Quesadillas (with leftover meat)

This is my stand by recipe for quesadilla sauce and it only needed minor altering to accommodate low carbing. I love that this is a meal that the whole family is happy with!
I also love to make the filling in a pan without the tortilla and just add shredded zucchini for a quick dinner for myself
The sauce has something like 1g carb for the lot, so it's a guiltless pleasure
Just count the carbs of whatever tortilla if you're using one!

The sauce tastes very close to the Taco Bell Quesadilla sauce, but I like this one better!
Makes great tasting quesadillas out of left over chicken, steak and roast! The sauce also tastes very good as a warm or cold dip.

Ingredients:

¼ cups Mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Sliced Jalapenos, Minced (the Kind You Get In The Jars)
2 teaspoons Jalapeno Juice (from Your Sliced Jalapenos)
½ teaspoons Paprika
½ teaspoons Ground Cumin
1 pinch Salt
⅛ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper (optional)
½ teaspoons worth of sugar substitute (1 drop of liquid stevia does it for me)
1 pinch Onion Powder

4 low carb Tortillas
2 cups Shredded Mixed Mexican Blend Cheese
1 cup Cooked Chopped Chicken, Or Steak, Or Other Left-over Meat

Preparation Instructions:

Combine the first 9 ingredients and stir until smooth. I usually don't bother mincing the Jalapenos and just blend everything in the small cup of the personal blender.

To make Quesadillas:

Preheat skillet over medium heat. Lay tortilla into hot skillet and sprinkle half a side with about 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Add 1/4 cup chopped meat/chicken.
Spread about 1 Tablespoon of the sauce on the empty side of the tortilla. Fold the tortilla side that has the sauce on over the cheese and meat side.
Cook until the cheese gets melty. Carefully turn with a spatula and cook the other side for about a minute or so, just to crisp the tortilla up a little.
Cut into 4 wedges and enjoy. Repeat the process with the remaining tortillas.

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Lemon Curd (sugar-free and low carb)

 

Yesterday I was reminded of my favorite lemon cake. It’s a lemon pound cake, made with lemon curd in the batter, which gives it not only a decadent lemony moisture, but a lovely yellow color.

But not only that, the whole thing is then drenched in lemon syrup which will seep into the cake and moisten it further. When you leave it out for a bit, a tiny little crackly sugar crust will form on top of it, adding to the whole experience.

 

So, of course by then I had already decided that I want to see if I can make the whole thing low carb And it occurred to me that really, lemon curd is the perfect low carb spread/ filling/ frosting  or ingredient to so many other yummy things (tarts, pies, fillings, bars, ice cream etc.) – once you work around the sugar and maybe reduce the amount of lemon juice a little!

 

The first step was the Lemon Curd.

You can make this several ways to achieve the intensity of lemon flavor you desire, as long as you observe the basic liquid to thickening agents ratio.

 

Here’s the way I like it best. It’s pretty much indistinguishable from the real thing, especially in baked goods!

 

Sugar-free Lemon Curd

 

Ingredients:

• 4 whole eggs (for a richer Lemon Curd, use 6 egg yolks)
• 1/4 cup erythritol, powdered or granular
• 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice, strained
• 1/2 cup (-2 tbsp.) of water (or use 1/4 cup of Monin*** unflavored sweetener and omit the liquid sweetener later)
• 1/2 tsp. unsweetened Cool Aid Lemonade powder *     **
• sweetener of choice (I used 1/4 tsp. of liquid stevia)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (COLD and cut into small pieces to melt faster )
• 1 tablespoon lemon rind, VERY finely grated (optional)
• 1/4 tsp. Glucomannan (can be replaced with guar gum, or xanthan gum, but glucomannan gives a more authentic mouth feel)

Directions:

1. Beat the eggs until well blended and light  yellow in color.
2. In a 1/2 cup measuring cup, add the 2 tbsp of lemon juice, then fill up to make the 1/2 cup.
3. Add the erythritol, and lemon juice, water, lemonade powder, liquid sweetener and glucomannan and whisk to combine, and cook in a double boiler until the mixture gets thick and coats the back of a spoon. Do this slowly and under constant stirring so you don’t get scrambled lemony eggs!
4. Pass through a sieve straight away. This is the secret to silky smooth lemon curd – removing any lumps, shells and “scrambles”!
5. Pour into a heat proof 4 cup measuring cup and stir in the cold butter pieces, which cools down the mixture quickly and will thicken it some more. Stir in the lemon rind.                       I find that lemon rind gets a tad bitter, even with the white stuff removed when cooked with the rest of the ingredients. When you add it later however, it permeates your lemon curd with a truly luscious lemon flavor.
6. Transfer to whatever storage container you want. I tend to use small jam jars, as it only opens a small amount at the time!
7. This MUST BE REFRIGERATED! Keeps 2 weeks.

 

* Depending on how lemony you like your Lemon Curd, adjust the lemonade powder.

** Could also use 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice (omit water/syrup and up the liquid sweetener) but it does up the carb count of course!

*** Monin syrups have a thicker consistency than other sugar-free syrups. If you are using any other unflavored sugar free syrup, you may have to up the thickening agent (Glucomannan, or guar gum, or xanthan gum) to get the same consistency

 

If you would rather not use Cool Aid powder, you could also use Ascorbic Acid powder (Vit C ) and Lemon Oil to taste.

 

Nutritional Info for recipe as stated:

Whole recipe makes about 17 tbsp.

1 tbsp. @ 0.35 g net carbs , 69 calories, 7.2 g fat, 1 g protein

 

Lemon Curd made with 1/2 cup of lemon juice:

1 tbsp. @ 0.7  g net carbs, 76 calories, 7.2g  fat, 2 g protein

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The best low -carb, sugar-free Cinnamon Rolls yet!

As some of you might know, I have in previous years and now do again, eat the low-carb and sugar free way. Not just for weight loss, but also for general health. As carbs are out, this sometimes involves a whole lot of tweaking and some "franken ingredients" to accomplish some faux favorites.

At times it also seems that cooking and baking is more involved because you have to mix this, that and the other to get the taste, mouth feel or synergy of what is usually just ONE ingredient, like flour or sugar. But I love to cook, I love to bake and I love to experiment. And my kids are willing taste testers!

And every once in a while I come up with a winner and I'll share it on this blog too :) Most of the ingredients I use are not locally available, but they are available at Netrition.com and I will note the others as to where I get them! 

So, now to the Cinnamon Rolls!

These might look involved, but really they aren't all that much. And if you are like me more about the quality of what you're eating, rather than the quantity, I think it's worth every minute spent on it.

Now granted, It's been at least 6 months since I've had a cinnamon roll, but to my taste buds and my brain, they tasted EXACTLY like this! So yummy!

And let me say up front that I tend to have wordy instructions. That doesn't mean the recipes are complicated. It just means I'm trying to anticipate all sorts of questions about the recipe and try and be as precise as possible

And no, I was just kidding with the fork. These are the "pick it up and sink your teeth into warm yummy gooey goodness" kind of buns. No fork required!

 

Cinnamon Rolls

1 cup Whole Calorie Coutndown Milk (or 1/2 cup of cream with 1/2 cup water)
1/4 cup light EVOO (or oil of choice)
1/4 cup erythritol
2 1/2 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 tsp sugar (for the yeast)
Flour mix:
1 1/4 cups carbalose
1/2 + 1/8 cup wheat protein isolate 5000
2.5 Tbs wheat protein isolate 8000
3.75 Tbs almond flour
3 Tbs resistant wheat starch
3 Tbs Oat fiber
1/2 tsp acacia gum
2 tsp cake enhancer (SO worth the two carbs! - from King Arthur Flour)
------------
1/4 tsp sweet dough flavoring (also from King Arthur Flour)
1/4 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/8 tsp Salt
1 tbsp SF Vanilla Syrup

FILLING and frosting (partially):

1 stick of butter melted (-1 tbsp for buttering the pan, -1 tbsp for frosting)
1/2 cup eryth powdered,
1/4 tsp sugar not,
1 capsule glucomannan
1 1/4 tsp Of Cinnamon, ground
FROSTING:
1/4 of the filling mix above
3 drops natural Maple Flavoring 
2 oz cream cheese, softened
pinch Salt

Preparation:

Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Warm it until just a before hot. You should still be able to stick your finger in comfortably, even though it feels hotter than room temp. sprinkle in the yeast, stir and let it sit for 5 min. There will be a little bit of frothing action.

I leave it about as long as it takes me to measure out all the flour mix stuff.

In a separate bowl mix together all the flour mix ingredients, as well as the baking powder, baking soda and salt.

I used my bread machine for this step. I added the liquid, then the flour mix, then 1 tbsp of torani vanilla and the buttery sweet dough flavoring. I let the bread machine do all the mixing, helping it along a bit with a spatula in the beginning to incorporate all the flour in the corners.

Much to my amazement the dough that formed in there after about 10 minutes of mixing and kneading was pretty much exactly like a regular yeast dough.

A little puffy, not at all sticky, nice and elastic and I was able to roll it out on the counter top like any other dough (no extra flour or plastic mat needed.)

Actually it involved very little rolling. I could easily stretch the dough into the basic shape I wanted with my fingers, then just rolled it to even it out a little. Don't press down too hard with your rolling pin - we want to maintain as much "puff" as possible

Form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness maintaining a general rectangular shape (about 10" x 6".)

Melt the butter in the microwave, then take out about 1 tbsp for the pan and place another tablespoon full in a separate bowl (for the frosting.)

Then mix the melted butter with the erythritol, sugar-not, gluccomannan and cinnamon. It will thicken a little when you stir it in while the butter is warm. Spread 3/4 of the melted butter/sugar mix evenly over the dough regtangle with a spatula or palette knife.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a nine inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls into 10 equal sized pieces (about 1 inch) and lay them in the buttered pan. I actually had trouble fitting them all, so I baked two in a separate pan.

Cover with a plastic bag and let them rise until they about doubled in size. In our climate that's 90+ degree out on the porch in a shady spot for 1/2 hour. Adjust as needed to your circumstances. Don't let it go longer than 40 min though as they have a tendency to collapse!

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Once risen, bake the rolls on the middle rack until dark golden brown, about 25-30 minutes. The middle part of the center roll should be more "springy" than "spongy" as in it comes back up when you gently push it down a bit.

For the frosting, mix together the 1 tbsp of melted butter, the cream cheese, the remainder of the cinnamon mix, the maple flavoring and the salt and stir well until smooth. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm (but no longer hot) rolls.

Enjoy!

I have to do the final count on these, but from a rough count, they are about 4 carbs each.

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