Category Archives: Main Dish

Mexican/Spanish Recipes, Poultry, Recipes

Cast Iron Skillet Enchiladas

Inspired by a recipe for vegetarian enchiladas that popped into my Facebook feed, I decided to try making my red sauce chicken enchiladas in a cast iron skillet.  It’s a one pot dish so that makes it simple.  It takes about 1 hour to prepare and bake this easy dish.  I found a very low carb enchilada sauce at my local Raley’s grocery store, so check your labels for the lowest net carbs for the sauce.  Mine came in at 1 net carb per 1/4 cup.  The cheese is also 0 net carbs.

Cast Iron Skillet Enchiladas

2 cups Roasting Chicken, chopped or diced
1/2 medium Onions, chopped
6 Mini Sweet Bell Peppers, sliced
1 teaspoon Garlic, minced
1-1/2 cup Raleys Enchilada Sauce
6 Low Carb Tortillas (3 nc each)
1 1/2 cups Cheddar Jack Cheese
1 tablespoon Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F).

In a large cast iron skillet (or any other skillet that can go from stove to oven) add olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add minced garlic, onions and sweet peppers and sauté until just tender. Remove from skillet.

Pour 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce on the bottom of the skillet. Heat the tortillas in a plastic bag in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften them. Put one tortilla on a plate, then spread 1/6 of the onion mixture down the middle, leaving about 1/2 inch at each end. Repeat with the chicken, then sprinkle cheese over the top. Roll the tortilla into a snug roll and tuck in the ends. Place in the skillet along the edge. Repeat with the rest of the tortillas. Four will fit along the outside curves of the skillet, then put the last two in the middle.

Spread the remainder of the sauce evenly over the rolled tortillas. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.

Bake in the skillet for 30 to 35 minutes until cheese is melted and sauce is thickened. Let cool about 5 minutes, then serve with sour cream and chopped green onions if you like. Makes 6 enchiladas.

Nutrition information for 1 enchilada:
Calories: 215.5 Fat: 11.0 g Net Carbs: 6.5 g Protein: 21.7 g

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

Beef, Crock Pot Recipes, Main Dish, Product Review

Super Ground Beef Chile

This time of year just calls out “make chile” to me because nothing warms you up quite like a nice, spicy bowl of chile. Adding beans to it adds more carbs than I sometimes can allow in my daily menu, so I make an all meat chile. This version uses lean ground beef, which makes it quicker to make and bacon to add a little more flavor. The result is delicious. I’ve left the beans as optional if you want to use them.

6 slices Bacon
3 pounds lean Ground Beef
1 package Chili Seasoning
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) Diced Tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup diced Onions
2 teaspoons Garlic, minced
4 oz. can chopped Green Chiles
1 Bell Pepper, chopped
1 cup Medium Hot Salsa
1/2 cup Red Beans (optional)
1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

Fry bacon strips in a large, deep skillet until almost crisp. Remove to paper towel to drain. Drain off fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan. Add garlic and onion and cook until the onion is almost tender. Add to the crock pot.

In the same skillet, brown the ground beef, but don’t cook all the way through. Drain fat. Add to the crock pot. Break the bacon into pieces and add to the crock pot. Add the diced tomatoes, salsa, chopped chiles, chile seasoning and cayenne pepper. Stir together to mix it well.

Cook on high for one hour, then reduce to low heat for 2 hours. Check seasonings and adjust if necessary, then cook for another 30 minutes with the lid off to thicken.

Serve with crumbled Queso Fresco and sour cream.

Makes 10 servings

Nutrition Info: (No beans) per serving
Calories: 240 Fat: 16.0 g Net Carbs: 5 g Protein: 14.4 g

Nutrition Info: (With beans) per serving
Calories: 251.4 Fat: 16.0 g Net Carbs: 6.3 g Protein: 15.1 g