Ground Turkey and Peppers

One thing that I really love about eating low carb/high fat is that there are so many others doing the same thing. And many of these people are actually talented cooks that come up with new and different recipes.

I found this great low carber that makes videos of herself preparing low carb dishes. I watched one of her videos last night and tonight I made my version of Cooking Keto with Kristie's Skillet Taco Bake.

I'm actually calling mine Ground Turkey and Peppers because I didn't exactly stick with her recipe even though hers looked really good!

I started out almost with the same thing. I browned a pound of ground turkey to which I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and Ancho Chile Powder. I'll be honest and tell you that I didn't measure which is very unlike me. I think I'm learning how to improvise in cooking!

I then added some sliced bell peppers. My brother Fred dropped off a big bag of red peppers straight from the field! They still had dirt on them. So I washed and diced them and some of them were multi-colored and were such beautiful colors. I also diced up about a quarter of a medium size white onion and add that also and stirred for about 5 to 6 minutes.

Then I opened a can of Rotel Lime and Cilantro flavored diced tomatoes and added about half. Tomatoes have sugar so try to limit how many you use.

At this point I had cream cheese and monterey jack cheese ready to add but the dish just looked so good and fresh with just the peppers and onions that I decided not to add the cheeses and it was just delicious!

I topped it with some shredded Monterrey jack cheese and cilantro just for the picture but then took it off and just ate it without and it was perfect! A new favorite for me!

RECIPE
6 servings

1 pound ground turkey meat
1 sliced bell pepper, red or green
1/2 cup of sliced white onion
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 teaspoon each of Cayenne Pepper, Ancho Chile Powder and Garlic Powder
1/2 to a whole can of Rotel Diced Chiles with Lime and Cilantro

Brown the turkey meat and add the salt, pepper, cayenne, ancho and garlic powder. Add bell peppers and onions and saute stirring often for 5 to 6 minutes, then add the tomatoes and stir for another few minutes. This would be great served next to a green salad or maybe some cauliflower rice!

  

Mini Baby Bell Peppers and What I did with Them and how to get out of a Funk after a Stressful Day!

There are so many memories that we leave behind to those that love us. My dad left a lot of them. Even when he was just going through his normal day he would say something random and not realize that it would stick in my mind forever. For example...I can never look at baby corn without thinking of my dad.

My dad loved salads! He actually loved all vegetables and fruits. I remember one time when we ate at a place that had a salad bar and he found these little baby corns and he filled his plate with them. Then when he got back to the table he showed them to me and tried to make me eat one by telling me, "Mira, los mataron chiquitos" translated he said, "Look, they killed them little". Well that made me want to eat them even less, but every time I see baby corn I remember my dad and it makes me smile. Remember, we are all making memories for others every day, so make them good ones!

My wonderful baby sister Lisa made a good memory for me today. Today was a super stressful day at work! I wasn't in the best of moods. I just wanted to come home and lock myself in my room and watch TV and probably eat something not very healthy for me. But hanging on my fence was this little bag.

Little baby bell peppers! Los mataron chiquitos! I had been wanting to buy these little peppers since forever, but a bag of them is about $4.79 and I wasn't sure I would like them or what I would do with them, but Lisa found them at our local grocery store for 99 cents! At least she told me they were 99 cents, but I wouldn't put it past her to pay $5 for them just to make me happy!

So what to do, what to do with them???

I remembered that I had some Pork Carnitas left over from a weekend breakfast. I had just shredded them and put them in a plastic container this morning. I also remembered I had some browned ground turkey make with taco seasoning. And then I remembered I had some cream cheese and that sounded really good so I went Cahrazy!

First I cleaned those little bad boys, which was easy because they weren't very big and didn't have a lot of seeds. Then I cut them in half. I warmed up the Carnitas and mixed them with some salsa that was left from the weekend and some shredded cheese and stuffed about six of them and topped them with some sliced black olives. I filled another six with the ground turkey, topped them with cheese and more olives and then the rest I filled with cream cheese and topped them with bacon bits and freshly ground black pepper.

Then I baked them at 350 for about 10 to 12 minutes.


Check these out! These are the ones made with Carnitas! They were so delicious! I was going to top them with Sour Cream but it wasn't necessary, they were perfect as they were!

Then I sampled one of the ground turkey peppers. I have to be honest and say I liked the turkey ones better, but then I love my ground turkey with taco seasoning!

Once the cream cheese ones were done I put a few of each on a plate, grabbed my glass of wine and sat down to munch away on my delicious...and LOW CARB...yummies!

My stressful day melted away with the help of memories of my daddy, loving thoughtfulness shown to me by my baby sister Lisa, beautiful bright colors of the baby peppers who died chiquitos just to please me and a lovely glass of wine. Plus some Pandora Music on my computer and lots of singing at the top of my lungs to the dismay of my kids and the doggies...but oh well! It got me out of my funk!


 

Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Ten

This should actually be week thirteen but I've been bad and not done a weekly wrap up for four weeks now! But I'm going to get better because as you can see from my previous post I'm killing my Sugar Crush addiction and focusing more on blogging and napping! My two favorite things!

But...just because I have not been posting a weekly wrap up does not mean I've gone off the low-carb wagon! Oh no...I've been doing good, well maybe not good but I've been trying.

I've always been a believer in only weighing in once a week on Friday mornings. For the past couple of months every single Friday I have weighed exactly the same! I was getting so frustrated because no matter what I did I wasn't losing weight!!!

So two weeks ago I decided I was going to weigh myself every day to see if I could detect a pattern...see how scientific I am? What I found out is that I was defeating myself. On Friday's I would weigh myself and then that evening I would go out an eat just a few chips with salsa (ok, maybe a whole bowl).  Then on Saturday I would go out shopping with my mom and I might eat a few more chips and salsa, maybe a frozen strawberry margarita, then Sunday I usually make a nice meal for my mom and my kids and I might have just a smidgen of mashed potatoes or some Doritos casserole.

I found that all those little cheats made me add 3 to 4 pounds by Tuesday and then even though I was good and ate low carb the whole week all I was really doing was losing the weight I gained over the weekend and therefore by Friday when I weighed in I was still at the same weight! Silly me! Defeating my own self! Grrrr!

So this weekend I have stayed true to my low carb plan and have not partaken of any carbs! At least not more than the 20 to 25 allotted during the induction phase of Atkins. This weekend we have had a heatwave, so yesterday morning, before it got too hot I made some tuna salad, some chicken salad, some guacamole and some turkey, cream cheese and pickle roll-ups  Plus I made some detox water. 

Turkey, Cream Cheese and Dill Pickle Rollups, Guacamole and red pepper strips for dipping! Recipe for the roll ups can be found at http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2011/02/easy-recipe-for-ham-and-dill-pickle.html

My son found this wonderful video for me, three ways to cook eggs in the microwave, here's a picture of the ones I made and the video is posted below.

Scrambled Egg in a Cup in the Microwave

I also mentioned that I made Lemon Detox Water yesterday and I've been faithfully drinking it today. It's so simple to make, just slice lemons into a pitcher and fill with water then let sit in the fridge overnight. I also added a lime and I wanted to add cucumbers and fresh mint, but I didn't have any. I found information on detox water at fitsugar, but I've seen it all over pinterest too! 

Again this morning before it got too warm I made a turkey roast tenderloin and a pork roast tenderloin. I buy the Jennie-O Turkey Roast Tenderloin, the Savory Roast flavor is below, they have several different flavors, the one I made today was Island Marinade and it had a sweetness to it that was excellent!

I cook it exactly as I do the roast tenderloin, you can go HERE to see how I do it. 

I hope that my detox water and careful planning of food and snacks for this weekend helps me to finally start showing some results! 

If you have any good low carb meals you make feel free to share them with me. I'm always looking for new things to cook. Have a great week everyone!

      

Sciatica Update and a Recipe and a Mosaic!

Photo Credit - Carmen Beecher

When last we got together I was one big throbbing ball of pain due to Sciatica! That was Wednesday and today is Saturday. Thursday and Friday actually got worse, the pain radiating and moving at times to my knees, then to the shin area of my leg, then to the top of my foot. I had a very difficult time sleeping and had to take a Vicodin...and I hate taking any kind of medicine, especially those that alter your mood and character!

Thursday night I went on an Internet hunt to try to find something, some exercise or food or medicine...that would give me some relief! I found this website, treatsciaticanow.com and reviewed it, searched online for reviews from others that have tried it. I contemplated it because you have to purchase an online e-book for $37.00! Anyone that knows me knows that I don't pay more than 80cents for a book because I buy them all at the Goodwill Store! But I was desperate and my pain-filled brain said, "Do IT!" So I ordered it and quickly reviewed it and went to bed, exhausted from the pain.
Sciatica Treatment

Friday I told my sister about it and sent her an email with the part of the book that tells you what you need to do in order to start relieving the pain in as little as 7 days if not sooner. She said she would come over that evening and help me as it requires some massaging in an area I can't reach. Friday evening I told her it would be better to wait until Saturday morning as I didn't know if having her massage me on Friday night might make the pain worse and I would be unable to sleep.

This morning she came over and we opened up the ebook and looked at the drawings and read the directions and she went to work. The book says you need to do the process for 8 minutes, it was tiring work and hard and painful on me so we did it for a little bit less. (It was also tiring for my sister, just try massaging someone for 8 minutes...8 minutes is a long time!) When I got up I told her I felt better, but it was really hard to gauge it as the massage itself causes pain.

She left and I sat for a while with the heating pad on my leg, which I had been doing all week and then I started watching low-carb videos on YouTube and that made me hungry. I debated just eating some cereal because it's very difficult for me to stand and walk with Sciatica, the pain is excruciating (and I have a high tolerance for pain). 

As I went into the kitchen to get the cereal, I noticed that the pain was not quite as bad. I walked around for a bit and thought, "hmmm, maybe I should try making those breakfast muffins I just watched a video on."

Amazingly I was able to stand and walk long enough to put these together.

I kid you not! After just one treatment! I did have to sit down while I chopped the veggies and the ham and usually I stand at the counter to do it, but I did it! I am amazed and SO happy because as I mentioned in the previous post I am supposed to go to Arizona in February for a huge family reunion and I was really looking forward to it but knew that with the Sciatica this bad I would not be able to attend!

My sister will be coming back tonight to do another massaging treatment and hopefully within 7 days I should be cured from Sciatica forever! (At least that is what they say on the website) Sciatica Treatment

So, I am going to continue to take it easy today and do the normal Sciatica stretches and continue to use the heating pad, but I can't wait for my sister to come back tonight to do another treatment! Maybe tomorrow, if I feel well enough I can take my mom to some Goodwill Stores and hit the supermarket to do some grocery shopping as our cupboards are bare.

For those of you that don't have Sciatica, or don't know anyone who has Sciatica and just want the recipe for those yummy breakfast muffins pictured on the mosaic above, here we go...

I got the idea from Pinterest and watched this video



As I mentioned...my cupboards are bare and so is my refrigerator. I didn't have any sausage or bacon, but what I did have was ham and veggies and the eggs of course. So I diced up my red bell peppers and diced up the ham. I sprayed the muffin pan with non stick spray and then filled them with the ham and some with ham and veggies. Because I love me some spiciness...I also chopped up some pickled jalapenos and even added some of my mom's Chile Macho (diced up roasted Ortega peppers with tomato and seasonings).

Then I mixed up 6 eggs, I figured one per muffin, but as you will see in the photos to follow, maybe 5 eggs would have been enough. I poured the egg into each muffin cup. 

That looked great already but then I remembered the cheddar cheese! BAM! as Chef Emeril Lagasse would say! That kicked it up a notch right?

Now it was time to put them into a pre-heated, 350 degree oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. DO NOT do what I did and overfill the cups...you can see what happened! See they rise up almost like a souffle but then start shrinking back almost as soon as you take them out of the oven.

Aren't they gorgeous???? Even with the horrible quality of my cell phone camera you can still see how lovely and puffy they are!

In the video you can see that she takes them out of the pan immediately  but mine seemed to be stuck, so I waited a little while but still had to use a butter knife to pry them out. They didn't break apart or anything but they did leave me a messy pan I have to clean up...later.

But regardless of them spilling over and sticking to the pan, they were so pretty! And the best part is you can freeze them or just put them in a plastic container in the fridge and grab one and nuke it and go in the morning, or take them to work with you for a delicious filling snack!

I let my mom be the guinea pig and she tried one and proclaimed it to be very good (she ate the whole thing so she was either starving or it really was good.) Now it's my turn, here's my breakfast muffin!

Mmmm, it is very good! It's got a great texture, you can pick it up with your hands and eat it like a cupcake, or you can be refined like me and use a fork! Either way it was yummy. I was going to eat a slice of avocado with it, but it was so good alone I didn't even think about the avocado. 

I found this great tool online where you can type in your ingredients and it will give you nutrition info, including how many carbs per serving. You can find this at Calorie Count. As you can see from the info below, these muffins have 1.5 grams of carbs and only 0.9 grams of sugars. You could probably add flax seed to add some fiber to it. But that's awesome! This site is great because it gives you grades for each ingredient and then gives you pros and cons of the recipe  As you can see it is high in cholesterol and sodium, so you might want to use Egg Beaters which would help.

So anyway...I hope my healing progresses and I'll keep you all updated. For now I'm going to go take a little walk and maybe clean that muffin pan and then I'm going to watch a movie and perhaps nap a little. I am recuperating you know.

Hey! Thanks to all of you that have emailed me suggestions and ideas on how to help my Sciatica pain or just emailed me to send me get well wishes...it is so appreciated!



Joining the gang at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday. It's been a long time since I've played along with them and it feels good to be getting back into the swing of blogging!




 

Turkey and Rice Soup

Earlier today I was talking to one of my favorite underwriters about how our holiday went and so on and she mentioned she was going to go home and make some soup out of her leftover turkey. And I decided to play along and said, "Hey, that's just what I was planning to do!" Then I told her I might just make a turkey potpie instead as I had some pie crusts left from the pumpkin pies and she said, "Oh yum, that sounds good too! I might do that instead."

Then on the drive home I thought, well why not? Why not make some soup?

Well, for started, because I don't have a single vegetable in my house! No wait, I lie, I do have a couple of jalapenos and a bag o'salad, those can be considered veggies right?

So I thought, ok, I'll just go to the store and pickup some carrots and celery and maybe a zucchini squash, but first I called my mom to see if she had some celery because I didn't want to buy the whole big stalk of it. I was in luck! She said she had a whole bunch of celery and bell pepper and onions already diced left over from the stuffing!

So I went and picked it up and figured, I don't need carrots, I'll just use potatoes. And this is what I created!

And I gotta tell ya, it was soooooooo good! Just what I was craving. I added some rice as well and some chili pepper flakes so it was a bit spicy, but not too much. Some carrots would have added some lovely color, but other than that it was perfect!

Turkey Rice Soup *estimated ingredients since I really didn't measure

1/2 onion diced small (I used a yellow onion)

1 cup chopped bell pepper

1 cup celery

1 cup white uncooked rice

1 small can chicken broth

2 cups diced up cooked turkey

1 cup chopped potato

salt and pepper to taste and about 1/4 tsp of chili pepper flakes

2 tsp oil

Pour the 2tsp oil into your pot and add the onion and celery and stir for about 2 minutes then add the bell pepper and the uncooked rice and stir again for another 3 minutes, then add the chicken broth, the chopped potato, salt and pepper and the chili pepper flakes, stir and let come to a boil and toss in the turkey, then just simmer until the veggies and the rice are softened to your personal taste, about 20 minutes or so.

Office Halloween Party

The Office...Halloween

Well, I have quite a few pictures to share about yesterday's Halloween fun, but first let me start with our office Halloween Party. This is only the 2nd potluck they have had since I've been there and we really enjoy them, not sure why we don't have more.

Here's some pictures of the food. I took my broccoli salad, and I'm going to post pictures and the recipe in the next post. Angelica took an Ambrosia Salad, Michele made Monster Stuffed Bell Peppers that were really cute, Mary brought a Green Salad with a ranch-salsa style dressing and Anna brought her yummy Chicken Enchiladas with her Avocado Salad.

First, Angelica's Ambrosia Salad. It had miniature marshmallows, slivered almonds, shredded coconuts, whipped cream and Jello pistachio pudding. It's such a beautiful color, I love this picture!

Michele really went all out. She made some Monster Stuffed Bell Peppers, which were bell peppers that were dressed up with tongues and eyes and horns. Here's some before and after pictures. She was worried that after they were baked they would be ugly, and they were, but that made them look even better cause then they really did look like Monsters!

And here's a whole little family of them. Michele even grew these peppers, they're from her own garden! Michele says she simply made the stuffing using ground beef and a little bag of meatloaf seasoning, simple and soooo eye appealing!

Anna made some yummy Chili Verde Shredded Chicken Enchiladas. She used canned Chili Verde and boiled her chicken. She seasons the chicken after she shreds it. She serves them with her avocado salad made with chunks of avocado, tomato and red onion.

I wish I had taken better pictures of Anna's food, but she got there last minute and everyone was hungry and so was I!

And now pictures of some co-workers and me.

Angelica and I sharing a moment after stuffing ourselves. I think that's why we're both smiling!
And here's Mary, waiting patiently for 5pm and time to go home. She looks fed and happy too!

Anna brought her father in law to share the meal with us. He was such a nice man and he really loved the food, he had compliments for everyone!They're sitting at my workstation and I have some more pictures to post of that later. We had a great time and sent pictures to our corporate office. The President of our company sent us an Atta-Boy and said it was nice to see us getting involved.