Low carb mock macaroni, cheese & ham

I had intended to get so much done today.  But an oral surgery consultation and errands drained all of my motivation.  So the only productive thing I ended up doing today was cooking. (Besides taking a nice nap!)

The recipe for low carb mock “macaroni” and cheese is all over the net with dozens of variations.  So I figured it was time I tried it.

I wanted it to be a main dish, so I decided to add ham to it.  I didn’t have any regular ham, but had some country ham for seasoning.  So I boiled and drained it to get rid of the excess salt and went with that.  It turned out to be a good choice!

Even considering that this was a salad plate instead of a dinner plate, my portion wasn’t chintzy! 🙂

The “macaroni” is actually cauliflower.  Care must be taken to cook it just crisp tender.  Longer cooking will make it stronger tasting, soggy, and it will make your sauce watery.

“Mac” & Cheese

16 oz bag of frozen cauliflower
1/2 c. cream
2 oz. cream cheese, cut in small pieces
1-1/2 t. spicy brown mustard
1-1/2 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 c. shredded cheese for topping
pepper
garlic powder or dehydrated garlic flakes to taste

Ham chunks, if desired

Oven 350

Steam cauliflower till just crisp tender and cut in small florets.  Grease baking dish.  Heat cream to bare simmer and add cream cheese.  Stir to melt.  Add mustard, pepper and garlic.  Mix well.  Add 1-1/2 c. shredded cheese and stir until just melted.  Remove from heat.

Put cauliflower in large bowl.  Add ham chunks.  Pour cream/cheese mixture over and mix well to coat the cauliflower and ham.

Pour into greased baking dish and top with remaining 1/2 c. cheese.  Bake until browned and bubbly — about 20 minutes.

I thought this was nice.  But Ron LOVED it!  He was more enthusiastic about this than any other low carb dish I’ve cooked for him.  I thought it tasted like mild cauliflower with a nice cheese sauce.  Ron thought it had a scalloped new potato taste.

. Low carb raspberry cupcakes

Next, I needed to make something sweet for Ron.  I found a low carb muffin recipe that looked okay, then I started playing with it.  It actually turned out more like cupcakes than muffins by the time I was finished.

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Low Carb Cupcakes

2 c. almond meal
2 t. bakng powder
1/4 t. salt
1 stick butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
6 T DaVinci Sugar free syrup (I used 4 T raspberry and 2 T vanilla)
1/4 c. Splenda or erythritol

Oven 350

The little cake in the nonstick loaf pan was the only thing that didn’t stick. The little loaf is also hiding the two cupcakes I already ate!

(Note:  Use non-stick bakeware.  Despite heavily greasing the muffin tins, the cupcakes stuck.  The small cake made in a non-stick mini loaf pan did not stick.)

Mix dry ingredients.  Beat eggs, then beat the melted butter into the eggs.  Add sugar free syrup.  Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well.  Fill muffin tins 1/2 – 2/3 full.  Put leftover batter in mini loaf pan.  Bake about 20 minutes until tops are set and dry.

Those little cakes were a diet buster for me.  I really liked them and hit them harder than I should have! Ron loved them, too.

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