So, I mentioned a bit ago that I've been drinking a glass or two of whole milk in the mornings.  It started because I made some jerky that was a little too spicy and the milk was such a nice contrast.  And I've been lazy about making breakfast in the mornings, so my jerky snack has turned into my jerky breakfast.

Well, I've also been lacing my whole milk with half and half.  I did it once and I liked how the half and half looked, so I did it a few more times.  And then I looked at the labels.  Did you know whole milk has more saturated fats than half and half?!

I don't know a lot about milk or fats still these days.  I learn a little at a time.  But I was really surprised by this.  So, I just started having my whole milk plain.

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After much begging, cajoling, and just being generally bothersome I convinced Kevin to send me some of his Peanut Butter Cookies.  They arrived today packed in a tin and after trying them, I really only have one thing to say:

NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM!

When I am allowed to spend money and invest in making food like cookies, I will definitely have to make some of these on my own.  They were so moist and delicious and they were largely sugar-free.  (The ones he sent me seemed to have peanut butter chips in them, but as you can see from his recipe, you can leave those out.)

I think if you ate just one or two of these in a day you'd have plenty carbs/sugar in your life.  I, of course, ate every single one of the cookies he sent me because they were so good.  I didn't count them, but it was probably a dozen of these delicious little monsters.

So, HUGE thank you to Kevin for sharing his cookies with me!

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 07:41 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Oooh yum.  You're making me hungry for cookies.  It has been ages since I have had a good peanut butter cookie.  Hm, I might have to go make myself some peanut butter cookies.  MMMMM!

No Monica you can't do that.  You need to lose weight for your wedding. 

Posted by: Monica at January 28, 2009 09:07 PM (8e6FG)

2 Maybe you could make them FOR your wedding!!  They really aren't the absolute worst thing for you as far as cookies go.  Kevin subbed out almost all of the regular bad stuff.  And a few peanuts aren't THAT bad are they?

Posted by: Flibbert at January 28, 2009 09:26 PM (Cniw0)

3 Oh well I hadn't seen that is uses practically no sugar and almond flour.  That would  be perfectly wonderful!  No, I'm not opposed to peanuts.

(I just don't eat wheat.  My assumption was that they contained regular old flour.)

Wow, thanks for alerting us to an awesome recipe.

Posted by: Monica Hughes at January 31, 2009 07:07 PM (8e6FG)

4 Kevin's working on caveman-friendly brownies this weekend, too!

Posted by: Flibbert at January 31, 2009 08:08 PM (Cniw0)

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Reuters: Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many common foods made using commercial high fructose corn syrup contain mercury as well, researchers reported on Tuesday, while another study suggested the corn syrup itself is contaminated.

Food processors and the corn syrup industry group attacked the findings as flawed and outdated, but the researchers said it was important for people to know about any potential sources of the toxic metal in their food.

In one study, published in the journal Environmental Health, former Food and Drug Administration scientist Renee Dufault and colleagues tested 20 samples of high fructose corn syrup and found detectable mercury in nine of the 20 samples.

Mm hm.  Well, since I have adopted the Primal Blueprint as a guide for choosing what I eat, I would recommend avoiding both HFCS and sugar alike.  And now I can add my desire to stay completely sane to my list of reasons why.

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I just realized that I cannot give you my Chicken Soup Recipe because it is based on a recipe that is protected by copyright by Betty Crocker.

Here's the book:



It's on page 70. It's their Quick Chicken Soup Recipe.

This cookbook is really, really great if you're just learning to cook and you want some solid recipes.  My mother bought it for me several years ago hoping that it would be similar to her 1953 edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook.  (It's not.)  But I still recommend it.

This recipe is also really good if you're not a very patient cook or if you're really pressed for time.

It does call for pasta, which I left out, of course.  I did add in some frozen corn before I remembered that corn is high in starch (duh!) even though the recipe doesn't call for it.

I also use canned white chicken meat.  Yes, it is less flavorful than if you baked some chicken on the bone and then chopped it up, but it makes the recipe a lot faster and a lot easier.

Last night, I actually boiled some extra chicken quarters in the soup because I didn't have enough chicken bouillon (I was short 6 cups!!!) and with a few more spices it still turned out AWESOME.  So, when I tell you it's hard to mess this recipe up, believe it.

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Because of my schedule this weekend, I couldn't make my regular batch of jerky.  This meant I had to make it last night.  So, when I got home from work, I put my jerky in the oven and promptly forgot about it.

Until this morning.

I now have meat-flavored charcoal strips for snacks this week.  Mmmmmmm...

Just a note to all y'all making jerky: 12 hours is WAY too long to leave jerky in the oven.  Aim for some amount of time between three hours and 12 hours depending on how thickly you cut your strips.

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A lot of people on the primal plan and in other such circles strongly advocate raw milk.  Raw milk isn't homogenized or pasteurized. 

When I was little, we had a dairy farm about 2 miles from our house and I remember going with my parents to buy milk and then we'd bring it home and skim the cream off of it.  I remember my parents telling me that it was pasteurized, though.

But with all the talk about it and a DIY impulse to make my own butter and even cheese from raw milk, I'm giving some thought to joining some other New Yorkers and seeking out a black market source for the stuff.

I just read the NYT article on the Raw Milk craze.  They make raw milk drinkers sound like Competitive Russian Roulette players, though.

There are pro-raw milk resources, though.  RealMilk.com has some of them. I'm not a food scientist, though, so going through all of the discussions would take me a fair amount of time and energy.

One of the biggest sources of my reluctance isn't that I might get a criminal record, but the simple fact that I rarely drink or cook with milk.  Buying a gallon of milk would be very wasteful for me as most of it would spoil before I got around to drinking it.  A quart of the stuff would meet and exceed my milk needs, really.  The only reason I can foresee needing more would be for making cheese and butter and yogurt and things like that, which I can't imagine making with any frequency or regularity.

So, I think for the time being I'm just going to keep reading about the stuff, but not actually pursue it.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 01:28 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I'm making jerky in my oven again today.  Jerky is a great snack.  It's tasty, full of protein, and it does actually help stave off your appetite.

Jerky that you buy in stores is full of preservatives like nitrates and other things that sound like they'd be better for my potted plants than for me.

So, you can make your own!

The first time I made this, I sort of followed this recipe.  I hate how that recipe is written, though, and this time I tweaked it a little, so I decided to write down what I did both for your reference and mine.

Ingredients

• 4 lbs of London Broil
• 3/4 c of Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 c of Low Sodium Soy Sauce
• 3 tsp of Salt (I use fine-grain sea salt)
• 3 tsp of Black Pepper
• 1½ tsp of Garlic Powder
• 1½ tsp of Onion Powder
• 1½ tsp of Cayenne Pepper
• 3 tsp of Other Stuff that Seems Like it Would be Good
  

1. Put the meat in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour.  This makes it firm enough to cut into thin slices.
2. While your meat is chilling, get a big bowl (preferrably one with a lid) in which to marinade your meat.
3. Mix all of the other ingredients into the bowl and stir it up.
• About that "other stuff."  For marinades, soups, and cooking in general, I rarely measure anything very carefully.  Measurement is FAR more critical in baking.  Here, I was looking for some liquid smoke.  My roommate cooks a fair amount of cajun food, so you'd think we'd have some.  Nope!  So, I used about 1½ tsp of Browning and Seasoning sauce.  And then he came in and suggested this smoked pepper, so I tossed in about 1½ tsp of that.  I wanted my jerky to be a little smokier and a bit spicier this time around.
  
4. Trim off any big pieces of fat.  A little fat is fine, but the big pieces won't dry out well and they taste really gross.  (Trust me.  I tried it.)
   
5. Cut meat into ¼ strips.  You can go thinner, too.  Thinner slices dry better than thicker ones.
6. Put all of the meat into the bowl with the marinade and stir it up.  If you have a big mixing bowl with a lid, like I do, you can just put the lid on and shake it up to make sure the marinade gets all over the meat.
7. Let marinade in the fridge over night at least.  24 hours would be ideal.  I've been known to go and shake up my bowl of meat and marinade a couple of times just to make sure everything gets hit with the marinade a lot.
8. The next day, drain the meat in a collander and then pat it dry on paper towels.
9. Line the bottom of the oven with aluminium foil.  This will catch the drippings from the meat so that your oven isn't a hideous mess and fire-hazard.
10. Put the meat strips directly on the oven racks or, if you have them, cake racks.
11. Set the oven to its lowest temperature or about 200 degrees and let the meat dry for 3 - 5 hours.  Check it after a few hours just to see how things are coming along.  If you weren't very consistent in your slicing, the thinner pieces will need to be removed from the oven before the thicker ones.  If you have an electric oven, you'll need to leave the oven door open a crack to let the moist air out.

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1 Have your roommates been better about keeping the kitchen clean?

Posted by: colin at January 11, 2009 01:27 PM (WjXmd)

2 Not really.  I've just been working around it.

Posted by: Flibbert at January 11, 2009 01:29 PM (xzhy1)

3 I'm trying your recipe tonight.  Why oh why do I have to wait a day to bake them?  I wish I could do it tonight!

I added Louisiana hot sauce and horseradish to mine.  mmmm mmmmm I can't wait to try it.  I'm so excited.

potted plants.  ha.

Posted by: Monica Hughes at November 13, 2009 11:11 PM (8PowW)

4 It's yummy! 

Posted by: Monica Hughes at November 14, 2009 09:36 PM (aD6VN)

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When it comes to preparing food, I am mostly concerned about things being fast.  I don't like spending a long time standing over the stove watching things bubble.  It's fun if other people are around to talk to, but if I'm by myself, I tend to wander off and end up calling the fire department later. But, of course, now I am concerned with my food also being cheap.  AND I am trying to keep my diet in line with the primal plan. 

That's a lot of requirements, but I've managed to come up with a meal that meets all of that AND can be prepared in a single pan for easy clean-up!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp of butter
• 1 Tbsp of minced garlic (if you like that)
  
• 1/2 bag of california blend frozen veggies (carrots, cauliflower, broccoli)
• Eggs (as many as you plan to eat)
  
• Parsley (fresh or dried)
• Salt
• Peppet
  

1. Put the butter and garlic in your frying pan and sautee while you're opening the bag of veggies.
2. Dump in half of the bag of veggies.  You can use the whole bag if you have a large frying pan and a large appetite
3. Sprinkle some parsley, salt, and pepper all over the veggies and stir it up real good.
4. Scoot all the veggies to one side of the pan.
5. Add your eggs to the empty side of the pan.
6. Sprinkle the eggs with parsley, salt, and pepper to your particular taste.
7. Cover and let cook for 5 - 7 minutes over a medium-low heat
8. Serve when it looks good to you.

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So, after reading on Mark's Daily Apple that cavemen don't like beans (that much), I decided to tweak my stew/chili recipe.  Due to my ineptitude for estimating volumes, I only went through two pots this time.  I wanted to use my slow cooker again, but after cutting up all the veggies and everything, it was overflowing, so I resorted to the big stock pot.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of cubed tomatoes in juice
• 2 bags of baby carrots
• One medium Spanish Onion
• 2 lbs of stewing beef
• 2 Tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 jar of jalapeno peppers
  
• 1 large yellow squash
• 3 small zucchinis
• 3 cups of beef bouillon
  
• 3 Tbsp chili powder
• A bunch of fresh, chopped cilantro
• Salt & Pepper to taste
  

1. Brown the meat in a skillet.
2. Add everything to a pot and cook over low heat, covered for a long time.

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Mark at Mark's Daily Apple has posted a new Energy Bar recipe.  I tried his old one and while it was good, it was, as he mentioned, very fragile.  I'm excited to try this out sometime.  It sounds delicious and Mark says it holds together better, but it will probably be after I pay off the credit cards.

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I made the Low Carb Apple Pie from Mark's Daily Apple today and it's very tasty. 

Instead of baking apples, I used two Gala apples and one Granny Smith because I couldn't find anything called "baking apples" in the grocery store and because I thought this combination would be delicious and I was right!

A couple of tips:

• My crust never behaved the way Mark describes.  It was never crumbly before adding the water.  And when I was trying to roll it out, it made a big, sticky mess and so I wound up just pressing it into my pie plate with my hands.
• I used the crushed pecans tip.  I recommend including this to balance out the flavors a bit.
• Serve with a spoon.  This pie just doesn't hold together like a pie.  The crust is now VERY crumbly and the chunks of apple do nothing to hold it all together.
• If there were a way to make the crust stay together, I would also consider making a top crust.
• I would also consider peeling the apples next time.  The skins are delicious, but they add a strange consistency to the pie that I think may be best left out, unless there were some way to arrange the slices so that there are uniform layers of peels throughout.  hmmm...

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 08:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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