Spicy Banana Fritters (Gluten-Free, Paleo)

This fritter is inspired by the Puerto Rican dish, Alcapurria. In the original recipe, banana and taro root masa are used to envelope seasoned ground meat. The wrapping portion can get a bit messy and difficult to get right, so I skipped that part, and just added my cooked and seasoned meat to the masa. The original recipe also calls for sazon with achiote and other flavorings, but I just chose the spices I already had in the kitchen. It is a very versatile recipe, so experiment with it! I actually made the batch pictured above a few weeks ago, but there was something off about the seasonings I used in my first batch, so I gave it another go about a week ago. I added cumin and cinnamon, and wow, what a difference it made. 

Spicy Tuna Roll-Ups (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free, Paleo)

I've been wanting to try this recipe out for a while now. I first got the idea when I saw this video on YouTube. I can't even fathom having that much finesse with a knife, so I had to think of alternative way to make cool sushi rolls. I found that using a peeler to make slices down the length of either zucchini or cucumber achieves nearly the same results, though I have to say, the sushi in the video looks way more fancy and put together. You could of course try to learn the technique shown in the video. All it takes is a sharp knife and a lot of practice. I might even give it a shot some day, once I feel confident enough with a blade.

This entire recipe feeds about two people, with about 3.5 grams of carbs per serving. These are best eaten right after they are made, since--after a few hours--the avocado starts to brown.

Zucchini Pasta Salad (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

I made this pasta for my birthday lunch and received rave reviews. The idea for a pasta salad came to mind when I suddenly started craving my mothers macaroni salad. It's a summer staple, so I thought I'd make my own version of a cool and creamy side dish. As with most of my other recipes, the ingredients for this dish can be easily substituted, either with different cheeses, different cuts of meats, or even different salad dressings. The salad was paired with roasted chicken inasal and baked eggplant slices rolled with ricotta. My sister took a few quick shots of the tablescape. The pictures are down below the recipe. 

One serving of zucchini pasta salad is 6 grams of carbs.

The longer this dish sits, the better it tastes. Make a huge batch and pack it for work during the week for a quick and easy lunch. This would also be great to pack for trips to the beach and picnics just as long as it's kept chilled inside a cooler.

Recipe Attempt: Stir Fried Tofu Noodles (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

I came across a package of shredded tofu last week when I was at the Asian food mart, and I thought it could be another alternative to noodles. The package (which serves 2.5) had 5 grams of carbs per 3 oz serving, a lot higher than Shirataki noodles, but still within a reasonable carb range. It was a little less than $2, and was able to feed myself and my sister.
So the thing about tofu noodles is--unsurprisingly--they taste like tofu. Apart from their appearance, there really isn't anything noodle-y about tofu noodles. They are really chewy and you can't really slurp them like noodles. But what I did like about them was their ability to soak up sauce really well. I could see this being a great side dish, but as a main entree, its chewiness made just one serving a bit of a chore to eat.
Maybe I am cooking them wrong, or using them incorrectly? I will detail the recipe I used below (essentially the Pad Thai recipe I posted a few weeks ago), but I basically just boiled the package for a minute then added it to a hot pan with sesame oil and stir fried the noodles until they were slightly browned.
As always, any comments and advice would be appreciated.

Recipe Attempt: Country Gravy using Flax (Low-Carb, Gluten-Free)

This is my first attempt at making gravy with milled flax seed, and I have to say flax worked well as a thickening agent in this particular recipe. The only thing is, this gravy doesn't have quite the same mouth-feel as normal gravy does, and it gave the cauliflower that I paired it with a bit of a "slide-y"(?) consistency. However, the gravy was an excellent sauce for the almond crusted pan fried chicken I made. Overall, I am pretty happy with the result, but not yet satisfied. I will be tweaking around with this recipe sometime in the near future.

In the meanwhile, I decided to put an "Optional add-on's" section below which lists ingredients that I think would elevate the gravy in both texture and taste, but I haven't actually given those options a try yet, so season at your own discretion!

The entire basic recipe is only 1 gram of carbs.

Chicken Chicharrón (Carb-free, Gluten-free)

One of the best things about living with people who eat low-fat, is getting the residual chicken skins they trim from their meat. Usually I chop these fatty bits up and fry them along with my greens or my cauli-rice, but whenever I have something already in the oven, I like to add in a pan of chicken skins, just so I have something to munch on while waiting for other food to cook. A plate of Chicharrón is the very definition of fatty and forbidden, but thankfully for us doing low-carb, it can be a weekly staple.

Indian Kababs and Curried Spinach Almond Cake (Low-carb, Gluten-free)

I know--this meal is calorie dense. In fact, it's almost 600 calories for the entire thing. This is actually a meal I ate all the time when I first started keto and wasn't concentrating on my calorie intake as much as I was my carbs. When I was beginning my low-carb journey I needed a bit of leeway to get over the fact that I would be giving up carbs for an indefinite period of time. Now that I've been off of carbs for a few months, I hardly ever feel like eating this heavily anymore. But when the mood strikes for something savory and spicy, these two recipes never fail to hit the spot.

The kebab recipe comes out to 1.75 grams of carbs per serving, while the curried spinach almond cake (a mouthful, I know) comes out to 3 grams of carbs per serving, for a combined total of 4.75 grams of carbs for the entire dinner.

Pad Thai and Pork Fried "Rice" (Low-Carb, Gluten-free)

One of the best feelings you can experience in this world is contentment from eating exactly what you want. That is what I felt when, after weeks of craving, I finally decided to wing my own version of Pad Thai and have it for a laid-back Friday night dinner. So food happy. The fried rice worked great alongside the egg-wrapped noodle-y goodness, with both dishes featuring subtle heat from the peppers as well as bright hints of freshness from the cilantro.

Since I was able to feed four with both recipes, each serving of low-carb Pad Thai came out to 3.25 grams of carbs, while each serving of pork fried cauliflower rice came out to 2.25 grams of carbs, for a total of 5.5 grams of carbs for the entire dinner.