warfieldfamily

Italian Cookies

jrwarfield — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:00:26 +0000

This is the last dessert that I made for the family reunion. I actually made this dough at Christmas time, but it makes so many I was forced to freeze a portion of the dough and use it later. It thawed in a few hours which was super fast, and it honestly tasted just as good as the ones I had made fresh.

I got the recipe from Heather who is an AMAZING cook and blogger, so GO HERE for her pictures which are more amazing than mine.

This recipe makes around 10 dozen cookies, so you mix a portion of the recipe in one bowl and the other portion in a different bowl. Then on a very clean table or surface, you combine the two by hand. I had never made a recipe like this,but it is so tasty and worth it.

Here is the dough that I had frozen after I had thawed it for an hour or two. You don’t want it getting to warm.

Here are the ingredients for the icing that I used. I prefer a lemony, almond glaze,but if you prefer something a little more subtle you can use milk instead of the lemon juice. See the recipe below for different versions.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a slip mat.

Heather grabs dough, weighs it, and then rolls it. I use this scooper.

First Scoop into your hand.

Then roll to get a nice round cookie. If you leave it like above, those edges will get hard and won’t look as pretty once you put the icing on.

Mine aren’t exactly the same weight,but I am too lazy to weigh them on a scale.

All ready for the oven.

Make sure you have a cooling rack, and make sure to put something underneath to catch the drips.

Once the cookies have cooled move them to the cooling rack.

Now start the icing.

Powdered sugar first.

Then I use lemon juice.

Then almond extract.

I then mix it, and add gel food coloring.

I know this looks like egg yolks,but I have made these with different colored icing,but people don’t expect a lemon flavored cookie when it has a blue icing. This is the icing to the recipe below, but I always tend to add a little bit more powdered sugar so that it isn’t that thin.

Here I added more powdered sugar and it is a little thicker here.

Take a cookie and dunk it up to your finger tips in the icing.

Like so.

Let some of it drop off.

Set right side up on the cooling rack, it will still drip a little bit.

Here you can see the ones on the left had enough powdered sugar and have a nice deep color, the one on the right is a little too thin and you can se the cookie texture underneath. Also, if you want to add sprinkles do that before the tops start to harden.

They get a beautiful shine and firmer icing shell.

For the holidays, I made them in red and green.

If you like Marzipan, my version is really good.

Here are some I made for the holidays, and I don’t think I rolled these as much so you can see how they are a little bit more pointy.

Italian Cookies (Recipe from HERE)
Makes about 10 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
6 1/4 sticks of unsalted butter
4 cups sugar
5 eggs
5 egg yolks
5 lbs flour (I used White Lily)
5 Tbsp baking powder
4 tsp salt
1 small can frozen orange juice, thawed (12 fl oz)
1/2 cup milk
5-6 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp almond extract
1 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 10-12 minutes. Add eggs and egg yolks, mixing to combine throughly.

2. Meanwhile, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. I mixed my ingredients together on a table.

3. Make a well in the dry ingredients, then add butter, sugar, and egg mixture and work everything together by hand to combine.

4. Gradually add frozen orange juice, milk, extracts, and lemon juice. Mix well by hand. Dough will be fairly sticky.

5. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours. You can also refrigerate dough overnight (it will stay fresh in the fridge if well covered for over a week), but be sure to let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before baking if you leave it in the fridge for more than an hour or two. Pre-heat oven to 350°. Line cookie sheets with Silpat or waxed paper.

6. Scoop dough by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet. If you are a perfectionist like me, feel free to weigh each lump of dough before gently but quickly rolling it between your hands to form a flawless ball and placing it on the cookie sheet. Each of my cookies weighed approximately 1.25 oz or .078 lbs.

7. Bake for 12 minutes, or until bottoms of cookies just barely start to brown. I like baking my cookies for 6 minutes, then rotating the cookie sheet 180° to bake for the last 6 minutes to ensure that the batch bakes consistently.

8. Let cool completely on cooling rack before icing.

Glaze
frosts about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk, lemon juice, or water
1-2 tsp almond extract (try substituting lemon or other flavors!)
gel food coloring

1. Combine all ingredients except food coloring. Add more sugar if glaze is too runny and more liquid if too thick. Add food coloring, and keep adding until desired color is achieved.

2. Dip tops of cookies into glaze, shaking off extra glaze. Place cookies on cooling rack with waxed paper underneath.

3. Wait a minute or two for the glaze to start to set, but not so long that the sprinkles won’t stick, then add sprinkles if desired. I discovered that I like the effect of the large sparkling sugars I used last year much better than the tiny sprinkles I used this year.

4. Share with friends and family and enjoy!

Warsnick Fielder Bars

jrwarfield — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:00:13 +0000

Here is the next recipe that I made for this last family reunion that Grant and I were able to attend. This bar recipe was given to me by a previous co worker, it had another name,but I honestly can’t remember it. So our friends took to calling them Warsnick Fielder Bars.

Start off with your ingredients; letting the buter get to room temperature is a good idea.

Freeze your snicker bars, it will make your life so much easier.

Preheat your oven.

Place butter in your mixer.

Add the brown sugar.

Then Cream it.

Add the egg and the vanilla extract.

Mix.

Add the salt and baking soda.

Add the flour and mix.

Add the oats and mix.

Scrap sides to make sure it is nice and combined.

Set aside around 3/4 of a cup of the oat mixture.

Put the rest into a 9×13 baking dish.

Press flat with your hand, it shouldn’t stick to you.

In a skillet, add 1 can of cream of condensed milk.

Add the chocolate chips.

Melt on medium heat stirring with a whisk.

While still hot/warm, pour over the oat-mixture.

Take the frozen snickers and get ready to cut them by taking off the wrappers.

Then chop into small pieces, be careful not to cut yourself.

Sprinkle over the fudge layer.

Then put crumble the left over oat-mixture over the snicker pieces and then place in the oven.

Once it is golden brown you know it is done.

Enjoy!

Warsnick Fielder Bars

Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cups Packed Brown Sugar

3/4 Cup Butter or Margarine, Softened

1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla

1 Egg

1 1/2 Cups Quick Cooking Oats

1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1 1/2 Cups Semisweet Chocolate Chips(9 oz.)

1 Can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

5 Bars (2.07 oz. each) Snickers, Frozen then Chopped

1. Heat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, beat brown sugar and butter with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Beat in Vanilla and egg. On Low speed, beat in oats, flour, baking soda, and salt until well blended. Reserve 3/4 Cup of this mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture in bottom of ungreased 9×13-inch pan.

2. In 2-quart saucepan, heat chocolate chips and condensed milk over medium heat about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Pour over the crust.

3. Freeze Snickers bars, and when they are frozen, chop them. Then sprinkle snickers evenly over chocolate mixture. Then crumble reserved oat mixture over the candy.

4. Bake 32 to 37 Minutes or until golden brown and set. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours. For bars, cut into 6 by 6 rows.

Per Bar: Calories:210, Total Fat: 9g, Sodium:100mg, Dietary Fiber:1g

Chocolate Spiked Pecan Pie

jrwarfield — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:00:57 +0000

Here is one of the other desserts that I made for the family reunion this last weekend. I have never been a fan of pecan pie,but this recipe for a chocolate spiked pecan pie is very good.

Start with butter in the skillet or pan.

Then add the white sugar.

Add the brown sugar.

Then add the Karo Syrup.

Then take an uncooked pie shell and add a layer of chocolate chips on the bottom. For pie crust recipe click HERE!

Then add a cup of chopped pecans on top of that. I prefer them chopped because it makes cutting the pie a lot easier.

In a separate bowl, add eggs.

I prefer to use Frangelico which is a hazelnut liquor of Kahlua, but you can do what you prefer.

Add Frangelico, vanilla extract, and the salt to the eggs.

Beat the egg mixture.

Once everything is melted in the skillet turn it off and let it start to cool.

slowly add in the egg mixture to the sugar/butter mixture while stirring.

Make sure to keep stirring so the egg doesn’t get cooked in the mixture… that would be gross.

Once combined, get ready to add it to the pie shell.

I prefer to place the pie shell on a slightly pulled out oven tray before pouring in the mixture.

Then sowly push it into the oven which lowers the amount of spills.

I always have extra filling, so I just place a handful of chocolate chips and pecans at the bottom of a ramekin.

Pour the rest of the filling in, and place in the oven for the same amount of time and temp.

It is finished when you give it a slight shake and it isnt slouchy, there will be a slight jiggle.

You can take the little one out a little bit early or not, it is up to you.

Chocolate Spiked Pecan Pie
Ingredients:

1 – 9” inch pie shell (I used the deep dish pie pan and a small ramekin for excess)

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup butter

4 eggs beaten

1/4 cup Frangelico Hazelnut Liquor

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

6oz semi sweet chocolate chips(I just cover the bottom of the pie crust till there is one small layer)

1c chopped pecans(lay on top of chocolate chips and then pour mixture on top)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. In a saucepan, combine sugars, corn syrup, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until everything melts and is dissolved. Turn off the heat and let cool while assembling the rest.

3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, Frangelico, vanilla and salt. Mix well. Slowly pour in sugar mixture, whisking constantly until combined.

4. Layer dark chocolate chips in bottom of pie shell, then sprinkle the chopped pecans, and pour mixture on top.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until set and golden. *Watch this, because the deep dish pie takes longer than the two regular pies. I will check them by lightly moving the pie pan to see if it is done and doesn’t jiggle too much.*

Enjoy!

Family Reunion Post #2

jrwarfield — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:00:36 +0000

So here is post #2 about our family reunion. Cassie, Grant’s Cousin, is the only one with a child right now, so, Levi is sort of a big deal especially with the Grandma/Grand Aunts? Anyway, we celebrated his birthday while everyone was there, and here are the pictures. I am going to warn you again, there are a ton, and this is mainly so family can get whichever pictures they want. I am going to caption some of them,but the rest of more like a gallery so you can see. Again, Thanks for Sandi and Rick for hosting us all, providing so much entertainment, and of course feeding us so well!

Levi Loves Elmo.

Trying to take the balloon away so he can eat his “smash cake.”

Being forced to try some… life is so hard…

Why is everyone looking at me?

This stuff isn’t too shabby.

One of my favorites!

Did I just eat a smurf?

Mommy & Daddy, do you want some?

Praciting motor skills Grandma and Mommy taught him.

Daddy taking over.

Why? I am saving that icing for later.

Everything is better with a balloon.

Not interested in opening gifts… where did that balloon go?

Elmo’s eyes are tasty.

Should have waited for later to open the elmo gift.

More elmo!

The thumb hole is so much cooler than anything!

What in the world would keep all their attention? Guess..

Levi in the tub after the smash cake.

Woah, what am I holding?

What does it taste like?

Grammie know the best toys!

Family Reunion Post #1

jrwarfield — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:00:42 +0000

So as I have mentioned briefly in other posts, but this last weekend we went to North Carolina for Grant’s Family Reunion. It was mainly his immediate family, cousins, aunts, and uncles there. We got there in the afternoon on Friday and left early Sunday morning. This post is VERY picture heavy, mainly because I want everyone to be able to get any of our pictures that they want. I have pretty much included all of them except really blurry ones. If you want a photo, click on it, and then right click and hit Save As to the place on your computer that you want. Anyway, the visit was awesome, Sandi and Rick have such a beautiful property, and the weather only rained a few times but mainly great weather.

Ryan riding his motorcycle.

Kyle and Jesse fishing, I want to say they were out there for at least 3 hours.

A view from their front porch to the street.

Josie, Sandi & Rick’s dog.

The conversion van where Grant and I slept… it had “mood lighting”, a fan, and an altered bed.

The view of one part of the road.

The other view, so it was very nice and secluded.

An overall shot, I think their property has around 21 acres.

Here is another view,but the house isn’t hidden behind the trees.

The pond which they have stocked with all kinds of fish.

Jesse with a fish.

More fishing with Kyle.

Layla just went for Swims whenever she got hot.

Some Action Shots of Jesse fishing.

Layla rolling in the grass.

Always alert of where her humans were especially when they caught fish.

Dirty and loving it!

Jesse caught in the trees I think.

Fun action shots of Jesse getting a fish.

Layla kept going back and forth trying to make sure everyone was where she wanted them to be.

A spider that dropped on Grant while we were under a tree. I have no clue what kind,but it had an interesting look.

Layla who is Cassie & Kyle’s Dog.

Some Cacti growing on their property were blooming.

Layla would play fetch with anyone she could.

Grant a lot of the time.

But Krystal also played with him a ton!

More fetch.

Rick and Ryan cleared out their riding paths Saturday morning for motorcycles/dirt bikes and four wheelers.

Cassie Throwing.

Corrie throwing.

Krystal throwing.

Grant throwing.

Then they moved position because of the sun.

Rick riding his bike.

Still fishing.

Getting a ride so we could target practice.

They had a nice set up that Rick and Grant worked on.

Grant was going to spray paint the targets.

The set up.

The right side.

Rick explaining everything to us.

I know guns aren’t supposed to be pretty,but Kyle’s had a lot of nice detail work.

The left gun… I think this was Rick’s.

The targets.

A better view.

All of us learning how to refill the clips,etc.

Krystal and Me getting ready.

We kept putting the ear protection on, only to realize we had a questions then take it off again.

Helping us figure out the scopes.

Krystal was a great shot, I am pretty sure she hit every target at least 10 times.

Listening to more pointers.

Shooting, I hit a decent amount especially for being my second time ever shooting something that isn’t a bow and arrow or air soft gun.

Krystal who is Jesse’s Fiance who we were all getting to meet on this visit.

More “Action” shots.

Gail watching.

Grant’s turn.

I think he is shooting iron sights which if I heard correctly means there isn’t a scope on this gun…

Corrie was amazing and hit every target too.

More shots of Grant.

A bee that was chilling out.

Rick and Jesse Shooting.

Their awesome play scape they just got for their grandkids.

Grant was also really good even without the scope.

Grant shooting.

Jesse was also a really good shot.

Jesse shooting more.

Krystal shooting without the scopes too.

Levi getting ready to go on a four wheeling ride with his Grandpa Rick.

Making sure he is all set.

You could hear him laughing the whole time he rode, and you would hear him cry if you stopped.

Grant and I rode some of the trails on the four wheeler.

Grant looking super happy to have his picture taken.

Grant riding a dirt bike.

Cassie riding the four wheeler.

A cool lizard/gecko with a blue tail.

Gail and Rick shooting.

Grant shooting some more.

The rest of us chilling on the front porch when it was super hot.

Amanda shooting now.

Bryan watching.

This one made me laugh!

Ryan and Jesse on their dirt bikes.

Bryan shooting.

And some more…

Concentrating.

We had a low country boil which Grant and I have never had before. We have been at a crawfish boil,but both agreed that the low country was better. It is potatoes, corn, shrimp, crab legs, sausage, and seasonings, and you get a lot more meat for less work than with the crawfish. Of course every meal was amazing that we ate!

Bryan as everyone was finished with target practice.

Rick and Grant about to tear down the whole set up.

Ryan, Kyle, and Jesse doing more fishing.

Kyle got a hold of the camera and was taking random pictures with the bright flash… everyone LOVED it.

Talking and hanging out.

Corrie looking happy.

Grant’s amazing farmer’s tan.

Pretty Flowers on our ride home.

More flowers.

The mountains and other views.

We had such a great time during our visit, get ready for post #2 which has pictures of Levi’s Birthday Party.

Apple Crumb Pie

jrwarfield — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:00:38 +0000

This last weekend, we went to Grant’s Family Reunion in North Carolina from Friday through Sunday morning. It was a wonderful visit, and it was so nice to finally get to see all of his Mom, Sister, Brother-in-Law, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins again. Most of the menu was already planned since everyone there is a great cook/baker. So, I brought some desserts to add to the celebrations since all the main meals were already covered. Also, the desserts I made traveled well so that is always a plus. So here is my apple crumb pie that I made the day before our trip.

Apple Crumb Pie

I used 6 Granny Smith apples, the more tart the better!

Peel them.

Core them.

Thinly slice them in your favorite large bowl.

Add Sugar.

Add flour and salt.

Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and a splash of lemon juice.

Mix well and let sit while making the crumb topping.

In a separate container/bowl, add the sugar for the topping.

Add flour.

Add chopped butter.

Mix with a fork until it starts to be more crumbly.

Add the apples to the pie crust, they will form a mound which is fine, and I always tend to have too much so I always make a mini pie in a ramkin.

Top with crumbs.

Bake and enjoy!

Jessica’s Apple Crumb Pie Recipe (adapted from 3rd/4th edition better homes and gardens cookbook)
Apple Filling:
6 to 8 tart apples, pared, cored,peeled, and thinly sliced
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash of ground nutmeg
splash of lemon juice

Crumb Topping:
3/4 cup all- purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup of sugar

9″ unbaked pie crust. (For Recipe Click HERE)

Combine sugar, flour, spices, lemon juice, and salt with the apples. Mix well and let sit. Mix together crumb topping ingredients with pastry blender or fork in a separate bowl. Place apple mixture into pie crust. Crumble or spoon crumb mixture over apples until covered completely. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes. Cover with foil for end of baking if the crumb portion is getting too dark.

Pie Crust

jrwarfield — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:00:55 +0000

Sorry about the long break in posting, this is not what we meant to do! We took the time and updated the blog, which changing a lot of the photos took some time, and after that we have been super busy! Memorial day weekend we took it really easy because we knew this month of June would be NON STOP for us. So on the weekend of the first we drove to Nashville to rent a pontoon boat with Kira and Andrew. Well, it looked like it was going to rain and was forecasted so we had to reschedule for a different day, but then of course it never rained! Kira and I went to see Amy and swim in her pool instead. Then this last weekend we had a Family Union for Grant’s Family to attend as well as Kira’s Baby Shower. So, the next posts you will see will be from our trip or recipes I made for that trip. Here is my post on how I make pie dough… it is nothing special, just the older Better Homes and Garden’s recipes,but I figured I would post it anyway.

Pie Crusts

This is a bowl I got from my mom which I remember always making pie dough in, I am not a very sentimental person,but I do really like this bowl.

Gather your ingredients, you can of course use the store bought crust, and that is fine, I just prefer the taste of homemade.

I start with the flour.

Then add the salt.

Then the crisco, you can use cut up butter too,but the crisco just make a very flaky crust. I normally try to stay away from all transfats,but this is the one area where I made exceptions.

I get a glass of cold water ready in case I need to add more while making the dough.

The recipe calls for 5-7 Tablespoons of water, so I add 5 and start mixing, you can always add more later.

Use a fork and slowly start mixing.

If it is too crumbly add more water one tablespoon at a time.

DON”T over knead this dough. Get it to form a ball and then leave it alone or it will become to crumbly and fall apart.

The recipe I made above was for 2 pie crusts.

So flour the surface and use half of the dough.

Roll flat and don’t worry about it being perfectly round.

Make sure it is at least the size of the pie dish.

Use the rolling pin to move the pie dough.

These are deep dish pans so there isn’t a flat surface to make the edges look nice so I didn’t really try.

If there is a hole just patch with other dough from longer edges.

Once done, fill with whichever filling you want.

Pie Dough Recipe from Better Homes and Garden Cookbook 3rd or 4th print/edition:(The newer Better homes and Garden’s Change the recipe)

Plain Pastry
For one single-crust pie or 4 to 6 tart shells:

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

For 8-,9-,10- inche double crust or lattice-top pie, two 8-,9-,10-inch single pie crust pies, or 6 to 8 tart shells:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
5 to 7 tablespoons cold water

Sift flour and salt together; cut in shortening with pastry blender or fork till pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle in 1 tablespoon water over part of mixture. Gently toss with fork; push to side of bowl. Repeat till all is moistened. Form into a ball. Separate if doing separate pies or tops and bottoms. Flatten on a lightly floured surface b pressing with edge of hand first, then roll from center to edge till 1/8 inch thickness is achieved. Use rolling pin to get into pie pan. For single crust that needs to be baked separately, bake at 450 degree Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes. Otherwise fill with desired filling and bake according to filling directions. Use a pie shield to keep edges from burning.

Keto Salisbury Steak

jrwarfield — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:00:51 +0000

I always get recipe inspiration from all of the other great blogs that I read. The Pioneer Woman’s blog ALWAYS has amazing recipes, and the other day I realized that salisbury steak could easily be made into a Keto friendly recipe. If you want to make the non-Keto version just click HERE. Her blog has the recipe written out and much better step by step instructions than mine,but since hers isn’t Keto, I decided to give it a try.

Here is the final product that I will show instructions to make – Keto salisbury Steak!

I used 1 lb. of ground beef, 1/2 cup of ground up pork rinds, mustard(I used regular since I didn’t have dry mustard), Worcestershire sauce, beef paste, salt, pepper, and sugar free ketchup for the meat portion.

Mix up well and form into oval patties.

Slice up onions, I wanted them in slivers rather than chopped,but you can do whatever you prefer.

Place in a pan with butter or fat of your choosing, and cook on both sides until no longer pink inside.

Remove from the pan and set aside while preparing the gravy. I hate not having gas, so one side got a little dark,but honestly they didn’t taste burnt so be patient unlike me it only takes a few minutes.

Place the cut onions and more butter into the skillet.

Once the onions are cooked and almost clear add beef stock.

Then add some sugar free ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Mix this all up and let it simmer a while.

So just like you would with cornstarch, add a small amount of the liquid to the xanthan gum(1 tsp.) and stir. I tried this three time and each time I couldn’t get it without any clumps, but I figured they would dissolve eventually.

Then add the paste to your broth, and let it thicken and get a little bit more opaque. If it got too thick, you can always add more broth to thin it out a little more.

Then add the “steaks” back in to the skillet, and top with onions and heat throughout before serving.

I meant to make cauliflower mashed potatoes but messed them up, and we just ate it with cauliflower puree.

Place on top and enjoy!

Here is the breakdown for the salisbury steak per pattie with 1/6th of the sauce which is 3g of net carbs which I would say is awesome for such a comfort food. I didn’t add the cauliflower puree cause there are so many better recipe online for that.

Keto Salisbury Steak (Adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients

Meat Mixture

1-1/2 pound Lean Ground Beef
1/2 cup ground Pork Rinds
2 teaspoons Dry Mustard(I used regular)
1 cube Beef Bouillon, Crumbed (or Powdered Beef Base)
4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Ketchup
Salt And Pepper

Gravy

1 whole Onion, Halved And Thinly Sliced (or Diced If You Prefer)
2 cups Beef Broth
4 dashes Worcestershire (additional)
1 Tablespoon Sugar Free Ketchup (additional)
1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum With A Little Beef Broth To Make A Thin Paste
Salt And Pepper, to taste
More Broth If Needed For Thinning
2 Tablespoon Butter, For Frying

Preparation Instructions

Combine all the ingredients for the meat mixture and knead until all combined. Form into 4 to 6 oval patties, then make lines across the patties to give them a “steak” appearance.(I didn’t mess with that)

Fry in a skillet with butter over medium-high heat on both sides until no longer pink in the middle. Remove from the pan and pour off excess grease.

Reduce the heat to medium and add in the sliced onions and butter. Stir and cook for several minutes, or until golden brown and somewhat soft. Add the beef stock, Worcestershire, and sugar free ketchup. Stir and cook to reduce.

OPTIONAL: Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of the Xanthan Gum to a little broth mixture to give the gravy a little gloss and to thicken it up a bit without lightening it (as flour would.)

**Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and more broth if needed for thinning.

Return the steaks to the gravy. Spoon gravy over the top and let them simmer and heat back up for a couple of minutes.

Serve with mashed cauliflower!

**NOTE: If you omit the cornstarch/broth mixture, just cook the liquid a little longer in order to reduce and thicken it a bit.

**Another optional thing is to add sliced mushrooms to the onions and cook them together. Yum!

Life Lately

jrwarfield — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:00:42 +0000

Grant and I aren’t all that exciting people,but here are a few random pictures of what has been going on in our lives.

I didn’t have a serger case, and so my little sister, Raya, got me a hard case from Amazon for a late birthday present as well as two books I haven’t read yet.

I am and was super excited about this because when I sew I set up on the dining table, sew, and then pack up. A case isn’t necessary when you have a sewing room and can leave everything out all the time.(The handle isn’t broken I just didn’t push it down correctly.)

I got a new pair of glasses since my previous pair of plastic frames broke. These are super awesome, also if you have a Sam’s Club or Costco membership, they sell contacts cheaper than even 1-800 contacts, and I got these glasses for pretty cheap. We have eye insurance,but Sam’s and Costco weren’t on the list, but they just charged it as out of network and got almost the same amount of “credit” as a regular place which was awesome.

Just a lot of great food, it definitely takes more time, but so worth it. Keto Burgers

Very yummy stuffed bell peppers, we made a lot so we had lunches for the week. Recipe HERE!

One of our cheat meals on a weekend was this Gryo from Big Papa Gyros… I ate it so fast I think Grant got two bites… oops!

Some low carb tortillas that are really tasty which we occasionally eat.

Caesar salad is a fun side dish with fresh parmesan on it, and we finally found our favorite caesar dressing by Newman’s Own.

We just started P90X, but we found this “kit” for super cheap on woot, and that makes it a lot easier, maybe one day I will be able to do a pull up.

Two of my new colors…Grant calls it my obsession.

Another Great lunch, Cucumber salad with Brats.

My serger had one of the threads not working on it, and I was to lazy to mess with fixing it so Grant fixed it for me.

When he found out I was taking pictures!

Some beautiful flowers Grant got me just because!

We have been mainly just working, going to church, and trying to keep eating keto. We did play tennis at the court our condo complex has which was a lot of fun. Next time we will read up on the rules cause I’m pretty sure neither of us knew what we were doing. We are both excited about having the 27th off and hanging out. Also, the month of June is going to be CRAZY with all of the things we have going on so I am excited and praying that everything works out smoothly.

Keto Fish or Shrimp Tacos

jrwarfield — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:58:18 +0000

So while living in Austin, TX I learned to love and crave some fish or shrimp Tacos. I really liked Torchy’s Baja Shrimp taco, but had some Tilapia Fillets to use up so I found a copy cat recipe online and decided to make it more Keto. This is a higher carb meal if you eat it with low carb tortillas, but could make your own, but we had a lot of carbs left over for dinner. Below is how I made them, they are a little more work,but boy are they amazing!

First start off with your ingredients: mayo, eggs(for egg wash), pork rinds(ground up for breading), Jalapenos(if you want them spicer), butter, thawed tilapia or shrimp, low carb tortillas(or eat just the mixture on a plate or lettuce wrapper), fresh cilantro, limes for squeezing, red onion, queso fresco (cheese), Adobo peppers in chipotle, cabbage chopped, small carrot chopped, oil for frying, salt, and pepper.

I sliced the red onions and put them in a dish so people could put however many they wanted on each taco.

Slice the limes for squeezing… I think I cut them the wrong way, oh well.

I took all the stems off of the cilantro.

Chop and put in a dish.

Add mayo to a bowl.

I bought one can of these peppers and took all the peppers out, the recipe only calls for one, so I individually froze the others for later use.

If you have a small food processor you can put the pepper in there, but my Vitamix is too big and it just got under the blade the first time so I just pulverized with the knife.

Add to the Mayo.

Mix up since this will be the chipotle topping.

I made this recipe before and chopped a whole head of cabbage and shredded 1 large carrot. Then split into 4 batches and froze 3 and used one. This time I just took the frozen cabbage/carrot mixture and cooked that.

Start with butter or whatever fat you prefer.

Add the carrot and cabbage mixture.

While that is happening set up your station for breading your Tilapia of egg and ground up pork rinds.

Add salt and pepper to the cabbage mixture.

Rinse the tilapia, put in the egg wash, then into the pork rinds and get ready to fry them.

Once done, I stick this into another dish ready for the assembly line.

Heat oil for frying the fish.

Fry away.

Once fried, place on a paper towel until ready to assemble.

Crumble as much fish or shrimp as you want on the tortilla.

Add some of the cabbage mixture.

Then some chipotle sauce.

Some Fresco cheese.

However many onions you want.

Cilantro.

Then lime juice, and if you want it extra spicy you can add some diced jalapeño.

Then enjoy; there are a lot of flavors,but together this is a party in your mouth!!!!

Keto Fish Tacos (Recipe adapted from here)

Serves: 4 (2 tacos each)

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 chipotle in adobo, stemmed
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 – 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small green cabbage, shredded (about 3 cups- only use 1/4 of this amount for this recipe unless making for 12 people)
1 carrots, shredded
Vegetable oil, for frying
3-4 tilapia fillets or 24 large shrimp (about 1 1/4 pounds), shelled and deveined
1 bag of ground pork rinds
8 low carb tortillas (we like the mission brand)
1 pickled jalapeño, thinly sliced (optional)
1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves
2 1/2 ounces queso fresco or mild feta, crumbled ( 1/2 cup)
Lime wedges, for serving

In a mini food processor, blend the mayonnaise with the chipotle, and refrigerate. Or Chop by hand and mix together. My metrics for carb count is assuming you will only use a tablespoon or two per taco not this whole recipe.
Heat a large skillet until very hot. Add the butter, cabbage and carrots and cook over high heat until the cabbage is browned in spots, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl. I only used 1/4 of the cabbage & carrot mixture and froze the rest into smaller batches. The metrics include around the amount actually eaten on 8 tacos assuming each person eats 2 for a meal.
In a large saucepan, heat 2 1/2 inches of vegetable oil to 350°. Put the ground pork rinds in a bowl and some beaten eggs in another. Coat the tilapia in the egg and then with the pork rinds and fry in batches until golden, about 2 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels.
Spoon some of the cabbage into the center of each tortilla and top with some tilapia that I like to shred by hand. Drizzle with the chipotle mayonnaise and sprinkle with some of the pickled jalapeños, red onion, cilantro, andqueso fresco, and some fresh lime juice. Enjoy.

These are the metrics I could come up with for the filling to the best that I can,but it all depends on how much of each item you actually put on. So the Net Carbs for the filling is 3g.

Here is the info for the Low Carb Mission medium sized tortillas, so the net carbs per tortilla are 6g.

So we each ate around 18grams of carbs since we each ate 2 tacos worth which is a lot,but we were really low carbs for that day so it was a fun almost cheat meal. You can lower the carbs by making your own tortillas, eating this without one just the tilapia with all the toppings is still great, or using a bigger low carb tortilla since it holds more filling. Then you would only need 1 burrito each, but I couldn’t find the bigger ones at the store this time. Either way the filling which is amazing isn’t too carby so I hope you enjoy!