Monthly Archives: April 2016

Main Dish, Pork, Recipes

Simple Cranberry Mustard Marinade Spices Pork

Pork roasts are a snap to cook and they are so good. They’re a lean piece of meat and very tender and they take well to marinades, rubs, and fruit coatings.  This marinade is a simple to put together spicy blend that adds a tang of chile with cranberry mustard to the flavor.    You can make it with Dijon mustard instead of cranberry mustard, but it loses that fruity tang.

Sometimes cranberry mustard is difficult to find at the grocery store.  I use Beaver brand and I order it online when I can’t find it locally.  It’s great on sandwiches, particularly ham or chicken ones.

Cranberry Mustard Marinated Pork Loin

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
2 tablespoons Cranberry mustard
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Sugar Substitute
2 pounds pork tenderloin

In a bowl, add all ingredients except the pork and whisk together. Use a cooking fork or a sharp knife to pierce the pork roast in several places, which will allow the marinade to go into the meat better. Using a large resealable plastic bag, put in the pork and pour the marinade in. Seal the bag and massage the marinade to work the marinade into it. Place in the refrigerator to marinate for two to three hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F.).

Place the pork in a foil-lined baking dish and pour the marinade over the top. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until a meat thermometer inserted to the middle of the roast reads 145 degrees.

Remove the roast and cover with foil to keep warm. It will continue to cook. Pour the pan juices into a small skillet or pot and cook over medium heat to reduce to a thicker gravy.

Serve with a tablespoon or two of gravy over the top.

Makes 6 servings.

 

Main Dish, Pork, Recipes, Vegetarian

Low Carb Spinach & Artichoke Cauli-Mac

A lot of yummy recipes are shared on Facebook, like this one recently posted from BuzzFeed for One-Pan Mac and Cheese. This is a delicious recipe with lots of cheese flavor and the subtle taste of the spinach and artichoke hearts just enhances it.

For me, I immediately start adapting it to a low carb version because I know that macaroni, or any pasta, is too high carb’d for my lifestyle unless I make the pasta myself from low carb flours. So far, I haven’t tried that although it’s on my to-do list.

But in this case, the easier change to the recipe is to replace the macaroni with cauliflower. If you like this vegetable, and I know some people who don’t, then it is an amazing replacement for many starches in your cooking. You can chop it and use it to replace smaller pastas. You can rice it or chop it finely in a food processor to use it as a fill-in for rice, couscous, and other small pastas. You can also use it for pizza crusts, bread sticks, and assorted other bread replacements.

As a replacement for macaroni, it is fantastic. It doesn’t have a strong flavor, particularly if you start with fresh cauliflower or use frozen that hasn’t defrosted and sat in the refrigerator for a couple of days. While this recipe is very close to the one posted, I never make anything exactly the way it’s written. In addition to the cauliflower for macaroni swap, I also added bacon, because I love bacon and this just called out for it. The artichoke hearts may be a little hard to find but you can get them either canned or frozen. If you can get frozen, those are better. Do not get marinated artichoke hearts unless they’re the only option you have. If you do, wash them thoroughly before using unless you want the taste of the marinade in your meal. While I didn’t add them this time, the next time I make this, I think adding chopped green onions would be awesome.

I also cut the recipe in half so two people don’t have too many leftovers, but you can easily double it if you want the larger dish. I used an 8″ cast iron skillet and it filled it to almost over-flowing so even the larger cast iron skillet might not be big enough for the full recipe. Also, if you are making this recipe with macaroni instead of cauliflower, use 1/2 the amount called for as macaroni expands as it cooks, so one cup dry equals two cups cooked.

Don’t like cauliflower? Try dicing turnips or kohlrabi into small cubes to fill in for the macaroni. After they are diced, cook them in boiling water or in a bowl in the microwave until a fork can easily pierce them. At this point, this resembles a scalloped potato recipe more than it does macaroni and cheese, but they are similar.

Skillet Spinach Artichoke Cauli-Mac

1 tablespoon Butter
1 clove Garlic minced
3 oz. Baby Spinach
1/2 cup Artichoke hearts, drained
1/2 pound Bacon, cooked and broken into pieces(optional)
3/4 cup Heavy Cream
1/4 cup Water
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 teaspoon Black Pepper, freshly ground
2 cups Cauliflower, chopped
1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese
1 1/2 cups Mozzarella Cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees (F.)

In an ovenproof 8″ skillet, such as a cast iron one, melt the butter, then add the garlic, spinach and artichoke hearts. Cook and stir until the spinach wilts. Add the cream, water, salt and pepper. Stir until the sauce is boiling. Add the bacon and cauliflower pieces and stir into the sauce. Cool until the sauce coats the cauliflower pieces. Add the cheddar and one cup of mozzarella to the pan and stir until it is completely melted.

Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella on top and bake for about seven minutes or until the cheese if bubbly and golden brown.

Makes 4 servings. nutrition_Cauli-mac-bacon-artichokes

Desserts, Recipes

Light and Fruity Ricotta Cookies

What says Spring better than a light, delicious and delicately-flavored cookie?  Drawing on early spring fruit like strawberries or lemon, you can add a special sweet taste to the cookie.  Other stand-bys, like lemon and orange extracts add the flavor without adding carbohydrates or calories.

Ricotta cookies are an Italian style cookie that are light and very tasty. I think the recipe works well with low carb flours, although they are more delicate than the full flour version. You can add a teaspoon of lemon juice to make them lemon cookies or a 1/2 teaspoon of strawberry extract to give them a strawberry flavor. For that matter, you can add a little chopped strawberries to the batter to make them a strawberry cookie. Prefer the taste of orange? Add 1/2 teaspoon orange extract and a little chopped orange to it. With fruits, you need to add the fruit sparingly, no more than 1/4 cup or you will begin to run the carbohydrates up quite a bit.

Ricotta Cheese Cookies

1cup Sugar Substitute
1/2 cup Butter, softened
7.5 ounces Ricotta Cheese
1 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
1 1/2 cups Low Carb Flour
1 tablespoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt

3/4 cups Confectioners’ Sugar Substitute
1 tablespoons Cream
1/2 tablespoon Water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a silicone mat.

In a large bowl, add the sugar substitute and butter and use a mixer on low speed to combine them before increasing the speed and beating until light and fluffy. Reduce speed and add in the ricotta, vanilla (or lemon, strawberry or orange) and egg.

Reduce the speed back to low and add the low carb flour, baking powder and salt. Mix on low until the dough forms. If you are adding any chopped fruit, stir it into the dough now.

Using a tablespoon, drop dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Leave about 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookies are just golden brown around the edges. Let cool for about 10 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to allow them to cool before icing.

For the icing, use a small bowl and add the confectioner’s sugar, cream and water.(If you’d like you can add a drop of flavoring extract to the icing. Stir until it makes a smooth glaze. Use a knife blade or a spreader to ice each cookie.

Makes 18 cookies.

Nutrition Information per cookie (vanilla):
Calories: 115 Fat: 9.8 g Net Carbs: 1.4 g Protein: 5.2 g

Using wheat flour and sugar per cookie:
Calories: 189.5 Fat: 7.6 g Net Carbs: 27 g Protein: 3.4 g

Breads, Product Review

Product Review: DCC Orange Cranberry Muffins

I’ve tried several products from Dixie Carb Counters, but where the breads were excellent, I can’t say the same for these muffins.  They are simple to make as all of DCC’s mixes are.  You simply add eggs, sour cream and butter to the mix, stir it together well and bake.  It makes 12 muffins.

However, the muffins didn’t rise very much, so they are about 2 inches high.  I overcooked mine a little and they came out a little tougher than they would normally be, but the real disappointment was in the taste.  They had little bits of cranberry in them and the taste of oranges, but it wasn’t very strong and the it lacked any sweetness.

The addition of sugar substitute might help these as would another egg white to get more rise in them, but overall, these are not as good as the muffins from New Hope Mills.  I can make a better flavored muffin from scratch using CarbQuick.

Although low carb, the muffins still have 4 net carbs in each one.  They are low calories at 31 calories per muffin, with no fat and 2 grams of protein.  Given the small size and the flavor of the muffins, they aren’t worth it.

On a scale of one to five, I give them three spoons, edible, but not the tastiest.

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.