This simple dish can be served over rice, noodles or just wrapped up in lettuce. Alot of recipes call for frying the chicken first, but I didn’t want the breading on it so I left it alone. It’s best if you can use dark meat but white will work if you prefer.

• 2-3 pounds chicken, cut into strips or bite size chunks, peppered to taste
• 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar (not packed)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger or about a 1″ chunk if you measure like me
• 1/2 cup cashew, adjust to your preference

I generously dusted the chicken with pepper (no salt, the soy sauce is very high) and tossed it in the slow cooker. I mixed everything except the cashews, together in a separate bowl and poured on top of the chicken. I cooked on high for about 3 hours and left it on warm for an hour. When I put it over to warm I added the cashews. Give them a quick mix and cover. You can add sliced scallions on top for a nice finish.

I originally saw this on the Recipe Critic and have adapted it to my own neeeds.

I like food that you can serve in a bowl. It catches all the little bits and you don’t have to chase everything around the plate. There is no escape, I can catch every last pea. I don’t like letting food get away.

This dish was lovely for a few reasons. First, it easily fits into my preferred low carb way of eating and second, it look only 20 minutes to make from start to finish. My husband liked it so much that he asked me to put it in the “regular rotation”.

chicken with honey mustard cream sauce

• 4 chicken breasts cut in half lengthwise. You will want a total of 8 thin pieces. salt and pepper to taste2 Tablespoon olive oil
  1/2 cup chicken stock
• Swanson’s Flavor boost- This is totally optional, I just put it here because I used it with great success in this dish
• 1/2 tsp dried herbs- I used a mix of Italian spices and basil
• 4 tablespoon course mustard- I used a spicy deli mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey

Start by adding the oil to the pan and heat. Add the chicken when it’s good and hot. You want to brown these lightly on each side and then remove from the pan. This should only take 3 minutes per side. You don’t want to overcook your chicken.

• Once you have removed the chicken add the stock and flavor booster , mustard, herbs and whisk.
• Add the heavy cream, whisk again. Finally add your honey and whisk it through.
• At this point, add the chicken back into the pot, cover and simmer for 5 minutes on LOW.

Done. I paired this with buttered peas and simple red potatoes.

I originally saw this recipe on Let’s Dish and have since changed it up to suite my needs.

Cold days call for soups and stews. Really anything you can ladle into a bowl is perfect for us. Today we are doing Chicken and Dumplings. We make this in the crock pot so we have time to do other, more important things like make snow angels and have snowball fights.

Add the following to the crock pot:

• 1 Quart (4 cups) of good chick broth or stock
• 1 oz cream cheese- we use the block kind but you can use the cooking cream too
• 1 chopped sweet potato
• 1 stalk celery
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1/2 large onion, peeled and diced
• 1 large can of cream of chicken soup or 2 smaller cans- there are plenty of organic options that work well.
• 1/2 teaspoon curry- this is totally optional. We enjoy a hint of curry. At this little amount, it will NOT taste like curry, it just leaves a layer of flavor that works well with this dish
• 1/2 to 1 tsp dried basil (any herb or herb mix will work)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp of pepper
• 1/2 cup milk with 3 tablespoons flour that has been whisked together
• 2 chicken breasts diced into small bite size pieces

Give it a good mix to get things blended. Don’t worry if the cream cheese is in a chunk. In a few hours when everything is getting heated, give it another mix and the cream cheese will be melty. By the end of the cooking time, it will be incorporated well. Let cook about 5 hours.

To make the dumplings do the following:

• Melt 6 Tablespoons butter with 1/2 cup warm milk (just nuke long enough to take the cold edge off)

To the liquid add the following:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 stalks green onions sliced thin

Don’t over mix. The batter will be wet and sticky. Drop small spoonfuls onto the boiling stew. Do this gently, you want them to float around the top. Cover and leave it alone for an hour.

No one is ever going to accuse this dish of being beautiful but it sure is tasty. While I would like to say that I’m super organized and using a slow cooker is something that helps me streamline my busy day, that is not the case today. I have recently discovered the TV show American Horror Story and I’m watching the entire second season over a few days. I just couldn’t do that AND make an elaborate dinner, now could I? Thankfully my family didn’t much mind and I got to finish this series. Thank goodness, I wasn’t getting anything else done.

Get our your slow cooker and do the following:

Cut 2 pounds flank steak into strips and dip in corn starch (this will thicken the sauce). Place the strips in the slow cooker.

Add one onion and green pepper, also cut into strips.

Add the sauce on top, cover and cook. We cooked this for five hours and put this on top of rice and added a side of roasted asparagus.

For the sauce mix the following ingredients together before adding to the slow cooker:

• 3/4 cup soy sauce (low sodium is fine)
• 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped or minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped or minced
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 or 2 whole carrots, peeled and shredded (we used a cheese grater)
• 4 green onions, chopped

style=”float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-top:5px; border:1px grey solid”I originally saw a recipe similar to this on Pinterest but I didn’t like the look of it so I wanted to create something similar but very different. I like the idea of comfort food but increasingly I find I can’t indulge because of what are in many of the convenience type foods. Take the croissants in this recipe. Originally I thought I could never try this because I can’t (won’t) buy your typical roll of processed dough. Fresh Market saved the day with a brand that I could live with. I used two containers for this recipe.

For the filling
1 large onion chopped (we used Vidalia)
1 large red bell pepper chopped
1 clove of garlic minced
1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 oz cream cheese (we used the cooking cream cheese)
1 tablespoon butter (we used an Irish salted butter)
chopped chicken (2 breasts)
chicken stocTo start place the chopped onion and pepper and garlic in a pan with a little butter or oil and cook until they are to your liking. When done, turn off the burner and let cool completely. Once the chicken is done add everything else in this pan and mix well. At this point check for seasonings. You may need to add more salt. While I didn’t do it, you can add other things at this point like some fresh rosemary, maybe a little curry or just leave it as is.

Take two large chicken breasts and put them in a pot that was half water, half chicken stock plus a teaspoon of salt. Don’t skip the salt. The water will season the chicken better than adding it later . Bring the pot with the chicken in it to a boil. Let continue to boil for ONE minute and then turn if off. Let it sit for a good 20 minutes. Pull from the water and shred or chop into small bits. You do not want to overcook the chicken this way so don’t be tempted to keep it boiling.

Before we rolled our little pockets of goodness, I used a rolling pin to flatten the dough of the croissants. Don’t go crazy with this but it

helps make a big enough space to work with. We put a heaping tablespoon onto each triangle of dough and then rolled up (see pictures).

For the sauce:
1 can of cream of chicken soup (we used an organic soup)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup of your favorite cheese, shredded (we used a blend of four cheeses)
1/4 cup milk (this is optional depending on the type of soup you use. If it’s very concentrated you will need the milk, otherwise you can skip it or adjust if it looks too thick)
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
Any leftover chicken filling (we had about 1/2 cup left over)

For the sauce we just mixed all the above ingredients in a bowl. Again, I think this would really benefit from some curry but I chickened out. We put curry in our chicken pot pie and it’s fabulous, I should have added a half teaspoon here. Mix everything together, adding more milk if it looks really thick. It should not be as thin as a soup would be and we left ours thick. Once you have this is mixed put 1/2 cup in the bottom of the casserole dish and then place your pockets of chicken on top of that. We used a 9×11 baking pan and 2 cans of croissants fix perfectly. If you want to you can just dump it all on top but I wanted to see the croissants and be able to gauge that they were cooked through so I ladled it all around and in between everything. If you want sprinkle with more cheese.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

One would think that because I run a blog, I would automatically be blogging about everything I cook or bake. Not so. In fact, it was a friend to brought it to my attention that I needed to add this one to the site. I guess I never thought about it because I don’t really follow a recipe. My family loves this because you can eat it as a roast (which we did tonight) or you can shred it and make the most wonderful sammiches. Think hoagie rolls and melted cheese.

You will need a few basic things.
A chuck roast. Don’t try and use a “better” cut because you want the fat and flavor. If you can get it on the bone, even better. We used one that was just under 4 pounds and I am feeding four adults. We’ll have enough for lunch for a few people tomorrow assuming we can all keep from fighting over it.

To start, sprinkle the roast liberally with garlic powder, paprika and pepper. You are going to sear it on both sides. I don’t add herbs because if you burn them during searing they tend to get bitter. If the pot (we use a dutch oven and cook all in one pot on the stove top) is nice and hot you only need four to five minutes on each side.

Once it has a nice brown crust, add the following right to the pot (you can also transfer everything to the crock pot):
1 bottle of beer (We used Fosters Premium Ale but you can use anything you have one hand, even Miller Lite)
1 cup chicken stock
1 small onion, chopped

Bring to a boil and then turn it down to a low simmer. Let cook a good three hours, turning over once.

Once it’s fork tender remove from the heat. What I do at this point is simple. Remove the roast to a plate and pour the juice (there should be about a cup and half) into a fat strainer or you can do as we do, a measuring cup. We use a small ladle and skim most of the fat from the top. Put aside.

In order to make this gravy, like most, you will need to start with a rue. This is intimidating for many people but if you follow three simple rules, you can master this. You need a fat (I am using butter for this) and flour.
1. Use equal amounts butter and flour
2. Melt the butter first, THEN add the flour and whisk
3. Keep whisking for about a minute until it is nice and bubbly

Once you reach this point, pour in slowly the liquid you previously strained. We also add about 1/2 cup UN-SWEETENED Almond Milk. I know this might sound odd, but you cannot tell the difference however milk can easily be substituted. We just try and keep dairy out when possible. Taste before adding any salt, it’s usually perfect. If it’s too salt, just add a touch more milk. Keep whisking and bring to a simmer for a few minutes. Done.

It’s probably disingenuous of me to suggest that cauliflower in any state could replace my beloved mashed potatoes so perhaps I should just offer this as a different option. This is simple and delightfully good. If you are not used to working with cauliflower, it tends to be stinky but the final dish does not taste as strong as it smells.

Cauliflower puree, a low carb exchange for mashed potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 medium to large head of cauliflower cut down into chunks.
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1/4 cup buttermilk and half and half mix (see notes below)
• a good dash of salt and pepper
• 1/3 cup cheese (we used sharp cheddar)
• 1 clove of garlic

Start by boiling the cauliflower and garlic until fork tender. Mine spent about 15 minutes boiling.

While this is going on add the following to a blender:

• buttermilk/ half and half mixture
• cheese
• salt
• pepper
• butter

Once the cauliflower is done cooking drain it well and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes. Add it to the blender (you can leave in the clove of garlic). Use the puree setting for about 10 seconds. You will probably have to do what I did and give it a mix a few times throughout to get it well blended. (Always stop the blender before doing this) Taste for salt and pepper, add more if you need.

That’s it! Now for a few side notes. This simple recipe is just perfect for experimenting. Add in more seasoning, maybe add some onions to cooking cauliflower and garlic, use all half and half if buttermilk is not your thing. Buttermilk does have carbs so be careful with how much you add.

When I used the blender, my cauliflower was still very warm so I only loosely held the lid on top. Never secure the lid on your blender with something that is steaming, you are asking for trouble.

This recipe, although I have changed it, originally came from the skinnytaste blog. Thank you for helping me find something to eat instead of potatoes.

The more I look info food and experiment with what we eat, the more shocking the conclusions. For example, although I grew up drinking serious amounts of milk and my own son is addicted to it, I firmly believe that the milk we drink (in America) is not only bad for you but harmful. We have all but stopped drinking it and for some of us the effects are huge. My son, who has suffered from severe acne for years (the kind that require constant anti-biotics to cure which only cause further issues), stopped drinking milk at my request. His acne went away. He struggles with keeping milk (and other forms of dairy) out of his diet but the effects of cutting it out for him were drastic. We is also losing weight.

I always wondered, why we give our children the milk of another animal. An animal by the way that is pumped full of chemicals to keep it producing milk when it should not be. I used to live in Europe and the milk there is very different. It is shelf stable, meaning you buy it in cardboard (recycled) boxes and store it on your shelf. Once you open it, you put it in the refrigerator. They are one liter in size. They use a different process (UHT) but I’m not going to bother going into that now. The struggle however was to find ways to get by without milk. We have incorporated it into so many things.

So this brings me to my original post idea, smoothies. For us, the point of a smoothie is a quick way to get some vital nutrients in. This is an easy “plug and play” smoothie and something that is GOOD for you. I should note that we use organic berries here. I think this is important for soft flesh fruit particularly strawberries and blueberries. I’m dangerously close to going off on another rant about chemicals but I’ll reel it in…..

One thing you will notice that we put in our smoothies is oil. I know this is going to be odd for many people but try it at least once. You won’t know it’s there. There is alot of research to back up the claim that incorporating oil (not in your food, we’re going for non heated oil) is very beneficial. I use different kinds. I keep on hand walnut oil, flax oil, avocado oil and safflower oil. Safflower oil in particular is high in antioxidants.  If you are eating a balanced diet, don’t let the calories or fat content freak you out. People NEED fat. I’m not suggesting you drink this stuff by the cup but a teaspoon a day will not hurt you or add to your waistline.

Throw the following things in your blender, feel free to substitute what fruit you have on hand although I would not use acidic things like lemons or oranges.

• 3 ice cubes (or the crushed ice equivalent)[
• 3-4 strawberries, halved (remove the tops)
• 1/3 banana (optional of course)
• Small handful of blueberries
• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 1/2 to 1 cup almond milk

You’ll notice we use almond milk. It’s very tasty and works well with this type of application. We never use the kind with soy (yet another thing I think we should not consume, processed soy). We use unsweetened but you will find that even if you choose the sweetened version it’s lower in calories than milk and has more calcium. Win!

So there you go, blend for at least 30 seconds and enjoy. We start our day with this almost every day. We feel better and are not starving an hour later and there is zero guilt involved.

I know they say that making spaghetti sauce is the easiest thing in the world but I would be willing to bet that it is intimidating for many people, myself included. I also don’t like just opening a jar of something and serving it. So this is something I have worked on and I get rave reviews every time. It’s a great way to clear out some of those vegetables too.

This is what we use:

about 1/3 cup of diced onion
1 or 2 cloves garlic either finely minced or crushed
2 tablespoon finely diced bell pepper (we prefer red but any color will do)
2 Tablespoon oil (I prefer olive)
2 large Italian sausage links, casings removed
1/2 cup wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup tomato sauce
fresh herbs if you have them (we love basil)
1/2 teaspoon seasoning
any jar of red pasta sauce (at least 24 oz)

First, a few notes:

• This sauce is easy to mix and match depending on what you have to use up. You don’t have to use sausage for example. If you have left over ground beef from the night before, use it! IF you don’t have bell pepper but you have some carrots and celery or even mushrooms that you need to use, great! We just always have onions and peppers so that is our go to vegetable for many dishes.

• Regarding fresh tomatoes- we always have tomatoes that have to be used up. Whether it’s half a tomato left over from burgers the night before or like this week, I have half a pint of grape tomatoes left over from when I made bruschetta. Any kind of tomato will do.

• Seasoning and herbs- again, this is just what is on hand. I use a Goya seasoning, it’s one of our favorite go to items in the pantry. But use whatever you like, garlic seasoning, lawry’s seasoning salt… whatever. The herbs again are whatever you like. We always have basil growing and I try and keep the rosemary and scallions alive. For this dish we prefer the basil. It adds a note that is just divine.

• Start with one jar of sauce. I usually buy what I consider to be a better sauce, not the big brands that tend to be sweet and full of sugar. I typically use Marinara but you can get any flavor really. If you have several half jars in the fridge like we do, just use those. This is a mix and match kind of thing and you can easily add a little more of this, less of that….

Start with a medium sauce pan and heat up your oil. Add your onion, bell pepper and garlic and plenty of fresh cracked pepper. You can even add a pinch of salt. Cook until they begin to brown. At this point the pan might begin to look dry. This is when I add the wine and “deglaze”. Give that about 30 seconds or so to hang out and then add your ground meat and 1/2 teaspoon seasoning.

Once you add the meat, use a potato masher on it. I have found this to be the most effective way to crumble up any kind of ground meat. Plus, I want the vegetables and wine to be well incorporated in there. It’s ok to get the onions all mashed up, you want the sauce to meld together. I do not drain the fat once it is cooked. There is not that much to worry about and the it adds great flavor. If you drain this mixture you will drain all the goodness from the vegetables and wine.

When the meat is cooked mostly through add your chopped tomato, chicken stock, tomato sauce plus the jar of sauce and any fresh herbs. Let come to a simmer. The sauce may look thin but you are going to let it simmer on low (tomatoes burn easily so keep it on low and check it often) for about an hour. If it gets too thick for you just add more stock.

Your sauce is done. We have used this as a spaghetti sauce, in lasagna and with stuffed shells. It’s just a great way to take something that is typically blah (store bought  sauce)  and make it your own.

 Warning* Those looking for a low fat soup, stop now. If however you like beer, cheese and bacon and don’t mind the fattening part, this may be the post for you. While usually I eat more vegetables and lean meat and fish when I cut out sugar, today is not that day. Everyone needs comfort food, especially me.

Generally speaking, beer and cheese soup is a “low carb” food assuming you stick to portion sizes…. but if you’re anything like me, you want to eat half the pot. I wanted to find other ways to thicken the soup without adding flour. This recipe worked for me and it comes out to approx 6 carbs per cup which basically means  that instead of eating half the pot, I can eat the whole thing.

8 slices of bacon (or more if you prefer)
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cup celery
1 1/2 cup carrot
1 1/2 cup onion
1 teaspoon pepper (fresh cracked if possible)
Bottle of your favorite beer, preferably around 12oz.
6 oz colby jack, shredded
4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
4 oz cream cheese
2 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 1/4 cup heavy cream (Don’t think about it, just do it)
1/4 cup chicken stock with 1/2 tsp xanthan gum whisked in
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
Lots more cracked pepper

Cook the bacon until crispy. I cut them into little pieces before I cook them. Add 1/2 teaspoon pepper as they are cooking. Reserve 3 tsp bacon fat when they are done. Drain the bacon bits and set aside.

Chop the onion, carrots, garlic and celery and sautee until tender. Put aside to cool.

Add the vegetables and 1/4 cup chicken stock to the blender and blend for about 45 seconds. They don’t need to be completely cool but you don’t want to try blending hot things. It ends badly. Add a little more stock if you need to get it moving. Add the softened cream cheese and blend for another 30 seconds or so, the more you blend the smoother it will be.

Add the puree mixture back to the pot and put on a medium low temperature. Whisk in the chicken stock and beer. Add the xanthan gum mixture and whisk until smooth.

Add another 1/4 teaspoon cracked pepper and the reserved bacon fat. Don’t leave this out! Remember, most traditional beer and cheese soup recipes call for quite a bit of butter so even with the addition of the bacon fat, you’re still ahead.

Let this heat up, but check and whisk often.

After it starts to get bubbly, bring the soup down to low and add the cheese and slowly whisk in the cream. You could probably cut some calories and fat by using half and half but honestly, this is BACON and CHEESE soup, live a little. Add the bacon pieces, salt and mustard and simmer on low until everything melds. The soup really only needs maybe 10 minutes but DON’T neglect it, you don’t want it to scald.

Taste and adjust your salt. Garnish with a little cheese, some more bacon (can you really ever have too much?) or scallions.