Cooking fail!

So if you read my post about my favorite keto snacks (HERE) you may have noticed that I mentioned my fail of my zucchini chips.

So this is what happened.

It was my day off of work and I was planning on doing so much with my day! Most of it cooking related. The night before I wrote out everything I was going to make and what I needed to get pictures of.

I was feeling so good about how everything was going! I had started my chicken pot pie and had gone grocery shopping, started a load of laundry and cleaned the bathroom.

I felt so productive already with my day.

When I started to make my pepperoni and zucchini chips I just used the same cookie sheet. Well the pepperoni bakes much faster than the zucchini so I took the pepperoni off to let them cool and I put the zucchini back in the oven.

But I forgot to set a timer!

I sat down on the cough and got distracted with social media. Then I thought it was a good time to take a shower and catch up on watching This Is Us. (Who else is obsessed with that show?!)

Then I started to notice the smell! I jumped up so fast from the cough once I realized where the smell was coming from!!

Guys. I totally burned them to a crisp!!

It was so bad!!

Here's my question for you!

What do you do when you totally fail in the kitchen?!

A) Try again right away and end on a good note?

B) Just give up and try something else?

C) Sit back on the couch, eat a Reese's and watch This Is Us??

Today I went with option C!!

Ketogenic Snack Ideas

One of the great things about the Keto diet is that you aren't hungry all the time!

People that have been on this diet for a while sometimes only eat 1 meal in the day. Some do 1 meal and a snack.

And the great thing about this is that you aren't starving yourself by doing that! You body is just fat adapted! If you want to read more about that, read THIS POST or visit http://www.insuliniq.com. That website has a ton of info that helps explain everything a little better than I can:)

Anyways. When I started the ketogenic diet I felt hungry all the time while my body was pretty much going through carb withdrawals. I knew I wasn't hungry but it was helpful to snack on things that were high in fat to help get me into ketosis faster.

These are some of the snacks that saved me!

Hard boiled eggs
Just be sure that you are eating the whole egg! The yoke is where most of the fat is so you want to eat the whole thing, not just the egg white!

Hard boiling eggs was always super difficult for me, for some strange reason. It was just so intimidating to time everything perfectly to get the best tasting hard boiled egg!

I used my pressure cooker for this for the first time and let me tell ya...it was amazing!
If is is much faster than on the stove and they come out perfect every time!

I cooked 5 eggs at a time but you can do more too!
Put the trivet inside the cooker
Add your desired amount of eggs to the pot (make sure they are stacked evenly)
1 Cup of water
Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes
transfer to ice water immediately after they are finished cooking in the pressure cooker

I told you, they come out perfect!!

String cheese
Really, who doesn't love string cheese?! It is such a yummy and easy snack. Especially because it requires absolutely no prep!
I just grab in it in the morning, write my name on it with a sharpie (that is a must at my office. If it's out on the counter or doesn't have a name on it...it's fair game), and put it in the fridge at work until I'm ready for my snack!


Pepperoni chips
One of the things I miss about carbs is the crunch! I love crackers and chips and you just can't have those on a low carb diet! Another struggle while transitioning to this diet is that you often don't get enough salt! This is an easy way to add a little salt back into your diet.
Pull out a cookie sheet and line up some pepperonis on it. Bake them at 400 degrees until you see them getting crispy! The time varies based on how crispy you want them to be, I cook mine for about 5 minutes

Zucchini chips
Another way to help my crispy cravings! Slice this pretty thin so they get a little crispier or cut bigger slices for a softer chip, its up to you!
Before baking these, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top of them to add a little more flavor, trust me...it's good!

You may be wondering why I chose the picture before I baked them...

Well when I put them in the oven I forgot to set a timer and I forgot about them! They were completely burned to crisps!! I was so sad that I didn't even bother trying to make a new batch hahaha

Lunch meat/cheese roll-ups
I actually used this for my lunch most days, instead of a snack. But it can totally work for both!
I would pick whatever lunch meat sounds good that day, cut a slice of cheese and roll it up! Simple as that!
I had to keep these away from my boss. One of the times I brought these to work he ate half of them! But that's what you get when half of the office was trying to be keto at the same time!


Spoonful of peanut butter
Now this isn't the most keto snack out there... but it's delicious! Some peanut butters have more carbs than others so just be careful of that! Most servings of peanut butter are 2 Tbsp, I would usually just have 1 Tbsp at a time so there really wasn't that many carbs in the snack! Usually just 2-3 g of carbs, which isn't bad at all! (Especially when you take into account how dang delicious it is!!!)

Greek yogurt
This is another one that isn't the most ketogenic snack out there. Most of the Greek yogurts I've seen have about 11g of carbs per serving. So this may not be a good option for you, depending on how many grams of carbs you are allowing yourself to have on a daily basis.
Sometimes Greek yogurt can be pretty boring. While they are in season, raspberries are a great option to add some flavor to your yogurt! Raspberries aren't very high on the glycemic index like most other fruits. Just be careful with how big your serving is of them, it's easy to get carried away!


I'd love to hear if you have any other keto snack ideas! Commend below or message me directly!

Parmesan Chicken Roll-ups

This is a new recipe to the Stephens house. And let me tell ya...it has quickly risen to the top 10 favorite list!

The first time I made this was a night that Josh and I were going to a friends house to play games. I didn't judge how much time we had to cook and eat before needing to leave. This meant we were eating in the car on our way to her house!
Josh took his first bite when we hit the first red light. He yelled so loud! It scared me at first! ...then I saw the look on his face and knew that he loved it!
Not only was it that yummy...but it was easy to eat in the car. Just in case that's something you look for in a meal ;)

 Remember HERE when I talked about cooking my chicken ahead of time? That comes in handy with  this meal and cut down a lot of the prep work, since you need to start with the chicken already cooked. (I used my pressure cooker to cook this chicken. It took 9 minutes to cook 3 frozen chicken breasts!!) Also, I never buy chicken tenderloins so I just use a thin cut chicken breast and slice that in half.

If you don't already have cooked chicken, that's fine! You can just start mixing your other ingredients together!
The first time I made this I used mayonnaise, sour cream, and cream cheese for the mixture. I didn't love the cream cheese taste with this too much so I've eliminated it since then. But if you like cream cheese...add it!

Spread this mixture across the entire crescent triangle then add some shredded mozzarella cheese to the wider end. I use shredded because that is just what I have. If you have it in a block or deli slices, that works too!

Add you chicken on top and roll it up! (Ignore my partially seasoned chicken... I don't know what happened there!)

Melt some butter (I did about 1-2 Tbsp) and add parsley and minced garlic. Spread this on top of the rolls for some extra flavor! The first time I made this I didn't add the garlic and it was still so good! ...but I love adding garlic to everything. I like it much more with some garlic!

Bake these for 14-15 minutes or until they turn golden-brown. My oven is exactly 14 minutes but I know every oven is a little different!

And these are pretty filling! I'm usually good with just eating 1 and Josh usually just eats 2 (sometimes 3 if he's super hungry)!

They do reheat pretty well. The roll just gets a little soggy if you do it in the microwave. But I recommend just eating all of them right out of the oven if you can!

Enjoy!

Mac n cheese!

Anybody who knows me well knows that I have a special place in my heart for Mac n cheese.
I'm pretty sure I can survive on the stuff! It has just always been a favorite of mine. Kraft, homemade, any kind and I would eat it.
I even use to have "Mac n cheese parties" with friends. I would make Mac n cheese and they would come over and play games. It was a great arrangement!

When I made homemade Mac n cheese it makes me feel a little better about this addiction of mine.

Anyways, I love this recipe. It is so yummy and its so easy!

The timing of everything is usually really perfect when I make this so I try to stick to my order.

Preheat your oven to 325.

I start with putting water on the stove and I add the noodles to it right away instead of waiting for it to boil or get hot. Then I just stir those occasionally while I make the sauce!

While the noodles are cooking I start right away with melting the butter. I try to get the flour and milk already measured out and sitting next to me so I don't have to worry about anything burning.

While I wait for that to boil, I measure out the cheese, salt, and get the garlic ready.

I also usually toast some bread to use for bread crumbs. If I do that, then I start the toast now so it can cool by the time I'm ready to add it on top of the noodles.

Once I add the cheese, salt, and garlic the noodles are usually about done cooking. I strain them and put them in a dish.

When the cheese is all melty in the sauce I add chopped bacon. Oh yeah, did I mention that I add bacon to this...because it's freaking amazing!)

Then just pour the sauce on top of the noodles and make sure it gets mixed around a bit so it gets over all of the noodles.

Add breadcrumbs, more cheese... anything you want on top of this.

The oven is usually preheated by now so I put it in the oven, set my timer and wait the long 20 minutes until I get to eat this!

Doesn't it look so good even before you bake it?!

This one received a 9/10 on the Josh scale and is still one of our favorites!

Enjoy:)

How I plan my month of meals

I love planning and preparing and organizing.

When I married Josh and realized how much I actually had to cook I was spending so much money on groceries!
I wasn't planning out meals and I didn't really know how to save money on groceries!

Eventually I started to plan out a week of meals at a time and that was so helpful. But I was still spending so much on groceries!

Eventually I started to plan out dinners for the entire month!

I've had a lot of people ask me how and why I do it that way.

My whys:
I love planning
I save a ton of money (see below)
It's fun for me!
We don't waste food
I never have to wonder what I'm cooking that night

My how:

1. I start by printing out a blank calendar of the month. I really love the printable calendars from http://www.imom.com. They have a ton of other stuff on their site too, but I just think their calendars are so dang cute!

2. Next I write on the days that I won't need to cook (Vacations, anniversaries, birthdays, etc.)
My mom's side of the family gets together every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month so I add those right away.

3. I go through my recipes and start adding (strategically)

• I try to make 4 new recipes each month so I add those first so I don't run out of room
• I try to pick 2-3 10/10s that Josh loves and make those each month. I kind of put those through a rotation so we don't have the same ones over and over each month
• Then I just start flipping through recipe cards and my binder of recipes. Like I said, I try to put these all through a rotation so we aren't eating the same things. 
• While I'm adding the recipes to the calendar I keep in mind which meals take a while to make or require a lot of prep. Those meals I keep to the weekends or my day off during the week. The meals that only take like 10 minutes to make I like to have on Mondays or my longer work days. (Because who wants to cook after a long work day?) That way I'm not lured into the idea of going out to eat when I could throw together a super easy meal.
• I also like to add a little CP in the corner of the day that is a crock pot meal. That way I can prepare the night before to get everything ready or just set my alarm earlier to get it ready in the morning.

(Josh's mom put together that big box of recipes for me! She made one for all of there sons. In the box are their favorite recipes! So each boy has some different recipes based on what the liked. Isn't that such a cool idea?!)

4. I always take a picture of this so I have it with me on my phone. Sometimes when I'm at work I completely blank on what I'm planning to make that night. So it's nice to have on hand to remind myself!

I even have a couple of friends that always want me to send my month to them!

5. How does this help me save money?

• We aren't eating out all the time just because I don't have anything to make for dinner
• I buy in bulk! I try to do 1 big grocery trip each month where I buy everything in bulk that I can. Then I have smaller grocery trips every 1-2 weeks where I buy the produce or dairy products that just won't last all month.
• I can plan freezer meals ahead of time. That way if we are short on money for the month I can just use freezer meals so I don't have to buy ingredients for other meals.
• We have found what recipes make for good leftovers so we are able to prepare in advance our portions of leftovers or making a separate meal for lunch the next day.

Guys. I'm telling you, plan out your meals this way! It is so much more efficient than just going day by day. And it is so much fun!!

Also, if any of these meals sound good to you... let me know! I'd love suggestions of what recipes to post!

Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu

I always really loved Chicken cordon bleu but whenever I would try to make it...it would just come out tasting dry!

My solution to that problem? Crock pot!! I haven't made anything in my crock pot that has come out tasting dry!

I know...that picture doesn't look THAT appetizing. Trust me, it's yummy!

This is also a pretty simple meal to make. There isn't too much prep involved!

First you want to get your chicken, ham and cheese ready! If you do cut it all the way through it will just be a little messier and your ham/cheese may fall out while it's cooking.

You can either use deli style slices of Swiss cheese or you can buy a block of it and slice it yourself. I like to cut mine off of a block because it's just easier to roll it up for me.

Once that's all rolled up it is time to stuff it in the chicken! You don't have to secure it with tooth picks but it just helps keep it together!

The sauce mixture is the easiest thing ever and it adds so much flavor to the chicken. Sometimes I add Dijon mustard to the mix to give it even more flavor! So keep that in mind!

 I just throw these both in a bowl and whisk it until there aren't too many clumps. 

You want to put half of this on the bottom on the crock pot, put the chicken in then pour the other half on top.

Last step is to add your stuffing mix on top of the chicken and top it off with the melted butter! 

And about the butter... if I'm being honest...I usually use more than just 1/4 cup. Butter is just really good.

Cook this on low for 4-6 hours and that's it! You are all done!

Enjoy!

PS. This is one that Josh gave a 9/10 on!

Mongolian Beef

Over our Christmas vacation Josh's mom taught me a recipe similar to Mongolian beef that was soo yummy!

I have been trying to get a food recipe for Mongolian beef for quite some time now. So when she taught me hers I thought I'd try to create my own variation of Mongolian beef. And it is a win!

This is also such an easy and quick meal to make. I have to start cooking my rice before and usually still have to wait for the rice to finish!

First you just add everything together in a bowl! Simple enough, right?

So you don't have to let the meat marinate at all...but I think it gives it just a little bit more flavor, so I do! I usually let it marinate for like 20 minutes. When I do, I prep this part, then start the rice.

Next suuper easy step is to pour it all in a hot skillet! You don't want to oil the pan before you do this though. I did that out of habit the first time I made this and it was just soo oily and slimy when we were eating. So...I don't do that anymore!

While It's cooking I just stir it all around every couple of minutes to make sure it all gets cooked evenly. Because the slices of meat are so thin it cooks pretty fast so be sure to keep your eye on it so nothing burns!

And that is literally all you have to do! I told you...so easy!