I've had a craving for days that I finally satisfied at lunchtime: cut 1# of bacon into ½" pieces and fried lightly (to get "bits"); drained off most of the fat for later use; added 1/2 yellow onion, chopped, and fried with the bacon until onion was translucent and bacon was crispy; added a head of cabbage, chopped, with about ½c of water. Covered, reduced heat, and cooked for about 20 minutes, until the cabbage was soft; stirred it all up, then cooked for another 10 minutes. (If you like heat, you might want to add some red pepper flakes!)

Definitely cheap and easy! The cabbage was 60¢; the bacon was $1.79; the ½ onion was about a quarter. It made 3 large servings, so the total per serving was about 85¢. Doesn't get any cheaper than that!

Supper was a pork butt roast, which I'd gotten on sale for $1.19/lb. I brined it with sea salt (of course), chili powder, garlic and onion powder, and ginger - about 1/4c of salt and a couple of Tbsp of each of the spices. Then roasted as usual after a few hours of brining. It made an awesomely tender and flavorful roast that we'll be eating for several days. I served it with some simple veggies.

Today was a great, flavorful, cheap and easy low carb day!

When I cook or bake, I don't really measure, I just follow my instincts. So the quantities below - as in all of my recipes - are just guesses.

4 large eggs
2 tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp baking powder
1/4c almond meal
1/4c pecan meal
2 tbsp polydextrose
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients well and cook as you would in any other pancake.

I served them with butter melted over them, and SF maple syrup.

Note that this is one variation; it really depends what I have in the house, and since I don't follow recipes it's more often just what I grab :).

Tonight's supper was hash, low carb style. Browned some ground pork sausage ($1.27 for about 1.25#), added 1/2 of an onion (was 49¢ for the whole thing), coarsely chopped, 2 yellow squash (99¢ ea), diced, and a box of mushrooms that were on the "last day" rack for a buck, sliced.

A nice, CnE, "pile it on your plate and pour some ketchup on top" kind of meal. I used 2Tbsp. out of the $2.29, 14 oz. bottle of lowcarb ketchup, 16¢. Pete used some out of the big huge Gordon Foods bottle, so his was less. Anyway, still under $5 for all we could eat (there are leftovers), for both of us.

My husband makes a wonderful "breakfast fish" - that's what we call it anyway, because he often makes it in the mornings. I can never make it like he does, but it's wonderful!

He just starts with some tilapia fillets, which are thin and cook quickly, and he fries them in butter (although today he used olive oil as well and it was deliciously rich!) with a little seafood seasoning. That's it. Lots of little crispies from the pan, and it is a delight to the mouth, and carb-free, yet Cheap'n'Easy. With a 24 oz package of tilapia for $3.99, a splash of olive oil, a pat of butter, and a sprinkle of seafood seasoning, it is a filling, high-quality, single-dish breakfast or lunch for 2 at real close to two bucks apiece. And takes all of 10 minutes to make. Add a side of veggies and/or a salad and it's supper for about $5 for 2-3.

Made a buttercup squash tonight, just sliced in half, seeded, and roasted, nothing special. Planned to have it with our pork steaks, but the timing wasn't exactly right so we ate the steaks (they were HUGE) alone.

After supper I scooped the squash out into my mixing bowl and started mashing it up with the KitchenAid. Thought I'd add some butter, cinnamon (great for blood sugar control!), and DiabetiSweet brown sugar sub. Hmmm, thought I, it looks almost creamy...maybe it can be dessert. So I added a generous scoop (1/2c or so) of full-fat ricotta to cream it up a bit, then some ground cloves, since I was out of pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg both (how could that happen??)...some SF vanilla syrup...a little xylitol (because a combination of sweeteners always tastes better)...and finally some heavy cream (1/4c-ish). Then I combined it and turned the mixer on high until it got almost fluffy - certainly much lighter.

This is DEFINITELY a keeper recipe. Made enough for 4 generous servings. I don't know the carb count but the carbiest part of it was the squash. Next time I'll try it with that can of pumpkin that's been sitting in the cupboard since last Thanksgiving.

Got raves from all for Mother's Day dinner yesterday!

Rubbed a pork tenderloin (about 5#) with garlic powder, chili powder, S&P, and rosemary; roasted covered for 2 hours @ 325, then uncovered for 30 minutes @ 350. Rub made a nice crust!

Tossed chunks of frozen cauli, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots (I didn't eat carrots) with oil, garlic salt, dried onion, and italian seasoning blend, then roasted in an uncovered baking dish for the last half hour with the pork, stirring once.

Made Sam's napa cabbage salad (http://www.thecookingguy.com/cookbook/recipe.php?id=113) with a few changes: made my own dressing with dijon mustard, oil, and sweetener; used feta cheese instead of blue cheese; cooked thinly-sliced onion with the mushrooms. We don't eat desserts typically.

The whole meal was a huge hit, and looked very fancy even though it required very little work and left me lots of time with my guests! Nobody missed the bread or potatoes :).

I made a meatloaf using 1 lb of ground beef, half a bag of porkies crushed, about a Tbsp of worchestershire sauce, a quarter of an onion chopped finely and an egg.

In another baking dish I poured enough oil to cover the bottom, then mixed in some dry basil and garlic powder. Into that I tossed a bag of frozen cauli, and tossed to coat. S&P lightly.

Both of the above went into a 350 oven.

On the stovetop I put 2 drained cans of sliced shitake mushrooms into a pan with 2T butter (not fake oleo stuff), covered it, and set it on the oven-vent burner. (I don't keep fresh mushrooms because they spoil so quickly; I buy them specially if I have an immediate use for them, but keep canned and dried 'shrooms on hand.)

After 30 minutes I tossed the cauli and returned it to the oven. Then to the mushrooms (with now-melted butter) I added 8 oz of sour cream - full fat of course - a tsp of chili powder, and tsp of beef base, and a generous shake of dry basil. I stirred it all together, re-covered it, and put it on the burner set to its lowest setting.

10 minutes later I removed the meat loaf and roasted cauli from the oven, turned the burner off, and stirred the sour cream/mushroom sauce. I served it over the meatloaf. The cauli was plenty flavorful to stand on its own. The mushroom sauce had a good strong flavor - if I wanted it milder (I didn't) I would have added some cream and used just a half-tsp of the chili powder.

Today's late breakfast was so good...it's one of my favorite easy meals!

In a frying pan of hot bacon drippings over high heat I broke 3 eggs, then lowered the heat to low/medium and broke the yolks with a fork, spreading them over the whites. Onto the eggs I sprinkled some chopped frozen spinach pieces, letting a few fall into the fat to fry alone, then some quartered pepperoni slices, and finished it off with a handful of shredded mozzarella. Covered the pan and walked away for 10 minutes. After I slid it onto my plate I put the fried spinach bits on top, just for the sake of embellishment :).

When I haven't used pepperoni, I also like this with salsa and sour cream (full-fat, of course!) on top!

Root vegetables, other than carrots, weren't something I ate much of as I was growing up. As a result, I never really had an interest in them. But now, eating low carb, it's a whole 'nother story! I recently got some turnips on sale, and had to use them. Since my husband had roasted chicken for our dinner earlier and had left the pan on the stovetop, I peeled and diced a couple of turnips and tossed them in the chicken drippings with a few pieces of bacon, and put it back in the oven. About 20 minutes later I had THE most delicious vegetable dish I think I've ever eaten! The turnips were dark brown and caramelized...I put them in a bowl with a little (1 Tbsp or so) shredded cheddar cheese on top and had them for my afternoon snack-meal-thing. (Hubby is at work and I usually don't have full meals when I'm alone, I just sort of graze.) So sweet and tender, a little sticky...oh no, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! And about 12gN carbs for the whole thing.

As my dad used to say, "You can't beat that with a stick!"