Pigs in a Blanket - Low Carb & Keto friendly Recipe

If you like beef and cheese these little guys are going to be your favorite! 

 Since they are bite size they are perfect for game day treats!

Pigs in a Blanket

Pin from here for later.

What You'll Need: 

1 1/4 Cup Mozzerella Cheese

7 Tbsp Almond Flour

1 Tsp Onion Powder

1/8 Tsp Garlic Powder

1/8 Tsp Ground Mustard

1 Egg

30 - 45 Nathan's Cocktail hot dogs

What You'll Do: 

1) Melt Mozzarella cheese in the microwave for 2 minutes at 30% power.

2) Combine almond flour, onion powder, garlic powder & ground mustard in a bowl. 

3) Add the flour mix and egg to the melted cheese. Mix well. 

4) Press and fold the dough with a spatula until most of the ingredients are combined. 

5) Reheat for another 10 seconds, then press and fold dough until its all mostly one color. 

6) Reheat mixture for another 10 seconds. 

7) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

8) On a piece of greased (I use a stick of butter here) parchment paper, roll or spread out the dough with a spatula into the shape of a large rectangle. 

8) With a pizza cutter cut about 1 inch by 2 inch rectangles into the dough..

9) Place a cocktail hot dog on the 1 inch edge of the small rectangle you just made. Roll the dough around the hot dog. Repeat until all the dough has been used. 

10) Place in the oven to bake for 15 - 17 minutes. You know when they are ready because the dough will be lightly browned. 

I served these as  a side with chili! 

This batch makes a bunch so there were a few to snack on later.

Low Carb Breakfast Pizza...

yes...it's REAL!

My husband loves the breakfast pizza from Casey's General Store in Iowa. Whenever we visit my mom makes sure to order at least one :) . After coming across an amazing low carb dough recipe from uplateanyways, I knew it was the perfect base to springboard from and make this pizza for my hubby. I'm kind of elated to report I put together a recipe that hit the spot for him and now its time to share it here with you. Alright, let's get to it!

Low Carb Breakfast Pizza

Serves 3 - 4
Pin for later here.

What You Need: 

- Large Pan

- Parchment Paper

- Stick of Butter to grease parchment paper and glaze dough

- 1 1/2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

- 1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese

- 7 Tablespoons Almond Flour

- 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder

- 1/8 Teaspoon Ground Mustard

- Dash Garlic Powder

- 4 oz Ground Turkey Sausage 

- 4 Eggs

- 1 Slice Bacon Chopped

- 1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese

salt and pepper to taste

What You'll Do: 

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) Melt 1 1/4 cups mozzarella cheese in microwave for 2 minutes at 30% power. 

3) Combine almond flour, onion powder, ground mustard, garlic powder and 1 egg. Mix well.

4) Add the mix to the melted mozzarella and mix well. Folding the cheese over itself seems to really help work this batter up! Mix with your hands if you want here - get into it! :)

5) Once the mixture is combined, place mixture back in the microwave, reheat for 10 seconds. Mix again until the mix is mostly one color.

6) Size up a piece of parchment paper to fit the pan you'll be using. Take a stick of butter and grease the parchment paper. Set butter aside.

7) Roll dough out on parchment paper with your hands or spatula into a circle.

8) Place in oven for 7 minutes.

9) While the crust is baking, in a medium sized pan break up the sausage, put in bacon pieces to cook as well. Remove from heat once all pieces are browned.

10) Now whisk the 3 remaining eggs and scramble them over low medium heat in  a small pan. Pay close attention to the eggs so they stay fluffy. Remove from heat just before they are done.

11) After 7 minutes, pull crust from the oven, take the stick of butter and glaze the top. 

12) Sprinkle 1/4 cup cheddar cheese across the entirety of the crust. Now add the eggs and meat, spreading them sporadically across the crust. Add the remaining 1/4 cup cheddar cheese to the top, as well as the 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Salt and Pepper to taste.

13) Place back in the oven for 5 more minutes until the cheese has melted.

14) Slice and serve warm!

If you try this I would *love* to know! I'm very excited to share it as I've been hoping to for some time but wanted to get it "just right". I hope it paid off! Please feel free to leave comments below! 

Thank you and enjoy!

Halloween is over BUT... Pumpkin Seed recipes are completely necessary!

And so...I still must tell you about the feast we had before we carved pumpkins on Halloween Eve!
We carved up some pumpkins too! You might ask yourself, what did we do with the leftover pumpkin seeds?! Why bake them of course!! :D We had a total of 4 large pumpkins that yielded two full pans of pumpkin seeds to roast! They were delicious! Why is there only one time of year you can get these seeds? I hope this changes :). I have a mind to go out next grocery run and grab pumpkins to make my own pumpkin puree and stock up (if even a little) on the pumpkin seeds. I make no promises though, as sometimes my ambitions outweigh the hours in a day ;).

I had made Low Carb Chili, (which I neglected to take a photo of :(  ) and Keto Chocolate Roll earlier in the day...(with coffee!!! ^-^)

...so it was all ready to go and add to the festivities! The chili was a recipe I've used for years now, the spices always make my nose run and kick me in the throat causing me to cough, but I will still vouch for it being a recipe worth making! With 5 adults in the house, the chili was gone. Lol No leftovers here! However, this was the first time I had made the chocolate roll, I didn't really know what to expect... it turned out to be quite magical! Tasty and fluffy and yummy!

Baked Pumpkin Seeds

Pin it for later HERE.

What you will Need:

- 2 Large Pumpkins with Seeds

- Olive Oil

- Sea Salt

- Colander

- Cookie Baking Sheet

What you will Do:

1) Hollow out the pumpkin carefully with a large Tablespoon.

2) Separate the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin pulp. 

3) In a colander, place the the pumpkin seeds and rinse. 

4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

5) Place the seeds in a medium bowl. 

6) Add 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil for every  3/4 cup of seeds, and 1 Teaspoon of salt. 

7) Mix it all up and place on a cookie sheet, spread them in a single layer. 

8) Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, pull out the pan, stir them and place back in the oven for about 15 - 20 more minutes. 

Enjoy these! They only seem to happen about once a year! Serve them hot or cold. The smell reminds me of popcorn! How delightful! ^-^ 

Meatloaf - Keto & Low Carb Friendly

Temps are dropping here in Texas.. which means its time to break out the casserole dish! 

Who doesn't like meatloaf?! I confess... I didn't used to. The kind I tried growing up was too tart for my taste. My guess is because ketchup was used, I love ketchup but the store bought kind was too sweet (I since have taken to making my own ketchup ;)). I like my meat salty. 

Even when it comes to ham. I'm not for a honey baked ham, add veggies to it for me please! :) 

In any case, this meatloaf is my kind of meaty goodness made with spiced homemade ketchup, which for this recipe, we'll call red sauce. 

Using a 9 x 13 pan there wasn't much to speak of as far as leftovers go! Which is fine, to me that means everyone got fed and got enough. :) Though I'll admit sometimes I try making a huge batch of something hoping for leftovers later! ^-^ I like cooking/baking but sometimes I'd like to just grab something from the fridge and 5 minutes later have a warm meal in front of me. :)

Meatloaf

Serves 4 - 6
Pin it for later here.

What You'll Need:

Base of Meat Loaf:
2 lbs of ground beef
1 lb ground pork
2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
1 Cup Diced White Onion
8 Cloves Minced Garlic
1/2 Cup Zucchini Diced or Shredded ( I dice it, every time )
3/4 Cup Red Sauce (see below)
1 Egg Beaten
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper

Red Sauce:
6 oz Tomato Paste
3 Tablespoons Vinegar
1/4 Teaspoon Dried Mustard
1/3 Cup Water
1/4 Teaspoon Cayenne Powder
1/2 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
Splash of Lemon Juice

To Grease Pan: Bacon Grease

What You'll Do: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1) Combine all ingredients (less the red sauce) in a bowl. Mix well.
2) In a separate smaller bowl, combine all ingredients for red sauce. After mixing the red sauce, take about 1/2 of it and add it to the meatloaf mixture.
3) Use the bacon grease to grease a 9 x 13 pan. Add The Meatloaf mix to the pan, smoothing top of it until mostly flat.
4) Top with remaining Red sauce.
5) Bake at 350 for 1 hr 30 minutes.

SIDE NOTE: Your meatloaf may "shrink". This is normal. 

The leaner your meat, the less it will shrink. Just FYI. :) 

Serve warm and enjoy!

Ground Pork & Green Bean Stew - Low Carb & Keto Friendly

I do the grocery shopping for my family, I make a list every week in an effort to only ever make one trip. And by one trip I mean to Costco, then to Walmart or HEB depending on what the need is. The trip doesn't take very long... about an hour and a half to two hours and I'm usually back home so long as I don't dilly dally. For the most part, this plan works. Since we've moved to Texas and there are still a few moving parts to juggle that aren't usually there once you've settled into a new place I'm not 100% on my game. Which brings me to this past Sunday. I had aspirations of trying a few recipes from my pinterest board, but in perusing my fridge and cupboard came up short in ingredients, not enough mozzarella cheese for one recipe, not enough . Which was kind of a buzz kill lol :). But once I took inventory of what I DID have, well... a problem turned into an opportunity! An opportunity to be creative and make something delicious! I have 3 other adults in my house besides me, so, when I say I hit a home run with this soup I only say that because everyone liked it, A LOT. So much so, that it was gone the same day I made it. Yup. True story. Enough chatting from me though - lets get to the good stuff shall we? 

Ground Pork & Green Bean Stew
Pin it for later here.

What You'll Need: 

1.5 lb Ground Pork Sausage 

SIDE NOTE: I used breakfast sausage, if you get regular pork, 

add 1/4 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes to your recipe

2 Cans Green Beans

6 Cups Chicken Broth

2 Tablespoons Bacon Grease

1/2 Tsp Minced Garlic

1 Tsp Pepper

1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder

1/4 Tsp Ground Sage

1/4 Tsp Ground Mustard

1/4 Tsp Onion Powder

Optional:

- 1 Tablespoon Gelatin Powder ( I add this for the health benefits more than just the taste ;))

What You'll Do:

1) In a large pan, brown the pork.
2) While the pork is cooking, add all the other ingredients to your crock pot and set to high.
3) Once pork is browned, soon it into the crock pot.
4) Leave on high for 2 1/2 hours to let the flavors blend. You could simmer this on low all day as well and eat from it on a lazy weekend day. 

As soon as the soup is to the temperature you like it you can eat it, however the longer it sits the more the flavors have a chance to blend. This recipe would be perfect for a rainy day, or a cozy/lazy weekend. Once it's boiled at least once you can turn that puppy down to "keep warm" and let 'er simmer all day. This stew would also be a great substitute for when your family has come down with a cold. The chicken stock and the bit of pepper/garlic that's in it helps get your nose running! :D

If you are wondering what those *biscuits* are in the photos - they are none other than UplateAnyways' Almond Flour Cheddar Biscuits! Find recipe here.

 I hope you like the recipe and that it's as much of a hit with your family as it was with mine! Thank you for reading! Remember to share the health! ;)