Cranberry-Orange Scones

September 29, 2022October 9, 2022Peggy Leave a comment

We’re coming up on the holidays and I love to make baked goods with cranberry and orange this time of year. These scones are on my agenda today. This is basically my Blueberry Scone recipe with the logical ingredient changes for Fall. Some people frost scones, but we prefer ours unfrosted. Fast forward: These are delicious and I think my readers will enjoy them. I just keep a batch in the fridge and set them out to come to room temperature an eat. But you can slightly warm them up if you prefer. Yummy!

INGREDIENTS:

2 large eggs, beaten

1 T. fresh squeezed orange juice

1½ T. orange zest

2 T. unsalted butter, melted

1 c. fresh cranberries, chopped in processor

1 c. Splenda or equivalent sweetener of choice

¼ tsp. salt

1½ tsp. baking powder

1 T. coconut flour

1½ c. almond flour

½ c. plain whey protein powder

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Melt the butter over low heat on the stove in a small saucepan. In a medium bowl, place the orange zest and orange juice. Add the eggs and beat. Add the melted butter next and again beat with a spoon. Add the cranberries next and stir. Measure all dry ingredients into the bowl on top of the wet ingredients and work the wet and dry together until all forms a solid mass of thick dough. I formed 6 large scones with my dough, rendering the nutritional stats shown below (a little high in carbs making just 6 scones). You might prefer to make 7 smaller scones to cut the carb count. I’ll give the full dough recipe numbers so you can calculate yours based on how many you decide to make.

Using a rubber spatula, divide the dough into the number of scones you want to make. Foll slightly, then flatten slightly and place either on parchment-lined or silicone sheet lined baking pan. Pop into hot 350º oven for about 20 minutes or until firm in the center and lightly browned around the edges. Remove and cool (traditionally not eaten hot) so they will achieve the proper “short” texture.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: For 6 large scones, each scone will contain:

354 cals, 28g fat, 15.71g carbs, 5.4g fiber, 10.31g NET CARBS, 18.2g protein, 238 mg sodium (carbs can be cut using liquid sweetener of choice)

ENTIRE BATCH DOUGH CONTAINS: 2123 cals, 167.8g fat, 94.3g carbs, 32.4g fiber, 61.9g NET CARBS, 109.4g protein, 1427 mg sodium

Pork Chops in Mushroom-Tomato Cream

August 31, 2022February 17, 2023Peggy 4 Comments

I love to sear off meats and then create a lovely sauce from de-glazing the pan of the tasty brown bits and adding a little of this and that for a delicious sauce to add moisture to a meat that I find somewhat dry typically. This delicious dish pulls together in about 30 minutes. I serve this with a side of seasoned French frozen green beans, but a salad is also nice with these. This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets, Primal and even Paleo if you sub in coconut milk for the cream.

VARIATIONS: Substitute 2 boneless, butterflied chicken breasts for the pork. Add 1/4 c. white or rose wine of your choice, simmering off the alcohol at least 4-5 minutes. Just discovered a few weeks later that 4 oz. of either lean chopped cured ham or bacon, pre-browned added is quite good in this recipe. Chop pork before browning and serve this dish over zucchini noodles for a totally different taste.

With optional cured ham added, served on “zoodles”

INGREDIENTS:

2 6-oz bone-in center-cut pork chops or 10 oz. boneless pork loin (yield two 5-oz. portions)

3 tsp. bacon grease for frying

¼ tsp. lemon pepper (I use Victoria Gourmet No-Salt Lemon Pepper)

½ c. water (or pork or chicken broth)

¼ c. heavy cream

1/3 c. chopped parsley

1 6-oz can sliced mushrooms, with their juice

10 cherry or San Marzano tiny tomatoes, cut in halves

Dash sea salt

1/8 tsp. coarse black pepper

1 clove garlic, minced (optional)

DIRECTIONS: Heat the bacon grease in a skillet over high heat. Coat the surfaces of the chops with the lemon pepper. Sear them in the hot skillet until golden and completely done. Lift them out onto a plate briefly. Or you can remove the bone and chop the pork if you prefer and then sear the pieces. I often do that if I plan to serve this on zucchini noodles. Add the water or broth to the skillet and with a rubber spatula, de-glaze the tasty brown bits stuck to the pan. Add the cream, parsley, mushrooms with juice, salt and black pepper. Simmer a few minutes to allow the cream sauce to thicken slightly on its own. Add the tomatoes and simmer just until they begin to soften. If sauce is still not thick enough for your preference, dust the smallest amount of xanthan gum lightly over the top, whisk constantly and allow time to thicken before repeating. Place chops back in the pan and simmer just a couple minutes more. Serve at once.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes two 5-oz. servings (adjust for more people). Each serving contains:

448 calories, 28 g fat, 6.85 g carbs, 2.30 g fiber, 4.55 g NET CARBS, 40.99 g protein, 432 mg sodium

Blueberry Scones

August 24, 2022Peggy Leave a comment

By slightly modifying my cranberry scone recipe, I came up with a delicious blueberry version. Used some wild blueberries from my freezer but you could use fresh berries. We both loved the taste and texture of these scones! Yummy indeed! The frosting is optional and not included in the numbers below. These didn’t really need it, unless you just like frosting on everything. 🙂 These scones are not suitable for Atkins Induction.

INGREDIENTS:

2½ c. almond flour

½ c. plain whey protein powder

¼ c. Splenda

3 T. erythritol

1 T. coconut flour

¼ tsp. salt

1¼ tsp. baking powder

2 eggs, beaten

¼ tsp. lemon or vanilla extract

½ c. + 2 T. tiny wild blueberries

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Line baking sheet with silicone or parchment. Measure all the dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl. Stir well. Add in the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, stir and blend the wet and dry ingredients into a uniform, very thick dough. Divide mixture into 7 equal parts and roll into roughly 2″ balls. Place on the baking sheet, pressing them slightly flat so they are about 3/4″ thick. OR you can form into a large round disk of dough about 3/4″ thick and cut into 7 wedges, which is the more typical shape for scones. You can sprinkle them with a dusting of erythritol if desired. Bake for around 15 minutes at 350º or until firm in the center and lightly browned. Remove, cool and enjoy. Ice if you wish, but that is NOT included in the numbers below.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 7 scones, each contains: (not including frosting)

199 cals, 14.44 g fat, 9.92 g carbs, 4.27 g fiber, 5.65 g NET CARBS, 12.8 g protein, 138 mg sodium

Taco Shells

August 14, 2022March 7, 2023Peggy 4 Comments

Right out of the oven.

For Tacos or Chalupas.

I like tacos in the summertime because I don’t have to have the oven on so long to make dinner. My low-carb taco shells are somewhere between a browned pie crust, a cracker and a tortilla in texture. Useful as a corn tortilla substitute. They are quite tasty with chili as well. As you can see in the photo, they can be folded over nicely for a “taco shell” while still warm. You can also use them flat for making chalupas! They are ever so slightly chewy in the very center 1″(from the psyllium, no doubt). You could try browning them more for a crisper center, but be aware the edges are likely to over-brown and taste overdone accordingly. I plan to do some further experimenting with this recipe.

There is just a hint of cheese taste in these. Any more and I don’t think you could form this into a workable dough, quite frankly. You can go down that experiment road if you feel inspired. FYI, cheddar is much harder to work into your dough than mozzy in what is essentially a modification of the Fathead Pizza Dough recipe. So if you increase cheese, my recommendation would be to increase the mozzy and not the Cheddar.

FYI, these can be fried, but when I fried some in oil they didn’t taste one bit better, were no crisper and were definitely greasier. So my preference is to bake these. This recipe is not suitable for Atkins Induction Phase.

Cheese Crisps

INGREDIENTS:

Perfect with chili, too!

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese

1 T. olive oil

1 egg, beaten

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

½ c. Carbquik

1 T. oat fiber

1½ tsp. psyllium husk powder (I use NOW brand)

We used a spoonful of this for our tacos! Yum!

Dash each onion and garlic powder (optional)

DIRECTIONS: Line two large sheet pans with parchment paper. Place mozzarella and Cheddar shreds in a large glass or ceramic bowl and microwave on HI for about 2 minutes to thoroughly melt. The key to success with this dough is to work quickly every step of the way, while the cheese is soft and pliable. Remove bowl from microwave and quickly blot excess grease (from Cheddar) off the top with paper towels. Stir quickly with a fork to blend together to blend. Add the olive oil and stir again. Add the dry ingredients and then beaten egg last. Quickly stir to bring the wet cheese and flours to form a ball of dough, making sure to scrape all cheese/dough off the sides of the bowl as you do so. Knead with your hand 5-6 times right in the bowl to be sure all ingredients are uniformly mixed. When it is a smooth ball of dough, form a large log of the dough. Divide the log in half. Divide each half in half once again. And finally, those pieces into halves making a total of eight (hopefully equal) balls of dough about 1½” round. Roll and press onto your parchment-lined pan, pressing with the butt of your palm to about a 5″ circle (you want it very thin but not tearing anywhere). Pop pans onto two racks in a 350º oven for about 7-10 minutes or until browned as shown above in the photo. Remove from oven and allow to cool a few minutes.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 8 taco or chalupa shells, each contains:

164 cals, 13g fat, 8.15g carbs, 4.92g fiber, 3.23g NET CARBS, 12g protein, 287 mg sodium

Baked Chicken and Vegetables

July 7, 2022March 17, 2023Peggy 9 Comments

This dish is a “set it and forget it” kind of meal. Love to throw this in the baking pan when I’m tired and want dinner to cook itself. This recipe delivers on that! Doesn’t get any easier! And it is ever so good! This dish is similar to my Lebanese Baked Chicken, but this one has no lemon juice in it. The carrots make this one not suitable for Atkins Induction Phase 1, but you can increase the jicama, substitute zucchini or white pattypan squash, or just omit the carrots altogether until you get to Atkins Phase 2 OWL. I used calaba squash (Mexican Zucchini) instead of jicama in the batch pictured above. I change up the veggies depending on what I have on hand and what is in season. Just so you know, the inspirational recipe here calls for carrots and potato wedges instead of jicama and zucchini.

INGREDIENTS:

20 oz. deboned chicken breasts, to make 4 servings

5 oz. jicama, peeled (or any veggies mentioned in VARIATIONS below)

4 oz. yellow onion

8 large cloves garlic

4 Roma tomatoes

½ tsp. oregano

2 tsp. chopped fresh Rosemary

2 tsp. Chachere’s Cajun seasoning

Dash salt & black pepper

3 T. olive oil

2 medium carrots

VARIATIONS: Substitute zucchini, yellow squash, turnips, red radishes or white daikon radish for the jicama. They’re all low in carbs and wont’ greatly impact the carbs count on this dish.

I also like to omit the oregano, rosemary and Cajun seasoning and sub in 2 tsp. of my Chicken Shawarma Spice Blend to make this dish more Near Eastern. When I do, I always add eggplant chunks (skin on) to the pan. Now THAT is a dish any family in Lebanon or Syria would gobble down eagerly!

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 425º. Leaving skin on, place chicken on safe surface and flatten a bit with a cleaver to shorten cooking time. Drizzle l T. of the olive oil in a large glass baking pan (9×13 or lasagna pan). Dip skin side of chicken into olive oil in the pan, turn skin side up and arrange evenly in pan. Next, peel and cut jicama into potato-like pieces. Space evenly around the chicken pieces. Peel and cut carrots into 1″ pieces and arrange around the meat also. Next cut the tomatoes into wedges and space decoratively, skin side up, around the pan. Try to avoid laying the tomato wedges directly atop the chicken or the skin won’t brown as nicely. Next cut the onion into small wedges, separate layers, or cut into ringlets and arrange the onion over the entire pan next. Cut garlic cloves and arrange evenly in pan, being sure to get some of that atop the chicken itself! Now sprinkle on the spices and drizzle the remaining olive oil over all. Try to moisten everything with oil. Bake uncovered at 425º for about 1½ hours. Smaller, thinner pieces of chicken, smaller dicing of veggies and varying ovens will impact cooking time, so check the dish after 1 hour if your chicken pieces are less than 6-8 oz. in size. Voila, a meal in one pot fit for a king! Hubby just LOVES this dish!

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 serving, each containing:

410 cals, 21.3g fat, 9.85g carbs, 2.9g fiber, 6.95g NET CARBS, 43.3g protein, 604 mg. sodium

Classic Shrimp Scampi

April 29, 2022March 14, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

My father introduced us to this dish when we lived in Hampton, Virginia. Of course, we had all the fresh seafood in the world the year we lied there. What is amazing about Shrimp Scampi, besides its wonderful flavor, is how easy and fast it is to make, start to finish! Traditionally served over white rice, but as a low-carber, I tend to spoon ours over a heaping serving of my Foolproof Mashed Cauliflower. I’m very pleased with this recipe and fix it for dinner whenever I can get my hands on really good shrimp in Central Texas. I like to add a bit of my Seafood Spice Blend to most of my seafood dishes, but it is not in traditional shrimp scampi recipes. That’s my personal change to this classic Italian fare. I’ve also been known to add a couple tablespoons of white wine to this dish, but do not always do that, so I don’t show it in the ingredients below. Your call on the wine. It’s delicious with or without. This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins and other ketogenic diets, as well as for Primal and Paleo followers. Those still on Atkins Induction should not add the white wine I just mentioned.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. large shrimp, headed, peeled and deveined

4 T. butter, unsalted

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ c. parsley, chopped

1/8 tsp. coarse black pepper

¼-½ tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend

1 oz. (optional) dry white wine, (Pinot Grigio, Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc would be good)

DIRECTIONS: Preheat broiler. In a large skillet melt the butter over high heat. Add garlic and let sauté a couple minutes. Add shrimp and sauté until the begin to get opaque and golden on the edges. Add black pepper and spice blend. Add white wine now if using. Sauté couple more minutes. Finally add parsley and stir to blend. Remove and pop into broiler long enough for the shrimp to begin to brown just a bit. Remove from oven and serve immediately over bed of mashed cauliflower (or rice for non low-carber diners)

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 3 servings, each contains: (does not include cauliflower, 1 c. would add around 2.8 net carbs to each serving of scampi)

306 cals, 18.1g fat, 3.73g carbs, 0.43g fiber, 3.3g NET CARBS, 31.4g protein, 233 mg sodium

Chicken (Pork) and Spanish “Rice”

March 30, 2022August 19, 2022Peggy Leave a comment

When I was growing up my mother made a braised chicken dish she called Chicken and Spanish Rice. Of course, that was before the low-carb movement, so she browned and used REAL rice in the dish I had as a child. The skin-on chicken pieces were first browned in oil, the rest of the dish was put together and then the masterpiece was oven-baked in a deep, tightly-covered Dutch oven. Man, was it ever good! The smell drove us wild while it was cooking. I was thinking about that today and wondering what to do for dinner with 2 drumsticks and 2 chicken thighs. Decided on this childhood favorite. This consistently comes out fantastic, although I do change it up a bit with bits of leftover cooked squash, green peas, a few sliced green olives or some diced carrots. I usually use all cauliflower rice in this dish, but had some rice I cooked for my husband for Indian food recently and just tossed that cup into the skillet to get it out of the refrigerator.

This recipe is suitable for Atkins Induction, Keto diets, Primal and Paleo as well. 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. cauliflower, riced by hand or processor coarsely

2 T. olive oil + 2 T. chicken fat or finely diced chicken skin (or 1/4 c. olive oil)

3 oz. onion, chopped coarsely

4 oz. green bell pepper, chopped coarsely

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp. ground cumin

4-6 pieces chicken (I like thighs and drumsticks for this recipe)

Dash each chili powder and black pepper

2 chicken bouillon cubes

1/4 tsp. oregano (preferably Mexican oregano leaves if you have them)

1 can tomatoes, drained and chopped coarsely (or 3 fresh Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced)

Dash saffron threads (I use 3 threads only as too much is NOT a good thing!)

2 T. cilantro, chopped (optional)

VARIATION: Add 1/2 c. sliced pitted green olives.

DIRECTIONS: Heat cumin in dry skillet over medium heat until it smells toasty but is not burned. Pour onto paper towel for now and set aside. Rice the cauliflower either with a hand box grater or in a food processor. I like to do the stems first and a little extra before ricing the flowerettes. Set aside to be added later.

Preheat oven to 350º. In your skillet (14″ skillet in my photo), heat the oil over high heat. Add the meat and brown to golden on the surfaces. Add the onion, garlic and bell pepper. If using any raw carrot or yellow squash in the dish, saute those now as well. Saute just to partially tenderize veggies. Add roasted cumin back to skillet, salt, pepper, chili powder, oregano and saffron threads, minced garlic and bouillon cubes. Stir in the tomatoes. Add the cilantro last, if using. Stir to blend uniformly. Turn off heat. Add the UNCOOKED cauli-rice to the pot and stir to mix it evenly into the veggie mixture. Top the dish with seared chicken pieces. Cover skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Pop into 350º oven for about 35-40 minutes and allow flavors to blend. Check to be sure chicken pieces are thoroughly cooked before turning oven off. Pairs nicely with a lovely guacamole or green salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4-6 servings (based on pieces of chicken), each contains approximately:

240 cals, 14.4g fat, 8.61g carbs, 2.93g fiber, 5.68g NET CARBS, 18.6 g protein, 166 mg sodium

Garlic Dinner Rolls

March 28, 2022October 4, 2025Peggy 2 Comments

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 & topped with 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 oregano

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 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 6 dinner rolls which have 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)

Indian Beef (or Lamb) Koftas

March 20, 2022March 20, 2022Peggy Leave a comment

I like to throw my favorite Indian or Middle Eastern spices into ground meat and make what I call “mini meat loaves”. The correct name for these is Koftas (or Keftas in some countries) and they are even better if cooked over hot charcoal! This goes together so fast you can be eating them in 30 minutes from the time you start mixing your ingredients. It’s what’s for dinner tonight! I’ll be tossing some leftover frozen peas and cooked carrots into the curry gravy for a change of pace. I’ll be serving a nice cucumber salad as well.

I like to mix this stuff up in my food processor, but you can just blend it in a bowl like you would meatloaf if you are more comfortable doing it that way. These little meat patties are often served without a sauce, but I like a little moisture with mine, so I included below a light cream curry sauce recipe. Greek Tzatziki is also good with these meat patties. These are often done with bread crumbs or grated potato, but my lower-carb choice of rutabaga ended up being good and made these indistinguishable from other koftas I’ve eaten in restaurants. By using grated jicama, sauteed a few minutes, instead of the rutabaga, these would be acceptable for Induction. But as written, this recipe is not suitable until OWL.

VARIATION: Use Baharat Spice Blend instead of Garam Masala, making these more Middle Eastern than Indian. 🙂

INGREDIENTS (for Koftas):

20 oz. ground meat (beef or lamb)

2 tsp. grated ginger root

2 large cloves minced garlic

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped very fine

2 oz. onion, chopped very fine

1 beaten egg

½ tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. my Garam Masala

1 c. cilantro, chopped

1 tsp. spearmint leaves, chopped (Optional. I grow my own. :))

¾ c. rutabaga, peeled and grated (use grated jicama, pre-sauteed for Induction compliance)

2 T. olive oil for frying

INGREDIENTS (for sauce):

2 oz. heavy cream

¼ c. water

1 T. tomato paste

½ c. beef stock or bouillon

Dash more my Garam Masala spice blend (or Baharat, if doing the Middle Eastern version)

Dash Tandoori spice (I use Sharwood’s brand) (omit for Middle Eastern version)

Dash salt & black pepper

DIRECTIONS: Place all meat ingredients except olive oil in food processor (or bowl) and blend well. I process until quite smooth for this recipe. These are great cooked over charcoal, or just heat oil in large skillet and fry. I form meat mixture into 2-2.5″ oblong patties. Fry until lightly brown on both sides. Lower heat to lowest setting and add all sauce ingredients. Stir, simmer 5 minutes and serve. These go nicely with my Indian Spiced Cabbage or Indian Cauliflower dishes here on my blog. Fresh mushrooms are a nice addition to the sauce, too! For the non-Atkins folks at the table, some basmati rice is excellent with these.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 12 koftas, (2 patties per serving). Each serving has:

332.3 calories, 22.95 g fat, 4.13 g carbs, 1.0 g fiber, 3.13 g NET CARBS, 26.3 g protein 465 mg sodium

Homemade Everything Bagel® Spice Blend

February 23, 2022February 23, 2022Peggy Leave a comment

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Just made a fresh batch of my Everything Bagel spice blend. Next time you bake low-carb bagels, baguettes or dinner rolls, try my mock version of this popular spice/seed blend. It’s great on top of my low-carb dinner rolls https://wordpress.com/post/buttoni.wordpress.com/25406 or sprinkled atop your favorite low-carb loaf breads. Though not quite the same, it’s real close to the taste of the well-known proprietary blend, considering I’m just guessing on the amounts of each spice/seed that appear in the ingredients listed on the commercial spice bottles. It works for me anyway. If you’d like to try a more aromatic blend, you might also like to try my 8-Seed Blend sometime! It’s got a wider variety of spices and is very good in its own right.

INGREDIENTS:

3 T. dried minced onion flakes

2 T. dried minced garlic granules (I find at Sam’s)

3 T. white sesame seeds

4 T. toasted white sesame seed

1 T. coarse black pepper

1 tsp. sea salt (I used Himalayan pink)

4 T. black sesame seeds (I order on-line)

DIRECTIONS: In your broiler, toast the 4 T. sesame seeds on a small baking sheet until lightly browned. Please do not get distracted as they can burn in the blink of an eye! Been there myself a time or two. Remove and cool. Pour them onto a paper plate. Measure out remaining ingredients and stir well. Fold the paper plate to pour them up into an awaiting lidded jar. I always keep my old spice jars when emptied as they are so convenient to have when I make a new homemade spice blend such as this one. This blend will keep for months, as the only real perishable thing in the blend are the sesame seeds, with their high oil content. As with all spices, store in a dark cabinet or closed spice rack.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 18 T. or 54 tsp. 1 tsp. contains:

12.44 cals, 1.6g fat, 1.09g carbs, 0.34g fiber, 0.75g NET CARBS, 0.4g protein, 44.7 mg sodium

Coconut Pork & Vegetable Stir-Fry

February 10, 2022June 26, 2022Peggy Leave a comment

I don’t usually use coconut oil for my Asian stir fries, but I did so last night and man, is that ever good in a pork dish! I suspect a bit in chicken stir-fries would also be quite tasty. I actually used 50:50 coconut and olive oil, to be more precise. The hint of background coconut oil flavor in this dish was amazing! If you’re a fan of Asian food, you must try this one soon. I think you’ll be very pleased with the outcome and response from your family! If you don’t have any sherry in the house, white wine can be substituted. This dish is only permitted on Atkins Induction if you omit the sherry/wine, however. Won’t be quite as good, but still a great stir-fry. It is suitable for all other phases of Atkins & other Keto diets, provided the numbers below will fit into your totals for the day.

INGREDIENTS:

12 oz. lean pork loin, sliced

2 T. each coconut and olive oil

2 oz. yellow onion, sliced

½ c. carrot, sliced

1 c. Chinese bok-choi, around 3 stems (white part sliced)

Bok-Choi leaves from 3 stems (torn in large pieces)

1 c. sliced fresh mushrooms

2 medium green onions, cut in 1″ pieces

VARIATION: Add a few snow pea pods with the carrots for a spot of color.

LIQUID INGREDIENTS: Mix all but the xanthan gum in a small bowl and set aside until dish is ready to finalize in the wok.

1 c. homemade chicken broth

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. fresh ginger root, minced

3 T. low-sodium soy sauce, tamari or coconut aminos

1¼ tsp. Sambal Olek chili paste

1 T. rice wine vinegar

3 T. sherry

Hold back for last: 1/4 tsp. xanthan gum to thicken

DIRECTIONS: Old Chinese saying: “Hot wok; cold fat”. This prevents meat from sticking to the wok so it is one well worth remembering. Heat wok until very, very hot. Add the oils and immediately dump the pork into the hot oil. Stir fry until no longer pink and just beginning to brown slightly. I like to add the vegetables in the order shown above, the ones taking longer to get tender crisp are shown first. Add the onion and stir-fry until it begins to soften a bit. Add carrot and be sure to not overcook. Add white only part of the bok-choi stems, frying until slightly softening. Add mushrooms and green onions and stir-fry just until mushrooms begin to look a little softer and white look is gone. Lower heat and add green onion, torn bok-choi leaves and the liquid ingredients last. To thicken your final dish, slowly dust the xanthan gum into the liquid (tilt wok to help get it into the liquid). Allow each addition to thicken before adding more because everyone’s preference in thickness is different and you may want to use less or more xanthan gum than I’ve indicated. Serve alone or with a side of steamed, riced cauliflower (rice for non-low-carbers at the dinner table). Enjoy!

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each contains:

337 cals, 24.6g fat, 6.62g carbs, 1.72g fiber, 4.9g NET CARBS, 19.8g protein, 550 mg sodium

Blue Crab Stuffing

November 12, 2021March 26, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

For Christmas we often cook lobster tails with a side of stuffed crab. How we both adore seafood and have really missed the quality seafood we had access to when we lived on the Texas Gulf Coast where we lived for over 30 years. This is the crab stuffing recipe I’ve made for such a long time. I developed this recipe in an attempt to imitate the wonderful stuffed crab I ordered many times at Gaido’s seafood restaurant, perched on the Galveston Seawall for a lovely view of the Gulf. We lived there for around 30 years, so the good seafood seriously spoiled. This was one of my favorite dishes on the menu. As delicious as any I ever ate in New England where crab cakes are almost a religion. My take on it is fairly close to Gaido’s dish, so I have stuck with this recipe whenever I can get decent crabmeat. The crab sold in groceries in Central TX where I live is all trucked up from the Gulf, often frozen for lord knows how long, so really not as good.

This dish is easy to prepare and always a hit with dinner guests. I used to serve mine in real sea scallop shell halves so it made for an impactful presentation. If you have access to fresh, picked crab meat where you are, you’ve GOT to try this one! I also use this mixture to stuff baked flounder or even stuffed mushrooms! It also can be shaped into patties, fried in a buttered skillet for delicious crab cakes, to be served with a tarragon aioli sauce.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ lb. Blue crab meat, shelled & picked well for shell bits (or other variety crabmeat)

3 Flax Sandwich Buns (or other low-carb bread)

4 oz. onion, finely chopped

4 oz. celery, finely chopped

2 oz. green/red bell pepper (your choice), finely chopped

¼ cup parsley, chopped

2 oz. heavy cream

¼ tsp. salt

Dash of cayenne pepper

1 tsp. dry mustard powder

½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS: Using a large bowl, carefully pick out all bits of shell from crab meat. Soak 2 of the pieces of bread with the cream and crumble over the crab. Crumb the remaining roll into fairly fine crumbs. Set aside.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add celery, onion, bell pepper, salt and cayenne and sauté until slightly tender. Add parsley, mustard powder and sauté couple minutes longer. Pour sautéed vegetable mixture over crab/bread mixture in the bowl. Gently toss ingredients gently just to mix well. Spoon mixture into 6 large rinsed crab/scallop shells (if you have any) or into 6 buttered individual 6 oven-safe ramekins. Alternately, you can stuff into whole fish like flounder or trout on an oiled pan that have been prepared for stuffing. You can optionally top stuffing with panko bread crumbs if that’s your fancy. Bake in preheated 350º oven for 20 minutes for just baked crabmeat; 30 minutes for whole 1 lb. fish stuffed. Check with a fork to be sure fish is at flaky stage before removing from oven and serving with a nice green salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 servings, each serving has: (numbers are just for stuffing & does not include fish)

351.3 cals, 25.9g fat, 5.4g carbs, 2.47g fiber, 2.93g NET CARBS, 25.3g protein, 120 mg. sodium

Mandarin Orange Cheesecake Pudding

October 20, 2021October 20, 2021Peggy Leave a comment

I got this idea from a cheesecake pudding recipe of Linda Genaw I have made many, many times. I have added a little ricotta cheese to her basic recipe, Increased the whipped cream and added gelatin (to firm it up) to make up for the lower amount of cream cheese. The flavoring I chose for this version was mandarin orange, as I always keep some cans of these in my pantry. This dish is a favorite of my husband. This recipe is suitable for all Atkins phases and all keto diets. Not suitable for Paleo due to all the dairy products.

INGREDIENTS:

2 c. heavy cream

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ c. ricotta cheese

½ c. sour cream

½ c. Splenda granular or equivalent of your favorite sweetener

Liquid sweetener (I used Splenda) to bring to your desired taste

10 drops Boyajian Pure Orange Oil

1 tsp. unflavored gelatin powder

3 T. madarin orange juice drained from can

2 c. canned mandarin oranges, drained (reserving 3 T. for dissolving gelatin)

DIRECTIONS: Whip the heavy cream in a medium mixing bowl to nice soft peak stage. Set aside. Open and drain canned mandarin oranges reserving 3 T. of the juice to dissolve gelatin in. Place the orange sections in a food processor or blender. Process the fruit until smooth. Bring the 3 T. mandarin orange juice to a boil, add gelatin and stir until dissolved. To the processor or blender, add all remaining ingredients. Process until all is blended well. Spoon into eight 1-cup ramekins or serving dishes of choice. Optional garnish (not included in nutritional stats): 1-2 extra orange sections and a sprig of fresh mint, if desired. Chill for at least 1-2 hours or until it firms up nicely.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes eight 1-cup servings, each contains:

369 cals, 34g fat, 9.26g carbs, 0.56g fiber, 8.7g NET CARBS, 8.37g protein, 119mg sodium

Crab-Pumpkin Bisque

October 8, 2021July 24, 2022Peggy Leave a comment

I love seafood and especially a good seafood bisque. I have a cup of picked crab meat and a fresh-baked pie pumpkin to use up and decided to make them into a crab bisque for lunch today that came out super delicious! We both decided this one was good enough to share with my readers. This recipe is not suitable for Induction unless you omit the wine. It is OK for all other phases of Atkins and Keto diets. This soup is not suitable for Primal or Paleo as it is dairy heavy.

INGREDIENTS:

3 slices bacon, chopped

1/4 c. onion, chopped

1/4 c. celery, chopped

8 oz. softened cream cheese

1 c. pumpkin (preferably fresh)

Dash each black & cayenne peppers

½ c. dry white wine (use stock if still in Induction)

2 c. seafood stock (or chicken broth)

1 c. water

½ tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend

8 oz. white crab meat, picked of all shell

DIRECTIONS: Brown bacon over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery and saute until tender. Add white wine. Add cream cheese and stir to blend. Add the seafood stock and water. Stir well. Add pumpkin the spice blend, salt, pepper and cayenne. Stir and lower heat to low. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir in crab and simmer 1-2 minutes longer only, or the crab will fall apart. Serve at once with your favorite low-carb crackers.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 large servings, each contains:

256 cals, 21.2 g fat, 4.86 g carbs, 0.63 g fiber, 4.23 g NET CARBS, 10.7 g protein, 550 mg sodium (use less cream cheese to lower sodium)

Swiss Chard & Bacon

October 5, 2021April 15, 2024Peggy Leave a comment

I’m trialing small-scale veggie gardening using 20 gallon grow bags on a rear, unused driveway at my home. Things are germinating and my Swiss Chard was ready to harvest today. Thought I’d try a little sauté to go with our broiled chicken breasts tonight. Chard is nearly as nutritious as kale and spinach, so I like to add it and many green, leafy veggies to our diet as much as possible. I tend to cut the stems off as I find it strong tasting, but they are edible and you can add the stems to your chard dishes. This side dish was absolutely delicious! It just took minutes to prepare from start to finish. This dish is suitable for all phases of Atkins as well as other Keto diets, including Paleo.

INGREDIENTS:

8 leaves Swiss Chard

3 slices thick-sliced bacon, chopped

3 oz. yellow or red onion, sliced in thin wedges

1/8 tsp. coarse black pepper

DIRECTIONS: Cut bottom of stem off chard leaves (if you wish). Wash leaves well under cold water and pat dry both sides of leaves with paper toweling. Cut into 1″ strips and set aside on towel or paper plate.

Chop bacon coarsely and fry over high heat in a medium skillet until browned and starting to crisp. Using slotted spoon, dip bacon bits onto paper towels to drain and await final plating.

In the same bacon grease you just generated, place the onion wedges, separating the slices as you sauté them over high heat and stir. When they have softened and caramelized, add in the chard strips and sauté just until chard goes limp. Plate the onion/chard mixture and top with bacon crisps. Serve at once.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 3 servings, each contains:

170 cals, 12.4g fat, 10.5g carbs, 3.5g fiber, 7g NET CARBS, 12.8g protein, 542 mg sodium

Summer Vegetable Sauté

August 24, 2021August 24, 2021Peggy Leave a comment

I’m serving a grilled, marinated chuck roast tonight for dinner. I’ve decided to serve a nice, light, vegetable sauté with it. The particular summer veggies you choose for this dish can vary, but you will want to recalculate the recipe if you make changes. Today, I have yellow summer squash and bell peppers on hand, the other things I always have around, but this particulay combo makes an overall “sweet” mix of summer freshness.

This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins and Keto diets. For Primal Blueprint/Paleo, use all olive oil instead of butter/OO mixture specified in recipe.

VARIATION: You could use sliced red radishes instead of the celery for more color! Remember, they taste very different sauteed than they do raw in a salad. You could even add some sliced fresh mushrooms to this dish!

INGREDIENTS:

1 T. extra light olive oil

1 c. carrot, peeled and sliced thin

3 oz. onion, sliced or cut in wedges

½ c. celery, sliced on the diagonal

2 T. unsalted butter

1½ c. summer yellow squash, sliced ¼” thick

1 oz. red bell pepper, sliced

2 oz. green bell pepper, sliced

Pinch sea salt

¼ tsp. coarse black pepper

DIRECTIONS: Heat olive oil + 1 T. of the butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté carrots, onion & celery first until just slightly softened. Dip out onto paper plate Add rest of butter to skillet. Add yellow squash and sauté just until it begins to look slightly transluscent (as to not over cook). Add bell peppers and continue to sauté couple minutes just until the green pepper is slightly tender. Add back the carrot-onion mixture, stirring and sautéeing another minute to meld the flavors. If vegetables are added in the specified order, they should all be perfectly tender-crisp. Cook longer only if it is your personala preference. Sprinkle on salt and pepper, stir well and serve at once with your favorite grilled beef, pork, chicken or seafood.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each contains:

143 cals, 12.75g fat, 7.3g carbs, 2.1g fiber, 5.2g NET CARBS, 1.2g protein, 106 mg sodium

Slivered Beef Spaghetti Sauce

August 21, 2021Peggy 2 Comments

My parents came across a recipe for spaghetti sauce some 50 years ago that used slivered sirloin rather than ground beef. They tweaked it a bit, as all good cooks tend to do, and this was their final result. To this day, I think it one of the best spaghetti sauce recipes I serve. Dinner guests are amazed how different from traditional Bolognese sauce this tastes, considering the meat form is the only dramatic change from traditional recipes. I don’t think to make it that often, but am doing so for dinner tonight and thought I’d share it again with my newer readers. I have substituted very lean chuck for the sirloin in the original recipe and that is very good. Tonight I’m trying it with some lean round steak I found in my freezer. This recipe is Induction friendly provided you serve it on faux noodles like zoodles (zucchini noodles), spaghetti squash threads or chunks/slices of cooked eggplant.

INGREDIENTS:

¼ c. olive oil

6 oz. chopped yellow onion

2 lb. very thinly slivered sirloin (easier if partially frozen about an hour before slicing)

14.5 oz. can of tomatoes, crushed

8 oz. can of tomato sauce

2 cloves minced garlic

2 tsp. oregano, crushed

¼ tsp. each salt and black pepper

Dash cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:

In deep stew pot heat oil and brown meat over high heat, stirring occasionally, until begins to brown nicely. Add onions and continue to brown both until onion begins to soften and caramelize. Add remaining ingredients, cover and simmer over lowest heat possible for 1 hour. Check and stir every 15 minutes to avoid sticking/burning. Add a little water if it is drying out too much. Serve over your favorite lo-carb pasta, zucchini pasta or spaghetti squash threads.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 6-8

1/6 batch:

336.3 calories, 15.52 g fat, 12.72 g carbs, 1.98 g fiber, 35.9 g protein,

approx. 96 mg. sodium, 9.74 g NET CARBS

1/8 batch:

250 calories, 11.64 g fat, 9.0 g carbs, 1.43 g fiber,

26.9 g protein, approx. 73 mg. sodium, 7.57 g NET CARBS

Einkorn Heavenly Biscuits

July 9, 2021July 12, 2021Peggy Leave a comment

When you make these biscuits you’ll think you died and went to heaven! These biscuits are some of the best I’ve made in 12 years of low-carbing. Every experiment that preceded these turned out either dry, hard as a rock, crumbly, soda-tasting, too cheesy, too coconut-y, or just plain mediocre. Well, I’ve finally gotten one that even my husband says tastes (and feels) just like a real flour biscuit in his mouth. Not crumbly, browned nicely, soft, smooth-textured and no odd aftertaste in your mouth when you’re through eating one. Definitely a keeper for us! 🙂

This one will truly WOW you. If you’ve already purchased some Einkorn flour (made from anceint wheat that is not hybridized or modified like modern wheat)…….. get thee to thy kitchen and try this recipe ASAP. These are unbelievably good!! Truly heaven to your taste buds. I used an Ebelskiver pan to make mine, as the batter is not real thick and needs “confining”. A muffin-top pan or even a regular muffin pan should work, too.

These are not suitable until you are near goal in Atkains Pre-Maintenance or Maintenance. They’re a little carb-y for Keto, but if you want one bad enough, you might be able to fit it into your daily numbers occasionally. These are not Primal-Paleo appropriate.

If you prefer a biscuit without any wheat flour at all, not even Einkorn flour, you will want to check out my Peggy’s Fluffy Biscuits. They’re yummy!

INGREDIENTS:

2 c. my Einkorn Bake Mix (I order Einkorn Flour @ Jovial Foods )

½ c. shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese

2 large eggs, beaten

2 T. coconut flour (I use Honeyville Grains)

¼ c. cream

¼ c. water

1 T. olive oil (to oil pan)

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 375º. Lightly oil pan slots with the olive oil and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, measure out 2 c. my bake mix. Though it helps to let the mix come to room temp, you still need to rework shortening lumps with a fork until the mix is again the texture of cornmeal. Add all remaining ingredients and stir well. Let batter sit on counter 3-4 minutes to “thicken” a bit. Using a ¼ c. measuring cup, dip out 7 portions of batter and drop ¼ c. into each oiled pan slot. If any remaining batter, evenly distribute it. Pop pan into 375º oven for 15-17 minutes or until browned to your liking. These rise up nicely baked in a pan this way. If you try to do them like drop biscuits, I fear they will spread out and cook much differently than mine above. You could reduce the water and try them as drop biscuits, but that’s YOUR experiment. I’m happy with these. 🙂 Serve hot with butter and your favorite jams. Leftovers should keep nicely for a week in the fridge in a ziploc bag or in the freezer for a month.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 7 large biscuits. Each one contains:

297 cals, 25.5g fat, 10.68g carbs, 3.20g fiber, 7.48g NET CARBS, 12.4g protein, 191mg sodium

Sausage-Bacon Croquettes

June 5, 2021June 7, 2021Peggy 4 Comments

These delicious cheesy croquettes were quite a surprise, considering I just started throwing stuff from the fridge into the skillet, having forgotten to defrost any major meat for dinner. After Texas’ horrific arctic blast of single-digit temps in February, we all lost a lot of landscape shrubs and trees. Over 3 months now of digging up dead ones, pruning those struggling to stay alive and as always, finding a few new ones I’d like to try. So lately I’m choosing to work in my garden over cooking. I often ‘overdo’ it in the garden, and fatigue blocks my energy to cook dinner………………..so meals on such days are real simple.

My husband loved these and ate three! We both agreed this one’s a keeper for a simple, quick meal. There’s just enough cheese in these to pull all the flavor layers together and to facilitate browning but you can use less if you need to pull the sodium count down a bit. To these I chose to use a hint of Cajun seasoning, but you can use any favorite seasoning blend you like to enhance smoked meats. These tasty patties are suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets and Primal Blueprint followers. With the cheese, they are not acceptable for Paleo.

INGREDIENTS:

2 c. cooked spaghetti squash threads (half medium squash)

6 oz. smoked sausage (I use Burton’s)

2 slices thick-slice bacon

1 tsp. bacon grease (if bacon too lean)

1 oz. each red and green bell pepper

1½ oz. yellow onion

1 clove garlic, minced

Dash black pepper

3/4 tsp. my Cajun Seafood Spice Blend (or spices of your choice)

2T. + 1 tsp. golden flax meal

1 large egg, beaten

1½ c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or mozzarella)

VARIATION: Use different cheese of choice; use diced shrimp.

DIRECTIONS: Cook the squash with your preferred method. You will only be using half the squash for this recipe, so reserve the rest in the fridge for another use. I cut the stem end off my squash, cut the squash in half lengthwise and microwave face down in a dab of water for about 13 minutes. With a towel, hold the cooked squash in one hand and fork out the threads onto a cutting board. Chop, place into a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

On a cutting board chop the onion, red pepper & green pepper fairly small. Next chop the sausage & bacon into 1/4″ dice. Over medium-high heat, cook the bacon & sausage in a skillet until nearly done. Add chopped veggies to the pan and cook all until thoroughly cooked and veggies are softened. I had to add 1 tsp. bacon grease to the pan (included in the fat number below) as my bacon was so lean. You can leave that out if your bacon is fatty enough to fry the mixture properly. Remove from heat and spoon over the squash threads in your bowl. Add garlic, pepper and Cajun Seafood Spice Blend and stir to mix. Add the cheese shreds, beaten egg, flax meal and again stir to blend well. Let mixture rest a few minutes for the egg and flax to properly set up.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle to medium-high. Using a serving spoon, spoon out 8 fairly equal portions of the mixture on the hot griddle. Slightly press the mixture piles flatter. DO NOT move these around as they are quite fragile until they are browned on one side. When the first side is browned upon peeking, quickly flip them to the other side and brown as shown in the photo. You don’t want to under-brown these as it is the browning of the mixture at pan contact that helps them taste their best. I served these with a bowl of buttered broccoli, but they would be nice with any green vegetable or a lovely salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 8 croquettes, each contains:

191 cals, 14g fat, 5.75g carbs, 2.11g fiber, 3.64g NET CARBS, 11.7g protein, 484 mg sodium

Indian Butter Chicken

May 2, 2021May 2, 2021Peggy Leave a comment

This is my husband’s favorate Indian dish. He always orders it when we eat Indian out, so I thought I’d try to duplicate it using my favorite chicken curry recipe as a starting point. The flavors are very similar in my opinion, but this dish is richer (with all the butter and cream added) and it has more tomato in it than my regular curry recipe. This is ever so easy to make once you have the ingredients on hand, and the results are simply stellar! This dish is suitable for those still on Atkins Induction Phase and is also suitable for Primal diners. Paleo followers will need to use coconut milk and ghee (clarified butter) instead of the cream or regular butter.

INGREDIENTS:

1 T. whole cumin seed

2 T. olive oil

3 oz. sliced onion

2 deboned 7-8 oz. chicken breasts, cut into 1-1½” chunks

¼ tsp. salt

¼-½ tsp. cayenne pepper (use ½ tsp. only if you like food really HOT with spice)

1 tsp. ground cumin

½ T. fresh ginger root, peeled and minced fine

¼ tsp. ground turmeric

1T. + 1 tsp. my homemade Garam Masala

4 T. fresh cilantro, chopped

1 c. chicken broth

2 Roma tomatoes (3″) , cut into large cubes or wedges

4 T. tomato paste (about ½ of 6-oz small can)

4 T. more butter

3/4 c. heavy cream

DIRECTIONS: In a dry non-stick skillet or wok, dry roast the whole cumin seed, stirring, just until they become fragrant but not burned (about 1-2 minutes). Add olive oil and onions & saute a few minutes until onions are translucent. Add chicken and continue to saute until chicken is no longer pink. Add all remaining ingredients except heavy cream. Simmer covered on lowest heat setting about 30 minutes until tomatoes are tender and falling totally apart. Some use a stick blender to puree the mixture at this point, but I personally do not do this as I like the onions to remain visible in my curry. Your call there. Add the heavy cream and continue to simmer (unlidded) over low heat for 5-10 minutes longer. It should thicken right up as the cream reduces. You can eat this as is at this point, or…… if you prefer, you can serve it over steamed cauliflower, baked eggplant slices, or for any non-low-carbing diners at your table, over steamed basmati rice. Those are not included below, however. Make the necessary recalculations if you serve your Butter Chicken atop one ov these.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 5, each serving contains:

463 cals, 35.5g fat, 7.88g carbs, 1.68g fiber, 6.2g NET CARBS, 29g protein, 530 mg. sodium (omit salt & recude cream if you are sodium sensitive)

Einkorn Tuna Pimiento Cheese Muffins

April 2, 2021April 2, 2021Peggy Leave a comment

Tuna is always in my pantry, so I reached for some to make lunch today. These two-bite mini-muffins I created today, honestly……..my husband had trouble stopping at SIX of them! But he’s a big eater. I stopped at four. 🙂 These go together fast and only took 13 minutes to bake. I highly recommend slightly cooling before attempting to loosen them from even a non-stick pan, as baked egg tends to stick to whatever pan you use. I’ve not had good luck baking tuna items in silicone pans. Tuna likes browning. I used a 24 ct. metal pan to bake these. This recipe is not suitable until Phase 2 Atkins when you are nearing maintenance, due to the Einkorn Bake Mix. You can lower the carb count per muffin even more using a lower carb bake mix than mine, which has Einkorn Flour in it. But the count is already pretty darn low in my opinion. Those still in the initial 2-week Induction Phase of Atkins need to eliminate the bake mix entirely and increase the eggs to about 6. The muffins will naturally have a different, and somewhat eggier texture than mine here, but should taste about the same. These should freeze nicely for about a month. If you do the Induction version, adding 1-2 T. flax meal to that variation would add a little firmer structure to them.

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INGREDIENTS:

4 beaten eggs

3 small pouches (7.8 oz. total) water-pack tuna

1½ c. my Einkorn Bake Mix

3/4 tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend

¼ tsp. sea salt

1 lg. 4-0z. jar chopped pimiento, drained

1 lg. green onion, chopped fine

2 2/3 slices American Deluxe or Cheddar cheese, 2 cut into 9 squares, 1 cut into 6 squares

VARIATION: Add a few drops of Tobasco or a few shakes of cayenne pepper to the batter for a spicier muffin.

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Add all other ingredients but the cheese. Oil 24 slots of a mini-muffin pan. Using a 2 T. scoop, add one level scoop to each slot. They will be nearly full and there should be just enough batter for 24. Place 1 square of cheese atop each and push it down slightly into the batter. Pop into hot 350º oven. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until they puff up and the cheese just begins to brown on top. Remove and cool slightly. If you try to remove while too hot, they will tear up on you. Gently loosen with a knife tip or fork and enjoy. A modest serving would be 4 mini-muffins. A big eater will want 6 of these minis.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 24 muffins, each contains:

22 calories, 0.9 g fat, 0.35 g carbs, 0.08 g fiber, 0.27 g NET CARBS, 3.22 g protein, 74 mg sodium

Boursin Bacon Brussels Sprouts

March 28, 2021March 28, 2021Peggy Leave a comment

I’ve finally found a way to prepare Brussels sprouts that I really like. I think the key was to cook them in the microwave instead of steaming or boiling them. They came out so mild…….not bitter, or chemical tasting at all! And the Boursin soft cheese gave them a nice flavor layer to complement the bacon topper. In my grocery store, the Boursin is usually near the deli with the other specialty cheeses. You’re talkin’ to a Brussels sprouts hater here, so all you sprouts haters be sure to try these sometime. You’ll be amazed how much milder they are than steamed or boiled sprouts. And the green color is preserved cooking them in the microwave!

INGREDIENTS:

10 fresh Brussels sprouts (cut larger ones in half)

3-4 T. water

Dash each salt and black pepper

2 T. Boursin “Garlic Herb and Chive” soft cheese (more if you like)

3 thick slices bacon, chopped 1″ and browned

DIRECTIONS: Cut tiny bit off sprouts stems. Cut larger sprouts in half lengthwise. Place them in a ceramic or glass dish. Add the water and microwave for 2 minutes, stir and microwave 2 more minutes. While they are cooking, brown the bacon in a skillet and drain on paper toweling. Remove sprouts from microwave and stir the Boursin cheese gently into the sprouts to melt. Don’t be too rough here or the sprouts may fall apart on you. Top with bacon crisps and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 2 servings, each contains:

221 cals, 18.3g fat, 9.05g carbs, 3.6g fiber, 5.45g NET CARBS, 13.2g protein, 321 mg sodium

Indian Samosa Cups

February 17, 2021February 18, 2021Peggy Leave a comment

I was thinking of making samosas for dinner tonight, but wanted a little simpler assembly and decided to fill muffin cups with my tasty meat filling and just top each with a “cap” of pastry. These came out delicious! We had them as a main course, but you could serve just one as a side dish with your favorite curry recipe! I will definitely be making them again, as my husband just loves Indian food. I used my regular Peggy’s “Flour” Pie Crust recipe to complete this dish. This recipe is not suitable until you reach the grains rung of the Atkins OWL carb re-introduction ladder (near goal weight).

MEAT FILLING INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 T. olive oil

3 oz. yellow onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. fresh ginger root, minced

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

½ tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. ground coriander

¼ tsp. sea salt

2 Roma tomatoes, chopped

¼ c. cilantro, chopped

1 medium 6″ carrot, peeled & chopped fine

1 T. fresh mint, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & chopped fine

2 tsp. Garam Masala

CRUST RECIPE: Peggy’s “Flour” Pie Crust at this link.

VARIATION: Substitute lamb for the beef

DIRECTIONS: Make the pie crust per that recipe’s instructions. Set aside for now.

In a skillet, brown the ground beef, onion and carrot until veggies begin to soften, stirring often. Add all other ingredients and simmer about 5 minutes, stirring often, so spice flavors will develop. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 350º. Form a log of the pie dough and divide into 6 equal portions. Take one portion, pinch off and reserve 1/3 of it (for the “cap”) and press the remaining 2/3 into non-stick muffin cups (I used a jumbo muffin pan to make these). As you press the dough into the cup, press it up to the tops of the slots. Fill with 1/6 of the meat mixture (about 1/3 c.). Repeat these steps for the remaining 5 samosa cups. If there is any meat mixture unused, spread it evenly among the 6 servings. With the 6 bits of dough you pinched off, form small 2-2½” circles of dough with your fingers on a floured surface. Place a “cap” atop each samosa cup. No need to try to seal the edges. Place muffin pan on a baking sheet and pop into hot 350º oven. Bake about 35-40 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 samosa cups, each contains:

112.2 cals, 8.06g fat, 5.93g carbs, 2.96g fiber, 2.97g NET CARBS, 6.58g protein 216 mg sodium

Kale Mango Mint Salad

February 15, 2021Peggy Leave a comment

This colorful little salad came out yummy at dinner last night! I would have rather used walnuts, but was out, so I made do with pecans. They were good, but will use walnuts next time. The onion and garlic tang along with the mint in the dressing are what pull this mango delight together in the flavor department. This takes minutes to prepare and your family will love you for making them one of these salads. Just increase the ingredients for the number of servings you need. This recipe is for just one salad. This recipe is not suitable until you get nearly to goal weight, as the mango is carb-y. Strawberries could be subbed in for the mango to pull this down in carbs.

SALAD INGREDIENTS:

1 cup curly kale, stemmed & torn into small pieces

1 oz. mango, peeled and chopped

1 oz. jicama, peeled and chopped

1 tsp. onion slivers (I used red onion)

5 walnut or pecan halves, broken in half again

GARLIC MINT DRESSING INGREDIENTS:

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

½ clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. dried mint (or 2 tsp. fresh chopped)

Dash each salt and black pepper

VARIATION: Substitute 2 sliced strawberries for the mango to lower carbs. You could also sub in roasted sunflower seeds roasted pumpkin seeds for the walnuts/pecans.

DIRECTIONS: Mix dressing ingredients in a small bowl and stir well. Set aside to make the base salad. Stem kale and cut up the leafy part coarsely (not too fine or it’s more difficult to eat with your fork. Place on service plate. Peel mango and chop into small bites. Add mango to greens. Cut off about 1 oz. jicama, peel and chop into bite-size bits. Add on top of greens evenly. Sliver the thinnest possible bits of (preferably red) onion and sprinkle on top. Add broken nuts halves and drizzle salad dressing on top. Serve and enjoy!

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 1 individual salad which contains:

245 cals, 19.2g fat, 17.8g carbs, 4.2g fiber, 13.6g NET CARBS, 3.5g protein, 190mg sodium

Portobello Mushrooms in Wine Sauce

February 7, 2021February 8, 2021Peggy 6 Comments

I just realized this evening (we grilled ribeyes for dinner) that I have never posted my mushroom recipe on the site before! Oh, my! I don’t know how I could forget this favorite. They’re simple to prepare and ready in 5-10 minutes! I usually start these when the steaks go out to the hot charcoal fire. Omit the red wine and use ½ c. more beef stock if you are still on Atkins Induction.

Whenever I make a chuck roast or oven-baked brisket, I always save all the broth and freeze it in 1/2 c. blocks for just such quick recipes. You can use canned broth, but your final dish won’t be quite as tasty.

INGREDIENTS:

2 large portobello mushrooms

3 T. butter

1 large clove garlic, minced

½ c. rich beef stock

¼-½ c. dry red wine (I usually use Merlot or Cabernet)

Dash each sea salt and coarse black peppper

Optional: chopped parsley to garnish

DIRECTIONS: Wipe any dirt off mushrooms with a paper towel. Never rinse mushrooms in water else it will bleed into your sauces! Chop mushrooms into 1″ chunks. You can scoop out the gills if you like, but frankly, I never bother. Melt butter in skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and minced garlic to the pan and sauté a few minutes or until they begin to look translucent. Add wine and beef stock and simmer a few minutes longer or until ‘shrooms are done. 🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes two 3/4 c. servings, each contains:

232 cals, 19g fat, 7.4g carbs, 2.7g fiber, 4.7g NET CARBS, 6.5g protein, 93 mg sodium

Scrambled Eggs & Bacon Gravy

January 26, 2021March 2, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

With half a carton of mushrooms on the top fridge shelf, I could quickly see what I wanted for breakfast today. The final result was soooooo GOOD! This creamy dish is one of the many ways I disguise eggs to be able to eat them daily. You see, I’m just not very fond of eggs. But they are the lowest carb and healthiest breakfast food there is, so I manage with spices, additives and a pinch of creativity to be able to face them day in and out. 🙂 Check out my EGGS category at the right. I have lots of not-so-eggy egg recipes here. 🙂 This is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets and Primal Blueprint. Use coconut milk instead of cream for a version that is more suited to a Paleo lifestyle.

INGREDIENTS:

4 large eggs, beaten

1 T. unsalted butter

2 thick slices bacon, chopped

4 oz. mushrooms, sliced (omit if you aren’t a fan)

2 medium green onions, chopped

Dash each salt and pepper

½ c. heavy cream

¼ cup water

2-3 light dustings of xanthan gum powder (or your preferred thickener)

DIRECTIONS: Fry the bacon in a non-stick skillet over high heat until done. Add the mushrooms (if using) and green onion. When they are getting soft, add the water and cream. Simmer a few minutes. Dust lightly with xanthan gum and allow to thicken, stirring or whisking frequently. As it is thickening, in your dedicated egg skillet, melt the butter. Pour the beaten eggs in the skillet and scramble to your preferred stage. Plate half the eggs on each of two plates. Spoon half the bacon gravy over each and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 2 servings, each contains: 516 calories, 47 g fat, 6.2 g carbs, 1.5 g fiber, 4.7 g NET CARBS, 18.4 g protein and 425 mg sodium

Duck Soup

December 29, 2020November 13, 2022Peggy 2 Comments

This year I served an oven- roasted Marinated Duck for Christmas dinner. There isn’t all that much meat on a duck, but our 4-pound bird fed two of us amply with a nice amount of meat still left on the carcass. I love to make soup from leftover fowl carcasses, so soup it was today! After simmering the carcass for an hour and cooling, it yielded about 2-2½ c. duck meat for my soup pot. I wanted my soup fairly simple, with rich depth of flavor, so I added the duck fat it rendered during the initial roasting. I also used some homemade chicken broth to add even more flavor to the final soup. We were both very pleased with this creation! I used no recipe, but threw in the “usual suspects” for tasty game birds. My Marinated Duck had some bay leaf in it, so you will want to add a bay leaf to your pot.

This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets, Primal and Paleo followers.

INGREDIENTS:

4 slices thick bacon, cut into 3/4″ dice

1 c. chopped onion

1 c. chopped celery

1 c. chopped carrot

½ c. chopped parsley

2 cloves minced garlic

¼ c. duck fat (use butter if not available)

1 c. chicken broth (I use salt-free homemade)

water to cover meat and veggies

3/4 tsp. sea salt

½ tsp. coarse black pepper

1 large bay leaf (or 2 small)

3 T. Hemp Seed Hearts

1 4-oz can mushrooms with liquid

1 duck carcass (mine was from a 4# duck) or 2½ c. cooked diced duck meat

7 oz. pkg. shiritaki noodles with oat fiber, rice-shaped

DIRECTIONS: Brown bacon in soup pot over high heat. Add chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic and parsley. Saute until onion begins to go translucent. Add all remaining ingredients to pot, bring to boil and lower heat to simmer. Cover and simmer for about 1½ hours, stirring every half hour. Remove duck carcass and strip meat off bones, replacing meat into soup pot. Discard bones. Open package of noodles and rinse well in a sieve under running water. Add to pot and simmer 15 more minutes. I recommend serving this rich soup with a buttered low-carb dinner/sandwich roll if you have cooked and at the ready. 🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 large bowl, each contains:

454 cals, 37.2g fat, 10.1g carbs, 3.85g fiber, 6.25g NET CARBS, 21.9g protein, 635 mg sodium

Cheddar Cheese Sauce

December 27, 2020December 28, 2020Peggy Leave a comment

We all love a good cheese sauce for broccoli and cauliflower. This one goes together quick and is extra thick. Because of the amount of cheese, please note the high sodium content of this sauce. No way to reduce that unless you cut back on cheese, resulting in a thinner, less cheesy sauce. I like to pour some of the sauce on my veggies and bake off awhile, topping at the table with another spoonful per serving. But that isn’t necessary. You can just dip the sauce over the veggies right at the table when serving! This works great for a Mac ‘n Cheese sauce, too!

INGREDIENTS:

½ c. heavy cream

½ c. tap water

2 c. shredded cheddar cheese (I actually used 1 c. each American and Cheddar)

Dash coarse black pepper

DIRECTIONS: Measure the cream and water into a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the cheese and black pepper. Stirring constantly, heat mixture until cheese is fully melted and blending (no visible bits or lumps) into a creamy smooth golden sauce. You can either pour half over your veggies in an oven-proof dish and bake for 20 minutes at 350º. Or simply serve the sauce in a bowl at table for each person to dip their own up over their pre-cooked veggies.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings of about ½ c. each. Each serving of cheese sauce (approx. 1/4 batch) will contain:

305.5 cals, 27.05g fat, 3.77g carbs, 0.07g fiber, 3.7 NET CARBS, 12.42g protein, 618 mg sodium.

Loquat-Orange Preserves

October 5, 2020October 5, 2020Peggy 4 Comments

At our last house there was a young loquat tree in the back yard. Clearly planted by previous owners, but in a very shady area of the yard. Either they didn’t know it would need full sun or perhaps the line of trees along the fence were not so big and blocking its sunlight when they first planted it. Either way, it wasn’t flowering at all and just provided a bit of green in winter when most else is leafless. Didn’t produce flowers or fruit for years. Then about 2 years ago, we cut out a hackberry tree nearby and suddenly the loquat was getting a wee bit of dappled sunlight throughout the day for the very first time in its life. The next season it produced a few bloom pods, but no fruit. The next, many more bloom pods, but still very little fruit, maybe a dozen or so, which the local squirrels decimated. This year, it has gone wild producing hundreds and hundreds of loquats!! I pick up about 3# off the ground and off low limbs every single day! I’ve always heard they make great preserves, but they’re so small (most are 1-1½”), I thought “what a pain” to peel and seed these tiny things for so little flesh yield. Yesterday I bit the bullet and decided to try my first batch of loquat preserves.

Loquats don’t have a lot of flavor to me. Sort of a cross between a plum, apple and apricot. But I decided to add a little of my no-cook Meyer Lemon-Orange Marmalade to the preserves and EUREKA! That was magical indeed. Even my husband was quite pleased with these preserves, and he’s quite the jam connoisseur! 🙂 I’m glad there was a huge, established loquat tree at my new house, too. 🙂

Loquats grow in clusters

This recipe is not acceptable until the higher up fruits rung of the OWL ladder. But if you have a loquat tree, I highly recommend you not ignore those annoying fruit on the ground any longer and give this a try! Well worth the 45 minutes it took to get the fruit peeled and prepared. I plunged them into boiling water a couple minutes to help loosen the peeling like you can do when peeling tomatoes for canning. The cooking part only took 4-5 minutes and the results were FANTASTIC! I’ll not be ignoring my loquat crop anymore!

As with all things using sweetener, I strongly recommend adding half the sweetener and tasting and add remaining sweetener to suit YOUR taste. Everyone’s sweetness preferences vary and I lean toward the sweet side. 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

3 lb. ripe (fully yellow, not green) loquats, raw (weighed unpeeled)

2 c. equivalent sugar (I used 2 c.granular Splenda) (use 50 drops EZsweets small bottle)

2 T. erythritol (or 2 T. more Splenda)

1 c. water

2 pkgs. unflavored Knox gelatin

1/2 c. sugar-free marmalade (I used my no-cook Meyer Lemon-Orange recipe)

DIRECTIONS: Wash and stem the loquats. Bring some water to a boil, enough to just cover the fruit and simmer 2-3 minutes. Remove, drain and cool. When you can handle them, peel skin down, slice in center and dig out seed cluster. When all fruit have been peeled and seeded put the fruit and all listed ingredients (except gelatin) into large saucepan, bring to a boil. Lower to medium and cook just until loquats are tender but not reduced to mush, or about 4-5 minutes. Add gelatin last and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat, cool and spoon into airtight lidded jars. Makes about 4 c. preserves. It will get thicker in the refrigerator overnight.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes about 4 cups, or 64 Tbsp. Each tablespoon contains:

13.45 cals, 0.05 g fat, 2.73g carbs, 0.4g fiber, 2.33g NET CARBS, 0.85 g protein, 2.3 mg sodium

Peggy’s Poultry Rub

August 9, 2020August 9, 2020Peggy 2 Comments

I’ve been trialing a new poultry rub recipe I’m developing for chicken and turkey. Have tried it several times and I just kept increasing several of the ingredients as well as eliminating one that added nothing to the flavor profile. I think it’s about right for my palate now. I am quite pleased. I have tested it on oven baked cut-up chicken parts and liked that method best, as the rub gets on more surfaces of the chicken flesh that way. But last night I tested it on an air-fryer whole roasted chicken. That was moist and delicious, but the seasoning does a better job on individual pieces, in my opinion. Can’t wait to try this on duck! This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins and other Keto programs. It is also OK for Paleo and Primal Blueprint followers.

NOTE: My husband is on a low-sodium diet, so you will notice my spice blends have little salt (if any). I can always add salt at the table if I want more. You may want to increase the salt in the blend itself for your family’s palate. 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

2 T. Spanish paprika (regular is OK, but lacks the smoky flavor I love)

On a whole roasted chicken

1 T. chili powder

2 T. onion powder

1 T. garlic powder

1 T. black pepper

2 t. dried crushed sage leaf

2 t. dried crushed basil

2 t. dried crushed oregano leaf

1 t. sea salt

DIRECTIONS: Mix all ingredients on a paper plate. Stir well. Fold plate and pour all into a spice jar (with a lid). Close lid and shake well to distribute ingredients evenly. Use about 1 T. on a whole (or cut up) chicken.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes about 9 T. of the rub (or 27 tsp). Each teaspoon contains:

6.44 cals, 0.15g fat, 1.37g carbs, 0.5g fiber, 0.87g NET CARBS, 0.26g protein, 89.6 mg sodium

Kielbasa with Cabbage & Kale

August 5, 2020February 6, 2022Peggy Leave a comment

Having made keilbasa and cabbage many a time I don’t know WHY it took me so long to throw in a little kale into the skillet. Once I did, there was no turning back. This vegetable combo is so tasty! The cabbage mellows any bitterness in the kale; the kale gives depth of flavor to the blander cabbage. Even my husband wolfed this down and he’s not a fan of either vegetable! So that sounds like a keeper to ME. 🙂 The caramelized onion brings the perfect touch of magic sweetness to the flavor profile.

I use Burton’s brand of sausage (newly discovered at my HEB & Walmart grocery in Texas). I always like a brand that has much less garlic than most people. Many companies put way too much garlic in their smoked sausage for my palate. This hearty, delicious dish is suitable for all phases of Atkins, other Keto diets and Primal-Paleo as well.

INGREDIENTS:

2 T. bacon grease

4 links your favorite smoked sausage, sliced ¼”

3 c. chopped green cabbage

2 c. chopped kale (larger stem parts removed)

2 oz. slivered sweet yellow onion

¼ tsp. coarse black pepper

VARIATION: Add a splash of your favorite vinegar to the skillet for the last few minutes of cooking for a more Polish or Czech-style of this famous dish.

DIRECTIONS: Heat bacon grease in a non-stick wok or skillet over high heat. Add sausage and stir fry until it begins to lightly brown. Add the onion and saute until starts to wilt and caramelize. Add cabbage and chopped kale, sauteing just until cabbage begins to wilt. Sprinkle with the black pepper and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 adult servings, each 1½-cup serving contains:

266 calories, 21 g fat, 9.37 g carbs, 2.5 g fiber, 6.87 g NET CARBS, 11.1 g protein, 378 mg sodium

Cajun Shrimp and “Grits”

August 2, 2020August 3, 2020Peggy Leave a comment

This dish came out so good. Frankly, I was quite surprised! I essentially took my method for making shrimp scampi, added some Cajun spices to take it up a notch, topped with buttery Parmesan bread crumbs and served over a bed of seasoned cauli-rice. Man………this is definitely a keeper! My husband just ranted about his dinner tonight! I confess it was one of the better shrimp dishes I’ve created in quite some time! Provided you use an Induction-friendly bread for the bread crumbs, this is suitable for Atkins Induction and all other Atkins diet phases! Just leave out the 2 T. white wine until Phase 2, please. 🙂

BASE INGREDIENTS:

4 T. unsalted butter

2 oz. yellow onion, slivered as thinly as possible

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/8 tsp. salt (omit if using salted butter)

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 T. (1 fluid oz) white wine (omit if still in Atkins Induction Phase)

30 large peeled shrimp (I used pre-cooked, tail-on, but raw will work also)

CRUMB TOPPING INGREDIENTS:

2 slices plan-suitable low-carb bread, crumbed

2 T. grated Parmesan cheese

½ c. chopped parsley

4 T. more unsalted melted butter

‘GRITS’ INGREDIENTS:

½ small head cauliflower, cut into chunks

1 small carrot, peeled and cut into chunks

1/8 tsp. each onion and garlic powder

¼ tsp. (more if you like thinks spicy) my Cajun Seafood Spice Blend

1 c. Cheddar Cheese shreds

½ c. chopped green onions or chives

DIRECTIONS: Begin by making the “grits” first. Place the chunks of cauliflower and carrot in you food processor (or blender) and pulse until riced coarsely. Scrape into microwavable bowl and cook on high for about 4-6 minutes or until no longer raw/hard (but not overly done) Stir the spices in along with the green onions and cheese shreds. Set aside while you make the rest of the layers. In a large skillet (I used non-stick), over medium-high heat, melt one whole stick (8 T.) butter. Carefully pour just half the melted butter into the bread crumb mixture and blend to moisten the crumbs evenly with the butter. Again, set the topping aside for now.

Preheat oven to BROIL. In the 4 T. melted butter remaining in the skillet, add the slivered yellow onion and garlic. Add cayenne and salt and continue to saute a couple more minutes to soften & caramelize them. Add white wine and simmer 1-2 minutes only. Spread mixture evenly in the skillet. Scrape the cheesy grits mixture over the top of the caramelized onion mixture, spreading it evenly. Next arrange the shrimp in a single layer, 2 concentric circles, tail out, placing shrimp fairly close together as they shrink during cooking. If you end up with a few shrimp left out of the two circles, put those in the center, tail centered and pointing upwards. That will look attractive for table presentation.

Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the shrimp. When broiler is hot (450º-475º) pop skillet into broiler and broil until bread crumb topping is golden brown as shown above. Shrimp cooks fast, so they should get properly done even if you are using raw shrimp. Those mounded in the center will cook the slowest, so check to insure they are properly cooked.

VARIATION: You can construct this differently, by cooking the “grits” in a separate microwavable serving baking dish and cook the shrimp separately in the skillet. Then simply top 1/3 portion of the “grits” on each of 3 plates and top with 1/3 the broiled shrimp mixture. Your call on the construction method. Will taste great either way.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 3 servings, each contains 10 shrimp & 1/3 the grits

643.6 cals, 52.5g fat, 15.8g carbs, 4.76 g fiber, 11.04g NET CARBS, 32.3g protein, 781mg sodium. To reduce carbs, eliminate the carrot, reduce cheese & use 1 slice bread for crumb topping………or make it stretch for 4 servings. 🙂 )

Asparagus with Bacon and Onion

July 31, 2020Peggy Leave a comment

I’ve always steamed or roasted my fresh asparagus, but sometimes I just saute it. It is marvelous done this way! By adding the smoky taste of bacon and the sweet edge of caramelized onion it takes an already delicious vegetable to a whole new flavor level. Each ingredient enhances the other! This side dish is suitable for all phases of Atkins and Paleo-Primal diners as well.

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch of fresh asparagus (mine had 20 stalks in it)

2 oz. yellow onion, sliced

4 slices low-sodium bacon, sliced

Dash each salt and black pepper

DIRECTIONS: Break the bottom ½” or so off the asparagus stems off. Cut in 2″ long pieces, separating out the tips for shorter cooking time. Brown the bacon in a non-stick skillet. Remove and drain bacon bits on paper toweling. Add the onion and saute in the bacon grease until it begins to brown and caramelize. Add the 2″ stem pieces (holding out the tip pieces for now). Saute for 2-3 minutes or until stems are tender crisp. Add the tip pieces and saute just until the tips are tender crisp as well. Pour all into a serving dish and top with the browned bacon. You can add the bacon to the skillet and toss before plating if you prefer. I served this alongside some tender oven-roasted grass-fed beef brisket and a lovely tomato-olive salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each contains:

101 cals, 7.1g fat, 4.98g carbs, 2.22g fiber, 2.76g NET CARBS, 4.8g protein, 133 mg sodium

Cherry Strudel

July 26, 2020September 8, 2020Peggy Leave a comment

Who doesn’t like strudel? I’ve used my Mozzy Dough to make peach strudel, so I’m trying a cherry version now. I like the peach better; my husband always prefers cherry anything. This dessert/breakfast option is not suitable until you are at Phase 2 Atkins or near goal weight due to the flour in CarbQuik mix.

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough

1 can red cherries (water pack)

liquid sweetener of choice to taste

3/4 tsp. glucomannan powder

1 tsp. coconut oil (to oil pan, or omit and use parchment paper)

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Oil 8″x 12″ pan (or thereabouts in size) with coconut oil or line with parchment paper, your choice. Stats below include oil on pan. Make up the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions. Press kneaded dough evenly into pan all the way to edges. In a small bowl, stir glucomannan into cherries with liquid. If you use xanthan gum instead to thicken your filling, you will have to heat the filling to a boil, then simmer and allow to thicken under heat to desired thickness. Heating is not required for glucomannan to thicken……..just time. When glucomannan is dissolved into cherry liquid and well-distributed, set aside for 10 minutes to thicken up. Then spoon cherry filling down the center of dough lengthwise. Gently lift one side of the dough up and over the cherry filling to the middle of the strudel. Lift remaining side of dough up and over the filling, slightly overlapping the edge of the first flap of dough and set it down gently. Press the dough seam lightly with fingertips. Pop into 350º oven for about 20 minutes or until browned to your liking. Cool slightly and cut into eight 2″ slices. I like mine served warm, but we both think this dough is slightly improved when served at room temperature. 🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes eight 2″ slices, each contains:

163 cals, 11.77g fat, 12.56g carbs, 5.68g fiber, 6.88g NET CARBS, 10.5g protein, 197 mg sodium.

Sausage-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

July 7, 2020Peggy 6 Comments

If you’re a mushroom fan you MUST try these. You can use either breakfast bulk sausage or Italian sausage to make them. They will be delicious either way. My Homemade Italian Sausage is what I used, as it is low in sodium or you can use my Homemade Breakfast Sausage for a different flavor. If you use commercial sausage, bear in mind the sodium count will be much higher than shown below. For the breadcrumbs, I used a slice of my homemade Grain-Free Fluten-Free Focaccia because I have it currently made and on hand. Using other low-carb bread for your bread crumbs will also impact numbers and require recalculations be done. This recipe is suitable once you are at Phase 2 Atkins.

INGREDIENTS:

4 Portobello mushroooms (about 4 oz. each)

3 T. olive oil

14 oz. ground Italian (any casing removed) or bulk breakfast sausage, crumbled

1/3 c. chopped red bell pepper (or green)

2 oz. onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ c. chopped parsley

¼ tsp. dried oregano, crushed

1/8 tsp. dried basil

1/8 tsp. each sea salt and coarse black pepper

¼ tsp. Sriracha sauce (or 6-8 drops Tobasco)

1 slice low-carb bread (I used my gluten-free focaccia)

1 beaten large egg

4 oz. mozzarella cheese shreds

¼ c. grated Parmesan

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Wipe mushrooms clean with a dry, clean cloth. Stem and with a spoon, scoop out and discard black gills in center. Chop stems and set on paper plate. Chop/mince all listed vegetables and add to that same paper plate. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Brush mushroom cap domed sides with olive oil and place on baking sheet. In remaining oil saute the sausage crumbles, breaking up smallish. Add all listed vegetables, including the chopped mushroom stems, cooking until all are tender. Turn off heat. Add all spices shown and the Sriracha sauce (or Tobasco). Crumb your low-carb bread and add to the mixture. Beat the egg in a small bowl and add. Stir the finished filling mixture well so all gets moistened with the egg. Fill each of the mushroom caps with 1/4 of the filling. Sprinkle 1 T. Parmesan on top of each mushroom. Finish with 1 T. mozzarella shreds sprinkled on top. Pop pan into preheated 350º oven. Bake 20-25 minutes. Enjoy with a lovely green salad or green side of your choosing.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each contains:

522 cals, 40g fat, 10g carbs, 3.37g fiber, 6.63g NET CARBS, 32.3g protein, 316 mg sodium

German Brats and Vegetables

June 30, 2020May 30, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

We recently grilled some delicious German Beef Brats I get from my grass-fed beef supplier. The seasoning blend in his sausages is simply delicious! Very heavy with black pepper, but we like that. With the 3 leftover links I defrosted tonight, I created a quick, stir-fried dish that’s both tasty, satisfies and yet stays low in carbs, despite all the vegetables in it. This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto, Paleo and Primal nutritional programs. You could also make this using any type of brats, smoked sausage or Kielbasa with equally good results.

INGREDIENTS:

2 T. bacon grease

8 oz. German beef brats (or any lean link sausage), precooked & sliced

1 c. frozen green beans

4 oz. onion, sliced thinly

4 oz. green cabbage, sliced

1 large clove garlic, minced

4 oz. red bell pepper, sliced

4 oz. sliced mushrooms, drained

Dash each salt and black pepper

¼ tsp. Sriracha chili sauce

DIRECTIONS: Heat the bacon grease in a non-stick wok or skillet. Saute the green beans and onion until it begins to wilt. Add the cabbage and garlic next and continue sauteing until it just begins to soften. Add the bell pepper, stirring as it softens just a bit (but isn’t mushy). Add sausage, mushrooms, salt, pepper and Sriracha sauce and stir well for 2-3 minutes for flavors to blend. Remove and enjoy. I ate mine plain, but it would be good on brown rice for non-low-carb guests.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each contains:

274 cals, 22.5g fat, 10.1g carbs, 3.05g fiber, 7.05g NET CARBS, 8.7g protein, 384 mg potassium, 725 mg sodium

Indian Broiled Fish on Cauliflower Pilaf

June 26, 2020February 23, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

I changed up my usual Indian broiled fish recipe tonight and my husband just LOVED the new ingredient and method of serving over seasoned cauliflower. This dish goes together really fast, so it is an easy meal prep during the summer when it’s hot and you don’t want the oven on long. If you wish, you can use whole fish for this recipe, but you will want to bake at 350º rather than broil if using whole fish. If using whole fish, cooking time will be 20-30 minutes depending on the size and thickness of your fish. This spice mixture would also be good on flounder, trout or bluefish filets. This recipe is Induction friendly.

I order my curry leaf powder online. Many spice vendors carry it. If you can’t (or don’t wish to) order it I would substitute 1 tsp. dried mint leaves.

INGREDIENTS FOR CAULI PILAF:

1 small head cauliflower (or 1/2 larger head)

2 T. olive oil

2 oz. red onion, finely minced

2 T. cilantro (I used the stems only)

½ tsp. Garam Masala Spice Blend

1/8 tsp. turmeric

Dash sea salt

DIRECTIONS FOR PILAF: Cut cauliflower into chunks and pulse in food processor or blender to coarse “rice” stage. Microwave in covered bowl for 4 minutes, stirring once before removing from microwave. Set aside a few moments. Heat olive oil in non-stick pan over high heat and sauté onion and cilantro until nearly tender. Add Garam Masala, turmeric and salt. Lower heat. Using a yellow or metal spoon (turmeric will stain white or wooden tools) gently stir in the tender cauliflower rice and mix all until well-blended. Turmeric will turn the mixture light yellow. This is normal and what you want. Let pan set over lowest heat possible for flavors to mellow while fish is broiling.

INGREDIENTS FOR FISH:

4 fish filets of choice (5 oz. raw each cook up to 4 oz.)

1 tsp. minced ginger root

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 finely chopped jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1 tsp. curry leaf powder

2 T. chopped cilantro

¼ tsp. turmeric

Dash each of cayenne, black pepper & turmeric

1/2 tsp. curry leaf powder (or 1 tsp. dried crushed mint leaves)

4 T. unsalted butter, melted

1 T. tomato paste + 3 T. water (or ¼ c. tomato sauce)

FISH DIRECTIONS: Preheat boiler. Lightly oil or parchment line a medium a baking pan large enough to hold fish in single layer. Lay filets in the pan white side up. Mix all other ingredients in a glass or metal bowl. Do not use a plastic bowl (or your food processor) as the turmeric stains them yellow. Add HALF the melted butter and mash all the seasonings to blend well in to a thick paste. Using the back of a spoon, spread seasoning paste evenly on the tops of the 4 filets. Broil for about 10 minutes, until thickest part of the filets is firming up. You can bake for about 20 minutes (30 for whole fish) at 350º if you prefer, but I think broiling this is best. Fast is goodness in my book. When done, remove and drizzle remaining melted butter on each portion and serve with the cauliflower pilaf as a base, trying to use 1/4 of the pilaf under each of the 4 servings. This pairs nicely with my homemade Samosas or my Saag Paneer.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 4, each filet with 1/4 cauliflower mixture contains:

327.25 cals, 26.15g fat, 5.62g carbs, 2.15g fiber, 3.47g NET CARBS, 24.35g protein, 84.5 mg sodium

Crunchy Parmesan-Boursin Chicken Filets

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020Peggy 2 Comments

This simple dish will really please your family. It’s almost effortless to make if you have some of my Shawarma Mayo made up (I always keep it on hand in my fridge). You can use regular homame mayo, but it won’t come out quite as good, as the Shawarma mayo linked in the recipe really is quite good with Boursin cheese. This can be ready in 30 minutes or less! Truly delicious and suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets, Primal-Paleo as well.

INGREDIENTS:

24 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breast, in 4 nice portions

4 T. my homemade Shawarma Mayonnaise

4 T. Boursin Garlic-Herb cheese (or garlic-herb Alouette cheese)

1 oz. pork rinds

½ c. parsley, chopped

¼ tsp. each black pepper, garlic powder & onion powder

¼ c. Parmesan cheese (any variety will work)

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Using the flat side of a meat tenderizer or mallet, pound the 4 breast filets between 2 sheets plastic wrap to flatten them a bit using the flat side of a meat tenderizer or mallet. Real thin is NOT necessary here, just flatten them so they aren’t too thick for fastest baking. Place filets on an oiled baking pan making sure they are not touching. Brush each with 1 T. of the Shawarma Mayo. Then dot each with 1 T. of the Boursin cheese. Place all remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse to make a nice crumb mixture. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the chicken filets and pop pan in 350º oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each contains:

500 cals. 29.3g fat, 1.5g carbs, 0.22g fiber, 1.29g NET CARBS, 59.5g protein, 975 mg sodium

Stuffed Focaccia

June 13, 2020March 10, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

I wanted something Italian tonight, but not pizza and not pasta. So I decided to try a stuffed focaccia. GOOD decision, as this came out VERY good!

variation, add a few sliced black olives, but I didn’t have any on hand.

Before Cutting

This recipe is suitable for Phase 2 Atkins, Keto diets, Primal folks if consumed only occasionally. This recipe is only suitable for Paleo if you use a plan suitable bread.

VARIATION: Add a few sliced black olives to the filling

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. ground beef (or ½ beef and ½ Italian sausage removed from casings)

½ tsp. total Italian Spice blend

½ c. almond flour

¼ c. golden flax meal

¼ c. plain whey protein powder

1 tsp. baking powder

3 T. cream cheese, softened

2 large eggs, beaten

1½ c. shredded white mild cheese (I used a combo of Monterey Jack & Mozzarella)

1 tsp. cider vinegar

1 T. heavy cream

1 T. water

1 tsp. yeast dissolved in another 1 T. warm water (optional, for flavor)

FILLING: 6 oz. sliced mozzarella cheese + 1/4 tsp. Italian Spice Blend

TIP: If you are not gluten-free, I find 1 T. oat fiber added improves this bread’s texture greatly. But remember, oat fiber is NOT 100% gluten-free.

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Brown the beef in a skillet. Add half of the Italian Spice and a dash garlic powder if you like. Stir well, remove from heat and set aside.

Soften cream cheese in medium mixing bowl in microwave. Beat in the eggs, cream, water, vinegar, both cheeses and dissolved yeast (if using). Measure and add in all the dry ingredients and stir well with a rubber spatula. Line an 8 x 11 pan (I used metal) with parchment paper or silicone sheet. Spoon up around 1/2 of the batter onto the paper and spread to a thin layer with a fork. Batter will be about ¼” thick. Use 9 x 13 pan for thinner stuffed focaccia results.

Drain meat of any excess grease and spread evenly on bottom layer of batter. Place the sliced mozzarella cheese on next. Sprinkle with the rest of the Italian Spice blend. Dot with the remaining batter, spreading with a fork as best as you can, but it doesn’t have to be perfect coverage. As it will spread out a bit during baking. Pop into 350º oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until dry to the touch in the center and lightly browned. Cool 3-4 minutes and cut into 6 equal portions. Lift carefully with spatula, avoiding parchment on bottom and serve with a nice green salad on the side. Store leftovers covered in the pan or in a plastic bag in your refrigerator. Goes well with a green, tossed salad with a light vinaigrette dressing.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 large slices, each contains:

487 cals, 37 g fat, 5.61 g carbs, 2.43 g fiber, 3.18 g NET CARBS, 36.3 g protein, 558 mg sodium

Beef Stroganoff

June 13, 2020January 28, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

Shown over Al Dente’s Carba-Nada egg fettucine noodles

This is how I usually put this famous dish together…..pretty simple, actually. Takes under an hour to prepare. We low-carbers can serve it over low-carb noodles (I can highly recommend Al Dente’s “Carba-Nada” fettucini noodles), shredded stir-fried cabbage or mashed cauliflower. I don’t care for it much on zucchini noodles, but you might like it that way. This recipe is suitable for Induction if served over the cauli-mash or zucchini noodles AND you omit the red wine.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. sirloin steak, trimmed & cut in thin strips

4 T. butter, unsalted

4 oz. onion, chopped

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced

1 c. beef broth (or deglaze the skillet with water)

¼ c. red wine (omit if still in Atkins Induction)

½ c. sour cream

xanthan gum or your favorite thickener

Low-carb noodles or veggie “noodles” of your choice

DIRECTIONS: In a large non-stick skillet or wok, brown the onion. Add meat strips and continue searing until nicely browned. Add mushrooms at this point. Saute for a few more minutes until they, too, are done. Lower heat to lowest setting. Add beef broth & red wine. Simmer 5-10 minutes to blend flavors. Cover with lid and simmer (or bake at 350º ) for 30 minutes or so. Check and stir occasionally during cooking. Slightly thicken with a very light dusting of xanthan gum or your favorite thickener, whisking continuously between additions. Right before serving, with fire off, remove lid and gently stir in sour cream. Lower heat and simmer just a few minutes. Do not let boil after adding sour cream or it can curdle and be visually off-putting. Serve over buttered stir-fried cabbage shreds, cooked zucchini noodles, Carba-Nada noodles or mashed/riced cauliflower.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Please note the numbers below do not reflect the veggie or noodles you serve this on. The numbers below are for the meat sauce only.

Serves 4, with each serving containing:

344 cals, 21.9 g fat, 5.6 g carbs, 83 g fiber. 4.82 g NET CARBS, 28.8 g protein, 313 mg. sodium

Indian Chicken Tandoori & Roasted Vegetables (Sheet Pan)

June 8, 2020June 19, 2020Peggy 1 Comment

This dish goes together in 30 minutes and can be on the table in no time with a convection oven feature on your oven. Just marinate the chicken a half hour, cut the veggies up into your sheet pan and it cooks itself…….REALLY! My kind of meal, as my regular readers know. I’m such a lazy cook! This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto programs, Paleo and Primal Blueprint as well! You can make it as spicy as you like, increasing the Tandoori spice and curry powder, but I’ve kept this recipe fairly “tame” as that suits my palate.

INGREDIENTS:

2 large chicken thighs, bone-in

1 large chicken breast, cut into 3 portions (they’re so big nowadays)

2/3 c. sour cream (or yogurt)

1 tsp. each curry and tandoori powders

1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil

6 oz. sweet onion (I used yellow and red), cut into wedges

3 oz. red bell pepper, cut 1″ pieces

10 oz. eggplant, cut in large cubes (about 1-1½”)

1 very small head cauliflower (yield about 2½c. florets)

3 Roma tomatoes, cut into 4 wedges

1 tsp. minced ginger root

¼ c. cilantro chopped

Dash black pepper

¼ tsp. sea salt

2 tsp. my Garam Masala

DIRECTIONS: In a large mixing bowl, measure out the sour cream or yogurt. Add the tandoori and curry powders. Stir well to blend. Dip each piece of the chicken into the mixture, coating well on all surfaces. Place bowl in fridge for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, Preheat convection oven to 350º (375º for a regular oven). Place the EV Olive Oil into a large baking sheet pan. Cut the eggplant into 1-1½” cubes (I do not peel mine) and put it in the pan. Cut onions, separate the segments and add to the pan. Cut red bell pepper into 1″ pieces and add to the pan. Add the cauliflower pieces as well. Next add the ginger, Garam Masala spice, salt and pepper. With a spoon or rubber spatula, stir all so the vegetables get well-coated with the oil and spices. Add the tomato wedges last and toss once or twice, very gently. Lay the chicken pieces on top of the vegetable melange and sprinkle all with the chopped cilantro. Pop into a hot 350º convection oven (or 375º regular oven) and bake under convection for about 40 minutes; for about 1 hour in a regular oven, or until meat is properly done. Please check before time is up, as ovens, convection or not, can vary quite a bit. Remove and serve with your favorite low-carb flat bread (if you can fit it into your daily number limits).

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 5 servings, each contains:

410.2 cals, 29.66g fat, 12.04g carbs, 3.96g fiber, 8.08g NET CARBS, 24.52g protein, 461g sodium

Master Cook® Compatibility!

June 4, 2020February 7, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

I’m very pleased to share with my regular followers that one of my readers just informed me the old theme on my website for many years did not allow her to download directly to her MasterCook® software. Not sure why though. The new site theme installed a couple months ago is now allowing her to download my recipes to her MasterCook®! She is very happy and so am I! I changed themes to get more colorful/visible links, as they were dark green on the old theme and a little difficult to see until you hovered directly over them with your mouse. The new coral colored links embedded in my recipes now stand out quite nicely the minute you open up the recipe! All goodness for all of us.

Greek Chicken & Spinach

June 4, 2020June 4, 2020Peggy 2 Comments

Greek Chicken & Spinach

This chicken I’ve made for many years, but tonight I got the idea to add bacon to this dish and well, we really liked that addition! This goes well with a Greek salad but I have served it with broccoli and sauteed leeks as well. I make my own Cavender’s Greek Seasoning, but you can use Cavender’s no-salt Seasoning if available. Otherwise, just black pepper, thyme and oregano. This recipe is Induction friendly.

This dish doesn’t freeze too well as the homemade mayo tends to separate upon freezing and reheating.

INGREDIENTS:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

10 oz. pkg. frozen spinach

½ c. Feta cheese, crumbled and rinsed well with cold water in strainer.

2 oz. onion, chopped

¼ Parmesan cheese

pinch dill

1 c. total my homemade mayonnaise: https://buttoni.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/homemade-mayonnaise/

4 slices finely chopped bacon

½ tsp. my homemade Cavender’s Greek Seasoning

½ c. crushed plain pork rinds

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 400º. Cut chicken breasts in half, making 8 pieces. Using 1/4 c. of the mayo, baste each piece of chicken on both sides and set aside. If using whole pieces of bone-in chicken, make several slits in the flesh with a knife first to speed up cooking time. In a medium bowl, stir spinach, Feta cheese, chopped onion, dill and Cavender’s seasoning. Add 3/4 c. of the mayo and stir well.

Pour spinach mixture into baking dish (no need to grease pan). Now place chicken pieces on top of the spinach mixture. Sprinkle pork rinds and Parmesan over the pieces of chicken. Place the finely chopped bacon over entire dish, being sure some gets on each piece of chicken. Place in 400º oven and bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes. For a faster-cooking dish that will be ready in only 45 minutes, pound chicken breasts with mallet before brushing with mayo. This dish is chock full of nutrients, including 168% of selenium, 129% vitamin B12, 110% riboflavin recommended daily requirements! And lots more other good stuff!

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings of 2 pieces of chicken each. Each serving contains:

734 calories, 63.5 g fat, 5.25 g carbs, 2.75 g fiber, 2.40 g NET CARBS, 46.6 g protein, 655 mg. sodium

Bœuf Bourguignon (Beef Burgundy)

February 27, 2020February 27, 2020Peggy 2 Comments

A long time favorite of my parents when they were living. I was pretty fond of it myself! We hadn’t had it in ages so I fixed it for dinner tonight with the small chuck I defrosted. Yum! I forget how good this French stewed beef dish with burgundy wine and mushrooms is! This evening I used a fairly small piece of chuck roast, only 2#, but it made enough dinner for 4 very ample servings. We consumed two and I froze the remainder for another meal! This dish is not suitable for Atkins induction or Keto dieters in the first 2-3 weeks because of the wine. But once you’ve been on plan for awhile you can enjoy this delightful, rich, hearty dish from the Burgundy region of France.

INGREDIENTS:

2 lb. beef chuck, cut in 1½” cubes, trimmed of all fat and gristle

3 T. coconut or extra light olive oil

¼ c. Einkorn flour (or Carbquik bake mix, to reduce carbs)

2 large carrots, peeled, cut in ½” slices

4 oz. yellow onion, cut in wedges (1″ whole onions are traditional)

¼ tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed (or 1 tsp. fresh, chopped)

2 large cloves garlic, minced (or 3 small)

½ c. Burgundy wine (or other full-bodied red wine)

¼ t.. sea salt

¼ t. coarse black pepper

10 large button mushrooms (8 oz.)

½ c. rich beef broth or bone broth

Water to cover pot contents

Thickener of your choice (I used a light dusting of xanthan gum)

DIRECTIONS: Cut beef into 1½” cubes. Trim all visible fat and gristle off that you can. Using a large stew/soup pot, heat up the 3T. oil on high heat. While it is heating, Place the meat into a bag with the flour, salt and pepper. Shake well to coat. Place pieces of meat into hot oil and brown the bottom surfaces. When really browned, turn the pieces and brown the other side. Add 1-2 c. tap water to slow the cooking. Next add wine and all remaining ingredients listed. End with enough more water to cover all solid ingredients, about 1/2″ past, actually. Allow to come to a boil on high heat. When it is bubbling lower to lowest heat setting and simmer for about 2 hours. Cover only if too much water is evaporating and contents are not well-covered. Stir about every 15-20 minutes. When all is tender and veggies are not too overdone, thicken liquid with your preferred thickener. Serve at once.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 large servings, each contains:

462 cals, 19.1g fat, 16.3g carbs, 3.3g fiber, 13g NET CARBS, 138 mg sodium (to reduce carbs, eat a smaller portion than 1/4 of the batch)

Grilled Chipotle-Lime Steelhead Trout

February 22, 2020February 23, 2020Peggy 2 Comments

The delicious smoke taste on this Steelhead Trout was just amazing! I get this fish at my local Sam’s Club and just love that they are milder than regular salmon. The buttery chipotle-lime sauce was so good on it! The flavor profile was just sublime. This recipe goes together in just 15 minutes or so once your charcoal fire is ready. This is one of the healthiest dinners you can have since this salmon-family fish is also very rich in Omega-3 oil.

INGREDIENTS:

2# Steelhead Trout filet (use salmon if you can’t get the trout)

4 T. butter, unsalted

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 c. parsley, chopped

1 chipotle pepper (canned in adobo sauce), seeded and mashed

1 T. the adobo sauce from the can

Juice of 1 lime (about 1 T.)

DIRECTIONS: In a small saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Mince the garlic and add. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat. Prepare charcoal fire. With a paper towel, lightly oil te grill grate surface to help prevent sticking. Using a basting brush, baste the flesh side of the filet. When coals are white hot ready, place basted flesh side of the filet down on the oiled grill right over the coals. Cook about 5 minutes. Baste the skin side now. With extra long spatulas, gently turn the fish over to grill the skin side next. Basting the flesh side again. Cook 5 minutes on this side as well. Remove to service platter, serving the extra butter sauce at the table for each diner to brush on their serving of fish. I served this with a cauliflower-broccoli cheesy gratin but it would be equally good with a lovely Greek Salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: After cooking shrinkage this makes 4 6-7-oz servings. Each contains:

433 cals, 25.7g fat, 2.62g carbs, 0.79g fiber, 1.83g NET CARBS, 46.7g protein, 220 mg sodium

Creamed Brussels Sprouts

February 21, 2020April 8, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

We low carbers love our creamed spinach. But did you ever think about creaming Brussels Sprouts? Well I did last night and gave it a try! So glad I did, too, as it took this vegetable to a totally different realm. My husband said “Be SURE to put this one on your blog!” It was not only the rich creaminess, but the bit of Parmesan, bacon and onion that took this one over the top! This recipe is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets and Primal blueprint. The dairy makes it unsuitable for Paleo.

INGREDIENTS:

3 thick slices bacon, chopped coarse

4 oz. red onion (or yellow), chopped coarsely

1 lb. fresh Brussels sprouts (or frozen could be used)

2 oz. cream cheese

½ c. heavy cream

2 T. Parmesan grated cheese

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Cut stems off sprouts and slice each into ½” slices. Place in ceramic dish with 1/2″ water and microwave 1 minute, stir and then 1 min. longer. Remove from microwave (all water will be evaporated, or drain off any left). Set aside. In a skillet over high heat fry bacon until browning. Add onion and saute until tender. Lower heat and add cream cheese to melt and blend in evenly. Add cream. Now toss in sprouts and toss gently. Grease the baking dish you used before. Pour the sprout mixture into the dish. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. Pop the dish into a 350º oven and bake 15 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Serve at once.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 servings, each contains:

154 cals, 11.8g fat, 8.85g carbs, 3.06g fiber, 5.79g NET CARBS, 7.3g protein, 121 mg sodium

Air Fryer Croutons (low-carb)

February 17, 2020February 26, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

I just discovered I can make low-carb croutons in my air fryer (Power XL 7 qt 1700 watt basket style). Using my familiar Einkorn English Muffin as the base, it was a piece or cake, or perhaps I should say a piece of “toast”. 🙂 This time I coated them with my spice mixture, but next time I’m going to put it right into the batter when making the muffin just for ease. Doubt it will make a bit of difference in the end result. We both thought these a tasty substitute for high-carb commercial croutons. To lower carbs, you could use some other low-carb bread or merely eat less of them on your salad.

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Einkorn English Muffin

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

¼ tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend

¼ tsp. each onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper

Dash sea salt

VARIATION: Use other seasoning blends to change things up a bit

DIRECTIONS: Make the English muffin by that recipe’s instructions (linked above). DO NOT slice the muffin laterally but rather into 1/2 cubes. The croutons will toast better if not larger than ½” size. Let cubes rest on cutting board for 1 hour to totally dry out. Turn them over once to try to get them dry to the touch on all surfaces.

When about ready to get meal together, toss them into a medium bowl with 1 T. olive oil. If adding spices to surface, mix it into the olive oil in the bowl and then toss in your cubes. Stir well to coat. Place them in the basket of your air fryer (or in a pan if you have the shelf type. I place a small round cake cooling wire rack on mine to be sure they didn’t fly around during cooking. Cook at 375º for about 6 minutes, checking often and shaking to get all sides brown and toasty. Add more time if needed to get them to a firm and toasty state without them burning. All fryers are different and the time is variable with each brand/model. Cool completely before serving. If you don’t have an air fryer, you can toast these in a 375º conventional oven on a sheet pan. Will take about 13-15 minutes on the middle shelf, turning and tossing with a spatula a couple times during cooking to achieve even browning. Remove and cool, serving fairly quickly while they are still crisp.

Low carb breads do not keep their crunchy quality for long, but if you have some leftover (I did) put remainders in a ziplock bag and reheat in the air fryer at 375º for 2-3 minutes to toast them right up again.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes enough to garnish 4 salads. Each of the 4 servings will contain:

114 cals, 10.4g fat, 4.6g carbs, 2.25g fiber, 2.35g NET CARBS, 3.33g protein, 94 mg sodium

Chicken & Italian Sausage on Zoodles

February 15, 2020March 10, 2023Peggy Leave a comment

Mmm, mmm, mmm. This colorful dish was just as tasty as it looks! And super, duper fast to get on the table for your hungry family!! Just creamy enough without being too “heavy”. My husband specifically asked for something light tonight since we went out for steak last night, had oysters and the whole shebang. 🙂 He said I accomplished that goal of “light” with this wonderful new dish. This is elegant-looking when served and most worthy of company fare. It is suitable for all phases of Atkins, Keto diets, Primal folks who eat dairy, and Paleo followers provided you use coconut milk instead of the cream.

INGREDIENTS:

2 6-oz. zucchini (two 6″), cut into zucchini noodles or ribbons

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts around 11-12 oz. each

2 T. total olive oil

4 T. total butter (or ghee)

1 link Italian sausage, casing removed & cut into chunks

2 oz. onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ c. parsley, chopped (reserve 1T. for garnish)

8 cherry tomatoes, halved (or more if you like)

Several shakes coarse black pepper

Dash salt

½ c. heavy cream

DIRECTIONS: Place a non-stick skillet or wok on your burner. Add 1 T. oil and coat entire pan surface. Cut zoodles with a noodling tool, julienne peeler or ribbons using a vegetable peeler. Slow saute over medium heat until they are no longer opaque and just barely beginning to soften. Remove, dip out nicely onto a serving platter and keep in warming oven while you make the sauce.

Cut each chicken breast laterally into 2 thinner filets, cover with plastic wrap and pound with the flat side of a meat tenderizer or wooden kitchen mallet. I don’t pound them too thin, however.

Wipe skillet out with paper towel if any zoodles are hanging on for dear life. 🙂 Add the other tablespoon of olive oil, 1 T. of the butter and heat over high heat. Sear the chicken breasts on both sides until golden and remove to a temporary plate. Add remaining 3 T. butter, sausage, garlic and onion. Saute until onion is tender and sausage is no longer pink and begins to brown. Add parsley and tomatoes next. Saute 1 minute and tomatoes barely begin to soften. Finally, add cream, salt and pepper. Simmer just a couple minutes until cream thickens up for you.

Remove platter with your zoodles from warming oven. Place chicken filets across the top. Spoon the creamy sausage sauce on top and garnish with that reserved tablespoon parsley. Serve at once.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 4 servings, each contains:

531 cals, 39g fat, 7.8g carbs, 1.8g fiber, 7g NET CARBS, 38g protein, 703 mg sodium

Chocolate Mini Bundt Cake

February 14, 2020February 14, 2020Peggy Leave a comment

This is what I made my husband for his Valentine’s Day treat. He’s not going to have it until dinner but I think he’ll like it. I used a little single serving cake recipe I worked up in 2009 when I first started Atkins for my starting point and just changed it up a bit as well as decorated it to make it special for the occasion. The Jelly Bellies I decorated with for the holiday occasion are NOT included in the nutritional stats below. It is difficult to get chocolate desserts sweet enough with artificial sweeteners, so I find 2-3 in combination does the job better than just using one and increasing the amount. Thus the 3 different ones in this.

This recipe is not suitable until you are closer to your goal weight in Atkins Pre-Maintenance or Maintenance as there is a wee bit of flour product in my bake mix. Feel free to use any other low-carb bake mix you have on hand in this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

¼ c. my Buttoni’s Low Carb Bake Mix (or other low-carb mix)

1T.+1tsp. cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)

Dash salt

2 T. erythritol, granular

1 T. Splenda

Dash pure stevia powder (I use KAL brand)

1 T. melted butter

1 large egg, beaten

½ tsp. vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven. Set your mini bundt pan on a small baking pan. If you don’t own one, use a jumbo muffin cup or small, straight-sided ovenproof bowl. Add the butter to your pan and pop in oven on a sheet pan to melt the butter as the oven preheats. Take it out when butter melts and brush it up the sides of the bundt pan. Then pour off the butter into a small medium mixing bowl. Add the vanilla and egg and beat well. Measure the dry ingredients onto the top of the wet and stir well. Scrape into the buttered mini bundt pan, tap to settle the batter and put back into hot oven. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until dry to the touch or toothpick comes out clean/dry. Cool and frost if desired. Since I wasn’t eating this, for my frosting I just melted a block of Lindt 70% chocolate with 2 T. butter and drizzled over cake. The frosting is NOT included in the stats below.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 1 mini cake which contains: (not including any frosting)

322 cals, 23.4g fat, 14.4g carbs, 4.9g fiber, 9.5 NET CARBS, 16.4g protein, 437 mg sodium

Low Carb Blueberry Buckle

February 11, 2020February 14, 2023Peggy 6 Comments

I had some blueberries in the fridge I really needed to use up, as I’m not eating sweets these days. Hubby was griping I’d not baked anything in ages, so I made this old-fashioned buckle. If you’re wondering where it got its name, when constructed in frontier days, the fruit was placed on top of the cake. The weight of the fruit would sink the berries during baking 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 tighter, you can lower the amount of berries. But traditionally they used a high ratio to batter in this popular frontier dessert. 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

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350º. Measure out dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Grate lemon zest and add to bowl. Add the went ingredients and the berries. Stir to mix and moisten all ingredients well but do not over mix. Spoon into the already greased round cake pan. Pop into 350º oven for 15 minutes or just until batter spots are dry to the touch. Do not over cook. Serve warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 srvgs., 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

6 responses to “Low Carb Blueberry Buckle”

Jenny Saunders

March 1, 2020

Was there supposed to be no sugar in this recipe?

1. Peggy
  
  March 7, 2020
  
  Yes, I’m off all sugar right now, even artificial sweeteners. But you could sprinkle a bit of either one on top and nuke/heat a couple seconds to make the dish sweeter.
  
Pam

February 12, 2020

Where is the amount for the blueberries? When do you mix them in?

1. Peggy
  
  February 12, 2020
  
  Oh, my goodness! I left them off my list! I should not post recipes late at night. Sorry, Pam. It’s 2 c. berries added at any time.
  
Kathleen Prulhiere

February 11, 2020

How many berries?

1. Peggy
  
  February 12, 2020
  
  Sorry Kathleen. Posted this late last night and seem to have omitted them. It’s 2 cups, added with the last ingredients. I’ve corrected that on-screen now. Thanks.