Low Carb

So I sucked it up and went on a low carb diet. I not only feel better when I'm on this diet but I lose weight. I haven't really lost too much yet but I'm willing to give it a shot. The tough part though is finding stuff to eat. I get bored quickly so I've been experimenting. I've made some yucky stuff (broccoli, cauliflower alfredo. yuck.) but tonight I think I've made something decent enough to post. It was mostly all my idea. The can tomatoes have 3 carbs per half cup which isn't bad. I'm not sure about the squash but from memory it's pretty low carb.

Spaghetti Squash
1 medium spaghetti squash
1 16oz can diced tomatoes (i used seasoned tomatoes)
1 onion
4 strips bacon
chicken (i made a whole chicken and picked off what I wanted to go in the pan)
diced garlic to your liking
16oz mozzarella cheese

Get 4 strips of bacon going in one pan. When that is cooled, crumble it. In another, saute garlic and onion in olive oil and butter. Then add the spaghetti squash (just boil the thing, cut it down the middle when it's soft and cooled, spoon out seeds and pulp, then with a fork scrape out the squash so it looks like thin noodles). Salt and pepper to taste then add the tomatoes and juice in the can. Let this cook on low for about 10 min. Add chopped chicken and the crumbled bacon, stir well and salt and pepper to taste. Cover with the cheese then bake it in your pan, uncovered, at 350 until it's melted and bubbly on the side. I served it with a dollop of sour cream and Andrew ate it was Texas Toast. He got the better deal.

It wasn't bad but not great. I'm starting to quickly get to the "ugh, I'm so sick of this diet already" phase and I'm only a week in. Must keep swimming...

Pumpkin

So a friend of mine likes to bake. I like to cook. We live about 15 min apart and decided the only logical thing to do is have a cooking party where we cook and bake themed meals. It's so much fun. Normally I don't like cooking with other people, but this woman fancies herself Julia Child, so I knew it'd be okay. The cool thing is, we decided the best thing to do is exchange recipe cards when we're making our meals. Fabulous, right?

So this week it was pumpkin. She definitely did more than me but it was fun. We had pumpkin soup (recipe below), spicy green salad with pumpkin vinaigrette, pumpkin cornbread and pumpkin cookies. We learned that smoked gouda goes wonderfully with a pumpkin vinaigrette. It was fun. Plus, we ate and had enough leftovers for us and our SOs to have dinner again tonight. I wonder what next week will be!

Pumpkin Soup
1 lb sausage (like the breakfast kind that you can make patties out of, make sure it's the kind you cook though)
1 onion
3 tbs butter
1 and 1/2 lbs pumpkin puree (so 1 16 oz can and one 8oz)
1 tsp dried thyme (little more if you have fresh)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup (not that fake syrup but maple. go without if you don't have it)
7 cups chicken stock
3/4 c cream (i used table cream because andrew isn't allergic to it, any cream would work really)
salt and pepper to taste

cook the sausage in 2 tbs butter on medium heat. once it is almost done, add the chopped onion and cook until it's soft, then reduce heat to medium low. Add the pumpkin puree and thyme and cook 5-7min. Add the chicken stock, brown sugar and syrup, mix well, sprinkle salt and cover. Reduce heat to low and cook for 45 min, stirring occasionally. Turn heat off and transfer small batches into the blender and puree the soup (don't add too much at a time, fill 3/4 of the way or it'll explode). Return the pureed soup back to the pot, stir in the 1tbs of butter and the cream. It should still be hot, so no need to turn the heat back on. If you do, heat the soup but do not let it reach a boil. Salt and pepper to taste.

This was really excellent with shredded smoked gouda on top. Otherwise, serve with a hunk of crusty bread. Very satisfying.

Brownies

I was sitting on the couch watching Paula Deen and realized that I have never made brownies from scratch. I knew that I had (or what I thought) was most of the ingredients in my pantry, so I did it. I will never make brownies from a box mix again! They were so amazingly good. I added a few things different from my original recipe but seriously, I was surprised. I only had 1/2 cup of sugar, so I only made a half batch. On to the recipe!

Brownies:
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3ounces chopped candy of your choice (i had some chocolate toffee candy that I chopped into chocolate chip sized pieces. chocolate chips or reeses peanut butter cups sound awesome too)


The trick to this is not over mix. They become too cakey when you do that. Preheat oven to 350. Over medium heat, melt your butter. When that's done, remove from heat and wisk in your sugar and eggs (slighty beat the eggs first). Then wisk in the cocoa, then the flour, baking powder and salt. When everything is mixed, fold in the candy pieces. Spread batter into a greased 8in square pan, cook for 25min. I started checking them at 20 with a toothpick. Because brownies continue cooking once out of the oven, you are looking for your tester pick to be a little dirty when it comes out. This will ensure chewy brownies when they cool.

Spicy Chicken Soup

Okay, so this isn't really spicy but it was a great take on the regular chicken noodle. Plus, I felt like it was healthier because you could forget the starchy noodles. It had a wonderful flavor and we ate it, sometimes twice a day, until it was gone. It really did last and get better with each day. You can also add/take away different things (Andrew opted for no corn next time. He likes corn solo but hates it in things, says it takes away from the actual meal). Plus, you can put all this in a crockpot if it's big enough and let it cook on low for 6-8hrs.

First things first, making stock. I don't know why anyone would use canned broth. It doesn't have have the same flavor and it's so easy to make yourself. Usually I just use the carcass but because I had to have chicken anyway, and Safeway had roasters on sale (I got a 7 pounder for $5!), I just used the whole thing. Rinse your chicken, salt and pepper the outside and place it in a big pot with water that covers the chicken. Then, add thyme, parsely and rosemary (all mine were dried), half an onion and a few cloves of garlic (don't bother peeling and chopping them). Add 2 or 3 cubes of chicken bullion and turn on high with the lid on. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat and let it go for about an hour or until the juices of the chicken run clear. Remove the chicken, cool it then pick it and loosely dice it. Strain your broth of all the yuckiness. Place the broth and chicken in the crockpot, mix with 3 tbs of chili powder (really not as much as it sounds).

Next, saute one chopped onion in a pot of olive oil. Salt and pepper. Add to this 1/2 can tomato soup, 1/2 jar salsa, 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes, 2 cans rinsed and drained kidney beans, 1 can corn, 8oz sour cream and mix well in the pot.

Now, mix all this with your chicken in the crock pot. Add salt and pepper, put a lid on it and cook on low for at least 6 hours. I recommend 8. You can also keep this on the stove and simmer on low for a few hours. The chicken is so tender and flavorful that it's unreal. And making your own stock really makes the differnce =)

Stuff

If anyone wants to buy me anything ever, I would like this:

http://www1.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=1998&cat=254

Julie and Julia recipe

So my mom and I went to see Julie and Julia last week. Great movie. In the beginning though there was a scene where Julie is making dinner in the kitchen and she makes this fantastic looking bruschetta that my mom and I both leaned in to say "that looks amazing." So, I set out yesterday to make this dish. Everything from scratch. I made things a bit different from the recipe, so I'm only going to include what I did. If Andrew gets up in time for me to make it for him, I'll show the fabulous picture.

First, I made crusty Italian bread. It came out fantastic although a little small. I think my kitchen was just too cold to get this bread to rise properly. The end product?

It's not pretty but it was pretty good. Better than the store and this just had flour, salt, little sugar, yeast and water. Who knew.

So, cut your bread diagonally into nice, thick slices (not too thick you can't take a bite of though with topping). Next, take you minced garlic and saute it over med-low heat in some olive oil until they are soft (2 min max really). Remove the garlic and place it in the bowl with your tomatoes and basil (recipe below). Cook your bread in the garlic olive oil until both sides are brown, remove from heat and turn your stove off. Next, mix your bruschetta with salt and pepper by hand, drizzle with just a teaspoon of olive oil, then put in the pan you used to brown your bread. The stove is off so it's just heating the tomato goodness up. After 10 or 15 seconds, remove and spoon mixture over the bread. You really will eat "like a pig" like Julie's husband did. It's good.

Bruschetta
1 1/4 pound of plumb tomatoes
1 tbs finely chopped basil
2 cloves minced garlic
1tsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Cut your tomatoes length wise then give them a good squeeze over the sink to de-seed them. Dice them then place them in a bowl with the basil and cooked garlic. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and paper then toss gently with your hands.

Bread

Okay. So as promised, here is my bread story. It started around 9pm after an unusually long day and a recipe for Parmesan Pull-Aparts, I went to the store and called my mom with a million questions about baking bread. The woman is an expert on all things bread baking. So, after consulting her I went to work. First, I prepared the yeast. I had to google what "foamy yeast" looks like but this was mine.

Foamy!

Next, I added the necessary ingredients. Then, I watched it knead. I couldn't look away. The image of this dough turning and turning was fascinating. After it properly had pulled away from the bowl, I transferred it and set it aside to rise.

yeah, it's sideways but you get the picture

When it got to this point I was certain it was never going to rise. I even cried (part hormones, part being tired) because I was absolutely certain my dough wasn't going to rise. But then...

Hooray!

It rose! And it rose well! I took it out, kneaded it, and rolled it out into 12 neat balls for my pull aparts. I actually think I let it rise too much because there was supposed to be 1inch between each ball and I had much less than that so the next rise only took 45 min. Then it was eggwash and oven time.

Isn't it beautiful!

The end product? Delicious. We ate it without butter and it was fantastic. You can tell by this:

Look at how happy he is. It really was great. I think I may become a bread expert, thanks mom.