Low Carb Margarita Experiment - Take 4 & 5 and Compare with Skinny Girl Margarita

I'm just about margarita-ed out, folks...

So, let's talk about the flurry of weekend margarita experimentation that occurred over the past two days.

To the left, you can see a photo of the margarita fixings that I assembled on Friday.  We made two versions out of these fixings:

Margarita version 1.4 was a variation on the Laura Dolson margarita base that I have been using time and time again.  Except, instead of fake sugar, we substituted 1 tablespoon of Thai coconut palm sugar paste (jaggery) and made a simple syrup out of it, which we combined with lime juice, tequila, and orange extract.  This added about 3 carbs to the net carbohydrate count, but also significant sweetness without a fake sugar aftertaste.  Here's the recipe:

• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) water
• 1 tbsp jaggery
• 1 jigger (1.5 oz) tequila
• 2 Tablespoons (1 oz) fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
• Ice - small handful
• Margarita salt or kosher salt

Directions

1. Pour water into a microwave safe container, and microwave on high for 60 seconds, until steamy.  Add jaggery to hot water and mix until the jaggery is dissolved.
2. Combine all the ingredients (minus the salt), and stir stir stir until fully incorporated and the liquid is icy cold.
3. Serve in a salt-lined glass if you wish.  I like mine without salt, on the rocks.  Or... if you like it frozen, just dump the margarita and rocks into a blender and let it whir, baby.

Review: I really liked Margarita version 1.4.  It is a bit cloudier than the others because jaggery is an unrefined sweetener and is brown in color.  For me, this was a really good margarita.  For my husband, it was his least favorite.  I understand why: jaggery has a slight caramel flavor that does not hide in the flavor background.  It is not flavor-neutral.  For me, the 3 additional net carbs on this drink were worth it.  It was just sweet enough for me.  I would give this one a 3.5 out of 5.

Margarita version 1.5 was, again, a variation on the Laura Dolson margarita base.  Here, we made a simple syrup with the hot water, 1/2 tablespoon of jaggery and 1/2 tablespoon of Truvia.  The goal was to have some natural sweetness from the jaggery to offset the fake sugar taste of the Truvia, but not so much truvia that the aftertaste would bring me to me knees.  

• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) water
• 1/2 tbsp jaggery
• 1/2 tbsp Truvia
• 1 jigger (1.5 oz) tequila
• 2 Tablespoons (1 oz) fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
• Ice - small handful
• Margarita salt or kosher salt

Directions

1. Pour water into a microwave safe container, and microwave on high for 60 seconds, until steamy.  Add jaggery and Truvia to hot water and mix until the jaggery is dissolved.
2. Combine all the ingredients (minus the salt), and stir stir stir until fully incorporated and the liquid is icy cold.
3. Serve in a salt-lined glass if you wish.  I like mine without salt, on the rocks.  Or... if you like it frozen, just dump the margarita and rocks into a blender and let it whir, baby.

Review: Going half and half with the jaggery and Truvia brought the carb count down 1.5 grams from margarita version 1.4.  This version (margarita 1.5) is my favorite to date.  Peter liked it, despite the addition of some jaggery to round out the taste of the artificial sweetener.  This is a low carb margarita that I would feel fine serving to anyone, low carber and carboholics alike :)  I gave it a 4.25 out of 5 (notably, the "5" is the full sugar amazing margarita that I just can't drink anymore; on this scale, 4.25 is a damn tasty drink).

Notably, I decided, after sampling margarita 1.5, that I had maybe reached my max tequila consumption for the week.  So, I combined the margarita that I had left from my sampling (about 1.5 ounces) with about 4 ounces of orange-flavored seltzer water.  It was actually quite delicious, and still pretty potent.  I would definitely do this again, especially in the summer when you want a drink that's refreshing and tangy, but is not going to knock your socks off quite that quickly. 

SKINNY GIRL

Everyone who knows about my low carb margarita experiment has been yammering away at me about Skinny Girl Margaritas.  So, when I happened to come across a bottle of it at the liquor store, and checked the nutrition label (a 4 ounce serving has about 4 grams of net carbs, and has about 12.7% alcohol/volume), I thought that I would pick up a bottle.  A 750 ml bottle, containing 7 x 4 ounce servings cost me about $15. 

I bought it, brought it home, chilled it, and then Pete and I had a taste test.  Here are my thoughts:

Taste: My margaritas are robustly lime-y.  They are not shy.  You know that you are drinking a margarita.  The lime is fresh.  This margarita packs a zesty punch but has a delicate citrus scent.  They are good.  They are lipsmacking.  One of them will make you tipsy, and a second will knock you on your kiester.

By way of contrast, Skinny Girl tastes watered down and is only vaguely citrus-y.  It would be as if you made my margarita with bottled lime juice, then diluted the whole mix at least 50-50 with water (and I'm being generous here, because I did water mine down with seltzer water, and it still packed more punch than Skinny Girl).  You can tell the difference between my margaritas and Skinny Girl's just by looking at them: Skinny Girl is a thin, watery beverage.  Mine has body and, by God, texture (love that lime pulp).  There is just no comparison.  Honestly, I didn't even finish the Skinny Girl.  I passed it to the hubby.  If I am going to drink carbs, I'm going to get the max out them.  Skinny Girl was a limp dishrag of a margarita, and just not worth it.

Price: Considering that the bottle of El Espolon tequila that I bought for my recipes cost just around $22 for a 750 ml bottle, and that this bottle will make approximately 16 x 6 ounce margaritas and change (each containing 1.5 ounces of tequila), it became immediately clear that my homemade versions were waaaay less expensive than Skinny Girl.  In fact, I did the math, and I figured out that each of my 6 ounce margaritas cost around $1.50, while the 4 ounce Skinny Girls cost just over $2 each.  So, mine rang in at about 25 cents per ounce, while Skinny Girl cost about 50 cents per ounce. 

That math is not 100% accurate, but it is pretty close.  In fact, I would consider my math to be downright generous, considering that Skinny Girl is so watered down, that my recipe, mixed 50-50 with water, is still more potent and tasty, and my watered down version would cost only about 12.5 cents per ounce.

Rating: Skinny Girl weighs in at a skinny 2 out of 5, but only if you want a boring, vaguely lime-y drink that won't even stand up to the spicy mexican food that you pair it with.  Disappointing!

CONCLUSIONS from the peanut gallery:

If you can get your hands on jaggery, give Margarita version 1.5 a try.  It is really good.  If you can't find jaggery, use just Truvia instead.  You'll be a happy camper.

Don't waste your money on Skinny Girl.  If you love margaritas, then take the time to make your own margaritas.  They are cheaper and tastier.  If you want a watered down margarita, then eschew Skinny Girl, and just modify your own hooch to suit.  Your taste buds and your wallet will thank me for this!

Low Carb Margarita Experiment - 3rd Time's the Charm?

You may wonder: will she ever get tired of margaritas?  I'm not sure what the answer to that question is in the long run, but for now, I'm hanging in there.

Here's quick recap of what's happened to date with our Low Carb Margarita Experiment: our first attempt at a low carb margarita got 3 out of 5 stars, mostly because I can't stand the aftertaste of liquid Splenda, but my husband thought the cocktail was spot on.   The second attempt at a low carb margarita got 3.5 out of 5 stars because, although the taste with Truvia was better than with liquid Splenda, there was still a hint of aftertaste that bugged me, but was not an obstacle to me finishing the drink on my own; I also wasn't crazy about the extra step of making the microwave simple syrup with the Truvia.

Our third attempt is something that my husband didn't actually get to sample.  You see, I came home very late last night after a City meeting, and Pete was already in bed.  It was that kind of a night, so I thought I would enjoy a small night cap.  That nightcap was a margarita.  Here's what I came up with on take three.

(Once again, I'm using Laura Dolson's original recipe as my base.)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) water
• 1 jigger (1.5 oz) tequila
• 2 Tablespoons (1 oz) lime juice - bottled more convenient, fresh tastes a lot better
• 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 oz of pomegranate juice
• 1 packet of Truvia
• Ice - small handful
• Margarita salt or kosher salt

Directions

1. Combine all the ingredients (minus the salt), and stir stir stir until fully incorporated and the liquid is icy cold.
2. Serve in a salt-lined glass if you wish.  I like mine without salt, on the rocks.  Or... if you like it frozen, just dump the margarita and rocks into a blender and let it whir, baby.

Here was my thought process: I hypothesized that the pomegranate juice would sweeten up the margarita just enough without destroying the carb count.  So, I put one ounce of the juice in (which added about 3 grams of net carb to the drink), and took a sip before I added any artificial sweetener.  It was WAY too tart, so I added the packet of Truvia.

So, the carb count was about 5.5 grams per large serving.  However, the pomegranate juice didn't really add that much sweetness or pomegranate flavor, although it did turn the margarita pleasantly pink.  The Truvia didn't dissolve completely, but I didn't notice that until I looked at the bottom of the glass and saw a few crystals clinging to the bottom.

Honestly, this wasn't a bad margarita, but I'm going to give it 3 out of 5 stars because, for the extra 3 grams of carbohydrate, there wasn't any noticeable improvement in flavor.

My next experiment will involve Thai coconut palm sugar paste (jaggery), which is a natural, less refined form of sugar that has 3 grams of net carbohydrate per tablespoon.  I just have to grab some at Whole Foods today.  Onwards!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I have made some slight additions to my diet and exercise regimens in this New Year. 

First and foremost, I started supplementing with MCT oil this week - one tablespoon twice daily.  I will be posting on the purported benefits of MCT oil supplementation as well as the results of my n=1 MCT oil experiment in the near future.

Secondly, I have upped my gym attendance, and tonight, I am attending an orientation at a nearby martial arts facility, which is doing a "Biggest Winner" contest. 

For $50, you sign up for the "Biggest Winner" 8 week program, which begins on January 16th.  They weigh you before the start of the program and at its completion; the person who has lost the most weight in the interim wins some cash.  I'm not doing it for the cash - I am doing it for the highly discounted "cage fitness", "brazilian jujitsu" and "applied self defense" classes that you can take for no additional charge during that 8 week period.  Assuming that I go twice each week, that is 16 fitness classes for $50.  I am trying something new and interesting, and I am excited.  I fell asleep last night, with the "Kung Fu Fighting" song in my head...

I weighed myself this morning, to get an official 2012 starting weight. 

Here are my stats:

198 pounds; 14.5" neck circumference; 6" wrist circumference; 43" bust; 37.5" waist; 46" hips. 

I lost 33.5 pounds last year, and several dress sizes.  I feel better and look better.  I am three pounds away from being at my high school graduation weight.  2011 was a really trying year.  I wasn't able to focus on my own health goals the way I aspired to at the beginning of the year, when I started LCHF.  Given all of the crazy stuff that we dealt with, I am happy to have lost this weight, and I look forward to becoming healthier and trimmer in 2012.

This year, my goal is to lose 40 pounds , and to get myself toned up.  My weight has not changed much since I squeaked in under 200 pounds in October 2011.  It is time to shake things up a bit. 

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THIS NEW YEAR?

Fitness for Dummies - Holiday Edition

Would you rather start the New Year off with regret over your December glut, or begin 2012 admiring the work you did in December to help trim your big ol' November butt? 

Everyone always talks about New Year's resolutions, and starting afresh in the New Year.  You can see evidence of this everywhere you look, but especially at your local gym.  In December, the place is dead. 

Come January 2nd or 3rd, however, and you can't get a parking space outside, you have to wait 15 minutes to get on an elliptical machine, and the dumbbells are being occupied by, well, dumbbells who don't know how valuable your time is!  It is ridiculously frustrating, and, if you're like me, it gives you just one more excuse to slack off and stay at home, munching and watching the tube like a zombie. 

Here are some thoughts. 

First, you can do what I did, and hit the gym hard THIS month.  That's right.  Live in the present, and kick some tush NOW, not later.  While everyone else is out at Christmas parties, drinking and noshing their waistlines away, or vying for a parking space at the local shops, you can do the smart thing and hit that deserted wasteland that is your gym in December.  (Not that you can't go to Christmas parties or shop... just don't forget fitness while you gleefully prepare for your favorite holiday). 

There are a lot of benefits to hitting the gym right now.  Because it is not crowded, you don't have to wait in line for machines or weights, you can feel comfortable trying out a new routine or technique because you won't have an audience to observe if you mess up/fall off, and the likelihood is that you may actually get to have some quality time with knowledgeable gym staff who can teach you some cool tricks, or show you how to use a particularly daunting weight machine. 

As well, because you are being mindful of your fitness, you are less likely to treat yourself with the carby delights and alcohol abondanza that are pressed upon you this season.  So, the likelihood is that you will maintain your weight or even lose weight during the holiday season, instead of digging yourself into a nutritional and fitness hole that will be hard to climb out of next month. 

Second, you can start learning fitness techniques that you can do outside of the gym NOW, so that when the inevitable January gym rush hits, you can supplement your gym routine with activities that you can do in and around your home.  

Here's my recommendation: Check out these videos on body weight exercises by Mark Sisson of marksdailyapple.com and the Primal Blueprint fame, and give them a try.  In my life, I've never been able to do a single pullup.  Mark Sisson's videos show techniques that fitness neophytes like me (and maybe you) can use to work our way up to doing pullups, increasing the intensity of the exercise as we develop in upper body strength.  There are also videos for doing squats, pushups and the plank.  Best of all, these are exercises that you can do in the privacy of your own home, whenever the feeling strikes you.  To my family's amusement, I've popped a couple of wall squats (they look a little bizarre) while watching cartoons with my kid, and done some pushups off the kitchen counter while waiting for water to boil. 

Making the commitment to fitness, whether at home or at the gym, is something that you can absolutely do.  In my experience, taking control of my diet and my activity level has been an empowering experience.  

My LCHF 1 year anniversary arrives on January 24, 2011.  I have come a long way since then.  Today, I weighed in at 197 pounds.  I started this way of life at 231.5 pounds.  That's is a total loss of 34.5 pounds to date. 

Thanks to the changes I've made in my diet and fitness over the past year, I've said goodbye to heartburn, IBS, recurrent back pain, feeling dizzy when I bend over to tie my shoes, and wearing size 20W clothing.  I have said hello to being healthy, being able to run around with my kid, looking better (in clothes which are a size 14 regular now), and feeling more confident and accomplished.  Most of all, I have a hope for the future that I will never be fat and sick again, and I can see myself trim and healthy.

My interim personal goal is to hit my 40 pound weightloss milestone by January 24, 2012. 

What's your goal?   

LCHF and Primal Guest Posts Welcome...

Anyone interested in doing some guest blogging this month?  I could sure use the help.  I anticipate that my posting is going to slow down for the next couple of weeks.

My daughter needs yet another surgery, and it will probably happen this week/early next week. The surgery is to correct a portion of her bile duct that was damaged when she had a large tumor removed from her abdomen in May.  Recovery may be a couple of weeks or so.

She is currently hospitalized, and has been so for a bit.  I am working while my husband primarily stays with her at the hospital.  So, for me there is a lot of shuttling around (work, hospital, home), doing laundry, and just generally being discombobulated and tired all of the time. 

Our regular life is on pause for a while.  I am certainly not doing any cooking these days, nor any kitchen experimentation.  We are essentially living on takeout and cafeteria food right now, tossed together with whatever homemade stuff I can coerce my family to bring to the hospital.  It is getting a bit tiring. 

To get my fiber, I've taken to buying bags of prepped veggies, like broccoli and cauliflower, and just eating the veggies raw with creamy dips.  I really like T. Marzetti's Southwestern Ranch dip.  It is soooooo good with raw broccoli.  I am thinking it would be a killer dressing for a creamy coleslaw.

If you want to try T. Marzetti's Southwestern Ranch dip, just make sure that you buy the full fat version, as the nutritional profile is more appropriate for LCHF than the low fat version.  This dip can probably be found in the refrigerated section near/in your produce aisle.

Notably, I went onto T. Marzett's website to link to the nutritional information for this product and was surprised/concerned to find that the full fat version is no longer featured on their website.  Hopefully this doesn't mean that they are phasing it out in favor of its low fat cousin.  That would be a serious bummer.

Bacon and Eggs are Good for You

Here is what FitDay has to offer regarding the nutritional profile of this morning's breakfast, which was: two fried eggs, three and a half crispy pieces of bacon, and one 6 oz. coffee with 1 oz. of half & half.

Check out the graph.  Breakfast was 70% fat (blue), 27% protein (yellow), 3% carbohydrate (purple). 

The details are below.  Not that I count calories or anything, but I was a little shocked to see that my big, bacon-ey breakfast was just over 300 calories.  Compare this to the carb-load in a Starbucks Apple Bran Muffin (350 calories, 9g fat, 64g carb, 6g protein) or their Cranberry Orange Scone (490 calories, 18g fat, 73g carb, 8g protein), and tell me what you think will get you to lunch without throwing you into a diabetic coma.  And don't get me started on their beverages... I shudder to remember the days when I wouldn't hesitate to suck down an Iced Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha.  

	Grams	Calories	%-Cals
Calories		310
Fat	24.3	218	70	%
Saturated	8.3	74	24	%
Polyunsaturated	3.4	30	10	%
Monounsaturated	9.8	87	28	%
Carbohydrate	2.5	10	3	%
Dietary Fiber	0
Protein	20.1	82	27	%
Alcohol	0	0	0	%

FitDay Recap (Grown Ups Only, Please) and SNOW



Surveying storm damage in a nearby Town. Photo: Bristol Press.



Thanks to the freak[ing] October Nor'easter that blew through Connecticut and other New England states this weekend, I and 800,000 other Connecticut residents are without power.  I also have no heat or hot water. 

This morning, the ambient temperature in my home was a balmy 45 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Needless to say, I got dressed under the blankets today. 

Thankfully, my office has power and a hot shower available to employees.  The cafeteria has hot food.  My wonderful, generous, fantastic, amazing and delightful father-in-law is carting a generator and space heater to our house this afternoon.  With any luck, our house will be toasty warm tonight.  Thank you, Jesus.

Notably, I did weigh myself this morning.  However, because the house was so chillled, I did it with all of my winter clothes on.  My weight was 205.5.  Considering that I had on my heavy snow boots and all of my other wintry gear, I am thinking that I have probably lost weight this week.  However, don't anticipate a weight and measurements update until I can comfortably manage to get on the scale au naturel. 

I am keeping up with FitDay.  It is my new thing, and I just love it.  Do you know that you can input just about any activity that you do, and FitDay will give you an extra caloric deduct?  (Now, that's not to say that I agree with the thermodynamic calories in - calories out principle.  I'm just saying that it's cool.)  Activities that you can choose from vary from working out on an elliptical machine, to going grocery shopping, to nookie.  Yep.  You heard me right (*snort*, *chortle*, *giggle*, *act like a preteen*).  And get this - you can choose whether your nookie is "vigorous", merely "moderate activity", or limited to kissing and necking.  LOfreakingL.  I needed something like this to brighten my day.

I note this about FitDay because it is a true and amusing fact about FitDay, and because if you use FitDay you may not be aware that FitDay has this interesting function.  Also, I just wanted to let you know because, if you look at my public profile, you will note what I've, uh, been up to over the weekend.  *Snort*

Fit Day

I just started a Fit Day account.  Check out my public profile.  I've gone back and inputted my weights since starting LCHF in January 2011.  So far, Fit Day seems pretty cool.  

There are definitely some positives, i.e., I like seeing my weight loss charted on a graph.  What can I say, I'm a visual type of girl ;)

I do have some reservations about their nutrition tracker.  I had chicken soup today for lunch. Fit Day's "chicken soup" recipe that they analyzed for nutrition contains about 10 grams of carbs per cup.  Considering that my soup was mostly broth, chicken, and some veggies (no rice, noodles or potatoes), I'm pretty positive that my carb intake from the soup was quite minimal. 

So, the nutrition tracking of homemade foods is probably going to be iffy.  Unless you are eating completely whole foods (1 cup of raw broccoli) or major brand food items (1 cup of Cheerios), the carb counts in your food are going to be off, maybe even way off. 

 

I will investigate how to get around this and report back... 

Numbers Don't Lie

Check out my updated weight and measurements.

I am pleased to report that, somehow, I have lost weight during this crazy, stressed-to-the-max week. 

Historically, I started measuring myself on February 13, 2011, after I had already lost 8 pounds on LCFH.  Compared to those original measurements, after being on LCFH for 38 weeks, I have lost just over 15 inches of girth, total, from my bust, weight and hips. 

As of today, I have lost 33 pounds since I started this WOE on January 23, 2011.  There have been a lot of stalls, and some ups and downs, but my average weight loss is just under 1 pound per week.  It adds up, even though it feels like it is taking forever.

Not only do I feel better, I look better.  I've gone from a size 20W to a size 14 (on a skinny day), and I am still chugging along.  I have accomplished something that I never thought I was capable of doing, and in the process, I have learned a lot about myself. 

Now, if I could just get rid of my stress related zits and back pain and get a good 12 hours of restful, uninterrupted sleep...

Pity Party Pig Out - Reflections

Last week was a doosie.  My daughter is in the hospital recovering from a procedure (she’s okay), and I spent the whole weekend there with her.  I came home on Sunday night, leaving my husband there to stay, as I had to go to work on Monday morning and he did not. 

Sunday night, watching football by myself in my jammies, I wanted a snack.  I went to the fridge, and found a mountain of Chinese food leftovers, none of which I should be eating.  I seized on the stress of the weekend as an excuse to pig out on forbidden foods (yes, it was a conscious choice and I knew what I was doing). 

I wish that I could say that I stopped at the cold spareribs and chicken fingers.  I didn’t.  I went back to the fridge, looking for something sweet, thinking to myself, “well, I already blew it with Chinese, what’s a little more junk food going to hurt?” 

I found about 4 ounces of coconut chocolate chip cookie dough in the freezer, and demolished that.  I looked down at my belly, which had already started to rumble at me disagreeably, and felt a bit ashamed.

I justified my bad eating choices, in those moments, by thinking that, with all that I had going on, I deserved a break, and no one would think poorly of me for cheating.

Making excuses for poor behavior to justify continuing down a path that I should not be on is just crazy talk!  Who am I making excuses to?  Me?  Sending excuses from myself to myself?  This is how I got into the rut that I was in – you know, the rut that had me ballooning to 236 pounds on my 5’6” frame, suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and PCOS. 

I am past this and I am better than this.  Taking personal responsibility for my health at all times means that when life hands me lemons, I do not drink lemonade.  I also do not eat lemon squares or lemon pie, or indulge in lemon chicken.  I calm down, take stock, and decide not to go forth into a feeding frenzy. 

The truth of the matter is that I have this one life, and this one body, and I believe that I can do better for myself and for my family.  No one benefits when I eat crap that can literally send me into a coronary. 

Gifting myself with junk food, sugar and starches is the old Kate, the one who numbed herself with food because she could not face sad things in her life.   

The new Kate is honest with herself, and is getting healthier day by day.  She doesn’t run from problems.  She faces them head-on, and sends them packing.   

Does this familiar to you?  Check out:

Pema Chodron, Getting Unstuck, This is a great CD from Pema Chodron, a buddhist nun.  She's been there.  This CD really helped me understand what I was doing to myself with food.  Its not a CD about food or dieting - its about being in a rut and identifying why you created the rut, and what its done for you lately. 

Recipe: LCHF Sausage and Bread Stuffing

I served this recipe last night with Roasted Chicken and Garlic Mashed Cauliflower.  Even my high-carb loving family members loved it.  This stuffing was a huge hit!  No one believed it was LCHF.

Note: my husband made the roasted chicken (not pictured).  It was his first-ever attempt, and he accidentally roasted the entire bird breast-side down. 

Guess what?  It was phenomenal: the skin was extra crispy and the breast meat was extra juicy.  

We will be roasting all of our poultry breast side down from now on!

Here's how to make the stuffing:

LCHF Sausage and Bread Stuffing

Ingredients:

• ½ package Jimmy Dean pork sausage
• ¼ stick butter
• 12 oz mix aromatic vegetables, diced (I used a package of soup mix veggies, which included 1 small onion; 1 carrot; 1 small leek; 1 very tiny turnip)
• 6 oz sliced mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon each chopped fresh parsley and fresh dill
• 8 LCHF Buttery Garlic Cheese Biscuits, torn into pieces
• ¼ cup chicken stock
• ¼ stick butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large frying pan set to medium high heat, brown sausage and break apart into crumbles.
3. Remove sausage from pan, leaving fat behind.
4. Add butter to pan, and when melted, add the aromatic vegetables and cook until the onion is translucent.
5. Add the mushrooms, and cook for approximately 5 more minutes, until they begin to soften.
6. Add the herbs, biscuits and stock to the pan and stir to combine.
7. Place the prepared stuffing into your baking pan of choice, and dot with butter. 
8. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the stuffing is well browned and crispy on top. 

Serve with roasted chicken and mashed cauliflower for a fabulous traditional dinner!

Recipe: LCHF Buttery Garlic and Sharp Cheddar Biscuits

Success! 

I made garlic and cheese biscuits on Sunday, and they turned out buttery, delicious and all-around amazing!  The recipe made exactly nine good-sized biscuits (using my 2 oz scooper).  Best part of all, these biscuits weigh in at about 1 net carb per biscuit. 

I used one biscuit to make a sausage, egg and cheese sandwich (which was great), and the rest I crumbled and set aside to use in a stuffing for roasted chicken.  The coconut flour gave the recipe a true biscuit texture, with plenty of body and good crumble.  Thanks to the copious quantities of butter, garlic, and cheese, you couldn't taste the coconut flavor very much - even my husband liked them (and he is not a coconut fan). Quite simply, these were to die for, and I consider this recipe one of my top LCHF recipes to date.  I am now trying to think of several recipes that I miss where I can switch them in for traditional bread.  Here's the recipe:

Buttery Garlic and Cheddar Biscuits

Ingredients

• ¼ cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/3 cup sifted Coconut Flour
• 4 eggs
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Line a cookie sheet with foil, and grease.
3. Whisk together eggs, butter, salt, and garlic powder.
4. Add coconut flour and baking powder and whisk until there are no lumps.
5. Fold in cheese.
6. Drop batter by the 2 oz scoop onto greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. 
8. Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before removing and serving.  Make sure that biscuits are completely cool before storage or they won't stay crisp!