Among Friends Thursday- Maria's "Corndogs"

I have ambitions to try out some of the recipes from our Among Friends Cookbook every Thursday. Today we were already testing some low carb fryer recipes, so we tried out Maria's "Corn" dog recipe. Granted, Maria's are much healthier because she uses grass fed, organic hot dogs and fries in coconut oil. I read on my coconut oil jar not to use it in a deep fryer, so we tried these in a little regular oil. Definitely not something to do often. They did puff up really well and fried up beautifully. They do taste a little coconutty, but it is nothing a squirt of mustard won't cover.

A couple of her followers had a little trouble getting the batter to stick on the hot dog, so I decided to make a shorter dog. Since I was using 1/3 sections of dogs and/ or some little sausages, I had less trouble there. I scooped up the batter in my spoon, placed the dog on it, then topped it with a little more of the coconut mixture. Once it hit the oil, it all stayed together really well.

I seldom drag out the fryer, but we were testing a new fryer/steamer that Pearson got for Christmas. It works great and is multi-purpose! I will tell more in the Diner News for January. Everything worked great, and we had a fun time making and eating these. In the new year, I promise it will be the healthier version.

Having been really busy working on the Diner News, I see that I did not make my midnight deadline for Thursday, C'est la vie. At least we consumed them on Thursday!

Revisiting the Cheese Puppies

One of my favorite treats ever invented is fried cheese sticks. Lots of trouble to make, but delish. A couple of years ago, I invented a way to make Cheese Puppies with my pancake puff pan. Those were good, but took a little time and patience in turning them to get the perfect round ball. Then my pan became a little lot less non stick and I abandoned making them. Never forgot them though.

While rummaging around the after Christmas sales yesterday, I found a cake ball machine for $7.88 at Walmart. In the basket it went, along with some holiday cookie pans and some really nice standard air bake cookie sheets that were half price too. We even found a Ninja drink maker (just like mine, but only the large pitcher) SCORE! It took a great deal of inner strength not to buy a brownie maker and donut machine too.

Since my original recipe used Carbquick, but I never use wheat products in my current recipe development, I decided to use coconut flour. It worked fine. Now understand, these are not perfect spheres. They are more like half circles. Slightly taller than that, but not totally round. Still really cute on the appetizer table for New Year's Eve parties. Even better, you can turn the flat side up. With it's little crater, you have a perfect place for a dollop of marinara or salsa. Yum oh yum.  I guess you could stick two halves together to make a perfect ball, but they are rich enough without adding more cheese to stick them together.

If you aren't crazy into kitchen gadgets like I am, you might try these baked in a mini muffin pan. I am thinking they would work, just lose that star quality that sets them apart from the crowd of ordinary appetizers!

Easy Cheese Puppies

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I chose Jack)
1 egg
1 heaping tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vinegar

 Heat a cake pop machine. In a medium bowl, stir together cheese, egg, coconut flour and baking soda. When well combined, add the vinegar. Drop approximately 2 teaspoons of cheese mixture into each cavity. If using a cake ball machine, close the lid and bake for 5 minutes. Open lid and remove with a bamboo skewer, Let cheese puppies drain on a paper towel. Serve with marinara, salsa, or the dip of your choice.

These may work in a standard oven as well. I would probably use a hot oven, 400 or 425 degrees, and bake 10 minutes or more until browned on top. If you try it this way, let me know what works. I will be using my cake ball appliance for sure. It is so easy!

I have some interesting ideas for these. My further experiments will be on my party table for the New Year and they will be in the January edition of the Diner News as well. This month will be dedicated to the small appliance department of our Low Carb Kitchen. I will have great ideas for some of those gifts you may have received for Christmas. In the works are dehydrator ideas, fryer recipes, cake pops, waffle sticks and more. If you don't have some of these items now, I promise you will want some! (I will try to offer some conventional methods as much as possible as well)

I am so loving having my middle son home. He has helped me with the makeover on my blog. As an honor student in graphic arts, he helped me put together the retro look I have always wanted for the Diner. Cool, huh? And he didn't charge me a dime--he did it all in exchange for cheese puppies!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Waffle Sticks

 

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful holiday season--wherever you are. Mine is wonderful this year. Christmas was spent with the whole family and some special friends as well. But the holiday week does not stop there for us. Today is my hubby's birthday. We celebrated at Red Robin last night so our oldest son could join us before he had to return to his job today. I still wanted the day to feel special for John, so we made him a fabulous breakfast this morning before he headed off to the station. Pearson handled the meat, as only a fan of Epic Mealtime could. (lots of it, that is) He made his dad sausage links, ham and eggs. I used the waffle maker I got for Christmas to make these super fun waffle sticks.After all that meat, he couldn't even finish them. I handled that for him.

I used the recipe for the Mr. Peanut Bread, which is a part of the Low Carbing Among Friends Cookbook, but is also one of the recipes I still feature here. It is just so versatile. I have a comment today saying the bread did not rise for some reason. I have never had that problem here. In fact, the batter was rising out of the waffle iron before I even got the batter spread over the entire iron base. The only advice I know is not to use too large a pan, or spread the doughy batter too thin. Perhaps adding the vinegar last might help. The reaction it makes with the soda fluffs the batter, so don't stir too much after that is added.  I have used this in muffin cups, and even as artisan bread plopped directly on a cookie sheet. A follower of the Diner showed me a photo of how she used Mr. Peanut Bread in a waffle iron, so that is what I tried today. Thanks, Jillian for sharing the idea and the photo. Love when readers do that! I simply baked mine until most of the steaming had stopped. They are not super crispy, like some white flour waffles, but they are tasty and satisfying.

For toppings, we added some sugarfree blackberry Smucker's Jam. Oh, and of course the whipped cream we had left over from the trifle I made for Christmas Eve. The flavor combination will definitely bring out the kid in you. The sticks are even more fun to eat than regular waffles. You can pick the whole waffle stick up and eat it with your fingers. Yum. I have some other ideas I will be featuring in the January newsletter. Think inside out sandwiches, waffles stick chili dunkers and more. It will be fun, I promise.

Three Pepper Jelly Appetizer

I have always had a thing for Jalapeno Pepper Jelly. I used to make some at Christmas time because I adore the flavor of the sweet hot jelly warmed and poured over a block of cream cheese. Then I stopped. The sugar content in my old recipe was huge. Not knowing much about making sugarfree jams and jellies, but knowing enough kitchen chemistry to bet that was a tricky process, I just gave it up. Sugarfree cranberry sauce took the place of the beloved jalapeno jelly.

Yesterday, my middle son Pearson, asked if we could have some again this year. I have such a hard time saying no to my guys, so I decided to take the challenge. We happened to be headed for Walmart anyway, so I picked up a jar of the Ball brand no sugar pectin. Then a new recipe search was on. Really didn't find much, considering I wanted to use canned pickled jalapenos I had  languishing on a back shelf of the pantry. My old recipe had used canned jalapenos, and I wanted to duplicate that flavor. The recipes I found using Truvia called for fresh peppers. Others called for bell peppers. No again. Armed with some jam making generalizations jumping around in my brain, I headed for the kitchen with no recipe at all. What I ended up with is not quite what I used to make, but it is a better jam texture and it does taste like peppers. If anything, it is a little more gourmet than my old recipe, so I guess I took it up a notch. This one calls for three different forms of chili peppers. In addition to the pickled jalapenos, it has some green chilies and some chili powder. That son who asked for it, is now eating it for breakfast. I guess it passed his test.

The green chiles, which are in abundance in my freezer since I buy the giant cans, make it more jam like than many of the versions I have tried in the past. I like that, as some seem a little more like syrup at times. ( I had one sugared version that never really set up) The chili powder adds a depth of flavor missing from conventional recipes. The only thing I would do differently next time, is to lower the amount of lemon juice. The lemon flavor was a little too pronounced for me.  I am going to adjust that in the recipe I am publishing here--pretty sure it will work the same. Still in? Here ya go!

 Three Pepper Jelly


8-10 canned pickled jalapeno peppers OR about 3/4 cup if dicing sliced peppers
1 tbsp butter 
8 ounces canned diced green chilies
1 cup ZSweet OR 1 1/4 cup erythritol
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup water 
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp liquid stevia
1 1/2 tbsp Ball No Sugar Pectin

Finely chop the pickled jalapeno peppers in a food processor.  Heat the butter in a medium saucepan. Stir in the chopped jalapenos and the green chilies. Coat well and saute 2-3 minutes. Add the erythritol, vinegar, water, lemon juice, chili powder and liquid stevia. Stir over medium heat to dissolve sweetener. Heat to boiling. Remove from heat and gradually stir in the powdered pectin. Return pan to heat to resume boil. When the mixture boils, remove from heat and pour into three clean jelly jars. Seal and cool.

Obviously, I did not process these in a canner for long term storage. These would keep more like a freezer jam, for several weeks. I am not sure if erythritol acts as a preservative like cane sugar does. There is enough vinegar in there to do a good job in that area though. We will see. Not sure if three small jars will last through New Year's Eve around here anyway!

If you want to make some, especially here at the holidays, it would be very pretty with some red bell pepper thrown into the mix too.  Now what to do? Well, the obvious, and my personal favorite, is to put some over a block of cream cheese and serve with veggie dippers and crackers. You can also spoon the jelly over ham, meatballs or chicken breast. I hear some even use pepper jelly on a sandwich. I don't know about you, but I am too busy with last minute details to be making low carb bread right now. Ours will be appetizer fare! In the photo, I warmed some leftover cheeseball and spread it into a Christmas tree dish. That is too festive! Merry Christmas, Diners.

Kent's Stuffed Mushrooms

Well, I made it the first week. It is Among Friends Thursday. This week I tried the Stuffed Mushroom recipe from Kent Altena. Delicious. Lucky me, I get to eat them all, I think. Ever since I made my boys dissect a mushroom in biology class, they refuse to eat fungi. At least not whole ones. We do sneak a few onto pizza and into casseroles still. Obviously, mushrooms are not the prettiest, but these little bites are really tasty.

Kent's recipe uses baby portabellas, which I found at Aldi  for a great price. I had already dug into mine for another recipe, so I may have over stuffed mine a little tonight, being short three shrooms. All the better for some extra flavor. I also forgot a couple of spoonfuls of the diced mushroom (yes, I was distracted) which were supposed to be mixed in. I added those to the top, and I think that makes them prettier. These would be excellent for Christmas and New Years Eve parties. Look for the in Low-Carbing Among Friends page 273. Click on the photo of the book to go to the order page and to see some incredible photos of the recipes in the book.

Greek Inspired Stuffed Peppers

It seems like I have been posting all sweet treats lately. We really are still eating dinners, I promise. Relying on the old standards makes the busy holiday season easier, but they aren't so interesting for blogging. Tonight, I made these stuffed peppers for my youngest son, who loves bell peppers, and is feeling a little under the weather. Then at the last minute, he ended up ring shopping with his girlfriend. Hmm. Certain girls have a way of making sick boys feel better like moms just can't.

So, his portion went into the fridge for lunch tomorrow. One of these days, she will be cooking for him instead of me. I had best feed him while I can! My sweet middle son is finishing up finals tomorrow, so I am really looking forward to hugging his neck and cooking for him. After college food, they always appreciate Mom's Diner.

Tonight, I ran short in the pepper department and long on zucchini squash. Rather than make a zucchini boat, something that does not offer too much appeal for my men, I made little squatty stuffed zucchini. I liked them, and you might too. Silly boys.

Many, I say MANY recipes call for rice as a filler. I subbed cauliflower, and no one would be the wiser. I added some coconut flour so it would all stick together. It did great there. Some feta cheese gave outstanding flavor, as did the oregano and lemon pepper. These had to be the most flavorful stuffed peppers I have had. For me,  I may have thrown in some cinnamon, but my guys don't rave about that either. Do what you want.

There are also two camps on the baking procedure. Some people pre-brown the meat. This certainly shortens the baking time. It does, in my opinion, make the dish messier. Packing in raw meat leaves it more like a mini meatloaf inside the pepper and less like a sloppy joe. If you are running out of time, go ahead and brown the meat first, but leave out the coconut flour. Maybe an egg as a  binder? Not sure, but maybe. I know the hour and a half oven time is well worth it.


Greek Inspired Stuffed Peppers (and zucchini if you want)


 4 bell peppers OR a combination of bell pepper and zucchini
1/2 large head cauliflower OR about 2 1/2 cups finely diced
1 pound ground meat (I used sausage tonight, but I suppose lamb would be more authentic)
2 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp ground oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 ounces feta cheese
1/2 cup low sugar spaghetti sauce

 Cut the tops off bell peppers and remove the seeds. If using zucchini, remove stem and base, and cut into 4-5 chunks. Use a melon baller to hollow out a cavity from the zucchini. Reserve the squash cuttings to add to the cauliflower.


Use a food processor to finely dice the raw cauliflower and zucchini. In a large bowl, combine the cauliflower  with the ground meat, coconut flour and all the spices. Stir in the feta cheese. Fill the peppers with the meat mixture. If making zucchini, fill those, rounding the tops with a spoon. Place the filled vegetables in a baking dish and spoon spaghetti sauce over the top. Cove the dish with foil and bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees. Remove the foil from the dish and bake another 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Use a meat thermometer to make certain the middle of the peppers register 165 degrees.

 Add a little more sauce if you want. This is yummy stuff!

P.S. The boy came home from shopping and ate his portion anyway. Good, because that is the one I need to get some weight on!

Chocolate Mint Ribbon Cookies

A few years ago I made a Neapolitan cookie, complete with the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry stripes. We liked it. Then I went all out for my competitive cookie exchange party, and made Martha Stewart's Checkerboard cookies. True, you need a ruler to make Martha's cookies. Being a bit of a pain, you really have to A. Want to impress someone,  or B. Love someone passionately to want to make those! These are not so hard--even if you do make them for someone you love. This cookie will leave you time to play a game or catch a movie with them too. Leave Martha's ruler behind, and make these. The chocolate shortbread flavor is there. I made them even more fun than checkerboards with a minty green layer. I love chocolate and mint.

Just because these cookies are easy, that is not to say that these are not cute. Especially cute for a low carb treat. Those often suffer in the pretty department. Not so these. My only fault with them is that I prefer a more well done confection. But then, I also know that I am not the norm, and that most of you will find these barely done cookies absolutely perfect. Watch closely when baking; if you cut any thicker or thinner, the baking time will vary a minute here or there. I guess you could still use Martha's ruler, but I refused to go there again!

If you aren't a fan of mint, choose any flavor or color that you like. Cherry flavoring with pink food coloring would be nice. Who knows?


Chocolate Mint Ribbon Cookies

1 1/4 cup blanched almond flour
1/4 cup granulated ZSweet (use 1/3 cup straight erythritol if you don't have this blend)
2 tbsp coconut flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
10 drops stevia
2 1/2 tsp melted unsweetened chocolate
1/2 tsp peppermint flavoring
6 drops green food coloring


In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, erythritol, coconut flour, xanthan gum, salt, and baking soda.
In a small bowl, combine melted butter, egg, vanilla and stevia. Add the wet ingredients to the larger bowl, stirring by hand to combine.

Divide the dough into equal thirds. In a small bowl, add melted chocolate to 1/3 of the cookie dough. Use the back of a large spoon or your hands to blend thoroughly. In another small bowl, add the peppermint flavoring and green food coloring to another 1/3 of the dough. Use a spoon or hands to blend it well.

When all the doughs are blended, place the vanilla dough onto a sheet of waxed paper. With your fingers, shape the dough into a rectangle approximately 1/2 inch thick. Each layer will be about 6 inches long, 2 inches wide. Wrap the dough in the waxed paper to create smooth, straight edges. Repeat the formation of the rectangular logs with the mint and the chocolate dough.


Working on waxed paper, place the chocolate layer on the bottom, the vanilla in the center and the mint dough on top. Wrap well in waxed paper and use your fingers to smooth the edges and blend the layers together. Chill this log for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

To bake, slice 1/4 inch slices and place on a silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Watch closely and remove cookies before the edges brown. Cool 2 minutes on the sheet before transferring to a flat surface to cool completely.  Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Per cookie:  57 calories  2 g protein   5 g fat   1 g net carb

Once the cookies are cool, they are not too fragile, and the layers stay together very well. It is fun to try to eat the layers one at a time to taste the different flavors. Of course, it is just as wonderful to get that great chocolate mint flavor too. One big bite will do that! I think these are perfect for a low carb cookie plate for the holidays.





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