It's a great day for Grilling...

I love when the weather is nice, not too hot, and you can grill your dinner.  When I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner tonight, he mentioned bbq chicken and I kind of went, eh...because it seemed so ordinary and as you know, I don't like to cook "ordinary" so I decided I would make my own barbecue sauce. It rocked...so here is how to turn the ordinary into anything but....

Zesty Barbecue Chicken
Serves 4

4 boneless chicken breasts
2 1/2 cups Ketchup
1/4 cup of Splenda brown sugar
1/4 cup of chopped onion
2 TBS Worschetshire sauce
1 teaspoon of garlic paste (or garlic powder)
1 teaspoon of hot pepper sauce
1/8 teaspoon of red pepper
1/8 teaspoon of black pepper
2 teaspoons of liquid smoke

Mix altogether in a saucepan.  Cook for at least an hour. Season chicken with McCormicks Montreal Chicken Seasoning and grill until cooked through. Baste the chicken with barbecue sauce and continue heating on grill, flip chicken and baste other side with sauce and heat.  Remove and serve.

If you want to keep this a really low carb meal, I would recommend making some Asparagus on the grill.
Grilled Asparagus
Serves 4

1 bunch of thin green asparagus
2 TBS of olive oil
2 Garlic Cloves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Place asparagus on grate or foil boat, drizzle olive oil over asparagus, press garlic over asparagus, and season with salt and pepper.  Cook asparagus until tender 10-15 minutes.

Yum...Biscuits and Gravy...and yes low carb!

So if you are like my husband and I, we love Biscuits and Gravy, but lord knows every restaurant uses a heavy biscuit, thick gravy and I'm sure is not low in carbs.  So I have started to make it at home for us to enjoy on a weekend morning!

8 Biscuits from Carbquik Bake Mix (available through Netrition.com)
1 package of Jimmy Deans crumbled turkey sausage
2 cups of Skim Milk
2 Tbs I Can't Believe it's Not Butter
Red and black pepper to taste
Flour to thicken

1. Make biscuits using recipe on box of Carbquik Bake Mix
2. Heat up the butter in small saucepan, and turkey to heat.
3. Sprinkle flour over turkey sausage and mix.
4. Add Milk and pepper, and cook on medium heat until sauce starts to thicken, if after 5 minutes, sauce still does not thicken, slowly add flour and stir until gravy thickens.
5. Pour over biscuits and serve.
6. Enjoy!

Total carbs per serving: 10 net carbs

It's been awhile....and hard to be here but I'm back

As many of you know, I started this blog in honor of my dad and husband who are diabetics.  After my last post, my dad passed away after many years of fighting diabetes, heart disease, and COPD.  This had been a happy place, where I wrote about food and cooking, but I haven't felt like doing much of either until recently.  So I promise I will try to get back in the swing, pick myself up, start cooking and blogging....Won't you raise your glass of whatever you are drinking and toast my dad, a man who made an impression on everyone he met...Love you and miss you dad!

This weekend, we had an impromptu barbeque with friends.  I made a pork roast marinated in caribeean jerk seasonings and even though everyone had seconds I still had quite a bit of pork leftover.  Yesterday I put some of the pork in my mini crockpot and made a very nice pulled pork.  Tonight I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner and he said "not pork", and laughed.  I, not wanting to be wasteful  thought I will get him to eat pork, and decided to make "pork fried rice".  After we finished, my husband said, that was great and forgot all about the fact this was day 3 of pork....So enjoy!

Serves 4
8 oz of leftover cooked pork (chop, tenderloin, roast)
2 cups of cooked brown rice
1 cup of green peas
1 can of sliced water chestnuts
1/2 lb of green beans
1/2 cup of green onions
Egg beaters scrambled (equivelant of 1 egg)
2 TBS of sesame or vegetable oil
2 TBS of low sodium soy sauce
Fresh basil to taste
Pepper to taste

1. Cook rice according to directions and in a small saute pan, scramble egg beaters.
2. Heat oil in saute pan or wok
3. Add onions, water chestnuts, and green beans to oil.  Saute until soft.
4. Add cooked rice, pork, scrambled egg, peas, and soy sauce.  Saute for 3-5 minutes until pork is heated through, add basil and pepper, saute until basil is wilted.
5. Enjoy!