Sarah's Salad - Wheat Free/Grain Free/Sugar Free - can be made dairy free

Sarah's Salad

Sarah's Salad is a signature "house" salad from the historical Lion House restaurant and reception center in Salt Lake.  Because of how it's layered, it makes a lovely presentation, but it's also remarkably easy to make.  And if you want to make it dairy free as well as wheat free, just leave off the swiss cheese.  The picture above is served along side a chicken salad (I can post that later).

1 head romaine lettuce (other lettuces work fine)
1/2 C mayonnaise
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ground pepper
3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
3/4 C frozen peas
2 sliced green onions
1/4 C thinly sliced yellow or white onion
3 oz shredded swiss cheese (optional)

 Loosely chop the lettuce and place in the bottom of a salad bowl.  Since this salad can be prettier (more so than mine did - to the left), a glass bowl sometimes looks lovely.
Mix the mayo, salt and pepper and spread it on top of the lettuce like icing on a cake.  Sprinkle the remaining ingredients in layers, topping with cheese (if you are using).

Before serving, if you want you can toss the salad to mix with the dressing, or just let guests scoop out the lettuce along with the dressing and toppings.

Makes about 10 servings, 125 calories, 6.5 grams carbohydrates, 1.2 grams fiber (including cheese).

Coconut Pecan Frosting - Wheat Free/Grain Free/Sugar Free - kind of a flop!

Coconut Pecan Frosting

I made this frosting to go with the German Chocolate Cupcakes from yesterday, but it really didn't turn out like I'd hoped.  Maybe your luck will be better than mine, I followed a recipe for caramel that looked pretty straightforward and similar to making caramel with regular sugar.  I may try this again another time and post results if I figure out what I did wrong.

1/2 C butter
1/3 C swerve (erythritol)
1/3 C unsweetened, shredded coconut
1/4 C pecan pieces

(Added later to try to fix the frosting - 4 oz cream cheese, 1/4 C confectioner's swerve, 1 t vanilla)

Melt the butter on medium high heat in a frying pan, watching the butter closely, as soon as it browns, add the swerve and stir rapidly until the swerve dissolves and mixture thickens.  Here's where things went wrong, my mixture didn't thicken evenly, it turned out lumpy and grainy with extra butter oozing from it.  I tried adding the coconut and pecans thinking maybe it just needed to cool a bit.  It didn't really make a difference, as you can see in the picture to the left.  It still clumped together in sections with oily butter oozing out.  So I gave up and decided to make half my standard "go-to" recipe for sugar free frosting, which is (for a full recipe, not the half that I used) 8 oz cream cheese, beat together with 1/2 C confectioner's swerve and 1 t vanilla.

After mixing in the cream cheese, vanilla and confectioner's swerve (you can make your own of this by putting regular erythritol though a coffee grinder to make it the consistency of powdered sugar), it turned out pretty good, but still slightly grainy, and not really anything like the caramel/coconut frosting you normally get on German Chocolate cake.  Oh, well......

Probably better to make this frosting recipe:
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 C confectioner's swerve
1 t vanilla
Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding a little milk if it's too stiff.

Calories in the recipe I ended with, including the 4 oz cream cheese, etc. to cover 12 cupcakes:  125 calories each, 1 gram carbohydrate without the sweetener (see the note from yesterday).

Calories in original recipe - if you end up with more luck making it than I did:  92 calories, 1 gram carbohydrate, also not including the sweetener.

If you make the cream cheese recipe at the bottom instead (not what's pictured):  around 67 calories with 1 gram carbohydrate, also not including the sweetener.

German Chocolate Cupcakes - Gluten Free/Grain Free/Sugar Free/Dairy Free

German Chocolate Cupcakes

I love German Chocolate cake, so when I found a  recipe for chocolate cupcakes using coconut flour, and figured I could substitute the butter with coconut oil and the milk with almond milk, it would give it even more of the coconut flavor to make it more like German Chocolate cake.  It turned out perfect, very yummy! 

One thing to note about recipes using coconut flour, it's very different than almond flour, you use very little of it and up the eggs to make the consistency right.

1/2 C coconut flour 

1/4 C coco powder

1/2 C sweetener (I used Swerve)

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 C almond milk

5 eggs

1/2 C coconut oil 

1 t vanilla

Mix dry ingredients, making sure baking soda is evenly distributed (or you could get a nasty taste in one of the cupcakes).  Melt the coconut oil, but don't let it get hot enough to cook the eggs.  Combine the eggs and almond milk and pour into the dry ingredients while beating.  Slowly pour in the coconut oil and then the vanilla.

Line a muffin/cupcake tin with cupcake liners and lightly spray with coconut oil (or other cooking spray).  This batter is runnier than most cake batters, which made it tricky to pour, so I put half at a time into a measuring cup with pouring spout and used that to fill the cupcake liners.

Bake at 350 degrees for around 20 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

* A note about sweeteners - I'm not sure why, but erythritol, which is what Swerve and some other sweeteners are made of, show zero calories in my calorie counter, but do show some counts for carbohydrates.  Not sure how that is even possible.  Also, most low carb diets don't count zero calorie sweeteners like erythritol at all, so when I use Swerve in my recipes, I calculate the calories and carbs without the sweetener.  If you need to add them for whatever diet you are on, just add in the calories from the label on whichever sweetener you use.

Makes a dozen cupcakes:  155 calories, 3.5 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber without the frosting (I'll post that recipe tomorrow).

Roast Chicken - wheat free/sugar free/grain free - can be made dairy free

Roast Chicken

Most of the time I do a roasted chicken in the crockpot because I can leave it for hours and not have to worry about it.  But if you have less time, you can roast a chicken in the oven in about 1 1/2 hours.  Chickens are often labeled for Roasting or Frying, and the difference is the age.  Roasting chickens are usually older and have more meat on them, but really, you can use either one.

1 whole chicken, neck, heart, gizzard etc removed - you can use them later for chicken broth or something, but I've never been crazy about their taste.  

1 T minced garlic

2 t poultry seasoning

1/2 t paprika

1 large onion

5 large carrots

2-3 T butter (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Loosen the skin on the breast and thighs of the chicken.  Make a paste of the garlic and poultry seasoning, you can add a little salt too if you want.  "Push" the paste under the skin wherever you can reach it.  Peel and cut up the vegetables into bite sized pieces and add them in and around the chicken in a large roasting pan.

Here's where I tried to follow the recipe and it just didn't work - my original recipe called for rubbing the butter all over the chicken.  I hadn't ever tried that before and it's a lot harder than you'd think.  The butter stuck to my fingers, almost none of it stuck to the chicken.  Next time I try this, I will probably melt the butter and just pour it over the chicken, it really didn't work at all, you may want to just leave it out altogether.

Put the pan in the oven and roast at 425 for around 1 1/2 hours, test by cutting into the joint between the thigh and breast, the liquid should run clear without any pink.

Take any leftover carcass of the chicken and stick it in the crockpot and cover it with water, leaving it on low for several hours.  Any leftover meat will fall right off the bones for use in another recipe and the broth can be used for chicken soup.

This recipe is difficult to determine calories on since it makes around 6 servings the first day and then a lot of leftover chicken to use in another recipe.  Assuming you eat half a pound of chicken, plus 1/6th of the vegetables, it's around 380 calories with 4 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber.

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup - wheat free/grain free/sugar free/dairy free

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

Few people consider soup on a hot summer day, but when you make it in the crockpot or slow cooker, it doesn't heat up your house and it's light enough not to feel too heavy.  Plus it gets you out of the kitchen and on to doing something fun because you can do all the prep work early in the morning, go out and play and come home to a completely read to eat dinner.   This is also the perfect way to use up the leftover bone from a ham without trying to dig out the bits of meat (it will fall off the bone after cooking all day).

1 C dried slip peas

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

1/2 large onion, peeled and chopped

1 T minced garlic or 2 t garlic powder

1 leftover ham bone or around 1/2 C ham

Loosely chop carrot and onion and place in the bottom of a slow cooker/crockpot.  Add peas and top with 3 C water and set in ham bone.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours, high for 5-6.  

When you are ready to serve, remove the bone.  The ham bits should now be easy to pull off and cut up into bite sized pieces.  I actually ended up with more than enough for the soup, so I put some in a leftover container and only returned about 1/2 C of the ham to the soup.  Stir so that the peas all disintegrate and the veggies and ham are evenly distributed and serve.

WARNING, some low carb diets don't allow split peas, but they are allowed in small amounts in wheat belly or Atkins phases 3-4, so be aware this is a little higher in carbohydrates than most of my recipes.

Makes around 6 servings:  139 calories, 22.3 carbohydrates, 9 grams fiber.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits - Wheat Free/Grain Free/Sugar Free

 Garlic Cheese Biscuits

Have you ever had the biscuits at Red Lobster?  Don't you love those?  These ones are very similar but without all the gluten and carbs.

2 C almond flour

1/4 t garlic powder

1/4 t salt

2 t baking powder

3 T butter

1 C cheddar

1 egg

1/2 C whole milk

Grate the cheddar, I used about half regular cheddar and half extra sharp white cheddar.  I think next time I will make it with just the regular cheddar, the orange color would make it look more cheddar-y.  I might also add about 1/4 t dried parsley to get the herb-y look that the Red Lobster biscuits have.   Mix all dry ingredients, add butter and cheese and mix until it's evenly distributed, then add the milk and egg.

If you have a medium sized (1 T scoop) that makes perfectly shaped biscuits, if not, use a couple of large spoons to drop them onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake around 20 min at 350 degrees or until just barely browned on top.  To the left is the biscuits going into the over, to the right is coming out.

This made 14 biscuits:  142 calories, 4.4 grams carbohydrates, 1.7 grams fiber

Leftover Cleanup Quiche - Wheat Free/Grain Free/Sugar Free

Leftover Cleanup Quiche

I love recipes that use up my leftovers, especially when they can use up my leftovers and yet seem like a completely different meal.  Today I made quiche from leftover ham and veggies, but quiche is pretty versatile, you can make it from all kinds of leftovers, all you need is a crust, about half a cup each of meat and veggies, a cup of cheese and some eggs.

Crust:
1 1/2 C almond flour
2 T butter
1 T egg white

Filling:
1/2 C meat - I used ham, but other options are steak, chicken, bacon or pork
1/2 C veggies - I used asparagus, carrots, onions, zucchini, brussels sprouts and onion
1 C cheese.  I used extra sharp white cheddar (see picture).  Cheeses that work best are the sharper flavored ones like sharp cheddar, swiss, guyere or feta.
2 eggs
1/4 C egg whites
2 T whole milk or cream

I used egg whites because I have some I need to use up, but if you only have whole eggs, you can use 1/2 a small egg for the crust and 4 1/2 eggs for the filling.

"Cut" the butter into the almond flour with a pastry cutter or fork.  Loosely mix in the egg or egg white until the dough just holds together.  If you have a larger pie pan, you may need to increase the amounts to 2 C almond flour, 3 T butter and a whole small egg or 1 1/2 T egg white.  Press into a pie pan.  This time I lined the bottom of mine with a circle cut out of parchment paper and it was much easier to remove from the pan.

Bake crust at 350 for 5-10 min - I left mine in a touch too long, you want it just barely starting to brown.  Meanwhile get your filling ready but cutting up the veggies and meat into bite sized or smaller bits and grate your cheese.  Loosely toss the veggies and cheese together and turn into the partially baked pie crust.  Beat the eggs and beat in 2 T whole milk or cream.  Return to the oven and bake another 15-20 min or until filling is "set" - meaning it doesn't "jiggle" when you move it.  Or you can test it with a knife, it should come out clean with no batter stuck to it.  Here's what my quiche looked like before going into the oven.

Serves around 6 - 285 calories, 7.7 grams carbohydrates, 3.4 grams fiber (using the ham, veggies and cheese that I did, different meats, veggies and cheeses may vary)