Tag: low carb

Keto White Sauce With Cream Cheese

No recipe is needed to make a delicious casserole with ingredients on hand. Buy Keto-friendly food and then make something up. The basics are meat, vegetables and sauce.

I had a head of cauliflower to use, so I made up a quick chicken and vegetable casserole. All I needed was a Keto white sauce to mix in. There are many ad-filled sites that suggest this basic way to make white sauce, using various ingredients. This is how I made mine with the ingredients I had on hand.

Cook the Chicken and Cauliflower

I cooked the ground chicken in a fry pan.

Simmer the cauliflower heads (I cut them into small florets and discard the bigger sections) for a few minutes. Layer the chicken in the bottom of a casserole dish, and put the semi-cooked cauliflower over it.

Ground chicken
Cook the ground chicken

Making the Sauce

The sauce was made by melting 3-4 tablespoons of butter with half a package of cream cheese (4 oz.). Next time I think I would use more of these ingredients. Then….

white sauce butter and cream cheese
First melt butter and cream cheese

Stir in some heavy cream, half and half – whatever liquid is preferred. Add big spoonful of plain, Greek yogurt (not non-fat) – this is optional, but many recipes called for mayo, so I substituted yogurt. Heat on low.

Add black pepper, grated cheddar cheese (mozzarella could be used), and I added a few pieces of spicy pepper cheese for added flavor.

Simmer and stir on low heat until all cheese is melted. Pour the sauce over the meat and veggies which are layered in the casserole dish.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Chicken and cauliflower casserole
Ready to bake
Baked cauliflower and chicken casserole
Not bad

A white sauce casserole is a nice change from all the tomato sauce casseroles I’ve been making, like the Poblano peppers and beef, and meatball and zucchini dishes.

Additional Notes

I would prefer this with broccoli, but I had the big head of cauliflower to use up. A nice addition would have been spinach, to give it some color. Any type of meat would work in this recipe, and so would many vegetables.

Eggplant and Pepper Casserole Keto Friendly

Eggplant and tomato sauce and cheese go together well. For my next Keto friendly casserole I am including these ingredients along with Poblano peppers.

Here it is ready to bake. Read on to see how I made this simple meal.

Eggplant casserole ready to bake
Small casserole with eggplant layered meal

Ingredients For the Casserole

First I sliced the one eggplant into thin slices. I layered them in a sieve and sprinkled with salt to pull out any bitterness. I’ve found varying advice about salting, and I never leave the salt on. Some places say the salt pulls out the water so the eggplant won’t be soggy. Some say it’s for bitterness.

Here’s what I do: layer with salt in a colander for 20 – 30 minutes. I then rinse and remove moisture between paper towels. I certainly don’t want salty eggplant. This seems to work fine for me and it hurts nothing.

how to treat eggplant
Eggplant ready to layer

Meanwhile I am cooking one can of organic tomato sauce and mixing in coconut sugar, basil, oregano, and whatever you like in your tomato sauce. It simmers on low while I fry the peppers.

Organic tomato sauce
One can works for this recipe

I let that simmer while I de-seed the peppers and brown them in ghee. I’m still not sure about what to do with these peppers, but adding them to a casserole is flavor-inducing. I discovered this in my ground beef casserole.

poblano peppers sautéed
Sautéed peppers

I also shredded a block of parmesan cheese. Using fresh parmesan is definitely the way to go. It has much more flavor and goodness than the powdered stuff in a canister.

Layer some sauce in the bottom, add a layer of eggplant, cheese, peppers and so on. My layers were created to use up all the ingredients with sauce and cheese for the top. It was covered with the glass cover that came with the dish and baked at 350 for 25 minutes.

This meal is Keto friendly, with no big-carb ingredients. It could be eaten with a Quick Keto bread, if you are still trying to get over the no-noodle and no-bread thing.

Keto friendly eggplant and poblano casserole
Little casserole for a low-carb diet

I’ll tell you that this eggplant casserole was totally delicious. I love my new little casserole dish, because what I bake is for my eating pleasure only, and it’s the perfect size. The dish does not have handles, so that is a bummer, but it’s small enough (1 1/2 quart) to be lifted easily.

I’ll probably freeze some of it for later.

Quick Keto Bread in 45 Seconds

I love this quick Keto bread because it is very fast to make, and it is not bad as far as taste goes. My first attempt was okay. It’s cooked in the microwave, so blah… but then you must toast it and add butter. In fact, when you mix this recipe up, add some poppy seeds, any other Keto-friendly item, it’s pretty good.

quick Keto breads
Fast and easy little “breads”

Find the full recipe just about anywhere online. That’s right, I’m not even sure whose recipe this is because it is EVERYWHERE. Eating on a dime is the place I first discovered this recipe, so that is the one I will link to. It’s not my recipe, but you can see the easy mixing directions at the link.

If you have ever tried to come up with a replacement for real, normal bread, you will quickly realize there is no substitute. All Keto, and gluten-free bread is simply not bread as we know it, in my opinion. But, this little batch of very quick bread / muffin will fill the gap. It’s not bad.

The recipe at the site I found says to make it in one dish and bake in the microwave for 90 seconds. I made mine in two little ramekins and baked each one for 45 seconds. I slice one of them in half and toast to eat with my breakfast. The other I save in the fridge for the following day.

Keto breakfast of quick bread and omelet
My breakfast

Above is one of my favorite breakfast omelets. I first sauté spinach in butter and remove from the pan (this would work with kale, peppers, onions, etc.) and remove it once cooked.

Then I break one (or two) egg(s) into the pan and scramble a bit to make a flat layer. Then I sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese (or any cheese) and top with the spinach. Fold over the ends of the egg to make a “roll” and flip to finish heating.

For the quick Keto bread you will need almond flour (which is the only ingredient you may not have), 1 egg, butter, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. You will need a dish to bake it in, and a microwave. See the link above for directions and amounts.

If I am craving bread or toast, I have a good substitute. There are other Keto breads I plan to try as soon as I have all the ingredients.