Cream Sauce!

You may or may not know that I'm lactose intolerant in addition to having recently developed a dairy allergy of sorts. One of the big things that I miss is cream sauce. Also: cream cheese. For cream cheese as an ingredient, Tofutti's Better than Cream Cheese is a great substitute, like cream cheese with pesto on crackers or cream cheese and jalapeno jelly. But it doesn't have enough of a flavor (for me, at least) to just slather a pile onto a bagel and chow down.

However, I discovered that a couple of tablespoons of Better than Cream Cheese and a big healthy glop of pesto stirred into hot pasta (or veggies) makes a pretty damn good cream sauce! I've done it with Basil Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto and it works out great. And even better, we use a pasta that's got veggies in it or lots of protein, like Barilla's Picollini or Plus, no it's not a carb bomb for Carl. The Pesto Cream Sauce has next to nothing carbs, too! Most pestos are pretty low carb and Better than Cream Cheese only has 1 carb per Tablespoon!

Meyer Lemon Butter

1 stick Salted Sweet Cream Butter

Juice of 1/2 Meyer Lemon

1/2 tsp Dried Basil or to taste

Melt butter over low heat, add basil and lemon juice. Stir well. Serve warm over fish.

This is super easy, and looks fancier for company that just dumping melted butter over fish. IF you don't know what a Meyer Lemon is, it's a cross between a Mandarin Orange and a Lemon, so it has a really good lemon flavor, but it's much sweeter. You've probably seen them at the store without even realizing it, they look almost like a regular lemon, but the peel is slightly smoother with a bit darker color.

Using the Meyer Lemon instead of a regular lemon gives this a much milder, less astringent taste than some lemon butters that I've had with makes it perfect for very mild fish, like Swai (which itself is somewhat sweet).

Food Processor, Flatouts and Flaxmeal.

So, yet again, it's been almost a month since I posted. (I really need to get better about that.) But now that the Christmas Crazies and inventory madness are done at my store, I've been helping out with other projects (both in and out of our store) that didn't fair so well through the holiday season. I've also been playing catch up at home.

I'm slowly but surely getting my craft room organized. The other day I spent most of the afternoon building a rack to house my totes of yarn, so that I can stack them higher without having to fight to get to the stuff on the bottom of the stack. With the craft room shaping up, it means less clutter in the living room, because my yarn (along with everything else) is starting to be where it belongs.

I've gotten into the habit of drinking much more coffee than I should the last two months or so, but I've been slowly replacing that with tea instead, so that's an improvement on several fronts, not the least of which is that I rarely use sugar in my tea, but always do in coffee. I've gotten a better handle on my dairy-free, largely by discovering "cheats" like goat's milk cheese which I can actually enjoy without suffering. But the biggest thing is the 9 pounds I've shed simply by having the time to actually eat meals, rather than surviving on fast food and baked goods.

The biggest hurdle we're still working our way around is balancing Carl's low-carb eating with my hypoglycemic need for carbs. He's been shedding a lot of excess weight simply by avoiding carbs wherever possible, however, I need to eat a pretty even split of carbs and protein.

I bought a food processor with a gift card from my Dad (Thanks, Dad!) which I think will be a big help with finding that balance because among other things, I can make my own "breadcrumbs" now. We made a batch this morning that I will probably use for dinner tomorrow that's about 50-50 Whole Grain Cheezits and Flaxmeal. The Flaxmeal added a lot of bulk to the crumbs, but because it's nearly 100% fiber, it doesn't add any net carbs.

We've both started using the Multi + Flax Flatouts (Thanks, Lisa!) for sandwiches and things because again, the addition of flaxmeal adds bulks, but lowers the net carb count. It's great for him to be able to have a burger than's only got 12 carbs in the "bun" versus things like Kaiser rolls which can rack up to almost 50 carbs. It's good for me because it's not low carb in an artificial way like a like of the "Atkins Approved" snacks that were everywhere a few years ago.

We're enjoying the foods so far, because we're being creative and I think as long as we can keep coming up with new ideas, I think that we won't have any trouble sticking with it!

Cappuccino Chip Cookies!

This is another one of those altered, basics that I like to make. It starts with your favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe - I like the old reliable Nestle Tollhouse recipe - then we add a few things. The first secret to awesome chocolate chip cookies in my book is always this: Good Vanilla Extract and lots of it. Don't use imitation, trust me it's worth the price to get the good stuff.

Here's what you need (in addition to the basic cookie dough recipe)

1 1/2 cups Crushed or Chopped Almonds

1 1/2 cups White Chips

2-3 Tbsp instant coffee (your favorite)

1-2 Tbsp Saigon Cinnamon (again, good cinnamon is totally worth the money!)

More Vanilla Extract

Prepare the basic dough according to your recipe, up to the part where you would normally add the chocolate (and nuts). Add the coffee, cinnamon and extra vanilla. I like a good strong coffee flavor for this and I love cinnamon and vanilla, so I use lots! Mix well.

Add the Almonds and White Chips and mix thoroughly. Bake according to your recipe instructions!

Enjoy!

My Year in Review!

Alright, here's the deal. This past year has been great in some respects and not so great in others. Rather than dwelling on the things that I can't help, let's look at the things I can control.

2011 Successes!

• I started bike commuting!
• I started biking for fun too!
• Related to the above, I lost nearly 30 pounds!
• I started the MeYou Health Daily Challenge
• I started designing again.
• I started quilting again.
• I told my best friend that I love him for challenging me artistically.
• I successfully stopped taking my OCD meds.
• I started eating better.

2011 Epic Fails!

• I never replaced bike commuting with anything else when I stopped bike commuting because it started getting dark early.
• I still haven't gotten the studio organized.
• I didn't post on either blog regularly.
• I got lazy and stopped doing the Daily Challenge
• I only finished one of the quilts I started.
• I didn't do any work towards getting the art studio open.
• I got sloppy about eating as my work schedule starting getting more hectic and I got less active.

So what have we learned? I need to get organized. I still need to find something to replace my bike commute in the winter-time. Mostly, I need to learn to stick with what works (fitness and eating wise), even when something more interesting comes along. I need to get on a schedule and stick to it. Basically, I need to plan better.

A little Christmas Humor.

So, I've been playing with this idea in my head for about a week now and here it is: Christmas Carol Fail: Worst/Most Inappropriate Christmas Songs ever. Here they are in no particular order.

1) Baby, It's Cold Outside - I've linked to the Dean Martin recording because I really like it. I love this song, actually. It makes the list because IT'S NOT REALLY A CHRISTMAS SONG! See also: Let It Snow.

2) Jingle Bells - I've linked to a Sinatra rendition. Again, it's a good version of the song. It makes the list because Jingle Bells is not only not a Christmas Song, it's been done badly more times than anybody can count. Seriously, searching 'jingle bells' on YouTube yields over 87,000 results.

3) Over the River and Through the Woods - I've linked to Danny Kaye and the Andrews Sisters. I like this version because it's actually "Over the River and Through the Woods" not the verses of "Over the River" with Jingle Bells for the chorus (see above), but this song was written for Thanksgiving, and singing 'Merry Christmas' over and over at the end doesn't change that.

4) The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot - This is the Phyllis Robbins version, a somewhat less depressing version of the most depressing song ever. About a poor boy. Who "hasn't got a daddy." And Santa didn't bring him anything. Isn't this supposed to be the time for Good Cheer??

5) Santa Baby- Eartha Kitt. This one makes the list because she basically says, 'I wasn't slutty this year, so you should bring me a pony and a million dollars." Wow, that's a great way to look at things.

6) My Favorite Things - Coltrane. I love this version of the song. I look forward to hearing it at Christmas, actually. But guess what! Show tune! Not a Christmas song. You may remember it from a little show called "The Sound of Music" which was about Nazis and a nun who falls in love. And about a million kids, wearing clothes made out of the curtains.

7) Every loud, rock, or disco version of Silent Night - I picked the "We wish you a Metal Xmas" version because it illustrates my point perfectly. If I remember the story correctly 'Silent Night' was written by the pastor of a church who discovered that an animal had chewed a hole in the organ bellows. Meaning no music for Christmas Eve, therefore a SILENT NIGHT. It was written for acoustic guitar and solo voice. If you're doing this song loud, you missed the whole point.

8) Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer - because it's AWFUL!

9) The Man with All The Toys - I have a huge soft spot in my heart for the Beach Boys, I really do, but the harmony is a guy going "bop" at the end of every line. Really????

And last but certainly not least:

10) Christmas Without You - Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. Beautiful song, beautiful sentiment. Their voices are great together. But every time I hear the line "Christmas songs that we knew, and used to make love to" I want to throw up a little inside my own head. Nothing ruins a song like the mental image of Dolly Parton having sex to Christmas carols. Eeeewww!

These aren't necessarily bad songs. I've purposely including the versions that I like quite a bit for most of them. They're mostly just really bad at being Christmas songs, but nobody plays them except at Christmastime.

Green Tomato Soup

I always use the end of the tomatoes from my garden for this, so we really only get to make one pot a year. It's probably about 2 1/2 - 3 lbs of tomatoes.

Lots of tomatoes - ripe, unripe, anything in between

Hamhock or smoked pork shank

1/2 Stick of Butter

Peppered Bacon (2 or 3 slices)

Fresh Chard (5 or so large leaves)

Wilt the Chard in a frying pan with the bacon. When the chard is totally wilted, separate it from the bacon. Chop up your bacon and throw it in the soup pot, set the chard aside.

Saute the hamhock/pork shank in the butter. (You don't need to worry about cooking these pieces through, they're already cooked, but you'll want to cook off some of the fat.) Pour the drippings into your soup pot. Clean the meat off of your ham pieces. Throw out the skin and keep the bone for other soup.

Chop up the tomatoes and throw them all in your soup pot. Cook until tomatoes break down and the soup starts to take on the consistency of a sauce. When you're happy with the consistency of your soup, stir in the chard. Adding the chard at the end prevents it from cooking down to nothing and disappearing into the soup.

Enjoy! With Peppered Bacon, you likely will not even need to add salt and pepper.