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. 🙂

Save

The post Basic Low Carb Flour Mix appeared first on Character Ink.

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!

The post Low Carb Cole Slaw appeared first on Character Ink.

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!

Save

Save

The post All Purpose Seasoning Mix appeared first on Character Ink.

Low Carb (LC): Many of my recipes (especially the newer ones that I have been creating over the past year and that I am putting up as of Spring 2015) are low carb or else have low carb options. Generally speaking, when a recipe has the LC label, it means that a serving (or more!) of that recipe would fit well into a low carb eating plan, such as one that is fifty net carbs per day or fewer. Many of the LC recipes are very, very low carb, meaning that they would be appropriate for a twenty net carbs or fewer diet.
 

Family-Friendly Low Carb (FFLC): Because I have been trying to tweak recipes to appeal to my teenage and college age sons, as well as my husband, some of my recipes have the FFLC label. This means that I am giving an option to up the carbs a little bit (for example, to use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour or Bob’s Red Mill Quinoa Flour or Oat Flour for part of the “flour” {rather than all almond flour, coconut flour, wheat fiber, etc.}) or to add oats to a baked good. Additions or changes to a recipe to make it FFLC often make the product more welcomed by family members who are not used to completely grain-free foods—but still make each serving seventy-five percent—plus less carby than traditional recipes of that same dish (due to partial use of low carb flours, low carb liquids, and sugar free/zero net carb sweeteners).

Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): Some people would never dream of using canned soups or Splenda or sugar-free jello mixes in their kitchens. Others are okay using some non-homemade or “less healthy” products in their cooking and baking. If something could be made easier by purchasing something pre-made, the SBS label will be used, indicating that there is a way or ways to make the recipe given easier with store-bought helps.

Homemade Hannah (HH): There are many healthy cooks who desire to make as many things from scratch as possible—and definitely would not use a store-bought cake mix or sugar-free pudding, etc. When a recipe could be made more “homemade” by doing it yourself or has healthier options, the HH label will be given, along with suggestions on how to keep that particular recipe as homemade as possible.

Oldie Goldies (OG): The Reish family is a family of thirty-plus years of home cooking! Raising seven children on one income for twenty-five years caused me to learn how to cook—and how to cook large amounts in easier ways (whenever possible). Because of all of those years in the kitchen, I have more recipes, menus, and tricks than one can imagine. When a recipe is an old family favorite (or a new family favorite that I think other families would enjoy), the OG label will be given, along with a note or two about how we used that recipe, what we liked to have with it, etc.

Freezer Cooking (FC): I began “mega” cooking via freezer cooking, mix making, cooking sessions to prep fruits and veggies, and more in 1990 while preparing for the birth of our fourth child (who, coincidentally, was “Colic Kara”—and boy was I happy to have so many things made ahead of time!). It is not uncommon for me to have fifty to one hundred freezer entrees, starters, and more in my freezers at any given time. And I love to help Moms learn how to freezer cook since it has been a huge blessing to my family for the past twenty-four years—and has been an amazing way for us to bless and help others through the years too. The FC label will show up when I give an option to “mega” cook something and put a few entrees in the freezer.

Cycle Cooking (CYC): Once my freezer cooking (described above) was well underway, I developed even more shortcuts and helps to get meals in the freezer. My most time-saving method was using what I called “cooking cycles.” In this approach, I would cook up a certain type of meat and make all of my entrees during that cooking session out of that type of meat. This turned out to be such a great help that I still do this type of cooking nearly every week to this day! When you see the abbreviation CYC (along with a link to that particular type of meat prep—crumbled ground meat, shredded chicken, etc.), you will find ideas on how to “cycle” cook that recipe.

Trim Healthy Mama (THM): You would be hard-pressed to be on FaceBook and not find a friend who is eating the Trim Healthy Mama way. This method of eating/weight loss program is a low-grain, no-sugar approach in which the “dieter” eats protein with each meal but then chooses to either have fat OR carbohydrates with that protein (but not both at the same time). Many (if not all) of my low-carb and family-friendly low carb recipes are perfect for the THM eating style. I do not have a lot of E recipes on here because of my carb intolerance/pre-diabetes, but I will indicate if one would fall under an E meal.

Sugar Free (SF): Recipes on this blog will indicate if they are NOT sugar free (such as Oldie-Goldie Chocolate Chip cookies, graduation recipes, etc.). To learn about healthy, low-carb/no net carb sugar substitutes, check out my post “Low Carb Baking & Treats: What I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me.”

Gluten Free (GF): Most low carb baked good recipes on this blog are also gluten-free since they utilize almond flour, coconut flour, oat fiber, golden flax, protein powder, etc. The lowest carb gluten-free flour that I have found is Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour. This flour has under eighty carbohydrates per cup while many others have well over a hundred carbs per cup.

Low Carb Mixes (LCM): I have been working on making over a dozen mixes low carb—trying to re-create my Make a Mix Cookery days but with low carb, sugar-free ingredients. Finally (as of May 2015!), after a year-plus of testing and re-testing my mixes, I am ready to start sharing those! When you see the LCM label, there will be a link to the “master mix” that is used in that recipe. If the thought of making and using mixes is overwhelming to you, just try one of them! Make some things from that one mix, and you will discover the ease of cooking with 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 Recipe Labels and Variations appeared first on Character Ink.

For people who are trying to cut their carbohydrate intake, switch to a low-carb lifestyle, or follow the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) diet (or other lower carb/no sugar diets), cutting out sugar and either completely cutting most grains or greatly reducing them (and eating healthful ones such as brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, and oat flour) are mandatory first steps.

However, when a person sets out on one of these healthful ways of eating (woe for short), she is often overwhelmed by the options/cooking methods, craving the sweets and carbs that she used to enjoy, and disappointed in many attempts to buy and use lower carb alternatives to flour and sugar (almond flour, coconut flour, stevia, erythritol, and more).

After working on reducing the carbohydrate in our family , dabbling in the THM diet, and trying to lessen my pre-diabetes symptoms, I have found some things that work really well—and some things that I wish someone had told me before I spent the time and money trying so many recipes.

I’ve put together a page here on the blog called “Low Carb Fam” of all of the things I wish someone had told me when I first started on this journey!  Click over to find out out to:

  1. Find the best bulk sugar-free sweeteners

  2. Make low-carb croutons

  3. Make yummy low-carb treats and desserts

  4. Combinations of flours to use in your baking

   5. and more!

 Donna

The post Low Carb Baking & Treats: Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me appeared first on Character Ink.

When the married or college kids come home for a weekend or holiday break, I always like to make things that they like, or things that are special to them. I have been scouring the internet for a couple of years to find a recipe that is similar to the Arroz Con Pollo that our newly-wed son always orders at our family’s favorite Mexican restaurant. I was unable to find anything like it. (The ones I found were large chunks of meat more in a red sauce as opposed to a shredded chicken dish in a white sauce.)

So….I combined a couple of other recipes that looked similar and came up with one that worked—and that all of the kids really liked. (And my Arroz Con Pollo son thought was a good knock off!)

So, here you go! Enjoy the ease of cooking with shredded chicken! You might even like to do what I always do—cook up an entire crock pot of breasts and thighs, shred, bag, and freeze them to pull out for easy soups, stews, Mexican dishes, Italian dishes, classic casseroles, and more! (Coming soon!) 🙂

Tip: Cook ten or twenty pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs in the crock pot. Then shred, bag, and freeze for quick entrée assembly!

Oh…and a few tips for freezer cooks and low carb cooks:

(1) This can be doubled, tripled, etc., and frozen in quart sized bags after it is all assembled. To use then, you would just thaw and heat in micro, stove top, or crock pot.

(2) This can work well as an enchilada type of filling without the rice. This makes it a really yummy low carb treat in low carb tortilla shells or Joseph’s pitas. (It would be just a few carbs per serving for the meat without the rice and an S meal for those following THM.)

(3) Another option is to cook chicken, shred it, and freeze it in bags with a little broth (as described in the shredded chicken introduction post). Then you can pull it out to make this quickly.

(4) Another good idea for low carbers and freezer cooks alike is to chop up onions and peppers and bag in quart sized bags to freeze. I love having these in my freezer to pull out, stir fry, and use in recipes all the time!

• 4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 1 ½ lbs uncooked Minute rice (or precooked long grain rice)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 TBSP olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 can Rotel with green chiles
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp paprika
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp oregano
• ½ to 1 tsp cumin
• ½ to 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken broth (for cooking rice only)
• 1cups heavy cream or half and half
• 4 to 6 clove minced garlic
• 8 oz grated Monterey cheese
• 1 bar cream cheese

1. Heat oil in electric skillet.

2. Once the oil is nice and hot, add in 3 cloves of freshly minced garlic, onion, and pepper. Let it sizzle for a few minutes until the onion is translucent and you have a beautiful aroma coming from the pot.

3. Meanwhile, cook rice in chicken broth by favorite method. (I use brown Minute Rice and cook in micro for several minutes.)

5. Add all seasonings to the pan.

6. Melt cream cheese in microwave and whisk until it is loose and can be poured.

7. When rice is done, drain broth if any is left (but keep if dish is too dry at end).

8. Stir everything else (chicken, rice, cream cheese, cream, cheese, rotel, etc.) into the stir-fried onion mixture.

9. Heat through and serve with soft tortilla shells, salsa, sour cream, corn chips, olives, etc., as desired.

Note: This is also really good enchilada filling for chicken enchiladas. Just omit the rice (and broth) and decrease the cream cheese and half and half or whipping cream to desired thickness. Build four to six enchiladas, place in casserole dish, top with a little shredded cheese, and bake.

The post “Arroz Con Pollo”—A Shredded Chicken Recipe appeared first on Character Ink.

I have been working on recipes for my newlyweds–Jonathan and Maelynn (son and daughter-in-law married in August 2014) and Will and Kara (daughter and son-in-law married in January 2015). I like to categorize my recipes just like I have done with all of my mega-cooking/freezer cooking recipes for the past twenty-five years…according to type of meat/main ingredients. For freezer cooking, this is ideal because I can cook up twenty, thirty, or forty pounds of that type of meat and put a lot of entrees together quickly.

So….I thought I would share on the blog some ideas and recipes that I have been putting together for my kids. So….here is the general information for Shredded Chicken. Watch for recipes soon!

(1) You can cook boneless, skinless chicken thighs and/or breasts in a variety of ways. My personal favorite is putting breasts and thighs in the crock pot overnight (an hour on high then the rest of the night on low) then when I get up in the morning, I take two forks and stir/shred all the chicken. I often put some of the chicken back in the crock pot and make one of the entrees below. (You can also put the chicken in before work/school then do the shredding and use part of the chicken that evening.) The rest of the chicken I put in zip lock quart bags and label. I like to put a half a cup to one cup of broth in the zip-lock bags to keep the chicken moist. (If you don’t need the broth when you make your meal with the meat later, you can drain it and pitch it.) Oh, I put a half a cup to one cup of broth in with the raw chicken when I cook it in the crock pot.

Use shredded chicken for chicken noodle soup!

(2) You can boil your chicken to use in shredded recipes, but I never do this as I’m always afraid it will boil the taste out of them. Others do though. You can also prepare your chicken three other ways: “poach” it in the oven with lots of broth covering it–be sure you check it with a meat
thermometer if you do this as you don’t want to overcook it; microwave it–kind of poaching it like in the oven–again, don’t overcook and in this case, be sure the chicken is completely covered with broth and plastic wrap so it doesn’t have tough edges.

Important Note: If you do not shred your chicken while it is warm (after it gets cold or after it is refrigerated), it is ten or twenty times or harder to shred– and will take a lot longer (and will probably need cubed, not shredded). It is a five min job if you do it while chicken is warm.

(3) Shredded chicken is good in tons of ways–I will list some below. It used to be a staple for me when the olders were little–in chicken tetrazzini, chicken lasagna, hot chicken sandwiches, chicken rice casserole, soups, etc. It is an inexpensive way to make a meal because it
is not very expensive to start with AND it is often used as part of a dish rather than the main entrée.

(4) A lot of recipes call for chicken or mushroom soup–it is better if you can make your own, but I would start out just buying it and using it as is. It helps make a lot of meals really fast. A lot also call for chicken broth. I use chicken base to make my broth, but you can buy cans of broth and then make it richer by adding some chicken base or granulated chicken bouillon.

Watch the blog for upcoming shredded chicken recipes, including chicken noodle soup, chicken strata, arroz con pollo, hot chicken sandwich filling, BBQ shredded chicken, chicken tacos, and more!

Save

The post Shredded Chicken–Cooking With Chicken Breasts and Thighs appeared first on Character Ink.

My pasta, lasagna, wrap problems have been solved! DJ Foodie from Low Carb and Loving It recommended using crepes for lasagna and wrap substitutes, and I took his advice–now I always have a container full of savory and a container full of sweet crepes in my freezer, ready to make wraps, lasagna, noodle soup, noodles with sauce (red or white), tuna noodle casserole….you name it, I can make it–VERY LOW CARB!

Unlike zucchini noodles, chicken noodles, almond flour dumplings, cheese noodles (!), etc., these actually DO taste like pasta. You can see in the bowl above how they really do look like a noodle (and taste like one!). Amazing!

Some tips for using the crepes:

1. Store them in the freezer separated by parchment, wax paper, etc. (or they might stick together and fall apart when you try to remove them). This also allows you to get one out at a time–quick chicken noodle soup for one? Broth, a little shredded chicken from your freezer, seasonings, slice a crepe into it–voila–chicken noodle soup at four or five carbs total instead of thirty from a can!

Savory Crepes – Cold meat, cheese stick, and spicy mustard!

2. They are great as wraps. If you are tired of rolled up meat and string cheese snacks–make a wrap! You can afford it carb-wise with these crepes!

3. To use in recipes like spaghetti, casserole, etc., I just slice them the size I want and fold them in. For recipes like soups or broth-based uses, I prefer to fold them in when serving, so they don’t dissolve by sitting in broth too long.

4. For lasagna, enchilada casserole, baked burrito casserole, or any Mexican layered casserole, I just slice them to the right size (like lasagna noodles) and place them directly in my casserole.

5. They do not crisp well (because of the egg and cream cheese), so I do not recommend trying to crisp them like you would Joseph’s pitas or Missions low carb tortillas.

6. These are SUPER low carb (depending on the flour you use–I use a combination of those flours listed in the recipe and sometimes I even use unflavored protein powder for part!). So even those on induction type low carb diets, Trim Healthy Mama (S meals), etc., can probably use these!

Crepes sliced and made into chicken noodle soup!

Basic Low Carb Crepes—SAVORY

5 egg

½-plus cup Basic Flour Mix (any combination of the following–heaviest on the almond flour: almond flour, coconut flour, oat fiber, golden flax, vital wheat gluten)

3 oz. cream cheese

1 tsp Swerve or Splenda*

½ tsp salt

¼ cup-plus half and half or cream as needed

*You can increase this a lot to create sweet crepes rather than savory ones!

1. In food processor, pulse eggs and cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. (Do not add half and half or cream until all ingredients are pulsed—and add a little at a time.)
3. Heat a small 6 “ non-stick pan, spray with cooking spray.
4. Using ¼ cup of batter, pour first crepe into skillet.
5. Tilt pan to spread out batter evenly and cook over medium heat.
6. When one side is done, flip crepe and cook five to ten seconds on second side.
7. Set aside in a plate and cook remaining crepes.

Ten Crepes; each one has approximately 40 calories; 3 grams protein; 3 grams fat; 1 net carb

The post Low Carb Crepes–Use for Wraps or Bread, Noodle, or Lasagna Substitute appeared first on Character Ink.