Adventures in low-carb cooking.

I think I may have mentioned on here before that Dennis has been on the low-carb diet for a while now. He's doing very well and has lost a ton of weight already. I tried the diet for a bit but it didn't do much for me, but whenever I cook for us at home the meals are always low-carb. He was on it for a couple years before I met him, but he was doing it the wrong way (as bachelors will do), eating nothing but chicken wings and broccoli with Velveeta cheese. Yuck. Since we've been together, I've introduced him to the wonderful world of organic veggies cooked to perfection, and lean meats cooked the right way. But I've also introduced him to the world of gourmet foods, and he's become quite the foodie, which is hard with a restricted diet. You saw a sampling of one of my low-carb yet slightly indulgent recipes in my last post, and ever since I got my new camera lens I can't seem to stop taking photos in the kitchen, so I though I may as well share a few more...

For breakfast on Sunday I made hollandaise for the first time ever. It was easy, though I added a bit too much butter. When the recipe says add only as much butter as the sauce will handle, they mean it! I made a version of eggs benedict sans the english muffin. Instead I laid down a bed of spinach sauteed with caramelized onions, then some smoked salmon, poached eggs (also a first for me, but super easy), and finally the slightly over-buttery (if there is such a thing) hollandaise and some capers. Super good, and I didn't even miss the muffin.

And for dinner that night I wanted to get chicken breast but the Trader Joe's near us was swamped and all they had were tenders. So I busted out the almond meal (which we use to make that amazing low-carb pumpkin cheesecake, and we made our own pumpkin puree for it this time, which explains the pumpkin-top shield Dennis is wielding with the carrot sword in the first picture), my jar of herbs de Provence (usually a mix of parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender, and oregano), and some Greek seasoning. I mixed a 1/4  cup almond meal, 2  heaping tablespoons of herbs de provence, and about 1/2 a teaspoon of Greek, dredged the chicken strips in egg and coated them with the breading, and fried them in olive oil in my cast iron pan.

So yummy! Has anyone out there found a good recipe for a low-carb bread of sorts? I'd like to be able to make Dennis sandwiches once in a while but bread is such a big no-no, I'd be happy to hear if you have a good one!

Oh and on a very carb-y side note I had a burst of genius borne of necessity today:

When I was in the produce section they had a box of Nilla Wafers on sale for four bucks with a coupon for free bananas, and I thought I had vanilla pudding mix at home so I naturally couldn't resist. But when I got home I found out I had chocolate, not vanilla, pudding. I knew it would be fine so I made it anyway, but then the light bulb above my head went on and I decided to take 1/2 a cup of creamy peanut butter and mix it with a teensy bit of powdered sugar and about 1/4 cup of milk to make it almost pudding-like and include it as a layer in the dessert. HOLY PEANUTBUTTERBANANACHOCOLATENILLAPUDDING BATMAN! It MADE it. Oh my sweet sneakers it was good. Do it. Do it now!