Beef Stroganoff

So as you have probably guessed by now, I love my slow cooker.  And I really love Beef Stroganoff in the slow cooker.  The convienent thing about that is so does my husband.  In fact he tells me everytime I make it that I need to make it regularly because it is so good.  I got this recipe off of Kraft's website and have hung onto it because it is really good.

Just like the spaghetti sauce posted last week, this is a sauce recipe.  Feel free to put it on anything low carb or unrefined to keep it a little healthier.  Just a reminder, low carb and whole grain noodles is not the only way to go.  Try out zuchinni sliced into pasta stips or some spaghetti squash.

Beef Stroganoff
2 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into cubes
10 oz fresh mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced or crushed
1 c beef broth
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 c sour cream
1 T Dijon mustard

*note: the original recipe calls for 2 T flour to thicken the sauce.  I leave this out to cut the carbs.

Put meat, mushrooms, onion, garlic, broth, paprika, and salt in slow cooker.  Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 5 hours.  Mix in sour cream and mustard til well blended.  (note: Just like any meat if you cook this in the crockpot longer it will start to break apart into smaller pieces.  It is still very yummy this way.)

And the finshed sauce looks like this:

We cooked it a little longer so the meat broke apart some.  Enjoy!

Spaghetti Sauce

You are probably thinking that it's a little strange to post a recipe for spaghetti sauce, right?  I can just hear so many people say something to the effect of, "Just put some meat in some tomato sauce and call it good." Or even worse, "I just use Ragu sauce out of the can."  There are better ways to make spaghetti sauce!  And I am going to attempt to tell you how.  This is my own developed recipe inspired by years of cooking in the kitchen with my dad.  And if that is not enough, everytime I make spahetti, my husband says that I make the BEST spaghetti sauce.

Just a side note first for all off you that are thinking that spaghetti sauce goes with pasta and pasta is NOT low carb.  To that I say you do not have to put spaghetti sauce on pasta!  Try cutting some zuchinni into pasta sized stips or ladeling some yummy sauce over some spaghetti sauce.  Or you can be like us and do the occasional cheat and use pasta.  BUT this is where the unrefined part of this all comes in.  When we cheat on the low carb it is whole wheat/whole grain pasta.  Long gone are the days of pasta made from refined flour.  So remember think outside of the box or think unrefined.

So here's what you will need:
1 22 oz can of Tomato Puree (pass up the tomato sauce and get the puree...trust me!)
1/2 onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
yellow mustard
balsamic vinegar
Italian seasoning
oregano
parsley
garlic
salt
pepper

As you will notice there are several of these ingredients where the amounts are not specified.  That is because I don't measure when I make this.  Hence the I will "attempt" to tell you how to make this....

You will need a skillet about 10-12 inches in diameter and 2-3 inches tall.  Start by cooking the ground beef with salt and pepper to taste (but please don't actually taste it when it is raw...just guess).  When that is done through in the onion and green pepper and cook until they have started to soften.  Pour in the tomato sauce and stir.  Now come the fun part.  I use about a tablespoon of mustard and about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.  Some of you might think I am crazy for putting vinegar in spaghetti sauce, but just trust me.  Take the Italian seasoning and sprinkle a good covering over the entire top of the sauce.  Oregano and parsley are both stronger spices so use the amount that would be about the size of a quarter in the palm of your hand.  Sprinkle a light dusting of garlic over the top of the sauce.  Stir all spices in well.  This next instruction is the most important part of spaghetti sauce so don't skip it.  Let the sauce simmer for at least 20 minutes.  Simmering will drastically change the flavor of the sauce and I can't guarentee that it will be good if you don't simmer it.

Then voila you are finished! (I forgot to take a picture, sorry)  One last word of advice...don't be afraid to adjust the seasonings and such if you want.  (Just leave the vinegar and the mustard though....TRUST ME....)

Grandma's White Bean Chicken Chili

Have you ever noticed how something always tastes better at Grandma's house?  That is the case at my grandma's house.  She has recipes that are so good that other family members are always trying to make them.  Sure enough though, the never taste quite the same.  So I have to admit I was a little nervous when we ate my grandma's chili at a family event and my husband decided he wanted me to get the recipe and make it.

I kind of procrastinated getting the recipe.  When I finally got a hold of my grandma she couldn't remember which recipe she had used and said she would have to look around and call me back.  Later that day when she called back I just got more nervous about trying to match her good cooking.  She couldn't find the recipe!  She found one that had similar ingredients and suggested I try that.

So a little reluctant, but trusting my grandma, we bought the ingredients and set out to make the chili.  Here's the recipe:

Grandma's White Bean Chicken Chili
1 lb canned chicken
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 t garlic powder
2 cans Great Northern or white beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chicken broth
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
1 t salt
1 t cumin
1 t pepper
1 t cayenne pepper (use less if you don't like spicy)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream

Now comes the easy part! Combine everything except the sour cream and whipping cream in a crock-pot.  Cook on low for 4-5 hours.  Stir in sour cream and whipping cream.  Turn crock-pot up to high until the sour cream is melted.  Stir well and serve.

Here's what it looks like:

Visually this looks a little bland to me with everything being white and brown.  But I do not care because it tastes amazing!  My husband told me repetitively that it was so good and he wanted me to make it again and I better not lose the recipe.  The best way to not loose the recipe is to post it on the blog!  Then everyone can share in the amazing chili.  Thanks Grandma!

Burger of the Month--Egg and Swiss Ham Burger

One very difficult thing for a lot of people who are trying to cut carbs is to give up hamburgers.  However, it is not necessary!  Once I month I will post a bunless burger that we have tried in our home.  Some burgers will be completely made up by us, and other burgers will be inspired by a burger-with-a-bun relative.  We start the Burger of the Month with a "traditional" burger.  Meaning that the hamburger actually has ham on it. 

One very important thing to remember when cooking a bunless burger is don't skimp on the size of the patty.  You do not have a bun getting in the way and making you full quicker so you can go a little (or a lot) larger with the patty.  So without further ado......

Egg and Swiss Ham Burger
1.5-2 lbs of lean ground beef
8 thin cut slices of deli ham
4 eggs
4 Swiss cheese
salt
pepper
hot sauce

Simplicity is key here.  Mix the ground beef with the salt and pepper and form into 4 patties.  Grill patties on the barbecue for about 4 minutes per side, or until the juices run clear.  In the mean time cook the 4 eggs "hard" sunny-side up style.  What I mean by this is to cook them sunny-side up except add a little water when they are about half cooked and cover so that the entire egg cooks and the yolk is soft but not runny.  Leaving the patties on the grill, top with 2 slices of ham per patty.  Depending on preference, top the ham with a slice of cheese and then a cooked egg, or a cooked egg and then a slice of cheese.  Leave on the grill until the cheese melts.  Serve topped with hot sauce.

And soon you will have a few hearty burgers:

Normally we would each eat two patties.  However this time, with a bigger patty and the extra protein, both could only eat one along with the vegetables on the side.  These are very tasty burgers, but they will fill you up quick so don't let your eyes try to fool your stomach.  My only recommendation is to make sure it is topped with a condiment.  If you do not like hot sauce, try substituting a low carb ketchup or some brown mustard.

Tip of the Month: Entertaining

One of the scariest things about trying to eat a different way is figuring out what to eat if you have company.  Sunday was supposed to go like this: wake up, church stuff, dinner with in-laws.  That meant I didn't have to cook.  All I had to do was pick and choose between what my mother-in-law cooked and decide what would make me feel the best after I ate it.  However, that is not how the day went.

About halfway through the day we got a call from my husband's mother saying that their basement had flooded again.  Another pipe had burst in the middle of the night and they extracted gallons of water out of the carpet.  She sounded exhausted on the voicemail and we knew that she would not be cooking dinner.  My husband is a very caring person and suggested that we have them over for dinner so they could relax and eat more than just scrambled eggs.  This normally is a great idea because I love to cook.  However, I must admit I was feeling a little lost at first.  What do you make for dinner when all you have is a houseful of low carb and unrefined and your guests have a house full of carbs?

What is the lesson of the story? You don't have to be scared to have guests. AND you don't have to compromise the way you eat.  Your cauliflower rice might not go over well, so just find what ever you have that is the closest to what you guest normally eat.  So what did we come up with.  We had the stuff to make an amazing Cobb Salad and it was a hit!  And so easy!

You have a bowl of greens:

A platter of abundant toppings:

and voila! Dinner is served!

Everyone could pick the toppings they want and create their own salad.  This is great for having guests.  Everyone can be happy because they are eating what they like.  We had a large salad so there was more than enough for the four of us and we got several compliments on how good of a salad it was.  So don't fear the dinner parties and guests!  Just try to get a close to what every eats as possible and you can have a wonderful meal without compromising what you eat.

As a side note...We had some cooking fun this weekend and cooked some fresh beets.  I had seen my mother do this many times but had never done it myself.  So with a couple hints from my mother I set out to try it.  And for a little effort we had delicious beets!  I highly recommend trying it.  For those of you who are wondering the easiest way, just boil the beets in water until they are done.  Do not cut or peel them first.  Just cut off the greens.  Large beets (size of softball) can take up to a hour to cook, so plan ahead.  Once they are cooked let them cool then simply squeeze the beet and the skin will come off nicely in pieces.  Be very careful though because the juice of the beet will dye any cloth and won't come out.  When you are done you have a beautiful bowl of beets!

Cheesy Sausage Chili

Most mornings we snooze the alarm a lot.  But not this morning.  At least not for me.  Instead of snuggling down further into the covers, I pulled myself out of bed and headed for the kitchen to start the crock-pot.  As I dumped the ingredients into the crock-pot I tried really hard to be quiet so that my husband could continue our usual routine of sneaking a few minutes of sleep in between rounds of the alarm going off.  I was finished with that and onto getting ready for the gym when my husband got out of the shower and decided that the house smelled bad.  You have to understand that I am very attached to my cooking and quite good at cooking so it is kind of shocking for me to have someone say it smells bad.  I tried hard to brush the comment off and go on with my day, secretly hoping that he would eat his words later.

Sure enough, when I came home from work, the house smelled wonderful and my husband (who gets home from work before I do) had already snuck a taste of it and proclaimed it very good!  Apparently it just smelled like cold chili and cheese this morning and he doesn't find that too pleasant.  But once it gets going it smells awesome and tastes so good.

So here it is!  My new chili recipe inspired from a recipe I saw on the Official Crock-Pot website.

Cheesy Sausage Chili
1lb pre-cooked sausage links
1 can spicy Rotel
2 15 oz cans kidney beans
2 15.25 cans corn
1 24 oz can petite-cut stewed tomatoes
1 packet taco seasoning
1 tsp chipotle pepper paste (I used peppers that are canned with Adobo sauce and blended in the food processor)
1 c heavy cream
1 lb shredded cheddar cheese

This is so easy.  Simply slice the sausage and place it in the crock-pot along with the Rotel, beans, corn, tomatoes, and taco seasoning.  Warm the heavy cream on the stove until it is bubbling.  Be sure to stir it so that it will not burn.  Add the cheese to the cream, a little at a time.  Make sure to stir constantly so that the cheese will melt into the cream (this is a little trick to get out of using processed cheese products).  Once the cheese is melted into the cream, add the mixture to the crock-pot.  Stir the ingredients together and turn the crock-pot on low for 8 hours.

After your crock pot has done it's magic, it will look like this:

And this is magical.  As my husband says, crock-pots do wonders with sausage making it very plump and juicy.  And the cheese mixture melds with the tomatoes into the amazing broth/sauce.  This is so good it is worth my husband saying it smelled bad this morning....

Bacon-Spinach Stuffed Chicken

Eventhough today was kind of a strange day, I was excited all day long to come home and cook.  Many of my recipes are inspirations of other recipes I know.  But my favorites are when I completely make it up and it turns into a huge success.  And that is what I did today!  And it was soooo good.  But how can you go wrong with bacon, right?  So here it is....my latest masterpiece in the kitchen!

Bacon-Spinach Stuffed Chicken
4-6 large chicken breasts (depending on how suffed you want them to be)
1 c ricotta cheese
1 c mozzerella cheese
1/2 c frozen spinach, thawed and drained
6 pieces bacon
1 egg
salt
pepper
parmesean cheese
melted butter

Begin by cooking the bacon until crisp.  Cut or crumble the bacon into small pieces.  Mix the cheeses, bacon spinach, egg, salt, and pepper in a bowl.  Continue by pounding the chicken breasts with a meat hammer (or a rolling pin, or an actual hammer).  The thinner they are, the quicker they cook.  But at the same time, the thinner they are the harder, the harder they are to stuff (I wouldn't go thinner than 1/2 inch, but I prefer a little thicker).  Once you have obtained a fairly large surface of chicken, spoon 1/4 cheese mixture onto the center of each piece of chicken.  Fold the chicken pieces in half, with the mixture on the inside, and secure with toothpicks.  Place chicken pieces into a 9x13 baking pan.  Brush the tops of the pieces with melted butter and sprinkle with parmesean cheese.  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 35-45 minutes.  This time will vary slightly depending on how thin you pounded your chicken.

When it comes out it looks like this:

I used 4 chicken breast so the stuffed exploded out during cooking.  I love it this way.  Like I said, this is soooooo good.   And I'm not just saying that because I made it up!