Have Yourself a Keto Little Christmas (Eve)!

 Okay, so how to keto for the holiday. If you saw my post about Christmas baking, you know that I planned to make both keto and non-keto treats. We started in on them last night as we started our family celebrating with Jimmy John's for dinner (my favorite is the Spicy East Coast Italian as an "Unwich") and cookies for dessert. We watched the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring. It has been an annual (annual-ish) tradition for many years to watch the trilogy around Christmas and New Years. 

So, I did try a non-keto cookie or two and found I was pretty "meh" on them. I suspect my tastes have changed because my family didn't seem to register any difference. I was able to enjoy the keto things I made in moderation. 

What else do we eat for Christmas and do I ketofy it? Our traditional Christmas Eve meal is a blend of my husband's family tradition and mine. His Norwegian mother always wanted lutefisk but his German father forbade it (so the story goes anyway....I mean, who honestly likes lutefisk? I never knew my father-in-law but I have a feeling I would have liked him.) So, the compromise there was to have a plain white fish with the usual accompaniments (boiled potatoes, white gravy and/or butter, lingonberries and flatbrot).

My family always had Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes. In recent years, I started adding my mom's version of "creamed" spinach (contains no cream but a very buttery roux). I like cranberries or lingonberries, too, with my meatballs.

So, hubby takes care of the fish and boiled potatoes. I make the meatballs and they are never the same year to year. I like to use a mixture of both ground beef and ground pork. I will often add very finely diced onions which have been sauteed in butter. The main sub is that I use a bit of almond flour instead of bread crumbs. I make sure to include the classic Scandinavian spices like nutmeg, allspice, cardamom in the mixture as well as the gravy. A good splash of cream goes in the mixture and the gravy, too. Yum! I can hardly wait.

I will sub the mashed potatoes for a mashed cauliflower which involves a good deal of sour cream and cheese. Also yum! And I make a keto creamed spinach with cream cheese, sour cream and Parmesan. I think this year I'll add sauteed onions as that was a key component in my mother's version.

Instead of a Christmas dinner, we'll make a meal out of heavy appetizers while we watch The Two Towers. I'll include some details about that in a next post. Happy Christmas Eve!

Dinner Tonight - a non-Keto Treat!

Some dear friends of ours sent a lovely box of Omaha Steaks meals for Christmas. They enclosed the sweetest note about remembering so many shared meals and looking forward to a time when we can share meals together again. Soon!

So, we decided to make the Orange Chicken tonight. This will be a pretty carb-y choice for me, but I'll have a bite for sure! I will round out the meal by sauteing the rest of the fresh spinach we used for a dinner recipe last week. I'll just saute in a bit of butter and maybe garlic. If I'm feel hungry and/or ambitious, I might make this into creamed spinach by adding cream cheese, sour cream and a bit of Parmesan cheese. Yum!

Luckily it's a huge box of spinach, so after cooking it, I should have at least a couple spoonfuls for my meal!

Dinner Tonight - Keepin' it Simple

Dinner tonight will be a Costco rotisserie chicken and fried cabbage. I don't have a particular recipe for the fried cabbage. We have about 1/2 a head of cabbage left from last week's egg roll in a bowl. So, slice or chop that up and chop up an onion.

I like to combine both avocado oil and a bit of butter for sauteing the veg. If I'm feelin' fancy, I'll add some cooked bacon bits. My favorite seasoning for this is Trader Joe's Soffritto blend. I am remembering that I used the last of it last time I made this dish. So I will need to improvise. 

We had received this seasoning in a gift pack last Christmas. When I was last at TJ's I looked for this mix but I did not see the gift pack nor in a separate jar (as shown in the link above). So, we'll use something else flavorful and aromatic. This is the kind of easy dish that's hard to do wrong.

Dinner Tonight - Creamy Bacon Spinach Feta Chicken

Another winner winner chicken dinner! This is also available in one of Carolyn's cookbooks. Creamy Bacon Spinach Feta Chicken

We had BLT's a few days ago, so this is a good way to finish up some of the leftover cooked bacon. Sometimes we serve this over zoodles or cauli-rice but I think tonight we'll use some Healthy Noodles. I follow this recipe pretty closely although I will often sub the chicken thighs for chicken breast just because we usually have that on hand.  

Result!

Christmas Baking

I sat down today with my recipe collection to make a list of Christmas bakes. I'll be making both keto and non-keto items. My list of keto treats is entirely unreasonable, so I've already had to triage some items.

Let's get the non-keto bakes addressed first. I've polled my family and the results are still coming in but here's what will be on the traditional bakes plate for sure:

• Mary's Sugar Cookies (from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book)
• these are tender and delicious and the ones my mother made. So these are nostalgia in dough form for me.
  
• Peppermint Meltaways (from an old Land O' Lakes recipe card I got heaven knows where)
• we tend to make our glaze a bit pinker and thicker so it's more like icing than glaze.
• we usually skip the crushed candies and use pink or white glitter sugar instead
  
• Peanut Butter Cookies (also from the BC Cooky Book)
• every time I make these I am struck anew at how insanely good these are for such a simple cookie.

So my list of keto bakes numbers sixteen! (As I said, entirely unreasonable). Last year was my first attempt at keto baking and a few of those attempts are back. Other items here are favorites I have made for no particular reason but are ones that I love. 

• Nanaimo bars - previously posted here. These are so beloved in general that my non-keto son asked for these to be on the Christmas cookie plate. (I might have to make a double batch....)
• Pecan pies - okay; not technically a cookie but Carolyn Ketchum's recipe has you bake them in tiny ramekins. I use paper liners which are wider and shallower than a cupcake liner. Once I cut each "pie" into 4 or 6 pieces, they will be like little wedge-shaped cookies. 
• "Sugar" Cookie Cutouts - new this year; they didn't make the short list last year.
  
• Chocolate Peppermint Stars - I made these as hearts because my only star cookie cutter has fluted edges which were problematic with the dough. These taste a lot like a Girl Scout thin mint although the texture is a bit more rustic.
• Marzipan Hearts - This is not the recipe I used last year but I have so much faith in Carolyn's recipes, I'll use hers this year. Plus, I'm not sure how much variation there would be between recipes. 

Possible recipes that haven't yet made the cut. We'll see how ambitious I feel and honestly, how many cookies and sweets I really need to have around.

• Fudge Crumb Bars - new
  
• Peppermint Cheesecake Bars (an old favorite)
• Peppermint Patties (another old favorite)
• Peanut Butter Bars (old favorite; like a Reese's PB cup!)
• Fudge (I've made this one; super rich!)
• Peanut Butter cookies (I might have to make these just so I stay away from the BC ones noted above)
• Scottish Shortbread - new
• Magic Cookie Bars - new; involves making keto sweetened condensed milk from scratch but Carolyn assures us it's not at all hard to do.

I like to have a variety of flavor profiles on the cookie plates. Sugar, almond, vanilla, peppermint and then something bright and citrusy. I don't tend to love spiced cookies like gingerbread but sometimes it's nice to include something like that. I do have a bottle of key lime juice and I have a recipe for a glazed key lime loaf cake, so that might be included as well. And I always try to include a new recipe or two along with all the favorites.

More later as my plans firm up!

 
 
 

Two Dinners - Egg Roll in a Bowl and BBQ Chicken Lasagna

Got a little bit behind, did I? Wednesday dinner this week was another easy favorite, Egg Roll in a Bowl. Essentially you make a stir fry with classic egg roll flavors and ingredients. There are many recipes available on the Internet but usually my husband makes this and he's an improvisational cook. (I tend to be a recipe-follower.) But our Egg Roll in a Bowl will generally include a protein, usually ground beef but sometimes chicken. Lots of shredded cabbage, sliced onions, a few carrots (carrots are kind of sugary and I personally don't especially love them), maybe some red/yellow/orange pepper slices and mushrooms. We season with garlic and ginger and serve over cauli-rice. At the table I will usually further season my portion with soy sauce and G. Hughes' sugar-free Sweet Chili sauce. (G. Hughes sauces are a blessing! There's a whole line of sugar-free BBQ sauces; they do have artificial sweeteners. I try to be careful with my use of those but these sauces are an acceptable exception to my semi-ban of artificial sweeteners.)

We had a fourth dinner planned for this week but we ended up with enough leftovers that we had a "clean out the fridge" night. Not such an appealing name for that concept, so I'm looking to change that up. I've heard it called "catch as catch can" or "open plate night". I like those better. What do you call leftover night?

Anyhooo, the fourth dinner we had in mind is one we've made before and might be in next week's rotation since we have all the stuff for it. I think the recipe is from Marie Emmerich's Keto Comfort Foods cook book (I'll have to double-check that). I've seen (and used) a variety of noodle-subs in keto pasta bakes and lasagnas. This recipes calls for slices of deli chicken/turkey for the layers of "noodles". A very simple (and delicious) BBQ sauce is whipped up with tomato sauce, Swerve and liquid smoke. It's seriously good and I couldn't believe how simple it was. So, the sauce, "noodles", additional chicken (we use Costco rotisserie or canned chicken breast) are layered with shredded sharp cheddar. I like to saute some mushrooms and onions in butter and make that mixture a layer or two as well. Yum!

Dinner Last Night - Taco Tuesday

 We do tend to have the same dinner ideas in rotation, so I will eventually run out of "Dinner Tonight/Dinner Last Night" topics, but rest assured I'll find something else to discuss.

Taco night is always popular around here as it is easily modified for both keto and non-keto folks. I use the taco fixings to create a taco salad and make sure I include generous cheese and sour cream! Other than that, I don't have any particular hints or tips for making taco night a keto option.

Dinner Last Night - Baked "Mac" and Cheese

Hubby made dinner last night and I don't know the details but I believe he generally followed this recipe. I know he baked the mixture rather than just heat in the skillet. It was pretty tasty. I offered my advice that he use some extra sharp cheddar that we have but he declined, saying that should be saved for something "special". (Like what's more special than guilt-free mac 'n cheese?) 

He buried some good quality turkey hot dogs in the bake, so this was a one dish meal. (It would have been even better with the extra sharp cheddar but that's trade off, I guess, when you aren't the cook).

A few notes about the linked recipe. The first time I made it, it was quite soupy and VERY salty. So, my modification is to not salt it and to use two packages of Healthy Noodles instead of one. The recipe technique of pan-frying the noodles to remove some of the moisture is a good one; it gives the noodles more of a firm texture which is good. Also, in this step, I kind of chop them up a little bit, so they are closer in size/shape to a macaroni noodle but I don't fuss about it a whole lot.

And a few notes about Healthy Noodles. Way back in my WW days, these shirataki noodles were quite a fad. I tried them a couple times but was turned off immediately. The first brand I tried smelled so bad and I found that no amount of rinsing could remove the odor of fishiness. The second brand was so rubbery, it was like eating a bowl of rubber bands. Then a friend told me that Costco had a decent option, so decided to give it one more try. So glad I did! They are kind of pricey, especially when you compare them to your standard grocery store pasta, but they are very neutral in flavor and although the texture is generally softer than a proper al dente pasta, they are an entirely satisfactory substitute. I have used them with red sauces, pesto, cream sauces and as a sub in macaroni and cheese.

If you have tried Healthy Noodles, let me know what you think and how you have used them!

What I Ate - Weekend Edition

Busy weekend and I expect the same now right up to Christmas. 

Friday nights around here are usually pizza night. In the past, I have made my own keto pizza using a fat-head dough base. But once I learned that Marco's Pizza offers Pizza Bowls.....well, it doesn't get easier than that. We have also tried Papa Murphy's version of this but honestly, I am not sure they are as good and they are more expensive.

Last Friday, though, we wanted a change of pace. Hubby wanted an unwich from Jimmy John's but son suggested a hot sub. So we took the opportunity to try Penn Station which had opened near us some time ago but we had never tried. They will do pretty much any sub in a wrap or as a salad so I tried the Italian as a salad with oil and red wine vinegar dressing. It was really good and really satisfying. Since my Choc-Zero advent calendar had arrived that day, I was duty-bound to catch up, so 4 pieces of dark chocolate Choc-Zero served nicely as dessert.

Saturday was a day of errands and shopping. I broke my fast with a large cup of coffee with extra cream from my favorite local coffee shop Stir Coffee. This tided me over nicely until about 4pm when we stopped for Rusty's Tacos. They serve breakfast tacos all day, so I ordered two jalapeno sausage, egg and cheese tacos with extra cheese and sour cream. I also ordered one grilled shrimp taco (which I didn't really need, to be honest). The tortilla served as a bowl as I ate the insides with a fork. Yum! We hadn't been to Rusty's for a long time.

Sunday was a busy day of wrapping gifts and baking (non-Keto for non-Keto friends/family gifts). Everyone was on their own that day, so when I got hungry around 5pm, I made a quick cheese omelet with extra sharp cheddar.

Other than a few treats (more Choc-Zero), that's what I ate this weekend! More later on our dinner plans for this upcoming week.

Sweets for the Sweet - Nanaimo Bars

Okay, so no "Dinner Tonight" post as dinner tonight will be leftovers! Instead, I'll tell you about a favorite dessert recipe I found last year. I made these for Christmas as they reminded me of a beloved recipe my mom used to make from the Betty Crocker "Cooky Book". 

I have my mom's much loved and falling apart Cooky Book from the 60s. Pages are falling out and favorite recipes are stained with butter and water. One of those is what Betty called "Fudge Meltaways". I never knew them as another name for many years. That original recipe, by the way, contained not only a ton of sugar and carbs but the dreaded raw eggs! Shriek!

Carolyn's very excellent recipe is, to be honest, somewhat fussy and involved but so worth it! These were a hit with non-keto friends and family last Christmas and they have been a regular treat for me ever since.

These will be on my Christmas cookie plate again this year for certain!

Dinner Tonight - Zucchini Quiche and Muffins

One of my favorite dishes is a meatless option. I was served this by a dear friend who cooked for me on a Friday evening in Lent. So thoughtful and after the first bite, I insisted on the recipe. It's been in my repertoire ever since.  

I don't know the source for the recipe but here's the general approach. Very thinly slice 2 or 3 zucchinis. You want about 4 cups, although I usually eyeball it. Chop an onion and saute the zucchini and onion in about 1/2 a stick of butter. Once the veggies are nice and tender, add some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir in 3 eggs and a bunch of shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

We will serve this with keto cranberry orange muffins. I only have a printed recipe for this, too! But there are tons of recipes out there. I see that my good friend, Carolyn Ketchum, (lol - I wish!) has one on her site (All Day I Dream About Food), though I have not tried that one. We have some cranberries left over after making her keto cranberry sauce for the Thanksgiving table, so this is a good way to use them up.

Dinner Tonight - Alice Springs Chicken

There are so many great keto recipes out there. I'm ashamed to say we only managed to make this once before but from what I recall it was a winner!

This was an early find just by googling. The full recipe can be found at Kayln's Kitchen.

I'll post other great chicken recipes as we go on. I will say that in general we will often modify by using pre-cooked chicken. Costco has twin-packs of chicken slices (kind of like fajita style). Their rotisserie chicken is a good option, too. I'm a bit leery of dealing with raw chicken and it's generally faster to start with cooked chicken. 

For instance, in this recipe, the first few steps involve browning the raw chicken. I am usually neutral on the need to brown meat, especially when it will be covered in yummy cream and cheese sauces!

****Update****

Hubby made dinner tonight because I had an eye doctor appointment. He didn't know where I keep the recipe (oops!) and by the time he found it and saw it was a baked item, it was getting late. He improvised something quite delicious. I know he left out the ham but I think all the other ingredients were essentially the same and he mainly cooked as a skillet dish and then finished browning the cheese topping in the oven. We served with cauli-rice. It was really yummy!