Burger Love Affair

If there's one thing I crave a lot since going low carb, it's burgers. I find myself just constantly thinking and drooling over burgers.

Luckily, my hubby makes the most awesome burgers. All he does is make patties out of pure ground beef (half a cup per patty) and then fry in a pan with no oil (the beef is pretty fatty) with a sprinkling of salt.

Trust me. This is so good and so simple. So he makes six to eight patties at a time with 1 lb of ground beef and we keep them in the fridge. Then when I want to have one I reheat it with some butter and top it with a whole lotta stuff.


Bacon Mushroom Melt
With sautéed onions and mushrooms, bacon and cheese


DOUBLE Bacon Cheeseburger
Two patties with bacon and cheese


BLT + OC
Bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese


Pizza Burger
Tomato paste, Italian seasoning, tomato, onion, olives and cheddar cheese

Summery Vegetable Salad

Pretend you're me and it's a rainy Sunday afternoon so you left the confines of your bedroom for the first time since you woke up to rustle up a meal. You open the refrigerator door, one hand on your cocked hip, give the contents a once over then close the refrigerator door. You do this two more times before letting out a big dramatic sigh that implied, “Okay, I give up! The contents of the fridge won't magically change every time I open it, so I'll just make a summer vegetable salad (even though it's raining)!” So you gather all the ingredients and proceed to make the following salad.

Ingredients

Vegetables**
Broccoli
Sweet bell peppers
Cucumber
Onion (optional)

Meat**
Chicken breasts, cooked
Bacon strips, fried til crispy

Dressing
Mayo, 3 to 5 tablespoons
Lemon juice from one lemon
Splenda, 1 packet
Salt and black pepper

**Basically anything in your fridge that you need to use up before it gets too squishy**

1.Prep the veggies. Since you're me, you steamed the broccoli until they were a little soft, but not too soft, crisp tender is the term you're looking for. Slice the bell peppers and cucumber into thin rings. See the remaining half of the onion you used to make something you forgot about a couple of days ago? Dice it up.
2.Prep the meat. Roughly chop the left over chicken breasts that your hubby fried for dinner two nights ago. Crumble up some of that bacon, too.
3.Make the dressing. Add all the ingredients you THINK make up a decent dressing and mix them all up, making sure you dip your pinky in a few times to gauge the taste. Add salt and pepper if you must.
4.Toss the salad. Put everything in a big bowl and armed with two plastic ladles, toss the vegetables, meat and dressing until everything is lightly coated with the dressing. Refrigerate until serving.
5.Serve to sick hubby.
6.Accept compliments.

Now stop pretending to be me and you make this salad.

Peruvian Style Beef Steak

What do you do when you text your beloved husband what he wants to do for dinner and he replies, "It's up to you, honey!"? I type the only thing I can think of that's not frozen into Google and look for a recipe. So I typed beef tenderloin and got lots of results. I settled on a version of Peruvian beef steak but of course, I did it my way. I added bacon because well bacon makes everything better!

This was really interesting because it reminded me of the Tagalog Bistek, which I love. The vinegar replaces the kalamansi juice and makes it a tad sweet. I didn't mind the sweetness factor; it was just unexpected. This would be great with cauliflower rice but I just had it by itself. I only had four pieces but it's quite filling.

Peruvian Style Beef Steak
*Adapted from this recipe. Serves 4-6.

600 grams beef tenderloin, sliced into serving pieces

3/4 c white vinegar

3 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 stick butter, more as needed

1 onion, sliced thinly

2 small tomatoes, seeded and sliced thinly

3 strips bacon

1/4 t cayenne pepper, optional

salt and pepper



1. Mix soy sauce and vinegar in a bowl. Marinate the beef pieces for at least an hour.

2. Cook bacon until slightly crispy. Remove from pan, cut into 1/2 inch strips and set aside.

3. Add a little bit of butter into the pan. Fry the beef pieces until browned and cooked. Reserve the marinade. Set aside the beef pieces.

4. Add more butter as needed into the pan, saute the onions until translucent. Add the tomatoes. When the tomatoes are soft, add the bacon strips. Saute until bacon is heated through. Add the beef pieces.

5. Once the beef is heated through, pour the marinade into the pan. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper, if using. Let it reduce uncovered.

6. Serve.

Pancakes For Breakfast? Yes, Please!

You're probably wondering how I can go through 12 mini pancakes in a few days... let me show you the ways...



Pancakes with a tablespoon of heavy cream, sprinkling of Splenda and cinnamon. Tastes like dessert and there's fewer things better than dessert for breakfast. That's my motto, by the way.




Pancake sandwich with lesser carbs! I put ham and cheese slices between two pancakes. Sweet and salty is an awesome combination!




Bacon and pancakes. You don't have to say goodbye to a classic combo just because you're on low carb.




How about a cauliflower and broccoli omelet with sour cream to add to your bacon and pancakes? You get your protein AND your good carbs in one sitting. This meal was so good and so filling I actually forgot about lunch.




But you know what? SugarFreeSheila's pancakes are so awesome without too much stuff on them. So I like to just put a teaspoon of butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon and I am happy... so happy...

Deep Fried Bacon-Wrapped Scallops

Deep fried.

Bacon-wrapped.

Scallops.

Need I say more except for the recipe? Well here it is:

Scallops
Bacon strips
Oil, enough to fill a pot halfway


1. Wash scallops very well. Pat dry.

2. Cut bacon strip in half and wrap each half around 1 to 2 pieces of scallops.

3. Secure with toothpicks.




4. Heat oil up to 350 degrees. Fry the scallops until bacon is crisp.

5. Remove toothpicks. Enjoy.