Now that I am done homeschooling, I have been expanding my home business offerings. My husband and I are still writing and teaching parenting through Character Ink/Raising Kids With Character. I continue to write curriculum (including new downloadable products and finishing my Meaningful Composition series). I still teach Cottage Classes to homeschoolers one day a week. I added private students last year—and I love it! So much like my homeschooling days with my kids. This year I also added my Plexus supplement business.

But, when you’ve homeschooled for thirty-two years and filled nearly every minute of every week day with work you love (teaching my kids and being with them!), you just need even more work when you are in your mid-fifties! 🙂 So I have started a healthy living blog to share my sugar-free baking, healthy mixes, time management, and work-at-home secrets.

I would love to teach you there in addition to Character Ink! And to get you started, I have written a one-hundred page e-book that teaches readers how to cut sugar out of their family’s life—what to substitute when, where to purchase substitutions, how to use them, and more. It includes incremental recipes to get you started while you purchase few ingredients in the beginning (something crucial for new sugar-free/healthier cooks).

You can get the free e-book here! Check out the blog while you are there—I already have some great info up to help you.

Question: What are your greatest frustrations in trying to cook and bake more healthfully for your family? How can I help you?

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I have been building up my repertoire of mixes lately. (Check out my Basic Low Carb Flour Mix, All Purpose Seasoning Mix, and BBQ Base mixes!)

If you are low carbing, you will want to be careful of seasoning mixes and packets. Many have thickening agents (i.e. arrowroot or cornstarch); others have anti-clumping properties, which can add carbohydrates to the total. Of course, many of us home cooks have been doing many homemade things for years and years—including sauces, seasoning mixes, and more—in an effort to either save money or be able to put into our foods exactly what we want (and know what that is!).

Regardless of your reason for using homemade mixes and seasonings, I think you will agree that every home cook needs an Italian Dressing Mix in her cupboards!

I “developed” this recipe by combining some ingredients from the “Make a Mix Cookery” cookbook (though it doesn’t have the seasoning mix itself), a knock off “Good Season” dressing mix, and a couple of other from Pinterest. I knew it needed some red pepper flakes for some kick—and I can never use too much basil in my cooking! Also, some do not have any sweetener in them at all, which I think is a mistake in such a “spicy” dressing and mix.

If you want to become a “make-a-mix” cook, then this is the the book for you! You can see how worn out mine is—and this is my third copy! See that little sticky note? That is from a dozen years ago! It makes me smile…

Of course, this mix can be used to make salad dressing (Olive Garden knock off recipe here!). But there are so many other uses for this!

Homemade croutons!

Just like my all purpose and BBQ sauce base, I constantly use it as a seasoning mix blend (another step or two I can eliminate when cooking—not having to get out ten spices at one time). Oh, and of course, for marinades. I love to marinate—or even marinate and then stick the entire bag in the freezer for a quick freezer entrée later.
I will be posting many recipes with this mix—including Philly Cheesesteak Casserole, Homemade Croutons (oh my word!), Cracker Barrel Grilled Chicken Tenderloins, steak salad, kielbasa stir fry, and Creamy Crock Pot Chicken Breasts. And some marinades. So stay tuned!

Roasted vegetables are simple: mix olive oil, broth, and one of my seasoning mixes. Drizzle over veggies on a large roasting pan and roast! Try this Italian Dressing Mix or All Purpose Seasoning Mix or BBQ Base Mix!!!

Oh, for those just sticking their toes into the whole mix cookery, I have the half measurements in parentheses following each ingredient. You will wish you had doubled or tripled it—not halved it. But baby steps, right? 🙂

Mixes make dinners for family and friends a cinch to put together!

Let me know what you think—or if you tweak it, please share your tweaks with me and why you like it better. I’m always into learning!

Italian Dressing Mix

2015-08-03 08:06:11

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Ingredients

1. 2 TBSP dried basil (half 1 TBSP)
2. 2 TBSP dried parsley (half 1 TBSP)
3. 4 TBSP dried oregano (half 2 TBSP)
4. 2 TBSP garlic powder (half 1 TBSP)
5. 2 tsp dried rosemary (half 1 tsp)
6. 1 tsp dried thyme (half ½ tsp)
7. 2 TBSP onion powder (half 1 TBSP)
8. 2 tsp black pepper (half 1 tsp)
9. ½ tsp crushed red pepper (half ¼ tsp)
10. 2 TBSP bulk sweetener* (half 1 TBSP)
11. ½ tsp celery salt (half ¼ tsp)
12. 1 TBSP salt (half ½ TBSP)

Instructions

1. Combine all thoroughly.
2. Store in airtight container.
3. Use liberally!
4. Yields 1 cup.

Notes

1. Note: Amounts for half a recipe are listed after each ingredient.
2. Also, for uses in recipes that call for Italian Salad Dressing packets, 2 TBSP of this recipe is equivalent to one store-bought packet.

By Donna Reish

Character Ink https://characterinkblog.com/

*Any sugar-free bulk sweetener (granulated) that measures cup-for-cup like sugar will work this recipe. These include (but are not limited to) Swerve, Splenda, Erythritol, and Xylitol. You will have to convert the measurements if you use a Trim Healthy Mama sweetener, Pyure, Truvia, or granulated stevia. For more information about sweeteners, see this post.

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): This is a very low carb recipe with no added carbs—assuming you use a zero net carb bulk sweetener like erythritol, xylitol, Truvia, Pyure, Splenda, etc.

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): The sweetener in this is minute, and nobody can tell this is a “low carb food”—for those trying to persuade their family to enjoy foods with few carbohydrates/lower on glycemic index.

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): While there are many seasoning combinations out there for SBS’s, be sure that if you are concerned about carbs (and you don’t’ choose to make this one!) that you read the labels carefully. If you want to use the packets of Italian Dressing mix for the convenience, you may use it in all recipes on my blog that call for Italian Seasoning Mix!

Homemade Hannah (HH): This is very homemade! You can make this completely whole-foods as written above—or make it even more homemade by using your own dried herbs.

Trim Healthy Mama (THM): These could be used in an S setting or an E setting—no real carbs and no fat as it is given (the mix)! Use it on all of that protein in both meal types! If you use it as part of a rub or as part of a marinade without fat, you may have an E or a FP. If you use it as it is traditionally used (with olive oil), it is an S.

Sugar Free (SF): Sugar-free and healthy option!

Gluten Free (GF): No fillers so no concern about hidden gluten.

Low Carb Mixes (LCM): This is one of over two dozen of my low carb mixes that I will be bringing to the blog this summer (after eighteen months of testing them!). While the mixes say low carb, they have family-friendly options, gluten-free options, and just “regular” options. Mixes fit all cooking styles—I’ve been using mixes for twenty-five years this month!

Please note: I am an affiliate for these products that I recommend. If you purchase these items through my links, I will earn a commission, but you will not pay more when buying a product through my link. 🙂

The post Italian Dressing Mix appeared first on Character Ink.

Wowsie, sometimes I really miss BBQ—you know the sweet, yet spicy/tangy, taste of BBQ ribs from Outback or pulled pork from a street vendor at the fair? And when I start feeling that way, I know that it is time to pull out my Sugar-Free Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce and make something yummy!

And in grilling season, this is just the perfect dish—without any of the guilt or sluggishness associated with sugar-laden BBQ sauces (okay, and that sweet bread AND bloomin’ onion AND homemade croutons AND…you get the idea!).

This recipe might look like it has a lot of steps, but take heart:

(1) You can omit the marinating if desired (especially if using bone-in chicken with skin and/or dark meat);

(2) If you have the BBQ Sauce Base in your pantry, making the BBQ sauce is really not any harder than mixing up any other one-bowl-one-whisk concoction. (So make that base!);

(3) You might not feel the need to pre-cook your chicken like I do. I get nervous about getting chicken done on the grill without precooking. That is a personal choice.

So…many steps or few—this chicken is worth the extra time to make amazing grilled BBQ chicken!

Grilled BBQ Chicken {Sugar-Free}

• Sugar-Free Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce (two times if you like things really saucy and you are going to marinate your chicken)
• 15 lbs mixed chicken pieces, bone in/skin on
• Monterey Marinade one time (if you want to marinate your chicken that day; if you are using skinless chicken rather than the skin on listed above, I recommend marinating)

Note: This can also be made in the oven. I would recommend baking it a hot oven then broiling at the end to get the BBQ sauce cooked into the skin just so!

Make BBQ sauce as directed here two times for fifteen pounds of saucy chicken.

Marinating and pre/cooking in the crock pot makes it super easy!

Optional: Save out one cup of the BBQ sauce and make Monterey Marinade if you will be marinating your chicken for a few hours ahead of time.

Optional: Make Monterey Marinade one time.

Optional: Place your chicken in a large bowl or huge crock pot insert and pour marinade over all. Let sit in fridge for an hour or more to marinate. (Do not marinate out on counter—even if your chicken is frozen as some will defrost sooner than others and you risk spoilage of the early-defrosted chicken.)

Optional: Place crock pot in the base and cook until internal temperature reaches 120 degrees or so. (For my super-hot crock pot, this is two hours on high followed by two hours on low.)

Note: I always start any chicken in the crock pot on high for an hour or two (even chicken I am shredding for casseroles, etc.,). I feel it is safer than having chicken in a warm environment for too long (rather than in a “cooking state,” which it gets into more quickly on high for an hour.

Optional: If you want to precook in the oven, that is another option, making sure it reaches the internal temperature listed.
Transfer chicken to grill and use a brush to slather the BBQ sauce over both sides of the chicken.
Cook on medium heat for twenty to forty minutes, depending on your grill and how precooked your meat was (longer if you did not precook!).
Turn frequently and sauce often. Chicken is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. (I always use a meat thermometer for chicken—and I have been known to get my married kids meat thermometers every year for Christmas…you know, in case they lost last year’s!)

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): Carbs are minimal (just from the tomato paste and a tiny bit from the broth and the molasses).

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): This does not taste the least bit sugar free or low carb! My “this is sugar-free, isn’t it, Mom?” adult kids all really enjoy it! And there is something wonderful about skin-on BBQ chicken—the way the BBQ sauce sticks to the skin. The way the skin crisps up on the grill. Yeah, this is yummy stuff!

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS):  Very homemade—but very worth it! Of course, SBS may also purchase store-bought sugar-free bbq sauce and use that in place of my homemade version. Just be sure you try it ahead of time as the store bought ones vary greatly in how “sugar-free” they taste!

Homemade Hannah (HH): Go on, Hannah, you know you want to do all the steps! 🙂
Freezer Cooking (FC): This chicken can be flash frozen after it is grilled and then dropped into zip-lock bags for one or two serving use. To flash-freeze, just place the finished chicken pieces on cookie sheets (I would line with parchment…always parchment!) and slide into the freezer. Leave there uncovered until chicken is frozen solid. Then remove and place in freezer bags or containers. To use, you would just defrost in a dish (if you defrost in the bag, all of your sauce will come off on the bag as it defrosts!) in the fridge, heat in the microwave or oven, and enjoy!

Oldie Goldie Family Recipes (OG): This “pre-cooking in a BBQ-based marinade” is how I have always fixed my BBQ chicken! Love that flavor infusion!

Trim Healthy Mama (THM): As it is written, this recipe is an S with the skin on the chicken (and the combination of dark meat and white meat) and with the oil in the marinade. To make this an E, you would need to be sure you do not marinate in oil (broth and BBQ base only) and you would need to use boneless, skinless breasts. I highly recommend marinating if you are using chicken without skin and/or white meat only.

Cycle Cooking (CYC): I don’t usually do BBQ chicken in my cycle cooking as grilling takes longer than a cycle cooking day allots!

Sugar Free (SF): Sugar-free and amazingly yummy!

Gluten Free (GF):  Be sure all of your products are gluten-free, and you will be great!

Low Carb Mixes (LCM): This uses my BBQ Sauce Base mix! Love my “Low Carb Mixes and Fast Fixes”!

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I like to marinate meats in a bbq type/Tex Mex marinade when using them in fajitas, bbq, etc. (Even if I am adding bbq sauce at cooking time, I still love that flavor-infusion from marinading in this mixture!)

I usually make my bbq sauce (plenty for whatever I am bbq’ing) then take out a cup of it for the first Monterey Marinade choice below.

If you do not want to make the bbq sauce or you are not bbq’ing (in the case of wanting to marinate beef strips for fajitas or something that you are not going to need bbq sauce for), you can use Monterey Marinade #2 given below (using my BBQ Sauce Base). Both recipes give you a moist meat with a hint of Tex-Mex!

And they both marinate a lot of meat—depending on how much marinade you like to use. I have marinaded up to fifteen pounds of mixed chicken pieces with each of the recipes given below.

Monterey Marinade #1

1 cup olive oil or melted butter+

1 to 2 cups broth (depending on how much marinade you need/how much meat you are marinating)

1 cup sugar-free bbq sauce (Try mine here!)

+Or sub half wine/half broth or all wine/all broth if using chicken with skin or other fatty meat in which you do not want to add more fat.

1.    Whisk all ingredients together.

2.    Marinate chicken pieces, pork loin slices, etc. as desired.

3.    Do not use extra marinade after you remove the meat unless you cook it first. (You may desire to cook the used marinade in the microwave for several minutes in order to use it on the meat at serving time.)

I love to precook meats before grilling and marinate before precooking! Sometimes I just marinate the meat (putting in s few pieces of meat then some marinade then repeat til done) right in my crick insert then put marinade and all on to partially cook before firing up the grill!

Monterey Marinade #2

1 cup olive oil or melted butter+

2 cups broth

¼ cup BBQ Sauce Base

4 ounces tomato sauce

¼ cup bulk sugar substitute (Splenda, erythritol, or xylitol—use a granulated one that measures cup-for-cup in place of sugar)

Drop or two of molasses

2 tsp liquid smoke

1.    Whisk all ingredients together.

2.    Marinate chicken pieces, pork loin slices, etc. as desired.

3.    Do not use extra marinade after you remove the meat unless you cook it first. (You may desire to cook the used marinade in the microwave for several minutes in order to use it on the meat at serving time.)

+Or sub half wine/half broth or all wine/all broth if using chicken with skin or other fatty meat in which you do not want to add more fat.

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): Yep!

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): My family loves meats marinated in one of these mixtures!

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS:  Come on, Stella, join the low carb mixes bandwagon!  🙂

Homemade Hannah (HH): You may desire to omit the liquid smoke if you do not like using processed condiments.

Freezer Cooking (FC): Sometimes I make marinades (one of these and others) and place my prepared meat (chopped, sliced, cubed…whatever) in a labeled zipper bag and pour the marinade over the meat and freeze! Then when I need that meat, I just defrost in the sink or the fridge (chicken always in fridge) and allow the meat to marinade as it defrosts. Then I am ready to use it! (This is actually the basis for many of those “Eighty-Five Freezer Meals in One Day” type of posts in which different sauces and marinades are prepared and meats are frozen raw in the sauces. I am not a big fan of too many of those simply because I like many of my freezer meals to be more ready than that—and I like freezer entrees that are more “all in one meal” types, like lasagna (make it with my crepes here!), enchiladas, etc.)

Oldie Goldie Family Recipes (OG): I have always (at least for the twenty-four years that I have been freezer cooking and mix making!) done the type of marinade and freeze described in the FC note. I just haven’t always done it low carb! Feels so good to find ways to do some familiar favorites of days gone by in healthier ways!

Trim Healthy Mama (THM):  This can be S, E, or FP! Make it as is for an S (with the oil/butter—it does help the marinade infuse the meat more!). Make it an E or an FP without the oil or butter (with more broth or with cooking wine).

Cycle Cooking (CYC): To use this in my cycle cooking, I would probably either use it in my “shaped cycle”—pieces of beef and/or pork that I cook up all in one day for a special purpose or for meals that week or for the freezer. Or I would do chicken breast chunks for the freezer (frozen in the marinade as described). I seldom do two or three “kinds of meat” together since my cycle cooking involves all “crumbled ground beef” or “shaped meat” (meatloaves, meat balls, pieces of meat {like swiss steak, pork loin, etc.}) or “shredded chicken” or “sides” or “chicken breasts.” I find it more efficient to do all one meat type at once and make various meals out of that one type!

Sugar Free (SF): My Sugar-Free Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce is sugar free as is my BBQ Sauce Base! So either way, this marinade is sugar free!

Gluten Free (GF):  Yes! (Again, assuming that you have the condiments and ingredients this recipe calls for in gluten-free.)

Low Carb Mixes (LCM):  The BBQ Sauce Base that is the basis for this marinade is a super handy “mix” that you will probably use time and time again. (Watch for future recipes using it!)

The post Monterey Marinade appeared first on Character Ink.

Sugar-Free Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce

One of the primary uses for my BBQ Sauce Mix is definitely to make BBQ sauce! I love sweet BBQ—but I also love foods with a little zip. This sauce give me both!

Click for recipe!

I like the sweetness just as it is, but you might like a little more or a little less bulk sweetener. Also, I like the spice as is, but you might want to adjust your base (i.e. omit the chili powder) or lessen the liquid smoke if you feel it is too spicy for your family.

Generally speaking, this sauce can be slathered on fifteen to twenty pounds of chicken (as given below—totaling three cups or so). It keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks, so even if I do not need all of it at the time, I go ahead and make the three cups and store the leftovers in a canning jar in the fridge. (I can always BBQ a few breasts or a pound of shrimp for my husband and me when the kids are all gone some evening!)

Soon I will give my Monterey Marinade that I like to use to marinade things I will be BBQ’ing. That marinade uses one cup of this sauce, so I like to keep a little in the fridge for that marinade as well.

 Ingredients:

• ½ cup BBQ Sauce Mix
• ½ cup bulk sugar substitute (Splenda, erythritol, or xylitol—use a granulated one that measures cup-for-cup in place of sugar)
• 4 ounces tomato paste
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
• 2 Tablespoons liquid smoke
• 1 to 1 ½ cup broth (I use beef or pork when making bbq for those meats and chicken broth when making bbq for chicken)
• 1 to 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1.    Mix all ingredients except broth until smooth.

2.    Whisk in broth as needed to get the thickness desired. (Keep in mind that if you are not using it immediately or you are refrigerating it for future use, it will thicken. You can wait and add more broth when you reheat and whisk again if desired.)
3.    Store or use immediately.

4.    Just before using, re-whisk and heat in micro for 2 to 3 minutes.

5.    Makes just under 3 to 3 ½ cups of BBQ sauce (depending on how much broth you use and how thick you like your BBQ sauce).

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): Carbs are minimal (just from the tomato paste and a tiny bit from the broth and the molasses).

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): This does not taste the least bit sugar free or low carb! My “this is sugar-free, isn’t it, Mom?” adult kids all really enjoy it! Regular BBQ sauce is so sugar-laden. It is like eating a candy bar every time you use a few tablespoons! This is tasty without the sugar coma!

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS):  Very homemade—but very worth it!

Homemade Hannah (HH): Sweet and spicy HOMEMADE BBQ sauce…you gals will love it! Optional: If you do not want to use liquid smoke, you may omit it altogether. Some HH’s do not like to use such a processed condiment. (I love the smoky taste that it adds!)

Freezer Cooking (FC): I have made BBQ meatballs and BBQ chicken breasts ahead of time and froze them. They were still amazing!

Oldie Goldie Family Recipes (OG): Not my original BBQ sauce from years ago—but better because it isn’t like eating candy! 🙂

Trim Healthy Mama (THM): This BBQ sauce can be used in all three settings, depending on what you put it on! Put it on chicken with skin for a yummy S meal. Put it on turkey meatballs or pulled pork for an E meal. Or put it on skinless, boneless chicken breasts for a FP!

Cycle Cooking (CYC): I make my seasoning mixes all at one time to rotate them in to my cycle cooking!

Sugar Free (SF): Sugar-free and amazingly yummy!

Gluten Free (GF):  Be sure all of your products are gluten-free, and you will be great!

Low Carb Mixes (LCM): This uses my BBQ Sauce Base mix! Love my “Low Carb Mixes and Fast Fixes”!

DISCLOSURE: I am an affiliate for these products that I recommend. If you purchase these items through my links, I will earn a commission, but you will not pay more when buying a product through my link. 🙂

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Once I got on to using crepes (and/or tortillas, depending on your preference) for so many things (advice from DJ Foodie of Low Carbing Among Friends), I went crazy! There are literally dozens of things to do with crepes (savory or sweet) and/or tortillas—low carb or other!

(So if you are not a low carber but just trying to make things more healthfully for your family, read on….using healthy crepes and torts is a great way to reduce white flour and high carb/starchy use and feed your kids healthier options without their knowing it! 🙂 )

Making things with crepes or torts as the base is an amazing find for the low carber because these are either (1) easy to make (in the case of the crepes) or (2) easy to find (in the case of buying low carb tortillas). (Here are two of my faves to purchase: Mama Lupitas (they are brownish but I like them best—and I usually prefer “white”—they have a more nutty taste and make better tort chips and crackers imho and Mission (available in local stores too)—these are more acceptable to my teen sons.)

Low Carb Pizzadillas!

I will be sharing the dozens of ways I use the crepes and torts (see using crepes as noodles here)  on the blog in the future, but today I bring you a super alternative to frozen pizza for your family! (My teen and college sons will eat this readily for a party/movie night—that is a really good sign!)

You cannot pick this dish up like you can pizza or even quesadillas simply because it is too chock full of yumminess. But it is worth all the messiness and utensil-needing!

Here’s the scoop (very loosely!)

•Crepes or tortillas

•Pizza or marinara sauce

•Pizza ingredients: cheeses, veggies, meats (precooked)…whatever you like

1. Place one crepe or tort on a baking dish sprayed (and I use parchment…always parchment…no time for messy dishes!).

2. Put sauce on that crepe (according to how saucy you like your pizza).

3. Put pizza ingredients on top of sauce.

4. Top with another crepe or tort.

5. Bake at 375 for about 15 to 20 minutes convection (20 to 25 regular) until filling is gooey and crepes are golden.

6. Remove from oven and slice with pizza cutter into fourths. Serve with forks! 🙂

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): With the homemade low carb crepes, this is an extremely low carb dish. I would guess that with those, a full double-crepe pizzadilla (which would be a lot of food!) to be one-twentieth of a personal pizza carb count! They are extremely low carb and quick to make. Depending on which low carb tortilla you use, the carb count on the torts alone (two per huge double tort pizzadilla!) would still only be between six and twelve net carbs. Technically, depending on how full you fill the crepes/torts, a full pizzadilla (with two crepes/torts) is probably two servings anyway….very filling. So yes, very low carb!

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): This is one of my MOST family-friendly low carb recipes—especially with store bought, slightly higher carb torts (Mission). It is still going to be probably one tenth of a personal pan pizza carb-wise, so the carbs are still low even with the store bought, white torts. But the real kicker here is how “un-low-carb” this dish tastes. (Yes, that is a word when you are trying to feed teen and college boys!) Nutshell: low carb and kids love these!

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): You Stellas are in business here….you can quite literally buy everything in this dish and simply spend ten minutes assembling a bunch of them! Low carb tortillas; pre-cooked crumbled or link sausage; pepperoni;  pre-chopped onions, peppers, and mushrooms; shredded cheeses; jarred pizza sauce. Go make this!

Homemade Hannah (HH): For you Homemade Hannah’s out there, try the homemade low carb crepe recipe! It is a homemade treat that gives homemade cooks a lot of homemade options! (Emphasis on the “homemade” there!)

 Freezer Cooking (FC): I definitely use my freezer cooking skills to do prep work for this. In other words, I always have these things for this dish in my freezer: crepes (just make and stack in a plastic bowl with parchment between…always parchment…) and freeze; pre-cooked hamburger or ground turkey; pre-made sausage patties or links that I cut up for dishes like this one; and more. Other variations of this use other freezer items I have on hand: taco meat for tacodillas (!); shredded chicken and pre-cooked chicken chunks for Alfredo-dillas (okay, getting a little carried away here!); etc. Somehow I always dovetail all new recipes with my long-term-love-affair with freezer cooking!

 Oldie Goldie Family Recipes (OG): While this is not an Oldie Goldie recipe, it is a whole lot easier than my OG homemade pizzas!

 Trim Healthy Mama (THM): This is a definite S entrée for THM’s. And depending on which base you use and what your fillings are, you could probably even make it an E—with low fat meats, low fat cheeses, and the right fat count base. I could see making this an easy E with shredded chicken, veggies, and Laughing Cow cheese.

 Cycle Cooking (CYC):  Just like my Freezer Cooking, this is not in a “cycle,” so to speak, but I do the various meats and even the torts in my cycles. Ground beef and taco meat are in my crumbled beef cycle. Shredded chicken in my Shredded Chicken Cycle; chicken chunks in my Chicken Breast Cycle; and the crepes in my Basic Flour Mix Cycle. Cycle cooking, along with Freezer Cooking, makes everything faster!

 Sugar Free (SF): No sugar in the crepes or torts to speak of. Definitely choose a low sugar pizza sauce or marinara (i.e. not the luscious, sugar-laden Prego!). My experience has been that lower sugar sauces are often found in glass jars (i.e. often more expensive, lesser known brands) and generic brands. Check them out!

 Gluten Free (GF):  The gluten-free option for this recipe is to make the crepes using the Basic Flour Mix Gluten-Free option. Very doable!

 Low Carb Mixes (LCM):  The crepes are made using the Basic Low Carb Flour Mix. Love my Low Carb Mixes!

DISCLOSURE: I am an affiliate for these products that I recommend. If you purchase these items through my links, I will earn a commission, but you will not pay more when buying a product through my link. 🙂

The post Low Carb Pizzadillas appeared first on Character Ink.

When I first began low carb baking seriously over one year ago, I had way more failures than I did successes. No one flour seemed to make anything edible—especially for my sons and husband. Almond flour was too heavy. I didn’t understand how much liquid/how many eggs to use with coconut flour—plus the texture was just off when I followed recipes using solely coconut flour. Don’t even get me started on the recipes I tried using straight flax or oat fiber.

Then I started reading about low carbers who were having success at combining non-grain flours. All Day I Dream About Food used two thirds to three fourths almond flour and the remainder of coconut flour quite often in her recipes. Other low carbers had various combinations—and some were even in mix form (that you mix up and use cup-for-cup in place of regular flour). This appealed to me because I have been a “make a mix” cook for many years (starting twenty-four years ago this summer with the book Make a Mix Cookery).
Thus, I began a quest to combine low carb flours into a baking mix that my family would eat—and that didn’t taste so “off.” (I also began making various low carb mixes—cake mix, brownie mix, “Bisquick,” and so on—so stay tuned as I unveil those throughout the summer.)

Breading Mix, Pecan Crust Mix, and BBQ Sauce Base

I have probably tried over twenty different variations in the past sixteen months or so. I had tried putting in some “gluten free” flours (that bake more like white wheat flour) and oat flour—both in an effort to dilute the low carb-not-real-flours. The results were better tasting, but the carb count was a little high.
I have come to the conclusion that I need a basic flour combination that I can live with—and then mix it with oat flour, sprouted wheat flour, and/or gluten free blends to get a more normal taste when I am baking for my kids. (See my info on using less low carb flour in general for better tasting results in the post “Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Low Carb Baking and Treat Making.”) This solved the “two mixes—one very low carb and one more ‘family-friendly low carb’” problem and helped me get this mix to be tastier for those who are not used to low carb flours. That has been working for me for about six months now, so I am going to stick with that. (See more info about various uses and ideas in the Recipe Labels and Variations section beneath recipe.)

I know that I will get asked if you can sub this or that—and you can. The combination is up to you and is dependent upon your budget, the availability of products, your family’s taste, and even your carb “budget.” I have put the approximate carb count of the products that I use in this mixture in parentheses. I will say, though, that if you can bite the bullet and buy the products and make it one time, you will have the products for refills of the mix over and over since it uses small amounts of various things and since it is a bulk mix (makes a lot). (Then I recommend buying the products one at a time each month or however often you order or go to stores carrying the products, so that it will not feel overwhelming to continue making the mix cost-wise.)

Yummy strawberry crepes made with the Basic Flour Mix

For substitution purposes, here are some general guidelines:

(1)     Obviously, any substitutions will potentially alter the final outcome of a recipe and the taste (at least from what my recipe tester and I got when we made it just as is). Keep that in mind when using substitutions.

(2)     If you want to keep the mix super low carb (as it is written), be sure to substitute products with the same or similar carb count. (For example, oat fiber has a zero carb net count so if you substitute oat flour {at approximately eighty carbs per cup} for oat fiber, the carbohydrate total will be MUCH higher than a version with oat fiber.)

(3)     You can also double some of the flours that have the same count and omit one. This would make fewer number of total products to buy, but you are going to miss a little bit of the dilution factor if you do not care for the taste of any one single flour.

(4)     If you are making substitutions, I would be careful that the coconut flour is not more than twenty-five percent of the total mix since it requires much more moisture (especially eggs) in order to bake with it straight up. Your baked goods might be too dry with too much coconut flour.

(5)     I gave a few suggestions in the recipe to help you with substitutions. If you are trying to just buy a couple of things to start with, you could do a combination of ½ almond flour, ¼ coconut flour, and ¼ oat fiber and then grow from there as your budget allows.

So….here is the final version (!). I will link recipes to this Low Carb Mix as I put them up. I have a lot of recipes that I have used with this mix over the past year and many more in my “to test” file. So stay tuned!

Note: Given carb counts are from the products that I used and are all net carbs—total carbs minus fiber.

Basic Low Carb Flour Mix

•3 cups almond flour (12 net carbs per cup–TOTAL  36)

•3/4 cup coconut flour (24 net carbs per cup–TOTAL 18)

•1/2 cup golden flax (OR more oat fiber—be sure you like oat fiber; it is kind of strong) (0 net carbs per cup–TOTAL 0)

•1/2 cup vital wheat gluten (OR if you do not want gluten in your mix, you could use more coconut flour, a half cup of oat flour or quinoa flour, or more almond; I love putting gluten in my low carb baked goods) (24 net carbs per cup–TOTAL 12)

•¾ cup oat fiber (OR more golden flax) (0 net carbs per cup–TOTAL 0)

•½ cup plain whey protein powder (OR may be omitted or just increase almond flour) (16 net carbs per cup–TOTAL 8)

•3 TBSP Glucomman (OR may use xatham gum) (0 net carbs per cup–TOTAL 0)

Note: Carb counts vary among products. For example, some gluten free flours have 110 carbs per cup, while Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Flour has eighty! Be sure to check carb counts on various products!

Makes approximately six total cups. Each cup has approximately 12 NET carbs in it.

While this Basic Flour Mix can be used in place of almond flour alone or in place of any flours in a recipe (can be used to replace almond flour, coconut flour, and whey protein, for example, in a recipe that has all three of those items), here are a couple of my recipes to get you started using this mix:

1. Low Carb Crepes

2. Chicken Noodle Soup

3. BEST Low Carb Biscuits

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): This is about as low carb of a mixture that you will get in low carb baking (except for straight up flax or oat fiber). You could get approximately the same carb count with almond flour alone, but I don’t like feeding us huge handfuls of nuts over and over again every time we eat any baked good. (I know the low carb high fat people say it doesn’t matter, but it feels like it matters!)

 Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): Again, to make this more Family-Friendly Low Carb—or to just create a healthier baking mix for your family that is not reliant on processed or over-consumed white flour and other grains, you can do a couple of things: (1) Make this as it is listed and use it half and half with oat flour, quinoa flour, sprouted wheat, or other higher-carb flours that bake up more like regular grains; (2) Make this almost as it is given but use a higher carb flour for any of the really low ones. For example, if you use Bob’s Red Mill Oat Flour or sprouted white wheat flour for some of the flours, you can still end up with a forty-carb-per-cup mix that is healthy as opposed to a one-hundred-carb-per-cup grain (white or wheat flour) that is less healthy. Family-Friendly Low Carbing is a very healthy approach to baking!

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): While this is not an SBS model, it is that mindset—get something you can use easily and quickly later so that you don’t have to spend so much time mixing flours, getting out various products all at once, etc. Make the mix once (or double it!), and you have a “homemade convenience food.” 🙂

Homemade Hannah (HH): This is very homemade! You can make this completely whole-foods as written above. Coming from a HH background myself (out of necessity of cooking for a family of nine on one income), I adore mixes and always have. If you are a HH who has never used mixes, keep following Character Ink’s blog. You will love what is upcoming!

Freezer Cooking (FC): This isn’t in my monthly freezer entrees since it really isn’t an entrée; however, you can make up a double batch and store one in your pantry for everyday use and put one batch in the freezer for later.

Oldie Goldie Family Recipes (OG): Mixes are definitely Oldie Goldie for me as I began cooking and baking with them twenty-five years ago before the birth of our fourth child. They have been a huge part of my kitchen ever since I can remember.

Trim Healthy Mama (THM): This is an S baking mix as it is written due to the heavy almond flour amount. However, it could easily be made into a Fuel Pull or an E mix by reducing the amount of almond flour. For the FP, you would reduce the amount of almond flour and replace it with oat fiber. For the E mix, you would reduce the amount of almond flour and replace it with oat flour or sprouted wheat flour. Easy peasy! Also, like the suggestions above for the Family-Friendly Low Carbers, you could make it as it is listed and then use half and half—half Basic Low Carb Flour Mix and half oat fiber for FP OR half Basic Low Carb Flour Mix and half oat flour or sprouted wheat for E mix. (I do not do much FP or E baking, but I would do the latter–make the Basic Flour MIx and use it half and half with oat fiber (FP) or half and half with oat flour (E) rather than making up multiple mixes.)

Sugar Free (SF): Sugar-free!

Cycle Cooking (CYC): While this isn’t in my “Crumbled Ground Beef Cycle” or “Shredded Chicken Cycle” or “Chicken Breast and Tenders Cycle,” I do rotate a cycle of mix cooking—a day in which I make a lot of mixes/refill my mixes. I love Cycle Cooking!

Gluten Free (GF): This can definitely be gluten-free if you do not add the gluten and you are sure your oat fiber is completely gluten free. Again, just like the Family-Friendly Low Carb and the THM E mix options given above, if you are not after low carb but simply after healthier and gluten-free baking options, you may omit the lower carb flours (oat fiber, golden flax, etc.) and use part oat flour or part gluten-free flour. (Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour is the lowest carb gluten-free flour I have found—by many carbs in some cases!) Also, you can do the option of making it as is and using half Basic Low Carb Flour Mix and half gluten-free flour for a healthier alternative to just gluten-free flour (which is often made with corn starch, rice flour, and other “white” flours).

Low Carb Mixes (LCM): Yay for Low Carb Mixes!

DISCLOSURE: I am an affiliate for these products that I recommend. If you purchase these items through my links, I will earn a commission, but you will not pay more when buying a product through my link. 🙂

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In my convection oven with three racks, three pounds of bacon can be fully cooked drained and ready to eat in under thirty minutes.

After thirty years of homemaking (a few years ago), I finally hit upon the best, easiest, cleanest, least-time-consuming (in actual work time) way to make bacon: bake it!

According to experts (!), baking bacon is best way to prepare it because the bacon turns out golden brown and crispy; you don’t have as much mess (including the splatter mess from frying or microwaving); the oven cooks it slowly and at a lower temp (to start with), which keeps it from scorching; and, as I mentioned previously, it is easy! (Plus you have amazing, unburned bacon grease to cook with afterward! See Homemade Hannah note below!)

Because that is not quite fully cooked it can be frozen and then reheated a few slices at a time in the microwave oven. It makes it as good as new!

Before you start, go turn off your oven if you have already turned it on—or just don’t turn it on at all—to start with. You will start cooking your bacon in a cold oven.

When I prepare bacon in the oven, I do it in increments of three packages (three, six, or nine), depending on what other meats I bought that week (i.e. budget) and upon whether I am baking any up for the freezer at that time or not. (See freezing info below!) I have a convection oven with three racks—so I do many things in sets of three (love it!).

Here are the steps (for one, two, or three jelly roll pans!):

1.    Line a jelly roll pan (huge cookie sheets with deep sides) with foil or parchment. I use parchment for nearly everything, but for this I prefer foil because I can tear it off much bigger than my pan and form it down into the pan with some edges of foil left over to lift up when I am finished. (It makes the pan less messy.)

2.    Arrange the slices of bacon on the foil and place the baking sheet on the center rack of a cold oven (or on all three racks in my case; or two middle racks if you are doing two pans at one time). Hopefully your pan is large enough that you do not have to squeeze the bacon together too closely; likewise, do not spread it out too much. Just lay the pieces side by side carefully without squishing or stretching.

The golden bacon grease after baking three pounds of bacon.

3.    Close the oven door. Turn the oven on to 400°F. Set your timer for 17 to 20 minutes (depending on whether you have one pan cooking or more). (With my convection and three pans, I set it for fifteen minutes.)

4.    Come back 17 to 20 minutes later. If your bacon is done, remove it. If it is not and you have more than one pan, change places with the pans and set your timer for three more minutes. Check in two or three minute intervals.

5.    Remove the pan from the oven. Remove the bacon from the pan and place on paper towels to drain.

Love my stoneware bacon grease keeper! I just keep mine in the pantry since it has a mesh insert that strains out the bacon particles. So, so I am only storing pure grease. Some people still keep their strained bacon grease in the refrigerator. Either way is fine.

6.    Carefully tilt your baking pans to pour the grease into a glass or stoneware container. (Be extra careful!) . (See Homemade Hannah note below about keeping the bacon grease in a glass jar, stoneware container, or bacon grease keeper like this one.)

The stoneware bacon grease keeper that I have has a metal insert that fits into the top and allows you to strain your bacon grease right into the stoneware container. Then I just empty particles from the can strainer part, rinse the strainer, and replace it so that it is stored right in my stoneware crock. Then the stoneware lid fits over all of it.

7.    Once foil is cool enough, lift it up from the corners and discard it. Your pan shouldn’t be very messy! And your bacon should be perfect! 🙂

8.    To freeze bacon, place a dozen or more pieces on a double sheet thickness and wideness of paper towel. Fold it over and slide down into one quart zipper bag. To use; just defrost in fridge or micro (not in bag in micro). Yum!

Note: You can undercook your bacon by a couple of minutes and freeze in the manner suggested above. Then take it out and finish cooking a few slices at a time in the microwave. We like to undercook ours just a bit for reheating purposes. When we reheat a few pieces in the micro, it is like freshly-fried bacon. Perfect!

Recipe Labels and Variations

read more at the above link

Low Carb (LC): Most bacon is carb-free and delicious! Need I say more? Okay, I will. Bacon is great on a low carb eating plan besides the normal Not-So-Oopsie Roll sandwich or bacon and eggs. Bacon simply belongs in green beans. There are some terrific recipes out there for chicken-bacon chowder soup that are fairly low carb. We keep bacon in the fridge all the time for salad toppings. AND I love to coat homemade cheeseballs with crumbled bacon.

 Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): There are so many ways to incorporate bacon in a family-friendly low carb household! You can use low carb bread, pitas, or tortilla shells to wrap it in. Of course, the old stand-by, BLT can be made FFLC with one of those low carb “bread” options. Turkey-bacon club sandwiches are great for FFLC. Bacon and eggs. Bacon-egg-and-cheese biscuit on a low carb bread, biscuit, or wrap.  (Not-So-Oopsie Roll recipe COMING SOON…the BEST low carb breakfast sandwich!)

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): It doesn’t get much easier or faster than baking bacon! All of the mess and “so much work for so little end product” are gone with this approach. SBS’s should love baking bacon! To make the bacon go further and use some store-bought ingredients to make meal prep easier, consider the turkey-bacon club sandwich—store bought cold cuts, lettuce, bacon….you get the idea!

Homemade Hannah (HH): This should be right up the alley for HH who likes to cook from scratch—because it is time saving and homemade! HH’s—do not overlook the lovely, golden grease that you get when baking your bacon. Save it! Use it for everything—cooking eggs, stir frying veggies, drizzled over broccoli and other veggies before roasting. You get the idea. It is an amazing fat to cook with!

Freezer Cooking (FC): I have been freezing bacon for twenty-five years—even before I started baking bacon (though I admit that I dreaded “bacon cooking day” during those years!). I like to wrap the drained, cooled bacon loosely in thick paper toweling. It absorbs more of the grease before it freezes. I don’t recommend thawing in the bag in the microwave or cooking in the bag in the microwave. Tip: I try to be sure that all of my freezer cooking bags and pans have two important things written on them (besides any directions that the user might need). These include the DATE and the words RAW or FULLY COOKED or PARTIALLY COOKED. Not everybody will need to do this, but because our children alternated cooking nights for many years, I just felt more comfortable letting them all know the state that the meal was in (especially since we would freeze meatballs fully cooked sometimes and at other times raw, as well as many other meats). I do the same with my bacon bags.

Trim Healthy Mama (THM): This can definitely work in an S setting very well. You can use any of the ideas above in the low carb and the family-friendly low carb sections for THM S bacon ideas!

Sugar Free (SF): Be sure the bacon you use is not molasses or maple syrup infused!

Low Carb Mixes (LCM): While bacon is not specifically one of my “mixes,” I do consider it a staple just like one of my mixes and have it in a rotation of freezer items. (When you start filling your freezer with pre-made foods, you ALWAYS have meals to choose from. It’s a great feeling that you will love!)

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Low Carb Cole Slaw—just in time for grilling season. We had this last night with grilled pork chops and strawberries and dip. My hubby loved it!
Cabbage is one of those foods that I never dreamed I would be buying almost weekly! I use it chopped and sprinkled in layers that would potentially have had pasta. I use it for Egg Roll Skillet (recipe coming soon), also known as egg roll in a bowl in many circles, and I use it without the meat at all in stir fried cabbage (sort of Egg Roll Skillet with no sausage). Gone are the days of smelly boiled cabbage that nobody would eat. Cabbage is now cool!

And so today, I bring you Low Carb Cole Slaw. This recipe actually began as a sugar-laden, high-carb KFC Cole Slaw knock off. I can’t attest to its tasting like KFC cole slaw now because we haven’t had much KFC, but I do know that my guys liked it a lot—and with the All Purpose Seasoning Mix, it is super easy!

There are options to not make it as low carb (but why not, right?). Oh, this is not a creamy slaw (though I guess it could be with more mayo or liquid). It is more of a crispy, barely-coated slaw, which my family likes better. (It is also good to put on sausage tacos, also made low carb—sort of like the Won Ton Tacos that they make at Applebees, which my guys crave!)

Low Carb Cole Slaw

½ cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup creamy, milk-like liquid (see Note below)
1 ½ TBSP apple cider vinegar
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/3 cup bulk sugar-free sweetener (Swerve, erythritol, xylitol, a blend, or Splenda)
1/2  to 3/4 tsp All Purpose Seasoning Mix (may just use salt & pepper here, but this is so much more flavorful!)
½ tsp celery seed
16 ounce bag shredded cole slaw mix

Note: The original recipe called for buttermilk. I would say that you can use any “milk” that your family is used to. I used half and half. (See Labels for Recipes below for more info.)

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): This is a very low carb recipe if made with the no-carb bulk sweeteners suggested and by using your normal low carb “milk” subs. I used half and half. Very low carb folks might want to use cream. Others might want to use almond milk or other non-dairy milk substitute in order to keep the carbs low.

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): With half and half, regular mayo, and sugar-free bulk sweetener (I used Splenda), my family loved this. If you don’t mind adding a few carbs, you could use whole milk and low fat mayo. This version would probably not be low enough for an under-forty grams low carb diet, depending on how much you eat, but would definitely work for FFLC.

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): If you want to save money, you could use Splenda rather than one of the other more expensive bulk sweeteners suggested. I’m all about simplicity where possible (while still cooking and baking low carb and homemade), so I used the bagged slaw mix—a great SBS tip in general for veggies if your budget allows them.

Homemade Hannah (HH): Of course, this could be made more homemade if you do your own mayo and buy cabbage and carrots whole and shred them.
Freezer Cooking (FC): Don’t freeze this—or fresh salads in general (except for some fruit salads).

Trim Healthy Mama (THM): This can definitely work in an S setting very well with grilled meats and more! I would think you would be a little challenged to get it low enough in fat to use in an E setting—maybe use fat free mayo (is that allowed?) and almond milk or skim milk (?). Just some thoughts.

Sugar Free (SF): Sugar-free and healthy sweetener options! See ideas for sugar-free sweeteners here!

Gluten Free (GF): No reason to add gluten to this. Use my All Purpose Seasoning Mix, and you’ll be covered!

Low Carb Mixes (LCM): This recipe uses my All Purpose Seasoning Mix, a combination of amazing spices that is a great seasoning for meats, veggies, fish, salads, and more!

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I have been trying to develop a seasoning mix that can be used in meats, fish, vegetables, and salad. I think I am finally there!
If you are low carbing, you will want to be careful of seasoning mixes and packets. Many have thickening agents (i.e. arrowroot or cornstarch); others have anti-clumping properties, which can add carbohydrates to the total. Of course, many of us home cooks have been doing many homemade things for years and years—including sauces, seasoning mixes, and more—in an effort to either save money or be able to put into our foods exactly what we want (and know what that is!).

Regardless of your reason for using homemade mixes and seasonings, I think you will like this All-Purpose Seasoning Mix. I have been sprinkling it on frying meats, stir it into crock pot concoctions, and adding it to soups and salads.  I love to sprinkle it over the olive oil and beef broth mixture that I just sprinkled over vegetables for roasting! (The small amount of moisture from the olive oil/broth combination helps the seasoning to stick to even slick vegetables like zucchini better!)
I just tweaked a cole slaw recipe using this seasoning—even though it contains seasonings that we do not traditionally think of with cole slaw, my guys loved it! (Update:  click here for cole slaw recipe!)
Let me know what you think—or if you tweak it, please share your tweaks with me and why you like it better. I’m always into learning!

All Purpose Seasoning Mix

3 tsp. salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 ½ tsp paprika
1 tsp pepper (black or white; I like black because with the paprika, this seasoning mix is pretty!)
¾ tsp oregano
½ tsp ground bay leaves
½ tsp basil
Optional: 1 tsp red pepper powder or 1 tsp chili powder!

1.    Combine all thoroughly.
2.    Store in airtight container.
3.    Use liberally!
4.    If you don’t want the pepper powder or chili powder in it all the time, you can omit it (like I did), and when a dish seems like it would benefit from it, just add a pinch of it with each teaspoon of All Purpose Seasoning Mix!

Note: To use this mix in recipes that call for other seasonings, if you are one to experiment (!), just add the total number of teaspoons of the seasonings your recipe calls for that are similar to the ones listed here and use that amount of All Purpose Seasoning Mix (while still adding in other seasonings that your recipe might call for, such as celery seed, ground mustard, etc.).

Recipe Labels and Variations

Low Carb (LC): This is a very low carb recipe with no added carbs.
Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): Great in many of my FFLC recipes!
Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): While there are many seasoning combinations out there for SBS’s, be sure that if you are concerned about carbs (and you don’t’ choose to make this one!) that  you read the labels carefully.
Homemade Hannah (HH): This is very homemade! You can make this completely whole-foods as written above—or make it even more homemade by using your own dried herbs.
Trim Healthy Mama (THM): These could be used in an S setting or an E setting—no real carbs and no fat! Use it on all of that protein in both meal types!
Sugar Free (SF): Sugar-free and healthy option!
Gluten Free (GF): No fillers so no concern about hidden gluten.
Low Carb Mixes (LCM): This is one of over two dozen of my low carb mixes that I will be bringing to the blog this summer (after fifteen months of testing them!). While the mixes say low carb, they have family-friendly options, gluten-free options, and just “regular” options. Mixes fit all cooking styles—I’ve been using mixes for twenty-five years this month!

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