Protein Noodle Lasagna (Keto)

So I know this isn't the prettiest picture, but it's so delicious!  I have brought it to church potluck's and received many compliments.  It's Maria Emmerich's Protein Noodle Lasagna.  I made a few changes but just personal preferences.

Ingredients
1 lb ground sausage
3/4-1 lb ground turkey or beef
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
24oz jar low sugar marinara
16oz full fat cottage cheese (or Ricotta)
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 lb shredded mozzarella
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
16oz thinly sliced deli chicken breast lunch meat (I like to get nitrate-free)

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cook sausage, ground meat, onion, and garlic until browned.  Drain and stir in marinara sauce.  In a bowl, combine cottage cheese, egg, and salt.  Spread meat sauce in bottom of 9x13 pan.  Arrange chicken slices over sauce.  Spread with cottage cheese mixture and top with mozzarella and Parmesan.  Repeat layers until everything is used up.  Cover with foil.  Bake 25 minutes, remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes.  Cool 15 minutes before serving.

Crockpot Keto Taco Soup

If you look up Keto Taco Soup online, you will find this recipe in multiple places.  I tweeked this to make it my own.  You can do this in the Instant Pot or in the Crock Pot.  If you really don't like spicy, you can use 1 can of Rotel and 1 can of regular diced tomatoes.  You can also serve with pasta if you don't care about carbs.

Ingredients

2 pounds ground sausage

2 8oz packages of cream cheese

2 10oz cans diced tomatoes and green chilies (like Rotel)

2 Tbsp taco seasoning

4 cups beef broth

8oz bag fresh spinach

Directions

Brown ground sausage, drain and add to crockpot.  Add rest of ingredients to crockpot.  Cook on high for 2 hours or low for 4 hours.  

If you want to use your Instant Pot instead, cook on high pressure for 20 minutes and allow to release naturally. 

Serve with cheese and sour cream.

Keto Chili

I made this yummy low carb/Keto chili in my Instant Pot.  You could also make this in your crockpot or on the stove top if you prefer.

Ingredients
2 lbs ground turkey
2 lbs ground sausage
1 yellow onion, diced
3 multi color peppers, cut up bite size pieces
2 cans Rotel
1 large can crushed tomatoes
4 cups beef broth
2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 cup cumin
1 Tbsp salt
1/4 cup chili powder
8oz bag fresh spinach, roughly chopped

Directions
Brown the ground turkey and sausage with the onion until no longer pink.  Drain and add to your Instant Pot or crockpot.  Add all your other ingredients and put your Instant Pot on high pressure for 30 minutes and allow to release naturally.  If you cook in the crockpot, set on high for 4 hours or low 8 hours.  Serve with cheese and sour cream if you like.

Cajun Rice & Sausage

I was looking to throw something together when we were running low on ingredients, and I found the basic recipe for this on allrecipes.com.  It was yummy comfort food and my husband said he really liked it a lot!  This recipe called for andouille sausage, and we had some sausage that my husband's work gave him and was in our freezer, and I honestly have no idea what kind of sausage it is.  It's the kind you slice up, like a smoked sausage, not one you crumble up like ground.  If you want to lower the calorie & fat content, you could use the reduced fat cream of mushroom and use turkey sausage. I did double the original recipe so you can easily half it for a smaller family.

Ingredients
2 cup white rice
4 cups chicken broth
1 lb sausage, sliced up
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed (optional)

Directions
Combine all ingredients, except mushroom soup, in a large stockpot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 25-30 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in mushroom soup.  Super easy!

4-8-13: I added 2 can of drained black beans to the pot tonight and it was delicious!  I wanted to add something more nutritious to the pot and it came out yummy!

W's chili

I love Wendy's chili, so I decided to go online and see if I could find a copycat recipe.  Well, I found this one, but I had to modify it a little with what I had on hand.  I think it is now my favorite chili that I have made.  I wouldn't say it was terribly like Wendy's chili, but I did modify it, so you can go to the link above if you want, and I hope to next time try it closer to the original recipe to see if it's more like Wendy's.  Yum!  I used hot Italian sausage because that's what I had on hand, but it was a little too spicy for my kids, even with sour cream and cheese on top of theirs.  You can do this in the crockpot as well if you like, low 4-6 hours or high 8-10.  I called this W's chili since I wouldn't call it a Wendy's copycat since I changed it so much.

Ingredients
1 lb spicy Italian sausage (I used hot but would use mild next time for my kids or just use another pound of ground turkey or beef)
1 lb ground turkey or beef (I used turkey)
29oz tomato sauce
29oz light kidney beans, undrained
29oz pinto beans, undrained
1 medium onion, diced
1 can petite diced tomatoes
2 tsp cumin powder
3 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black powder
2 tsp salt

Directions
Brown meats, breaking apart, and drain off fat.  In a large pot combine all ingredients together.  Simmer over low heat 2-3 hours, stirring occassionally.

Crockpot: Brown meat, drain, add to crockpot.  Combine rest of ingredients.  Stir and cook on high for 4-6 hours or low 8-10 hours. 

Makeover: So I made this again and used all ground turkey and did add a 7oz can diced green chilies.  It was super yummy!

Serve over pasta, with sour cream, cheese, tortilla chips, or cornbread.

Sweet & Spicy Little Smokies

Ok, so if you look at the ingredients, you might think, what in the world??? I know I've had something like this in the past, and when I remember looking up recipes for it, I thought the same thing. But trust me, these are really yummy and a big hit. If I was on the receiving end, I would think, "Amber, you have lost your mind!" These are sweet and spicy (not hot, just flavorful) and oh so yummy! You can make these with meatballs as well instead of the little smokies. Make your own meatballs or buy them premade. But, if you've never had these, you HAVE to try them. This made a LOT of sauce, so I will put on here what I used, but I think next time, for 4 packages of little smokies, which is a lot, I will use the medium jar of jelly and only 2 jars of chili sauce. I didn't need quite so much for this amount of smokies.

Ingredients
4 packages of little smokies (see note at top about this)
32oz jar of grape jelly
3 12oz jars chili sauceDirections
Drain your packages of little smokies of extra juice, and throw all of them in the bottom of your crockpot. Cover in the jar of grape jelly and spread around a little. Pour chili sauce over top of that, and turn your crockpot on high for the first 2-3 hours and then on low or warm just to keep them warm for your party. You can also do these on the stovetop if you want to get them done sooner, but you might want to throw them in a crockpot on low or warm afterwards to keep them hot for the party's appetizer. Stir well, dip a few out, and eat!!!

White Lasagna

My friend, Susan, gave this recipe to me, and it was really yummy! It will become a regular in our house now. It was great the way I made it, but I think I would try a few modifications next time.... I will use regular lasagna noodles instead of the oven-ready, but make sure you don't cover it if you use regular noodles as it will turn out really soupy. I personally have trouble with oven-ready noodles drying out some. I did omit the mushrooms only because I don't like them, and I omitted the olive oil because I felt the sausage had enough fat in it that it didn't need it. Also, I would omit the butter and put the flour directly into the milk and chicken broth, to reduce the fat content some. I will write it just the way she gave to me because it was really great. These are just some options I thought would be good to try next time.

Ingredients
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (optional)
2 1/2 pounds mild Italian sausage, removed from casing
1 pound button mushrooms, sliced (I left these out because I don't care for mushrooms)
4 Tbsp butter (optional)
4 Tbsp flour (I used whole wheat because she recommended it for more flavor)
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken stock or broth
1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles (or 12 regular noodles)
4 cups shredded Italian four-cheese blendDirections
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place a large skillet over medium high heat with olive oil (optional). Add the sausage to pan and cook, breaking it up into small pieces with a spoon, until the meat is crumbled and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook until golden brown, 5-6 minutes, and set aside.

In the meantime, boil your lasagna noodles (if you aren't using oven-ready) according to the box instructions. Also, while the meat is browning, place a large saucepot over medium heat and melt the butter. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and mix. Whisk in the milk and chicken broth and bring to a bubble. Simmer until the sauce thickens, about 3-4 minutes.

Assemble the lasagna by ladling a small amount (about 1/2 cup, just eyeball it) of the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Lay 3 of the lasagna noodles over the sauce, and top them with 1/3 of the meat mix. (I actually had 14 oven ready noodles, and they were much shorter than the pan was long, so I took the extra 2 noodles, broke them in half and laid a half on the end parallel to the 3 long noodles, alternating which side I did this for the 4 layers... I hope that makes sense.) Top with 1 cup of the sauce and about 1 cup of the shredded cheese (about 2 generous handfuls). Make 2 more layers of the lasagna by laying down 3 lasagna noodles, about 1/3 of the meat mixture, 1 cup of sauce and 1 cup of shredded cheese for each layer. Top the lasagna off with the last 3 noodles, the remaining sauce, and remaining shredded cheese.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil (if using oven-ready noodles) and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.

Hide your veggies! I think this would have been great with a small handful of fresh spinach, chopped and added to the sauce. The great thing about spinach is that it's loaded with lots of vitamins and when a small handful is added to a whole dish, and it's cooked, you normally can't even taste it in there. Also, a finely diced zucchini would be another good option to try. So yummy and healthy for you!