Stellar Path

Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

This has been a pretty full weekend. We’ve cleaned out our closets, filmed several episode of our cooking show, Stellar Cooks, and eaten fairly healthy. I think I’ll get to 340 quicker than I got to 341.

In the process of cleaning out our closet, I also pulled out 160 Playboys. I had a subscription for several years. Jokes aside, Playboy really is a good magazine. While I wouldn’t pay $30 a year for it just for the articles, I really DID read the articles when I had my subscription. I also briefly entertained the notion of collecting every issue available, so this collection covers a few issues from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Tina could care less that I have it; there’s no jealousy over a bunch of magazines. However, she made it abundantly clear that she wanted to reclaim that closet space. Therefore, I am going to part with MOST of my Playboys. I’ll keep a few – those that have an interesting interview, and I’m going to save the one from April 1978, which was my birth month. The rest I’m going to be getting rid of. Want to buy some Playboys? Please email me at jeremy@stellarpath.net. The majority of these I’m hoping I can sell at the Great Escape. Comic nerd boys must be desperate to see naked women, right? I know I was fifteen years ago.

Early this morning, Tina made us a Florence-inspired soufflé. This was huge, healthy, low-cal, very filling, and fun to eat. Plus, it had some garlic and veggies in it, and that made the house smell fantastic.

Okay, the event I’ve sort of been promising for weeks. It’s the second episode of Stellar Cooks! However, it is NOT the Almond Joy Larabars. Instead, this one is for Bacon Wrapped Cream Cheese Chicken. We did make the larabars, though, and that episode will be posted next weekend.

What would you like to see us cook in the future?

I am having a VERY rough diet week. If I gain this week, I can’t shrug and say, “Doh dee doh, don’t know why this one happened.” I’ll have to say, “Yeah… I haven’t weighed or measured my food, and I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten WAY too late and WAY too much.”

I seem to have lost my fire and passion. Tina has, too, and I think we’re currently feeding off of each other’s lack of enthusiasm. But it’s fire and passion for eating healthy. Not for exercise. We’re still going to the gym. We went for a C25K run around our neighborhood just last night, and it felt good.

We’ve recommitted to doing this right TODAY. I’m not changing my weigh-in date or anything. Whatever I weigh Saturday is my weight for the week, good bad or ugly. I’ll just have to chalk the month of April up to a standstill and backtrack, weight wise, but that’s okay, because I’m not in a contest. I’m not eligible to win $250,000 and have confetti rain down on me from the Biggest Loser Stage. I’m just trying to live a healthier, longer life with Tina.

Okay, now that the whining is over, on with our regularly scheduled post.

I promised a cooking video on Sunday. I made it Saturday, but I’m just now getting around to posting it. I got so excited about the Aurorae Yoga Mat giveaway that I’m afraid everything else just took a backseat. And please, still enter and tell your friends! You have two more days to enter!

Tina and I are both huge dorks in this video, but that’s pretty appropriate, because we’re huge dorks in real life, too. (And please notice my tie-dye apron – Tina will have one next video.) But it was fun, and we’re definitely going to do it again. Hopefully, we’ll post our video on how to make Almond Joy themed LaraBars this weekend.

I think we need a name for our cooking show. Any suggestions?

In my quest to do a healthy low carb diet, I have been on the search for some good, tasty, and healthy low carb recipes. There are some great webpages out there, but one thing I have found across the board is that they frequently call for ingredients that I don’t have access to.

One common ingredient used in these recipes that I cannot purchase around here is almond flour.

I decided to make a simple substitution, and so far, the two things I have made with this simple substitution have been amazing.

I’ve been using flax seed meal, which has about 10 grams of net carb per cup. In addition, flax seed is an immensely healthy food, containing plenty of fiber, omega 3 fatty acids, and antioxidants. I just put my flax seed in a coffee grinder, grind it on the “fine” setting, and it makes a nice flour substitute. It gives a slightly nutty flavor that reminds me of wheat, but I enjoy wheat and nuts, so it’s a wonderful find for my current low carb diet.

Flax Seed

Flax Seed Meal

I’ve made a few different things with it, and I’ll be posting recipes pretty regularly for the next few weeks. Some are modifications of other recipes I have found in cookbooks or online, and others were made entirely from scratch by Tina and me. Please enjoy!

My first recipe was made to combat my sweet tooth. I was craving cobbler, and that was what led me to come up with the idea to try flax seed meal as a flour substitute.  I had frozen blackberries on hand (picked locally, so they were 100% organic), which I placed in a 9″ baking dish that I had greased with butter.

I wanted to make the berries a little sweeter, so I sprinkled them with just a little bit of splenda.

In a measuring cup, I melted 1/2 cup of butter.  To this, I added 1/4 cup of splenda, 2 eggs, 1 cup of heavy cream, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  I blended this with a fork, and then I tossed in 1/2 cup of flax seed meal and mixed it together until it made a doughy-like consistency.

At this point, I dropped it on the blackberries in the baking dish.  I spread it as evenly as I could, which wasn’t that easy with the sticky consistency, but I was still able to completely cover the berries.

At this point, it went in the oven at 375 degrees for twenty-five minutes.  One thing to be aware of – it did not change color in the slightest as it was cooking.  I took a photo of it after I pulled it out of the oven when it was done, and it literally looked just like this photo of it raw.  I had planned to cook it for fifteen minutes, but it was still quite damp.  Twenty-five minutes seemed to be about right.

When done, I cut it into fourths, put it in a serving bowl, and topped it with whipped cream made with heavy cream and splenda.

The taste was amazing.  This was definitely a wonderfully sweet, fruity cobbler.  If you don’t like the flavor of wheat, you probably won’t like this, as the flax meal to me tasted like it had been made with wheat flour.  However, I like that taste, and it was amazing.  But even Tina, who hates wheat, said she thought the sweetness of the berries and the whipped cream made it taste really good.  She described it as more nutty than wheat-y, so I guess it’s somewhat up to interpretation.

Don’t be mistaken – this isn’t a fluffy, white flour cobbler like grandma makes.  However, for someone on a low carb diet, this thing was AWESOME.  It will definitely be made again.  Obviously, other fruit could be used in this.  I used blackberries because that’s what I had on hand, but I think I may try making some with blueberries, soon.  I think peaches would be great as well.

Total net carbs fora serving of the dessert, if you eat 1/4th of it, was about 4 grams.  To me, this was most definitely worth 4 grams.

Another recipe will be coming tomorrow.

I love to cook, but I have yet to post a single recipe on this blog.  That is changing, starting right now.  It is my goal at the moment to post a new recipe once a week, along with photos and our review.  I have to be honest.  I only want to post a recipe if it turns out incredible.  I made a vegan apple and banana pie the other night, which I’ll post about here in a few days, and while it was okay, I doubt I’ll make it again.  It just wasn’t amazing.

However, what I am going to post about today WAS amazing.

I’m calling them Turkey Shell Frittatas.

To make twelve of these frittatas, you will need:

12 thin slices of deli-style turkey meat

4 eggs

2 T. skim milk

Salsa

½ cup of shredded cheese

Any optional veggies, etc., you wish to add to them (I used baby spinach.)

To start with, take a cupcake pan and spray each cup with cooking spray.  Coat it good; these aren’t fun when they stick.  And while you are doing this, go ahead and turn the oven on to 350 and get it preheated.

Take a slice of turkey lunch meat, the thinner the better, and place it in each cup, kind of like a cupcake liner.

In a separate bowl, scramble your four eggs and season to taste.  I threw some milk in with mine so they wouldn’t be as tough after baking, but the milk is entirely at your discretion.  For spices, I went pretty simple – coarse ground salt and black pepper and some chives.

Place a teaspoon or so of salsa in the bottom of each turkey “shell.”  On top of the salsa, pour in about one and a half or so tablespoons of your egg mix.  Just try to distribute it evenly across all twelve turkey shells.  Add your optional veggies (I placed a single leaf of baby spinach in each of mine – I think a cherry tomato would be good in there, too) and then sprinkle a bit of cheese on top.

Bake for roughly ten minutes (or until the cheese is melted and the egg is cooked all the way through.)

Using a large spoon, scoop your turkey shells out, serve, and enjoy.

As far as our review… these were awesome!  I’ve made a lot of recipes, and a great number of them ended up with this review.  “Meh… it’s not bad… but I probably won’t make it again.”

Tina and I both decided, “We are definitely going to make this again.”

We made some of ours with Tomato Basil Chutney and Roasted Red Pepper instead of salsa.  I preferred the salsa; Tina slightly preferred the Roasted Red Pepper and wants me to mix it with the salsa next time.  Neither of us cared for the Tomato Basil Chutney.  It was far too sweat.

However, it was still amazingly good.  There may be only three on that plate, but we both ate six.

There are a lot of variations you could do with this, too.  You could use a different lunch meat (we’ll probably do ham next time), you could do just egg whites, etc.  It’s pretty versatile, really quick, and surprisingly good.