Michael Van Cise

What is better than finding a new food that you either have not tried or did not previously like? My newest revelation is beets. Yeah, yeah, I know, it seems hard to get excited about beets unless maybe you're checked in to a retirement home.

I never ate beets growing up. Even though my mom grew fresh vegetables in our backyard garden, she does not like beets so they never crossed my lips. I may have tried some beets on a salad bar growing up, but I mostly eschewed beets.

I recently "discovered" beets in ordering beet salads. I found that with mixed greens, the addition of the soft yet slightly firm and almost crunchy beet was a nice addition to a salad. Beets are a little bit sweet, but with an earthiness that you don't find in a sweet vegetable like sweet potatoes or parsnips. Beets are a little like carrots in the way that a carrot has a litttle "bite" to tone down the sweetness. But, I really despise cooked carrots, so the comparison only goes so far.

Although I've eaten beets (both red beets yellow beets--apparently there are some other kinds too), I have never cooked them. The cooking of the beets has sold me on them. I followed the instructions from my well-used Joy of Cooking cookbook. All you do to cook beets is rinse the beets, cut the greens off leaving a little bit of the stem, and boil the beets (increasing the time with the size of the beet; I voiled mine about 30 minutess); you don't peel them (i.e., very low . Once the beets are tender when pierced (just like you'd check the doneness of a boiled new potato) you drain off the water and put the cooked beets in cold water. Here comes the really cool part: the cookbook said to "peel" the beets at this point. I pictured myself with a vegetable peeler "peeling" the beets like you would a raw vegetable. "Peeling" the cooked beets, however, can be done with your hands. You apply a little pressure to the skin and it comes right off! It doesn't really slide off in one big chunk, but it's easy to quickly remove the peel. Even the bit of the stem that you've left on just slides off.

When I compare the beet and the ease of cooking against another vegetable I "discovered" recently, the sun choke, the beet is far easier to prepare. Sun chokes require peeling when raw and have lots of crevices (kind of like ginger root or a really funky potato). This ease of preparation is a big plus and will probably mean that I have beets on the plate or in my salads with some frequency.

The carb-count on beets isn't super-low, but beets have about 2/3 the carb count of the equivalent amount of parsnips and are well below potatoes or onions in terms of carbs.

I know there isn't much of a recipe here. Tonight I just boiled the beets in some salted water, then sliced one of the beets into cubes and ate it as a side with my grilled asparagus and blue cheese filled hamburger patty. Super simple, but tasty.

My wife and I always look forward to the holiday season, partly for the availability of egg nog. The cool, thick, flavorful drink is wonderful. Since I prefer it without any alcohol, it's sweet and dessert-like.
Most storebought versions are loaded with sugar and therefore not a good option for someone trying to limit his intake of carbohydrates. In fact, egg nog doesn't fall on anyone's diet because for those following the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and U.S. Government recommendations, the high fat content is a no-no.
Mark Sisson's website, "Mark's Daily Apple" supplied a recipe that isn't AHA, ACS friendly, but falls more closely within the law carb lifestyle. You'll find his post, including pictures here.
My wife and I made it with a can of coconut milk, heavy cream to round out the two cups, a teaspoon of maple syrup, and the three egg yolks.

The result is thick and creamy, as egg nog should be. The use of the coconut milk instead of a dairy product probably removed it from closely resembling egg nog in anything but color, thickness, and texture. In other words, it did not taste like egg nog. That being said, it still had all the things I like about egg nog: slightly thick, cool, and refreshing.

I had my first taste right after we cooked it and chilled the drink. After about a 20 hour fast (read more about fasting here and here) I had my second tasting. Perhaps it was because of the fast, or maybe the time in the fridge allowed the flavors to meld together, but the drink was more flavorful and dynamic. The cinnamon and nutmeg topping recommended at Mark's Daily Apple

Ingredients

• two tomatoes
• pesto sauce (storebought)
• monterey jack cheese (shredded)
• three green onions
• small amount of bacon fat to grease pan

Cooking Instructions
Slice the tomatoes in half. Remove the seeds from the tomato by gently squeezing the tomato, or by using a knife or spoon to scoop out the seeds. Place the tomatoes flat-side down on a paper towel to allow the tomatoes to drain. Pre-heat your grill (I used a gas grill) to a medium/medium-high heat. Slice the white part of your green onion and a little of the tops of each one.
Mix the pesto, grated cheese, and sliced green onion together in a bowl shallow and small enough that you don't have a lot of waste on the sides, but open and large enough that you can mix the ingredients together. (I used the teaspoon sized measuring spoon that I used to scoop out the pesto sauce to do the mixing to reduce cleanup afterwards).
After the tomatoes have drained for a few minutes, grease a small square baking tin (I used bacon fat, but you could use olive oil or coconut oil) place the tomatoes cut-side up and salt and pepper the tomatoes.
Next, place the pesto-mixture on top of the tomatoes, using about an equal amount on each tomato half. Then place the pan on the grill and cook the tomatoes with the top down for 12-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the tomatoes are warmed and the outer skin is starting to peel back and wrinkle.

Comments
This is a fairly simple and quick low carbohydrate side dish that is sure to please. The bright red of the tomato set against the green of the pesto is visually appealing. The flavor of roasted tomato alone is wonderful, and when paired with the pesto-cheese mix is even better. I find pesto can sometimes dominate a dish, but the monterey jack cheese cuts the pesto flavor a little and allows the tomato to come through.
This dish could very easily be cooked in the oven as opposed to on the grill. I tried it in the oven at 350 degrees and cooked the tomatoes for 12 minutes. This was not long enough, not hot enough, or both. Although when I first posted, I suggested using a 325 degree oven, I now think that 375 or 400 is probably a more appropriate temperature unless you extended the cook time to closer to twenty minutes.

I used Alessi pesto. It contains: olive oil, basil, pecorino romano cheese, pine nuts, salt, garlic, white balsalmic vinegar, and some preservatives. It's a little pricey, but I like it for its flavor and the fact that it does not contain any soy oil or corn oil and has minimal preservatives. If you have more time, you may wish to make your own pesto. I've never made it myself, but understand that it's not too difficult.

My mom makes a similar dish in the oven which is also quite wonderful, but her dish calls for bread crumbs. In mom's roasted tomatoes, you take Roma tomatoes (as opposed to full-sized tomatoes in this recipe) slice them in half (don't remove the seeds), line them up on a baking sheet and top each tomato with bread crumbs, salt, basil (I think), and a pat of butter. Cook them in the oven (350 degrees) until the butter is melted, the tomatoes are warm and soft, and the breadcrumbs have browned slightly. You may need to use the broiler to finish the tomatoes if they don't brown on their own. You could try using coconut flour or flakes (see my post on "fried" chicken using coconut flakes here) but the coconut flavor might ruin the dish.

I apologize for not including a picture, but I had company and was more concerned with getting the food on the table and eating it than I was with photographing it. My wife liked the dish and even said, "we should make it again," so I hope to add a picture in time.

I found this recipe in The Big Book of Easy Suppers by Maryana Vollstedt. The subtitle of the cookbook is "270 Delicious Recipes for Casual Everyday Cooking." I have found it to be an excellent cookbook that delivers what it promises: very tasty dishes that don't take a lot of preparation, don't have a long list of ingredients, and are pretty easy to make. It's not a primal or lowcarb cookbook, but one I'm glad I own.

Links to Simple, Low Carbohydrate Dinner Recipes

• Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin over Apple and Onion
• Roast Chicken with Onion and Eggplant

• Coconut Crusted Chicken (low carb 'fried' chicken)

Links to Simple, Low Carbohydrate Breakfast Recipes

• One pan sausage and egg breakfast (fried cheese variation)
• One pan sausage and egg breakfast
• German Farmer's Breakfast

You may have seen my previous post in which I discussed finding a non-vegetable oil bleu cheese dressing at Whole Foods Market. I posted the contents of that dressing as well as some recipes I found on a quick search of the internet.

I tried the epicurious recipe (with some modifications) to some slight disappointment.

The epicurious recipe calls for:

• garlic
• salt
• dijon mustard
• lemon juice
• white wine vinegar
• olive oil
• sour cream
• crumbled bleu cheese

Because I didn't have all of the above, I used instead:

• garlic
• salt
• dijon mustard
• lime juice
• red wine vinegar
• olive oil
• sour cream
• crumbled bleu cheese
• buttermilk

In addition to substituting what I had for the called-for ingredients, I did not follow the epicurious recipe to the letter. Where the epicurious recipe calls for use of a blender, I used, instead, elbow grease and a whisk. In addition, instead of using 2 tablespoons of water, I ended up adding about 1 1/3 cups of buttermilk.

While the end result was of a good consistency: thicker than the Whole Foods dressing, but not quite as thick as commercial storebought dressings, the dressing was not as tasty as I had hoped. My wife seemed to think that the dijon mustard was the dominant flavor and she opted for storebought dressing in lieu of what we had made. I did not find the dijon mustard to be the dominant flavor, but I think the use of red wine vinegar ruined the flavor of the dressing. I felt that the dressing had a strong vinegar flavor and I added the buttermilk in the hopes that the vinegar bite would be covered-up. In the end, the buttermilk did not work. No amount of buttermilk would overcome the overpowering vinegar flavor. Perhaps it was the combination of the dijon mustard along with the red wine vinegar, but this attempt was a bust. I'll keep trying and hope to bring you a good bleu cheese dressing recipe in the near future.

UPDATE
I pulled out the dressing to add it to my grilled hamburger. I found the dressing to be less vinegary and more mellow. I think allowing the dressing to sit for a while to allow the flavors to blend helped. So if you want to make the above recipe (and probably any bleu cheese dressing recipe) you may want to make it a few hours, or a few days, before you want to eat it for the best results.

I have been wanting to make my own sauerkraut. I attempted to make my own this week for the first time. Sadly, my first attempt failed and I had to throw out the rotting sliced, salted cabbage. I need to find a better container and perhaps do a little more reading and youtube watching about how to make it.

Once I figure it out, I look forward to trying these recipes I found on other sites:

Beer-braised sausages and sauerkraut

sauerkraut braised in beer

I did find a tasty and preservative-free sauerkraut at whole foods. Even though the jar is a little pricey, the sauerkraut is packed into the jar pretty tightly, so you get a lot and it goes a long way when you plate it in a less packed-in fashion. The A-Grosik brand sauerkraut I purchased is imported from poland and is packaged in a 33 oz. jar. The packaging lists its ingredients as merely: White Cabbage and Salt. Sadly, the jar does not indicate if the bacteria which turned the cabbage to sauerkraut is still living in the jar (I hope it is) or if they somehow sterilized or pasteurized the sauerkraut before packaging it. If you are like me and can't yet make your own, this seems like a good substitute.

I adapted this recipe from a recipe I found at the "A Spoonful of Sugar" blog. The blogger used pancetta to wrap the pork. I used what I had at the house for the following:

Ingredients

• two pork tenderloins
• one-half sweet onion such as vidalia
• one sweet apple such as gala
• 12-16 sage leaves
• one-third to one-half pound bacon

Cooking Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Core an apple and slice it into rounds which are a few centimeters thick (2-3 cm). Slice the onion similarly.

Line a cookie sheet with alumnium foil. Line up the sliced apple-rounds the length of the pork. Place the fresh sage leaves along the apple row. Then, place the onion over the top of the apple and sage.

Coat the pork tenderloin with white and black pepper heavily, and lightly salt with coarse kosher salt. Then, wrap the tenderloin with bacon, taking the thin end of the tenderloin and folding it up so that the tenderloin has approximately uniform thickness. Use toothpicks through the bacon to hold the bacon on the pork and to hold the thin end together.

Once the oven is preheated, cook the pork for about 30 minutes. After you remove the dish, cover it with a layer of tinfoil, then layer some kitchen towels or placemats or other cloth and allow the meat to rest for 8-10 minutes. Your meat thermometer will tell you to allow pork to reach a temperature, in the center, of 160 degrees, but if immediately after pulling the pork out of hte oven, the temperature of the center registers 150 degrees, the pork will finish cooking as it rests and you are done cooking. After the pork has rested, slice and serve.

The "spoonful of sugar" site calls for spreading olive oil over the meat, but since I used bacon (and was out of olive oil) I figured the fat from the bacon was sufficient to season the pork.

While I listed salt among the ingredients here, I did not salt the pork I prepared tonight. I thought it was plenty flavorful, but my wife found the dish to be underseasoned (thus, I added salt to the ingredient list). The sweetness of the apple blends well with the sage and onion and goes really well with the pork. Since everything cooks in one dish in the oven, it's really simple, and, other than the fresh sage, contains simple, easy to find ingredients you likely have in the house most of the time anyway.

I don't normally have fresh sage, but I recently picked up some live herbs from Home Depot. I bought rosemary, basil, lavender, cilantro, and sage plants. I highly recommend starting a small herb garden. It's hard to buy fresh herbs in small amounts at the store, and I have really enjoyed being able to walk on to the porch, snip the herbs I need for dinner, and leave the rest growing on the plant.

This dish is relatively low-carb, though the apple and onion may be too much for someone who's really restricting carbs.

It might also be nice to use rosemary instead of the sage.

Links to Other Simple, Low Carbohydrate Dinner Recipes

• Coconut Crusted Chicken (low carb "fried chicken")
• Roast Chicken with Onion and Eggplant

Links to Simple, Low Carbohydrate Breakfast Recipes

• One pan sausage and egg breakfast (fried cheese variation)
• One pan sausage and egg breakfast
• German Farmer's Breakfast

My wife had read about coconut flour here and found a recipe for coconut coated chicken at the same site. This is an excellent recipe that is quite easy and very tasty. If you're like me and you really enjoy fried chicken, this is an outstanding low-carb alternative to the deep fried, flour-coated stuff you might find at Publix, KFC, Bojangles, Mrs. Winners, Church's, Popeye's, Zaxby's, Guthrie's, or any self-respecting southern cooking establishment.

Ingredients

• 2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1-2 lightly beaten eggs
• coconut flakes (e.g., Bob's Red Mill medium shredded unsweetened coconut)
• coconut oil
• salt & pepper

Cooking Instructions

Place the chicken breasts between saran wrap and beat the breasts flat. I typically use my fist or the palm of my hand, but, alternatively, you could use a mallet or a large spoon. Salt and pepper both sides of each chicken breast. Lightly beat one egg for two breasts or two eggs for four breasts in a shallow bowl. Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in a large skillet (medium heat). Next, spread coconut flakes on a plate or flat surface and coat the chicken breasts in the coconut flakes. After coating the "dry" breasts, dip each breast in the egg and then dredge the egg coated chicken in the flour. Place the coated chicken breasts in the hot skillet.
Brown the chicken on both sides until the chicken is cooked throughout.

Comments

I was very impressed with this dish. To my surprise, the chicken is not overly sweet and not overpowered by coconut flavor. I have found that cooking certain things in coconut oil can leave the dish tasting like coconut. For example, cooking summer squash or onions in coconut oil is a bad idea unless you like coconut flavored squash/onions. This chicken, on the other hand, tastes a great deal like the fried chicken my mother would make. The coconut flakes are not sweet or overpowering. Unlike the coconut I was accustomed to: sweetened coconut like you'd find on a coconut cake or in Almond Joy candy, the coconut flakes are rather mild and complement, rather than dominate, the chicken. Similarly, the coconut oil allows you to nicely brown the chicken, but unlike the dominance it exerts over vegetables, it heightens the flavor of the chicken and almost replicates the juicy deliciousness of quality fried chicken.

I am a fried chicken fanatic and converting to a low carbohydrate diet just became much more palatable now that I have found what I believe to be a near replacement for traditional fried chicken.

Please note that Mark's Daily Apple suggests using coconut flour (a more finely ground version of coconut meat that resembles wheat flour in consistency) as the first coat. Because my wife and I were unable to locate coconut flour in our local Whole Foods grocery store, we just used the coconut flakes in both steps. Overall, the result was fantastic.

Links to Other Simple, Low Carbohydrate Dinner Recipes

• Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin over Apple and Onion
• Roast Chicken with Onion and Eggplant

Links to Simple, Low Carbohydrate Breakfast Recipes

• One pan sausage and egg breakfast (fried cheese variation)
• One pan sausage and egg breakfast
• German Farmer's Breakfast

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (3-4 pounds)
• 1 medium to large eggplant
• 1 large sweet onion; such as vidalia
• olive oil or butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 lemon; quartered
• salt & pepper

Cooking Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Skin the eggplant and cut into 1/2 in. cubes. Cut the onion into eighths. Place the onion and eggplant into a large rectangular baking dish and pour oil and salt over the vegetables and mix them so the oil is evenly distributed. Remove any giblets from the chicken, rinse, and dry the bird. Coat the chicken with the olive oil and salt and pepper the outside of the chicken. Place the lemon in the cavity of the chicken. Push the vegetables to the outside of the baking dish and place the chicken, breast side up, in the dish.

Place the dish in the oven for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, pull the dish out and stir the vegetables around so that the eggplant doesn't burn. Roast the dish for another 20 minutes.

After the dish has cooked for a total of 45 minutes, pull the dish out and tilt the chicken up to pour the juices into the pan and mix the vegetables with the juices. If the chicken is browning too quickly, loosely cover the dish with aluminum foil. Return the dish to the oven for another 20-30 minutes until the chicken registers 170 on a meat thermometer.

Once the chicken reaches 170, remove the dish from the oven and place the chicken on a platter or cutting board, covering it with aluminum foil and rest the chicken for 10 minutes. After the chicken has rested, carve the chicken and serve it with the vegetables, spooning the juices from the baking dish over the chicken and vegetables.

Comments

I was inspired to try this recipe from a wonderful recipe in the Bride and Groom cookbook by Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening Barber. The original calls for potatoes and carrots and a whole lemon. I substituted eggplant in lieu of the potatoes to reduce the carb count of the dish and reduced the lemon because I find a whole lemon to be too much. I also eliminated the carrots because I don't enjoy cooked carrots, but you could include carrots, or use a whole lemon to suit your taste. The original recipe also calls for a sprig of fresh rosemary. I find the simplicity of the salt, pepper, and chicken fat mixed with the vegetables to be very flavorful and I don't think the rosemary is necessary.

The eggplant does not withstand the heat in the same way the potatoes would, so it helps to stir the eggplant a few times during the cooking. Even though the eggplant is not as pretty as roasted potatoes and the eggplant may blacken some, the eggplant roasts nicely and tastes wonderful.

Links to Other Simple, Low Carbohydrate Dinner Recipes

• Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin over Apple and Onion
• Coconut Crusted Chicken (low carb "fried chicken")

Links to Simple, Low Carbohydrate Breakfast Recipes

• One pan sausage and egg breakfast (fried cheese variation)
• One pan sausage and egg breakfast
• German Farmer's Breakfast

Ingredients

• 1/4 lb. sausage
• 4 large eggs
• about 1/4 cup heavy cream
• about 1/4 cup of cheese

Cooking Instructions

Turn your stove to medium heat and place a skillet over the heat. Add the sausage and fully cook the sausage, breaking it up with a spatula or spoon. While the sausage cooks, scramble four eggs in a bowl. Next, add the heavy cream to the eggs and mix the egg/cream mixture. Once the sausage is fully cooked and broken into small pieces, add the cheese. Try to break up the cheese as it melts, but it will be sticky and begin to glob together. Once you have added all the cheese and allowed it to fry for a moment (15 seconds or so) turn the heat to low and add the egg mixture, stirring and turning to prevent the eggs from burning. Once the eggs are done, serve. This dish serves two with generous portions.

Comments

I was inspired to try this variant on the One Pan Sausage & Egg Dish after watching Tom Naughton's Fat Head. Tom Naughton says that one of his favorite low carb dishes is shredded cheddar cheese fried in coconut oil. I wondered if frying the cheese before adding the scrambled egg & cream mixture to the dish would be tasty.

Cooking the cheese first gives the cheese a stronger flavor and does not allow the cheese to mix with the eggs in the same way as if you finish cooking the eggs as the cheese melts (i.e. add the cheese after the eggs and mix in the cheese as the eggs finish cooking). The cheese chunks together and sticks to the sausage, so you end up with sausage-cheese-clumps in your eggs. I prefer the way I usually cook the dish, but this was worth a try. If you are like Naughton and really like fried cheese, you may prefer this variant on the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/4 lb. sausage
• 4 eggs
• about 1/4 cup heavy cream
• cheese to cover egg & sausage mixture

Cooking Instructions

Turn your stove to medium heat and place a skillet over the heat. Add the sausage and cook the sausage, breaking it up with a spatula or spoon as the sausage cooks. While the sausage cooks, scramble four eggs in a bowl. Once the eggs are sufficiently scrambled, add the heavy cream to the eggs and scramble the egg/cream mixture. Once the sausage is fully cooked and broken into small pieces, turn the heat to low and add the egg mixture, stirring and turning to prevent the eggs from burning. Once the eggs are almost done, cover the egg/sausage mixture with cheese. Finish cooking the eggs to full done-ness and serve once the cheese is melted.

Comments

The German Farmer's Breakfast Recipe is simple and delicious, but it is slightly more involved and time-consuming than I can manage on a workday morning even though everything is in one dish. Using the German Farmer's Breakfast as my inspiration, I tried cooking sausage in a pan, then adding scrambled eggs to the sausage.

Throwing the eggs into the cooked sausage worked well. The fat which cooks off of the sausage eliminates the need for adding butter to the pan for scrambled eggs, and the eggs cook fairly rapidly in the hot pan and hot grease. Since the sausage is salty, I do not add salt. Both of these things save time. I find this to be a quick, one pan breakfast, that is tasty and full of good fat. I enjoy this dish on many workday mornings.

Sausage Selection. Because the sausage will add the bulk of the flavor to the dish, select a sausage that has flavors you like. If you like spicy dishes, try a hot sausage. If you prefer something sweeter, select a maple sausage. For more savory flavor, go with a sausage that is seasoned with sage. I particularly like Jimmy Dean's Regular All-Natural Sausage because it contains no grain fillers, no msg, and no sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite preservatives.

Heavy Cream. I add the heavy cream to the egg mixture for multiple reasons:

• It makes the eggs creamier and tastier
• It makes the eggs go farther
• It increases the saturated fat and total fat content of the dish

Cheese Variations.

I typically use cheddar cheese in this dish because it does not overpower the dish, is inexpensive, and can be purchased already shredded in easy-to-open-and-close bags. I typically purchase something like Kraft Natural Cheese. Buying pre-shredded cheese saves time, but the pre-shredded cheese often contains some starch to keep the cheese from caking, so if you have the extra time, you may want to shred the cheese yourself immediately before cooking the dish. An excellent cheese which I recently tried (though I haven't had it in the eggs, yet) is Trader Joe's Raw Milk Cheddar.

Parmesan cheese is a vary good variation. I first tried parmesan when I had run out of cheddar. Parmesan has a stronger flavor, and even though it is a hard cheese, it melts very well. Again, to save time, we typically have pre-shredded parmesan in the fridge. Mixing a small amount of parmesan in with cheddar is tasty and nice for a change.