300 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes (40 page)

6 tablespoons (85 g) butter, divided

2 tablespoons (28 g) bacon grease

6 flounder fillets

6 scallions

2 small celery ribs

1 cup (112 g) almond meal

6 slices bacon

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Salt and pepper

Paprika

Start 2 tablespoons (28 g) of the butter and the bacon grease heating in your slow cooker on high.

Lay your bacon on a microwave bacon rack or in a Pyrex pie plate and give them 6 to 8 minutes on high—you want it crisp but not burnt.

Trim the scallions and celery, throw them in your food processor, and chop them fairly fine.

Okay, melt another 2 tablespoons (28 g) of the butter in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Add the almond meal and stir until it smells toasty. Transfer to a plate.

Melt the last 2 tablespoons (28 ml) of butter and sauté the scallions and celery until softened. Add the almond meal back to the skillet and stir to combine. Now use your kitchen shears to snip in the bacon in little bits. Add the thyme, stir it up, and salt and pepper to taste.

Lay a fillet flat on a plate, put a couple tablespoons (28 g) of stuffing across it about 2 inches (5 cm) from one end, and wrap those 2 inches (5 cm) around it. Wrap the other end around. Carefully transfer to the slow cooker, placing it seam-side down. Repeat with the rest of the fish and stuffing.

Sprinkle the rolls lightly with paprika. Then cover the pot and let them cook an hour. Spoon some of the grease/liquid in the pot over each roll when you serve them and snip a few scallion tops over them to make them look pretty.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 427 calories, 25 g fat, 42 g protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 7 g usable carbs.

Super-Simple Catfish

Catfish is That Nice Boy I Married's favorite, but breading and frying it is a big production. This is a whole lot easier and tastes great. And there's no carbs at all!

2 tablespoons (28 g) bacon grease

2 pounds (900 g) catfish fillets

Creole seasoning (I used Tony Cachere's.)

This is so easy, but my husband loved it! Turn on your slow cooker to low and throw in the bacon grease. Let it heat for 30 minutes.

If you need to, cut your catfish into pieces that will fit flat in the bottom of the slow cooker. Sprinkle it liberally on both sides with the Creole seasoning. Then lay it in the bacon grease, flipping it once to coat. Cover the pot and let it cook for 45 minutes to an hour and then serve.

Yield:
4 servings, each with: 275 calories, 13 g fat, 37 g protein, 0 g carbohydrate, 0 g dietary fiber, 0 g usable carbs.

Sweet and Sour Shrimp

Adding the shrimp and snow peas at the last moment keeps them from becoming desperately overcooked.

1 cup (170 g) peaches, peeled and cubed (Frozen unsweetened peaches work well. Just cut them into smaller chunks—1/2 inch [13 mm].)

1/2 cup (80 g) chopped onion

1 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup (50 g) chopped celery

1/2 cup (120 ml) chicken broth

2 tablespoons (28 ml) dark sesame oil

1/4 cup (60 ml) soy sauce

2 tablespoons (28 ml) rice vinegar

1/4 cup (60 ml) lemon juice

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon (1.5 g) Splenda

6 ounces (170 g) fresh snow pea pods, trimmed

1 1/2 pounds (700 g) shrimp, shells removed

1/3 cup (37 g) slivered almonds, toasted

Guar or xanthan

Put the peaches, onion, pepper, celery, broth, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, and Splenda in your slow cooker and stir them together. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 4 hours. (Or you could cook it on high for 2 hours.)

When the time's up, turn the pot up to high while you trim the snow peas and cut them in 1-inch (2.5 cm) lengths. Stir them in and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Now stir in the shrimp. If they're uncooked, give them 10 minutes or until they're pink through. If they're cooked already, just give them 5 minutes or so to get hot through.

You can serve this over rice for the carb-eaters in the family, of course. If you like, you can have yours on
Cauli-Rice
(see recipe
page 343
), but this dish is high-carb enough already that I'd probably eat it plain.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 257 calories, 11 g fat, 27 g protein, 13 g carbohydrate, 3 g dietary fiber, 10 g usable carbs.

Pantry Seafood Supper

This is convenient because, as the name strongly suggests, it uses seafood you've got sitting in your pantry. If you've got seafood sitting in your freezer, you can use it instead—just let it cook an extra 30 minutes or so to make sure it's thawed and cooked through.

1/4 cup (45 g) roasted red peppers jarred in oil, diced small (about 1 pepper)

1/3 cup (20 g) chopped parsley

1 cup (70 g) chopped mushrooms

3/4 cup (175 ml) chicken broth

3/4 cup (175 ml) dry white wine

2 tablespoons (20 g) minced onion

2 teaspoons dried dill weed

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1 cup (235 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream

Guar or xanthan

1 can (6 ounces, or 170 g) tuna, drained

1 can (6 ounces, or 170 g) crab, drained

1 can (6 ounces, or 170 g) shrimp, drained

Combine the red peppers, parsley, mushrooms, broth, wine, onion, dill, paprika, and Tabasco sauce in your slow cooker. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 3 to 4 hours.

When the time's up, stir in the Carb Countdown and cream and thicken the sauce to your liking with guar or xanthan. Now stir in the tuna, crab, and shrimp and let it cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Now you have a choice: You can eat this as a chowder, or you can serve it over
Cauli-Rice
(see recipe
page 343
) or low-carbohydrate pasta—or even over spaghetti squash. It's up to you.

Yield:
4 servings, each with: 269 calories, 9 g fat, 33 g protein, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 3 g usable carbs.

Tuna-Noodle Casserole

Here's everybody's favorite childhood comfort food, decarbed.

8 ounces (225 g) mushrooms, coarsely chopped

3 cans (5 ounces, or 140 g each) tuna in water, drained well

1 cup (235 ml) heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon beef bouillon granules

1 tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal

2 ounces (55 g) cream cheese

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup (130 g) frozen peas NOT thawed

2 packages fettuccini-style tofu shirataki

Put the chopped mushrooms and drained tuna in your slow cooker. Stir together the cream, bouillon concentrate, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper until the bouillon is dissolved. Pour this over the mushrooms and tuna and stir everything up. Now cut the cream cheese into a few chunks and settle them down into the tuna-mushroom mixture.

Dump the peas on top of everything and don't stir them in. Cover the pot, set it to low, and let it cook for 4 hours.

When suppertime rolls around, drain and rinse your shirataki and snip across them a few times with your kitchen shears. Put them in a microwaveable bowl and nuke them for 2 minutes on high. Drain them again, put them back in the bowl, nuke them for another 2 minutes, and then drain one more time. (You're getting the excess water out of your noodles so they don't make your casserole watery.)

While your noodles are in the microwave, take the lid off the slow cooker and stir everything together. See if it needs to be thicker—it may, because of the liquid cooking out of those mushrooms. Use your guar or xanthan shaker to thicken the sauce a bit if it needs it. When the noodles are drained for the third time, stir them in and serve. Alternatively, you can put the noodles on plates and serve the tuna mixture on top.

If you want something crunchy to replace the usual breadcrumb or potato chip topping, try crushed pork rinds or toasted slivered almonds, sprinkled over each serving right before you put them on the table.

Yield:
5 servings, each with: 339 calories, 23 g fat, 26 g protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 2 g dietary fiber, 6 g usable carbs.

chapter eight
Slow Cooker Crazy Mixed-up Meals

It's really very hard to organize a cookbook. Take, for instance, the recipes that follow. They really messed up my plan to organize this book largely by protein source. After backing and forthing, moving them around, I threw up my hands and gave them their own chapter.

Simple Meat Loaf