CANNED HAM BONE VEGETABLE SOUP(low carb)

 This is an easy and delicious food storage item.My grandma always used a ham bone to make this soup and simmered it on the stove for hours to get all the flavor she could. Everyone has their own version of this soup and what they add to it.

I need to hide the vegetables my husband hates, but are good for him, like cauliflower and broccoli.I just dice these up into small micro morsels, and then he doesn't even know he's eating them!(unless of course he reads my blog) .LOL


Here's how I do it :
2 T.                                                     Chicken bouillon 
1/4 cup                                             Chopped fresh parsley
1 cup                                                  Frozen peas
1                                                           Bay leaf
1 pinch                                              Red Pepper Flakes 

1	Meaty Ham Bone
2 cups each	Finely chopped frozen broccoli and cauliflower
1/4 cup	Corn frozen
1× 16-oz cans	Green Beans, drained
6-oz can	Tomato Paste
14.5-oz can	Petite Diced Tomatoes
1½ cups	Baby Carrots, cut in thirds
1	Large Onion, diced
1½ tsp	Salt
1 tsp	Pepper
8 cups	Water

Directions:

In large crock pot ham bone, and all other ingredients. Cook on high heat setting for 5-6 hours or on low for 10-12 hours. Remove the ham bone before serving.

Here's how to can it , but you could let it cool and put in freezer bags too:

Remember no thickeners, pasta or rice. These can be added later when you serve the soup.

Fill your jars leaving a 1 inch headspace. The best way to do this is to fill each jar about halfway full with the solid ingredients. Then add liquid to the cover. This way you don't end up with some jars being mostly broth and others having too much solid ingredients.

You want to be sure to have enough liquid in your jars so that the heat will penetrate fully. This can also be helpful if you'll be adding noodles or rice when you serve it.

Place your lids and process following :

Process pints 60 minutes, quarts 75 minutes. Be sure to adjust your pressure according to your altitude.

If your soup has seafood you will need process either pints or quarts for 100 minutes.

Be sure to adjust processing according to your altitude. For more information see this altitude adjustments page.

Adjustments for Pressure Canner
Altitude in Feet	Dial Gauge Canner	Weighted Gauge Canner
0-1000	10	10
1001-2000	11	15
2001-4000	12	15
4001-6000	13	15
6001-8000	14	15
8000-10,000	15	15

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

BEEFY CHEESY LOWCARB CASSEROLE

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• INGREDIENTS
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  5 large eggs
• 1 dash pepper
• 1 dash salt
• 1 cup frozen spinach, chopped, thawed & drained
• 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 4 oz  cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
2. Coat bottom of an 8 x 11" baking dish with olive oil spray. Set aside.
3. Brown ground beef. Drain well.
4. Add chopped red bell pepper and chopped spinach to ground beef and mix together.
5. Pour ground beef mixture in to baking dish. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to evenly distribute the mixture.
6. Sprinkle 1 cup (half a bag) of the shredded cheddar cheese over the mixture.
7. In a separate bowl, scramble together 5 eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour eggs over beef mixture.
8. Bake at 350 °F for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Cut into slices or squares.

LOW CARB CHEESY HAM AND "POTATO" SOUP

Ingredients:

1 bag (32 oz) frozen CAULIFLOWER, thawed and chopped
1/2 cup frozen chopped onion (from 12-oz bag), thawed
1 medium stalk celery, diced (1/2 cup)
2 cans (14 oz each) chicken broth
1 cup water
3 tablespoons almond flour
1 cup milk
1 bag (8 oz) shredded American-Cheddar cheese blend (2 cups)
1/4 cup real bacon pieces (from 2.8-oz package)
4 medium green onions, sliced (1/4 cup)
1 cup leftover ham cut in 1/2 inch pieces
Directions:

1. In 3- to 4-quart slow cooker, mix potatoes, onion, celery, broth and water.

2. Cover; cook on Low heat setting 6 to 8 hours.

3. In small bowl, mix flour into milk; stir into cauliflower mixture. Increase heat setting to High. Cover; cook 20 to 30 minutes or until mixture thickens. Stir in cheese until melted.Add ham. Garnish individual servings with bacon and green onions. Sprinkle with pepper if desired.

LOW CARB CARROT CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sifted coconut flour

2 Tablespoons oat flour

1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

Scant 1/4 teaspoon NuNaturals pure stevia extract powder

2 large eggs

4 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (imitation works fine - check the label for corn syrup)

1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses

1 1/4 cup (3.5-4 ounces) finely grated carrot, packed gently into cup

4 tablespoons erythritol

1 tablespoon xylitol

1/8 teaspoon finely ground sea salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

For a small loaf cake, prepare a 3" by 6" aluminum loaf pan (disposable kind from the supermarket is fine) by lightly oiling the sides with your fingers. You can use EVOO cooking spray, or a bit of coconut oil on your finger to do this. Place a small rectangle of parchment paper or wax paper in the bottom of the pan. Dust the bottom and sides of the pan with a sprinkling of oat flour to ensure the cake can "climb" as it bakes. Turn and shake the pan with your hands to coat the sides evenly.

If you are making the carrot cake as mini muffins, I highly recommend you get some silicone mini muffin cups. Mine are made by Wilson, and they come in a set of 12. You can find them at Michael's, Bed, Bath and Beyond, or possibly a store like Home Goods. Otherwise, the carrot muffins will be just as tasty, but will stick to the paper wrappers. If you are using paper mini muffin cups, spray them with some EVOO cooking spray. Spoon batter into cups with a regular spoon (a teaspoon), filling them almost to the top. If you only have one mini muffin pan, you can make 2 regular-sized muffins with the extra batter. Use paper cups in this pan as well, and use the 2 center wells to keep the pan evenly heated.

Sift coconut flour, gently spoon into measuring cup, and level with a knife. Add coconut flour to a mixing bowl along with oat flour, xanthan gum, cinnamon, baking powder, and stevia. Add pecan meal if you are using it. Whisk together dry ingredients to get rid of any lumps.

Grate carrots, measure them by packing them gently into your measuring cups, and transfer shreds into a clean tea towel. Fold the tea towel over the shredded carrot several times. Wrap the tea towel-carrot package in a larger hand towel. Press down on the whole bundle to get the moisture out of the grated carrot. I recommend stepping on the bundle several times to use all of your body weight to extract the water from the carrots (fun for the whole family!). Unfold the towels to expose the dried carrot shreds.

To get less visible carrot pieces in the cake, use a blender in preparing the batter. Add eggs, oil, vanilla, and molasses to a blender. Spoon erythritol, xylitol, and sea salt into blender. Add 1/2 of the carrot shreds, and blend briefly until the mixture is smooth. Add this wet mixture to the dry mix, and whisk it together. Fold in the second half of the carrot shreds. Fold in nuts, if using. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake as directed.

If you don't have a blender, or don't want to use one, you can use a hand mixer. The texture of the cake will just have more visible carrot pieces in it. Beat the wet ingredients together for a minute using your hand mixer. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and beat the batter until it is smooth. Then, stir in the grated carrot with your spatula. Fold in nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake as directed.

If you are making a loaf, bake it for 50 minutes. If you are making mini muffins, bake for 22 minutes. If you are baking regular sized muffins, bake for 25 minutes.

Let carrot cake rest in pan until it is cool enough to touch, then transfer to a paper towel-lined cooling rack. When cake is completely cooled, transfer it to a tupperware container or zip top bag, and store on the counter for as long as 24 hours. Refrigerate it for longer storage. This cake tastes best at room temperature.

~1,308 calories for the entire recipe

~37.7g net carbs for the entire recipe

~2g net carbs per mini muffin (no frosting)

~6.3g net carbs per 1/6 of a loaf (no frosting)

CREAMY CREAM CHEESE ICING

Makes a little over 1 cup

Ingredients:

4 ounces cream cheese

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup coconut milk powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons erythritol, powdered

2 teaspoons xylitol, powdered

NuNaturals pure stevia extract powder, to taste (1/16-1/8 of a teaspoon)

Preparation:

Powder erythritol and xylitol together in a coffee grinder until very finely ground. Leave cream cheese and butter out on counter to come to room temperature. Cube butter with knife (doesn't have to be exact) and add to bowl along with cream cheese. Beat together with a hand mixer until smooth. Add in erythritol and xylitol mixture along with the vanilla. Beat until smooth and fluffy (30 seconds to one minute), until erythritol and xylitol are dissolved and no longer gritty feeling. Beat in coconut milk powder. Add stevia, taste, and make adjustments as necessary.

~626 calories for the entire recipe

~7.3g net carbs for the entire recipe

LOW CARB FUDGE

2 cups Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts (I get the big can of salted peanuts from Costco)
7 tbsp coconut oil
½ cup powdered erythritol
½ cup cocoa
2 oz unsweetened chocolate (melted)
2 tbsp honey, OR sugar free honey* (*a friend of mine tried it and it worked for her)

In food processor, grind peanuts until as fine as possible (it will still be a coarse meal most likely, depending on the power of your processor – mine is not too powerful). Add coconut oil; process. Add erythritol, cocoa and melted chocolate. Add the honey and notice something amazing happens to the texture! It thickens up nicely and the taste improves – the slight cooling effect of the erythritol is now barely noticeable. Spread in an 8 x 8-inch glass baking dish. Freeze. When more solid (happens after about 20 minutes to half an hour), cut into 80 pieces (8 x10).

Nutritional Analysis: 80 pieces. 1 piece
38.5 calories; 1.0 g protein; 3.4 g fat; 1.2 g carbs

WHY LOW CARB DIETING.

Sugar. I love it. You love it. Everybody loves it. And guess what? It's poison. How can everybody love something is poison? Because it's very important that we do.In nature there are foods that are very sweet. Examples are certain fruits and vegetables. These foods have certain micronutrients that are important to the human organism, and its the sugar contained in them that ensures we eat them.

All humans are attracted to sugar because we all have some level of addiction to it. We are born that way. When we enter the world we are unaware of what is safe to eat and what is not. We do have some hard-wired instincts however, one of which is that if its sweet, it's good to eat.

Now although sugar is poison to us, we can deal with it when we get it from nature. This is because, in nature at least, sugar is always accompanied by fiber. Sources of sugar such as fruit and vegetables also contain high contents of fiber. This fiber slows down the ingestion of sugar which gives the liver time to process it all.

But we don't live in nature anymore. And we don't get sugar in the form it was once packaged. We now get sugar that has been processed into its purest form. We now get pure sugar. Or in other words, pure poison.

Sugar has a few different forms and they act very differently in the body. The most commonly known are glucose and fructose. These combine to make table sugar. Glucose is the type of sugar that is found in starches such as potatoes and pasta. Fructose is the type of sugar that can be found in fruit and vegetables.

If you were to eat 100 calories of glucose, 80% of it will get used up by the cells in your body and the rest would go to your liver for processing. If on the other hand you were to eat 100 calories of fructose, it would all go to your liver for processing.

Your liver of course is the primary organ in the body that deals with toxins, waste, and poison. The fact that all of fructose goes to the liver is a very telling factor. Our body must deal with it immediately because it can do serious damage in the bloodstream.

We now live in a world where this extremely addictive substance is readily available in its purest form. It's the cheapest drug on the market and it's doing some serious long term damage - obesity, diabetes, and all food related diseases can be attributed to this increase in fructose consumption.

It's not that our livers can't deal with the fructose, it can. But only in the way we were supposed to be eating it. Now there is just too much. It's too easy to digest, and the more we eat the more we want. It's in almost every food, so unless you eat only real food you're probably being poisoned by it.

Sugar is important to our survival, but it's also poisonous in large amounts. You never know how much sugar you are ingesting unless you eat real food. Processed food contains huge amounts of hidden sugar, all of which make them more addicting.

If you can eat sugar as it is found in nature. Fruits, vegetables, starches, honey, maple syrup and any other natural sugars. You don't have to eliminate sugar, just eliminate all the hidden ones. Your body will be able to process it much better and you wont have to worry if what you are eating is good for you or not.

About two weeks ago I felt compelled to give up high fructose corn syrup.Being a serious sugar- aholic, I was feeling all around like CRAP! 
I knew I needed to lose weight due to back problems, and giving up Coca-Cola would have to be the first thing to go.It’s a talk given by Dr. Robert H. Lustig, MD, a UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth", that made me realize just what I was doing to my body.
 You can watch it here via Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM




 The reasons I love this talk? First: the man’s a doctor at a prestigious university teaching and doing research in the field of endocrinology. If anyone is qualified to speak authoritatively on this subject, it would be him.He tackles not just heart disease, but diabetes, obesity, and high-blood pressure. In other words, he shows the connection between dietary intake of sugar (specifically acute fructose) and the root causes of these diseases of industrialization. Hopefully, it can serve as a wake up call that can start others on the journey to eating Real Food. But, in the very least, it can answer that singular question, “Well, if it’s not cholesterol and saturated fat, what does cause heart disease?”








Then I figured after giving up HFCS, why not take it a step further and cut back on processed carbs that turn into sugar.Turns out eating a South Beach-like diet -- low in carbs, high in protein -- could have effects beyond whitResearchers also tried putting mice that were predisposed to breast cancer on the two diets. During their first year of life, nearly half the mice put on the Western diet went on to develop breast cancer, while none of the mice on the low-carb, high-protein diet developed breast cancer during this time period, according to the study.


And of the mice put on the Western diet, only one was able to reach a normal mouse lifespan of two years, and 70 percent of those mice died from cancer. However, only 30 percent of the mice on the low-carb, high-protein diet went on to develop cancer at all, with more than half of these mice either reaching or aging beyond their normal lifespan, the study said.tling the waistline. It could also reduce cancer risk and slow growth of tumors, according to a new study in mice.

That's because tumor cells are fueled by glucose, researchers said. By decreasing the number of carbs eaten, there is much less glucose in the body that tumors can use to grow.

Restricting carbohydrates also limits the amount of insulin in the body, which is a hormone that has been shown in past studies to promote the growth of tumors in humans and mice, researchers said.