In the meantime, tonight I needed to make dinner, and I also needed to use about 1.5 lbs of hamburger.  I decided to throw together something similar to the above recipe, only using taco meat instead of bacon.  It turned out really good, so I thought I’d share.

I’ve provided the recipe below.  Here it is already neatly formatted in a Word document.  The taco meat seasoning is a recipe I threw together a few years ago to approximate Old El Paso taco  seasoning, without the MSG.  It’s mild but flavorful, just the way I like it.

However, if the taco meat portion of the recipe doesn’t look tasty enough for you, here is another Word document, which is a recipe for taco meat from America’s Test Kitchen (from one of their publications, Cook’s Illustrated) that takes more work but would probably have more robust flavor.

I highly recommend that you do not omit the ham.  Putting diced ham into the  casserole adds a nice richness of flavor.

I used an 8×8 baking dish for this recipe.  As you can see from the picture, that made the dish pretty full.  If you prefer to use a 9×13 dish, I would suggest adding a few more eggs so you’ll get a decent “crust”, and watch it carefully as it cooks.  You still want some uncooked egg on the top of the “crust” when you add the meat mixture, so it will mix with the meat and provide some firmness to the finished casserole.  If you forget and cook the egg crust completely, I’d suggest you scramble a couple more eggs and thoroughly stir them into the meat mixture immediately before you add it to the baking dish.

I used bacon grease to grease the baking dish, but of course you can use butter, tallow, or coconut oil just as well.  I am happy to report that hardly any of the egg crust stuck to the baking dish, and it was easy to clean up afterwards.

This recipe is easily altered to suit your tastes or available ingredients.  You can vary the seasonings to taste, of course, or use more or less hamburger or diced ham, or more cheese, or different cheese.  Ground turkey or pork (unflavored) should substitute easily for the hamburger.

I used 80/20 hamburger (20% fat) and didn’t drain the grease, and I did not find the finished dish to be greasy.  However, if you don’t like grease, and are using a fatty meat, you may want to drain the grease before adding the seasonings.

This is a very rich dish!  I was almost finished eating it before I even thought about topping it with some sour cream – which I didn’t do, because I was almost done, and it didn’t need it anyway.  However, if you would like some suggestions for toppings, here they are:   salsa, sour cream, chopped black olives, chopped tomatoes, hot sauce, and whatever else you like to eat with tacos.  The Cook’s Illustrated recipe I mentioned above has some suggestions at the end for other toppings, like avocados and onions.   If you feel the need for a low-carb side dish, I’d suggest a light salad.

I have not provided a carb count because your ingredients may differ from mine.  Eggs usually have about 1 gram carb each.  Check the packages for the cream cheese, shredded cheese, and diced ham for their carb content.  The seasonings probably add a few carbs, but not enough to worry about.

low-carb taco casserole, in an 8x8 in baking dish

Low Carb Taco Casserole

For the “crust”:

• 5-6 large eggs
• 1 tsp bacon grease

For the filling:

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 8 oz.  shredded Mexican cheese mix, divided
• 8 oz. cooked diced ham

For the taco meat:

• 1.5 lbs hamburger
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1½ tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp paprika (optional – for color)
• ¾ tsp onion powder
• dash cayenne pepper powder

1. Brown hamburger in a large pan or skillet on medium heat, breaking up the hamburger into at least bite-size consistency or smaller (whatever consistency you prefer for taco meat).
2. While the hamburger is browning, mix together all the taco seasonings.
3. After the hamburger is browned, drain grease, if desired.  Reduce heat to medium-low, add the seasonings and mix together.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Add cream cheese to hamburger and cover the pan or skillet.  After the cream cheese has softened, mix it in thoroughly with the meat.  (Or you could pre-soften the cream cheese in another pan or microwave, but I prefer to use as few dishes as possible!)
6. Add the diced ham and about half of the shredded cheese to the hamburger and mix thoroughly.  Reduce heat to low and cover, checking and stirring occasionally.  (This is to keep the hamburger mixture warm until it is added to the casserole.)
7. Crack all the eggs into a single bowl and scramble them thoroughly.
8. Grease an 8×8 baking dish with the bacon grease and add scrambled eggs.  Put dish in preheated oven on middle rack, and check in 5 minutes.  Bake until the eggs are cooked on the bottom and edges of the dish, but still liquid on top.  The eggs need to be partially cooked since the cooked portion will be the “crust”.
9. Remove the eggs from the oven and add the warm meat and cheese mixture to the baking dish, on top of the egg “crust”.  The uncooked eggs should mix up somewhat with the meat and cheese; this will help hold the casserole together when done.  Try not to disturb the crust.
10. Spread the remaining shredded cheese evenly on top of the meat mixture, and return to the oven for 10 minutes.
11. Casserole is done when the eggs are completely cooked and the cheese on top has melted.
12. Let casserole cool for 5 minutes on the countertop before serving.

Well, I found a regular old peanut butter pie recipe several months ago on the Kraft website, and I recently adapted the filling part of the recipe to be both low-carb and delicious.  Here’s the recipe – I hope you enjoy it.  And here’s the recipe already conveniently formatted in a Word document.

If you decide to try the recipe, please let me know how it works for you!  And I already have plans for tweaking it, so if you do anything different, I’d like to know about that too.

Low-Carb Peanut Butter Pudding

Makes:
10-12 servings  (6-7 g carbs per serving)

Ingredients

1 envelope Knox Unflavored Gelatine  (or 2 tsp gelatin powder)

1 cup whole  milk   (approx. 10g carb)

3/4 cup creamy no-sugar-added peanut butter     (approx. 24g carb)

salt (optional)

1/2 cup granulated Splenda        (12 g carb)

15 oz ricotta cheese (I prefer Great Value  Original Ricotta)       (14 g carb)

Optional Garnishes

½ cup whipping cream         (3 g carb)

optional 1 packet Splenda, to sweeten whipped cream          (1 g carb)

cocktail peanuts (for garnish)       (per serving:  1-2 g carb)

Directions

1.      Sprinkle gelatin over milk in a small pot on the stovetop; let stand 5 min. or until gelatin is softened.

2.      Gently heat milk on low to medium heat, stirring occasionally, until gelatin is completely dissolved, 2-3 minutes.

3.      Put milk, peanut butter, granulated Splenda, and ricotta cheese in a blender or food processor. Blend on high speed until smooth.  You may want to add optional salt to taste, especially if the peanut butter has little or no salt.

4.      Spoon mixture into 10-12 small containers or ramekins.

5.      Refrigerate 3 hours or until set.

Optional Garnishes

6.      Whip cream and optional Splenda with mixer or food processor until stiff peaks form.

7.      Top each serving with about 1 Tbsp. of the whipped cream and a sprinkling of peanuts.

Other optional garnishes:  chocolate chips; chocolate shavings; peanut butter chips.  Of course these will add carbs if they aren’t sugar-free, so be careful!

Notes

I highly recommend putting the pudding in individual containers, because you may just go face down in this stuff if you have it all in one large container!  Smaller containers makes for easier portion control.  I realize the individual servings seem small, and that was for 2 reasons.  One – to keep the carb count low, and two – I like my desserts or sweet snacks to be small but satisfying.  This pudding has a lot of fat and even some protein, moderate sweetness, and even a little bit of salt, so a small serving is very satisfying.  If one serving isn’t enough, you can always eat another, but it’s harder to keep track of how much you ate if you just put it all in one big bowl.

I also recommend using the highest quality peanut butter you care to buy.  The other ingredients have a very mild flavor and therefore do not cover up any  off-tastes in the peanut butter.  The first time I made this, I used a cheap store brand peanut butter, and the harsh flavor notes in the peanut butter came through loud and clear in the pudding.  The second time I made it, I used one of my favorite peanut butters, Maranatha, and the pudding had a full, rich taste.  The Maranatha also had a much smoother texture than the store brand, and that texture made the pudding easier to blend and also made for a much nicer mouthfeel in the finished pudding.

I prefer the Great Value Original Ricotta (surprisingly, since it’s from Wal-Mart) because it has a lower carb content, and higher fat content, than Sargento Whole Milk Ricotta.  At the very least, use whole milk ricotta – not the skim milk stuff!

This recipe could easily be adapted to be a rich and tasty peanut butter sauce for ice cream or cheesecake.  Simply omit the gelatin, and add a little extra milk to get your desired consistency.

low-carb peanut butter pudding, garnished with peanuts

delicious homemade yogurt from whole raw Jersey milk - look at the cream on top!

I’ve been eating homemade yogurt for awhile now, made from fresh raw whole milk produced by pastured Jersey cows (the gold standard in raw whole milk).  I’ve been eating it because I have longstanding digestive issues, and eating yogurt once or twice a day just about eliminates those issues.  My husband did a great post on how to make homemade yogurt without a yogurt maker, and I did a blog post on making homemade yogurt with a yogurt maker.

However, as I noted in my blog entry referenced above, and as a little searching online would confirm, homemade yogurt does not have the consistently smooth, thick, creamy texture of store-bought yogurt (which is usually achieved with additives like vegetable gums, which are not always easily available for individual consumers).  Homemade yogurt tends to have a softly lumpy texture, with the “lumps” swimming around in the clear whey.  Now, it’s still really good for you, and probably far more nutritious than store-bought yogurt – especially if you don’t add any sugar to it.  But if you’re accustomed to store-bought, it can be a rough transition to eating homemade, and it’s also not something that looks very appealing to, say, houseguests, or anyone else you might be trying to convert to the homemade yogurt cause.

So, it’s not surprising that there are a number of ways to thicken homemade yogurt, in an attempt to give it a better appearance and mouthfeel.  I did some online research awhile ago, and I found four different yogurt thickening techniques:  straining to remove whey; adding powdered milk; heating milk to 180 degrees F; and adding gelatin.  I tried a couple of them, and didn’t try the two others for good reasons.  Below I discuss my experiences using straining and gelatin, and also why I did not try powdered milk or heating milk to 180 degrees.

Straining

This yogurt thickening technique is simple and makes sense – strain the finished yogurt through cheesecloth to remove whey (although some people mentioned using coffee filters, or a clean t-shirt).  I used a few layers of cheesecloth, draped over a sieve and set over a bowl to catch the whey.  I let it drain for about an hour.

However, as it turned out, I wasn’t able to just put the yogurt in the cheesecloth and walk away.  A film formed after awhile on the cheesecloth, impeding drainage, so I kept scraping the yogurt around, to open up some areas in the film to let the whey continue draining.  As you might expect, it’s a lot of bother to keep doing that.

Result:  the yogurt was definitely thicker, somewhat closer to smooth and creamy but still lumpy looking.  It had a much smaller volume than the original yogurt; I’d say I ended up with one-third yogurt and two-thirds whey.

Pro:  whey drained off yogurt is great for other stuff, like making sauerkraut or pickling fruits or veggies.

Con:  a lot of work, what with all the scraping, and resulting yogurt is considerably reduced in volume.  To be fair, some websites I read said to just leave the yogurt for several hours or overnight, but I wasn’t that patient; maybe it would have drained well on its own, with more time.

Recommendation:  I’d recommend using this method mainly for obtaining whey, and also if you’d like to use the resulting yogurt as a very tasty substitute for crème fraiche or sour cream (although again, it would not be as smooth and creamy as store-bought crème fraiche or sour cream, since like store-bought yogurt, they are usually made thick and creamy by additives).  I’d also recommend this method if you don’t want to use any of the other three methods discussed below, as it is the most natural of all four methods mentioned in this post.

Powdered Milk

A lot of people use powdered milk to thicken their yogurt, although I could not find a consistent suggested amount; recipes varied considerably.  I decided to not even try this method (after, of course, already buying a package of powdered milk) for a number of reasons:

Extra carbs: the only powdered milk available around here is the non-fat kind, which means I’d be adding extra carbs and protein to the yogurt.  The protein would be okay, but not the carbs, since I eat low-carb and milk is already a somewhat carby food (although yogurt is a bit less so, since some of the sugar is used by the fermenting bacteria).

Taste and texture:  some people commented that they didn’t like the taste of powdered milk, and I felt reasonably certain I wouldn’t either.  I don’t like skim milk – why would I like it powdered?  Others commented that sometimes powdered milk added a gritty texture – not what I’m going for.

Nutritional quality:  I honestly can’t imagine powdered milk being highly nutritious, especially since this milk is probably from the usual sort of conventional dairy cow – confined in a stall 24/7, being fed distillery swill, antibiotics, and growth hormones, never getting to soak in some sunlight or fresh air, or even just take a walk once in awhile.  Such cows produce poor quality milk (which is why it needs to be pasteurized and supplemented with vitamins), and the quality is reduced further by the pasteurization and dehydration process.  Yuck.

Heating Milk to 180 degrees F

This method thickens yogurt a couple of ways, dehydration (which depends on how long you heat the milk) and protein denaturing, which occurs at high temperatures (here’s a simple explanation, a technical one, and a really technical one).  I didn’t try this method either.  I don’t want to denature highly nutritious raw whole milk; I want the nutrient content to be as whole and intact as possible (although some people using high heat with raw milk do have their reasons).  Also, this method pasteurizes the milk, killing off a lot of beneficial bacteria that are naturally present in high-quality raw milk.  These beneficial bacteria are good for the digestive system, and they also fight off pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria, both in the milk, and in your gut.

Recommendation:  If the only milk you can get is store-bought pasteurized milk, you’ll have to use this method in order to produce safe yogurt.  Pasteurized milk has had all the beneficial bacteria killed out of it, leaving it extremely vulnerable to “infection” by pathogenic bacteria between the time it’s pasteurized and the time it gets put in your fridge.  By pasteurizing the milk again, prior to adding the yogurt culture, you are giving the beneficial yogurt culture bacteria enough of a head start that they can outcompete or kill off any new pathogenic bacteria that will inevitably get introduced into the milk in your home environment (no offense!  Bacteria are everywhere).

Gelatin

This is my preferred method for thickening yogurt.  I simply add a packet of Knox gelatine powder (2 teaspoons) to two quarts (8 cups) of milk, as I’m heating the milk up to 110 degrees F.  (No need to “pre-soak” the gelatin in a separate container.  I just sprinkle the powder on top of the milk, distributing it as evenly as possible, wait a few minutes, and then whisk it in with a fork)  This method produces some very good, reasonably thick yogurt, although it doesn’t thicken up until after the finished yogurt cools in the fridge and the gelatin sets up.  Note:  You can also use more or less gelatin for different texture.  I just made a two-quart batch using only 1 teaspoon of gelatin (half a packet) and it turned out real well – still with a thick and creamy texture, but not as firm as when I had used 2 teaspoons.

Pro:  considerable improvement in texture and thickness, with good appearance and mouthfeel.   I wouldn’t be ashamed to serve this to other people, although still with the caveat that it is homemade, because it’s not perfectly smooth and creamy like store-bought yogurt.

Con:  If you’re using small packets of dried gelatin powder, and you want to make significantly more or less than two quarts of yogurt, then you’ll have leftover gelatin you’ll have to store somehow (it needs to be kept dry).   You also won’t be able to strain whey out of this yogurt, since it is bound up with the gelatin.  Finally, if you are avoiding animal flesh products, then obviously you couldn’t use gelatin; there are, however, substitutes for gelatin, including vegetable-based ones, although you might have to experiment to figure out which one you like and how much to use.

Recommendation:  this is the easiest method for thickening homemade yogurt.   You could also use this with any of the other methods.  I’d recommend varying the amount of gelatin you use to see what texture you prefer.

Final note:  it is important, while the yogurt is fermenting, to not jostle the container(s); this will interfere with the formation of the yogurt texture, regardless if you are using any thickening technique or not.  Be sure to ferment your yogurt in an out-of-the-way place where it will not be disturbed.

I’m glad I finally got around to researching this topic and learning how to thicken yogurt up to a texture that I like.  Before I started thickening it, eating it could almost seem like a chore, since the texture and appearance were not appealing, and so sometimes I avoided it, to my own detriment.  I enjoy eating my yogurt now, though, and I certainly enjoy having a happy, well-functioning gut!

Pastured Jersey cows - happy cows make great milk!

Salton Yogurt Maker, model GM-5, cooking up some yogurt

About a week ago, I was browsing through the local Salvation Army thrift store, when I stumbled upon this little gem – an old Salton Yogurt Maker, model GM-5.  I thought, “Wow!  How cool is that?” because I had wanted to get a yogurt maker for some time (I registered for one on my bridal registry – a Salton yogurt maker, but not one of these antiques!).  I wanted to call my handsome hubby and have him Google it real quick, to find out if these yogurt makers were reliable, but as is often the case with my cell phone, the battery was dead.  So I threw caution to the wind and plopped down $4, and took it home.

Of course, only after I got home did I consider how unnecessary this purchase was – Aaron already makes perfectly good yogurt, which gets incubated (fermented) in a small cooler with warm water – sans electricity.  Well, the deed was done – so we might as well try out the yogurt maker.

Also after I got home, I googled “Salton yogurt maker GM-5″ to find out exactly what I had.  I knew I did not have a user manual, but it turns out I also did not have a handy little thermometer/spoon combo, which fortunately I did not need anyway.  A little more Googling turned up a PDF of a user manual from 1976.  The picture of the yogurt maker on the manual appeared to only differ cosmetically (it had printed on it “Thermostat controlled” whereas mine does not) so I figured it was close enough.

Aaron cooked up a quart of yogurt last night, and got it all poured neatly into the 5 little glass containers.  I tucked the containers into their slots, put the lid on the maker, and plugged it in.  I checked it awhile later to make sure there was some heat being generated somewhere, and there was.  The instructions said the yogurt would be done in 10 hours, which would have been 5:30 AM this morning … I checked it at 8:00 AM.  The yogurt turned out great – just the same as cooler-incubated batches.  We have already discovered that when we use the yogurt culture that we are currently using (from Kalona Organics, an organic yogurt with several strains of bacteria available at our local Hy-Vee at 12^th and Harrison) that we have considerable leeway in the incubation time without the yogurt getting too tart.

And here’s a picture of the finished product.  The yellow stuff is delicious cream!  No skim milk low-fat yogurt for me!  We use whole raw milk from pastured Jersey cows (I have awesome in-laws).

mmm ... fresh raw milk yogurt - good food for your gut

And I figured out that there were some advantages to using this maker after all.

• Glass containers – while we are not Luddites, we do prefer to avoid plastic, and use glass instead, for food storage.  We had been incubating yogurt in small plastic containers in the cooler.  These Salton glass containers are really nice little containers.  And I would guess from the condition of the containers that they were rarely, if ever, used (although the yogurt maker lid is a bit scratched up).  So even if we no longer wanted to use the maker, we could still use the glass containers, which were worth the purchase price alone.  NOTE:  if any of the glass containers are broken or missing, don’t despair!  Half-pint canning jars fit nicely in those small compartments.
• More convenient – no messing around with putting warm water of just the right temperature and depth in the cooler.  Just gotta pour the milk with starter culture into the containers, put them in the yogurt maker, and plug it in.  No fancy-shmancy on/off switch either.  Plugged in = on, unplugged = off.  The power cord isn’t even polarized!
• Less mess - when incubating yogurt in the cooler, we end up with wet containers that need to be dried off before being put in the fridge.  Plus, the cooler has to be emptied out and allowed to air dry before being put away.
• Just the right amount - a quart of yogurt is just about right – that’s about how much I eat in a week or so.

So I’m pretty happy with my discovery, and I think we’ll be using it pretty regularly.

I just wish I knew how old it was.  I can’t find a picture of a GM-5 Salton yogurt maker that looks exactly like mine (without “thermostat-controlled” printed on it) and of course no year is printed on the bottom.  The Salton website was not helpful.  To anyone who stumbles upon my little blog here and has any information, I’d appreciate any help.