Category: Main Dishes

Whey Oat Waffles

Whey Oat Waffles. So now that I’ve got my soured whey and oat starter… it’s time to make it into waffles! Because, of course, I have to try out my ‘thrift store new’ waffle iron! I’ll link the recipe for the starter at the end of the recipe, before the picture instructions, in case you haven’t seen that.

If you are following THM this is an E with appropriate toppings. 1 waffle is a serving size.

Whey Oat Waffles
1/2 cup garbanzo flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon Pyure or Monk Sweet or Super Sweet
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons oil
4 cups Whey Oat Starter
1 1/2 cups egg whites
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

Instructions:
In a bowl combine the garbanzo, quinoa and coconut flours, the baking powder, sweetener and salt. Mix. Add the water and oil. Mix until combined. Add the Whey Oat Starter. Stir until mixed well. Lightly beat the egg whites and xanthan gum till white and frothy. I just put them in my blender for about a minute. Add to mix. Mix just till combined. Lightly spray a heated waffle iron with coconut oil. Pour about 3/4 cup batter in the waffle iron. Cook. Mine has to be flipped and cooks till the light shuts off. Approximately 4 minutes. When it is done, gently open the iron. You may need to gently wiggle the handle up and down till one side of the waffle releases from the iron. When it is open, carefully loosen the corners or edges and lift the waffle off. I like to eat mine topped with yogurt for more protein. The kids often have theirs with butter and maple syrup or honey.

Here is the recipe for the starter:

Whey Oat Starter

I’ll give you the directions again with pictures, so you can better ‘see’ the process. Directions are UNDER each picture. 🙂

In a bowl combine the garbanzo, quinoa and coconut flours, the baking powder, sweetener and salt. Mix.

Add the water and oil. Mix until combined.

Add the Whey Oat Starter. Stir until mixed well.

Lightly beat the egg whites and xanthan gum till white and frothy. I just put them in my blender for about a minute. Add to mix.

Mix just till combined.

Lightly spray a heated waffle iron with coconut oil. Pour about 3/4 cup batter in the waffle iron. Cook. Mine has to be flipped and cooks till the light shuts off. Approximately 4 minutes.

When it is done, gently open the iron. You may need to gently wiggle the handle up and down till one side of the waffle releases from the iron. When it is open, carefully loosen the corners or edges and lift the waffle off.

I like to eat mine topped with yogurt for more protein. The kids often have theirs with butter and maple syrup or honey.

Enjoy!!

Fried Chicken Breasts

These breaded and fried chicken breasts are delicious and great for a quick sandwich. I freeze them in sandwich size ziplock bags ready to thaw for a quick sandwich.

I make this recipe using half of a 10 pound bag of Costco’s frozen chicken breasts. I like to season and bake the other half to cut up and freeze in individual salad size portions. I’ll try to post the recipe for that, soon.

If you are following Trim Healthy Mama these would be an S.

Fried Chicken Breasts

Ingredients:
5 pounds of thawed chicken breasts
3/4 cup oat fiber
1 Tablespoon glucomannan
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
1 Tablespoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon black pepper
Coconut oil for frying

Instructions: Slice chicken breasts in half, lengthwise, through the middle.

Pound the chicken pieces horizontally and vertically on both sides with a knife.

Add about 1/8 to 1/4 ” oil to your skillet and start heating it. Don’t forget it and burn down the kitchen! (I did this once. 😳)

Mix oat fiber, glucomannan and all of the spices together. Coat each piece of chicken in the flour mix.

Check to see if your oil is hot enough. A drop of water flicked into it should spit and sizzle!

Fry the chicken breast pieces on one side till nicely golden browned. Then turn and fry on the other side till also brown and thoroughly done inside. Add oil when and if needed.

That’s it!

These are great used on chicken sandwiches.

Here are some ready for the freezer.

Summer Squash Casserole

Similar to my eggplant lasagna, but a bit easier, yet! I made this and took it to a potluck. I made double the size of this recipe, and used my huge stainless steel pan passed down to me by my mother in law. And the dish was nearly cleaned out. 😊

If you are following Trim Healthy Mama, this is an S. If you’d like to lighten it up, you can replace some of the sour cream and cream cheese with with silken tofu or low fat cottage cheese.

Summer Squash Casserole

Ingredients:

Summer squash, sliced into 3/16″ rounds. 1 huge one… or several small should work, too.

Meat mixture:
2 1/2 to 3 pounds of hamburger
1 onion, chopped
1 cup green peppers, chopped
1 Tablespoon Pyure
1/2 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon black pepper
9 Ounces tomato paste

White Sauce:
1 1/2 cups sour cream
12 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup egg whites

1 pound grated mozzarella

1 cup grated cheddar

Instructions:

Meat Mixture:
Brown meat. Add onions and peppers and continue cooking until they are soft. Add the spices and tomato paste and mix well.

White sauce:
Put sour cream, cream cheese and egg whites in the blender and blend.

Grate cheeses. Slice squash

Layering:
Lightly grease a deep 9×13 casserole dish. Place a layer of summer squash slices in the bottom. Layer half of the meat mixture on next. Reserve about 1 cup of the white sauce. Then pour about 1/2 of the remaining white sauce over the meat mixture in the casserole dish. Sprinkle on 1/2 of the white cheese. Repeat with another layer of squash, the rest of the meat, the other 1/2 of the white sauce and the rest of the white cheese. End with a third and final layer of squash slices,the reserved 1 cup of white sauce and the one cup of cheddar cheese.

Cover and bake at 325 degrees for about an hour, or until white sauce is totally set and squash is very tender. Uncover and bake about 15 more minutes till the top is lightly browned.

Spaghetti

I think this is the best spaghetti ever, even though it does use low carb konjac noodles!

Miracle Noodle Angel Hair

Above is the one I used, and sell.

Here is the recipe! It would be an S if following Trim Healthy Mama!

Spaghetti
1 – 7 ounce bag konjac noodles, angel hair
1 Tablespoon coconut or olive oil
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup browned hamburger (I take from the family sauce I am making).
1 – 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoon erythritol
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon mineral salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Toppings
Grated cheddar cheese
1 small zucchini chopped and sautéed
1 small tomato
Salt
Black pepper

Instructions:
Rinse konjac noodles. Sauté noodles, pepper, onion and garlic in the olive oil until the vegetables are soft. Blend the can of tomatoes.Add the blended tomatoes and all the other ingredients besides the toppings to the noodles and vegetables. Simmer on a medium low heat for at least 1/2 hour, or till the juice from the tomatoes has cooked in and the noodles and sauce are not soupy. Meanwhile, sauté the zucchini, chop the tomato and grate some cheese.

To serve, place the spaghetti on your plate. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese. Top with first the sautéed zucchini, then the chopped tomato. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Red Curry

Red Curry

A very easy and simple, but extra delicious crockpot meal.

This was created by accident some months back. And I could not believe how delicious it was. I have repeated it quite a bit!

The aroma from this cooking in the crockpot is almost the best part! I have had visitors ask about what is cooking!

I buy a 10 pound bag of boneless, skinless chicken thighs from Costco. I use about 1/3 of the bag in this recipe – which ended up being about 8 chicken thighs, for me.

Here is the vegetable stir fry blend, also from Costco, that I use. If this is not available, you can sub a similar blend from what your store has available.

If you follow Trim Healthy Mama, you could enjoy this as a soup, or over mashed cauliflower for an S meal. I give my kids rice… but in this instance, they are missing out on the cauliflower! It seems to be the perfect compliment for this dish.

Red Curry
8 small boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or about 3 – 3 1/2 pounds).
1 large onion, chopped
3 – 13.5 oz cans full fat coconut milk
2 – 14.5 ounce cans chicken broth
2 cans tomato paste
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons salt
2 Tablespoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1/2 bag frozen stir fry vegetables

Instructions: Assemble all of the ingredients in your crockpot, except for the frozen stir fry vegetables. Let cook in the crockpot all day. About 1-2 hours before serving, break the chicken up with a fork and add the frozen vegetables. Continue cooking till the vegetables are just done and hot all the way through.

I will repeat that this is absolutely wonderful over mashed cauliflower! I’ll post my variation of that soon!

A

Eggplant Lasagna

Eggplant Lasagna

I’ve been wanting to make an eggplant parmesan or lasagna for awhile. But, even though eggplant parmesan is delicious, it takes a lot of work to fry and then press all the pieces of eggplant. And, that much grease sort of makes me sick to my stomach! So, I’m not frying the egg plant in this! I did pre-bake the slices, which is much easier!

This sort of came about on the spur of moment, by accident. I was simply out of the items I wanted, to make a meal for my company, and I had eggplant! So, I decided to go ahead and experiment on the company! 🙄

I was a little nervous… But I only had the ingredients I had… And I needed to make a meal!

Thankfully, it did turn out! My company liked it! So, I hope you will too!

This would be delicious with green peppers sautéed with the meat, and olives added to the cooked meat mixture, I think!

The spices in this were simple. Both of these came from Costco, I believe.

This would be an S if you are following THM.

This makes 2 large 9×13 casserole dishes, so cut it in half or thirds if you are not feeding a large family or company. You could also try putting one in the freezer for later.

Eggplant Parmesan
3 large eggplants, thinly sliced
3 pounds ground meat (I used turkey… beef would be fine, though)
Coconut oil, if needed, to cook meat and veggies
1 large onion
3-6 oz. cans tomato paste
3 Tablespoons Montreal Steak Seasoning
3 Tablespoons Italian Seasoning
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
16 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 cups egg whites
4 cups grated mozzarella
4 cups grated cheddar

Instructions

Eggplant:
Place all the eggplant slices in a casserole dish and pre-bake at 300° for about an hour. You can leave the peelings on like I did, or you can take them off.

Meat mixture:
Brown the meat. I needed the coconut oil since I was using a lean ground turkey. But if you are using hamburger you may or may not need oil. When the meat is nearly done, add the chopped onions, and peppers if you’d like, and continue cooking until the meat is done and the veggies are soft. Then add the tomato paste and spices to the meat and veggies.

Cottage cheese mixture:
Combine the cottage cheese, cream cheese, and the egg whites in a blender. I used my Vita Mix. Blend well.

Layering:
You will need to divide the ingredients by four, for two layers in each dish, except for the egg plant which will have an extra layer on top. Also, reserve a little extra cheese to place on top of each of the last eggplant on top.

Layer the ingredients into the bottoms of two greased casserole dishes in this order. 1: Eggplant slices. 2: Meat mixture. 3: Cottage cheese mixture. 4: Grated cheeses. Repeat. Top with another layer of eggplant with a little more cheese on each eggplant round.

Bake at 350° for about an hour, or till soft. I uncovered them and briefly broiled to get the brown spots towards the end.

Serve!

Steak and Pepper Burritos

I served this recipe in my wraps! I’ll link the wrap recipe first, in case you would like to use it. It will take six wraps for this recipe. I used the coconut flour version.

Wraps

The wraps are easy, and can be made while the steak and veggies are cooking.

This recipe fills six wraps. I found two of them to be a nice serving size, so I will consider that this serves three, although you can eat more or less, of course.

Steak and Pepper Burritos

Ingredients:
1/4 cup oil
2-3 cups of steak, cut into pieces (I used venison, but beef would also be fine.)
12 mini peppers, topped, seeded, and quartered lengthwise
1 onion, sliced into rings
4-6 cloves garlic, sliced
2 Tablespoons Montreal Steak seasoning

I got the seasoning from Costco, it’s basically salt and cracked pepper plus a few other spices. Here is what the container looks like.

Instructions:
Heat the oil till it is hot, then add the meat. Brown on the bottom, then stir occasionally till they are browned on most sides. Add the peppers, onions, garlic and Montreal Steak Seasoning and continue sautéing till the onions and peppers are soft.

I decided to freeze four of these. First, I wrapped them in Saran. I placed a piece of Saran across a plate, put the burrito in the middle of it, then folded the bottom end of the Saran up over the burrito, and wrapped the Saran around the sides.

Here is what they looked like at this stage.

I figured this will be the easiest way to hold them to eat them after they are thawed. I don’t have a microwave, but if you were going to thaw them in a microwave, I think you would want to remove the Saran first. You could probably then thaw them in the bag, if you made sure the ziplock seal was partially open.

Here are the four ready to freeze!

And the other two were my lunch!

Low carb rice

Low Carb Rice. Have any of you tried the different konjac noodles and rice? They are definitely different than wheat noodles or than either brown or white rice! It’s great that they are 0 carb! And they are fairly simple to prepare.

The first time I tried konjac noodles, though, I was NOT impressed! I ate them, but I don’t know that I wanted to eat them again! Now, I love them! Whether that’s because they grow on you, or because I’m learning how to better prepare them, and what dishes I like them in, I’m not sure.

I’ve frequently used the noodles, but I’ve still been having a hard time with the rice. This recipe features the rice, cooked with a very small amount of brown rice! And, I think it does the trick! I feel like I’m eating a plate full of rice, although I’ve only used 2 Tablespoons! And perhaps it’s all in my mind… but it tastes so much more like rice! 😊

Here is a link to my store, to the konjac rice I sell.

Miracle Rice

If you are following Trim Healthy Mama, this could be used as an S Helper. Or you can use it in an E. You would need to have another carb source in your E meal, as there is not much from the rice. You will want to be aware that this has a full E allowance of oil, so if you are going to have any other fat in your meal, take that into consideration.

Low Carb Rice:
1-8 ounce package Miracle Rice
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons dry brown rice
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:
Drain and rinse konjac rice well. Transfer to a small saucepan, and add the other ingredients. Bring to a boil. Turn down to low and let simmer till the brown rice is cooked and the liquid is gone.

That’s it! Top it how you like! Hope you enjoy this!

Corn Tortillas

Low carb option for a corn tortilla! This is a variation of my first wrap recipe:

Wraps

It uses a little masa harina flour, but just a little for flavor. The recipe makes 4 corn tortillas. Which I figured is one serving. If you are following Trim healthy mama, I would use these in an S.

I’m hoping my friend Susanna and I can get together and make her yummy authentic enchiladas, so we can share that recipe with you next! Susanna was born and raised in Mexico! And her food is yummy!

Here is the plate she served me at her house a week or so ago.

She used regular corn tortillas, but I’m hoping we can sub mine! 😉

Corn Tortillas

Ingredients:
Dry:
3 Tablespoons oat fiber
3 Tablespoons coconut flour
1 Tablespoon Masa Harina (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
1 teaspoon glucomannan
1/2 teaspoon psyllium husks
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon rice vinegar

Instructions:
Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the wet ingredients together and then add them to the dry ingredients. With your hands make a ball of dough and slightly flatten it into a round. Divide it into 4 pieces. Pat each into a round and then press each piece on a tortilla press between a plastic liner. Carefully pull back the top layer. Lay it on your hand and pull off the other layer. Transfer to a skillet heated on about the lowest temperature on the stove. Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side. I used a cast iron griddle, but a non stick skillet would probably work, too.

What can you make with these and how would you use them?

Creamy Spinach Soup

With Indian Spices, this quick, fragrant, warm and creamy soup makes a great lunch with a side of bread and butter. (Low carb bread for those of us following Trim Healthy Mama). It is a thin, almost drinkable soup, but it is delicious!

Of course, this is a large recipe. You may cut it in half or further.

If you are following THM this would be an S.

Creamy Spinach Soup

1/2 cup coconut oil
2 onions, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Seeds from 8 green cardamom pods, optional
4-14.5 ounce cans chicken broth
12 cups fresh spinach
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne or red pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon glucomannan

Instructions:
Sauté the onions, garlic and cardamom seeds in the coconut oil. Add the chicken broth, spinach and spices. Bring to a boil and let simmer a bit till the spinach is cooked and wilted. Transfer to a blender (I used a vitamix) by batches and blend till smooth and creamy. Add the can of coconut milk and glucomannan to a partial batch and blend. Return all to the pot and bring back to a boil.

If you are not dairy free, you could always add some cream in place of the coconut milk. Maybe a cup?