LCHF Hamburgers

Ingredients for burgers:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 tsp onion granules
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 3/4 tsp powdered, dried mushrooms

Mix the meat and seasonings.  Form patties.  Let them sit for about 30 minutes (or more) at room temperature.  Cook as you normally would.

For condiments, I have: pepperoncini, mayonnaise, SF catsup, dill pickle relish, and cheddar cheese.

TIP: if you fry your burgers (my habit), and have cheese on them, drizzle some pan fat over the cheese, it helps it get a bit melty.  Or you could, of course, put the cheese on in the pan, cover the pan, and melt it.  Or you could put the cheese on, and nuke for a few seconds to melt.  I find drizzling the fat the least work, plus it adds yummy fat to the plate.

Chicken livers in mushroom cream sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 slice bacon (mine come 12-13 per lb)
• 1 T butter (herbed, if you like)
• 4 oz mushrooms (whatever kind/s you like, or a mix)
• 1 T vermouth or dry white wine
• 2 chicken livers
• 4 T heavy cream
• Quatre épices
• Onion granules
• Rubbed sage
• Chives, dried or fresh 

Directions:

1. Cut up the bacon slice into 8 or so pieces, and fry them.  Flip them so they brown on both sides.  When crispy, remove from pan.
2. Meanwhile, cut up the mushrooms.  After removing the bacon, dump in the mushrooms, and add the butter.  
3. Add a couple pinches of quatre épices, and twice as many pinches of rubbed sage.  Also add some salt and pepper.  
4. Saute until the mushrooms are done to your liking.  At this point, put the heat on medium low.
5. Right at the end of the mushrooms, add the vermouth/wine and stir.
6. Add the chicken livers and lay them across the mushrooms.  Cook undisturbed for 90ish seconds.
7. Flip the livers over, and add the cream.  Stir, and cover.  Cook for 90 more seconds.
8. Uncover and check the livers.  Flip so any bright red parts are down, while the sauce reduces a tad.  This will only take 20-30 seconds, unless you like your liver well-cooked.  To achieve the best flavor and texture, the liver should still be pink inside.
9. Plate the dish, and scrape the sauce and "bits" on top.
10. Sprinkle those bacon pieces on top.
11. Sprinkle the chives on top of that.
12. Season to taste with S&P.

Quatre épices

This is a very bare bones recipe.  It gets the job done!

Grind if necessary, then mix together:

• 1 tablespoon white pepper
• Rounded 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Veggie Frestelse

Groensak Frestelse (Veggie Temptation)

Ingredients:

• 6 T butter
• 6.5 oz sliced onion
• 4.75 oz mushrooms, cut up
• 12 oz zucchini, cut up
• 18 oz cauliflower, cut up
• 1 cup cream, drizzled over
• 2 cans anchovies in evoo, distributed; drizzle oil over
• 1/3 c flaxseeds; grind coarsely with a little onion powder and salt, sprinkle on top

Saute onions in butter.
Assemble in dish.
Bake at 400 for at least 1 hr.

Orange saffron oopsies (lazy version)

Another new recipe yesterday: Orange Saffron Oopsies a la Zig
They're lazy because I can't be bothered to separate the eggs
Let alone whip the whites, then suffer through folding them with the yolks
I'm too lazy
It's a flaw

Anyway, recipe:

8 oz cream cheese, softened at room temp (I just leave it out for a couple days)
8 T butter, same
5 eggs, same (uncracked, of course)
zest of 1-2 oranges, depending on size
4 T orange blossom water or rose water (I used former)
generous pinch of saffron (I probably used 9-10 stigmas)
1/2 to 1 tsp salt, depending on your taste

Soak the saffron in the orange/rose water overnight or longer (I think mine was out a couple days, I kept putting off making these, due to sheer laziness)
Blend the cream cheese and butter
Stir in the eggs, and water (add sweetener here if you want to)
Stir in the salt and orange zest
Don't worry about lumps

Distribute into muffin tin (lined with parchment cups)
Set it on food scale
place tiny dollop of honey on top of each "muffin"
My dollops were so tiny that 12 muffins held 3/8 oz honey.  This added 8.6 carbs, distributed over 12 muffins.  the pluses to adding honey: coloring the top of the muffins, heavenly smell (this is way too little to add any discernible sweetness at all, and I didn't add sweetener to the batter); the minuses to adding honey: extra carbs, fructose, and all that. 

Bake at 350ish for about 45 minutes.

Jansson's Frestelse, LCHF

Also known as: Jansson's Temptation

I'll be back to add more details, but here are the bare bones:

Saute 1 large onion(7 oz) in 8 T butter
Cut up 1 large celeriac (14 oz)
layer in glass dish: celeriac--onion--anchovies--repeat
drizzle anchovy-evoo from cans (I used 3 56-g cans)
pour 2/3 to 3/4 c. cream over it
sprinkle libearlly with salt and pepper
cover with coarsely ground flax seeds (I used 1/3ish cup, pre-grind volume)
bake ~1 hr at 400

Serve with some of juices from bottom of pan.
Eat.
Moan.
Swoon.

Based off LCHF William's video.

Hibiscus tea, homeblended

I love hibiscus tea.  There's something about it that leaves the mouth feeling moist, unlike some other beverages that leave you with a dry feeling. 

I like Hibiscus High-tea.
But don't want the stevia (I suspect it of stimulating my pancreas to release insulin, which is counterproductive to my current weight loss effort).

So I make my own out of all this dried stuff (measurements are approximate--I like mine tangy and minty):

• 1/4 c. hibiscus flowers
• 1/8 c. rose petals
• 1.5 T rosehips
• 2 T orange peel
• 2 T lemon peel
• 2 T lemon grass
• 4 T spearmint (I luuuuurve spearmint)

Gently toss these all together.  Steep.  Slurp.  Enjoy!

NOTE: My hibiscus and rose petals were in quite large pieces, so I gently used the mortar and pestle on them, adding the orange and lemon and rosehips after a little bit.