Homemade Simple Marinara Sauce Recipe

For this recipe I use the really big can of crushed tomatoes that Costco sells.  I divide the recipe into 2 half gallon mason jars.  You can freeze one or you can pull the air from the jar to help it keep longer in the frig.  I use a FoodSaver.

If you don’t have half gallon jars, you can mix everything up and then store in smaller jars or in storage bags.

Divide the 53 ounce can of crushed tomatoes evenly between 2 half gallon jars.  Then to each jar add:

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

1tsp dried parsley

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Blend with an immersion blender.  No need to heat.

The uses for this are endless.  You can pour out just what you need.  Having this in the fridge really cuts lunch or dinner prep time.

1/2 cup of this sauce will have about 3 g of carbs and about 85 calories.

 

Easy Homemade Organic Dark Chocolate Recipe| Gluten Free Soy Free Corn Free Sugar Free

I recently found out that I’m sensitive to gluten, soy and corn.  Corn is in everything!  I also try to limit my sugar intake.  As I’ve been looking more and more at labels I’ve noticed things in chocolate that I don’t really want to ingest.  So I started an experiment to see if I could make great tasting chocolate without much effort and that would be gluten free, soy free, corn free and maybe even sugar free.

This dark chocolate recipe is organic and very easy to make.  It is also low carb and Paleo Diet approved.  It’s a great low calorie substitution for dark chocolate.

INGREDIANTS:

•  1/2 cup organic coconut oil
• 1/2 cup organic cocoa powder
• Sweetener of choice
• 1/4 tsp organic instant coffee
• 1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract*
• a pinch of sea salt

For sweeteners, here are some options:

• 6 packets of Stevia (this is my favorite)
• Liquid Stevia
• Organic honey
• Organic maple syrup

TIP:  Don’t use granulated sugars, they don’t dissolve and so your sugar does not get mixed in.  The liquid sweeteners seem to dissolve and get dispersed the best.  Because I use packets of Stevia, I just make sure that I stir often during pouring process.

Microwave the coconut oil for about 30 secs, a little more if not completely melted.  Once it’s all melted add the cocoa powder, sweetener, instant coffee and vanilla.

TIP:  Taste it at this point to see if your sweetness is where you want it.

Stir well and pour into mold — stir during pouring process.  OPTION:  Grind some sea salt over the chocolate.

Store the molds in fridge for 15 minutes or more until the chocolate is hardened.

I love these great chocolate molds.

Remove your yummy dark chocolates from the molds by pushing from the back of the mold.

TIP:  If you don’t have the molds you can use ice cube trays or just pour into any container and break the chocolate into pieces after it sets.

Store your chocolate in a container or bag in the FRIDGE.  Because this is made with coconut oil it will start to melt at room temperature.

TIP:  When I take this to parties or potlucks I put ice in one container and then nest the second one with the chocolates in it on top of the ice so that they stay cool and don’t melt.

OPTIONS:

• Add your favorite nut to the mold before pouring the chocolate in.  I like almonds, but you can use walnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, cashews or anything you like.
• Add a dried fruit into the mold before pouring the chocolate in.  Dried cherries, or anything you like.
• Try using flavored liquid Stevia’s.
• Use extracts* other than vanilla.

* If you’re allergic to corn, be careful with the extract you choose.  Some are derived from corn.

Belly Fat Cure Recipe Chicken Enchiladas with creamy green chili sauce (4/1)

This is one of my favorite Belly Fat Cure recipes that I’ve created.  The use of store bought roasted chicken makes it a fast, easy recipe.  The enchilada sauce is so good, that I’ve also made other types of enchiladas with the same sauce. 

This is a BFC recipe that you can make as spicy as you like based on how hot and how many of the chilis you use.  I like it hot, so I use hot ones and more than the recipe calls for.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Tortillas – I use Xtreme Wellness tortillas with 5 carbs and 0 sugars each.  They are awesome.  I get them at Walmart.  I’m not sure how they only have 5 carbs because they also have 12 g fiber, but they are great tasting.
• 1  roasted chicken from your grocery’s deli (there will be plenty left over to make this a few times).  0g sugar, 0g carbs
• 1/2 cup of Mexican Four Cheese Blend (or Monterey Jack or whatever you like). 2g carb, 0g sugar
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion (a 6-7 ounce whole onion is about 9 carbs and 4 sugars).  The key is to measure your onion since onions have a signicificant amount of sugar.
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon butter. 0g carbs, 0g sugar
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon soy flour or whatever low sugar flour you can find. Soy has 3.5g carbs, 1.5g sugar
• 2/3 cup chicken or vegetable broth. 0g carbs, 0g sugar
• 1/3 cup sour cream. 1.3g carbs, 1.3g sugar (You may be able to find a brand with 0 sugar.)
• 4 oz can of green chiles or 4 oz of fresh green chilis. I almost always have some hot hatch green chilis on hand, but you can get mild ones and you can get them in a can. 6g carbs, 0g sugars
• fresh cilantro to garnish if you like

That is a total of 31.8g carbs and 6.8g sugar for 2 people.  So each serving is 15.9g carbs and 3.4g sugar.  To make sure I can’t eat 2 of these, I stuff them with chicken.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Chop the 1/2 cup onion.  If you don’t like crunchy onions, then saute them.  If you like cruncy don’t.  When I saute them I just use a little water to keep the fat content down.
3. Take enough chicken off your store bought roast chicken to stuff 2 medium sized tortillas.
4. Divide the chicken, most of the cheese (save some cheese to put on top) and onion between the 2 tortillas.  Roll up the tortilla.  When I do this, because I like them full, there is not a lot of overlap. 
5. Put the tortilla, seam side down in a greased pan.  (Just spray the pan with a nonstick spray or  I use an oil spritzer.)
6. Make the enchilada sauce (best part of recipe!):  melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the flour and whisk until mixture begins to boil.  Slowly add broth, stirring with a whisk until thickened.  Mix in the sour crean and chiles, continue stirring, heat thoroughly but do not boil.  Pour mixture over the enchiladas.
7. Top with remaining cheese, bake for 20 minutes or until heated through. 
8. Garnish with cilantro if you like it (I don’t) and serve with a Mich2lob Ultra.  Yum and only 2.6g carbs, 0g sugar.

So that’s a Belly Fat Cure recipe with 4 sugars (rounding up) and 1 carb unit or a 4/1 per serving.  The tortillas I use are medium sized and I put quite a bit of chicken in each one.  Sometimes I can only eat half.

I’m making this tonight for a party so I will be making 3X this recipe to fill a whole 9×13 glass baking dish (I love this pan) with six of them.  I’m also going to alternate between the wheat tortilla and a tomato basil tortilla (also by Xtreame Wellness) to give it a nice look. 

Let me know what you think!

Easy Baked Chicken with Goat Cheese Belly Fat Cure BFC 1/0

This is a really easy, healthy, and a really good Belly Fat Cure BFC recipe.  It has 1 sugars and 0 carb units.  I’ve adapted this recipe from one I saw on the Food Network by the Barefoot Contessia.  Tasty receipes for chicken are hard to come by — this one is awesome!  It also appears very fancy (so great for guests) even though the prep time is about 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

• SKIN ON chicken breasts or thighs.  I get boneless if I can find skin on, boneless.  One for each person.
• goat cheese, about 2 ounces per piece of chicken.  You can get plain, herb, or garlic and herb. 
• two sun dried tomatoes per piece of chicken.  I like the ones in oil and herbs.  Tomatoes have some natural sugar so I rated this a BFC 1/0.
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet or pan.  I use a 9×13 glass pan.  Loosen the skin from the meat of the chicken with your fingers, leaving 1 side still attached.  With the skin pulled back, salt and pepper the meat. 

Cut the goat cheese and put 1-2 slices (about 2 ounces) on each piece of chicken.  Place 2 sundried tomatoes on top of the cheese on each piece of chicken. 

Pull the skin back over as much of the meat as possible so the chicken won’t dry out.  They spray or rub each piece of chicken with the olive oil.  Salt and pepper again (on outside of skin this time).  I use an oil spritzer.

Bake chicken for 35 to 40 minutes until skin is lightly browned and the chicken is just cooked through.  Serve hot or at room temperature with other Belly Fat Cure approved sides — you have lots of options since the main dish is sooooo Belly Fat good!

Variations:

• try different cheeses
• add different herbs to the goat cheese

Belly Fat Cure Recipe 2/2 Philly Cheese Steak

I started the Belly Fat Cure diet by Jorge Cruise at the first of the year and so far have had good success with it.  I have high insulin on fasting blood test, so good success for me is 1 pound a week.  I lost 3 pounds in my first 2 weeks then have been doing about a pound a week.  It’s slow, but it’s working and I love the food.  I could lose on the Atkins diet but found it too restrictive and boring and I was losing at this same rate.  With this diet I get plenty of high complex whole grains which keeps my pasta and bread cravings down because I do have some of both.  Also the whole grains increase my fiber intake which feels much better and healthier.

I’m going to be posting some of the Belly Fat Cure recipes I’ve created here.  Most of them are 2/2.  This means 2 grams of sugar and 2 carb servings.  One carb serving is up to 20 grams of carbs.  So most recipes are 2 grams of sugar and up to 40 grams of carbs.  I try to keep all my meals to 5 grams of sugar and 40 carbs or less, and prefer to keep the sugars to 2 grams or less. 

Tonight I made Philly Cheese Steak and it was delicious so I thought I should share it.

This is for 2 Philly Cheese Steaks:

• 1 whole small yellow onion (6-7 ounces is about 9 carbs and 4 sugars)
• 1 package of fahita beef strips (half pound for 2 servings has 0 carbs and 0 sugars)
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (2 carbs and 0 sugars)
• 2 low carb 100% whole wheat pitas (27 carbs and 0 sugars each) — I use Soloman brand low carb orginal but you can use any brand you like, Jorge recommends Mr Pita by Sara Lee in his Belly Fat Cure book but my grocery store doesn’t have it.

So each serving is 33 carbs (rounding up) and 2 sugars, a 2/2 Belly Fat Cure meal. 

Slice the onion into onion ring sizes and separate the rings to make the grilling go quickly.  Add about 2 pads of butter to a medium + heat (I use setting 6 of 10) skillet.  Then put the onion rings into the skillet, add salt, pepper and cayanne pepper (if you like spicy) to taste and saute until the onions look clear.  If you cover the skillet it goes much faster (here’s my favorite skillet).  Add a little water if your rings start to scorch.  Once the onions are done add the beef fahita strips and cook to your liking.  Add a little more salt, pepper and cayanne pepper to the beef.  Once the beef is cooked, add the mozzarella cheese to the top, turn the heat off, and put the lid back on until the cheese melts. 

Then serve half of the mixture into each of the 2 pitas and enjoy with a Michelob Ultra because you still have some carbs before we reach our 40 carb max.  A Mic Ultra adds 2.6 carbs taking our total to 36 carbs (so really you can have 2 beers!).

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Best Low Carb Fettucine Recipe EVER!

Konjac Pasta Nutritional Label

I just made Hungry Girl Lisa Lillien’s Low Calorie Fettuccine and it was great.   If you are on a low glycemic or low carb diet and you crave noodles every once in a while, this recipe is awesome and you don’t feel like your missing anything.

Here’s what I did.

The recipe calls for 1 package House Foods Tofu Shirataki Fettuccine Shape but I used Konjac Linguine Pasta 9oz (250g) net weight per bag.  Here is the nutritional information on what I used (it’s Zero Net Carb, Zero Calories, Pure Soluble Fiber) —>

I used the 1/2 wedge The Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss cheese, room temperature as called for.

I used a little more Parmesan (3 tsp total, one more than called for) and I did not have reduced fat, so I just used regular fresh grated parmesan.

The recipe called for 1 tsp. fat-free sour cream  and  I used the low-fat Smart Balance brand sour cream.

I did salt and black pepper, to taste but I used garlic salt and black pepper.

I followed Lisa’s instructions on rinsing, drying, microwave, and dry again for the noodles.  These kind of noodles (no carb) have a weird smell and taste if you eat them out of the bag.  But I did NOT notice anything when I followed the recipe.  I think this is key to getting a good flavor. 

So even with a few of the substitutions I made, it was really low carb (like 2 g) and low in calories (< 80 calories).  It took less than 5 minutes to make and it was family approved!

BTW, this recipe’s ripped (minus my variations) straight from the pages of the #1 New York Times Best Seller, Hungry Girl 200 Under 200. Woohoo!