Pecans might replace meat with your pancakes

Whenever I eat pancakes and nothing but pancakes for a meal, I sort of feel...I don't know...like the meal is incomplete. Like maybe I still need to eat a bunch of protein. It's a relatively unsatisfying meal. If you can eat eggs, those are a great addition. So is a hunk of the meat du jour. But what if you want protein satisfaction without that hunk of animal flesh?

The last time I had pancakes, I added cranberries and pecans to the mix before cooking on the skillet. Much to my delight, not only did it taste good, but adding those items "beefed up" the pancakes (I guess there might be a pun there) enough to curb the protein craving. I added zero butter and used strawberry jam as my sweetener.

Mighty fine if I do say so myself.

So if you're trying to avoid meat, that might be the way to go. While my experiment above worked great, I must say that I do savor the thought of a side order of reindeer- or caribou sausage. Now that, my friends, would be awesome.

That's the quick cooking update for now from Hong Kong...

Product Review ~ Cream of Rice

The quick summary:

Pros
Quick and easy to make.
Tastes great with some seasoning (dash of salt, brown sugar, fruit, etc.).
Simple ingredients that work on my diet: granulated rice, some vitamins & minerals.
Seems to hold me over longer than some other grains.
Nice and warm on a cold Alaska morning.
Easy to use as a side with other meals (a potato replacement, for example).

Cons
Not many...tastes boring solo, but that's an easy fix.

Summary
Two forks up! Will eat regularly.

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Now, for a little side story...

It's difficult to determine just who makes this product. I did figure it out; it's just not an easy thing to do and that's surprising. Here are the results of my initial search.

For nutritional information on this cream of rice product, you go to the cream of wheat website. Funny.

If you carefully study the Cream of Rice box, you'll find that, if you have questions or comments, you can visit www.bgfoods.com. No brand claim of ownership, just go to that site (or write to a P.O. Box). Hmmm... Once at the web site, you'll see that a company called B & G Foods makes and distributes a ton of very recognizable products. How come I've never heard of these guys? I've eaten their products for years.

I didn't have time to do a full background check on the various companies that were in place before they all merged into B & G Foods Holdings, but that company (B & G) was apparently incorporated at the end of 1996. By contrast, the Cream of Rice box says "since 1893". And I know I've been eating a bunch of their other products my whole life.

So who actually created the product that I now enjoy? Don't know, but it might make for interesting study.

Another time perhaps. Meanwhile, enjoy your Cream of Rice.

Want juicy chicken?

If you're struggling to create chicken that's moist and tasty, try this:

Heat your skillet on low heat for thirty seconds or so, then add about a Tbsp of olive oil. Work the oil around the skillet, then add either slices of skinless, boneless chicken breast or chunks of the same. Throw on some herbs de provence and cook till done. You might need to increase the heat slightly. You'll know it's done when you can use your spatula to pretty easily cut the chicken pieces in half. Check the insides for your desired doneness.

We've made this several times and it always turns out juicy and tasty.

You could also add in some chopped mushrooms or asparagus or whatever and let that cook alongside the chicken.

Good stuff.

Stir fry is easy!

I've always liked fried rice. Now I make it about every fourth day and find that I'm having a ball making it with a bit of just about anything I can find. I spend a ton of time in Asia and love Asian food. I am especially fond of how Asian cooking in particular seems to provide a whole variety of tastes in every bite. You can have sweet, spicy, mild, hot, etc. in every bite. It's great. I cannot eat pineapple right now, but my favorite combo is probably pineapple fried rice--some spicy stuff at one end of the spectrum and the sweet pineapple along the way. Good stuff.

Here's an example of something I threw together at home. I'm pretty limited right now regarding the spices I can use, so I'm trying to make the food taste as good as I can even without using any additional spices at all. For example, pre-salted nuts or meat can provide all the salt the meal needs. Throw in some raisins or other fruit along with the milder or salty flavors and it works great.

Anyhow, here's a simple stir fry that worked for us:


First make the rice. For this batch, I used chicken stock instead of water, just to check it out. I made the chicken stock myself by boiling down the carcass of a rotisserie chicken.





The next part allows for a great deal of creativity. I opted to begin with spinach. Set the heat to low. Put about a Tbsp of your desired oil in the pan. Add a ton of spinach. The spinach really cooks down a lot as you'll see in the next photo.






As you can see, it cooks down a lot.






My next bunch of ingredients: carrots, sugar snap peas, rotisserie chicken, and salmon. I end up adding additional oil as necessary as I go along and adjust the heat up or down along the way too. I don't have the other ingredients lined up for a pic, but I ended up adding pistachios and raisins. Just keep tumbling the food around so everything gets warm and nothing burns.





The end result. My son and I ate almost all of this in one sitting (and I'm a skinny dude!). There was a small serving leftover and it reheated perfectly fine in the microwave.

A bizarre combo that actually worked - salty and sweet

Frito-Lay makes a terrific product called Natural Tostitos Brand Tortilla Chips - Made with certified organic corn. And it's blue corn at that. The ingredients are: whole organic blue corn, expeller-pressed sunflower oil, and sea salt. No preservatives.

Since I can eat corn, sunflower, and sea salt, these wonderfully yummy (and salty) chips are A-okay with my diet. I eat them on the days I can eat corn. And I love them. They're great.

I mentioned in a previous post that I have leftover coconut syrup that I made to go with my pancakes. I like foods that are both sweet and spiced, so I figured what the heck! and spread a little of that syrup on the chip. I made sure no one else was watching and took a bite. Guess what? It's pretty dang good. At least I thought so, but I needed someone else to try it. Who would try such a strange thing?

I quickly scanned my environment, my mind quickly and effortlessly evaluating and eliminating my options like some well-trained spy on a secret mission and decisively settled on the ideal choice. My son is here on break from college, so I asked him if he was up for a bizarre taste test. The only other choice was my wife and I won't quote what her answer would've been. With the great trust of a son in his father, and with an iron gut that is sometimes a nearly bottomless calorie-burning abyss, he readily agreed. I waited breathlessly for this independent review, carefully scrutinizing his face for feedback as he munched away. Would there be ridicule or praise, a thumbs up or down? I could hardly stand the suspense. The verdict? "Can I have another one, Dad?"

Mikey likes it. Hey Mikey!

Does anyone else remember that commercial? Neither of us is named Mike. See there were these three brothers eating "healthy" cereal and...oh never mind.

But I got to thinking and, despite the danger in that activity, wondered what if I added just one more item? Hmmm...

Now here's a side note that deserves a post of its own (maybe later): you can be sensitive (or allergic I suppose) to certain proteins within a food, but as long as that protein is removed, the rest of the food is okay. A case in point involves the proteins whey and casein. They're both in cheese during the cheese making process, but the hard cheeses like cheddar, provolone, Colby, etc. have the whey removed. I'm sensitive to the whey (as in no whey, Jose, but not the casein (see why I highlighted the words 'case in'?).

So today was a day in which I get to eat corn, certain cheeses, and coconut (among some other things--and by the way, the bison cheeseburger was awesome), so you can see why I was trying the coconut syrup with the Tostito. So after the chip and syrup went over well, I added a slice of Colby cheese to the Tostito with the same devil-may-care attitude as before, recklessly spread some syrup on top and quickly stuffed it in the pie hole before anyone could stop me.

Chomp, chomp, crunch, crunch...mmmm...swallow. Hey, that was good too.

So there you have it. That simply has to be an original. Go ahead and try it. I dare ya. ;-)

Gluten free pancake mix review

The other day I made pancakes that were gluten free, wheat free, nut free, egg free, dairy free, and bean free. They were excellent and couldn't be easier to make. The product I used is made by The Cravings Place.

I used their 'All Purpose Pancake & Waffle Mix'. I love the instructions. Basically all you have to do is add water to the mix until you get your desired consistency. Then scoop the batter onto a hot griddle and cook. My kind of instructions. I've had them twice so far and both batches have been perfect. I'm thrilled to be able to have pancakes despite my many restrictions and even more thrilled that these turn out so well.

Since most of us like some kind of...something...to go with our pancakes and we usually like it sweet, I decided to make coconut syrup. I got the coconut syrup recipe from allrecipes.com. I'd copy it here, but I don't know what the copyright laws say about that, so I'll just direct you there. It's a great website that I frequently peruse. I found that what they call one serving was more than enough for two and we actually had a little bit left over. I used that extra in a creative way I'll discuss in another post.

Again, go visit Juli Walton at The Cravings Place. We can actually buy her products in the store here in Anchorage, Alaska and I'm really glad we can. I have a couple more of her products on the shelf that I'll try soon.

One day this diet will end and then I'm going to AZ

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Side note: the journalist, Bill Geist, you see in this video did a similar kind of video for my buddy, Heff, who also has the above video on his blog. Meanwhile, enjoy.

Gluten free product review

Think: MACARONI AND CHEESE

My wife found an interesting product for me to try. Made by a company called Namaste Foods, the product I tried is called Say Cheez - A delicious cheese flavored pasta blend. It comes in a paper bag and the bag says it's an all natural easy to prepare pasta mix. The mix is supposed to be free of: gluten, wheat, potato, nuts, soy, corn, dairy, and casein. The ingredients listed are: Brown rice pasta (brown flour, water), shelled hemp seed, natural non-dairy cheddar seasoning, rice milk powder, sea salt and paprika.

I think this product is probably okay for my dietary restrictions so I gave it a shot on my rice day. It was pretty darn good. It's quite a bit different from the standard Kraft mac and cheese that my son can eat by the wheelbarrow full. Although the cheese mix smells quite good, and smells rather spicy while it's heating (more on the cooking in a moment), it's a little bit on the bland side when done unless you add something. I added Parmesan cheese, rotisserie chicken, and some pistachios. That combination was great.

This product comes packaged in a little paper bag, like a lunch sack. Inside the sack, you'll find the pasta encased in a plastic bag and the seasoning mix encased in another plastic bag.

For the big picture here, you'll need a big pot--one that holds more than three quarts. You'll need a second pan--one that only needs to be able to hold about four tablespoons of oil and water.

You put some salt in about three quarts of water, then bring the water to a boil in your big pot. Add the pasta and cook for seven or so minutes. Meanwhile, put about three Tbsp of oil and one Tbsp of water in a separate pan to heat. Mix the cheese/spice mixture in with the oil/water.

Once the pasta reaches the desired consistency, drain the water. Once you do that, you can mix the oil/water/cheese/spice mixture in with the pasta and toss. Then you're done unless you want to add other stuff like I did.

A couple of points. The amount of salt you put in the water before you boil it will affect the taste. The kind of water you use will make a difference--tap water versus filtered water, for example. The kind of oil you use will make a difference. Etc.

Bottom line: this product is okay for my diet and I will use it again.