300 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes (25 page)

When the cream cheese has melted into the sauce, pour the sauce into the slow cooker. Stir until the ground beef and turnips are coated. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 6 hours. Serve with cheddar cheese on top.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 549 calories, 40 g fat, 35 g protein, 12 g carbohydrate, 3 g dietary fiber, 9 g usable carbs.

Hamburger and Turnip Layered Casserole

This started out as a high-carb slow cooker casserole with potatoes and canned mushroom soup. This is a little more work, but it's a lot fewer carbs.

1 1/2 pounds (680 g) ground chuck

1 medium onion

2 medium turnips

4 slices cooked bacon

4 ounces (115 g) shredded Cheddar cheese

1 can (4 ounces, or 115 g) diced green chilies

4 ounces (115 g) jarred roasted red peppers

1 can (4 ounces, or 115 g) mushrooms

1 1/4 cups (285 ml) half and half

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 tablespoon (18 g) beef bouillon concentrate

1/2 teaspoon pepper

In your big, heavy skillet, start browning and crumbling your beef. While that's happening, chop your onion. When a little grease has cooked out of the beef, throw in the onion, too, and continue cooking until the pink is gone.

If you haven't cooked your bacon, lay it on a microwave bacon rack or in a Pyrex pie plate and give it 4 to 5 minutes on high or until done crisp.

Peel your turnips, cut them in half, and slice those halves thin. If you didn't buy your cheese shredded, shred it. Open and drain your green chiles and drain and chop your roasted red peppers.

Now drain the liquid from the mushrooms into a measuring cup with the half and half, onion powder, beef bouillion concentrate, and pepper. Mix it up until the bouillon dissolves. Now add enough guar or xanthan to give the liquid a cream sauce consistency—somewhere between heavy cream and canned cream of mushroom soup. Stir in the mushrooms. This is your sauce.

Okay, it's time to layer. Here's how it goes: Beef mixture, peppers (both kinds), cheese, turnips, and then sauce. Repeat until you run out of ingredients. Try to end with sauce, though it's not a tragedy if you don't.

Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and cook for 6 to 7 hours. That's all.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 499 calories, 38 g fat, 29 g protein, 10 g carbohydrate, 2 g dietary fiber, 8 g usable carbs.

Noodleless Spinach Lasagna

This is a great choice when you need to feed a crowd after being out all afternoon.

2 pounds (900 g) ground chuck

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons (6 g) oregano

5 cloves garlic

26 ounces (735 g) no-sugar-added spaghetti sauce

1/2 teaspoon beef bouillon concentrate

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

24 ounces (680 g) creamed cottage cheese, small curd

8 ounces (225 g) whipped cream cheese with chives and onions

20 ounces (560 g) frozen chopped spinach, thawed

8 ounces (225 g) shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup (25 g) grated Parmesan cheese

In your big, heavy skillet, over medium heat, start browning the meat while you chop the onion. Throw the onion in there and continue browning and crumbling the meat, adding the oregano and two cloves of the garlic, crushed. When the pink is gone from the meat, tilt the pan, spoon off the fat, and then stir in the spaghetti sauce, beef bouillon concentrate, and red pepper flakes. Turn the burner to low and let this simmer while you go on to the next step.

Mix the cottage cheese and chive cream cheese together, along with the remaining garlic, crushed. Blend this all very well.

Drain your spinach—I dump mine into a colander in the sink and then use clean hands to squeeze it out very well.

It's time to assemble your lasagna! In your slow cooker pot, layer everything like this: Meat sauce, cottage cheese mixture, spinach, and then mozzarella. Make three sets of layers and finish with the end of the sauce. Sprinkle the Parmesan on top. Cover, set to low, and cook for 4 to 5 hours.

Yield:
10 servings, each with: 514 calories, 36 g fat, 35 g protein, 13 g carbohydrate, 4 g dietary fiber, 9 g usable carbs.

Eric's Goop Suey

This started with a high-carb recipe for something called American Chop Suey. I played around with it, whacked out a bunch of carbs, and came up with this. It didn't seem anything like chop suey to me, so I was going to call it All-American Glop. Then Eric, aka That Nice Boy I Married, said it reminded him of his very favorite childhood dish, a thing he'd simply called goop. A
Facebook
fan named Rita Taylor suggested splitting the difference and naming it
Eric's Goop Suey
. So I did.

1 1/2 pounds (680 g) ground chuck

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup (115 g) shredded Cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons (32 g) tomato paste

1 can (14 ounces, or 390 g) diced tomatoes

2 ounces (55 g) cream cheese

2 packages tofu shirataki fettuccini

In your big, heavy skillet, over medium heat, start browning and crumbling the ground beef while you chop the onion and green pepper. Throw them in, too, and keep cooking and breaking up the meat until all the pink is gone. Spoon off most of the fat that's cooked out and then dump the meat and veggies in your slow cooker.

Add the garlic, paprika, salt, pepper, shredded Cheddar, tomato paste, and canned tomatoes, undrained. Stir it all up. Plunk the cream cheese on top, cover the pot, set to low, and let it cook 5 to 7 hours.

When suppertime comes around, snip open your shirataki and dump them into a strainer in the sink. Snip across them a few times with your kitchen shears and then put them in a microwaveable bowl and give them 2 minutes on high. Drain again and then give them another two minutes on high. Drain one more time, stir into the mixture in the slow cooker, and serve with extra grated cheese on top if desired.

Yield:
5 servings, each with: 535 calories, 40 g fat, 32 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 10 g usable carbs.

Firehouse Chili

Here's a crowd-pleaser! I served this on a rainy afternoon at our local campground and made a lot of friends! You could halve this, but you'd be left with a half a can of soybeans, and you know you'll eat it up, so why bother?

2 pounds (900 g) ground chuck

1 1/2 cups (240 g) chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tablespoons (24 g) chili powder

3 teaspoons (7 g) paprika

4 teaspoons (10 g) ground cumin

1/4 cup (60 g)
Dana's No-Sugar Ketchup
(see recipe
page 332
) or purchased lowcarb ketchup

2 tablespoons (32 g) tomato paste

1 can (14 1/2 ounces, or 410 g) diced tomatoes

12 ounces (355 ml) light beer

1 teaspoon Splenda

2 1/2 teaspoons (15 g) salt

1 can (15 ounces, or 425 g) black soybeans

In a big, heavy skillet, brown and crumble the beef over medium-high heat. Drain it and place it in your slow cooker. Add the onion, garlic, chili powder, paprika, cumin, ketchup, tomato paste, tomatoes, beer, Splenda, salt, and soybeans. Stir everything up. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 8 hours.

This is good with shredded cheese and sour cream. What chili isn't? But it also stands on its own very well.

Yield:
10 servings, each with: 329 calories, 21 g fat, 21 g protein, 12 g carbohydrate, 4 g dietary fiber, 8 g usable carbs.

Texas Red

Using no tomatoes or beans not only makes this classically Texan, but it also makes it lower carb than most chilis. And it's good and hot!

2 pounds (900 g) beef chuck

3 tablespoons (45 g) bacon grease or as needed

1 medium onion

3 tablespoons (27 g) canned sliced jalapeño peppers, or a couple of fresh jalepeño peppers

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons (16 g) ancho chili powder

2 tablespoons (16 g) chili powder (any one of the popular blends sold simply as chili powder)

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 cup (120 ml) beef broth

1 teaspoon beef bouillon concentrate

Cut your beef into 1/2-inch (13 mm) cubes—this is easier if it's half frozen. Put your big, heavy skillet over high heat, add some of the bacon grease, and start browning your beef cubes. Unless your skillet is bigger than mine, you'll need to do them in batches—I had three batches. Just don't crowd them too much. Add more bacon grease to the skillet as needed. As they're browned, transfer the beef cubes to the slow cooker.

While your beef cubes are browning, dice your onion fairly small and throw it in the slow cooker, too. Chop up those jalapeño slices a bit or seed and chop fresh jalapeños, throw them in, and crush in your garlic. Now wash your hands really well with soap and water, or you'll be sorry the next time you touch your eyes or nose!