Cauliflower Mash - I Think I Love You!

:(  - This is Nicole missing mashed potatoes.

Recently I've been seeing a trend on Instragram of people making cauliflower mash, so when Mister and I were at the grocery store tonight, I bought a head of cauliflower and decided to make it myself.

I had no timeline for when I was going to make this concoction, I just knew I wanted to make it. We were having ribs tonight for dinner, so I asked him how he felt about trying something new. He said he'd try it. Score!

So, this is a recipe that's all my own!

Get your stuff together:
1 head of cauliflower
2 TBSPs heavy whipping cream
2 TBSPs butter
Salt & Pepper to taste

Wash off your cauliflower and cut it up into chunks.I have a nice steamer that came with my pots and pan set, so that's what I used to steam it.

Get it nice and soft. When you stab it with a fork, it will slide right off or will fall apart. Then it's done! You'll want to shake off any excess water and transfer it to a large bowl for mashing.

I added my butter and heavy whipping cream before I started mixing.

Using my immersion blender, I gradually worked the mixture until it became smooth. You can use beaters or a potato masher. I'm sure a fork would work just fine too, but I like really creamy potatoes.

Viola! Here's the finished product. Honestly, it has the same texture. The taste isn't that different. Here's the MyFitnessPal link to the recipe with all the stats: Mashed Cauliflower.

I think we have a winner!!!

Ketocktails - An Introduction

I'm no stranger to the bar scene, but not in the way you probably assume. I frequent a bar that boasts 69 taps and over 100 bottles of beer. I went there because I was a beer snob and if it's one thing I miss the most on this journey, it's the carby world of beer.

Since my journey into keto, I've given up beer with no remorse. It's been easier than it seems because I already knew the basics when it came to finding carb free cocktail options. So, in thinking about topics for entries I came up with the idea for a crash course into ketocktails, as I call them.

Here are your guidelines if you choose to accept this mission:

1. Fruit juices are a no-no. Why? They're loaded with carbs from added sugars and from the nautral sugars in fruit. Say you just want a basic vodka cranberry.
Here's the recipe for a standard vodka and cran:
1 part vodka - 1oz
2 park cranberry - 2 oz = 7g Carbs.
1 lime wedge

7g of Carbs is dinner. Put the fruity cocktail down. Now.

Taken from Oceanspray.com

Alternative to this sugary nightmare? Sub out the cranberry for club soda or seltzer. Keep the lime wedge for a little extra flavor.

2. Stay away from flavored liquors. Pinnacle whipped vodka has 7g of carbs per 1.5oz (roughly 1.5 shots). Yikes!! If you're ever curious at the carb count of flavored vodkas, which are very popular in mixed drinks, just take a minute to put the name of the liquor into MyFitnessPal and run a search on it. I have no alternative here. I'm not a fan of flavored liquors.

3. Avoid mixers at all costs. These mixers have a lot of sugars added to them. That's what makes your cocktail taste so great. Peachtree Schnapps has 6.6g, Triple Sec has 11g and Razzmataz has 11g of carbs per serving. Those add up fast! Just avoid these!!!

Image found via Google Images

4. Go diet. Do you have the option to use a diet mixer? Do it!! Diet coke, diet sprite, diet ginger ale. Cut out those unnecessary carbs and switch to diet. If you're taking shots and using a chaser or a Coke back, use something diet. 

5. Don't touch anything that has an umbrella in it. Frozen drinks are notorious for having an ungodly amount of calories and carbs in them. They may be tempting when you're hanging out in a beach side bar, but pick something else that doesn't come out of a margarita machine. 

Stick around and I'll share some of my favorite cocktail recipes.

Black'N'Bleu Casserole - Keto Style!

I am back with a new variation on a popular dish in the keto world. A lot of places you will see tons of casseroles; and even cheeseburger casseroles. I scoured and just couldn't find a Black and Bleu casserole; so I figured.. Hell lemme see if I can nail this.

The sauce recipe I did find somewhere else; and damnit if it isn't a perfect burger sauce.

Sauce:
1 8oz block of Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 cup Yellow Mustard
1/2 cup Reduced Sugar Ketchup

Warm the cream cheese ( I microwaved for 2 minutes) then add the other 3 ingredients and stir.

Add together and stir

The Result: this amazing sauce that tastes like a burger straight up. 

Set that aside and lets get to cooking. Preheat that oven to Tree fiddy. (350 for those playing at home)

Ingredients:

Bleu Cheese ( I ended up with about 1.7lbs of it. Maybe a little too much, but I love Bleu Cheese)

3lbs Ground Beef ( I buy 73/27)

2 Packs thick Bacon (about 24 slices)

The Sauce

Steak Seasoning

Pickles. I found some <1g carb="" kosher="" p="" pickles="">

Here is 1/2 of the cheese I had. Try to slice and be careful, it crumbles easily.

One of the few good slices. The rest was a crumbled mess!

Get that bacon cooking. 

Of course dry it on up some. Some people like their bacon more crispy, feel free. 

Brown that beautiful beef right on up. I mixed in plenty of steak seasoning during this process. This was also cooked in the left over bacon grease like a boss.

This stuff my man. You'll see the cheese behind it, I ended up not using that cheese in this recipe.

Nice and brown. Drain that bad boy and mix in some more seasoning and get it nice and yummy

Spray non stick stuff on the pan; then throw on the sauce.

Mix it in. This right here smells like a Big Mac. If you don't want bleu cheese you can literally just eat this part and it's probably amazing.

But me, I go on the wild side. Here is the bleu cheese. Again, probably a little too much but I love that shit.

Boom, bacon on top. I covered this entire dish!

Wrapped it in foil, threw it in the over for 45 minutes at 350.

Then pulled it out, uncovered and gave it a 15 minute rest.

This is the result:

This is after the 15 minute rest.

Here's 1/6 of the whole thing; one serving. It didn't hold up well tonight, tomorrow will be better I'm sure.

I enjoyed this; but again I love bleu cheese. I wish the cheese would have melted better so I'm going to have to experiment on that. I think a real creamy melty bleu cheese would have made this even better, it was SUPER rich (if you are not a huge fan of Bleu cheese) if that's the case, i'd half the amount of bleu cheese or maybe try a dressing or something. I'll experiment more with it but I loved this.

Here's the total nutrition:

This is the entire dish

Here is 1/6th of the dish; or a serving. I'm sure you can break it down more but being that I do intermittent fasting this stayed within my macros and kept me under my caloric goal for the day.

Let me know what ya think! 

-Freeze

PS: I forgot to add pickles. UGH. I'll do it tomorrow and see if it enhances it any!

Price Drop: Vegetti

Drop from $14.99 to $12.16.. if you have considered this you need to grab one. It was one of the best products I have ever bought

Grab it >>here<<

Chocolate Raspberry Kiss Bulletproof Coffee

Bulletproof Coffee (BPC from here on out) is the fuel that ketoers run off of. The bad thing about BPC is that it can be very bland and boring. If you like black coffee, more power to you, but there are a lot of people who come into the ketogenic diet who can't drink black coffee or who don't like black coffee. I am one of those people.

This BPC recipe is one that I came up with on my own. I love The Fresh Market's seasonal Chocolate  Raspberry Kiss Coffee and I wanted to create a BPC recipe around it. My recipe is for a 24 oz. container of coffee. This is my breakfast in the morning and packs a walloping 439 calories per serving. I've added my recipe to MyFitnessPal so it's easy for you to find: Chocolate Raspberry Kiss BPC.

Here's what you'll need:
24 oz (3 cups) The Fresh Market Chocolate Raspberry Kiss Coffee
4 TBSPs Heavy Whipping Cream
1 tsp Natural, Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 TBSP Butter
1 TBSP Coconut Oil
1 TBSP Torani Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup
1/2 TBSP Torani Sugar Free Raspberry Syrup

I like to prep my cup the night before, so I'll measure out the butter, coconut oil, SF sryups, cocoa powder, and cream into my travel mug. The morning of, I'll brew my coffee as normal and then pour part of it over my pre-prepped items. Using my frother I mix everything together and then gradually add more coffee until everything is all blended together.

Here are the stats for it:

This stuff is really, really good. If you like raspberries and chocolate you should definitely check this one out! Be sure to get your hands on a bag of this blend because it sells out fast!

Weekend Deals

I'm all about shopping around for a great deal. If you're new to frugal shopping for the keto diet, this is where I come in. I've decided to create a list of keto friendly items that are on sale for the ad week of whatever week we're in. Most people do their grocery shopping during the weekend, so I'll try to post these as soon as I can browse the major grocery store papers. Please note, all of these ads are for the North Carolina region and area. Freeze and I are working together to try and find a way to include all our viewers in these sales and deals.

Grocery store ads run from Wednesday to Tuesdays. This ad runs from 01/21/15 - 01/27/15.

Here's what I've come up with:

Harris Teeter:
All of the NY Strips on sale at various price points, starting at $6.79/lb and up based on grade of beef
80% Lean Ground Beef is $3.99/lb - this is a steal considering it's about $4.98 last time I checked Walmart. This is also cheaper than Lowe's Foods and Food Lion this week.
Boston Butts - $1.49/lb - great for pulled pork! (cheaper than Food Lion this week)
Eggland's Best Eggs 18ct - e-Vic Special for $2.77 (2/$7 without e-Vic membership), limit 2 per customer
EZ Peel Shrimp - $5.99/lb (Save $8.00 per lb!!! and cheaper than Food Lion's advertised price this week)
Hormel Black Label Bacon - BOGO

Lowe's Foods:
Perdue, Boneless Chicken Breasts: BOGO (Save up to $5.99 on 2lbs)
Boneless, Center-cut Pork chops: BOGO (Save up to $6.49 on 2lbs)
Baby Bella Mushrooms: BOGO (Save up to $3.69 on 2)
Almond Breeze Milk: 2/$6 (look for coupons for further savings, cheaper than Food Lion this week)
Kraft Shredded, Cubed, or Chunk Cheese: 2/$5 (compare prices to store brand, pick what's cheaper)
Reddi Whip: 2/$5 (great on sugar free Jello or straight out of the can - 2 TBSPs = 0 Carbs!)

Food Lion:
Country Style Pork Ribs: $2.49/lb
London Broil: $4.49/lb
Whole Chickens: $1.49/lb
Folgers Coffee: $2.99/ea (find coupons for further savings)
My Essentials Broths (32oz Cartons): 2/$3

These are the three major grocery stores that I've sourced from. If you have suggestions for others, please drop a comment and let me know! I'll be more than happy to add to the list.

(Keto) Mug Cake w/ Ice Cream!

So I saw a mug-cake being passed around and I decided to give her a shot, while also finding a way to add a little ice cream. I didn't invent this recipe; but I sure as hell loved it!

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons Splenda
• Pinch salt
• 1 tbsp heavy cream/almond milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

In 2 separate bowls I did an egg and beat it. Then i put all the other ingredients in the other bowl and mixed.

Then I threw them all together in a bowl. 

Lesson learned: Maybe needed more splenda; could have been a tad sweeter.

Spray the mug with cooking spray (or rub butter in it) then place mixture into a mug, and then I microwaved for 1 minute 20 seconds; I wonder if it would have been more moist had I done it for slightly less and will experiment next time.

I found this pretty keto-friendly ice cream, and did half a serving of it!

And boom, I used the ice cream in conjunction with the cake to kind of moisten it up a little bit.

This entire dessert was 5 net carbs as per MyFitness pal, which doesn't add any carbs for Splenda for some reason, which probably was another 2 net carbs, for my guess of 7 net carbs. Not bad if you had a good day of not getting close to 20!

I do recommend trying it a few times and tweaking the sweetness and such; as mine could have used more sweetner even with the 2 tbls of Splenda!

Enjoy and tell me what ya think

-Freeze

(Keto) Friendly Lasagna With "Noodles" 3 Ways.

Hey guys! 

So I have seen keto friendly lasagna's out there using zucchini noodles, I've seen them using Salami (which I will have to try).

But what I hadn't seen was Pork Rinds being used. I knew in my mind I wanted to figure out a way to do it. Why? I figured the Pork Rinds could absorb some of the moisture that the Zucchini cannot. So I decided to combine them in the layers. Then I thought; There needs to be Bacon.

So this is a Keto Lasagna with layers of Zucchini, Ground Pork Rinds, topped with a layer of Bacon.

Lessons learned while making this recipe:

1) Maybe next time don't grind the pork rinds, just throw a layer in there

2) Pre-cook the bacon... unless you like chewy bacon.

Tools you will need:

If you are going to grind and process anything; I LOVE this food processor:

If not, then for the Zucchini noodles you will need a Mandolin. 

I like this Adjustable, Hand held one by Mainstays

Of course, a good baking pan.. I like these simple to use and multi-versatile pans (keep it cheep!)

At the end of this recipe I broke down the servings in 1/6ths or 1/8ths. I ended up eating 1/8th; but it was good and I almost went to make it 6!

So Ingredients:

Spinach ( a 10 oz packet)

Ricotta (I used a whole tin of it)

Beef ( I used 3lbs)

Cheese of choice (I chose a Provolone/Mozzarella Hybrid with no carbs.. and I used 2 packets 22 slices)

Sauce ( I found this sauce and it has 3 net carbs per serving.) Or you can make your own of course! ( Of this can I used 2 cans)

Pork Rinds (optional)

Zucchini ( I used 3 zucchini in this recipe)

First thing I did was get the Spinach boiling. While that was working...

Get the zucchini sliced up. I used the "3" setting and was super happy with the thickness and clean ness of the slices. I did sprinkle these with NoSalt and some Italian Herbs

Sprayed the bottom of the pan with non stick spray and did a layer of Zucchini!

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After about 3 minutes of boiling, drain the Spinach and then I hand squeezed, but you do whatever you gotta do to get the water out.

Mix in that Ricotta cheese. I used 1.75 cups

Beautiful Ricotta/Spinach filling!

Brown the meat! I did add some more NoSalt and Italian Herbs during the browning process; just for that added Umph.

Browned Beef for those who don't know what it looks like! After browning, make sure to drain the beef (or don't if you want it super soupy and wet I guess lol)

I did use 70/30 beef, because I like the fats!

Added the 2 cans of sauce. Of course, the 2 cans are meant for half the beef; but I don't need a lot of sauce personally. Feel free to add more in your recipe or use less beef for sure!

Beautiful.

Now let's begin Layering. I placed half the beef mixture straight on top of the noodles

What I forgot to take a picture of: Placed a layer of cheese on the beef mixture; then the layer of ground pork rinds, then the other half of the Zucchini.

On top of the zucchini, the entire spinach/ricotta mixture

On top of that, the rest of the beef mix!

Final layer of cheese!

And what's better than a layer of Bacon on top? Nothing. Fucking NOTHING! :)

Ok Set the oven to 375. I baked 25 minutes covered in Aluminum foil and 25 minutes uncovered. Here's the result.

I then let it sit for 15 minutes to rest.

After I cut 1/8th out here's an interior look at this lovely dish.

It fell apart all over the place. Good. It was fucking delicious. Not as beautiful of a piece as I'd have liked. But delicious none the less.

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Here's a good picture of another serving the next night for dinner! Once it settled in it held form really well! So delish :)

Enjoy!

Now for the nutritional information!

Here is the Total recipe 

1/6th of the recipe; which is still a good serving especially if you are like me and Intermittant Fast all day, and have plenty of calories left over.

Lastly what I actually ate: 1/8th of the lasagna (which is still a very solid serving size)

I really had fun trying this out, I didn't mind the chewier bacon. but if you do I implore you to pre-bake the bacon.

I also didn't really dry out the Zucchini. I liked it a little more bendy, it reminded me of my grandma's old lasagna, and the noodles were also really flimsy.

Have fun and let me know if you liked it!

-Freeze