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Tag: casserole

Keto Zucchini Au Gratin Casserole

When the only side dishes you’ve really eaten on a regular basis involve potatoes or pasta and you then switch to Keto or low carb, it can be hard to figure out what sides you CAN eat. Since my husband is a non-veggie eater, I just make sure I make plenty of the main course for him since he is more carnivore Keto. I, on the other hand, LOVE veggies – BUT I get tired of eating steamed broccoli or cauliflower all the time. I mean, who wouldn’t?? It becomes so monotonous.

So what else can you make? Well – PLENTY! There are a million and one things you can make. You just have to learn what your Keto friendly options are and figure out different ways to make them – and there are a LOT!

Zucchini is one of the most versatile vegetables in my opinion and when you add cheese – well, ’nuff said!

I love simple recipes and I love casseroles – which leads me to this Keto Zucchini Au Gratin casserole. You are basically layering veggies and cheese and pouring a creamy sauce over it. The result is cheesy deliciousness! I love all the yummy browned cheese on the top
Zucchini au gratin done

Part of the simplicity of this dish is that there aren’t very many ingredients to it. They include:

  • zucchini
  • onion
  • pepper jack cheese
  • butter
  • garlic powder
  • whipping cream
  • xanthan gum
  • salt and pepper if desired

That’s it!!

It’s just as easy to throw together too. The most time consuming part is cutting the vegetables. You can put the whole dish together in about 5 minutes.

Start by slicing your zucchini and the onion (and shred your cheese if you didn’t get pre-shredded). I like to use a Mandoline Slicer, this way I get nice and even cuts. Once you’ve got that done, you’re going to take a 8″ casserole dish and start layering. You’re going to make 3 layers, so divide the zucchini, onion, and cheese into thirds. Start the layering with the zucchini, the onion, and the cheese. No need to be fancy with it, you’re just going to scoop it out and eat it when it’s done anyways!

Finish all three layers and then in a separate dish, whisk together the butter, whipping cream, garlic powder, and xanthan gum. Pour it over the veggies. Your prep is DONE!!

See, I don’t think you can get much easier than that! All that’s left to do is bake it!

Bake at 375 for about 40-45 minutes or until it’s nice and brown on the top, like this deliciousness ↓↓↓Zucchini au gratin done

PRINTABLE RECIPE

 

Keto Zucchini Au Gratin Casserole

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 9
Net Carbs Per Serving: 2

4 cups sliced raw zucchini
1/2 onion, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 tsp xanthan gum

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Start by slicing your zucchini and the onion (and shred your cheese if you didn’t get pre-shredded). I like to use a Mandoline Slicer, this way I get nice and even cuts. Once you’ve got that done, you’re going to take a 8″ casserole dish and start layering. You’re going to make 3 layers, so divide the zucchini, onion, and cheese into thirds. Start the layering with the zucchini, the onion, and the cheese. No need to be fancy with it, you’re just going to scoop it out and eat it when it’s done anyways!

Finish all three layers and then in a separate dish, whisk together the butter, whipping cream, garlic powder, and xanthan gum. Pour it over the veggies.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until it’s nice and brown on the top.

 

zucchini nutrition

*Disclaimer: I am NOT a certified nutritionist and your nutritional information may vary depending on exact ingredients you use. I highly recommend you calculate your own and just use this as a guideline. The links for products are affiliate links so I may earn a very small commission if you purchase through them – but it doesn’t cost you anything additional!

KETO Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole with Cajun Onion Rings and Spicy Dipping Sauce

Wow. That is a mouthful to say. And all through dinner, I had a mouthful of it! It was a perfect bacon cheeseburger sans bun. What makes this even better is the whole family will eat it!

I absolutely LOVE recipes where I don’t have to go out and buy 5,001 odd ingredients that I’m going to use for this recipe and this recipe alone. This is not one of those recipes. Everything on this list I have on hand 24/7. It’s stuff I use all the time. It’s my kinda recipe.

This may seem a little daunting because there are 3 components to it, but it’s really actually very simple. Get the sauce made and in the fridge. Put together casserole. Do onion rings while casserole is baking. Eat and enjoy. So simple.

For the dipping sauce, just put all the ingredients in a bowl and stir until mixed. Can’t get much easier than that! You’ll want to set it in the fridge while you prepare everything else so the flavors can really come out.

Then get started on the casserole. You can fry up bacon, use precooked microwave bacon, or use real bacon pieces. Whatever you’ve got will work. You just want some nice crispy bacon. I have a huge bag of bacon pieces I got at Sam’s Club so I threw some of those in a frying pan to get nice and crispy. Once they were done, take them out and put on paper towel to absorb and excess grease. Don’t forget to get your oven preheating to 350 while you’re cooking the meat. If you oven is like mine, you could start it 20 minutes BEFORE you start anything else and maybe it’ll be ready by the time you are.

frying bacon

Put the hamburger in the frying pan and cook until browned. Drain off any excess fat, then add the onion and garlic. Cook until onions are soft and almost translucent, roughly 5 minutes.

Once that’s done, add in pickles, cream cheese, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire, and seasoned salt. Stir. Once all mixed and cream cheese melts, transfer to greased 8×8 casserole dish. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and the whipping cream together, then add in the hot sauce and cayenne pepper. Pour over the beef then sprinkle on the bacon. Top with a full 8 oz of cheese. That’s right, you heard me. ALL 8 OZ. These is cheese heaven on top.

Bake it for 30 minutes and then cool before eating. You could leave this thing sit for an hour and it’ll still be hot. That yummy cheesy layer holds in all that heat. So just be careful when you dive in for a bite.

While the casserole is baking, get to work on the onion rings. If you are uber talented at cutting perfectly equal size onion rings, go for it. I, on the other hand, prefer a little assistance from a good ole’ mandolin. It just makes them so much more even and I can get them thinner so I don’t have to burn the coating while I’m trying to cook the onion.

Once you’ve got your onions ready to go. Mix up the coating. Once you’ve got it mixed, put about half of it in another bowl and set it to the side. As your dipping bowl gets low, add more to it. If you put it all in at once, it’s going to clump up. Beat 2 eggs in another bowl.

Now you’ve got a couple options for cooking. You can either bake them or fry them in oil. Dip your ring in the eye and then in your dry mixture. If you want to bake them, I recommending lining your cookie sheets with parchment paper or using a silicone mat. My preference is the mat, mainly because you can wash and reuse them. Parchment paper can get pricey if you have to use it often. You’ll cook them at 425 for about 8-10 minutes on each side. If you want to fry them, heat your oil over medium heat – I prefer to fry them using a cast iron skillet. These fry up very quickly, so keep an eye on them! Drain on paper towel when done.

So it sounds like a lot, but it’s actually very simple! And it was SO filling. Now while the onion rings are low carb, you still want to watch how many you enjoy – onions naturally have more carbs than some other vegetables. I had less than half a dozen of these with the casserole and it was more than enough. If you cut a whole onion, it makes a LOT of onion rings. If you don’t think you’ll need that many, half the recipe.

*These are my calculations using the KetoDiet app. Since items can vary from brand to brand, you should make sure to check your own calculations. You can adjust quantities, spices, etc on recipe to your liking.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Dipping Sauce

1/2 c mayo
1 tbsp reduced sugar ketchup
1 tbsp horseradish
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp sea salt

Stir all ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Refrigerate for at least 1/2 an hour.

Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole

1/2 lb bacon
1 lb ground beef
1/2 sweet onion
1 clove garlic
4 tbsp cream cheese
1/3 c diced dill pickle
2 tbsp reduced sugar ketchup
1 tbsp yellow mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp seasoned salt
4 large eggs
1/4 c heavy cream
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp hot sauce
8 oz grated cheddar

Preheat oven to 350

If you start with raw bacon, dice and cook in a large skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove from pan and drain bacon grease. Alternatively, you can use precooked bacon, heat in microwave and crumble or fry up some bacon pieces until crispy.

Add the ground beef to the skillet and cook until browned. Once done, add in the onion and garlic and cook about 5 min or until soft. Add in cream cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard, sauce, and salt. Stir until mixed and transfer to greased 8 in casserole dish.

Beat eggs and whipping cream together, then add ground pepper and hot sauce. Pour over hamburger. Top with bacon, then with cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Spicy Onion Rings

1 large onion
2 large eggs
1/2 c almond flour
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dry oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Slice onions into rings. Put all dry ingredients in bowl and mix, then put half in a second bowl. In another bowl, beat 2 eggs.

You can either bake them or fry them in oil. Dip your ring in the eye and then in your dry mixture. If you want to bake them, I recommending lining your cookie sheets with parchment paper or using a silicone mat. My preference is the mat, mainly because you can wash and reuse them. Parchment paper can get pricey if you have to use it often. You’ll cook them at 425 for about 8-10 minutes on each side. If you want to fry them, heat your oil over medium heat – I prefer to fry them using a cast iron skillet. These fry up very quickly, so keep an eye on them! Drain on paper towel when done.

Comment below with your thoughts!

*Disclaimer: I am NOT a certified nutritionist and your nutritional information may vary depending on exact ingredients you use. I highly recommend you calculate your own and just use this as a guideline. The links for products are affiliate links so I may earn a very small commission if you purchase through them – but it doesn’t cost you anything additional!

KETO Eggs Benedict Casserole w/ Hollandaise Sauce

When you get tired of making chicken, steak, hamburger, pork, etc etc, for supper, what do you do? My favorite thing is to make breakfast food! Now pre-Keto that would have most likely meant pancakes or hashbrowns; those evil carb loaded foods. But now that I’m doing keto, those items are a no fly zone.

Eggs benedict was (is) one of my favorite foods, but obviously you can’t have the english muffin on Keto. So when I found this recipe for an eggs benedict casserole, I just knew I had to make it.

There aren’t many ingredients to it either. The most difficult part for people will be the hollandaise sauce and even that isn’t that hard. After having made it, I would make a few adjustments on the recipe due to personal preference, but I’ll give you the recipe as I found it and made it and tell you what I personally thought of it and would have done differently.

For the casserole, start by preheating the oven to 350. Set aside enough of the canadian bacon/ham to line the bottom of at 9×13 casserole dish and chop the rest. Heat up 1 tbsp butter or olive oil in a Frying Pan and cook until browned. Place on paper towel so it absorbs any excess liquid. Lay the reserved ham slices in the bottom of the 9 x 13 casserole dish.

Put the eggs (no shells please!) in a large mixing bowl and whisk. Add in the remaining ingredients and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Pour over the ham and sprinkle 3/4 of the cooked ham into the egg mixture. Bake for 20 minutes then add the rest of the ham and bake another 10 minutes until egg is set.

Now, onto the hollandaise sauce. Start by separating the egg yolk from the white and put the egg yolks into either a stainless steel or glass bowl. The easiest way to do that is to use an Egg Separator . Heat about an inch of water in a small saucepan over medium heat until it is simmering. While it is heating, whisk the yolks and lemon juice together until it thickens. Then set the bowl on top of the simmering pan and lower heat. Be sure the bowl does not touch the water or it’s too hot and will scramble your eggs. Continue to whisk the mixture, then slowly put the butter in, whisking continuously. The sauce will thicken. Remove from heat. Add in seasonings, mix well, and serve.

There are six servings in this recipe. Cut a slice of casserole and top it with hollandaise. Voila! Eggs Benedict Casserole

Finished eggs benedict and hollandaise

It was such an easy recipe, but I would leave the mustard and the onion powder out of the eggs and omit the majority of the lemon juice in the hollandaise. It made it way too sour and I love a good hollandaise. Let me know what your thoughts on when you make it!

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Keto Eggs Benedict

12 oz Canadian bacon or thinly sliced ham, diced
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
10 large eggs
1/2 c heavy cream
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Set aside enough of the canadian bacon/ham to line the bottom of at 9×13 casserole dish and chop the rest. Heat up 1 tbsp butter or olive oil in a Frying Pan and cook until browned. Place on paper towel so it absorbs any excess liquid. Lay the reserved ham slices in the bottom of the 9 x 13 casserole dish.

Put the eggs (no shells please!) in a large mixing bowl and whisk. Add in the remaining ingredients and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Pour over the ham and sprinkle 3/4 of the cooked ham into the egg mixture. Bake for 20 minutes then add the rest of the ham and bake another 10 minutes until egg is set.

Hollandaise Sauce

4 egg yolks
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 c (1 stick) butter, melted
Dash hot sauce
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of salt

Start by separating the egg yolk from the white and put the egg yolks into either a stainless steel or glass bowl. The easiest way to do that is to use an Egg Separator . Heat about an inch of water in a small saucepan over medium heat until it is simmering. While it is heating, whisk the yolks and lemon juice together until it thickens. Then set the bowl on top of the simmering pan and lower heat. Be sure the bowl does not touch the water or it’s too hot and will scramble your eggs. Continue to whisk the mixture, then slowly put the butter in, whisking continuously. The sauce will thicken. Remove from heat. Add in seasonings, mix well, and serve.

*Disclaimer: I am NOT a certified nutritionist and your nutritional information may vary depending on exact ingredients you use. I highly recommend you calculate your own and just use this as a guideline. The links for products are affiliate links so I may earn a very small commission if you purchase through them – but it doesn’t cost you anything additional!