True story. When I was a kid, we used to go to my grandmother's house after church every Sunday for dinner. My grandmother was a great cook and she knew how to catch, dispatch, pluck, butcher and fry a chicken. Unfortunately, after watching that process, I didn't eat chicken for a long time, but that's another story. If we didn't have fried chicken for Sunday dinner, we had pot roast. Delicious, tender, savory pot roast. With any meal, she always had a big pot of  slow-cooked green beans, which took hours to get to the perfect state of, well, mush!

Grandma made her pot roast in an old-fashioned pressure cooker that would steam, clang, rattle, whistle, and shake its way through the cooking process. My sister and I were scared to death of it. We would slip into the kitchen through the back porch door, as far away from the stove as possible, and help set the table, all the while eyeballing that noisy thing,

Grandma had a wicked sense of humor, bless her heart. One Sunday, when the pressure cooking was done and it was time to cool the thing down, she decided to have some fun with us. The old time pressure cookers had to be placed under cold, running water to depressurize them.  My sister and I always made sure we were nowhere near the kitchen during this process but we could hear the noise it made when it happened. On this day, my grandmother didn't warn us that it was ready. She took the thing to the sink, started the water, and it hissed like Satan's snakes while clouds of hellfire steam rose up covering her in a fog. Then the devil got the better of her and she yelled "Oooooh, it's going to blow up!" and ran into the dining room.

Now I always thought my sister was on my side. You know, she was supposed to look out for me and keep me safe. My big sister, my only sibling.  The one I looked up to, my protector.  Surely she would save me from this life-threatening situation.

I was wrong. She flat out pushed me in front of her, ran screaming out the back porch door, hollering "it's gonna blow." I was so stunned and horrified, I just stood there stupidly, staring wide-eyed at the sizzling, steaming, metal missile in the sink, thinking that I should have listened harder in Sunday School that morning because I was fixing to meet Jesus. Now, four things happened all at once; My hearing went dim; I started humming "Jesus Loves Me;" I mumbled the only prayer I could think of  which was "God is good, God is great, Let us thank him for our food," and right then and there...I wet myself. Right through my ruffled Sunday-best panties and into my lacy white socks and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes and it flowed on like the river Jordan down to the green and white linoleum floor. An epic episode of crying soon followed.

Fast forward fifty something years and this "new" thing called an Instant Pot is all the rage. My friends had it and I heard how fast it was, how it also worked like a slow cooker, how it made perfect rice. Instant Pot this and Instant Pot that. Well, I just had to have one too, so I looked them up online and saw those terrifying words bringing back childhood nightmares -

"Pressure Cooker"

AW, HELL NAW!

Ha!  I did continue to read all about the Instant Pot and paid special attention to the part about the "10 Safety Mechanisms" before I decided to pull the trigger on buying one. They really are "goof-proof" and I have no fear of them blowing up. I freaking LOVE my Instant Pot. I'm working on adding all of my Instant Pot keto-friendly recipes to my blog and will share them with you as soon as I get them. In the meantime, check out my recipes for Green Beans, (not mushy!) and Pot Roast.

I love Florida in the winter. I snapped this photo of my Kalanchoes in all their blooming glory this morning. Yes, it is mid-February! While sipping my third cup of coffee and thinking about what to have for breakfast, I had the sudden craving for Eggs Benedict. I used to think they were way too much trouble to make on a weekday morning but once you master the poached eggs, the rest is easy. Here's why. I use packaged Hollandaise sauce. Yep, I said it.  There is no shame in taking help from the store!

Several years ago my husband and I made a trip to St. Augustine, Florida, one of our favorite places to spend a weekend. While we were there, we stopped in a little cafe which sadly isn't there anymore but it was absolutely, hands down, the best Hollandaise sauce ever. Inspired by the lemony, creamy, buttery sauce I set myself to making my own blender Hollandaise. Epic fail. "No problem," I said. "I'll just try again." Riiiiight. Two years later, after making batch after batch of gloopy, lumpy, oily paste, I gave up on the home made sauce idea. The good news is that all of the practice with the sauce made me a pro at poaching eggs!

Let me tell you a secret. If I ever get an egg, poached or fried, and there is any runny, snotty white part, I can't eat it. I want to yak looking at it (think unborn chicken juice). Gross. So, I practiced a lot with the poaching process and finally managed to get it under control so now, I'm fairly confident that I'll get a perfectly poached egg every single time. Its really not that hard but somehow I made it so because of my fear of runny white stuff.

Anyhooo, head over to my Eggs Benedict page and check out the recipe. These lovely eggs with Canadian bacon (let's face it, it's just round ham) don't need no stinkin' English muffins to make them delicious. The McCormick packaged Hollandaise has 2 carbs per 2 tablespoons of sauce and is easy to make; you just mix it with butter and water. If you MUST have bread, you might try some of the commercial low-carb loaves on the market though they can be pricey. I keep mine in the freezer and toast a slice when I just gotta have it.


                           

Cocktail anyone? Low Carb Adult Beverage

Its winter in Florida but this weekend was just awesome. We were hitting the low 80's, the sun was shining and, wait for it.... Boom, NASCAR opening day at Daytona. I'm not a big NASCAR fan but I do live in the South and therefore, I act like I know something about it because it would just be wrong if I didn't. Plus, a long race, with multiple cautions, gives me a reason to enjoy my go-to, warm weather, low-carb, adult beverage(s). Not that I need a reason.

Now, I used to drink this with Tonic Water, but one 12 oz. can has more than an entire day's worth of carbs! I tried diet tonic water. Gag. I hate that aftertaste and it just ruined the vodka. You can't waste good booze! Then I found Lemon Seltzer water. Not as tart and tangy as Tonic water but a squirt or two of lemon juice perks it right up and I like the fizz.

All you need is a tall glass full of ice, 1 1/2 oz. of strawberry and lemon-flavored vodka, a  squirt of lemon juice (a slice of fresh lemon makes it pretty) and top it off with lemon flavored seltzer water. Most distilled spirits have zero carbs but be careful when choosing a flavored one. Many of them have added sugars. I prefer the taste of Svedka brand and according to their website, a 1 1/2 ounce serving has 97 calories and zero carbs!

A word of caution. Despite the zero carbs, be mindful of your alcohol intake. Besides health reasons, alcohol can slow weight loss.



If your local liquor store doesn't carry this brand, you an find it here.

Welcome

Can you really have low-carb, delicious Keto friendly food when you're Southern at heart? Well, yeah, actually you can! I'm a southern gal through and through but all those crispy, fried delights I grew up eating finally left a mark on me in a very big way, and I'm not just talking about my weight! When I hit 50, I had a heart attack. YIKES! High LDL (the lousy one) and low HDL (the healthy one) got even with me.

After several years on multiple blood pressure meds and living through the painful hell of cholesterol lowering statins, which I found out my body hates; my joints rebelled and I made the decision to go full-on research mode into the Keto diet. Listen, it works for me. It may not be the one for everyone, but I reversed my pre-diabetic state, reduced my blood pressure meds by half, reduced my cholesterol meds by two-thirds and lost 25 pounds in 14 months. My doctor released me from the routine blood work every 90 days  and now I go every 6 months. I am no longer classified as having metabolic syndrome.

Here's the other good news. My IBS cleared up, I've reduced my acid reducing meds to every other day and because I reduced my cholesterol lowering medication, my joint pain has disappeared. Wow. Just Wow!

I am not a medical professional and the only qualification I have is what is working for me, but I am working on a collection of my Keto friendly, southern-style comfort food to share with others. Whether you are full-on serious about Keto or just looking for some good food with less carbs, you might just find something you love.

Thanks for stopping by and bless your heart 💖