Month: November 2009

Warning: Pork Rind Stuffing (With Update)

The following recipe might perhaps serve as a warning, rather than a suggestion.

As mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to make a low carb stuffing, and had planned to use low carb bread as a substitute for regular bread. Then it came to me: pork rinds! They would make a wonderful bread substitute.

I thought this truly original – then I did a search on ‘pork rind stuffing’ and found a recipe straight away – so much for my originality. Anyway, the recipe said it looked and tasted just like the real thing. I at least felt validated, and decided that this would be my big Thanksgiving experiment.

I wasn’t going to burden my family with the results of my experiment, so I had a box of the Stove Top Stuffing for the rest of the crew.

I decided to roughly follow a recipe I’ve made for the kids with leftover bread – substituting the pork rinds – here it is: Continue reading “Warning: Pork Rind Stuffing (With Update)” →

My Low Carb Thanksgiving

It’s the weekend before Thanksgiving here in the US, and I’ve put together a list of what I am going to make. As is the case with me, I am the only person at the table doing low carb, so the recipes have to be acceptable to them – or it be realistic to run similar dishes side by side – there’s just so much time and space in the kitchen.

Here goes: Continue reading “My Low Carb Thanksgiving” →

Recipe: Fast and Easy Baked Chicken Thighs

Simplicity is the name of the game here. It’s meant to be a recipe for when you don’t want to cook.

  • 3 or 4 chicken thighs – I get mine ‘IQF’ – ‘Individually Quick Frozen’, which means I pull a bag out of the freezer, grab some thighs, and I’m done. Trader Joe’s has great thighs.
  • Olive oil
  • Poultry seasoning – this is a pre-mixed seasoning that prevent you from having to think about it. I used a Trader Joes no-salt version of the stuff
  • Salt

Preheat oven to 400. Place thighs on a cookie sheet that’s been sprayed with non-stick spray. Drizzle olive oil over the thighs, sprinkle a liberal amount of the seasoning over the olive-oil-covered thighs, then add a bit of salt.

Place in oven for 25 minutes. Optional: set oven to broil for 5-7 additional minutes.

Chicken thighs have more flavor than breasts because of the higher fat content. They also tend to be less dry. They are also typically cheaper, since the average person’s fear of fat keeps the cost of thighs down.

The flavor can sometimes be a bit…strong, for lack of a better word, but this way of preparing them gave them a terrific flavor.

Safe for induction, a great meal for folks just starting Atkins, and a nearly idiot-proof recipe. The only thing that can go wrong is that you forget to turn off the oven and burn down the house.

I can’t help you there.

Recipe: Lazy Guy’s Baked Cod Alfredo

I purchased some wild caught cod and wanted to make my own sauce, which I typically make from mayo, parm cheese, and butter – but I had already made the Ricotta Cranberry Cream concoction and didn’t feel like pulling out another bowl.

I had bought Bertolli Alfredo sauce for my kids – it was sitting on the counter. I took a look at the label, and the carbs were pretty low. So I used that. Continue reading “Recipe: Lazy Guy’s Baked Cod Alfredo” →

Recipe: Ricotta Cranberry Cream Pie UPDATE

This Acutally Looks Presentable - a First For MeUPDATE: I made it 11/15 and added the picture. I also fixed the recipe – forgot the cinnamon.

I actually don’t know if this is technically a ‘pie’, a ‘tart’, or some other culinary species that I am aware of: I just know that I took a stab at the below concoction, it came out good enough that my daughter has had it for breakfast (willingly) two days in a row, and I am making it again – certainly for Thanksgiving.

It also came out of the oven looking pretty good – not normally an aspect of my cooking, but I’ll take it. I would have liked to take a picture of this one, but I didn’t – maybe next time. UPDATE: I did make it again – the pic is above. Continue reading “Recipe: Ricotta Cranberry Cream Pie UPDATE” →

Sugar Possibly Shortens Your Life, and Even Worse – It Causes Wrinkles

I love when I find articles that confirm my personal biases. No deep thinking or cognitive dissonance required, no need to try and refute the conclusions. Life is good.

Anyway, a pair of articles came to my attention this week. The first, from Science News Daily, cites research on worms that concludes that excess sugar can shorten lifespan by 20%. Here’s my fave line from the article: Continue reading “Sugar Possibly Shortens Your Life, and Even Worse – It Causes Wrinkles” →

17 Days in Ketosis – Punching the Clock

A brief update. For the first time in ages, I’ve been in ketosis for almost three weeks. I don’t think I’ve had such a long, unbroken run since I lost my weight originally – 6 years ago.

Maybe – just maybe – this time might be the one that I peel off the extra pounds and get to my goal weight?

We’ll have to see. Continue reading “17 Days in Ketosis – Punching the Clock” →

Gallery of Regrettable Food

Somewhat off topic: many, many years ago I stumbled across this site – a labor of love by a writer from the midwest. He’s a fellow with a number of curious interests, and one of them is collecting old cookbooks.

The result is the ‘Gallery of Regrettable Food‘ – a fond (and maybe not-so-fond) look back at some of the awful things Americans were encouraged to feed their families in the middle part of the last century.

It was a time of great contradictions, where Julia Child enlightened Americans to the complexities of French cooking – and yet, there were recipe books on how to cook with Dr. Pepper.

I encourage you to check out his site. Note that there are many more ‘subjects’ that he covers on the site – check out the entire Institute for Official Cheer, which covers the same time period – and proves that there was something deeply wrong and disturbing lurking in the human psyche in the middle of the last century.

Of course, we’ve moved on to other deeply wrong and disturbing things, but that’s another off-topic post for another day.