Saturday, Jan.2

Today started out with indulging my pasta craving from yesterday. As soon as I was out of the shower my sweet husband had Dreamfield's spaghetti waiting for me, just as I like it: tossed with a little butter and olive oil and a mix of italian cheeses. EXCELLENT late breakfast!

My later lunch was just a bowl of egg drop soup. (By the way, do you have any idea how simple it is to make????)

Supper was a last-minute, thrown-together deal. I heavily seasoned some b/s chicken breast strips with garlic and chili powder, plus a little sea salt, then cooked them in a frying pan with olive oil. When they were done I cut them into big (2-bite) chunks and tossed them with the pan juices to coat all sides. I also made a simple dip of 2 parts ranch dressing and one part sour cream (full-fat of course). Buttered cauliflower with cheese sprinkled on top was our vegetable.

I still have some jello and whipped cream in the fridge that I didn't get to today...just too much food to fit it all into a single day!

How I Like My Beets, & What I 8 Today

I often post on Twitter - and copy to Facebook as well - What I 8 Today. Figured as long as I'm posting any way, I may as well write it here too. I have tonsillitis or strep throat or something going on, so I only wanted soft things to swallow, preferably cold. So I started with SF jello. Later I had some beets, and in the evening more SF jello, but whipped some cream to eat with it. I ate the whole can of beets, 22gN just for those, but not many more than that for the whole day.

Now about the beets. I buy them in a can that only contains water & salt with them. First I drain the juice into a saucepan, then I add a couple Tbsp of white vinegar and a couple Tbsp of xylitol. To that I add a Tbsp of butter with about 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum mashed into it. I bring it to a boil, stirring all the while; when it is thickened and boiling I add back the beets with just the tiniest pinch of cinnamon, lower the heat to medium low, cover, and let simmer for 10-15 minutes (or until I remember I have something on the stove!).

I love my beets this way, they pick up the flavors from the sauce quite well, although the sauce itself is too rich to eat...but it needs to be, to flavor the beets.

I had a Dreamfield's jones goin' on today too, but already had plenty of carbs with the beets; tomorrow's carbs will come from the pasta....mmmm....

Two Wonderful Things I Learned from the Food Network

1 - When thickening a sauce or gravy, mash the xanthan or guar gum (they used flour of course) into a tablespoon of butter with the back of a fork. Once you add it to your hot liquid, the thickener is incorporated as the butter melts, so no lumps - and everything tastes better with butter! :) That was something Giada said she learned from a chef in France...whatever she was making that day, she said that the butter would make it "glisten". I haven't had that effect, but it really is a wonderful tip that I use all the time now!

2 - Rachel made a very simple type of salsa or chutney that I made to serve with our roasted duck a couple of weeks ago. The duck is quite rich, so the combination of bite and sweet was a perfect complement to the meat. I cut up 3 slices of bacon into small bits, then fried it and drained off most of the fat for later use. Then I added a finely diced red onion and cooked it until soft. Then a can of crushed pineapple (yes, carby, but more on that in a minute) and mixed it with the onion until it was heated through. Seasoned with just a touch of cinnamon, added back in the crispy bacon at the last minute. Just a couple of spoonfuls over the meat, added on each person's plate, really made all the difference. I'd imagine it would be excellent with pork or other poultry also.

Here's my note for using crushed pineapple: There were 80g of carbs for the entire can, which is of course a lot. But if you drain off the liquid, which contains part of the sugars (even if it isn't added syrup, it still absorbs some of the sugar from the fruit - if you don't believe me, taste it *G*), and rinse the fruit in a colandar. I don't know how much that reduces the carb count, but obviously it does remove some. Even adding the 14g for the onion, the amount I added to my plate was easily 1/10th or less of the entire recipe. Definitely not worth wringing my hands over :).

Enjoy!

December is gone, January starts in a few hours!

I didn't post much in December (hope I didn't disappoint either of my readers! ) but not because I had nothing to post. Quite the contrary I could have - if I'd have had more time to do so! Like most other people the holiday seem to be an extraordinarily busy time. I didn't post my shopping receipts, since I bought so many things that I typically wouldn't buy. This month's shopping was quite different from the norm. But I'm still eating low carb of course.

Something interesting: Even though I haven't been eating to lose weight, and even though I have at least one carby meal every week (and occasionally a carby DAY!) I've lost 18 lbs this year, my doctor informed me last week. I don't even keep track of my weight, but they do. So that was rather surprising - and interesting.

So all is well, I've got a couple of meals and/or dishes I've prepared that I want to write about the next time I have a large chunk of time to spend at the computer. Have the photos on my computer, just need the time to do it! Next week I will be out of town for several days, hopefully I can get it done before then.

So Happy New Year, may it be another great year of healthy low carb eating and good health for us all!