October 20 2007 day 8 – Eating healthy


Image by DeathByBokeh
One way of managing diabetes is to eat foods low in carbohydrate content. Knowing the insulin requirements for a particular recipe makes it easier to bolus for that meal. i regularly make an Eggbeaters omelette with some veggies, mushrooms and herbs for breakfast. It hardly has any carbs, and very little, if not any, fat. The omelette, along with a cup of freshly brewed coffee, gets me started everyday.

There is no cure for diabetes, yet.

Tonight’s dinner featuring stovetop mac and cheese


Image by She Who Shall Not Be Named
BF and I didn’t feel like eating out again, but we weren’t quite up to cooking a full meal either. Instead we picked up a rotisserie chicken and fresh broccoli from the grocery store, then headed back home to make this stovetop mac and cheese side dish I saw in the May 2007 issue of Cooking Light magazine.

Some differences between the receipe and what I did:

1. Used full fat cheese.
2. Added a few splashes of Tabasco sauce.
3. Omitted the breadcrumbs toasted in butter.

It turned out really well. It’s a basic recipe that cooks up quickly, a little lighter than most recipes, and doesn’t require baking!

Stovetop Mac and Cheese
1 1/4 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (about 6 oz.)
1 cup 1% low-fat milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cubs (5 oz) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (1 1/2 oz) slice white bread
1 tablespoon butter, melted

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain.

2. combine milk and flour in a medium saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Cook over medium heat 2 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add cheese, salt, and peper, stirring with a whisk until smooth. add pasta; toss to coat. Let stand 4 minutes.

3. Place bread in a food processor, and pulse 10 times or until the crumbs measure 1 1/4 cups.

4. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Ad breadcrumbs, and cook 5 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Stir in melted butter; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over past mixture. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3/4 cup)

calories: 334 (30% from fat); fat: 11g (sat 6.55, mono 2.8g, poly 0.8g); protein 17.7g; carb 40.3g; fiber 1.7; cholesterol 30mg; iron 2.1mg; sodium 661mg; calcium 417mg.

DIY Recipe Book


Image by TNEmily
Want to make your own recipe book? My tutorial is here:

awesomeave.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/diy-recipe-book/

Making Coffee Concentrate: See Recipe


Image by cobalt123
My recipe on making coffee concentrate is below. It’s the best method of making very rich coffee at home. Easy to do and inexpensive, you can keep it 2 weeks in your refrigerator. Just fill a coffee mug up about 1/4 and add hot water. Very smooth and rich. This image shows a shot of the ground coffee in a bowl, just after I added the water to soak the coffee. After 12 hours, the concentrate is very dark brown and ready to use. It "works" because the coffee is not "cooked" again before the concentrate is made.

In a 2 1/2 quart bowl:
5 cups fresh ground coffee (grind it fine)
Fill bowl to rim with filtered water

Let sit for 12 hours or more, covered with a lid or plastic wrap. Stir a few times over the soaking period. Produces about 4 1/2 cups of coffee concentrate.

Strain the liquid into a refrigerator bottle or container. To use, makes great hot coffee or iced coffee. Use only about 1/5 or 1/3 of the glass or mug of the concentrate. Add water or milk (for iced coffee). Sugar as desired.

My particular preferences, just found by experimenting:
I grind up 2 or 3 types of coffee, with my favorite recipe using 3 cups of a hazelnut flavored coffee, and the rest is French roast, Kona Blend, or other types of coffee beans. I found that grinding coffee beans makes the best flavor.

“Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis” – Project 366 2008 – August 6, 2008 ~


Image by turtlemom4bacon
219/366 – Project 366 2008 – August 6, 2008 ~

Hubby and I made raisin bread this morning in our bread machine. The bread plate is a ceramic plate I made back in 1982. ~

Recipe:

Raisin Bread

1 cup less 1 tablespoon warm water — (110 degrees)
1 1/2 tablespoons lard
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup raisins
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order suggested by the
machine’s manufacture. Select the Basic or White Bread setting. There is
no need to select Fruit Bread setting, nor to add the raisins in later.
Start the machine.

After first knead, bread should be smooth, elastic, and dry to touch.
Adjust if necessary with additional flour.

After baking, remove pan immediately. Rest for 10 minutes in the pan.
Remove bread from the pan, and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before
serving.

Icing is 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon water mixed together and drizzled over it while warm.

This recipe yields a 1 1/2 pound loaf.

ENJOY!!!

Cuneiform medical recipes


Image by txomsy
Picture from a reproduction of the original clay tablet dug in Nippur, Sumer, dated from the III millennium before Christ, and kept in the Museum of the University of Philadelphia (USA).

This is considered to be the earliest medical recipes manual known.

Thew original picture at 7 Mpixel resolution is available from the author.

96-365 a picture and a recipe


Image by johngarghan
96-365 take a photo every day in 2009
My good friend of 30 years Lynn Baxter and now Flickr Contact phoned this evening,
www.flickr.com/photos/lynnbaxter/
she told me she still cooks a recipe that I gave her along time ago and I had since forgotten about, I had the ingredients to hand and I was trying to make my mind up what to eat so I decided to go back in time.

Ingredients:
Bacon (or Sausage)
½ tin tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
Pepper to taste

Method:
Fry the bacon in a frying pan while at the same time bring the tomatoes to the boil in a sauce pan. When the bacon is cooked (or even just before it reaches that stage) transfer to the sauce pan along with any fat and juices that are in the frying pan, add the garlic, simmer until it is reduced then add water and keep on reducing, repeat this reducing process slowly simmering for about an hour. I have experimented with a little thyme or mixed herbs but its best kept simple.

Serve as a sandwich on crusty bread, and enjoy cleaning the pan with a piece of dry bread.

Chocolate Cookies (Recipe)


Image by Ruthieki
I don’t usually stray too far from my standard cookie recipes (chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin), but I made this recipe the other day because I was craving cookies and I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand. They were GOOD. Really, really good. Possibly my new favorite cookie of all time, even. They’re soft, a little cake-y, and really chocolatey (sort of like eating a brownie in cookie form).

2 cups all purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups (2 sticks plus 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temp. (don’t microwave!)
2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
2 large eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract

1. Mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. Add vanilla, mix to combine.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, and combine on low speed.
5. Chill until firm, about 1 hour.
6. Heat oven to 350.
7. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip top of each ball into sugar. Place on baking sheets about 1 ½ inches apart.
8. Bake until set, about 8 minutes.
9. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Makes about 45, or just short of three cookie-sheets worth.

I found that baking them for exactly 8 minutes in a properly pre-heated oven yielded perfect cookies. They were very soft and prone to falling apart while they were still hot, but once they cooled the texture was just right. Yum, looking at this picture makes me want to make these again right now… they only lasted about 2 days in my house, mostly since I was eating three for breakfast and three with every meal and three more as a bedtime snack.

Beer Biltong


Image by by Ophelia photos
My graphic design and illustration for a new company for Biltong in France, Marseille.
Doing this project has been more work than fun and I’m looking forward to working more with them.
Each of the "personas" represents one of the guys.
I have also done a folder and a Prism for them.
here is there there FACEBOOK
…and more info on them and what biltong is:

Contrary to popular belief Biltong is not the nectar of the Ancient Greek gods but just a very tasty good old-fashioned meat snack from the far end of Africa…

Yes, that’s right

Biltong hails from sunny South Africa…

So what is biltong???

Biltong originated when The Dutch settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 17th century brought recipes for dried meat from Europe, including France and Spain. Today it is sold all over the world and has even become a household name in countries like the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Holland and Spain…

Biltong is a kind of cured meat. Many different types of meat are used to produce Biltong, ranging from beef through to game meats. Biltong is similar to beef jerky in that they are both spiced, dried meats, but differ in their typical ingredients, taste and production process. The word biltong is from the Dutch Bil ("rump or buttock") and tong ("strip" or "tongue")… Brown vinegar along with Spices from all over the world is used to spice and cure the meat. Biltong is very high in protein, iron and magnesium and it is a very healthy snack. It is typically low in fats and carbs…

It is conventionally consumed accompanied with Beer and other beverages but can also be part of salads, sandwiches or part of you apero.

Now a bit more about trois fréres Biltong…

The Company has a real Biltong flavour to it in that all three the partners are from different parts of the world… We have a South African, an Irish man and even an American and all three of us are living in France. Trois Fréres Biltong has sprawn from our collective love of Biltong…

Our supplier has been around since 1969 and their age old Family Recipes remain unchanged and have undoubtedly "Stood The Test Of Time", and to this day remain free of Wheat, Glutens & Added Ingredients. All our products are manufactured to the Highest Quality, under the strictest Hygiene Standards. We only use the Best Quality Beef and there are NO wheat, glutens, added ingredients or preservatives in any of our products !!!

Today we bring you the best biltong right here in your local establishment for you to enjoy however you like…

So go on have some biltong and enjoy the taste of Africa…

To contact them you can e-mail troisfrere.biltong@gmail.com