Pot Pie Soup!!!!

Pot Pie Soup!!!

5 boneless skinless thighs, about 2 cups cooked and diced

   Or you could use chicken breast, turkey, etc.

1 16 ounce pkg of cauliflower chopped up (10 carbs for the whole bag)

1 16 ounce pkg of Italian Veggie Mix (20 carbs for the whole bag)

1.2 cup or so of diced onion (I used frozen)

1 can of green beans drained (not sure of carb count, but can’t be much)

5 cups water

1 tblsp chicken Base (could use boullion or chicken broth)

½ tsp rubbed Thyme (I like using flakes more, usually about 1 tablespoon)

Salt Pepper and a dash or two of garlic Powder

Boil everything together until the veggies are tender, about 20 minutes or so.

1 block of cream cheese at room temp

¾ cup of Heavy Whipping Cream

In a microwaveable bowl, add the cream cheese and cream. Microwave for about 1 ½ minutes till nice and warm but not boiling.  Use a stick blender, if you have one, to cream it together. If you don’t have a stick blender, you can add it as is, but the cream cheese may clump up a bit. But if you keep cooking it, it will smooth out the lumps.

Add the cream cheese mixture to the soup and stir!

***You might think there isn’t enough liquid to make a “soup” when you are cooking the veggies.  Admittedly I love THICK soups, so you can add more liquid if you want to.  But once you add the cream stuff, it thins it out a bit.  Thyme is what makes this so flavorful.  You can also use any combination of veggies that you have on hand.  This is just the combo I had in the freezer today.  If you are making it for non low carbers, you can add corn, peas, lima beans, etc.

I’m proud of how this turned out! I’m gonna add it to my blog, and next time I make it, I’ll take pictures!

I didn't do an exact carb count for this, but it makes a huge pot. I can't imagine it being over 6 or 7 a cup.  Next time I make it, I'll do the math.  And next time I'll add some mushrooms too.  I didn't have any today.

The corn bread recipe I used was ok, not great.  It's missing something.  The texture was really good, but there is something flavor wise that's missing.  I'll eat it tho! basically it's almond flour, eggs, butter, sour cream, salt and baking powder.  I'm going to work with the recipe a bit and see if I can get some more flavor in it.

I've been working on this Pot Pie Soup recipe for a couple of months now.  I've made it twice "not low carb" and it was really good.  I was afraid that taking out the high carb veggies and replacing it with low carb veggies would really take it down a notch, but it didn't!!  This is definitely going to be a go to soup for me.  Hope you try it and enjoy it, and if you do, let me know!

oh, and in the picture, the soup looks kind of "yellow" but it must just be the lighting, or lack thereof.  It is a nice creamy color....

HUGZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Punkin Donuts

l forgot to take a picture of the donuts, but I tried the Punkin Donuts and they were pretty darned good!  Here is what I did for a recipe, which was 5 or 6 different recipes that I kinda gleaned ideas from:

Punkin Donuts

• Donuts:
• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• ½ cup coconut flour
• 1 cup of punkin (not punkin pie mix, real punkin)
• 1 cup Whey Low
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt\
• 3 tablespoons punkin pie spice
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup Cream
• 
  
• Glaze:
• 1 cup powdered Whey Low (could use splenda  I think)
• 1 to 3 tbsp almond milk
• ¼ tsp Vanilla

Spray donut tin with “Pam”.

In a large bowl whisk  the dry ingredients together till combined well. Stir in eggs, punkin, and vanilla Add almond milk and stir until it’s a cake like batter.

Fill donut tin 2/3.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.  I turned them out on a small cookie sheet and immediately dipped them in the glaze using a fork.

For the glaze, whisk together everything till smooth.

Now, that being said, I think that next time I will add some cinnamon (i ran out) and maybe a touch of ginger.  And I'm still working on the glaze.  It is more like a syrup and doesn't set up like a usual glazed donut.  Next time I'm thinking of using melted coconut oil instead of the almond milk.

These donuts were a big hit with everyone who tried them.  They were slightly denser than the Choco Glazed Donuts, and I think that's cause I added the coconut flour.

Just thought I'd share!!!

Peace Ya'll!!

chocolate glazed donuts

I try to give credit to the base recipes I used as a blueprint, but there was about 6 different ones I perused to get this. This is my first attempt and they were very good, but not very dense like the one's I remember from the donut shop in my fatter days. Not sure what to use to make them denser, so suggestions welcomed! Butter maybe?  Someone suggested a bit of CoConut flour, so I may try that next time, maybe 1/4 cup with an extra egg. (coconut flour soaks up a lot of liquid)

Chocolate Glazed Donuts
Donuts:

2 cups almond flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup Whey Low (or sweetener of choice)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

½ tsp vanilla

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup almond milk

Glaze: 

1 cup powdered Whey Low (could use splenda  I think)

1 to 3 tbsp almond milk

¼ tsp Vanilla

Preheat to 350 degrees

Spray donut tin with “Pam”.

In a large bowl whisk  the dry ingredients together till combined well. Stir in eggs, and vanilla. Add almond milk and stir until it’s a cake like batter.Fill donut tin 2/3 full.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.  I turned them out on a small cookie sheet and immediately dipped them in the glaze using a fork. I was hoping the glaze would soak in a bit. Next time I may let them cool a bit and maybe it won't soak in as much.

For the glaze, whisk together everything till smooth.

For the sized donut pan I have it made 2 batches of 6 donuts each, with one side car in a cup, about the size of a muffin. I left this last one in the oven when I shut it off cause it was still a little liquidy. (then I forgot it was in there and stuck something else in the oven and burnt it! Duh!)

These were very very good. and even better today.  Still gonna work on the glaze and see if I can get it more like a glaze that stays on the outside. Does that make sense????

here's a picture of the leftovers and the pan I used.  It's a Wilton and very non stick!  Just rinse it and don't put in the dishwasher.  I looked everywhere for this in stores and couldn't find it.  Bought it off of Amazon, for more money than I wanted to pay, but I have a feeling I'm gonna be using this a lot::::

Now I think I may play with a Punkin Donut for the fall.

Hope you try it!  

Fresh Yogurt anyone?

Happy Sunday Ya'll.  Been on a cooking kick today and haven't gotten around to posting the method I use for making crock pot yogurt.  Sitting here watching the Titans play so I thought I'd start on it....


Ingredients are very simple. A half gallon of whole milk and NOT ultra pasturized, although I've never seen it in the stores.  I add about a cup of cream too.  I think it adds some bulk to it.

And don't be hatin' on my crock pot.  I love that thing, but it is impossible to clean the painted stuff on the outside.  I got after it one time with Barkeepers Friend, and it rubbed the finish off, so I just said to heck with it.  It's ugly and looks filthy, but it works real well!!

Ok, now mix this up in the crock pot. Plug it in on high.  I use my fancy thermometer my son bought me for christmas that I love, and use the probe to guage the temp.  If you have one, stick it in there, trying not to lay it on the sides or on the bottom, but suspended in the milk.  set the temp to 185 and walk away.  In about 2 hours it should be slightly bubbly around the edges.

  Kinda like this::::

Now turn the crock pot off and walk away AGAIN! LOL  You want it to cool to 115 degrees, so just let it set.  I usually take the crock out and set it aside and it seems to cool within about an hour. Just check on it occasionally.  Kinda like this.......

When it gets close to being cooled, preheat your oven on the lowest temp.  My oven's lowest temp is 175, so I preheat it, and then just turn it off.

 Once it cools to 115, or cool enough to be able to stick your finger in it for 10 seconds, then you add a cup of GREEK FULL FAT YOGURT  which is hard as heck to find, OR if this is your 2nd batch, reserve a cup from a previous batch of yogurt.  They say you can use a reserved cup up to 3 times before the cultures get kinda weak.  You can also get yogurt cultures on line, and I've used it and couldn't tell a difference except for convenience   Whisk in the starter or cup of yogurt.

So how much actual cooking time have we spent so far, maybe 5 minutes?????

NEXT  Take a cookie sheet bigger than the bottom of the crock, and two big old thick cotton bath towels, the thicker the better.

I criss cross the towels and then set the covered crock in the middle of it and wrap that baby up tight, tucking in the towel onto the cookie sheet.  Put the whole thing into the oven that you have turned OFF, but it's warm, right????  and if you have an oven light, leave it on.  It seems to put off a tiny bit of heat.

Stick that puppy in the oven
on a low rack such as:::

Now, go to bed, you have worked incredibly hard on this and deserve to rest. LOL  Actually, I usually do this in the evening and leave it in the oven till I get home the next afternoon.  And believe it or not, I will unwrap it and it is still very warm!!! The longer you leave it in the oven, the tarter it will get. I like it tart, but this last batch hurt my glands it was so tart! LOL  Oh well, it's still good.

Now the next step I didn't get pictures of cause I forgot, but if you want thick, greek like yogurt you need to tend to it a bit more.  I use a big bowl, with my 1000 year old tupperware strainer with a coffee filter in the bottom of it.  Strainer looks like this:

I pour the yogurt into  it and let it set on the counter for a while, and when I walk by, I'll pour off the whey that leaches out.  Then I'll cover it with a plate and stick it in the fridge, still straining it, overnight.

The next morning you are gonna have a glorious batch of yogurt and you will never buy it in the store again.  My favorite way to have it is with frozen blueberries, brown sugar and cinnamon.  And when they are in season, I like the fresh cherries with DaVinci's Wild Cherry syrup.  Peaches are good in it too, but not often for me, a bit to carby.

And don't forget to reserve a cup for the next batch!  I've researched and found that the expiration date of the ingredients you use is a rough guess as to the expiration date of the yogurt, if that makes any sense.  But frankly, I've had it last over 2 weeks.

Let me know what you think peeps.... hugzzzzzzzzzzzz

Epic Fail!!!!! Turnip greens... ugh....

Well, I always thought I was a southern girl.  But evidently the Paula Deen gene is not in my pool.  I tried turnip greens today.  From scratch.  Using Paula's recipe on foodnetwork.com  loosely...  my own interpretation... that may be the part I shoulda skipped. LOL

First of all, I bought fresh turnip greens from the farmers market yesterday, brought them home and tried washing them, cause dang they were sandy!  Well, I washed the heck out of them last night, and left them in a pan of water all day today, and when I got home from work, I was gonna cook them....  Well, they smelled like dead cat poop.  omg! I had to throw them out. I rinsed and rinsed, but ugh...  they stunk up my whole house...

Well, I was not to be defeated!!!  So I go to my little grocery store on the corner, and buy a hog jowl and 3 bunches of fresh turnip greens, and by golly, I'm gonna do it!!!

I bring it home, put the hog jowl in water with some bacon grease and boil the crap out of it for 2 hours... in the meantime, I start washing the turnip greens.  I rinsed them once.... twice.... three times.   Then I spent the better part of an hour desteming them but they still felt sandy, so I rinsed them again..... and again....  I made piles of them on the counter on dishtowels to drain.

Once the hog jowl got semi tender, I took it out of the water to cool, and diced up a turnip and added it to the water.  I let it simmer about a half hour.  Then I added the two huge mounds of turnip greens that I felt like I had blood invested in, cause I spent sooooo much time on the damned things.  I added some pepper flakes, salt and pepper to the water, and added the humongous mounds of turnip greens to the pot.  within seconds it cooked down (as I expected) and I let it simmer for about 1/2 hour.

I went in for the taste... added some more salt, and then it hit me.... too much red pepper flakes!  oh my!  a bit too spicy... but I thought, OK, keep trying....

Then I started stirring and I could feel the grit on the bottom of the pan!!!!  I washed the bejeebers out of that crap, and it still had sand in it.

I give up.  I give up my title as a southern cook.  If I can't cook turnip greens, then I'm definitely turning in my crown.  Hanging head in shame......

From now on, I will be buying my turnip greens from the freezer case... If I'm banished from the south, I apologize ahead of time.

If anyone has any suggestions, Please PLEASE let me know.  I just can not go to my grave not being able to cook turnip greens. (just kidding)

Ok, That is all for today.  I still have all my yogurt stuff to post.  Will try to get to that tomorrow.

And for lack of any other cutesie tag line...... PEACE OUT!!!!!

Hi Kids!!! happy hump day...

I just made a dish inspired by my good friends Mark and Stacy Hayden.  They came up with a LC hashbrown casserole that tastes amazingly like Cracker Barrel's and I kinda tweaked it to make it a full meal.  Here is a picture, and the recipe follows:

Kinda looks naughty, doesn't it?? HEHEHEHE

Mark And Stacy's Hash Brown Casserole

Cut spaghetti squash in half, clean out seeds, and place face down in 1-1/2 inches of water in a glass baking dish. Cover tightly with Saran Wrap and microwave on high for 10-12 minutes.

(ALTERNATELY you can bake it in the oven, whole, until it's nice and soft, at about 375 degrees. I had some in the freezer, and it makes about 3 cups of Skitty Squish) 

After cooked, remove the meat from the squash with a fork and put into a bowl and mix with the following: 

1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese 

2 tbsp of finely chopped onion  ( I shredded it with a grater)

1/4 cup of sour cream (I didn't measure and added a bit more I think)

Salt and pepper to taste. (I added some garlic powder too)

Place mixture in a small casserole dish, and bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. 

this recipe is on StellaStyle.com so I'm not sharing something I shouldn't, and it's also in one of George Stella's cookbooks.

The only thing I did different was take a package of Bratwurst and split it down the middle, and remove the casing and place it on top.  I wanted to use the whole package so I kinda got decorative (?) with it!  I've made this using Kielbasa sausage too and it's really good.  The recipe by itself is great as a side, but adding some kind of protein on top makes it a full meal!

I finished my yogurt today, and will try to organize the recipe and pictures tomorrow.  I took a lot of pictures! LOL.... but I'm also having it for breakfast in the morning, so be jealous, be very very jealous! LOL

Ok ya'll, off to watch the Voice! Love that show.

PEACE OUT!!!!

Happy Tuesday Y'all. How bout some crackers???

Hi ya'll!  I'm going to attempt to put this blog up with pictures of how I have learned to make cheese crackers.  Thanks to my friends at a group I'm in on FB called Your Lighter Side, I've found a replacement for some yummy "chips" to dip with salsa, have with tuna salads, etc, use as croutons, have with lunch meats. etc etc etc. Sstill finding ways to use them.

They are SO incredibly easy to make, but you need to practice.  All instructions depend on the cheese you buy and the power of your microwave.  But once you get the hang of it, I bet you get as addicted to these as I am!!

Here is my first picture.... (wish me luck!)

Woot Woot I did it!   Start your crackers by cutting a piece of parchment paper the same size as a microwavable plate.  I have Correll ware and it works perfectly, but after a few rounds it gets hot, so use a hot pad.

I take a stack of 7 slices of cheese, and cut them into quarters. This will make 4 plates worth, which easily fills a sandwich sized baggie.   You can cut them into 16th's for "goldfish" sized bites but you will have to adjust the times since they are smaller.  You can also put more on a plate with the smaller size.  I prefer the "cracker" size.

As you can see, I find that 7 pieces fits perfectly on my plate.  Depending on how you space them, they still might kinda run together, but once they cool a bit, you can break them apart. (or consider them "rejects" and eat them immediately!!)

The can of stuff with the green top is some popcorn seasoning that can be used to flavor them.  I used Cheddar/Jalapeno in this, but they also have Ranch, and a few other flavors.  You can find it in the Popcorn section at Kroger.  Not sure if Walmart carries it cause I haven't looked.  You can sprinkle a small amount on each cracker, or put some in a bowl and toss the slices in it before you put it on the plate.  But honestly, they are just as good plain.

Next thing, Put them in your microwave on high power for one minute to start.  Now remember, this is what works in MY microwave, and it's a fairly new 1000 watt microwave.  Microwaves lose some power with age, from what I'm told, so play with yours...  Here is a picture of the crackers after one minute....

As you can see, they are bubbly, but still very yellow.  At this point you may think you screwed them up, but don't give up!!!!  You are testing your microwave and timing.... so I added 15 seconds and it looked like this:

As you can see, they are puffing up a little but not quite browned.... so add another 15 seconds and they may look like this:

AAAAHHHHHHH Perfection!!! See how they are browned?  that's what you are looking for.

Once you get the timing down, plant that little number in your little brain and use that measurement.  If you don't see this yummolicious brownness, add 15 seconds at a time till you get it down.  If your first batch comes out a little "too" brown for your taste, back it off a bit.  And you might think when you turn them over, that you over did them cause they get REALLY browned inside.  But before you make up your mind, try it.  Even if they may look over done, they still taste REALLY good. (think I could say REALLY a few more times????)

The times and measurements also depends on the cheese you get, how thick it is, the fat content, etc. (make sure you buy DELUXE AMERICAN CHEESE  not the cheese that comes prewrapped.   I've been told that you can use parmesan cheese, shredded, and make little mounds with it, but I haven't tried it.  This works for me and I'm sticking to it!!!

Kraft makes Deluxe SWISS cheese which I've used, but honestly can't tell much of a difference in taste.

And to end this rambling,  I keep 2 plates prepared with the parchment paper, and rotate them and I can make a huge batch of crackers in under 15 minutes. I also store my plates with the parchment on it in the microwave and make many batches before I have to replace the parchment paper. (I'm CHEAP) I try not to make too many at a time cause they are very addictive!  And instead of all the potatoes, processed crap, flour, bad oils, etc in the usual Chips and Crackers, you are only eating a piece of cheese!  How cool is that?

Now also, I've known people who nuke a whole piece of cheese at a time and use them as a bun for burgers, but I have not tried it yet.  Believe me, I will!  Next time a juicy burger on a bun calls my name...

Some day I want to play with this and see if I cant make little taco bowls with a whole piece over a small cup or something.

So there you go buddies.  Crackers!!!  I really hope you give this a try.  It has become my newest obsession.  And I tell ya what, BoBo knows when I'm making them and he tries to jump up on the counter to grab them.  Thank goodness he's not 2 inches taller or I'd have to sit on him while I make them!

And again, Please leave your feedback and comments.  I wanna hear from you and what you would like me to blog about.  I am working on a blog for tomorrow on how I've learned to make home made greek yogurt in the crock pot!  Stay tuned!

PEACE OUT!!!