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llc45

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Everything posted by llc45

  1. My family has been following a variation of this (called Specific Carbohydrate Diet) since September due to a medical issue in the family. I think it is pretty much the Paleo diet - it allows honey which I am not sure that the Paleo diet does. We followed the diet strictly for about two months and found it too restrictive although highly effective at reducing the medical symptoms of an autoimmune disease. We are not big meat eaters and missed grains too much. We have now modified the diet to include small amounts of grains that would be allowed on an anti-inflammatory diet - steel cut oats for breakfast, brown rice, and are latest find - Dreamfield pasta. This pasta was created for diabetics I believe. You absorb very few of the carbs. I would say we are now following something that approximates the anti-inflammatory diet promoted by Dr Andrew Weil on his website - with fewer whole grains. The diet forces you to eat to eat whole foods because most processed foods have sugar in them. With the modifications, I have to say I have come to love this way of eating. My husband has lost about 15 lbs and lowered his cholesterol. I have lost some weight (I never weigh myself but I am fitting into jeans I haven't worn in awhile). We just have a lot more energy. I have come to love greek yogurt with mixed berries (Costco brand) every day. We have been eating a lot more fish and non-meat protein sources such as tofu. For mashed potatoes, we substitute cauliflower or rutabagas. Roasted rutabagas in place of french fries. We eat lots of roasted vegetables in general. The one thing we haven't found a good substitute for is bread. I tried making bread from nut flour and coconut flour - just wasn't worth the effort. The hardest convert was my husband, who comes from a family of diabetics and was starting to head in that direction. He had a hard time giving up cereal for breakfast. But he now feels so much healthier and is finally losing weight, something he has tried to do for a long time. After many years of trying various things, we feel we have found a diet that works for us even though losing weight is not what made us try it to start with.
  2. llc45

    Broccoli stems

    There is a recipe on new york times website for pickled broccoli stems that I like a lot. I also usually but the florets but when I get broccoli and generally use to make broccoli cheddar soup, puree, or the NYT recipe.
  3. Thanks for sharing this info. I've never heard of honey crystals. I have been doing a lot of cooking with honey lately due to a family member's special diet. In the last week, I've been experimenting with cheesecake, cookies, meringues, and pumpkin pie using honey. I am not a sweets person and don't bake much normally but, if this helps, am willing to keep trying. My two issues are the baked goods staying "sticky/not crispy" and the honey being not complex enough (don't know if that makes sense) but am comparing to brown sugar. I am baking for a person who is on a very low carb diet so I have also been substituting flour with nut flour and coconut flour. I made a pumpkin pie this week where I carmelized the honey first by bringing to the soft boil stage first. I felt this added a much better flavor and am going to try this with some other baked goods this week. Have not liked the stickiness with the cheesecakes and meringues. I think honey crystals may be my answer. Can i still carmelize them like sugar? As a starting point, should I sub equal to amount of sugar? I have been subbing 3/4 cup honey for 1 c sugar and was still finding it too cloying until I tried carmelizing.
  4. I am hoping that Mike V doesn't make the final three. Would really like to see Jen get her groove back but she definitely stresses out too much. If I had to pick the winner at this stage, my vote would be on Kevin. Good food is good food, no matter how it is made.
  5. OOOOOHHHH - I'm so glad you made that. I saw it and thought it looked to die for. I've been traveling a lot in the last few weeks and hope I can still get corn.
  6. I already bought the brain mold several years ago, guess I have to go add to my collection...
  7. It's funny - I've been begging my teen daughter for over a year now to let me make her lunch. She hates most of the school lunches and has been buying a bagel every day instead and then coming home ravenous. As I posted above, I finally convinced her to let me make lunch based on this thread. Although she kept saying it was not cool to bring lunch, some of her lunchmates are now craving her lunch and wait every day to see what she brings. Her best friend however brings PB&J every day and can't imagine deviating from this perfect lunch. I used leftover shrimp and Christmas lima beans to make tacos yesterday. Apparently, several people were so intrigued and had to try a lima bean. Today, she asked for a little more so that she can share.
  8. The tighter you pack the contents on the inside of the ox, the less they roll around and spread. Also, you can get some cute small lidded containers for condiments that may help. I used to drain wet things like pickles on a bit of paper towel or a bamboo strainer to get extra juice off. Thanks Erin - I am starting to get the hang of it. Today I used the leftover shrimp and beans to make lettuce tacos. Used a separate container to put all of the other things in so that they would stay dry.
  9. I buy Chobani and Fage interchangeably depending on what's on sale. When Fage started being produced in NY instead of Greece, there was a noticeable quality decrease but they seem to have worked the kinks out. I also buy Oikos occasionally but that does not seem to go onsale readily. When I was making yogurt, I experimented with using the Greek yogurt as a starter but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. However, getting organic fresh milk did. Like I said above,I can buy Greek yogurt on sale which reduces the costs well below my homemade yogurt. A quart of organic milk costs way more, especially after straining to get a Greek yogurt consistency. I have a grad paper due at midnight tonight - talking about yogurt is a great distraction!
  10. I was never very thrilled with yogurt until I read about Fage yogurt several years ago on an egullet thread. Tried it, loved it, and am thrilled that there are now a variety of greek-style yogurts available that means I can normally get one of the brands I like on sale every week. Before greek yogurt was readily available, I had to go to a health food store for my weekly supply of Fage at high prices. So I started making my own. It is easy to duplicate with a little practice. If you drain it too much and it ends up like farm cheese, just add some whey back in to get it back to the right consistency. Now that I can get it on sale, I have gone back to buying it again.
  11. That pretty much sums up my family situation as well. I came from a family of people who hate to cook, my one sister married a good cook but the rest of them rely on dinners out or take out. My 15 year old daughter has an excellant palate - loves all ethnic food, calamari, sushi, pretty much all types of meat and seafood, most vegetables, tofu, and hot/ spicy things. Not a huge fruit lover and hates fruit juice. At 5 ft 1 in and 95 lbs, she eats like a linebacker. But if she has to fend for herself, she will go without eating or, if really hungry, will grab a bowl of cereal or heat up premade lentil chili. She also will not eat leftovers. Since my family didn't cook, I had fantasies of how thrilled my daughter would be when I taught her how to cook. Boy was I wrong!
  12. Thanks to all of this inspiration - I have started making my daughter's school lunch "bento" style. She was getting so bored of the school lunches she was buying a bagel every day for lunch and not getting home until 6 pm every day after tennis practice. So even though it is apparently not cool, she brought lunch every day this week and is loving having a bunch of different things to eat. Her favs so far - grape tomatoes and carrots with hummus. For the protein - potstickers, meatballs, cubed tofu (she actually loves plain tofu), turkey and cheese wrap. I am actually getting her to eat vegetables every day - amazing. Even though I am just using some of our plain plastic containers, the varieties and colors (and some type of dessert)is making the lunch much more appealing. She did inform me that I am not doing the greatest job of keeping things separate (pickle juice got all over, ditto marinara from meatballs). She carries a backpack and her tennis bag everyday so I have to keep the container small and light.
  13. llc45

    Costco

    A few new favorites at Costco - frozen Cod and Mahi Mahi. I had purchased frozen fish (don't remember which kind) there from time to time and wasn't that pleased. Both of these products are excellant and a great value. Also, their frozen mixed berries - much better than the ones in my local supermarket. Lastly,Madras curry lentil chili - comes in small packages perfect size for my daughter to eat after school before she delves into the ice cream. I have also been buying the thin Arnolds? whole wheat sandwich roles to keep on hand in the freezer.
  14. Just wanted to thank all of you for your excellant suggestions. I have to say that I wasn't as successful as I had hoped to be but I definitely made a bit of impact in their eating situation. I compiled a list of easy recipes from here and others that I make. My nephew had zero interest but having some easy recipes to choose from might help both of them in the future. I did fill the freezer with meatballs and soup. Also, I made an Italian turkey meatloaf one night even though they both said they both hate meatloaf and they liked it. So I made a bunch in muffin cups for the freezer. They didn't make it that far but my sister said she would definitely make that again. My nephew was really interested in the cheeseburger casserole recipe from PopsicleToze so I bought the ingredients and put the meat in the freezer and asked if he would try to make one dinner a week. My sister really wanted pasta most nights so that's what I made, even though my nephew would only eat it plain with chicken fingers. My sister loves cabbage rolls so I showed her how to make an easy unstuffed version - more like a soup. She said she is going to try it again because it was so easy. Hopefully, once they start realizing how easy it is, they'll start eating a little better which I believe will help my sister tremendously. I couldn't wait to get back home to well stocked pantry. Anyway, I got them started and now just have to keep my fingers crossed. Thanks again!
  15. llc45

    Good Autumn Food

    "Peposo" - Italian stew made with lots of cracked black pepper and chianti Unstuffed cabbage soup slow cooked until the meat and cabbage are very tender
  16. So long ago but I still remember the girl down the hall who's mother sent dry sausages, bread, and great mustard, in addition to the cheese and crackers mentioned above. Complete with wine made a great happy hour. Anything chocolate was also a biggie.
  17. Just wanted to bump this up in case anyone is looking for a great Halloween project. I have making both of these for a Halloween party every year since Tejon posted these. Both recipes are great and the brain looks so real. The only change I made is that I make raspberry sauce instead of pomegranite. Thanks Tejon!
  18. Agreed. I'm sort of sad to admit that no "from scratch" brownie I've ever put out has tasted better than these badboys. Try subbing in Kahlua or dark rum for the water, and see where that takes you. Oh sugar, I realllllllllllly wish you hadnt said that. Oh dearie me. It s a long time til I get off work today. [/quote) Uh Oh - It turns out i just bought a box of 6 Ghiradelli brownie mixes from Costco last weekend to tryout and my Dad just bought me two bottles of Kahlua!
  19. llc45

    Making Garlic Vinegar

    I guess I finally have a reason to justify the long trip to Corrados. I have wanted to make a field trip for a long time.
  20. llc45

    Making Garlic Vinegar

    Thanks for the reply Nicholas. Well, after having on our salads again tonight, I think I am going to have to learn how to make this because we love it and I don't think I can afford to keep buying it. I will definitely buy the oak barrel. However, I find the whole vinegar mother thing scary. I wonder if I could try adding garlic to cider vinegar and then aging in the barrel as an experiment. I could keep trying it to see when it got "mellow" enough. Just trying to figure out when to add the brown sugar, I guess at the end. The product I have has no discernable brown sugar taste so I think it is just there for balance.
  21. I bought some garlic vinegar at my local garlic festival this weekend. Wow - the stuff is so good. It says it is made with cider vinegar and brown sugar. I can't taste the brown sugar but I must say it is mellow and smooth - not at all harsh like I would expect from cider vinegar. It is also aged in oak barrels. We used on salad for Sunday dinner and my balsamic addicted daughter said she will never use balsamic again. Googling gives me many how tos but not with the brown sugar or aging that I think gives this vinegar the smooth taste. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would love to start making this.
  22. Darienne - We have the animal issue too and eat pretty much the same way you do(we do eat meat but mostly veg so lots of compost). We just have a heap in the wooded area behind our house and use the compost leftover after the animals eat their share. We go back and forth about putting in an enclosed bin system but, for the most part, we seem to generate enough waste for us and the deer. The bears don't seem to bother with it too much. We hope that by providing the pile, the deer will stay away from our landscaping but they pretty much eat everything anyway!
  23. Thanks again for the suggestions. I am leaving a week from Monday and will post back to let you know how I make out.
  24. Wow - the suggestions so far have been great. I am pretty sure that my nephew will eat each of them. My hope is that I can get him interested in cooking some of these things. He loves when I cook if I gear it to something he will eat and maybe he is so tired of fast food that he will try. I'm thinking of telling him that it will impress his dates in the future if he can cook. It's funny, I was the picky eater in my family growing up. My mother cooked rare meat, gravy and potatoes at least five nights a week. so this is how I started cooking as a teen because I was so tired of eating (or not eating in my case) the same thing night after night. Now I am the least picky eater in my family and they think I am a gourmet chef. The suggestion about grocery delivery is outstanding. I live in a rural area and would never have thought about it. My sister lives in Orlando and I am sure that I can get her set up for this. Especially, if I can put together a list of pantry items geared around what they like to eat.
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