Pepper Jack Zoodles

What the heck is a Zoodle you may be asking yourself! Well it's a simple little Zucchini Noodle I make using my Veggetti. Ok, now you're probably asking what the heck is a Veggetti???

Let me explain and show you how I made this yummy dish right here.

This is super simple...first you buy one of these. You can find them on Amazon for a great price or usually any stores that has the "as seen on TV" displays. There are several other different kinds of vegetable noodle makers out there but this one works great and doesn't take up a lot of valuable kitchen space. Easy to clean too!

Veggetti on Amazon.com

Then you buy a zucchini (not pictured as we all know what a zucchini looks like right?)

Then you do this.

Here's a few tips. Wash the zucchini first and dry it so it won't be slippery as an eel and you end up noodling part of your finger in there... just saying! Also if you want super long noodles, just leave the zucchini as is. For shorter noodles cut lengthwise being careful not to slice the zucchini in half.

Once you have your Zoodles (Zucchini Noodles) place them in a microwave safe bowl and heat for about 30 seconds. Then take one or two depending on how much you are making and how creamy your want it, Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges, there's no science to this, just do what makes you happy! Place the cheese wedge in the bowl and heat again for 30 seconds, take out and stir and keep heating in 30 minute increments until it's all melty, ooey, gooey, cheesy! Then serve alongside your favorite protein. Today I had mine with left over Thanksgiving Ham!

Oh, another tip, Pepper Jack when it's heated is kinda spicy! So don't say I didn't warn you. But of course there are so many other flavors of Laughing Cow Cheese. There's Creamy Original, Swiss Garlic and Herb, Queso Fresco Chipotle, White Cheddar, Creamy Mozzarella Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil and French Onion. Most of them have only one carb per wedge. I plan to try these Zoodles again with one of each!

So here's another easy peasy low-carb/high fat side dish for when you don't have a lot of time. I Veggettied this in the morning before I left for work and heated it at the office! I'm all about the easy!

 

Thanksgiving 2015

So I'm sure you're all wondering how my first low carb/high fat Thanksgiving went and did I stick to the plan. I'm happy to announce that I sure as heck did!

Of course it's not that hard to stay low carb on Thanksgiving because the main event of the meal are pure protein.

But those side dishes!!! Mashed potatoes with gravy, rolls with butter, dressing made with cornbread and/or bread, pumpkin pies, breads, rolls!

Luckily I have help in my WOE (way of eating)! My mom made for me a special low carb stuffing alongside the regular stuffing she made for the rest of the family. As luck would have it I did not get a picture of it, but she took the ground beef she had browned and put about two cups into a separate pan. She added chopped bell pepper, green onion and celery. When I saw what she was doing I gave her a big hug and then I added some chopped cauliflower. She added the chicken broth and when it was almost done I added about a cup of chopped pecans! It was delish and I didn't even miss the bread! It had a nutty rich, crunchy texture and that wonderful bell pepper/celery/green onion taste that I love!

I also made a low carb version of cranberry sauce, this one from Gourmet Girl Cooks. It's a Cranberry Orange Coconut Sauce. Her picture is much prettier than mine, but it still tasted delicious! Some of my family members that swore they did not like cranberry sauce tasted it and loved it.

As I am not one to love feeling left out I made a low carb pumpkin dessert for me to enjoy while the rest of the family enjoyed the regular pumpkin pies that I made. The recipe for this I found on the most awesome low carb site ever!!! Linda's Low Carb Menus or genaw.com

This website is a staple for almost all low carb eaters. I've enjoyed many of her recipes and they always turn out perfectly! The recipe I chose was Jody's Pumpkin Bake and it was better than real pumpkin pie! Again, those that tasted it had a slice of this instead of the regular pumpkin pies I had baked. I added a dollop of whipped cream and then had the bright idea to top it with slivered almonds which gave it a delightful crunch and a nutty flavor!

So these dishes along with some green beans sauteed in bacon fat with almonds were so satisfying that I didn't even miss the rolls or the mashed potatoes. I had planned to make a cauliflower mash but time got away from me and it's hard to make room in a kitchen when there was already so many other foods being prepared.

So it was a great Thanksgiving spent with family and I'm glad I didn't give in to temptation, in fact, I wasn't even tempted! Now we'll see how I cope with Christmas as that is when we make and eat Tamales and it's really hard to find a low carb method of making those since three quarters of the tamale is made with corn masa. But I'm not worried, I'll figure something out!

     

Easy Low Carb Lunches

With my Low Carb/High Fat way of eating I find that I am more successful when I spending time prepping my lunches and planning my dinners.

But sometimes life gets in the way or I run out of steam and I just don't want to think about or plan a menu for a week of breakfast, lunches and dinners.

Luckily I noticed these little pouches of different flavors of tuna at our local Wal-Mart a week ago. I've bought the regular tuna in pouches and found them to be convenient and just as good as tuna in a can. So I bought three different flavors and I had them for lunch last week, one on Thursday, Friday and one today.

**Thursday: StarKist Tuna Creations, Hot Buffalo Style
I bought this one because I love buffalo wings. I use Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce a lot and I love spicy foods so I was really looking forward to this one.

Photo Credit - StarKist

I ate it plain and simple with just some celery and blended in a dollop of mayonnaise. If you are someone that loves to drench your fish in lemon juice then this is the flavor for you. I unfortunately am not one of those people so this was way to lemony for me. Not sure why either because the list of ingredients didn't even name lemon! This was ok, but I will not be buying it again!

**Friday: StarKist Kid's Creations - Bacon Ranch Flavor
I bought this one because I love bacon and I love ranch and because it was for kids and it looked like they are serving it in a taco!

Photo Credit - StarKist

I ate this one the same as I ate the buffalo one, just celery and a dollop of mayo which you can barely see in the photo above. It was good, I enjoyed it and will be buying it again! I didn't really taste bacon or ranch very strongly but it did have good flavor!

**Today: StarKist Gourmet Selects - Mexican Style Tuna
I bought this one because c'mon, I'm Mexican and I love spicy. I loved the idea of having jalapeno peppers in there!

Photo Credit - StarKist

I really liked this one, it had a nice spicy bite. Not so hot that you can't eat it but you could definitely tell there was jalapeno in there. And for having Sunflower Oil in these it was still fairly dry but had a good texture.

Of course I did dress it up a bit adding some sliced avocado, mayo and dill pickle relish and served it alongside a hard boiled egg. I probably could have taken all the ingredients and mixed them together but it made for a prettier serving this way.

These pouches are 2 carbs each and they are 97 cents, so they are a great quick lunch or snack and I will be buying them again. Not the buffalo one but the other two.  I want to try these two flavors as well.

Photo Credit - StarKist

So if you are looking for a quick low carb food give these a try and let me know what you think!

                 

I Can't Adult Today

This is how I feel today!

Remember how when we were kids we just wanted to be grown up? To be like our parents, no one telling you what to do, what to eat, when to go to bed? Ahhh, that was the dream.

Well I'm living the dream folks and gotta say, "It's not all it's cracked up to be!"

Not too long ago my car died. I think this was back in April. So I had to get a new car. After more than 10 years of having no car payment, I had a car payment!

Then our cooler caught on fire on August, we were lucky that we caught it before it caused damage to the roof or burned the whole house down, but I had to get a new cooler!

And now...our refrigerator has given out! So tomorrow it's refrigerator shopping! When it rains it pours.

I guess everyone in my household is getting a refrigerator for Christmas! Hahaha! Oh well, what can you do. Take the hits as they come and keep on keeping on, right?

But sometimes it does suck to be an adult and I remember back to when I couldn't wait to be an adult. Can you imagine all the problems that my parents had and on top of that they had to deal with me? I guess I can't complain.

     

Doing Thanksgiving Day Low Carb Style

I can't believe that November is almost over! Next week will be Thanksgiving already. How time flies!

And speaking of Thanksgiving being next week I have to admit I'm a bit worried about what to eat. You see...my mom makes the best stuffing/dressing on the planet. I love her stuffing, it's my whole reason for living! But as all good stuffing is, it's made with bread and bread is one of the item that I don't eat in my new way of eating, LCHF (low carb/high fat).  So I've been researching ideas in my head of how to have a Happy Low-Carb Thanksgiving.

The Turkey and Ham are a given, luckily I can have that without too much worry. The ham may have a syrup glaze on it so of course I would need to be more careful with that. But what about all those lovely sides? Buttery mashed potatoes drenched in gravy, stuffing made with bread and those fluffy soft dinner rolls that we all love to slather with butter. Then there are the pies and cheesecakes and cookies and pumpkin breads! What's a low carb girl to do?

I am not a foodie, I don't invent foods or make tweaks to current recipes to transform them to low carb, but lots of others do. There are hundreds of bloggers and foodies out there that love to share their ideas. This is the best time ever to be a low-carb eater!

My mom's stuffing, that is my kryponite! That is what will be the hardest to stay away from. I have promised myself a small helping in the morning while mom is making it. Just 1/4 of a cup. I'm not even going to try to figure out how many carbs will be in that 1/4 of a cup I'm just going to eat it and savor it and be extremely grateful that my mom is still with me and able to make stuffing for me again!

However, I am also going to make this lower carb version from Davida of The Healthy Maven blog,  Cauliflower Rice Stuffing from The Healthy Maven.

Cauliflower Rice Stuffing from The Healthy Maven

Doesn't that look delicious? The stuff that looks like bread...that's cauliflower! This sounds so amazing, it also uses yellow onion, garlic, celery, mushrooms, pecans, sage poultry seasoning, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. I'm not a big fan of the mushroom so I think I will leave that out. Mom makes her stuffing by using ground beef, I know lots of others use sausage, to I will replace the mushrooms with ground beef. One serving made with the ground beef instead of the mushrooms will be close to 8 carbs.

Photo Credit - Ocean Spray.com 

Another favorite of mine is the cranberry sauce. You're all going to shake your head at me and "tsk-tsk" me because I love and adore canned cranberry sauce, both the jellied and non-jellied version. Hey! It's what I know, it's what I was brought up on! Love this stuff!

Unfortunately it's a bit high in carbs as well as it's made with sugar and high fructose corn syrup. 1/4 of a cup will be 28 carbs.

So I have been searching high and low for an alternative as I really do love this stuff on my turkey!.

I came across this recipe that was also shared on The Healthy Mavens blog but is a creation of Gina from the blog Running to the Kitchen.

This is 5-ingredient slow cooker Cranberry Sauce. Best thing it's slow cooked, so you can prep it, set it and forget it! This will lower the carb count to about 8 per serving. I will miss my canned jellied cranberry sauce though!

What I will be on the hunt for next is something to replace my pumpkin pie! That was even hard to type, but it must be done. For those of you that have been following my low carb journey, I have now lost 23 pounds. I feel so great and I am having so much fun fitting into my skinny clothes again! Yay me! So yes, I could splurge, I could do a cheat day, but looking at these yummy recipes above, why would I want to when I can substitute with equally fulfilling and delicious dishes?

What is your favorite Thanksgiving food that you can't live without?

 

Our Halloween and October in a Nutshell

Well today is the 1st day of November and October was a blur! Not sure why starting in October the day's just fly by!

But it was a great month. The weather is finally feeling a little bit fallish, even though today is back to 82 and sunny.

We had some great times this month. We had Baby J all to ourselves one Saturday so we took her for a walk in the neighborhood! She loves to walk the dogs, even though you can tell in this picture that Chorizo is not too sure about Baby J walking her!

We also were lucky in finding my cousin Art outside cleaning out his Koi Pond. Baby J loves the beautiful fish and I thought she would be scared of them but she had no problem petting them! Child has no fear! You can see that her grandmother who Baby J calls Nini is full of fear, fear of Baby J falling into the pond! See her grabbing the back of J's shirt? 

After our walk we headed to the Little Bear Pumpkin Patch. There is nothing like seeing the holidays through the eyes of a little one! She loved it and we loved watching her!

Baby J and I in a pumpkin cutout!

Baby J and I and my mom. Baby J is my moms only great granddaughter.

Baby J and her Nini at the Pumpkin Patch!

Then last night of course was Halloween and Baby J came trick or treating to our house. The funny thing is she tried to give us her candy, silly baby! She looked adorable as Minnie Mouse and she loved Chorizo's costume, a big red lobster!

And now we're in November. Thanksgiving, changing of the leaves, football and hopefully more Baby J awaits!