Egg Roll Bowl

I was very excited to come across this recipe. It definitely filled the void of cravings since we have not really eaten out since March. (With the exception of In-N-Out drive thru. And yes, you can get a burger that is keto friendly there! But that's another post.)

Egg Roll Bowl by Keto A to Z
Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Ground pork (Or any ground meat. I'm sure I'll try this with ground turkey at some point.)
• 1/2 lb. Coleslaw mix (Or as much as you desire. We kept it to half a pound to keep it keto friendly for our serving size.)
• 1 tbsp. Sesame oil (We used avocado oil as that's what we have.)
• 1/4 cup diced onion (You can add as much onion as you want. We kept it to 1/4 cup to keep it keto friendly.)
• 1 tbsp of minced garlic (which came out to about 2 large cloves)
• 5 large mushrooms, diced
• 1/2 a red bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup Chicken broth or bone broth
• 1/3 cup Soy sauce (We used reduced sodium from Trader Joe's.)
• Salt and pepper to taste (I didn't use a lot of salt as the soy sauce was salty enough for me.)
• Red chili flakes to taste (optional)
• 3 Green onion stalks chopped (optional)
• 2 tsp of toasted sesame seeds

Instructions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of avocado or sesame oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Once the skillet has come to temperature, add the diced onion. Saute the onion for 2-3 minutes until it begins to brown.

1. Add in the minced garlic, and stir constantly, cooking for 30 seconds.

1. Add the ground pork in the skillet and cook until browned. Add black pepper to the pork. Mix often to incorporate the onions and garlic.

1. Once the pork has browned, add the mushrooms and bell pepper.

1. Once the bell peppers start to get tender, add the half bag of coleslaw mix to the skillet. Stir well to mix the pork in with the cabbage. Add salt and pepper and chili flakes at this time if using.

1. Add the ¼ cup of chicken broth next into the skillet to help tenderize the cabbage. 

1. Once most the liquid has cooked off, add ⅓ cup of soy sauce to the skillet.

1. At this point I turned up the heat a little as to create a glaze with the soy sauce. Mix all of the ingredients and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, stirring often.

1. Serve with fresh chopped green onions on top if you'd like.

We sprinkled on sesame seeds at the end for a little texture. So good!

Fathead Pizza Crust

We LOVE pizza. So a diet that still lets us eat it? Yes, please. This isn't the first time we've tried making pizza with a different crust. We tried using cauliflower a few years ago and I would not have called it pizza. It was tasty, but definitely not pizza.

But Scott found this recipe, printed it off and asked me if this is something I could make. I was very happy by how fast and easy it is to pull together. You don't need to let the dough rise or build gluten because it doesn't have any.

We've made this crust for pizzas a few times now and even used the dough for pigs in a blanket using low-carb chicken sausages we found at Costco. All were delicious.

Fathead Pizza Crust by Wholesome Yum
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1 egg

(If you want to make this with coconut flour, sub almond flour for 1/3 cup coconut flour and use 2 eggs.)

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 425. Line a baking sheet or pizza pan with parchment paper.
• Combine the shredded mozzarella and cubed cream cheese in a large bowl. Microwave for 90 seconds, stirring halfway through. Stir again at the end until well incorporated. 
• Stir in the beaten egg and almond flour. Knead with your hands until a dough forms. If the dough becomes hard before fully mixed, you can microwave for 10-15 seconds to soften it.
• Spread the dough onto the lined baking pan to 1/4" or 1/3" thickness, using your hands or a rolling pin over a piece of parchment (the rolling pin works better if you have one). Use a toothpick or fork to poke lots of holes throughout the crust to prevent bubbling.
• Bake for 6 minutes. Poke more holes in any places where you see bubbles forming. Bake for 3-7 more minutes, until golden brown.

You can easily split the dough in half and make 2 mini pizzas, which we have done as well. The thinner you roll it out, the faster it will cook. I have added garlic powder, onion powder and italian seasoning to the dough before baking and it's turned out really good.

As you can see, some parchment paper blew onto the crust while it was baking. Oops. But it's ready to become a pizza!

To make the pizza once you have the cooked crust, top with sauce and toppings and return to the oven for about 10 minutes, until heated through.

This one is topped with pesto as the sauce, peppered salami, pepperoni, marinated artichoke hearts, bell pepper, mozzarella and parmesan.

 This is definitely a favorite. I eat light during breakfast and lunch to save room for this. :-)

Keto Blueberry Muffins

As you can tell from my previous post, we had some good eatin'. Not to mention we did our part in supporting the girl scouts and bought a few boxes of cookies. And let me tell you, the lemon ones are AMAZING.

Needless-to-say, we were ready to get into shape by eating differently and exercising more. We started by adding yoga and walks to our week. Tyler is very good at making sure our posture is correct during yoga and loves walks.

As for a 'diet,' Scott had done some research and thought we should try juicing. We made it 3 days and I called it quits. My stomach was not happy for 2 of those days and Scott said he wasn't going to do it alone. I don't blame him. So he did some more research and thought we should give Keto a try. We were afraid of starting as not wanting to screw it up but one day we went for it and learned what works and doesn't as we went along. We each have an app on our phones that helps us track net carbs, fat, protein and calories and helps me create recipes and calculates all that good stuff. 

Keto is "...a very low-carb, high-fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low-carb diets. It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis." I've been losing an averaging of 1-2 pounds a week since we started about a month ago.

The first 'KETO' recipe I tried was for blueberry muffins. Usually one is told to be cautious with fruit on Keto because of the high sugar content meaning high carbohydrates. But everything in moderation. 

Keto baking is obviously much different than regular baking because there's no AP flour or even rice flour. I use either almond flour or coconut flour.

Keto Blueberry Muffins (Serving size: 6)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp of monk fruit or preferred sweetener
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/8 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix together the almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, monk fruit and salt.
Mix together the almond milk, 1/8 tsp vanilla and the 1 egg.
Combine wet and dry ingredients.
I let it sit for a few minutes to let the almond flour absorb some of the liquid.
Spray 6 & fill 6 cups of the muffin baking pan.
Cook for 20 minutes.

The texture kinda reminds me of cornbread as it's not as fine as regular flour. But I like it and have made it a few times now. I've substituted the blueberry for raspberry and added chia seeds and sprinkled sliced almonds on top for a change. They made for good breakfasts.

Quarantine Eats

We have tried out a few recipes during our shelter in place:

Tyler is doing his quality control of the rice krispies. (He's definitely a toddler now. He's growing so quickly!)

Scott found a recipe for Peanut Butter and Honey Rice Krispies Treats.

I used green onions from the garden to make bread.

I made butterscotch pudding from scratch and was so proud of myself! I turned it into a pie.

Lemon Poppyseed Cake

Nutella Swirl Banana Bread

Banana Bread with walnuts and oat crumb topping

Banana and Blueberry Bread

Chili Verde Enchiladas

Red Lobster Cheesy Biscuits

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

It's a good thing we're alternating days of yoga and walks!