Giraffe's Italian Style Low-Carb Sausage and Peppers

Have you ever experienced one of those lazy days, where being a couch potato seemed more favorable than going grocery shopping for our dinner?

Well, tonight was our couch potato experience.

We instead, decided to look through our pantry and refrigerator to see what suited us for dinner.

We found a couple of frozen sausages, leftover vegetables, and decided to somehow use our ingredients to create an Italian-Style dish.

Years ago, my aunt and cousins introduced us to their Italian Sausage and Peppers recipe.  

Although, they added potatoes to their dish, we decided to substitute our Smashed Cauliflower Recipe, in its place. 

Our preparation time was a mere 5-10 minutes, while cooking time was another 25 minutes.

Our few ingredients included:

• 2 Tbsp. Margarine 
• 2 tsp. Minced Garlic
• 2 tsp. Oregano
• 1 Package Kielbasa
• 1 Chopped Onion
• 1 Chopped Green Pepper
• 1/4th Cup Sherry

We'll begin by spraying our frying pan with our cooking spray and will heat our pan on medium heat, until our skillet slightly smokes.

While our pan is heating, we'll slice our sausage into small to medium pieces.

We'll then, place our sliced sausage into our pan, cover, and will fry for about 5 minutes. or until slightly browned.

Next, we'll flip our sausages, cover, will cook until the other sides have been browned, and will place aside.

As our sausage rests, we'll slice our onions, and will also place aside.

Next, we'll melt our butter in our skillet, will add our garlic and onions, cover, and will fry until our onions are tender and completely separate from each other.

We'll also frequently stir, to avoid any sticking or burning.

Now, we'll, add our Green Peppers, Oregano, Cooking Sherry, and will stir.

Next, we'll add our sausage back to our skillet, will cover, and once again cook for about 15 minutes.

Finally, we'll uncover, stir, and ... 

...our Sausage and Peppers are ready to be served!

The first night we enjoyed our Italian-Styled Sausage and Peppers, as a main dish.

The soft, yet crisp texture of the sausage, onions and peppers, coupled with our garlic and Oregano, was absolutely flavorful!  

Our dish sooo reminded us of our aunt and cousin's recipe!  

Our mouths are still watering, thinking about our scrumptious meal.

The following day, we had leftover Sausage and Peppers and also,  smashed cauliflower (from a previous night).  

So, we decided to combine the two, for a somewhat new leftover meal.

The combination was out of this world!  

People always mention that certain meals have an enhanced flavor the following day. 

Well, our combo meal was no exception.  Our succulent sausage and peppers laying on top of our creamy and cheesy smashed cauliflower allowed us to savor every bite.

We didn't want this meal to end.  However, as every delicious meal begins with a mere bite, the meal seems to end in a blink of an eye. 

We will definitely be enjoying this recipe in our future!

From our kitchen to yours ~

Enjoy!

Smokey's Creamy Low-Carb White Cacao Butter Cups

We really enjoyed our Low-Carb Peanut Butter Cups, that we created, back in July.  They tasted so creamy, chocolatey, and so NOT low-carb.  In fact, when we shared our candies with others, they couldn't believe they were low-carb.

So, this week, we thought we would attempt to create another flavor of candy  - Cacao Butter Cups!  

The creaminess of our Cacao Butter, along with our Vanilla Flavor offers a sweet and decadent treat. 

When our end result has solidified, eat bite presents a slightly crunchy and sweet treat. 

Preparation time was only 5-10 minutes, while cooking time another 5 minutes. 

This week's ingredients are:

• 1 Package of Cup Cake Liners
• 1 Cup Cacao Butter (Bought from Amazon.com)
• 1 Cup Coconut Oil
• 1 Cup Sweetener
• 2 tsp. Vanilla

We'll begin by melting our Cacao Butter in our pot on medium low heat.

While our Cacao Butter is melting, we'll heat our Coconut Oil in our Microwave Oven for 30 seconds to slightly soften its contents.

After our 30 seconds have passed, we'll add our Coconut Oil to our butter and will constantly stir, until our mixture has fully melted.

Next, we'll add our sweetener and will stir, until fully blended.

We'll then, turn off our burner, remove our pan from the heat, will add our vanilla, and will stir until fully mixed.

Next, we'll line our cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

Pouring our candy mixture into our measuring bowl allowed us an easier time to fill our cupcake liners.

In the past, we've attempted to pour our candy mixture directly from our pot. However, our mixture ended up falling everywhere else, except into our cupcake liners.  😆

Before we pour our mixture into each liner, we'll give our candy another stir.  

For some reason, the Cacao Butter tends to frequently separate from our Coconut Oil.

After we filled a cupcake liner, we again, stirred our candy, to ensure our mixture was still well blended. 

Next, we'll place our cupcake pan into our refrigerator, to allow our candy to solidify. 

Our solidifying time was approximately 1 hour. 

Solidifying time in our freezer is much faster than in our refrigerator, at probably 30 minutes. However, our freezer was completely full at the time.

Not to worry, though, we just had to wait a little longer.  

So, we made our candies before cooking dinner. That way....when dessert time rolled around, our candies would be finished.  

We then, removed our candies from our refrigerator and ...

Voila!

We were pleasantly surprised.

Our Cacao Butter Cups tastes like White Chocolate Candy Cups, having a slightly crunchy texture in each bite. 

We really enjoy the vanilla flavor mixed in with the creaminess of our Cacao Butter. 

We found ourselves biting off a piece of candy and savoring every bite, as if it were our last. 

We can't wait to try our luck at creating another flavor in the near future. With so many low-carb candy varieties, they should never get old.

However, for now, we're going to enjoy our scrumptious and decadent Low-Carb White Cacao Butter Cups.  

From our kitchen to yours ~

Enjoy!