Pan grilled bratwurst and steamed cabbage

I covered the bratwurst with water and simmered for 10 minutes. Then I drained the water and added a little olive oil, and sautéed the sausages until they were brown but not bursting. I poured the fat into a disposable hot drinks cup.

Sliced up the cabbage, and poured a little of the sausage fat into it, dusted with salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of water, covered with Saran wrap and microwaved for four minutes. Dinner!

Menu for this week

 

Typically, I make  3-4 different meats and 2-3 vegetables on Saturday, and that, combined with a couple of meals out feeds us well all week. This weekend, we were out of town and I was tired when we got back late Sunday afternoon. So I’m in what I call “bachelor cooking” mode, which involves some pre-made spice mixes and sauces. Still starting with fresh vegetables and meat, so all is not lost, but the meals are easier to fix. So here’s what we are having this week, and I’ll update the names below with recipe links as I post the recipes.

 

1. Quick Sausage and Kale

2. Tandoori Chicken

3. Bacon-wrapped chicken

4. Crockpot Beef & Broccoli

5. Split pea soup with extra ham

6. Roasted asparagus

7. Ready mixed Kale salad

Quick meal idea: Low carb pressure cooker sausage and kale

Got home after a lovely weekend with my son. So happy, but also very tired and I didn’t want to make anything elaborate. This is a quick standby at our house. I always have some chicken sausage in the freezer. We typically get Aidell’s sausage in different flavors from Costco.

My two favorites are either sausage with Kale, or sausage with green beans. You put the veggies in the bottom of your pressure cooker, top with the sausage. Seal and cook under high pressure for 6 minutes.

Dinner is served. Yup, it’s just that simple.

Korean lunch Galbi with loads of banchan

I nom’ed a lot of this but the meat was enough to share with the whole family. Wonderful to be able to go out and have meat and veggies done a bit differently.

Omg too much delicious food!

We are visiting my son in Austin and his Sichuanese friend recommended a restaurant. She came with us and here’s the resulting deliciousness.

Spicy cold chicken with noodles, twice cooked pork, lamb with cumin, ma po tofu, fried green beans, and whole fried, sweet and sour fish.

Omg. All meat and fish and low carb if you stay away from the noodles and rice. So. Much. Flavor.

Drunken noodles with tofu

Went out with my husband tonight. I haven’t ordered noodles since the surgery but thought I’d risk it today since I was low on carbs all day. Absolutely delicious dish, but I ate my tofu first. After that I was able to eat maybe 4-5 little noddles before topping out. I’ve brought more than two-thirds of this home to enjoy tomorrow.

How wonderful to be able to enjoy a little food without too many carbs, and guilt afterwards? I know people who say they miss eating. I have to say, I love not having to eat and I love eating guilt-free.

Normal life, normal eating, weighing less. What’s not to love, right?

Meal Ideas: 2 ingredients Pressure Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

So here’s another simple meal idea that requires virtually no prep. If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can do this in a crockpot. If you’re considering a pressure cooker, I can highly recommend looking for a small multi-pot instead. I have three in different sizes that pressure cook, serve as crockpots, and rice cookers. One appliance that does all that sure saves some space on the counter.

Ingredients (which are so simple I’m embarrassed to list them)

• 2 lb package of corned beef from the grocery store. I bought a small 2 lb flat cut brisket of uncooked corned beef
• 1/2 head of cabbage

Method

For the electric pressure cooker

1. Place corned beef in pressure cooker fat side up so you still have some fat left on your meat. Meat fat = good thing.
2. Your corned beef will have come with a spice packet. Open and empty spice packet into the pot. Add enough water to come up a little less than half way to covering the meat.
3. Cook on high for 1 hour and reduce pressure when done. Carefully take out the corned beef and place on a cutting board.
4. Meanwhile cut the cabbage into large chunks and place into the water left from cooking the corned beef. Cook on high pressure for 2 minutes. When done, release the pressure so it doesn’t overcook.
5. Slice the corned beef against the grain and serve.

For the Crockpot

1. Place corned beef in crockpot fat side up so you still have some fat left on your meat. Meat fat = good thing.
2. Your corned beef will have come with a spice packet. Open and empty spice packet into the pot. Add enough water to come up a little less than half way to covering the meat.
3. Cook on high 4-6 hours or low for 6-8 hours. when you have about an hour left, put in the chopped cabbage and let it all cook together again.
4. Carefully take out the corned beef and place on a cutting board. Slice the corned beef against the grain and serve.

Meal Ideas: Sweet pepper poppers & Bacon-wrapped Chicken

 

Finding a way to cook meat and veggies in one fell swoop makes my (lazy cook’s) heart happy. This dinner also doesn’t really need a recipe. Just slap things together and put them in the oven. That’s what I did anyway.

In this version, I used the jalapeno cream cheese poppers I posted earlier with one delicious difference. I used a bag of mini sweet peppers. I see them all the time in the grocery store, they look so delicious, and they actually tasted very good in this dish.

Do NOT be intimidated by this “recipe” below. Basically you stuff some cream cheese into peppers, wrap with bacon. You season some chicken, wrap with bacon. You cook for 15 mins. Done.

 

It’s hard for me to estimate how much this makes in the way of servings because we can’t eat much chicken. Our sleeve doesn’t like chicken. I’d say this whole thing could be 4 servings for sleevers with 4 oz chicken and 2 filled poppers each.

For the Poppers

Ingredients

• 8 sweet mini peppers
• 4 tbs cream cheese
• 4 strips uncooked bacon cut into half

Method

1. Cut open your sweet peppers and halve them lengthwise. Fill with cream cheese. I used jalapeno cream cheese, sour cream and onion cream cheese and plain cream cheese. It was all good.
2. Take a bacon half strip, and gently stretch it. Not only does this make a half strip go further, it also softens it a bit and makes it easier to wrap around the pepper.
3. Place wrapped pepper on a foil-lined baking pan.

For the Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken tenders
• 2 seasoning mixes of your choice. I used grill mates sweet and smoky rub, and a different bbq rub. You could also use cajun seasoning, italian seasoning, seasoned salt, etc.
• 6-8 strips uncooked bacon cut into half (I used up an entire pack of bacon between the two dishes)

Method

1. Divide your chicken in half and put each into a ziplock bag.
2. Shake each of your seasonings into the two bags. This way you can have one lb of chicken but two different tastes. Important for sleevers who can’t each too much and get sick of the leftovers. Zip the bag shut and knead and mix well until the tenders are wrapped with the seasoning. Note how I gave you a wonderful way to season chicken without actually touching it. Eww.
3. Take a bacon half strip, and gently stretch it. Not only does this make a half strip go further, it also softens it a bit and makes it easier to wrap around the chicken tender.
4. Place wrapped chicken on the same foil-lined baking pan.

 

1. 

Ready to Cook

• Move oven rack to highest position and heat broiler to high.
• Place your baking pan with the poppers and chicken on it.
• Cook for 15 minutes until the tenders are done. Really, it only takes 15 minutes because those tenders are so thin.

That’s it. Enjoy!

 

High Protein, Low Carb 2- ingredient Crepes

When you want something “bready” to eat but couldn’t be bothered with fake flour, here’s an easy recipe to make. Not only is it delicious, it’s 18 gms of protein in 91 calories. Hard to argue with that one.

Makes 4 crepes

Ingredients

• 1  c of egg whites
• 2 scoops of protein powder (we used GNC Total Lean Apple Cinnamon)
• 2 tsp butter, coconut oil or pam spray

 

Method

1. Mix the two using an immersion blender.
2. Heat your pan well. We used a cast iron pan, set on an electric stove on 3. When the pan is hot, put in a small bit of butter and spread it around.
3. Pour a fourth of the batter in and swirl the pan around to ensure your batter is evenly spread.
4. Cook just as you would an omelette, flipping once.

We put a smidge of raspberry jam in there for sweetness. You could smear with a little cream cheese or peanut butter. Do try not to use this an excuse to eat Nutella. Because we all know, that stuff is crack!

 

 

 

Low Carb Sausage, Beef, & Cheese Snackers

 

 

Sometimes it’s nice to have a simple, high protein snack at hand without too much effort. I made these when I made the low carb lasagna (also posted on this site) and had half a lb of ground beef left over. They turned out to have a few too many calories so I think I’ll save them for days when I’m not that hungry. They’d also work with chicken or turkey sausage to reduce calories.

Makes 4 servings, 4 meat balls each

Ingredients

• • 1/2 lb bulk italian sausage 
  • 1/2 lb lean ground beef
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder 
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Method

• 1. Mix all the ingredients together gently
  2. Form into about 16  balls and place on a foil-lined baking pan
  3. Bake at 375°F for about 25 minutes.
  4. Once they are cool, they can be sorted into individual zip bags and frozen