Smoked Salt & Pepper

Ingredients:   Sweet potato or mixture of root vegetables, diced    Red onion, chopped    Garlic, chopped    Black been, 1 can   Fire roasted tomato, 2 cups diced (see note below for Mexican style)   Dried red quinoa, 1/2 cup    Vegetable stock   Chili powder, chipotle pepper, cumin, kosher salt    Lime juice   Some chipotle pepper in adobo sauce Method: Roast cut root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, turnip, butternut squash, Kabocha squash…with chopped onion and garlic until caramelized and charred. Drizzle some oil if you wish to keep them moist. Cook all in a soup pot, low heat to simmer until done. Adjust to your taste. Serve with lime wedges, cilantro, avocados, grated cheese and sour cream 

I’d gotten some amazing produce and meat from my Farm to Table produce box. Summer squash, purple and yellow small potatoes, ground beef from 44Farms, amongst tons of other things. And farm boxes and Whole30 always turns up my cooking creativity.  There are so many hashes on Whole30 but hashes start to bore me. So I made this Thai style green curry instead.  Ingredients 1 yellow onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, minced 2 summer squash, any color, thinly sliced 1 lb ground beef 1/2 can coconut milk 3 tbs compliant green curry  Avocado oil Salt and pepper Directions Sauté yellow onions in a large, tall sided pan or wok over medium-high heat in avocado oil for 3-5 minutes or until softened  Add minced garlic and cook for additional 1 minute. Add summer squash and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until softened, stirring every few minutes, for 5-8 minutes.  Add coconut milk and green curry. Simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.  Serve over cauliflower rice or...

Shredded cucumbers, carrots, cantaloupe, red onion, cooked shrimp(also did half of the shrimp ceviche-style and marinated in lime and lemon juice) and shredded rotisserie chicken, pistachios with a dressing of nước chấm (fish sauce, minced jalepeños, minced garlic, salt and pepper). Some cilantro for garnish and ate with Trader Joe’s grainless cassava & coconut chia chips which were a pretty good substitute for the more traditional rice crackers  Inspired by frommaggiesfarm   http://frommaggiesfarm.blogspot.com  melon shrimp ceviche IG post and Andrea Nguyen’s VFAD smashed cucumber salad recipe  https://www.amazon.com/Vietnamese-Food-Any-Day-Recipes/dp/0399580352

A few months ago, heck, maybe a year ago, I bought some English muffins. I've never been a huge English muffin fan, but after experiencing gestational diabetes, I became much more aware of my carbohydrate intake. I made a goal for myself to try to finish a whole sleeve of English muffins before they molded or went bad. I'm really the only person in my household that eats much of a breakfast at home, so it was particularly challenging. Here are a few of the meals or combos or ideas I came up with. English muffin with 'Love'dip from Central Market.   English muffin with canned sardines in tomato sauce with pickled onions   English muffin breakfast sandwich with honey ham, backyard eggs, arugula, and mayonnaise.   English muffin raspberries, honey, and Greek yogurt     English muffin with fresh strawberries and condensed milk

A Mediterranean mezze platter is what I call any random plate full of all the yummy dips and falafel and pita that you can get at a mediterranean restaurant. I love making my own hummus , recipe linked, but there is also a delicious hummus made locally in Austin that I like called "Grandma's Hummus" by The Mediterranean Chef . Granddaughter runs the cafe/shop a lot of the times Reid and I eat there and they are a super nice family. I love supporting them and so I buy plenty of the hummus, babaganus eggplant dip (Whole30 compliant!) and sometimes the falafel. I grab a bag of Stacey's Pita Chips from the grocery store and have an easy lunch or dinner. Some whole grain pita pockets are also a great way to eat any of the mezze platter things. If I'm feeling real fancy, I'll make my own falafel, but otherwise I buy and re-heat The Mediterranean Chefs' falafel. One of the great things about this quick meal is the low-carb benefit. I struggle wit...

Every year for Christmas, and sometimes for Thanksgiving (our family aren't huge turkey eaters), my mom makes her famous roast beef for my entire dad's side of the family.  It's something everyone has come to look forward to.  I think once she said she was going to make Osso Bucco or something else and I was like, No!!!!! you can't not make the roast beef!!!!  Many people have asked for the recipe and a few have tried to replicate, but no one in our family will be the roast beef queen like my mom is.  So, we definitely need to have this recipe here for prosperity. It's a relatively simple recipe but the key is to buy a really good quality piece of roast.  My mom says the key is to get certified black angus ribeye bone-in roast.  The best cut is between rib 6 and 12 so it's good to befriend your local butcher :)  Mom says it's pricey, maybe a little over $100 for a 6-8 lb roast, but that's what makes it so good. Mom's Famous Roast Beef For one 6-...

Sometimes, you tire of heavy Holiday foods. I mean...not really a lot. But there's gotta be like, ONE, meal where I don't crave thick slices of ham and full-fat egg nog. Spiked with a bit of rum. ...anyway. I was NOT referring to my own holiday let-loose diet. But on the off chance you want some veggies. And if you can get your hands on some eggplants still good from fall harvest then this recipe is a winner. winner. Eggplant dinner. I wrote this post SO LONG AGO that I'm not sure where I sourced the original recipe or idea. Possibly Martha Stewart Living subscription circa 2011? 2012? I stay on top of my blog, as you can see ;) Quinoa-Stuffed Eggplant with Yogurt Sauce Serves: 2 Ingredients: 2 large Eggplants 1 c. quinoa, rinsed and drained 1/2 lb. mild Italian sausage 1 quart baby bella or white mushrooms, cleaned Italian parsley, stems removed and roughly chopped salt and pepper Directions: Cook quinoa according to package directio...

In my quest to find lower carb substitutes, I learned that cauliflower can be made into ANYTHING. Although whether it should or not remains to be questioned.  You want to eat rice? Make cauliflower rice! You want to eat pizza? Make cauliflower pizza crust! You want to eat mashed potatoes? Make mashed cauliflower!  You want to eat crackers and hummus? Just eat cauliflowers.  So basically, since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I've bought a head of cauliflower every week at the grocery store.  I love that cauliflower is super cheap I'd posted this on my Instagram account a few weeks ago, and I hadn't planned on posting about it since it is so stupid simple, but lots of people were interested in it so here goes: Fully Loaded Mashed Cauliflower Ingredients 1 head of cauliflower florets 1/2 c. shredded cheese 2 slices thick-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled 3 tbs. butter 2 tbs. Greek yogurt 1 tbs. ranch dressing mix (optional) salt and pepper, to tas...

I love fall flavors.  I think I already rambled on about that in my butternut squash soup post .  There's just something so comforting with fall flavors.  It's like getting a big, warm, spice hug.  I also love bread.  And muffins.  And pie.  And pretty much everything I'm not supposed to eat according to the nutritionist that is helping me manage my gestational diabetes.  I've been pretty good lately and hadn't baked anything recently,  but it was starting to get really hard to not fill my Sunday early afternoon with the oven on and tinkering with baking recipes.  So, I decided to try to 'healthi-fy' or low-carb-a-fy? a pumpkin bread recipe. Pumpkin bread/muffins/cupcakes are pretty good for my diabetes since pumpkin has fiber and protein and beta-carotene, and only 8 g. of carbs per cup.  Basically, it's good stuff.  I'll even recommend canned pumpkin to some of my doggie patients that are having some GI issues (helps firm u...

I really enjoy baking, but having gestational diabetes has made it difficult to enjoy baking the usual things.  Banana bread is one of those things that I'll make once I have a few too-ripe-bananas and want to have breakfast for the week ready.   I have an old standby recipe that I have no idea where it's origins are from, except that the handwritten recipe is in my sister's handwriting and it's on a scrap of a flash card.  I altered this one to include some dark chocolate chips to compensate for cutting back the sugar and subbing whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour.  I also added some chopped walnuts for added protein/satiety.  Came out well.  I did add some cream cheese frosting to the loaf for Reid to enjoy.  Without icing, it still comes out to about 42 grams of carbs per serving (which is a bit more then the 30 g/meal I should be eating...).  But hey, I can satisfy myself with half a slice and 1 c. of milk. "Healthified" Ban...

We had about 4 days of 'fall weather' about 2 weeks ago and it was amazing.  Fall is Reid's favorite time of year here in Central Texas.  On any good day/night he'll take a deep breath in and scan the sunset and declare, "Just another beautiful day in Central Texas!"  That is, of course, once we get out of the >100 degree brutality that is the summer here.  I really enjoy fall as well.  I like pulling out all my light clothing layers, and my cowboy or fashion boots from the back of the closet.  I like wearing a rain jacket with the hopes it will actually rain and then feeling like an idiot when it doesn't.  I like the smell of roasting squash like pumpkin and butternut and acorn and weird ones I've never seen before, and cinnamon, and nutmeg, and all those warm flavors.  So when we had those 4 days for fall weather a while back I loaded my grocery cart with butternut squash and grabbed my Dutch oven from the cabinet. This butternut squash sou...

So, I'm trying to be good on my gestational diabetes diet while still not getting bored of what I'm eating.  Reid and I went to the farmer's market yesterday and picked out some stuff I wouldn't usually buy.  I bought some duck breast.  I love duck, but have never cooked it myself.  The farmer at Belle Vie Farms   was more then happy to share with me some cooking tips. Also picked up some bok choy and oyster mushrooms at the market, so I thought I'd do an Asian style duck breast.  I thought about doing a Hoisin sauce-style duck, but since this was the first time I'd cooked duck and really didn't want to screw it up, I actually looked up a recipe.  This recipe is inspired by the New York Times recipe.  It came out great! Five-Spice Duck Breast with Blueberry Pan Reduction Recipe inspired by  http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017596-five-spice-duck-breast-with-blackberries Serves 2 Ingredients: 2 small Moscovy duck breasts, abo...