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March 16, 2022 · 7:21 am

Corned Beef Reuben Casserole with Creamy Russian Dressing

Want to try something a little different for St. Patrick’s Day this year? This low carb casserole has all of the flavors of a classic Reuben sandwich, in a hot delicious main dish casserole.

Layers of cooked cabbage, corned beef, sliced dill pickles, and sauerkraut are covered in melted Swiss cheese, then topped with a creamy Russian dressing. (The pickles are optional, but I love the extra tangy-ness and crunch.)

Bake in a large casserole dish or 9×13” pan for a delicious low carb meal.

Serve hot and drizzle with homemade creamy Russian dressing to serve. I like to kick up the spiciness of the dressing by adding extra Sriracha.

I cook my corned beef in an Instant Pot (70 minutes on high pressure), until tender enough to shred. You can also use leftover cooked corned beef and reduced amounts of the other ingredients to make a smaller sized casserole.

RECIPE:

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Sugar Free French Silk Berry Pie

Happy π Day! Here is a sugar free version of a French silk chocolate pie. The addition of fresh berries make it less rich, but you will still want to eat it in small serving sizes.

RECIPE:

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Filed under Desserts, Low Carb/Keto

Tagged as blackberries, chocolate, dessert, French silk, keto, low carb, pie, raspberries, recipe, sugar free

February 25, 2022 · 11:01 am

Instant Pot Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Making mashed potatoes in an Instant Pot is a perfect way to quickly cook the potatoes, and free up a burner on the stove. Then you can mash and stir all of the good stuff directly into the potatoes in the Instant Pot. After preparing, you can leave them in the Instant Pot on the warm setting for several hours before serving. This is very helpful when preparing a big meal with lots of last minute cooking details.

Yukon gold are my preferred type of potatoes for making mashed potatoes. Russet potatoes are great for baking, but can make for mealy mashed potatoes.

I flavor my mashed potatoes with butter, milk, cream, sour cream, and garlic. You can use regular minced garlic in these potatoes (or leave out the garlic all together), but using roasted garlic makes them a million times better! Sometimes I add a little bit of fresh grated Parmesan cheese as well.

To keep your potatoes nice and hot, be sure to heat the butter, milk, and cream before mixing them into the mashed potatoes. I like my potatoes slightly whipped with a mixer to remove most of the lumps, but don’t overwhip them or they will become gummy.

Here is a tutorial for roasting large quantities of garlic:

I roast about 3 pounds of garlic at a time (on a day I can leave the windows open), then freeze it in several 1 cup containers. I always have one container in the refrigerator to use whenever a recipe calls for garlic.

RECIPE:

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Filed under Side Dishes

Tagged as Instant Pot, mashed potatoes, potatoes, pressure cooker, recipe, side dish, Thanksgiving

February 16, 2022 · 7:03 am

Red Beans & Rice with Smoked Sausage

This is an easy-to-make, family friendly recipe. (Unless you are the one of my five children who won’t touch anything that looks like a hot dog or sausage. She just picks around those and eats the rice and beans.) I usually have all of these ingredients on hand, so when I end up at the end of the day and don’t know what to cook, it is easy to pull some smoked sausage out of the freezer and put this together.

You can start with uncooked rice, or use leftover cooked rice to prepare it even faster.

The amounts of spice in the recipe will make a mildly spicy dish. Adjust the amount of Cajun seasoning and tabasco sauce to your family’s spice tolerance.

RECIPE:

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Filed under Main Dishes

Tagged as brown rice, Cajun, entree, main dish, recipe, red beans, skillet meals, smoked sausage

February 8, 2022 · 9:29 am

Chocolate Cookies & Cream Cake

Even with all of the new and exciting Oreo flavors that are released each year, there is something about the classic cookies and cream flavor that can’t be topped. Especially when they top a 3-layer chocolate cake filled with thick and delicious Oreo frosting!

When making this frosting, do NOT make it ahead of time. The Oreo crumbs become very soft in the frosting and will completely mix in if the frosting is left sitting too long (giving you gray frosting instead of flecked cookies & cream).

It is also important when frosting this cake to do a thin crumb coat first. It will keep you from overmixing the frosting and make smoothing the frosting much easier and faster. And you do need to work fairly quickly so that the Oreos don’t dissolve into the frosting base.