::Low Carb Recipes:: Eggs in Bacon Cups and Cauli Tots

Thankfully for me, that even when my weekends are over-booked, I have time to experiment with recipes I’ve found, on Thursday evenings.

Both recipes below I found online, but the egg and bacon recipe was just listed on pinterest without a link (if you can help me give the person credit, I’d appreciate it).  The cauli tots I found on pinterest too, but it linked to this great blog, I Breathe… I’m Hungry.  From what I can tell, she just started “low carbing” this year, and I’m really impressed with her recipes so far.

Eggs in Bacon Cups

1 package of Bacon (I only used 12 strips)

9 Eggs

1/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream *optional

Cheese *optional

Salt and Pepper to taste *optional

:: Preheat the oven to 375

:: Using a muffin pan, line with bacon strips.

::  Pour in Eggs or Egg mixture (Eggs with Cream and/or Cheese)

:: Bake for 30-35 mins.

{I cut the bacon strips in half, making it easier to line the muffin pan}

{finished product!}

I’d like to have shown you the finished product on my plate, but I scarfed it down.  Not ALL of the “muffins”, mind you, but it was getting late and I needed to move onto my next recipe.

While I have a very strict rule about not eating at least three hours before bedtime (even though I have an evening pt job 5 days a week that uses up a lot of energy, it’s not hard to do), it just didn’t work last night.  One of my roommates unexpectedly needed the oven, so I had to wait, and was so starving by the time I came home.  I had also made spinach to go with these to maybe make it more quiche-like, but I ate the cooked spinach (yum!!) while these were in the oven.  Something to try next time!

Oh, and no fancy ingredients!!

:: So… would I make this recipe again?  Damn skippy! (that’s a “yes!”)

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Onto the last recipe from last night, Cauli Tots, from this blog post.

This one took a lot more time, but if you’re in the mood for Tots, and you have to have an low carb approach to it, this is the way to go.

In my hungry haste and tired state, I made several mistakes with these, but they still came out ok.  I’ll tell you the changes I made to the recipe, and what I would do differently next time.  First, here’s the recipe:

Makes: at least 50 ???

Recipe Ingredients:

1 medium head of cauliflower

2 Tbl heavy cream

2 Tbl butter

1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar

4 egg whites

salt & pepper to taste

oil for frying

Clean and trim the cauliflower, adding the florets to a microwave safe bowl.  Add the cream and butter to the bowl.  Microwave for 5 minutes.  Add the cauliflower and cheese to a magic bullet or food processor  and blend until still chunky – kind of like a cooked oatmeal consistency.  Season with salt and pepper.  Chill for at least half an hour.  Whip the egg whites to a stiff peak.  Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the cauliflower mixture to lighten it up.  Then fold the cauliflower mixture into the rest of the egg whites and gently mix until combined.  For best results, chill for another half hour or they won’t hold their shape as well.  Fit a pastry bag with a round or star tube with about a 3/4 inch opening.  Spray the inside of the bag with nonstick spray.  Gently squeeze out 1 inch sections onto a greased cookie sheet, cutting with a butter knife as you go.  When finished, bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes (or longer if you’re skipping the frying) until puffed and slightly browned.  Remove from the oven and serve – or heat 1/4 inch of oil in a saute pan and when it’s very hot add the tots.  It doesn’t need long, a minute per side to turn them golden brown and crispy.  Serve immediately.  These are still tasty after they cool but they start to lose their crunch only minutes after they come out of the oil so if crunch is what you’re after, eat them right away!  So good!  Can’t wait to hear what you thought of this recipe!

Regarding nutrition info on these, I will give you the info per batch of tot mix but depending on how large you make them, etc, I have no idea what the breakdown would be per tot.  Also, I don’t know how many calories would be added by frying them after baking since it’s hard to quantify how much oil would be absorbed.  To lower the calories, use half and half instead of heavy cream, and substitute a lowfat cheddar.  

Approximate nutrition info per batch:  864 calories, 63g fat, 18g net carbs, 47g protein

Our microwave is broken and as I try to never use the thing, I opted for stove top, which threw me off a bit.

What I did:  added the cream and butter to a pan, along with cauliflower, and then heated it all up together.

What else I did:  added more cream and butter (doubled it) as it was taking a while for the cauliflower to heat up, and I didn’t want to burn it all up.

What I will do next time:  steam the cauliflower separately and be sure to drain thoroughly.  While that’s draining, heat up butter and cream.  Add all three ingredients to food processor.

Since I do stupid things when I rush, I missed the part about chilling the mixture.  Please note, you’ll need to do this two times, but if you’re good at reading through recipes, you already know that.

While I didn’t add the heated cauliflower mixture to the egg whites, I had already beat the egg whites when I realized adding a hot mixture to it was not a good idea, and then re-read the recipe.  So the whites sat for about 20 mins, and I put the mixture in the freezer to hurry up the process.  I whipped the whites for a few seconds when ready, and all seemed well, thankfully.

Other than what’s listed above, the only other thing I should have done was use parchment paper, or at least spray the pan.

{instead of piping them out of a bag, I just used a smaller spoon}

Since my tots were a little too wet to start with, and as I wasn’t planning on frying them, I broiled them for about 3-4 mins to help make the tops a little more crispy.  As I’m the girl that searches out the crispest fries from a batch, you know, the ones that are on the verge of burnt destruction, it’s my opinion that frying is really the way to go.

I ended up only making one batch and froze the rest of the mixture.  Since these are more potato-like I think I’ll make a sour cream and chive dip, instead of using reduced sugar ketchup (1g/serving).

:: Would I make this recipe again?  Yes!

This sweet fellow stayed up with me most of the time, occasionally begging me to drop everything because it was past his bedtime.

::Happy sleeping::