 T. melted butter

Dash each of salt and black pepper

4 small pieces of foil

DIRECTIONS:   Preheat oven to 325º.  Open turkey wrapper and remove bird to a clean sink.  Remove the leg binding gadget.  Remove giblets and set aside for making your gravy.  I only use the neck meat for gravy and my dog usually gets the liver, heart and gizzard in her dinners over a week or so.   I like to eat them; I just don’t like them in my gravy much.

I like to rinse out the inside of the bird.  Pat the exterior dry with paper towels.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave.  Place turkey, breast side up in a pan large enough to hold it.  Baste with the butter all over on the outside and inside with a basting brush, using half the butter.  Sprinkle bird inside and out with salt and pepper.  I cook my dressing outside the bird as I like it to brown.  You can add some chunks of celery, onion and parsley if you like to the cavity, but I do not.  Your call there, but be sure to add those carbs below if you do. Cover wing tips and leg knuckles with foil so they will not burn.

Place pan with bird into the roaster oven, cover with lid and cook, for 1½ hours.  Open oven and baste with remaining butter.  Recover and cook for 1 hour and check for doneness with a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the breast and around the thing-leg joint (slowest area to get done).  You want the thermometer to read 170º.  Cook for another 30 minutes or so, checking with thermometer every 10-15 minutes now so as to not over cook.  Remove when it has reached 170º internal temperature. Set on cutting board for 15-20 minutes before attempting to carve to avoid tearing up the meat and all the juices running out.  You want those juices to STAY in the meat.  This turkey should be extremely moist.  Roaster ovens do an incredibly good job at moist heat roasting.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   I can’t know what pieces or amount you will eat, so I’ll provide some numbers for both white meat and dark meat.

4 oz. dark meat contains:  250 calories, 13 g  fat, 0 carbs, 0 fiber, o net carbs, 31 g  protein and 269 mg sodium

4 oz. white meat, skin eaten contains:  222 calories, 9.4 g  fat, 0 carbs, 0 fiber, 0 net carbs, 32.3 g   protein and 255 mg sodium

Pumpkin Cake

Peggy 2 Comments

pumpkin-cake

Shown cake made with fresh pumpkin.

It’s that time of year again!  This moist, delicious pumpkin cake, inspired by a recipe I saw at Fabulous Foods.com, should help soothe that pumpkin craving.  This one cooks up beautifully every time!  I’ve made it a bunch of times!!  With the necessary low-carb tweaks, I was delighted it came out so close to my old high-carb recipe, actually.  It has a very smooth texture which improves with age.  I don’t care for the texture of cakes made exclusively with almond flour, so I use 1/3 whey protein for this cake.  In this instance I used fresh pumpkin (color in photo) since I had one on hand, but canned works well, too.   Canned pumpkin renders a more orange color in the final cake.   This one’s a keeper for our holiday baking, for sure!  I hope you’ll give this one a try during the holidays.  This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets and Primal as well.  The cream cheese knocks this out of suitability for Paleo, unless there is a suitable substitute I’m unaware of that meets that program’s requirements for subbing out cream cheese.

INGREDIENTS:

2 c. almond flour

1 c. plain whey protein powder

1 c. Splenda or equivalent sweetener of choice

2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

1 T. + 1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground cloves

½ tsp. nutmeg

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 c. (1½ sticks) butter, softened

1 c. fresh (or canned) cooked pumpkin puree

4 large eggs

½ c. sugar-free maple syrup or caramel sugar-free syrup

1 tsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Line the bottom of a tube pan with parchment cut-to-fit, or use a lightly oiled non-stick bundt pan if you own one (I do not).  Oil the sides and post of your tube pan as well.  In a medium bowl, soften cream cheese and butter.  With electric mixer, blend them well.  Add eggs, syrup, pumpkin and vanilla.  Whip on high until very smooth.  In a separate bowl, measure out all dry ingredients and stir well to blend to a uniform mixture.  Add to the wet ingredients and beat with the electric mixer until a smooth batter is achieved.  With a rubber spatula, scrape the batter into the cake pan spreading it as evenly as possible.  Bake at 350º for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and dry.  Cool almost totally before loosening with a knife and tipping onto a cake plate for serving.

VARIATION:  Use lightly oiled silicone muffin pans for a muffin version.  Should make 12 large muffins that will take about 20-25 minutes to bake at 350º.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 14 slices, each contains:

295 calories, 25.8 g fat, 7.28 g carbs, 2.30 g fiber, 4.98 g NET CARBS, 12.4 g protein, 287 mg sodium

Indian Cauliflower

Peggy Leave a comment

Click to enlarge

 

Took me awhile researching on the internet to find out what the black seeds often seen in this dish in restaurants were, but diligence was rewarded in the end.  They are nigella seeds, which go by a variety of other names as well.  The resulting experiment  is pretty close in flavor to the dish served in many Indian restaurants, so I’m quite pleased.  We serve it with charbroiled chicken marinated in a Tandoori seasoning.  The spices are available from Middle Eastern or Indian groceries, but as there isn’t one where I live, I must order my exotic spices from Penzey’s on-line.  This is an Atkins Induction suitable recipe.  This dish is also OK for other ketogenic lifestyles.

INGREDIENTS:

1 whole cauliflower (about 16 oz.)

½ stick butter

½ tsp. whole cumin seed

¼ tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. finely minced, peeled ginger root

1 tsp. black or brown mustard seed (totally different from yellow variety).

½ tsp. nigella seeds.

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:    Cut cauliflower into fairly large chunks.  Place in a steamer over ½-1″ water and steam until just barely tender (10 minutes or less).

In a separate skillet, melt butter and saute all spices until they are fragrant and mustard seeds begin to pop.   When cauliflower is just tender, lift out of steamer and toss into the spice mixture.  Stir to coat cauliflower well with buttery spices.  Serve with Middle Eastern foods or Indian curries.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Serves 4.  Each 4 oz. servings has:

136 cals, 12 g fat, 6.7 g carbs, 3.05 g fiber, 3.65 g NET CARBS, 2.68 g protein, 36.5 mg  sodium

Garlic Dinner Rolls

Peggy Leave a comment

I’m making my Garlic Dinner Rolls again to have with our Swiss Steak tonight.  They are made with my Mozzy Dough, which in flavor and texture lies somewhere between the Flathead Pizza Crust recipe on the Diet Doctor’s website and Jennifer Eloff’s Miracle Dough recipe.  It makes excellent dinner rolls for serving with Italian entrees!  They are delicious by themselves hot out of the oven  with butter!  They are also good split, toasted with melted butter, a sprinkle of Italian herbs and Parmesan cheese.  They make an excellent oven broiled ‘toasted’ garlic bread!  This dough has good elasticity, flavor and is so versatile in a variety of applications.  This recipe is not suitable until you get closer to goal weight on Atkins.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1 T. cream cheese

1½ T. melted butter

1 egg, beaten

½ c. Jennifer Eloff’s Gluten-Free Bake Mix

½ c. Carbquik (or another ½ c. gluten-free mix)

1 T. oat fiber

1/4 tsp. psyllium husk powder

Dash each oregano & garlic powder

1 T. dry grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Line baking sheet with parchment or silicone sheet.  Measure out all dry ingredients in small bowl, stir well and set aside.  Place mozzarella cheese shreds, minced garlic and cream cheese in glass or ceramic bowl and microwave on HI for about 1-1½ minutes to melt it.  Remove and stir quickly with a fork.  Add the egg and melted butter and stir again.  Quickly pour in the dry ingredients and stir quickly with a fork to form a single ball of dough, scraping it down off the sides of the bowl.  Knead or stir a few minutes to be sure all is uniformly mixed.  Divide into 6 equal portions and roll smooth into a ball.  Place them spaced out on parchment-lined pan.  Press slightly flat if you like, but not really necessary.  Sprinkle tops with oregano, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350º for about 18 minutes until dry to touch and lightly browned as shown.  Remove and serve hot with butter.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes enough dough for 6 dinner rolls with 6.26 net carbs each, or dough can be used for a 9″-10″ pie-crust with a lovely fluted edge, 4 hand pies, or a 12″ pizza crust!

ENTIRE RECIPE CONTAINS:  1140 calories, 95.8 g fat, 58.6 g carbs, 37.6 g fiber, 21 g NET CARBS, 81.2 g protein, 1542 mg sodium (divide by number of servings/pieces for the specific application you use this dough for)

Sausage & Bacon Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Peggy Leave a comment

I saw a package of lovely Portobello caps in the grocery store yesterday and decided to bring them home to stuff. We haven’t done these in ages, it just sounded good tonight. I decided to throw in the usual suspects for stuffed mushrooms and they came out particularly tasty. I think you’ll like these as much as we did! If you are still on Atkins Induction Phase, do leave out the Sauvignon Blanc wine called for below. You can use smaller button mushrooms to produce bite-size football gathering snacks with this recipe. I would estimate the filling would stuff approximately 20-24 small mushrooms.

INGREDIENTS:

2 large 3oz. Portobello mushroom caps (mine had no stems)

2 tsp. olive oil

4 slices thick bacon, chopped

1½ links sweet Italian Sausage (I used Johnsonville), casing removed, crumbled

¼ c. chopped green onion (or yellow onion if you prefer)

1 small low-carb dinner roll, crumbled

2 T. grated Parmesan cheese

½ c. shredded mozzarella cheese

2 T. (1 oz.) cream cheese

½ tsp. coarse black pepper

¼ c. white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)

DIRECTIONS: Wipe mushrooms with clean cloth or paper towel to remove any dirt. Spoon out and discard the black gills. Using a brush, oil the smooth outside with olive oil and place gill-side up in your baking dish. Set aside and Preheat oven to 350º.

In a skillet, brown the bacon until nearly crispy. Add sausage and cook until no longer pink. Add onion and sauté a couple minutes until tender. Add wine (skip if still on Induction Phase) and sauté 2 minutes. Add cream cheese, working with the back of your spoon to help it melt and blend in uniformly. Add all remaining ingredients and stir well to evenly mix them evenly. Remove from heat and spoon mixture equally into your 2 mushroom caps. Pop into 350º oven for about 20-30 minutes or until golden on the top. Serve at once with low-carb garlic bread and a green veggie of choice or perhaps a nice green salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 2 servings, each contains:

575 cals, 50g fat, 15g carbs, 8g fiber, 7g NET CARBS, 28g protein, 1084 mg sodium (in the meats and cheese).

Mr. Matthews’ Omelet

Peggy 2 Comments

mr-matthews-quiche

In 1980 we took a 6-weeks driving tour of Great Britain that was truly the trip of a lifetime.  Planned our route for months.  We rented a car just outside London, where our epic journey began.  Drove all the way to Edinburgh by way of Berwick-on-Tweed, back down through the Lake District, over into Wales, Down the west coast to Tintagel in Cornwall, stopping over at Clovelly, a dip down to Lynton-Lynmouth on the coast and finally back to London by way of a B & B just down the road from Paul McCartney’s famous windmill home.  Our host said if you go early, sometimes you can even see him catch the train into London when he is in-country………..but we did not.  The car dealership was honestly gob-smacked when we returned the car.  The agent took note of the odometer showing over 6,000 miles,  that had read nearly zero when he handed the car over to us.  His comment was “You’ve had quite a vacation!  🙂

My husband, a retired World History teacher, just had to see Hadrian’s Wall, so we made sure to make it to Corbridge.  We picked a lovely little country cottage listed in our AA Farmhouse Guide whose description was idyllic.  It turned out to be a hidden secret country manor that turned out to be the most memorable Bed & Breakfast we stayed during our entire vacation throughout Britain.  The owner was a very elderly, stout, soft-spoken, silver-haired gentleman, dear Mr. Matthews.  The approach to the establishment was through a circular drive in a lovely garden.  Once inside the cottage the scene was more a mansion.  We looked up to see the massive staircases at each end of the huge entry room that met on the floor above.  We looked at each other and our eyes said “Picked a good one.”

The very formal dining room had a massive picture window that looked onto a huge garden lined in pink honeysuckle!  Mr. Matthews, assisted by a lovely daughter, served dinner that night himself, (it was clear he was most proud of his B & B).  It was typical, hearty British country fare: ham, greens, potatoes and baked beans.  The British, you see, ate a lot of canned beans throughout WWII (beans on toast, my father said, was a favorite when he was stationed there in 1943).  To this day, beans are still a staple in their diet and are served in many ways we “colonials” would never dream of.

At breakfast the next morning, our omelet, again served to his Colonial guests by Mr. Matthews himself.  His daughter clearly ran the kitchen and such.  He was beaming when he said “You don’t get an omelet like THAT just anywhere, you know.”  We smiled to show how much we loved his breakfast creation.   It appeared to have everything in it leftover from last night’s dinner, beans and all.   The omelet was cooked to perfection and it turned out to be one of the best omelets I have ever eaten.

Well, I ramble on in a sea of nostalgia, so I’ll get back to the matter at hand, the recipe and prep.  I’m such a lousy omelet cook I invariably tear them up rolling the sides over, so I prefer to bake them like a quiche to avoid that issue.    This recipe is not suitable until you reach the legumes level of the Atkins carb reintroduction ladder well into the OWL (Ongoing Weight Loss Phase).  It is not suitable for Primal-Paleo unless you omit the beans, but that’s really what makes this recipe so special.  But a bacon-onion quiche, although a horse of another color, will still be tasty. 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

5 slices lean “streaky bacon” as Mr. Matthews would call it (regular bacon in the States)

2 oz. chopped yellow onion

½ c. well-rinsed pork ‘n beans (from a can)

3 extra large eggs, beaten (more if you want a thicker, heftier, more eggy quiche)

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Coarsely chop the bacon into 3/4″ dice.  In a medium skillet ( I prefer non-stick for omelets), brown the bacon but stop BEFORE it is very crisp.  Chop the onion and add to the pan.  Sauté until the two are browned and tender.  Drain off any excess grease.  Sprinkle the beans evenly on top.   Drizzle the beaten eggs evenly over the mixture.  Pop into 350º oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or just until the center is set to the touch.  Cut into 4 portions and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 4 servings, each contains 136 calories, 6.9 g fat, 4.70 g carbs, 0.95 g fiber, 3.75 g NET CARBS, 9.77 g protein, 2261 mg sodium

Iranian Mint-Cucumber Salad

Peggy Leave a comment

Iranian Cucumber Salad

This is one of those recipes I make so often, I no longer even think of it as a recipe.  It’s just what I do with cucumbers, most times.  I keep saying I’m going to upload it to the blog, but frankly have just kept forgetting to do it.  I think it’s high time I shared this one.  It’s so darn good with Middle Eastern foods!

When I lived in Iran,  our maid Fatimeh made this salad often for us.  She made hers, of course, with traditional Iranian sheep or goat yogurt, as that was what was available.  I prefer it made with sour cream or Greek Yogurt.   This is absolutely delicious with baked or grilled meats, grilled fish and all Middle Eastern foods.  We find it is even good with Indian food, as it is similar to Indian raita salad.

Fatimeh also made us a cucumber dish similar to Greek Tzatziki using 2 grated and well-drained cucumbers, enough yogurt to coat nicely and a bit of dried dill leaf (not dill seeds).   That national favorite is known as Maast-o-khiar and is served alongside grilled kubideh and Iranian Grilled Chicken as well as being used as a simple bread ‘dip’.  Dill is problematic for me, as it doesn’t sit well on my stomach (nor does fresh basil).  The dried forms of these two herbs do not bother me…..just the fresh upsets my stomach.

This salad is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets and Primal Blueprint, if you eat sour cream or yogurt.

INGREDIENTS:

1   8″ long cucumber, peeled or not, your preference

¼ c. sour cream or Greek yogurt (or a mixture of the two)

2 tsp. crushed dried spearmint (or 1 T. fresh finely chopped)

Dash of salt

VARIATION:    Add 1 T. finely minced onion

DIRECTIONS:  Peel cucumber if that is your preference.  Cut into slides not too thin and place in a bowl of water with ice cubes in it.  Chill there for 15-20 minutes.  Strain off water and ice and dump the slices onto some paper towels.  Pat them dry with more paper towels and place in a medium mixing bowl.  Finely crush the mint between your palms and add to the bowl.  You can use fresh mint, of course, but the dried is what Fatimeh used.  I have been known to use a mixture of dried and fresh.   Add the sour cream (or yogurt) and dash of salt.  Stir until all sides of the cucumbers are coated with sour cream and mint.  Place in a pretty serving bowl.   Garnish with mint or tomatoes if desired and serve right away or the dressing will get watery from the bleeding moisture of from the cucumbers.  When I serve this for company, I toss the sour cream on at the very last minute before serving. 🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 4 small servings, each contains:

40 cals, 3.15 g fat, 2.25 g carbs, 0.57 g fiber, 1.68 g NET CARBS, 1 g protein, 87 mg sodium

Salmon with Pink Tarragon Cream

Peggy Leave a comment

Now THAT is a plateful of nutritious food!  Just look at the nutritional info below for this recipe!  I included more than I usually do here to drive home that point.  And those numbers are just for the fish and sauce!  If you add in values for the spinach and broiled tomatoes………WOW!  You can’t eat any healthier!  It probably almost meets your entire RDA nutritional requirements for the day!  This delicious sauce I have used on so many different things.  It’s good on sautéed spinach, chicken, and over grilled shrimp.  It’s marvelous on scrambled eggs at breakfast (using diced tomato instead of tomato paste). I’m sure I’ll continue to find new ways to use this tasty pink sauce, changing up the herbs and spices.

I have discovered recently this is delicious on salmon.  It never disappoints! I served it alongside broiled tomatoes and sautéed spinach.   My husband isn’t terribly fond of salmon but he definitely liked this rendering of a very healthy fish that is very rich in Omega 3’s.   In order to be acceptable for Atkins Induction you must omit the wine.  It’ll still be good, just not quite as good.  😉  Wait until you get to Phase 2 OWL to add the wine.  This recipe is suitable for Keto diets but you will want to omit the wine so as not to be thrown out of ketosis.  This recipe will fit in the Primal-Paleo plan if you substitute coconut cream or coconut mild for the heavy cream.

INGREDIENTS:

12 oz. salmon filet (skin removed)

2 T. butter (I use unsalted)

½ c. heavy cream (or coconut cream or coconut milk)

½ c. water (or ½ c. more cream, if you can afford the extra carbs)

2 T. tomato paste

½ tsp. dried tarragon leaves  (or about 1½ tsp. fresh, chopped)

Dash each salt and black pepper

¼ c. rose or white wine (omit for Induction)

1/8 tsp. xanthan gum or guar gum (or your favorite thickener)

1 sprig parsley, chopped or more tarragon (for garnish)

DIRECTIONS:  Cut the fish into two equal servings.  Melt the butter in a large skillet.  Sear the pieces of salmon on both sides over high heat until golden and flesh is fully done (peek in the center with a fork).  This will only take a couple minutes on a side.  Remove to a platter and pop into warm oven to hold while sauce is made.  Lower heat to medium.  Add the water, cream, tomato paste and tarragon to the skillet.  Bring to a slow simmer for about 3-4 minutes.  Add salt and pepper.   Dust the xanthan/guar gum slowly, a little at a time over the sauce and whisk it into the cream mixture.  Stir constantly as it begins to thicken.  Turn off heat, plate the fish and dip sauce on top.  Sprinkle with chopped parsley or bit more tarragon.  Save any unused sauce for your scrambled eggs in the morning!  So yummy on eggs!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes two 6-oz. servings, each contains:  (including half the sauce)

580 cals, 43.7g fat, 4.85g carbs, 0.6g fiber, 4.25g NET CARBS, 38.8g protein, 275 mg sodium, 92 mg potassium

57% RDA Vitamin A, 66% B6, 300% B12, 7% C, 18% E, 10% D, 10% calcium, 16% copper, 19% iron, 20% magnesium, 91% niacin, 71% phosphorous, 115% selenium, 20% thiamin, 12% zinc

Pumpkin Granola

Peggy Leave a comment

My husband loves this stuff when it’s one of those days I don’t want to have any breakfast myself. I often do Intermittent Fasting protocols.   This stuff is just delicious with milk and makes a great snack eaten right out of the canister!  The slight yellow hue to the coconut is due to the pumpkin in the recipe, but trust me, you can barely taste the coconut in the final product, just the pumpkin, spices, nuts and fruit.  🙂  This recipe is not suitable until Atkins Phase 2 OWL when nuts are introduced.

NOTE:  Just wanted to add that this keeps AMAZINGLY well over time.  I stored mine in a Tupperware canister and 6 months later it was still good! It was still dry and we finished it off as a snack watching a movie on TV!  🙂

INGREDIENTS: 

½ c. roasted sunflower seeds, unsalted

½ c. roasted pumpkin seeds, unsalted

2 T. chia seeds

1½ c. large flake coconut, unsweetened

1 c. walnuts, coarsely cut

1 c. pecans, coarsely cut

1½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

¼ tsp. ground cloves

1/8 tsp. sea salt

2 T. erythritol

5 dried prunes, chopped small as raisins (I use Del Monte, with no added sugar)

1/3 c. coconut oil

¼ c. sugar-free maple syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. canned pumpkin puree (do not use already spiced pie filling!)

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 300º.  Line two large baking sheets  with parchment paper and set aside.  Measure the first 12 (dry) ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir well.  In a small bowl, stir the last 4 (wet) ingredients well.  Using a rubber spatula, pour the wet ingredients evenly over the dry and with the spatula, stir and toss to coat all the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.  When well-blended, pour half the mixture onto each paper-lined pan.  Spread evenly.  You will need to bake until it is dry and somewhat crisp to the touch, or about 1½ hours (longer for some ovens).  Stir ever 15-20 minutes to be sure it is cooking evenly.  Do not allow to overly brown or the nuts will taste burned.   Turn off oven and let the granola dry in the oven as it cools.  Break it apart into smaller clusters if you like.  I like mine in larger clusters, as I eat it more as a snack than a cereal.  Transfer to an airtight container or zip-loc gallon bag.  BE ABSOLUTELY SURE IT IS FULLY COOLED BEFORE STORING.  Otherwise it will “sweat” over time and get soft (just re-bake to crisp it up again).  This stuff is delicious, so do ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 9 cups total or eighteen ½ cup servings.  Each ½-cup serving contains:

214 cals, 19.6 g  fat, 7.5 g  carbs, 3.21 g fiber, 4.29 g  NET CARBS, 4.89 g  protein, 42 mg sodium

Green Beans Zydeco with Sausage

Peggy Leave a comment

ZydecoGreenBeans

I’m making these as a side to have with our pork chops and cornbread for dinner tonight, so I thought I’d share.  I’m using bacon in mine tonight instead of the sausage.

Zydeco is a term synonymous with Louisiana Cajun culture.  It comes from the rapid pronunciation of the French word for beans:  les haricots, in which the “z” sound of the final “s” les is elided into the next word or haricots.  So in rapid speech, it comes out sounding a bit like phonetically pronounced “zydeco”.

We ate beans similar to this years ago at a restaurant in Sulphur Springs, LA (I believe it was called Cajun Charlie’s).  Unlikely flavor pairings, but we just loved it!  I’ve come up with a pretty close facsimile you might like to try sometime. Though you can use any Atkins-acceptable smoked sausage (without unacceptable fillers), this would be even better with Tasso or Andouille dry-cured sausage if you can get one of them in your area.  This recipe is suitable for Atkins Induction Phase.

VARIATION:  Use coarsely chopped bacon in place of sausage.  Very nice smoked flavor will come through.   Use Thyme instead of Tarragon.  All delightful changes for beans.

INGREDIENTS:

2 links of smoked sausage, sliced thin

4 oz. red bell pepper, chopped (tiny jar pimiento, drained)

1 large stalk celery, thinly sliced

2 oz. sliced onion

3 large mushrooms, sliced

16 oz. cut frozen green beans (or 2 cans no-salt beans, drained)

½ tsp. dried tarragon

Dash of my Seafood Spice Blend (or dash each of cayenne & paprika)

Dash of salt and black pepper

3-5 drops Tobasco or Chipotle Tobasco

DIRECTIONS:  Cook frozen beans per directions on package until just done (tender crisp) in non-stick skillet.  Drain and set aside.  Now brown sausage in same pan. It should make enough grease no additional will be needed.   Add celery, onion, peppers and mushrooms and saute until tender.   Reduce heat to lowest possible and add seasonings and Tobasco.   Add drained beans back into the skillet. Stir and simmer on low, stirring a few more minutes to  blend flavors.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each containing:

174 cals, 11g fat, 10.25g carbs, 4.08g fiber, 6.16 NET CARBS, 9.65g protein, 39 mg. sodium

Pumpkin Coconut Ice Cream

Peggy Leave a comment

0023-1

For those of you who just can’t wait to have all the pumpkin desserts and beverages in the Fall, this pumpkin-coconut ice cream is simply delicious!  And we’re coming up on the season for such treats.  I go pretty heavy on the pumpkin and spices because I want a strong flavor.  If you love coconut more than we do, you might want to use more of the coconut cream and less of the heavy cream in yours. My hubby isn’t too fond of coconut and I’m not so crazy about it too often either.   This recipe is not suitable until you reach the Atkins “nuts and seeds” rung of the Phase 2 OWL carb ladder.  Keto followers can enjoy this one using all coconut cream and no heavy cream.  Primal devotees can as well if they use alternative sweeteners that are plan-suitable.

INGREDIENTS:

1 can (2 c.) pumpkin puree

8 oz. coconut cream

2 c. heavy cream

1 T. blackstrap molasses (or ¼ tsp. maple extract for lower carbs)

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. each nutmeg and cloves

½ c. erythritol

2 pkts. stevia (I used Sweet Additions)

DIRECTIONS:  Mix all the ingredients in a bowl or a food processor until well blended.  Transfer the mixture to your ice cream maker and freeze per the machine’s instructions.  Serve immediately (preferably) and with the remainder, make ice cream bars if you have molds, or freeze all of it in a suitable plastic container.  I like to use flexible plastic or silicone for this so that when it freezes hard, I can twist the pan a little and loosen the “solid brick” and cut it into squares or slices to thaw slightly and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 10 level ½ cup servings, each contains:

227 cals, 24.2 g  fat, 7.84 g  carbs, 1.86 g fiber, 5.98 g  NET CARBS  (lower if you use maple extract), 1.53 g  protein, 25 mg sodium

Holy Moly Beef Guacamole Salad

Peggy Leave a comment

I’ve been on a “salads for lunch” kick lately.  Today, I had 3 avocados getting perfectly ripe all at the same time!  So I made this simple salad.  Man, was it tasty!  Guacamole salad with beef added!  We had both skipped breakfast today (not unusual for us, actually), so by 11am, we were both ravenous.  This recipe definitely makes 3 servings, but the two of us finished off all 3 servings!  We were just famished by the time I made it!    As the name implies, Holy-Moly was this salad ever good!!……..and extremely filling!    Avocados are so good for you, with all their minerals and nutrients, so we try to eat them twice a week.   The fiber offsets their carbs nicely.  🙂

This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, but if still on Induction, you should reduce the guacamole “dressing” on your plate, as only half an avocado is allowed during Induction.

Many more delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own copy of our cookbooks  LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  Order any of our books from Amazon  or here: amongfriends.us/order.php.   For those that have already purchased our books, we sure would appreciate your taking a moment to stop by this page and leave your personal review:

INGREDIENTS:

6 cups mixed salad greens (I used Romaine and Iceberg lettuce)

3 avocados, skinned, seeds discarded

1/4 tsp. total garlic powder

1/8 tsp. sea salt

11 oz. 90% lean ground beef

1/2 tsp. chili powder blend

VARIATION:   Add some San Marzano mini tomatoes to the lettuce layer.

DIRECTIONS:  In a medium skillet over high heat brown the ground beef with 1/8 tsp. of the garlic powder and the chili powder.  Reduce to lowest heat setting to keep it warm.  Remove skin and seeds from 3 avocados.  Scoop the pulp out with a spoon and mash with a fork on a paper plate.  Add the remaining 1/8 tsp. garlic powder and sea salt to the mashed avocado and stir well.  Set aside.

Chop the lettuce(s) you have chosen to use.  Place the lettuce equally onto 3 serving plates.  Add optional tomatoes if desired on this layer.  Top each portion with about 1/3 of the meat mixture (reserve 3 T.).  Then spoon 1/3 of the guacamole mixture in the center of each plate.  Top each with 1 T. of the reserved meat mixture. Serve at once lest the guacamole turn dark on you.  Holy Moly is this ever good!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 3 servings, each contains:

584 calories, 48.3g fat, 18.4g carbs, 13.76g fiber, 4.64g NET CARBS, 24.63g protein, 128 mg sodium

Chai-Chia Chewies

Peggy Leave a comment

Click to enlarge

These unique spice cookies will appeal to the chai tea lovers out there and be a hit for any special occasion.  My neighbor loved them! He asked to take a few home, along with the recipe, when I served them at our Round-Robin Neighborhood Christmas Dinner one year.  I’m baking a batch of these today!  These are sort of like an cinnamon oatmeal cookie with a “twist”.  The cardamom in the spice blend is so nice in these!  They have a little crunch from the chia seeds, but you can soak the chia in a dab of water to soften them if you find you don’t care for that seed crunch.  Nice thing about these cookies is they just seem to mellow and get tastier every day they sit in your fridge or freezer.  I know there are a lot of ingredients, but it’s why they are so good and  SO WORTH EVERY ONE OF THEM.  These are truly the best low-carb cookie I’ve developed!  I do hope you’ll try this one.  🙂

You might want to add chopped pecans or walnuts to these, but my husband doesn’t like nuts much and I also wanted to post just a basic recipe with the dried prunes (a great raisin replacement for lower carbs).  I have added nutty-tasting hemp hearts (shelled hemp seeds) and some chia seed for the bit of crunch and nutrition these two ingredients bring to these cookies.   The sugar-free honey is essential for these to be chewy, so do not sub out this honey with any other sweetener or you are NOT going to get a chewy cookie (trust me, been there, done that).   This recipe is not suitable for Atkins Induction.  Wait until you are nearing Pre-Maintenance to enjoy these, as they are a little higher carb than most of my cookies, having prunes in them.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS. She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try. Several of my own creations appear in each of the 5 volumes! Order your set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or our direct order site: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

INGREDIENTS:

½ c. coconut oil (preferably not in liquid form, so do not melt)

2 T. almond butter

1 T. vanilla extract

1 egg, beaten

¼ c. sugar-free honey (I can buy it at Walmart)

4 dried prunes, chopped (DelMonte brand has no added sugar)

1½ c. almond flour

¼ c. + 3 T. hemp hearts

1 T. ground chia seeds (I use 50:50 white and black)

½ c. coconut flour

1 T. oat fiber

1 tsp. glucomannan powder (or xanthan gum)

1/8 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

1 T. erythritol

½ c. granular Splenda or equivalent sweetener to equal ½ c. sugar

2 tsp. my Chai spice blend

VARIATION:  You can just use 2 tsp. ground cinnamon if you are not fond of Chai spice flavors.  Another delicious variation would be to use dried cranberries for the prunes in these. 🙂

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Measure all the wet ingredients into a small bowl.  Beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth.  Stir in the chopped prunes and if using nuts, add them now.  In another bowl, measure out all the dry ingredients and stir well.  Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until all are uniformly mixed into a solid cookie dough.  It will be pretty thick and stiff if your coconut oil wasn’t liquid.   Form into 24 roughly 1″ balls (I use a scooper to be sure they are all about the same size) and set on parchment lined cookie sheets about 3/4″ apart.  These don’t spread much during cooking. Slightly press the ball of dough to flatten on top a wee bit (not too much though).

Pop into preheated oven for about 12-13 minutes.  Ovens can vary, so yours may take a little less or a little more time.  They will be slightly firm to the touch in the center when done, and just beginning to brown a bit on the edges.  Remove and DO NOT REMOVE FROM PANS UNTIL COMPLETELY COOLED.  These are quite fragile when hot and will break apart if not cooled completely before handling.  When fully cool, remove from pans and ENJOY!  Store remainders in a lidded container.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 24  2-inch cookies, each cookie contains:

126 calories, 10.9 g  fat, 5.44 g carbs, 2.38 g fiber, 3.06 g  NET CARBS, 3.36 g  protein, 53 mg sodium

Low Carb Blueberry Buckle

Peggy Leave a comment

My husband  brought home some blueberries from the grocery store yesterday.  Hubby was griping I’d not baked anything sweet in ages (I’m not a sweets fan), so I made this old-fashioned buckle this morning.  If you’re wondering where it got its name, when constructed  in frontier days in a cast iron skillet, the fruit was placed on top of the cake.  During baking, as the cake rose, the weight of the fruit would sink the berries causing the cake around the edges of the buttered cast iron skillet to puff up and then fall inward over the fruit.  Nowadays, people often just stir the berries right into the cake batter, but they still sink, causing dimples in the top of the buckle.  Whichever way you construct yours, they are wonderful desserts.  If you are watching carbs even closer, you can lower the amount of berries.  This recipe is not suitable until you reach the late stages of Atkins carb re-introduction ladder.  Please note there is no sugar in this recipe as I am off all sweeteners.   It is sweet enough for me as written, but if you like things sweeter you could add ¼c. sugar equivalent of your favorite sweetener either to the batter or sprinkled on top just before baking.

INGREDIENTS: 

1 c. Buttoni’s Low Carb Bake Mix (or other low-carb mix of choice)

½ tsp. sea salt

Zest from 1 small lemon

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

2 large eggs, beaten

½ c. (1 stick) butter, unsalted, melted in a 9″ cake pan

2 c. fresh blueberries

OPTIONAL:    Add sugar substitute of choice to equal ¼ c. sugar

DIRECTIONS:   Preheat oven to 350º & grease a round cake pan.  Measure out dry ingredients into a mixing bowl (add sugar sub if using).  Grate lemon zest and add to the bowl.  Add the wet ingredients and the berries.  Lightly fold together to mix and moisten all ingredients well but DO NOT OVER STIR.  Spoon into the cake pan and pop into 350º oven for 15 minutes or just until batter spots are dry to the touch.  Do not over brown.  This is best served warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 svgs., each contains: (based on my bake mix)

261 cals, 21.23g fat, 13.1g carbs, 3.6g fiber, 9.5g NET CARBS (use fewer berries for lower carbs), 8.6g protein, 256 mg sodium

San Marzano Focaccia

Peggy Leave a comment

This is what I made for lunch today.  I’m noticing in my old age I’m liking many fewer ingredients on what I think of as basically, um….  pizza.   This recipe is yet another great new use for my Mozzy Dough.  I love experimenting with this dough!  TIP:  I make up 10 batches of the dry ingredients pre-measured on paper plates.  Then I fold and pour each into a sandwich bag and store the bags zipped up in a shoe box in my pantry.  Very convenient…..as then all I have to do is grab a bag, melt the butter, add the beaten egg, melt the cheese and make my dough ball.  So easy that way.  I store the paper plates and baggies and re-use for making each batch of 10. 

Boy, is this focaccia ever simple to make and yummy good!  I make mine fairly thin.  If you like focaccia thicker, make a smaller sheet than shown right (using fewer tomatoes, of course) and being sure you cut it into 12 slices so the nutritional info will be accurate.  This recipe is not suitable until you get to Phase 2 grains re-introduction level of Atkins as the Carbquik does have some flour in it.

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

25-27 San Marzano mini tomatoes (10 oz. bag)

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ shredded Parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

½ tsp. dried basil (or 1 T. fresh basil chopped)

¼ tsp. dried oregano (or 1/2 tsp. fresh)

VARIATION:   Add a few sliced black or green olives

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Make the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions.  Line a 13″x15″ baking sheet with parchment and using your fingers, press the ball of dough out to a 9″x12″ rectangle (smaller if you like it thicker.  With a brush baste the dough with half the olive oil.  Sprinkle the chopped garlic evenly over the top and press it down a bit.  Now sprinkle 1/2 c. mozzarella over the crust evenly.  Slice the tomatoes lengthwise into halves and place skin-side down evenly over the top of the focaccia sheet.  Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella on next and then the shredded Parmesan.  Sprinkle on the basil and oregano last.  Add olive slices, pressing them into the dough (if using).  Pop into oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the dough is browning on the edges and the tomatoes are looking cooked on top.  Serve with a nice green salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 12 3″x3″ squares of focaccia, each square contains.

190 calories, 15 g fat, 6.88 g carbs, 3.61 g fiber, 3.27 g NET CARBS, 12.6 g protein, 276 mg sodium

Blackberry-Coconut Smoothie

Peggy Leave a comment

Click to enlarge

I love a good smoothie, especially when blackberries are in season.   This is a wonderfully refreshing afternoon treat or even a dessert!  It is not suitable until the nuts and seeds rung of the Atkins OWL carb re-introduction ladder.  It is perfectly OK for Paleo-Primal folks. The sweetener I used has no carbs, so if you use one with a bulking agent, you will need to add in those carbs to the numbers below.   Of course, you can always add protein powder to this if you wish, but be sure to add in those carbs to the stats below.

INGREDIENTS:

6 T. coconut cream (this is NOT cream of coconut bartenders use, which has added sugar & carbs)

3/4 c. blackberries

½ c. water

about 3/4 c. ice cubes

Your preferred sweetener (I use liquid Splenda to taste)

VARIATION:  Substitute blueberries, strawberries, or 1/2 banana  (recalculate stats if using banana)

DIRECTIONS: Put everything in the blender and let ‘er rip until all is smooth and ice is no longer in chunks.  The coconut cream will thicken it adequately.  Pour into a glass and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 1 smoothie which contains:

193 cals, 24.5 g fat, 13.4 g carbs, 6.7 g fiber,  6.7 g NET CARBS, 1.5 g protein, 16 mg sodium

“Tortilla” Soup

Peggy Leave a comment

Tortilla Soup is one of my favorites at Mexican restaurants.  My rendition here is delicious beyond words so I hope you’ll try this one!  It’s what I’m planning for dinner tonight. 

My very first exposure to Tortilla soup was at a little place in San Antonio called El Mirador (Spanish for ‘mirror’). My Dad and Mom kept bringing up how fantastic this soup was and we finally went there on one of my visits to try it.   What a flavor delight!  It was every bit as good as my parents had advertised!  Let me tell you, I’ve had it many places since and none shine a light to El Mirador’s rendering of it.  🙂  I know the restaurant is still there and assume they are still offering this wonderful soup, but it looks like at their website linked above, they have changed the name of the soup to Chicken Cilantro Soup.  I’m sure it’s the same soup though.  You San Antonio dwellers who were unaware of this culinary treat need to get on over to El Mirado and try it if you haven’t yet!  The rest of you might want to try my version of it.  

I’ve tried to recreate that wonderful soup ever since I tasted it!  I’ve gotten pretty close, but it’s still not quite as good as theirs.  Not a true “mirror” version, in other words.  This low-carb rendition, without the little strips of crisp tortillas strips (very high in carbs) typically atop tortilla soup, will blow your socks off!  If the base soup is good enough, you really don’t need the tortilla strips for this to be delicious.  This recipe is Atkins Induction friendly and also suitable for Keto and Primal lifestyles.  Paleo followers will want to omit the cream or sub in coconut milk (which will greatly change the final flavor).

INGREDIENTS:

13 oz. cooked chicken meat (canned with juice is just fine in this)

1 qt. water + 2 c. homemade, low-salt chicken broth (or use all stock)

1  oz. tomato paste

1 c. yellow squash, diced (about ½ med-large squash)

2 oz. yellow onion

2 oz. green bell pepper

1 oz. poblano pepper, seeded and chopped

1/2 tsp. chili powder

dash chipotle chile powder (or 1 small chipotle in adobo, rinsed, seeded and mashed)

1 small Guajillo chile, seeded and chopped (these are very mild and found in most stores’ produce dept. dried, sold in a bag)

Dash cumin

1/4 c. heavy cream

VARIATION:   Bake thin strips of 1 cut-up corn tortilla until crisp and top each serving with a few.  Be sure to recalculate your numbers if you make this carb-y change.

DIRECTIONS:  Cut chicken meat up into small pieces.  If using canned meat, just break up the large chunks.  Put all ingredients but the cream into soup pot.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer until squash and all veggies are tender but not falling apart (about 15-20 minutes).  Turn heat to lowest setting. Now add cream and stir.  If you like, you can puree this soup with a stick blender or in small batches in your food processor.  I’ve done the soup both ways and prefer it chunky, as El Mirador served theirs.  

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:  Serves 4, each serving contains:

283 calories, 15.1 g.  fat, 6.95 g.  carbs, 1.6 g.  fiber, 5.35 NET CARBS, 26.3 g.  protein, 780 mg sodium

Asian Pork Patties with Dipping Sauce (dumplings optional)

Peggy Leave a comment

003

I’m whipping up a batch of my “faux” Pot Stickers for dinner tonight.  Since low carbers like me can’t have the won ton wrappers they are traditionally wrapped in,  I’ve found a way to have this tasty dish without the wrappers!   Instead, I make a batch of very small gnocchi-like dumplings made from glucomannan powder (extremely low-carb), sear in a skillet and eat them alongside the meat patties with the tasty dipping sauce.  It’s almost like eating real steamed Chinese dumplings!!  So good!!  This dumpling batter/dough is not very “rollable” otherwise I would just try to make my creation more like original Chinese pot stickers are made.  Maybe one day I’ll try introducing a little psyllium to the dough to make it more sturdy for rolling out.  In the meantime, this method of side-by-side consumption works for me.

This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins and other Keto diets.  To make these suitable for Primal-Paleo, do not use the peanut butter in the dipping sauce and use a plan-suitable vinegar  and coconut aminos for the soy sauce.

Click to enlarge

Shown with seared side “Dumplings”

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. lean ground pork

1 beaten egg

2 jalapenos, seeded, ribs removed and minced fine

2 tsp. coconut aminos (or low-sodium soy sauce)

2 cloves, garlic, minced

2 T. olive oil (for frying)

OPTIONAL:  1 recipe and a half of my Dumplings

DIPPING SAUCE:

2 tsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. creamy natural peanut butter (omit if on Atkins Induction)

2 T.  rice wine vinegar

1 tsp. ginger root, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. Sambal Oelek chili sauce (or Sriracha sauce)

2-3 drops liquid stevia or sucralose

1 T. low sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos)

1 T. finely minced green onion

2 T. water

VARIATION:  Add 1 tsp. peanut butter to the dipping sauce

DIRECTIONS:   If you wish to serve this dish with the dumplings on the side, prepare a recipe and a half of my glucomannan dumplings at the link above according to that recipe’s instructions, simmering them in plain water that is barely at a simmer.  Be sure to make them real tiny, about ½” is what I did, as they swell to about 3/4″ during simmering.  When they are done, using a slotted spoon, dip them gently onto a plate.  With paper towels, blot away as much water from around them as you can.  Set the plate of dumplings aside for now.

Mix the dipping sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Mix up the meat ingredients in a medium bowl with either a fork or your hands.  Heat the 2 T. olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Form into 10 patties (mine were about 1½ oz. each and about 2″ long).  Place the meat patties in the skillet and brown on both sides until golden brown, making sure pink juices are no longer coming out of the meat when slightly pressed with the edge of your spatula.  Turn off heat and dip them onto a serving platter in a circle.  If serving with dumplings, serve those in the middle of the platter.  You can rewarm the dumplings on defrost in your microwave if you feel so compelled, but I find room temperature is just fine since the meat is piping hot.  Pour the dipping sauce into 3 tiny bowls and place one at each person’s place at table.   I forked 1 dumpling with a bite of meat, dipped into the sauce and shoved the two right into my mouth!  Pure heaven it was. I swear it tasted just like steamed dumplings!  Must try to brown my little dumplings in a skillet next time!   Pic of the fried version shown above.  🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes ten 1½-oz. meat patties.  Each meat patty & sauce contains:  (includes 1/10th of the sauce).  NOTE:  The info below does NOT include the optional dumplings, but since they have negligible food value, I wouldn’t worry about them too much.  They are virtually pure fiber.  I get around 36-40 mini-dumplings or gnocchi out of the dumpling recipe so 3 dumplings only have around 0.1 net carb (or less)!  Like I said, virtually negligible. 

167 cals, 14g fat, 1.11g carbs, 0.16g fiber, 0.95g NET CARBS, 8.7g protein, 142mg sodium

Montreal BBQ Sauce and Marinade

Peggy Leave a comment

We’re grilling pork country ribs tonight.  This wonderful BBQ sauce is particularly good for pork:  chops, roasts (for pulled pork) spare ribs or thick country ribs.  You simply must try this one some time!  It has become a family regular!    You can also use this as a marinade for chicken, shrimp and fish filets.  Marinate meat or seafood of choice in the refrigerator in a plastic bag and then grill as usual.  Be sure to reserve some (cook off a few minutes) for use at the table for those that like more sauce.  This sauce is Atkins Induction friendly, too!

We find when we go out for ribs, the rub on the meat, although very tasty, is always so salty.  That just spoils my enjoyment of dinner, plus I gain weight just from the sodium load.  Tonight we’re having green beans and a delicious mushroom tomato salad  and some garlic bread made from some low-carb rolls I have in the refrigerator I baked earlier this week.   The above photo shows these ribs being served with loaded potatoes made from cauliflower, green onion, cream cheese, bacon and a little bacon.  Yummers. 

VARIATION:  Add 2 T. your favorite low-carb BBQ sauce.  Sweetens it up a bit.   

INGREDIENTS: 

2 tsp. “Montreal Steak” seasoning (recipe below)

1 stick butter, UNSALTED since the above spice has salt (but luckily no sugar!) (4 oz.)

1-2 tsp. red wine vinegar (more if you like your BBQ real tangy!)

1/8 – ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:  Melt butter, add Montreal Steak spice, vinegar and cayenne.   Simmer on lowest heat possible for 1 minute to blend flavors.  Remove and use as marinade & grilling sauce.  Place meat and sauce (reserve a bit of sauce for table use) into a large zip bag with sauce.  Zip and manipulate to coat all pieces/ribs well.  Marinate for 1-2 hours in refrigerator.

My Homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning: 

  • 2 tablespoons black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tablespoon granulated onion
  • 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, coarsely ground
  • 1 tablespoon dill seeds

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes about 8 tablespoons spice mix.  I use about 2-3 tsp. in the sauce above for doing a whole chicken, a full rack of ribs or 7-8 fish filets.  Each tablespoon of this sauce contains:

103 cals, 11.5g fat, 0.26g carbs, 0.1g fiber, 0.16g NET CARBS, 0.12g protein, 48 mg sodium

Greek Twinkies®

Peggy 3 Comments

As a low-carber, I can’t have the typical puff pastry one uses to make Greek Spanakopitas, but I like to use my Mozzy Dough as a foundation for such applications.  It has a a hint of cheese and often works in such recipes.  These are delicious served with a Greek cucumber salad.  I think they would make great party finger food as well.  My husband gave these a two thumbs up and said they would be good with Tzatziki Sauce.  I think he’s on to something there and will definitely do that next time.  Click the above link for that recipe.  This is certainly not an authentic Greek recipe, but it has that Greek flavor we all love. 

These are not suitable until you reach the grains rung of the Atkins OWL Phase 2 carb reintroduction ladder.  Although high in calories & fat (not a bad thing if you need to boost your fat intake to meet daily macros), these are quite low in carbs.  🙂

INGREDIENTS: 

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough

1 lb. 90% lean ground beef

5 oz. frozen chopped spinach

1/3 c. parsley, chopped

½ tsp. onion powder

¼ tsp. dried dill weed

1 tsp. dried mint (or 1 T. fresh)

¼ tsp. coarse black pepper

1 oz. cream cheese

½ c. Feta cheese crumbles

4 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

VARIATION:  Use ground lamb or ground goat meat instead of the ground beef. 

DIRECTIONS:  Brown meat over medium heat in skillet and drain off excess grease.  Add the spinach, parsley and all spices.  Stir for several minutes to be sure spinach is cooked. Dot the mixture with the cream cheese and Feta and allow to melt and blend, stirring often.  Add the 4 oz. mozzarella, which acts as a binding agent and stir until it melts into the mixture.  Remove from heat and set aside while you prepare the dough.

Preheat oven to 350º.  Make the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions.  Form the dough into a large log and divide it visually into 12 equal balls of dough.  Press each one into the slots of a Twinkie pan.  If you don’t own a Twinkie pan, use a muffin pan and fill 12 cups.  Press the dough into the slots as evenly as you can, pushing it up the sides to form a boat or wall for your dough cups.  Fill each pastry cup with 1/12 of the meat-spinach mixture (about 1/3 c.).  When all are filled, press down a bit and evenly distribute any mixture still unused.

Pop pan into 350º oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until to desired doneness.  Bottoms will be browned nicely, so don’t over cook.  Serve with a nice Greek cucumber salad and if you like, some Tzatziki sauce.  I found two of these filled me right up, so this recipe should serve 12 adults, but I’m providing stats, per my usual, per piece.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 12 Twinkies®, each contains:

282 calories, 20g fat, 6.39g carbs, 3.6g fiber, 2.79g NET CARBS, 22.6g protein, 474 mg sodium

Braised Chicken in Cilantro-Almond Sauce

Peggy Leave a comment

If you like cilantro you’ll love this sauce!  It is so easy to prepare and is extremely good on chicken, pork or baked/broiled fish.  Any leftover sauce in the pan also freezes well!  When reheating, warm over lowest heat just long enough to get hot so as to not overcook the cilantro or curdle the cream.  this is not acceptable for Atkins Induction Phase due to almonds, but OK after you leave Induction Phase.  If you have to avoid nuts due to an allergy, just omit them.  It is still a darn good sauce!

INGREDIENTS:

2 c. chicken broth, preferably homemade

4 oz. onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & finely chopped

2 chopped seeded fresh tomatillos (or 3.5 oz. [½ can] Herdez Salsa Verde)

¼ c. almonds, finely ground

2 T. butter

1 whole bunch cilantro, chopped fine (use ½ c. parsley if you don’t like cilantro)

1/2 c. heavy cream

Dash salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:  If making this sauce for chicken, sear the meat well on both sides in the butter until golden brown.  If it is for fish, bake/broil your fish until completely done and set aside until sauce is completely done.  Place first 7 ingredients (except for the butter you’ve already used searing the chicken) into a blender or food processor and pulse until fairly finely chopped.  Now carefully transfer the cilantro mixture back into the skillet around the chicken.  Simmer sauce with chicken for about 45 minutes or until chicken is completely done.  Lower heat and add cilantro and cream.  Stir for only 2-3 minutes to slightly thicken.  Serve with about 1/3 c. sauce over each serving of chicken.  This sauce will NOT be very thick.  If using on fish, spoon the sauce over your baked/broiled fish right before serving.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes about 3 c. sauce for 9 servings, each containing:

96.78 cals, 8.63g fat, 2.79g carbs, 0.67g fiber, 2.12g NET CARBS, 2.1g protein, 17 mg. sodium

Italian Chicken Tarte

Peggy Leave a comment

I have modified the popular Fathead Pizza Dough a bit and think it is improved with my changes.  The oat fiber I’ve added makes it taste like there’s real flour in it; the psyllium makes it a sturdier final crust.  Using two bake mixes always renders a wonderful final product for some reason.  With just 1-1½ cups of leftover cooked chicken in the refrigerator, I can make a delicious dinner for two.  You could certainly serve this with a salad, but I did not feel the need.  This recipe is suitable once you reach Phase 2 of Atkins.  Keto dieters can have this if it fits their daily number limits.

VARIATION:  For a smaller individual servings, divide the dough into 12 balls and press the dough onto the bottom and up the sides a bit of each cup in a cupcake pan.  Distribute the toppings on all 12 portions.  Baking time probably won’t change for the smaller version.  You could even divide dough into 24 balls and press into the real mini-muffin pans for party-size finger servings.  Reduce cook time a bit for those.  Another variation would be to sub in 2-3 Italian sausage links, skinned, crumbled and pre-browned for the chicken in this recipe. 

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese (I used whole milk variety)

2 T. unsalted butter, pre-melted

½ c. Jennifer Eloff’s GF bake mix

½ c. Carbquik Bake Mix (or other low-carb mix of choice)

1/8 tsp. each onion and garlic powder

1 T. oat fiber

1/2 tsp. psyllium husk powder (I use NOW brand)

1 egg, beaten

TOPPINGS:

1 c. fresh spinach leaves, coarsely chopped

¼ c. low-carb spaghetti sauce (jar) (I use Classico brand with basil)

1½ c. cooked chicken, coarsely chopped

½ tsp. each dried basil and oregano leaves

½ c. additional mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Place cheese in glass bowl and set in microwave.  Melt cheese on HI for around 2 minutes.  Remove bowl from.  Drizzle melted butter over the top of cheese and stir with fork.  Add in the two bake mixes, the psyllium, oat fiber, the beaten egg, onion and garlic powder.  Stir well with fork until it forms a ball and pulls away from the bowl.  Knead once or twice with hands in the bowl and then place dough into a classic tart pan (the kind where the bottom pushes up/out).  If you don’t have one, use a large pie plate.  This crust wanted to stick to the pan a bit, despite the fact my tart pan is non-stick, so you might want to lightly oil the pan with coconut oil.  Press the dough out evenly on the bottom with your hands, pushing it up the sides a bit to form a “wall” around the edge.  Pop into 350º oven for about 12 minutes to set up the dough surface. Remove when it just beings to get tan on the edges.  Remove.  Place the spinach evenly on the bottom of the tart.  Next add the chopped chicken, oregano and basil.  Top with the additional ½ c. mozzarella cheese.  Raise oven temp to 375º and pop back into oven.  Bake until lightly browned, or about 15 minutes.   Watch it, as ovens do vary.  Cut into 6 slices and serve hot.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 6 slices, each contains:

333 calories, 25 g fat, 10.83 g carbs, 6.65 g fiber, 4.18 g NET CARBS, 27 g protein, 549 mg sodium

Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes

Peggy Leave a comment

Pumpkin Pancakes

It’s what’s for dinner tonight, with a side of bacon!  Pretty much my favorite pancake recipe.  I took my Fluffy Pancakes recipe to a whole new level when I added some pumpkin and cinnamon, coming up with these some years back.  Man, oh, man, are these ever good!  Light, fluffy and very moist.  Not grainy or dry like a lot of low-carb pancakes.  My husband says these are one of the very best pancakes he’s eaten since we started eating low-carb.  He likens them to commercial Bryce’s Sweet Potato Pancake Mix we bought years ago, but mine have no real sugar, flour or other junk ingredients.  🙂  These are not suitable until the grains rung of the Atkins Phase 2 OWL carb reintroduction ladder.

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 c. pumpkin puree

3 large eggs, beaten

¼ c. heavy cream

½ c. water

½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 pkt. Sweet Leaf stevia

½ c. Jennifer Eloff’s Gluten-Free Bake Mix

½ c. Carbquik (or more of the above mix if you require gluten free)

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. oat fiber (omit for gluten-free)

1 T. flax meal

Dash salt

¼-½ tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:   Measure out the dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl.  Stir well.  Beat in the eggs, pumpkin, cream, water and vanilla.  Beat to blend into a smooth batter.  Add 1-2 T. more water if batter is too thick. Using a 1/3 c. measuring cup, dip batter onto oiled hot griddle over medium-high heat.  Spread with the back of the cup to a 5″ circle. Brown on first side, but allow them undisturbed to firm up and you see holes almost beginning to appear on the surface before attempting to flip.    Brown on the second side to your liking and serve at once with butter and maple syrup. ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes seven 5″ pancakes, each contains:

127 cals, 10.2g fat, 10.13g carbs, 5.97g fiber, 5.29g NET CARBS, 8.64g protein, 216 mg sodium

“Tortilla” Soup

Peggy Leave a comment

Tortilla Soup is one of my favorites at Mexican restaurants.  My rendition here is delicious beyond words so I hope you’ll try this one!

My very first exposure to Tortilla soup was at a little place in San Antonio called El Mirador (Spanish for ‘mirror’). My Dad and Mom kept bringing up how fantastic this soup was and we finally went there on one of my visits to try it.   What a flavor delight!  It was every bit as good as my parents had advertised!  Let me tell you, I’ve had it many places since and none shine a light to El Mirador’s rendering of it.  🙂  I know the restaurant is still there and assume they are still offering this wonderful soup, but it looks like at their website linked above, they have changed the name of the soup to Chicken Cilantro Soup.  I’m sure it’s the same soup though.  You San Antonio dwellers who were unaware of this culinary treat need to get on over to El Mirado and try it if you haven’t yet!  The rest of you might want to try my version of it.  

I’ve tried to recreate that wonderful soup ever since I tasted it!  I’ve gotten pretty close, but it’s still not quite as good as theirs.  Not a true “mirror” version, in other words.  This low-carb rendition, without the little strips of crisp tortillas strips (very high in carbs) typically atop tortilla soup, will blow your socks off!  If the base soup is good enough, you really don’t need the tortilla strips for this to be delicious.  This recipe is Atkins Induction friendly and also suitable for Keto and Primal lifestyles.  Paleo followers will want to omit the cream or sub in coconut milk (which will greatly change the final flavor).

INGREDIENTS:

13 oz. cooked chicken meat (canned with juice is just fine in this)

1 qt. water + 2 c. homemade, low-salt chicken broth

1  oz. tomato paste

1 c. yellow squash, diced (about ½ med-large squash)

2 oz. yellow onion

2 oz. green bell pepper

1 oz. poblano pepper, seeded and chopped

1/2 tsp. chili powder

dash chipotle chile powder (or 1 small chipotle in adobo, rinsed, seeded and mashed)

1 small Guajillo chile, seeded and chopped (these are very mild and found in most stores’ produce dept. dried, sold in a bag)

Dash cumin

1/4 c. heavy cream

VARIATION:   Bake thin strips of 1 cut-up corn tortilla until crisp and top each serving with a few.  Be sure to recalculate your numbers if you make this carb-y change.

DIRECTIONS:  Cut chicken meat up into small pieces.  If using canned meat, just break up the large chunks.  Put all ingredients but the cream into soup pot.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer until squash and all veggies are tender but not falling apart (about 15-20 minutes).  Turn heat to lowest setting. Now add cream and stir.  If you like, you can puree this soup with a stick blender or in small batches in your food processor.  I’ve done the soup both ways and prefer it chunky, as El Mirador served theirs.  

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:  Serves 4, each serving contains:

283 calories, 15.1 g.  fat, 6.95 g.  carbs, 1.6 g.  fiber, 5.35 NET CARBS, 26.3 g.  protein, 780 mg sodium

Curried Carrot Soup

Peggy 1 Comment

Curried Carrot Soup

I cooked a batch of this for lunch today.  Wasn’t the first time, but my husband, who had forgotten about this recipe, said “You can add this to your rotations.  I really like this.”  To be so simple, you’ll be surprised how tasty this soup is!   I cooked a lovely chicken stew night before last and the leftover stock is so rich, that went into the pot, for sure.  The spices below speak for themselves.  Carrots are not as low carb as some veggies, but I do consume them from time to time. They’re not as high in carbs as you would think though.   This soup is suitable once you are out of the first two week Induction phase of Atkins or keto diets.  Primal followers can enjoy this but Paleo followers should use the coconut milk instead of cream, which is actually quite good, I might add.

INGREDIENTS:

3   15-oz cans of carrots, no salt added, well-drained (or 6 loosely filled cups sliced fresh carrots)

1 qt. (4 c.) homemade chicken stock (approximately)

1½ tsp. curry powder (any brand will do, I used “hot” but the soup wasn’t too spicy)

1½ tsp. Garam Masala Spice Blend

½ tsp. sea salt

Dash black pepper

½ c. cilantro

½ c. heavy cream or coconut milk

DIRECTIONS:  Bring the stock to a boil and lower heat to medium.   If using fresh carrots, simmer them in the broth until very tender.  If using canned carrots, just add to the pot.  Add all other ingredients (but the cilantro and cream).  Simmer about 10 minutes.   When the carrots are very tender, puree them with a stick blender.  If you don’t yet own one, they are a wonderful invention.  Ask Santa Claus for one  this year if you do many pureed soups.  You’ll love it!  So much nicer for pureeing soups right in the cook pot, rather than doing it in small batches in a blender or food processor like I used to do for years, then having to return each processed batch back into the soup pot.  Stir in the chopped cilantro and cream and simmer for another minute or so.  Serve garnished with a cilantro leaf and a sprinkle of Garam Masala.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes seven 1-cup servings, each serving contains:

143 cals, 8.27 g fat, 9.97 g carbs, 2.91 g fiber, 7.06 g NET CARBS, 4.8 g protein, 238 mg sodium

Cranberry Walnut Muffins

Peggy Leave a comment

Cranberry Walnut Muffins

I love the taste of cranberries and walnuts together.  This muffin creation not only tasted wonderful, but when I fixed these for my late brother, an executive chef in San Francisco many years, he said you could sell these or offer them at any bakery, coffee shop or breakfast buffet here in San Francisco.  That made me feel very good about this recipe.  My husband and I both really love these, and he’s not particularly crazy about walnuts!    Texture is quite nice.  They are light and moist.  Try them with a cup of coffee or hot tea.   They make a great snack, too!

I have made these with all flax meal and no CarbQuik, as it introduces a small amount of flour product to these muffins.   You will have to re-calculate the nutritional info with that substitution.  I’m finding a little CarbQuik improves the texture of baked goods over using exclusively alternate flours.  This recipe is not suitable for Induction unless you omit the CQ and use all flax meal.  You  can use 1T. grated orange peel instead of the Boyajian oil in this recipe as well.

INGREDIENTS:

1 c. flax meal

¼ c. CarbQuik bake mix (for gluten-free, use Jennifer Eloff’s Gluten-Free Bake Mix)

1 T. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

Pinch salt

1 1/8 tsp. baking powder

¼ c. salad oil

4 beaten eggs

2 T. Davinci French Vanilla sugar-free syrup (or 1 tsp. vanilla)

½ c. Splenda, granular

½ capful Boyajian orange oil or 1/4 tsp. orange extract

3/4 c. chopped walnuts

1 c. fresh cranberries

DIRECTIONS:  Chop, blend or process cranberries fairly fine.  Add walnuts and pulse couple more times.  Pour this into bowl.  Add dry ingredients and spices.  Add beaten eggs, oil and Boyajian orange oil or orange extract.  DO NOT overwork the batter.  Spoon into well greased muffin tins.  Bake about 20 minutes at 350º or until tops are dry to the touch.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 12 medium-sized muffins, each contains:

143.6 cals, 11.9 g  fat, 6.91 g  carbs, 4.18 g  fiber, 2.73 NET CARBS, 5.19 g  protein, 41 mg sodium

Turkish Pide (pee day)

Peggy Leave a comment

My family, when I was 12 yrs. old, spent a very long night in Turkey’s Istanbul airport sleeping on a very hard wooden bench.   Our Air France jet had an engine problem and they had to fly a new engine from Paris.  The afternoon began with a wonderful food experience I’ll never forget.   I understand they make something similar to this ‘pizza-like’ dish in several Arab nations.   How it is constructed may change a bit from country to country (probably spices, too), but the concept remains the same: a spicy meat-filled pastry.  It’s what I made for dinner tonight, so I thought I’d re-post this tasty dish tonight.

We found this delightful meal at a little place very near the airport, as they kept saying the plane engine would be arriving in an hour, over and over again.   Sixteen hours later, the engine was installed and we were once again on our way home.

This food vendor had one of these displayed in the counter, and since it resembled pizza, we chose that.  He called it (what sounded like) “pee day”.  🙂  Of course, being children, we found that hilarious & laughed as we carried our treasure back to the airport to enjoy.   And did we ever!

We could tell it was spiced ground lamb with a ‘pizza-like’ crust.  The spices were a mystery though.  Years later, at a Barnes & Noble bookstore,  I found this dish mentioned in a book on Middle Eastern cuisine that was organized by country.   After gaining more knowledge of Middle Eastern spices over the years, I made a feeble attempt to reproduce the flavors of this food memory.  My recipe is close, but surely not quite the same.  My husband ranted about this the first time I made it for him, so I think you will like it as well!   

This recipe is not suitable for Atkins Induction as the dough has a small amount of flour product in it (it’s in the Carbquik).   Although this is a main entrée, it can be served in smaller slices as snack food.  It goes over well at parties but does require a plate and fork to serve in slices, as it typically has more meat in it than a pizza and is heavier/messier.  For party serving, I formed the dough into small mini muffin cups and filled with smaller portions of the meat topping and that works fine for party finger food.

INGREDIENTS:

½ recipe my Mozzy Dough

8 oz. lean ground beef or lamb

2 oz. onion, finely chopped

15 San Marzano mini tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), chopped

3/4 c. parsley, chopped

1/2 tsp. Baharat Spice

¼ tsp. each: dried mint

¼ tsp. crushed dried fenugreek leaves (optional, but a key flavor for me)

¼ tsp. each salt and coarse black pepper

DIRECTIONS:  Make the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions, reserving half the dough for another use.  It freezes well in a plastic bag.  Roll the dough into a fat canoe/longboat shape about 12″ x 7″ on a parchment lined sheet pan.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375º.  Brown the beef (or lamb) in a skillet with the onion.  Add the parsley and all seasonings listed above.  Cook over medium-high heat for a few minutes to tenderize the onions.  Remove and spoon evenly into the “canoe” of dough, leaving a good inch of dough free of filling.  Sprinkle the chopped tomatoes on top.  Fold the uncovered dough up over the meat to create the sides of the “canoe”, pinching the pointed ends together with your fingers to help maintain the “canoe” shape.  Traditionally, they sprinkle sesame seeds on the sides of the “canoe” dough before baking but I did not, as the hubs isn’t fond of seeds on/in breads.    Pop into 375º oven for about 20-25 minutes or until begins to brown.  Remove from oven and cut into four equal portions.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    As a meal, makes 4 servings of pide (cut smaller into snack size for lower carbs), each contains:

316 calories, 23.5g fat, 12.17g carbs, 6.2g fiber, 5.97g NET CARBS, 24.424 g protein, 476mg sodium

Pork Chops in Creamy Sofrito Sauce

Peggy Leave a comment

I’m serving one of my oldie but goodie recipes for dinner tonight.  This dish uses my delicious Puerto Rican (Caribbean and Spanish as well) Sofrito as the key flavoring.  I just can’t say enough about how good this flavor ingredient is.  For this recipe I use seared pork chops as the foundation, but I have done this also with seared chicken breasts. This sauce is used in extensively in Spain and throughout the Caribbean, almost as much as soy sauce is used in Chinese cuisine.  Once you taste it, you’ll see why!  I can’t begin to tell you how many creations this sauce has gone into in my kitchen now.  My recipe is inspired by member PilotGal, at Active Low Carber Forums.  This sauce has become a staple in my kitchen, although I make it a wee bit different.   This flavor layer is marvelous on meat sandwiches and wraps!!  With the addition of some sliced green olives and stuffed green olives, it is very similar to the bruschetta olive relish used on classic New Orleans Muffaletta sandwiches that are served at Central Grocers on Decatur St. in the French Quarter.

This pork chop meal can be ready just as fast as you can fry up those chops!  Takes all of about 30 minutes, start to finish, if the Sofrito is already made up in your freezer, where I store mine in a flat zipper plastic bag.  I just break off as much as I need for a recipe without even thawing first.  I highly recommend double bagging it as the aroma can escape in your freezer if you do not.  🙂

This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets and Primal-Paleo if you substitute coconut cream for the heavy cream.  That will impart a slightly different flavor to the final dish, but the Sofrito flavor is so intense it will greatly disguise the taste of coconut and have no negative impact.

Note:  You can cut fat & carb numbers below by using a mixture of 50:50 water and cream instead of all cream

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. pork chops or boneless pork loin slices (4 portions)

1 T. bacon grease for searing

2 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 c. heavy cream

¼ c. Sofrito sauce

¼ c. parsley, chopped fine

1-4 T. tap water to thin sauce (only if needed) if gets too thick waiting for chops to finish cooking

Dash salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:   Heat bacon grease in a non-stick skillet or griddle over high medium-heat.  Brown nicely on both sides to fully-done state.

While they are cooking, in a separate small skillet over medium-low heat, add the soft cream cheese and stir to get it warm.  Slowly add the cream in small increments and stir with a rubber spatula to blend after each addition.  Add Sofrito sauce and stir.  Next add  half of the chopped parsley and couple dashes salt and pepper to the sauce.  Stir well to blend. Lower heat to lowest setting possible until meat is fully cooked.  Line the pork chops on a serving plate.  If sauce has thickened up too much, thin with a few tablespoons water and stir.  Using a rubber spatula, scrape the sauce out and down the middle of the lined up chops on your serving plate.  Garnish the dish with the remaining chopped parsley.  I served these with seared San Marzano tomato halves as shown (my husband loves them) and a side of buttered cauliflower.  Broccoli would also pair well here.

VARIATION:  Add some diced San Marzano to the sauce along with the sofrito for a change of pace.  I chose to garnish the plate for photographic purposes with my side dish, which was broiled San Marzano mini tomato halves, but those are NOT included in the stats below.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 4 servings, each contains: (does not include the seared tomatoes shown).  Assumption: 1/4 of the sauce is served with each chop

413 calories, 35 g. fat, 3.2 g carbs, 0.37 g fiber, 2.83 g net carbs, 21.7 g protein, 194 mg sodium

Lobster “Linguine”

Peggy 3 Comments

Lobster and "Linguine"

Click to enlarge photo

I can’t get very good lobster in Central Texas except at Sam’s around the Christmas holidays, so I often prepare this dish with shrimp or crawfish.  It’s great with all three, but I think best with  lobster.   I have even made it with large sea scallops and fresh lump white crab meat (when I lived on the Gulf Coast).   As is true of most seafood dishes, this one really packs in the nutrients!  This dish is suitable while still in the first 2-week Atkins Induction Phase.

*The “noodles” have no real flavor of their own, they take on the taste of whatever broth or sauces they are cooked in.  So be sure to use seafood stock (preferably lobster broth from shells boiled in water) to simmer the noodles in.  It will make the final dish so much more flavorful!  When you shell your lobster meat, boil the shells for 30 minutes and use that broth.
INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. lobster meat cut into bite-size pieces (for 2 of us, I only used 8 oz. to lower the cost)

Lobster stock to boil the “linguine”

1 recipe my Dumplings dough (follow link for how to prepare)

1 stick unsalted butter

½ c. onion, chopped

1 c. celery, chopped

1 carrot, grated

1 2 oz. jar pimiento, drained (or 2 oz. diced red bell pepper)

1/3 c. parsley, chopped

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

8-10 drops Tobasco (or less if you prefer less spicy)

¼ tsp. ground thyme

DIRECTIONS: Sauté onion, celery and carrot in melted butter until onion and celery are completely tender.  Add parsley and pimiento.  Add seafood, Tobasco and remaining seasonings.  Sauté for about 5 minutes longer.  Turn off heat while you make the “linguine”.

For the “linguine”, bring your seafood stock to a boil.  Mix a batch of my dumpling dough exactly like that recipes says, mixing the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry ingredients on a paper plate.  When the two are stirred together and they have formed a dough, let the dough sit a couple minutes to “stiffen up”.  Place the dough on preferably a silicone sheet on your counter (or plastic wrap if you don’t yet own a silicone sheet).  Place a sheet of plastic wrap on top of the dough and gently roll out fairly thin (about 1/8″ thick).  Carefully and gently, cut into long strips about ¼” wide.  I would prefer them narrower, but when I tried, they real narrow ones all tore up on me.  😉

Gently loosen/lift the noodles by sliding the knife tip gently underneath each one slowly (this is why a silicone sheet works a little better than plastic wrap on the bottom) and set each noodle aside on the silicone sheet until all are cut.   It’s OK if they are touching each other while they wait, we won’t tell anyone LOL.  When all have been cut, take the sheet to your pot of simmering seafood stock and gently slide them into the water.  You want a very gentle simmer on the broth, so adjust your heat source accordingly.  Immediately cover and cook around 8 minutes.  DO NOT LIFT LID DURING COOKING.  While they are cooking, reheat the lobster mixture on low heat.  When the “linguine” is done, gently lift them out of the broth with a slotted spoon into the lobster mixture, toss gently and serve at once with your favorite low-carb garlic bread and a nice green salad.  🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 3 servings, each contains:  (calculated with 1 lb. lobster)

465.7 cals, 33g fat, 9.1g carbs, 2.3g fiber, 6.8g NET CARBS, 32.3g protein, 283 g  sodium

Einkorn English Muffin

Peggy Leave a comment

This is a delicious quick breakfast for one I think you’ll like. I’m re-entering this popular recipe to the site today as it seems to have vanished into cyber Twilight Zone! When I developed this recipe some years back, I was so pleased they formed the classic “holes” to catch the melting butter! This recipe disappearance has happened a couple times in the past on my site and I just can’t figure out what causes the problem. Deleting one takes several steps, so I know an accidental deletion just isn’t what happened here. ????? I’m glad this was brought to my attention today so I could reload it. If you have not yet tried this recipe, I hope you will one day. I think you’ll be very glad for having done so!

INGEEDIENTS:

1½ T. unsalted butter

¼ c. egg whites (carton ones are OK)

2 T. very hot water

3 T. almond flour

1 T. Einkorn flour

1 tsp. oat fiber (do not use oat flour!)

¼ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. psyllium husk powder (I use NOW brand from Netrition.com)

DIRECTIONS: Melt the butter in your microwave in a shallow 5″ oval or round dish to make this muffin. Add the egg whites and hot water and beat a few seconds. Add the dry ingredients in the order listed, stirring after each addition. The mixture is very “soupy” at this point. Next add the psyllium powder and batter should begin to thicken. Allow 1 full minute for the psyllium to do its job. Pop into your microwave and cook on HI for about 1 minute (should be dry to the touch in the center). Cook a few seconds longer if not quite done, as microwaves vary. Preheat your broiler.

Loosen edges with a knife to facilitate removing the muffin onto a cutting board. Cool a minute or so. Using a serrated bread knife, carefully slice laterally into 2 thin slices. Place them onto a metal pan and toast/brown the bottoms, flip and brown the tops to your liking. Serve hot with butter and/or your favorite jam or jelly. I do not recommend toasting these in a toaster as they tend to “slump” down from gravity and burn where they touch the element wires. Hope you enjoy these!

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 1 muffin. Entire recipe contains:

314 cals, 26.5g fat, 12.2g carbs, 7.1g fiber, 5.1g NET CARBS, 11.1g protein, 354 mg sodium

Cuban Roast Pork (Cerdo Asado)

Peggy Leave a comment

I’ve seen recipes for Cuban Pork Roast (Cerdo Asado) on the internet but most use a tremendous amount of  Mexican oregano, which is already stronger/more aromatic than the Italian oregano most of us are familiar with.   Like Cajun gumbo, the recipes vary quite a bit.  I’ve come up with a version that is similar, but using much less oregano.  Mine also pulls several new flavor layers to the meat.  I think you’ll like the final taste on this pork, as both of us certainly did.  When a marinade or sauce can take away the strong flavor of roasted pork (at least strong to me) that’s a win-win in my book. This recipe accomplishes that admirably. 

I am only providing the nutritional info for the marinade/sauce to which you can just add the amount of meat you slice off and consume.  My assumption is that each person will likely only be consuming 1 T. marinade/sauce on the meat and perhaps 1 T. dotted on the meat at table.  This recipe is not suitable until you are past the Induction Phase of Atkins.  It is perfectly suitable for Keto plans and Primal-Paleo as well.

Afterthought:  This meat leftover makes particularly tasty sandwiches.  Love it that way, so I do a large roast on purpose!  This meat freezes well cooked/sliced & separated with plastic wrap to have at the ready so you can pop off a few slices, defrost and serve up those delicious sandwiches in no time at all!   And its ever so much better for you than store-bought lunchmeat.

INGREDIENTS:

6-8 lb. bone-in pork butt (or 4-5 lb. boneless pork shoulder)

3/4 c. fresh-squeezed orange juice

Juice of 1 large lemon

juice of 1 lime

3/4 c. white wine (I used Riesling)

1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil

2 T. each fresh mint and cilantro, chopped

1 T. dried ancho chile pepper, ground

6 large cloves garlic, chopped

2 tsp. dried oregano leaves, chopped (Mexican, to be authentic)

1 T. each onion powder and ground cumin

1 tsp. garlic powder

¼ tsp. chipotle chile powder (or a 1″ pepper in adobo, rinsed, seeded and mashed)

1/16 tsp. dusted glucomannan powder to ever so slightly thicken marinade so it will cling to meat

OPTIONAL:  1 tsp. salt

VARIATION:  This is even more delicious grilled over charcoal like you would pork for making pulled pork BBQ.  For a change if cooking indoors, add some bell pepper to the bottom of the baking pan 1 hour before meat is done.  The roasted peppers are quite delicious with this meat.

DIRECTIONS:  Place first 5 ingredients into a marinating pan large enough for your meat.  Add all the herbs and spices listed and stir well.  Add glucomannan, whisking until blended.  This will ever so slightly thicken the marinade so it will cling to meat.  Place pork butt into marinating pan.  Using a basting brush, drizzle marinade over meat slowly until all sides are covered.  Marinate for 1-2 hours, turning meat once and repeating the drizzling step to baste all over again.

When ready to cook, preheat oven to 325º.  Line large sheet pan with foil so it will catch all juices for easier clean-up.  Set a meat rack in the pan next to elevate the meat and finally place the meat fat-side up onto the rack.  The rack is essential to get the “bark” on all sides of the meat.  Pour marinade into a saucepan.  Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes to make certain the raw meat juices in it have fully cooked. Remove from heat.

Baste meat again with marinade and pop into 325º oven.  Bake for 1 hour to raise internal temperature of the center of the meat.  Now lower oven temperature to 250º and bake for about 4 hours (more for larger roast; less for smaller one), turning the meat and basting every hour to allow all sides to brown evenly.   When the meat reaches 170º internal temperature it is done and fork tender.  Mine was so tender the slices fell away from the knife before I could even get them cut off.  Remove meat to serving platter and set a few minutes.   Combine pan juices and baste with a little water and cook a few minutes to be sure it is fully cooked throughout and to reduce.  Slice meat fairly thin and serve with a nice guacamole salad.  Have the “sauce” on the table so your diners can dot a little more on at the table, it on their portion, as it is a wonderful flavor “boost” to the meat.

Alternately, you can cook this slow over charcoal fire (more authentic) like you would for cooking pork for pulled pork BBQ.  

TIP:  As always, be sure your thermometer isn’t touching a bone when you check temperature so you are getting an accurate reading. 

NUTRITIONAL INFO (for sauce only!) Makes about 2 cups (32 T.).  Average serving=2 T.  Each serving contains:  (be sure to add in the meat portion to these numbers to get your per serving total)

54 cals, 6.93g fat, 3.3g carbs, 0.36g fiber, 2.94g NET CARBS, 0.4g protein, trace sodium.

Oven-Fried Eggplant

Peggy Leave a comment

If you love eggplant like we love eggplant, this method of cooking it will quickly become  a favorite way to prepare this vegetable.  No standing over a skillet of spattering hot grease. This recipe is DELICIOUS, easy and is Atkins Induction friendly as well!  Could you ask for more?  It’s quite a bit lower in fat cooked this way, as eggplant will notoriously soak up fat in a skillet like a sponge.   🙂

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  A collaboration including recipes of famed Chef George Stella along with recipe creations of several other established low-carb cooks that brings you a wealth of deliciousness you are going to love.  A number of my recipes are found there!  Order yours TODAY!  at Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

INGREDIENTS: 12 oz. eggplant

4 T. my homemade mayo

6 T. Parmesan Cheese

¼ tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend (or seasoning of your choice)

VARIATION:  For a crunchier eggplant, use only 3 T. Parmesan and add 2 oz. finely crushed pork rinds.

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 450º.  Use a non-stick sheet pan or oil your sheet pan with olive oil.  Trim stem/end off eggplant.  Cut into 1/4″-3/8″ slices.  Mix spice blend into Parmesan cheese in a dish.   Brush one side of one eggplant slice at a time with mayo.  Coat that side with Parmesan (I use the kind in the can for this recipe) by holding the very edge of the slice over a paper plate with the cheese, dipping and sprinkling the one side, letting excess fall back into the paper plate.  I place the slices cheese-coated side down onto the oiled pan.  Then I brush the other sides all at once and sprinkle the remaining cheese carefully onto the slices.  I find this conserves cheese for the second sides.  If I just dip the slices into the cheese both sides, I run out of cheese EVERY time!   Bake in a hot oven (450º) for about 10 minutes, until nicely browned on bottoms.  Flip the pieces over and bake 10 more minutes.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 4, each serving contains:

183 cals, 15g fat, 5.5g carbs, 2.9g fiber, 2.6g NET CARBS, 8g protein, 121 mg  sodium

Beef-Broccoli Pie

Peggy 3 Comments

A hearty meal for a cold day so it’s what we’re having for dinner tonight. We love pot pies at our house, and you certainly can make them low-carb. I find them pretty easy to make since I keep made up pie dough in the freezer most of the time so I can throw dinners like this together pretty easily. I have one crust of dough made up left from Christmas baking! I keep my frozen dough tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. It keeps frozen for about 2 months with no diminishing of flavor I can discern. I just thaw one enough to get pliable to roll out and voilà.  

I adore broccoli steamed, but I’m frankly not too fond of it added to casseroles and pot pies.  It invariably cooks too long and gets strong-tasting.  I had misgivings about adding it to this meat pie recipe.  I think I must have just the right amount of broccoli in this, cut it just the right size and most importantly, added it raw, because we absolutely LOVE this dish, broccoli and all!

The filling was moist yet not overly soupy.  Having used grass-fed beef for this, the beef flavor was rich indeed. Give this one a try! I’m certain you’re going to like it.  Although not suitable until you are closer to goal weight, this one is well worth the wait.  If you use Induction suitable biscuit dough (like flax muffin batter) and omit the bottom crust, those still in the initial Atkins Induction phase could still enjoy this recipe. 🙂

VARIATION:  You lamb fans could use ground lamb in this pie for a very nice variation.

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

1 1/3 c. CarbQuik bake mix (or low-carb mix of your choice)

¼ c. oat flour

½ c. coconut oil or cold butter

¼ tsp. sea salt

1/3 c. ice water

FILLING INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. ground beef (I used 90% lean grass-fed)

6 large mushrooms, sliced chopped coarsely

1/3 c. red bell pepper, chopped

2 oz. onion, chopped

½ recipe Jennifer Eloff’s low-carb Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

½ c. drained yogurt (I used Fage 2%)

¼ c. cream

Dash each salt

¼ tsp. black pepper

1½ c. broccoli, coarsely chopped (or chopped green beans)

DIRECTIONS:  Make the blender soup (linked above) per that recipe’s instructions.  You will only use half of this soup. Store the remaining half in your refrigerator for another use.  Set aside what you will be using for now.

Measure out the dry ingredients for the crust in a medium mixing bowl.  Stir well.  With a fork or pastry cutter, blend in the coconut oil or cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal and visually appears to be uniformly blended.  Add the ice water slowly and with your fork, stir until it forms a solid ball of dough.  I had to knead mine 4-5 times to facilitate that. Divide dough into a chunk of 2/3 of the dough for the bottom crust and 1/3 of the dough for the top crust.  Roll bottom crust between 2 sheets of plastic wrap until 1-1½” larger than your baking dish.  I used a 7 x 11 ceramic dish.  Remove top plastic and lift the dough, plastic and all and gently tip it onto the pan, centered.  Remove plastic and press it in the bottom and along the sides of your baking dish.  If there are any tears, just press it together.  Perfection here is not necessary. Set aside while you cook the filling.

Preheat oven to 350º.  Brown the meat in a non-stick skillet (mine is ceramic) over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and bell pepper.  Sauté until veggies are nearly tender.  Add the chopped mushrooms and sauté the mixture just until they are no longer opaque.  Stir in the condensed soup, yogurt and cream until they are uniformly blended.  Stir in the RAW diced broccoli, salt and pepper last.  The broccoli will cook sufficiently in the oven baking process.

With a rubber spatula, scrape filling into the crust.  Now roll out the remaining dough to roughly the size and shape of your dish (again between plastic wrap) and top the pie with it.  Seal the edges of the top and bottom crust in any fashion you like. Make some vent hole with a knife tip or fork.  Pop into 350º oven for about 1 hour or until dough is golden brown.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 6 servings, each contains:

340 calories, 33 g  fat, 19.83 g  carbs, 11.26 g  fiber, 8.57 NET CARBS, 10 g  protein, 353 mg sodium

Topless Tamale Pie

Peggy Leave a comment

I haven’t made this oldie but goodie in eons and am craving Mexican food tonight. I think I’ll make this quick and delicious meal tonight. Who needs those high-carb cornmeal toppings from tamale pies of old?  Walmart’s Great Value brand of canned corn only has 9g carbs per ½ c. minus 2g fiber or 7 net carbs per ½ cup.  Spread out in an entire recipe like this, if not still in Induction, you can use half a can (3/4 c.) in a recipe and get the real flavor of corn for fewer carbs per serving.  Check out the numbers below.  This dish is so yummy I like to splurge a bit once in awhile and serve this.

This recipe is only suitable during Atkins Induction if you omit the corn.  It’s OK for other phases of Atkins however if it fits your daily macro goals. For those in Maintenance Phase, and can afford a few more carbs, here is my recipe with an actual topping on it: Tamale Pie.  

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. lean ground beef

2 oz. chopped onion

1 jalapeno, seeded, chopped

½ tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

½ tsp. granulated or garlic powder

3/4 c. canned corn, no-salt, drained

2.25 oz. can sliced black olives

4 slices American Deluxe cheese

1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ c. canned diced tomatoes (no-salt)

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 300º.  Cook ground meat over medium heat until no longer pink.  Add onion and jalapeno and cook until onion is softening.  Add all spices and stir.  Add tomatoes, corn, olives and the shredded Cheddar cheese.  Stir and simmer for 4-5 minutes.  The cheese will begin to get sticky and bind the mixture a bit.  Top with the 4 slices of American cheese.  Pop in a 300º oven for 5-8 minutes just to melt the cheese.   Serve directly in the baking pan or dish up onto a serving platter.  Pairs nicely with a guacamole or green salad of choice.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 4 servings.  Each serving contains:

493 cals, 31.5g fat, 10.1g carbs, 2.4g fiber, 7.7g NET CARBS, 39.8g protein, 882 mg sodium

Thai Chicken-Pumpkin Soup

Peggy Leave a comment

Texas is seeing quite a chill in the air this week.   When it’s a chilly 58º, it’s not quite cold enough for making chili, but pumpkin and winter squash soups are nice at such times.  For this delicious soup, I just need a couple things in my pantry.  I use Sam’s “Daily Chef” canned chicken meat as it only has chicken, salt and water in it.  No modified food starch or other junk ingredients.  I always have some homemade chicken stock in my freezer, so this is an easy lunch for me.  This soup is quite tasty and is very nutritious, too.  Today I’m making this pumpkin soup base with Thai flavorings as the flavors just seem to speak to pumpkin and winter squash.  Unless you omit the seed blend in the garnish, this recipe isn’t suitable until you reach the nuts and seeds (in the garnish) rung of Atkins Phase 2 OWL carb re-introduction ladder.  It recipe is perfectly acceptable for other Keto diets as well.

INGREDIENTS:

1  15-oz. can pure pumpkin puree (Do not use spiced pumpkin pie filling!)

1  can (13 oz.) coconut milk

3 c. homemade chicken broth

¼ c. packed, fresh cilantro, chopped

¼ tsp. salt

Dash black pepper

¼ c. green onion, finely chopped

1 tsp. Thai Red Curry Paste (or to taste)

1 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce

½ tsp. Thai fish sauce (I use Thai Kitchen brand)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1  can (13 oz) Sam’s chicken meat (salt/water only)

OPTIONAL GARNISH:  Sprig of fresh cilantro or if beyond Induction phase, some of my 8-seed Spice Blend

DIRECTIONS:   Basically, place all ingredients into a large soup pot, stir well and bring to a boil and then lower heat.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Although not absolutely necessary, use a stick blender to puree the soup if desired.  Garnish with sprig of cilantro or seed blend of choice.  

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes five 1½ c. servings, each contains:

273 calories, 19.2 g  fat, 10.2 g  carbs, 2.6 g  fiber, 7.6 g  NET CARBS, 13.66 g  protein, 432 mg sodium

Chicken Tenders with Bang Bang Sauce

Peggy Leave a comment

My husband asked me for some chicken tenders for lunch today.  I have developed a great Southern Fried Chicken coating recipe and just took that to a new level, serving as tenders with a dipping sauce with a “bite”.  This particular coating has been my best to date and it didn’t fail me on the tenders when I created this dish.  I’m so pleased with how these consistently come out.  It’s my first time to try a real spicy sauce with our tenders (usually do a cream gravy) and we love the tastes together! The hubs said please make those again today, for lunch!     So rather than doing the chicken from scratch, I’m using up some frozen tenders he brought home last month.

As I can’t know how you cut up your chicken strips, it’s not possible to really provide nutritional stats per serving.  Instead, I am providing nutritional info for 1/10 of the coating, as I make 10 nice-sized strips of chicken breasts (off 2 large breasts I de-bone).  The coating recipe makes about 1½c. coating.  There is enough egg/cream mix to do probably 12-15 tenders actually so this recipe will coat more tenders if you have a big family.  No need to double the coating recipe for around 15 tenders.  Therefore, the carb numbers per serving are actually even lower than shown below.  Woo! Hoo!  You’re going to love these tasty morsels!

INGREDIENTS FOR BREADING (if making chicken tenders from scratch):

3/4 c. plain whey protein

1 c. crushed pork rinds (about 2 oz.)

1 T. oat fiber (omit if on Induction or for gluten-free version)

1 tsp. my Seafood Spice blend (or seasonings of your choice)

½ tsp. onion powder

½ c. Parmesan cheese

1/8 tsp. coarse black pepper

2 large eggs

¼ c. heavy cream

¼ c. water (or more heavy cream if you prefer)

½-3/4″ deep hot oil (I use coconut oil) in a large 13-14″ skillet

OPTIONAL BANG BANG SAUCE: ½ c. homemade (or regular) mayonnaise, 1 T. Sambal Oelek chili paste, 2 tsp. Sriracha, dash each salt and black pepper.  Stir all in a small bowl.  Sauce adds approximately 0.35 net carbs for each serving (1 serving = 1 T.).

DIRECTIONS: Preheat holding oven to 350º.  Measure out and mix all dry ingredients in a paper or plastic bag by shaking well.  In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, cream and water together.  Cut chicken breast meat into long strips about 4″ x 1″.  Dip each one into the egg mixture and turn several times to well coat each piece.  Pick each piece of meat out of the bowl and drop into the seasoned “flour” in the bag.  This makes coating easier and less messy.  When you have 3 pieces in the bag, holding the top of the bag closed, shake the bag to coat the chicken with the dry mix.  Don’t put more than 3 pieces into the bag at a time or they will not coat well.

Heat 3/4″ deep oil over high heat.  Remove the coated chicken strips carefully from the bag and place the pieces closely together in the skillet of hot grease.  If you’re creative, you can get about 8 strips in a 13″ skillet.  Repeat the coating process with the remaining pieces of chicken.  Brown the chicken well on one side disturbing as little as possible as they cook.  With a fork, flip pieces over gently to brown the second side.   When brown on both sides they should be done (about 15 minutes total) remove to paper toweling to drain and if still frying more pieces, place the platter of first-cooked tenders in your preheated oven until all meat has been fried.  When you have finished cooking all pieces of chicken, serve at once with the Bang Bang dipping sauce.

VARIATION:  Serve with a good homemade cream gravy rather than the Bang Bang Sauce. 

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes enough coating for more than 10-15 tenders of chicken.  Numbers are for the coating only. Be sure to add in the info for the chicken piece(s) you eat and whatever dipping sauce you use!  1/10 batch of the entire coating recipe contains:

113.4 cals, 7.26g fat, 1.72g carbs, 0.53g fiber, 1.19g NET CARBS (less if not all coating and egg wash used), 12.8g protein, 209 mg sodium (sauce adds little to these numbers (mostly fat grams) and is nearly impossible to provide a per serving figure for as that would be person dependent in how liberally they used the sauce.

Mini Boston Cream Pie

Peggy 2 Comments

Boston Cream Pie

Another treat for consideration this Valentine’s Day.  I’ve often wondered why they call this dessert a “pie”.  I’ve always figured it was because pie tins were more available than the type of cake pan we think of today when this dish was created by a Boston chef. It’s my husband’s favorite cake, actually.  He asked me if I thought I could make a low-carb version of his favorite cake and I decided to give it a try.  This famous dessert is only as good as the cake it’s made with.  I used Nancy’s 3 Minute Vanilla Cake on Linda Genaw’s site.  So I thought that would be a good starting point.  I baked two of those (slightly modified) in 6″ ceramic quiche dishes.  This recipe is not suitable for Induction.

CREAM FILLING INGREDIENTS:  Whisk the following well in a small bowl.  Chill for 20-30 minutes.

½ package sugar-free vanilla pudding powder

¼ c. heavy cream

½ c. water

If you prefer to make your pastry cream from scratch, I would recommend DJfoodie’s Pastry Cream recipe, but the stats below were calculated on the cream made with the dry pudding powder.

CHOCOLATE FROSTING INGREDIENTS:  The recipe for frosting I used (from the website Healthy Indulgences) is no longer in existence, as the website isn’t even accessible anymore.  Instead I recommend using this frosting recipe at Carolyn Ketchum’s website:  All Day Dream About Food to glaze your cake.  Her recipes are always delicious!  Refrigerate or freeze any remaining frosting for other uses.

CAKE INGREDIENTS:

4 T. butter, unsalted

2 eggs, beaten

4 T. water

½ c. granular Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener)

¼ c. golden flax meal

¼ c. almond flour

2/3 c. whey protein, unflavored, unsweetened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. baking powder

DIRECTIONS:   In your microwave, melt 2 T. of the butter in each of two small 6″ quiche dishes.  Add 1 beaten egg and 2 T. of water to each dish.  Stir well to blend.  Next add to each baking dish: ¼ c. Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener) , 2 T. flax meal, 2 T. almond flour, 1/3 c. whey protein, ½ tsp. vanilla extract and ½ tsp. baking powder.  Stir well until completely smooth.  Microwave each layer for about 70 seconds or until center is dry and spring back when touched.  Remove and cool slightly.  Using a flexible spatula, gently tip/lift out layer to your serving plate.

Remove cream from refrigerator and stir once for smoothness.  Gently spread a ¼-½” layer of cream onto bottom layer of cake, which may not use it all up.  If you’ve got kids, not a problem.  They’ll be happy to take care of the leftovers for ya!  😉  Don’t get the cream too close to the edges of the cake or it will ooze out when layer #2 goes on.

Gently remove second cake from the dish and set it carefully on top of the cream layer.  Slightly press to seat it well.  Now spread a thin layer of frosting on the top of the cake.  Frosting the sides is tricky, as the cream tends to want to ooze out and mix with the frosting.  Not a problem, just smooth such spots back and forth and the cream and frosting will blend and nobody will ever know but you.  😉

Store uneaten cake in the refrigerator.  Chill cake for 30 minutes or so to set the frosting and it’s ready to serve.  I find this cake gets firmer when totally cold, so the next day, if any leftover, I like to pull it out of the fridge for an hour before serving so the cake and frosting return to their softer state.  🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 servings, each contains:  (Carbs will be lower if you use liquid sweetener)

271 cals. , 23 g  fat, 8.7g  carbs, 2.22g  fiber, 6.48g NET CARBS, 13 g protein, 250 mg sodium

SPECIAL NOTE:  For those that want a bigger slice (with a higher carb price to pay):  1/4 of the cake=406 calories, 13.05 carbs, 3.33 g fiber, 9.72 g NET CARBS, 19.1 g protein, and 374 mg sodium.

Seafood Pirogues

Peggy Leave a comment

I like to reinvent leftovers so they are totally different than their first incarnation.  This particular dish was born from 1 c. of leftover Cheesy Crawfish-Yellow Squash Casserole I had in my freezer.  I bought some gorgeous large shrimp at Sam’s last week and they were right by the zip-loc bag of this leftover in my freezer.  I thought on it a few minutes and came up with this delightful dinner.  We have not had seafood in awhile, so this really sounded good and the dry ingredients for my Mozzy Dough are always made up at the ready in my pantry.  So piece of cake, as my Dad always said.

You are not going to have this Cheesy Crawfish-Yellow Squash Casserole leftover in your freezer, so you might want to mix up that recipe  up to just before baking off these pirogues.  Then you will have a lovely casserole dinner as well as some of the mixture likely leftover with which you can  make these pirogues.    

INGREDIENTS:

2 c. (1/3 recipe) my Cheesy Crawfish-Yellow Squash Casserole (minus casserole topping)

1 recipe Mozzy Dough

20 large shrimp, shelled, peeled and de-veined

3 T. unsalted butter

¼ tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend 

3 T. heavy cream

DIRECTIONS:  Make the Cheesy Crawfish-Squash recipe per instructions (minus topping).  Dip up 2 cups of the mixture for this pirogue recipe and freeze the rest for a future casserole.  Stir the 3 T. cream into the 2 c. of seafood mixture and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350º.  Make a recipe of my Mozzy Dough at the above link per instructions.  Divide the dough ball into four equal parts.  Press each portion either into the bottom and sides of an oblong, oval pirogue pan, in banana split dishes, corn-on-the-cob dishes.  You can also use some other oval dish like a banana split dish.  Alternately you can just roll out the dough into four 7″x3½” boat shapes on parchment-lined pan and curve the edges up a bit with your fingers if you don’t own these special-shaped pans.  Flat should still work as the filling is quite thick.   Alternately, non-stick foil can be shaped into the boat shape needed, but I would still brush with oil to play it safe.

Dough will slide down/shrink in the pans during cooking, so you’ll end up with a much shallower boat when baked (that’s what you want). Take care to press the dough fairly high up the sides of the dish to compensate for this shrinkage.  The size of my boat crusts started out 2″ tall yet ended up more like 1″ tall after shrinkage.  I only have 1 of these little pirogue silicone pans (bought it on a clearance rack) and haven’t been able to round up another on-line yet, so I have bake my shells one at a time.  No problem, I’m retired.  Pan I used is shown photo right. 

Pop the pastry shells (support silicone pans on outer metal pan) into a preheated 350º oven and bake about 15 minutes or just until browning a bit around the edges.  Remove from oven, slightly cool and tip the shells out onto a full-sized baking sheet.  Gently fill each shell with ½ c. of the creamy crawfish casserole mixture.   Set aside while you broil the shrimp.

Turn oven up to broil.  Melt the 3 T. butter in a medium metal baking pan in the oven.  Stir in the Seafood Spice blend.  Next dip each shrimp (both sides) into this seasoned butter and spread evenly in the pan.   Pop into hot broiler and broil shrimp for about 5-7 minutes.   I don’t bother to turn shrimp during cooking.   Watch them closely after 5 minutes to be sure you don’t over brown them, as ovens can vary.  You want them just golden brown as shown above.  Remove pan from broiler and line 5 shrimp atop each pirogue.  Lower oven to 350º and pop the pan back in the oven for about 5-7 minutes just to warm it all up.  Serve at once with a green vegetable or lovely green salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 4 pirogues, each contains:

679.7 cals, 55.8g fat, 18.1g carbs, 9.9g fiber, 8.25g NET CARBS, 43.5g protein, 936 mg sodium (shrimp & crawfish both have sodium and carbs!)

Wild Blueberry “Bran” Muffins

Peggy Leave a comment

Wild Blueberry Bran MuffinsI decided to make muffins for breakfast today.  We’re both kind of burned out on eggs this week.  Only fruit I had on hand to flavor them (other than extracts) was the last of a bag of Sam’s Club Daily Chef dried wild blueberries in my freezer.  A hubby purchase so he didn’t notice there is added sugar in them.   He rarely reads labels when he shops for me.   The dried blueberries would effectively double the carb count, but I decided to go ahead, splurge and make the muffins anyway.  I am posting nutritional number below for making these with fresh, no-sugar-added wild blueberries so this recipe will make sense for you.

For my batter, I used my old Flax-Whey Protein Pancake recipe.  As these use predominantly golden flax meal, their carb count (using fresh berries, of course) is quite low.  They are DELICIOUS!  These are not suitable until you get to Phase 2 Atkins and reach the berries level of carb re-introduction.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. golden flax meal

2 T. Resistant Wheat Starch (I order at Netrition.com)

½c. plain whey protein powder (I use NOW brand)

Dash salt (2 shakes of the shaker)

4 T. granular Splenda (or sweetener of choice)

1 pkt. stevia (or 1 T. erythritol)

1/4 tsp. glucomannan powder

1 c. tap water

2 large eggs, beaten

2 T. unsalted butter, melted

3 oz. frozen wild blueberries (smaller than regular blueberries), or regular berries

VARIATION:  Use ½ c. chopped fresh strawberries or fresh raspberries, which will lower carb count a bit. 

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Lightly oil the six wells of a non-stick large muffin pan.    If  you don’t have one, use a regular muffin pan and oil all 12 wells.  In a medium mixing bowl, measure out all dry ingredients and stir will to blend evenly.  Add 2 eggs to the bowl and beat.  Add water and melted butter and stir well.  Add blueberries and blend again.  You will have enough batter to spoon about ½ cup batter into each slot.  If using a regular pan, use about 1/4 c. batter in each slot.  Even out the batter as needed to achieve equal batter height.  Pop into 350º oven.  Bake large muffins for about 20 minutes for light golden as shown in photo above.  Probably only takes 15 minutes in smaller slot pan.  Remove and serve with butter.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 large muffins, each contains:

412 cals, 30g fat, 22.3g carbs, 18.4g fiber, 3.9g NET CARBS, 19.4g protein, 244 mg sodium

Einkorn Nut-Free Pizza Crust

Peggy 2 Comments
Shown with sausage, mushroom and mozzy cheese toppings.

I have modified my Einkorn Pizza Crust recipe to accommodate my new low-oxalate diet because of a recent calcium oxalate kidney stone. I was told to reduce my nut/nut flour intake. Who knows if maybe all the almond flour I’ve been baking with this past 14 years of low-carbing (and heavy spinach/kale use) brought on the stone to begin with?! Guess I’ll never know.

I shall call this one my nut-free pizza crust. I actually think these changes have resulted in my best pizza crust to date that also happens to be nut free! Isn’t that nice for folks who can’t eat nuts!? Almonds are very high in oxalates, so I eliminated the 1½ c. almond flour completely from the original recipe, substituted in egg white protein for the whey protein (which adds more crust structure), and also added 1 tsp. psyllium fiber for even more dough strength. My husband thought this was a much better crust than my old recipe so it’s a keeper for us. I will leave my original recipe up for people who prefer not to eat ANY flour products whatsoever, even though ancient Einkorn wheat has been shown to be much healthier for you than genetically modified modern wheat and appears to not bother celiac people very much. This recipe is not suitable until you reach the grains rung of the Atkins Phase 2 Carb Reintroduction ladder.

INGREDIENTS:

3 T. softened cream cheese

2 large eggs

1 tsp. cider vinegar

1 T. heavy cream

1 T. tap water

½ c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1 c. shredded Monterey Jack Cheese (or use more mozzarella)

½ c. Einkorn all-purpose white flour (I order Jovial Foods on-line)

¼ c. golden flax meal

½ scoop (29 g.) egg white protein powder (I use NOW)

1 tsp. aluminum free baking powder

1 tsp. psyllium husk powder (I use NOW)

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º.  Line pizza pan with parchment. Soften cream cheese in mixing bowl in your microwave on defrost for about 20 seconds. Stir and add in eggs, cider vinegar, cream and water. Beat and blend well. Add shredded cheeses. Measure in the dry ingredients on top and stir well with rubber spatula to be sure it is uniformly mixed.  Transfer to parchment lined pan and spread with water moistened spatula to rectangular or round shape. Pop into preheated oven and bake for about 13 minutes to dry off the surface of the bread and partially cook it.  Remove and top with your favorite toppings.  Place back in oven and continue baking for about 20 minutes, but check it at 15 min. as ovens vary. Cut into 8 slices and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 8 slices, each contains:

167 cals, 11g fat, 7g carbs, 2g fiber, 5g NET CARBS, 10g protein, 284 mg sodium

Boursin Patty Melt

Peggy 2 Comments

I’ve had a rough month: an allergy-induced whopper of a URI and a UTI on top of that! The former zapped all my energy for cooking; the latter’s medicine always slightly nauseates me. Needless to say, I’ve not cooked much this past month and have eaten so little, I lost 10# in 10 days. Not a fun way to lose, but I’m not going to complain!

Tonight, although I’m feeling much better, my appetite is still not back to its norm. I created a tasty quick and easy patty melt that takes me back to my childhood days when my Mom would take me shopping and we’d have lunch at the Kresge dime store snack bar. Theirs were really good.

I decided to spunk up my version with a little Boursin garlic/herb cheese and man, oh, man, was it ever tasty. My husband sure liked this! Although not terribly photogenic, it made for a delicious dinner for the two of us, serving it with a simple Chickpea Tabouleh Salad. Note one patty is considerably smaller than the other. I made myself a smaller portion, as I’m just not able to eat much beef yet.

INGREDIENTS:

12 oz. 90% lean ground chuck

4 oz. yellow onion, cut in thin wedge slices

2 T. unsalted butter

1 T. bacon grease

2 T. Boursin cheese (I used garlic/herb)

2 slices Swiss Cheese

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Form the meat into two equal patties and set aside on paper plate for a few minutes. Meantime, melt the butter and bacon grease in a skillet. Add onions slivers and sauté over medium-high heat until they caramelize and just begin to brown on the edges. Remove onions to another paper plate. Now place the meat patties into the skillet and brown/cook to your preferred level of doneness. Top each with Half the caramelized onions. Next, using the back of a spoon, spread 1 T. of the Boursin onto each pile of onions as best you can. Next lay 1 slice of Swiss cheese atop each stack. Now pop the skillet in your preheated oven just long enough for the Swiss cheese to melt, or about 5-8 minutes. Serve at once with your desired side dishes.

If you have any low-carb bread baked and ready, you can alternately set the meat patties atop a butter-grilled slice (like Texas Toast) of your low-carb toast. We didn’t find a bread base was necessary to be a satisfying meal. Be sure to calculate and add on the nutrition stats for your bread and butter.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes two servings, each contains (not including any grilled toast):

542 cals, 41g fat, 6g carbs, 1g fiber, 5g NET CARBS, 353g protein, 196 mg sodium

Cream Cheese Chicken

Peggy Leave a comment

This dinner creation is such a pleasant taste bud surprise!  To be so simple to make, I’m surprised it comes out so tasty each time I make it.  Both my husband and I love this one.  Hope you’ll try it sometime.  You won’t be disappointed!  This recipe is suitable once you get to Phase 2 Atkins or can fit these numbers into any other Keto diet plan.  It is not suitable for Atkins Induction due to the wine and the amount of cream in each serving.

INGREDIENTS: 

2 small chicken breasts

2 tsp. bacon grease

Dash black pepper

½ c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

2 thick slices bacon, cut in half

½ c. heavy cream (whipping cream)

1 oz. cream cheese, softened

3 oz. any white wine

2 T. my Sofrito sauce

1/8 tsp. xanthan gum or your preferred thickener

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 375º.  Debone the chicken breasts.  I didn’t remove skin, but you can if you prefer.  I always boil the rib frames for good stock and a little bit of treat chicken for my dog Button’s dinner bowl.  I made a slight cut down the center of each chicken breast and pounded them a bit thinner.  Lay them in a lightly greased baking pan (use a bit of the bacon grease listed).  Baste the top of each breast with the rest of the bacon  grease.  Sprinkle next with a dash of black pepper.  Top each one with half the mozzarella cheese shreds.  Set aside for a few minutes.

In a small skillet over medium heat, add the cream, softened cream cheese, sofrito sauce and white wine.  Stir until the cream cheese is completely blended in to a smooth state.  Add the light dusting of xanthan gum or your preferred thickener and stir until a bit thicker.  Spoon half the sauce over the two chicken breasts for now.  Top each breast with two pieces of the bacon you sliced in half.   Pop pan into oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until bacon is done and sauce/cheese is just beginning to brown.  Remove, plate and dip remaining sauce (reheated slightly) over the tops and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 2 servings, each contains:  (to lower numbers below, cut chicken into 3 servings and divide toppings equally on each meat portion)

647 calories, 50.25 g fat, 4.95 g carbs, 0.5 g fiber, 4.45 g NET CARBS, 36.15 g protein, 677 mg sodium

Chicken Lasagna Strips

Peggy Leave a comment

These miniature lasagna delights were so good, my husband said I could fix them again any time!  Doesn’t get any easier!  In the oven in minutes and ready in 45 min baking.  They were like eating lasagna, too!  You could use thinly sliced beef pounded to tenderize in this recipe instead of the chicken if you prefer.  Suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets, and Primal folks who eat dairy.

Many delicious low-carb recipes like this one can be at your fingertips with your very own cookbooks from LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS, by Jennifer Eloff and low-carb friends.  Chef George Stella also brings you a wealth of delicious recipes you will love!  Order yours TODAY! from Amazon or our direct order site: http://amongfriends.us/order.php. 

INGREDIENTS:  

1 medium zucchini or Mexican zucchini, sliced into 12 thin lengthwise slices (about 12 oz)

1½ chicken breast, boneless, skinless

1/3 c. ricotta cheese

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

3/4 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

3/4 c. Lucini low-carb spaghetti sauce (or other low-carb sauce)

VARIATION:   Use thin slices pounded turkey or beef instead of chicken.

DIRECTIONS:  Cover a baking sheet with foil.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Slice chicken into 12 thin, long, lateral slices.  Pound with the flat side of a meat tenderizer.  Set aside.  Slice zucchini lengthwise into 12 thin slices.  I used a knife to do this, but if you have a mandolin or tool that will do it, go for it.  You want 12 slices total.  Place slices on the pan and avoid them touching.  Lay a strip of the pounded chicken on top of each.  With the back of a teaspoon, spread 1 tsp. ricotta down each chicken strip. Dot each strip with 1 T. of the sauce.  Sprinkle 1 T. mozzarella shreds on next.  Finally sprinkle each with 1 T. of the Parmesan shreds.   Lay a sheet of foil loosely over the top to avoid cheese over-browning while cooking.  Bake for about 30 minutes.  Remove and ever so slightly slightly tilt pan over sink to allow any water bleeding out to drain off the pan.  Replace in the oven and bake 15 more minutes.  Serve at once with a salad or a fresh green vegetable.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 12 Lasagna Strips, each contains:  (We found 3 filled us up)

130 cals, 6.78g fat, 2.92g carbs, 0.65g fiber, 2.27g NET CARBS, 13.9g protein, 315 mg sodium

Blue Crab Stuffed Fish

Peggy Leave a comment

This is a delicious and very easy dish to prepare.  It’s one I developed while we lived down on the Texas Gulf Coast, where I had access to the freshest, sweetest Blue Crab right off the dock.  Now, since retiring and settling in Central Texas (to get away from hurricanes), I have to make do with what comes in a little carton in the seafood aisle of my grocery store.   Not as good, to put it mildly.  But even that beats the heck out of boarding up and preparing your home for 2-3 hurricanes a season.  Because this dish uses low-carb flax-based bread, this is OK for Atkins Induction Phase.  

INGREDIENTS:

½ recipe my Blue Crab Stuffing

6   4-oz. flounder filets  (or any mild white-flesh fish filets)

2 T. butter, unsalted

1/4 tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend

DIRECTIONS:   Preheat oven to 350º.  Make the stuffing as instructed in that recipe.  Using the spoon you used to stir the stuffing, equally mark off 6 portions in the skillet.  This helps ensure each filet will get an equal portion of filling.  Melt the 2T. butter in a baking pan.  Take each fish filet in one hand, placing the center of the filet in your palm.  Spoon 1/6th of the stuffing into the center.  Then with your other hand, fold the tail flap over the stuffing, then the header flap on top.  Gently turn over and place seam down onto the baking pan in the melted butter.   With a brush, baste the top and sides of each “roll” with butter from the pan.  Sprinkle each with a bit of Seafood Spice Blend.  Pop into a 350º oven for about 25-30 minutes.  Lift gently with a long spatula when plating, so as to not disturb the filling that invariably spills out of the roll at each end.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 servings, each contains:

280 cals, 18.3g fat, 2.87g carbs, 1.23g fiber, 1.64g NET CARBS, 26.7g protein, 350 mg sodium

Italian Herb Bread

Peggy Leave a comment

Click to enlarge

I developed a nice quick Italian ‘bread’ when I first started low-carbing 15 years ago.  We love it as a great compliment to Italian food. It’s a little spongy right out of the oven, but gets more bread-like as it cools off.  This bread doesn’t rise very much, so it’s easiest to just spread butter on top of the flat pieces of bread, rather than attempting to slice it.

The flavor on this bread is quite nice.  Since the oat fiber is basically a carb wash at 26 g carbs and 26g fiber per 1/3 cup, I would think you could try this at any rung of Atkins Phase 2 OWL unless you find you do not tolerate even this tiny amount of oat fiber without setting off cravings.  I’ve been cooking with it for a year now and have not found that to happen after eating anything with a bit of it included.  It greatly enhances texture, but too much is drying….so don’t increase it in my recipes.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. riced, steamed cauliflower

2 small eggs

1½ c. mozzarella, grated

1 T. Parmesan cheese

1½ tsp. baking powder

1 T. chopped parsley

¼ tsp. oregano

Sprinkle each garlic and onion powder

2 T. heavy cream

3 T. golden flax meal

2 T. oat fiber (substitute 2 T. Jennifer Eloff’s Gluten-Free Bake Mix for gluten free version)

1 T. olive oil for oiling muffin cups

VARIATION:  Omit the herbs for a plain cheese bread.  Change it up and use cheddar cheese for the mozzarella.

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Using grater or food processor, rice cauliflower until fine and scrap into into a medium bowl.  Microwave (covered) on HI for 3 minutes, stopping and stirring after each minute.   Add mozzarella and Parmesan cheese to the warm cauliflower.  Beat in the eggs.  Add all remaining ingredients except the olive oil.  Stir well to blend ingredients.  Oil 12 muffin cups and scoop about 2T. batter into each muffin cup.  Repeat with any remaining batter to distribute amongst the 12 muffins.  Pop into 350º oven and bake about 25 minutes or until nicely browned.  Cool a few minutes before removing from pan and serve warm with butter.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 12 rolls/servings, each contains:

81.5 cals, 5.81g fat, 3.1g carbs, 1.92g fiber, 1.28g NET CARBS, 5.41g protein, 217 mg sodium