Tonight I made a "triple meat" dish. Sounds strange but was SO GOOD! As always, super easy...not as always, a little pricier - but I didn't have to buy the can of crab meat ($2! I'd never buy it!)

I started with b/s chicken thighs, which I flattened. Onto each piece I put a generous blob (technical culinary term) of a mixture of cream cheese and crab meat - 1 block and 1 can, respectively. Then I rolled them up, wrapped them in bacon, and stuffed them - literally - in a Pyrex loaf pan; after 90 minutes in a 325 oven they were done. SO EASY but fancy-looking and delicious! No seasoning required.

With it I served some Dreamfield's penne pasta tossed with chopped spinach and butter, seasoned with sea salt, and sprinkled some Italian blend shredded cheese.

GREAT MEAL!

For supper I made a fish dinner, photo below. The sauce is simply mayo with a little dill weed, a splash of lemon juice, a sprinkle of Old Bay, and a little cream to thin it out. I also roasted (with olive oil and sea salt) a mixture of parsnips, zucchini, and brussels sprouts, and made my lovely cole slaw.* The fish is a lightly breaded fish from GFS, about 15gN per piece. Cost is about 30 pieces for $19.95 - MUCH less expensive (and less carby!) than going out for fish dinners at the restaurant!

*My cole slaw recipe - I buy great big bags of shredded cabbage at GFS for under 5 bucks. Using some of that, I add a sauce of mayo/cream (3/1 ratio, approx.) which I whip - then a generous amount of seasoned salt and splenda to taste. Simple, and whipping it helps keep the dressing from running to the bottom of the bowl.

Last recipe post for the day - and probably for the week :). This is one I threw together because I had an intense craving for Mexican food. It's maybe a little carbier than some of the others but was definitely worth it - and tasted even better reheated the next day!

I put some enchilada sauce (carb-cheap! who knew?) in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish, then a low carb tortilla onto which I'd spread some refried beans, then sprinkled a handful of shredded cheese on it and spooned some sauce over; then another tortilla,  layer of crumbled ground beef that had been browned with chopped onion, cheese, and sauce; another tortilla/beans/cheese/sauce; another tortilla/beef/cheese sauce; and a final tortilla with beans, then sauce again, and topped it with a big handful of shredded cheese. Baked it in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes, or until the cheese started to brown on top, then served it with a generous heap of full fat sour cream on top.

This was EXCELLENT! The photo below shows one serving, or 1/8 of the entire recipe. I haven't figured up the carbs yet because I threw away the cans for the beans and the sauce without thinking. Certainly the tortillas (7gN each) and the beans were the carbiest parts, and if I had to try to remember what the cans listed for net carbs, and do the math in my head, I'd say there were close to 100gN in the entire recipe, plus the sour cream...but that's 8 portions, so only 12-13 per portion, plus sour cream. But that could be way wrong :).

Here's a photo, you can see that the servings are plenty big!

This was so easy...I rinsed a package of shirataki noodles. While they were draining I cut some onion into skinny slivers and put it, along with a bag of slaw mix, into a hot pan with a little bacon fat in the bottom. When they started to get limp, I added the noodles, and handful of fresh pea pods, and some sliced mushrooms, then seasoned it all with sesame oil and soy sauce, along with powdered garlic and ginger (heavy on the ginger!). Reduced the heat, covered, and when the cabbage was cooked, served it with some chicken that I'd brined in heavily salted water with garlic and lots of ginger, in addition to the sea salt and some Diabetisweet Brown Sugar sub before roasting.

I know it says breasts but I think it would be great with thighs also...I had breasts I'd just gotten on sale though (99¢/lb) so I used those.

For the stuffing I combined equal parts (maybe a couple of Tbsp each) of full-fat cream cheese, butter, and parmesan from the green can. Then I mashed in about a Tbsp of Knorr's Alfredo sauce mix.

I took the resulting glop and, after separating the skin from the meat to make a pocket, stuffed the breasts. (I didn't think of it, but afterward I realized I could have cut slits into the meat to get the flavor even more into it.) After all 4 were stuffed, I brushed the tops with olive oil and put them into a 375º oven; because the breasts were enormous, it took them nearly an hour to get done.

But OHHHHHHH were they worth it! The meat was so juicy, and infused with the flavors of the stuffing...it was AMAZING!!!

This is something I made just today. I wanted warm creamy comfort food and this absolutely filled the bill!

First I rinsed, drained, and lightly chopped some shirataki noodles. Then I crumbled ground beef into a pan with the noodles and cooked it until the beef was browned, and added about a half-cup of frozen asparagus that I had left, chopped into 1/2" pieces, plus a can of mushrooms and 2 Tbsp of Knorr Alfredo Sauce mix to coat it all with 2 Tbsp of butter and a little sea salt. When the butter was melted I added a cup of cream, and let it come to a boil, stirring constantly, then down to simmer until the sauce had thickened.

This is just very basic, and, although delicious, could be easily modified with any meats or vegetables you might have in the house, and any spices you'd care to add as well. If I liked spicy, for example, I might have added pepper flakes. And now that I'm out of frozen asparagus, I could see adding green beans or brussels sprouts (halved probably), or spinach. Certainly it would work with chicken or pork also. But it was quick, easy, cheap, basic, filling, comforting, and low in carbs. Perfect!

Today was a one-meal day, consisting of pork chops marinated, with butternut squash medallions, and salad.

Recipes - for the marinade: dijon mustard, a few shakes of sesame oil, a few shakes of soy sauce, and a few shakes of liquid smoke, plus onion and garlic powder, ginger, sea salt, cinnamon, and diabetisweet brown sugar sub; marinated for 3 hours, then roasted on a rack @ 375 for 25 minutes. For the squash medallions, I peeled and sliced a butternut squash, then tossed the slices with olive oil, sea salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a touch of diabetisweet brown sugar sub. Laid the slices on a large sheet pan and roasted them at 425F for 20 minutes, then 375F for 25 minutes after I put the pork in the oven. I turned the medallions once, also at the time I put the pork in the oven.

Pork was $1.29/lb; our package was $2.37 and fed 4 adults with some left over. The squash was 69c/lb and cost under $1.00 (don't remember exactly how much); also fed 4 adults with some left over. Used a 50¢ bag of mixed greens. Add the salad dressing and seasonings for another $1 - a VERY liberal guesstimate, I'm sure it wasn't nearly that much - and all 4 of us had a great meal for about $5.00 total.

(Have I dispelled the "low carb is so expensive!" myth yet? :).)