Drats, I should have taken a picture of my dinner, but I was so busy scarfing it down that I didn’t think about it until my plate was clean. You all know how I go to the extremes with the things I do, but the more I get into low carb cooking, the more enthusiastic I get. And now that hubby is doing it alongside me, it gives me additional motives to try different things to keep him satisfied. And the results are paying off, he’s down 27 pounds, I’m down 20, it’s working, not fast, well for me anyway, but slowly and steadily. And we’re not alone, my friend Nisha and her husband, Charlie are eating low carb, too. Charlie has lost 30 lbs., Nisha 17 and they haven’t been low carbing as long as we have.
Coconut Oil is one of those things that the low carb community just raves about. Over and over I hear about the heart health benefits, there are so many recipes using coconut oil and I absolutely detest it, I can’t stand all of my food tasting like coconut, so it has been sitting in my pantry, I’ve been using it on my skin and that’s about all because every recipe I tried with it, I ended up throwing out. Well last week I was in the local Vitamin Shoppe and there was a 30 something woman checking out, and she had the loveliest blonde hair, shiny, shiny soft and she was buying a jar of, you guessed it, coconut oil!
I commented on how I can’t stand the taste of it and she told me that she was buying the virgin coconut oil, the same nasty oil that I had in my pantry that I paid $17 for at Whole Foods, and she said she used it to condition her hair. She puts it on dry hair, oils it down, leaves it for awhile and then shampoos it out. Then she proceeded to tell me that I need to be buying refined coconut oil, that it has no taste. The clerk brought me a jar, it was cheap, $7, I brought it home and oh my, it’s a life changing experience.
First I tried frying eggs in it, and they were silky smooth and delicious. The other night I breaded chicken tenders with almond flour, and fried them in the coconut oil, it was amazing. So tonight, badly in need of comfort food, I had cubed steaks in the fridge, I put about a half a cup of almond meal in a bag, along with a liberal amount of salt and pepper, wet my cubed steak so the almond flour would adhere, shook it in the bag while getting my skillet hot with the coconut oil, added the beef, along with thinly sliced onions and cooked it until one side was brown, turned it, covered it and cooked it totally about 15 minutes. Meanwhile I nuked a bag of frozen cauliflower, drained it, then put it in my trusty food processor with 2-3 tablespoons of butter, some shredded cheese, salt, pepper and a splash of half and half. Processed it to make faux mashed potatoes, but this is what took the meal over the top. Gravy, wonderful, rich, sinful gravy.
I took out the meat, and here’s the unusual part, guar gum, you buy it in the grocery store or the health food store, and it thickens food. But you can’t just dump it in, and it doesn’t take much, you just take a bit of olive oil and a teaspoon of guar gum and blend it together, then I added half and half to the pan drippings, not a lot just about half a cup or so, blended in the guar gum and it made decadent, mouth watering gravy. I put it over the faux potatoes and it was absolutely sublime. Really good, hubby loved it. And yes, we had this cranberry relish, the recipe for it is posted on Jan CAN Cook Lowcarb.
See what I mean, I just get all caught up with the things I do and have to tell you all about it. But this is soul satisfying southern, homey, cold weather, stick to your ribs food. And you can eat! No more going hungry, no endless days of chicken and fish, it’s real food! It’s a beautiful thing, low carb cooking, just had to share this...
