Cowboy Stew

One of our new favorites and go to meals is cowboy stew. Why it's called that I don't know it's not stew like at all...giggle but it's my version of something they served the children at school. It's tasty, filling and very quick and easy to make.

In my every continuing need to cut cost, I've gotten into the habit of cooking a pot of beans every week. I like to make my own beans so I can control the amount of salt and flavor them like I like, but you can use canned if you want. You can also use whatever kind of beans you like or have on hand.

Cowboy Stew

• 1/2 lb ground meat
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• green or red onion, chopped
• med can of tomato sauce ( we use salt-free)
• 1 tbsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 1 cup cooked Dreamfields Pasta
• 2 cups or more beans ( I make chili beans from scratch and have on hand)
• Optional: grated cheese, sour cream, chopped green onions and olives.

1. Brown ground meat with onions and peppers and put on pasta to cook
2. Add tomato sauce and season with chili powder and cumin and let simmer a few minutes
3. Mix in beans; drain pasta and add it too
4. Taste for seasoning and serve with cheese, sour cream, green onions and olives or whatever else you might like. I normally just add a little cheese in mine.

Since I keep ground meat with onions and peppers in the freezer and I usually cook a pot of beans at the beginning of each week, I can get this on the table in the amount of time it take to cook the little bit of pasta.

This is a good for those nights when you just don't feel like or don't have time to cook a whole dinner.

Peanut Butter Dipping Sauce

I realized a long time ago, that many low carbs have given up all fruit.  I too tried that but found I really missed fruit.  I tried adding in just a few berries like so many suggest, but what I found works best for me is half a fresh crisp Gala, Fuji or Granny Smith apple.  I’m not a fan of the Delicious varieties.

A nice firm crisp Pear is even better, but harder to find.  Most of the pears I find at the grocery are a bit mushy or a soft variety.  The pears I grew up on came straight off my grandfathers trees.  We had pears with peanut butter for an afternoon snack everyday during the fall.  The perfect after school snack.

Well I’m not a kid any more, but I still love pears or apples with peanut butter. 

Peanut butter as you well know is a wonderful low carb food, if you are careful with it.  It can get carb pricey very quickly. 

So this is my solution. A half a piece of fruit is plenty. Just rub the other half with a little lemon juice (even the bottle kind will work)before wrapping tightly in plastic wrap.

First you need a little peanut butter.

 

Then add in  equal or a bit more  Cream cheese and pop them in the microwave until warm and melted together

Thin with a little cream, only takes a couple of teaspoons.

 

Stir it all together  and add a little sweetener to taste.  I used Nuva a stevia/erythritol blend.

All that’s left is to enjoy!

Ham and Swiss Panini

We all love sandwiches from time to time, they are easy to make and somehow very satisfying.

Finding a bread that is low in carb and makes a good sandwich can be difficult.  There are Cleo’s oopsies of course which are wonderful, and you know how much I like Joseph’s Lavash bread, but sometimes you need something hardier.  Enter Laura Dolson’s Focaccia -Style Flax Bread.  I love this bread recipe just as written, but I just have to play around with everything.  I’ve made many, many sweet versions and several savory ones as well.  My favorite has got to be Jalapeno.  It’s this recipe that I’ve used for my Panini.

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces Jalapeno Flaxbread( I cut mine into 18 pieces)
• 2 slices thin sliced ham
• 2 slices Swiss cheese
• mustard or mayo
• butter

Method:

1. Slice both pieces of Jalapeno bread horizontally so you have 4 slices of bread
2. Cut ham slices in 4’s, dry off if needed.
3. Cut each piece of Swiss into 2 pieces
4. Melt butter in small frying pan, toast the “inside” of the flaxbread
5. Add mustard or mayo to the inside of the bread
6. Add cheese to 2 slices , then ham, and remaining slices of cheese.
7. Top with remaining bread.
8. Place in frying pan and weigh down with something heavy.  I used cans. Flip and toast other sides.

Serve while hot, with fresh veggie sticks and dip, or nice hot bowl of soup. 

Once you’ve made them once you will find yourself playing around with all kinds of flavors.

I'm addicted to iced coffee drinks again!

With mom in the hospital, my aunt (her sister) has been staying up here with us so she can go to the hospital every day to see her. She lives about 67-70 miles away and at nearly 80 she doesn't need to be making trips like that very often.
Anyway, her first morning here she forgot she wasn't making coffee for her and her son and she made a great big pot. Not wanting to waste it she pour the left overs in a pitcher and popped in in the fridge for me. I tried to resist honest I did, I even let it sit in there over night. But I kept hearing it sing to me, and oh what a song it sang.
Well, as you can guess I finally gave in, and darned if I didn't drink nearly the whole pitcher at one go. I'm so bad.
So in case you have more control than I do and would really like to enjoy an after dinner treat you might enjoy my favorite iced coffee.

• 1 cup coffee
• 1/4 tsp. dark cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup hood milk or cream
• 1/2-1 cup crushed ice
• Sweetener to taste I use a couple pkg. stevia

Pour into plastic jug with tight fitting lid (yep I'm to lazy to pull out the blend and beside the jug is quieter) give it a good shake and pour into a tall glass and enjoy! I like mine with a straw.

Variation on same drink:

• 1/2 tsp espresso powder
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup hood milk with a splash of cream
• a good spoon of Walden farms chocolate syrup
• sweeten to taste
• 1/2 cup crushed ice ( sometimes I just use ice cubes)

Pour it in a jar and shake.

I swear I'm hooked again. I haven't had any coffee in I don't know how long. When drinking it hot, I'd just a soon have tea, but nothing beats the sweet richness of iced mocha!

Chicken Noodle Soup

I roasted another 5 lb bag of leg quarters the other day and then made a big batch of stock.

I saved back the stock and part of the chicken so I could make a big pot of soup.  I just wasn’t sure what kind I wanted to make I thought about Tuscan Chicken Soup  but I didn’t have any kale and without the kale it’s just not the same, then I was thinking Tortilla Soup but I didn’t have any Rotel.  Then I remembered we never had our traditional after Thanksgiving Homemade Chicken Noodle soup.  Something my mom has been making for use since we were kids.  So I decided that Chicken Noodle sounded wonderful.

With Cindy and my aunt Val at the hospital most of the day I needed it to be something that would easy have hot and ready to eat whenever they straggled in. So instead of cooking the pasta in the soup I cooked it and let everyone put what they wanted in their bowls.  Makes it easier to freeze left overs too.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chick stock (home made if you have it)
• 3-4 cup water
• 2 cups pre-cooked chicken
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup sliced carrots
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 4 gloves garlic, minced
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper (a good shake of red pepper flakes adds a nice kick if you like)
• Pre-cooked Dreamfield’s Pasta (we use the linguini)

Method:

1. Saute veggies in a tsp. pork fat or butter
2. Add stock and water let simmer until veggies are tender.  Don’t over cooked, remember you stock is already flavored
3. Add chicken and season well.
4. Serve with pasta and crackers for your carbivores. 

Some folks find that Dreamfields Pasta cause them blood glucose spikes, mom and I are among them, so we only use just a little pasta.  I think I had about a 1/3 cup of cooked pasta or about 1/3 a serving in my bowl, if that.  Of course you could use shirataki, or simply skip the noodles all together.

Don’t skimp on the garlic or it won’t be nearly as good, even though this is not a garlicky soup by any means.

Since pasta doesn’t freeze well and get mushy when reheating, having the pasta separate makes left overs much better or you can just freeze the left overs for another day.

(I didn’t get a picture today, but I’ll try to get one tomorrow when I have left overs)

Cabbage soup with Sausage

As you know I'm the queen of short cuts. I love all things that make getting dinner on the table quicker. I like to precook veggies so they are ready to go with whatever protein I cook for that night. While all veggies don't keep well, things like cabbage, turnips and squash all work wonderfully for this.
So today mom decided she needed to add a little something to her egg fast and boiled a whole head of cabbage. Boiled cabbage is something we both really like and it goes with most any meat you cook, so we like to keep it cooked.
But tonight I wasn't feeling great, it's this changing weather, and I wanted soup. This is the quick and easy soup I managed to get in a bowl in less than 3o minutes.

Quick and Easy Cabbage Soup with Sausage

• 8 oz. sausage cut into bite sized pieces
• 1/4 med. onion, diced
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 3-4 cups cooked cabbage with cooking liquid
• 1/2 cup cooked turnips or thawed frozen would work
• 1/4 cup of cream
• dash or two of salt
• 2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper (can use less but I love cabbage with lots of black pepper)
• Optional: fresh grated parmesan to sprinkle over each bowl

Add sausage to a hot pan and cook until brown, deglaze pan with just a little chicken stock and add onions and turnips and saute until tender and starting to caramelize. Add cabbage, the remaining chicken stock, spices and cream. Heat until just bubbling. Don't boil with the cream in the soup. Serve immediately with a nice sprinkle of fresh grated parmesan and a piece of Jalapeno Flaxbread.

It made a very warm, comforting and super easy dinner and boy has it kept me full!

Christmas Prezzies

Just thought I would show you how my new plan to create a recipe book for family this Christmas is going. Here's one of the recipes. I sure hope it doesn't come out too fuzzy.

Tuna patties

Today I made a quick and simple lunch of tuna patties and bacon green beans. It took only about 2o minutes it was tasty, filling and something different.
Tuna Patties

• 3 cans tuna, drained well
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 2 tbsp. Carb Counters Instant Mashers

Just mixed it all up, pattied them out in silver dollar sized patties and fried in coconut oil. They were crispy on the outside, moist and yummy on the inside.

I cooked a couple of cans of green beans cooked in bacon drippings. One of my favorite ways to cook green beans. The left over beans will be ready for another meal when I want them.

Next time I will double my tuna patty recipe and see if they hold up in the fridge. These would be perfect to nosh on when your hungry or to even pack in a lunch.