Hamburger and Mushroom Stroganoff with Mashed Cauliflower

I had no intentions of blogging this tonight, but decided to because it turned out so yummy good!  So I have to apologize for my poor quality picture, which I took from my old camera.  From now on I will be using my new Nikon COOLPIX L120 14.1MP 21X Ultra Zoom Camera which I got a pretty cool deal on.  We were able to bring in an ad and they matched it so I got my camera for $216 rather than their sale price.  But I have yet to get it out of the box and put in the batteries and use it.  Just have been too busy!  


So I'm getting side-tracked here.  Back to the food.  I had this for dinner tonight.  Needed something to throw together fast.  I had just gotten an order from Netrition and tried some of the Walden Farm's products, so I used their alfredo sauce in this.  I must say I was not disappointed!  And if their claim is true, of no calories, and no carbs, (which puzzles me), then it's a pretty good deal for everyone.  It's also gluten free.


I hastily threw this together, and did the best I could to write down the recipe as soon as I finished eating.  It went really well over mashed cauliflower and for the non-low carbers, I made mashed potatoes, and made some steamed broccoli with melted butter seasoned with minced garlic and mustard powder, and a tbs. of lemon juice. 

                      

* Exported from MasterCook *

        Hamburger and Mushroom Stroganoff with Mashed Cauliflower

Recipe By     :Ginny Larsen

Serving Size  : 5  (approximately)

Categories    : Beef                            Main dish

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method

--------  ------------  --------------------------------

  1        pound  lean ground beef

  8        ounces  mushrooms -- canned or fresh

  1        jar  Walden Farms alfredo sauce -- (no calories or carbs)

  3        ounces  cream cheese

  1        teaspoon  onion powder

  1        teaspoon  garlic powder

            salt and pepper -- to taste

                        Mashed Cauliflower

  1        pound  cauliflower -- (I use frozen)

  1/4     cup  kefir

  2        tablespoons  butter

 1/2      teaspoon  salt -- (or to taste)

Place cauliflower in a microwavable dish and microwave on high for 10 minutes or until cooked soft.  While it is cooking, using a large frying pan, brown the ground beef.  While it is browning, place the mushrooms in a food processor and pulse a few times, just to roughly chop them.  Or chop by hand. 

Add the mushrooms to the ground beef, and stiry and fry a couple minutes longer and then add the alfredo sauce, cream cheese, onion and garlic powders, and salt and pepper.

Simmer, covered for about 15 minutes.  While this is simmering, place the cauliflower that has been cooked, into your food processor and process until smooth.  Add the kefir, butter, and salt, and process some more until it is the consistency of mashed potatoes.  If you need to add more kefir do so.  

Scoop about 1/2 cup of the mashed cauliflower onto your plate and top it with the stroganoff.  

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Per 5 Servings: 1 serving = 383 Calories; 30g Fat (70.1% calories from fat); 21g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber

Cool Looks and My 36th Anniversary

Ok, this has been functional for a time now, but I just finally figured out how to get it.  If you want to use the Cool Looks on my blog, you need to use this URL: http://ginnyslowcarbkitchen.blogspot.com/view/sidebar
click on it and see what you get!  It's pretty cool.  You get a whole different view of everything on my blog.

You can choose from several different views by clicking one of them on the upper left side: Classic, Flipcard, Magazine, Mosaic, Sidebar, Snapshot, and Timeslide.  Check them out!  I love it!  I was messing around with it on Jennifer's blog and found that I could use it on my own as well.  Thanks Jen for explaining it! I'm a bit late in announcing it, but better late than never, huh?

I just had a wonderful week celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary with my best friend, lover, and soul mate.  I think in these days that is something to celebrate! This man is God's gift to me and evidence of His love and grace in my life.  We had a great week together, without spending a lot of money (we're cheap--or frugal we like to say), and enjoyed that our anniversary this year coincided with a week off from work.  I work for the public school and it was MEA week here.  The rest of the district gets 2 days, but in ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education), we get the whole week.  What a beautiful time of year to do it and to have an anniversary, even though the colors this year are a bit pathetic in our area.  The wind has blown most of them away.  Nevertheless, it was a great week.  I'll be back to cooking once again, after a week of trying to stay low carb and gluten free in restaurants.  I managed pretty well I'd say.  I also brought my own food along to help. So here are a few pics of our week. These are all at Frontinac State Park, Lake Pepin.  Click on the picture for a larger view.

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Caramel Sandwich, LC, GF

Lunch and dessert all in one.  I get these ideas sometimes.  I would have added bacon to the mix if I had had any, but I didn't.  Sometimes my mixes aren't what others would care for, but there may be some of you out there like me, so I share them.

Everyone who knows me by now, knows that I like chocolate and peanut butter, and add caramel to that and what could be better?  And sometimes to have a lunch and then add dessert is just too much, so why not make your lunch and dessert all the same?  I think it's a good idea anyway!

So I took my microwave coconut bread recipe idea and created a chocolate bread out of it.  I bought some Walden Farms sauces and syrups from netrition.com lately so thought I'd add some caramel syrup to this and the taste was everything I hoped it would be!  You could use this bread recipe as a cake in itself and just frost it if you like.  It was great in both taste and texture!

I know that many do not like to microwave in plastic, and I understand that it has the risk of giving us those xenoestrogens and all that, and I probably should be careful of that, and actually for the most part am, but occasionally I like to use my plastic Wonder Bread microwave container to get that nice bread shape.  So I'm not a purist. But if you are and you are more diligent about that than I am, than feel free to use a container that is not plastic for this.  The shape, after all, is not going to change the taste of the product.

Or if you don't like the microwave at all for any food, you can make this pancake style on a griddle but it won't have the same consistency as when you microwave it, yet I'm sure it would still be quite tasty.




                   
* Exported from MasterCook *

           Chocolate Peanut Butter and Caramel Sandwich, LC, GF

Recipe By     :Ginny Larsen
Serving Size  : 1     Preparation Time :0:00
Categories    : Bread                           Breakfast or snack
                desserts                        lunch

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
                        Chocolate bread
 1        tablespoon  coconut flour
 2        tablespoons  cocoa powder
 1/8     teaspoon  xanthan gum
 1/4     teaspoon  baking soda
 6        packets  Truvia -- (or sweetener equal to 1/4 cup sugar)
 1        large  egg
 2        tablespoons  kefir
 1        teaspoon  oil
                        water as needed
                        Filling
 2        tablespoons  unsweetened peanut butter -- (I do add Truvia to my peanut butter so it is a little sweet from the jar)
 1        tablespoon  *Walden Farms Caramel Syrup -- (zero carbs or calories)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a small bowl.  Stir together getting out any lumps.

Make a well in the middle and add the egg, kefir, and oil.  Mix together well.

Drizzle water in and stir just enough to make a cake batter consistency.  Mix well with a wire whisk until it is smooth.

Spray a small container, such as a Wonder Bread plastic container, or a square entree container, or ceramic cereal bowl, whatever you have, with non-stick spray.

Add half of the batter, and spread around evenly.  Microwave for 70 seconds (depending on your microwave.  Mine is 1000 watts), on high.  Plop out on a paper towel and do the same with the remaining batter.

Spread the peanut butter on one piece.  You may have to microwave it to soften it so it spreads easily.  I microwaved mine for about 30 seconds since it came out of the refrigerator.  Then add the caramel syrup and spread evenly on top of the peanut butter.  Cover with the other piece of bread and enjoy!

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Per Serving: 377 Calories; 28g Fat (65.3% calories from fat); 17g Protein; 17g Carbohydrate; 8g Dietary Fiber

Serving Ideas : I may add some bacon to the mix of this next time!

NOTES : *9 useable grams of carbs