For the most part, the Snook and I are so similar that I just kinda forget that we grew up in different countries. Every now and then, though, I make a startling discovery, like the fact that he’s never eaten Kraft Macaroni and Cheese before. How weird is that? Luckily the box my Aunt Deb sent me for Christmas made it through quarantine, so I was able to initiate him into the realm of crap budget pasta dishes tonight. It was just inconceivable to me that he’d never experienced the joys of elbow macaroni and day-glo orange cheese powder before. I’m happy to report that – though he initially thought it had a “strange aftertaste” – he quickly wolfed down his portion. Another bridge crossed…
Category: Cooking
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Pancakes
Ooh! I almost forgot it’s Shrove Tuesday. We’re not religious, but hey, any excuse for pancakes, right? I’m torn between making my good ol’ American thick-and-big-as-a-dinner-plate recipe and this crepe-style one from Delia Smith. Hmmm, maybe we’ll have both. It’s supposed to be a bit of a feast, right? Then it’s straight back to the low-carb, I promise.
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Snook’s Low-Carb Blueberry-Banana-Flaxseed Muffins
The Snook has been cruising various low-carb websites in search of recipes to emulate the high-carb stuff we’ve been missing. Yesterday he picked up lots of almond meal and ground flax seeds in preparation for doing some baking. We spotted some blueberries at the greengrocer and I flashed back to Max’s blueberry-banana muffins. Armed with an idea, the Snook took to the kitchen for some invention. The resulting muffins don’t look so great, but they taste pretty good and it’s nice to eat something “bread-y” again. We estimate they’ve got about 12 grams of carbs each, so you’d best avoid them if you’re doing Induction.
Ingredients:
- 5 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 cup cream
- 1/3 cup artificial sweetener (we use “Splenda”)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup flax seed meal
- 1/4 cup soy flour
- 1 small banana, mashed
- 1/2 cup blueberries
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Beat the first three ingredients together, then add the sweetener and vanilla. In another bowl mix up all the dry ingredients. Then combine the wet and dry together and add the fruit. Now fill up your muffin cups and pop them in the oven. The Snook reckons they need to bake for 20-25 minutes, but test by poking them.
He made six fairly big muffins out of this. They don’t rise a lot, so you can fill the cups up pretty full. The resulting muffins are dark brown and pretty dense, but the fruit makes them taste great. They’ve got lots of fiber too.
Let us know if you make any yummy modifications!
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The Frugal Gourmet
That last post got me thinking about “The Frug” and how I haven’t seen his show in ages. So I hit Google and found out why. Whoa. Am I the only one who didn’t know about this? There’s even a “Jump the Shark” page devoted to the show. I’m in total shock here.
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Nigella vs Martha
The Chicago Sun-Times gets in on the Nigella Lawson love-fest. Are British chefs sexier than American ones? (Personally, I always had a crush on Craig, the Frugal Gourmet’s hot young assistant.) Martha Stewart fans might be amused with the “Nigella vs. Martha” comparison chart at the end of the article. Nigella, for example, is “deep conditioner” to Martha’s “hot glue”. My favorite? Nigella: “Dresses as if she loves men.” Martha: “Dresses as if she loves horses.” Hee!
Edited 04/04/2025: Link is dead and not archived.
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A rare culinary success!
Last night I tried my hand at one of the classics of American cuisine: the venerable meat loaf. And guess what? It turned out great! Well, it wasn’t the best looking thing ever, but it tasted good. I need to stick to the basics, I guess.
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Rice Krispie Treats
Okay, this is gonna sound stupid, but can anybody e-mail me a recipe for Rice Krispie Treats? I’ve got a hankering for them but I’m not sure how to make them. I went to the store for a box of the cereal, but to my surprise I discovered that here it’s called “Rice Bubbles”. The only recipe on the box was for “Chocolate Crinkles”, which is apparently the preferred puffed rice treat of choice here in Australia. (Snook says they’re nasty. They consist of cereal, cocoa, coconut, sugar, and fat. Actually, though, that doesn’t sound that far off Rice Krispie Treats. He says, “They’re the kind of thing little kids eat lots of and end up all sticky and covered in chocolate and then they chuck because they ate eleven of them.”) Anyway, I don’t want some random recipe off the Internet; I want the official Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treat formula. If anybody’s got a box at home, I’d be ever so grateful if you’d pass it along.