Peanut Chicken - Thai Style - Low Carb & Keto Friendly Recipe

Woo! :) I'm glad to be back sharing a few recipes with you! We've had some major house projects as of late, and then, well, trying to sell our house, etc. Which is why I've been a bit off my cooking/baking game. Sorry for the crickets! ;) Lots of changes are still on the horizon but I hope I'll be snapping pics and sharing recipes with you so you can get your delicious eat on! ;D Yes.

Alright, so Pinterest - love the stuff! I tend to use that site more than Google these days. You get instant photos with descriptions and that's great when you're looking for foodie ideas in my book :). I love me some peanut butter and chicken, well um, anything :). Lets explore the low carb/keto options for this dish shall we? This recipe was inspired by RuledMe's Recipe I did not have all items on hand so I improvised and it came out smashingly good... there were NO leftovers. Case and point ;).

Peanut Chicken

Thai Style

Serves 3 - 5

What You Need:
- 8 chicken tenderloins cut into roughly 1 inch squares
- 1 bag of frozen broccoli
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 2 Garlic cloves, minced
- 2 Tbspns Olive Oil
- 2 Tbspns Tamari Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbspn Lemon Juice
- 1 Tbspn Rice Vinegar
- 1/2 Tbspn Coconut Oil
- 1/2 Tbspn Erythritol
- 1 Tspn Macadamia Nut Oil (any oil would do here that fits your diet)
- 1/2 Tspn Xanthan Gum
- 1/4 Tspn Crushed Pepper
- 1/4 Tspn Coriander
- Salt and Pepper to taste


What You'll Do:
1) Over Medium heat, put olive oil in Medium sized pan and cook chicken until all sides are browned.
2) Meanwhile, put broccoli in microwave safe bowl, add 2 - 4 Tablespoons of water and cover. Place in microwave for 8 - 10 minutes until desired tenderness is achieved.
3) Mix all remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over chicken. Let simmer for about 5 -7 minutes, or  until broccoli is ready.
4) Serve warm.

Something I will probably do next time is heat up the broccoli as I outlined here in the recipe, but will then mix it in with the chicken before serving.. Either way, its yummy, I just prefer most things to have a sauce on them. I'm kind of an otter, what can I say. :D

I hope you enjoy the recipe! Like I said, there were no leftovers at my house. This is a dangerous recipe ;).

Venison Steak Marinade

The mister was spoiled by one of his coworkers... he was given not just deer steaks but bear sausage!! O.O I'm super excited about this and look forward to trying bear! I've never had bear before have you?

Having no prior experience with deer (except eating the jerky family and friends have made in the past that was goooooooooooo-od!) ^_^ so Marks Daily Apple helped me put together a marinade for the steaks, it wasn't exactly the same as his because I had to work with what I had on hand, but they turned out yummy so I'm sharing! :)

Venison Steak Marinade 

Marinade works for 2 - 6 steaks

What You Need:
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup tamari soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup water

What You Do:
Let the steaks marinade overnight. If you just can't wait, 4 hours should do the trick to add some flavor.

After letting them marinade, place them on your grill with a bit of butter on each & then sprinkle with pepper. Repeat this process on the other side once you've flipped the steaks. Cook to your desired temperature and enjoy!

Cheesy Eggs with Sausage - Low Carb & Keto Friendly Recipe

Quick and easy meal for any time of the day.

I serve this with coffee most times. If I serve it later in the day of course we switch to decaf :).

Cheesy Eggs with Sausage

Serves 3 - 4

What you need:
2 Tablespoons Bacon Grease
6 - 8 oz of Ground Sausage
4 Eggs
1 Cup freshly shredded cheese of your choice
1/2 an avocado diced to top
Salt and Pepper to Taste

What you do:

1) In a Medium/Large pan over medium heat add bacon grease and sausage. Cook until sausage is brown.
2) Add eggs and stir continually until the egg whites are cooked through. Turn your heat off once the eggs are done.
3) Add the cheese on top and put a cover over the pan for a minute.
4) Remove cover and mix.

Transfer a few spoonfuls to a plate and top with avocado. Salt and pepper to taste.

Low Carb Sausage Tetrazzini - Gluten Free

It's been too long. I owe you a recipe.

I was snowed in today and while I had no aspirations for cooking dinner earlier in the day, I stumbled on Maria Mind Body's Turkey Tetrazzini recipe and my mental wheels got to turning. This recipe is different from hers in a lot of ways, I went with what I had on hand what sounded good to me. In the end, to what tasted good. Heck yes I'll share it with you here!

Low Carb Sausage Tetrazzini

What you'll need:

1 package (1lb) kelp noodles
1 lb ground pork
2 medium red peppers julienned
1 large onion julienned
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 c chicken broth
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg beaten
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 cups freshly shredded pepper jack cheese

What you'll do:

 Grease 9 x 13 pan with butter or bacon grease.  Preheat oven to 350

1) Rinse Kelp Noodles under running water for a few minutes, then pat them dry.
2) In a medium large pan brown the pork then toss in onions ands peppers.
3) Whisk together black pepper, garlic powder, salt & xanthan gum in chicken broth. Once spices are blended, pour mix over pork and vegetables. Cook until the vegetables are al dante, depending on location  you may want to put a lid over them and let them simmer stirring occasionally.
4) Once veggies are al dante, in this order add heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, cream cheese, beaten egg and shredded cheese to the pork and veggies. Stir constantly until all cheese is creamed. Take off heat and set aside.
5) Place kelp noodles in casserole dish, then cover evenly with cheesy pork and vegetable mix.
6) Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Served with Maria Mind Body's Protein Bread topped with garlic powder, butter and oregano.

And... for your viewing pleasure... chronological photos of the hot mess! :) Yes. Enjoy!

Thank you Subway...

... for removing Azodiacarbonamide from their bread… this chemical, though approved by the USDA & the FDA (1) is banned in other countries...

Are you shocked? Yes? No? Me? 

Not so much... 

The further I dive down this rabbit hole of nutrition and finding what works best for me, my body and my family I'm realizing a person needs to check the labels & do their own digging. You just can't trust Big Brother fully okay? Just making sure in case no one told you ;). Granted, life would be awesome if we could be that carefree about it, but who wants to live a lie and in the process age without grace as what "food" they were feeding themselves brings about obesity, toxicity, infertility, etc.or in some cases, their ultimate doom. 

Yes, I went there. Dramatic no? ;) 

I don't want that, so I bother to spend the time and work to be adamant about caring and educating myself. 

When I see an ingredient in anything I put in or on my body that I don't recognize I google it. My trusted source (so far ;)) has been wikipedia. 

Just this week, looking at a supplement ingredient list I saw Sodium Dioxide & Calcium Searatate... they sounded funky but since at the cellular level our bodies are a conglomerate of amino acids and other fun scientific words, I'm going to find out if these two ingredients are harmful or beneficial for my body. Wikipedia didn't have any red flags for either. Nice. Later down the list I found Titanium Dioxide as a supplement ingredient and lo and behold; 

"Titanium dioxide dust, when inhaled, has been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as an IARC Group 2B carcinogen, meaning it is possibly carcinogenic to humans.^[55]" (2)

Interpret that how you will. I don't want that stuff near my body if I can help it, though yes, this ingredient is not only in supplements, it's in sunscreens, cosmetics, chewing gum, etc. 

 "The United States and Canada permit the use of azodicarbonamide at levels up to 45 ppm.^[6][7] In Australia, the UK , and Europe the use of azodicarbonamide as a food additive is banned^[8]. In Singapore, use is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine of $450,000." (3)

This is some crazy stuff huh? All the more reason to be informed and do the research yourself. 

Here's to your health my friends! Till next time! ;) 

Sources:
1 - http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/02/05/subway-fast-food-chemicals-in-food/5236537/

2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide

3 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azodicarbonamide