Rainbow Fruit Tray - Rainbow Party , Baby Shower

Soooo, I have this cousin, and she is pregnant with a baby girl named Rainey. Short for Lorraine. Cute right? Well Rainey, is her little "rainbow".. and this is where the idea for a 3D rainbow fruit tray was born. In typical family party fashion, if there is a fruit tray to be made it is my responsibility. lol So when asked to come up with a rainbow themed one, I immediately ran to pinterest. I'm not going to lie, the lack of creativity on the pieces of fruit laid out in the shape of a rainbow did not impress me much. :(  That is all I could find... fruit, laid down to resemble a rainbow. Where was the grandeur in that?!? Easy, sure..... but not quite the focal point I was looking for. So with a little brainstorming, and a trip to hobby lobby, the 3D rainbow fruit tray was born.

I bought a thick piece of foam board as the base, and two round Styrofoam wreaths. It cost me around $14 for the supplies.  I sawed the wreaths in half, and hot glued them very well to the board. 

 

The umbrella  and picture was just an added backdrop since the baby's name is Rainey... :). Then came the interesting part... stabbing a few hundred tooth picks all over the rainbow. It looked kind of scary at this point.......




I had to play with the fruit some and go back and add toothpicks to fill in gaps or empty spaces. But really the bulk of the work was just putting the toothpicks in.





The fluffy white stuff was just cotton, I used it to look like clouds. White cotton candy would have been awesome too.. but it was non seasonal and unavailable when I made this. So non-edible cotton it was. The goal here, was to hide a bowl of fluffy white fruit dip in the middle of the tray to appear like you were eating clouds. I put a cauldron at the other end to hold pineapple... pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.. get it.. get it... lol :)

 I used grapes, honey dew, cantaloupe, and strawberries. Pine apple in the bowl at the end.The extra fruit I mixed together and laid underneath the rainbow as a rainbow fruit salad of sorts. I set a pair of tongs on top of the rainbow, and the guest easily picked their fruit right off of it. Plus, it was sturdy and transported well too I thought. The end product was super cute, and delicious too!!

Parmesan Fried Pork chops with a garlic cream sauce.

Ok, so let's show those southern roots a little bit ......

Well not mine, but my husbands. He loves his fried southern food. However breading is a big no-no on the low carb diet. We are even trying to avoid the lower carb flours like almond flour  or atkins flour for the time being. So I needed another option! Cheap Parmesan Cheese. What could be better than something breaded in cheese and then fried???

What you need:
Pork chops
Grated Parmesan cheese (the cheap sprinkle stuff)
Oil of your choice
A few eggs
Italian Seasoning, Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder (all optional)

If you want to make the sauce:
Heavy whipping cream
Garlic Powder
Fresh Shredded Parmesan cheese
(Heat all ingredients together in a saucepan)

or

You could always be lazy and get a store bought alfredo sauce (most are pretty low carb)


So in a bowl I whisked together my eggs. In another bowl, I poured my grated parmesan, some salt and Pepper, a little garlic powder, and a little italian seasoning... and mixed it all up.

Meanwhile, I had my oil heating on the stove to a medium frying temperature. You want it hot enough to fry, but not so hot that it browns too quickly. Cooking time depends on the thickness of your meat.  However porkchops tend to cook fairly quick. Mine cooked about 6 minutes each.

I took my porkchops out  and coated both sides in my cheese mixture. Then I dipped them in my eggs, and then coated them again in the cheese.I made sure they were coated pretty well and then dropped them in the oil. I flipped them about every two minutes to make sure they cooked evenly. Once they were done, I put them on paper towels to drain off excess grease .... then on a plate, and topped with sauce!

Loaded Potato soup (minus the potatoes lol)

Ok, if you are low carbing and haven't discovered these diced rutabagas, then there is a world of potato like goodness that you are missing out on! They are a little higher in carbs (14 net carbs per can), but you can dilute them with other low carb ingredients so you are only getting 3 to 4 carbs per serving.They are generally bland in flavor, and have a softer texture than potatoes .... but with the right flavor and texture tricks, you'll feel like you are eating something you arent supposed to!!!

So for the soup I used the following ingredients:

Chicken Broth
Heavy Whipping Cream
Can of Diced Rutabagas
Green onions
Bacon
Cheddar Cheese
1/4 stick of Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste

I diced up my bacon, cooked it, drained it, and set it aside.

Then in a pot on medium heat, I melted my butter and tossed in my diced green onions. I drained my rutabagas, and added  them to pan. I put salt, pepper, and a few teaspoons of garlic powder because I couldn't resist it.... even though it's not a traditional potato soup spice. I mixed all that around, and then added 1/4 cup of chicken broth and 1 cup of heavy cream.  Once my liquid heated I added my bacon back in. I brought the soup up to a low boil, and then it was ready to serve!  I topped mine with cheddar cheese... and ok I also saved out some green onions and bacon to try and distract you from my paper bowl and plate :)

Low Carb BBQ Sauce

Ok..that store bought low/no carb bbq sauce is nasty. It's weird. It taste the way skating rinks smell. That's just not cool. So my alternative - Making your own. I use reduced sugar ketchup (1 carb per tblsp), Apple Cider Vinegar (0 carbs), and Splenda brown sugar (2 carbs per tblsp) as a base. I boil it in a sauce pan on the stove, about half ketchup/half vinegar, and add splenda to taste. You can also use the regular splenda or splenda with fiber to sweeten if you want to reduce the carb count lower. It doesn't darken the sauce to a BBQ color, but it works fine for taste. Once you have your base, play with it and spice it up how you like! I like to add bacon or a little bacon grease for a smoky flavor, Onion powder is a good addition to hide some of the ketchup after taste, Red pepper flakes or siracha add a nice spice, spicy mustard if you like mustard based sauces, just have fun with it! Mmmm real bbq and no more dry meat!