Just to catch up

Sometimes I post comments on forum related to beading, another love that allows me to express myself.  I dared to respond recently to someone's post about starting a blog by offering "my insights" and realized that I hadn't actually done any blogging in quite a while.  Here is it Christmas time again, and I never even had a chance to finish sharing the delights of last year's presents.  Time flies, and elder care can be fairly time consuming even when it doesn't seem that I am doing all that much.  For writing, it's the interruptions that take their toll.  Come to think of it, I haven't been able to do much beading either.  Interruptions, again.

All is quiet right now.  My Prince has arrived to spend a week with us and share our Christmas celebration.  Mama is resting--for now.  And I really ought to take this opportunity to catch up a little.  Who knows when there will be another chance to do this?

So.  The aforementioned Yoshi blade (ceramic knife) has actually been quite the boon this past year.  I have used it almost daily for cutting vegetables, meats (even semi-frozen), and tomatoes.  I have to say, tho, that the special tomato slicer (oddly serrated knife) that I picked up at a dollar store is even better for those tough old tomato hides.  Still, I love the ceramic blade so much that I have asked Santa to bring me another one (or more).

I never had a chance to blog about my favorite new toy from last year:  An immersion blender (Quisinart Smart Stick).  While I haven't had as many opportunities to use the stick blender as I have the ceramic knife, I have to say that it works a treat.  I feel all Top Chef-y when I use it, chortling like a mad woman as I turn those veggies into a puree.

This year, Christmas is a quite a bit tamer.  Even though I had already scaled things back in 2010, working hard to be "smarter" and more relaxed about it all, there was still too much activity for one person to do.  My Prince is indeed a prince, but he's more a watcher than a doer when it comes to Christmas.  Mama gave up doing a long time ago, but she is still the focus of all our celebrations.

This year I have pretty much called it quits on anything that involves anyone else besides Mama and My Prince.  We did have three friends over last week to sing carols and share a pot luck dinner, but this week has been (and will be, I hope) very quiet.  So far, Mama and I have driven around the neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights.  Tonight we had an old family favorite for dinner.  Saturday--if the turkey thaws out--I'll cook it.  We'll have a quiet Christmas Eve, a relaxed Christmas morning, and hope for some magic in the kitchen (I'm thinking elves here, not a sudden improvement in my cooking skills).  Whatever happens, we won't starve.

Tonight's treat was Corned Beef Stew.  This was something my late father cooked.  It was always a treat.  I have changed the recipe slightly to lower the carbs (a little).

• Corned beef (canned is "traditional" at our house) - the meatier the dish, the less need for carbs.  Tonight I only had one can of corned beef in the pantry, so we here heavier on the carbs.
• Potatoes - I used red potatoes to reduce the starch a little; Daddy used Irish potatoes.  Quantity depends on how far you need to stretch the soup and how many carbs your table-mates can handle.  
• Onions - I used white onions, halved and sliced.  Actually I load up the stew with onions; suit yourself.
• Salt and pepper - I favor coarse ground pepper.  I have to go lightly on both because of assorted dietary needs (and people-who-get-cranky-about-too-much-pepper), but the stew can handle a heavy hand on the pepper.

Throw it in a pot with some water (cover the vegetables, add more if you need to stretch the stew).  Cook the vegetables until tender.   Since I am lazy about chopping the potatoes (and never peel them anymore), just quartering the smaller ones and hacking up the bigger ones, I use a potato masher to smash the potatoes once they are cooked.  This releases a little starch into the broth, but that's pretty much in the nature of potatoes anyway, I reckon.

My father thickened the broth with a flour and water paste.  I stopped doing that long ago, wanting to cut down on carbs wherever I could.  I don't think he really liked my version of the stew without that extra dose of starch, so you might want to try it both ways.

Traditionally, we serve this with cornbread.  It's yummy to crumble your cornbread into the stew, soaking up most of the broth with the bread.  Since I have to worry more about carbs, I have started eating the stew without any bread at all.  It turns out that that broth is quite yummy, and I don't miss the cornbread at all.

Tomorrow, we'll have another Christmas favorite:  Tamales.  Those we will have to buy.  I think if you remove the corn husk tamales don't actually have any carbs.  Right?


Merry Christmas!  Happy Hannukah!  Safe and happy holidays!

Christmas Toys (1)

I had a good Christmas this year--if raking in a lot of toys counts for making it a good one.  Now that I have a little time to look at all the goodies, I have to admit that Santa Claus (and My Prince) treated me very well.

Toy #1 is a Yoshi Knife (yes, as-seen-on-TV).  I actually picked it up myself (Santa Claus is not a terrific shopper, so I have to help him out).  I have wanted a ceramic knife for some time, but the prices I have seen have been more than I feel comfortable spending on a knife.  The TV ad for the Yoshi made me want this more affordable version.  When I saw it advertised at Big Lots, I stopped by on my round of errands to pick one up and saved it for my Christmas stocking.

I didn't have time to look at the thing until this past Friday when I opened the package and tried it out with Little Sister.  Opening the package was an ordeal.  The stiff plastic container is impossible to open without very sharp kitchen scissors.  The jagged edges that crop up during the opening process are alarmingly sharp and quite dangerous in themselves.  It was all I could do to get the package open.  Once I managed to pry the thing open enough to work out the knife, I had to tear the paper label to do so.  Not a happy experience.

I read the directions before trying the knife.  Cleaning is simple.  Use, however, comes with a lot of caveats that I had not expected, e.g., use the knife only for slicing, not for chopping.  Most of the "rules" make sense, e.g., ceramics can be incredibly strong (and, we are hoping in this case, sharp), but they can be shattered with improper use.  After all, even diamonds are "cut" to shape.  Storage may be simple enough, but I am still nervous when re-sheathing the blade.  Using only wooden or plastic cutting boards is fine by me. 

The knife's first test was on an onion.  It was not quite like slicing butter,  but it was certainly easier than any previous onion-cutting experience I have had.  I could also get better control over the thickness of slices, making some of them quite thin.  (I need better control over my wrists before I get all of them to be that thin.)  I was pleased.

When LS came over, I showed her the knife and let her play with it a bit.  She was even better at making thin slices and reminded me of the tomato demonstration in the commercial.  I didn't get to that test until last night, when I actually needed to slice some tomatoes.  Sure enough, the Yoshi knife did a good job on them and let me get some nicely thin slices.  I was surprised, however, that even this sharp blade was not so razor sharp as to get through the skin without some extra pressure.  (Tomatoes are tough these days.)

Despite being less than overwhelmed by the knife, I am pleased enough to think I will continue to use it with some frequency.  I also will think about getting some other knife styles with ceramic blades. 

Last night I used the knife to make a side dish to go with turkey patties.  I sliced one onion, two tomatoes, and some roasted red peppers (from a jar).  These were sauteed in the pan used to cook the turkey, picking up flavors and the dab of oil left over from cooking the turkey.  I added a little salt while I was sweating the onions and then a little garlic/herb seasoning mix while the vegetables were cooking down.  I served the resulting vegetable mixture over the turkey patty for a delicious dinner.  Sadly, I am not enough of a cook to know what others would call what I made.  Happily, the Yoshi Blade worked a treat to make preparation easy and quick.  Even better, I have another low carb dish to avert a food coma.

Spinach Hodgepodge Follow-up

LOL!  I was curious to see how my "hodgepodge" recipe stood up against others and did a Google search on the ingredients:  spinach "yellow squash" tomato.  Here are the results.  They seem to cluster in the realms of curry (serve with rice) and pasta sauce (serve with pasta) and involve lots of seasoning and/or cream.  Since most of my seasoning came from the pre-seasoned canned tomatoes, perhaps I should try some unseasoned ones and then have some fun with my spice rack.  Unfortunately, I'm out of both spinach and yellow squash, so I'll just have to throw something else together to keep playing with my food.

As for my original "recipe," I'm happy to report that it's even better as a leftover.

Just throwing things together

I cook some pretty tasty food most of the time, but I don't consider myself a chef of any caliber.  I don't particularly like following recipes (although I enjoy reading them for inspiration).  I've had no training to speak of, unless you count watching my late father cook when I was a child.

What I do love is just throwing things together to see what happens.  That's undisciplined, I know, but it makes both cooking and dining an adventure when I'm in the kitchen.  Adventure = fun, so, of course, I love it.

Last night necessity directed my cooking.  Little Sister had brought us some fresh spinach that was not so fresh.  She had bought herself too much and needed to offload some before it passed its expiration date, which was imminent.  I actually didn't get around to the spinach until a day or two after that date, so it was getting rather urgent to do something with it.  Rather than make a salad, I decided to cook it.

First, I chopped some fresh garlic and threw that in the bottom of a casserole dish.  I washed and tore the spinach (picking out a couple of limp leaves) and tossed that into the dish.  I chopped up some green onions and . . . tossed 'em into the dish.  I opened a can of slices tomatoes (Italian seasoning) and poured that in, liquid and all.  Finally, I sliced some yellow summer squash and placed that on top of what was in the casserole dish.  A little salt, a little pepper, a quick toss, and it all went into the oven along with a roast.

I kept an eye on the spinach, pulling it out when the squash was looking soft.  How long that took, I couldn't say (more indiscipline with the clock), but I could guess at 30 minutes.  The idea was to cook the spinach and onions without turning the squash to mush.  I was close enough, I think.

The resulting dish ("Spinach Hodgepodge"???) was quite tasty.  I did add a little salt at the table (I almost always do anyway, since I undersalt most of my dishes when cooking), but otherwise the dish needed nothing.  The squash had just enough crunch, the tomatoes added a touch of acid, and the whole combination complemented the roast beef nicely.

This time I got pretty lucky and "just throwing things together" worked out well.  The low carb count was an added bonus.

Oh, mandoline!

I have a new toy! A mandoline. It slices. It juliennes. It doesn't do much else, but what is does is lovely. I have been playing with it endlessly and am constantly pleased with both form and function.

I bought it a couple of months ago at Walmart for $15 or $20. House brand. Pretty basic. The nicest feature is the rubber coating on the base. The base itself is wavy, so that it fits nicely over the edges of several different sizes of bowls. The rubber coating makes it more stable when slicing.

Watching (too much) Food Network taught me about the risks of losing knuckles and other precious hand parts, so I have been extra careful. Still, I've had nicks. Have to be more careful when picking the thing up (looking where my hand is going is a good trick). Must try to avoid talking to others when using the mandoline (or allowing them to talk to me). MUST use the safety guard on everything.

Otherwise, it's a honey. I find myself putting extra onions in dishes just because it's so nice to slice.

My newest recipe, using the mandoline:

• 1 or 2 onions
• olive oil
  
• 1 can chicken stock
• 1/2 cup (or more) dried mushrooms
• mess of fresh or frozen whole green beans

Slice onions with mandoline. (I use the thinnest setting.) Saute onion with dash of olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. (I cook them until they are translucent.) Pour chicken stock, mushrooms, and onions in saucepan and simmer until onions are desired consistency. (A little al dente is good.) Cook green beans until hot but still al dente. Serve with sauce on the side or on the top.

This is my new substitute for green bean casserole. It's quite tasty. You can add garlic powder if you want to jazz it up a bit, but it's quite nice with just salt and pepper.

The best ever

Trying to find something that suits Mama's taste buds can be a challenge. Her dining experience has been fairly limited in the past few years. Like most of us, she tends to find a "favorite" menu item at a restaurant and order that every or nearly every time she goes to that restaurant. Because of her handicap, her choice of restaurants has been limited by how well the owners understand the Americans with Disabilities Act and provide facilities that support her presence. (The exception is Landry's in Kemah, a dangerous place for someone with a handicap--hey, Landry's, I have pictures!--which Mama dares to enter because of the view and a sad hope that she will be safe.)

Getting her to eat my cooking has been an adventure, but she seems to have weathered it fairly well this year. I am told that she even brags on my cooking to others now. Wow!

Still, I'm never certain what will please her when I enter the kitchen and start throwing things together. Saturday night it was chopped cabbage, sliced onion (halves), and shredded carrots stir-fried in a tad too much canola oil. I tossed in dried chives, dried celery flakes, and dried parsley. Once the vegetables were somewhat tender, I added some Sesame Ginger marinade that I had bought at Kroger along with some leftover steamed veggies (baby carrots, yellow squash, calabacita) and some browned ground beef. I served her a tiny bowl (she really won't eat much), and she allowed that it was "the best ever." I offered a second bowl, and she ate all of that too. I think it was the marinade that gave it some extra flavor, but I now know that the taste appeals.

The marinade didn't add a lot of carbs, maybe 20 to the whole dish, which easily had 4 servings. I will look for other things that might add a different taste to these same old veggies, cuz they will surely show up on the menu again. In one variation or another.

Kitchen Counter Economics

Here's a blog by htwollin about "how to save money, live more sustainably, and gain control over the stuff of daily living for ourselves and our families in the current economic environment." It has some useful thoughts about saving money (as in both not spending it and actively socking it away) and a few recipes. Part of the thrift in some of the recipes is counterbalanced by the carbs, but, if you are not carb-restricted, they seem pretty good--and thrifty.

Lincoln's birthday

His 200th to be exact. It's coming up this year on February 12. To mark it, President-elect Obama will be treated to an inaugural luncheon that salutes President Lincoln's tastes and experiences. Here's the menu. Here are the recipes for the foods to be served.

Looks pretty tasty but not really to my taste. I could see trying out the Winter Vegetables recipe, tho. It's simple enough and has some new combinations (to me) that might be interesting. I assume, despite the lack of directions, that all of these vegetables, while cooked separately, are tossed together for serving. Or not?

Oh, yeah. That's a replica of the Lincoln china. The luncheon will be served on it.

Rosemary Salt

Here's one of those homemade food gifts that ought to please just about anyone who eats: Kalyn's Rosemary Salt. I intend to make some for home use (it's good on tomatoes, grilled vegetables, and chicken), and I may as well bag some up for my foodie friends.

Finding this recipe will now spur me to invest in my first herb plant, a rosemary bush. Mmmm.

Healthy treat: Frozen berries

The day's "healthy eating tip" is a gadget that I have on my home page. Every day, I get some "word to the wise" about healthier ways to eat. "Smaller portions" seems to crop up a lot (thanks, Mayo Clinic, I had no clue). Here's today's tip:

Fresh berries are kind to the waistline; they are naturally high in water and low in calories. Dried berries also provide excellent nutrition, but since most of the water is missing, their calories are more concentrated and you'll usually wind up eating more of them.

Aside from the annoying italics, which were in the tip when I cut and pasted and which seem to spread like a virus, the tip seems useful. Berries generally the lowest carb counts among fruits, but I keep seeing high counts for the dried versions. While the dried fruit is easier to keep and, sometimes, to eat, I keep going back to the fresh (or frozen) version to help my blood sugar.

Here's one of my favorite treats:

• One half cup or so of frozen mixed berries
• One fourth cup or so of heavy whipping cream

The cream freezes around the berries when you pour it over them. I used to have frozen blueberries and cream for breakfast. Now I like mixed berries as a treat. As an added bonus to the low carb goodness, you are forced to eat the dish slowly because the berries are frozen. Let them melt in your mouth so you can enjoy both taste and feel.

Mystery Stir-Fry

I've taken to calling my various stir-fried (and sorta steamed) concoctions "Mystery Stir-Fry." For years, I've been cooking Mystery Casserole. In the last year or two, we've been eating Mystery Meat.* Now my stir-fry has taken on the characteristics of these mystery dishes.

In this case, I'm simply thinking of how I end up preparing one of the dishes--a little this, a little that, whatever is on hand and might go together more or less well. I plan the dish by going to the freezer to find a meat that will thaw in the time I have available and then, later, to the vegetable bin to see what I (a) have and (b) feel like messing with. Then, once the saute pan (no wok available) is ready and the veggies ready to be covered (a little steaming helps things cook faster when I'm tired of standing in the kitchen), I drag out the spices and herbs and start seasoning. Sometimes I want a curry flavor, sometime soy sauce, sometimes Italian, sometimes it's just a mystery.

Once the dish is done, I can eat it as is or add it to rice. Usually, I am quite satisfied when the "mystery" resolves itself to a delicious dinner.

A recent "Mystery Stir-Fry" came about thusly"

• I had a small package of frozen scallops thawing out. I've never actually cooked scallops at home, so this was sure to be an adventure.
• I tossed the scallops in the pan with a little vegetable oil, added a few stalks of fresh asparagus (which I am only just now learning to cook), and some slices of fresh button mushrooms.
• A little water, sea salt, coarse ground pepper, garlic powder (my irritation with fresh garlic is something for a later post).
• I covered the pan, waited a few minutes for the asparagus to get tender and the scallops to turn opaque.
• Served over brown rice, I spooned on some of the pan juices for the flavor.
  
• Usually I make a mystery dish and then never remember how it is done. I hope I remember this one. It was delicious--and very simple.
  

*This, I should point out, is not a reference to the unknown protein that appears in school cafeterias but to odd--and largely unknown--cuts of meat that we sometimes get at an especially good price. My Prince has occasionally come home with 10 or 20 pounds of excellent pork (sometimes beef) that could have been intended for chops or roasts or who knows what. Either the trainee butcher got to it or the master butcher was hung over. Seriously weird cuts. Seriously challenging to figure out how to prepare it. And more fun that way, to be honest.

Mock yams

One cup of diced sweet potato (raw) is 23.42 grams of carbohydrates. One cup of chopped carrots (raw) is 12.26 grams of carbohydrates. All orange veggies are not the same, but they look close enough for my purposes. We are substituting carrots for sweet potatoes this Thanksgiving.

My Prince loves sweet potatoes, preferably candied with sugar and smothered with marshmallows. Ditto for Mama. I have fooled My Prince with carrots before, so I'm going to try it with Mama. He liked it enough to ask for more. He even (pause to absorb the shock) liked the carrots so much that he asked to learn how to cook them for himself when I'm gone.

Here's what I do:

• Boil some peeled baby carrots until very tender. You can put a little sea salt in the water if you want to. The important thing to put in the water, however, is your sweetener. I use Splenda, but you may have other thoughts about what works best for you. Use maybe 1/2 to 1 cup. You want the carrots to taste really sweet.
• If the cooked carrots taste sweet enough, just drain, add some butter, and serve. If they need more sweetness, drain most of the liquid and add more Splenda until you think you've got the taste you want. Then butter and serve.
• To get a brown sugar taste, you can use Splenda's version of brown sugar or just splash in a bit of sugar free maple syrup. I use the maple syrup because it doesn't have as many carbs as the Splenda brown (I'm serious about the splash bit).

If you really want to fool everyone, mash the carrots. My Prince was happy to have the whole ones, but we may have to be a little more devious with Mama. Still, we tend to eat less when we are served an intact vegetable rather than a mushy mound (I think).

Thanksgiving dessert

We are trying to avoid the traditional pumpkin pie this year, although it is a struggle. It's one of Mama's favorites (at this time of year). It happens that I also like this pie, so I want to avoid having one within range of my (sadly lacking) willpower. Maybe I can buy her a pie before I leave, with instructions to eat it all before I return (like that will go over well).

Big Kid Cousin came up with a recipe for pumpkin cheese cake but decided against adding to the workload by trying a complicated new recipe. I volunteered my Dreamsicle Pie, and that is what we are going with.

Originally, I "invented" this pie to serve as a pumpkin pie alternative solely because it was orange. The main ingredient is: sugar free orange Jello (or whatever the house brand equivalent might be). The important thing for this occasion is orange color and sugar free. I also "invented" this as a pie, so I made a "crust" for it. This year, we will skip the crust because of food/teeth issues for the elders.

Here's the pie:

• Make the sugar free orange gelatin according to package instructions. I use one large or 2 small packages. Allow to set in refrigerator.
• Remove your now fully set orange gelatin from the refrigerator and dump it into a blender. Add a small amount of heavy whipping cream and blend it until you have a smooth mixture that is a pastel shade of orange. Keep adding cream (but not too much) as long as you think the mixture will not become runny and still needs a lighter color.
• Pour the mixture into a glass pie dish, with or without a crust. Cooking spray might be needed if you don't have a crust. (I guess I will find out on Thanksgiving.)

The crust:

• Mix chopped pecans and a small amount of melted butter or margarine (just enough to lightly coat the pecans).
  
• Place the pecans in the bottom of a glass pie dish and press into shape to form a thin crust on the bottom (and up the sides if you have enough nuts).

With or without the crust, cover the pie with plastic wrap and return to the refrigerator for some more setting time. Cut and serve as proudly as you would a homemade pumpkin pie.

The whole pie tastes like a dreamsicle ice cream and is delicious. It has zero carbohydrates without the crust and very few with the crust. The dreamsicle taste with nuts just goes to a whole new level of yummy.

You can make this pie with other flavors of gelatin. Try something red for Valentine's Day, even green for St. Patrick's Day.

I've not tended to worry about garnishes nor bothered with any topping. You might try try it with whipped topping of some sort (mind the carbs!) or sprinkle a few nuts in the middle of the top, but the pie is certainly tasty enough without anything extra.

Frog Eyes

Rhonda Schaefer of Victoria (Texas, where else????) didn't win last year's contest for holiday recipes, but she got a picture of her appetizer in HEB's holiday food thingie (My HEB Goodness, Holiday 2007) and her recipe on their web site. Sadly, I saved the picture but never went to get the recipe from the web. Sorry, Rhonda!!!!

Still, the frog eyes look yummy. As I look at the picture, what I think that I am seeing is something like thin sliced ham, spread with cream cheese, rolled around asparagus, and then sliced for spiral wraps. If that is not what Rhonda Schaefer intended, oopsie and so-sorry and I'm-sticking-with-my-interpretation.

Indeed, I'm planning a practice run to see how this will work for an upcoming par-tay.

Another use of jicama

Friday night is party night at Mama's house. It's been that way since I was a teenager and had my own crowd of friends (four or five teenagers is a plenty big crowd!) come over for pizza and talk-talk-talk. Nowadays, Big Kid Cousin and Little Sister make up the "usual crowd," but this past Friday added a young(ish) couple from Mama's church to the group.

While the menu didn't start out as pot luck, it sure ended up that way. The young(ish) bride brought chile con queso, with ground beef and mild flavoring. Little Sister brought big slices of jicama with a couple of dressings for dipping sauces. Neither of her dressings were the traditional lime and cayenne flavors, but they held up well for giving the jicama a little taste.

Toward the end of the evening, I was nibbling around and just dipped a slice of jicama in the queso. Wowee zowee! Nice flavor combination. I'll certainly try that again. A low-carb, high-fiber substitute for chips is a good discovery any time.

Another shopping strategy

Back in Houston, no hurricanes in sight, and it's "if I don't actually want to scrub floors, I don't have to--today." So there's time to dink around on the interwebs and even do some blogging. I am somewhat stunned!

So here's what I found today: The Simple Dollar. The relevant post for me today talks about saving money on grocery shopping in 6 more or less easy steps, but the whole blog is quite interesting because of the various discussions of different ways to save money on all sorts of things besides food. I think it's worth spending some time meandering through The Simple Dollar. You're sure to pick up at least one idea that will help survive this tough economy that we have right now.

The six steps to saving money at the grocery store are:

1. Get a flyer.
2. Find sales on fresh ingredients.
3. Do some recipe research.
4. Create a week-long meal plan.
5. Make a shopping list from the meal plan.
6. Go grocery shopping--and stick to your list.

As it turns out, I only do one of these things: get a flyer. From that point on, I'm a bit of a failure (as far as this list goes).

I look at all of the sales, not just the fresh ingredients. I am tending to cook more and more with fresh ingredients these days, but, frankly, my dear, I am so not going to make my own tomato sauce, ergo, it's gonna come in a can. So are many of the other ingredients that I use--for some menus, if not others.

I have been known to do some recipe research, but I am admittedly bad at following recipes. I actually enjoy reading cookbooks, but I tend to think of this as inspirational reading, not specifically educational or practical. I read recipes (and sometimes even clip them) and then kinda sorta make something that has a few points in common with what I read but, of course, several points that are not. (Hey, it's how I roll!) If I were going to do some research prior to shopping (and I often do), it will more likely be for the nutritional value of a specific food or for a list of foods with a particular nutritional element (fiber anyone?) or getting a better idea of how an ingredient that interests me might be used. The latter might be considered recipe research, but half the time I get my use info from Wikipedia and go from there.

Now meal planning is something that we should all do, I'm sure, but, well, I don't. I mean, I do plan what I want to have for Christmas dinner and shop to make sure that I have everything that I will need. For non-holiday meals, I tend to think about entrees: chicken something, something with ham, broiled steak, and so on. But that level of planning usually happens on the morning (if I'm lucky and don't forget until the afternoon) of the day I'm cooking. The rest of the menu will follow based on what experience, tradition, or availability-in-my-pantry pretty much dictates. If I planned a whole week at a time, I doubt that I could stick to the plan for the whole week--but I have no doubt that I would lose the list well before the week was up. Still, here's the meal planning sheet that The Simple Dollar provides to help you out if you are a better planner than I am.

My shopping lists are often heavily based on the sale flyer that we are using. Since we shop at three stores in Austin, that's three lists (but only two flyers since not all stores publish flyers). The lists also include staple items that we have to buy regardless of what's on sale (although we look for bargains and buy them at the cheapest store). Our lists also include items that we can stock up on but might not use for several weeks (or longer if we are really building up our stock of that item). Our meals for the week might come out of that list, but more likely they will come out of what I have purchased on past shopping trips and combine with some fresh items from the current trip.

Sticking to the list is also a tough one, not because we are inordinately prone to impulse purchases (I am more so than My Prince, but still not a "problem shopper"), but because there are unadvertised specials to be found, forgotten items to add when we are reminded by seeing them, and--in my case--the need to be creative. This creativity may come with the menu planning that I sometimes do while in the store ("I want to cook that ham this week, and I think I want to serve it with hominy"--which is not one of the items that I would stock up on). The creativity may also come later on when I have made sure that I have an array of items to choose from in the pantry when I want to toss together a stir-fry dish ("Ah, I do have bean sprouts!"). Sticking to the list is important for efficiency and for economy, but it can't be a straightjacket.

So I'm thinking that there are probably several ways to be frugal in shopping. Perhaps first step is to realize that the grocery store is not a cheap place to hang out and that you have to be actively responsible for keeping your money in your pocket--where it belongs. And then make a list!

Edamame (2)

Well, I repeated the stir-fry using edamame, celery (3 stalks, finely sliced), carrots (handful of miniatures, finely sliced), and packaged cole slaw (3-4 cups). A few spices to taste, and I had a healthy, low-carb, and, well, tasty side dish. Without the rice. Woot!

My stir-dry technique involves some steaming since I don't like to have to stand too long in the kitchen. While that helps move things along, there is still plenty of crunch when I am too impatient to let everything cook to a pulp.

Cucumber snack

My Prince and I just returned from another adventure in Grocery Land. We were both well and truly tired out by the experience. As dutiful as we were in eating a bit (leftover cole slaw stir fry) before we went to the store (so as not to be piggish in our purchases), we were still ever so slightly ravenous when we got home.

My solution: fresh sliced cucumbers and cream cheese. I gave My Prince a small bowl of cucumber slices, a glob of cream cheese, a knife, and left him to it. Then I made my own bowl of goodness. Mmmm, real goodness. This is one of my favorite snacks. And low carb?

1 c. sliced cucumber with peel = 1.66 grams ECC
100 g, cream cheese = 2.66 grams

The problem is, of course, how much did we eat? Can't really say, but way less than that. Nice crunch, good chewing, excellent flavor, satisfying snack for less than 5 grams of carbs? I'm happy.

Tuna-stuffed Eggs

Just for a change from Hurricane Ike, I'd like to highlight an online cookbook that I recently found. It's actually part of Dr. Richard Bernstein's book, Diabetes Solution. I found a PDF file of the book's recipe section on D-solve (a solution until there is a cure). To download the 344 pages of low carbohydrate recipes, click on the link for Additional Resources and then the link for Free Recipes. That will start the download of the PDF file.

This recipe for Tuna-stuffed Eggs is found on page 227 of the file.

TUNA-STUFFED EGGS

Makes 8 halves
Per egg half.
Effective carbohydrates: 0.3 g
Carbohydrates: 0.3 g
Fiber: 0 g
Protein: 7.4 g
Fat: 6.9 g
Calories: 93

I love the combination of tuna with anchovies and capers, but you can make one or both optional.

Ingredients:

4 hard-cooked large eggs, peeled
1 3 1/2-oz. can olive oil-packed tuna, well-drained and mashed
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 anchovy fillets, cut in half lengthwise
16 capers

Cut the eggs in half lengthwise and use a thin, sharp knife to take a tiny slice from the bottom of each half so it will sit firmly in place after stuffing. Scoop out the yolks with a small spoon and place in a small bowl. Set the whites on a platter.

Mash the yolks with a fork until smooth (or press them through a sieve). Stir in the tuna and mayonnaise. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Using a small spoon, stuff the whites with the yolk mixture. Cut each strip of anchovy in half crosswise and crisscross the pieces on top of each egg; garnish with the capers. Serve immediately or chill.

I tried this recipe today. I didn't have any anchovies, so I used bacon. I didn't read the garnish instructions (I am so bad with following recipes); I just chopped the bacon up and mixed it in. I liked the flavor pop from the capers, which meant I had to use more than two per egg.

The recipe is basically an inversion of tuna salad (putting the tuna in the egg instead of vice versa). It's a tad more sophisticated than my normal tuna salad, but, if I couldn't have pickles, I could at least have cayenne. The egg was nice and tasty, and then the cayenne kicked in. Mmmm.

Baked beans strike out

Baked beans have not been part of my family tradition. Maybe Daddy didn't like 'em. Maybe Mama couldn't make 'em. For whatever reason, I can only remember encountering them at one of our wonderful family reunions when I was a kid. There was, however, too much potato salad, fried chicken, and banana pudding to think much about baked beans.

Nowadays, however, I have begun to dabble in the baking of beans. This mostly involves grabbing a can of this or that bean and seeing what develops. A couple of days ago I did some of that dabbling and came up with disaster.

It all started out really well. I partially drained cans of:

• pork and beans,
• black beans,
• pinto beans

and dumped them all in a pan. They looked yummy, and I knew they would taste yummy when I took them out of the oven.

The problem started when I opened the can of plain diced tomatoes instead of the can of tomatoes with chiles. I had to compensate with red pepper flakes, since I didn't want to use a whole can of chiles to go with the tomatoes. Oops! I overcompensated. Too much red pepper.

Strike two came when I thought some celery might be good to add. I had already chopped about 2/3 of a large onion and added that. More chopping didn't appeal to me. I was already tired of standing, so I opted for celery seed. I've been using dried celery flakes for some of my stir frying, but am not very experienced with celery seed. Who knew how much flavor those little buddies carried? Again, too much of a good thing.

Strike three came when I took the beans out of the oven. I had baked them for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. Then, when it was time to broil the pork ribs, I switched the oven over to broiling, raised the temp, and placed the ribs above the beans to keep the beans from burning. That wasn't strike three. Strike three was when I realized that I hadn't put any meat in the beans. I had been thinking about it, wishing I had some sausage to throw in. It was only when I took the pan out of the oven that I realized that I had plenty of my old standby (bacon) and could have used that for flavor. *sigh*

As it turned out, the peppers didn't kill us, and the celery seed was tolerable. I dipped out pan juices from the pork ribs to add some extra taste to the beans. We did well enough, but next time I think I will do more chopping and pay more attention to what I'm putting in the pan. Or not. :)