Sunday, October 30, 2011

Omelet Making for the Omelet Impaired

In culinary school, I had to learn to make a proper omelet and be graded on it, but I didn't LIKE it! Let's face it- flipping an omelet can be hard. I know- some people can make the perfect omelet every time- sigh...I passed that phase of my course, and really never did it again. After that, I cheated! Here's how I do it now.

For a two egg omelet, first begin with a non-stick skillet. It absolutely doesn't have to be expensive. I have used the best cookware over the years, and finally discovered that a non-stick skillet that costs seventy dollars and has a designer name on it really lasts no longer than one that you buy for six bucks (that is, the non-stick part.) That part all wears off eventually. So, now, I go to the Dollar store and get one for six bucks. The non stick part lasts just as well and the pan does the job I want.

So, for a two egg omelet, first liberally coat your skillet with olive or coconut oil. Put it on the burner over medium heat and let it heat while you are getting your eggs ready. Break your eggs into a bowl that is deep enough for ferocious whisking, add 1 teaspoon olive oil and really whisk till the eggs are a lighter color and very frothy. Pour the eggs into the heated skillet and let them sit and slowly cook. As the bottom just begins to set, take your spatula and go around the edges, releasing some of the egg beyond the borders of the omelet. Let it cook a little while longer, and then flip. To flip, take a really wide spatula and put it under one edge and gently turn that side to the middle of the omelet. Then, go to the opposite side and repeat, but this time, flip that side onto the omelet side you have already cooked. Let it slowly cook till set and scoop it out onto a plate with that really wide spatula.

I buy a non-stick appropriate spatula that is about five or six inches wide. This helps control the omelet when flipping, and also makes it easy to get the omelet out of the pan without breaking.

Note: if you are using veggies for fillers, you must cook them prior to putting them in the center of the omelet. If you use veggies or cheese, place them in a line along the center of the omelet before beginning the flipping. I usually saute my veggies in the same skillet and when they are done, scoop them into a bowl, add a little more oil, and then begin the omelet.

Also, eggs are much more tasty if they are cooked slowly. Don't use high heat.

This method works every time, and it doesn't make me irritable by breaking before I get it out to the plate. Give it a try- it really works!.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I Couldn't Resist- Another Picture is Worth 100 Words by Jimmy Moore

This one says it all. I just don't know where Jimmy finds all these, but this is one I LOVE!!

And finally, I could “bear”ly contain myself when I saw this cute cartoon about a big grizzly lamenting being on the Atkins low-carb diet:

Tips for Really Great Scrambled Eggs Courtesy of Bon Apetit

I ran across this brief article while browsing news on my email. I got to thinking, and as a chef, I am amazed at the amount of purely awful scrambled eggs I have been served in my life! And as an Atkins low carber, eggs play a vital role in my diet. Nothing becomes boring more quickly than scrambled eggs that are overdone, underdone or worse, browned! But, a perfectly fluffy scrambled egg with some fresh tomato slices makes for a nice meal anytime. I agree with everything Bon Apetit has to say about scrambled eggs. The one exception I make is if I'm having them for dinner and my fat percentage is low, I add a teaspoon of olive oil to the eggs before whisking. Unlike cream, it will not separate from the eggs when cooked and there is no liquid residue. So, have a read:

Conde Nast Digital Studio




By Danielle Walsh


They're an everyday breakfast staple, but scrambled eggs are no piece of (pan)cake. What's supposed to be a creamy, delicate breakfast often turns out spongy, grainy, browned, and overcooked. It's okay; most people don't know how to properly scramble an egg. And it's no wonder--there are so many variables. Do you use high heat or low heat? Add cream, water, or neither? What kind of pan is best? To get some clarification, we asked the staff of the BA Test Kitchen how to correct some of the most common mistakes home cooks make. Their advice, below.

1. "Don't be wimpy with your eggs. Whisk well and be vigorous about it--you want to add air and volume for fluffy eggs. And whisk the eggs right before adding to pan; don't whisk and let mixture sit (it deflates)." --Kay Chun, Deputy Food Editor

2. "Don't add milk, cream, or water to the eggs. People think it will keep the eggs creamy while cooking, but in fact, the eggs and added liquid will separate during the cooking process creating wet, overcooked eggs. Stir in some creme fraiche after the eggs are off the heat if you want them creamy." --Mary-Frances Heck, Associate Food Editor

3. "Don't use high heat. It's all about patience to achieve the soft curd. Whether you want small curd (stirring often) or large curd (stirring less), you need to scramble eggs over medium-low heat, pulling the pan off the heat if it gets too hot, until they set to desired doneness." --Hunter Lewis, Food Editor

4. "Don't overcook them! Take them off the heat a little while before you think they are done. The carryover heat will keep cooking them for a minute or so. Also: Use a cast-iron or a nonstick skillet. If you don't, there will be a rotten clean-up job in your future." --Janet McCracken, Deputy Food Editor

5. And last but not least, ditch that fork! Scramble your eggs (in the pan) with a heat-proof spatula, a flat-topped wooden spoon, or for the perfect curd, chopsticks.

Try these tips with our favorite scrambled eggs recipes.


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Recipe for a Cleansing During Colder Months by Dr. Ben Kim

As most of you know by now, I get Dr. Ben Kim's newsletter. He has a lot of worthwhile things to say, although I don't agree with all his advice about diet, since I try to be very low carb in my eating. And, as you OFL's know there are times we have BR issues- constipation. Dr. Kim's newsletter yesterday had a recipe for vegetable broth which can be used for a cleansing. I am passing it on to you, in case you want to try it. It seems "friendlier" to the body than some of the chemical solutions available. So, here's what he has to say, along with the recipe. Note he says potatoes can be omitted. I would most likely do that.

I was also just thinking, since some of us on are currently doing a challenge, and most are back to induction, this would be a nice snack to sip on between meals.

How to Cleanse During Colder Months

Traditional cleansing programs that call for freshly pressed juices, raw foods, and even room temperature water with lemon juice, maple syrup, and pepper may work for most people when the weather is warm, but how does one experience an effective cleanse without feeling exceedingly cold and frail during late fall, winter, and early spring?
There's a reason why our bodies crave hot soups and cooked foods during colder months. To ignore the need to support a minimum core body temperature is to allow significant enervation, which is never conducive to supporting optimal health.
I'm not a fan of one, two, or even three day water-only fasts - these short periods of deprivation do little but cause you to lose healthy muscle tissue (I go into detail on this topic here: Is Fasting One Day a Week Good for Your Health?).
To give your organs a period of rest and to experience a solid, system-wide cleanse during colder months, I typically recommend using hot vegetable broth. If you make your own vegetable broth with generous amounts of nutrient-rich vegetables, you'll have a mineral-rich liquid to fuel your everyday activities while you avoid slowing down your self-healing and self-cleansing mechanisms with large meals. You can sip on hot vegetable broth throughout the day. And whenever you feel like something more substantial, you can have room temperature vegetables and fruits - lettuce, celery, carrots, avocados, apples, pears, and persimmons are good choices throughout fall and early winter.
So long as you heed the desire to have some healthy, whole foods whenever your body calls for them, you can do this "vegetable broth plus whole vegetables and fruits cleanse" for one to seven days during colder months whenever you feel the need to rest, get lighter, and be rejuvenated.
To make nutrient-rich vegetable broth for a cleanse, you'll need:

1 whole onion, halved
3 ribs of celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
3 potatoes, chopped
Any leftover greens like swiss chard, beet tops, or turnip tops, chopped
Sea salt, to taste
Directions:
Combine all vegetables in a large pot. Fill with spring or filtered water until vegetables are fully covered. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and leave it to simmer with the lid on for one hour.
Strain well. Add sea salt, to taste.

Please note: If you are able to get substantial physical and emotional rest during your cleansing period and you want to maximize cleansing benefits, don't use potatoes in making your broth - just add more celery and/or leafy greens.

Be sure not to transfer the hot broth into a glass jar before cooling. This vegetable broth keeps well in an airtight jar in the refrigerator for several days.

Just Two More Pictures from "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" by Jimmy Moore

When you go to stock up on Halloween Candy, remember this picture and ask yourself if those kiddies need all this stuff. The Grim rReaper standing guard over the Wal Mart candy isle is something to think about!

This was an actual sign at a state fair one of my readers sent to me. It’s probably one of the most honest signs you’ll ever read if you see the word “diabetic” as an adjective of what happens if you eat the funnel cakes:

Why does this Halloween display at Wal-mart seem prophetic–candy aisle, Grim Reaper, hmmmm:


Monday, October 24, 2011

"A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" - Part II by Jimmy Moore

I should probably send Christine a bouquet of “Bacon Roses” for her birthday coming up on November 11th–think she’d dig getting these:

This sign makes a statement that I can’t help but agree with (although I’d say “or you’re lying” instead):

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Courtesy of Jimmy Moore

I've just been doing some catch up reading and listening on Jimmy Moore's blog, and I always get a chuckle out of his monthly "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" post each month. So I thought I'd share some of October's with you.

But the fact of the matter is we are all really vegetarians. Some of us are direct vegetarians and a lot of us low-carbers are “indirect vegetarians”:

And yet being vegetarian for moral purposes of preserving life really doesn’t hold water when you stop and think about it:

If we are what we eat, then here’s the perfect food for us to consume:

Wouldn’t you LOVE to go to a restaurant like this:





Saturday, October 15, 2011

How to Recover After a Hit and Run by the Carb Truck

Reading back through the posts on the OFL Forum, it seems several of us have been victims of a hit and run by the carb truck recently. I am in the group that does well all day till evening and then blows everything. Then I wake up in the night and eat even more illegal carbs. I decided yesterday it had to come to a screeching halt. Trying to recover from all the carbs, I found even that the legal ones were inducing me to eat things I shouldn't.

So yesterday, I made myself get up and boil eggs and cook chicken and beef right after breakfast. I only ate eggs and meat all day long and it seemed to break the pattern. Every time, I felt the least bit hungry, I was nibbling on an egg or eating some meat or chicken. My bedtime snack was slices of steak. I didn't wake in the night hungry, and was not my usual frantic self wanting to grab food immediately this morning. I will probably do the meat and eggs thing for another day or two- it seems to be helping me get back under control. I have not dared to weigh recently, but I know I've gained by the fit of my clothes. I will start weighing and tracking after a couple more days of this, and report back

I am like Jimmy Moore. I do not say this is what everyone should do. I think everyone has to find their own ways that help them. If you are struggling with illegal carbs, you might give this a try and see what happens.

Fish Chowder for Two Courtesy of Arlene

As most of you know I am a retired chef, and generally love detailed recipes. But, with all the stress of the past year and my mother's illness and death, I just haven't been in the mood to be too "cheffy." So, I was pleased to see this nice simple and delicious recipe from Arlene for Fish chowder! Mine is much more detailed and time consuming. Arlene's recipe is definitely one I would make- you know it's no good knowing all these wonderful detailed recipes if you don't actually make them! So give this one a try. think it would work well for any seafood.

Fish Chowder for 2

8 ounces of cod or other white fish
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp butter
heavy cream or half and half
1 cup chopped peppers (green, red, yellow)
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 cup water

Melt butter, add onion and saute unti clear. Add fish, and partially cover fish with cream. Cover the pan, and bring to almost boiling - poach the fish for about 7-10 min or until it flakes easily.
Break up the fish and add water, and vegetables, cover and steam until veggies are soft. Add more cream, and let it simmer to thicken. I use lots of Old Bay spices for this. If you can eat potatoes, add the potatoes when you add the veggies.

Atkins Math 101- Part II Courtesy of Sharon

I'm a couple of days late getting this posted, but it's here now. Sharon has now conducted her second lesson in Atkins Math. It's worth studying! I thought I knew all about fatsecret.com, but I learned things from Sharon.

Atkins Math 101- Part II

Good morning, girls! Please turn off your cellphones, take out your laptops and enter your breakfasts in Fatsecret -- and you in the back row, throw that gum in the wastebasket and enter it! Yes, even sugarless gum has carbs and should be tracked!

Today we're going to talk about RDI. But before we do, I want to thank BlueEyes for pointing out something after the last class. BlueEyes puts all her vegetables into Snacks so she can make sure she's eating enough of them. That's fine if you want to do that. But if so, you have to take your other snacks and enter them along with your most recent meal.

Let's say you have a cup of chopped tomatoes with your breakfast, and some pork rinds during recess. If you want to track your food exactly when you eat it, the tomatoes would be entered under Breakfast, and the pork rinds would be entered under Snacks. If you want to track your veggies separately, you'd enter those tomatoes as a snack -- but then you'd have to go back and add the pork rinds to your breakfast. But you shouldn't write them both down as snacks, or it just gets confusing. And thank you again, BlueEyes!

Now then: RDI. That stands for "Recommended Daily Intake". Today we'll learn why we need an RDI, and how we set it.

The New Atkins for a New You -- and I hope you've all read it; it's required reading for this course -- says you don't have to count calories unless you stop losing weight. Many of us, though, do stop losing weight at some point, even if we're very good about our ratios. That's called a "stall". And one of the ways to make sure we don't stall -- or that we get out of a stall and don't stall again -- is to make sure we're not eating too much of a good thing.

Now please look at your Fatsecret food page. Under the pie graph on the bottom right, you'll see the words "Set your Recommended Daily Intake". Click on them, please. -- Has everybody clicked? Good!

Please read the explanations below the big yellow rectangle. Now set your diet goal and your activity level. But when you do that, boys and girls, I'm going to give you a little bit of advice. Many people think they're more active than they actually are. So if you think you're active, you're probably low active, and if you think you're low active, you're probably sedentary. -- Do you have a question? -- Well, if you think you're sedentary, then enter "sedentary", but make a point of getting a bit more active. We'll talk about that in another lesson.

When you finish setting your diet goal and your activity level, click the green button that says "Calculate your RDI." And that's it, easy as pie!

Now, as you track your food, the little graph to the left of the pie graph will fill up with little green squares, and the percentage of your RDI will show. If you happen to go over 100% of your RDI, the squares will turn red. But please remember: that does not mean you've failed! There are no grades for RDI in this course. It just means you should be a bit more careful tomorrow.

Do you have a question? -- Good question! If you're tracking your food properly and your ratios are good, and you get close to 100% but you're still hungry before bedtime, what do you do? Well, that happens to me about once or twice a month, and I'll tell you what I do. I drink a glass of water, I wait about 20 minutes -- and if I'm still hungry, I eat. Not much, and wisely -- I really try never to go over 105% -- but enough that I don't go to bed hungry. Going to bed hungry is more dangerous than red squares, because you'll wake up in the middle of the night, and you'll be awake enough to eat, but not awake enough to remember to track... and maybe not even awake enough to remember to eat the right things.

Did I see another hand? -- Oh, very good! What happens if you just can't fit in your 100%? The answer is "Nothing, really" -- if it just happens once in a while, and if you've gotten in at least 90%. But if you eat less than 90% too often, your body will think you're starving, and you'll hold on to your body fat and not burn it. If you see you're having problems fitting your food in, maybe you need to eat four meals a day, not three. I eat breakfast around 6 am, track it, eat my first lunch around 11 am, track that -- and then I eat my second lunch around 3 pm and add it to my first lunch, and then I just track my dinner normally.

Thank you, girls. Please put your laptops away. Next lesson will be about Tracking Food Away From Home -- and please, anyone who hasn't read The New Atkins for a New You, please do so. I don't want to have to spring a pop quiz on you...

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Atkins Math 101 Courtesy of Sharon

Sharon, one of our most faithful OFL's  has conducted a recent "class" on how to achieve the correct percentages of fat, protein and carbs in our WOE. It is excellent, fun and easy to understand! So take a look:

Good morning, girls, this is Atkins Math 101. Please turn off all cellphones -- and, you two in the back row, we would all appreciate it if you either quiet down or let us hear what you have to say!

Now then.

To master the principles of Atkins Math 101, all you need is a computer, Internet, and a lovely site called fatsecret.com. Now, everyone take your laptops, go to www.fatsecret.com and open an account. Who already has an account? Oh, good, there's one girl who does. I want you to be my monitor while everyone else is doing that, and make sure there's no talking or disruption. Meanwhile, if anyone has trouble opening an account, just raise your hands and I'll be right there to help.

-- OK, we all have accounts. Now let's go to "Diet Calendar" -- on the right side of the page -- and click on "Enter Food". Got that? Now, look at "Breakfast". Everyone click "Add item" under "Breakfast" and enter what they had for breakfast this morning, one item at a time.

All done? Good. Now scroll down to the bottom of the page. You'll see a pie graph labeled "Calorie Breakdown". This shows you how much of your breakfast was fat, how much was protein, and how much was carbs. Do you all see it?

Now, here is the most important part of our lesson. To do well on Atkins, we want the numbers on the pie graph to be as close as possible to this: *70% fat, 20% protein, and 10% carbs* -- Do you have a question? -- Yes, you're right, that 10% is total carbs. If you want to count net carbs, you have to tell Fatsecret.com to do so. Go to "Edit preferences" right under the "total calories" at the top of the page. You can do that after class. But net carbs are counted at the top of the page, and not in the pie graph. So the 70-20-10 is fat, protein and *total* carbs.

OK, who has more than 70% fat? Please raise your hands. -- Thank you. All of you will eat more protein and carbs, and less fat, at lunch.

Who has more than 20% protein? Please raise your hands. -- How do you think you should correct your lunch? -- That's right! More fat and carbs, and less protein. And the same for carbs -- if you have more than 10% carbs for breakfast, eat more fat and protein, and less carbs, for lunch.

Do you have a question? -- Oh, that's a *good* question! Anything you eat between breakfast and lunch is a Snack. Enter it under "Snacks / Other" and check the pie graph again.

Checking after dinner is especially important because it's your last chance to correct your ratios for the day.
Remember to check and correct after every meal and every snack, and keep your ratios as close as possible to 70-20-10

Thank you, girls. Put away your laptops. You may turn on your cellphones at recess -- and tomorrow we will talk about RDI -- that's the little square chart next to the pie graph -- and what it means.

Class dismissed!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Zip Lock Bag Ice Cream Courtesy of Susi

Lately, several of our OFL's have talked about wanting ice cream. Susi our family member from deep east Texas has given us an incredibly simple recipe for making ice cream in a zip lock bag! I would make some now, but I'm out of cream, so it's on the grocery list. Take a look:

For those of you needing ice cream- here is a great way to make it that tastes just like the old fashioned home made! We made it in our Science class when I was teaching 3rd grade and then I modified it for Low Carbing!

Zip-lock bag Ice Cream

1/2 c. heavy cream
1/4-1/2 c water
2 t. vanilla
sweetener to taste

Put all of the above in a small zip lock bag. Close securely. Then put the small bag in to a large zip-lock bag- add 2 cups of ice and about 1 T table salt. Close the bag and shake for about 5-7 minutes. Eat it out of the bag! You will see it start to get hard.
My daddy used to love for me to make this for him when they lived with us for a while. You can experiment with the water to heavy cream ratio- water of course freezes faster and harder- so the more you have the harder it will get. You can also add choc syrup or cocoa for chocolate. Now it gets cold and drips everywhere so do it outside or over the sink. You will love it!

An In-depth Look at Toxins Courtesy of Dr. Ben Kim

As most of you know by now, I receive Dr. Ben Kim's Newsletter about different subjects of interest for better health. I feel like most of what he has to say is spot on. The only place I diverge from aggreeing with him is in food choices. Although the diet he advises is better than some, for us low-carbers, it contains way too many carbs and we need more fat than he recommends.

That being said, I was catching up on reading previous newsletters and came across this one on toxins in the body and how we get rid of them. It is very informative and full of useful information. So, do take time and have a read:

http://drbenkim.com/toxins-cleansing-detoxing.htm

Bayona Cream of Garlic Soup Courtesy of Elaine

Elaine, one of our OFL's and her family have had colds, so her solution was Bayona Cream of Garlic soup. Garlic and onions both are very good for colds. This sounds delicious! Elaine cut carbs by using low carb bread, but I really think the soup could be made by leaving the bread out and entirely and just simmering a while longer to let it thicken naturally. When I try it that way, I will report back. I am trying to avoid gluten totally, so I wouldn't use the low carb bread.

Here's the link for soup recipe, I just cut down on the bread and used low carb instead:
http://blog.nola.com/recipes/2008/02/cream_of_garlic_soup.html

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Lazy Woman's Way to Peel Garlic

Being a chef, I learned in culinary school about banging the flat side of a knife against a garlic clove and easily peeling it, but this trick contributed by Sharon is even better. I've already tried it and it works like a charm. I did a rather large head of garlic this way and just stored the cloves I didn't want to use right away in olive oil in the fridge for another use. Thanks Sharon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d3oc24fD-c&feature=player_embedded

Tahini Talk Courtesy of Sharon

Sharon, one of our long time faithful OFL's has taught us along the way about foods from Israel and the Middle East. I have long heard of tahini, but never tried it, so take a look at what Sharon has to say about it. I'm definitely going to look for it in the one store here I think will carry it:

I've been eating less coconut oil candy lately and more tahini. It's really good. You can make it sweet with SF chocolate syrup or SF maple syrup, or savory with lemon, garlic and salt. Tahini base (what comes in the jar, that you add water and whatever else to) is 92 calories a tablespoon, with a ratio of 78% fat, 12% protein, 10% carbs. Two tablespoons, with an equal amount of water beaten in and a teaspoon of whatever SF syrup you choose, is an amazing way to end the day.


Tahini is made of ground sesame seeds. Health food stores and Middle Eastern food stores carry it. The best brands, in my opinion, are the organic ones made in Israel -- Adama (which means "earth" in Hebrew, as in what you plant in, not as in the globe) and Harduf (which means "oleander" in Hebrew). But any tahini is good. Not the already seasoned kind ("tahini salad") that might be in the refrigerator case, but the plain kind ("tahini base") that's in a jar on the shelf. Careful -- even the jar kind may be pre-seasoned in some brands, and then you can't use it for sweet. You want 100% sesame tahini.

Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup Courtesy of Elaine

Elaine, one of our OFL's just contributed this recipe for sugar free chocolate syrup. I really like the idea of the mint in it, as one of my favorite ice creams (that is pre-Atkins days) was chocolate chip mint ice cream. So, it seems a little of this over Bryer's Carb Smart ice cream would be a wonderful substitute! You could even toss a few sugar free chocolate chips on it. So give this a try:

Hi Everyone! Have this wonderful recipe for chocolate syrup, better than Hersheys when made with dark cocoa:

Ingredients:
•1/2 cup cocoa powder
•3/4 cup cold water
•3/4 cup equivalent in sugar substiture (I use Xylitol)
•30 chocolate mint leaves, rinsed, patted dry, and torn into pieces (You may substitute plain mint).

In a small saucepan, combine the cocoa powder and cold water, and whisk together until smooth. Add the sweetener and torn mint leaves and place the saucepan over medium heat.
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to melt the sugar. As soon as the syrup begins to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, until it begins to thicken and turn glossy. Strain or pull out mint leaves and keep in refrigerator.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Another Plate! Harvard's "Healthy Eating Plate"

I've just been reading Jimmy Moore's blog post about yet another "plate," supposedly superior to the USDA's "My Plate." I can see little difference and as usual, it totally ignores the thousands in this nation with type I and type II diabetes! Not to mention those of us who are merely carb sensitive and need a high fat low carb diet to be healthy. Sigh... Here is the address for Jimmy's article. Very interesting and too long to copy and paste:  
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/

The Harvard School of Public Health is hosting a LIVE one-hour Q&A session about the “Healthy Eating Plate” with Dr. Eric Rimm, associate professor in the departments of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard, on Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 2:30PM EST. You must SIGN UP to be a part of this discussion that is happening tomorrow. Dr. Rimm was one of the people responsible for creating the “Healthy Eating Plate” and he wants to hear YOUR feedback about it. If you are unable to attend the event when it takes place, then they have two other ways you can submit your questions: E-mail them to communications@hsph.harvard.edu or submit them on Twitter using the hashtag #platetalk.

I strongly urge all of you low carbers to participate in this if you're able. We need to have our voices heard! Are the high carb folks the only ones being listened to? Make your voice heard, either by participating or sending written questions and comments. I don't know if Dr. Rimm will pay attention, but it's certainly worth a try!

New and Different Cauli-Rice Courtesy of Dana Carpender

Well, I have finally managed to get back to the blog. I still have a ton of reading and research to do, and will put stuff up as I get it done. I wanted to go ahead and post this recipe of Dana's as it sounds really good! I am finally managing to follow the WOE, after being very bad during the last three weeks of my mother's illness. So, I am eager to try new and different things to cut down on boredom with food. I love sun-dried tomatoes and bacon, so this should be a keeper!

Pecan, Sun-Dried Tomato and Bacon Cauli-Rice

This was wonderful with a simple rib eye steak last night. It was just as good warmed up with a few slivers of leftover steak mixed in, and three fried eggs on top, for breakfast this morning. If I'd had more leftover steak, it would have made a great one-dish meal with a substantial quantity of leftover steak slivered up in it.

Pecan, Sun-Dried Tomato and Bacon Cauli-Rice
1/2 cauliflower head
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tablespoon butter
3 bacon slices
1 small onion
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, oil-packed -- chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 Tablespoon beef bouillon concentrate
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon pepper
First, trim the leaves and the very bottom of the stem off the half-head of cauliflower, and whack the rest into chunks that'll fit in your food processor feed tube. Run it through the shredding blade, and put the resulting cauli-rice in a microwaveable casserole with a lid, or even better, in a microwave steamer. Add a few tablespoons water, cover, and nuke on high for 7-8 minutes. (You want it tender-crisp, not mushy.)
In the meanwhile, in a small skillet, over medium-low heat, melt the butter, and start sauteing the chopped pecans. Put your big, heavy skillet over medium heat, and use your kitchen shears to snip the bacon into it -- you want it to be bacon bits when it's crisp.
Go chop your onion and sun-dried tomatoes! (I actually had julienned sun-dried tomatoes in oil; didn't even have to chop 'em.) You could chop the parsley, too, but don't forget to go give your two skillets a stir. You don't want your pecans or bacon to burn.
Somewhere in here, your microwave will beep. Uncover your cauliflower right away, so it won't continue cooking and go mushy on you.
Okay, we're going to assume your bacon bits are crisp now. Scoop 'em out with a slotted spoon and reserve 'em on a plate. Pour off about half the grease (save it for cooking.) Throw the onion in the remaining grease, and saute it till it's translucent.
Now drain the cauli-rice and add it to the skillet, along with the beef bouillon concentrate, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper. Stir carefully -- your skillet will be very full -- until the seasonings and onion are evenly distributed.
Stir in the pecans, tomatoes, parsley, and bacon bits, and serve.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I got at least 6 servings, each with: 94 Calories; 7g Fat; 3g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 5 g usable carb.