Lazy Ceviche

I was looking for something super easy to throw together without turning on the oven or stove on a hot summer night. This is my lazy version of ceviche, using store bought pico de gallo. Sometimes I just like to let the HyVee chefs do the chopping for me! I know that ceviche technically cooks the shrimp without heat anyway, due to the acid of the citrus juice, but I already had frozen cooked shrimp in the freezer, so I just used that.

 

 

Lazy Ceviche

 

1 pound bag of small cooked shrimp, thawed

1 pint of store bought Pico de Gallo

1 cup of chopped cilantro

3 small diced avocados

1 cup of tomato juice

1 tsp of salt

1 Tblsp of hot sauce

2 Tblsp lime juice

2 tsp of minced garlic

 

Thaw frozen shrimp and drain well. Put them in a large mixing bowl, add pico, cilantro,  and avocados. In a cup, stir together the tomato juice, salt, hot sauce, lime juice and garlic. Pour this mixture over everything else and mix well . Serve with Beanito chips or homemade low carb tortilla chips.

 

 



A macaroni and cheese miracle!

We are on a roll with the Miracle Noodles lately! I changed my auto ship order from Miracle rice to ziti shaped pasta, and these ziti make a perfect Mac and cheese!

 

Here's a link to the Miracle Noodle website. If you love their products, I highly recommend enrolling in the auto-ship program. I was getting ten bags of Miracle Rice delivered once a month, but I recently switched it to 20 bags of ziti delivered every two months. I appreciate the ease of switching your order up, or even putting it on hold if you don't want to get them for awhile. And they always have free shipping. That's lucky, since the box can be pretty heavy.

 

 

 

Miracle Mac

 

2 bags of Miracle Noodle ziti,

3/4 cup of shredded cheese

1/3 cup of heavy cream

3 1/3 inch pats of butter

 

Rinse the Miracle Noodles well and throw into a dry skillet over medium heat to evaporate the excess water off. They recommend that you boil them for two minutes, but I skipped that step and it was fine.

Combine the shredded cheese, heavy cream and butter in a microwave safe dish. Microwave on high in 30 second increments over 3 minutes and whisk until smooth.

 

By the time the sauce is ready, the pasta should be dried. Pour the sauce over the pasta, add ground salt and pepper over it and toss to combine. Makes 2 servings.

 

This is so easy and faster than boxed mac and cheese, and with carb counts like this, it is the perfect keto food!

 

Nutritional information, per serving:

Calories: 271 (242 calories from fat)

Fat: 27g

Carbs: less than 1g

Keto pancakes!

I love breakfast foods, and the thing I missed most with keto was the breakfast carbs. A person can only eat so many eggs before they get bored with the options. A few more ingredients can turn those eggs into something magically cake-like! I went searching online for low carb options to make pancakes and/or waffles. I discovered this recipe from the Try Keto With Me blog, who I started following on Instagram. She's got some great looking recipes!

Low carb baking seems intimidating to me,  because it usually requires lots of expensive wheat flour alternatives. I like this recipe because the only out of the ordinary ingredient I had to buy was some coconut flour, and it uses so little that my $8 package will last me a while. I chose to pay for the $8 tub with a screw on lid to keep it fresh, rather than the $5 bag that I'd have to clip shut. Plus, since it's a pancake rather than a baked cake, it is quick and easy. I'm all about instant gratification.

Here is the link to the original recipe. I doubled that recipe and left out the optional ingredients, as well as the extra liquid, as I found that I didn't need it. I think it is only necessary if you allow the batter to sit for awhile before cooking it, as it will thicken. I was hungry for pancakes and wasted no time!

Keto Pancakes

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

8 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons sugar free vanilla syrup

2 tablespoon sugar substitute, or more to taste

1/2 cup tablespoons coconut flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

 

Soften cream cheese in the microwave. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a heated non-stick skillet (I sprayed mine with butter flavored spray) and cook until bubbles appear on the surface and bottom side is golden. This batter is fairly thin and it will spread quickly when you pour it, so err on the side of smaller pancakes to make them easier to flip. (I learned this the hard way.) This recipe made 10 large 7 inch pancakes, or could make up to 20 smaller 4 inch pancakes, which equals 4 servings. Serve with butter and sugar free maple syrup of your choosing, I recommend Smuckers!

 

Nutritional info:

Serving size:  1/4th of total batch, however many pancakes that makes depending on size

Calories 407 (279 of those calories are from fat)

Fat 31g

Carbs 12.65g

Fiber 5g

Net carbs 7.65g

Protein 18.8g

 

Variations:

• add 1 tablespoon orange zest and 1 cup cranberries (+2.25g net carbs to each serving)
• add 1 tablespoon lemon zest and 1 cup blueberries (+4.5g net carbs to each serving)
• add 1 50g size chopped Chocoperfection bar and 1 cup raspberries (+2.25g net carbs to each serving)
• add 2 teaspoons almond extract and 1 tablespoon rainbow sprinkles for "birthday cake" flavor (+2.25g net carbs to each serving)
• add 1 tablespoon melted butter to use this batter for waffles

 

 

These pancakes turned out awesome, and I look forward to testing out different variations to this base recipe!