Monthly Archives: February 2017

Main Dish, Pork, Recipes, Soups and Stews

Savory Pork Stew for St. Patrick’s Day

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Hard to believe that we’re almost to the end of February with only a week left in the month. I’m already thinking ahead to spring, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter. We’ve had enough rain and snow in northern Nevada this winter that I think the spring should be spectacular this year. I’ve started to get a jump on recipes for the season and one I tried this past weekend is a variation of an Irish Stew.

Mostly a true Irish Stew, if there is one, would use lamb in it. While lamb is okay. it’s not my first choice for meat. To be honest, I prefer pork over lamb or beef, so I was happy to find this recipe from one of my favorite online people, Chef John, that uses pork and Brussels sprouts, which he calls baby cabbages. I don’t think that’s exactly accurate, but I do like sprouts so it’s fine with me. I expect, you could cut cabbage into quarters, cook them in water for a few minutes, then pop them into the stew for the last five minutes and they would work quite well. I only made a couple of minor changes to Chef John’s stew. Check out his recipe and video here.

This stew is delicious, very savory, easy to make, and best of all, low in carbs. I find the pork is more tender than beef and is, I’m sorry little piggies, a favorite taste of mine. You could still make the stew with beef or chicken, if you prefer.

I cheated a little and bought my fresh carrots already cut into slices. It worked well.

Savory Pork Irish Stew

3 pounds boneless Pork Shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
Salt and ground Black Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 tablespoon Butter
1 cup Onions, chopped
2 teaspoons Garlic, minced
1 tablespoon all purpose Flour*
1 Bay Leaf
8 ounces Dark Beer, like Guinness
2 cups Chicken Broth
3 Carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 stalks Celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh Parsley
3 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
12 Brussels Sprouts, halved

*low carb flours don’t work well as a thickener

Season the pork with salt and pepper. In a large pot, heat the vegetable oil. Add pork cubes in batches, cooking and stirring until they are lightly browned on all sides. Remove to a bowl and do the next batch until they are all done. Set aside.

To the pan, add butter, then add the onions and cook the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for about thirty seconds. Add flour; cook and stir until it is mixed in completely. Add beer to the pot, then add the cornstarch mixture and a bay leaf. Cook and stir until the mixture thickens.

Add pork, carrots, celery, and chicken broth to the pan and bring to a simmer. Stir in parsley and balsamic vinegar. Lower the heat to medium low and continue to simmer until the pork is tender, about two hours.

Heat a pot of water to a boil, then add the halved Brussels sprouts and cook for 5 minutes. Drain the sprouts, then add to the stew and cook until the sprouts are fork-tender, around 5 more minutes.
Serve with Irish Soda Bread or a cauliflower/turnip mash to complete the meal.

Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition Information per serving:
Calories 623 Fat: 44.3 g Net Carbs: 8 g Protein: 42.1 g

Desserts, Recipes

Layered Chocolate Vanilla Cheesecake

For Valentine’s Day, I wanted to put out something a little special and heart-shaped that is delicious.  I ran across a recipe for Marbled Cheesecake Hearts in an old Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk recipe booklet and thought about how I would adapt it to a low carb recipe.  Right off, the sweetened milk is a problem, but one you can work around.  LC Foods offers a substitute version mix and although I’ve got one on hand, I haven’t tried it yet. But I wanted to try making this just using extra sugar substitute and heavy cream instead.

I followed the original recipe instructions (see them here), but cut them in half to make a smaller cake.  It came out more like a layer of chocolate and vanilla than a marble swirl. I concluded a few things while doing this:

  1. The recipe says to use half the cream cheese mixture as vanilla and add the chocolate to the rest and swirl it in. It’s too much chocolate, which is why mine came out with an almost solid chocolate top. I didn’t have enough vanilla to pull through. So I’ve changed it to 1/3 mixed with the chocolate to swirl through.
  2. The top got a little dry in the oven, which gave it a flaky appearance. Adding a pan of water underneath will help to keep it moist and prevent the drying out.
  3. Using heart cookie cutters results in a quite a few small pieces of your cheesecake being left over and not so pretty.
    So I suggest making it in heart-shaped molds or cutting it into bars and putting a sugar-free candy heart on top. You can also cut a strawberry down the middle and place it face down on the top to make a strawberry heart if you can to use it for a special occasion. When you do this, you’ll have less mess, less work, and eight servings.
  4. You also don’t need to put it in the foil liner. Just put a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of your pan and spray the sides with baking spray so it will come out easily.

Layered Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake

1 Chocolate Shortbread batch (recipe below)
12 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 1/2 cup Sugar Substitute
1 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 oz Unsweetened Chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F.) Line a 6″ x 9  1/2″ (or close to it) deep-sided baking pan with heavy foil (see note 4 above), cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom, and set aside.

Make the chocolate shortbread crust as described below.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy. In a small bowl, combine the cream and sugar substitute and mix together. Beat into the cream cheese until it is smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until blended. Pour 2/3 of the batter over the crust and smooth with a rubber spatula.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until it is smooth. Stir the melted chocolate into the remaining batter until it is mixed in. Spoon this in six mounds over the vanilla batter in the pan. Use a table knife or spatula to gently swirl the chocolate batter through the vanilla batter so it looks marbled.  Put a pan of hot water under the rack in the oven, then put the cake above it.

Hearts cut out with a cookie cutter. They can be decorated with icing, whipped cream, or berries.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the cake is set. Cool for about 10 minutes, then put into the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour. Lift out of the pan using the foil to slide onto a cutting board. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut hearts. Or you can just cut into bars. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

This makes 6 heart-shaped cakes and the rest is pieces that you can cut into pieces and mix with whipping cream in a bowl for a not so special-looking dessert for two more servings.  (See note 3 above.)

Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition Information (Filling Only)1 serving
Calories: 428.4 Fat: 43.4 g Net Carbs: 3.4 g Protein: 7.9 g

Chocolate Shortbread Crust

3/4 cup low carb flour
1/4 cup Almond Flour
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 cup Sugar Substitute
2 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Pinch Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix the baking mix, almond flour, whey powder, sugar substitute, and salt together. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have a soft dough.

Press into the bottom of your prepared baking pan.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Nutrition Information (Crust Only) 1/8 recipe
Calories:150.6 Fat: 15.1 g Net Carbs: 1.2 g Protein:2.8 g

Breads, Breakfast & Brunch, Italian Inspired Recipes, Pork, Poultry, Recipes

White Pizza for a change of pace

Every once in a while, a body wants a packed-with-goodness pizza. That’s not always easy to do when you’re watching your carbohydrates. But it’s not impossible. You can use a couple of substitutes for the pizza crust that are pretty good, like chicken, portobello mushrooms, sliced eggplant, low carb tortillas, and this one I used for this recipe, a cauliflower pizza. Now, if you don’t like cauliflower, then choose one of the other options and just follow the toppings part of the recipe.

I made a vegetable-packed white sauce pizza. In this case the white sauce is simply an Alfredo pasta sauce. I used Classico because it is pretty low in carbs, but there are others that are also good for it. Check the jar and if it is around 3 net carbs per 1/4 cup, you’re in the ballpark. The taste of this is really great and the vegetables can be pretty flexible to what you like on it. Want it completely vegetarian, leave off the chicken and bacon, but it will have cheese. I’ve listed the carb counts for the crust separate from the toppings and the total combined as well. The crust is good for any pizza you’d like to make.

White Sauce Vegetable and Chicken Pizza

For the Pizza Cauliflower Crust
2 1/2 cups Cauliflower, grated
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 Egg, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon Ground Oregano
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Dried Basil

For the Toppings:
1/2 cup Brussels sprouts, sliced or shredded
1/2 cup Mushrooms, pieces or slices
1/2 cup Kale, chopped or torn
1/2 cup Spinach, chopped or torn
3 tablespoons Bell Peppers, chopped
1/4 cup Onions, chopped
1 1/4 cup Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons Parmesan Cheese, shredded
1 cup Alfredo sauce (Classico)
1 cup Chicken Breast, cooked and sliced or shredded
2 slices Thick Bacon, cooked and crumbled

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F.)

Crust:

Put your raw cauliflower in the food processor and pulse until it resembles rice or couscous. Or you can grate it by hand with a food grater. Put the grated cauliflower on a clean towel (flour sack towers are great for this), fold the towel over the cauliflower and squeeze to get as much water as possible out of the vegetable.

Put the dried cauliflower in a bowl and add the parmesan cheese, oregano, garlic powder, and dried basil. Mix in the egg, a dash of salt, and stir until completely blended. You can form it into ball at this point.

Put a sheet of parchment paper over a round stone or on a baking sheet. I used a baking pan lined with foil and it also works. Spray the foil with baking spray before you put the cauliflower in it. Shape the cauliflower dough into round pizza or a rectangle. Press it firmly together.

Bake for about 20 minutes until the crust is a golden brown. Pull it out and let it rest about five minutes, then add your toppings.

Vegetable Pizza

Prepare all the vegetables while the crust is cooking. Only the chicken and bacon are pre-cooked, although you can parboil the Brussels sprouts if you cut them in slices so that they aren’t too crunchy. Put them in a pan of boiling water for three minutes, then rinse in cold water and drain. OR put them in a bowl in the microwave for three minutes then drain.

Before the final cheese is spread and the pizza cooked.
Before the final cheese is spread and the pizza cooked.

Spread half of the Mozzarella cheese over the crust, then spread the Alfredo sauce over the top of that. Distribute the chicken and vegetables evenly over the crust and top with the bacon pieces. Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella over the top and bake for 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.

Cut and serve. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Information per serving (crust and toppings):
Calories: 418 Fat: 26.2 g Net Carbs: 9.7 g Protein: 36.4 g

Nutrition Information per serving (crust only):
Calories: 92.5 Fat: 5.1 g Net Carbs: 2.5 g Protein: 8.1 g

Nutrition Information per serving (toppings only):
Calories: 325.8 Fat: 21.1 g Net Carbs: 7.2 g Protein: 28.3 g