Jalapeno Poppers

Jalapeno Poppers

Jalapeno Poppers


12 Jalapeno Peppers
8 oz Cream cheese, goat cheese or 4oz of both, softened to room temperature.
Shredded cheddar cheese
Real Bacon bits or fried crispy crumbled bacon slices, to your taste




Preheat oven to 400 deg




Split jalapeno peppers in half, remove membranes and seeds, rinse well, make sure nothing "white" remains in the shells. NOTHING unless you really like them HOT. Even one seed will fire your mouth up. Tips are below.


In a bowl mix 8 ounces cream/and or/goat cheese with a handful of the cheddar. The goal is to make a cheese filling that is somewhat stiff but still pliable by hand. Add more cheddar if it seems to need it. Then add the bacon bits to the bowl. You can mash it together with a fork or use your hands to mix it very well. I recommend using your hands myself. 
Stuff mixture into peppers, you can use a spoon or do it by hand. I do it by hand. Messier but works better.I put the filling in so that it's not in a big mound but spread out so that the pepper is just slightly rounded on top when done.


Place stuffed peppers on a cookie sheet with a lip around the edge. They will roll out of a flat cookie sheet. Or use any other baking pan with sides. Top with a little bit of shredded cheddar on each pepper. Time consuming but if you just cover everything with cheese it does not work well to dip them in ranch. Then it becomes more knife and fork.....


Bake for about 20--30 minutes or until tender and just "almost" turning color...less time for less color if you like. 

Let cool for 5-10 min. Dip in Ranch or Bleu cheese dressing and enjoy!


TIPS:


1. Sometimes I substitute cooked hot Italian sausage for the bacon bits.

2. I have scraped the peppers with a spoon and with my thumb under 4 layers of plastic gloves. The thumb worked better. The spoon just didn't do as good of a job. Less than 4 layers of glove and the oils from the peppers got into my nail bed and burned for several days.NOT.FUN. The peppers scraped with a spoon were also much hotter.

3. Do not work with the peppers bare handed. The oils are very difficult to wash from your skin and if you touch anything on your body [And MEN I mean ANYTHING] you will be sorry you did not wear gloves. I promise. Also do not handle your contact lenses if you did not wear gloves. OUCH. I keep a fingernail brush on my kitchen sink and scrub under my nails after wards too.Sometimes I go through 3 rounds of 4 gloves just to get them all scraped. As soon as the glove starts looking raggedy I change them.


4. I usually make a lot at one time and store them in a Ziploc bag in the fridge after they cool down. The cheese cools to a solid consistency and they just stack right up. Nuke the number you want to eat for 40sec. on a plate or so and they are like they just came out of the oven.

5. Change up the shredded cheese, the ingredients [bacon, sausage, etc] And even add spices if you like. I read one variation where they used spinach artichoke dip for a filling and they really liked it...

Recipe Review: PHILLY CHEESESTEAK STUFFED PEPPERS

Recipe Review: PHILLY CHEESESTEAK STUFFED PEPPERS

Found this at a wonderful blog, which I am linking to below. The pic on this blog is of the ones I made. I am pretty impressed with them. I did increase the seasoning as Bill and I love a lot of seasoning.

PHILLY CHEESESTEAK STUFFED PEPPERS

INGREDIENTS

8 oz. Thinly Sliced Roast Beef

8 Slices Provolone Cheese

2 Large Green Bell Peppers

1 Medium Sweet Onion – Sliced

6 oz. Baby Bella Mushrooms - Sliced

2 Tbs. Butter

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Tbs. Garlic - Minced

Salt and Pepper - to taste

(2 Tbs. Peace and Love)

DIRECTIONS

Slice peppers in half lengthwise, remove ribs and seeds.

In a large sauté pan over low-medium heat, add butter, olive oil, garlic, mushrooms onions and a little salt and pepper.  Sauté until onions and mushroom are nice and caramelized.  About 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°

Slice roast beef into thin strips and add to the onion/mushroom mixture.  Allow to cook 5-10 minutes.

Line the inside of each pepper with a slice of provolone cheese.  Fill each pepper with meat mixture until they are nearly overflowing.  Top each pepper with another slice of provolone cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese on top is golden brown. 

Prep Time – 15 Minutes

Cook Time – 50 Minutes

Makes Servings: 4

Per Serving: 

Calories – 458

Protein – 27 g

Carbs – 8.5 net g

Fat – 36 g





This recipe and many other low carb good ones can be found here: 


http://peaceloveandlowcarb.blogspot.com/2012/06/philly-cheesesteak-stuffed-peppers.html#.Uc9YPW3m-AS



My Tweaks: 
Pressed as much grease out of the meat mixture as possible before stuffing. It was super greasy. 
Added shredded cheese in the middle of the meat mix layers

Recipe Review: Cilantro Grilled Chicken Breasts

Cilantro Grilled Chicken Breasts

Ingredients

1 pound (2 large breasts) boneless skinless chicken breast, butterflied

2 tablespoons canola oil

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons

Cilantro Herb Butter, recipe follows

Fresh parsley, optional, for garnish

Directions

Preheat a grill or grill pan over high heat.

Lightly coat chicken with oil and sprinkle each evenly on both sides with the salt and pepper. Grill chicken breasts for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side, or until thoroughly cooked; the meat should be solid white throughout and the internal temperature will read 165 degrees F. Remove from grill and immediately top with cilantro herb butter. Garnish with parsley, if desired. Serve as butter is melting.

Cilantro Butter:Scampi Butter, recipe follows

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Follow the scampi butter recipe, but use only half of the garlic, and replace the parsley with 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro.

Yield: 12 servings

Scampi Butter (Base):1/4 pound unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons minced red onion

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Dash white pepper

Dash Worcestershire sauce

1 lemon, juiced

1 tablespoon white wine

In a bowl, whisk all ingredients until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate until ready to use. Use the Scampi "base" to make different flavored butters.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cilantro-grilled-chicken-breast-recipe.print.html?oc=linkback

*My tweaks: My grilling abilities stink. Not only that, if I were actually good at it I would be too lazy to grill, lol. So I heat olive oil in a non stick pan over med-high heat, season the chicken and fry it in the olive oil til it browns, set aside and proceed with the butter. 

This is all the rage at my house right now! Low Carb Pizza!

Best LC Pizza I have ever had!

I actually served this and non LCers thought it was the bomb. My anti-LC 18yr old son said he doesn't want delivery pizza anymore, just make him this instead. 

I found the original recipe here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/low-carb-pizza-84516

After reading about 50 of the reviews I revised it to what you see below. 

Ingredients

parchment paper

16in pizza pan or 9x13 pan

Crust

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon chives

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning or 1/2 teaspoon pizza seasoning

1/2 teaspoon wet garlic or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 cups mozzarella cheese

This is what the crust looks like out of the oven.

Toppings

1/2 cup pizza sauce (the lowest carb you can find) or 1/2 cup tomato sauce ( the lowest carb you can find)

1 cup mozzarella cheese

pizza toppings, of choice

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray 9X13 pan or 16inch pizza pan with cooking spray or oil. [I used Bakers Joy, a flour/oil mix because that was all I had] place parchment paper over the oiled surface. [some ppl don't use parchment paper. I live by it] Spray parchment paper.

Spread  2 cups mozzarella cheese in bottom of pan. Bake for 5 minutes. [one reviewer said they had best results when crust was put in fridge several hours to dry out a bit.

While mozz. Is baking Beat together cream cheese and eggs until smooth.

Add cream, parmesan, chives, Italian seasoning and garlic.

Pour egg mixture over baked mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool a bit if you have time. Use a spatula to lift edges slightly to loosen crust from pan f needed.

 If no time to cool, go ahead and spread sauce over baked mixture.

Add toppings of choice.

Cover with remaining mozzerella cheese.

Bake until bubbly and brown.

Let stand for 5 minutes.

Tweaks/Tips:

I precook veggies in a sauté pan and crisp the pepperoni about 30-45 seconds in microwave. Cuts down on grease with pepperoni.  

Also other meats need to be precooked [Italian sausage, bacon etc]

I did not stick with the measurements on the spices the second go around. I like a much spicier pizza than these spices call for. 

additional notes:

Non low carbers. gluten free friend, and low carbers alike loved this! Fills you up extremely fast too!

uncooked pizza:

finished pizza:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 (73 g)

Servings Per Recipe: 8

Amount Per Serving% Daily Value

Calories 266.7 Calories from Fat 19272%Amount Per Serving% Daily ValueTotal Fat 21.3g32%Saturated Fat 11.9g59%Cholesterol 158.5mg52%Sugars 1.3 gSodium 425.1mg17%Total Carbohydrate 3.5g1%Dietary Fiber 0.3g1%Sugars 1.3 g5%Protein 15.0g30

The picture that started it all.....

"Does this mountain make my butt look big?? No? Yes? well.... my butt is so big at this point it could only look small standing next to a mountain so maybe it's time to get serious."

That was the conversation going on in this picture many years ago and inspired the title of this blog. I was with 3 lovely ladies that  I met online at a low carb message board called Low Carb Friends. We were part of a weight loss challenge group and the chemistry with several of us was so undeniable we had to meet! 

Over and over again!

Usually in Pigeon Forge, TN, because, well because it is lovely there in the fall and fall was the only time we could align all of our, well MOST of our schedules.  

Pictured are my sisters in carb crisis Kelly and Sharon. Our other sisters included Mary, Pam and Ingrid. 

We are still in touch to this day and are planning another reunion in Spring of 2015. Hopefully we will be loving the scales by then!

More to come!

:]

Robin

Does This Mountain Make My Butt Look Big?

Hello there!

If you are reading this you either A. stumbled across it googling God knows what on the internet, or B.you follow one of my other blogs or C. I invited you.

Two of the three above are ok. The third one we won't worry about, k?

To say I'm overweight is a serious understatement. I'm starting a new blog focused on the best ways for me to eat in the hopes that it will A. keep me accountable, and B. might help someone else along the way.

This blog will contain lots of low carb recipe reviews, tips and tricks etc. I have found through many years of eating many different ways that  am allergic to carbs as they make me break out in fat.

So while I have well over 100lbs to lose to get to optimum health, I will just focus on the first ten or so.

:]

Robin