With a snowstorm arriving in Reno last weekend, my thoughts turned to warm comfort food. Weather like this calls for at least stew, soup, or chile. I went with the latter. Usually, I make my Tex-Mex chile, the variety that uses all meat chunks and carries a ton of heat. But I decided to try something a little different, so here’s my take on a meat and bean chile done low carb.
First, I added medium-hot chorizo in for a zap of spice and a different flavor, then mixed in ground beef. I chose black beans because they are a bit lower in carbohydrates than either pinto or red beans. The result is fabulous, tasty, and warming. Like many stews, soups, and curries, the longer the pot sits, the more flavorful it becomes. So if you want to make it a day ahead, you can cover it and put it in the ‘fridge for a day or so. Nonetheless, it is delicious on the first day.
Rene’s Beef and Chorizo Chile
1 Onion, diced
1 teaspoon Vegetable Oil
1 tablespoon Garlic, minced
2 pounds Ground Beef
1 pound Chorizo Sausage
1 can diced Green Peppers
1 packet Taco Seasoning or 2 tablespoons Spicy Seasoning
1 15-oz can Stewed Tomatoes, chopped
1 15-oz can Tomatoes with Chiles
1 can Black Beans, with juice
1 cup Pumpkin puree
In a 10 to 12 cup heavy pot, heat a teaspoon oil and add onions and garlic. Stir and cook for about five minutes until the onions are sweating. Add ground beef and chorizo, breaking it up as you stir it around. Cook until the meat is lightly browned.
Add green peppers, seasoning, and both cans of tomatoes. Add about a half-cup to each tomato can and swish them around to get the rest of the juice in the can, then add to the chile pot. Stir it together, then reduce the heat to a simmer and let cook for an hour.
Taste the sauce to check the seasoning and adjust it if you want it spicier. Add the black beans and pumpkin puree. Stir well and cook for another 30 to 40 minutes until the chile thickens.
Serve in bowls with cheddar jack or Mexican cheese and sour cream if you wish.
Makes 8 to 10 servings, about 1 cup each.
Tip: You can make an excellent chile cheese omelet with this chile. Just add 1 cup of warmed chile in the middle of the partially cooked omelet and top with cheese. Fold the omelet over or cook the top in a broiler until the cheese is melted.
First day of the second week and I am hanging in there. I feel some of the limitations of Induction, but it isn’t bad. It includes a repeat and lunch out. PK and I went to the movies, so we stopped by Skipilini’s after seeing “Wonder Woman” and had our favorite appetizer, bacon wrapped jalapenos, along with a salad.
Here’s the menu for the day:
Day 8
Food
NC
breakfast
Cloud muffin
2
Sugar–free Jam
2.5
Coffee with creamer
1
Lunch
Caesar Salad
2.8
Chicken
0
2 1/2 Jalapeno Poppers
1.7
Iced tea
0
Dinner
Tilapia
0
GG mashed cauliflower with bacon and cheddar
4
sauteed greens
2
dessert
pumpkin mousse
3
19
Breakfast was the Atkins cloud muffin from Day 4, but I toasted it and put 1/2 tablespoon of Smuckers Sugar-free Apricot Jam on it. Bliss! For lunch, we had the aforementioned salad with the poppers. I’m including the easy to make recipes for these for home use. I had iced tea with liquid sucralose so 0 carbs on that.
For dinner, I made seasoned tilapia and served 1/3 cup of Green Giant mashed cauliflower with bacon and cheddar cheese with it. I also sauteed some greens, namely spinach and beet leaves with 1/4 cup of grated daikon radish. Recipes follow.
Your alternate breakfast option is:
Bacon and Avocado Omelet
3 or 4 large Eggs
1/2 Haas Avocado, cut into slices
1/4 cup Cheddar Cheese
4 tablespoons Southwest Style Salsa (optional)
4 slices thick Bacon, broken into pieces
Dash Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Seasoning Salt
1 tablespoon Butter
1 tablespoon Water
Break eggs into a bowl, add water, seasoning salt and pepper. Beat until foamy. Heat a medium-size round bottom pan or omelet pan with 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat.
Add eggs and let cook for a couple of minutes until the egg sets on the bottom, then begin lifting the edges with the spatula and tilting the pan so that the uncooked egg runs underneath. Repeat, working your way around the pan. Keep lifting and tilting until most of the liquid egg is gone. This builds a fluffier omelet.
Evenly distribute the bacon and most of the cheese down the one-half of the omelet. Use the spatula to lift and fold the omelet over the top. Reduce heat to low and put a lid over the pan. Let cook for about 3 minutes in order to melt the cheese.
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cheese over the top. Cut the omelet in half and serve each half with 2 tablespoons of salsa and half the avocado slices. If you wish, you can heat the salsa before serving.
Makes 2 servings
Nutrition Info per servings Calories: 430 Fat: 35.3 g Net Carbs: 3.0 g Protein: 23.5 g
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Peppers
These are Skipolini’s bacon wrapped jalapeno peppers, but the recipe is similar. They can also be grilled rather than broiled.
Cut the peppers open on one side and remove the seeds if you don’t want them too spicy.
In a small bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon of BBQ seasoning to the cream cheese and stir until it is completely mixed in.
Put the bacon on a paper towel on a plate and put in the microwave for one minute to partially cook. This will make it easier for it to get crisp without over-cooking the pepper.
Stuff each pepper with the cream cheese mixture, then wrap with the partially cooked bacon and secure with a toothpick.
Put on a sheet of aluminum foil under the broiler and cook for three to five minutes per side until the bacon is crisp.
Let cool a couple of minutes, then serve. Makes two servings.
Nutrition information per serving: Calories: 185 Fat: 16.5 g Net Carbs: 1.7 g Protein: 6.5 g
Caesar Salad
One of the best spots for good recipes is AllRecipes.com, so I am going to give you the link to a goodCaesar Salad recipe. However, omit the croutons. They are not on the low carb diet at this point and quite possibly never again.
Broiled Tilapia Filet
The beet leaves are intent on dying everything pink.
PK and I weren’t all that hungry after our late lunch, so I split one filet down the middle for dinner, but feel free to make a full filet per person. They are carb free.
2 Tilapia Fish Filets or other white fish of choice
1 tablespoon of Butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon Lemon Juice
Sprinkle of Salt
Dash of Pepper
Rinse and dry the fish, then use a spoon to pour butter and lemon juice on the top. Put a sheet of aluminum foil on the broiler pan then place the filets with the butter side face down. Spread the lemon butter over the side that is now exposed to the flames.
Broil for about 5 minutes, then turn and broil for another 5 minutes on the other side. Test for doneness with a fork. The fish should flake, but not be dry.
Use a pancake turner (spatula) to move to a warm serving plate. Add vegetables and serve.
Makes 2 servings.
Nutrition information per serving: Calories:134.2 Fat:7.3 g Net Carbs:0.1 g Protein: 18.1 g
