1001 Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious Recipes From Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back (24 page)

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 cup (120 g) shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup (110 g) shredded Swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C, or gas mark 4).

In a large, heavy, oven-proof skillet, start browning and crumbling the sausage over medium heat.

When some grease has cooked out of the sausage, add the green pepper and the onion and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the sausage is no longer pink.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and pepper together and stir in the cheddar and Swiss cheeses.

Spread the sausage and vegetables evenly on the bottom of the skillet and pour the egg and cheese mixture over it. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until mostly firm but still just a little soft in the center.

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 4 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and 26 grams of protein.

Quiche has somehow acquired a reputation for being foofy, girly food—but it’s entirely made of stuff men love! So tell your husband this is “Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Pie” and watch him it down.

1 Pie Crust, unbaked (page 520)

8 ounces (225 g) Gruyère cheese

12 slices bacon

5 eggs

½ cup (120 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream, or you can use 1 cup (240 ml) half-and-half in place of the Carb Countdown and the cream

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon (15 ml) dry vermouth

½ teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal

¼ teaspoon pepper

Have your crust ready in the pan and standing by. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C, or gas mark 4).

Shred your cheese and cook and drain your bacon—I microwave my bacon, and I find that 1 minute per slice on high is about right, but your microwave may be a little different.

First put the cheese in the pie shell, covering the bottom evenly. Crumble the bacon evenly over the cheese.

Now whisk together the eggs, Carb Countdown dairy beverage, cream, nutmeg, vermouth, salt, and pepper. Pour this over the cheese and bacon. Bake for 45 minutes and then cool. It’s actually traditional to serve Quiche Lorraine at room temperature, but you certainly may warm it if you like.

Yield:
8 servings

Each with 32 g protein; 4 g carbohydrate; 1 g dietary fiber; 3 g usable carbs.

Almond-Parmesan Crust, prebaked (page 136)

8 ounces (225 g) sliced mushrooms

½ cup (80 g) chopped onion

2 tablespoons (30 g) butter

10 ounces (280 g) frozen chopped spinach, thawed

3 eggs

¾ cup (175 ml) heavy cream

¾ cup (175 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

2 tablespoons (30 ml) dry vermouth

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1½ cups (180 g) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Have your crust ready first. Preheat oven to 325°F (170°C, or gas mark 3).

In a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat, sauté the mushrooms and onion in the butter until the onion is translucent and the mushrooms are limp. Transfer the mixture into a large mixing bowl, preferably one with a pouring lip.

Dump your thawed spinach into a strainer and using clean hands, squeeze all the moisture out of it you can. Add it to the mushroom mixture.

Now add the eggs, cream, and Carb Countdown dairy beverage. Whisk the whole thing up until well combined. Whisk in the vermouth, salt, and pepper.

Cover the bottom of the Almond-Parmesan Crust with the Monterey Jack and put it in the oven for a couple of minutes until the cheese just starts to melt. Take it out of the oven and pour in the egg-vegetable mixture—your quiche will be very full! Very carefully place it back in the oven. It’s a good idea to place a flat pan under it, on the floor of the oven, to catch any drips.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until just set in the center. Let cool. Quiche is traditionally served at room temperature, but if you like it warm, it’s better to make this ahead, let it cool, chill it, and then cut slices and warm them for a minute or two on 70 percent power in your microwave, rather than serving it right out of the oven.

Yield:
8 servings

Each with 17 g protein; 10 g carbohydrate; 4 g dietary fiber; 6 g usable carbs.

This crustless quiche is wonderful, but feel free to make any quiche recipe you’ve got, minus the crust, in the same way. For this recipe, I use broccoli cuts that are bigger than chopped broccoli but smaller than florets, and I think they’re ideal.

2 cups (500 g) frozen broccoli florets, thawed and coarsely chopped, or a bag of broccoli cuts

2 cups (225 g) shredded Colby cheese

6 slices cooked bacon

4 eggs

2 cups (475 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

1 teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal

1 teaspoon dry mustard

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish

¼ teaspoon pepper

Spray a 1½-quart (1.4-L) glass casserole dish (make sure it fits inside your slow cooker) with nonstick cooking spray.

Put the broccoli in the bottom of the casserole dish. Spread the cheese evenly on top of the broccoli and crumble the bacon evenly over the cheese.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, Carb Countdown, salt or Vege-Sal, dry mustard, horseradish, and pepper and pour it over the broccoli in the casserole dish.

Place the casserole dish in your slow cooker and carefully pour water around the casserole dish to within 1 inch (2.5 cm) of the rim. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 4 hours.

Turn off the slow cooker, uncover it, and let the water cool until you can remove the casserole dish without risk of scalding your fingers. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 20 g protein, 6 g carbohydrate, 2 g dietary fiber, 4 g usable carbs.

This can be made on the stove top, is quick and cheap to make, uses up any sort of leftover meat, is high in protein and low in carbohydrates, needs no side dishes, is infinitely variable, and tastes good to boot! How much more can you ask from a recipe? Because this recipe can be varied so much, what I’ve given you is more a guideline than hard and fast rules.

4 eggs

2 teaspoons dry sherry

1 tablespoon (15 ml) soy sauce

Peanut oil, or other bland oil for frying

½ teaspoon grated ginger

2 to 3 ounces (50 to 90 g) leftover cooked meat, cut into small strips,* or canned chunk turkey, chicken, or ham, or canned shrimp or crabmeat

1 cup (75 g) Napa cabbage or green cabbage, finely shredded, or bagged coleslaw mix, or 1 cup (50 g) bean sprouts, or some combination of the two

¼ cup (30 g) mushrooms, canned or fresh, finely chopped

¼ cup (40 g) onion or scallions, finely minced

¼ cup (30 g) bamboo shoots, cut into matchstick strips

Beat the eggs with the sherry and the soy sauce. Set aside. In a large skillet, heat a few tablespoons of oil over high heat. Add the ginger, then the meat and remaining ingredients. Stir-fry until the onion is translucent and the cabbage or bean
sprouts are tender-crisp. Stir the meat and vegetables into the seasoned eggs. Add another few tablespoons of oil to the skillet and heat.

Ladle about ½ cup (120 ml) of the egg mixture at a time into the skillet and fry on both sides until the egg is set.

You can cook this in a wok if you want to be authentic, but I actually find that a skillet is a lot easier for this recipe.

Yield:
2 servings

The carb count will vary a little, but each serving will have close to 6 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 4 grams of usable carbs and 26 grams of protein.

* Use ham, pork, turkey, chicken, or shrimp— whatever you’ve got. If they’re little bitty shrimp, leave ‘em whole. If they’re great big shrimp, chop them coarsely.

Kedgeree is a traditional dish made with rice, flaked smoked mackerel or halibut, and hardboiled eggs. I wanted to decarb it, but smoked mackerel and halibut are hard to come by, and I refuse to include impossible-to-find ingredients. Then I found a recipe for “Vedgeree,” a vegetarian take-off, so I decarbed it, and it was yummy. This recipe will make a satisfying one-dish meal out of a couple of hard-boiled eggs. You do keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge, don’t you?

¼ head cauliflower

½ cup (75 g) frozen cross-cut green beans

¼ cup (30 g) chopped onion

1 cup (100 g) sliced mushrooms

½ tablespoon butter

2 hard-boiled eggs

Salt and pepper

Run the cauliflower through the shredding blade of a food processor. Put the cauliflower in a microwaveable dish, put the frozen green beans on top, add a couple of tablespoons of water, cover, and microwave on high for 7 minutes.

While the cauliflower and beans are cooking, sauté the onion and mushrooms in the butter until the onions are limp and translucent and the mushrooms have turned dark. Peel the eggs, quarter them lengthwise, and set them aside.

When the cauliflower and beans are done, pull them out, drain them, and stir them into the mushrooms and onions. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place the hard-boiled egg quarters on top of the vegetables, turn the heat to low, cover the pan, and let the whole thing cook for just another minute or two to heat the eggs through. Serve.

Yield:
1 serving

14 grams of carbohydrates and 4 grams of fiber, for a total of 10 grams of usable carbs and 16 grams of protein.

When I tell people I make my own yogurt, they react as if I’d said I could transmute base metals into gold. But as you’ll see, it’s easy to make and considerably cheaper than buying the commercial stuff. “Officially,” plain yogurt has 12 grams of carbohydrates per cup, but Dr. Goldberg and Dr. O’Mara point out in
The GO-Diet
that most of the lactose (milk sugar) is converted to lactic acid, leaving only about 4 grams per cup. So if you like yogurt, enjoy!

1 tablespoon (15 g) plain yogurt

1½ to 2 cups (180 to 240 g) instant dry milk, or a 1-quart (960-ml) envelope

Fill a clean, 1-quart (960-ml) snap-top container half full with water.

Put the plain yogurt in the water and stir. Add the powdered milk and whisk until the lumps are gone.

Fill the container to the top with water, whisk it one last time, and put the lid on.

Put your yogurt-to-be in a warm place. I use a bowl lined with an old electric heating pad set on low, but any warm spot will do, such as inside an old-fashioned gas oven with a pilot light, on the stove top directly over the pilot light, or even near a heat register in winter.

Let your yogurt sit for 12 hours or so. It should be thick and creamy by then, but if it’s still a little thin, give it a few more hours. When it’s ready, stick it in the refrigerator and use it just like store-bought plain yogurt. Or flavor it with vanilla or lemon extract and some Splenda or stevia/FOS blend. You can also stir in a spoonful of sugar-free preserves or mash a few berries with a fork and stir them in.

For your first batch, you’ll use store-bought plain yogurt as a starter, but after that you can use a spoonful from the previous batch. Every so often it’s a good idea to start over with fresh, store-bought yogurt.

Regarding those two different amounts of dry milk: Using the full 2 cups will give you richer, creamier yogurt with more protein and more calcium but with a couple extra grams of carbohydrates as well. It’s up to you. If you’d like, you can add ¼ cup (60 ml) of heavy cream in place of ¼ cup (60 ml) of the water to make a higher-fat “whole milk” yogurt. You can also, if you prefer, make your yogurt from liquid milk, but it’s a pain. You have to scald the milk first and then cool it again before adding the “starter” yogurt, which seems like a lot of bother to me.