Low-Carb Cucumber Salad

Easy peasy cuc salad! With fresh cucs from the garden! (In-laws garden, not mine) 

Ingredients

- 1 cup sour cream

- 2 tbsp distilled vinegar

- 1 tbsp dry dill seasoning

- a few pinches of Pink Himalayan salt

- 3 cucumbers, pealed and sliced 

 Instructions

- peal and slice the cucs. Toss to the side.

- in a bowl, mix all ingredients together

- add cucs and stir together

- enjoy! 

Very easy and refreshing salad! Even my little man ate with me! 

Yum! Yum! 

Gigi 

Low-Carb Pizza Dip

If you follow my blog, then you'll know that the success of my Low-Carb dishes are measured by those that eat them and tonight, my HUSBAND even ate my pizza dip! Therefore, tonight's meal was a SUCCESS! Hubby, kids, and I loved this amazing pizza dip! I found the recipe on Facebook and adapted it to be Low-Carb. 

Ingredients:

- 1/2 c unsweetened, original flavor, Almond Milk

- 6 oz cream cheese

- 1 c of two different cheese of your choice. I used 1/2 c Mexican blend and 1/2 c Mozzarella. 

- 1/2 can of tomato sauce 

- another 1/2 c of cheese of your choice

- pepperoni 

Instructions: 

- preheat oven to 450 degrees 

- add Almond Milk to sauce pan. Heat up and stir. 

- add cream cheese. Melt and stir in sauce pan. 

- add 1 c of cheese. Melt and stir in sauce pan. 

- pour contents into Pyrex or other baking dish 

- pour tomato sauce on top

- sprinkle another 1 c of cheese on top of the tomato sauce

- arrange pepperoni on top 

- bake in oven until the sides start to bubble 

- take out and dig in!! 

I used Pork Rinds and sweet peppers to eat my dip! 

And the dip was delicious!! Like I said, even the family loved it!! 

Successfully Signing Off!!

Gigi

Low-Carb Waldorf Salad

Delicious dessert for tonight! Check! I made a Waldorf Salad, Low-Carb style of course!! 

Ingredients

- 8 oz cool whip

- 8 oz cottage cheese

- 1 dry sugar free jello packet

- 1 handful of chopped walnuts 

Instructions 

- mix the cottage cheese with the jello, very thoroughly

- add in the cool whip

- add in walnuts 

- cool in fridge for best results or just enjoy it now!!

So, what are you dessert-ing on tonight?? 

Gigi 

Low-Carb Mug Cheesecake

Thanks to someone on one of the many Low-Carb Facebook pages that I follow for posting a Low-Carb cheesecake tonight! Of course the recipe sounded simple so I had to try it! I adapted the recipe to be less than the 6 carbs it started off at and mine is only 2 carbs! Heck yea! Now double the recipe because it is just that good!! Check it out!! 

Ingredients

- 2 tbsp sour cream (remember to look at the carb count and buy the lowest one! It's not always the full fat one either, so read carefully!) 

- 2 oz cream cheese

- 2 tbsp sugar free sweetener like Torani or Skinny Syrup

- 1 egg 

Directions

- melt the cream cheese in a mug for about a minute

- add 2 tbsp of sour cream, an egg, and 2 tbsp of the sugar free sweetener of your choice

- microwave for 90 seconds, then microwave at 30 second intervals till the cheesecake isn't runny (another 45 seconds for my microwave)

- now dig in and enjoy!!! 

Don't burn your tongue while enjoying this sweet treat! It's best when fresh and made to order and won't disappoint!! 

Seconds anyone?

Gigi

Bottle Flowers

I like to recycle "... the other man's treasure" and create unique somethings. I especially like to do this with my kids. Downside... it's messy to paint with young kids, I have to clean it up, and sometimes they touch something that they weren't suppose to touch. Upside... I have a new craft table with a shiny surface that is super easy to clean with a wet sponge! I also have smocks for the kids and an abundance of paper towels. I guess I should give a shout out to my hubs for the craft table and to my pops for the paper towels! ;) 

So today we decided to make some flowers. My favorite kind of flowers too; aka, the ones that don't die! 

Here's what you're going to need:

- the bottoms of water, soda, and/or juice bottles. You'll have to cut the bottoms off from the bottle as shown in the photo below. You can use the bottoms of 2 liter bottles too, but you'll be making another project with them; I'll explain that later! 

- other water bottles, to use as a vase, still intact with no lid

- paint. I used tempura, acrylic, and puffy paints 

- straws- any color will do and you can paint them green or find green straws. Flexible straws are good to flex the flowers in the vase, but not necessary. 

- single hole punch

- paint brushes 

Now to get started! 

- save bottles

- cut the bottoms off of the bottles, as I described above and use a single hole punch to put a hole in the bottle bottom, where you'll stick the straw through 

- use an empty egg crate to put paint in

- put smocks on your kids, or yourself, and start painting 

My kids have been patiently waiting to start! 

So here we go! 

And check out their art work!

Of course, they are very proud artists! And I am a very proud mommy! 

We had to wait for the bottle flowers to dry before putting the straws in the holes and placing them in the vase. So we waited overnight and completed our project in the morning! 

As you see, we used the 2 liter bottles bottoms too, but they were just too top heavy for the 16 oz bottle vase. Instead of trashing a beautiful paint job, I made them into ornaments and made my daughter very happy! 

I just tied a string through the hole and hung it on my cork board. But of course you can hang these anywhere in your home or office or gift them to the grandparents too! 

Hope you enjoyed this project! It's super easy and fun! It's a great family bonding activity too! :) 

Crafting Away!

Gigi