Super Bowl 50!

Super Bowl Sunday! I love Super Bowl Sundays! And even though I don't have a dog in this race I can still be excited about it because of the commercials and the food! But don't get me wrong, even though I am a Dallas Cowboy fan I do have a puppy in this race...Peyton Manning! I think he's pretty great and I hope that he has a great game today and most importantly I hope he wins!

So the commercials? Those are always fun. I remember many, many years ago when the movie The Exorcist came out. The hype for that movie was just crazy! It was supposed to be the scariest movie ever! So I went into the theater with expectations beyond what any movie could deliver and I was disappointed. I kept waiting for my heart to stop with fear and it just didn't happen.

My All-Time Favorite - Budweiser Frogs!

I think the same thing has happened to the Super Bowl commercials. When they first started doing outrageous commercials it was AMAZING! Something to talk about with friends and family for days! "Did you see when..." or "My favorite one was..."! But it's hard to keep the momentum going year after year and to keep topping the previous year.

But I still always enjoy them and look forward to them and give props to the marketing and promotion people that have to keep coming up with them!

I hear tell that Lady Gaga will be singing the National Anthem. Good, I know she will do a good job but I'm glad she's not the half time show, I am not a fan of Lady Gaga!

But the food...the food is probably my favorite part of the Super Bowl! We did our shopping for snacks and yummies yesterday. I myself will stick to my low carb/high fat (WOE) Way of Eating.

My son requested Dorito Chicken Casserole from The Blog Chef. I don't make this often because I'm sure the sodium level is sky high, but it is a special day and a special request, so getting ready to make this in a few minutes. (It is super delicous!)

Photo Credit - The Blog Chef

Luckily my daughter requested something that is actually low carb/high fat which I can eat. She wanted Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs. She will eat hers with a hot dog bun, but of course I will just omit the bun and it will be perfect for my WOE. Not the prettiest picture I've ever taken though!

I'm also planning some Jalapeno Poppers.

Some Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries.

And something new that has been popping up on all the boards of the low carb groups I follow on Facebook....sugar free, zero carb gummies! I love gummy bears, worms, sweet gummies, sour gummies, all matter of gummies! I'm so happy to have found a recipe that works so I can have these little bits of deliciousness again!

I made these yesterday. The first batch I made I used an icecube tray that makes those mini little round cubes. They turned out great! And they taste so yummy! They are made with sugar-free Jell-o so they taste just like Jello!

After making these I decided I wanted to make some pretty ones in special molds for Super Bowl. I couldn't find any football molds at Michaels but I did find some seashell, flower and star molds.

Aren't they lovely? I can't wait to buy other flavors/colors of Sugar-Free Jell-o! They are so easy too!

1 - 3 ounce box of Sugar-Free Jell-0
1 Box Knox Gelatin - 4 pack
1/2 cup of cold water

Mix and mix and mix that all together, then I microwaved it for about 20 seconds and mixed and mixed some more then poured into molds and put in the fridge for about 20 minutes and they popped right out (after a little urging) of the molds!

Everyone in my low carb group on Facebook has been buying this Gummy Candy Maker, which is pretty cool and you can buy it on Amazon, but it is $28.66 plus shipping and just another gadget I have to find a place to store in my kitchen. So I think I will just continue making them the way I did it.

Amazon.com - Gummy Candy Maker

So that's it. I'm off to finish getting snacks and food ready and watch pre-game stuff with the talking heads. Happy Super Bowl and here's to Peyton Manning winning Super Bowl 50!


 

Birthday Goodies - Low Carb Style

I've been trying to post more often, ok…not really! What I've been doing is telling myself to try to post more often.

My sister and I use my blog oftentimes as a history of what we've done in the past and what day and where we went and what we did and what we served as food or what someone served us. But in the past year or so I haven’t been posting as I should and we’re losing track of our history.

So for my faithful readers, all two or three of you, some of these posts may be boring but they are bookmarks in time, so bear with me.

Last month my co-worker Angelica had a birthday. Angelica is not only my wonderful co-worker and friend, but she is my low-carb companion through and through. We help each other and share tips and tricks and encouragement.

During the time of my dad’s illness when I was spending every spare minute I had with dad in the hospital or at the nursing home, Angelica would fix an extra low-carb lunch to share with me every single day! I can never repay her kindness and thoughtfulness; she is a very special person.

For our birthdays, she and I try to make each other a special low-carb treat since we can’t do the traditional birthday cake and ice cream or donuts or cupcakes or whatever other things people do in normal non-low-carb offices.

We each put a lot of thought into what we are going to make for the other. For my birthday in July this year, Angelica spent the weeks before trying out different low-carb ice cream and cake recipes and she created this beauty! A low-carb Strawberry Shortcake with low-carb Vanilla Ice Cream. It was delicious!

So trust me when I say that I was stressing over what I could do to top that. But Angelica has the most powerful sweet tooth in the world! She loves herself some sweets, especially chocolate. That’s why I give her so much credit for sticking to a low-carb lifestyle.

So I knew that what I wanted to make for her was something sweet and it had to be fabulous! I hunted all over the Internet world for a low-carb recipe for Truffles. I must have pinned at least 20 recipes to my Pinterest board for low-carb recipes which you really should visit, I have some great things pinned in there.

I finally found a recipe that looked simple enough that even I couldn't possibly mess it up, so I went for it! So glad I did too as they were a big hit with Angelica and it made me so happy to see her eyes light up when she saw what I had created for her. Ok, maybe created is too strong a word, so she could see what I copied from someone else, just for her!

Now how about that?? Aren't those beautiful? And so easy to make using the recipe I found over at Your Lighter Side. Kimber, the blog creator calls them Mascarpone Choconutty Bites, which is a totally acceptable name, but since I was making these as a gift I wanted to give it a fancy name, so I call them Low-Carb Truffles. You can head over to Your Lighter Side and get the RECIPE HERE.

I did everything exactly as Kimber has in her recipe. The only thing I did different, besides change the name, is once the truffle balls were dipped in the chocolate, while the chocolate was still not set I dipped two in diced walnuts, sprinkled another two with the shaved coconut. Then I made a low-carb faux graham cracker mixture using a bit of almond meal, cinnamon and Splenda and sprinkled two with that mixture. I left two naked with just the chocolate dip on them and then "BAM" as Emeril Lagasse would say, I "kicked it up a notch" and sprinkled two with bacon bits!!! BACON and Chocolate? Have I gone mad?

Nope...I'm a genius! Those were the ones we tried first. Just take a gander! The inside was chewy and gooey and deliciously coconutty. The outside was crunchy chocolate covering and then you had that salty little bit of bacon! They were fabulous!

My co-worker/friend/life saver was thrilled! Thanks Angelica for being such a great person. I am the luckiest person in the world to work alongside you every single day, day in and day out for years upon years!!! Happy Birthday again!

 

One New Thing a Week Starting Today and Who Doesn't Love Bacon? Bacon Jalapeno Deviled Eggs

Loving my low-carb lifestyle, it's become a way of life, not just a diet. But noticed I've been getting lazy and having the same old thing. I've just been eating rotisserie chicken in salad or just alone. Last week I made Kale Salad and I loved it and realized that there are so many other low carb dishes out there and I set a goal to try at least one new recipe per week; more if I'm feeling ambitious, but at least one!

Maybe I'll even try to start up my Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up again...we'll see, baby steps here, it's summer and hot!

I get a lot of suggestions on things to make from my sister Lisa and my co-worker Angelica. Lisa recently sent me a recipe for Bacon Jalapeno Deviled Eggs from the blog Real Housemoms. You can follow the link to find the original recipe. I had to tweak it a bit to make sure that my people would eat it. Some don't like jalapeno, some don't like paprika, some don't like mustard and so on and so on...

Started by boiling a dozen eggs. I got a really great tip this weekend from Anne Burrell from the Food Network. I happened to catch an episode where she made Truffled Deviled Eggs and she said she had a foolproof way of boiling her eggs that would make them perfectly fluffy every time and you will never have that green ring around the yolk! Eggs should be two colors, yellow and white! The secret? Place your eggs in a pot, fill with tap water, BTB...bring to boil.  When they boil turn off the burner and cover for exactly 13 minutes and Voila! Perfect eggs!

While I was boiling the  perfect 13 minute egg, I fried my bacon. Is there anything prettier than bacon frying in a pan? Is there anything on this earth that smells better? Ok, well yes, babies smell better, love that baby smell...but you CAN'T eat a baby! Check this out!

Bacon Frying! Yum - Muy Bonito, Que No?

While the eggs are boiling and the bacon is frying, I'm chopping Jalapenos! I'm the Queen of Multi-Tasking! I diced them really small so that I would get a bit of Jalapeno in every bite! Love raw Jalapeno, I put it in salads and omelette's and almost anything that needs a little crunch. It takes the place of potato chips for me. The recipe called for two, but I had a really big one so I just diced up the one. I seeded it first to take out some of the spiciness.

Also Muy Bonito! Green...my fav color!

So eggs were done, ran them under cold water to cool them off so I could peel them. Peeled them, cut them in half, removed the yoke and placed the yolk in a separate bowl and sure enough, beautifully yellow! Forgot to take a picture, but you'll see how yellow my final pictures are below.

I made my egg yolks a bit more simple than the recipe, just mayonnaise, a tad of salt as the bacon would add it's own saltiness, some black pepper about a half teaspoon of regular yellow mustard, not the powdered kind, just the one you put on your hot dogs.

The one thing I did try from the recipe is to add some sugar, I thought maybe it would offset the saltiness of the bacon and you know what? It did! It really added something to it. I only used maybe one quarter teaspoon. Added the bacon and mixed. I didn't add the jalapeno yet as I wanted to make half without jalapeno.

Now in the recipe you place the egg mixture in a plastic bag with a piping tip and pipe them in all nice and pretty but you know what? It's over 100 degrees outside and spending additional time in a warm kitchen when I could be eating in front of the air conditioner was just not in the cards today, so I spooned them in instead.

Here's the bacon only ones that I made. I think they still look rather pretty, even without the piping. The recipe called for a sprinkle of Paprika, but again...my people are not big fans of the Paprika and I think mine was old anyway as it was more brown than a rusty red color, so I tossed it.

Huevos (Eggs) without the Jalapeno!

Here are the ones I really thought tasted much better, but that's because I'm partial to that Jalapeno and the crunchiness! They were delicious!

Mmmm, all that's missing is an ice cold beer!

I only used 6 slices of bacon so with the rest I made BLT sandwiches. Of course I didn't have the BLT as it's not low carb with the bread, but I did enjoy sprinkling my portion of bacon on top of the eggs. Yum!

So technically, this is the one new thing for the week, so I don't have to worry about making anything new this week, but you never know because I know that Lisa and Angelica will be sending me yummy recipes to try! Have a great week everyone!


 

I'll never eat canned green beans again and The Kiss of Death!

Do you eat canned green beans?

I have to admit that I've eaten canned green beans my whole life.

I didn't know any better.

I remember once going to Panda Express and having an order of their Chicken Green Beans and the green beans were what caught my fancy. They were so good and crispy.

Recently my co-worker has at times brought some green beans she makes to work and I've loved them. Today I finally had to ask her how she makes them and she was very gracious and told me exactly how.

So I made them and they were divine! As God is my witness I will never eat canned green beans again!

It's so amazingly easy that I just don't understand why I've never just cooked my own green beans before! Just buy fresh green beans, trim the ends and wash them off well. Then take about two tablespoons of bacon grease and warm it up in the pan, add the green beans, a bit of salt and pepper (next time I'm going to add fresh grated garlic). Saute them in the pan for 3 to 4 minutes over medium heat, then cover them and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, then turn off the heat and let them sit covered in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes.

That's it!

Here's what you end up with. Don't you love the color?

Made for a delicious low-carb dinner when I set them right next to some rotisserie chicken. Yum!

So I am trying...trying so hard to stick to a low-carb WOE (way of eating). And really it's very simple and easy and I'm never hungry...but then my mom brings home the KISS OF DEATH!

Fudge Marshmallow Cookies!!! My absolute favorite kind of cookie ever! I didn't even know they still made these! I can remember eating these as a kid and I loved the marshmallowy center and the crisp cookie underneath all wrapped with chocolate! But I will not succomb...be gone ye evil cookie! (Made mom take them to her room!)

What's your favorite way of cooking green beans? Now that I'm hooked on them I'd like to see what ya'll are doing with them!


 

Happy New Year - No Black Eye Peas for Us

I know that for most people Black Eye Peas are the traditional food for the New Year, but that's not the tradition in our family or in most Hispanic households. We usually have Menudo, which is supposed to be great for a hangover, but this year I made Jalapeno Poppers and Meatloaf Pie. I know...doesn't really make sense. There is no rhyme or reason, but hey, it's a New Year and why not start it off being different and unpredictable right? 

 I've written about Meatloaf Pie before, it's my son's favorite dish and you can find the post and recipe HERE.

The Jalapeno Poppers idea and recipe came from one of my favorite food bloggers, The Pioneer Woman. The Pioneer Woman, Ree, is one of the nicest, funniest bloggers online. I have followed her forever and own her books. I've always wanted to try her Jalapeno Poppers so today I did. 

Super easy and you will love them if you try them! Just three ingredients, Jalapenos, Cream Cheese and Bacon! That's it! That's all!

I bought 10, cut them in half and removed the seeds. Here they are all naked and ready to be all dolled up! Oh...important thing to remember, don't touch your eyes with jalapeno juice on your fingers and if you like them a little hotter leave some of the white membrane and/or some of the seeds.

The first step to covering up their nakedness is to fill them with cream cheese....room temperature cream cheese. I found that just using a simple dinner spoon worked best. 

Then you take a package of bacon and cut it into thirds and wrap each pepper with a slice. Warning...use a toothpick to hold them together. I ran out of toothpicks and made the last few without them and the bacon slides off...you'll see that in later photos.

Be sure you place them on a rack so that the bacon grease can drain, that will help to crisp up the bacon. And Voila! You end up with this!

I took all the toothpicks out for the picture but you can see in that one in the middle that the bacon opened up...which is why I say to make sure to use a tooth pick to seal them.

Aren't they lovely? And they are so delicious! I could have eaten them all and I almost did! The great part is they are low-carb! Yes, still doing the low-carb thing. I strayed a bit during the holiday's but tomorrow is Jan 2nd and it's time to get myself back on track!

May the very best of last year be the very worst of this year! Happy New Year!

      

Bacon Don't BBQ

Remember last month on March 8th when I mentioned what a terrific adequate BBQ,er I am becoming? Remember my BBQ'd corn? Remember my telling you how I come from a long line of BBQ,ers  extraordinaire? Well since I've BBQ'd once and it turned out perfect ok...I thought I'd BBQ again yesterday. I again made burgers and hot dogs and they came out much better than last time. So feeling cocky and confident, I decided that I would BBQ strips of bacon, just like my dad and my brother Fred do perfectly all the time.

Here you see The Men in my Life. My brother Fred in the white t-shirt with the tongs...he's the King of BBQ Chicken; my brother Jaime in the red shirt with his hand in his pocket...he's the King of Assisting as he's usually the one helping Fred and while I understand from his daughter Clarissa that he's a great BBQ'er, I've never eaten anything he's BBQ'd. And of course the King of BBQ plain and simple, my dad Federico standing in the back there with his hand on the BBQ grill which was custom made for him by his brother Manuel. Dad has taught these two boys all he knows about BBQ'ing and a little, tiny bit of what he taught them kinda/sorta rubbed off on me.

So I figured with all those BBQ genes roaming around inside of me I can probably BBQ Bacon just like they do. WRONG!!! Wrong, wrong, wrong! This is what the stuff oozing out of the bottom of my little BBQ grill looked like. I kid you not! All that bacon grease caught on fire and was just oozing out looking like molten lava! It just dripped out all over the concrete slab underneath and continued to burn!

Now see...I don't have a fancy custom made BBQ grill like my dad has. One that you can lower and raise the grill if the heat gets too hot or too cold. Nope, I just have your standard Weber BBQ Grill with the grill just sitting on the coals. I tried putting the smoker lid on it but that damn Bacon wouldn't quit burning. And the smoke!!! Geesh, the smoke! It was crazy. You would have thought I was burning a forest in my backyard! And I do believe yesterday was a "no burn" day in Kern County! I'm lucky the fire department didn't respond and fine me!

I removed the few strips that didn't totally disintegrate into the river of molten lava and finished them off in the microwave, but I'm pretty sure I will never try to BBQ bacon ever again!

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs - Does Life Get Any Better?

My sister Lisa and I like to get together on Friday's after work and do something special. Kinda to treat ourselves cause we managed to get through another day and "the man" didn't kill us! Usually we eat! Duh, no surprise there. We love our food!


A couple of weeks ago, my brother in law, Sean (affectionately known by all as Guero) got in on our Friday night act by making dinner for us. My sister called me and told me that her husband was making us Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs. Just to let you know Lisa's feelings about bacon; her favorite motto is "Any day with Bacon is a good day".


Now I'd heard about bacon wrapped hot dogs from my sister in law Norma who hails from a small town in Mexico called Caborca. Bacon wrapped hot dogs are apparently one the specialties there and she'd always promised to make them for us someday. We could wait no longer Norma, sorry.


I gotta say, they were scrumptiously delicious! My brother in law wrapped them in a thick cut bacon that's sold in the meat department of the store my nephew Sean works at, Apple Market. He wrapped the bacon around them, secured the edges with toothpicks and then placed them on a cookie sheet in the oven where he lovingly kept watch over them turning them every few minutes so that every single delicious curve of bacon was cooked.


He then set out a smorgasbord of condiments! We had finely chopped onion, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce, chili beans, cheese, ketchup, mayo, relish, and mustard. I'll have a little of everything, thank you! They were delicious and like nothing I had ever had.


So a couple of weeks later I decided to try making them. I didn't have the thick cut bacon, just regular cut, actually it seemed to me the bacon I had was extra thin. This made it much easier for it to adhere to the hot dog, it just kinda sucked itself to the weenie. (Hahaha, don't you love the word weenie?)


Anyway, I didn't even need to secure the edges with anything, the bacon just stayed sucked on. I carefully turned them as my brother in law did and they came out great! 

I didn't have all the condiments, but I did have some diced up red onion and jalapeno that I had left over from the chili beans I made for Super Bowl, so I used those and OH MY GOSH, if you do nothing else this weekend, make these hotdogs. They are out of this world and your kids will love them and you don't even need the bun if you're on a low carb/high protein diet..MAKE THEM!!!

I also am a huge fan of bacon wrapped shrimp and I don't even like shrimp. I also love bacon wrapped water chestnuts, mmmmmmmm. What do you like to wrap your bacon around?