Culinary Memorabilia

I feel your pain. I really do. I’m in the same boat. It sucks to watch tv and see all of those ooey gooey foods and know you can’t have them. *sigh* Anything with refined flour makes my blood glucose shoot to the moon. (I’m a pre-diabetic which means it doesn’t get way way high but I want to control it so it doesn’t get really bad.)

Anyway I was sulking and started searching for recipes for cookies that a diabetic could handle. Thank god for cooking light magazine. Their website had some great looking low carb cookies. I’ll post one recipe here and some more later. I’m going to try a few.

Chocolate Chip Meringues
These cookies will keep for a week in an airtight container.

3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, divided
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate minichips
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 250°.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper; secure with masking tape.

Place egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Combine sugar and 3 tablespoons cocoa, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add sugar mixture to egg white mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating at medium speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in minichips and vanilla.

Spoon mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip, or large zip-top plastic bag with 1 corner snipped to form 1/2-inch opening. Pipe 30 (2-inch-round) mounds 1/4 inch apart onto prepared baking sheet. Bake at 250° for 1 1/2 hours.

Turn oven off; cool meringues in closed oven for 1 hour. Carefully remove meringues from paper. Using a fine sieve, dust meringues with 1 tablespoon cocoa.

Yield: 30 cookies (serving size: 1 cookie)

CALORIES 26 (42% from fat); FAT 1.2g (sat 0.7g,mono 0.1g,poly 0.1g); IRON 0.2mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 3.1g; SODIUM 15mg; PROTEIN 0.7g; FIBER 0.2g

Cooking Light, SEPTEMBER 2002

(This recipe is from Cooking Light magazine. I found it around 1993 I believe. I tried it and it is great. Every time thanksgiving or christmas rolled around one of our relatives would ask if I was going to make it. Trust me. Try this pie and you’ll have people offering to lick your floor clean if you’ll make it. lol

I’m including the crust recipe I use.)

Vegetable Oil Pie Crust

2 c. flour
1/2 c. oil plus 2 tbsp.
Dash of salt
1/4 c. water

Beat oil and water together with beater. Take a fork, pour in flour and mix it up. Roll pie dough in between waxpaper. You don’t want to monkey around with this crust too much. Roll it out larger than your pie plate so you have the excess to use to make your edge. Do not put in a foil pan. Bake at 400 degrees until brown.

*Humidity can be a problem with this crust. That’s why I usually use it at holidays.*

Makes 2 crusts.

—–

Chocolate Meringue Pie

Single Pie Crust

Filling:
1/2 C. Sugar
1/4 C. plus 1 TBSP. Cocoa
1/4 C Cornstarch, divided
2 C. 1% Low fat milk
1 Egg, lightly beaten
2 Tsp. Vanilla

Meringue:
4 Egg whites
1/4 Tsp. Cream of tartar
1/3 C. Sugar

Prebake pie crust as usual.

Combine 1/2 C. sugar, cocoa, and 3 Tbsp plus 2 tsps cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Gradually add milk, stirring with a wire whisk until well blended. Bring to a boil over MED heat and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Gradually stir about 1/4 of hot cocoa mixture into beaten egg. (Tempering the eggs keep them from scrambling.) Add to remaining hot cocoa mixture stirring constantly. Cook an additional 1 minute or until mixture is thickened and bubbly, stirring constantly. Add vanilla and stir. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

Prepare meringue as usual. Remove plastic wrap from pie. Cover pie filling with meringue being careful to seal the edges. (Draw the meringue out to the edges of the crust. You don’t want any gaps.)

Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. Let cool 1 hour on wire rack. Chill 3 hours or until set.

Well less of a recipe than a suggestion for a marinade.

Place your salmon fillets in a ziploc bag or plastic container (with a lid of course)

Mix up the following and pour in bag over fish.

1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tsp to 1 tbsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
1 tsp finely chopped lemon grass (you could use lemon zest but if you can find the lemon grass you’ll be very happy. You can get dried lemon grass online, btw.)
1 chopped green onion

Massage the bag a bit to coat the fish. Refrigerate until ready to cook. (Overnight is really good, 3 or 4 hours would work, or if you’re in a hurry 30 min to an hour will do in a pinch.)

When I bake the fish I usually pour the marinade over it.

Richard adores this and when I serve it he doesn’t talk until he’s finished. High praise from him. lol

*Note: I know that sometimes salmon can be a bit rich for my stomach so I usually serve it with tabouli. The acid in the tabouli salad cuts some of the richness.

I wanted to suggest something for you. I’ve tried Mission’s Carb Balance tortillas and they’re great. You can use them for breakfast burritos, regular burritos, and fajitas. I’ve even used them when I couldn’t get pita bread for Gyros. Worked great.

Breakfast burritos:
Scramble an egg (or some egg-beaters) in a non-stick skillet lightly sprayed with Pam or a similar product, add some diced green & red peppers, tomatoes, onion, and a bit of fat free cheddar cheese at the end. Add some salsa and some fat-free sour cream. (I don’t saute the veggies first.. I like them a bit crunchy.)

Fajitas:
Sliced chicken breast, fajita seasoning, peppers, onions. Saute all together. Add shredded lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, fat free sour cream.

I found a recipe for fajita seasoning and I make it myself instead of buying it:

Make your own fajita seasoning mix.
* 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
* 2 Tbsp. chili powder
* 1 Tbsp. salt
* 1 Tbsp. paprika
* 1 Tbsp. sugar
* 2-1/2 tsp. crushed chicken bouillon cube
* 1-1/2 tsp. onion powder
* 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
* 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
* 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
* 1/2 tsp. cumin

Preparation:
Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into small glass or plastic container, seal tightly and store in a cool, dry place. Makes the equivalent of 3 packets of commercial or purchased Fajita Seasoning Mix.

Prepare the fajitas using the same directions found on the package of purchased seasoning mix: Cut chicken into thin strips. Cut green pepper into strips. Heat oil in large skillet and add chicken. Cook and stir over medium high heat for 5 minutes. Then add three tablespoons of the Fajita Seasoning Mix, 1/2 cup water, green pepper and onion. Reduce heat to medium. Cook and stir over medium heat until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Serve with salsa, sour cream, and grated cheese in warmed tortillas.

The ADA site’s forums are great. You can find all kinds of recipes by looking through previous posts on the Eating Right forum. I’ve tried a recipe for “Mini Meat Loaves” and another for chicken baked after having been coated in egg and parmesan cheese. Richard loves both of them.

1 lb salmon fillets
1 tsp oregano, dried
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tomato, thinly sliced
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1/4 cup dried breadcrumbs
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Spray shallow baking pan with non-stick coating. Place fish in baking pan and sprinkle with oregano, garlic and pepper. Layer with
tomato, onion and parsley. Mix bread crumbs with oil and sprinkle on top of fillets. Bake at 450^ F. for 8 to 10 minutes or just until
fish flakes easily.

You can find the recipe here. It’s so simple anyone can do it and it’s damned good. Be sure and take a look around while you’re at the site.

On a diet and made salmon one night. Excellent. Have used some excellent recipes since starting the diet. Will have to put them here for future reference.

I’ve been in crochet or die mode since July. (Christmas gifts.) Haven’t experimented much lately with food. I’m sure I’ll be doing some for the rest of this month and next month. After my poor joints get back to normal!

It’s just been a wacky time lately.

I made some of Alton Brown’s The Chewy chocolate chip cookies, my favorite CCrecipe, for Richard to take to work. They nearly did handstands over them which stands to reason considering that cookie is damned close to being better than SEX.

Also made a batch of peanut butter melts from a Joanne Fluke culinary mystery. Wonderful cookies! He took some of them to work and they raved over them. I have a feeling those people where he works have a very close intimate relationship with the Keebler Elf.

I don’t think they get many home-made cookies… most of them couldn’t cook/bake to save their lives.