Low Carb Cheesey Bacon Chicken w/ Fauxtatoes

Lots of sadness in our house today because my husband's JETS were eliminated from the playoffs. He wanted comfort food in the form of pasta. That meant that I was on my own for dinner. I usually go grocery shopping on Sunday but with the playoffs, I put it off until tomorrow.

I had boneless chicken defrosting in the frig so I decided to use a piece of it for my dinner. I found a small chunk of "3 alarm cheddar cheese" - my new favorite cheese! It is very hot!- and some turkey bacon that I needed to use up. I'm happy that I'm not a picky eater and because of this, I like to mix things together. That's were I came up with this cheesy bacon chicken.

There was a head of cauliflower waiting to be eaten in there, too. I had been wanting to try a "fauxtatoes" recipe for a while so that's what I cooked to go along with the chicken.  "Fauxtatoes" are cooked, mashed cauliflower that really resembles mashed potatoes.

The entire meal was very delicious. I will definitely make this again.

Cheesey Bacon Chicken
1 serving

1 boneless chicken breast, thawed if frozen
2 strips of lowfat turkey bacon
1/4 C. of your favorite cheese - I used 3-alarm cheddar.
The hot peppers really added a great flavor to the chicken.
1 TBSP butter
onion powder
Montreal Steak seasoning

Add butter to frying pan. Melt on med-high heat. Add chicken to pan. Season with onion powder and steak seasoning. Do not add salt, there is plenty in the bacon. Fry on one side until light brown. Flip over and brown on the other side.

Add two pieces of turkey bacon to the pan. Turn the heat down to medium. Cover with a lid and continue to cook until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle. Remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels.

Once the chicken has finished cooking, turn off heat but leave the chicken in the pan. Lay the two strips of bacon on top of the chicken breast. Top the bacon with the cheese. Cover the pan with the lid, the cheese will melt over all of it.

Fauxtatoes
taken from "500 Low Carb Recipes" by Dana Carpender
Whole recipe makes 6 generous servings.

I halved the recipe and only ate half of it.
1 lg. head cauliflower - I used 1/2 of a lg. head
1/3 C. cream
4 oz. cream cheese - I used 2 oz.
1 TBSP butter - I used 1/2 TBSP in the mix and 1/2 for on top
salt and pepper

1. Simmer cauliflower in water with the cream added to it. (the cream keeps the cauliflower sweet and keeps it from turning an ugly gray color). Cook until really soft. Drain thoroughly.

2. Put the still warm cauliflower into a food processor with cream cheese, butter and salt & pepper to taste. Process until smooth.

This really does look like mashed potatoes. It doesn't taste like mashed potatoes like some claim, it still tastes like cauliflower...but that's ok because I love cauliflower. I'm sure adding cheese to it would be delicious, too!  It's very satisfying and filling.

6 grams of carbs - 2 grams of fiber = 4 grams of usable carbs per serving.

Chocolate Mint "Cookies"

These cookies have been a favorite of ours for several years. I make them at Christmastime to go along with our other cookies. They taste just like Girl Scout Thin Mints but the secret is that they are made using Ritz crackers for the "cookie". They also hold up great in lunch boxes.

Chocolate Mint "Cookies"

Chocolate Almond Bark
Mint Extract
Ritz Crackers

Cover a small baking sheet with foil and set aside.

I found it easiest to work with 4 blocks of chocolate at at time with this recipe. That way you don't have to keep melting the chocolate over and over.

Melt 4 blocks of chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave-safe dish in the microwave. For convenience, I used the microwave. To melt the chocolate, cook chocolate on "high" for one minute at a time, stirring well after each minute, until the chocolate is completely melted.

For the extract, start by stirring  in 4 drops of mint extract into the chocolate. Do a taste test to see if the mint taste is strong enough for your liking. I added about 4 more drops of mint to our chocolate because we like it. Don't take my word for it, after the first 4 drops, stir in just two drops at a time until you are happy with it.

Dip one Ritz cracker at a time into the chocolate. Cover the cracker completely, scraping off excess chocolate and then lay on the foil. Once the tray is full, pop it into the freezer for a minute.

Remove the tray. Dip the crackers a second time, again laying the crackers back onto the tray. Place the tray back into the freezer for two minutes or until the chocolate is completely dry.

Store in a sealed plastic container. These cookies are best eaten within 2 days.

Caramel Mandarin Orange Cake

I found a new cookbook, The $7.00 a Meal Cookbook, on one of my thrift store jaunts last week. It appears to have never been opened. After quickly thumbing through it, there were several recipes that caught my eye. For 99 cents, I couldn't pass it up.

The book lists tips and suggestions to go along with the recipes. It also shows the calorie count (but unfortunately not the carb count) for each recipe.

I decided to try any easy dessert recipe for my family. All of the family love mandarin oranges so I figured that everyone would like this cake. Even though I did not try this cake, it looks and smells delicious. I could've eaten the caramel icing with a spoon - I resisted the temptation to do so ...my willpower was working OT that day.

(Just overlook that large holes in the cake. I talk about my mistake later on in the recipe.)

Caramel Mandarin Orange Cake

2 (9 oz) boxes yellow cake mix
4 eggs
2/3 C. vegetable oil
1 (11oz) can mandarin oranges, undrained
1/2 C. coconut
1 1/4 C. brown sugar
2 TBSP honey
5 TBSP butter
6 TBSP milk
2 tsp milk

Preheat oven to 350* Spray a 9 x 13 cake pan with spray containing flour and set aside. ( I didn't have a 9 x 13 pan available since I was using it to bake a chicken in at the time. I used 2 - 8 x 8 glass pans instead. The next time I will make it only one layer so that the whole cake soaks up the caramel topping.) 

In a large bowl, combine cake, eggs oil and undrained oranges.

 Beat on low speed until combined, then beat at medium speed for 2 -3 minutes. Fold in coconut. Pour into pan.

Bake for 25 - 35 minutes or until cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and top springs back when lightly touched. (Keep an eye on it so that it doesn't overbake. It took my cakes about 30 minutes to bake.) Place on wire rack to cool.

While cake is cooling, make caramel topping. In medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, honey, butter & milk. Boil for 3 minutes.

Using chopsticks poke about 20 holes in the warm cake. (Very important to use chopsticks and not the end of a wooden spoon like I did or you will end up with big holes in it like my cake.)

Add vanilla to caramel topping and slowly pour over cake, spreading evenly if needed. (I cooked this topping for 7 more minutes but it still wasn't "spreadable". I took it off of the heat and sat the pot in cold water, stirring constantly, for a couple of minutes. It thickened right up to a silky consistency of caramel sauce.)

Total cost: $4. 17

The verdict: My son loved it, although he said that it was really sweet. My husband thought that it would be better if it wasn't so sweet. I would definitely use the caramel topping on other cakes - it would be great on an apple cake, apple sweet rolls or even apple pie. 

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This is a simple meal that's quick and easy to put together. Great for using leftover or rotisserie chicken.

My family really liked this casserole. I served it with Spanish rice as a side but next time I might add the rice inside the tortillas. Be careful when choosing the enchilada sauce...not all are labeled "hot" but they might end up being spicy like the one I bought. Read those ingredients!

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

8 lg. flour tortillas
2 C. cooked chicken, shredded
8 oz. bag of "mexi" cheese
1 lg. can of enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 350*

Pour 3/4 C. enchilada sauce into a 9 x 13 baking dish. 
Divide the shredded chicken evenly among the 8 tortillas.

Top with shredded cheese - eyeball enough to cover the chicken.

Roll up filled tortillas and lay seam side down into the baking dish.

Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over top of the tortillas.

Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the sauce.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted and the sauce is bubbling.

I apologize for the not-so- pretty pictures but everyone was starving and ready to eat! lol!

Low Carb Zucchini Pancakes

I love zucchini! This recipe is sort of a play on hashbrowns. These little pancakes are good for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Low Carb Zucchini Pancakes
makes 5 silver dollar - sized pancakes

1 baby zucchini - shredded with skins on
1 small egg
1/2 tsp of seasonings of choice - I used Montreal Steak Seasoning (make
sure there is no sugar in it) & red pepper flakes

Shred zucchini and place between two layers of paper towels to blot out the water from it.
Beat egg
Stir zucchini and seasonings into egg. Mix well.
Drop by tablespoonful into a large frying pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Cook over medium high heat until the egg has firmed up on the bottom and is light brown.
Flip over and continue cooking until light brown.
Serve immediately. These do not hold up well over time.
Top with salsa and/or sour cream, if desired.

I'll let you in on a little secret...

See those pickle spears peeking out in the top picture? This is one of my very favorite low carb snacks.

Roast Beef & Cream Cheese Wrapped Dill Spears

2 piece of roast beef - sliced thin
1 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 whole dill pickle, cut into 4 spears

Spread cream cheese over both slices of roast beef.
Cut each slice of roast beef in half, making 4 slices of meat.
Place a pickle spear on each piece of meat.
Roll up, wrapping the roast beef and cream cheese around the spear.