Sausage and Kale Soup

This soup was really yummy and rich. It reminds me of the Zuppa Toscana you can get at the Olive Garden. (Which is def. what I was going for!)

What you'll need:
1. 1lb Sausage (We used Jimmy Dean's Premium sausage because it's what I had on hand. I think it would be better with Italian Sausage.)
2. 2 cups Chicken Broth
3. 1pt Heavy Cream
4. 1 /12 cups water
5.  Kale - as much as you want!
6. 2-3 Zucchini
7. 1/2 Onion (You can add more if you don't mind the extra carbs!) 
8. Spices: Salt, Pepper, Basil

How to do it:
1. Brown the sausage in a pan with the onion. Meanwhile get the chicken broth and water heating in a pot.
2. Julienne your zucchini or cut them into rounds.
3. Add the onion and sausage to your broth/water mixture.
4. Add in the Zucchini.
5. Season with the salt, pepper and basil to taste.
6. Let this cook for about 5 minutes.
7. Wash the kale well and remove the stems. Cut into strips.
8. About 5 minutes before the soup is finished add in the kale and heavy cream.

You can add in more or less heavy cream/broth to make the soup richer. I usually cut down on the amount of broth due to high sodium.

This is a fast, easy and yummy soup. Calorie and Carb content will depend on how much of each item you use.

Makes: 8-10 servings

Pics soon!

Low Carb Arroz con Pollo

So for the past few days I've been craving some arroz con pollo, thinking I might die because I couldn't eat rice! Luckily my awesome fiancé knows how to use the internet. So for tonight's dinner, we made a low carb version of arroz con pollo.

Here's what we did:

For the chicken we followed this recipe. There's an additional recipe for the spice mix that goes onto the chicken.

For the Mexican rice we followed Linda's recipe. The cauliflower turned out amazing. The texture is a little more like couscous, but I can't complain about having a super easy go to way to make "rice."

We cut the components in half to make enough for 2. 

Our Rating:
 
We both cleaned our plates and were thankful we hadn't made additional portions, or they'd be gone too!

The best part? Around 6g of net carbs for all this flavor per serving.

My Keto Happy Song

The first thing that most people go for to make a keto breakfast, is eggs. I would get sick of them, if not for this song:

Low Carb Caramel Mocha Mousse

This is an easy, delicious dessert.

What you'll need:

 1 pint whipping cream (or heavy cream)
 2 tbsp Torani sugar free caramel syrup
 5 tbsp cocoa (I use Hershey's unsweetened)
 2 tbsp Stevia (or artificial sweetener of your choice)
 2 tsp of your favorite ground coffee

 Mix all of the ingredients into a bowl and whip until it is a fairly thick consistency. Remember if you're whipping by hand that the goal is to fold air into the mousse. You can eat it right away, but putting in the fridge for a little while will help it firm up.

This makes 6-8 servings with around 3 net carbs, depending on what you use.

Another option to cut down on the calories, but add a few more healthy carbs is to reduce the amount of whipping cream and add in avocado as a thickener. View Avocado Nutritional Info

Pics to come! (I have to make some more, but I have strawberry mousse to eat this week. :p )

Our Rating:

Low Carb Strawberry Mousse

This low carb strawberry mousse recipe is really easy, sweet and yummy! I use mine as a topping in place of whipped cream (especially if I'm out of fresh berries). It's also really great by itself.

Ingredients:
1oz cream cheese (I recommend Philidelphia, generics usually have added sugar. Check to be sure! This can be left out to reduce the carbs more.)

1 pint whipping cream (Heavy cream will also do)

1 pack of sugar free strawberry jello (You could exchange for any jello flavor to change the flavor of the mousse! If you don't want to use sugar free jello then maybe try subbing in some fresh low carb berries.)

Mix all of the ingredients into a bowl and whip until it is a fairly thick consistency. Remember if you're whipping by hand that the goal is to fold air into the mousse. You can eat it right away, but putting in the fridge for a little while will help it firm up. Try serving it with almonds!

This makes 6-8 servings with about 1 carb, depending on what you use.

Our Rating:

Cream Cheese Pancakes with Almond & Cinnamon, Sugar Free Caramel Whipped Cream

After more than a month of keto, my fiancé and I finally decided to try something for breakfast that wasn't just bacon and eggs! This past Saturday we tried a recipe from a fellow blogger for Cream Cheese Pancakes.

 There were some initial complaints that the pancakes were difficult to flip, so we took the original recipe and added ground almonds to give it a nice texture and flavor.  For the serving size suggested on the IBIH blog, we added about 8g (a little more than half a tablespoon.) I imagine an almond flour substitute would work just as well. I also added a little more egg to make up for the almond.

We served them with a homemade Caramel whipped cream. We used about 4 tbsp of whipping cream and 1 tbsp of sugar-free Torani caramel syrup. Also served with blackberries and bacon.

I can't wait to make these again!

Sorry for the Styrofoam plates, my fiancé and I hate doing dishes! (Which makes cooking at home interesting.) Just imagine it's on some exquisite china.

Depending on the brand of cream cheese this recipe should come out to around 6g of net carbs for one serving of 2 medium pancakes. We recommend the Original Philadelphia Cream Cheese. (Generic brands usually have added sugar, so look closely!)

Our Rating: