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3/26/20

Pantry Pandemic Cooking: Black Bean and Corn Salsa (or as a Side Dish)


This morning I'm really not in the mood to post, and this is actually a recipe I've posted on An American Housewife many times in the past 14 (15?) years.  So this is a quick picture I had posted on my Snapchat yesterday just to some friends and family; but I decided it might be a good idea to post here as a reminder of not only how yummy this is, but it's also easy to make and uses a lot of ingredients that you might already have stocked in your pantry and/or freezer during this Coronavirus pandemic!

We normally eat low carb so I don't have corn or black beans on hand but my local Walmart had black beans stocked this week when I did a grocery run, and my Sam's Club had a bulk box of 12 cans of corn in stock so... in the middle of a pandemic, you buy what your stores have stocked and you plan meals around it, right?  So... low carb be damned, we enjoyed this old family favorite with tortilla chips last night.  I think there is a little bit leftover; I hope so because I plan to have it for lunch!


Black Bean and Corn Salsa (or as a Side Dish)
Almost all ingredients are optional based on your preferences - add or delete and adjust the amounts to your tastes or what you have on hand!  Serve as is, with tortilla chips or with flour tortillas.

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can or  1 1/2 cups petite diced tomatoes
1 can yellow corn
1 can white corn
4-5 green onions, sliced thin
1/2 small red onion, diced
1/2 avocado, petite diced
1/2 red or green pepper, diced
1-2 t minced fresh garlic
1 small can diced green chili
1 small jalapeno pepper, diced fine
1 bunch cilantro - chopped
Juice from 1 lime  (about 2 tablespoons)
1 1/2 t cumin powder
Salt to taste (start with a teaspoon and taste test)

Mix together in a bowl.  Serve right away or chill 2 hours before serving.  Serve as a side dish, with tortilla chips or with flour tortillas.


This recipe was also included in an old post where I gave you 6 different yummy, fun recipes for salsa:  Six Salsa Recipes




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3/22/20

Quarantine Keto Cake - Chocolate Crunch Cake - sugar free and low carb



 It's called Epic Chocolate Crunch Cake and it's from the low carb cookbook: Keto For Life.

2 c erythritol, granulated
1 3/4 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 c butter, melted but not hot
6 eggs
2 oz. unsweetened Baker's chocolate, melted
2 t vanilla
3 c almond flour - good quality, fine, blanched
2/3 c coconut flour
2/3 c cocoa powder
4 t baking powder
1/2 t xanthan gum
1/8 t salt
2/3 c cocoa nibs ground with 1/4 c erythritol

- frosting


Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and line with parchment, 2 - 9" round baking pans.  Place the sweetener, almond milk, butter, eggs, melted chocolate and vanilla into a blender and blend smooth.  Place the rest of the dry ingredients into a bowl and blend.  Add the liquid to the dry and mix.  Divide to the two pans and bake 35-50 minutes until they are done in the center.

Remove from the pans and let cool completely.

Pulse the cocoa nibs and sweetener for about 30 seconds in a small food processor.  Using your favorite sugarfree frosting, put a layer on top of one cake, sprinkle with most of the cocoa nibs and then top with the second layer.  If you have enough frosting, frost the whole cake, or just frost the top layer as I did in the photo if you are using less frosting or just one small batch.  Sprinkle with the cocoa nib/erythritol mixture.  Store in the refrigerator or the freezer.

The book says this is about 20 g carbs per slice (1/12)  with 13 g fiber to deduct. 










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Santa Fe Roast - and leftovers are fabulous for tacos the next day!





This marinade is one I usually use on chicken.  It's the marinade for our Santa Fe Salad, which uses grilled chicken.  About a week ago I used half a large chuck roast, and put the other half into this marinade and popped it into the freezer.  A couple days ago I took it out, popped it frozen into the crockpot, and after a few hours on high, poured off the excess (now liquid) marinade and continued to cook the roast until it was fall-apart tender.

Leftovers made great soft-shell and hard-shell tacos the next day - as is, or mixed with some refried beans for a beef/bean burrito or taco.


Santa Fe Roast


Marinade:

1 cup water
2 T soy sauce
1 1/2 T sugar (or natural sweeteners for lower carb diets)
1 T salt
1 T vinegar
1 t powdered chipotle pepper (could use 1/2 t cayenne, if it's all you have)
1 t hickory smoke flavoring
1 t paprika
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t round black pepper

Place your beef or chicken in the marinade and either marinate for at least 4-8 hours in the refrigerator, or place the whole thing into the freezer until needed for an even stronger flavor.  Grill or cook your chicken or beef as usual.



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3/4/20

Homemade White Castle Style Mini Cheeseburgers (or Sliders) - can be made lower carb too


In January of 2008 I posted my recipe for mini cheeseburgers.  Much like White Castle or what people also call 'sliders'. 


January 2008 photo - still making them in 2020

I used to always make my own homemade buns for these, which are so delicious, and filling but eating low carb changes that so now, we do a couple different things for the buns.

Now, in 2020, there are low carb hot dog buns available - which makes it much easier to make these low carb.  Yes, these are cheeseburgers, but they are the perfect size to cut a hotdog bun into thirds.  Each bun makes 3 mini sliders or cheeseburgers.  These are similar to White Castle burgers.

If you don't want to order buns, or you are ok with using regular store bought buns, the Nature's Own brand of hot dog buns are a good low/no sugar brand to try.

NOTE:  Although you can purchase low carb or keto bread crumbs, I simply use my failed keto breads as bread crumbs.  And if you do low carb or keto baking very often you are bound to have 'bread' you aren't all that happy with. It happens!  Ha ha.  When I make a low carb or keto bread, and it is too crumbly or doesn't raise enough to use it for 'bread' I just crumble it and freeze it in a ziplock to use for breading, fillers, etc. later.  You can also purchase keto bread (my hotdog link above will lead you ALL kinds of keto breads - including hamburger buns, bread, bagels, pizza crusts and more).

If you don't have any of those options, just use regular bread, half the amount, use about 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal instead or any option you want to try.


Mini Cheeseburgers

2 lb. ground beef
1 c soft bread crumbs (I use keto bread ground to bread crumbs)
1/4 c mayonnaise
1 egg
1/3 c finely diced onion (I used green onion in the photos for this post)
1 t garlic salt
1 t Italian seasoning
fresh ground black pepper
salt to taste
1 c shredded cheese (I've used mozzarella and cheddar blends)

Combine everything but the cheese and mash and mix together well either either with a wooden spoon, food processor, mixer or your hands. Press into a large jelly roll pan (about 15X10 inches). Do not press all the way to the edges, leave one (1) inch between the meat and the edge of the pan for drippings to bake away from the meat and not run over your pan.

Bake 25 minutes, top the meat with the cheese and continue baking 8 minutes more until the meat is done and the cheese is melted. Remove and let set 3-4 minutes and then using a pizza cutter, slice the meat into squares. Place a square on each mini bun. Serve with condiments - pickles, mustard and ketchup.








I do not have a GOOD finished picture because frankly?  I was HUNGRY and wanted to eat ASAP.
So I snapped this picture on my phone right before it went into my mouth.  Hot from the oven, and I hadn't even put ketchup or pickles on this one yet!






You can find the keto bread and buns at your local grocery store now (woohoo!)  or you can look for options on Amazon or your local retailers.

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3/1/20

#WhatsForDinner? Low Carb Bacon and Jalapeno Pizza! Oh, and (yawn) pepperoni and green olive pizza too.



Although I've got a number of low carb pizza crust recipes on this site (keep in mind this site goes back to 2006 or so and we've been low carbing since 2003 so yeah... a lot of recipes) the one I've been making since last year so far is our favorite. I don't make it exactly, precisely every time but the basic idea is there and I'm pretty happy with it. It's a version of the popular fat head dough, but everyone has their own little tweaks.

I don't care for coconut flour and I can taste it in foods made with it, even if it uses very little.  So, although I use it once in a while, mostly I do not. But I usually use psyllium husk powder and an egg in mine, along with some whey protein powder. 


Pizza

1 1/2 c almond flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 c unflavored, zero carb, zero sugar whey protein powder (isopure)
1 t psyllium husk powder
1 egg
1 1/2 c mozzarella cheese

Toppings of your choice

The photo above uses;
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1 c mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 c Mexican blend cheese (cheddar and others blended, or use just cheddar)
diced jalapeno
bacon crumbles - real, cooked bacon, crumbled

Preheat your oven.  400 ish.  I use a pizza stone - kept in the oven so it gets hot when your oven does.

Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to blend.  Add the egg and pulse to blend just a few times until it's a bit crumbly.  In a bowl, place the mozzarella cheese and microwave until it just starts to melt.  Add this to the food processor bowl and pulse a few times, but stop as soon as it comes together to form a dough.

Divide into 2 pizza crusts.  Roll each between two pieces of parchment.  Slide the pizza still on parchment, into the hot oven on the pizza stone.  Bake until it's golden - about 8 minutes.  Remove.  Bake the 2nd the same way.  While the second one is baking, top the first one with your favorite ingredients.  If you are making the jalapeno bacon version in my photo, just spread the cream cheese on the crust, top with the other cheeses, crumbled real bacon pieces and diced jalapeno (I use store bought in a jar as I have those on hand always). 

Take the 2nd pizza out and put the first back in to cook for 5-8 minutes more until it's golden and melty on top.  While it's baking, top your second pizza (today our second was pepperoni and green olive - my husbands favorite).  Remove the first, pop in the second for 5-8 minutes.

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Another 'note' is that sometimes for a more crisp crust, I remove it from the oven after the first bake, and then flip it over so when I put the toppings on, I'm putting them on the underside.   I also place mine in cardboard pizza boxes.








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