Coconut Flour, Finally!

My coconut flour order finally arrived today and I didn't waste any time at all. I used by best friend Google to find recipes and decided on Candice's Low Carb Cupcakes. The thing I like about Candice is she has a recipe for 12 cupcakes and another one for 6 cupcakes. I made the 6 cupcake recipe because I didn't wanna waste ingredients in case it didn't turn out well. Oh but it did! Look at my cupcake!

Eat me! It's okay! I'm Low Carb!

Isn't it beeyootiful? I'm going to make more! And lots of other things! So yummy and the texture was very cake-like. The frosting is a simple cream cheese frosting using Splenda and stevia. 

Have you tried coconut flour? What other recipes would you recommend I try?

Deelicious Meatballs

Forgive the pun. I couldn't help it.

A few months ago I bought an old (probably 1980's) cookbook just because I liked how the recipes looked inside. It didn't have colored photos, just drawings of the dishes. I found it charming so I got it. It was cheap, too. It has quite a few interesting recipes that can be tweaked to low carb. What I liked about the meatball recipes in this cookbook is that they were rolled and coated in coconut flakes. I've never heard of that before and I thought I'd incorporate it in this recipe.

The addition of coconut made these meatballs really interesting. I didn't put a lot of seasonings in them but it's perfect because the mild flavor allows you to make whatever kind of sauce you want. I added a tablespoon of Italian pizza sauce over mine and more parmesan cheese. It was delicious!

Deelicious Meatballs

Ingredients

3 cups ground beef

2 T flax meal

5 T ground parmesan cheese

pinch of Italian seasoning

one egg

1 cup coconut flakes

Directions

1. Beat egg. Add flax meal, ground parmesan and Italian seasoning.

2. Mix ground beef with egg mixture well..

3. Form balls and roll on coconut flakes until covered.

4. Bake at 350 for 10 - 15 minutes, turning once.

I also made a recipe card for this, so it can be printed out. Click on the picture below to see the large image.

Cashew Chicken and Lemon Cilantro "Rice"

Ever since the lovely Jessica of How Sweet It Is posted her recipe for Cashew Chicken, I knew I had to give it a try. Her food porn (yes, that's a real phrase. You don't believe me? Google it!) has always inspired me to drool and make something but since I'm doing low carb I really can't and shouldn't indulge in the delicious sweet treats she would share. So when this cashew chicken recipe debuted I was happy. Finally! Something I can make and enjoy and stay on plan. Yipee!

If you checked out the link for her Cashew Chicken, it's not like what I made at all. I had to make do with whatever fresh vegetables I could find at my local grocery store. I also skipped the cornstarch because I wanted to save carbs. 

For the side dish, I settled on Lemon Cilantro "Rice", again using the cauliflower rice I have come to love so much. The two paired very well together. The chicken was flavorful and the lemon in the rice brightened it up some more. The cashews were chewy and soft and oh so nutty delicious! Try this meal if you can because it is amazing and easy to make.

Cashew Chicken

*Adapted from How Sweet It Is

This is basically a stir-fry so remember to make your vegetables the same size so they cook at the same time.

4 chicken breasts, sliced into bite-size pieces (I didn't wanna throw away the skin so we just used it)

1 cup snow peas, sliced 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup young corn, sliced diagonally into thin pieces

1 cup red bell peppers, sliced into small cubes

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons sliced onions

100 grams cashew nuts

Olive oil

Soy Sauce

Splenda 

Salt 

Pepper

1. Salt and pepper chicken pieces. Heat olive oil in a wok or pan. Cook chicken in batches until browned. Set aside.

2. Add more oil and let it get hot. Saute garlic until fragrant then add onions and saute some more.

3. Add the vegetables. I did the corn and peas first because they're tougher. Add the cashews and stir while on medium high heat. 

4. Put the chicken back, stir frying some more. Lower heat. Mix 1 packet Splenda into 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and pour over chicken and vegetables. Depending on your taste, add more Splenda or soy sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Let everything cook together for another minute or two, stirring to coat the vegetables and chicken with the sauce.

5. Serve.

Lemon Cilantro Rice

1. Prepare cauliflower rice. After cooking in microwave, add a tablespoon of butter and stir so the butter melts and coats the "rice".

2. Add chopped cilantro onto the "rice" and the juice of half a lemon. Salt and pepper if needed. Toss.

3. Serve.

Mexican Dinner

When The Hubby bought a new oven we both agreed that it was the best oven we ever owned. It had five stove top burners, a large oven that I can fit 24 cupcakes in at a time (big whoop!) and most of all it came with a rotisserie and drip pan. We love to cook so this oven was really worth it.

However we haven't really used the rotisserie yet and over a year later we finally did. He just rubbed oil on two whole chickens and salted and peppered them, stuck them into the rotisserie and two hours later we had roasted chicken. It was very good and the skin was crispy delicious. We had tons of leftover chicken though so I asked on Twitter what I could make with leftover chicken. Chicken soup, chicken stir fry, chicken salad, these were just a few of the suggestions I got. But when Jamie of Your Lighter Side suggested her recipe for Chipotle Burrito Bowl I got a Mexican bee in my bonnet that I couldn't shake. I had to have something Mexican!

Hubby LOVES Mexican food. When we went to Boracay we stayed at this lovely hotel and they had pretty good Mexican food. If there's one thing he misses about the US the most, it's Taco Bell and he can only get it when we go to Manila. So I looked for recipes and researched high and low and finally decided on my Mexican Dinner : Chicken Enchilada with Spanish Rice.

It took a lot of prep work since there's basically three phases of this dinner: the Enchilada Sauce, making the Chicken Enchilada and then making the Spanish Rice. I did it all in three hours, not my best day in the kitchen. But everything turned out so well. Hubby made his own Spanish rice using Jasmine rice but I made cauli rice and it tasted wonderful.

Phase One: Enchilada Sauce

I looked for a good recipe and didn't have to look far. Linda Sue took care of that for me with her easy Red Enchilada Sauce.

Phase Two: Chicken Enchilada

Saute onions, red and green bell pepers in butter. Then add shredded chicken. I had about four cups of chicken. Then mix in a cup of the enchilada sauce. Pour into a baking dish, grate cheddar cheese on top and broil until cheese has melted. Top with sliced green onions if preferred.

Phase Three: Spanish Rice

Prepare cauliflower rice as usual. Saute a cup of "rice" in butter and add half a cup of Enchilada Sauce.

This dinner was very delicious. We still have leftovers which I am sure we will take care of. It definitely curbed that Mexican  craving. So if you love Mexican food, why not give this meal a try? Let me know what you think of it. 

    

Meat & Egg Fast

I've heard about the "Meat and Egg Fast" on LowCarbFriends.com before but I never thought I could do it. Eating just meat and eggs? No veggies? Cheese? Noooooooooooooo!!!!

But my friend Melissa of Less of Mimi did it for SIX DAYS and even though it turned her into a vegetable craver it really worked for her. So I figured I'd give it a try. I really liked it. I only had like two meals a day and never got hungry. I did this for two and a half days. It was supposed to be three but I miscalculated and in the middle of Day three I have ran out of eggs and edible meat. so I cut it short.

The best part was I lost 2.6 lbs since my weigh in on Monday when I began the fast. That's awesome, I know but I hope the loss sticks. If it does then I will do M&E three days a week and I am free to eat off plan for a day. I'm thinking Monday to Wednesday M&E and Saturday could be my free day.

Have you tried a meat and egg fast? Any kind of fat fast?