Chuy's Creamy Jalapeno Sauce

If you live anywhere in SE Texas, you've seen Chuy's.  It's a great local Tex-Mex restaurant and many of us are addicted to the creamy jalapeno sauce. I've seen some copy-cat recipes for this stuff, but they don't contain the 'secret' ingredient(s).  I got the ingredients and percentages from a Chuy's manager.  If you're near a Chuy's, please go buy the dip from them.  If you live in the vast wilderness that does NOT have a Chuy's nearby, you can use this recipe.

Chuy's Creamy Jalapeno dip is the consistency of salad dressing, not dip.  By the way, the manager at Chuy's told me they do not put cilantro in their recipe.  I put it in because I used it when I was trying to make the Creamy Jalapeno dip the first time and we liked it.  Chuy's also puts cottonseed oil in their Creamy Jalapeno dip...since I couldn't taste it, I didn't add it.  Keep in mind that they are not allowed to give out the recipe--the most they could do was confirm the ingredients about which I asked and then tell me if I'd missed any.  I missed the cottonseed oil and the tomatillo sauce.  If you don't have those, I (personally) don't think it affects the taste very much.

For this batch, I used:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup buttermilk
3 TBS Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix
1 TBS Salsa Verde (green tomatillo sauce)
1/3 cup cilantro + 1 cube of Knorr cilantro
1/3 cup sliced jalapenos

Combine everything except the mayonnaise and blend well.  I use a Magic Bullet.  Add the mayonnaise and blend again.  Pour into a bowl, and you're done!  If you refrigerate it for a few hours before serving, it will thicken and the flavors will meld into a more flavorful dip.

Dip shown here with cheese chips and pepperoni chips.  Delicious!!!!

This recipe makes a little over 16 servings of 2 TBS each.

Volley's Notes:

• We like hot things, so I often use more than 1/3 cup of jalapenos--but, keep in mind that the dip will get a little hotter as it sits in the fridge.
• I like cilantro--and often put a whole 'bunch' (as bought from the grocery store) in 4 cups of dip.
• Today, I used cilantro from the garden--and I didn't have much.  I keep the Knorr cubes in the pantry for times such as these.
• If you really want the dip thick--and prefer not to play with the ratios--use 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup buttermilk, and 1 cup of sour cream.
• We eat this with veggies at home.  At Chuy's, I use it over lettuce and my kids eat it with the corn tortilla chips.  
• One of our favorite ways to use this is as the dressing for Cole Slaw--you wouldn't believe the number of compliments we get on something as simple as shredded cabbage and Creamy Jalapeno dip!

	Nutrition Facts   16 Servings Amount Per Serving   Calories 99.2   Total Fat 10.1 g       Saturated Fat 1.6 g       Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g       Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g   Cholesterol 4.4 mg   Sodium 193.6 mg   Potassium 25.7 mg   Total Carbohydrate 1.3 g       Dietary Fiber 0.0 g       Sugars 0.7 g   Protein 0.6 g   Vitamin A 0.7 %   Vitamin B-12 1.1 %   Vitamin B-6 0.4 %   Vitamin C 0.5 %   Vitamin D 0.0 %   Vitamin E 2.9 %   Calcium 2.0 %   Copper 0.2 %   Folate 0.4 %   Iron 0.2 %   Magnesium 0.5 %   Manganese 0.0 %   Niacin 0.0 %   Pantothenic Acid     0.8 %   Phosphorus     1.8 %   Riboflavin 1.6 %   Selenium 0.7 %   Thiamin 0.4 %   Zinc 0.6 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. As always, the Nutritional Facts were calculated on SparkPeople's Recipe Builder.

Olive Garden's Alfredo Sauce

I won't take you on the whole journey of my brain, but I saw a mention of Olive Garden on facebook and a comment about there being lard in the Alfredo Sauce.  Since Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce is absolutely my favorite dish, I did some research.  Here is the recipe from the Olive Garden website: Olive Garden's Alfredo Sauce.  No lard!  Obviously, they don't feel threatened that we will make it ourselves and not visit their restaurant.

When we treat ourselves to Olive Garden, I order the Herbed Salmon Alfredo--sub extra broccoli for the pasta.  (Even when I'm not on Atkins, I don't like pasta.)  It is delicious!

After reading and calculating the nutritional info on the Alfredo sauce, this definitely has to be a treat.  But, it is still Atkins-friendly and a great choice--as long as you substitute broccoli for the pasta.  


Volley's notes: 

• Notice that, as served at Olive Garden, the sauce is 9.3 gr of carbohydrates.  That's for 1/4 of the recipe, which is almost 1 cup of sauce.  
• I think I'd make the recipe and figure out how many servings it would be for 1/4 cup (the portion size for commercially-canned sauce).  
• If you use all heavy cream (instead of 1.5 cups of milk) and divide the whole into 4 servings, you drop the carbs down to 7.6 nC per serving.   

Here is the nutritional info (just the sauce, not the salmon or veggies), from SparkPeople RecipeBuilder, as usual.  

	Nutrition Facts   4 Servings Amount Per Serving   Calories 638.7   Total Fat 55.9 g       Saturated Fat 33.3 g       Polyunsaturated Fat 2.6 g       Monounsaturated Fat 16.3 g   Cholesterol 483.8 mg   Sodium 751.5 mg   Potassium 138.0 mg   Total Carbohydrate 9.3 g       Dietary Fiber 0.0 g       Sugars 4.6 g   Protein 25.3 g   Vitamin A 39.6 %   Vitamin B-12 20.3 %   Vitamin B-6 7.7 %   Vitamin C 0.9 %   Vitamin D 27.7 %   Vitamin E 8.5 %   Calcium 75.2 %   Copper 2.0 %   Folate 10.9 %   Iron 6.1 %   Magnesium 7.1 %   Manganese 1.2 %   Niacin 0.5 %   Pantothenic Acid     11.9 %   Phosphorus     52.3 %   Riboflavin 24.1 %   Selenium 32.6 %   Thiamin 5.5 %   Zinc 14.0 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Cheese Puffs

I miss Cheetos, and I've tried the low-carb ones made from egg whites and didn't like them.  These were incredibly easy to make and tasted great!

I used a Weight Watchers smokey cheese stick--1 net carb. 

I cut it into 20 pieces--about 1/4 of an inch thick--and placed them on parchment paper. 

You don't want to put them too close together, so you'll have to do them in a couple of batches.  Watch them carefully--don't walk away.  The ones in the middle of the plate will cook first, and you'll want to take them out before they burn.  (I found that out the hard way.)  

Volley's Notes:

• You can use any type of cheese stick for this.  
• The cheese stick puffs up and swells to about twice the original size.  You don't want the cooked edges to touch, but you can place them fairly close together.
• Watch very, very carefully--or the ones in the middle of the plate will burn.
• If you want a salty-snack flavor, sprinkle a little seasoned salt over the cheese slices before you microwave it.
• One of the best things about this is portion control...make one serving at a time.  If you're on Atkins, you'll want to limit that to one serving per day.

Happy eating!

3 net Carb Nachos

I love Mexican food!  I miss nachos, but I'm allergic to corn now, so I couldn't eat corn tortilla chips even if I wasn't on Atkins.  Life goes on.  To that end, I low-carb as many of my Mexican food favorites as I can.  This version of nachos is delicious!  I will be doing this again often--in fact, it's going to be part of today's lunch.

First, place one serving of pepperoni on parchment paper and microwave for about 30 seconds (check the crispy-factor, you want the final product to be crisp enough to eat like chips).


Next, sprinkle shredded cheese over the pepperoni.  I used 1/4 cup (one serving). 

After that, place a jalapeno slice on each piece of pepperoni.  For this batch, I used carrots (not Induction-friendly) that had been pickled with jalapenos--so they taste like jalapenos.

Then, place the plate in the microwave and cook for about 30 seconds.

Finally, EAT!

Volley's Notes:

• Kroger's brand of turkey pepperoni is 16 pieces per serving.  It worked out very well.
• You don't need a whole serving of cheese; so, next time I will probably use just half a serving.
• Make sure you microwave the pepperoni long enough that it gets crispy.  You'll only melt the cheese for a few seconds, so it won't be enough to cook the pepperoni to crisp.