Honest to Goodness Eats

Hello friends! After some thought and deliberation I've decided the recipes portion of my creative extravaganza's will be moving. Future recipe posts will be posted to my new blog: 

Honest To Goodness Eats.  

I invite you to follow along there if you are particularly enjoying the recipes I've been shring here on Lostsentiments. 

I will continue to share crafty things on this blog, but if you've enjoyed the recipes I've shared you'll want to follow me there too! 

Thank you to all my readers for your support! :) 

Love you! 

~Dawn

Tabasco Broccoli Recipe - Low Carb, Paleo & Keto Friendly

I think that about sums it up. Depending on if you, as a paleo eater, low carb eater or Maria Emmerich healthified eater incorporate peanuts.

Because this recipe has peanuts.

This recipe is adapted from a pin I found that lead me to FoodandOtherthings recipe for Sriracha Broccoli  and because Sriracha has sugar in it... 

...I'm not eating it, okay?! :) 

However I would like to add some spicy broccoli goodness to my kitchen recipes

 so here is my low carb, healthified version - Enjoy! :) 

Tabasco Broccoli Recipe

Pin for later here.

7 cups Broccoli Florets
1/4 cups chopped peanuts
2 garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 Tablespoons Eden Tamari Soy Sauce Naturally Brewed
1 1/2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon Tabasco
Black Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1) Mix all ingredients in a medium large bowl until all florets are covered with some spicy goodness.
2) Put parchment paper over a cookie sheet.
3) Add all the mix on top of the parchment paper and sprinkle as much black pepper as you'd prefer ontop.
4) Pop that pan in the oven and bake for 7 minutes, then toss the mix, put broccoli back in the oven for 8 more minutes.

**BING**

Once your timer goes off the dish is done! Super simple right? ...and delicious :). ;).  

It's tasty on its own but I think it'd make a great side to chicken *or* paired with cottage cheese. Yum! :)

Also... peanut butter... a side of straight up peanut butter if you so desire and it works with your diet would make this super yummy! :) 

PS - If you have adapted the Paleo diet and love Sriracha (almost) without abandon... then check out Nom Nom Paleo for her Paleo Sriracha recipe. :) 

Let me know what you think if you try this recipe!

 Happy Creating, Dawn

*****

Looking for more Low Carb recipes to bake? 

Since posting this recipe I've started a foodie blog! 

Find more low carb BAKING RECIPES HERE.

***** 

Cheesy Bread Sticks Recipe - Low Carb

I didn't have cottage cheese, nor did I want to use coconut flour because the misters tasty sensors are super sensitive and do not like coconut flour :/. So here I go improvising :). For the win I might add ;). So for those of you who are into cheesy bread sticks that are full of awesome and cheese  - this ones for you! ;)

Cheesy Bread sticks Recipe - Low Carb

Pin it for later here.

Adapted from Maria Emmerich's Mini Muffin Recipe

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cream cheese
5 Tblspns Almond flour
5 Eggs
1 tsp aluminium free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Bacon grease

Italian Seasoning Mix:

4 Tblspns Parmesan Cheese
3 Tblspns Garlic Powder
1 1/2 Tblspns Italian Seasoning

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a square baking dish with bacon grease.

2) Mix the cheeses, almond flour, baking powder, eggs, salt and 1/2 of the Italian seasoning in a medium size bowl until smooth.

3) Pour cheesy goodness into the greased square baking dish. Top with remaining seasoning mix. 

4) Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. 

5) Serve hot or at room temperature, whichever you prefer.

*******

Here we are - cheesy bread sticks - fresh out of the oven. :) 

Enjoy!

*****

Looking for more Low Carb recipes to bake? 

Since posting this recipe I've started a foodie blog! 

Find more low carb BAKING RECIPES HERE.

***** 

Low Carb Monkey Bread Anyone?

In my opinion the people who invented Pinterest cannot be thanked enough. Seriously, I have discovered *so* many recipes, DIY projects and patterns! (Oh my! ;)) All thanks to the wonderful world of Pinterest! :D Recently through one of my adventures in perusing Pinterest I stumbled upon a recipe... that took me to a blog... that I have been reading pretty much everyday... ever since! I introduce you to Maria & Craig Emmerich, the authors of Maria Mind Body Health. 

I've gotten a couple of her books and binge read at least one and a half of them for good measure! 

They read easy and are full of good for you information! For example - did you know that Splenda, the artificial sweetener that has been touted as having no impact on a persons blood sugar and is a zero calorie sweetener has been lying. Here are the numbers folks: 

Glycemic Index of: 

Sugar: 68

Splenda: 80

High Fructose Corn Syrup: 87

Is your mind blown? Mine was. I felt like my eyes had been opened to my own naiveness of marketing. I could go on ( and I'd like too! ) But I'll save you a mini rant ;). 

Let's suffice to say the truth will set you free - can you imagine how many low carb diets have been sabotaged by splenda? Or how many with diabetes have been negatively affected by using Splenda? Grr.... its sad :(. Which is why I felt compelled to write about it. I'll get off my soap box here and let you do some digging for yourselves ^-^.

If you want to read more about it I suggest googling "Does Splenda have a high Glycemic Index?" And read a couple of the posts. Here's an informative excerpt from a Dr. Deanna Walker that distills the ingredients in splenda about as good as any post you'll find if you do a google search.

So yes my minds been blown, my eyes have been opened, I have been restocking our shelves with Healthified options :) thanks to the Emmerich's blogging and writing down all their awesome health information! Maria shares in her book Secret's To a Healthy Metabolism the science behind fats, proteins, carbs, etc and how each affects our bodies. She goes over different types of fats, sharing the chemistry of fat strands and how some differ  from others and the benefits of each. Maria also talks about brown fat and white fat. Did you know our bodies need the brown fat and that it helps our bodies burn the white fat? 

Ahhhhh!!! There's SO much to learn! :D I've really enjoyed reading her books and her blog. There are testimonies on almost every blog post too! Always a fun read :) 

So far I've tried a few of Maria and Craig's "Healthified" Recipes :) (see list below).

The top two were husband approved and the others my sister and I will be eating by ourselves :) 

If I haven't already told you, my husband is a picky eater ;) 

'nough said :) 

Monkey Bread fresh out of the oven with cinnamon swerve glaze

Monkey Bread

Amazing Pizza

Cookie Dough Balls

Cinnamon Bread

There are a bunch of other recipes to try of course, I'm just getting started :). 

A good place to follow along with Maria's newest recipes is on her facebook page here

Which one do you think you'll try first? 

Here's to your health friends! ~Dawn

Low Carb Game Day Recipe Eats

Last weekend my sister, my husband and I sat down to watch the Redskins game. I had every intention of making up a recipe I found on pinterest for cheddar jalapeno burgers with guacamole by sunnyslideup but about half time we realized our team wasn't doing so hot, and though everyone was down to eat burgers before the game started my husband said "I think I might need pizza just to make me feel better" ;). I love his humor ^-^. I realized my energy was low, really low... too low to dice, cut, slice, measure and then stand over the stove to cook them bad boys. So, pizza hut won... I caved... I was bummed about this choice, I wanted to feed us all something nutritious and not carb laden .. I normally eat that stuff way too fast, and of course regret it the next day and even that night because my stomach and guts are like, "What were you thinking?!" Try as I might to ignore their voices I really can't because they are painfully loud :/ . Whaa. Right? ;) lol Whaa indeed!  

That was a week ago... fast forward to this week. I was determined to have fun food for our football watching time that I hand selected and approved of. 

32 Hard boiled Eggs, 30 jalapenos, 3 packs of bacon cooked up & 2 cucumbers later...  I ended up with a fun smorgasbord of foods! I'm sharing them with you because it was kind of hard to find a diverse grouping of what I myself consider "game day eats" and still keep it healthy and low carb, hopefully this post will help others find a group of recipes they want to make on their family's game day.

Here is the spread, though no, not all of it. I had lots of leftovers ;) :

Low Carb Game Day Spread ^-^

Michelob Ultra (not pictured) was drank by me ;). I added the beer bucket in the picture because though it was just us three I figured why wait to break out a fun beer bucket? Am I right? ;)

Here are the recipes I used:

Chicken Strips by Cleaneatsinthezoo

Note: Arrowroot is by no means low carb, feel free to use Parmesan cheese in place of arrowroot. Also, substituted 1 Tblspn Garlic Powder for Garlic salt because we're looking to keep down the salt intake where we can.

Baked Stuffed Jalapeno Bites by Simply Recipes

Note: I cut the tops of the jalapenos off :( I later realized I should not have done this. I grabbed bacon and wrapped it around the jalapenos and cooked them this way in an effort to hold the cheesy insides in. This mostly worked. ;) They were still yummy!

Cucumber Bites With Bacon Egg Salad

Note: I substituted spicy brown mustard for the honey dijon.

Bacon Jalapeno Deviled Eggs by RealHouseMoms

Note: I substituted splenda for the sugar they called for.

And now for a few photos of the spread in the making...

You also might be wondering how I managed to make 32 Hard boiled eggs... I'm glad you asked... this was another pinterest find... I use pinterest search over google search these days, so far I've not had any finds flop ;). I saw a pinterest post by creativehomemaking that had the eggs in the oven like the photo below.

I followed the instructions and thought the eggs came out quite nicely. Granted, 32 eggs take a while to peel, but once they were all done... I was sure I'd made more than enough! 

Filling them with the mix was *so* much fun!

Adding Paprika to make 'em pretty ;)

*****

As I was chopping cilantro for the Cucumber Mix I decided I'd be a smart consumer ;) and freeze the leftover cilantro in an ice cube tray for a later date.

 My mister and I both enjoy cilantro so I know I'll use them before long. 

The cup to the left is bacon grease from the 3 bags of bacon I cooked up! Since it was still in liquid form I drizzled some of it in each of the cubes with cilantro as well and then filled then to the top with water.

 I think this will be a good mix when I go to pop one out and use it! :) 

*****

The Deviled eggs called for jalapenos so these are the ones I had left to work with when making the jalapeno bites.. and yes, I used disposable gloves when working with them and recommend it! ;)

Lastly, the chicken tenders went over well. I found that as they cooked they smelled as if they had bbq sauce on them. My husband did detect a sweet flavor, which was there from the coconut oil - we'll probably make these again using bacon grease. They don't take terribly long to make either which is a bonus! :) 

Well folks, that was the line up for game day eats! I hope you enjoy the recipes and photos, though I have to admit I'm wondering just how stellar my camera is these days as the photos seem slightly blurry/grainy... hmm... I hope it's not causing any headaches to look at them! ;) 

Though if they cause you to drool a little I'd say this is normal. Tee hee ;)

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to share if these recipes were a hit with your family too! 

Be safe out there friends! ;) ♥ Dawn 

Spicy Low Carb Goulash

In an effort to feed my family one of the staple dishes of my childhood, I came up with this low carb / Paleo friendly version of goulash. This is also a low sodium version since I know my husband has been trying to watch his salt intake. I wasn't sure how the can of no salt added tomatoes would fair but the dish turned out very tasty! 

What you need:

- 1 lb Mild Italian Sausage (I used Mild Poultry Italian which is a mix of chicken, and turkey. Sausage or beef would go well with this recipe too!)
- 1 Cup Onion Chopped
- 1 Spaghetti Squash
- 1 can 14.5 oz  Diced Tomatoes No Salt Added
- 1/2 Cup water
- 4 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
- 1 Tspn Garlic Powder
- 1 Tspn Ground Mustard
- 1/8 Tspn Ground Sage
- 1/2 Tspn Black Pepper
- 1/4 Tspn Tabasco Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Bacon Grease
- 1/2 Tspn Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy

What to do:

Put the meat, onions and all the spices in a large pan and let cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally..

Meanwhile, cut the spaghetti squash lengthwise. Pull out all the seeds and fibers, I use a large spoon to do this. Once both sides are clean fill one half with water and place it in a microwave safe bowl setting the other half right on top. If the squash seems to want to wobble slice a very thin piece from the bottom of the squash to make it stay in place. Microwave for about 10 minutes. Use oven mitts to pull the dish from the microwave it will be really hot!

Once the meat is browned and the spaghetti squash is done, add the tomatoes, the spaghetti squash and water to the pan. Simmer over medium heat for 15 - 20 minutes to allow the flavors to really blend.

Serve warm and top with Parmesan cheese! :) 

I hope your family enjoys the recipe! It tasted subtly sweet (I'm guessing that's from the tomatoes ;)) but is definitely spicy at the same time! My sister and I both enjoyed the crunch of the spaghetti squash. We think it'd be good with cottage cheese too! :) 

Happy cooking! ♥ Dawn

Chipotle Chicken or Turkey Burgers

We were almost out of Mrs. Dash's Extra Spicy Blend and when I went to the grocery store to replenish our stash I spotted Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle next to the Spicy Blend! Heck yes I picked up one of each!

This recipe is super simple for those summer days when the grill is begging to be used or if you want the taste of summer in a cold day... this is sure to spice things up a bit! Pun, intended.

What you'll need:

 - 1 lb ground chicken (or turkey!)

- 2 Tspns Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle

- 1/2 Tspn Garlic Powder

What to do:
1) Mix ingredients well, shape into burgers.
2) Cook over medium high heat, turn burgers occasionally until they are done to your liking.
3) Top with Swiss (or Mozzarella!) Cheese and let it melt a bit before serving.

As a side I cut up some cucumbers and tomatoes, topped the veggies with Mrs. Dash's Original Blend to stay with the salt free theme. ^-^ It was a yummy meal and I appreciate that Mrs. Dash Blends bring the flavors but not the salt!

Enjoy!

Low Carb Green Bean Casserole with Chicken

My husband likes green beans from the can. This is one of the first few things I noticed we had in common before we'd even started dating. So when I found this low carb casserole that called for green beans I had to give it a whirl. And yes, I found it on pinterest ;).

The original recipe is found here on Justapinch.

Here I'm sharing with you my variation :).

Green Bean Casserole with Chicken

Pin it for later here.

Ingredients:

2 cans french cut green beans

1 can regular cut green beans No Salt & No Sugar (in an effort to cut down the sodium)

3 lbs ground chicken

1 cup chopped onion

1 - 26 oz jar of Bea's Brooklyn's Vodka Sauce 

2 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

To taste:

-Garlic powder

-Pepper

-Parmesan Cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1) Pull out a 9 x 13 casserole dish and lightly sprinkle garlic powder on the bottom. Set aside. 

2) Open the cans of green beans, place them in a colander and towel dry if needed. Set aside.

3) In a large skillet add the chopped onion, stir until tender/translucent.

4) Add chicken to the skillet and cook until brown. Drain excess water.

5) Spoon about a third of the green beans into the casserole dish, then top with the chicken/onion mixture, then the vodka sauce and a third of the mozzarella cheese.  Continue layers until ingredients are exhausted. 

Sprinkle a layer of Parmesan cheese on top, then garlic powder and lastly pepper. 

Bake for 30 minutes at 375 until top layer is lightly brown. 

Enjoy!

PS - The mister said he thought it was pretty tasty. :) This is good. He's a very honest man ;). lol I myself appreciate the textures and flavors of this recipe. I've since found that this recipe reheats well too!

Cucumber Tomato and Cottage Cheese Salad

Yep, that's it. Super quick, super easy and GOOD for you! 

I whipped this up tonight before heading out the door to get groceries. 

I needed sustenance I tell you! ;) 

What is not pictured is pepper... I added some black pepper later and it was YUM! ^-^

If you want more flavor - you could add a bit of ranch and or Mrs. Dash salt blend of some kind! 

Just saying ;).

To make for one: 

- Cut up 2 - 3 Medium size tomatoes

- Add 1/2 cup sliced and diced cucumber

- Finish with a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese

Stir and enjoy! :) 

I suppose on a larger scale you could make this for a cookout. Maybe.

Please let me know if you tried it and what you think!

Thank you for reading! :) ~Dawn

BBQ Things...

This morning while getting ready to have a bunch of friends visit I had made myself an iced coffee... 

the bubbles created on the ice cube and the swirls of cream had me reaching for the camera to share this with you! :) 

My husband requested I make his grandma's chocolate chip cookies for the BBQ so I worked on those in the morning... complete with pics for you ;). 

I'm happy to report they were a huge success! :) We only have about 10 left!

...my sister and I cut up a few apples for a homemade fruit dip... 

the culinary arts and textures are so much fun! :D

Nearly 20 people visited us today with a total of 5 kiddos to boot! :D The oldest one was 3 years old so the gathering was as much about the kids as it was about the food ;). 

The rain decided to also attend our BBQ, luckily it didn't pour but was a steady trickle... our friends were enjoying their conversations so much they stayed outside under the umbrella while the rain visited.

The sun eventually came back out in time to send off our friends, it was such a lovely time but I'm spent! 

Is it really Monday tomorrow? ;)

Chicken Salad Salad Recipe

*nom, nom, nom...*

Okay - so if you eat Paleo less any dairy this is not a recipe for you. However, if you still incorporate dairy have at it! :)

Chicken is delicious - I'd go so far to say it's not only my favorite white meat but it's meh favorite meat. I grew up on hamburger and pork primarily. There was at least one year that dad purchased half a cow for the family! ^-^ It was good eatin' let me tell ya :D. Whenever we'd go out to eat though I'd usually get something with chicken and since I do like it so much, it's what I feed my family today :). It's pretty lean and it's tasty...so...

I put about 5 - 6 lbs in the slow cooker for about 5 hours on low Saturday...  I put them in the fridge overnight and come Sunday... used some of it to make this chicken salad. I prefer cooking chicken in the slow cooker since it heats the breasts slowly and they remain tender. This recipe was adapted from a chicken salad recipe from treasure cave cheese recipe that came with the smoky flavored blue cheese I purchased. :) They have some tasty recipes!

Chicken Salad Salad Recipe:

Ingredients:
 1/2 cup mayo
 1/4 cup sour cream
 1/4 cup Smoke flavored crumbled blue Cheese
 1/4 tsp black pepper
 1/8 tsp garlic powder
 3 cups chopped cooked chicken
 2 stalks celery, finely chopped

Optional:
 Iceberg Lettuce
 Spinach
 Walnuts
 Dill Pickle

After breaking up some iceberg lettuce and laying a spread of spinach ontop I put a few tablespoons worth of the Chicken Salad on the spread, broke up some walnuts and tossed them on top too! 

                                    I decided I might want some more crunch and flavor... 
                             so a 1/4 of a dill pickle spear is probably a good idea! Amiright?! :) 

I really appreciate how quickly this recipe worked up and how work lunch friendly it is too! 

I hope you like it! Please let me know if you tried it! :) 

Chicken Stir Fry Recipe - Paleo Friendly

Yesterday I made Garlic Chicken and had some left over. I decided to use the chicken breasts as part of my old and faithful go to recipe ...

Chicken Stir Fry

Pin it for later here.

Ingredients:

- 4 - 5 chicken breasts cut (cooked or uncooked)
- 1 cup cut carrots
- 1 cup diced celery
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 Tblspn dried cilantro
- 3 Tblspns olive oil
- 1 1/2 tspn poultry seasoning

You could also add onions - but they make me cry so I'm not too keen on them at the moment ;). 1/2 a cup would be good wiht this ratio.

1) Cut up the chicken breasts.
2) Add all other ingredients and saute on med-high heat.
3) Cover and let simmer for about 20 - 25 minutes. Stir ocassionally.
4) Cook until vegetables are tender (or to your liking!)
3) Serve warm and enjoy!

Love a dish with lots of color! :D

Delish!

If you try this dish let me know how your family liked it!

Fiesta Egg Bake Revisited - Low Carb & Paleo Friendly

Happy Cinco De Mayo! :) It just so happened I had most of the ingredients on hand that helped prompt me revisit a recipe I put together last August. Let's revisit this Fiesta Egg Bake shall we?

Fiesta Egg Bake

Pin it for later here.

Ingredients:

- Bacon grease (or butter) to grease pan with
- 16 oz regular breakfast sausage 
- 1 red pepper (diced)
- 1 sweet onion (chopped)
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1/3 c heavy whipping cream
- 12 eggs
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp ground mustard
- 1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
- 1 jalapeno minced
- Dash cayenne pepper
- 4 cups shredded cheese


1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

2) Grease a 9" x 13" pan with bacon grease and set aside.  

3) Add sausage, red pepper, onion, garlic and jalapeno to a stove top pan. Cover mixture and let simmer until vegetables are tender.

4) As the vegetables and sausage are simmering, in a separate bowl mix together the eggs and spices, mix well.  Add the heavy whipping cream and whisk until its mixed well.

5) Once the sausage is browned and veggies are tender - add them to the 9" x 13" pan by spoonfuls making sure to spread the mixture out evenly.

6) Pour the egg and cream mixture on top of the sausage and veggies. Use a spatula to even out the mixture through out.

7) Sprinkle the cheese on top, using a spatula push the cheese down just until the egg mixture covers the top of the cheese.

8) Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until the top is browning.

Now pull it out the oven and allow it to cool. The cheese is normally inflated and once it deflates a bit I know it's "go" time. ;) Time to eat! :D

I hope you like the recipe! :D 

Oh! Not only did I revisit this recipe but I managed to realize my avocado's were ripe enough to cut and store in the freezer for baking adventures later! :) This idea is brought to you by pinterest lol. But I had the foresight to execute it tonight! :D 
I'm super proud! 
The last time I got avocados I let them sit *too* long... they met their doom - the trash can. Womp. Womp. 

Happy Creating Everyone! :D ~Dawn

*****

Looking for more Low Carb recipes to bake? 

Since posting this recipe I've started a foodie blog! 

Find more low carb BAKING RECIPES HERE.

And more CASSEROLE RECIPES HERE.

***** 

Raspberry and Sour Cream Muffins with Lemon Zest!

Hello friends! 

I got curious again this weekend  - curious to see how a recipe from Things My Belly Likes would turn out! The pictures and ingredients looked promising enough so today we gave it a go!

Out with the ingredients and with a little help from the sister here is our adventure in photo form. The conclusion of our taste test fancy is at the bottom.

These smelled AMAZING while in the oven. The batter reminded me of those shortbread cookies that have a fruit jelly filling in the middle. Shortbread with a bit of tartness. Yummy right? :) 

I had them in the oven for 18 minutes since I put the batter together in 6 muffins 

(recipe says these make 8 small muffins.)

I put butter on the muffins, this would happen no matter what kind of muffins I make though. I love butter, basically muffins are a vehicle for butter in my world :).  

The raspberry bits reminded me of rhubarb. The tartness of the sour cream and lemon zest were delicious. :) If the mister would fall in love with coconut flour (he doesnt' like it but tries any new recipe I make even if it called for coconut flour - cause he's a trooper ;)) I would make these on a regular basis. 

All in all - a yummy muffin! :) Thank you Cat of Things My Belly Likes for sharing your culinary finds! :) 

Till next time - eat a bit of any batter okay? Why not? :0) 

Best, Dawn