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.
Tag: food
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Low-carb muffins
I’ve been experimenting with this low-carb muffin recipe. It’s pretty good. Yesterday I added a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter to the batter, which turned out really well. Today I tried putting in some frozen blueberries (thawed, of course) and some cinnamon. They tasted great, but I couldn’t get them out of the muffin pan in one piece. The bottoms stuck and the tops pulled off. What am I doing wrong? I sprayed the tin with “Butta” (that’s seriously what it’s called), which is basically a “Pam”-like cooking spray. Should I use something else? Am I baking too long/not long enough? Let me know if you have any guesses. Meanwhile I’m going to have to (regrettably) eat all the leftover yummy muffin bits stuck to the pan. Pity me.
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Vanilla Coke
I just came from the grocery store where I happily discovered that Vanilla Coke is finally available in Australia. I’m tasting it for the first time right now. It’s… surprisingly good! I read that some people thought it was overpowering or chemical-ish, but I think it’s just right. Of course, as sugar is a no-no on Atkins, it might just be the shock of having my first “real” Coke in three months. Do they have a Diet Vanilla Coke? They didn’t have it at my store. If they do, I’m all over that stuff.
Update: ACK! I just realized that the 600 mL bottle (of which I drank the whole thing) has 66 grams of carbs, 99% of which come from sugar! That’s three times the recommended Induction limit! No more Vanilla Coke for me til I locate Diet.
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Friday Five
I don’t like these questions so much. I’m too indecisive.
1. If you could only choose 1 cd to ever listen to again, what would it be?
Ugh. There’s no way I could pick just one. It would have to be a mix CD that I burned myself of all my favorite songs.2. If you could only choose 2 movies to watch ever again, what would they be?
Pride and Prejudice and the Star Wars Trilogy. (I can count Episodes 4-6 as one movie, right?)3. If you could only choose 3 books to read ever again, what would they be?
Jeez. No clue. Seeing a pattern here? If I absolutely had to pick… To Kill a Mockingbird, The Stand, and a book of Greek mythology. That covers a lot of ground.4. If you could only choose 4 things to eat or drink ever again, what would they be?
This one I like. 1) Mountain Dew. 2) My aunt Berb’s chicken and dumplings. 3) The Snook’s chicken risotto. 4) McDonald’s french fries. *dries drool off keyboard*5. If you could only choose 5 people to ever be/talk/associate/whatever with ever again, who would they be?
What, you expect me to answer honestly? My family reads this site! Actually, if you’re talking face-to-face association, I don’t think I even have five people here that I see on a regular basis. There’s the Snook… and that’s it. Yeah, I really need to make some Australian friends. -
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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LOL Heinz
You gotta love English cuisine. The UK government has given Heinz the go-ahead to label their tins of baked beans as counting towards your recommended daily intake of five portions fruit and vegetables. Apparently spaghetti-o’s and soup will count as well. Health experts are, as expected, horrified.
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General Tso’s chicken
Who is General Tso and why are we eating his chicken? Now we know. My college roommates and I would always wonder this when we placed our weekly order to Bai-Ju’s Noodle House in South Bend. On a similar note, did you know that Paul Simon got the song title “Mother and Child Reunion” from a chicken-and-egg dish he spotted on a Chinese restaurant’s menu? You need never be puzzled by your take-away again. (Original link courtesy of Fredo.)
Edited 18/04/2025: Original link is dead and not archived, so replaced with similar.
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Friday Five
1. What is your favorite restaurant and why?
In England, I would’ve said Wagamama’s. Love the gyozas. In the U.S., I’d probably say Chili’s (the one in South Bend, Indiana), since that’s where we always went during college. Here in Australia, though, I’d have to say Mama Maria’s. It’s a dinky little Italian place a couple blocks from here. Really great food and a friendly atmosphere. That’s our default place when we can’t pick anywhere else to go.2. What fast food restaurant are you partial to?
Internationally, McDonald’s. Yeah, yeah, global corporations are bad, but it’s such a comforting feeling knowing that wherever I go, I can always get a Quarter Pounder with Cheese that will taste exactly the way I expect it to taste. In the U.S., I’ll go with Taco Bell, since I miss it. They’ve got them here in Oz, but the stuff isn’t quite right. It’s close, but still a little wrong.3. What are your standards and rules for tipping?
I’m all messed up with this. See, in places other than the U.S., they actually pay wait staff a decent wage. Tipping isn’t necessarily expected. Delivery boys in England would make me wait while they made change, rather than just keeping it as I requested. It was weird. Here it’s much the same. You generally just leave the change (as in, the coins) and that’s enough. At a nice place, though, I think we generally tip about 15%.4. Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert?
Depends on the restaurant. At Wagamama’s, I always got an appetizer. (Mmmm, gyoza.) At the Red Kangaroo Noodle Place up the street, I always get their Chicken & Sweet Corn soup. At other places it just depends on how big my main course is. Snookums is a desert freak, so I’ve been ordering those more and more. Cheesecake is my favorite, but I had some passionfruit sorbet the other night that was to die for. (No wonder the weight loss is going so slowly.)5. What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant?
We usually drink wine. Most of the places here are “Bring Your Own”, so we always grab a nice bottle at the shop on the way there. Otherwise I’ll just have a soda. -
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.