Recipe: German Einlauf Soup

This is a super-simple recipe you can make with canned broth, an egg, and a couple of optional spices. It’s rather similar to Chinese Egg-Drop Soup, only has more of a European soul-food tone to it. You can also make it with bone broth of various types, or home-made dashi (Japanese fish/seaweed broth.)

Einlaufsuppe - German Einlauf Soup

One can of canned broth, any flavor, or 2 cups home-made bone broth or dashi.

1 Tablespoon good fat (butter, ghee, EVOO, coconut oil, cold-pressed avocado oil, bacon fat)

1 egg (large, extra-large, jumbo, chicken or duck egg)

1/2 Tablespoon dried parsley (or 1 Tablespoon fresh parsley snips)

1 pinch (less than 1/8 teaspoon) nutmeg

sea salt/Himalayan pink salt or Vege-Sal to taste

black or white pepper to taste

Add the fat, salt and pepper to the broth, put in kettle and put kettle on stove. While the broth is heating, crack the egg into a bowl with the parsley and nutmeg. Whisk or beat the egg with the parsley and nutmeg. When the broth has come to a boil, pour the beaten egg mix into the broth, slowly, stirring while you do so. Cook until the egg threads are set, serve. 

This recipe makes 2 servings of about one cup. You can put one serving in a canning jar (pint size) in the fridge for the next day. The soup should have little to no carbs, except a trace from the parsley and nutmeg, so you can eat it any time, even on Induction. With a salad and perhaps a bit of home-made low-carb flatbread, this is a nice light meal. Turn the bit of flatbread into a flatbread sandwich or two when you are extra hungry.

VARIATIONS: If you are on salt restriction for medical reasons, you can replace the salt with Salt-Free Spike or Mrs Dash. 

The seasonings are not set in stone. If you don’t care for parsley, omit it. If you think it needs garlic and/or onion, add some. 

Bone broth is healthier than canned broth or even canned ‘bone’ broth. I get my chicken bone broth for free. I buy chicken thighs, cook them and after eating, put the bones in the freezer. If I buy some of those frozen ‘hot wings’ I also save those bones, and the seasoning left on them makes the broth a little interesting. I’ve bought beef bones for soup both from a local farmer’s market where a guy sells frozen beef and pork, and from a semi-local market (Jack’s in Menominee, MI.) I’ve been trying to score some venison bones from hunting friends of mine, but so far no luck, though the friends have given me (boneless) venison and pork from the pigs they raise.

Follow my Keto * Low-Carb related Twitter account:  https://twitter.com/nissaamaskatoj

Recipe: Chilli Chicken & Veggies

Yes! You can turn canned chicken and canned stir-fry or chop suey veggies into an easy ‘chicken-noodle’ dish! An easy meal for those having hard times.  This recipe is inspired by the ‘Chilli Chicken’ recipe in Dr. Paramesh Shamanna’s ‘Indian Low Carb Recipes,’ but it is much simpler and uses canned chicken.

The Chicken

Drain one can 9.75 oz. (276 g.) can of chunk chicken breast and put the pieces on a plate. Sprinkle with:

salt

pepper

onion powder

garlic powder

chili powder

ground ginger

garam masala (optional)

ajman seed (carom seed, ajwain seed— optional)

Sprinkle each spice to taste— if you don’t like too much chili powder or can’t get enough garlic, sprinkle the amount YOU would like. Put chicken and spices into a plastic bag or glass jar. Add 1-2 Tablespoons (15 ml) of soy sauce. Keep chicken in this marinade about 1-2 hours. This amount of chicken is good for 1-2 servings, depending on appetite. 

The Veggies

Drain one 28 oz can of chop suey or stir fry vegetables and divide into 3 portions of about 1 cup each. Sprinkle veggies with a bit of salt and pepper, garlic powder, garam masala and ajman seed, and put each portion in a bag or small jar with some soy sauce. You only need 1 portion of veggies for each serving. 

Cooking

You may stir-fry the meat and veggies in a wok or frying pan. Use ghee, avocado oil, or EVOO as your stir-frying oil. You can add a bit of toasted sesame seeds to it, or a Tablespoon or so of pecan or walnut pieces. (Yes, you can stir-fry pecan or walnut pieces.)

Or, you can cook them on a George Foreman grill using a Baking Plate for the bottom plate— preheat to Medium, with ghee, avocado oil or EVOO on the grill, and add meat and veggies when preheating is done. Cook for about 6-7 minutes. 

Variations:

You can use any leftover cooked chicken or other meat in about the right amount. You can also use home-sprouted mung beans, zucchini ‘noodles,’ cabbage ‘pasta’ or other veggies. If you use frozen veggies, thaw your portion before cooking— perhaps overnight.

You can replace the onion powder and garlic powder and chili powder with fresh onions, garlic and hot peppers in whatever amount you enjoy. 

You can also change up the spices to whatever you happen to prefer. If you are on salt restriction, you can use salt-free Spike, or up some of the spices so the dish doesn’t seem so bland without salt.

Healthy Holy Week greetings from

Nissa Annakindt

"Roasted" Garlic in a George Foreman grill

Finished Garlic in Storage Jar

Garlic is great for both culinary and medicinal purposes. I was using Kyolic Garlic capsules for my high blood pressure, and recently ran out of the pills and couldn’t afford more. So I just ate some of the “roasted” garlic I had on hand. It’s not as unpleasant as eating garlic cloves raw, in fact they are fine-tasting. And I think they are working for my blood pressure. (I also take 2 drugs for my blood pressure, but the garlic must have been helping because my readings went up when I ran out of the Kyolic Garlic.)

“Roasted” Garlic in a George Foreman contact grill

Step one: break your heads of garlic into individual cloves of garlic. Leave the papery stuff on the garlic cloves. Cut a bit off each garlic clove at the base or bottom (in the direction of the roots, not the top.)  Put the cloves in a plastic ziplock bag or a glass canning jar. Measure out 1/4 cup of EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil.) You CAN add 1 tsp (teaspoon) of kelp or basil or oregano or thyme— or two or three of the above— if you want to flavor your garlic cloves, but this is optional. Marinate for a while or overnight.

Garlic, marinating

Step two: Prepare your George Foreman grill by setting the positioning lever to the back, or level, position. Put a Baking Plate on the bottom and the Steak Plate on the top. Spray some olive oil cooking spray on to the plates, and add a bit of EVOO to the Baking Plate. 

Set the temperature to Medium and preheat the grill. When the green light goes out, indicating it is preheated, put the marinated garlic cloves onto the grill in a single layer, and grill for 7 to 9 minutes (set a timer!)

Step three: When the time is up, remove your garlic cloves from the grill and place into a glass canning jar. Put a label with the contents and date on the jar. You may store the roasted garlic briefly in the refrigerator or for a few months in the freezer. 

To use: pop the garlic out of the papery ‘shell.’ You may place it in a garlic crusher to get crushed roasted garlic for culinary use. For medicinal use, I take one largish clove three times a day. Chew it well— garlic needs to be crushed or chewed to have a medicinal effect or even a culinary flavoring effect.

Just "roasted' garlic

Recipes: Supersalad Seasoning (Salad Supreme) & Blue Cheese Dressing

Recently I wanted to try a new salad dressing recipe— I bought blue cheese and everything— and I found it called for an ingredient called ‘Salad Supreme’ which I hadn’t heard of. Evidently it was a blend of spices and seasonings from Schilling corporation. I did a search on ‘Duck Duck Go’ and found a recipe for the stuff, which I adapted a bit for Supersalad seasoning.

Normally I hate doing a recipe for which you have to make another recipe first, but this one is a good seasoning mix that I’d want in the house anyway, whether or not I was making blue cheese dressing. (I’ve never even tasted blue cheese before I made this dressing. It was good! Not great, like Dana Carpender’s Hoisin Sauce which I used as salad dressing as well as a meat sauce, but good.)

SUPERSALAD SEASONING

1 1/2 tsp (teaspoon) toasted sesame seeds

1 tsp paprika (smoked paprika?)

1/2 tsp poppy seed

1/2 tsp celery seed

1/4 tsp black pepper (white pepper?)

1/8 tsp cayenne powder

Put ingredients in a clean 1/2 pint canning jar, close lid and shake to blend. Use to season salads, meat or anything else. You can make a double batch if you like. 

BLUE CHEESE DRESSING

This is adapted from Roquefort Dressing #2 in Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution.

1/2 cup EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (Bragg’s)

1 clove roasted garlic, crushed

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (or Roquefort?)

1 1/2 tsp Supersalad seasoning (see above)

1/4 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 Tbsp (Tablespoon) water

Put ingredients in a wide-mouth canning jar, use a stick blender to blend for 1 minute. Store in refrigerator, use promptly. NOTE: You can replace part of the EVOO with MCT oil to make it more ketogenic. And more expensive, alas. OTHER NOTE: Like all salad dressings, you can use it to flavor your meat as well. Why not top a burger with a 1/2 Tablespoon?

How & Why I Made Ghee

Jar of Home-Made Ghee

I made ghee for the first time yesterday. Ghee is a kind of clarified butter which originates in India. It removes the milk solids so some dairy-sensitive people who can’t eat butter can use ghee. It also has the benefit that it can cook at higher temperatures without burning, and it has a nutty taste that is different from butter and that some people like a lot.

I made the ghee from unsalted butter from the grocery store. I have heard that some people make ghee from grass-fed butter like Kerrygold which is healthier, but I don’t have the kind of income to do that. I used the ghee recipe from Fran McCullough’s Living Low-Carb (2000.)

The recipe makes 2 cups of ghee from 1 pound of unsalted butter. It says to melt the butter over medium-high heat and cook for 15-20 minutes to drive the water out of the butter.  Then you reduce heat to medium-low and cook for another 15 minutes until the milk solids at the bottom of the pan turn golden but not brown.

Recipe and Butter

I thought my milk solids got kind of brown at the end, but the flavor of the ghee was alright. I strained it into a canning jar, using a canning funnel and a ‘non-gauze milk filter’ which they use to filter milk on farms. I get those at the farm store— I used to keep milk goats— and I use them for many kitchen filtering tasks. You can also use a coffee filter.

I used the ghee in some fat bombs (high-good-fat candies) and in my morning bulletproof coffee which was half-MCT oil and half-ghee this morning. It adds a nice flavor to stuff. I have read the flavor described as ‘nutty’ and ‘like butterscotch.’

Ghee keeps for up to 3 months without refrigeration and 1 year in the refrigerator. It gets solid as a brick in the fridge, though. I took mine out of the fridge as I anticipate it getting used up well before it goes bad. If you don’t use much ghee at a time, you can make smaller batches, or divide your ghee supply into smaller jars and keep most in the fridge or freezer. Write the DATE on every jar of ghee you make— you don’t want to push it in a corner by accident and eat it years after the expiration date.

Have you ever made ghee? Did it turn out the way you wanted it? Or have you purchased store-bought ghee? What do you like/dislike about ghee? What do you use it for?

Starting to Make Ghee

Midpoint in Making Ghee

About to Strain Ghee

Recipe: Ground Bison (Venison?) Patties with Cream Cheese

Ground bison? No, ground GRASS-FED bison. And I bought it at the Walmart in Marinette, Wisconsin. It comes in 1 pound packages like the grass-fed ground beef. Ground bison is leaner, though, and super-lean meat is not part of the Keto * Low-Carb way of life. So I concocted this recipe, based mainly on some old German meatball recipe I only half remember. But it turned out good. I would also try this recipe on ground venison if I had any (I have some frozen venison I might thaw and make into ground meat in my Vita-Mix) or ground turkey or ultra-lean ground beef or anything else that might bring your daily fat total too low.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground bison (or ground venison, or other ground meat) [0 grams carbs, 0 fiber, 0 net carbs]

4 oz. cream cheese (Philadelphia or similar) [4 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 4 g net carbs]

1 egg (I used a jumbo egg) {0.4 g carbs, 0 g fiber, 0.4 g net carbs]

2 TBSP (tablespoon) ground flaxseed meal [4.04 g carbs, 3.8 g fiber, 0.24 g net carbs]

DIRECTIONS:

Put on disposable plastic gloves, and smoosh the ingredients around in a small bowl until mixed. Divide meat into four equal portions and form into patties. Cook the patties just as you normally cook hamburger patties, or put them into individual freezer bags to freeze them (I used 1 pint freezer bags.) These make nice-sized patties, if they come out too big for your tastes, divide the recipe into 5 portions. OPTIONAL: place 2 TBSP of home-made vinaigrette dressing in the bag and marinate for a few hours or overnight. I used the Italian Vinaigrette recipe from 500 Low-Carb recipes by Dana Carpender— it has garlic in it. Garlic is life!

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Whole Recipe: 8.44 g carbs, 3.8g fiber, 4.64g net carbs

1/4 recipe— 1 patty: 2.11g carbs, 0.95g fiber, 1.16g net carbs

GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL INSTRUCTIONS

If your patties are frozen, thaw them overnight. Use the level (not slanted) setting and use the Baking Pan on the bottom and the Steak Plate on top. Spray with olive oil pan spray and set grill to Medium and preheat. When grill is heated, cook patty for 5 minutes. One instruction booklet I have for my grill gives Medium as the heat setting for burgers, the other instruction booklet FOR THE SAME GRILL says ‘High.’ Both say 3-5 minutes. Ground turkey, on the other hand, is 8-9 minutes on High. 

I had some grilled mushrooms in the fridge and set them on the grill with the meat patty to heat them— they came out maybe a bit overdone but I liked it okay as a burger topping. You may also add low-carb catsup and any other burger toppings you really like. DON’T eat it on a bun or bread, but with a knife and fork. (My flatbread recipe is too fragile to serve as a burger bun— maybe if you made them with 3 TBSP batter instead of 2? That would equal 1/4 cup, by the way.)

If you have a cheaper model of George Foreman grill or contact grill (cooks from both sides), use a tile or something to make the grill more level. If there are no replaceable plates, of course you can’t use the Baking Pan. If any significant amount of fat escapes into the Drip Tray (fat-catching tray), top the burger with it or part of it when cooking is done. 

If you have any comments or ideas about this recipe, please drop a comment. If you make this recipe, stop back here and tell me how it turned out. I love to hear from  blog readers! Well, not so much spam comments or mean trolls, (unless they are funny) but everyone else.

Recipe: Keto Hot Carob Drink

Now that we know that chocolate isn’t bad for you, why use carob, famous as a health-food-store chocolate substitute? Well, chocolate/cocoa is high in oxalates, and carob is low in oxalates. So if you need to cut back on oxalate sources, carob is a good idea. And it’s a change of pace for any of us.

Keto Hot Carob Drink

2 teaspoons carob powder (mine is Bob’s Red Mill brand)

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt (or other sea salt)

1 Tablespoon butter, MCT oil, or coconut oil

hot water to fill up 16 oz coffee mug

1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream (or rich, fresh nonpasteurized whole goat’s milk)

You mix this right in the mug! DON’T use a styrofoam cup if you are planning to use the MCT oil or coconut oil— it makes holes in the styrofoam.

Add the first 3 ingredients, and then fill up the mug with hot water, as if for making tea or coffee. Give the butter or coconut oil a minute to melt. When it is melted, add the cream or whole goat’s milk. If sensitive to dairy, just skip this ingredient. 

Unlike a cocoa drink, this does NOT need a sweetener. (If you make it with cocoa or cacao powder in place of the carob, you will probably want to add 4 or so drops of liquid stevia sweetener.)

Nutritional facts about carob and cocoa

                 carob            cocoa     (1 Tablespoon)

calories     24                 10

fat             0                    0.5

carb          5.5                 3

fiber          1                    2

protein      0.5                0.5

As you can see, carob is a bit more carb-y. But unlike the cocoa, most people won’t need artificial sweeteners to consume the carob. Carob IS not just like real chocolate. It has its own unique flavor. I enjoy the taste. Not so much as I enjoy chocolate, but it’s good. 

To learn more about oxalates and how to avoid them, visit Sally K. Norton's web page & blog: 

https://sallyknorton.com/

Recipe: Flax-Coconut Chocolate Hot 'Cereal' for Keto

What do you eat for breakfast on keto? That’s a common question. Since you may need to get on keto before you can successfully do the No Breakfast Plan, or morning fasting, it helps to have something easy to fix on hand. And even on the No Breakfast Plan this is great to have later in the day. I sometimes have it for a light supper when I’ve had a bigger lunch. 

Note that this ‘cereal’, though it contains unsweetened shredded coconut, doesn’t really have a strong coconut taste. To me it just tastes like hot cereal. And chocolate! So even if you don’t care for coconut flavor you may love this.

I make multiple servings of this ‘cereal’ and store them in snack-sized plastic bags, which are then stored in a large plastic container designed to hold things like flour or cold cereal, which I no longer use. In the mornings I just heat up some water, as I would for tea or instant coffee, and measure out 1/3 cup into the bowl holding the ‘cereal’ serving. I wait 2 - 3 minutes for the hot water to work its magic, and then it’s done.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Tablespoon ground walnuts (pecans, almonds)

1 1/2 Tablespoon UNSWEETENED shredded Coconut meat

1 Tablespoon ground flax seed meal 

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Cocoa powder or Cacao powder

1/2 teaspoon stevia powder sweetener

Combined these dry ingredients. I use 4 1/2 pint sized canning jars to make up 4 servings, then transferring the mix to individual snack-sized plastic bags for storage. You could also store them in the canning jars if you wish to avoid plastic. 

To make a serving: empty bag or jar into bowl. Styrofoam bowls work for this. Add 1/3 cup HOT water, as you would make for tea. WAIT 2 - 3 minutes. Eat. 

This recipe was adapted from a recipe in Dana Carpender's Fat Fast Cookbook. I changed it and added the chocolate, and removed some stuff to make it easier to make ahead. 

To work out the carb count— figure out the amount of carbs and fiber in the amount of the different ingredients indicated. Add up the carbs and the fiber to get totals. To do NET carbs, subtract the fiber from the carbs. (Your ingredients may be different from mine, and you may have adjusted the amounts, so it’s good to know how to do this for yourself. There is even software/apps that will help.)

NOTES: Any type of ground nuts in dry form may be used. The UNSWEETENED coconut meat is not the same as the common sweetened coconut you find in the baking section of the grocery store! My local Gary’s Market in Stephenson MI does not carry UNSWEETENED shredded coconut at any time. This past Christ-Mass season I found bags of UNSWEETENED shredded coconut at Jack’s Market in Menominee, MI—  where my mother lives. It was in a center aisle filled with baking ingredients for making Christ-Mass cookies. I don’t know if they normally carry UNSWEETENED shredded coconut, but I have been able to get some year round at the WalMart in Marinette, Wisconsin (across a bridge from Menominee.)

As to the flax seed meal: I also can’t get that at my small rural grocery, Gary’s Market. I can get it in various brands at both Jack’s Market and WalMart. Flaxseed is very fiber-filled and healthy, but don’t double the amount or it will make the cereal weird and slimy. I have make this cereal with only half the flax seed meal. Also: whole flax seeds are nice, but they require a bit more cooking than they would get in this cereal mix. Go with the ground flax seed. Or grind your own flax seeds if you have the equipment. 

Sweetener: I recommend Truvia brand. Beware of uber-cheap powdered stevia from dollar stores, it may have maltodextrin in it! If you prefer liquid stevia, leave the sweetener out and remember to add the liquid stevia when making a helping. 4-6 drops of Sweetleaf should counteract the bitterness of the unsweetened chocolate. 

Unless you are in a tiny and remote town, you should be able to get your ingredients at local groceries— an important consideration for those on the Food Stamp program who can’t buy many food items online for cost reasons.

VARIATION: If you don’t care for chocolate hot cereal leave out the cocoa and sweetener and eat it plain. The plain cereal is a good idea if you are doing penance in Lent or on Fridays, as Catholics are encouraged to do. Or use varied flavor Sweetleaf to spice it up. Add cinnamon and use English Toffee flavored liquid stevia from Sweetleaf. I’ve done the cinnamon, but frankly I prefer chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. Maybe it’s a personal failing?

SENIOR CITIZENS and CAREGIVERS: This is an excellent and easy to prepare breakfast, which can also be eaten at other times of day. A caregiver can make up bags or jars of the cereal in advance if the person needing care would have difficulty doing the measuring-out for himself. A keto senior who begins to need some help with meal prep will find this is something easy to train your caregiver to prepare for you— it’s just a lot of measuring stuff. 

RECIPE FEEDBACK: If you try the recipe, do come back and tell me how it went in a comment. Or even if you are just THINKING of trying it and have a comment or question about that. 

Recipe: Crock-Pot Cabbage-Sauerkraut Soup for Cabbage Soup Diet

It’s sad to state, but my cookbook collection is short on good, old-fashioned cabbage soup recipes. I have one in my old Mennonite ‘More With Less’ cookbook, and there is a sauerkraut soup recipe from Poland in another. (Consulting the soup section of my 1929 German-language cookbook, it seems they recommend Maggi seasoning not only in cabbage soup but in nearly every other kind of soup.)

So I made this recipe in my Crock-Pot. It came out quite good and it was very filling. And with the sauerkraut in it, it has a different flavor. Sauerkraut like other fermented foods (kimchee) is said to be very good for you. So I’m trying out my own keto version of the Cabbage Soup Diet— the Cabbage Soup Lifestyle?  Anyway, it’s a change of pace, and cabbage is a cheap food but this soup is way better for you then those nasty, high-carb ramen noodles.

Cabbage-Sauerkraut Soup in a Crock-Pot

2 medium onions, chopped

4 cups cabbage, chopped

heat 2-3 Tablespoons butter or bacon grease in skillet or wok. Stir-fry onions and cabbage until soft. Put in Crock-Pot (3 quart or larger.) Add to Crock-Pot:

1 cup (8 oz can) sauerkraut

5 cups water/bone broth/regular broth 

    add at least 1 cup of bone broth to water mix to flavor cabbage. Half-water, half bone broth is good mix.

1/2 teaspoon Mrs Dash seasoning (or Spike)

1 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt or sea salt

1 Tablespoon caraway seed

Cook for 6-8 hours on low, then serve. Note: I usually put my Crock-Pot on high for the first 1/2 hour and then lower it, but you probably don’t have to do that. I put my Cabbage-Sauerkraut Soup in a Ball canning jar for storage in the fridge. Servings are 1 cup each. I don’t know the carb count exactly, but the bone broth has minimal carbs and you are allowed 1 cup of cabbage, among other vegetables, on Atkins Induction for your salad. So even on Induction you can have your soup as a salad replacement for up to 2 meals. 

Recipe variations:

If you don’t care for sauerkraut, replace it with another cup of cabbage.  If you prefer kimchee to sauerkraut, replace the sauerkraut in the recipe with kimchee. You can use part regular cabbage and part red cabbage, depending on what you have. You might also add 1/2 to 1 lb. of some kind of meat to the soup, in case you plan to eat soup as a meal. (I didn’t, I had it with some ham and a couple of eggs over easy. I should have made it with a smaller piece of ham and only one egg because the soup is very filling.) You can also add Maggi liquid seasoning at the table to this soup.

This recipe is meant for use in the Cabbage Soup Diet, keto variation, as described in a previous blog article: https://nissaketofasting.blogspot.com/2018/10/will-cabbage-soup-diet-make-you-gain.html

Coming attractions: When I finish this batch of cabbage soup, I have plans for creating a very different cabbage soup recipe for a change-of-pace.

Below is a link for the actual kind of Crock-Pot I used for this recipe. If you don't own a Crock-Pot, you really need one--- they are so useful, even for people who don't normally cook much.

Making cauli-rice in a Vita-Mix

Cauli-rice, or cauliflower rice, is a staple food for many on the low-carb, ketogenic way of life. It's a low-carb substitute for things like rice, potatoes or biscuits.

Dana Carpender repeats the basic cauli-rice recipe she uses in many of her cook books. Her versions often call for 1/2 a cauliflower. I weighed my two cauliflower heads and averaged them, and came up with a 12 oz weight for 1/2 a cauliflower. That came to 2.5 cups of cauliflower after the cauli-rice making process. This is 3 servings, each with 5 grams of carbs. (And 2 grams of fiber, if you do the 'net carbs' thing.)

Dana suggests putting the cauliflower through the food processor on the shredding blade. I no longer have a food processor as I never used it, so I make cauli-rice in my Vita-Mix®️, which is kind of like a blender with superpowers. There are two ways to make cauli-rice in your Vita-Mix--- the dry chop method and the wet chop method. I tried the dry chop method first, and it left a lot of unchopped bits of cauliflower.

So I resorted to the wet chop method, as you will find in your owner's manual. I put in enough cauliflower to fill it within an inch or so of the top, and then added water to cover. You only need a few seconds of chopping to get it done. You put it on forward, then reverse, 3 times within your few seconds, and you will have a bunch of well-chopped cauliflower.

I steamed the cauliflower for about 8 minutes in my steamer pot. I first put the water in the pot and brought it to a boil, then put in the steamer insert filled with cauliflower rice.

Since I live alone, I put one serving of the steamed cauli-rice in each freezer bag, and froze them in my big upright freezer out on my porch. I then put the frozen bags into a larger sized freezer bag, so they would be double-bagged.

I also made up Dana Carpender's Fried Rice Recipe from her book 300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes. I omitted the cooked meat, since I planned to serve the fried rice with a meat dish. It turned out fairly well, but I thought the 2 eggs called for were a bit much. Next time I think I'll make it with 1 egg only.

Dana Carpender's cookbook also has several other recipes that call for cauli-rice, such as Spanish "Rice", Beef and Bacon "Rice" with Pine Nuts and Chicken-Almond "Rice"--- which is a lot like Rice-a-Roni.

I have a very nice kitchen scale which weighs things in pounds or ounces or also with metric measurements. It also "zeroes out" the weight of a container, so you can weigh food in a container without adding the container weight to the measurement. I find it a very useful item, as when I figured out how much 1/2 cauliflower weighed.

So now I have some home-made cauli-rice in my freezer. I plan usually to thaw it out in my fridge before heating, but I've heated frozen cauli-rice in the microwave before, and it was still OK.

Do you make and eat cauli-rice? What dishes do you make with it? Is it something you might try to add diversity to your diet?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A book and some products mentioned in this blog post. 

Recipe: Parmesan/Mayonnaise Baking Sauce

You've probably read a version of this recipe on the back of a commercial mayonnaise jar. The recipe calls for using it on---- horror of horrors--- boneless, skinless chicken breasts. One online version of this recipe recommended low-fat 'mayonnaise.' None of that here!

I bought some good grated parmesan on my last grocery run into Menominee, MI. I thought it would be better than that common kind of parmesan that seems to have eternal life in my fridge.

I wanted to upgrade the mayonnaise ingredient as well. My store bought mayonnaise contains soybean oil, and we don't want any soybean products around here. Except for soy sauce, of course.

So I made 'baconnaise', from The Ketogenic Cookbook by Jimmy Moore and Maria Emmerich. I also glanced at mayonnaise recipes by Dana Carpender from 200 Low-Carb High Fat Recipes and Fat Fast Cookbook. Maria Emmerich's recipe was the simplest--- unlike her usual recipes--- and it called for 1 cup of bacon fat, which was just the amount I had in the freezer. I made the 'baconnaise' with a stick blender right in the 1 pint wide-mouth canning jar I'm storing it in.

Parmesan/Mayonnaise Baking Sauce

1/2 cup (125 milliliters) good mayonnaise. Home-made is best. DON'T use Miracle Whip or lowfat 'Mayo.'
1/4 cup (75 milliliters) good Parmesan cheese.
1 tsp. (5 milliliters) sea salt or Herbamare salt
dash pepper
1/2 tsp (2.5 milliliters) herb or spice that goes well with the meat or vegetable you will be using the sauce on. (Optional)


Mix ingredients together in a dish or small canning jar. It mixes quickly, so you won't need to break out the stick blender.

TO USE:

On chicken: Coat the chicken with it, and bake at 350 F (180 C) for 45 min. to an hour. The coating should be well-browned.

On frozen fish: Coat the fish with it, and bake it at 375 F (190 C) for 8-12 minutes.
On frozen cooked shrimp: Coat the shrimp with it, and bake at 350 F (180 C) for about 10 minutes.

You may also use it as a condiment on any meat or vegetable you like. It will add fats to your meal--- important if you are eating lower-fat chicken or fish.

FOR LOW INCOME KETONIANS: Yes, you can make it with ordinary (not low fat) mayonnaise and ordinary Parmesan from a low price store or from your local food bank. It's not the best, but when there is no better available it's certainly better than most low-income food alternatives.

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This is the cookbook from which I got my 'baconnaise' recipe. I highly recommend it.

Recipe: Baked chicken with veggies in one oven pan

This is a simple way to make a chicken meal without much fussing. I started baking chicken inspired by the chicken wing recipes in Dana Carpender's 500 Low-Carb Recipes, which start in chapter 2. (Page 43 of my copy.)

I used chicken thighs instead of wings when I first made the recipes and it worked. Bone-in, skin-on thighs, of course. Why would I let a chicken processing corporation steal part of my chicken from me?

I have since simplified the baked chicken a lot, in part because I now harvest the schmaltz (chicken fat) from the pan for other uses, and so don't want it full of salt, spices and other things. Though I usually bake chicken thighs--- 2 for an individual serving, 3 if I'm extra hungry--- right now I'm working my way through a cut-up fryer from Amish Farms, some brand they carry at Jack's Market in Menominee (Michigan.)

PREHEAT your oven to 325 F  (170 C.)

Put aluminum foil over your baking pan for easier clean-up. Place your chicken pieces UPSIDE DOWN on the pan.  Do not salt, season or flavor the chicken.

Bake 20 minutes. Take your chicken out and flip it RIGHT-SIDE-UP, and put back in the hot oven for 20 more minutes.

PREPARE THE VEGETABLES:
I use frozen vegetables mostly. Which are pre-cooked (blanched) before freezing. In the picture I used chopped-up cauliflower, with a tiny pinch of frozen onions. I put in 2 Tablespoons of chicken bone broth, a splash of soy sauce, and about 1/2 Tablespoon or so of bacon fat. Butter, coconut oil or other good fats will do as well, including schmaltz. I put the veggies in a mini loaf pan, but you can also make a disposable mini-pan out of foil. Any low-carb acceptable veggies will do.

Next step: Take the chicken out of the oven when the second 20 minutes is up. Place the loaf pan with the veggies on the pan with the chicken, out of the way of the cooking chicken. Put back in the oven for a final 20 minutes. Use this time to set the table and prepare your plate.

WHEN FINISHED:
Take the veggie loaf pan out, with oven mitts, it is hot, and take a spoon to get the veggies out without taking the liquid from cooking. Put the chicken on the plate.
AT TABLE: sprinkle a little salt, seasoned salt, or soy sauce on the veggies. Sprinkle salt or soy sauce on the chicken's skin. You may remove the skin to save for 'dessert' and put a little salt or soy sauce on the 'naked' chicken, to make sure that part is flavorful too.

OPTION:
If you have a sauce made up--- Hollandaise, a Chinese peanut sauce from Carpender's recipe books, or a home-made Ranch dressing, you can warm that up a bit and serve that with the veggies and chicken. You can even warm your bit of sauce in a little container on the chicken pan for the last 5 minutes of the cooking! I'd use one of those foil cupcake pan liners for sauce-warming.

HARVESTING THE SCHMALTZ:
On your chicken-baking pan there will be some chicken fat left. To get pure schmaltz, you want to run it through a filter. I use a milk filter since I used to have dairy goats, but you can also use a coffee filter. Get out a small (1 pint or 1/2 pint) canning jar. Put a canning funnel or regular funnel on top of the jar. Pour the chicken fat from the pan through the filter and funnel. When the jar gets full of schmaltz, if you already have another container of good fat you are using up, you can store the schmalz in the freezer.

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How about you? How is your #ketodiet going today? Any tough times? Any easy times? Please share in a comment!

Thank you to the person who bought items through my Amazon.com links. It is really helping me!

Recipe: Keto Bulletproof Hot Chocolate

Bulletproof coffee is a thing. But as I can’t stand coffee, it’s not really a thing for me. Dr. Jason Fung in The Complete Guide to Fasting says you can make bulletproof tea. But I LIKE tea, and I am not sure I want to add fat to it if it ruins the flavor. So, Bulletproof Hot Chocolate.

I was inspired in this recipe by an old recipe for low-carb hot chocolate by Dr. Atkins. But that involved putting the ingredients in a pan and making the pan dirty. So I developed a recipe I could make directly in the mug. 

Keto Bulletproof Hot Chocolate

1 tsp. cacao powder (or ordinary grocery-store cocoa)

6-8 drops Sweetleaf brand liquid stevia (I’ve gone as low as 2-3 drops)

1/8 tsp. sea salt (I prefer pink Himalayan salt.)

Hot water to nearly fill mug

1/2 to 2 T. MCT oil (or coconut oil or butter)

1-2 T. heavy whipping cream, or coconut milk or unsweetened almond milk

WARNING: do not attempt to make this in a styrofoam cup. The MCT oil reacts badly to it. I use a ceramic mug, or a paper cup made to hold coffee.

Add the first 3 ingredients in to the mug. Fill with the hot water and stir. Add the oil and cream and stir some more. If the drink got too cool from adding the oil and cream, zap it in the microwave. Be sure and use a microwave-safe mug if you do that.

Dr. Jason Fung says in The Complete Guide to Fasting that you can have one bulletproof beverage on each fasting day. But in another place in the book he suggests the oil and cream component be way down on the fasting days— perhaps 1/2 T of each?

What is MCT oil? The MCT stands for medium-chain triglycerides, and it’s a component of coconut oil. The best component, and something that helps you get into ketosis and stay there. If you haven’t used MCT oil before, start with the smallest amount and work your way up.

This recipe is a great meal-substitute. It fills you up, and it’s not full of junk like a commercial meal-replacement ‘shake.’ Also, if you live or eat with family members who are concerned about your diet, this is something you can consume at the dinner table so your mom doesn’t worry that you are not eating.

Kitchen wisdom: T is the symbol for tablespoon, tsp is the symbol for teaspoon. There are three teaspoons in a tablespoon, and three tablespoons in 1/4 cup. There are 4 tablespoons in 1/3 cup. If you don’t have a measuring spoon marked 1/2 tablespoon, it is 1 1/2 teaspoons.  

Recipe: Coconut Cream/Milk Flatbread or Pancakes, Pizza Crust

Updated 1-27-20  What if you are keto and want to eat a sandwich? I used to use Healthy Life brand 'low-carb' breads but they were about 6 grams of carbs per slice and contained grains. So eating 1 slice lead to eating more and going off low-carb.

This is a recipe for low carb flatbreads that are good for making sandwiches. I shared this recipe on my other blog before, but I keep working on it and, hopefully, improving it. It's gluten free, and dairy free unless you add the cheese mentioned below or the whey protein powder instead of the egg white protein powder. I now also add ground nuts (nut meal, nut flour) to cut down on the protein amount--- if you are nut-sensitive, just omit that and use 1/4 cup of the protein powder.

1 Tbsp EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil (0 g carbs, 0 grams fiber, 0 grams net carbs)

3 (large) eggs (each: trace carbs, no fiber, trace net carbs)

3/4 cup coconut cream or full-fat coconut milk (cream: 12 g carbs, fiber 4 g, net carbs 8 g: milk: 4.8 g carbs, 0 fiber, 4.8 grams net carbs)

1/8  cup [1 and 1/2 Tablespoons] ground pecans or ground walnuts  (pecans: 1.9 g carbs, 1.3 g fiber, 0.6 net carbs; walnuts: 1.4 g carbs, 0.7 g fiber, 0.7 g net carbs)

1/8 cup unflavored egg white protein powder or whey protein powder (mine was 0 carbs, check label)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or Vege-Sal or Herbamare (sea salt seasoned with veggies)

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Add ingredients to a mixing bowl and use electric egg beater to beat it for 2 minutes. 

Use olive oil pan spray on your Yorkshire pudding or muffin top pan. Then, add about a 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil to each depression in your pan. Pour 2 Tbsp of batter in each depression in the pan.

OR use a 6.5 inch cast iron frying pan--- use the pan spray and olive oil as above. Use about 1/2 cup batter to make something in the shape of a low-carb tortilla.

Bake about 10 minutes in a metal YP pan and 12 minutes in a ceramic YP pan. Metal pans are better as they brown both sides. For a cast iron frying pan, try 12-14 minutes. Keep an eye on them and don't let them get too brown.

Let them cool down in the pan. If you own/are owned by cats, find a place for them to cool down where the cats can't get to it--- I use the metal racks in a disused oven or a shelf in a cabinet. 

If you are using a small oven and can only get 1 muffin top pan in, DON'T pour the second pan until just ready to bake. 

I mostly use these flatbreads warm, so I make sure not to let them get browned in the baking--- I prefer them a touch under-done, and I also eat the flatbreads cold as a sandwich sometime.

YIELD: will vary based on the size of your eggs (farm-fresh eggs can range from peewee to bigger-than-jumbo in size.) I got 26 Tbsp of batter last time I made it.

SERVINGS: 2 pieces of the bread from a YP or muffin-top pan, 1 of the larger tortilla-sized flatbreads (fold in 1/2 for sandwiches.) 

STORAGE: put in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, or a freezer bag in the freezer. Write the DATE on your bags!!! Heat the flatbreads for eating in a 325 F degree oven for about 5 minutes or until the butter melts. Or heat a minute or so in a George Foreman grill. Yes, you can heat them from frozen quickly--- they are thin. (And delicate. Which is why you will want to MELT the butter on to it and not try to spread it.)

EQUIPMENT: 

For the small flatbreads you will need a Yorkshire pudding or muffin-top pan. I like the Tala brand, which at the moment I can only get from Amazon . uk. They delivered it to the US okay, though.

For the large flatbreads you will need one or more cast iron frying pans of about 6 and 1/2 inches in size. Since the flatbreads need to cool in the pan you will need multiple frying pans in the desired size. Since I only have the one, I will have to get more cast iron frying pans soon.

I also bought a 2 Tbsp measure from Amazon. I think it was meant for measuring coffee into a coffee maker? Anyway, it's great for measuring batter into the YP pans. 

VARIATIONS:

CHEESE BREAD: I put about 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese in each depression in my muffin top pan, and then pour in the batter. This is a tasty version of the bread and one I like--- I just shredded the cheese for a batch this morning. (I also buy pre-shredded cheese for this purpose.) But of course if you don't eat dairy you should avoid this option. You can also add the cheese after you have made some flatbreads, add a bit of butter and heat in the oven or George Foreman grill. You can make a grilled cheese sandwich that way--- with bacon bits or bits of cooked ham if you like (and aren't keeping kosher or halal.)

MARKING THE FLATBREADS: if you make some salt-free or dairy-free and some with salt/dairy, sprinkle some sesame seeds, poppy seeds or caraway seeds on the top of the flatbreads before baking to mark the different kinds.

PANCAKES: Heat your flatbreads with butter or coconut oil, and a bit of sugar-free maple syrup or else cinnamon and stevia powder or Swerve. 

PIZZA CRUST: Add the low-carb pizza toppings of your choice and heat. If the toppings need some extra cooking you may need to cook them before adding them as toppings so you won't get the crust too brown.

PASTA: An old Atkins recipe book used a similar recipe, cut up to serve as pasta. I made 'mac and cheese' this way once.

NUT BUTTER SWEET ROLL: I add about 1 Tbsp nut butter or peanut butter, a bit of butter, sprinkle with cinnamon, and add Swerve, usually brown-sugar Swerve. Heat in 325 F degree oven until butter & nut butter melt, fold in 1/2 and eat. 

WARNING: If you are addicted to the carbs in 'real' bread, this will not satisfy your carb cravings. Just stick to your strict Keto * Low-Carb for a while--- that's the way to stop your addiction and the cravings.

Making Atkins Diet Revolution Rolls in a Muffin Top Pan

One of the earliest bread-substitutes low-carbers have used is what Dr. Robert Atkins called "Diet Revolution Rolls." The recipe is actually older than that. It's also in the Settlement Cook Book as 'Diabetic Bread.' That book dates from about the 1940s.

The secret of making it is to use a muffin top pan to make it. A picture of one of mine is illustrated. I have two like this one.

This is a Yorkshire pudding pan. It is pretty much interchangeable with a muffin top pan. They are available in different sizes.

Diet Revolution Rolls

3 eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons of cottage cheese
1 package of sugar-free, carb-free sweetener (VERY optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Separate eggs. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Mix other ingredients with yolks. Carefully fold egg whites into egg yolk mixture.

Spray your muffin top pan(s) with olive oil pan spray. Put about 1/2 teaspoon of a good oil (olive oil or MCT oil) into each depression in the pan. Fill each pan with equal amount of batter. Bake for about an hour.

from Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution page 225
Carbs per serving (6 per recipe) .5
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Separating Eggs

I'm old enough to remember when women learned to separate eggs as a basic kitchen skill. NOT ONE SPECK of the yolk can get in to your whites. I usually separate eggs by using the eggshell of the eggs, but using an egg separator is better. My mom got her egg separator from some business that was giving them away, with the business's ad printed on it, but they don't do that these days. I bought one at a store somewhere. Here is what mine looks like:

You have to beat the egg white for minutes, not seconds. If you don't have one of those expensive stand mixers, your arm will get tired. I use a regular electric mixer. I guess you could beat the eggs by hand with a whisk if you are very healthy and can't compel your husband or kids to do it for you. ;)

There are loads of YouTube videos that show you how to make Atkins Diet Revolution Rolls. Before you try making your own, maybe you should watch a few. Here is one:



I have made these rolls in the past, will probably do so again, but I hate separating eggs. At least once I got that fatal speck of yolk into the white and the whites wouldn't whip up. I baked them anyway. They were not great.

I have read a recipe called 'cloud bread' which mostly just stretches the batter from 6 rolls to 12. I've made these, they are flatter but good. I use one 'roll' for the top of my sandwich and another for the bottom.

Cucumber sandwich

Take 2 pieces of the rolls out of the fridge. Put mayonnaise (homemade is best) on both sides. Salt the bottom piece (these rolls are salt-free, so bland). I put seaweed flakes on the bottom as well--- I love seaweed. Put cucumber slices on the bottom piece. Cover bottom with top, eat and enjoy.

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The Sad Truth 

I have made these rolls from time to time for years. But I'm lazy when it comes to separating eggs. Recently I have been working on no-egg-separating rolls, which I will be sharing on this blog soon. But this recipe is a low-carber's staple, and so I thought it best to share it first.

Keto Dairy-Free Chocolate Milk for National Chocolate Milk Day

Today is National Chocolate Milk day, as I've just learned from Twitter, and so I thought I should post 'my' keto & dairy-free chocolate milk recipe.

Chocolate Milk (2 servings)

Mix in a 1 quart wide-mouth canning jar, using a stick blender.

1 cup full-fat coconut milk, unsweetened
1 1/2 cups water
72 drops liquid stevia (Sweetleaf sweetdrops) Vanilla flavor is good.
2 Tablespoons unsweetened Cacao powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Put it in your canning jar and run your stick blender half a minute or so. If you can tolerate dairy (as I can) use 1/2 cup of the coconut milk and 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream.

This recipe is adapted from one in Dana Carpender's Fat Fast Cookbook 2. Dana's got some great keto/lowcarb recipe books, buy some!