by Donna Reish
Okay…I admit it….I am obsessed with green beans. If you knew how I used to eat a couple of years ago (before Plexus), you would understand why. I had been trying to “keto” for a few years (and actually even a moderate carb average of 100 per day healed my pre-diabetes), so I would “keto” during the week then go crazy on weekends eating as many carbs and as much sugar as I could. I would only eat fruits and vegetables if I absolutely needed them to stay on my low carb plan (and ONLY during the week). So the fact that I now crave green beans and Romaine lettuce, even if they are a couple of the only green veggies I like, is a pretty big deal. I seriously eat Romaine lettuce and green beans at least five times a week (and for someone who only eats one meal a day (OMAD–Daily Intermittent Fasting), that means that I eat lettuce and green beans 5/7 of the time I eat a meal (and sometimes I eat them for my snack/opening my eating window too!). (Learn more about opening an eating window in Episode 7 of The Daily IF Journal podcast)
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by Donna Reish
I have been a “freezer cook” or “mega cook for over twenty-five years. Throughout this time, I have done everything as small as making two casseroles and freezing one for later all the way to mega cooking enough meatloaves for six months–and so many things in between! I share some of these on my blog (see Crunchy Ranch Chicken), and as I add tweaks and suggestions to make them healthier, I will continue to do so. You do not have to be interested in freezer cooking specifically to enjoy these recipes. For example, the one I share below is one that we did in bulk for a luncheon that fed over one hundred and one that a friend used for our daughter’s rehearsal dinner–and I have served it at graduation parties with well over 150 guests! Bulk cooking, mega cooking, freezer cooking—they are ways to help others in need, ways to bless others who are not trained or experienced in an area that you are experienced in. We have found cooking to truly be a way to help others and serve others!
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by Donna Reish
One of the beauties of creating something low carb that is as versatile as Low Carb Sprouted Crescent Dough (and the recent recipe post, Low Carb Sprouted Dinner Rolls) is being able to make so many formerly-high-carb foods into low carb foods. Once I got onto low carb bread making, dough, biscuits, crackers, Cream Cheese Dessert Base, candy, and so much more, I could look at a recipe that was previously off limits in low carb eating–and transform it into something low to moderate in carbs! Such was the case with our family’s long time favorite, Hot Hamaramas. (I have since found that they are called Hawaiian Sliders, ham and cheese sliders, baked ham sandwiches, and more. I have made these two two decades and always called them Hamaramas from a restaurant in my childhood hometown.)
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by Donna Reish
Easy peasy crock pot meal today!!! With low carb and family-friendly options! I have this thing about crock pot meals (besides loving how easy they are!). I first look at every crock pot recipe and see how much “precooking” I will need to do. For example, I don’t mind tossing some potatoes (or turnips!) and carrots in the micro or Instant Pot to precook them before adding to the crock pot, but when a meat needs precooked (like ground beef for chili or pasta casseroles), I think “there has to be an easier way than all that precooking before I ever assemble the actual dish!” I think this goes back to the days of precooking 20 pounds of ground beef for freezer entrees when we still had all seven kids at home. (That much precooking will do it to you!)
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by Donna Reish
In my more “family style” cooking days, I had a LARGE repertoire of recipes. Now that I look back, I realize it was too large for our size of family (nine total) and for my time constraints (managing and homeschooling a large family didn’t leave a lot of time for the level of kitchen experimentation I did—and this often left me frustrated). Fast forward to my tweaking of recipes to make them more healthful, and I have some of the same problems—too much experimenting, too many recipes, and on and on! (Doesn’t look like I have learned much over the years!)
When I revisited this recipe to make it healthier, I thought of all of those things…then dug right in to it to tweak it! ? This is one of my freezer entrees. This means that you get the original recipe to feed six….then the doubled version and quadrupled version for your freezer.
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by Donna Reish
When a person asks me to help them get started in freezer cooking, I am always anxious to offer advice and help because I know how much it has helped me, blessed others, and nourished my family for the past twenty-six years.
As I stated earlier on the blog, my first piece of advice is to not make it bigger than it needs to be. Freezer cooking doesn’t have to be this all-encompassing way of life that is so huge you can’t bear to face cooking day. On the other hand, if you like to go big (which I always have!), then by all means, go big.
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