Omelet Muffins

Jennifer S.

Makes 12 regular muffins or 6 large
 

Ingredients:
– 6 Large Eggs
– 1/4 Cup of Milk
– 1/2 teaspoon of Vegetable Oil
– Salt & Pepper (I use ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper)
– 3/4 - 1 Cup Grated Cheese (Your choice, I used Cheddar Jack)
– Favorite Omelet fillings (Your choice, I used onions, bell peppers, cooked quinoa, and Breakfast meats like ham, sausage, bacon, or left over steak)
–Baking spray
Instructions:
– Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
– Dice up onions, peppers, and breakfast meats. I use the frozen peppers and onions mix. And cook quinoa according to box directions.
– Spray a 6 count muffin tin with baking spray. (Or 12 count for smaller muffins)
– Fill each muffin cup with cooked omelet ingredients.
– Top with shredded cheese.
– Mix egg, milk, oil, and salt & pepper in a bowl or measuring cup.
– Pour egg mixture in each muffin cup. You should fill each about 3/4 of the way to the top.
– Put in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.
– Take out of oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving or cooling for storing.

I whip up double batches of the above recipe using my 6 count muffin tin.
I put them in a plastic zipper bags, store them in the freezer, and enjoy throughout the week. These taste just as delicious the next day. 
I like them heated up in the microwave for 45-60 seconds (thawed overnight in the fridge).

Egg Roll in a Bowl (NO Wrappers)

Egg Roll in a Bowl

Jennifer S. (adapted from several recipes online)

Because I am doing a High Protein and Low Carb Lifestyle, I was searching for something to take to a church pot luck, that way I knew I had something that I could eat while there. I took a VERY empty 13x9 pan home!

• 1 pound ground pork sausage (regular or hot)
• 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 bag of fresh sugar snap peas, cut in half on the bigger pea pods
• 1 can of sliced water chestnuts, drained and sliced into slivers
• 6 cups coleslaw mix or shredded cabbage
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, optional
• sweet and sour sauce, optional 

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, stirring often to crumble, until cooked through. Do not drain.
2. Add the red pepper, peas, water chestnuts, coleslaw mix, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce to the skillet with the sausage. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until cabbage has softened a bit.
3. Remove from the heat and top with the green onions, drizzle with sesame oil, and the sesame seeds, if using.
4. Serve immediately with a drizzle of sweet and sour sauce. (Sauce is not very low carb, but very tasty!)

Hamburger Soup

Jennifer S.

There are plenty of versions out there for Hamburger Soup, but this is the one that I made today in the crock pot for a sick friend of mine. Feel free to tweak it to your liking and enjoy it with some homemade bread or rolls.

1 lb ground beef
1/2 white onion, small dice
1 tbs garlic, minced (I use the jarred kind)
1 tbs Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

32-oz beef broth
2 10-oz cans of tomato soup
1 "can" of water
1 15-oz can corn, drained
1 15-oz can green beans, drained
1 15-oz can dark red kidney beans, NOT drained
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes (I used the kind with green chilies added)
1 12-oz bag frozen peas and carrots
1 tbs sugar (optional). I find it takes the bitter taste out of the tomato

1/2 cup alphabet noodles, dried and uncooked
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Brown beef, onions, and garlic together in a pan. Drain off extra grease and add seasonings to meat.
In a large crock pot set on high add the broth, soup, water, corn, beans, tomatoes, and peas and carrots. Add the meat mixture and stir. Add sugar, if using
Cover and let soup come to a boil, stir well and add in the noodles. Stir and turn down heat to low for about 30-60 minutes or until pasta is tender.

Serve topped with Parmesan cheese if desired. Enjoy!

Additional add ins to tweak your recipe:
1/2 head of shredded cabbage (added when you add the pasta)
2 cups zucchini, chopped (added when you add the pasta)
Instead of the cans of veggies replace them with a giant bag of mixed veggies from the frozen food section
2 cups russet potatoes, peeled and diced. Added with the veggies
Make it vegetarian by not adding the beef
1 15-oz can white beans in the place of the red kidney beans
Use left over shredded roast beef in the place of the ground beef
Use Hot Italian Sausage in place of the ground beef
Use 2 cups of V8 juice in the place of the tomato soup
Add 2 cups of broccoli/cauliflower when adding pasta
What ever else your imagination comes up with!

Jenn's Banana Bread

Jenn's Banana Bread

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Grease 3 large loaf pans

Mix together 1/4 C flour

2 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Coat loaf pans with butter and flour mixture and set aside

Use left over flour mixture with dry ingredients 

Liquid ingredients:

Cream together

3/4 C butter, softened

3 C sugar

3 eggs

1 TBS vanilla

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 C applesauce

OR just use 6 ripe bananas and NO applesauce 

1 C  sour cream

Dry ingredients:

Whisk together

4 3/4 C flour using any left over from coating pans

1 TBS cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cardamon OR all spice

1 tsp salt

1 TBS baking soda

Add dry ingredients a little at a time to wet ingredients until well combined.

Divide between loaf pans. Place loaf pans on a baking sheet and place in the center of preheated oven.

Bake for 60-75 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Rotate baking sheet halfway through bake time.

Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes in pans. Remove from pans and place on cooling rack. Cover with towel until completely cooled. Wrap in plastic.

Enjoy!

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo on Spaghetti Squash

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo on Spaghetti Squash

I made this for a church potluck as I am not eating carbs right now and wanted to be sure to take something I knew that I could eat. Turns out all the gluten free peeps enjoyed having something to eat too!

1 large Spaghetti Squash- cooked and shredded.  Cut in half with the seeds scooped out. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-60. I drizzled mine with olive oil, salt and pepper.
1 Rotisserie Chicken, shredded
2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli florets
 Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce  
Or your Favorite Jarred Alfredo Sauce
 1 cup Italian Cheese Blend
salt and pepper to taste (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.
In a 13x9 baking dish, sprayed with cooking spray add the cooked spaghetti squash, chicken, and broccoli.
Pour on Alfredo sauce.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Cover with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly and hot. If you like the top browned you can uncover the last 10-15 of baking.
Enjoy!

8 Can Soup (Packed with Potassium)

Jennifer S.

Make it from a Can Soup has been around for a long time, and no two recipes are identical, but they basically amount to this:
7-8 cans of whatever you want. Don’t drain the cans. Just add them into the pot.
 Some kind of cheese stirred in at the end. Velveeta isn't fancy, but it sure is tasty in this soup!

Recently a friend of mine was in the hospital for a very low potassium level and I was looking for something that was jammed packed with just that! SO I looked up some foods high in potassium and thought hey most if not all of those are in 7- Can Soup, but I reached just a step further and added the canned pumpkin, you'd never know it was in there!

Ingredients:

2 cans (15-ounce, each) Chili Con Carne (your favorite brand with both meat and kidney beans)

1 can (15-ounce) Black Beans

1 can (15-ounce) Diced Tomatoes

1 can (15-ounce) Corn (I Used Fiesta Variety)

1 can (10 Ounce) Rotel

1 can (15-ounce) Pumpkin Puree (NOT pie mix)

Salt And Pepper, to taste

1 Bay Leaf

1/2 tsp Powdered Oregano

4 ounces Velveeta, Cubed

Without draining the cans, empty all cans, and seasonings into a large crock pot set to high heat.

Stir WELL.

Bring to a boil, 1-2 hours, then reduce the heat to low.

Stir occasionally, stuff likes to sink to the bottom of the crock pot, and stick to the sides. 

Check seasonings before adding cheese. I added more pepper (Fresh cracked) for balance.
Dice the cheese and stir it into the soup until melted.

Serve immediately.

Pumpkin Pound Cake

Jennifer S.

Pumpkin goodness in a delicious, moist cake. This simple pound cake recipe uses pumpkin pie spice and the convenience of canned pumpkin to create the flavors of fall.

Ingredients

Pound Cake

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp cloves)

Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside.

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup vegetable shortening, softened

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

15 oz. canned pumpkin (not pie mix)

3/4 cup milk

Combine sugar, butter, and shortening in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy and light in color. Continue beating, adding eggs one at a time, until well mixed. Add vanilla and pumpkin; continue beating until well mixed, mixture may look "curdled".
Add flour mixture alternately with 3/4 cup milk; beat at low speed until well mixed.

Spoon batter into greased and floured loaf pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely.

Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

1 tsp vanilla

4 to 5 TBS milk

Combine powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, and 1 TBS of milk at-a-time for desired glazing consistency in bowl. Glaze cooled cake.

Turkey Tortilla Soup

Jennifer S.

This is a FANTASTIC way to use up leftover turkey from Thanksgiving or any holiday.
My husband even had seconds, and he NEVER EVER has seconds on soup!!

2 TBS olive oil
1 cup white onion, finely diced
6 cups turkey or chicken stock
2-3 cups leftover turkey, diced up
2 cups frozen corn, or 1 15-oz can, drained
1 15-oz can black beans, I didn't drain mine
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes (Mexican style optional)
2 4-oz cans diced green chilies
1 15-oz can of red OR green enchilada sauce OR one envelope of enchilada sauce seasoning
2 cups spinach, sliced into ribbons
salt, pepper to taste
Couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce (optional)
1 TBS of sugar
green onions
sour cream
shredded cheese
fried tortilla strips or tortilla chips

In a large stock pot on med-high heat saute onions in the olive oil.
Add stock, turkey, corn, beans, tomatoes, chilies, enchilada sauce or seasoning, Tabasco (if desired), and salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil, turn to med-low and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Add spinach and sugar.
Cover and let simmer until spinach is wilted. Another 10 minutes.
Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Serve in a bowl topped with green onions, sour cream, shredded cheese, and tortilla strips or chips.

Waffles

Ingredients:

Yield: 24 waffles (4x5 in waffles)

• 3 cups flour
• 2 TBS baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2  cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup oil
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 TBS vanilla

Directions:

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl

Beat the eggs until light and fluffy and pale yellow

Mix together the eggs, milk/buttermilk, oil and vanilla, stir slightly

Add to dry ingredients and mix well

Preheat waffle iron, spray with a light coat of cooking spray (the first time should be the only time you need to do this).

Use a measuring cup or gravy ladle (approx 1/3 to 1/2 cup size) and ladle batter into waffle iron. Cook waffles according to manufacturer directions.

Keep warm in a 200 degree oven in a single layer on a baking sheet.

Top with room temperature butter and hot maple syrup!

Or toppings of your choice:

Strawberries

Blueberries

Berries!!

Bananas

Any fresh fruit you love!

Toasted nuts

Toasted coconut 

Chocolate syrup

Flavored syrups

Chocolate chips

Raisins

Pie filling, any flavor, heated up

Peanut butter

Nutella

Jam or Jelly

Whipped topping

Cream cheese, plain or flavored

Ice cream

Powdered sugar

Bacon crumbles

Cinnamon/sugar mix

And so on and so forth...