a great weekend

I've had a great weekend and I hope you have, too! We spent Friday evening with the kids - enjoying a really nice dinner and some awesome family time together - playing games and hanging out. Brian & I are so very blessed that our kids love hanging out with us!!
I haven't spent much time in my kitchen this weekend. But I will be working on posting recipes that my son, Matt, came up with Friday night. I'll let you know as soon as I get his recipes for creamed spinach, crab cakes & sauted shrimp. Everything was soooo good!
Let's talk spinach for a minute. I've been using fresh spinach in salads lately because a 9 oz bag of fresh spinach has only 4 net carbs. But I have never liked cooked spinach. My mother used to make cooked spinach frequently & I hated it. When I got married, I made the recipe for my husband because he loved it - but I wouldn't even try it! I guarantee that I would never have tried creamed spinach, except that Matt made it and I didn't want to hurt his feelings when he asked me to try it. Seriously, that's the only reason I tried it. So I took a little bite and was totally prepared to swallow it and tell him how good it was. But it was absolutely amazing. I had 2 helpings and then had the remaining leftovers last night for dinner.
And another thing that totally surprised me - our whole family loved it. I couldn't believe that Lori was even going to taste it, let alone eat 2 helpings of it and dip her other food in it! I was surprised that Bradley ate it, too. I will definitely be adding additional spinach recipes to the web site soon.
Well, according to my wonderful husband, I'm supposed to be relaxing and taking the day off - you'd think it was my birthday or something... So that's all for now. I'll be back tomorrow with some new recipes. Take care!!
One more thing, here's the link to our story posted in the local newspaper today & the video:
the article and the video

Friday, birthdays & family time

Good evening! I'm so glad it's Friday & I'm so excited. Brian's birthday was Wednesday, my birthday is Sunday and the kids are here to help us celebrate. Matt's cooking - more on that in a bit - Anne Marie, my daughter-in-law, just walked in the door and they're both spending the night. It's going to be just like Christmas - they always spend the night with us on Christmas Eve!
So Matt's in my kitchen whipping up an amazing feast - all of which is very low carb. He's an absolutely awesome cook! Since I've been spending so much time in the kitchen lately, it's really special to have someone cook for me. He's been marinating steaks for hours. He just finished the crab cakes & creamed spinach. I snitched a bite of both and I was truly impressed! He's also fixing some kind of shrimp dish. For dessert, we're having leftover cheesecake. And all of this is very, very low carb!
It's been a very busy week. I'm excited about all of our new visitors to the website, blogs & facebook, too. I'm glad to see that so many other people are following or are interested in following a healthy low carb lifestyle. And now it's family time - we're going to eat and then play games all evening!! Have a great weekend!!

birthdays and favorite foods

Good afternoon! Hope you’re having a great day. First of all I’d like to wish my wonderful husband a very, very happy birthday! I’m really looking forward to celebrating with him tonight!
When I was growing up, my mother always let us pick what we wanted for our birthday supper - which usually turned out to be our favorite food. My choice was always spaghetti! I still love spaghetti but I don't think I have eaten it for at least 3 yrs. Weird! I've tried to keep this tradition with my family. Sometimes our menus have been kind of strange - like the year we celebrated my son, Bradley's birthday with biscuits & gravy, Texas eggrolls, some other appetizers and an ice cream cake.
My husband's favorite food is meatloaf. I’ve decided since no one else in our family particularly likes meatloaf, I’m just going to make a special one for him! He’ll be ecstatic if he has leftovers for later in the week. For the rest of us, which includes my daughter, my sons and my sons’ band, we’ll be having burgers. Burgers made with ground beef & sausage – yummy!
To go with our meatloaf & burgers, I’ll also be making creamy mock mashed "potatoes" made with cauliflower. I think I might add some garlic and cheese to the "potatoes" and bake them for a bit. Also, I'm going to make spinach salad with warm bacon dressing. Last summer we had a gathering at a relative’s house, so I took a double batch of my spinach salad. I wasn’t sure if everyone would like it, but it disappeared so quickly that not everyone had a chance to try it! I’m also working on an idea for a dessert but I want to keep that a surprise…
My lunch break is up and it’s time for me to get back to work, especially since I’m planning on leaving a little early today. Have a good day!

warm weather, blue ribbons & cookies

Good evening! Hope you've had a great weekend. I certainly have! Even though its been cloudy this weekend, its been really nice to have much warmer temperatures and no snow. My husband even had my car cleaned for me! Then he got it stuck in our soggy backyard and now it's a little muddy. But that's okay, its cleaner inside.
Here's a funny thing that happened this afternoon - I was cooking away in my low carb kitchen when my husband came in and looked out the back door. Then he asked why the 2 little girls from next door were in our backyard with a broom & a spatula. Of course, I had no idea. So he asked them and they said they were trying to get their cat. Too funny! Every couple of days the littlest girl, probably about 5 years old, rings our doorbell, my husband usually answers the door and in the cutest little voice she will say that her cat is in our backyard and can she go get it. She's so cute!
I've been thinking a lot lately about my cooking experiences from when I was growing up. Here's a little something not many people know about me - I wonder if my immediate family remembers this. I was a member of the 4H club for a couple of years. I'm not sure how old I was, I just know it was before the 5th grade. Our family had a vacation planned during the time the 4H Fair was being held, but I wanted to compete in the fair. With a little help from my mother, we decided I could enter an apron in the sewing competition & peanut butter cookies for the cooking competition. We dropped both items off to my leader before leaving for vacation.
Imagine my surprise when I returned from vacation and soon found out that I had won a blue ribbon (first place) for my peanut butter cookies and my apron! I was so excited. As I was thinking about this over the weekend, I thought I'd love to be able to provide all you low carbers or just healthy eaters with a low carb option for cookies. So I have come up with a flourless peanut butter cookie recipe that consists of only 4 ingredients, takes about 5 minutes to mix up and less than 10 minutes to bake. And my family loved them!
When I came home from church today, I whipped up another new recipe: green chili stew. Most stews include potatoes, but for this recipe in place of potatoes I used turnips and celery. This is a hearty stew, made with pork sirloin and it's just a tiny bit spicy. I cooked this in the crock pot all afternoon, while I had a nice nap with my husband!
And now it's time for a little relaxing and tv watching with my wonderful hubby. I'll be back tomorrow, until then I hope you have a great Monday!

newspaper interview, cooking lessons from my mother & balanced meals

Our interview with our local newspaper, "The Gleaner", went very well yesterday. During our interview, we cooked a nice meal - parmesan fried chicken strips, cooked cabbage with onions & green peppers and black beans with diced tomatoes & green chilis. I love cooking for people!
Cooking just comes natural to me. I learned a lot from my mother. I remember when I was a little girl, my mother used to let me bake 2 tiered cakes on Saturday afternoon. She'd tell me what to do, but she wouldn't help. I even learned to make icing from scratch. And I used icing to try to even out the uneven layers and then the cake would slide apart when you tried to slice it. For supper that evening, our family would have a nice little lopsided cake to enjoy - made by the baby of the family!
I still love to cook for my family. But switching to a low carb lifestyle, was a little difficult at first. We were used to having what I referred to as a well-balanced meal - a protein, a starch and a vegetable. That's basically what I grew up with - almost every supper meal consisted of all 3. So, if you're considering or currently following a low carb lifestyle, you may be faced with the same challenges of balancing your meals, especially your supper meal with your family.
Hopefully, the following ideas will help with your meal planning. A protein & a vegetable is still going to be easy when following a low carb lifestyle. Just be sure to choose low carb vegetables. Instead of a starch, how about a salad. Your salad can be as simple as lettuce or spinach leaves, lots of shredded cheese & a low carb dressing. Be sure avoid croutons.
Another option for a starch replacement is cauliflower. My family loves creamy mock mashed "potatoes" made with cauliflower. There's a recipe on the website. I'm also working on two additional recipes - cauliflower "rice" & a cauliflower substitute for hash brown casserole. I'll let you know when both recipes have been posted.
There are some instant "fake" potato products on the market. I haven't tried any, so there aren't any that I can recommend. However, we have tried the Miracle Noodles, which are made out of Shirataki mushrooms. The "noodles" contain no fat, sugar or starch. This means no calories & no carbs. Miracle noodles can be ordered on-line or bought in some Asian markets. I've tried a couple of varieties. My favorite are the smaller in diameter noodles. I haven't tried the "rice" version. The reviews were mixed - some of my family liked them & some, not so much!
If your family likes bread with their meals, that's still an option when following a low carb lifestyle. There are plenty of low carb breads available - just be sure to check the labels. You should be able to find a variety that is 5 to 7 net carbs per slice. I also have some bread recipes on the website. Our favorite is the flax seed meal flat bread with caraway seeds. If your family likes rye & pumpernickel bread, I think they'll like this bread, too.
I hope these suggestions help with your meal planning. If you have any questions or comments, just let me know. Thank you!

ice cream & chinese food

Good evening! In my last post, I talked about my new ice cream recipe. Well, as you can probably guess, not every recipe is always going to turn out good. So much for my first try. My husband liked it but I thought it was too gritty. It had a really good taste, but there was that gritty texture. So I'll be working out the kinks to the recipe in the near future and as soon as I get it right, I'll post it:)
Well my low carb kitchen took a break for the night. We needed to make a trip to the grocery store in preparation for our interview tomorrow. So I suggested we go to the chinese restaurant near our supermarket. One of the reasons I really like going to this restaurant is because they have a grill and will cook your food for you. I also like it because they are very nice, it's very clean and even though we might only go there once every 4 to 6 weeks, they always remember what we like to drink.
For the grill, you fill a plate with uncooked vegetables and meat, let them know what kinds of spices and flavorings you'd like and they cook it for you on a grill. You can choose from fish, poultry, pork, beef, egg and bacon. Veggies include thin slices of celery (with just a tiny bit of carrot mixed in), mushrooms, broccoli, onion and I think that's about it. My favorite combination is celery, just a little onion, mushrooms, lots of shrimp & chicken. I have them cook it with garlic & low sugar soy sauce. Then I add a little bit of wasabi... delicious.
You know, sometimes you just need a break from the kitchen. And for me, I like to go to a restaurant that makes low carbing easy. Well, it's time for a little relaxation with my husband - we have a couple of our favorite tv shows on tonight. As for tomorrow, I'll post after our interview and let you know how that goes. I'm actually really looking forward to it!
Have a good evening!

college visits, snow days & ice cream

My daughter & I were supposed to visit the Northern Kentucky University campus today.  It must have snowed on & off all night long and we received an additional 4 inches or more of snow last night.  Our school system was supposed to have a makeup snow day this morning.  The phone rang at about 5:30 this morning - the automated school call system - with the school cancellation message.  And sure enough, the Northern Kentucky University campus ended up being closed today, too, due to snow. 
Since I already had a scheduled day off from work, I decided to get some of my new recipes posted.  First, I fixed a great breakfast for myself - mediterranean-style scrambled eggs & a cup of fresh brewed coffee with heavy whipping cream & splenda - the coffee was like drinking hot chocolate, so sweet & creamy!  I worked for a few hours or more and then set out to find something in the refrigerator for lunch - leftover wilted spinach salad topped with leftover broiled salmon with honey soy sauce - it was great!  I like cooking extra so that I can have leftovers for lunch - it makes lunch super easy, especially since I normally take my lunch to work.
I've got more recipes to add, but here are some that I've added today: mediterranean-style scrambled eggs, seasoned cabbage slaw, bacon & onion scallops, & lemon-peppered scallops.   I'll have some additional recipes posted later this evening.
This afternoon, in my low carb kitchen, I whipped up a little something special - vanilla chocolate protein ice cream.  It's been in the freezer for about an hour and I can't wait until it's done!!  I might even top it with sugar-free whip cream - doesn't that sound yummy?  After I try it, I'll post the recipe so that you can try it, too.  Actually, you could make all kinds of different flavors & there are only 2 basic ingredients - protein powder & egg whites - you just add your favorite sugar-free or low carb flavorings.  Anyway, you can check out the recipe later and let me know how you like it.  Also, let me know if you have any suggestions for variations.  I'm definitely thinking about strawberries or blueberries & pecans...
Okay, I doubt the ice cream is frozen yet, but I'm going to go check it anyway.  I'll be back tomorrow - have a great day!