March Munchies: Holiday

Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts

Green Bean Casserole - Low Carb, Gluten-Free

GBC is one of my favorite side dishes. Heck, I could just eat it as my meal and be happy. I never liked the mushrooms that came along in the cream of mushroom soup, though. Between wanting to avoid both mushrooms and canned cream-of-anything soup, I started making my own GBC from scratch a few years ago. The first time was for Thanksgiving, and I successfully made a GBC that was totally gluten-free. But this year I wanted it to also be low-carb. It wasn't hard at all and I am so happy with how it turned out.

Green Bean Casserole

First, prepare the onions:

3 medium or 2 large Onions, sliced thinly
1/3 cup Almond Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Refined Coconut Oil (soft or liquid)

Combine all ingredients and spread in a baking dish. Bake at 475 for about 15 minutes, stirring once or twice during baking so they cook evenly. Set aside when done.

Next, prepare the green beans:

Steam 1-1.5 lbs green beans until just tender, then rinse with cold water to stop them cooking.

Make up the creamy sauce:

3 T Butter
3 T Oat Fiber
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Stock or Broth (chicken, beef, vegetable)
1 tsp Glucomannan, Xanthan Gum, or half of each
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper

Melt butter on medium-heat. (At this point, if you are a mushroom person, you could add chopped mushrooms and saute them in the butter until done.) Add oat fiber. Add cream and broth, whisking quickly. Sprinkle gum/gluccie very slowly, whisking well to incorporate it. Let it come to a bubble and it'll thicken up. Add garlic, salt and pepper, whisk for a minute more, then remove from heat.

Combine the green beans with the cream sauce, and add half of the onions. Spread into a 13x9 pan. Top with remaining onions. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes and serve.

http://www.myhcgcooking.com

No-Bake Cheesecake - Low Carb, Sugar Free

My dad requested cheesecake for dessert on Thanksgiving this year. I was happy to oblige, but our chickens have not been laying many eggs and I didn't have enough for my usual cheesecake recipe. I ended up tweaking Briana's No-Bake Cheesecake from her cookbook Necessary Food (If you are into low-carb cooking, THM, Keto, etc. then I highly recommend this cookbook) and it was a hit! Definitely not the same texture as regular baked cheesecake, but it tasted great.

No-Bake Cheesecake - Low Carb, Sugar Free

Crust:
3 T Butter
1 T Gentle Sweet, or your sweetener of choice (Swerve, Pyure, Erythritol, etc.)
1 cup Almond Flour
2 T Oat Fiber

Mix crust ingredients thoroughly and press into the bottom of a pie plate. If your butter is cold, you'll need to warm or melt it. Mine was room temp and it blended right up.

Cheesecake:
2 8oz pkgs Cream Cheese
2/3 cup Sour Cream
2 T Lemon Juice
1 tsp Vanilla
4 T Gentle Sweet or sweetener of choice, to taste
4 tsp Great Lakes Gelatin (the red can)
3 T Hot Water
2/3 cup Heavy Cream

Beat cream cheese, sour cream, lemon juice, vanilla, and sweetener until thoroughly combined. It would be easier if the cream cheese was not cold, but I never mange to think ahead enough to set it out so I just rely on my Kitchen Aid mixer to beat the cream cheese. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl well with a spatula so it's all combined.

Dissolve the gelatin in hot water, then add to cheesecake mixture and beat well. Add heavy cream and mix for a few more minutes. Give it a taste to see if it's sweet enough - if not, add another tablespoon of sweetener, mix, and taste again.

Pour cheesecake mixture over crust and refrigerate at least an hour, or longer if you can. I was able to cut and serve this after just about an hour but it gets firmer if it can chill longer. Serve with toppings of choice - we had 1 fruit and 2 chocolate ganache here. :)

Chocolate Trifle

A potluck is the perfect excuse to make a rich dessert and know you won't end up eating the whole thing! I made this chocolate trifle for a party and it disappeared in no time. So delicious and fancy, and it took no time to make!

Chocolate Trifle

You will need:

Brownies - you can make them from scratch, or use a boxed mix

1 quart of Heavy Whipping Cream (to make Whipped Cream and Chocolate Whipped Cream)

4 Tbsp Sugar, divided
2 tsp Vanilla, divided

Chocolate - either 2 Hershey bars, melted and cooled, or 4 Tbsp hot cocoa mix, or 3 Tbsp cocoa powder and more sugar.

The big secret to this dessert is the bowl. I don't own a lot of fancy serving dishes, but a trifle bowl is worth keeping around, to me. It can make anything look special.

Directions:

Make brownies and let them cool.

For whipped cream: Pour about half of the cream, with 2 Tbsp Sugar and 1 tsp Vanilla into your mixing bowl with whisk attachment, and whip just until it you have stiff peaks. You don't want to overbeat the cream, or you'll end up with butter! Remove the whipped cream to a container and set aside.

For chocolate whipped cream: Pour the rest of the cream, 2 Tbsp of Sugar (double this if you're going to use unsweetened cocoa powder) and 1 tsp Vanilla into the mixing bowl and whisk again to make whipped cream. Once it's whipped, fold in the chocolate of your choice and mix well.

Assemble the trifle in layers - there's no wrong way to do this, just remember to use the sides of the bowl to show off the different layers, and save enough whipped cream for the top layer.

I start with brownies in the bottom, then alternate plain and chocolate whipped cream around the sides. Then more brownies, then more chocolate whipped cream, and finally plain whipped cream on top. Garnish with chocolate bits if you like. I just used a veggie peeler on a Hershey bar.

If you need to cover the bowl for travel, you'll want to be sure not to fill it up all the way to the top so you can cover it with foil without messing up your garnish. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Brandy Butter Waffles with Cinnamon Sugar

Sometimes leftovers just beg to be reinvented. Such was the case with the brandy butter in the fridge. I imagined it would be delicious on waffles and no one was disappointed! A sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on top was the perfect touch. This is really a dessert but if you don't mind a sugary breakfast, go for it!

Brandy Butter Waffles with Cinnamon Sugar

3/4 cup Milk or Water
2 large Eggs
1 1/2 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix (I buy this in the bulk 25-lb bag)
2 tsp Cinnamon
1-2 tsp Chia Seeds, optional

Preheat waffle iron. Mix all ingredients well. Pour onto hot greased waffle iron and bake until done. Remove to serving plate, top with brandy butter sauce and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

Sugar-Free Marble Cheesecake

My dad made this cheesecake and it is fantastic! He said it's important to taste the batter before you pour it, to make sure it's sweet enough. This recipe shows exactly what he did so hopefully it will turn out as good for you as it did for him.

Sugar-Free Marble Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350.

For crust:

1 cup Pecans, chopped
1/2 cup Walnuts, chopped
1/8 cup Erythritol
2 Tbsp Butter, melted

Process all ingredients in a food processor and mix until well blended. Press into the bottom of a springform pan. It will be very thin.

Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Cool.

For filling:

2 8oz pkgs Cream Cheese, at room temperature
1 cup Erythritol
1 tsp Salt
1 ½ tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Lemon Juice
16 oz Sour Cream
3 Eggs, at room temperature

Beat all ingredients, except the eggs, with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs one at a time until blended.

Reserve one cup of batter for marbling. Pour the rest into the springform pan.

Add 1 tsp Cocoa Powder and about 1/4 cup Erythritol or Xylitol (to taste) to the reserved batter. Spoon chocolate batter onto plain batter and drag a knife through to make a marbled pattern.

Place a pan with a couple of cups of water in it on the lower rack, underneath the rack where you will place your cheesecake. Bake cheesecake at 350 for 1 hour, then turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in for one more hour before removing it.

Let it cool, and then refrigerate at least two hours until completely chilled.

Berry Trifle

When I asked my kids what they wanted to make for dessert for the 4th of July, they said, "Something festive!" so this is what I came up with.

I intended to make homemade Angel Food Cake to go in the trifle, but all of the recipes I found called for 12-18 egg whites, and we recently used up most of our eggs in bulk cooking so we only had 7 available. I decided to go with my old standby white cake recipe that is easy and always delicious.

Berry Trifle

Trifles basically need 3 layers - cake, cream, and fruit. Often recipes will also call for pudding but I don't do instant pudding anymore, and I didn't feel like it was necessary to make pudding for this so I skipped it.

First, bake the cake. Here is my recipe for white cake:

White Cake

1 cup white Sugar
1/2 cup Butter
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1.5 cups Flour
1 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup Milk

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour a 13x9 pan. You can make this cake in 8" round pans as well but since I knew I was going to chunk it up, I just made a large, thin layer.

In mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time, and then vanilla. Add flour and baking powder, mixing until combined. Stir in the milk until it makes a smooth batter.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. Cool.

Once the cake is cool, wash and slice the berries and whip the cream. Here is my method for making homemade whipped cream that is so quick and easy: Easiest Homemade Whipped Cream

Layer everything into a trifle bowl. I start with whipped cream, and then add fruit, making sure to press it up against the sides of the bowl so it's visible. Then cake, then whipped cream, fruit, cake and finally top with whipped cream. Then decorate the top however you like with extra fruit.

Barbecue Chicken in Slow Cooker

This is a twist on cooking a whole chicken in the slow cooker, only this time I covered it in barbecue sauce. It was delicious and we used the leftovers for sandwiches.

Barbecue Chicken in Slow Cooker

Place whole chicken in slow cooker. Cover the chicken in barbecue sauce. Add about half a cup of water and let it cook all day on low. Easy!

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

2 Tbsp Butter
1 small Onion, minced
2 cups Ketchup
1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup Water
1/4 cup Apple Juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Molasses
2 Tbsp Honey
2 Tsp Dry Mustard Powder
1 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper, optional (leave it out for a "mild" sauce, and add it for a "medium" sauce)

Melt butter and saute onion until tender. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Store in the refrigerator. I would think it would last for a month or so... except in our house it'd be gone way before that. :)

Brandy Butter Sauce

A local restaurant we enjoy (that I think is also a chain) serves a couple of desserts with amazing Brandy Butter Sauce. They actually serve it on a hot fajita skillet and pour the sauce right at your table so you can see it steam. Fancy. Here is a very close reproduction of the sauce you can make at home! It's delicious over brownies. The restaurant also serves it on apple pie. What will you use it on?

Brandy Butter Sauce

1/2 cup Butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Half and Half

1-2 ounces Brandy
1 tsp Vanilla

Melt butter in heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Add sugar and stir well until dissolved. Slowly add the half and half while stirring and bring to a boil. Then add the brandy and vanilla, stir well and let it cook until you don't smell alcohol in the steam. Serve with brownies, ice cream... anything really. :)

Chocolate Cherry Chunk Brownies

I wanted to combine chocolate and cherries for a friend who loves both, and came up with this. Delicious!

Chocolate Cherry Chunk Brownies

1 stick Butter
1 cup Sugar
2/3 cup Cocoa Powder

large eggs, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract