Turkey Low-Carb Meatloaf

Captain Handsome is heading out to watch the hockey tonight (which I don't favour) and I had some extra lean ground turkey thawed in the fridge. Perfect combination for meatloaf (which the Captain doesn't favour). The Captain won't touch the stuff and I needed to use up the meat.

I searched online for low-carb meatloaf recipes, and adapted this one from Keto Krazed. Right now my Meatloaf is in the oven. If it's awesome, I'll be heading back to Keto Krazed for more recipes. Ha

Ingredients:
Meatloaf:
1 1/4 lb extra lean ground turkey (it's embarrassing how long it took me to find out how much turkey I had in my Costco pack, I needed to do a google search, then a conversion, now I've revealed that to you, loyal reader/s. When I discovered that it was just over a pound of meat and I thought of the 42 I've now lost, I felt pretty good, though.)
1 oz Balderson aged cheddar cheese, shredded
2 tbsp Heinz ketchup (I have to pick up some low-carb reduced-sugar ketchup, I used the regular stuff, as that's all we have right now.)
2 eggs

My best kitchen tool - the garlic roller!

2 cloves of minced garlic
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried cilantro
1 tsp fresh ground sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
Sauce:
1/3 tomato, chopped into tiny pieces
1 tbsp ketchup
1.5 tsp Splenda

Process:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Mixing it up!

-Mix all meatloaf ingredients in one bowl (remove eggshells if you broke some into the bowl, as I did)
-Mix sauce ingredients in another bowl
-Spray a loaf pan with Pam (and try not to drop greased pan into sink full of dirty dishes, as I did)

The raw meatloaf.

-Spread meat mixture in loaf bowl

Sauced up.

Sauced up - from another angle.

-Spread sauce on top of meat mixture
-Place in oven and cook for 42 minutes

(Makes four servings)

Nutritional Information:
(per serving)
Calories: 270
Fat: 14 g
Protein: 34 g
Carbs: 8 g
Fibre: 0 g
Sugar: 4 g (that's the ketchup!)
Net carbs: 8 g

Yum or Not:
I intended to cook the meatloaf for 35 minutes, but when I peeked in, the internal temperature was not yet at 145 degrees and there was a juicy looking layer on top. I gave it another 8 minutes to see if it would cook off. It didn't really.

Fresh out of the oven, complete with meat thermometer and juicy, fatty liquid.

I'm not sure why this fatty/juicy coating emerged. I suppose I usually drain off some fat when I cook turkey, but it's not a lot. I guess with meatloaf, you usually use breadcrumbs, and those would soak up this stuff.

The meatloaf with the juicy, fatty topping removed.

It wasn't a big deal, as I scooped off the juicy looking layer (it was a bit like meat fat/egg yolk) and the meatloaf looked better.

Fortunately, I didn't judge until I tasted and I'm glad I waited. The meatloaf is really tasty. I'd say this is another yum. The meatloaf is flavourful and moist. The topping is especially tangy and nice. The mix of herbs and spices in the meatloaf worked perfectly. I will be making this again. I wonder if I can convince the Captain to eat it? Perhaps if I form it into a patty and tell him it's a burger!

Grandpa's classic asparagus - boiled in a pan of water, drained, and topped with Italian dressing and asiago cheese.

I served my generous slice of meatloaf with asparagus topped with Italian dressing and asiago cheese. It may not look like it in this picture, but the meatloaf slice was awesomely hearty and satisfying.

My leftovers. Three meals worth.

Overall, another yum (and low-carb) dinner.

Next steps: I would like to make a Low-Carb Turkey Shepherd's Pie with a cauliflower topping.

Spaghetti Squash Low-Carb(onara)

Tonight, I tried something completely new. I roasted a spaghetti squash and had it sitting in the fridge and wanted to have a decadent, pasta-type meal. I also had a few slices of the yummiest bacon left from my new favourite store, The Produce Depot, just hanging out in the fridge.

One of the message boards I lurk on Reddit is keto (people doing a ketogenic, low carb, high fat/protein diet) and someone posted a photo of their version of low-carb pasta carbonara. I didn't read or save the link or recipe, but I think I had the basic idea. I was inspired as I considered what I had in the kitchen.

I gave 'er a go.

Read on to see how it went.

Spaghetti Squash Low-Carb(onara)

Ingredients:
1 small spaghetti squash (nets about 2 cups of squash "noodles")
5 slices of smoked bacon
1/2 c frozen peas
Thin slice of red onion, diced
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp light plain cream cheese
2 tbsp 0% plain Greek yogurt
1/4 c part-skim Mozarella cheese
1/4 c Asiago cheese

Procedure:

-Pre-cook the spaghetti squash (slice in half, roast at 350 degrees for 45 min-1 hour, face down in a little bit of low-sodium chicken broth)
-Spoon out the seeds from the squash and use a fork to pull out the strands of deliciousness, put aside (this refrigerates and keeps nicely for a few days)

-Pre-heat oven to broil
-Cook the bacon on the stovetop

Gratuitous bacon shot.

-Remove the bacon and cut into small strips, return to pan
-Add garlic, butter, onions and peas and to pan with bacon, sautee for about 5 minutes (or until peas are thawed and warm)

-Add cream cheese and Greek yogurt and sautee for another few minutes

-Add spaghetti squash, stir

-Add mozzarella cheese, stir until cheese is melted

-Divide mixture into 3 oven-safe dishes (ramekins, if you have them), top with asiago cheese

Pre-cheese.

Cheesed-up.

-Broil in oven for a few minutes (keep an eye on your cheese and watch that it bubbles, but doesn't burn)

Three little soldiers, hard at work, getting yummed up.

I had to top two of the servings with mozzarella, as I only had enough asiago for one. The mozzarella browned/burned really quickly. Next time, I'd put asiago on top for all of them.

-Enjoy!

(makes 3 servings)

Nutritional Information:
(per serving)
Calories: 245
Carbs: 8 g
Fat: 17 g
Protein: 12 g
Fibre: 2 g
Sugar: 4 g

Yum or Not:
This was really, really delicious, and because Captain Handsome's wary of both peas and spaghetti squash, I have two leftover ramekins of Spaghetti Squash Low-Carb(onara) leftover for myself. The taste of spaghetti squash is nice. It's a little nutty and inoffensive, but the consistency isn't quite pasta-esque. The taste of this dish was terrific, but still doesn't replace a pasta craving entirely. I wonder how this recipe would be with a larger veggie base, something like roasted cauliflower.

Overall, the taste was super-yum and the consistency was good, but a little like baby food. I'm sure you can see that in the pictures. Don't let that turn you off the recipe, it was really great!

Oven-Baked BBQ Chicken in Onion Nests

The weather has been unseasonably beautiful here in Ottawa. The last days of winter have actually felt like the middle of summer. On the first official day of spring, I wanted to make a BBQ meal. However, our back porch is dangerously rotten and Captain Handsome did not want to risk pulling out the BBQ. I had to be a little creative with the recipe, then.

Earlier in the day, I had tried a recipe from my new recipe book, The Sexy Forever Recipe Bible. Several weeks ago, I saw the book's author, Suzanne Somers, on some daytime talk show making an amazing dish (which is now one of our faves, I'll put the recipe up as soon as I make it again and snap a photo). I've been planning to pick up the book since then. She cooks with full fat, low carb, fresh ingredients and fits pretty perfectly with the diet I'm doing right now. Also, that one dish was so absolutlely out of this world, that I figured the book was worth a try. It's already heavily annotated and sticky noted by me. So, in the morning, I tried her partner, Alan's Fried Eggs in Onion Nests. Super yum! Captain Handsome watched me eat them, and although he has an aversion to eggs, I could see he was envious of my tasty onion nests. That got my creative juices percolating.

When we started getting close to dinner time, I decided on a springy dinner, BBQ sauce chicken in onion nests (it would look like little eggs in a nest!), served with fresh green beans (grass!). Captain Handsome didn't notice the beautiful springscape on his plate, but, as you'll see in the review below, the appearance of the meal didn't really matter!

Oven-Baked BBQ Chicken (a really-complicated Shauna original)
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c reduced sodium chicken broth
3 tbsp President's Choice Stampede BBQ sauce Beer and Chipotle flavour (or your favourite BBQ sauce)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper


Process:
-preheat oven to 350 degrees
-trim fat and nasty bloody spots off of chicken, keeping a wide berth, because that's just gross
-discard icky bits of chicken
-slice chicken breasts into small strips of about 1/2 inch thick and 1-2 inches long
-put Worcestershire sauce and chicken broth in bottom of casserole dish large enough to hold all the chicken without overlapping
-grind fresh salt and pepper onto both sides of each piece of chicken and place into dish
-once oven is preheated, place chicken into oven
-cook for 10 minutes, flip chicken pieces, cook for another 10 minutes
-chicken should be fully cooked by now
-BBQ sauce time!
-remove dish from oven and use half the BBQ sauce on one side of the chicken, brush it on to all pieces evenly (I don't have a pastry brush or anything, I just used a fork)
-turn up the broiler (about 500 degrees), cook chicken for about 5 minutes, peeking in, you just want the BBQ sauce to get a little crispy at the edges
-repeat with other side
-remove from oven

-makes 4 servings

Nutritional Information:
(per serving)
Calories: 125
Carbs: 7
Fat: 2
Protein: 14
Fibre: 0
Sugar: 6

This dinner is slightly tricky, as you need to be keeping an eye on both the chicken AND the onions at the same time, perhaps in opposite ends of your kitchen. But, if I can do it, so can you!

Onion Nests (Alan's Onion Nests from Sexy Forever Recipe Bible)
Ingredients:
1 large Vidalia onion
1 tbsp evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
1/2 tbsp butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Process:
-peel the skin off the onion and slice as thin as possible with a very sharp knife (this is what I did, but tj and Suzanne Somers both recommend a mandolin, this would be much more time efficient)
-in a large skillet, heat the evoo and butter over med-high heat
-when the fats are hot, add the onion
-let them cook until they are crispy and almost burned (this took me about 13 minutes)
-scrape the onions up with a spatula and place one quarter of them in piles on each plate, create the nest shape by using a fork to push out the centre of each pile of onions and build up the sides

-makes 4 servings

Nutritional Information:
(per serving)
Calories: 58
Carbs: 4
Fat: 6
Protein: 1
Fibre: 1
Sugar: 2

Yum or Not:
As I said in the intro, I had fun plating this in a spring-time tableau. I even heated up the plates a little in the oven. This is the first time I ever did this. I felt pretty durn fancy. I only started caring about presentation at all when I started making my servings so much smaller and there was all kinds of empty space on the plate.

Dinner was the chicken, onion nests, green beans and a mixed green salad for me. Captain Handsome had a little kid salad of iceberg lettuce. I had an awesome vinaigrette I bought at a favourite restaurant in Chelesa, QC, Soupe d'Herbe and the Captain had Catalina. I told the Captain at this meal that once we have kids he's going to have to eat the grown up food with me and I won't make him a kiddie meal. He's going to have to lead by example that all foods are good. He said he won't. We had bought a bottle of Pinot Noir called The Hob Nob (if you read the Hunger Games, you'll know why I was happy with this bottle). It was only OK. The Captain had a couple of glasses. I only drank about half. I thought the BBQ sauce would pair nicely with a red. It might have, but this wine was far too vinegary for me. We saved about  a third of the bottle for cooking.

This meal was ultra-yum. The chicken tasted amazing, just a little crispy, the edges of the chicken tasted like they had been cooked on the BBQ. You may not have even noticed that it wasn't cooked on the Q. Everything was cooked perfectly and I couldn't believe that the tiniest bit of sauce did the trick. We didn't need to add even one spoonful of the extra sauce that I made. Before I started watching and counting what I ate, I would have just heaped on the sauce without thinking. I was surprised how little of this delicious sauce packed an amazing flavour punch.

The onion nests are absolutely to die for. I would eat them under anything. They tasted great with fried eggs earlier in the day and amazing with the chicken. They enhanced the taste of the chicken and beans. It was such a simple, but tasty spring-summer meal. It's always good to find something to fill the plate that is (relatively) low carb and lower in starches than say, a potato, rice or pasta side. Also, it's hard to get Captain Handsome to eat spinach, cabbage or spaghetti squash, but he's fully on board with onion nests. It occurred to me that I may be able to sneak in some cabbage next time without him even noticing!

After his third helping (they were small helpings), Captain Handsome declared that there wasn't even enough for him to take leftovers for lunch. I, however, had some the next day on top of grilled veggies I had whipped up and it was just as good one day later, it didn't dry out like I thought it might. (I said the recipe had four servings, and it did, I'd wager that the Captain had 2 1/2 at dinner, I had 1 and then I had another 1/2 the next day).

I whipped up a little sauce with the drippings from the meat. I used the drippings, added some red wine, a few tbsp of butter and heated it over med-high heat until it bubbled and reduced. It was tasty, but the chicken really didn't need it. Now I have a 1/2 c up sauce in the fridge to use for another quick meal later this week!

Without a doubt, this will become a regular in our weekly rotation!

Pork Tenderloin with Apples and White Wine

I wanted to create a fancy-pants version of pork chops and applesauce and had a pork tenderloin in the fridge. Parts of this worked really well, and I learned some lessons from this attempt.

I made this recipe up after googling how to cook a tenderloin and deciding to try searing for the first time!

Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin - trimmed of that shiny grey fat that is on the outside
1 c reduced sodium chicken broth
1 c white wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp Hoisin sauce
1/2 coarsely chopped Vidalia onion
1 coarsely chopped apple

sauce:
drippings from roast
1 tbsp butter
1/2 c white wine
2 tbsp light cream cheese, plain

Process:
-preheat oven to 350 degrees
-salt and pepper, sear pork tenderloin on stove top
-combine all ingredients in casserole dish
-cook for 20 minutes at a time, checking temperature of tenderloin and covering mean in sauce periodically
-sauce: take 1/2 of drippings from casserole dish after pork is done cooking and place in saucepan on stovetop at med-high temperature with wine, butter and cream cheese, mix until bubbling
-slice pork, serve with sauce, onions and apples

-Makes four servings

Nutritional Information:
 (including sauce, per serving)
Calories: 290
Carbs: 10 g
Fat: 12 g
Protein: 25 g
Fibre: 2 g
Sugar: 8 g

Yum or Not?
 I served this with a big salad (including the delicious vine ripened tomatoes that I found at the fruit and veg store this week) and broccoli and green beans.

The pork was a little tough when we ate it. I used a meat thermometer and cooked the pork in 20 minute increments until it reached the recommended temperature next to the outline of the pig on the meat thermometer (170 degrees). This took nearly an hour at 350 degrees.

I did some more reading after dinner and I think this was at least double the amount of cooking time that I needed.

Next time, I will sear the pork for longer on the stove top. I let it get barely white on each side (about 1 1/2 minute per side), next time I'll let it actually brown before putting it in the oven. I may also turn the temp in the oven up to 375. Apparently, to kill any dangerous suckers in pork, you only have to get the internal temp up to 145 degrees. Also, I know that if I tent the meat for a good 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven, it will continue to cook and all the juices will soak in nicely. I didn't do that this time.

Overall, the food was super, duper tasty and even though the meat was a little tough, the tastes were fantastic and just sweet enough.

I will definitely replicate this recipe, it was totally yum. Captain Handsome liked this, but prefers red/brown sauces to fruity/white sauces, so he stuck with one serving.