* Pebbles & Sunshine *

Here’s another delicious low-carb recipe.

I love Alfredo ridiculously much. For something like two years, all I ever ordered in restaurants was Fettucine Alfredo. If I’d known it was this easy to make, I’d not have bothered with the expense.

The original is from 500 Low-Carb Recipes. I’ve doubled it and adjusted the proportions so that there’s pretty much no measuring involved — to the best of my knowledge, all of these ingredients are sold in these exact quantities. It can’t get easier than that.

By the way, I’m a big believer in ballpark estimates. That’s why I tweaked this recipe in the first place. So don’t worry your head over exact measurements. It’ll probably be fine. If not, adjust the other ingredients a little and learn from it for next time. You can bet I’ll be doing the same thing.

1 (4 ounce) stick of butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
32 ounces frozen broccoli cuts, thawed
32 ounces frozen cooked shrimp, thawed and cut into bite size pieces if necessary
1/2 teaspoon guar or xanthan gums
1 pint heavy cream
6 ounces Parmesan cheese

In a heavy skillet, sautee the garlic in the butter. Mix in the broccoli and shrimp and heat through. Meanwhile, whisk the guar or xanthan into the heavy cream; you might want to use a blender. Stir the cream plus guar and Parmesan cheese into the skillet. Bring to a simmer. Serve.

By the way, guar and xanthan are both powder thickeners that are used instead of cornstarch. They lump up very easily; thus the blender, which is actually the procedure the original recipe prescribes. Honestly, I don’t think I’d ever bother to pull out the blender just for that little task. I’d probably just sprinkle it finely (maybe with a salt shaker) and stir really well with a whisk. I speak in the future tense because I didn’t have any on hand when I made this recipe. It came out fine: a little on the runny side, which might bother some people, but perfectly delicious. So if you want to dispose of the thickener completely, feel free.

One last note: The first time I made this recipe I only had jumbo shrimp, which I detailed and chopped up. It took some time, but oh were they succulent! The second time, I bought small shrimp. While it saved me some work, I didn’t like the result as much. They’re not as meaty and flavorful, even a bit limp. So take away what you’d like from that.

Deviled eggs, with paprika

These have to be the best deviled eggs I’ve ever had in my life. Best of all, they’re low carb without even trying.

The original is here at Allrecipes.com. Here’s the recipe tripled, the way I make it, with my own chattier instructions.

18 eggs, boiled and peeled
6 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
1/2 Tbsp salt
paprika

Note: 6 Tbsp comes out to 1/2 + 1/4 cup. Also, 1/2 Tbsp is three half teaspoons.

Slice each egg in half lengthwise. Gently remove the yolks and put them in a medium mixing bowl. Set the whites aside on a platter. (If the platter’s not very large, you will likely need two. Remember, you’re going to end up with 36 deviled egg halves.)

Mash the yolks and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Stir the mixture until it is smooth.

Put the filling back into the egg halves. Now, easier said than done. There are three common ways of doing this:

1. Simply spoon it back in. Use two spoons, one to do the spooning and a helper to scrape the filling into the egg white.

2. Using a pastry bag, pipe the filling into the egg whites. Now if you own a pastry bag, you’re probably ahead of me on how to use it.

3. Imitate a pastry bag like this: Spoon the filling into a sturdy quart bag. Snip off a very small corner. Squeeze gently to pipe the filling.

I’ve used the third option twice, and there’s a reason I emphasized “very small” on the snip. The first time I did it, I cut off way too much. Remember, you can always cut off more if the hole’s too small. Too big, and you’re out of luck. For the record, my results have been so-so. I can’t seem to control the stream of filling very well — instead of pretty swirls, I just get a pile of silly string. Next time, I think I’ll try it the plain old spoon way.

For all three options, be conservative on the first go around. You can always go back and add a little more filling here and there. It’s rather more awkward if you run out. That said, it’s unlikely you’ll overestimate because you have more filling than the yolk you started out with, thanks to your other ingredients.

Finish up by sprinkling some paprika on top. The original recipe says to refrigerate before serving, but I like them better at room temperature.

Last but certainly not least, here are the carb counts:

18 eggs: 9 carb, 0 fiber, 111 protein
6 Tbsp mayonnaise: 0 carb, 0 fiber, 0 protein
1 Tbsp sugar: 12.6 carb, 0 fiber, 0 protein
1 Tbsp white vinegar: 0 carb, 0 fiber, 0 protein
1 Tbsp prepared mustard: 0 carb, 0 fiber, 0 protein
1/2 Tbsp salt: 0 carb, 0 fiber, 0 protein
paprika: negligible

Totals: 21.6 grams carbohydrate, no fiber, 111 grams protein
Per egg half: 0.6 grams carbohydrate, no fiber, 3 grams protein

Not bad. Not bad at all!