This week's menu: Ghanaian groundnut soup, low-carb tacos, bacon jalapeño poppers

Not the best pic, but you get the idea

I really enjoy spending a few hours each Saturday or Sunday in the kitchen prepping food for the week. It makes healthy eating much easier, especially if you pre-pack a few portions in smaller containers so you can grab and go. This week I made a HUGE pot of soup, some low-carb tortillas with taco fixins (for traditional tacos and/or taco salad), and bacon jalapeño poppers...mmm!

First, the soup. My friend C is from Ghana and brought this delicious peanutty goodness to a get-together we had last winter. I finally got around to asking her for the recipe recently (yes, a year later, haha). She sent me approximate instructions without measurements, so below is my report of what I did. With our crappy sugary store-brand peanut butter it works out to about 15 net carbs per bowlful; obviously it would be lower if you used higher-quality natural PB without added sweetener. I'm sure it would taste better too. Enjoy and have fun playing around with different flavors. I want to try it with smoked turkey next.

Ghanaian Groundnut Soup

Serves 6

Ingredients:

Bone-in chicken and/or smoked turkey (I used a pack of 12 chicken drumsticks)

Salt to taste

Other spices if desired (C suggests a little oregano)

6 cloves garlic, minced

1-2" piece of ginger root, minced or microplaned

1 minced Habanero (or more to taste - I can see my mom cringing as she reads this, haha)

2 large onions, trimmed and peeled, one left whole and one diced

3-4 big fresh tomatoes, cored (or diced canned)

1 bag frozen sliced okra (mine had 3 cups)

Other veggies if desired (I used one medium zucchini cut in chunks, not necessarily authentic)

About 5 Tb peanut butter, or more to taste of course

Place raw meat in a large pot, half cover with water, and add salt, garlic, ginger, habanero, chopped and whole onions, and whole tomatoes. You can add whatever other spices you like at this point too (I used a packet of Goya Sazon without annatto, a tiny sprinkle of cinnamon, a little curry, turmeric, oregano, thyme, and poultry seasoning). Bring to a simmer and let the chicken cook slowly. When the whole onion and tomatoes are soft and the tomato skin has started to split, remove from pot, puree in blender/food processor, and return to pot. At this point the chicken should be mostly cooked. Add whatever other veggies you like here to get them cooking (I did C's suggested okra plus zucchini). Remove a little of the hot soup stock and mix with the peanut butter to form a peanut solution. Add to soup and let cook down. Taste and correct seasoning. Continue cooking slowly until you're happy with the consistency and ready to eat! Serve 2 drumsticks and a couple ladlefuls of veggie-peanut soup per person, and enjoy. In Ghana this would be served with fufu (Play-Doh like starch made of pounded cassava or rice) for dipping, but I found it seriously delicious and filling on its own.

Other stuff I cooked for the coming week:

~I've been devouring Primitive Palate's beautiful recipe website lately and decided to try making her low-carb tortillas, which use an interesting secret ingredient: pork rinds. They turned out awesome and very filling, definitely hitting the spot after a hard day of yard work (according to my Livestrong diet and exercise tracker I burned over 1200 calories, yikes). While surveying the fruits of our backyard labor next to the fire pit, my brother and I enjoyed a few of the tortillas with grass-fed ground beef + taco seasonings, a cabbage-oregano-radish slaw I made, guacamole, and of course sriracha! I froze the rest of the tortillas for later this week/a rainy day.

~Rounding out our taco night: bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers! I've been dying to try these ever since I first got the idea from the Reddit/keto site. For my version, I softened a block of cream cheese and mixed in black pepper, minced garlic, and minced shallot. Ranch mix would be phenomenal too. I stemmed, halved, and de-seeded a bunch of jalapeños and stuffed them with the cream cheese mixture (one block of cream cheese was more than enough for 16 halves). I topped each with a tiny cube of extra-sharp cheddar and wrapped each in half a slice of uncured, zero-carb bacon. About 20 minutes at 400 F, plus a few minutes under the broiler to further crisp up the bacon, and OMG. Brother said he liked them but missed the typical popper breading. I, however, thought they were even better than the original. Definitely doing these again for a party appetizer! I'm really looking forward to the leftovers with salad for lunch one day this week. :oD