Pigs in a Blanket

I haven’t made Pigs in a Blanket in literally years.  So when I passed by the center-aisle display of Little Smokies at the store yesterday, I picked up a package.   I decided to use some of my Mozzy Dough to blanket them and they came out so good.  But man, oh, man, I had no idea how much sodium are in those little sausages!  My fingers swelled up after just eating three of these!  These are NOT suitable for the sodium sensitive, so as my husband’s doctor just put him on a low-sodium diet, he could only taste one of them.  Be sure to drink lots of water after eating these piggies.  They were so tasty I ate three!  A flavor from parties past!  These are suitable for Atkins Phase 2 or beyond and other Keto diets.

Our latest two LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS cookbooks, Volume 8 and Volume 9 are almost exclusively comprised of my recipes!  Included in both editions are a few tasty new creations of my dear friends George Stella and Jennifer Eloff.   EARLY BIRD SECRET SALE!!  Special pricing and limited time free shipping so hurry and place your order.  Or you can order these or any of our cookbooks at https://amongfriends.us/Secret-SALE.php.

When you purchase our books, we would sure appreciate you stopping by Amazon to leaving a review at this site

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough

28 Oscar Mayer beef Little Smokies sausages

DIRECTIONS:  Make the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions.  Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350º.  Pinch off 1″ balls of dough and form a ball and then with your fingers form a small oval of dough slightly less wide than the sausages are long.  Place a sausage in the middle of the dough and roll the ends up over to the center, overlap a bit and press the seam.  Place onto parchment-lined pan and repeat with the rest of the dough and sausages.  I had enough dough for 28.  Pop into 350º oven and bake until golden or about 17 minutes.  Keep an eye out as ovens vary and this cheese-laden dough can brown very fast once it begins to brown.  Remove and cool slightly.  The dough seems to improve when they are cooled off a bit.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 28 pieces, each contains:

180 cals, 16g fat, 1.96g carbs, 1.35g fiber, 1.61g NET CARBS, 9.1g protein, 496 mg sodium (Sodium is mostly in the meat, not the dough.  A lower-sodium sausage might be a better choice)

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BBQ “Potato” Chips

UPDATE:  I have concluded I must have sliced these just perfectly the first time, as on subsezuent fryings, many did not stay crisp after cooling.  If you don’t get them VERY brown (just short of burned), slice them incredibly thin up front and also  eat them right out of the grease, they are inclined to soften up in the centers.  Only those sliced so thin you can almost read a book through the jicama slices will get/stay crisp.  Since that kind of thin uniformity is nigh on to impossible with anything short of a professional slicer or quality mandolin (neither of which do I own, as can both can be very dangerous to use) you may want to wait until you can get a mandolin.

These crispy little chips came out extremely close to the flavor of commercial BBQ potato chips!   We LOVED them!  So crisp, too.  The natural sweet edge in this vegetable lends itself to BBQ flavoring, as the commercial chips actually have unhealthy sugar added to their spice seasoning.  And best of all, these little snack chips are an Atkins Induction friendly recipe.  The dehydrated tomato powder I use is Goya brand in the Mexican section of your grocery store.  They make it in tiny cubes and blocks.  Of course, you can omit the spice blend for plain “Potato” Chips.  I also have a Nacho Cheese “Corn” Chip recipe you might like.

I have often wondered if you could deep fry jicama.  Honestly I just didn’t believe you could hide the sweet quality jicama has, which is actually a plus for BBQ seasoning here.  I also didn’t think I could ever slice it thin enough to work for something like this.  Well, I recently bought a little folding Rival slicer and it slices jicama VERY thin, but I do believe a mandolin would slice them even thinner.   These are delicious with burgers or by themselves!

These can also be made plain and those taste like real potato chips to me!   At 8 net carbs for this entire batch not bad all in all.  The plain ones even hold up to sour cream and yogurt dips.

For more delicious crackers, chips and snacks, you really should visit the LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS Facebook page and see what a marvelous collection of recipes are in these best-selling cookbooks.  International author Jennifer Eloff has collaborated with several other talented low carb cooks, including George Stella, well-known to the low-carb community!  You can order individual volumes or the entire 5-volume set at Amazon or http://amongfriends.us/order.php.

INGREDIENTS:

6 oz. jicama, peeled

Oil of your choice 1″ deep or more for frying (1T. is calculated into nutritional info below as absorbed, but I suspect less than that is actually absorbed)

Dash sea salt

¼ tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend

1/8 tsp. dehydrated tomato powder (optional)

DIRECTIONS:  Mix seasoning (and the crumbled tomato powder if using) into a paper plate (I poured mine into an empty salt shaker I keep for such purposes).  Set some paper towels on old newspaper by your cook top for draining purposes.  Peel and slice the jicama VERY thin, 1/16″ or less or they will not get crisp when cooked.

I use a Rival slicer set on the thinnest setting, but a mandoline set thin would also work.  It will take a very adept slicer to get thin enough slices with a knife, cutting by hand.  My food processor doesn’t slice this thin with either of the 2 slicing blades I have, but maybe you have a thinner blade than I and will try that method.

Heat oil in a deep skillet or deep fryer over high heat.  Drop one slice of jicama in the oil for a test fry.  If it browns too fast or burns, turn the fire down a wee bit to lower oil temp.   Drop about 6-8 slices in the oil next so as not to crowd and cool off the oil.  The bottoms brown first, so keep flipping them during frying for the most even browning.  If any areas in the center are white, those areas will NOT be crispy! White areas will be tough/chewy and nothing like a potato chip.  If browned throughout, they will stay crisp even after they cool off, an impressive fact for such a moist vegetable.  As soon as they are brown, lift them out of oil with a slotted spoon onto awaiting paper towels. While still hot and oily, sprinkle with salt and the spice blend on both sides.  Fry in batches until finished.  These are delicious!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes about 20-25 chips.  The entire batch contains:

190 calories, 13.7 g  fat, 16.7 g carbs, 8.4 g  fiber, 8.3 NET CARBS  (for the entire batch), 1.3 g  protein, 196 mg sodium

 

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Pastry Bites

This little experiment with my Mozzy Dough came out quite nicely.  Only thing I will change next time:  melt the cream cheese and cook chopped mushroom right with your cooking pork sausage crumbles for the ones on photo right.  Hindsight is always 20:20.

These tasty treats are not suitable until you are at Pre-Maintenance or Maintenance in the Atkins program due to the flour product in the dry mix.  You could use a phase acceptable dough/bread made with flax meal on the bottom and perhaps still enjoy these on Induction but they will definitely be different doing so. All of these varieties were quite delicious but our favs were the ones with breakfast sausage, mushroom and cream cheese.  We rated second the jalapeno cheddar version, second from left in the photo.  These would be great for dinner party appetizers or for football gatherings!

Many more simple, tasty low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own copy of our cookbooks  LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  Volume 8 is almost exclusively comprised of my recipes with some new George Stella and Jennifer Eloff creations.  Volume 9, due out in October, has mostly my recipes once again.

EARLY BIRD SECRET SALE!!  Order here for estimated October delivery:  https://amongfriends.us/Secret-SALE.php

Order any of our books from Amazon  or here: amongfriends.us/order.php. There’s currently a special offer of a bundle of all 8 previous volumes that reduces their individual price to only $13.22!  Don’t miss out on this bargain!  And please, if you’ve already bought Volume 8, I sure would appreciate your taking a moment to stop by this page and leave your personal review:

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough

Toppings of your choosing

TOPPINGS:  Since I can’t know which variety of Pastry Bites you will choose to make and can’t know exactly how much of the various/possible topping ingredients you might use, I will provide nutritional numbers for the basic dough per piece and a few common toppings I think you might like to try.

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Have a 24-slot non-stick mini muffin pan at the ready.  Make up the Mozzy Dough recipe (linked above) per that recipe’s instructions.  Once the dough is in a smooth workable ball, pull off small balls (about 1″ round), roll then slightly and drop into the mini muffin pan slots.  I had exactly enough dough to get all 24 filled with a 1″ ball of dough.  Press down with your index finger to make a tiny depression in each ball of dough.  Press a slice of pre-cooked smoked sausage in each, or press a slice of pepperoni topped with a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese, or add some pre-browned breakfast sausage with a little chopped mushroom and a bit of cream cheese (mixed together). Or place 1 tsp.l cheddar cheese, followed by a slice of jalapeno and topped with yet another tsp. of cheddar.  Pop pan into 350º oven for 15 minutes (do not over brown).  Remove and with a knife tip to facilitate, remove them to a serving platter.  We found these to be just as tasty as they cooled off as when still hot……especially the jalapeno/cheddar version.

NUTRITIONAL INFO FOR PASTRY BOTTOM ONLY: Makes 24 mini pastry shells, each will contain: 62 cals, 5g fat, 2.47g carbs,1.57g fiber, 0.9g NET CARBS, 4.4g protein, 93.8g sodium

THEN ADD IN THE VALUES FOR YOUR TOPPINGS (per piece eaten):

1 slice pepperoni adds about       0.1g NC

1 slice raw jalapeno adds about   0.2g NC

1 chopped slice mushroom adds  0.1g NC

1 tsp. cheddar adds about             0.3g NC

1 tsp. cooked breakfast sausage    0.1g NC

1 slice smoked pork sausage          0.1g NC

 

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Nacho Bean “Soft Tacos”

This idea was inspired by my love of Mexican food and by my tasty Mozzy Dough recipe.  I wanted to see if I could cut the carbs on the Mozzy Dough and tried pork rinds in place of the “flours” in that recipe.  I melted a little less shredded cheese and also chose Cheddar instead of Mozzarella.  You could probably use Monterey Jack cheese if available.  These remind me of both nachos and soft tacos, just without any meat.

Well, the verdict is I couldn’t taste the pork rind flour as such.  The chili powder took care of that issue.  These were also less bread-like than my Mozzy dough.  The “wrap” is soft yet substantial enough to pick up and eat with your hands.  This is not at all crisp like a taco shell…more like a soft taco.  If you prefer a crisp/taco quality, you are going to want to make a different wrap, the classic, crispy, all-cheese oven-baked low carb “taco” shells and recalculate the numbers below. These are great for snacking and great for party finger food as well.

Boy, oh, boy, were these ever good!  Ended up the jalapeno pepper I used was too hot for me and I had to pull some of it off mine, but this was a nice snack served warm.  You should be able to reheat these quite nicely, too.  This recipe is not suitable until you reach Atkins Phase 2 and are at the legumes rung of the carb-reintroduction ladder in that phase.

Many more delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own copy of our cookbooks  LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  Volume 8, by Jennifer Eloff, Chef George Stella of Food Network fame, and myself, is almost exclusively comprised of my recipes with some new creations by Chef George Stella and Jennifer Eloff.  Order your copy (or any of our  cookbooks) from Amazon  or our direct order site: amongfriends.us/order.php.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. shredded Cheddar cheese

2 T. cream cheese

1 egg, beaten

1½ c. pork rind flour (about 2 c. crushed)

½ tsp. chili powder or Taco seasoning

2/3 c. canned refried pinto beans

¼ c. Monterey Jack Cheese

1 medium jalapeno, seeded and sliced into very thin rounds

VARIATION:  Add 1 T. taco-seasoned browned ground beef atop the beans before finishing construction.

DIRECTIONS:   Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.  Preheat oven to 375º.  In your microwave, melt the Cheddar cheese, cream cheese and chili powder in a glass bowl for about 1 minute on HI.  When fully melted, remove and stir once.  Add the beaten egg and pork rind flour.  If you don’t eat pork rinds, you could sub in some low-carb bake mix instead.  (Be sure to re-calculate the stats if you do, as they will be HIGHER IN CARBS with that change. The only way I can afford any beans is by using 0-carb pork rinds.)  Quickly stir together vigorously with a fork until ingredients appear to be uniformly distributed and it forms a uniform ball of dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Divide into 10 equal portions, slightly roll into a ball and with fingers, press onto parchment in 2″ circles that should be slightly thinner than 1/4″. If sticky to work with, dampen your fingers with a bit of water.

Pop into 375º oven for about 7 minutes or until dry in the center to your finger touch.  Remove from oven and spoon 1 T. beans onto each dough round.  Spread beans out a bit but not all the way to the edges of the dough circles.  Carefully do this as the dough is still very soft and not fully cooked.  Place 2 slices of jalapeno on each one (or 1 if you don’t like things spicy).  Garnish each dough round with about 1 tsp. Jack cheese.  Pop pan back into oven and bake these for about 10 minutes more or until beans have had a chance to warm up and the Jack cheese is melted.  Remove from oven and fold them in half.  Press slightly in middle so they will stay folded.  Serve warm.  I suspect these would reheat nicely in your oven set at 350º.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 10, each “soft taco” contains:

126 calories, 10.96 g fat, 3.85 g carbs, 0.99 g fiber, 2.86 g NET CARBS, 8.95 g protein, 353 mg sodium

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Turkish Pide (pronounced pee-day)

Although a traditional Turkish treat, they make something similar to this meat-filled flatbread in several Middle Eastern countries.  The seasoning used varies from country to country.  This dish is often served at Ramadan when the feasting begins.  Classically, it is made with wholewheat flatbread dough, but mine is made with my Mozzy Dough to keep it lower-carb.  I just chose spices and herbs reminiscent of our days in Teheran, as my Mom didn’t bring a recipe for this dish back to The States.   The chosen seasonings here are typical of many Middle Eastern recipes.  My husband ranted about this at lunch today! 

This recipe is not suitable for Atkins Induction as the dough has a small amount of flour product in it (Carbquik).   Although this is a main course, it can be served in smaller portions as a pizza-like snack.  It is substantial enough to require a plate, fork and knife to eat, however.

Many more delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own copy of our cookbooks  LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  Volume 8, by Jennifer Eloff, Chef George Stella of Food Network fame, and myself, is almost exclusively comprised of my recipes with some new creations by Chef George Stella and Jennifer Eloff.  Order your copy (or any of our  cookbooks) from Amazon  or our direct order site: amongfriends.us/order.php.

INGREDIENTS:

½ recipe my Mozzy Dough

8 oz. lean ground beef (or lamb, for more authentic version)

2 oz. onion, finely chopped

15 cherry tomatoes (or San Marzano minis), chopped

3/4 c. parsley, chopped

¼ tsp. each: dried mint, dried fenugreek leaves, my Baharat Spice Blend

¼ tsp. each salt and coarse black pepper

DIRECTIONS:  Make the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions, reserving half the dough for another use.  It freezes well in a plastic baggie.  Roll the dough into a fat canoe shape about 12″ x 7″ on a parchment lined sheet pan.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375º.  Brown the beef (or lamb) in a skillet with the onion.  Add the parsley and all seasonings listed above.  Cook over medium-high heat for a few minutes to tenderize the onions.  Remove and spoon evenly into the “canoe” of dough, leaving a good inch of dough free of filling.  Sprinkle the chopped tomatoes on top.  Fold the uncovered dough up over the meat to create the sides of the “canoe”, pinching the pointed ends together with your fingers to help maintain the “canoe” shape.  Traditionally, they sprinkle sesame seeds on the sides of the “canoe” dough before baking but I did not, as the hubs isn’t fond of seeds on/in breads.    Pop into 375º oven for about 20-25 minutes or until begins to brown.  Remove from oven and cut into four equal portions.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 4 servings, each contains:

316 calories, 23.5g fat, 12.17g carbs, 6.2g fiber, 5.97g NET CARBS, 24.424 g protein, 476mg sodium

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Spicy Onion Rings

 

Spicy Onion Rings

I am not so wild about onion rings, but my husband just LOVES them!  These are oven-baked instead of fried, so no greasy mess on the stove.  They came out very tasty, but not consistently as hand-holdable as batter-fried rings.  No surprise there.   But the coating does brown nicely and is very crunchy.  Just so you know, only the smallest diameter rings cut from the ends of the onion can be picked up by hand and eaten from hand.  I place the larger ones onto my plate and use a fork to eat the big ones.  These tasty rings are Induction friendly, too!

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in the cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

INGREDIENTS:

8 oz. onion cut into ½” rings

2 oz. plain pork rinds, crushed very fine

3/4 tsp. my Seafood Spice Blend

4 T. my homemade mayo

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 450º.  You will need a large, preferably non-stick baking sheet to bake these.  Slice onion and separate rings until you have 8 oz.  That’s about 16 medium ½” rings.  Parboil for 1 minute in boiling water and lift out onto paper towels to totally dry. Crush pork rinds very fine in processor, blender or by hand.  Remove any larger, hard bits that are invariably in pork rinds when you crush them.  Mix spice into crushed rinds in a small bowl.  In a shallow dish or pie plate, pour the 4T. mayo.    Slowly dip an onion ring into the mayo, coating the outside and the inside (with your finger if necessary.  Then drop them into the pork rinds and coat well outside and inside.  Lay each onto the baking sheet.     Repeat until all rings have been coated.  Pop into 450º oven for about 25 minutes.  They tend to brown more and faster on the bottom where they touch the pan, so you may want to turn them over at the 15 minute mark.  Not much grease so no draining necessary.  Lift onto serving platter and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 4 servings of 2 0z. each.  Each serving contains:

196 cals., 15.6g fat, 5.1g carbs, 0.53g fiber, 4.57g  NET CARBS, 9.5 g  protein, 271 mg sodium

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San Marzano Tomato Focaccia

This was what we had for lunch today as I didn’t really feel like a full-blown pizza with a lot of toppings.  I had a bag of San Marzano tomatoes to use up quickly as my husband bought a ginormous box of cherry tomatoes at Sam’s the very next day, not realizing I had just bought the San Marzanos the day before.  Another great use of my Mozzy Dough.  I’m having so much fun trialing new applications for this dough.  TIP:  I’m making up 10 batches of the dry ingredients pre-measured on paper plates.  Then I fold and pour each into a sandwich bag and store the bags in a shoe box in my pantry.  Very convenient…..as then all I have to do is grab a bag, melt the butter, add the beaten egg, melt the cheese and make my dough ball.  So easy that way.  I store the paper plates and baggies and re-use for the next batch. 🙂 

Boy, was this focaccia ever simple to make and delicious!  I made mine fairly thin.  If you like focaccia thicker, make a smaller sheet (using fewer tomatoes, of course) and you’ll have to recalculate the nutritional info doing that change.  Mine was plenty thick to pick up and eat with our hands though.  🙂  This recipe is not suitable until you get to Phase 2 grains reintroduction level of Atkins as the Carbquik has some flour in it.

Many more delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own cookbooks from LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS, Volume 8, by Jennifer Eloff, Chef George Stella of Food Network fame, and myself.  Volume 8 is almost completely comprised of my recipes! Chef George Stella and Jennifer Eloff are also including several tasty new delights in Vol.  8! Order yours (or any of our earlier cookbooks) from Amazon  or our direct order site: amongfriends.us/order.php.  Remember, they make GREAT birthday or holiday gifts!  If you’ve already purchased a book, the team would appreciate it if you would please take a moment and drop by the our Amazon page to leave your personal review.  🙂

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

25-27 San Marzano mini tomatoes (I used entire 10 oz. bag)

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

¼ shredded Parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

½ tsp. dried basil (or 1 T. fresh basil chopped)

¼ tsp. dried oregano

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Make the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions.  Line a baking sheet with parchment and press the ball of dough out to a 9″x12″ rectangle.  With a brush baste the dough with half the olive oil.  Sprinkle the chopped garlic evenly over the top and press it down a bit.  Now sprinkle 1/2 c. mozzarella over the crust evenly.  Slice the tomatoes lengthwise into halves and place skin-side down evenly over the top of the focaccia sheet.  Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella on next and then the shredded Parmesan.  Sprinkle on the basil and oregano last.  Pop into oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the dough is browning on the edges and the tomatoes are looking cooked on top.  Serve with a nice green salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 12 3″x3″ squares of focaccia, each square contains.

190 calories, 15 g fat, 6.88 g carbs, 3.61 g fiber, 3.27 g NET CARBS, 12.6 g protein, 276 mg sodium

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