Kate's Keto Cookbook

Spicy Loaded Chicken Breasts

2017-02-04T11:13:00.001-08:00

Spicy Loaded Chicken Breasts = Chicken breast + bacon + cheese topped with banana peppers.

Add your favourite toppings and BOOM you are good to go!

I love loaded chicken breasts, they are so simple and they leave you feeling so full!

To cut carbs I like to use dry rubs on my chicken breasts for flavour, I then bake them while making the bacon. Once the bacon and chicken breasts are ready I put the oven on broil, place the bacon on the chicken breasts and add shredded cheese to the top. You can garnish the breasts with your favourite toppings, I like to add a little zip with banana peppers but you can also add chopped tomatoes and other toppings to make it your own personalized loaded chicken breast. :)

Prosciutto Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

2016-03-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

Chicken Hugs

2015-02-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

My apologies, it has been quite a while. You can catch up on my cross-country move, change in professions, puppy adoption and travels here.

Right now, I've got a creation that was inspired by mean post-workout hunger and very little time. We used 3 chicken breasts, a cup of cheese, 6 slices of ham (you could use any sliced deli meat) and 4 slices of bacon. It made 4 entrees, we each had two and we were very full after!

I'm not sure what to call this; "Chicken Hugs" comes to mind or "Reverse Chicken Cordon-Bleu" (I realise it is a different). Regardless here is what you need to do to make this meaty treat for yourself.

1. Cook yourself up some chicken. I blackened mine a little with some chili pepper spices and hot chipotle salt, but if you want to go a more Italian route you can season with garlic powder and traditional Italian spices.

On a separate ban half cook a piece of bacon for each entree you plan on making. Remove when half cooked.

2. Let your chicken cool after cooking and then rip it up into strips. I was able to use an entire small chicken breast in one of my entrees but it was tiny.

3. Lay out an entire piece of sliced ham on a baking sheet.

4. Lay down a bed of shredded cheese.

5. Lay down a layer of chicken with an inch or so to spare on each side to allow the ham to wrap over top.

6. Sprinkle more cheese on top of the chicken.

7. Wrap the layer of ham over the top of the chicken. As you can see for some of mine I double wrapped using two pieces of ham. Stick a toothpick through all the layers to hold it together.

8. Wrap your half cooked bacon around the ham with the ends coming together at the top.

9. Sprinkle more cheese on top.

10. Place pan in oven and allow to cook until the bacon is crisp and the cheese has melted.

11. Remove from heat and enjoy!

Bam, there you go! My unnamed chicken creation! To simplify the process we stuck out bacon I our George Foreman grill for a quick half cook and used chicken breasts we already had made. We had plenty chicken left over from the 3 breasts to make a salad as well!

Nutty Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

2014-07-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

These cookies are super simple and slightly altered from the "Everything Healthy" blog. I added in some almond butter and instead of using quick oats I decided to try them with coconut flour. Click here to check out the "Everything Healthy" blog. I plan on using these cookies as pre-workout fuel because they are a little more carby than what I normally eat. I am happy that there is not any added sweetener, maybe adding an egg and taking out a banana could cut the natural sugars?

Unfortunately my grocery store was out of dark chocolate chips so this recipe uses the standard semi-sweet ones. Next time I am going to cut up dark chocolate if this happens again. This one is a work in progress, if you have any suggestions let me know:)

Heads up do not taste the batter, you will want to eat ALL of it!

Ingredients:
-2 small browned bananas
-3 tablespoons of almond butter
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/2 cup of coconut flour
-1/4 cup of chocolate chips

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease pan.
3. Mash together almond butter and banana.
4. Add vanilla.
5. Mix in coconut flour until all of coconut flour is lumpily consistent.
6. Add in chocolate chips.
7. Bake for 15 minutes.

Nutrition:
Calories: 112
Fat: 5.7g
Carbohydrates: 14.2g
Fibre: 3.8g
Sugar: 6.6g
Protein: 2.6g

"Protinis" A Great Snack When You Are In A Pinch!

2014-06-24T15:13:00.002-07:00

I was in a pinch on Saturday. I had locked myself out of my office and had a meeting a half an hour after working out, I did not want to leave my protein needs in the hands of the gym staff and pay an arm and a leg for a carby protein shake. I hustled around town to the grocery store where I thought I would find a premixed shakes that are hot right now but Safeway only had cold chocolate milk.

I geared up to by some meat and dig in when I happened to pass by a new product called “Protinis” by Maple Leaf Foods. I was in awe. There are multiple flavours of “Protini” but I have stuck with the Glazed Oven Roasted Chicken & Apple flavor because out of all of the varieties at my local Safeway it is the one with the lowest amount of carbs.

I quickly downed both of the “Protinis” in the package; I was impressed at how good the cold chicken and dried apples were. Nutritionally there are 80 calories in each of the Glazed Oven Roasted Chicken & Apple packs with 5 grams of carb, 1 gram of fibre and 4 grams of sugar. Protein wise they definitely do not measure up to a shake but there are 11 grams of protein in each pack of the Glazed Oven Roasted Chicken & Apple.

They are a little pricey, but nice little treats when you are in a pinch. I plan on packing them for road trips, hikes and any instance when I know I am going to be hard-pressed to find low-carb quick food fixes. I hope gas stations start stocking them!

Here are all of the different flavours of “Protini” on the market right now:

From http://www.protinis.ca/en/product.html

Try them out and save a little money with this "Protini" coupon!

Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake

2014-06-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry!

Things have been super crazy busy lately so I have been onto the old favourite quick and easy recipes. I did manage to stock up on dessert last week with a treat--- lemon cheesecake! I have been back at the gym now for fourteen weeks for nearly 70 workouts!

When I made this recipe it made twelve square mini-cheesecakes. It also made a six-inch round cheesecake. I have cut this recipe in half for you so that hopefully you don’t make too much! I still have one in the freezer.

Crust:

1 ½ cups of almond flour

1/3 cup of melted butter

½ tablespoon of stevia (or your favourite sweetener)

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

½ teaspoon of coco powder

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

2. Combine almond flour, melted butter, spices and sweetener in a medium bowl.

3. Once mixed well, press crest into the bottom of pan.

4. Bake for ten to twelve minutes.

5. Allow time to cool.

Cheesecake:

½ package of lemon flavoured sugar-free Jello

½ cup of boiling water

1 8oz package of softened cream cheese

1/3 cup of stevia (or your favourite sweetener)

½ teaspoon of vanilla

½ teaspoon of lemon juice

¼ cup of cream

1. Dissolve half a package of sugar-free lemon Jello in a half-cup of boiling water. Cool and allow thickening but not setting.

2. In a separate bowl combine softened cream cheese, sweetener, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat until smooth.

3. Whip cream until stiff peaks form.

4. Fold in cream cheese mixture.

5. Pour the cream cheese filling over crust.

6. Chill for at least two hours.

I garnished mine with fresh raspberries because the grocery store was out of blueberries (crazy, I know). I would like to make a blueberry garnish, or I would use sugar-free blueberry syrup if there were one available here in rural BC. Raspberries worked too!

Nutritional information to come

Fitness App: Breeze Motion and Activity Tracker for iPhone 5s

2014-04-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

I am pretty excited right now, spring has sprung in the Kootenays and people are back into being outdoors! We have had beautiful April weather so far this month, until recently it felt more like summer it was so hot!

Don’t get me wrong; the weather is very exciting here. While other parts of Canada have been finishing winter we dove straight into summer. But, I am super excited to have a new smart phone after a couple of months off the tech-sauce.

Now that I am back on the grid I have been checking out new apps. Now that I am back in a fit phase to get ready for summer I have been concerned with the amount of steps I have been taking. Working at a desk most of the day I do what I can to stand as much as possible, but I still think I take a relatively low amount of steps in a day.

My new iPhone 5s has been helping me out with tracking steps. I downloaded the new app called Breeze to see how many steps I would be taking over the Easter Long weekend.

So far I am impressed, Breeze uses the motion coprocessors in the new iPhone 5s that are used for tracking the motion of the phone to track your movements throughout the day.

Whether you are walking around the house or going for a trek into the mountains, Breeze will keep tally for you! The app averages out your daily steps and sets goals for you based on the steps you have taken in the previous days. It even coaches and motivates you to continue walking and adding to your daily step count (without being annoyingly pushy).

Breeze can total the total amount of steps you have taken as well as the total time you have spent

moving and it can also determine how you are moving (running vs. walking). The app keeps telling me it can tell me what animal I move like (I’m hoping the highland cow pictured here is not my spirit animal) too! The polls are still out on this, when my iPhone gives me an answer I will let you know what I move like.

The only thing is that I keep expecting there to be more with Breeze. More than a simple motion meter to keep track of my steps and the exact route I take on my weekend walks. The app is absolutely free so there is not much more I think I can ask from it, but it feel like it should be building into more… calorie tracking etc.

I think this is what the Lose It! App should aspire to develop their pedometer into. To be honest with you, I will not be upgrading Lose It! for more stats for $$$ when I can use the beautiful Breeze app for free.

If you are interested in upping your body movement check out Breeze! I am aiming for the common goal of 10,000 steps a day outside of the gym.

Right now the Breeze app is only available on iPhone 5s.

Cheesy Jalapeño Low Carb Biscuits

2014-04-18T21:22:00.001-07:00

Things have been crazy over the last couple of months. All of my boyfriend's hard work eating right and working out has payed off! He has dropped over 100lbs since we started keto and has now officially sworn into the military. He will be heading to basic training in less than two weeks so we have been cutting pretty hard and I have even been hitting the gym for moral support. We only get to workout together once a week, but it is nice to be on the same page. I have been back in the gym for 6 weeks now and I have worked our 34 times. Leaving little time for innovative cooking, while Kev is at Basic I will have more time to post.

I really like these biscuits. They are great to have in the fridge for a quick snack. I have been putting a little pizza sauce on them and melting more cheese on top for a pizza-style snack.

Letting them sit really does make a HUGE difference. I tried them as soon as they came out of the oven but found that they needed that time to really finish melting together with the shredded cheese.

Unfortunately biscuits will never be low calorie if you want them moist and flavourful. To save some calories you can use lower calorie cream cheese, nix the bacon grease and maybe skimp on the butter a bit.

Ingredients:
-1 medium jalapeno
-1/2 teaspoon chili pepper
-1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
-3 eggs
-1/3 cup coconut flour
-(optional) 1/2 tablespoon bacon grease
-1 tablespoon of cream cheese
-1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used tex-mex)
-1/3 cup melted butter
Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Remove the seeds and chop up the jalapeno.
3. In a bowl combine dry ingredients.
4. Blend the wet ingredients and the jalapeno.
5. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until there are no lumps.
6. Fold in cheese.
7. Spoon out the batter into nine equal units in greased pan.
8. Bake for 15 minutes.
7. Brush tops of the biscuits with melted butter.
8. Let sit for at least half an hour.
Nutritional Information:
Calories: 141
Fat: 12.3g
Carbs: 3.3g
Fibre: 1.8g
Sugar: 0.5g
Protein: 4.6g

Low Carb Shamrock Protien Shakes

2014-03-10T00:28:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I was obsessed with Shamrock Shakes from McDonald's. I has been a lifelong problem. I even had Shamrock Shake stickers on my dorm room mini-fridge at university.

While we were on vacation Kev had a Shamrock Shake on his cheat day and I have been craving one ever since.

So, I altered some Shamrock Shake recipes I found online to make it a low carb treat. We are only a week away from St. Paddy's Day, so get your fill now or drink it anytime of year!

Here it is in all of its high calorie glory. I really liked it using half-and0

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of half-and-half cream
1/2 cup of water
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
1/4 teaspoon of mint extract
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 ice cubes
2-3 drops of green food coloring (optional)
*you can sprinkle grated dark chocolate on top for a tasty garnish

Procedure:
Mix all together in a blender and boom, a low carb take on McDonald's Shamrock Shake!

Nutritional Information: To come.
This will vary depending on what brand of protein powder you use. You can safely add a little bit of water in most cases.
Calories:
Fat:
Carbohydrates:
Sugar:
Fibre:

Mustard Pork Tenderloin

2014-03-09T14:44:00.005-07:00

Mustard Pork Tenderloin

Here is an easy favourite from our kitchen.

It is not pretty and it is not hard. In fact, it is super easy. This is one of the basics we survived off of when we had just started keto.

I hope you like mustard!

Ingredients:
-enough mustard to cover the pork tenderloin completely (3-4 tablespoons)
-one entire pork tenderloin
-salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Line pan with aluminum foil.
3. Coat both sides of the pork tenderloin with mustard.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes (depending on the size). Do not flip it.
5. Let rest for 5 minutes.
6. Before eating it ensure the centre of the meat is completely cooked.

Nutritional Information (this is for an entire 1lb tenderloin with 4 tablespoons of mustard):
Calories: 707
Fat: 20.4g
Carbs: 3.2g
Sugar: 0.5g
Fibre: 2.0g
Protein: 120.7g

Steak Me Home Tonight: Pan Fried Garlic Butter Steak

2014-02-10T14:32:00.002-08:00

We eat a lot of steak, it is one of our favourite dishes to make. Pretty much all of our favourite veg
options go perfectly and a good steak does not need much for seasoning.

One of the big problems we have in our tiny apartment is that we do not have room for a grill or barbecue, our favourite ways to cook steak. We have to pan fry all of our steaks.

This pan-fried garlic butter steak is incredibly quick and easy to make, we have it at least once a week. Sometimes we add a little ghost pepper salt just to spice things up.

The side dish I have pictured with the steak is prosciutto wrapped asparagus, a super easy side. It is perfect for someone who is trying to get into eating more vegetables.

Ingredients:
-1 steak of your choice
-1 tbsp garlic butter
-season to taste with salt and pepper

Procedure:
1. Heat garlic butter on medium until it has melted and the pan is throughly hot.
2. Season each side to taste and fry on each side for 3 minutes this should give you a medium-rare steak (times may vary depending on stove and how you like steak cooked).
3. Let the steak rest for five minutes and then enjoy!

Nutritional Information:
To Come

My First Bacon Weave

2014-01-19T12:58:00.002-08:00

I am so excited!

I made my first bacon weave yesterday for a recipe I was testing out. My recipe is still in the works, I have been in a breakfast coma all weekend after this recipe, it was amazing.

Bacon weaves are definitely a treat, very high in calories but full of taste. This bacon weave uses 5 slices of thick bacon and 5 slices of maple bacon. We love maple bacon but the only brand our new grocer sells is pretty thin and falls apart. I wanted full on maple flavour, so I used half our crappy (but very tasty) maple bacon and half thick cut bacon.

It worked like a charm. I wish I would have taken a photo of the finished product before I continued on with the recipe... next time!

Ingredients:
10 slices of bacon

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. I placed the five slices of maple bacon on the pan horizontally and then weaved in the thick bacon horizontally (over one and then under one).
3. Cook in oven for around 28 minutes.
4. Towel off grease.

Low Carb Ice Cream-Style Floats

2014-01-19T12:10:00.002-08:00

I love ice cream floats.

With the Crush rainbow pack of 'diet' pop you can easily make four different types of floats that taste just like ice cream floats without the carbs. This is one of the easiest treats out there to make! With the rainbow pack you can make cream soda, grape, orange or root beer floats. You can use any diet pop when you make these faux floats.

Ingredients:
1 can of your favourite flavour of diet pop (soda)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of coffee cream

Procedure:
1. Empty one or bottle of your favourite pop (soda) into a cup that has about an inch-and-a-half of free space.
2. Pour one teaspoon of vanilla into the pop.
3. Mix in the coffee cream.
4. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 29
Fat: 1.9g
Carbs: 1.1g
Sugar: 1.0g
Protein: 0.1g

Dark Chocolate Walnut Cookies

2013-12-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

I love these cookies. They are very filling and relatively easy to make. I have experimented with how to deal with the dark chocolate, I tend to like to have the big chunks on top of the cookies to melt over the cookie. Even eating the cookie dough is amazing!

I will take better pictures the next time I make the cookies, hopefully soon!

Ingredients:
3 cups of almond flour
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 cup of melted unsalted butter
1/2 cup of powdered sweetener (I use splenda or stevia)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of Cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of unsweetened almond milk
4 teaspoons of vanilla
1 90% Cocoa Lindt chocolate bar (you will use most of it)

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Combine salt and powdered sweetener.
3. Whisk eggs and vanilla into the melted butter.
4. Stir in salt and sweetener mixture to the butter mixture.
5. Mix the rest of the dry ingredients together and then add to dry mixture.
6. Chop up the walnuts and dark chocolate bar (I save a few of the squares so that I don't use the entire bar, it is a little much). As you can see I am a little lazy about chopping...
7. Grease the pan with coconut oil.
8. Shape dough into 12 equal sized balls.
9. Bake for 12 minutes (if you have a small oven it may be less).

Nutritional Info (rough numbers on per cookie):
Calories: 296
Total Fat: 27.9g
Carbs: 7.8g
Fiber: 3.8g
Sugars: 1.8g
Protein: 8.3g

Carbquik Waffles

2013-11-17T12:45:00.004-08:00

I really miss super carby breakfasts with crepes, pancakes and waffles. After moving and going through a big transition period where it has been easiest to stick to bacon and eggs we finally got out shit together this morning and made waffles for the first time in months. Boy, were they ever good.

I don't normally like to post about products that you have to purchase that are hard to find but this morning I am just so happy to have had a special breakfast treat that I have to post about it. Carbquik is expensive, but so worth it to have to make things (easily) that you miss while cutting carbs, like waffles.

Yum.

The best thing about having a box of Carbquick around the house is how easy it is to make all of the Carbquik recipes. I use the waffle recipe on the back of the box and then add a little bit more vanilla and sugar-free caramel syrup (if I have it). Sometimes we add a scoop of protein powder to the mix too!

Dark Chocolate Walnut Cookies are in the Oven

2013-11-10T17:18:00.001-08:00

Really excited to have a few I these bad boys in my belly in about 10 minutes time!

The batter was surprisingly delicious, usually I am not a fan of almond flour batters, but this one is really good.

Almond Flour Chicken Strips

2013-11-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

We make these bad boys all the time, they are so easy and quick to make. Perfect for after work or a quick lunch. We usually cut up chicken breasts into strips but you can also use pre-cut chicken from your grocer too (this tends to be more expensive). We like them to be a little spicy, so we add a teaspoon of chili powder to the mix, if you are making this for children you may want to nix that part of the recipe.

When we started making these chicken strips we would give them an egg bath, but we have actually found that it doesn't help breading them and that it is just as easy to dip them in almond flour.

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts

2/3 Cup of Almond Flour

1 Teaspoon of Chili Powder (optional)

Salt & Pepper to Taste

Procedure:

1. Cut chicken into strips or bites, whatever size you would like.

2. Heat coconut oil in a pan on medium heat.

3. Mix almond flour and seasoning in a medium bowl.

4. Press both sides of each chicken strip in the dry mixture.

5. Fry in coconut oil until full cooked inside and golden on the outside.

These are great with pretty much any dipping sauce!

Nutritional Information (per serving, makes two servings):

Calories: 355

Fat: 21.7g

Carbs: 8g

Fibre: 4g

Sugar: 1.3g

Protein: 34.7g

Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Personal Pies

2013-10-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is still a work in progress... Thanksgiving Day I was jones-ing for pies and this was my best option at the time with the amount of ingredients I had around the house. I will be the first to admit these pies are a work and progress, not exactly a traditional replacement for pies. But, I will continue to make them tastier... I would love a low carb fruit personal pie (it is my current project).

Add some sugar free whipped cream and these pies should hit the spot in a pie craving.

This recipe should make four personal pies.

I found my Wilton personal pie presses at the dollar store, I am betting you can also find them at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Crusts

1 1/4 cups almond flour

1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced

1/4 cup ice water

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg (for egg wash)

Combine almond flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture, large chunks that look should form. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I used a non-stick pan greased with coconut oil to bake these pies.
Spread pie crust over press, or into pan. I used Wilton 'Mini Pie Presses' to make my personal pies.
Fill the inside of the personal pie with 2 tablespoons of filling.
Brush dough edges with egg wash.
Bake or fry your personal pies. I baked mine for 15 minutes.

Filling

1/2 90% dark chocolate bar

2 tablespoons of unsweetened almond butter

1/2 cup of heavy cream

1/2 cup of sweetener (this time I used boxed Twin)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1. Chop up chocolate in a medium bowl.

2. In a sauce pan combine almond butter, cream, sweetener and salt.

3. Stir until smooth, and the sweetener and salt have dissolved.

4. Stir this mixture into chopped up chocolate.

5. Let sit for 10 minutes.

6. Refrigerate until ready to use in the pies.

Nutritional Information:

To Come...

Low Carb Saganaki

2013-10-07T16:11:00.000-07:00

Fried Cheese? Sign me up.

At first we thought we couldn't make this treat but quickly started to think outside the gluten box and got almond flour involved.

This one is really simple. We have only made it once, I think it will be a common appetizer for our meals from now on.

We used Krinos frying cheese to make this saganaki. We changed up the traditional recipe a little bit, no flames were involved. The next time we make it we will try using olive oil and let you know how that goes.

Ingredients

-One 110g block of sheep's milk grilling cheese

-1/2 cup of almond meal/flour

-1/4 cup of butter for frying

-1 tsp. of chili pepper

-1 xl egg

-a dash of salt & pepper

Procedure

1. Add all of your dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. Crack an XL egg and whip it in a small bowl.

3. Dip the block of cheese in the egg.

4. Heat butter on high in pan.

5. Coat your dipped block of cheese in flour and seasoning mixture.

6. Fry until golden brown on both sides.

Nutritional Information per Serving (makes 4 servings):
Calories: 202.5
Fat: 16.75g
Carbs: 4.1g
Fibre: 1.5g
Sugar: 0.6g
Protein: 12.57g

Lettuce Wrapped Tacos

2013-09-29T15:12:00.001-07:00

This is a super easy taco fix, perfect when you need to pig out and eat six tacos and not feel too guilty for cheating. Not much to tell on this one, not an original post (most people can figure this one out on their own).

Ingredients:
-1lb ground beef
-1 Head of Boston lettuce
-Shredded Cheese (I use tex mex)
-Sour Cream (optional)
-Salsa (optional)
-Seasonings for meat (to taste):
-chili peppers
-salt
-pepper
-cheyenne peppers
-Hot Sauce
-Toppings to taste

Procedure:
-Fry up the beef and then season to taste in the pan with seasonings and hot sauce.
-Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
-Grate cheese.
-Separate lettuce leaves on a plate.
-Add meat and your favourite toppings and sauces to the lettuce.

You can switch up the meat you use to, we have also made tacos with pulled pork (pictured below).
If you need a pulled pork recipe click here.

A New Take On Pulled Pork

2013-09-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

Usually I make pulled pork with a barbecue sauce for flavour but I wanted to switch it up a little bit this week when I made my batch of pulled pork.

In my house we use pulled pork for everything. It is amazing low carb treat to have around, you can use it for anything. I add it to my omelettes, on top of my keto pizzas, for a treat I even make a yam fries pulled pork poutine (this is a cheat day homemade recipe that is not crazy in carbs but perfect for reloading).

Here is my new pulled pork recipe. It is a little different, but the procedure is pretty much the same. The only thing that is different is that you add all of the sauces while you cook it, after the eight hours slow cooking it is done!

I don't like to blog recipes that involve using Frankenfood syrups (because not everyone can swing by their local supermarkets and find them), but this pulled pork was too good not to share.

Ingredients:
-1.5-2 kg of pork shoulder
-2 Tablespoons of yellow mustard
-1/4 Cup of sodium soy sauce (I did not bother with low sodium, I used the lowest carb one I could find)
-2-3 Tablespoons of maple syrup (again use the lowest carb one you can find, I used Walden Farms Pancake Syrup)
-2 Tablespoons of olive oil (next time I am going to try coconut oil)
-2 Tablespoons of hot sauce
-2 Teaspoons of garlic powder or salt
-2 Tablespoons of water
-A dash of salt and pepper

Procedure:
1. Place meat in slow cooker.
2. Add all liquids except water to the slow cooker over the meat.
3. Add all spices to the meat.
4. Add water over the meat.
5. Slosh the meat around in the sauce.
6. Cook on low heat for 8 hours, stir and stab the meat every couple of hours.

Nutritional Information (makes about 8 servings with 1.5kg of meat)
Calories: 246
Fat: 12.6g
Carbohydrates: 0.6g
Fiber: 0.1g
Sugar: 0.5g
Protein: 31.05g

Super Simple Pork Rind Crispy Chicken Drumsticks

2013-09-03T23:05:00.002-07:00

I like to make these chicken drumsticks as a snack, like jumbo chicken wings. I like them to be spicy, but you can easily season them differently (salt & pepper or honey garlic for example).

Ingredients
200g of crushed up pork rinds
4 chicken drumsticks
1 egg
2 tsps of hot sauce
seasoning (to taste)
a dash of salt and pepper.

Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, grease aluminum foil on a pan (I use coconut oil).
2. Crush up pork rinds. I like to use a spoon to crush them in a medium bowl.
3. Add dry seasonings (except salt) to pork rinds.
4. Crack egg in a separate bowl.
5. Add 1/2 tsp of hot sauce to the egg mixture (optional).
6. Add a dash of salt to the eggs mixture.
7. Let the chicken drumsticks sit in the egg mixture for about 5 minutes.
8. Roll chicken drumsticks in the crushed up pork rinds. Try to coat as much of the drumstick as possible. This will depend on how crushed the pork rinds are.
9. After you coat the entire drumstick place it on foil and bake for 15 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and flip. Spoon hot sauce over the drumstick.
11. Bake for 15 more minutes.
12. Remove from heat. Spoon more hot sauce onto the chicken (to taste).
13. Wrap foil over chicken until you are ready to serve.

Nutritional info to come...

Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops

2013-08-04T16:54:00.001-07:00

Pork chops and pork tenderloin are a staple in our diet. They are a cheap alternative to chicken and beef. We are poor new grads so saving a few bucks on meals is huge, I imagine this would be a perfect meal for a family. For $7 we bought 5 pork chops.

Ingredients
-Pork chops (I used 5)
-2 tsp of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb (you can also mix your own blend of herbs and garlic)
-a dash of salt and pepper
-1/2 tsp. of chili peppers
-coconut oil
-1 tsp. of hot sauce
-100-200g of your favourite cheese (we used marble)

The pork chops I used were rather thin, it was impossible to find thick cut chops at our grocer. If you can, use thick cut pork chops.

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350. And spread enough coconut oil over aluminum foil on pan for each pork chop.
2. Slice cheese into strips.
3. Make a length-wise slit in each pork chop that will fit your cheese. Do not cut down the entire length.
4. Stuff each pork chop with cheese.
5. Tooth pick the pork chop shut.
6. Add all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
7. Add hot sauce to the dry ingredients.
8. Dip each side of each pork chop in the spices in the bowl.
9. Bake the pork chops for 20 minutes.
10. Remove pork chops from oven and each one over. If cheese is leaking out you can try to put it back into the pork chops (or on top of them).
11. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

Nutritional Information
(to come)

Spicy Jalapeño Butter Shrimp

2013-08-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

We love to switch up our seafood mid-week. 'Spicy Jalapeño Butter Shrimp' is one of our favourite ways to prepare shrimp, it is SO quick and SO easy. Perfect to make when you get home from work in a hurry to eat. We have started throwing jalapeños into the pan when we make the shrimp, but they are optional.

We often use the shrimp as a side with other things like Flatout Mini Pizzas.

Ingredients:

-1lb Bag of Shrimp

-1/4 cup of butter

-1/2 can of Jalapeños (optional)

-salt & pepper to taste

-1 tsp. chili flakes

-1-2 tsp. chili powder

-1 tbsp. coconut oil

*season to taste, if these seasonings are too much for you reduce them

Procedure

1. Thaw shrimp (if frozen).

2. Heat coconut oil in pan on stovetop at medium heat.

3. Add butter to the coconut oil.

4. Add thawed shrimp to the pan.

5. Add seasoning to the shrimp and butter.

6. Cook shrimp for 5-10 minutes (this may vary by stove/will be different if you are using precooked shrimp).

7. Add jalapeños (optional). Let sit for 2-5 minutes.

Nutritional Information:

(to come)

Chickpea Almond Butter Chocolate Cookies

2013-06-15T20:12:00.003-07:00

This was my first food experiment using chickpeas.

I think it went pretty well, it created tasty and moist cookies.

My boyfriend likes them fully cooled, I like them both warm and cooled.

Before you can even really start making the cookies you will need to soak your chickpeas for about 12 hours. Below are before (left) and after (right) photos of my chickpeas.

Yup, your chickpeas do not look appealing right now... we are about to fix that!

Procedure
1 1/4 cup of chickpeas
1 half bar of 90% cocoa chocolate (50g)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup of warmed unsweetened, unsalted almond butter
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 tablespoon of unsweetened almond milk (I used coconut almond milk)
2 tablespoons of Fry's Cocoa Powder
2 teaspoons of vanilla

*dash of salt (if you have unsalted almond butter, if you use salted then don't worry about it)

Procedure
1. Soak chickpeas in water for at least 12 hours. I added a teaspoon of almond extract to the mixture hoping it would soak in a little bit.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
3. After your chickpeas have soaked drain them and put the chickpeas in a food processor.
4. Warm almond butter in the microwave for around 45 seconds.
5. Add all ingredients, but the chocolate bar.
6. While the other ingredients are mixing into one big ball of dough, chop up the chocolate bar into makeshift chocolate chips.
7. Once the ingredients are mixed into one big, even ball of dough (no chickpea lumps), move it into a medium bowl and hand mix in chocolate bits.
*If the mixture is not mixing well add another tablespoon of almond milk
8. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
9. Make rounded lumps of dough (around an inch).
10. Press each lump down with a fork.
11. Bake for around 9 minutes.
12. Let cool for around 5 minutes.

Each batch should make about 18 cookies.

Nutritional Information To Come...