CATEGORIES

Low carb doesn’t have to suck

I am in need of having to shed a few pounds again, this time more than ever…oops.

So I’m eating low-carb again for a bit….and started this morning with this creation I came up with on the fly–an overeasy ham omelet. Here is how you do it….

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Put two thin slices of ham in the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, flipping every 30 seconds until crispy. Then crack an egg over each ham slice, sprinkle with salt and pepper and let cook for about 2-4 minutes, or until whites are almost all opaque. Then gently flip the ham slices over each egg yolk as if it were an omelet. Cook for another 30 seconds and serve.

My yolk was still runny, exactly what I wanted to achieve with this. And with the crispy ham, it was perfect and made me feel like I wasn’t even eating what you might call “diet food.” Give this one a try, especially if you’re doing South Beach or something similar.

  

Cooler weather=warmer food

I have to admit, by the time September hits, and there is a chill in the air, I’m ready to stop grilling and making salads and gazpacho and ready to start cooking stick-to-you-ribs meals like chili and stew and roasts. One of the reasons I was excited about moving to Wisconsin last year was for the earlier changing of the season from that of Nashville. Of course, there is the down side to that–i.e. early and lots-of-it snow. But we have some time before that happens (well, hopefully we do). And the warmer fall has been a mild bummer in a cooking sense, because who wants to make stew when it’s 80 degrees outside, as it was the first week to 10 days of the month here in Madison. Something is wrong with that picture, but I’m no climate scientist.

As I write this, however, it’s a brisk 60-ish with temps dropping into the low 40’s tonight. It’s stew time, and I’ve got a beef stew on the stove. I’m not making the one I posted here last year, but a new recipe I found in a magazine. But I have to tell you guys, I re-visited my chili recipe last week during a football Sunday (the beef one), and it came out way better than it ever has before. I think the key was just to let it thicken naturally, but either way I felt pretty good about that recipe, admittedly better than the first time I made it and created the recipe.

I’m also looking forward to re-visiting casseroles and mac & cheese like this one. I also want to give another go-round with this Buffalo chicken mac I saw in the Food Network magazine recently. Man, was that amazing. Oh, and don’t forget about soup. Maybe I need to make new soups a priority this year–dude soup. Yeah, that’s it.

  

Product review: Blue Diamond Nut-Thins

Chef JimIf you haven’t tried Blue Diamond’s new Nut-Thins, you are in for a treat–especially if you are allergic to wheat products (although there is a disclaimer on the box about that). The fine folks of Blue Diamond have figured out a way to make a cracker out of almonds, even if the main ingredient is rice flour. The second ingredient is pure almonds, and you can surely taste the delcious nutty flavor in each bite.

The company sent us two flavors–original and smokehouse. The original tastes very much like a flattened rice cake, but a bit more dense from the almonds. The smokehouse has that signature flavor we’ve all come to love from the company’s signature Smokehouse Almonds. And I can attest to one thing that Mrs. Mikey and I both noticed–you absolutely can’t stop eating them, especially the highly addictive smokehouse flavor.

And the good thing about not being able to put the box down, is that each 16-cracker serving is only 130 calories, 2.5 grams of fat but with a whopping 3 grams of protein. They are baked, not fried, and yet are light and crispy.

In addition to the flavors we tried, there is also a cheddar flavor almond cracker, as well as hazelnut and pecan versions.

For more information, go to www.bluediamond.com or just go pluck a box or three off your grocery store shelf.

  

Related Posts