green bean casserole - 6.7g

My husband loves green bean casserole. I don't think I had even tried it until he recommended it for our first Thanksgiving together. I got the recipe off of the French's Fried Onion container, whipped it up and enjoyed it and thus began our GBC tradition.

So when this holiday season rolled around, I checked the carb content of that same recipe: 14g net per serving. Ouch. You already know TDay is going to be carby with its potatoes, rolls, stuffing and pumpkin pie so adding even more carbs to the meal just didn't appeal to me. Oddly enough I didn't even make Thanksgiving dinner this year - we went to my grandma's house instead.

Christmas follows quickly though so I started doing some research on how to make GBC lower carb and of course, I found an Alton Brown recipe. Once again, I love AB and everything of his that I have made has been phenomenol. He has his own GBC that you make from scratch so I tweaked it a bit and oh my... heaven. I doubled the batch for our dinner because we had people over but not everyone tried it (their loss!) so we luckily have leftovers. It will be finished off today because it is devine and I can't stay out of it!

Image via here

 

Low Carb Green Bean Casserole
tweaked from Alton Brown's version

For the topping, I cheated and still used the French's Fried Onions. They're good and low carb and easy. :)

For the beans and sauce:
2 Tbs plus 1 tsp salt, divided
1 lb fresh green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved
2 Tbs unsalted butters
12 oz mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cloves minced garlic
2 Tbs almond flour
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a gallon of water and 2 Tbs salt to boil in an 8-quart sauce pan. Add the beans and blanch for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately plunge beans into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Add the almond flour and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute. Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans. Top with the remaining onions. Place into the oven and bake until bubbly, approximately 15 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.

Serves 4-6 people.

The counts

Net Carb: 6.7g

Protein: 4.1g

Fiber: 3.7g

*All counts listed are based on my best guesstimation and not necessarily correct. Remember to check the specific nutritional content of the brands you are using as each one is different.

egg nog - 4g

Egg nog was always one of those things that scared me. Drinking raw eggs? Ew! I'd tried some store bought stuff once and just wasn't impressed and didn't understand what the big deal was.

Then I saw an episode of "Good Eats" where Alton Brown takes you through the entire process and by the end of the episode I wanted to make some egg nog so friggin' bad! I adore AB so I knew there was a high chance that it would be yummy.

And it was. So, so yummy! It's one of my favorite holiday treats now!

Yesterday, we went and cut down our Christmas tree and were supposed to decorate it this morning. My husband comes home with store-bought egg nog and a new bottle of rum for the occassion and though very sweet, the egg nog is carby. (12g for 8 oz. That's 1/4 of my daily intake!) He had some things to do before we started so I decided to see if I could make a low carb version!

I wasn't too impressed at first. I used all heavy cream and that's practically all you could taste. I decided to make another half batch using some almond milk to cut down the cream taste but then it tasted too much like almond milk. Still not impressed and now I had a huge batch of egg nog.

I figured I'd try again tomorrow after a trip to the store for supplies but then this evening, I decided to have a cup (can't let it go to waste!) and the tastes have now all blended together and are really good!

AB does suggest you use bourbon, but my favorite alcohol is spiced rum so that's what I always use in it.

I was too busy enjoying the heck out of mine to take a picture. :)

Image via Alton Brown on the Hisotry of Eggnog

Low Carb Egg Nog
altered from Alton Brown's recipe

6 large eggs, separated
3 cups heavy cream
2 cups almond milk
1 Tbs nutmeg
2/3 cup Swerve + 1 Tbs Swerve
6 oz spiced rum


In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the 1/3 cup Swerve and continue to beat until it is completely dissolved. Add the almond milk, cream, rum and nutmeg and stir to combine.

Clean and dry your mixer bowl and whisk before working with the egg whites. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat to soft peaks. With the mixer still running gradually add the 1 tablespoon of Swerve and beat until stiff peaks form.

Whisk the egg whites into the mixture. Chill and serve.

*Beating the egg whites into soft peaks does make it a very frothy and thick drink. If you want your egg nog more liquidy, don't separate the eggs at the beginning.

Serves 10-12

The counts

Net Carb: 4g 

Protein: 5g

Fiber: 0.8g

*All counts listed are based on my best guesstimation and not necessarily correct. Remember to check the specific nutritional content of the brands you are using as each one is different.

Pumpkin Cake Roll - 6.5g

I love pumpkin cake rolls and assumed they had to be off my radar eating low carb. Then I realized that a pumpkin pie isn't too carby if you don't eat the crust and substitute a zero carb sweetener for the sugar. THEN I realized I could buy almond flour and make a pumpkin cake roll!

Then I was in heaven because it turned out perfect.

Pumpkin Cake Roll
3 eggs
3/4 cup Swerve (or other sweetener)
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cups almond flour
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon

Beat the eggs and Swerve together for 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients then pour into a greased jelly roll pan (they measure 15x10x1) lined with wax paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Loosen all four corners with knife and turn onto towels with Swerve sprinkled on towel to help keep the cake from sticking. Roll up into towel and let cool. (I put mine in the fridge to speed up the process.)

For the filling:
1/2 cup Swerve
8 oz softened cream cheese
4 Tbs. softened butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat all together well. Even though the original recipe called for 1 cup of sugar, using 1/2 cup was still very sweet. It mellowed out by the next day though.

Unroll cooled cake ands pread with filling. Reroll and slice into 1/2 inch pieces.

Keep refrigerated. Freezes well. Serves 15!

The counts
Net Carb: 6.5g

Protein: 5.2g

Fiber: 1.4g

*All counts listed are based on my best guesstimation and not necessarily correct. Remember to check the specific nutritional content of the brands you are using as each one is different.