Stupidly Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup

1 pound bag of frozen broccoli florets
jar of Ragu Double Cheddar sauce
1/2 tsp of xanthan gum (optional)
2 cups of chicken broth

Put ingredients into a 4-quart slow cooker. Mine took 2 hours on high. Nom!

Vietnamese-style pork stir-fry

700 g of pork diced into small 1-inch-ish cubes

2/3 cup of finely chopped onions

2 handfuls of very finely diced raw broccoli - with as few stems as you can muster - Justin has textural issues, so I like to accommodate this when cooking for him

a bit of cayenne pepper

one 8-ounce package of Shirataki noodles (the kind blended with boy Konjac and tofu)

cooking oil

about a cup of water

marinade:

• 1/4 tsp dried ginger
• 1/4 tsp chopped red pepper
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp of Splenda (3 drops EZ-Sweetz)
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum pre-mixed with 1 tsp oil 
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp erythritol 

Mix everything except for the xanthan gum and oil mix - which you add last. 

Put pork in marinade for as long as you can bear it, up to overnight.

finishing sauce: 

• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp Splenda (6 drops Ez-Sweetz)

Mix this, put in a little container, and set aside until you actually cook the meal.

----
At dinner time:

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok until it shimmers. Add 2/3 cup of chopped onions and cook the heck out of it, all brown and caramelized. Add pork. Cook through until no longer pink on outside. Throw in 1 tbsp more of oil if the wok needs in. Throw in broccoli. Saute for a bit. Add in finishing sauce and 1 cup or so of water. I attacked the wok vigorously with extra cayenne pepper to kick up the heat a bit cuz that's just how I roll. Cook for a bit to get the broccoli soft and infuse the flavor. Add in a package of shirataki noodles (that have been drained and rinsed and parboiled on high in the microwave for 2 minutes and then redrained some more) and cook for as long as you can bear it and the sauce reduces to a nice thick consistency. And then yay! It's dinner time!

I loved this!

Next time I make it, I'll make sure to marinate it longer (overnight - I did about 4 to 5 hours I think on this go) and maybe add more acid through the lime, etc, to penetrate the pork tenderloin fibers a bit better, but the sauce was great! :D

Culinary Blasphemy - Curried Corned Beef

2 ounces of corned beef, chopped small
100 g of raw baby spinach

1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
fresh ginger root shaved off with a veggie peeler (maybe a 1 tsp of flakes)
a few shakes of cayenne
a few shakes of tumeric
pinch of cumin
2 drops liquid Splenda (1 packet of Splenda = 2 tsp of sugar)
1/4 cup canned tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp chili powder


Melt butter in pan. Throw garlic, ginger, tumeric, and chili powder into pan. Cook for a minute or so on medium/medium low. Throw in about half the baby spinach. Cook until wilted down small. Add corned beef. Add tomato sauce, water, and rest of the spices (including Splenda). Reduce until sauce is thickened to your liking (this will help the spices infuse the sauce). Serve on a plate over the other half of the baby spinach.

---

I know it's a weird mash-up, but it was deeeelicious. :)

Curry, Breakfast of Champions

Melted a pat of butter in a little pan. Threw 1 tsp of garlic and 1 tsp of chopped onions in there. Took a veggie peeler and grated in some fresh ginger. Put some chile powder and a touch of cayenne in there along with a few vigorous shakes of tumeric. Cooked it a minute. Added 1/4 cup tomato sauce and 3 drops of liquid Splenda. Added a pinch of cumin seeds and a few shakes of garam marsala. Opened a small can of chicken breast. Added 1/4 cup of water and then cooked the sauce on medium-low or so and reduced it to get the spices cooked into the chicken a bit - for the amount of time it took me to clean up the kitchen.

This was amazing. :)

10-week weigh in

March 19, 2012:

10 weeks

Justin -57, Page -26



*


Summary:

2 weeks

Justin -22, Page -12

4 weeks

Justin -25, Page -14

6 weeks

Justin -38, Page - 19

8 weeks

Justin -50, Page -24

Surf n' turf

Last night we split a 12 ounce Delmonico that was seared on cast iron and cooked medium rare. We had this with shrimp scampi cooked in butter, splash of white wine, garlic, parsley, hint of cayenne. For veggies, we had green beans that had been cooked in bacon fat with bacon, mushrooms, and onions.

Mm mm. :)

oh yumminess

1/2 cup of ricotta mixed with sugar-free hazelnut syrup + liquid splenda to taste.

Oh yum oh yum.

Chicken Diane

I made the recipe featured here.


For the 1/4 cup chopped parsley, I substituted 1 tsp of dried parsley and 1 tsp of dried tarragon. I also used 1 tsp lime instead of 1 tsp lemon.

We ate this over fettucine-shaped shirataki noodles. Yum!

It was really filling and really easy.

ginger-lime chicken

Marinade

2 tsp ground ginger
2.5 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp of cayenne
2 cloves cloves garlic (minced)
3 tsp sugar - 3 drops of liquid Splenda (EzSweetz) or 1.5 packets
5 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
1.5 tbsp canola oil
0.5 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp water


I diced up 3 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless breast halves) into 1/2 to 1 inch chunks, and then mixed up the above marinade and marinated the meat for 2 hours

Then I heated 3 tbsps of canola + 1 tsp of toasted sesame oil in a wok.

When the oil got kind of shimmery (a minute or so), then I added 1/4 cup of chopped onions + 3 cloves garlic + 1 tsp dried cilantro and cooked for 30 seconds

Then I added the marinated chicken and browned up the chicken.

Then I added 1/4 cup water, 6 tsp of EzSweetz (3 packets of Splenda), stirred it around for a minute or two, turned off the heat.

I served this with some grated cauliflower (looks just like rice) that had been steamed in the microwave (raw weight was 114 grams) .

Grade: A+

---

I was tickled pink when I was talking about maybe throwing together a shepherd's pie concoction this evening, and Justin said, "I'm craving your Vietnamese cooking, of all things."

Yay! I've addicted him. :D

Pumpkin Pound Cake

http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/pumpkin_poundcake.html

We made the above recipe, and it turned out fantastic!

I love a piece or two of this as a desert or for breakfast. Justin likes his with a pat of butter. Om, nom, nom.

The one difference from the listed recipe is that for the pumpkin pie spice I used 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.

Sausage Gravy and "Biscuits"

This photo is of the "biscuits" Justin made. It was simple. He took 6 eggs, separated yolks from whites, beat up the whites in our stand mixer, folded in the yolks, and then poured it into that greased pan, baking for about 30 mins on 350 degrees. It came out very bready in texture.

He also fried up some bacon. Drained off the vast majority of the grease. We ate the bacon while he fried up up the sausage. Then he added some heavy cream, cayenne, and a touch of xanthan gum. Cooked it until it was thickened up (I think he ended up actually having to add a touch of water to get it to the right consistency). We ate the gravy over the "biscuits."

It was really pretty good.

Grade: A

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Pardon the mess in the picture. Justin's building a new control panel for the oven as ours shit the bed, and we can use the oven at the moment, but there are exposed wires, etc, while he's waiting for the LCD display to arrive.

Yeah, he's amazingly brilliant and handy.

Low-carb pizza!

Justin made up a crust for some awesome pizza. He took some eggs, separated the whites from the yolks, whipped the heck out of the whites in our stand mixer, folded in the yolks, and then added in some ground sausage and garlic. Then he spread it on on a pizza sheet and baked it until it started to turn a bit brown. Then he took it out, and we made an awesome pizza - we had some leftover bacon bits that we'd made (got some ground bacon at West Side Market, our new butcher and browned the leftover we hadn't used for burgers up to make bacon bits) and some diced fresh mushrooms that we put on the pizza, bacon mushroom being my favorite pizza and something he's embraced and is growing on him.

Sooo good. :) And firm enough to pick up with our hands!

Grade: A- - but only because we should have put more sauce on the pie. :) The crust was fantastic.

Sasuage Stuffing Quiche

3/2/2012

1 pound pork breakfast sausage (I either use the hot kind or throw in a bunch of cayenne if I don't have it)
1 large stalk celery (chopped)
1/4 cup chopped onion
4 ounces mushrooms, diced
4 large eggs
1/2 cup cream
8 oz. cheese, shredded (mozzarella or Monterey Jack or mild cheese are best, but anything will work)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tsp teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried sage

Brown the sausage with the onion and celery; drain well. Add sage and mushrooms, saute a bit longer. Place in a 2 qt. casserole dish. Mix in cheese. Beat eggs, cream, seasonings. Pour evenly over meat mixture. Bake at 350º 35-40 minutes until set in the center and nicely browned. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

I've also cooked up 12 to 16 ounces of ground turkey and then added it in when I add the cheese to the casserole to bulk things up, and it was still great. You could also do the same with a cup or so of cooked chicken (either ground or cut into small pieces).

---

I made this up in the morning and put everything in the casserole and then put a little note on it with what temperature and time to bake it so Justin could pop it in when he got home from work since I was working later, and his schedule has been crazy.

Not the most high-tech solution, but it worked so well.

Grade: A+ - I've made this dish several times with different tweaks depending on what we had available for meat, and we both love it. Sooo good. :)

8-week weigh in

March 5, 2012:


8 weeks

Justin -50, Page -24

*


Summary:

2 weeks

Justin -22, Page -12

4 weeks

Justin -25, Page -14

6 weeks

Justin -38, Page - 19

Spicy Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

No picture of this one because it was so yummy, we ate it instantly.

Here's what I did.

Took 4 chicken leg quarters (they weighed in at just under 4 pounds, something like 3.75 or so) and cooked them on low for about 4 hours in my 4-quart crockpot. They were 1/2 to 2/3 cooked, I'd say, so in that grey area between raw and cooked.

I then took them out and butchered them up, separating the meat from skin and bones - cut the meat into strips. I'm not a great butcher, so I had 1.5 pounds yield of meat, all told.

Then I made up the following marinade:

4 tsp lemongrass powder
2 tsp splenda (2 drops EZSweetz)
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp fish sauce
1.5 tbsp canola oil
0.5 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp xanthan gum

I marinated the chicken in that in a container in the fridge for an hour, hour and a half. You could do it overnight if you wanted, I suspect.

----

When it came time to make dinner, I heated 3 tbps of canola oil + 1 tsp of sesame oil in a wok on medium high. Then added 1/4 cup onions + 3 cloves garlic + 2 tsp of chile power + 1 tsp cayenne and cooked that for like 30 seconds.

Then I dumped in the marinated chicken and cooked it for about 3 or 4 minutes until the chicken was all nice and browned up chicken and cooked through.

Then I added 2 tbsp of fish sauce, 1/4 cup water, and 6 tsp of Splenda (6 drops EZSweetz) and simmered it on medium/medium low for 5 minutes or so until it looked "right."

We ate this over 75 grams apiece of steamed grated cauliflower "rice."

Made 2 servings of 554 calories and 5.9 carbs apiece if you make it with liquid Splenda instead of granular/packets(which we did).


Spicy, savory, with the slight citrus sweetness of lemongrass. Om nom nom.

Grade: A

Sicilian Chicken Soup (4-quart slow cooker)

4 leg quarters (about 4 pounds)
radishes, chopped (162 grams)
carrots, chopped (138 grams)
celery, chopped (90 grams)
1/4 cup chopped onions
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 cup of crushed tomatoes (122 grams)
water
dried parsley
salt
pepper (mix of black and white pepper would be better - I just used black because I didn't have any white)
red pepper flakes (just a bit)
cayenne (more than the red pepper flakes)

------------

Cook leg quarters in a 4-quart slow cooker with some water for a 3-4 hours on high. Take out leg quarters, remove skin, and bones. Add all veggies to the bottom of the slow cooker. Put the chicken meat on top of the veggies, broken/shredded into smaller pieces. Add all seasonings. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for like 8 hours.

----

When we ate this, the veggies were still a little chewy - I'd only gotten 2 hours or so on high for them in the slow cooker - we're gonna run it on low until bedtime (another 5 or 6 hours) and see if they tenderize up. The taste was superb though, very much spot on the soup we like to get at Carraba's.

Grade: B

Update: After an additional 3 hours on low, the verdict is in! This soup is terrific!

Grade: A

Food Disaster

So I tried my hand at some crockpot beef stroganoff served with mashed turnips last night. The turnips came out nommy (though Skyspook is going to have to be exposed to turnips many times before he enjoys them, I think - never had them before), but the stroganoff... well... I'd give it a D grade. We could have eaten it but didn't want to waste the calories. My food experiment cost us about $5, and I know what I did wrong and how to make it better next time.

Here's a good rule of thumb: When a recipe writer asks you to use an inordinate amount of mayo or mustard, it's probably going to come out ooky.

2 tbsp of Dijon mustard in stroganoff? Really?

*

We scrapped dinner, and Skyspook made us some mini quesadillas out of leftover taco beef he'd made earlier in the week. They were quite tasty, and later I made us some microwave chocolate cakes (this time with cream cheese swirl!) with peanut butter frosting.

Yeah, we suffer terribly on our low-carb, low-calorie diet.

Happy as a Clam Dip

I got the recipe off a can of clams but modified it based on what I had on hand and made it "clammier" because as a Maine girl, I can't get enough.

Ingredients

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp sour cream
6.5 ounce can of minced clams drained except for 2 tbsp of clam juice
1 clove of finely minced garlic
1.5 tsp of parsley
1/4 tsp of Worcestershire sauce

How to Make

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, and clam juice together. Package said to use a hand mixer, but I just toughed it out and mixed it with a spoon (I'd nuked the cream cheese to soften it). Then I added everything else and stirred it up.

I took about a third of it and dipped celery into it for my lunch and chilled the other two-thirds. Might have the rest with pork rinds or something.

Grade: A

summary of weight loss

Summary:

2 weeks

Justin -22, Page -12

4 weeks

Justin -25, Page -14

6 weeks

Justin -38, Page - 19


6-week weight updates took place Monday, February 20. So I won't be updating with the 8-week results until a week from tomorrow.

Nonetheless, I wanted to post these so they'd be easy to find come weigh time. :)

$3.50 gourmet steak dinner

Ribeye with braised carrots? Don't mind if I do!

Scored epic Westside Market cheap noms! A 12-ounce steak that fed both of us cost us $6.00, and the carrots and chicken broth and various kitchen odds and ends Skyspook used to braise them in (1 clove garlic, 1 tbsp chopped onions, 2 tbsp soy sauce) we decided came to about $1.00 - making this restaurant-worthy dish (we were moaning between bites) a total of $3.50 a person.

Grade: A+

Deep-fried love

So Skyspook fried up some chicken wings (tossed half of em in Buffalo sauce, the other half in his homemade low-carb BBQ sauce) in the peanut oil in the new deep fryer that came yesterday. Yum!

He also worked some magic with a soy flour and spices breading that he used to bread and fry up both mozzarella sticks and mushrooms. It was all so delicious.

And the whole deep-fried dinner was under 600 calories! I'll take it.

Take 2: Tweaking the Microwave Pumpkin Cake

Original recipe here.

So I did a trial of cutting both the Smart Balance and the pumpkin back to 1 tbsp. This was better - much more cake like, but I'd like more pumpkin flavor. I'm thinking I might try cutting out the Smart Balance all together (a cake without oil - for shame! there's at least fat in the almond flour) and using 2 tbsp of pumpkin. Will let you know how it goes.

Grade: B+

yay! shaker salad

I took an empty 32 ounce plain yogurt container (we use them as free Tupperware), filled it with baby spinach and napa cabbage, added 2 tbsp of Ranch dressing, put the lid on, and shook it up.

It coated the salad great! I probably could have gotten away with 1 tbsp.

I sense a new lunchtime addiction. :)

microwave pumpkin cake

1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp melted Smart Balance (could use melted butter or oil, etc)
1 large egg
5 packets of Splenda sweetening power (I used 10 drops of EZ-Sweetz)
1/4 cup canned pumpkin

Mixed up in a container, microwaved on high for 1 minute 30 seconds.


This was sooo yummy, but parts were so moist that it didn't really hold together as a cake - I think I would halve the pumpkin to 2 tbsp next time, either that or halve the Smart Balance, which would cut down on the calories a bunch. Hmm...

Grade: B

Quickie Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Filling

2 ounce cream cheese, softened and softened mine in the microwave for 20 seconds)
2 tbsp sour cream
3 tbsp canned pumpkin
capful of vanilla extract
4 shakes of cinnamon, 2 shakes of ginger, 1 shake of nutmeg
sweetener equivalent to 2 packets of Splenda (I used 4 drops of liquid EZ-Sweetz)

combine ingredients, beat together with handmixer, chill (I threw mine in the freezer while I unloaded the dishwasher and then took it out), eat.

Grade: A - This was great and very easy. :)

General Tso "esque" Low-Carb Crock Pot Meal

4 pounds chicken leg quarters, with bone and skin removed - so about 2 pounds of meat yield
4 tbsp sugar-free apricot preserves (I used Smucker's)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
20 drops of the liquid splenda I'm using (that's about 10 packets)

Turned it on low, will eat it whenever Skyspook is out of work. Probably in about 8 hours.

I'll probably add 1/2 to 1 tsp of xanthan gum when there's only a few hours left.
----

I basically mashed up these 2 recipes:

http://247lowcarbdiner.blogspot.com/2012/01/sesame-chicken.html

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/03/crockpot-apricot-chicken-recipe.html

I liked how little of the sugar-free apricot preserves 24/7 Diner used, but I didn't have any white cooking wine handy, so I thought the dijon mustard from A Year of Slow Cooking would give it a bit of a wine taste and then add a hot Chinese mustard kind of feel (in concert with the red pepper). Plus, our oven's broken at the moment, and I like the slow cooker for nights when I'm not sure how late Skyspook's gonna be working.

---

I sauteed up 8 ounces of white mushrooms that I'd chopped. Used 2 tbsp of canola oil with a tsp of smoked sesame oil in for flavor and then added salt and pepper and served them on the side.

Skyspook liked dinner but said it was a little sweet. Which is kind of awesome how our taste buds have changed on low carb. Next time, I'll add the sweetener right before serving. That should help.

Grade: B+

Nummy Mexicali Crockpot Chicken

I threw this together today with what was in the fridge!!

3 chicken breasts
1/2 cup medium salsa
3 ounces cream cheese
4 ounce can of green chiles
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp dried cilantro
cayenne to preferred spiciness


cooked on low for 7 hours, shred sometime in the middle with a spoon (it'll fall apart)

added 1/2 tsp xanthum gum near to the end

served over:

100 grams riced cauliflower

we added:

shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream
sliced jalapenos
hot sauce

to our preferences :)

Grade: A-