Serves 1
1 banana, sliced
1/2 cup strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup fresh blueberries (although frozen and thawed will work)
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl
- Stir together.
- Enjoy!
Find Your Way, While Losing Your Weigh(t)
Serves 1
1 banana, sliced
1/2 cup strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup fresh blueberries (although frozen and thawed will work)
3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
It is official!
Based on this blog, I was asked to participate in a local Saturday morning news show (Good Day, Wisconsin) on their Cooking with You segment. It is scheduled for Saturday, August 17, 2013.
Another item from the bucket list:Cook live before a television audience. Done!
There are two segments, each three or four minutes long. I need two different recipes. The format is pretty concise. I will quickly demonstrate the ingredients and processes (but not acutally prepare the entire recipe) and then show a finished product, which the show anchors and studio crew get to eat after the show. (Go ahead and watch a few of the recorded segments in the above link so you can see a representative example.)
I need recipes that:
Don’t involve grills. (Darn.)
Are “relatively” easy.
Are different.
Are fun.
Are colorful (hopefully) and visually appealing (definitely.)
Are from the blog.
I can (and will) go through the blog and look at the recipes, but I might be a little too emotionally tied to the recipes. I an asking for your help.
What recipes really spoke to you?
What recipes made your mouth water, made you go out and buy the ingredients, made you go “Whoa!”
What recipes do you think are both easy enough and yet would benefit from a quick visual demo?
What recipes are different, and yet not “weird?”
If you live in Northeast Wisconsin, you will be able to watch me live on Green Bay’s Fox 11. The first segment is at about 7:50am and the second is at 8:50am and ends the show. (The host has also offered to promote the blog.) If you don’t live locally (and why not?) I will post links to the segments as soon as the station posts them.
So, I am giving you an important assignment:
My readers are my “test market.” You are the people that I want to connect with through the blog and on TV. You all have opinions and ideas (and I have learned enough to know that listening to others is a great way of gaining a deeper understanding.)
Please tell me your ideas of the recipes here that fit my requirements above. I’ve already received a few ideas from Andrew Carpenter (thanks for the ideas!) In the comment section below, give me one – three ideas. On Friday July 26, I will narrow the list down to three to five. Over the weekend, I will make them again (if I haven’t made them recently) and post the pictures for your final voting. Then I will use the next two weeks to practice, practice, practice.
I am excited. But I’d be lying if I also didn’t tell you that I have a few butterflies of panic fluttering in my stomach. They almost certainlay will calm as I get closer and know what I will be preparing. It is just the unknown.
So, please help!
This is a minor change in theme for a day. I want to acknowledge some people and groups that have helped shape me into the person I am. For now, I am not going to talk about apps and devices (let’s save that for a future blog post) but about people who are also blogging.
I am not the only blog out there! (I know, surprise?) Many of my recipes began as ideas coming from other places. I have found ideas in cookbooks and magazines, from friends and relatives, dining in restaurants and my wife has found some on Pinterest. I generally don’t make any recipe exactly as I find it (unless I am trying to duplicate Julia Childs). I usually look at the recipe, consider it’s appearance and ingredients and then make my own, in the spirit of the original recipe.
But I also read these blogs and they have helped me grow personally and as a blogger. I thought that I needed to give them full credit for their assistance and suggest that you might want to take a look at them, too. (But please don’t stop visiting me! We are almost getting to be like family!) Please note that these are not listed in any specific order, neither alphabetical nor preferential.
Sorry that yesterday’s blog post was so long. The recipe had several steps and I wanted to include pictures at the various stages.
I also wanted to show you how to make minor modifications to other recipes. It is relatively easy to create good delicious foods that will fit in your calorie budget. In almost any situation, it is possible to reduce the fat and sugar in a recipe and still create a delicious end result. In the case of that cake, it was unbelievably moist as a result if swapping the oil for applesauce.
It has been a hectic week here at home. Our eldest son stayed at college all summer, working for one of his professors as a research assistant, and in addition to that, he is preparing to spend a semester abroad in the fall. That entails a lot of planning and organization. Yesterday, our youngest moved into his own apartment (with a fair amount of help from us, naturally.)
Hello, “Empty Nest!”
Well, not quite empty. We still need to move some of his stuff out. Possibly by the weekend. And then….we will finally have a room dedicated to be our office!
More on that as it happens!
Thanks for reading. Keep coming back to see what is next!
The first poll was pretty conclusive, with 87% of respondent choosing the shorter digital ebook sooner rather than a traditional print book later.
I want to explore a little more:
Garlic Paste (it really isn’t a paste, but it isn’t a sauce either.)
Enough for a 1.5 pound steak
2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (I used 2 large cloves)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon coarse salt (Kosher or the type you would need to put in a grinder)
Optional: 2 black pepper corns
1-2 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves
5-10 whole coriander seeds (I used 10)
Special equipment: Mortar and pestle
Peel and roughly chopped the garlic, and place it and the salt, and 1 teaspoon olive oil in mortar (and the optional ingredients if you are using them).
Preparing a flank steak takes a few additional steps.
Do you see the muscle fibers running from the lower left corner to the upper right? That is the “grain” of the meat, and when you serve a steak like this, you will slice it into 1/4 or 1/2 inch slices across the grain (moving the knife from upper left to lower right, in this picture) when you plate this meat for your dinner guests.
To help further tenderize the meat, before adding the garlic-oil paste, score the meat. Using a VERY sharp knife, cut a series of 1/4 slices into the meat, parallel and 1 inch apart, at about 45 degree to the grain.
Then, cut it again, on the same side, but at right angles to the first cuts.
Flip the steak over and repeat the process on the other side. Then, rub the garlic-oil paste on both sides.
At this point, you can pause our dinner prep. You could do all this even a day in advance. Just wrap the meat in plastic film and refrigerate, and it will be ready as soon as the grill is hot. Using an oil paste like this will help keep the steak juicy and tender.
When ready to grill, preheat the grill on high for at least 5 minutes (gas grill) or let the charcoal burn down to gray embers. Brush the grates, and using tongs and paper towel, carefully rub vegetable oil on the grates to help prevent the meat from sticking.
This steak cooks quickly. It is generally an inch thick at most, and when you criss-cross cut 1/4 inch on both sides, you open up a lot more cooking surface. (See how the heat opens the cuts?) About 4 minutes per side will be medium.
Last night, I accidentally let it go a total of 9 minutes and it went to medium-well. (When cooking something that goes so quickly, don’t get sidetracked watering your herb garden.) For us, that was a disaster. An edible mistake, but not one that I will commemorate with pictures. (We like our steaks medium-rare, which is about 6-7 minutes total cook time.)
Nutritional data? Depend on the size of the portion, and the exact cut of steak. The paste is enough to cover a 1.5 pound steak (above). I generally cut a flank steak into four ounce portions, so I can get about 6 servings per steak (many fewer if both of our boys are eating with us.) A four-ounce portion would have about 20 calories added from the oil.
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Poll results: 87% of respondents preferred the idea of a shorter ebook available sooner.
An new poll will be out later today, to further refine that idea. THANK YOU for helping me with my next projects. I hope that you will be as satisfied with them as you are with this blog.
Asian Chicken Salad
Serves 2
Remember Last Friday’s recipe? The Grilled Chicken and the Hoisin BBQ sauce?
Well, this recipe uses 2 left over chicken quarters and the remaining Hoisin BBQ sauce.
Skin the chicken and remove the bones. Roughly chop the chicken. Pour the BBQ sauce over the chicken and stir to coat. Warm in the microwave until it reaches the temperature you want.
Make a salad on a base of thinly sliced Napa cabbage (yes, the same as in the Kimchi recipe.) On the bed of Napa, add your preferred vegetables:
Since the calories and other nutritional data will vary based on what you choose and the quantities used, I am not going to give any nutritional data. Like any salad, the calories are concentrated in the dressing. Use as little as you can get away with, and you will have an full-flavored, low calorie meal, that uses up leftover chicken in a way that maybe you never considered.
Tuna BLT
I’m not going to give a specific recipe here. This is just a pictures to stimulate ideas. You can do this with any protein (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, or fish. You could even use a piece of tofu or a black bean burger.)
For this sandwich, I used about 4 ounces of ahi tuna. I heated a heavy-bottomed pan until it was really hot then seared both side for about 30 seconds. That tuna is about 3/4 inch thick.
The last time I posted a BLT, I used Healthy Life’s Whole Wheat English muffins. This sandwich was built on two pieces of their 100% Whole Wheat High Fiber bread. Depending on your personal focus, per slice it has 35 calories, 5 net carbs, 3g fiber, and only 85mg sodium.
Instead of mayo, I used mashed avocado as in the earlier sandwich. That drizzle in front is an excellent chipotle-infused olive oil from my friends at Olivada, in Sheboygan, WI. The smoky heat (but not too hot) of the oil nicely off-set the smoothness of the avocado and the meatiness of the tuna.
(No, I don’t get freebies, commissions or anything else. I just enjoy supporting small businesses that offer great products and great service. You can visit in person or shop online.)
No nutritional data today. The sandwich will vary based on your ingredients. I just hope that I gave you a new idea.
You have until 11:59pm on Tuesday to vote in the poll. I have a couple other polls that I will post after this one, to further refine my plans. Why am I polling you? It’s really for the same reason I do this blog. I want to create a product that you really want. I don’t want to spend a lot of time (and money) making a book that will only be of interest to my Mother. I want to satisfy your needs more than my needs.
Hi!
I added a brief, two question poll. It follows my “About Me” story. This is the first of several polls I will have here, to help me refine my immediate plans.
So I need your input! The poll is open until 11:59pm Tuesday evening (Central Time.)
Help me provide you with what you really want!