Almond Flour Brownies

I took a receipe that I used to make and adapted it for a low carb brownie.  It was pretty good.  I even baked them in my mini cupcake pan so that I was not temtpted to eat a huge peice at once.

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

3 ounces(squares) of unsweetened chocolate

1 cup splenda or sugar substitute

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup almond flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

 

Preheat over to 350.  In a medium saucepan melt the butter and chocolate over a low heat and stir constantly.  Remove from heat and cool.

 

While chocolate is cooling, grease the pan that you are going to use.  Stir the sugar into the cooled chocolate mixture.  Add the eggs, one at time and beat until combined.  Stir int he vanilla.

 

Mix together the flour and baking soda.  Add the flour mixture to the chocolate and stir until combined.  Spread the mixture in the pan or mini cupcake pan.

 

Bake for 25 minute for a 8 inch pan and 20 for a 9 inch pan.  I think that I baked my minis for about 15 minute.  Just make sure that you don’t over bake them cause they will dry out.

 

Enjoy!

Kitchen Tip – Kitchen Shears

Having a toddler who has only 1 tooth, I often get tired of cutting up food for her.  Until I realized that I could use kitchen shears to cut up some of her foods.

 

Some of the cooked foods that I cut with my shears are:

Grapes

Pancakes

French Toast

Orange slices

Chicken

This of course is just the start of an endless list of uses that you can use the shears for, with kitchen shears almost anything can be cut!

 

 

Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie with a puff pastry crust

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a huge fan of all things Martha Stweart.  I recenly bought the October Martha Stewart living magazine because of the cover.  They were pot pies that looked like Apple pies.

I have yet to make that reciepe and when I do, I will post it for everyone to enjoy.  I did however make a Chicken Pot pie receipe the other day and let me tell you, it was AMAZING.  When any receipe starts out with cook a pound of bacon, you know it is going to be good.  I did make a few changes and added something because I can.  If I make it again, well when i make it again, I will do it the same.

I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.  Even my daughter liked it!!

Chicken Pot Pie inspired from Martha Stewart.

• 1 package of smokey bacon, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
•  about 10-12 mushrooms(approx amount I used), quarted – (inspired receipe called for 6 ounces cremini mushrooms, quarted, I only had regular mushrooms)
• 3 medium carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts.  (you could use three if you want)
• 3 tablespoons of heavy cream (I did not have this so I just used my daughters homo milk and it worked great!)
• Red Wine
• 1 puff pastry sheet

Directions:

For the filling:

 Cook bacon in a large saucepan over low heat until crisp. Transfer bacon to a plate using a slotted spoon. Leave the bacon grease in the pan.  Raise heat to medium and add oil. Add the onion, and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add mushrooms and carrots.  If you notice the mushrooms soak up all the oil, add some red wine so that the mushrooms dont burn the pan.  Plus it adds some extra flavour to the dish.  Cook the mushrooms and carrots until softened.  Season with salt and pepper and stir in flour.

Add stock, and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add chicken and cream. Simmer until chicken is just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Return bacon to saucepan. Let cool.

Add the filling into a large corningware stlye dish (2 1/2 quarts large)   Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Make the topping: Roll out the puff pastry to about a 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Top the dish with the pastry and seal the edges with a fork.  Freeze for 20 minutes.

Bake until toppings are golden and fillings are bubbling, about 40 minutes.

Enjoy!  I found that when I ate the leftovers the next day I made some yummy biscuits and it was a great addition to this recipe.

I apologize for the lack of pictures.  I get caught up cooking sometimes and forget to take a picture.

Teriyaki Pineapple Burgers

I LOVE homemade burgers.  Tonight I made a teriyaki pineapple beef burger for the first time.  I hope that you enjoy and please adjust the ingredients to your liking!

 

Ingredients:

1 egg

3 cloves garlic, grated or diced

1-2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce

a few dashes, approx 1 tsp of onion powder

1 package (about 1 pound) lean ground beef

1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs

a few dashes of Worcestershire

salt and pepper

pineapple rings

extra teriyaki sauce

cheese of your choice

burger toppings

 

Directions:

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat the one egg.  Add in the garlic, teriyaki sauce, onion powder, beef, panko bread crumbs and Worcestershire, salt and pepper  Mix everything with your hands and form patties to the size that you want(4 large, 6 smallish).

In a hot pan or on the bbq, cook burgers until the internal temperature is at least 71°C (160°F).  If you want to add cheese, add the cheese when the burgers are close to done.

 

Top your burgers with a pineapple ring and some extra teriyaki sauce and any other toppings you wish and enjoy!

Overnight Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats

With the weather turning cool the last week or so, I thought that it was time to make some curl up on the couch under a blanket yummy kinda breakfast.

I love steel cut oats, but I hate waiting for them to cook in the  morning.  It takes way to long.  Then I remembered that I have a brand new 3.5 quart slow cooker that I picked up not to long ago and I have been itching to use it whenever I can.  I used my slow cooker to make a batch of overnight steel cut oats and they turned out yummy.  I hope that you enjoy and feel free to adjust the spices and add things that you like.

*I have a bad habit of not measuring ingredients when I cook.  I just throw things in a little here a little there.  I will of course try to measure things at least once.

Ingredients:

2 cups steel cut oats

7 cups water

1 cup milk

* You can put any combination of milk and water you want, as long as it is 8 cups total liquid*

handful or two of pecans(or whatever nuts you like or have on hand)

Two spoonfulls of brown sugar

a few dashes of cinnamon (aprox 1/2 – 1tsp of cinnamon)

splash of vanilla

If you want a runnier oatmeal then I would add more water/milk to make the right consistency that you like.

Toppings

fresh fruit

extra nuts

extra brown sugar

whatever you wish to put on it!

Directions:

Lighyly spray your slow cooker insert with olive oil or pam.  Add all of the ingreadients and stir.  Set your crockpot to cook for 8 hours on low setting.  If you have a crockpot that will switch to the warm setting after it is done cooking then you will be fine.  If not then I would not let it go past 8 hours cooking as you might burn the oats.  This is a great feature that I love about my slow cookert since I did not get to them until 10 hours after I put them on.

Add the toppings of your choice and enjoy!  I stored the leftovers in the fridge for the rest of the week.