From my Instagram: The Keto General Tso's Chicken - which we like to make as a "General Tso meets Orange" Chicken....

If you only saw the Keto Orange Chicken/General Tso's Chicken on my Instagram this week - I had posted the recipe back in January, which you can find in the search engine or here is the link;   http://www.housewifebarbie.com/2021/01/low-carbsugarfree-orange-chicken-with.html

This was a quick photo of last nights dinner as I made it and snapped a picture on my cellphone.

 

Note:  the one ingredient you might not have on hand for this and you'll want to check your cupboard for is the orange oil/extract or emulsion. I have to order mine online as I've yet to find it locally but Amazon always carries it and often times, Netrition has it as well. Walmart usually has it although it's through 3rd party sellers and they often jack the prices up.  

 

Keto Orange Chicken
(sugarfree and low carb)

1 T oil
1 T ginger powder
1 T minced garlic
2 T rice vinegar
1 T sesame oil
2/3 c (scant) white vinegar
3 T liquid aminos (soy sauce alternative)
1 t xanthan gum (thickener)
1 c granular sweetener mixture of your choice
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 1/2 t dried orange zest
1 t orange extract

Heat the oil in a pan, add the rest of the ingredients as you whisk, bring to a boil and turn down the heat to simmer.  Simmer until it reduces a bit and thickens to a nice sauce.

Use over prepared chicken chunks, and serve with a side of riced cauliflower and you can add broccoli.

Notes: This is the perfect recipe to make the day after you make homemade 'chicken nuggets' or chicken chunks.  Make double, save half for this meal the next day.  Also, I keep SunBird fried rice mixture packets on hand in the cupboard.  When I make this dish, I serve it with plain 'rice' (riced cauliflower) directly with the orange chicken and then make up a side of stir fried 'rice' using the SunBird packet.  I also added about a cup of fresh broccoli pieces to the orange chicken along with chopped green onion tops.

For the Chicken Chunks:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
egg whites
oil
Breading:  depending on your level of acceptable carbs use 3-4 cups crushed rice crispies, panko crumbs, crushed pork rinds or  a mixture of crushed pork rinds with almond flour, or keto bread crumbs
2-3 t paprika
2-3 t onion powder

Cut the chicken into chunks.  Mix 3 or 4 egg whites (depending on bit your chicken breasts are) with about 3 t oil of your choice in a bowl.  Put the breading of choice and spices in a second large bowl or a Ziploc baggy.  Now dredge the chicken into the egg white oil mixture and then breading, place on a heavily oiled pan (I line mine with foil for easy clean up).  

Spray with Pam or drizzle with more oil of choice and bake at 450 until the chunks are done, starting to get brown on the tops and crisp.  Remove from the oven (about 25-30 minutes depending on the size of the chunks you cut).   

I brush the chicken with a light sauce made from:

6 T melted butter
5 T tapatio' sauce

This makes our orange chicken spicy like General Tso's but with a heavy orange flavor too.  You don't have to brush the chicken chunks with anything though if you like your orange chicken sweet but not at all spicy.

 

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Keto Tuna Pot Pie - Adapting my normal recipe to a low carb version using keto flour

 

This isn't a staged photo, although it IS kind of pretty. I used my cellphone to take a picture literally right before I ate it because I realized I better take a photo for my blog.

When I was craving (CRAVING) Tuna Pot Pie but had to keep to low carb.....  I adapted my original Tuna Pot Pie recipe. 

 

Cream Base for Keto Tuna Pot Pie

2 T butter
1 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1-2 c celery, chopped
1/2 t celery salt
1/4 t Old Bay Seasoning
1 1/2 t xanthan
1 1/2 c water
1/2 c cream
1/2 t lemon juice
pepper to taste

In saucepan, melt butter.  Add the onion, garlic, xanthan and celery salt.  Whisk quickly.  Slowly add the 1 1/2 cups water - whisk faster and quick until smooth.  Add the celery, bring to brief boil and reduce to simmer.  Simmer about 20 minutes.  

Either quickly strain the mixture through a wire sieve and press it with the back of a spoon to get all the yummy celery flavor out that you can, (into another saucepan on the stove) or if you have time, pulse the mixture in a blender or with a stick blender to puree.

Add the cream and lemon juice, pepper to taste (white or black). 
Add:

2 cans drained tuna
1/3 c frozen peas

If it's too thick or too strong flavored, add 1/2 cup more cream to thin.  Pour into a greased casserole dish of choice.  Make the topping.

Biscuit Topping:

2 c King Arthur Keto Flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 T sweetener of choice (like Lakanto classic)
1/4 c (half a stick) of cold butter
3/4 heavy cream plus more if needed (up to another 1/4 c)

Mix the dry.  Cut in the butter until crumbly.  Stir in the cream.  When it comes together to form a dough, remove and pat out to the shape of your pot pie dish you'll be using.  Score into about 10 pieces, and transfer the biscuit dough to the casserole, topping the tuna filling.  (Or scoop or cut into 6-10 biscuits and lay them on top to fill the top.)

Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.  Remove and let cool about 5 minutes to set up a bit before serving.

*Little side note*   I only used 1/3 c peas total for the whole recipe because of the carbs and sugar.  If you use 1/2 cup frozen peas, it will be about 11 carbs and 3.7 g sugar for the whole recipe;  now divide that by the number of servings - which depends on how you divide it.  It could be 6, it could be 10.  So on average, the peas in this recipe are going to be 1 carb and almost zero sugar as you are only eating a few little peas per serving.  But leaving the peas out completely isn't an option because, hello?  Tuna Pot Pie must have peas!  Ha ha.

 

 

Opening my Canned Butter! TASTE TEST of my home-canned butter at the 6 month mark....... (and 18 month mark update)

 

Something a million other women and men have done but I had not, was canning butter.

I didn't know if it was going to work out or not, but I wanted to try and thanks to good sale at our local membership warehouse, my freezer food storage had some 'extra' butter I could do a trial run with and not be too upset if it didn't turn out.

You can find many tutorials online and at youtube for canning butter. That's not my post.

My post today is the 'AFTER' of pressure canning butter. 

My butter was canned in October 2020.   I wanted to wait to do the first taste test and seal test at about 6 months.

I had to work hard to get that seal off.  That was the first good sign.
When I opened it, it smelled like... butter.   There wasn't much of a scent at all - which is good.
 
It was just... butter.  That sounds almost too simple but there you go.  It was just... spreadable, creamy, real butter.

It had good, even color.  It had a light, fresh, 'buttery' smell.  

I really wanted to smear it on some homemade bread - that would have been heavenly!  But because we are primarily low carb and sugar free, I don't have homemade bread on hand so I used it on what I did have at that moment - which was some fresh asparagus I had made.

 

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(Tiny update the next day...  I made another 18 jars yesterday.  Finished the 'shaking' during solidifying process last night around 9:15 pm.  What a great feeling to see the fruits of your labor!)

2022 UPDATE

Yesterday I grabbed a can of butter out of the 'longer term' storage and decided to test it.  Canned in October, 2020, it's now February of 2022.  The color was still a beautiful 'butter yellow' and the seal tight.  I opened it and found it to be no different at all from the 6 month mark.

I tasted it straight from the can and yum.  It was a nice sweet butter taste and I promptly used a bunch in the sauce I was making for dinner.  I'm thrilled with it.  Simply thrilled!  

 

 

 

From my Instagram: 3rd in the series of Homemade Keto Cereals: Crunchberry Cereal - low carb and sugarfree

I've done this cereal in a couple different flavors - the strawberry version is a favorite and it's similar to Crunch Berry cereal but I plan to continue to try all different flavors.  I ALWAYS play with recipes - usually four or five of any one similar item and then just kind of use whatever I have on hand or what amounts I think 'might' be better for me or our family.  ALWAYS PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD.  Ha ha.

So here are some *NOTES* to this recipe....

• I hate (hate hate hate) anything cherry extract flavored.  But I HAVE cherry extract oils on hand and wanted a chance to use some of them up so I've made this recipe with them.  Other family members love it - and I admit it was good but hating the smell/taste of cherry extract flavored things (*frosting, candies, kool-aid, etc.) I didn't enjoy it like they did.  But if you like cherry frosting, kool-aid, etc. then you will probably like this cereal with cherry as well.
• Another option on my list to try is a peanut butter/chocolate version for my husband (I'm not a fan of chocolate) but we have peanut powder and cocoa on hand at all times and KNOW that will be a hit.   
• Flavor possibility trials are endless... raspberry, chocolate, peanut butter, fruit loops, angel food cake, cherry, strawberry, blueberry, lemon, cinnamon sugar, etc. etc. if you have the extract/oil/powder flavorings... give it a try!
  

  

  

 

Keto Cereal

1 c almond flour (fine quality)
2/3 c sweetener(s) - I like to keep a mixture on hand of 2-3 flavors for best taste in all my goods
1/2 c egg white protein powder
1/2 c zero carb, sugar free whey protein powder (Angel Food by Devotion or Vanilla by Isopure)
1/2 c butter
2 T water
1/2 t strawberry emulsion or extract (play with whatever flavors you like)
A few drops of food color to correspond with your flavor, if you wish

Combine ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine it all to a crumbly mixture.  Spread out on a foil lined baking pan.  Bake at 300 for about 12 minutes and then stir/flip gently to move some of the outside to the inside and the inside to the outside for even baking.  Continue to bake about 5-8 minutes more - just until it starts to turn golden brown.  Remove and stir a little bit, but then leave it alone to cool completely on the baking pan.  It will get crisp when it cools.  Break apart and either eat now or keep in a mason jar - or vacuum food seal it if that's your thing. 

I have mine as a cereal with ice cold unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but you can snack on it straight from your container like you might with regular cereal.  (Or crumble it on vanilla yogurt if you like to eat that as well...)

 

From my Instagram: 2nd of 3! Keto Strawberry Granola Cereal - low carb and sugar free

 

I've made a couple different batches of this strawberry version - some after I bought strawberry extract (LorAnn Strawberry Bakery Emulsion).  I had to make due with what I had in the cupboard the first batch - which is was good - but the extract or emulsion is more affordable, and gives a better, cleaner? cereal taste.   But basically, whatever strawberry flavor you have on hand is good - play with your recipe!

I used a couple Flex Flavors packets - which I have had on hand forever but they were part of a pack of random flavors and there are some I've just never used.  This was a great way to 'use them up' as they've literally been in my cupboard for at least a year or two?

 

 

 

 

 

Strawberry Granola Cereal

 

2/3 chopped nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts - mixture of all or whatever you like)
1/3 c sweeteners (mix 2 or 3 for best flavor)

1/4 c almond flour

1/4 c egg white protein powder

1/4 c Devotion Angel Food Cake whey protein powder (you can use other brands of vanilla/unflavored)

1/4 c butter (half a stick)

1 1/2 t strawberry extract or emulsion or 3-4 packets of Flex Flavors

 

Combine the ingredients and cut in the butter (I use my fingers) until it forms crumbs.  Bake at 300 degrees on a baking sheet covered with foil or parchment for about 12 minutes, and then check it and stir a bit to bring the outside edges to the inside, and inside to outside.  Let it bake another 3-8 minutes until it just starts to turn golden.  Remove, stir and let it cool completely.  It will get crisp as it cools.  Break apart and either eat or put into a mason jar or vacuum food seal for later.