Homemade Chicken and Veggie Soup (Keto/Low-Carb Friendly)

Yesterday I was sick. I woke up and wanted nothing more than to curl back under the covers and die. But, alas, I have a little one to play with all day, and a house to clean in anticipation for opening my home daycare (I cannot put into words how excited and nervous I am!!). Sore throat, headache, body aches, the chills, yet no fever. I had no real appetite, which is insane, just ask my sisters. What could I eat at a time like this? Homemade chicken soup, of course!

This is very similar to the soup that our Yiayia and Papa Sid made us when we were sick. The one difference is they would both add rice. Obviously that doesn't work for our keto household, so I left it out. I'll write an option for it if you would like rice in your soup.

Homemade Chicken and Veggie Soup (Greek Style)

• Olive oil
• 1/2 of a medium onion, finely diced
• 2 chicken breasts 
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes 
• 8 cups water 
• 1 cup of celery, sliced 
• 1 cup of carrots, sliced 
• Optional: 1/2 cup rice. I prefer brown rice, but don't use rice when Hubster will be eating it

1. In a large pot, drizzle a bit of olive oil. On medium heat, sauté onions until translucent. 
   
2. Add chicken breasts, bouillon cubes, and water to the pot. Bring mixture to a roiling boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 45 minutes. Optional:if you are adding rice, add it to the pot now.
   
3. Uncover, pull chicken breasts out of pot, and cut into small pieces, or shred. Whichever you prefer. I used kitchen shears and cut the chicken up to my liking. 
   
   
   
4. Add chicken back to the pot. Add carrots and celery to the pot. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until veggies are tender, but not mushy. 
   
   
5. Remove from heat and enjoy your lovely cold weather comfort food. 
   

This soup turned out great! In the past, I have had a hard time seasoning soup well enough, but the bouillon, chicken, and veggies add great flavor. Hubster is usually critical of my soup (he has been such a trooper with my experiments!) and he loved this soup. T-Rex really enjoyed it too! We ate the soup along with cheese quesadillas and it was quite the yummy combination. It had me feeling much better on this yucky, sick day. 

I hope this soup brings you comfort as it did for me! Feel free to comment and let us know how you are liking the recipes!! Until next time. 

Φιλάκια, 

Eleni

Keto Jalapeño Bacon Cheeseburger Stacks

It's amazing the deliciousness you can create when you are forced to use your ingenuity. My husband and I collaborated last night to create the following meal, using only the dregs of our nearly grocery-less refridgerator. (It also helps to only buy keto-friendly items on the regular!)

Yumminess embodied.

Jalapeño Bacon Cheeseburger Stacks (served on Garlic Cauliflower Mashed Faux-tatoes)

For the Stacks:

• about 3/4 to 1 pound ground beef
• 1 large jalapeño pepper
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 large egg
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 slices thick cut bacon, each slice cut in half
• 8 large "button" shaped portabella mushrooms
• cheddar cheese (we didn't have slices, we cut off a block, it looks a little silly in the pics, but it melted down beautifully)
• little bit of olive oil to lightly grease burger pan
• dill for garnish

For the Faux-tatoes:

• 1/2 to 3/4 of a head of cauliflower, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons butter
• salt to taste

Serving Size: 2
Preparation and Cooking Time: approximately 40-45 minutes

1.) Finely mince the jalapeño pepper and garlic. We used our Ninja chopper.

2.) Mix ground beef, mixed veggies, spices and 1 egg well in a large mixing bowl, until beef shows no signs of texturization and is "sticky" to touch.

3.) Start boiling some water for your cauliflower. At a good, roiling boil, add the cauliflower and a bit of salt. Cauliflower should boil until tender, but not mushy. You want a nice and hearty mashed faux-tatoes, not gruel! Ours took about 10 minutes. 

 

4.) As your cauliflower boils, evenly form your meat into 4 patties and place in a greased pan to cook. Eleni has a George Forman grill (which I am jealous of and which would make the burger cooking process easier) but cooking on a stovetop works just fine. Simultaneously start cooking your halved bacon slices in another pan.

How awesome are our cast-iron pans? They are non-stick, work wonderfully and create less mess!



 

5.) With one eye on your busy stovetop, chop up your mushrooms and get your slices of cheese ready for the stacking, which is coming soon!

6.) Bacon cooks fast! Place your cooked bacon on a small, paper towel covered plate to the side. Then immediately add the mushrooms to the hot bacon grease to cook.

7.) Make sure you flip your burgers as needed and get your cauliflower off the stove as soon as it is tender. Transfer the cauliflower and all the other faux-tatoes ingredients to a food processor and blend well. (We used the large Ninja blender for this).

8.) Make sure burgers and mushrooms are completely cooked to your temperature and taste specifications. We cooked the burgers medium well and only lightly sauteed the mushrooms. Obviously, there are many possibilities.

9.) Stack time! First is a generous portion of faux-tatoes. Then place a burger patty on top of each faux-tato portion. Top this burger with cheddar. Place the second patty on top of the cheddar. Place your bacon on top of the second burger patty. Top the whole shebang with freshly sauteed mushrooms. We then garnished with a bit of dried dill.





Pure joy for your mouth.

 

I really can't overstate how awesome these were. They were quickly devoured as we made "mmm" noises and nodded haughtily at one another, proud of our last minute creation.

 

Enjoy!

 

-Alex

 

P.S.

 

I am planning to make a bunch of low-carb/keto Greek food soon. Including an experiment with low-carb phyllo dough (I think of it as Franken-Phyllo...). Stay tuned!

Crockpot Hot Pot Chicken

I have been excited for this recipe for awhile now. It exceeded my greatest expectations; honestly, this was the best chicken I have ever cooked.

Quick backstory: Bear and I eat Chinese hot pot quite frequently with our friends R. and S.  S. is from Beijing, and introduced us to hot pot at a restaurant in Midtown a few years ago. We were instantly hooked and often meet up with them and other friends to share a hot pot.

R. and S. have recently settled into a beautiful, huge apartment in Brooklyn and invite us over fairly frequently for S.'s awesomely delicious, homemade hot pot. Hot pot is all about the seasoned broth -- she prepares her broth in a neat pot with a divider. On one side is mild, delicious pork broth.  On the other side, hot and spicy broth. The last time we went, S. gave me a packet of the seasoning she uses for the spicy broth side of the hot pot, and I have been itching to use it ever since.

 

 

(The price for this on Amazon is, frankly, shocking to me, because S. picks up packets of the same spice mix at a Chinese grocery store for $1.99 each!)

I figured I would marry two of my culinary loves -- hot pot and the crockpot -- into one delicious hodgepodge.

Crockpot Hot Pot Chicken

• 1 three-pound to five-pound roasting chicken (basically a chicken big enough to fit nicely in your crockpot and still be able to close the lid)
• 1/2 packet Baijia hot pot seasoning (Note: this stuff is STRONG and SPICY.  I only used half of a packet for the entire chicken and that was perfectly enough.)
• 1 large onion
• olive oil to grease crock pot base

1.) Cut the onion into pieces and layer on bottom of greased crockpot base. This is a protective layer to keep chicken skin from burning into the ceramic base and keep juices circulating as the chicken slow cooks.

2.) Remove giblets from chicken's body cavity and cut off any excess skin (if necessary). However, I decided to just put the giblets into the crockpot. I LOVE chicken neck and liver and figured they would taste incredible in the seasoning too. I was right.

3.) Rub down chicken with hot pot seasoning, careful to make sure some seasoning is applied inside the body cavity and also in every nook and cranny of the chicken.

4.) Place the chicken breast side up in the crockpot on top of the onion protective layer.

...and that's it! Preparation time was only 10 minutes. I covered up the chicken and put it in the fridge. The next morning I took the seasoned chicken out of the refridgerator and plugged in my crockpot on the "Low" setting.

I came home 8 hours later to this lovely smelling bird:

We served our juicy hot pot chicken over fresh riced cauliflower, sauteed in a little bit of butter and garlic. Yes, actually fresh (not frozen) cauliflower. It only took about 15 minutes to get the right consistency. Maybe I am getting less lazy!

This was one of the best meals of my year. Seriously. And it was so incredibly simple -- it took 10 minutes to prepare and was ready when I got home from work! You really can't beat that.

As soon as we pick our hot pot birdy clean, I am going to boil down the carcass into some nice spicy chicken stock using (of course!) the crockpot. Maybe I'll use the stock to make some of that jambalaya Eleni recommended!

Enjoy and let us know what you think.

-Alex

P.S.

Some of you out there, like Eleni, may not like spicy food. You can still make this recipe using mild hot pot soup base. Just as flavorful, but less piquant.

See:
 

Again, if you have a Chinese grocery store nearby, you're better off getting your packets there -- they are much cheaper!

Easy (low-carb/keto) Crockpot Meatballs

I love to use the crockpot in the wintertime! So here's another crockpot recipe. Fair warning: there's probably going to be a lot of crockpot-centric recipes posted here in the next few months.  

We made these delicious meatballs yesterday, and they are now all gone. This is totally on Bear, by the way. I only got to eat, like, 4 of them. Very quick to prepare (and eat!)

Easy Crockpot Meatballs

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 medium onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon almond flour (a substitute for traditional breadcrumbs)
• spices to your taste -- I (of course) used a bit of cayenne pepper, some salt and pepper, and a dash of steak rub.  If I had had some oregano, I think that would have been nice.
• enough olive oil for browning in pan and to grease crockpot

1.) Mince garlic and roughly chop up onion.

2.) Mix vegetables with all other ingredients in large mixing bowl, until meat is not texturized any longer and is "sticky" to touch.

 

3.) Roll meat into balls of your choice size.  Mine were about 1 1/2 inch or so diameter. You can do little mini-balls or big oval sized keftedes (Greek meatballs). I use my hands, but you can use a meat-baller if you like. Eleni HATES touching meat, so this is something she could use:

 

4.) Lightly brown meatballs on medium-high heat on olive oil greased pan (this took me two rounds to do with about 1.6 pounds of meat).

Blurry balls!

5.) Transfer your meatballs to the greased crockpot. 





All the balls should lie flat in the base of the crockpot.

From there it's just plug and play! I put these in the fridge overnight, then cooked these on "Low" for about 7 hours, starting when I left for work in the morning the next day. They are hearty and tasty (and now completely gone). You can eat them as is, or dress them up with various sauces or sides.

We took the lazy route (as always!), and I cooked a bag of chopped, frozen broccoli cuts in a jar of alfredo sauce. Then we melted some mozzarella over the whole shebang.

YUM!

This recipe was quick, easy, ready when I got home from work, super filling, and--of course-- low-carb/keto friendly.

The only problem is that Bear eats it all so fast!

Enjoy and see you next time. As always, we'd love your comments and suggestions.

-Alex

Eleni's Hump Day Recipe - Keto Breakfast Casserole

I have been doing a lot of cooking lately. I want to share some photos and recipes.

First is the AMAZING Jambalaya I made the other night. It is a slow cooker recipe, which makes me love it even more because I can throw it all in at the beginning of the day and it is done by dinner time. As delicious as this was, I cannot take credit for the recipe. I found it while browsing Pinterest. The original link is here.

Since we are a keto household, we did not use rice. I also did not add the cayenne pepper (I personally HATE spicy food) or Tabasco sauce (we didn't have any). It turned out great, though! I could barely wait for Hubster to get home so we could eat it. T-Rex enjoyed it, too! Especially the sausage.

Look at my pretty slow cooker! Functional and appealing to the eye! What could be better? 

I know what could be better! Breakfast for dinner! Which brings me to the second recipe: Keto Breakfast Casserole. Although I made this fresh for dinner, this is another recipe that you could prep ahead of time and just toss into the oven when you are ready. 

Keto Breakfast Casserole 

• A medium head of cauliflower, chopped or "riced" (this will be the potatoes or hash in a normal casserole. If you do not do low-carb, you could do hash here instead)
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into slices
• 1 lb. pork sausage 
• Two large handfuls fresh spinach (or about 1 cup of frozen spinach, depending on what you have on hand) 
• 8 eggs, beaten 
• 1 block cheese, shredded (we used cheddar, but colby jack is another fav. Use whatever you like) 
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste. 

1.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Put cauliflower into 9x13 pan and cover with slices of butter. Season well.

2.) Place pan into oven and cook for 15 minutes.

  

3.) In a large skillet, brown and crumble the sausage. Once fully cooked, add spinach and cook until slightly wilted and a deep green color. While cooking, season well.

 

4.) Once cauliflower has cooked, remove pan and add sausage mixture on top of cauliflower. Next, evenly pour eggs over top of sausage. Cover casserole with shredded cheese. (Picture may not show even pouring. Hubster decided he wanted to help...)

 

5.) Bake casserole for 20 minutes. Remove, let cool about 5 minutes, and enjoy!

This was something I whipped up with what we had on hand. It turned out great! We all had multiple helpings, and the left-overs reheated well for lunch the next day. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Until next time. 

Φιλάκια, 

Eleni

Lazy person's quick and easy Winter Low-Carb Beef Stew

It's getting cold out and the shorter sunlight hours are wreaking havoc with my regular habits. By the time I get home from work -- after trudging down the hill from the subway station in the dark -- I just want to eat something, do an errand or two, and SLEEP.

To that end, I've been trying to prepare food early in the week that will be ready when I get home. Because I'm basically pathologically lazy. I prepared this recipe last night. I'm looking forward to eating this hearty stew when I get home tonight (and probably for the rest of the week!).

Winter Low-Carb Beef Stew

• 1 1/2 - 2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
• 8 large "button shaped" portabella mushrooms
• 1 bunch celery hearts
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 large onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 packets Goya beef boullion
• 8 cups water
• salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, cumin to taste

1.) Chop all vegetables into chunks and place in crockpot.

2.) Sprinkle boullion on top of vegetables.  
                 

3.) Using kitchen scissors (my favorite cooking implement!), cut the stew meat into chunks.  Remember, the beef will shrink as it cooks, so you don't want to make the chunks too small.

 

4.) Add water and spices and stir well. (You might be asking of the below photo -- where's the beef? Well, before the stew is cooked completely, the vegetables float and the meat sinks in the water!)



This whole process literally took 15 minutes. After I assembled the stew, I just put the lid on my crockpot and put it in the fridge.  Note: my crockpot base separates from the ceramic bowl, so I don't have to put the part of my crockpot that plugs into the wall into the refridgerator!

 

This morning before work, I took the stew out of the fridge, put the ceramic bowl ino the crockpot base, plugged it in and turned the dial to "Low."  When I come home (about 9 hours or so later), baby, I'll have a stew going!

I'll post pictures of the final product tomorrow.  [Edit- here it is!  Hearty, meaty and filling. The mushrooms are especially savory. I'm having leftovers for lunch today!]

I make this recipe fairly frequently in the winter.  It tastes better on the 3rd or 4th day, too!

Enjoy and stay warm!

-Alex

Halloween Highlights!

The older I get, the less I go out on holidays. Mostly for money reasons, but I also firmly believe that Halloween is one of the biggest "amateur nights" out there, especially in New York City. Being smushed into costumed, drunken revelers and paying $12 for a cocktail is not my idea of a good time.

So, on holidays like this, my husband and I have to make our own fun. Bear is an artist and he obsesses over teeth and skulls in his work. So, as a Halloween treat, I bought us a 4D skull puzzle. I figured we'd assemble it together and then Bear could use it as a model for his art. 

But before we could get to the main event, Bear surprised me with a pumpkin! While I was at work, he went on a pumpkin search to every grocery store in the neighborhood, to no avail. He was even told by a shopkeeper that "There are no pumpkins in the 'hood!" However, he spied a pumpkin in a display window on his way back to our apartment. Ten minutes of negotiation and five dollars later, he was the proud owner of a lopsided, weirdly shaped pumpkin!

When I got home from work, we popped open a bottle of wine and got to work on Jack's lobotomy. I suggested we use the pumpkin's weird shape to our advantage and "Drunk Jack" was born!

He's "tipsy."

We decided to use all of Jack's parts wisely and made roasted pumpkin seeds and Crustless Keto Pumpkin Pie from our drunken friend's innards.

Drunk Jack's Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1. Clean freshly scooped out pumpkin seeds in clear, cold water and pull stray pumpkin strands off of the seeds.
2. Lightly grease a glass casserole pan with unsalted butter.
3. Coat wet seeds in a mixture of salt, Old Bay seasoning, and garlic powder to taste.
4. Roast in oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes or until nicely browned.

Breaking Bad-esque upshot!
 

These seeds smelled delightful, and the two I popped in my mouth were tasty...but I forgot to turn off the stove and the rest of the seeds burned to a crisp :-(

The reason for my fatal pumpkin seed error (other than my wine intake)? We were assembling the skull!


Spooky skull parts!

"Agent Dana Skully"


Disappointed by my lost pumpkins seeds but fortified by wine and our new skull friend, I decided to try my hand at making some pumpkin pie! 

I oven roasted Jack's innards in the same glass casserole pan until the pumpkin was soft to the touch (about 15 to 20 minutes).  I had to adapt this recipe after my first attempt at pie (following the linked recipe to the letter...) devolved into a soggy pile of pumpkin goo. 

Crustless Keto Pumpkin Pie

• 2 cups fresh roasted pumpkin, pureed in blender
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1 heaping tablespoon Sweet Leaf powdered stevia

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Pour mixture evenly into greased glass pie pan (I used unsalted butter).
3. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until top of pie is browned and a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean.

We ate half of it before I could get a picture!

Jack's insides gave us enough pumpkin to make 3 pies -- one sad, failed pie and two perfect, delightful, deliciously keto pies!  I love the taste of pumpkin, and the amount of stevia I used gave just a hint of sweetness.  If you prefer a sweeter tasting pie, I would say another tablespoon or two of stevia should be used.  Bear ate an entire half of one of the pies and topped it off with fresh whipped heavy cream with a bit of cinnamon. 

All in all, our Halloween was very fun. After all the arts, crafts, and baking, we lit Drunk Jack up and watched a couple episodes of "The X-Files" by jack'o'lantern light.

Drunk Jack has now been thrown away, but I think we will be doing some more pumpkin experiments soon.  Bear brought this home on Monday:

Kitty not included...

Hope you had a happy Halloween and kαλή όρεξη!!

-Alex

 

P.S.

 

Check out T-Rex's costume!

 

Q: How many licks will it take the T-Rex Owl to get to the center of her Tootsie Pop?
A: She'll have to learn to take the paper off first! ;-)