Sunday, March 10, 2013

Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up!

     It's that time again! Time to prove to myself that I did well sticking to a low carb lifestyle and that I'm not eating the same old thing day after day. 

      Last Sunday, after I posted my first Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up, I was feeling motivated and decided to make a little treat for myself and my co-worker for the next day. I've made this dessert before and I had pinned the recipe from sheknows.com


     Recipe

* 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
* 4 teaspoons Splenda
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
* Sugar-free Cool Whip (optional)
     
     Directions
1. Place whipping cream, Splenda, vanilla and cocoa powder in a blender or a bowl if you want to use a mixer as I did.
2. Blend or whip until creamy and smooth.
3. Spoon mixture into serving dish, or plastic container for travel to the office as I did.
4. If you want, top with Cool whip and sprinkle with cocoa powder.
5. Enjoy...delicious!

     Monday evening when I got home I had expected to marinate some chicken for about a half hour but my mom had made Pork Carnitas. I love Pork Carnitas. Usually when she makes them we have them in tacos. 

     She fries corn tortillas in oil until crispy but not crunchy, then we add the carnitas, lettuce, cheese, salsa and cotija cheese. But since I can't have the corn tortillas I made myself a Pork Carnita Salad. 


     See...almost the same thing as the tacos, just no fried corn tortillas. Did I miss the fried tortilla shells? Yes, I have to be honest, I did. But was I satisfied with this salad? Yes...and low carb. Lots of crunch even without the taco shells since I added yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced radishes, finely chopped celery and topped it all with some sour cream and about a tablespoon of my mom's salsa. I didn't even use any kind of dressing.

     I went ahead and marinated my chicken in this great product I was introduced to by my co-worker. McCormick's Grill Mates. 


     You just mix with some oil and water and then place your chicken in there and leave it for 30 minutes or more, I left it overnight and then in the morning before I left for work I wrapped it well in foil on a cookie sheet and when I got home I just popped it into the oven! 

     I almost had a catastrophe! See...it popped up too much. I've never had this happen, wondering if maybe it was the marinade that made this happen. Found out from my co-worker the next day that it's best to not cover it before putting it in the oven, so can't wait to try it again. 


     Here's the end result, it was so good! Moist and tender and very flavorful. Served it with some steamed broccoli and then I made a salad of bell peppers and Roma tomatoes marinated with a little Italian dressing and some dehydrated onion as I didn't have fresh. It was such a great meal!


     I had the left over chicken and broccoli for lunch the next day and it was even better!

     Also this week I had a great steak my mom made along with some zucchini squash she steamed and some green beans with tomato. I had some of the bell pepper and Roma tomato salad left so I threw it on top of my steak like a relish. Another great meal! I can't believe how easy and delicious it is to eat low carb!


     Friday I had not planned for as my sister and I usually go out to dinner on Friday nights and get caught up with our week. But this week she was suffering from allergies, plus she had a birthday party to attend. So I stopped at Von's Grocery Store for their 5 for $5 fish meal. I added the left over zucchini ..I love left overs. My mom and daughter don't eat left overs but I think food gets better the next day. I also purchased a great e-book and made my own home-made low carb Tartar Sauce. 


     I couldn't believe that homemade tartar sauce would be so good but it was much better than store bought. The e-book I bought was from Mellissa Sevigny from ibreatheimhungry.com

     So simple to make too!

* 1/4 cup mayonnaise
* 1 tablespoon dill relish
* 1 teaspon prepared mustard
* 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine in a small bowl and serve alongside your fish..mmmmm! I highly recommend buying the book! It's called The Gluten Free Low Carber and you can buy it HERE

     Last week I also mentioned I was going to try to make the low carb crackers with Pepper Jack Cheese and I'm so glad I did, they are delicious !! Really satisfy that craving for chips and/or crackers! And you have those tiny little bits of jalapeno in there. These took a little bit longer to cook in the microwave  American cheese took 60 seconds but I had to cook these an additional 60 seconds. 


     So lets see what new things I can try this coming week or what old things I can reinvent low carb. Have a good week everyone!

 

9 comments:

  1. Fantastic, they all look great, especially the chocolate mousse! :)

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    1. Oh the mousse was fabulous and I don't even like chocolate that much!

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  2. I like your use of all the veggies, that steak dish looks lovely and I don't really care for steak, although the fact that you actually cooked it helps immensely. I can't tolerate a steak bleeding all over my plate.

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    1. That's my mom's idea of how a steak should be cooked, me I love it just a bit pink in the middle so you get the juices all over your plate, pretty much the opposite of how you like it.

      Oh man, last night I made a pork tenderloin that was so good it makes you wanna slap your mamma!

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    2. "get the juices all over your plate, pretty much the opposite of how you like it."

      I figured as much, I thought when I saw that picture, I bet she didn't cook that steak. Red in tooth and claw, carnivore!

      Well I hope you don't cook your pork tenderloins with a bit a pink or you are going to be Ms. Trichinosis. One of my great fears as a child, I would get the pork chop (which I hated) that wasn't cooked quite through and I would be bed ridden with trichinosis for my whole life then die some miserable death with worms crawling through my brain. Almost as bad as robin poop. My other great fear was that I was going to die of spontaneous human combustion. Just inexplicably burst into flames in a blaze of glory and die from burning inside out. I wasn't the least bit frightened of getting killed in a car accident. But trichinosis and spontaneous combustion were going to get me.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion

      I would probably be well advised to avoid baked beans. Bear that in mind when you drink all those margaritas on Cinco de Mayo.

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    3. I do love my meat medium rare and juicy! But the pork was done to perfection. I'm learning a lot about different foods. I realized I don't like Kale, at least not Kale chips...yuck!

      I can't believe you were scared of trichinosis and spontaneous human combustion. I mean being scared of monsters under the med or spiders or snakes...but those fears of your are pretty specific. I can't remember being scared of anything when I was a kid.

      That was a pretty gross wiki link :(

      Thanks for the reminder that Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner. My dad's birthday is the 4th of Mayo or Cuatro de Mayo.

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  3. It all looks so delicious. Yo are finally putting those cookbooks to use.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, no sense buying them if you aren't going to use them.

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  4. Looks like you are coming up with some good things for your low carb. I tried some pizza recently made with a crust of crumled cauliflower, cheese and egg which you bake first. It was really good. Sometimes for a wrap sandwich I make a crepe with an eggwhite or whole egg. I wonder if you could somehow take that and make it crispier for a taco type thing?

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Please leave a comment.I would love to know your thoughts!