300 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes (5 page)

My husband loved these!

1 pound (455 g) small smoked sausage links

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

1/3 cup (8 g) Splenda

2 tablespoons (30 g) prepared horseradish

1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses

Put the sausage in your slow cooker.

In a bowl, mix the ketchup, Splenda, horseradish, and molasses. Pour the sauce over the sausage. Stir to coat the sausage. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 3 hours. Serve the sausage hot from the slow cooker with toothpicks for spearing.

Yield:
8 servings, each with: 193 calories, 17 g fat, 8 g protein, 1 g carbohydrate, trace dietary fiber, 1 g usable carbs.

Orange Smokies

Put these out at your next Super Bowl party and watch people eat!

1 pound (455 g) small smoked sausage links

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

1/4 cup (60 ml) lemon juice

2 tablespoons (3 g) Splenda

1/4 teaspoon orange extract

1/4 teaspoon guar or xanthan (optional)

Put the sausage in your slow cooker.

In a small bowl, stir together the ketchup, lemon juice, Splenda, and orange extract. Thicken the mixture just a little, if you think it needs it, with guar or xanthan. Pour the sauce over the sausage. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 3 hours. Keep the sausages hot in the slow cooker to serve.

Yield:
8 servings, each with: 193 calories, 17 g fat, 8 g protein, 1 g carbohydrate, trace dietary fiber, 1 g usable carbs.

Tuna and Artichoke Stuffed Mushrooms

I actually came up with this recipe, which was a big hit at my Toastmasters Club Christmas party by the way, because I wanted to figure out the method of baking stuffed mushrooms in a slow cooker. It worked great and frees up your oven for other things. It also lets you get the hot hors d'oeuvres in early, so you can field other pre-party details. You may well find yourself baking all your stuffed mushrooms this way.

1 can (14 ounces, or 390 g) artichoke hearts

3 scallions

1 can (7 ounces, or 200 g) tuna in water, drained

3 ounces (85 g) cream cheese, softened

8 ounces (225 g) shredded Italian cheese blend

3 tablespoons (42 g) mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup (15 g) minced fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon hot sauce or to taste

2 pounds (900 g) mushrooms

Drain and chop the artichoke hearts and throw them in a mixing bowl. Slice up the scallions, including the crisp part of the green shoot, and add them to the bowl. Add the drained tuna. Add the cream cheese, Italian cheese blend, mayo, pepper, parsley, and hot sauce and mash it all up with a fork until everything is evenly blended.

Wipe your mushrooms clean and remove the stems. Reserve the stems for some other purpose, like making an omelet or topping a steak. (Or you could add them to one of the mushrooms recipes in the
Slow Cooker Sides
chapter.) Now stuff the artichoke and tuna mixture into the caps.

Put a basket-type steamer in your slow cooker. Arrange a layer of mushrooms on it. Now take a piece of nonstick aluminum foil, also called
release foil
, and perforate it in several places with a fork to let liquid drip through. Fit it down on top of the first layer of mushrooms. (You'll probably have to make a hole in the middle for the stem of the steamer to poke through.) Put another layer of mushrooms on this. Repeat with a second layer of foil and a third layer of mushrooms. My big slow cooker fit all of my mushrooms in three layers.

Slap on the top, set the cooker to low, and let it go for 4 to 5 hours. You can serve your mushrooms out of the slow cooker if you want to keep them warm, or you can use a spoon to transfer them to a platter.

Yield:
This served a party of at least 15 people. Assuming 15 servings, each will have: 142 calories, 10 g fat, 10 g protein, 5 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 4 g usable carbs.

Bacon-Cheese Dip

Bacon and cheese together—it makes you glad to be a low-carber, doesn't it?

16 ounces (455 g) Neufchâtel cheese, softened, or light or regular cream cheese

2 cups (225 g) shredded cheddar cheese

2 cups (230 g) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1/2 cup (120 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream

2 tablespoons (22 g) brown mustard

1 tablespoon (10 g) minced onion

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1 pound (455 g) bacon, cooked, drained, and crumbled

Cut the Neufchâtel cheese or cream cheese in cubes and put them in your slow cooker. Add the cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, Carb Countdown, cream, mustard, onion, Worcestershire sauce, salt or Vege-Sal, and cayenne. Stir to distribute the ingredients evenly. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 1 hour, stirring from time to time.

When the cheese has melted, stir in the bacon.

Yield:
12 servings, each with: 505 calories, 44 g fat, 25 g protein, 2 g carbohydrate, trace dietary fiber, 2 g usable carbs. (Analysis is exclusive of dippers.)

Awesome Sauce aka Provolone and Blue Cheese Fondue

That Nice Boy I Married took one bite and said “Awesomesauce!” And so it is. This can be a party snack, but we like it as a light supper.

6 ounces (170 g) cream cheese

12 ounces (340 g) provolone cheese

4 ounces (115 g) blue cheese

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream

1/2 cup (120 ml) dry white wine

Crush the garlic and put it in the bottom of the slow cooker. Cube the cream cheese and put it in. Then cube the provolone, put that on top of the cream cheese, and add half the blue cheese on that. Add the heavy cream and wine, cover the pot, set to low, and let it cook for a good two hours.

Open up the slow cooker. You will find a gloppy mess. Do not panic. Take your stick blender and blend it until the whole thing is smooth. That's it. It now will keep for at least a couple of hours on low or on the serve setting. When you're ready, set out the slow cooker of
Awesome Sauce
, plus veggies to dip. We dipped with green pepper strips, blanched asparagus, canned quartered artichoke hearts, well-drained, and marinated mushrooms, but I can think of a dozen more veggies that would be good with this. Indeed, it's hard to think of anything that wouldn't be good with this!

Yield:
If 12 people share this, each will get: 224 calories, 19 g fat, 11 g protein, 2 g carbohydrate, trace dietary fiber, 2 g usable carbs. (Analysis is exclusive of vegetables.)

Bagna Cauda

The name of this traditional Italian dip means “hot bath,” and that's just what it is—a bath of hot, flavored olive oil to dip your vegetables in. Believe it or not, our tester Maria Vander Vloedt's kids really liked this!

1 cup (235 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup (55 g) butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 ounces (55 g) canned anchovies, minced

Combine everything in a small slow cooker. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 1 hour.

Yield:
Per batch: 2448 calories, 267 g fat, 17 g protein, 3 g carbohydrate, trace dietary fiber, 3 g usable carbs. (It's hard to know how to divide this into servings, and it's unlikely you'll end up eating it all, even with a big group. After all, you can't scoop up a tablespoon (15 ml) at a time of hot olive oil. So here's the stats for the whole potful. Notice that carb count!)

Hot Artichoke Dip