(UPDATED) Low Carb Mayonnaise Chicken

This is such an easy recipe and one net carb per serving! 

What you’ll need:

4 chicken breasts

2 cup full fat mayonnaise or homemade mayonnaise

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tblsp seasoning salt(I used Lowry’s)

2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp granulated garlic

1 tsp onion powder

2 tsp turmeric, optional

Set oven to 375*F. Prep 15×11 glass baking dish with a little mayonnaise(just 1-2 tsp) smeared around. This will help keep the chicken from sticking. Set aside.

In a medium bowl combine mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, and seasonings. Set aside. 

Take thawed chicken breasts and pat dry. Slice in half lengthwise, pat dry again, and begin assembling. Place chicken in prepared pan cut side up. Dole out mayonnaise mixture all over the chicken, using a spoon spread the mayo around to completely cover the chicken. DO NOT COVER WITH FOIL.  Sorry about the caps, but I cannot stress enough to not cover this dish as it bakes. Bake for 45 minutes, or until bubbly around the edges and partly browned on top. 

Serve with a side salad and/or favorite vegetables. 

This recipe can be altered to suit your dietary needs if needed. Use a lite or fat free mayonnaise if you prefer and serve with brown rice and steamed or oven roasted vegetables. I add turmeric to practically everything now, it helps me with my aches and pains. I’ve noticed a big change since last week, I’m able to get around easier without wincing. Just be sure that if you start to use turmeric a lot that you use it with either black pepper or coconut oil. Either one of those will help with the turmeric’s absorption so your body will be able to use it properly. 

Also, turmeric is great for senior dogs too! However, do not give them black pepper with the turmeric, instead use a high quality raw organic coconut oil. 

My mom has requested that I make this recipe again for next week, only she has suggested that I cook it in the crockpot…as a soup. Should be interesting! 😊 I’ll be sure to update this post with my results! 

UPDATE::

Tonight I turned this recipe into a soup/chowder. Seriously, it was amazing! 

This is a yummy low carb, high fat dish and comes out to 6 net carbs per 1/6th serving. Here’s how you turn this sheet pan recipe into a guilt free soup…

1 1/2 pounds chicken, cubed

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

3 celery stalks, washed and choppe

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 heaping tblsp coconut oil

2 cups full fat mayonnaise

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tblsp Lowry’s seasoning

1 tblsp granulated garlic

1 tblsp black pepper

2 cups Swanson chicken broth

2 cups heavy cream

In a dutch oven over medium/high heat cook veggies and chicken coconut oil till everything is cooked through. 10 minutes or so. While that’s cooking, combine mayonnaise, parm cheese, seasoning salt, granulated garlic, minced garlic, and black pepper. Stir this mixture into the cooked veggies and chicken, add chicken broth and heavy cream. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Serve hot with a side salad. 

And that’s it! Easy. Simply. Ready in 30-ish minutes. Be sure to keep the size of your chicken and vegetabls about the same. It’s weird, or at least it’s weird to me) to eat massive chunks of vegetables with mini chopped pieces of chicken and vice versa.

This was REALLY filling! All that good for you fat, if I had another stomach I would eat another helping! My mom told me it tasted just like she imagined it! This is definitely a keeper, and it’s thick because I made sure to not add a bunch of liquid. So keep that in mind, there isn’t a need to add 6-8 cups of liquid unless you like a runny soup. Me personally I love all my soups to be thick and chunky…like me! 😜 Ha, yeah, never mind. 

Y’all have a blessed week! 

Low Carb Gumbo(Rouxless)

Hey y’all! I hope everyone has been having a wonderful Wednesday so far! I’m not sure how many of you are gumbo lovers, and I sincerely hope I don’t offend anyone with this non-traditional version. I’m a gumbo lover and I’ve had it a few different ways, but I must say this recipe was absolutely amazing last night! The heat, combination of flavors, three different meats, everything was absolutely perfect! So much so that I ate two helpings, which is unheard of for me. Normally I am content with a single helping, but I think that since this does not have a thick roux in it that it makes it easier to eat more than one ought to! 😉 No regrets!! 

I started out making this recipe in a dutch oven pot, which quickly proved to not be big enough. So I used an 8qt stockpot and once everything was in it the pot it was nearly full to the top. If you don’t have a pot big enough for this recipe then use two dutch ovens, cut the recipe in half, or you can purchase this one from Amazon! Ours is a Tramontina, only we don’t have those nice handle grips like the one on Amazon. Boy that would make it easier for sure instead of having to use pot holders. I always have to ask my nephew or dad to move the full stockpots around because I don’t want to risk dropping everything, especially when the contents are hot. So the grips are a nice addition and I highly recommend Tramontina cookware. Out of all of the pots and pans we have ever had these are the ones that have stood the test of time. I love that it’s stainless-steel, works great with our electric gas stove top, and it’s dishwasher safe(a major plus for this gal)! 

Here’s what you’ll need:

4 large chicken breasts

8 c filtered water

2 large onions, chopped

2 medium green bell peppers

2 c mini sweet bell peppers, chopped (red, yellow, and orange)

1 can Rotel tomatoes

2 cans Hunt’s diced tomatoes

2 pounds kielbasa

4 tblsp minced garlic

2 tblsp Tone’s Cajun Sasoning 

2 tblsp Phil Robertson’s Cajun Seasoning “Zesty”

3 tsp Kosher salt

2 tsp ground black pepper

2 1/2 c heavy cream

4 c 16/20 frozen precooked shrimp, thawed

In 8 qt stockpot add filtered water and chicken breasts. Bring to boil over high heat, cook till chicken is cooked through and tender. Remove and set aside to cool. Chop onions, bell peppers, and kielbasa; reduce heat so broth is at a slow boil and add chopped vegetables. Cook till fork tender, add the Rotel, diced tomatoes, kielbasa, and minced garlic. Chop cooked chicken breasts and add back to pot. 

Time to add in the seasonings and this is where you can go as crazy as you want. You can add in tabasco sauce, habanero peppers/sauce, chopped jalapenos, minced ghost chile peppers…or you can go mild and keep it sane with a little red pepper flakes. Last night I used a combination of Tone’s Cajun Seasoning and Phil Robertson’s Cajun Seasoning and that stuff has got some serious kick!!! Add in salt and blac pepper, stir to combin and let this simmer for 10-15 minutes over medium heat. 

Add heavy cream and bring back up to temp before adding the precooked shrimp. Stir in thawed shrimp and let those warm through for a few minutes. Serve immediiately and enjoy! 

NOK Notes:

All right, this is obviously NOT a thick gumbo. It is rouxless, meaning you don’t need to melt butter and whisk in flour, making it therefore a low carb friendly but not induction safe. The carb count per serving(and there’s a lot…nearly 8 qts worth) is 16 net carbs. That’s a lot I know, and admittedly I ate two servings. Ouch. Was worth it, so good! By the time I ate my second serving my lips were on fire. There is no good way to thicken this and for it be remotely like a real gumbo while maintaining a lower carb count. Personally I enjoyed the “broth”, my mom ladled some of the broth out and used it in her version of shrimp scampi. There was plenty leftover to freeze and have for another meal(a full gallon bag), which will fit easily into a dutch oven pot. 

Rotisserie chicken can be used instead of boiling your own chicken, but keep in mind that if you buy a rotisserie chicken from Walmart/Sam’s Club that it does have MSG and is not exactly the best chicken to use. Check around at other stores that offer rotisserie chickens and read the ingredients label. If you don’t see the letters MSG or the word monosodium glutamate then you’re good to go. 

A healthier option would be to buy free range chickens from a local farmer, have them humanely butchered, and slow cook them for 18 hours. This will yield a rich stock that you can keep in your freezer and use for just about anything! The gelatinous stock is beneficial for our health, it’s what we use during the flu and cold season. 

I know the recipe looks insane with that list of ingredients, but it is worth the time and effort. It certainly helped me get rid of sinus headache that had been lingering since Monday. Opened up my head for sure! Make this recipe as hot or mild as you like, cut it in half if you need to. It makes awesome leftovers and is perfect during the winter! 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Keto Bread (Review)

Hey y’all!! I know I haven’t done a recipe review in a while and with this particular recipe I will admit I was a tad leery of it. Mostly because I have had the oopsie bread and numerous others like it in the past. The one thing all these recipes have in common are eggs. There’s no escaping it, when you remove gluten from any recipe the go to ingredient to add in its place are eggs. I am still on the look out for a low carb bread that is soy free and still looks like bread with a similar texture. I know, wishful thinking perhaps, but a girl can dream! 😉

This Keto Bread recipe provided a nice addition to our Friday night meal of meatball casserole and caesar salad. Click HERE to get the recipe for this bread and to see their scrumptious pictures. Right off the bat what sold me on trying this recipe was that all the ingredients were items that I already had! Almond flour, eggs, baking powder, butter, salt, and cream of tartar. I didn’t have to have psyllium, tapioca, rice or oat flour. The second thing that sold it for me is that it’s 1.3 carbs per slice! That’s a HUGE difference from 11 carbs per slice of store bought bread.

All week I spent a little time each day looking through the reviews seeing if anyone had any questions, concerns, or possible ideas on how to take this basic recipe and do other yummy things with it. That’s when I decided to turn it into cheesy garlic bread, cutting it into sticks was something on the fly at the moment when I realized loaf slices wasn’t going to happen for me.

After checking all the loaf pans in my possession, I discovered that I didn’t have an 8×4 loaf pan(that is going to be remedied soon), instead I had an 8-in round cake pan, which I then lined with Reynolds Non-Stick foil. The recipe said to butter the dish, personally I prefer to reduce the amount of dishes I have to do. But you’re welcome to flour the pan if you prefer. Don’t let my laziness deter you! 😉 Resolved on the pan I plan to use, I set about following the recipe to the T! For me baking is something I don’t take lightly, ingredients are expensive(especially almond flour) and this is why I measure carefully. Always. The only time I relax on not measuring ingredients exactly is when I’m cooking, which is totally different.

It really is an easy recipe from egg separating, egg white whipping, to the making of dough. Which you can either usea food  processor or a hand mixer(I chose the latter, gee wonder why?!). The only part I was remotely concerned about was when I had to incorporate the whipped egg whites into the almond flour dough. My concern was that I was going to lose all that wonderful air, thankfully I didn’t. After letting it bake for 30 minutes, I removed it from the oven and let it cool on the stove top.

After letting it sit in the pan for 30 minutes I sliced off a sliver and was not surprised at the familiar taste or texture. Eggy bread, but not too bad. It was definitely something I could work with! That’s when I began to slice the round “bread” and then each slice was cut in half to make short bread stix.(Yes, I spelled it like that on purpose!) See below…

Those who follow my blog know that I make my own garlic butter(click HERE) by the pound. It’s great to keep on hand, perfect on steaks, in soups, sauces, and shrimp scampi. After I sliced the keto bread, I placed it on a half sheet pan, again lined with foil, and proceeded to dress the stix with garlic butter and mozzarella cheese.

At this point I was still iffy about the final results, with my bread loving family I knew it might be hard to sell it to them. Fingers crossed, little prayers sent up, and dinner was finally ready. Who was first to the trough, why none other than G-Man! Shocked me, this child has come a long way. Just this week I made a chicken parmesan and he ate it without hesitation!! He  dove into the keto garlic bread and right off he said, “this is like cornbread.” That made me nervous, I hesitated at first and asked him if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Mind you this child is a hard nut to crack, he will like something completely or hate it vehemently! He took another bite and he said……”it’s good!” SUCCESS!!!!!! I felt like Sebastian from The Little Mermaid, “thank you, thank you!”

The rest of the family thought it was ok. Dad was expecting something thicker, crispier just like with regular bread. Mom concurred its texture was a bit like cornbread. And JJ, well I haven’t heard from him yet. Usually he walks through and will tell me “Amanda do good!”

For me…I am pleased, I mean it is what it is, but when you’ve gone for so long without bread it’s a welcomed substitute. It’s definitely a keeper in my book since I can eat it without worrying about it messing up my ketosis or aggravating my lower intestines. I think the next time I make this bread I’ll used my square silicone baking cups and make keto bread muffins. Something I can keep on hand in the freezer and pull out when I want a small breakfast sandwich or a roll to go with a hearty soup. This keto bread recipe would make a decent grilled cheese sandwich, pb&j, or toast it to enjoy with eggs and bacon.

As for making this dairy free, all I can say is try it out and let me know how it goes. I’m still new to the dairy free baking realm and lack the expertise. However I am eager to learn since it is better for me to be as lactose free as possible. I welcome suggestions, as long as they are soy free.

Hope this review has been a blessing to you and perhaps persuade you to try it out! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Baked Turkey Egg Muffins(LC/HF)

Morning everyone! 

What makes this recipe any different from the hundreds(if not thousands) of others out on on the web?! Nothing really, other than I can actually get these out of the silicone cups…nothing gets stuck! That’s a pet peeve of mine and one that has kept me from making these in muffin tins. I seriously recommend silicone cups/muffin liners whatever you want to call them. They are free standing which means you can place them on a sheet pan instead of a muffin pan. It has changed my baking life completely! I no longer have to use baking sprays, grease pans, or mess with paper liners, I highly recommend them!!!

Ok, on to the recipe which is truly versitile. You can use any ingredients you prefer, you can eve change it up to suit your dietary needs. 

What you’ll need:

8 eggs

8 slices of deli meat, I used turkey

1/2 onion, diced

3 mini sweet peppers, diced

1 tblsp butter or coconut oil

1/8 tsp turmeric

Kosher Salt and Black Pepper to taste

1/2 c shredded cheese, I used Seriously Sharp

In small sautee pan, melt butter or coconut oil and cook the diced onions and sweet peppers. Sprinkle on turmeric powder, kosher salt, and black pepper. Cook till onions are transparent and peppers are soft. If you want to add minced garlic, go for it. While that cooks, shred the cheese and set aside. 

Set out 8 silicone muffin cups/liners. In each cup place one slice of deli meat, the deli slices won’t hold the shape at first but once you get everything there they will. Take a pinch of cheese and place into each cup, this will help the meat to stay in place. Use a metal cereal spoon and dole out the peppers and onions into each cup. Now the fun part, careful crack an egg into each cup. Extra large eggs are too much for standard cups, so be sure to use regular or large, but nothing bigger than that. Use the remaining cheese on top of each egg and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes(depending on your oven). 

Let them sit for a few minutes before serving and pop them right out on to your plate! Enjoy with a low carb fruit, coffee/tea, or keto toast! 

These syore easily in the fridge for a few days. I wouldn’t go crazy making dozens upon dozens unless you intend on keeping them in the freezer. If you do freeze them make sure you take them out the night before and let thaw in the fridge. You can pop a few in the microwave for 30 seconds or until they are warmed through. Personally I just grab the, from the fridge and eat them cold. But not everyone is like that! 😉

Above is a close up picture of the first muffin I cut in half right after popping it out. The egg was perfectly set, yoke was creamy and not dry after 25 minutes of baking. The cheese was nicely melted, onions and peppers done to perfection! And again, this can be altered to fit your dietary needs! You can substitute egg whites instead of using a whole egg, use low fat ingredients, skip the deli meat all together and use turkey bacon, turkey sausage, pork bacon, or pork sausage. You can even make these vegetarian and load them up with spinach/kale, mushrooms, peppers, and onions serve with salsa, guacamole, and have yourself a fiesta breakfast! The possibilities truly are endless and I hope you have fun making these! 

Happy Healthy Eating!