Supper was a last-minute, thrown-together deal. I heavily seasoned some b/s chicken breast strips with garlic and chili powder, plus a little sea salt, then cooked them in a frying pan with olive oil. When they were done I cut them into big (2-bite) chunks and tossed them with the pan juices to coat all sides. I also made a simple dip of 2 parts ranch dressing and one part sour cream (full-fat of course). Buttered cauliflower with cheese sprinkled on top was our vegetable.

Beets. I love them! I buy them in a can that only contains water & salt with them. First I drain the juice into a saucepan, then I add a couple Tbsp of white vinegar and a couple Tbsp worth of sweetening. To that I add a Tbsp of butter with about 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum mashed into it. I bring it to a boil, stirring all the while; when it is thickened and boiling I add back the beets with just the tiniest pinch of cinnamon, lower the heat to medium low, cover, and let simmer for 10-15 minutes (or until I remember I have something on the stove!).

I love my beets this way, they pick up the flavors from the sauce quite well, although the sauce itself is too rich to eat...but it needs to be, to flavor the beets.

1 - When thickening a sauce or gravy, mash the xanthan or guar gum (they used flour of course) into a tablespoon of butter with the back of a fork. Once you add it to your hot liquid, the thickener is incorporated as the butter melts, so no lumps - and everything tastes better with butter! :)  That was something Giada said she learned from a chef in France...whatever she was making that day, she said that the butter would make it "glisten". I haven't had that effect, but it really is a wonderful tip that I use all the time now!

2 - Rachel made a very simple type of salsa or chutney that I made to serve with our roasted duck a couple of weeks ago. The duck is quite rich, so the combination of bite and sweet was a perfect complement to the meat. I cut up 3 slices of bacon into small bits, then fried it and drained off most of the fat for later use. Then I added a finely diced red onion and cooked it until soft. Then a can of crushed pineapple (yes, carby, but more on that in a minute) and mixed it with the onion until it was heated through. Seasoned with just a touch of cinnamon, added back in the crispy bacon at the last minute. Just a couple of spoonfuls over the meat, added on each person's plate, really made all the difference. I'd imagine it would be excellent with pork or other poultry also.

Here's my note for using crushed pineapple: There were 80g of carbs for the entire can, which is of course a lot. But if you drain off the liquid, which contains part of the sugars (even if it isn't added syrup, it still absorbs some of the sugar from the fruit - if you don't believe me, taste it *G*), and rinse the fruit in a colander. I don't know how much that reduces the carb count, but obviously it does remove some. Even adding the 14g for the onion, the amount I added to my plate was easily 1/10th or less of the entire recipe. Definitely not worth wringing my hands over :).

Enjoy!

Supper was delicious. The cornish hens turned out beautifully. After rinsing and patting them dry, I rubbed the skins with butter, then roasted them in a covered roasting pan in a 350° oven for an hour. While that was roasting I peeled and cut into chunks 2 rutabagas and diced half of a large onion, and set them all to boiling in heavily salted water, then covered, lowered the heat to left them to finish cooking.

I'd made the oopsies earlier in the day, but I made the pumpkin cheesecake dessert next. It was quite simple. 1 sm. can of pumpkin, 2c heavy whipping cream, 1 box of SF cheesecake pudding mix, 1/4c Diabetisweet brown sugar sub, ½c cold water,and hefty shakes of cinnamon and allspice. (Where did my nutmeg go???) Whipped it all at high speed until light and fluffy, then put it into a serving bowl and refrigerated it.

30 minutes before dinnertime I uncovered the hens and turned the oven temp up to 375°.

15 minutes before dinnertime I started heating the frozen whole green beans in a small frying pan with some olive oil and sea salt over medium heat, stirring occasionally while I set the table. Then I opened the can of jellied cranberry sauce (my one guilty pleasure today, I love the stuff!) and sliced it, mashed the rutabaga/onions with salt, pepper, and butter and moved them to a serving bowl; moved the green beans to a serving bowl and added a little butter on top, and put the now-golden hens on a serving platter from my childhood. A few of the oopsies were already on the table.

The photo above is our low carb (except for the cranberry sauce!) Thanksgiving dinner, plus the little dish of pure butter (and my mom's crossword books and tissues that she takes everywhere with her). For the 3 of us I felt no need to make a dozen dishes, and in fact this was plenty, and we have leftovers for tomorrow!


The dessert, served with freshly-whipped cream (to which I just added a splash of vanilla and a little Altern (Walmart's sucralose brand), since the dessert was already plenty sweet enough, and this is the result.

I have much for which to thankful, not only on Thanksgiving but every minute of every day of my blessed life. But to spend the day with the people I love, and to offer the food that I create for them with my own two hands, is what really makes the day special for me!

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.

Tonight's supper is a Smoked Ham Casserole. I started by coating a 9x13 glass casserole dish with bacon drippings (negligible cost). In the bottom I put 1# of frozen/semi-thawed brussels sprouts ($1.29), cut in half, and a half-cup (one serving) of Dreamfield's penne pasta (40c worth); to this I added about 2c of water, covered it with foil, and put it in a 350 oven. (NOTE: Do not overcook the pasta, as overcooking will cause the carbs to become digestible.)

While the pasta and sprouts were cooking, I cut up about 2# of smoked picnic ham that I'd gotten on sale for 99c/lb yesterday. After 40 minutes, I removed the foil, stirred in the ham, and put it back in the oven at 375 until the remaining water had evaporated. Tossed with 1c (66c) of shredded cheese and returned it to the oven until the cheese melted over all. (Another note: I didn't add salt because the ham and cheese are both rather salty; I never add pepper to anything because I don't like it.)

4 servings (of which my husband ate 2) for about $1.12 each. I could have added a salad or rolls (oopsies or flax or whatever) but it was plenty hearty for a complete meal on its own.

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.