Sharing Another Yummy Low-Carb Recipe – Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant Parmesan

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

• 2 eggplants, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch slices
• 15 ounces ricotta cheese
• 8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup dried basil
• 4 cups pasta sauce

Directions:

1. Soak eggplant slices in vinegar for 10 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta, mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Mix in egg and basil.
3. Rinse eggplant in cold water. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, place one layer of eggplant in the pan, and brown each side. Repeat with remaining eggplant slices.
4. In a 9×13 inch baking dish, evenly spread 1 1/2 cups of spaghetti sauce. Arrange a single layer of eggplant slices on top of the sauce. Top the eggplant with 1/2 of the cheese mixture. Repeat layering process until all the eggplant and cheese mixture is used. Pour remaining sauce on top of layers, and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.
5. Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until sauce is bubbly.

Delicious Low-Carb Breakfast: Almond Flour Pancakes

Almond Flour Pancakes

• 5 tbsp almond flour
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cooking oil
• 1 pkt splenda
• 1 splash SF french vanilla syrup

Mix all ingredients. Spray skillet with non-stick spray and heat. Spoon pancakes into pan (about 3). Cook on just under medium heat until one side bubbles. Turn, cook for few minutes until done.

Serves 1 @ 7 carbs, 3 fiber (4 effective carbs), 299 cal, 26 fat, 34 protein.

A Couple of Low-Carb Recipes to Share

As you look at my weekly menu, you may notice that several of them are linked to allrecipes.com. I *love* allrecipes. I have been using their site for many many years, and they have continued to improve their features; among them, the ability to resize recipes, the ability to create a shopping list from your recipes, and the ability to create and organize your own recipe box.

But there are a couple recipes from this week that are not from allrecipes.com, and I wanted to take the time to share them with you:

Cream Cheese Pancakes

This recipe came from the lowcarbcafe.

Serves/Yields: 2-3
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
3 large eggs, separated
1 packet sweetener
1-2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
dash of cinnamon

Directions:

In one bowl mix cream cheese, egg yolks, sweetener, whipping cream and cinnamon until smooth.

In another bowl whip egg whites until stiff peaks form, (this is what makes them fluffy.)
Fold the two mixtures together just until blended.

Cook up like regular pancakes, but make sure your pan is not too hot.
I make 2 inch pancakes so that they are easier to turn in the pan.

These are fabulous all by themselves, but are also good with sugar-free fruit spread or sugar free syrup.

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Parmesan Crisps

This recipe came from the book, Dr. Mercola’s Total Health Program, a book I highly recommend!

1 cup shredded (not grated) Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. paprika

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat liner (reusable silicon), spread about 1 T. shredded Parmesan cheese evenly into circles about 4-5″ each. Sprinkle with paprika.

2. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 5-8 minutes, until golden brown. Cheese will melt together to form disks. Remove from oven and let rest until crisps have cooled.

3. Using a flat spatula, carefully lift crisps to serving platter or into covered container. Crisps can also be formed around a bottle right out of the oven to create taco-like shells.

Jumping on the Low-Carb Wagon

As I have mentioned previously, I successfully lost 43 pounds last year, with a combination of the Whole Food Farmacy products (which I highly recommend, and now sell) and a healthy vegetarian/pseudo vegetarian diet. Unfortunatley, by going hog-wild during the two month holiday period last winter, I gained eight of those pounds back. I then got back on track in January, and have lost 6-7 more pounds — but then I seemed to hit a plateau.

I am quite pleased with the diet I have been on, eating lots of fruits and veggies, and the occasional lean meat, while supplementing with the Whole Food Farmacy products — and only occasionally splurging on the pasta dish and chocolate dessert. But, as happy as I am with my diet, I am certainly not ready for a plateau. This is a good way of eating for maintenance, but I still have at least 20 pounds to go! So…my hubby and I began a low-carb diet (Atkins) last Monday. (Yes, I know that being in ketosis isn’t healthy — and I don’t plan to stay on this diet longterm. My goal is to lose the last 20 pounds that I need to lose on Atkins, then use my regular diet, described above, to maintain).

So far, I have lost 3 pounds! But boy, is it a struggle! I figured since I’d already cut out most “sweets” I wouldn’t have a difficult time. Wrong! The last two days I have been grumpy and irritable, shaky, tired, lacking in motivation and energy — just awful feeling! Today I woke up with a headache, and the cravings have been *intense*! I want chocolate and I want fruit! Rob (hubby) thinks these symptoms are a result of yeast die-off. How long will they last?!

I did find a source for some yummy recipes, which I will include here, in case any of the rest of you are low-carbing. All of these recipes were found on a message board called Active Low-Carbers Forums.

Garlic Lime Chicken

Quick and easy to make, and only about 2 carbs per serving.

Seasoning:
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1/8 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. dried parsley

Just a quick tip: once I tried it, I knew I’d do it again–a bunch of times. So I mixed about 5 or 6 times the spices in a little spice jar, so I can just shake it on to the chicken when I need to. Besides, if you dredge the chicken in the spices like the recipe suggests, you run out of seasoning.

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. garlic powder
3 tbsp. lime juice

Directions: Mix spices, dredge chicken in mixture to coat. Heat butter and oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute chicken until golden brown (it gets pretty dark brown if you use chicken with skin on), about 6 minutes each side. Sprinkle with remaining garlic powder and lime juice (it’ll get pretty pungent and then thicken up nicely), cook 5 minutes more, stirring frequently to coat evenly with sauce. Serve.

Counts for the recipe as it’s given (boneless, skinless chicken, etc.), divided into 6 servings:
320 cal, 9g fat, 55g protein, 2g carbohydrate, 460mg sodium

Creamed Spinach

This creamed spinach recipe is made with heavy cream, a dash of nutmeg, a little finely grated onion, and butter, topped with sliced hard cooked egg.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups chopped, cooked spinach
2 teaspoons finely minced onion
1 teaspoon salt
dash nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
1 hard-cooked egg, sliced

PREPARATION:

Heat spinach in saucepan; add onion, salt, nutmeg, cream, and butter. Mix well and heat through. Spoon onto serving dish and top with hard-cooked egg slices.

Creamed spinach recipe serves 4.

*Note from Janne – we omitted the hard-boiled egg

Bronzed Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt (I probably used about 1/4)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix all spices.
Dip chicken in butter then in mixed spices and fry in butter or olive oil.
Chicken should have bronzed appearance.