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The Unintentionally Eggy Pancake

Ω April 18th, 2010 Ω Tagged , , , , , , , , , , Ω 36 Comments

Doesn’t that sounds like the name of a rock band? You’d better snag it now, because apparently all the good names are taken.

Why unintentionally eggy? I experimented with a new pancake this morning, and I would DEFINITELY make an alteration next time. I’ll share it with you anyway, so you can decide if you like eggy pancakes or not.

The Unintentional Pancake

Ingredients:
1 egg (please, try it with just an egg white first, or else you’ll come back to haunt me)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cornstarch (makes pancake crispy!)
1 Tbsp brown rice flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a skillet over medium heat.

After bottom cooks, flip and let cook through. Turn onto plate and top with your favorite toppings. I topped mine with strawberries (of course) and a “frosting” of Greek yogurt mixed with Chillin’ Chocolate. Plus a little more Chillin’ Chocolate (I’m going to be so sad when it’s gone :( ).

Verdict? Deliciously filling, but waaaaay too eggy! Please, do yourself a favor and make this pancake with egg whites. I used a whole egg because egg yolks have some wonderful healthy fats and other nutrients in them. But, they don’t taste good in these pancakes. With egg whites – voila! Perfection!

Lunch included a lovely strawberry and greens salad with crumbled blue cheese and the best balsamic vinegar we had – thick and syrupy and sweet.

… What’s that? You say you want to see the long-awaited salmon recipe? Well, if you insist …

Leeky Salmon with Sweet Grapefruit Sauce

Ingredients:
1 pound salmon
1 leek, thoroughly cleaned and sliced thin
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp grapefruit zest
1 Tbsp grapefruit juice
Just keep the rest of the grapefruit, too
2 tsp honey
Salt and pepper

Cook the salmon by your favorite method. Peter cooked our salmon in his homemade sous-vide setup.

For the non-Peter cook, I recommend broiling the salmon with a little olive oil and thyme on top, or using this little salmon trick.

While the salmon is cooking, prepare the leeks by placing them into a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes, then draining them and plunging them into an ice bath (or cold water like I did, if you don’t have ice).

Whisk together the olive oil, zest, juice, honey, and salt and pepper. Arrange a few leeks on the salmon and pour the sauce over all. Place a grapefruit slice or two next to the fish (in place of the typical lemon wedge) and serve with a snooty upturned nose and a French accent.

Who knew that grapefruit and leeks went so well together?? I originally came up with this recipe to enter into last week’s Cook’s Mission competition, but with my hemming and hawing last week, I never got around to making it until today. I’m sorry, Mae! And, I chose the secret ingredients, too! For those of you who want to enter this week, the secret ingredient is rutabaga. So, get cooking!

I just wanted to thank you all again for your sleeping suggestions! For the last two nights, I’ve been sleeping like a baby – sleeping until 7 am with no major interruptions other than a bouncing Maddies. No caffeine and unplugging for at least half and hour before bed really seems to help. I’ll see how it goes during the week, but for now, I feel WELL. RESTED. :D For those of you who want to see a summary of everyone’s sleeping tips, look under the “Reader Tips” tab at the top of the page.

On a final note: LeQuan of luvtoeat was so sweet as to give me this Happy 101 award! There are few people who bring a smile to my face as much as LeQuan. Everyone should check out her blog to see her mouth-watering dishes and adorable kiddies! :)

Here are the rules:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know about the award.

Of course, don’t feel obligated to participate if you don’t want to. I know we’re all busy!

Ten things that make me happy (in no particular order):
* My husb and his crazy hobbies that always remind me what a unique man he is
* My dad and sisters and my family in Canada and in Missouri and scattered all around
* Colored pencils
* A quiet morning, a light breeze, and a pair of sneakers
* Talking to my lovely friends :)
* Creating a new recipe and having it WORK
* Our doggles, Maddies and Bon
* Things that grow, be it person or plant
* Finishing something and finishing it well
* A good night’s sleep

I’m going to pass the award onto these lovely ladies:

Samantha @ Bikini Birthday
Darryn @ brio.gusto (whenever you get back from India!!)
Andrea @ Can You Stay For Dinner?
Christina @ Dinner at Christina’s
Katie @ Health for the Whole Self
Em @ HomecookedEm
Christie @ Honoring Health
Emma @ Midget Keeper Daily
Kristen @ Simply Savor
Lucy @ Sweet Spirit Shine

Feel free to participate if you’d like!

I’m off to do a little more work before unplugging for the night! Have a wonderful evening! :)

Q: Have you ever made a dish or recipe that did not turn out as you expected?

» Filed under Recipes » 36 Comments

Strawberries up the …

Ω April 11th, 2010 Ω Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Ω 37 Comments

… up the WHAT, you ask? Why, the strawberry bush, of course! Geez, what were YOU thinking? ;)

After yesterday’s strawberry purchase, I have successfully eaten my way through 1.5 pounds of strawberries. Yes, I said POUNDS. How??

Chocolate strawberry oatmeal, with Chillin’ Chocolate PB and a crumbled Saratoga peanut butter ball. Eaten while studying for tomorrow’s Medical Nutrition Therapy exam.

Mid-morning, Peter whipped up some Peter Reinhart crackers.

They were mostly rye flour, with seeds and an egg white wash. I ate a couple with some of my favorite cheeses: Cowgirl Creamery‘s Mt. Tam and a very sharp cheddar:

The basis of lunch was a modified PB & J:

Gorgeous red gems.

This PB & J has no added sugar – only a fresh, sweet taste :)

Peter was kind enough to make dinner while I continued my studying frenzy. He prepared black pepper sauce from Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking, and served it with pork, snap peas, and Forbidden Rice.

What is Forbidden Rice? Forbidden Rice is a whole grain rice high in iron that has a nutty taste. It’s a little firmer than brown rice and goes really well with a peppery sauce. We bought ours at Kalustyan’s when we went to the store a few weeks ago.

I’m going to look for this rice someplace a little closer than NYC because it was nutty and delicious!

My brother-in-law Dave sent me this article a couple of days ago. The article talks about initiatives by the FDA to require food manufacturers to put nutrition labels on the FRONT of packages, rather than the side or back. I can understand their reasoning here – put the label front and center so that the consumer sees it, kind of like putting nutrition information on a restaurant menu. BUT, unlike info on a menu, food packages ALREADY have a nutrition label in a fairly conspicuous location. Personally, I don’t think placing a nutrition label on the front of packages will cause more people to look at them. What do you think?

I do agree with the second part of the article that talks about standardizing health claim labels on food packages. Currently, health claims are confusing and often misleading. What exactly does “natural” mean? In truth, it means absolutely NOTHING. But, often people will pick up a product and consider it more healthy if it has that magic word on the front. Food companies employ many such misleading labeling tricks to get you to buy their product in the name of health. I believe passing stricter rules about what can and can’t be on a food package would be helpful in weeding out some of these deceptive practices.

Q: What so you think about putting nutrition labels on the front of food packages? How about standardization of health claims on labels?

I’m off to study for my MNT exam, so I’ll see you all in a few days!

» Filed under New Foods » 37 Comments

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