Friday, October 8, 2010

LC's Cheap'n'Easy, QUICK Lunch - #lowcarb

I didn't set out to make my 18MO grandson a lowcarb lunch, but given what I have in the house, that's the way it worked out. And it is SO GOOD that from now on it will be another meal idea for "Ugma" and "Umpa" too!



I put some EVOO and butter into a pan on a hot burner. While it was heating I took my julienne peeler to a yellow squash and made some "squashetti". Put it in the pan, on high, and let it sizzle until it started to brown around the edges while I diced a small piece of leftover ham. Stirred the squashetti, added the ham, and stirred - still on high - for about a minute until the ham pieces also started to color. Put it on a plate, sprinkled with a little parmesan (he likes anything with parmesan!) from the green can, and he's LOVING IT! Of course I tasted it too :) and I think it would taste great with just about kind of meat in it. And I'd toss a few chopped tomatoes in at the end as well...and probably do some thin-sliced red onion with the squashetti...



But the baby loves it and it took less than 10 minutes start to finish! He watched me, perched safely away from the heat on the countertop, as I described everything I was doing as I always do when I do anything in the kitchen while babysitting, and he couldn't wait to try it. We love cooking and baking "together"...

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Lovely late breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage patties today; grilled chuck steak and buttery acorn squash for supper. #lowcarb http://amplify.com/u/c0yj

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Cheap'n'Easy Lowcarb Living: So I Had Some Tater Tots... #lowcarb


So I Had Some Tater Tots... #lowcarb

...at Sonic last month when on my weekend away with hubby, and have wanted more ever since. (That's the thing about cheats - even planned cheats - is that you have to have an iron will to get back on plan immediately and not look back! Thank God for my stubbornness - lol)

My favorite subs for taters in most recipes are root vegetables, or root vegetables mixed with cauli. I don't know, it just seems that the cauli flavor is too strong. But I found a recipe and a discussion about lowcarb tots, and definitely will be making these. Only difference is, I will probably use a 50/50 mix of cauli and daikon for the "potato" and will use onion powder instead of garlic...or maybe both!

Just used my last daikon though. I haven't done a big grocery shopping in months. When there's a big sale on meats, I fill the freezer ($1.19/lb for the big country pork ribs for example - $40 worth in there now!), and had enough frozen vegetables to last through the summer since I'd pick up some lovely summer fresh vegetables when I was out; ditto with dairy. But all of my little $20-40 trips have still added up to about $300-350 for the month each month, which is all I ever allow in the budget. (exception: my once-a-year big online orders from netrition.com and honeyvillegrain.com) Still eating well, still eating cheap, I just haven't bothered to put all of my purchases here because frankly, I never got any feedback that anybody even read or used all that info :).

Back to tots: here is the LCF discussion. And after I get another daikon I will give it a shot.

Meanwhile, my seasonal job ends this month, and after that I will have more time to mess around in the kitchen - and to blog :).

Monday, October 4, 2010

Nice little lunch...broke 2 eggs into hot butter, broke yolks, topped with a slice of #lowcarb bread, buttered on top; when eggs were done, I flipped it and ended up with a crispy open-faced fried egg sandwich. Might add bacon and/or cheese next time but was great this way too, better than the boring fried-eggs-on-toast. Would probably work with oopsies also since they make great grilled cheese sandwiches but I didn't happen to have any made up. http://amplify.com/u/bqhx