P3 Green Bean Casserole

GBC is one of my favorite side dishes. Heck, I could just eat it as my meal and be happy. I never liked the mushrooms that came along in the cream of mushroom soup, though. Between wanting to avoid both mushrooms and canned cream-of-anything soup, I started making my own GBC from scratch a few years ago. The first time was for Thanksgiving, and I successfully made a GBC that was totally gluten-free. But this year I wanted it to also be low-carb. It wasn't hard at all and I am so happy with how it turned out.

P3 Green Bean Casserole

First, prepare the onions:

3 medium or 2 large Onions, sliced thinly
1/3 cup Almond Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Refined Coconut Oil (soft or liquid)

Combine all ingredients and spread in a baking dish. Bake at 475 for about 15 minutes, stirring once or twice during baking so they cook evenly. Set aside when done.

Next, prepare the green beans:

Steam 1-1.5 lbs green beans until just tender, then rinse with cold water to stop them cooking.

Make up the creamy sauce:

3 T Butter
3 T Oat Fiber
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Stock or Broth (chicken, beef, vegetable)
1 tsp Glucomannan, Xanthan Gum, or half of each
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper

Melt butter on medium-heat. (At this point, if you are a mushroom person, you could add chopped mushrooms and saute them in the butter until done.) Add oat fiber. Add cream and broth, whisking quickly. Sprinkle gum/gluccie very slowly, whisking well to incorporate it. Let it come to a bubble and it'll thicken up. Add garlic, salt and pepper, whisk for a minute more, then remove from heat.

Combine the green beans with the cream sauce, and add half of the onions. Spread into a 13x9 pan. Top with remaining onions. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes and serve.

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P3 No-Bake Cheesecake

My dad requested cheesecake for dessert on Thanksgiving this year. I was happy to oblige, but our chickens have not been laying many eggs and I didn't have enough for my usual cheesecake recipe. I ended up tweaking Briana's No-Bake Cheesecake from her cookbook Necessary Food (If you are into low-carb cooking, THM, Keto, etc. then I highly recommend this cookbook) and it was a hit! Definitely not the same texture as regular baked cheesecake, but it tasted great.

No-Bake Cheesecake - Low Carb, Sugar Free

Crust:
3 T Butter
1 T Gentle Sweet, or your sweetener of choice (Swerve, Pyure, Erythritol, etc.)
1 cup Almond Flour
2 T Oat Fiber

Mix crust ingredients thoroughly and press into the bottom of a pie plate. If your butter is cold, you'll need to warm or melt it. Mine was room temp and it blended right up.

Cheesecake:
2 8oz pkgs Cream Cheese
2/3 cup Sour Cream
2 T Lemon Juice
1 tsp Vanilla
4 T Gentle Sweet or sweetener of choice, to taste
4 tsp Great Lakes Gelatin (the red can)
3 T Hot Water
2/3 cup Heavy Cream

Beat cream cheese, sour cream, lemon juice, vanilla, and sweetener until thoroughly combined. It would be easier if the cream cheese was not cold, but I never mange to think ahead enough to set it out so I just rely on my Kitchen Aid mixer to beat the cream cheese. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl well with a spatula so it's all combined.

Dissolve the gelatin in hot water, then add to cheesecake mixture and beat well. Add heavy cream and mix for a few more minutes. Give it a taste to see if it's sweet enough - if not, add another tablespoon of sweetener, mix, and taste again.

Pour cheesecake mixture over crust and refrigerate at least an hour, or longer if you can. I was able to cut and serve this after just about an hour but it gets firmer if it can chill longer. Serve with toppings of choice - we had 1 fruit and 2 chocolate ganache here. :)

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P3 Barbacoa Salad

Leftover barbacoa is delicious on a salad! Like a taco salad only with a different flavor. Love it!

P3 Barbacoa-style Shredded Beef 

Start with a chuck roast. Anywhere between 2-4 lbs is fine. I usually go for bigger because I like leftovers to make more meals. Cut it in half and trim most of the visible fat. Place in slow cooker or instant pot.

In food processor or vitamix, puree the following:

1/2 Onion
1/4 cup Lime Juice

1/4 cup Tomato Paste
4 cloves Garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 tsp Cumin
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Cloves or Allspice

Pour the puree over the roast in the slow cooker. Pour about a cup of Beef Broth on top, and drop a few Bay Leaves.

Cook on low or "slow cook" in the IP for 7 hours. When it's done, shred it with two forks and put it back into the amazing sauce in the slow cooker that was created during cooking. Keep on low for another couple of hours to really soak up the flavor of the sauce.

Here is my husband's version of the barbacoa salad, all neatly organized. I just throw mine in the bowl. Ha.

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Easy Shredded Chicken

If you like to cook in bulk, you'll love this! You can cook up a whole batch of boneless skinless chicken breast and have it shredded and ready to throw on a salad, in soup, or season up for whatever you'd like to eat.

Use your mixer! I use my kitchenaid mixer but a hand mixer will also work. I can throw the hot cooked chicken breasts right in and the mixer shreds them up easily. The key is to do quick bursts of the mixer, don't just turn it on full blast or it'll throw the chicken right out of the bowl. If you're doing a large batch, put just a few breasts in at once, pulse it until you like the level of shredding, then dump it into a large bowl to the side and do the next few breasts. Repeat until it's all shredded.

You can cook large batches of chicken in a crock pot, but it takes hours to cook them. Still better than boiling, but not super fast.

THEN I got my Instant Pot. Hello! Now I don't even have to deal with boiling chicken anymore OR waiting on the crock pot! I can cook 5 lbs of chicken at once - I just throw it in the instant pot with some water, set it to pressure cook for 15 minutes, and walk away.

I actually keep cooked, shredded chicken in my freezer now so I can use it in recipes as needed. I even keep some seasoned with taco seasoning to use on a taco salad or in a lettuce wrap. So convenient!

Some recipes from this blog that you can make with precooked shredded chicken:

Chicken Fajita (P3)
Chicken Apple Slaw (P2)
Chicken Spinach Tomato Soup (P2)
Enchilada (just sub chicken for beef) (P2)
Chicken Soup (P2)
Chicken Chili (P2)
Chicken Salad (P3)

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P3 Marble Cheesecake

My dad made this cheesecake and it is fantastic! He said it's important to taste the batter before you pour it, to make sure it's sweet enough. This recipe shows exactly what he did so hopefully it will turn out as good for you as it did for him.

Sugar-Free Marble Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350.

For crust:

1 cup Pecans, chopped
1/2 cup Walnuts, chopped
1/8 cup Erythritol
2 Tbsp Butter, melted

Process all ingredients in a food processor and mix until well blended. Press into the bottom of a springform pan. It will be very thin.

Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Cool.


For filling:

2   8oz pkgs Cream Cheese, at room temperature
1 cup Erythritol
1 tsp Salt
1 ½ tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Lemon Juice
16 oz  Sour Cream
3 Eggs, at room temperature

Beat all ingredients, except the eggs, with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs one at a time until blended.

Reserve one cup of batter for marbling. Pour the rest into the springform pan.

Add 1 tsp Cocoa Powder and about 1/4 cup Erythritol (to taste) to the reserved batter. Spoon chocolate batter onto plain batter and drag a knife through to make a marbled pattern.

Place a pan with a couple of cups of water in it on the lower rack, underneath the rack where you will place your cheesecake. Bake cheesecake at 350 for 1 hour, then turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in for one more hour before removing it.

Let it cool, and then refrigerate at least two hours until completely chilled.


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P3 Barbacoa-style Shredded Beef

I have fallen in love with Chipotle's barbacoa but it's so hard to go in there and resist the beans and rice, which are not HCG-Friendly. So here is a delicious recipe to make your own barbacoa at home!

P3 Barbacoa-style Shredded Beef 

Start with a chuck roast. Anywhere between 2-4 lbs is fine. I usually go for bigger because I like leftovers to make more meals. Cut it in half and trim most of the visible fat. Place in slow cooker or instant pot.

In food processor or vitamix, puree the following:

1/2 Onion
1/4 cup Lime Juice

1/4 cup Tomato Paste
4 cloves Garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 tsp Cumin
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Cloves or Allspice

Pour the puree over the roast in the slow cooker. Pour about a cup of Beef Broth on top, and drop a few Bay Leaves.

Cook on low or "slow cook" in the IP for 7 hours. When it's done, shred it with two forks and put it back into the amazing sauce in the slow cooker that was created during cooking. Keep on low for another couple of hours to really soak up the flavor of the sauce.

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P3 Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing

This dressing is very much like a caesar dressing, but it is vegetarian. I love it with lots of garlic!

I feel comfortable using this dressing on P2, in place of my milk allowance, but that it something you'll need to decide for yourself and test to make sure it doesn't cause a gain for you. It should be fine on P3 though for sure.

Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing

1 cup Mayonnaise (I use Hain Safflower Mayo)
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice (juice of one lemon)
2 cloves Garlic (or more) minced
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp Salt (or more, to taste)
1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Mix all ingredients well and refrigerate. It tastes best if it's made a little ahead of time.


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