Joe

When I posted this evening that we were going to have Joe for supper, I was pretty sure that someone would say, "Joe?!" Sure enough. So here I am to explain.

Joe is one of the easiest and best -- and quickest -- low carb one-dish meals. Based on an old San Francisco favorite called Joe's Special -- I've also seen it called "Casual Joe's Special" -- it's been around for quite a while, and inspired a lot of variations. The immutable basics are:

Ground beef -- I use ground chuck, 1 pound will make about 4 servings
Chopped onion -- remember this is the carbiest part. I use 1 small-to-medium onion, chopped
Garlic -- 2 - 3 cloves, crushed
Spinach -- I use a 10 ounce box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained well
Eggs -- for 1 pound of meat, I go with 4-5 eggs
Salt and pepper

In your big, heavy skillet, over medium heat, start browning and crumbling the ground beef. When a little fat has cooked out, throw in the onion and garlic, and keep cooking till the pink is gone from the meat. Drain it if you want, but I didn't tonight. Throw in the spinach -- you could use a bag of fresh baby spinach if you preferred -- and stir it around till it's well-incorporated. Now scramble up the eggs, pour them over the whole thing, and stir till they're set. Salt and pepper it, and serve.

Like I said, there are plenty of variations of this kicking around. Some people add mushrooms, which sounds really good. Others add Parmesan; I did tonight. I've seen recipes that called for various spices; I'll leave that up to you. I've even seen talk of a vegetarian version made with tofu; this is the sort of thing I try very hard not to think about at all.

You can expand this by adding more beef or eggs or both. Since this warms up nicely in the microwave, it's a great leftover to have on hand. Since it is a kind of ad hoc recipe, I can't give you an exact carb count, but figure something like 3-4 grams of usable carb per serving, depending on how big an onion you use.