Easy Cauli-Rice

While eating low carb I am constantly craving everyday carbs.  Pasta, bread, and definitely rice! It's great when I can recreate these common carbs with a low carb, veggie version.  Cauliflower rice might be better than actual white rice and it's so simple! 

Using the large holes of a grater, grate half of a cauliflower. 

Place in a microwave safe dish.

Season with salt and pepper

and add in 1/2 Tbsp butter.

Microwave on high for 2 minutes, stir add another 1/2 Tbsp of butter and microwave for another 2 minutes.

Fluff with a fork just like rice and it's ready to be served!

Half of a cauliflower served Jason and I perfectly!

Serve this underneath Lil Carb Orange Chicken!

You can also use a food processor to create cauli-rice!

Watch my how-to video at the top of this post!

Simple Lil Side- Part 2

So many times I have the perfect protein idea for a tasty dinner but I'm laking a clean and healthy veggie side. This recipe is one of my go-to simple sides.  It tastes so fresh and flavorful and it stays true to the main ingredient- asparagus!  I don't like to overcook my veggies. I like when they still have a nice crunch.  However I also like the flavor of roasted veggies. In order to achieve both I roast my veggies for a lil then put them under the broiler for a few minutes at the end of cooking.  That way you can achieve the char from the broiler without having them be mush.

I start by snapping the ends off of about 20 asparagus.

Put them in a baking dish or on a sheet pan.

I pour some olive oil on them and mix them around with clean hands.

Then I add on some of the good stuff!

Lemon zest and juice, chopped up garlic, onion powder and salt and pepper.

I mix these together until everything is coated and the garlic is well dispersed. It has a tendency to fall to the bottom of the pan.

I roast this in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, mixing half way through then I broil these beauties for 1 minutes, mix and broil for one last minute. In the last minute of cooking sometimes I will top with mozzarella cheese! 

The garlic gets nice and soft and very mild and the lemon juice and olive oil blend together to make this wonderful sauce. The lemon zest melts into the sauce and mixes with the garlic- just wow. 

If you're looking for a simple side with only a few ingredients that tastes super fresh and will pair well with a lot of different proteins- try this!

Garlic & Lemon Asparagus- Serves 2 -

About 20 asparagus spears

1 lemon, zested then juiced- *always zest first*

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp olive oil

2-4 cloves of garlic- depending your preference

1/4 tsp onion powder

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Snap the ends off of the asparagus and place either on a sheet pan or in a baking dish. Coats spears in olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and onion powder. Mix well to get all the spears coated and the garlic well distributed. Put in the oven and let them roast for about 15-20 minutes mixing halfway through. Place under the broiler for 1 minute, mix and broil one more minute.  Once out of the oven mix the spears again and serve!

lil carb Lasagna

Oh how I love lasagna. It's one of my favorites!  I haven't had a piece of "traditional" lasagna in almost 2 years- don't be sad for me though! Since I love it so much I went to great lengths to create a lower carb version that is in pretty tight competition with the comfort food original. Although, I must confess...surprisingly, I didn't have to work too hard to make this dish lower carbs so the 'great lengths' I mentioned earlier are a lil exaggerated.  I started by subbing the lasagna noodles for zucchini that I sliced on a mandolin. After I did that I found that the rest of the ingredient were fairly low carb already.  I make my own marinara sauce but you could certainly use a jar of your favorite sauce. I also love a cheesy lasagna so there will be plenty of mozzarella in this version too!  Only thing missing is the garlic bread... if only I could make THAT low carb ha!  Maybe some day- a girl can dream right?!

There are 4 main parts to my lasagna: zucchini noodles, tomato sauce, cheese filling, and meat filling.

I started off by slicing zucchinis on a mandolin.  If you don't have a mandolin slice them thin and try to make them as uniform as possible. 

Zucchinis have a lot of water in them. If I cooked the zucchinis in the lasagna raw like this they would turn the bottom of the lasagna into soup.  How do I know this?  It has happened to me. So to make sure it doesn't happen to you- lay the zucchini slices on a paper towel and sprinkle them with salt.  Let them sit for at least 30 minutes and then place another paper towel on top and squish down on each slice to get the water out. 

While the zucchini is sitting I started on the protein for my lasagna.  Today I decided to use mild Italian sausage. Mmm- sausage is my favorite for adding into a lasagna and they sell it now already ground up without any casings which is the best- you just put it on the stove and brown it!  I must confess I may have sprinkled red pepper flake onto my sausage hehe.

Next component is the cheese filling. 

I added in ricotta cheese, garlic, an egg, grated mozzarella cheese, garlic salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried basil, crushed red pepper and onion powder.

I already had my sauce warming on low heat on the stove.

If you would like to try one of my sauce recipes go HERE!

-Nothing better than tomato sauce fog!-

So now that my 4 components are ready lets make a lasagna!

I start with sauce on the bottom.

Warning- this can get messy but no one will know because the baking dish gets filled to the top!

Next is a layer of zucchini strips.

Followed by a smoothed out layer of the cheese filling.

Then a layer of our browned sausage.

Next is the grated mozzarella!

Then you do it all over again...

For the top layer I add on a little more sauce and the rest of my cheese. 

Feel free to use more or less!

This gets popped into the oven and in about 40 minutes and a miracle happens!...

Beautiful! Gorgeous! Lasagna!!! 

Now.  Does this look like anything but a traditional lasagna?! You would never know! And if you try this recipe you might prefer it over the pasta version. After I eat this I don't feel sluggish or want to take a nap.  When dinners are low carb I'm still able to function after eating them. I used to hate feeling full and fat and blah after eating a really good meal. Now I can still enjoy the flavors of a tasty meal with a few tweeks to make it low carb. 

Lil Carb Lasagna: - Serves 4-6

15-20 zucchini slices, about 2 medium sized zucchinis

About 2 cups of marinara sauce or use MY SAUCE RECIPE 

4 oz mozzarella cheese, grated 

16 oz Italian sausage, hot or mild 

Cheese Filling:

15 oz ricotta cheese, I use whole milk ricotta

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 oz mozzarella, grated 

1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flake (optional)

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/8 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 egg, scrambled

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Heat sauce on low heat.  Brown sausage and drain off excess grease, set aside. Combine all cheese filling ingredients and mix well. Slice zucchinis on a mandolin or by hand and spread out on a paper towel, sprinkle with salt to get some of the moisture out. Let sit for at least 30 minutes and squeeze between two paper towel until most of the liquid feels like it is out. To assemble the lasagna I used an 8X8 square baking dish. Put enough sauce in the bottom to cover then top with zucchini slices.  Then half of the cheese filling followed by half of the sausage mixture.  Cover the sausage with half of the remaining mozzarella cheese. Repeat the steps again- sauce>zucchini slices>cheese filling>sausage>lil sauce then top with rest of the mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Just enough to get a nice cheese crust and bubbling sauce. 

Lil Breakfast, A Lotta Protein

I am not an egg person. Well, let me rephrase that.  I'm a cheesy eggs covered in ketchup with a stack of buttered rye toast kinda person.  Now that's my idea of eggs! Although a tasty breakfast, it's not low carb. I find eggs hard to eat without condiments and toast.  They are a great breakfast choice for a low carb diet however they are just not working for me.  But I can't skip breakfast or else I'm starving by 8:15 am and I throw off my metabolism for the whole day and no one wants to be around a hungry woman... not good. I came up with this breakfast idea from a pin I found on Pinterest. It was about adding spices to yogurt to make it into something else so I thought I could use greek yogurt and create a protein rich breakfast with healthy carbs that will satisfy me until my mid morning snack.  One of my favorite breakfast foods from before I was carb conscious was strawberry yogurt with granola. I liked there to be a 2-1 ratio, the 2 being the granola! This breakfast reminds me of that.  Caution: It is not overly sweet.  I think since I have cut way back on my sugar I don't notice it as much when things aren't as sweet.  But I noticed it in this breakfast.  You may want to add additional Trivia. That will do the trick to sweeten it right up!  You could sprinkle extra on the nuts as well as some right into the yogurt.

Here goes my Cinnamon Spiced Yogurt with Cinnamon Pecan faux-nola

I mixed Fage yogurt with pumpkin pie spice.  I also added in extra cinnamon.  It is in pumpkin pie spice but I just love the flavor I wanted that to be the overwhelming taste. At this point you could add Truvia to the yogurt.

I mixed it right in the tuber ware I was going to take to work.  I make one serving at a time but you could definitely make this in bulk and store it in the fridge!

So now that we have the yogurt flavored we need to make our faux-granola.

Nuts are so good for you and they are a great source of protein.  Today I used pecans but you could use almonds or walnuts too!  When I eat this breakfast it feels like I am eating granola. 

I melted a lil butter in a sauce pan then added in some cinnamon.  Off the heat I added my pecans then I swirled the pan around until all of the nuts were coated. 

Before roasting

I popped them into my toaster oven to roast for about 4 minutes then I let them cool on the sheet pan.  I put the nuts in their own tuber ware container and stored them in the fridge too! 

When I'm ready I poured the nuts over the yogurt, mixed and commenced breakfast!

After roasting

Cinnamon Faux-Nola - 1 Serving-

1/3 cup greek yogurt (I used Fage)

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice 

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 packet of Truvia (Optional)

Nut Topping- 2 Servings-

1/2 cup pecans, walnuts, or almonds, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp butter

1 tsp cinnamon, plus more to sprinkle

1 packet of Truvia (optional)

Mix the yogurt ingredients together and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt butter in a saucepan and add in cinnamon.  Remove from heat and add in the nuts. Shake the pan until all of the nuts are coated. Pour onto a sheet pan and roast for 4 minutes watching carefully that the nuts don't burn.  Let cool on the sheet pan. Sprinkle on additional cinnamon and Truvia. Then top the yogurt with half of the nut mixture. Reserve the rest of the nuts for tomorrow!

Simple Lil Side- Part 1

One of the things I wanted to continue to work on this year was to keep cooking fresh and flavorful food. That being said I keep trying to tell myself that recipes don't have to be complicated.  Sometimes I get it into my head that I need to create or find complicated recipes with a lot of ingredients- some obscure- for a meal to be "good".  But I need to remember that sometimes simple can be better and every day doesn't have to be a recipe with 20 steps.  

This time it was all about knowing what flavors go together and throwing them in a sauce pan and in mere minutes having a yummy creation.  I was searching through my fridge to find ingredients to make a side dish and I came across 4 simple items that ended up pairing well together.  I bet most people will have these veggies in their fridge. This side is healthy and low carb as well which is my main goal!  Plus its colorful and who doesn't love when their plate is colorful?! You eat first with your eyes, remember!

I started off with broccoli and a red pepper.  I cut them into bite size pieces.  

Then I chopped some garlic- I had elephant garlic on hand which if you have never had it- it is amazing- if you see it, try it!  I love garlic... a lot, so elephant garlic is perfect for me because I use it almost every day and it is huge cloves rather than a bunch of tiny ones.  It's also really great roasted in the oven! 

-Elephant garlic cloves-
*not my hands* ha

To my new Calphalon skillet- hehe- I added in some butter and once it heated up I added in my broccoli first. Jason and I like our veggies still pretty crispy when I serve them.  Mushy veggies seem sad to me so I like to keep them bright and colorful and a lil crunchy when I serve them.  You can taste as you go and adjust the cooking time to your families preferences.

Once the broccoli cooks for a few minutes I add in the peppers.  Give it a good mix then add in the garlic.  I cook that for a few minutes until the veggies soften just enough then I add in the green onion and cook another minute or so.  I sprinkle with sea salt and cracked black pepper and just like that you have a really healthy and beautiful side dish! I gobbled this up - I really did. I think I even ate from Jason's plate- Shhh. Sometimes a simple and fresh side dish that is easy to prepare is what makes me happy and it makes me remember that sometimes less ingredients is better. In this case is definitely is! Mmmm!

Broccoli Saute - Serves 2

1 medium head broccoli cut into small florets- you could use the stems too!

1 red pepper chopped into bite size pieces or strips

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

3 green onions, chopped

Salt and pepper

2 Tbsp butter

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and melt the butter.  Once it is fragrant add in the broccoli and sauce for about 2 minutes. Then add in the red pepper and garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add in 3/4 of the green onion and sauté for another minute or so until they wilt a lil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and the remaining green onions and serve!

Veggie Humor LOL