Not pictured: mozzarella sticks with marinara
So I'll admit... I had a sip of beer. But I was good and only had one sip. (It was Crispin Blackberry Pear Cider if anyone was wondering...) But the food I made was really yummy and all low carb! You CAN celebrate and not ruin your diet! Here was the menu:
Chicken wings and drumsticks
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Spinach Dip
Sour Cream and Chive Crackers
Fried Mozzarella Sticks with Marinara Sauce
Hot and Spicy (or plain) pork rinds for dipping
Chocolate Chip Cookies (turned out like scones/biscuits)
Phew! Okay, the spinach dip and the sour cream crackers can be made ahead. The spinach dip can be made 1-2 days ahead, but I would make the crackers that morning/afternoon.
Spinach Dip
Ingredients:
1 10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1.5 c. full fat sour cream
1 c. full fat mayo
1/2 pouch onion soup mix
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. garlic powder or 1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
Combine everything in a medium bowl. Mix well. Serve or refrigerate for up to 3 days. I recommend refrigerating it for at least 2-3 hours.
Sour Cream and Chive Crackers
Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour
small bunch (~20 g or 0.7 oz.) fresh chives or 1 Tbs. freeze dried chives
2.5 oz full fat sour cream
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Chop chives finely if using fresh. Mix all ingredients well. Kneading with your hands works well. Place dough between two sheets of parchment paper (not wax paper) and flatten a bit with your hands till it's a rough oval/rectangle shape. Then use a rolling pin to flatten it out even more. Try to make them about 1/8 of an inch thick, or about the thickness of a dime. Slide onto a baking sheet, remove top layer of parchment only, and cut, but don't move, the dough into squares/rectangles. Bake at 250 F for 50-60 minutes. If your dough wasn't uniformly even, which mine wasn't, remove the thinner pieces earlier. Check on them every 10 minutes or so. If they're browning, they're done. Let cool. They are really good with the spinach dip.
You could even make the Buffalo dip ahead too, or wait and do the final cooking right before serving, which I think is the best idea. If you have it in the fridge overnight, it will take longer to bake though. Maybe 30-40 minutes. I like it best with the ranch and the cheddar or colby jack cheese.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Ingredients:
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. Franks RedHot sauce or your favorite Buffalo sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's buffalo wing sauce worked well)
1/2 c. ranch or blue cheese dressing
1/2 c. shredded cheese or blue cheese crumbles
2 cups well shredded chicken (I used 2 small breasts)
1/2 c. more cheese for topping (optional)
Combine all ingredients except chicken in a casserole dish (mine was ~5 x 9 x 1.5). Mix well, then add in chicken. Top with the 1/2 cup extra cheese if you wish, and bake at 350 F for 20 minutes. If you make this ahead, and refrigerate it overnight, bake for 30-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
The fried mozzarella sticks didn't work too well. They were still delicious, but the pork rind breading didn't stick to the cheese well enough when frying, even with the egg coating. Oh well.
The pork rinds make wonderful chips for my dips though! They are big and pretty sturdy, which is great for heavier dips. If you use the plain, you just end up tasting the dip, which is great. The hot and spicy ones taste good on their own though.
The chicken wings and drumsticks were delicious. I did a rub, baked them in the oven with plenty of oil, and then added Buffalo sauce (for me) to 1/2 and BBQ sauce (for the family) to the other half. BBQ has too much sugar for me, but if you have a low carb one, go for it!
Rub for Wings and Drumsticks (or any other part of the chicken you please)
Ingredients:
2 Tbs. salt
2 Tbs. chili powder
2 Tbs. paprika
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 Tbs. onion powder
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp, oregano
1 tsp. allspice
Mix well in a wide mouth bowl. Cover the bottom of a lipped baking pan with high heat safe oil. Rub chicken in oil, then coat with rub, then place on baking sheet. After all the chicken is coated, drizzle more oil over the chicken. The oil makes the skin crisp up nicely. Bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and brush on either BBQ sauce or Buffalo wing sauce, or both. Bake for another 15 or so minutes. Always check your chicken when you think it's done.
The cookies... *sigh*...well, they didn't turn out as planned. See, the recipe was fine. Fine and dandy. The texture was more like biscuits or scones. But that's perfectly ok. I don't mind. The chocolate however... I made the (horrible, horrible) mistake of thinking that I could just buy bakers chocolate and add my own sugar substitute. Nope. Wrong. Never been more wrong in my whole life. Don't do it. Please don't. I beg you. It's awful. If you just go buy chocolate chips with Splenda, it will be fine. Even breaking up a stevia sweetened bar is good. Just don't do what I did unless you love to eat plain baking chocolate. Not that I've ever met anyone who does. Even my mother, who usually eats 85% chocolate bars, said it was rough.
Chocolate Chip Scones/Biscuits
2/3 c. almond flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xantham or guar gum
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs. coconut flour
1 c. sweetener of choice
3 eggs
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. nut butter (I used peanut butter)
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips (stevia or splenda sweetened)
1/4 c. shredded unsweetened coconut (optional)
Beat butter, cream cheese, nut butter, and sweetener together until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beat in between for 1/2 a minute. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, and add in dry mixture to wet ingredients little by little while mixing. Add in chocolate chips and coconut if you want it. Spoon onto baking sheet and bake at 350 F for about 15 minutes or until the tops start to turn brown. Remove to baking rack to cool.
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