Garnish/Snack: Cheese Crisps

These cheese crisps look super fancy, but are quite easy to make.

1. Line a flat pan with parchment paper cut to size.
2. Preheat oven to 400 F.
3. Choose a medium hard cheese, like a cheddar, pepper jack, colby, monterey, swiss, Jarlsberg, etc.
4. Slice into roughly 1 in by 1 inch slices, being 1/4-1/8 inch thick.
5. Lay cheese slices on parchment paper evenly apart and bake for 5-6 minutes. Be careful, don't let them burn.
6. Remove from oven and let cool. Peel off from paper and slice into whatever shapes you'd like.

Pizza Mega Post!

I have 3 or 4 posts about pizza, so I thought I'd combine them all together to make all of my pizza recipes easy to find! :)

Crust Recipe 

1 8 oz. package cream cheese (remember to use full fat)

2 eggs
1/4 c. Parmesan (Parm-Romano is fine too) cheese from the canister
couple of twists of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Bit of rosemary or basil optional

Directions:
Soften cream cheese in the microwave, about 30-45 seconds. Beat cheese, eggs, and parmesan in a mixer until creamy. Add spices. Line a lipped baking sheet with parchment paper and let the paper hang over the edges just a bit. Pour mixture into baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes. Add your sauce, cheese, and toppings and bake 5-10 minutes more, or until cheese is melted.

Toppings

Chicken Pesto Alfredo Pizza

Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 c. parmesan
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 tsp. Cayenne pepper if desired
Directions:
In a medium sauce pan, melt butter and mix in parmesan cheese. Add in cream and pepper(s). Stir until well combined.

Other Toppings:

1. Fresh Basil leaves, washed
2. Strips of grilled chicken
3. Pesto: You can spoon some into a ziplock bag cut a small hole in the corner, and drizzle over the pizza.
4. Oregano
5. Fresh grated parmesan reggiano
6. Optional: fried and crumbled pancetta or prosciutto

Buffalo Chicken Ranch with Bacon

1. Low sugar tomato/pizza/pasta sauce (I like Rao's)

2. Grilled chicken strips

3. Strips of bacon

4. drizzle of buffalo sauce or Frank's Red Hot for a little kick

5. drizzle of buttermilk ranch

Traditional Pepperoni and Veggies

1. pepperoni
2. mined red onion
3. spinach
4. basil
5. diced bell pepper
6. mushrooms
7. olives
8. banana peppers
9. minced garlic
10. low sugar pizza/pasta sauce

I ended up doing a double layer of cheese, one before toppings (just mozzarella), and a lighter layer on top of the toppings (mix of shredded romano, parmesan, and mozzarella).

Slow Cooked Venison in Garlic Chili Sauce with Creamy Sauteed Broccoli

When Alex and I went to upstate New York, his uncle gave us some different cuts and venison and walleye (fish) to take home. Today I decided to cook the loin (I think it was sirloin). Venison is gamey tasting and very, very lean. Even when it was raw, I found no fat in it whatsoever. Keeping it moist while cooking is important, so I decided to slow cook it in a strong sauce to cover the gamey flavor. I found this recipe and tried it out. Very yummy and low carb! I also added a few things.

Slow Cooked Venison in Garlic Chili Sauce

2 lb. venison roast/loin (you can do this with a lean cut of beef too)
1 c. low sugar ketchup
1/2 c. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. soy sauce (I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos)
1/2 c. chili garlic sauce (I used Wegmans' Tom Tom sauce)
2/3 c. water or beef broth
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 tsp. minced garlic (I used the jarred garlic)

Option 1:
Saute 1 diced onion and strips of red bell pepper in 2 tbsp. of butter and add to slow cooker.

Option 2:
Add 2 tsp. onion powder and some strips/diced red bell pepper to slow cooker.

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together (except roast) in the slow cooker. Choose option 1 or option 2 (you can leave out the red bell pepper all together if you want). You can either chop your roast into 1-2 inch chunks and cook that way (it's faster), or you can leave it whole. I cut it into chunks to increase the surface area and decrease the cooking time. I put mine in at 12:45 and it was done at 3:30... I set the slow cooker to 8 hours... so maybe try 10 and expect it to be done in 4 hours haha. If you leave it whole, set to 6 hours or so and it will probably be done in 5-6 hours. Don't overcook it. Check on it once and hour or so. Also feel free to add some fresh herbs to your cooker.

Everyone liked it, and my mom said the strong marinade really masked a lot of the gamey taste, and I agree. I could have taken mine off the heat a little earlier, it was definitely well-done.

Creamy Sauteed Broccoli

I wanted a veggie to go with my roast, and I spotted my Alouette in the fridge (original garlic and herb). It turned out delicious. You can't go wrong with creamy, cheesy broccoli really. It's quite impossible. :)

2 crowns of broccoli, chopped into large florets
1/2 c. Alouette original garlic and herb spreadable cheese
1 tbsp. butter

Melt butter in pan, saute broccoli until slightly soft, add cheese and mix until the broccoli is coated. Serve immediately.

I'll definitely be making the broccoli recipe again; maybe I'll try different flavors of Alouette.

Chocolate Torte with Cream Cheese Frosting

Sometimes you gotta try a lot of recipes before you get a good one. This was the first chocolate brownie/baked type of thing that was actually tasty. Usually they're gritty, bitter, and dry. Not these. These were rich, smooth, sweet, and fudgy. This recipe comes from All Day I Dream About Food, a wonderful blog.

Chocolate Torte/Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake Ingredients:
7 oz. unsweetened chocolate (not cocoa)
14 Tbsp. butter (1 and 3/4 sticks) or coconut oil
1 and 1/4 c. Swerve (erythritol)
5 eggs

Frosting:
1 stick of butter (8 Tbsp.)
8 oz. cream cheese (1 brick)
1/4 c. heavy cream or almond milk
1/4 c. sweetener (I used some sugar free drink syrup (DaVinci brand) so I didn't have to worry about solids)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Over medium low heat, melt butter in a saucepan. Add chocolate slowly and stir continuously until melted. Add the Swerve slowly while mixing.
2. Set aside to cool. Once the pot is cool enough to touch with your hands for an extended period of time, whisk in the 5 eggs one at a time.
3. Grease an 8 inch pan and line with parchment paper (or grease mini muffin tins or silicone muffin cups). Grease parchment paper.
4. Cook at 375 F for 25 minutes.
5. Let cool on cookie rack.

Melt butter and cream cheese together in microwave and stir. Add vanilla and sweetener. Add heavy cream or milk. Whisk/beat until smooth. Spoon over hot cupcakes/torte or chill and pipe onto cooled cupcakes/torte.

Low-Carb Cocktail Sauce

Cocktail sauce is the sort of thing that gets bought, used a bit, and then the bottle sits in the fridge for 3 months... I picked up some shrimp at BJ's, and since Alex absolutely loves chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce, I was gonna get some sauce at the store. I turned the bottle over and curiously glanced at the carbs. I let out a little yelp. 16 grams of carbs for 2 tablespoons!!! Holy crap! So we get home and he pulls up a recipe for some homemade sauce. We used reduced sugar ketchup. Aim for about 1-3g carbs per tablespoon. 

1 c. low sugar ketchup

4 Tbsp. horseradish (not the creamy sauce, just the ground root)

dash of Worcestershire sauce (we used A1 in a pinch)

1 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar (optional), ours tasted fine without

Mix it all up and chill or serve immediately. Tastes just like the store bought stuff without all the corn syrup....

Coconutty Cream Pie (No eggs)

COCONUTTY CREAM PIE

This coconut cream pie was very dense and coconutty. The dried coconut soaked up a lot of  the coconut milk. It was very good though.

Crust:
1 oz. shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 c. coconut flour
2 tsp. Swerve (an erythritol sugar substitute)
1/4 c. coconut oil, unrefined (shortening-like consistency)

Mix all ingredients well and press into a pie pan. Bake crust at 350 F for 10 minutes.

Filling:
13.5 oz. can full fat coconut milk
5 oz. shredded unsweetened coconut
8 oz. full fat cream cheese
1/4 c. Swerve
1 tsp. xanthan or guar gum

Mix coconut milk and shredded coconut and let sit for about 5-10 minutes. Mix in remaining ingredients. Pour into crust and bake again at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until golden grown around the edges.

Toast 2 oz. shredded unsweetened coconut on a small pan either in the oven or in a toaster oven. Sprinkle over pie when it's done baking. Cool in fridge. Serve with whipped cream and/or Carb Smart Vanilla ice cream.

Wegman's Squash Boats

These squash boats are a recipe from Wegmans. They are a huge hit with customers and are already fairly low carb. I cut the squash thinner so I have a better ratio of toppings to squash; and so they cook faster. You can use zucchini or yellow squash. I know that hummus isn't super low carb, but you only have to use a smear of it for each squash slice.

2 goldbar squash or zucchini, sliced lengthwise
~7 oz. basil pesto
1/2 c. roasted tomatoes, chopped
3/4 c. hummus (I used roasted red pepper, original recipe calls for Lemon Dill Hummus)
8 oz. feta cheese (I used mediterranean blend)
butter or oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil or butter a baking pan. (You can put down a silpat mat first if you want)
2. Lay out squash slices on pan. Smear on the hummus evenly on all slices.
spread pesto evenly on top of the hummus.
3. Place a few pieces of chopped tomatoes on each slice. Sprinkle on feta cheese. Top with black pepper if you want and drizzle with a bit of oil. Bake for 15 minutes.

If you want to grill these, you can:
Slice the squash only in half and scoop out the seeds in the middle with a spoon. Oil and grill flesh-side down until heated. Flip over, add toppings, and let sit until toppings are all melty and delicious.