Gobble it Up! Enchilada Soup

Still got some leftover turkey? Me too! Love it. Today, I am off for a day of shopping and a movie with my guys and my mom. I made this yummy soup this morning while I was cooking breakfast for all. It always helps to use your time wisely in the kitchen, and double up when you can. With all the Mexican Spices in this recipe, the soup does not taste at all like Thanksgiving leftovers. It is smokey, spicy and cheesy and so good.

Gobble it Up! Enchilada Soup

2 cups cooked turkey, cubed or shredded
2 14 ounce cans chicken broth
1 14 ounce jar enchilada sauce (mine has 2 carbs per quarter cup)
1/2 head of cauliflower
1 bell pepper
1/4 onion
4 ounce can green chiles
1 cup black beans or black soy beans
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon Chipotle pepper powder
1 squirt lime juice
4 ounces cream cheese

Dice or shred turkey and chop all the vegetables. Make sure the cauliflower is finely diced, so it will resemble rice. Put all ingredients except cream cheese into a large pot to simmer for an hour. Add the cream cheese, allowing it to melt into the soup base. Add hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Serves 6 at about 10-11 carbs each using black beans. Soy beans would reduce the carb count further.

This is a yummy soup for all. The carby boys will likely prefer their soup with some crushed tortilla chips, and topped with some shredded cheese, but with all this flavor, who really needs the chips?

Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce with Smoked Turkey

I love leftovers. We made two turkeys this year just so I would be sure to have extra for easy meals for a few days. It is certainly a busy few days. What with Thanksgiving food prep, shopping and birthday celebrations, who wants to do even more cooking? Not me.

To make the best use of leftovers, plan some different ways to add to the traditional flavors. The recipe I am featuring today goes way beyond the cold turkey sandwich. It uses the delicious charcoal smoked turkey my hubby prepared. It was his best ever, and definitely worth getting up early to smoke.

I teamed that flavorful smoked turkey with a Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce made from the leftover traditional cranberry sauce. Sugarfree, of course. This is not for the faint hearted, but is sooooo good if you can stand a bit of heat. Good to warm up those old bones in the November chill.

Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce

This is one of the recipes included in my new cookbook project, Low Carbing Among Friends.

This recipe is available in the book, along with over 60 additional 24/7 Low Carb Diner recipes. By ordering the book, you get more than 300 favorite gluten free recipes from four other well known low carb cooking experts…Jennifer Eloff of Splendid Low Carbing cookbook fame, Kent Altena, the Atkins Diet Geek and You Tube star, nutritionist and author Maria Emmerich of Maria’s Nutritious and Delicious Journal, and popular blogger and food stylist, Carolyn Ketchum of All Day I Dream About Food. Unlike any other cookbook you may own, this one is a compilation of mini cookbooks featuring the talents of these well known low carbers. Think of it as a “best of” project.

Low Carbing Among Friends also features recipes from numerous other talented low carbing friends and recommendations from the medical community who recognize the health benefits of low carb, gluten free living. To preorder your copy, visit http://www.amongfriends.us The official release date is 11/11/11, so pre-order now for a discount.

To make this gourmet wrap, just spread some cream cheese on a strip of Joseph's Lavash bread, cut in thirds. Top with shredded turkey. Spoon Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce over the turkey. Remember, this is spicy and a little bit goes a long way! Roll the lavash bread in a spiral, and cut the sandwich in half. Each third of a lavash serves one.

I am loving having the college boys home, even though they did have to work at their old jobs for Black Friday. Sometime this weekend, I also need to package up some home made dinners for my oldest, who has been bumming food off the neighbors in his apartment complex. I knew he would miss that cafeteria food eventually!

Thanksgiving

Busy times. Last night we got to see Mannheim Steamroller in concert. That was fun, but it took me away from the kitchen and the must do list for Thanksgiving. My brined turkey is out of the oven. Those cook faster than regular birds. Ours took only 2 hours. John is running in and out seeing to the turkey he is charcoal grill/smoking in the Smoke Cube. His is not brined and is taking longer. In the mean time, I am gathering all the side dishes I have made to take over to my mother's home for our celebration.

The picture above is the Snap Pea Salad from the November newsletter. Just for fun, I added some purple cauliflower. That will solve that yellow food problem we have. I also photographed the Rutabaga au Gratin. I think that is in the February newsletter. Creamy and cheesy. That way, I won't be as tempted to overdose on potatoes.



Happy Thanksgiving, may you all be blessed.

Skillet Green Bean Casserole

Millions of families will be eating that traditional green bean casserole this week. I always liked it--somewhat. I love french fried onions, but am not a huge fan of mushroom soup. Low carbers have other options, but making our own mushroom soup to use as a base can be a bit time consuming.

This weekend I picked up a sale bag of french style green beans with a few recipes spinning around in my head for Thanksgiving. Somehow, we always end up with almost all of our family recipes being yellow or light brown. It has become a joke. Of course, the traditional green bean casserole is still brown on top, now isn't it?

After my purchase, my mom announced that she had set aside some green beans from the garden, and stored them in the freezer to make old fashioned crock pot green beans for Thanksgiving. We share the cooking, and since I have quite a bit to do already, I was happy to turn the green beans over to her. Better yet, they won't be topped with anything yellow.

So, on with the story. Now I have these green beans. But with the amount of cooking I have this week, who wants to experiment with casseroles? I decided to do something easier--and keep it in the skillet. The results are pretty delicious, and "Diner" easy! John REALLY liked this. Really is an understatement. Maybe it is just because this is just a normal weekday meal. Maybe he is just getting into the Thanksgiving "zone." If you are looking for an easier side dish that is still creamy and decadent tasting, try this. Since it is made on the stove top, it won't compete for room in the oven. It could go straight from skillet to bowl, or could be prepped ahead and reheated in the microwave oven.

Skillet Green Bean Casserole

This is one of the recipes included in my new cookbook project, Low Carbing Among Friends.

This recipe is available in the book, along with over 60 additional 24/7 Low Carb Diner recipes. By ordering the book, you get more than 300 favorite gluten free recipes from four other well known low carb cooking experts…Jennifer Eloff of Splendid Low Carbing cookbook fame, Kent Altena, the Atkins Diet Geek and You Tube star, nutritionist and author Maria Emmerich of Maria’s Nutritious and Delicious Journal, and popular blogger and food stylist, Carolyn Ketchum of All Day I Dream About Food. Unlike any other cookbook you may own, this one is a compilation of mini cookbooks featuring the talents of these well known low carbers. Think of it as a “best of” project.

Low Carbing Among Friends also features recipes from numerous other talented low carbing friends and recommendations from the medical community who recognize the health benefits of low carb, gluten free living. To preorder your copy, visit http://www.amongfriends.us The official release date is 11/11/11, so pre-order now for a discount.

The celery adds a really nice crunch, and the caramelized onion flavor is wonderful. If you want, go ahead and add a few french fried onions. It will feel more familiar that way!

This easy side dish was great with our Triple Play meal of baked ham. I also made some little cheese muffins from my coconut master mix. These were a little drier than my last batch, as I experimented with a different cheese. The taste was still really good, though. If you want to use the Herbed Popover recipe, you may want to add a little more cream if your dough is too stiff.

The big boys come back home for Thanksgiving Break tomorrow night. I am so excited to see them, and look forward to a wonderful family holiday.

Pecan Tarts

It is definitely countdown to Thanksgiving time! Today I tried out a recipe for pecan pie tarts. These have all the flavor of pecan pie, even though the texture is a bit different. I based my recipe on several at the Low Carb Friends board. I think this recipe could still use a slightly richer texture, but perhaps the difference is that my tarts have a much more shallow filling area. I might try a deeper pie crust, but then, how much pecan pie can we eat this week?

I think I will also add more molasses, because these tarts are a little too blond looking. I will go ahead and put that in the recipe in case you want to try this recipe. I would be happy with a pumpkin pie--easy to low carb. But the hubby simply must have his pecan pie. Putting that together without high fructose corn syrup is a challenge for sure. I don't like to buy specialty sweeteners too often, as they are expensive. I also try to stay away from too many sugar alcohols. The holidays are an exception, however. This recipe uses pancake syrup sweetened with sorbitol. Since we don't eat it often, not much damage is done. Sugar alcohols still tend to raise hubby's blood sugar levels. Surely, it is better than a pie filled with corn syrup and brown sugar! For the rest of the sweetener, I used a mixture of liquid sucralose and stevia.

On Low Carb friends, all the recipes said to use a maltitol based syrup. Since those are not available locally, I substituted with an easy to find ingredient. The brand I chose is Best Choice, and I think that Great Value at Walmart has the same ingredient list. Far less expensive than ordering!

Pecan Tart or Pecan Pie Filling

1 1/2 cups sugarfree pancake syrup
3 teaspoons molasses
5 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup Splenda or equivalent sweetener
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups pecans


Place the syrup in a small sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until it reduces to a very thick syrup, about ten minutes. Let cool. In another bowl, melt butter. Let cool slightly then add molasses, sweetener, and vanilla. To this mixture, add eggs, one at a time, stirring well to incorporate. Stir in pecans. Pour into prepared crusts. Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes for tarts, longer for pie. Makes 6 small tarts, or one standard pie.

For the crust, I used one cup of pecan meal mixed with 3 tablespoons melted butter. You may choose to add a tablespoon of sweetener if desired. This should cover one pie pan or three tart pans. You would need to double the crust recipe to make six tarts...or half the filling recipe to make three tarts.

The rest of this week will be a baking frenzy. I plan to make some side dishes every day leading up to Thanksgiving. That way, barring any turkey catastrophes, the holiday will be more enjoyable for the cook!

Teriyaki Steak Bento

My Asian inspired lunch was so good. Even though I didn't stand in line to use the microwave to heat it up, it was still tasty. I had some Teriyaki Steak strips for my protein. That marinade recipe is in the e-book. That's the one I ran a correction for a few months ago. The ginger in the recipe should say fresh ginger. If you want to use powdered, just use 1 teaspoon.

Since stir fry veggies are not too lunchbox friendly, I added some finger food vegetables. For a dip, a cup of leftover Pineapple Glaze from the Mega Meatballs recipe. Aren't leftovers great for packing lunches? The veggies are so good dipped in this sweet and sour sauce. Today, I brought steamed cauliflower and snap peas. Love those things.

For color, I had a small serving of cranberry sauce. So, this didn't fit the Asian theme so well, but it is very pretty. It is amazing how far one recipe of cranberry sauce will go!

Tonight, I will be planning my major grocery shopping trip for Thanksgiving. We are doing two turkeys, one baked and one smoked. I am having trouble finding a bird which is not injected with a solution. I am planning to do my own brining, and just need a plain bird. Why DO they have to inject this perfectly good bird, anyway? Seems wrong to pay more for a turkey that has had less done to it! But then when did much of anything in the food industry make sense? Guess since we are paying by the pound, solution is cheaper than white meat.

Good luck on your holiday shopping!

Italian Spinach Worthy of Olive Garden

I'm not best friends with spinach. Popeye fan that I was as a child, I never could never grow to like it. That changed when I found out about lightly sauteing fresh spinach leaves. This, I like. I also love warm spinach salads, but that is a topic for another day.

Tonight I made another dump meal of Mediterranean Chicken. While that went in the oven, I went to play RockBand with the kiddo of mine. Oops, I forgot about the side dish. I wanted something really quick, so I decided to saute the spinach I had left over from this week's salad. This turned out to be a cross between a sauteed veggie and a scramble. The flavors are simple and real. Nice for a side dish. Very pretty too.

Italian Spinach

This is one of the recipes included in my new cookbook project, Low Carbing Among Friends.

This recipe is available in the book, along with over 60 additional 24/7 Low Carb Diner recipes. By ordering the book, you get more than 300 favorite gluten free recipes from four other well known low carb cooking experts…Jennifer Eloff of Splendid Low Carbing cookbook fame, Kent Altena, the Atkins Diet Geek and You Tube star, nutritionist and author Maria Emmerich of Maria’s Nutritious and Delicious Journal, and popular blogger and food stylist, Carolyn Ketchum of All Day I Dream About Food. Unlike any other cookbook you may own, this one is a compilation of mini cookbooks featuring the talents of these well known low carbers. Think of it as a “best of” project.

Low Carbing Among Friends also features recipes from numerous other talented low carbing friends and recommendations from the medical community who recognize the health benefits of low carb, gluten free living. To preorder your copy, visit http://www.amongfriends.us The official release date is 11/11/11, so pre-order now for a discount.

This is a nice side. The garlic comes through and contrasts nicely with the vinegar of the Italian dressing that marinates the chicken. John just told me this dinner was Olive Garden quality. He may have just been buttering me up to make amends for hurting my feelings a bit earlier today, but he is usually pretty honest about his food ratings. Maybe I'll try making this again soon and see if he still likes it as much!