Big ole' Pork Tenderloin

We were at Sam's Club the other day, and found they had pork tenderloin for  $1.99 a pound. It was big. Feed a crowd big. Feed the masses big. It went home with me. You see, I knew I need to feed a crowd. Afterall, I was begging help from my friends to get our house and property ready for the big afterstorm makeover. I had instructions to get all the undergrowth and debris from what was left of out privacy fence. We found all sort of things growing in the Vinca that lined the fence and house. Bad idea--don't let that stuff get out of hand like we did. That is another story. It was a tough job even before we found the neighbors had been dumping things in the space between our fences. Guess who got to clean that up? My friends. You really do know who your friends are when they show up for that job! They even took down our old swingset and hauled the pieces off for to be recycled. What a crew!

I wanted to be able to feed everyone, carbies and low carbers alike. So, I took that giant hunk of pork, cut it up and plopped it into my dual crockpot. With my kitchen less than workable, the crockpot did a fine job sitting on the concrete slab in the kitchen nook. The lid kept any remaining insulation at bay, and my guests dined in style--well, they dined in an emergency situation type style, anyway. I contend, that is a style of sorts. I made one side with the sugary barbecue sauce for the carbivores among them. I made one side with a homemade sauce for the low carbers and my GAPS boy. The sides were simple, fruit pickles and cheese. For the carbies, I had buns and chips too. Okay, so not gourmet, but I did manage to give them strength and keep them here working long into the evening hours. What troopers! I even had some leftovers. It was a huge ole piece of pork.

Sorry, this is another of those no real recipe, just a method posts. Just slow cook a 3-4 pound chunk of pork tenderloin with about of cup of low carb barbecue sauce. Cook 10 hours. Let cool a bit, shred the meat and let the liquid reabsorb. Stir in another cup of sauce and serve. On a good day, I would have some coconut flour buns ready, but these are difficult kitchen times, so we just ate a scoop on a plate. Just as good and less work. Not so easy to eat with your fingers, however.

Now my yard is clear and almost barren. The furniture is all moved into a pod in my driveway. It echoes in here.Trucks keep driving into my backyard. That takes some getting used to. My poor dogs are so confused. I am hoping the fence goes up soon because my neighbors have taken in some houseguests and  between them all, they have 7 dogs--with no side fence. That makes 10 dogs to be watched for potty breaks.Come on fence guys!

I kept my fridge and stove connected,  but those will have to be gone soon enough for the new floors to go in. My mom is trying to convince me to replace my leaky, non igniting burners stove. I dunno. Insurance won't pay for that, and cookbook sales are a little slow these days. Hoping a new project in the works will fix that soon.

So many difficult things have been happening to my family lately. There certainly have been trials. I do feel that our dark cloud is lifting. My home repairs are underway. My youngest son is feeling better now that he is not eating starches and additives on the SCD/GAPS diet. My oldest son just landed an amazing job! That is the best news ever. 2100 plus applications. Interviews. No calls. He was even willing to be a teller, but no one would hire him there. Thing sure can turn on dime. He got a call last Wednesday to come interview back in his college town in Arkansas. By yesterday, he was hired and asked to start work tomorrow.  One week and he is not only employed, but also second in command of an accounting department and over three people. He will earn more than his dad. Not that Christian radio, his dad's job, pays much, but still, for his first job out of college... We are so proud, not only that he got a great job, but of the strength and character he displayed through the year and three month job search. It is tough out there, but he never gave up.

We are persevering through some trials, and the blessings are now headed our way.

Balsamic Brats and Peppers

This was today's lunch. It was so delish, I made extra as freezer meals. We stopped by Sam's Club on the way home from church. I know my kitchen is a wreck and will just be getting worse, but I trying to prepare as many meals as I can. I just couldn't help buying some things for some homecooked foods. These we will have in the freezer so John can take them to work and grill them up on the George grill there. I am guessing we could even grill them up when we take refuge from the construction in the bedrooms...as long as we take a grill in with us.

I also got some meats to cook in the crockpots. Those can travel to any room in the house, right? We are going to need some help from friends this week to empty all the damaged rooms. Furniture, wall decor--everything has to go. We are still not sure where it is going to go, but it can't stay here. Yikes! I am thinking I could feed my volunteer crew pretty easily with some barbecue pork. I can just set my crockpots up on the back patio and add buns and some salads from the deli for my friends. We can have pork and coleslaw. It has been raining here, so work may be delayed. But here's to hoping.

Back to this recipe. It is so easy and so delicious. I adore sauteed onions and peppers. They are a little carby, but if you are watching, throw some zucchini in there too and that will help. Today, I threw everything in the skillet because I only had the three of us to feed. No carby boys today. If I was adding them, I think I would serve these with some rice or on a crusty bread.

I used the long red peppers from Sam's Club. They are called Ancient Sweets. Odd name, and from Holland no less? Combined with Bratwurst, this really is an international dish. In my freezer packets, I also added a regular green bell pepper. The sausages are Zia brand. Only one carb per link, and they were really good. I would definitely buy them again. Of course, being at the wholesale club, I had to buy 5 pounds of them, so we will certainly be serving them again. With this hectic week, they are going into the freezer, but I am thinking an autumn inspired brats and cabbage dish will on the menu soon. My usual menu planning is difficult during construction.

I am going to include the instructions for the skillet dish, then the individual freezer packets.

Balsamic Brats and Peppers


5 bratwurst links
3 Ancient Sweet red peppers, or 1 regular red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup Asiago cheese 
Salt and pepper to taste


Chop vegetables into bite sized chunks. Cut sausages into 3/4 inch slices. Heat olive oil in skillet. Add garlic, sausage and vegetables. Saute until meat is cooked through. Season to taste. Sprinkle with grated Asiago cheese.


To make 4 freezer packets:
Dice 1 onion, 1 large green bell pepper and 3 Ancient Sweets red peppers (or 1 large red bell pepper)


Into a plastic sandwich bag, add
1 1/4 sliced bratwurst link
1/4 onion
1/4 green bell pepper
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
a sprinkle of garlic powder


Layer in the meat and vegetables. Add garlic, oil and vinegar. Squish with fingers to coat everything in the bag. Freeze.





























I use the inexpensive fold over sandwich bags. Because these do not seal well, I put them inside a larger freezer bag. This keeps like food together, and saves money by using fewer of the costlier freezer bags. You can also seal them inside Foodsaver bags.

Barbecue Skillet Dinner

So it is nothing fancy, but it is one of the few dinners I have managed to make in my less than amazing surroundings. No repair work has started YET. More than a month since the storm, and all we have had is stop gap quick fixes. One check is in, but we can't spend it yet. How is it that funds instantly come out of my account when I use a debit card, but my 13,000 some dollars from the insurance needs a week? This is pretty amazing how it goes out but not in. The best news is a cool front. Even though I still have plastic sheeting everywhere and missing walls and ceilings, at least it is not 95 degrees in the kitchen. I grabbed some veggies at Aldi the other day, and I am taking advantage of the cooler temps. I know the rebuilding will be starting in earnest next week, and the house will be a major construction zone, certainly not a place to cook. Unless I could convince the guys that drywall dust is parmesan cheese, that is.

The other bad news is that my youngest is suffering through a relapse of his IBS issues. He is undergoing some major life stress with a new full time job, full time college hours, and a house that is...ummm..( guess I have complained enough there) I can't wonder how he is stressed. He is working as an assistant teacher at a Head Start program. Who would not be stressed with twenty 3 and 4 year old kids all day? Two teachers only. That is a stresser enough!

We are putting him back--on his own request--on the GAPS/SCD diet. It eliminates starches and most sugars while adding in healing bone broths and probiotics. That means mom has some major work ahead in the kitchen. Keeping up with an organic when possible, all home prepared regimen occupies a few hours in the day. I will probably have to move my food prep over to my mom's house during the home fix. Eating out at restaurants is such a gamble. Even small food additives lurk everywhere and can ruin his healing progress. Eating clean is a job in itself. I will share some of my recipes I prepare for him. Even though his diet is often more strict that the low carb routine we generally follow, they do often overlap. Tonight's skillet supper is an example. The ingredients are the same, he just needed his cooked longer for digestibility.

It is basically just a round up of vegetables, fried up with ground beef and seasoned with some garlic and home made barbecue sauce, a touch of mustard and some crumbled bacon. Embarrassing to post on a food blog, but it is what it is. Even the photo had to be taken on the stove because my only source of natural light is covered in a plastic tarp. Appetizing? Not so much.  It did taste like home cooking, though. We have missed those folksy meals.I won't make you laugh at the "recipe" so just know that we dined on cabbage, onion, zucchini, tomatoes and sauce. My sauce is wonderful made with Wright's liquid smoke and it is legal for my kiddo's plan. My friend Maria blogged about a prebiotic sweetener that will be good for Christian to use. I am buying that soon. I will bake up some goodies and let you know our review. Check out her post of fudge cookies. Mmm. Maria is a wealth of information...if only I knew half of what she does! Good to have friends, though.

Tired of chicken salads, I have cheated on my low carb more times than I care to admit lately. I have proven that the Diner system is fabulous, but a working kitchen is required to keep it up! My Mulitply Meals are all eaten up, as are many of my Freezer Favorites. I use my Babycakes machine for easy breakfast muffins before it gets too hot. I still have uncooked meat, waiting to become the next homecooked meal, but it only works when the kitchen is open. John found insulation in his tea the other day. Wonder how many cancers that can cause!?!

Can't wait for things to get back to normal. I have even been suffering the loss of my computer for a few days. It is back, although it is still an old hand me down from my oldest. Slow but connected at least. A normal home is still weeks away, but the roof will be going on soon...then the wall and ceilings, the fence, then painting, the flooring, then putting it all back together. We are still trying to figure out where to put all the furniture during the repairs. I have most of the new things chosen, but then I know it is going to make my old stuff look even worse. I have the most awful countertops and backsplash. They came with the house and can't seem to be registered on the color wheel. Next to gray, they look beige. Next to beige, they are gray. The wallpaper is coming down, no one wants to hang new paper, and I can't find a color to match. Such details are making me crazy--almost as nuts as I am trying to deal with the insurance company. Still, we are very grateful to have been covered, and to get some updates we could not otherwise afford. In the end it will be worth it...I think...If I keep finding more things that really need to be updated this could be an expensive storm indeed. Keep in touch, Diners. I will be back in force soon. Hope things are good for you.Maybe I will do a kitchen reveal like they do on the decorator blogs. Or maybe not. I will still have those countertops...

Berry Cobbler

Thank you Father for a break to our heatwave! It has been glorious the last few days here. I actually turned on the oven for the first time in a month. Not that my kitchen is back together. It is not. But I am making do on a small scale. We are getting rather accustomed to drooping plastic ceilings, concrete floors and old bedspreads over sheet rock free walls. Good news is, the check should be in the mail today. They are granting us about $20,000 in repairs. I am worried that is not enough--especially since our fence estimates alone are around $5000. We are DIY challenged, so I don't know how many short cuts we can take. The whole process with insurance is so confusing. I can't wait to get my house back in order.

Baking, even though it was just one little dish, was comforting. I really wasn't planning to make a cobbler, so this just kinda happened. My wonderful, talented and creative middle boy decided to come home from college over Labor Day for his birthday. My older son's girlfriend, a student at the same school, bribed him with the offer of a birthday cake if he would ride back with her. Now this was a pretty big sacrifice for the boy seeing that this was his 21st birthday--one you usually don't want to spend with your mom. But he is not your typical guy. No one would ever call him a wild party animal. So he chose to spend his special day with his family. Collective 'Awww' inserted here.

Kristen did make him a cake--well a pan of brownies. She was disappointed I didn't have any birthday candles. Too many years since the party era for us I guess. They family gobbled them up so fast! They were supposed to last for the day with Nana on Monday, but they didn't. We were left without a dessert for the family get together. Since Pearson is my insulin resistant son, I sure didn't want to put another dessert full of sugar and white flour in front of him. So, I made a low carb cobbler that we all could eat. Everyone liked it, low carb or not. There ya go! The texture is not quite the same as a traditional cobbler, but if you are a fan of coconut flour baked goods, this will delight you.

Feel free to play around with the sweeteners of choice. I used what was open and close at hand. Add more berries if you please, I used the end of my bag and didn't bother to measure them out. The amount or type of berries is not that important.

Brown "Sugar" Berry Cobbler
Berry base:
2-3 cups frozen berry blend or blueberries, blackberries or raspberries
1/2 cup Ideal sweetener (brown sugar blend optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon glucomannan  powder (xanthan gum will work too)
Batter:
1/2 cup melted butter
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup Ideal Sweetener (brown)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder


In a sprayed baking dish, combine fruit, sweetener, spices and thickener.
In another bowl, combine melted butter, eggs, vanilla and sweetener. To this, quickly stir in coconut flour and baking powder. Let the batter rest for 5 minutes. Spoon over the fruits. Bake at 375 until the top is golden, about 20 minutes.


If you look at the photo and think that I must have left mine in a little too long, I did. It is tricky to share my tiny, storm damaged kitchen with my future daughter in law. She is not a low carber, and makes her own carbivore breakfasts when she visits. To each his own, but I love that she is willing to get in there and make her own rather than expecting us to eat all that sugary stuff. Maybe we will win her over in time. So our cobbler got a little brown while the other breakfast was in the works, but it was still tasty. At mom's, we added some whipped cream. Home made vanilla ice cream would have been amazing. The coconut flour batter tastes buttery and stays cakey, not gooey like some traditional cobblers I have had in the past.

I can't wait to get my house back to normal. It is still a few weeks away, but with cooler weather, I can get a little more done in the kitchen. When the new ceiling floors and wallpaper goes in, though, it will be impossible again. Until then, I will do what I can with what I have.

Salad in a Jar Deluxe -The Balsamic Beef Salad

You know I love having a prep day once a week to make the rest of life easier. That idea is the backbone of the Diner system. Here is another idea I have developed that follows up on the Salad in a Jar technique I already blogged about. I had already added some grape tomatoes to my jars, then it dawned on me that full meal salads might work too. I researched it and found some blogs talking about a similar system--none of them low carb, of course! But how cool is it to put together 4-5 days worth of entree salads in one day?

So even though my kitchen is still not operational, I came up with some combination recipes. I have tried a couple of them, but I know the system works. I will give you one idea here, but the rest of the recipes are in the September newsletter. There are a few guidelines that must be followed if you don't want to eat a soggy mess. Those are in the newsletter too.

Choose a quart size jar. It can be a canning jar, but doesn't have to be. The salads can be vacuum sealed, but if eaten soon enough, just a regular jar will do. Layer the ingredients in the order listed, but you can choose the amount.

The Balsamic Beef Salad

1. Balsamic Vinaigrette--pour a little in the base of the jar

2. Italian Minute Beef (or browned beef with tomatoes and Italian spices, cooled)

3. grape tomatoes

4. mozzarella cheese, 

5. lettuce

6. Pepperoncini (optional) 

7. Italian seasoning blend sprinkled on top.

When lunchtime rolls around just empty the contents of the jar into a big salad bowl and toss. Pouring the dressing in the bottom keeps it away from the lettuce and prevents wilting. Just don't turn the jar on the side when you pack it up.

I have six more recipes for salad in a jar in the newsletter, so if you want more, look in there. It also gives some advice on prepping a work week's worth of salads in one cooking session. That is Diner style for sure!

PBJ Muffins for Breakfast

I wanted a nice breakfast for my honey on our anniversary, so I managed to make these mini muffins in my Babycakes cupcake maker. Even in our less than functional house, these were yummy. I kinda winged it on the recipe, but they turned out nicely. So here ya go. A taste to make you feel like a kid again. I could use that on number 25!

PBJ Muffins


3/4 cup peanut flour
1/3 cup whey protein powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Zsweet or equivalent sweetener
1 egg
1/3 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Sugarfree fruit jam or preserves


Stir together all dry ingredients. Combine egg, almond milk and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients. Add a bit more almond milk if the batter is too thick. ( aim for brownie consistency, not cake batter) Place liners into muffin tins or Babycakes machine. Bake until browned and a toothpick comes out clean. The Babycakes machine finished these in 5 minutes. Let cool and add a 1/4 teaspoon of jam on top of each muffin. Makes14-16 mini muffins.


My ZSweet jar was running low, so I actually used half ZSweet and half brown sugar style Ideal Sweetener. The batter tasted much sweeter than the finished muffin, but they were still plenty sweet for us. We used apricot and blackberry sugarfree jam made by Smuckers on ours. Even the carby boy liked these.

Side note: For any of you with a Babycakes Cupcake maker, I did use the standard mini muffin cups with these. While they are a little small for the well, they bake up just fine. A few get a tiny bit lop sided, but the lack of clean up is worth it. I got my liners at Michael's yesterday with my 40 % off coupon. Way cheaper than ordering the correct specialty size from the company!

Hubby and I will be dining out tonight for our true anniversary. Steak, I think. It will probably be an early night with him back to work after a week's vacation. In addition to that, it stormed here last night, and my poor sweet Golden Retriever, Gracie, was scared to death. Well, not to death, but close when she decided to stand on John's head in the bed. Given the damage done to our house a few weeks ago, she had the right to be scared and wake us up. Hoping the hurricane on the east coast doesn't hold up our repairs any longer...as the company hinted at today when we called to see if anything is ever going to get underway. I am terribly sorry for all you east coasters too, but the unbearable heat is getting to us. I am cranky when I am hot, and I actually miss cooking dinner.

Summerberry Tea

So there is not much I can do in my kitchen these days. It is hot with no ceiling! Breakfasts are about the only meal tolerable to cook. I have plastic sheeting up for the ceiling.(sort of a ceiling, more like a tent) That catches most of the exposed insulation. But since our weather remains around a hundred, we all clear out of the house during the daytime hours. Needless to say, my cooking adventures are very limited. Probably by the time we get ceilings and the weather cools off, the insurance money will be in and we will be getting new floors and wallpaper in there, also making it unfit for cooking.  Not fabulous news for a food blogger.

It is hard to keep me down, and tonight I did venture into the heat to make this cooling beverage. I am copycatting a drink served to me at Wendy's the other day. Yes, we are eating out a lot of meals. That time I had their chili and side salad. I figure the beans wouldn't hurt too much compared to french fries. We are concerned with just how much our insurance will cover in the meals out expenses, and they are being vague. We are trying to be careful on that point. When the tea was a suggested sale, I asked the manager what was in it, and he promised it was simply pureed fruit with no added sugar.  I liked the tea, sweetened it a bit with the pink packets they had available...and made some plans to try some at home.

Today as most days, I stayed out all afternoon to avoid the heat. It is amazing how much time one can spend in Michael's when you just want to stay in the air conditioning! I did get some ideas for fun fall goodies--but I will save that for later...like when it is fall. Please Lord, send fall!  When I got home I was thirsty and it was hot, so I got busy with this recipe in mind.

It is fruity and healthy, made with green tea. Berries are good for us low carbers too. My berries are a combination of blueberry, blackberry and raspberry.You may want to strain out the seeds, but I am drinking it as is because I was getting overheated just waiting for the water to boil for the tea. Did I mention it was hot?

Summerberry Tea


1 quart boiling water
4 green tea bags with lemon
1 cup frozen berry blend
1/2 cup ZSweet
1 tube raspberry flavored Splenda
1 cup ice, plus more in pitcher


Prepare tea with the boiling water. Let steep while preparing the fruit. Into a food processor blender--I use my Ninja--add the fruit, sweeteners and ice. Blend well. My mixture remained a little chunky. Pour the tea into the frozen fruit mixture and blend again. Pour into a serving pitcher and add ice to fill. Add more sweetener if desired. 

If you don't have the flavored Splenda, it doesn't make too much difference. A couple of packets of another sweetener will do. Of course, this recipe can be easily adapted to whatever sweetener you prefer. Also, my green tea happened to be lemon flavored. I like the slight tartness, so if you only have plain tea, add a squirt of lemon juice or a packet of true lemon.

We went out of town last week on a trip to Branson paid for by my hubbie's station. It was fun, other than riding there and back with no air conditioning. Yes again, me complaining about being hot. We used the trip to celebrate our 25th anniversary, although it is actually tomorrow. Wow. 25  years went so fast! We will probably go out for a steak to celebrate again, although eating out is not such the treat it used to be.

Remember, I am still looking for reader contributions for the newsletter. With all this mess, I just cannot get in there to test new recipes for you this month. I would love some more contributions, and it will get you 6 free months of the newsletter. What a deal. One might even say it was a hot deal.