Low- Carb Coconut "fried" Shrimp (copycat restaurant apps)

As you may be aware from my other posts, I eat a low carb (kind of Ketogenic) diet, and have been doing so for the last 4 years.  So I just loved that my Air fryer can give me those kind of restaurant flavored (can we say Junk food) feel and still be healthy.  This is a favorite recipe.  First of all it is Super easy, can be prepared in minutes, and everyone who tastes it is blown away.  One of my favorite ways of serving it is to put five Coconut Fried Shrimp on a salad.  I add chopped cilantro and mint to my romaine greens and some green onions and tops with a little sesame oil or an Asian style dressing (I make my own or use the Bragg's Sesame ginger).  I call it Coconut Fried Shrimp with Vietnamese salad (YUM).  These are also great to serve for a party with a spicy ketchup dipping sauce. For my dipping sauce I use Westbrae Unsweetened Organic Ketchup and a little Horseradish or Siracha Sauce (very Easy).  Anyway...Now that I have you salivating here's the Recipe:

Coconut Fried Shrimp

Frozen WILD shrimp (21-25 Count Size)
1 Egg
Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
Sriracha Sauce (optional)

1.  Use Wild Shrimp rather than farm raised (Farm Raised usually have antibiotics and other nasty things).  I have found them at Trader Joe's and even Grocery Outlet). No need to thaw the shrimp first.

2. Preheat the Air-fryer to 350 - 400 degrees.  Take as many shrimp as you want to use out of the bag.  Close up the bag and put the rest of the shrimp back in the Freezer.  Put the shrimp in a strainer and run cold water over them to start to thaw them.

3.  Beat the egg and sriracha (if using) in a bowl.  Dump all you shrimp in the bowl and mix them around until all the shrimp are fully covered with the egg mixture (this is what will make the coconut stick.)

4.  Put your coconut into a large Ziploc bag.  If the shreds are large you can pulse them a couple of times in a food processor to make them smaller, but I do like to see the coconut shreds on the shrimp, rather than a powdered coating.  Remove a shrimp from the egg mixture, put in the bag and  shake.  Remove the shrimp and put on a plate or piece of parchment paper.  Continue with the rest of the shrimp.

5.  Place the shrimp in the air fryer basket and "fry" for 5 minutes.  Now check, are the shrimp a toasty golden brown?  If so flip if not, cook 2 minutes more.  Now cook on the other side 3 minutes, check are then Brown?  If not cook another 1 to 2 minutes, until they are golden brown.  Now serve and enjoy!!

Easy Low Carb Air Fryer Meatballs + the secret to using Shirataki Noodles

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures, because I was just thinking I'd whip up a quick dinner.  However, these turned out so good, moist, delicious, super easy and super quick I just had to share.  Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.  I used Grass Fed Hamburger from Von's/Safeway.  This is one of my regular meat products as I can usually get it for $5.99 a pound.  My choices with grass fed- antibiotic free meats are somewhat limited, but still I am able to make healthy and varied meals, even though it consists of a lot of ground beef.

I served this over Shirataki noodles.  If you haven't tried them yet, please do, they are excellent.  The secret to using the Shirataki noodles is to rinse them more thoroughly then you even think possible. I put them in a strainer, turn on the faucet and then pick them up, kind of separate and let the water run through them.  Smell the noodles, if you are still getting that funny fishy smell, rinse some more.  Secondly, you need to work to get them dry, as the water you've rinse them with adheres to the noodles and can water down your sauce.  I flip the noodles from the strainer into a paper towel and carefully squeeze any excess water from the noodles.  Microwave them for one minute and they're piping hot.  Top with the sauce and meatballs.  PS: if you are having a hard time finding shirataki noodles in the Grocery store, look in the refrigerated section where the won ton skins are located - it is sometimes with the produce section.

To make the sauce, I used an organic-jarred sauce with minimal carbs.  First, I chopped and browned a quarter of an Onion and the 1/4 lb of ground beef I did not use from my 1 lb package.Then put in the jarred sauce, a shake of red pepper flakes, 1 tsp cinnamon and 2 oz. cream cheese (my secret to a great sauce)

Here's the recipe:

Low Carb Airfryer Meatballs:

3/4 lb. Grass Fed Ground Beef
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 egg, beaten

Preheat Airfryer to 400 degrees.
Mix ingredients together (I used my hands).  Then roll into 1 - 2 inch meatballs.  Put the meatballs in the airfryer basket and airfry for 4 minutes - open airfryer and check the results (are they nicely browned?  If so, use tongs and flip over.  Airfry for another 4 minutes.  All brown and ready?  Great take them out put them on your heated Shirataki Noodles and top with the Hot Sauce.

I cheated and pulled a picture of spaghetti and meatballs of the Internet - but this is just how my Low Carb Airfried Version looked!!

Low Carb Air Fryer Crab Cakes

Crab Cakes - Oh Yeah!
I love Crab Cakes, but there's the problem with breadcrumbs.  With a simple sub, we conquered that problem and turned out crabby, delicious, crispy crab cakes.  My recipe is really easy - it's taken directly from the back of the Chicken of the Sea can.  Instead of Bread Crumbs I took a cup of riced cauliflower, microwaved it 5 min., then squeezed all the liquid from it using a piece of Cheesecloth (you could also use a dishtowel).  Then I added 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese (run the cheese through the food processor to make a finer powder (think cornmeal)).

Mix all the ingredients together, using a spoon, you want to keep the crab in large pieces and not break it up too much.  Form the Crab mixture into patties.  I use a piece of parchment paper, to form the patties on.  Using parchment paper keeps your work surface clean and it's really easy to transfer the crab cakes to the basket of the Air Fryer using a spatula.

Here are the Crab cakes just put in the preheated basket (preheat Air Fryer to 400 degrees).  I sprayed then with a little bit of Trader Joe's Coconut oil spray.

After 4 minutes, open the Air Fryer and check the basket, the cakes were golden brown so I used the spatula to flip them over and sprayed this side with a little coconut oil spray.  Back in the Air Fryer for another 4 minutes.

Here's the final result...I served them with Asparagus spears and low Carb Tarter Sauce.  here's the recipes:

Low Carb Crab Cakes with Healthy Homemade Tarter Sauce

Crab Cakes: 

16 Oz. chicken of the Sea refrigerated can of Crab

1 beaten Egg

1 TBS. Dijon Mustard

1 tsp Worcester Sauce (make sure GMO and Gluten Free, if not use coconut aminos)

1 tsp. Seafood Seasoning

Hot Sauce (optional)

1 cup Riced Cauliflower

1/4 c. Grated Parmesan

Preheat Air Fryer to 400 degrees.

Put cauliflower in a microwaveable bowl with 1 tbs. water, cover and microwave 4-5 minutes.  Let cool slightly, so you can handle it, put in a piece of cheesecloth or dishtowel and wring out the liquid from the cauliflower.  You will be left with a ball of cauliflower fiber.  Run the shredded Parmesan through the food processor to turn it into a more bread crumb type consistency.  Mix all ingredients (including the Cauliflower fiber and Parmesan), except the crab, together in a bowl.  Gently fold in the crab.

Form into patties on piece of parchment paper.  Using a spatula, transfer the patties to the basket of the Air Fryer.  Spray lightly with Coconut oil spray (optional).  Air Fry for 4 minutes, check the patties, if golden brown and "fried" flip over.  Air Fry other side 4 minutes.  Serve with Homemade Low Carb Tarter Sauce.  This is also good with spicy sugar Free Ketchup (Mix siracha sauce with sugarless ketchup a dropper-full of liquid stevia to taste)

Tarter Sauce:

1/2 c. Mayonnaise (either homemade or avocado oil)

2 TBS. Pickle relish (you want to find  sugar free variety - if you can't do like I do, chop dill pickles (I use my homemade fermented ones) in the food processor and add either a dropper-full of liquid Stevia or a packet of Sweet Leaf Stevia or Truvia)

1/2 tsp. Dried Dill

mix all together and serve.

Air Fried Low Carb Pork Chops with Squashy-Saucy "Applesauce"

I LOVE my Air fryer!! I had watched demonstrations on TV and was intrigued.  If it could make fried foods, without using a deep fryer it was for me...except we eat no grain, sugar or beans - basically kind of a Ketogenic Diet.  I looked online and couldn't find any low carb recipes for the air fryer, but I jumped in and bought one and it is the best appliance I've ever used.  So my husband suggested I share my recipes with others, so I just started this blog.

 Let me give you a little information fist.  My husband and I transformed our lives and Health 4 years ago, when we switched our diet.  We read two books that profoundly impacted our lives, Grain Brain by Dr. Perlmutter and When Belly by Dr. Davis. My husband has had terrible heart problems - a triple bypass at 50 and a second bypass at 60, and numerous stints.  He had type II Diabetes, Gerd, Barrett's Esophagus, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and neuropathy.  We are fortunate to live in San Diego and have Scripps Hospital and their great Doctors.  We began seeing Dr. Triffen for Keith's (my husband) cardio issues.  Dr. Triffen is a Lipid Specialist who practices Integrative medicine.  When we told him that following seeing Dr. Perlmutter speak on PBS, we had cut out all grains, sugar and beans, he approved and suggested we also read Dr. Davis' book.  Long story short both Keith and I lost weight, got healthy and Keith was able to reverse his diabetes and get off all his medications.  I had had weight loss surgery in 2008 and had gained 25 pound of my initial weight loss back.  Following this diet/lifestyle I not only lost that 25 pounds but an additional 10.  In addition, I lost my terrible cravings that made me helpless to resist bread, cookies and chocolate.  So that's my back story.

As part of our Low Carb lifestyle, we try to eat antibiotic-free/grass fed meats and organic produce.  This means that I do a lot more cooking then I've ever done before.  Over the last 4 years, I've been able to create almost any dish in a low carb way...but the idea of making "fried" food excited me.

I started looking at reviews of Air fryers, looking at infomercials and presentations on QVC, HSN and EVINE.  I ended up buying the Cook's Companion Model from EVINE.  I bought this brand because of the size it was 5.8 Quarts, which is larger then a lot of the other models I saw.  It was $119.00.  When I was on the line with them, they also offered me the Grill Pan insert and a cookbook "In the Kitchen:Air fryer Cookbook" by Allison Waggoner.  I love the Air fryer, but there are a couple of cons with my Air fryer; The drawer doesn't shut easily.  When I try to shut the drawer, usually it won't shut.  I remember not to force it, but to remind myself to be gentle and it shuts OK.  The other drawback is the Air fryer is very large.  It is like a huge, gigantic red egg.  Fortunately, I found a good home for it in the cabinet under my stove top.  It is light weight and I can easily pull it out and use it at the drop of a hat.  And I will tell you I have been using it almost everyday since I bought it.  This is a picture of the Air fryer I purchased.  But, don't feel that you can't use my recipes with your own brand of Air fryer.

Now for my First Low Carb Air Fryer Recipe:

Low Carb "Fried Pork Chop" and Diane's Squashy-saucy "applesauce"

Pork Chops
3 Antibiotic Free Pork chops (I buy these at Trader Joe's)
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 TBS. Almond Flour

Preheat Air Fryer to 400 degrees.
Put the shredded Parmesan cheese and Almond Flour in a food processor and process until it forms a powdery mix.
Put the egg in a bowl and whisk it until completely beaten.
Dip the pork chops in the egg and then press the Parmesan/Almond mixture onto one side, flip and put a little on the other.  (I find this easiest if I do it on a piece of parchment paper).
Put in the Air Fryer basket and put into the Air Fryer.  Air fry for 4 minutes and open the drawer and look at it.  It won't hurt to open the drawer and take a peak.  If the chop is golden brown and looks "fried", pull the basket out and turn the chop over.  If some of the breading has come of the bottom, take a little of your egg mixture and brush on the chop and top with a little more of the Parmesan, almond mixture.  Put the basket back in the Air Fryer and cook for 3 minutes and open the drawer and check the chops, again you're looking for a golden brown, "fried" look.  Note:  You can also shake your pork chops after they've been egg dipped in a large zip-lock bag filled with the Parm/almond mixture - it does make a thicker coating so you may need to double your Parm/Almond mix.

Squashy-Saucy "Applesauce"

2 Yellow Squashes
1 TBS. butter
1/4 Cup Erythritol (I use Swerve Powdered)
1 TBS. Cinnamon
2 TBS water
1 tsp. Apple Extract  (I ordered off Amazon Natural Apple Extract - Organic Compliant 4 oz by OliveNation)
Squeeze of lemon (about 1 tsp)

Cut the squash into quarters and then slice into 1/8" to 1/4" slices (this mimics the apple slices, and yellow squash looks like apples and has less carbs than Zucchini which you could also use)  Put all the ingredients in a sauce pot and cook until soft.  Serve with your Pork Chops.  I would also add a side of steamed green beans with chopped red bell pepper.

Yum!

Please share your comments, successes and good techniques.  I love my Air Fryer, I know you will too!