Oven-Roasted Goldbar Squash

I've never really been one for squash, but doing low-carb forces you to seek out new things so you don't get bored with your cauliflower mash (which is my favorite side dish now, btw). My friend had been demoing grilled squash and zucchini with our store's garlic cheese finishing butter. I tried it and really liked it. But, of course, I thought I could do one better. I bought one of those beautiful goldbar squashes:

and thought about what to do. This was the recipe I came up with, and I ended up going back for seconds. Now, let me repeat: I am not really a squash person. They are pretty bland but have a particular subtle flavor that I just didn't care for. This recipe, however, was so good I told myself that this would become another staple side dish, right behind my dreamy, creamy cauliflower mash. So without further ado, here it is:

Oven-Roasted Goldbar Squash

Note: 1 medium squash serves about 3 people

Ingredients:

1 Goldbar squash

2-3 tbsp. Kerrygold butter

1 tsp. garlic powder

1-2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 to 1 tsp. sea salt

1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Wash and slice squash into 1/8 inch thick rounds.
2. Place a bit of oil on a baking sheet and spread it evenly.
3. Place your squash down, as flat as possible on the sheet.
4. Sprinkle evenly with garlic, basil, salt, and the parmesan.
5. Microwave butter in a small bowl until melted. Pour evenly over top of the squash. 
6. Bake at 350 F until parmesan turns golden.
7. Fight over the delicious squash medallions; seriously, they fall apart on your fork they're so tender.

Egg Muffins

This quick breakfast is grab and go once they've been prepared. I recommend making them the night before or on a weekend so you can enjoy them throughout the week. You can put any combo of ingredients into these besides the eggs, like:

• spinach and mushroom with mozzarella cheese
• sausage and red bell pepper with swiss or cheddar cheese
• ham and broccoli with cheddar
• bacon and chive with gouda

Egg Muffins

I used a set of silicone muffin cups. They are flexible enough to bend, but stiff enough to not spill when full. I used Hamilton Beach brand. The ones I used were standard size, but you can use bigger ones if you want. Here is how I made them, although feel free to try new combos like those listed above.

Makes 6 "muffins"

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/4 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 tbsp. butter (for sauteing pepper)
• 1/4 c. ground pork sausage
• 1/4 shredded cheddar cheese
• pinch of parsley
• salt & pepper
• onion and garlic powder

Directions:

1. In a small non-stick pan, saute bell pepper in butter until slightly browned around the edges and soft. Set aside in a small bowl.
2. Cook sausage in the same pan, using the butter leftover from the peppers. Cook until you don't see any more pink. Set aside in a bowl.
3. In a shallow bowl, beat the eggs and add the spices and herbs. 
4. Place muffin cups on a pan, and place 3/4 of the sausage in the bottom of the cups. 
5. Put 3/4 of the pepper in on top.
6. Top with 1/2 of the cheese. 
7. Top with rest of the pepper and sausage.
8. Pour egg mixture into cups. Be sure to divide it fairly evenly.
9. Top with rest of cheese.
10. Bake at 350 F until puffed up and cheese is melted. Egg should be cooked through and fluffy.
11. Serve, or let cool and bag in 2s and pop in the fridge for when you're in a hurry. 

Non-Food Product: OXO Kitchen Supplies

OXO seems to be my favorite brand for kitchen supplies. My favorite knife, a paring knife, is my go-to for everything: fruit, cheese, veggies, sometimes even meat, opening stubborn containers.... It has a nice, soft, non-slip handle.
The knife in question:

The knife seems to be out of stock, but there is a similar knife on oxo's website; it has a different handle though.
















I also found out that our oven mitts are oxo brand. These are nice because the silicone is further heat-resistant, and is super easily to rinse off if stuff gets on them. Accidentally stick your thumb in the casserole? No problem. Just wipe it off. The downside to just cotton/cloth is the staining; and the downside to just silicone is the lack of heat-resistance. These combine both for the best of both worlds. We've had these for years. There's a small rip in the joint between the thumb and the index finger on one of them, but otherwise they've help up remarkably well. There is a magnet embedded in them, so they'll sort of stick together or to metal. They don't stick to my fridge. Too heavy.

There are several different colors available: Cherry (Red), Licorice (Black), Blueberry (shown-Blue), Key Lime (Green), and from Amazon only, Lemon Chiffon (Yellow)















The meat tenderizer is also oxo brand. It's quite heavy, and pounds any cut of meat out, even ones with a good bit of connective tissue. Works great on chicken breasts too. Also great for crushing nuts, cookies, crackers, etc. for a recipe.

They also make mixing bowls with a non slip silicone bottom! How cool is that? No slipping or sliding when you're putting some elbow grease into a mixture. :) If I find any other oxo products in my house, I'll try to add.

Update: No Recipes for a While....

Hey, just wanted to let you know that I will be unable to cook pretty much anything good enough to put on the blog for a while. Mostly because my kitchen looks like this:

right now. I literally don't have a kitchen. All I have is the fridge, the oven/stove, coffee pot, and if I brought it up from the basement, the slow cooker. No counter to put it on though.

Anyway, I'll be sure to post before-and-afters of the beautiful kitchen when it's all done. I'm also super busy with both summer classes and 27 hours of work a week right now, so I'm lucky if I get to eat anything besides bars or (costly) delicious take-out/pre-cooked stuff from Wegmans. I hope you're having a good week and that you had a relaxing Memorial Day weekend. :)

Low Carb Products: A better list *(UPDATED: 11/4/15)*

Here is a good list of products that may make your low carb life easier. When possible, I've included a link to each product.

Coffee Creamer
CoffeeMate Italian Sweet Cream
(see my post on homemade coffee creamer and my gripes about Nestle)
This is my favorite, you don't need to add any extra sugar substitute.

Coffee
Kahlua French Vanilla or Original Coffee

Miso Soup
Edward and Sons
1 packet makes 2 servings of soup; split one with a friend! ~3.5g net carbs per serving

Pumpkin Seeds, unshelled:
BIGS Lightly Salted and Roasted
1/3 c= 3g net carbs

Pudding
Jell-O Sugar Free Dulce de Leche (Alex's favorite)
note: many sites list the carb info wrong. The actual package says 10g carbs - 4g sugar alcohols = 6g net carbs

All of their other sugar free products

Wegmans Brand Sugar Free Pudding
They have Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and Vanilla Chocolate Swirl, 14g - 8g sug alc.= 6g net carbs
This is delicious topped with a few sliced strawberries. The dark chocolate is my favorite.

Kerrygold Grassfed Skellig Cheese
My favorite real cheddar cheese.

Kerrygold Grassfed Irish Sweetcream Salted Butter
The absolute BEST butter on the market. Sweet, creamy, extraordinarily flavorful and rich. Beautiful golden yellow color due to the cow's grass diet. It's so good you could eat it by itself. Also available in unsalted (silver package).

Safeway Brand Refreshe flavored waters
Available in lemon, lime, berry, and pomegranate flavors. No calories. Sorry, no picture

Smuckers Sugar Free Jellies, Marmalades, and Jams. Available in Apricot, Blueberry, Boysenberry, Cherry, Concord Grape, Orange Marmalade, Peach Preserves, Raspberry, Blackberry, Strawberry Jam, and Strawberry Preserves. All are sweetened with Splenda. They do have two that are sweetened with Truvia: Blackberry Jam and Strawberry Preserves. 5g total - 4sug. alc. =1g net carbs

Blue Diamond Almonds
Roasted and Salted 5g - 3g fiber = 2g net carbs
They have 5 traditional flavors and 6 "bold" flavors: Honey Dijon, Jalapeno Smokehouse, Wasabi and Soy Sauce, Habanero Chili, Lime 'n Chili, and Salt and Vinegar
28 nuts=170 calories

Wild Planet Salmon and Tuna
Best tasting tuna I've ever eaten. It's so good you can eat it straight from the can without adding anything! This company works hard to keep their fish populations sustainable, and keeps dolphins out of nets. No farmed fish is used.
See their sustainability standards here

Sustainable Seas Tuna:
This is another brand of tuna I like.

Wegmans Tom Tom Sauce:
a chili-garlic sauce with a red miso base, this sauce is wonderful on stir-fried veggies, chicken, or pork. Probably on fish too.

DaVinci Sugar Free Syrups
They have a TON of flavors, sweetened with Splenda, not malitol so it's easy on the stomach. These can be used in drinks such as alcoholic drinks and coffee, but also in desserts and cooking where granulated or powdered sugar products just won't work.

Pepperidge Farm Carb Style Bread, 5 g net carbs
Good for when you or your kids really need/want bread, but you want to limit carbs. Ok for those on a low carb diet, but not for Keto or Paleo.

 

G Hughes Sugar Free BBQ Sauce

Very yummy, albeit sweet if you like sweet BBQ sauce.



Mission Carb Balance Whole Wheat Tortillas
6g net carbs

Wonderful for making enchiladas; they're nice and large. For smaller tortillas, see next in the list.



Tumaro's "Low in Carbs" brand of wraps
range from 4-7g net carbs, available at Wegmans
The Multi-Grain only has 4 carbs and is the perfect size for snacking.

Lemon Mint Water and Revised Hot Cocoa

I made this lemon mint water on a whim tonight to go with dinner. It was delicious. It reminds me of metro water, a brand that uses mint as a flavoring.

Lemon Mint Water

handful fresh mint leaves,  washed
1/4 c. santa cruz organic lemon juice
1 liter/quart filtered water

In a small sauce pan, bring the mint leaves, lemon juice, and 1 cup of water to a boil. Press on the leaves with a spatula or spoon to bruise them so they release their flavor. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. You can add some ice cubes to speed this up. Either mix this concentrated mixture to the liter of water and serve, or add a bit of the concentrate to each glass and add ice and water. The "concentrate" can be easily stored in the fridge if you are low on space.


This hot cocoa recipe is made with real cocoa and doesn't give you a stomach ache from the sugar free Hershey's chocolate syrup I was using before. It tastes a lot more real.

Hot Cocoa

1/3 c. heavy cream
2/3 c. water
1/4 c. sugar free coffee creamer
2 tsp. cocoa powder
1 squirt stevia extract

Mix all in a mug and microwave until hot. Stir until all the cocoa is dissolved.

Feta Basil Burgers

This is a recipe that I made up, and it turned out pretty good.

Feta Basil Burgers

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground sausage (16 oz.)
4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
a handful of Italian basil leaves, washed and chopped
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic powder or 1 tsp. fresh minced garlic
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1 8 oz. ball fresh mozzarella (for topping burgers with, don't mix this in)

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Use your hands to combine all ingredients thoroughly. I put some nitrile gloves on to do this- easy clean-up. Shape into patties about 3 1/2 inches wide and about 3/4 inch thick. Place on a baking pan and bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes or until internal temp reaches about 165 F. Place a slice of mozzarella on top and serve. Adding extra basil is optional.