I have been continuing to do low glycemic / South Beach / Mediterranean style cooking and eating. I am not specifically looking to fit some sort of weight ideal or BMI, but I have blood sugar fluctuations and can tend toward disordered eating. I think eating a diet heavier in vegetables, beans, proteins, natural oils and nuts is better.
I don't agree with sweeping bans on categories of foods, including fruit, like in the induction part of the South Beach diet. I just happily munched down on a Fuji apple with peanut butter on it.
I am really happy Z and S, for the most part, have been very cooperative about eating my dinners, and have not peeped ONCE about a lack of a white starch at the dinner. As predictable, Picky has been the biggest obstacle.
Elevensies today: "Fresh" mozzarella, presliced (my new favorite grocery item), with home roasted sweet orange pepper, and chimichurri. Mmm mmm mmm.
Elevensies yesterday: soft boiled eggs and asparagus (made the day before, simmered in chicken broth)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Some South Beach diet, some cheezburger
So, I have been mostly sticking to the South Beach diet. I have followed a low glycemic diet before, and I wanted to increase my vegetables. So, this is a good plan with recipes that fits with my ideas of what's healthy. And, hey, I went to high school on South Beach, so, I suppose it was meant to be.
This salad was divine. I made roasted orange peppers the night before, and they were so sweet, I am beginning to wonder if they are still low glycemic. Simply scrumptious. That, plus home grown tomatoes, spinach, fresh mozzarella, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.
Of course, more eggs. I made a version of the creamed spinach from the South Beach diet book with garlic, onion and sour cream, then made bacon, then poached some eggs, then made a bastardized version of the Joe's Stone Crabs mustard sauce (I have been there many times. I never have the mustard sauce. Why, when there's drawn butter? *drool*) and the mock Hollandaise. Picky tried to dump my sauce, but I intercepted it. It would have been a real shame, since it was delicious and made the dish. The whole dish was also divine. Unlike the salad, no one wanted to share this one. They ate leftover frozen pancakes. Their loss.
C'mon, have a bite!
So, all the deviations from the diet happened around S's 11th birthday. For his birthday dinner, he chose pizza meatloaf. But, I didn't want it to be just any pizza meatloaf, so I made a special sauce with bacon, and used fresh mozzarella on the top.
This smelled divine. It is a base for a "bold" spaghetti sauce recipe from Eating Well. It is similar to this version, also by Lidia.
Then, the next day he had some friends over. He had an "I Can Has Cheezburger" themed party. I made cheeseburgers, of course. They were darned good, I must say. I doctor them up quite a bit. I am not one of those "Don't overwork the meat" people. I am one of those "throw some garlic and stuff in there" people.
This salad was divine. I made roasted orange peppers the night before, and they were so sweet, I am beginning to wonder if they are still low glycemic. Simply scrumptious. That, plus home grown tomatoes, spinach, fresh mozzarella, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.
Of course, more eggs. I made a version of the creamed spinach from the South Beach diet book with garlic, onion and sour cream, then made bacon, then poached some eggs, then made a bastardized version of the Joe's Stone Crabs mustard sauce (I have been there many times. I never have the mustard sauce. Why, when there's drawn butter? *drool*) and the mock Hollandaise. Picky tried to dump my sauce, but I intercepted it. It would have been a real shame, since it was delicious and made the dish. The whole dish was also divine. Unlike the salad, no one wanted to share this one. They ate leftover frozen pancakes. Their loss.
C'mon, have a bite!
So, all the deviations from the diet happened around S's 11th birthday. For his birthday dinner, he chose pizza meatloaf. But, I didn't want it to be just any pizza meatloaf, so I made a special sauce with bacon, and used fresh mozzarella on the top.
This smelled divine. It is a base for a "bold" spaghetti sauce recipe from Eating Well. It is similar to this version, also by Lidia.
Then, the next day he had some friends over. He had an "I Can Has Cheezburger" themed party. I made cheeseburgers, of course. They were darned good, I must say. I doctor them up quite a bit. I am not one of those "Don't overwork the meat" people. I am one of those "throw some garlic and stuff in there" people.
Monday, March 29, 2010
South Beach diet Day 1: breakfast
I have started the South Beach diet today. I made scrambled eggs with chopped fresh spinach, mushrooms and shallots. I put salsa verde on mine. Picky and Z put shredded cheese and ketchup on theirs.
It was super delicious.
Now for some complaining about Picky, which is part of the reason why I keep this blog.
You may recall that Picky earns his name by having many food rules. One of the strictest that has led to fights between us involves eggs. In fact, I think our first food argument was over putting onions in eggs. His attitude: nothing but cheese, no way but scrambled. I tried to reason with him about other ingredients I know he eats in other contexts (i.e. the spinach, mushrooms and shallots mentioned above) and I get back a no, no way, no how response. I tried to tell him there is a difference between having a favorite way to eat something and being repulsed by all other ways to prepare it. Nope.
So, Picky did recently tell me he would go on the South Beach Diet with me. He flipped through the book, saw a few recipes for steak, and thought it would work. Well, first meal, first day, we lock horns. Every breakfast is some combination of eggs and vegetables. After another argument about it, I went ahead and made scrambled eggs with the above ingredients. He cleaned his plate, and when we were done, I asked him how they were. He said "Good."
*bang head*
It was super delicious.
Now for some complaining about Picky, which is part of the reason why I keep this blog.
You may recall that Picky earns his name by having many food rules. One of the strictest that has led to fights between us involves eggs. In fact, I think our first food argument was over putting onions in eggs. His attitude: nothing but cheese, no way but scrambled. I tried to reason with him about other ingredients I know he eats in other contexts (i.e. the spinach, mushrooms and shallots mentioned above) and I get back a no, no way, no how response. I tried to tell him there is a difference between having a favorite way to eat something and being repulsed by all other ways to prepare it. Nope.
So, Picky did recently tell me he would go on the South Beach Diet with me. He flipped through the book, saw a few recipes for steak, and thought it would work. Well, first meal, first day, we lock horns. Every breakfast is some combination of eggs and vegetables. After another argument about it, I went ahead and made scrambled eggs with the above ingredients. He cleaned his plate, and when we were done, I asked him how they were. He said "Good."
*bang head*
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Dark Chocolate ice cream recipe
This is for Picky, since he wants to eat this more often than I want to make it. He is buying the half and half and asking me for the recipe.
2 cups half and half
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup Hershey's Dark Cocoa powder (not hot cocoa mix)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. finely chopped high quality high cacao content chocolate (I used Ghiradelli Bittersweet)
1. Heat the half and half and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until it reaches 170 degrees, mixing occasionally. The mixture will form small bubbles along the edges, and will coat the back of a wooden spoon even if you try to scrape it off. (You can steep a vanilla bean at this point instead of using vanilla extract later).
2. Add powdered cocoa and whisk until combined. Let sit for 10 minutes to cool. (Remove vanilla bean if used, scrape seeds out and return seeds to mixture, saving or discarding bean).
3. Add chopped chocolate and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.
4. Cool, then put in ice cream maker, and follow instructions.
Optional addition:
1/2 teaspoon orange zest or instant espresso powder in step one.
Edited to add:
OK, Picky couldn't wait for me to post this, so he added 2 cups of sugar by mistake. So, we added another pint of half and half and a pint of whole milk, and we are tripling all the other ingredients. Sheesh.
Behold, this is how much chocolate goes into a tripled version of this recipe:
2 cups half and half
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup Hershey's Dark Cocoa powder (not hot cocoa mix)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. finely chopped high quality high cacao content chocolate (I used Ghiradelli Bittersweet)
1. Heat the half and half and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until it reaches 170 degrees, mixing occasionally. The mixture will form small bubbles along the edges, and will coat the back of a wooden spoon even if you try to scrape it off. (You can steep a vanilla bean at this point instead of using vanilla extract later).
2. Add powdered cocoa and whisk until combined. Let sit for 10 minutes to cool. (Remove vanilla bean if used, scrape seeds out and return seeds to mixture, saving or discarding bean).
3. Add chopped chocolate and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.
4. Cool, then put in ice cream maker, and follow instructions.
Optional addition:
1/2 teaspoon orange zest or instant espresso powder in step one.
Edited to add:
OK, Picky couldn't wait for me to post this, so he added 2 cups of sugar by mistake. So, we added another pint of half and half and a pint of whole milk, and we are tripling all the other ingredients. Sheesh.
Behold, this is how much chocolate goes into a tripled version of this recipe:
Friday, February 5, 2010
Superbowl / Beatles Rock Band party menu planning!
I am menu planning for my Beatles Rock Band (Super Bowl) party. On the online invite, I called it "Football in the Front, Rock Band in the Rear". I am going to be playing rock band, but the cuisine is going to be New Orleans themed.
Here is what is on the menu:
Beignets and French Press coffee with chicory. I just got a new French press. Picky broke the four cup one, so I replaced it with a twelve cup one. Love. I am drinking more coffee lately.
Shrimp and chorizo tapas, but I am going to use Andouille sausage instead of chorizo.
Crab cake appetizers. These are from a box (gasp! no, really) My mom left them in my freezer when she came to another dinner party at my house, and I was nervous I wouldn't have enough to serve. I didn't use them then, and my mom swears they're delicious.
Dirty rice, based on a recipe from Cook's Country. I add extra pork, and am going to use pepperdew peppers in it instead of bell peppers. I am also going to use pepperdews (my new obsession) in vegetarian red beans and rice.
White salad and a broccoli cole slaw with homemade dressing
Pulled pork sammiches. I think I am going to add the liquid smoke I am buying for the vegetarian red beans and rice. I have never used it before, but I have heard good things about it.
And, last but not least, I wanted to make some chicken wings. I was racking my brain for a chicken recipe to fit the New Orleans theme, but I couldn't. Then, duh, it hit me! I will be altering this Bourbon style chicken recipe for wings.
I can't wait!!
Here is what is on the menu:
Beignets and French Press coffee with chicory. I just got a new French press. Picky broke the four cup one, so I replaced it with a twelve cup one. Love. I am drinking more coffee lately.
Shrimp and chorizo tapas, but I am going to use Andouille sausage instead of chorizo.
Crab cake appetizers. These are from a box (gasp! no, really) My mom left them in my freezer when she came to another dinner party at my house, and I was nervous I wouldn't have enough to serve. I didn't use them then, and my mom swears they're delicious.
Dirty rice, based on a recipe from Cook's Country. I add extra pork, and am going to use pepperdew peppers in it instead of bell peppers. I am also going to use pepperdews (my new obsession) in vegetarian red beans and rice.
White salad and a broccoli cole slaw with homemade dressing
Pulled pork sammiches. I think I am going to add the liquid smoke I am buying for the vegetarian red beans and rice. I have never used it before, but I have heard good things about it.
And, last but not least, I wanted to make some chicken wings. I was racking my brain for a chicken recipe to fit the New Orleans theme, but I couldn't. Then, duh, it hit me! I will be altering this Bourbon style chicken recipe for wings.
I can't wait!!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Fearless comfort food
It was unseasonably chilly in South Florida this week. We actually had frost on our windshields a few mornings!
I decided to make some warm, stick-to-yer-ribs comfort food this week. I made two of my favorite dishes that I have never made myself: chicken and dumplings, and shepherd's pie. I also made another new recipe: shrimp chowder.
The chicken and dumplings were absolutely delicious. We ate it too quickly to take a picture. I (mostly) used the recipe from my American Home Cooking cookbook. I already had homemade chicken broth, so I didn't use the chicken for the recipe to also make broth. I seared it and then braised it in the chicken broth, without boiling it in between to make a quickie, vegetable-less batch of broth as the recipe called for.
I made shepherd's pie with a lot of adjustments and combining of recipes. I also cheated and used ground chicken, since that was all that I had at home, and I didn't want to go brave the near freezing temperatures to get beef and lamb. I added a little bit of A1 and red wine to "beef" it up. I also cooked the potatoes for the topping in buttermilk, and then mashed them in the cooking liquid, as Cook's Country recommended just this month. Mmmm, tasty. I topped the taters with cheese and scallions. It makes for an ugly picture, but it was tas-tee.
This shrimp chowder with bacon and fennel was delicious. Our local grocery store had some lovely shrimp on sale. I was thinking of making a scampi, but I wanted to try something new. Picky made the mistake of saying he was "a little sick" of one of my dishes in the rotation, spaghetti carbonara, so I am going to be throwing some curveballs this week.
I entered in "shrimp" into my epicurious-on-the-go app on my phone, and this shrimp chowder recipe was the first one to come up. It called for shrimp, fennel and bacon, three of S's all time favorite ingredients. Since he will be gone for the long weekend, and this will be his last dinner with us for several days, I sent him off with a bang.
The recipe calls for adding the raw shrimp one minute before the end of cooking the chowder, then taking it off the heat, mixing in the cream, and letting it sit for ten minutes. The shrimp were cooked perfectly. Just past the underdone threshold. Barely not translucent. Bite, but no chewiness.
S and I both had three servings.
I decided to make some warm, stick-to-yer-ribs comfort food this week. I made two of my favorite dishes that I have never made myself: chicken and dumplings, and shepherd's pie. I also made another new recipe: shrimp chowder.
The chicken and dumplings were absolutely delicious. We ate it too quickly to take a picture. I (mostly) used the recipe from my American Home Cooking cookbook. I already had homemade chicken broth, so I didn't use the chicken for the recipe to also make broth. I seared it and then braised it in the chicken broth, without boiling it in between to make a quickie, vegetable-less batch of broth as the recipe called for.
I made shepherd's pie with a lot of adjustments and combining of recipes. I also cheated and used ground chicken, since that was all that I had at home, and I didn't want to go brave the near freezing temperatures to get beef and lamb. I added a little bit of A1 and red wine to "beef" it up. I also cooked the potatoes for the topping in buttermilk, and then mashed them in the cooking liquid, as Cook's Country recommended just this month. Mmmm, tasty. I topped the taters with cheese and scallions. It makes for an ugly picture, but it was tas-tee.
This shrimp chowder with bacon and fennel was delicious. Our local grocery store had some lovely shrimp on sale. I was thinking of making a scampi, but I wanted to try something new. Picky made the mistake of saying he was "a little sick" of one of my dishes in the rotation, spaghetti carbonara, so I am going to be throwing some curveballs this week.
I entered in "shrimp" into my epicurious-on-the-go app on my phone, and this shrimp chowder recipe was the first one to come up. It called for shrimp, fennel and bacon, three of S's all time favorite ingredients. Since he will be gone for the long weekend, and this will be his last dinner with us for several days, I sent him off with a bang.
The recipe calls for adding the raw shrimp one minute before the end of cooking the chowder, then taking it off the heat, mixing in the cream, and letting it sit for ten minutes. The shrimp were cooked perfectly. Just past the underdone threshold. Barely not translucent. Bite, but no chewiness.
S and I both had three servings.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Maintaining the white / yolk balance
I made macaroons for a favorite aunt:
(They're more attractive than what the bad photo shows)
I recently got a shipment of food from a local-ish farm. Their egg yolks are gorgeous, firm, and richly golden. I couldn't waste them, and didn't want to freeze them. As much as I love Hollandaise sauce, I am going to be alone over the next few days (yes. for real. amazing!) and would have to make a double batch to use all the yolks. I don't even think I could manage to eat that much Hollandaise sauce, and it's best fresh.
So, I used the handy interwebs search engines, and found this recipe for egg yolk cookies.
I didn't have orange or lemon extract. My mother in law makes spice cookies with cardamom and orange juice, and it's a tasty combination. I substituted a few things, added some turbinado sugar to the top, and came up with a sinfully rich, scrumptious cookie.
Cardamom egg yolk cookies:
Ingredients
• 1 cup butter (or shortening for cookies that won't spread quite as much)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 egg yolks (or 3 whole eggs)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
Directions
1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
2. Separately, beat egg yolks and add extracts.
3. Add beaten egg yolk mixture to creamed butter and sugar.
4. Blend well.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and cream of tartar).
6. Add dry ingredients to creamed butter, sugar and egg mixture, mixing until well blended.
7. Form into balls about the size of a walnut.
8. Roll balls in sugar, place on greased cookie sheet or parchment lined cookie sheet, and slightly flatten.
9. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on desired softness/crispness.
My adaptation: omit lemon and orange extract. Add 1 teaspoon almond extract, 1 teaspoon dried orange peel to egg yolks in step 2, and 1 teaspoon of cardamom to the dry ingredients in step 5. In step 8, sprinkle each cookie with turbinado sugar, and then gently press the sugar into the flattened cookie.
*****
Next time, I will be making Avgolemono.
(They're more attractive than what the bad photo shows)
I recently got a shipment of food from a local-ish farm. Their egg yolks are gorgeous, firm, and richly golden. I couldn't waste them, and didn't want to freeze them. As much as I love Hollandaise sauce, I am going to be alone over the next few days (yes. for real. amazing!) and would have to make a double batch to use all the yolks. I don't even think I could manage to eat that much Hollandaise sauce, and it's best fresh.
So, I used the handy interwebs search engines, and found this recipe for egg yolk cookies.
I didn't have orange or lemon extract. My mother in law makes spice cookies with cardamom and orange juice, and it's a tasty combination. I substituted a few things, added some turbinado sugar to the top, and came up with a sinfully rich, scrumptious cookie.
Cardamom egg yolk cookies:
Ingredients
• 1 cup butter (or shortening for cookies that won't spread quite as much)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 egg yolks (or 3 whole eggs)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
Directions
1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
2. Separately, beat egg yolks and add extracts.
3. Add beaten egg yolk mixture to creamed butter and sugar.
4. Blend well.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and cream of tartar).
6. Add dry ingredients to creamed butter, sugar and egg mixture, mixing until well blended.
7. Form into balls about the size of a walnut.
8. Roll balls in sugar, place on greased cookie sheet or parchment lined cookie sheet, and slightly flatten.
9. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on desired softness/crispness.
My adaptation: omit lemon and orange extract. Add 1 teaspoon almond extract, 1 teaspoon dried orange peel to egg yolks in step 2, and 1 teaspoon of cardamom to the dry ingredients in step 5. In step 8, sprinkle each cookie with turbinado sugar, and then gently press the sugar into the flattened cookie.
*****
Next time, I will be making Avgolemono.
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