Monthly Archives: February 2016

Breads, Italian Inspired Recipes, Pork, Product Review

Product Review & Pizza Recipe

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LC-Pizza & Bagel Flour

I’ve been meaning to try LC Foods flour for making pizza, calzones, bagels, and English muffins for quite some time now. The only recipe actually included on the package is for pizza. I found a bagel recipe that sounded good and I tried that one before I tried to make a pizza. I can say that it works very well for the bagels. So this week, I mixed up the pizza dough and had a go of it.

First, this is a fine-textured flour that is excellent for baking these types of breads. LC Foods has severl milled flours in their online store that can be used for a variety of baking including pasta, cake, and bread, as well as the one for pizza. The flour is not as low priced as regular wheat flour, but it is a low carb flour and it’s worth the difference for a flour that is low in carbs and still produces a product that rises with yeast, tastes like bread, although not entirely like its wheat counterpart, but close enough that you can enjoy it. It’s also a sturdy pizza bread.

Note, this pizza flour is not gluten-free. It is made from a blend of wheat protein isolates, resistant wheat starches, flax seed meal and vital wheat gluten. You will need to add fast rising yeast, a bit of salt, a little sugar substitute, and olive oil to the mixture. The personal-sized pizza crust makes a 7 to 8 inch pizza round that will

For those who don’t want to make a pizza crust from scratch, LC Foods also sells a pre-made, partially cooked large pizza crust. You can add your favorite toppings and bake right at home and have a great pizza in no time.

So, on to the pizza dough and the toppings I used for this personal-sized pizza. For reference, each 1/4 cup of the flour is 2 net carbs and the whole small pizza used 3/4 cup of the flour. You can also shape the pizza dough into bread sticks, calzones, and strombolis. To make bagels or English muffins, you need to refer to a recipe for those breads as they have other ingredients and measurements. I will be putting up the basic bagel recipe next week.

I do have to say that of all the low carb flours I’ve used to try to make yeast breads, this flour has done the best job of rising, browning, and tasting very good. I give this flour my five cooking spoons of approval.

5-spoons

LC Pizza with Meatballs

This is made with LC Foods pizza and bagel flour. I bought pre-made poerk meatballs from Wal-Mart that are about 1 1/2 inch in diameter. Use a low carb pasta sauce. I used Mario Batalli’s Vodka sauce, which is one of the lowest I have found.

3/4 cup LC Pizza and Bagel Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
3/4 teaspoon rapid rise Yeast
1/2 teaspoon Sugar Substitute
1/4 cup warm Water
1 1/2 teaspoons Olive Oil

Toppings:
1/ cup Onions, chopped
3 mini Sweet Peppers
1 teaspoon minced Garlic
1/4 cup Pasta Sauce
6 medium-sized Pork Meatballs
1/2 cup Mozarella Cheese
2 tablespoons Parmesan Romano Cheese

In a medium bowl, add pizza flour, salt, yeast and sugar substitute and mix together. Add the water and olive oil and stir it together until combined and it begins to form a ball. Use your hands to knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Clean the bowl, dry and lightly oil. Put the dough in the bowl and put in a warm place to rise. Cover with a plate. Allow it rise 30 to 40 minutes until the dough doubles.

Lightly oil a pizza pan or pizza stone. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F.)

Pull and stretch the dough into a circle and shape with your fingers until you have about a 7 to 8 inch round. Put on the pizza pan and bake for 5 minutes to get a partial bake on it.

Meanwhile, put a teaspoon of oil into a skillet and sauté the onions and peppers until just tender, then add garlic to the mix. Remove to a bowl. Cut the meatballs in half and if not already cooked, brown them in the skillet until they are almost done.

Spread the pizza sauce on the crust, then spread the vegetables evenly. Put the meatball halves even around the pizza and sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top, then the Parmesan Romano cheese over the top of that.

Bake for 10 more minutes until the cheese is melted and slightly browned. Let cool for a few minutes to set, then cut into pieces and serve.

Makes 2 to 4 servings, depending on how hungry you are.

Nutrition Information per one-half pizza:
Calories: 404 Fat: 21.3 g Net Carbs: 10.4 g Protein: 14.7 g

Appetizers, Main Dish, Poultry, Recipes

Baked Buffalo-Style Chicken Dip

For the  past couple of weeks I’ve been working on editing my new novel, O’Ceagan’s Legacy, that is now in the Kindle Scout program.  (Shameless self-promotion: If you’d like to check it out, click here.)  So, I haven’t had too much time for creative cooking, but I did find this great dip recipe from Chef John for a spicy chicken dip that really hits the spot.  I made a few little changes to suit me.  For one thing, I used three chicken breasts rather than starting with a roasted chicken, mainly because the grocery store I went to didn’t have any precooked chickens.

By the way, I love Chef John’s recipes and have adapted a few of them over the past few years to low carb.  He does many videos and is an entertaining teacher.  Visit his site to see more.

Baked Buffalo-Style Chicken Dip

This is based on Chef John’s original recipe at FoodWishes.com and is pretty much the way he did it. It’s a low carb recipe from the get-go.

3 cups Cooked Chicken, diced
2 (8 ounce) packages Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup Hot Pepper Sauce
1/2 cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese
1/2 cup Blue Cheese Dressing
1/2 cup crumbled Blue Cheese
1/2 teaspoon Seafood Seasoning
1 pinch Cayenne Pepper
1/2 cup Onions, chopped
2 tablespoons Pepper Jack cheese, shredded
2 tablespoon chopped Chives or Green Onions (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (F.)

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, hot pepper sauce seasonings and blue cheese dressing together until mostly combined. Add the chicken, onions and 1/2 cup pepper Jack cheese and stir together. Put the mixture into a 9-inch round baking dish, like a deep dish pie pan, and spread to smooth. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons Pepper Jack Cheese.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the top is lightly browned. Sprinkle with the chopped chives or onions. Serve with vegetable dippers like cauliflower, celery, tomato slices, mini-sweet peppers, or sliced rounds of kohlrabi.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Nutrition Information per serving (1/8)
Calories: 407 Fat: 35.9 g Net Carbs: 2.4 g Protein: 17.1 g

Main Dish, Recipes, Seafood

Creamed Salmon with Asparagus and Greens

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Although I’m not a huge fish fan, I do get a craving every now and then and last week, I decided I wanted cream salmon.  I had some asparagus in the house and a mix of turnip greens, spinach, and Swiss Chard, so it seemed like that would be a really good and low carb combination.  It turned out great!  The flavor is delicious and the sauce is light and creamy.  I served over low carb bagels the first time and over Dixie Carb Counters Skinni Spaghetti the next time.

This makes an easy, elegant dinner and if you love salmon, you’ll love this dish.  It can also be made with broccoli instead of asparagus if you wish.  This could be a wonderful dinner for your sweetie on Valentine’s Day.

Need to top the dinner off with a sweet treat?  Try this wonderful Strawberry Cream Torte.

Creamed Salmon with Asparagus and Greens

3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoons low carb flour
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup Asparagus or Broccoli, chopped
2 mini Sweet Peppers, chopped
1 Salmon filet, poached and sliced (8 oz.)
1 cup Mixed Greens (Spinach)
Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

In a skillet, put enough water to cover the salmon filet, bring to a boil, then put in the salmon and poach for about 5 minutes until the fish flakes. It doesn’t need to be completely cooked as it will cook more in the sauce.

Remove the salmon and cut or tear into pieces.  Set aside.

In a large saucepan, melt butter, add the mushroom and saute until lightly browned. Remove mushrooms, then add low carb flour and stir to make a paste. Add the cream and water and stir in until the paste is mixed in. Add seasonings and stir.

In a cup, beat the egg until creamy yellow, then add a tablespoon of the hot cream sauce to it and stir in. Repeat until you’ve added about four tablespoons of the cream, then stir the egg mixture into the cream sauce and continue to stir until mixed. You don’t want the egg to cook, but to blend into the sauce.

Add the mushrooms back into the sauce, then add the sweet peppers and asparagus (or broccoli) and stir together. Cook for about five minutes, then add the salmon and the mixed greens. Cook for another 5 minutes until heated through. Serve over low carb toast, cauli-rice, spaghetti squash or low carb pasta.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition info per serving: (only the recipe)
Calories: 280.5 Fat: 23.8 g Net Carbs: 2.8 g Protein: 13.5 g

Italian Inspired Recipes, Product Review

Product Review: Dixie Carb Counters Skinni Spaghetti

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For all that pasta is supposed to be good for a diet and the number of calories diets that include it in some form, it’s practically impossible in a low carb diet. I made a stab at Dreamfields Pasta a few years ago and actually did okay using it, but it was proven that their claims about blocked carbs were incorrect and the pasta did affect the glycemic count for those who are diabetic.

So when I saw that Dixie Carb Counters had a spaghetti out that actually looks like spaghetti, although a little curvy, I wanted to give it a try. I ordered an 8 ounce package, which is four servings, and decided to try it with my salmon with cream sauce recipe.

 

 

To begin with, it cooks in about six minutes and looks like regular spaghetti. It’s not slimy like the oriental noodles that I tried in the past. I drained it as normal, put some butter on top and then put my creamed salmon on top of that, added a little Parmesan Romano cheese and had a bite. It was delicious. While not exactly like the regular flour spaghetti, it was still very tasty and served its purpose well. I mean, really, pasta isn’t exactly loaded with flavor by itself, but serves as the medium to put those delicious sauces on. Overall, this was very satisfying and now I want to try more spaghetti with pasta sauce and meatballs.

Creamed salmon over DCC Skinny Spaghetti. Wonderful!

One note, although the package will serve four normal servings, I actually used less so I think I will get six servings from one package. Unlike regular spaghetti, it isn’t in the lower price range. Like everything that is made for low carb dieters, it is in the $8 plus price range and not readily available at grocery stores.

But the good news is that it is low carb, it looks and tastes like spaghetti, and is great for those moments that you’re craving pasta.

Nutrition Information per 2 oz (dry) serving:
Calories: 166 Fat: 3 g Net Carbs: 4 g Protein: 30 g

4-spoons

This Skinni spaghetti is available by mail from Dixie Carb Counters website or from Netrition.com.

Disclaimer: I have not received any promotional items to review and no one from any of the companies whose products I review have asked me to do so. I have purchased the product and am giving my honest opinion about it. Should any company send me a product to try, I will state it up front and will still give my honest opinion.

Desserts, Recipes

Low Carb Version of Hepburn’s Brownies

Recently, I saw a recipe from the New York Times that said it was Katherine Hepburn’s own for Brownies. It’s a simple recipe and I really wanted to try it, but I also needed to adapt it to low carb. It uses a lot of powdered chocolate and very little flour. I made it and it turns out well, with a rich dark chocolate flavor and a lot of nuts. I plan to make it again, but I am going to make a couple of changes so that it isn’t quite so dark chocolate-tasting as I prefer a lighter taste to my chocolate, being very fond of milk chocolate. When I do that, I’ll post the lighter version.

The best part of this recipe is that it is very low in effective carbs with only 1 net carb in each square. Without further fanfare, here is the low carb adapted recipe.

Low Carb Hepburn’s Brownies

1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 stick Butter
2 Eggs
1 cup Sugar Substitute
1/4 cup Low Carb Flour
1 cup chopped Walnuts or Pecans
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
pinch of Salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees(F.)

Use a medium-sized heavy pot. Over low heat, melt the butter until it’s almost completely melted (or put this over a double boiler to avoid burning). Stir in the unsweetened cocoa powder until completely mixed in. Remove from the heat and let cool a few minutes.

Mix the flour, sugar substitute, salt and nuts together in a bowl.

Whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture one at a time, blending each in well. The mixture will begin to thicken. Add the vanilla and stir it in, then add the flour and nut mixture and stir it in until it is completely blended.

Pour into a buttered (or cooking spray coated) 8×8-inch baking pan. Spread the batter so that it is even, then bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Do not overbake so that the brownies are gooey inside. Let cool completely, then cut into 16 2×2-inch squares.

Nutrition Information per square:
Calories: 122.5 Fat: 12.3 g Net Carbs: 1.0 g Protein: 2.3 g

Notes:  For the low carb flour you can use CarbQuick, LC Foods Cake Flour, Soy Flour or Almond Flour.  I personally don’t like the taste of Soy Flour, so I don’t use it, but if you don’t mind it, then it will work.

Regular Katherine Hepburn Brownies

For those of you who want the full sugar version, here’s the ingredient list and the instructions are the same:

1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 stick Butter
2 Eggs
1 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Flour
1 cup chopped Walnuts or Pecans
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
pinch of Salt

Nutrition Information per square with regular sugar and flour:
Calories:170.5 Fat: 11.7 g Net Carbs: 15.2 g Protein: 2.7 g

Are you a Brownie fan?  (Isn’t everyone?)  Which do you prefer — dark chocolate or milk chocolate? Let me know in the comments and let me know how you like the recipe.