Veggie Dinner

Roasted Sweet Potato with Spaghetti Squash, Steamed Green Beans and Honey Glazed Garlic Carrots

Super Simple Deviled Eggs

Is there anything better than deviled eggs? Yes I'm sure there is but I found them absolutely delicious yesterday. 

Why would you ever use miracle whip to make these? Cardinal sins! #mayoonly

Super Simple Deviled Eggs 

(Super low carb snack)

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1/3 cup mayo...maybe a little more if it's looking dry (Hellman's)

Tiny squirt of Dijon mustard 

Sprinkling of paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the eggs. I put them in a small saucepan and cover the eggs with cold water. Once the water comes to a boil I set a timer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and give the eggs an ice bath. 

Then peel, cut in half, dump the yolks in a bowl and create your mixture. Use a fork to really mash the yolks until smooth and creamy. Spoon mix back into egg halves and sprinkle with paprika. Don't oversalt your mix but also don't be shy with it either. 

Add-ins:

-pickle relish

-green onions

-sweet pickle relish

-diced pickles 

-diced kalamata olives

Funny sorry about Hellman's mayonaise...my husband and I were at a Nashville Sounds game which is not normal, we just happened to have free tickets. Anyways, we ordered some junk food and I was waiting in line for the ketchup when I observe a drunk man pump about a gallon of Hellman's onto his hotdogs.

    I said, "I'm glad I'm not the only person who eats mayo on their hotdogs." 

    To which he replied, "Is there any other way to do it?"

Words of wisdom.

Low Carb Spinach and Sausage Omelett

New Year's Resolutions are in full swing and for me that means my trusty low carb diet again. I had my first baby this past October and after 3 months of losing baby weight thanks to breastfeeding it's time to kick the last 15 pounds with a little help from my friend...low carbs! I actually enjoy this diet and feel better whilst on it. I instantly notice more energy and feel like my head is less cloudy. 

Here's breakfast today...4 grams roughly per serving. Makes 4 servings.

Since I have a baby in my life now, it's not as easy to just "make breakfast" so to make my life easier, I prep the veggies the night before. 

Ingredients:

4 eggs

2 tbs milk

1/3 cup Tennessee Pride Sausage

4 grape tomatoes (halved)

1/2 cup green bell pepper (chopped)

1/3 cup diced onion

2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach

1/4 cup chopped parsley 

1 tsp diced garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Sprinkle of garlic powder

1/3 cup mozzarella or cheddar cheese

Optional toppings:

Sriracha and 1/2 avocado (add 6 grams)

Directions:

Put sausage in a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and start breaking up with wooden spatula. Crumble the sausage and cook throughly before adding other ingredients. 

Now add your veggies and sauté for a couple of minutes. 

Finally, beat the eggs and milk together and pour on top of meat and veggies. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder to eggs.

Sprinkle some mozzarella or cheddar cheese on top and cover. Simmer on super low heat until eggs are firm which is about 5-10 minutes. I'm usually changing a diaper at this point so I walk away and come back to breakfast that's ready!

Slice like a pizza and enjoy with toppings or not! 

Don't have any eggs? Well do what I did yesterday and make it "eggless"...still delicious.

Low Carb White Chicken Chili

Tennessee had a lovely fall day about a week ago that had everyone in a good mood...then it got hot again. But regardless, we had the ONE awesome preview to fall. Oh I can't wait. So, that day inspired a light chili supper for me and my hubby.


Low Carb White Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

Pulled chicken from a Kroger Roasted Chicken....or you can cook your own, but I wanted to save time
1 can Cannelini beans (which are apparently not to carb friendly)
1 can Red Kidney beans
1 can Large Butter Beans
1 can Garbonzo Beans (which turned out awesome)
1 onion finely chopped
1-2 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper (optional)
1 Carrot chopped
1 sweet pepper chopped
3-4 strips raw bacon chopped
1-2 cups heavy cream
12 ounces chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 stick real salted butter....never use margarine....REAL BUTTER is amazing and better for you.

Topping:
Sour Cream (All-Natural has the lowest carbs)
Cheddar Cheese
Avocado


How To:

I prefer using my Martha Stewart dutch oven to make any soup or chili. It's so awesome. (Shout out Martha!)

Anyways, I started by browning/sizzling some butter, the bacon and garlic. Ina Garten always says if you want people to think you're making something good, just saute some garlic in butter. SO, this is your flavor maker base. If this starts turning brown at the bottom, then you're doing a good job. That's the good stuff. Also, remember to use a wooden spoon for this.

While this is sizzling, I went ahead and rinsed and drained all the beans. I just dump the cans in a colander and rinse well.

Then I had pre-chopped my carrots, onion and peppers so they'd be ready to join the garlic and bacon yumminess. I just dumped those in and stirred 'em up.

Now here's where I wanted to add some liquid so I used about 3/4 of this lovely free range chicken broth. I felt very East Nashville purchasing this item. (Insert Portlandia quote: is this local?)

I also added the heavy cream and the beans once there was lots of liquid in there.

Now you can learn from my mistake...I added my chicken at the beginning and by the end of the 4 hours of stew time, the chicken was mush. It was still delicious...but it was mushy.

I let mine simmer on low heat (like the 2 setting) for as long as I could wait to eat this. Basically 3-4 hours...but it would probably be ready after coming to a boil then simmering for about 20-35 minutes....I would add the chicken about 15 minutes before you're ready to eat it if you're on a tight schedule.










It's probably a good idea to bring it to a soft boil before you decide to go to simmer mode.

This is the photo I sent to my hubby....to get him to come home from work. Just a little teaser...who can guess what's in here? (clue quote)









When you've waited as long as you can wait, then it's time to dig in. I topped mine off with some cheese, sour cream (of course) and avocado.....DELICIOUS and low carb! Yay.

PS...Another chance for you to learn from my mistake...thinking my garden's jalapenos weren't going to be hot, I added a can of Rotel too...big mistake. This chili was SPICY! Like back of the throat breathing fire spicy..but it was still yummy. So ...DON'T add a can of rotel. :)


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Here's a nice little bean chart I found from http://www.slowcarbfoodie.com/2011/07/23/what-kind-of-beans-should-i-eat-the-great-slow-carb-bean-index/

For ONE CUP of COOKED Legumes....

Bean  Type	Calories	Carbs	Protein	Fiber	Fat
Black Beans	227	40.8g	15.2g	15g	0.4g
Red Beans	225	40.36	15.35	13.1g	.88g
Pinto Beans	245	44.8g	15.4g	15.4g	1.2g
Great Northern Beans	209	37.3g	14.7g	12.4g	0.9g
Cannellini Beans	282	46g	20g	12g	2g
Lima Beans	216	39.3g	14.7g	13.2g	0.8g
Navy Beans	255	47.5g	15g	19.1g	1.1g
Fava Beans	187	33.5g	12.9g	9.2g	0.7g
Mung Beans	212	38.8g	14.2g	15.4g	0.8g
Adzuki Beans	294	57g	17.3g	16.8g	0.2g
Black-eyed Peas	220	32g	16g	8g	1g
ChickPeas (Garbanzo Beans)	269	44.9g	14.5g	12.5g	4.3g
Lentils	230	40g	18g	16g	1g
Soy Beans (edamame)	254	20g	22.2g	7.6g	11.5g

Low Carb Roasted Roots

This is a hearty and delicious side for any meal. I like to serve this with meatloaf or pan-seared chicken...pork chops....any meat really goes great with these. I would also serve a salad to lighten this up!

What you'll need:

3-4 Carrots (or half a bag of whole baby carrots) [6 grams a piece]
1-2 Sweet Potatoes [27 grams a piece]
3-4 Parsnips  [21 grams a piece]
1 Onion [10 grams]
2-3 Garlic Cloves
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Kosher Salt and Pepper and Garlic Powder

Optional things to try: brussel sprouts, beets (which are AMAZING), kielbasa sausage, yukon gold potatoes, red/new potatoes, green beans, apricots, pineapple...

*Now if you're trying to do super low-carb, I would eliminate the parsnips and replace with something green...brussel sprouts roast nicely. [just 8 grams per cup of brussels]



How to: (Pre-heat oven to 400 while you're prepping)

Chop the carrots and parsnips at angles into large chunks. I like to chunk the sweet potato into large "steak fries" chunks....and then add the garlic cloves whole. Roasting this with some herbs like thyme or rosemary in the pictures below adds some deep flavors. I chop the onion to keep it fairly large so it doesn't turn to mush during the roasting process.

Lay everything out onto a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil approx. 1/4 cup. I love the flavor of balsamic vinegar so I drizzle lots over everything. Next I sprinkle heavily with kosher salt and then add some fresh ground pepper, about 8 cranks. Finally, I sprinkle some garlic powder over everything and I use my 'clean' hands to mix everything up getting each piece evenly coated with goodness.

Bake on 400 for about 30-45 minutes until veggies are super tender and have a nice dark roasted look to them. This is a put it the oven and forget about it until you smell something wonderful kind of plan. It's not a bad idea to turn the veggies in the middle of the roasting process....I just take them out around 20 minutes in and stir them up...but make sure everyone is laying flat when they go back in.

This isn't my photo, but it shows how the final product should look. This has some lovely beets which I highly recommend!

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Here's a similar recipe I found from Pinterest with some "clear" instructions....

Roasted Root Vegetables

5.0 from 6 reviews

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Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 4-5

A simple and easy root vegetable medley roasted to tender and sweet perfection.

Ingredients

• 7 large carrots sliced at a diagonal
• 2 large sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 3 medium sized beets cut into 1 inch cubes
• 3 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
• 1½ tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped
• ½ tablespoon fresh thyme chopped
• ¼ cup butter or lard, melted (really you can use any cooking fat you want here, these are just my two personal favorites to use in this)
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.
2. In a large bowl add the carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets. Add the garlic, rosemary, and thyme, then pour over the melted butter or lard or fat of choice. Season with salt and pepper and toss well to coat.
3. Spread the root vegetables over the foil lined baking sheet so they are in a single layer and place in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until tender and lightly caramelized on the outside, shaking the tray and tossing them around a couple of time to ensure even cooking. Optionally, you can broil them for about 3-4 minutes after their done to get some extra caramelization on the outside of them.

Notes

These go wonderfully as a side served with a salad or just about anything!

Low Carb Pizza!

 

Okay this turned out great…hubby didn’t like the flax seed meal, but it made a great big crust and I liked it!

I used this recipe for the crust: http://www.gourmetgirlcooks.com/2012/11/its-pizza-night-almondflaxparmesan-herb.html

I didn’t add water to the crust, however I put warm water all over my hands several times to spread the crust out. It kept sticking to my hands, so the water really helped!

 

For the sauce, I threw a can of those basily tomatoes, tomato paste and crushed tomatoes into the food processor. I sauteed onions and garlic in butter and olive oil then added the tomatoey mixture to the pan. Simmered for awhile…added salt and pepper…italian seasonings. Sauce was goooooood!

I made three different pizza sections…one with italian sausage, one with carrots/bell peppers/garlic and then a barbecue pork with veggie section at the end. We didn’t have any “real” pizza toppings so it was a little hodge podge..which was fine for a snow day pizza!

This pizza makes a lot of food! We have tons of leftovers. Yummmy!

Low Carb Roasted Vegetables and Sausage

I know D gets so tired of eating this, but I love this meal! We have been on a low carb diet for almost a year now and this is soooooo easy (and delicious).  I make this Sunday night and snack on it all week...

Ingredients: 
1 bag frozen brussel sprouts
1 package of Polska Kielbasa sausage or turkey sausage
a handful of grape tomatoes
1 onion sliced into large chunks
1/2 bag whole baby carrots
chopped parsley
2-3 garlic cloves chopped coarsely

you can also add: potatoes/sweet potatoes, bell pepper, zucchini, cabbage

Seasoning: 
olive oil drizzled generously
a couple of dashes of worcestershire
a drip or two of balsamic vinegar...optional
salt and pepper
......
or try Dale's Seasoning with olive oil

Bake at 350 for about 40-50 minutes...or until sausage looks golden and yummy.

Pre-Bake

Post-Bake