Ha!
Looks like Tom left town and forgot I’ve still got his Fat Head login info. He and Chareva and the girls stopped into Springfield Wednesday and Thursday to visit before continuing on to Chicago, so The Wife and I decided to have them over for dinner instead of making Mom cook for all of us.
Naturally, it was low carb. We ended up getting one of maybe four nice days for weather so far this summer, so we were able to eat outside in the Flamingo Lounge (The Wife and her sister have had a running joke going for years where they give each other flamingo-themed gifts).
The Flamingo Lounge and family.
I also got a little help in the garden from a couple of young ladies you may recognize as Tom’s lab assistants…
For openers, cheese and deer summer sausage (no crackers, thanks). The sausage is processed locally with cheese and jalapeno pepper using my last season’s success, where I happened to shoot the second-dumbest deer in the entire universe.
I knew it was dumb because it got close enough for me to shoot it. I took care of the first-dumbest deer in the entire universe a couple of years ago.
To get started, we had a Crab & Avocado Salad for which I’d begged the recipe from a restaurant I’d come across while working near San Jose a few years ago…
It’s one of those “looks fancy/very easy” things. To make 8-10 servings, fold about 1 & 1/2 pounds crab meat (I know, take out a second mortgage first) into 1 & 1/2 mashed avocados, then fold in 1 cup of whipped cream. Add another avocado that been chunked up (not mashed), fold together, spoon into 8-10 molds and refrigerate for at least a few hours. When you’re ready to serve, put some mescal or other fancy salad onto a plate, drizzle with poppy seed dressing, then unmold the crab/avocado into the center. Put a coupe of lumps of reserved crab on top then garnish with some caviar. Not a carb in sight.
The sides where steamed asparagus (recipe: get asparagus; steam)and a Two Cheese Squash Casserole. That starts with boiling 4 pounds of sliced yellow squash with a diced onion for about 8 minutes, then draining and combining with a cup of shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup of fresh parsley, an 8 oz. container of sour cream, a teaspoon each of garlic salt and pepper, a couple of beaten eggs, and a cup of bread crumbs (we whizzed up about 6 pieces of low-carb bread for the whole recipe — which works out to about 2 net carbs per generous serving) and 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. That all gets spooned into a 9 x 13 baking dish and gets topped with another 1 & 1/2 cups bread crumbs and 1/2 cup Parmesan mixed with 2 Tbs of melted butter. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
The main course was grilled pork tenderloin with lime dipping sauce. A rub goes on the pork tenderloin made up of 1 Tbs salt, 1 Tbs (Splenda) brown sugar, 1/2 tsp each of chili powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper (actually, we usually make about a 5x batch of this and keep it in a shaker).
The dipping sauce is made up of a chopped jalapeno pepper, some grated lime peel, 1/4 cup of lime juice, a Tbs each of olive oil and Dijon mustard, a tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp of salt, a couple of garlic cloves and 1/4 cup of honey (we doubled the recipe because we were grilling four tenderloins, but we had plenty left over), all whizzed up in the blender.
After all of that, we decided to pass up on the fresh strawberries and peaches with cream that we’d planned for desert. We’ll cut the portion size of the crab & avocado salad down when it’s not a main course!
Everyone was happy and full but not stuffed and lethargic and there were probably less than 10 net carbs apiece for the whole meal. Oops — that’s obviously not good. For those of you who want to follow ADA guidelines, you can tweak it by spreading this over your plate:
110 grams of sugar. I mean, Heart Healthy carbs! Sure, you could’ve had a big bowl of Raisin Bran, but that would really spike your blood sugar!
If you’ve bought all of that crab meat, odds are that there will be 6 or 8 ounces left. What to do? Well, wait until The Younger Brother leaves town, then make omelets with that, a few of the asparagus stalks, and that easy Hollandaise sauce from my last post.
I better go before Tom checks his blog — see you in the comments!
Cheers,
The Older Brother
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Someday when my sister publishes her book and becomes a millionaire, I will have to try out that crab salad. For now, that squash two-cheese casserole looks yummy.
If you go with smaller portions, I don’t think there’s any reason you couldn’t get away with just one 16 oz container of crab (we got so full on a recipe made with 1 & 1/2 containers for nine people that we passed on desert).
Get a couple of friends to chip in and you’ll be ‘putting on the Ritz’ at McDonald’s prices!
— The Older Brother
Hey, I finally found the Hollandaise sauce recipe! I CAN too search with the best of them.
Glad you found it. I have to futz around a little when I’m trying to find old posts, too. For anyone still looking, the easy Hollandaise is at http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/05/04/2848
Cheers!
I use small amounts of sugar occasionally, but otherwise I stick to stevia or xylitol. Xylitol — in the form of candies and chewing gum (be sure it’s strictly xylitol in the gum, not xylitol plus sorbitol) — really does work for getting rid of dental problems. At least it did for me.
I haven’t seen enough credible evidence that sucralose is dangerous to get myself worked up about it. By credible I mean proven instances of “Sucralose caused X; here’s the data,” and preferably not about how rats responded to it (stevia has been linked to infertility in rats, btw). For example, if Splenda really does destroy the flora of a person’s intestines, wouldn’t there be actual evidence of this? Wouldn’t people who regularly consume it have some symptoms? And, to what extent is the alleged disruption? Would eating an occasional serving of good yogurt take care of it? The U.S. banned cyclamates because they were so harmful, but kept saccharin on the grocery store shelves. Canada, though, still sells cyclamates. Perhaps the hysteria was generated by the sugar industry because cyclamates were infinitely better than saccharin? Saccharin was also indicted as a cancer-causing agent (in rats), but that so-called evidence has been reevaluated and found to wanting. Obviously, if a substance causes a person problems, they shouldn’t consume it. But just because a substance DOES cause a person problems doesn’t mean that it’s “dangerous”; if I eat oats, I’ll have a gout attack. Are oats “dangerous”? To me they certainly are!
Here are some interesting posts by Dr. Eades:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/sugar-and-sweeteners/splenda-misinformation/
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/another-take-on-the-splenda-nonsense/
When The Wife and I started down the Fat Head path, we knew aspartame was questionable and since we jumped in with the Eades’ “Six Week Cure to the Middle-Aged Middle,” we didn’t worry too much about Splenda.
I think as most of us kick the carb habit, the amount of sweeteners we use drops so low that the “natural” or “laboratory” question tends to become moot in the absence of n=1 bad reactions.
Cheers.
“We’re back, and no, I didn’t try the wedding cake. I did, however, take advantage of being in Chicago to enjoy a stuffed pizza from Giordano’s. (If you’re going to cheat, make it worth it.) I felt sluggish the next day, but didn’t care much since I spent that day driving back to Tennessee.”
Wow, you only got sluggish the next day? You’re really damn lucky…. unless you’re not telling the whole story. 😉
I, on the other hand, wind up feeling really sick depending on how much and what I indulge in. A slice of generic pizza can really feel like someone’s kicking or squeezing me from inside the abdomen within as little as a few hours of eating. The next day, I can feel sluggish as well as bloated, and it can take up to two full days to get over the effects. So while I haven’t tested positive for being a celiac, I’d hazard a guess that I’m gluten intolerant as I don’t have too much of a problem with modest amounts of unprocessed brown or basmati rice.
Candies vary in effect for me depending on what it is, what it’s made of, and where it’s from. Many foreign candies that don’t rely on soy or excessive corn syrups or what-have-you, I can get by on with small amounts. But very few N. American candy brands or sodas are tolerable at all to me.
I don’t know about you, but I go as much as six months easy without ever touching heavy-duty refined carbs or sugar, and that probably contributes to the feeling. Body just isn’t used to it. Oh, and to touch on the sweetness issue. I’d most whole-heartedly agree that foods here in the West are over-sweetened beyond belief. A friend of mine who’s into cooking and baking once commented that bread as modern peoples eat would be considered cake it’s so sweetened with extra sugar, never mind the carbs from the wheat, rye or barley itself.
The thing is that few people have noticed because it’s been snuck in gradually into their diets that it becomes normal and their taste buds become deadened to it, and so they need more sweetener to get an effect…. not unlike smokers and nicotine where the tobacco and cigarette companies on the Q & T upped the nicotine levels to hook smokers more.
No, fortunately for me, I don’t react quite that strongly to pizza. The stuffed pizza in Chicago is stuffed with the good ingredients, thin on the crust except around the edge, so I skip that part of it. Compared to a regular pizza, it’s a much higher ratio of meat and cheese to crust.
“We’re back, and no, I didn’t try the wedding cake. I did, however, take advantage of being in Chicago to enjoy a stuffed pizza from Giordano’s. (If you’re going to cheat, make it worth it.) I felt sluggish the next day, but didn’t care much since I spent that day driving back to Tennessee.”
Wow, you only got sluggish the next day? You’re really damn lucky…. unless you’re not telling the whole story. 😉
I, on the other hand, wind up feeling really sick depending on how much and what I indulge in. A slice of generic pizza can really feel like someone’s kicking or squeezing me from inside the abdomen within as little as a few hours of eating. The next day, I can feel sluggish as well as bloated, and it can take up to two full days to get over the effects. So while I haven’t tested positive for being a celiac, I’d hazard a guess that I’m gluten intolerant as I don’t have too much of a problem with modest amounts of unprocessed brown or basmati rice.
Candies vary in effect for me depending on what it is, what it’s made of, and where it’s from. Many foreign candies that don’t rely on soy or excessive corn syrups or what-have-you, I can get by on with small amounts. But very few N. American candy brands or sodas are tolerable at all to me.
I don’t know about you, but I go as much as six months easy without ever touching heavy-duty refined carbs or sugar, and that probably contributes to the feeling. Body just isn’t used to it. Oh, and to touch on the sweetness issue. I’d most whole-heartedly agree that foods here in the West are over-sweetened beyond belief. A friend of mine who’s into cooking and baking once commented that bread as modern peoples eat would be considered cake it’s so sweetened with extra sugar, never mind the carbs from the wheat, rye or barley itself.
The thing is that few people have noticed because it’s been snuck in gradually into their diets that it becomes normal and their taste buds become deadened to it, and so they need more sweetener to get an effect…. not unlike smokers and nicotine where the tobacco and cigarette companies on the Q & T upped the nicotine levels to hook smokers more.
No, fortunately for me, I don’t react quite that strongly to pizza. The stuffed pizza in Chicago is stuffed with the good ingredients, thin on the crust except around the edge, so I skip that part of it. Compared to a regular pizza, it’s a much higher ratio of meat and cheese to crust.
@nowhereman
Sheeshalicious you go six months without that crap? That’s freaking epic. Personally, i go off once a month because there’s always some holiday or birthday. The rest of the time I generally stick to eggs, fish, greens, and some dairy. The result is that I don’t feel frickin crappy anytime I eat sugar or grains but I still feel at my peak most of the time, and I’m still losing weight. xD Although that probably just works for me. :/ I really admire your dedication, keep it up!
So if Splenda destroys beneficial bacteria…what affect would it have if you use it to sweeten Bulgarian yogurt? Bulgarian yogurt is a very strong, very low-carb yogurt with a lot of pro-biotics in it.
Wow, that food looks tasty. I’m going to have to try to make some.
@nowhereman
Sheeshalicious you go six months without that crap? That’s freaking epic. Personally, i go off once a month because there’s always some holiday or birthday. The rest of the time I generally stick to eggs, fish, greens, and some dairy. The result is that I don’t feel frickin crappy anytime I eat sugar or grains but I still feel at my peak most of the time, and I’m still losing weight. xD Although that probably just works for me. :/ I really admire your dedication, keep it up!
So if Splenda destroys beneficial bacteria…what affect would it have if you use it to sweeten Bulgarian yogurt? Bulgarian yogurt is a very strong, very low-carb yogurt with a lot of pro-biotics in it.
Wow, that food looks tasty. I’m going to have to try to make some.
@Vanessa The key part of what I said is “up to six months”. Like you, it can sometimes be as low as 4-6 weeks. But yeah, the threat of feeling like crap is what I focus on to keep me from well… feeling like crap when I do indulge. When I first started many years ago on Paleo, the loss of weight in such a relatively short 2.5 months had several friends, family, and co-workers convinced that I was dying of some awful terminal disease, like cancer of AIDS. When my weight stablized out (basically I reached where I should be naturally), and I built up some good muscle mass to boot, that shut up a lot of them. Because of that, six month intervals without eating breads, or other large sources of carbs is tough to do. Most of those people still don’t know that I eat high (high by USDA standards anyway) saturated fat, plus relatively high amounts of salt, and if I told them, they’d really crap a brick since they’ve bought into the USDA nonsense hook, line and sinker. So I just don’t tell them what they don’t need to know, and I get peace of mind in turn. :p
Tom said: “No, fortunately for me, I don’t react quite that strongly to pizza. The stuffed pizza in Chicago is stuffed with the good ingredients, thin on the crust except around the edge, so I skip that part of it. Compared to a regular pizza, it’s a much higher ratio of meat and cheese to crust.”
Ah ha! Even when you indulge, you still practice some degree of going low-carb. 😀
Ah well, that I can fully understand, and I agree with you, it’s about the choices. Many pizzas these days mix in preservatives and such that you can’t be sure you’re reacting to that, rather than just the carbs. When I “fall off the wagon”, I sometimes do something similar. For example, when I indulge in a peanut butter sandwich or grilled cheese, I use old-style peanut butter, and use non-wheat bread, like brown rice bread.
But here’s a little thought for you; if we accept the USDA guidlines for what they literally state is good for us, then pizza would be the perfect food to eat. I mean, it’s got the carb angle totally covered with all tha bread crust, right? It’s got every other food group covered with the toppings. So why’re we not eating nothing but variations of pizza every day, with maybe some green veggie salads on the side? Maybe the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were right after all! 😉
“I think as most of us kick the carb habit, the amount of sweeteners we use drops so low that the “natural” or “laboratory” question tends to become moot in the absence of n=1 bad reactions.”
‘Tis true. My concern stems from experiences where people think, “Gosh, that [alternative sweetener of choice] is dangerous. I’d rather have the ‘real’ thing,” when in fact the AS isn’t dangerous and the person then makes a “choice” that IS dangerous. Example: newly-diagnosed diabetic who refuses anything made with sugar alcohols because the diabetes educators have told him that they are baaaaad. Also, diet sodas contribute to obesity. Then the NDD chooses to eat a giant oatmeal cookie with 60 grams of carbs (no AS or sugar alcohols!) and covers it with a load of insulin. Sad but true. I’d like NDDs to feel comfortable having a serving of Dana Carpender’s killer chocolate mousse if they’d like something sweet, rather than opting for “safety” and end up killing themselves. There is just so much hysteria surrounding AS on the internet that has absolutely no basis for concern.
Re: no evidence that splenda is bad for you? Remember how long it took to figure out what vegetable oils/transfats have been doing to us. Not to mention how long it might be before the full effects of GMO stuff will be known.
Re: reintroducing wheat. I had been grain free for over a year until last year’s birthday at my town’s only fancy restaurant. Sisters talked me into having a slice of almond cake as a birthday treat. Result: blood sugar of 140 after 2 hours (I am a diabetic), which might not have seemed bad if I hadn’t seen the 179 after 1 hour. Next day, all day, flat on my back in a dark room with a migraine which was constantly interrupted by trips to the bathroom with IBS. Needless to say, I won’t be doing that again. The good news? Resumed grain free (has not been a problem for me) and at my last physical my A1C was 4.7 without any meds and I haven’t had a migraine or IBS problem since. Well worth doing without grains for me.
@Vanessa The key part of what I said is “up to six months”. Like you, it can sometimes be as low as 4-6 weeks. But yeah, the threat of feeling like crap is what I focus on to keep me from well… feeling like crap when I do indulge. When I first started many years ago on Paleo, the loss of weight in such a relatively short 2.5 months had several friends, family, and co-workers convinced that I was dying of some awful terminal disease, like cancer of AIDS. When my weight stablized out (basically I reached where I should be naturally), and I built up some good muscle mass to boot, that shut up a lot of them. Because of that, six month intervals without eating breads, or other large sources of carbs is tough to do. Most of those people still don’t know that I eat high (high by USDA standards anyway) saturated fat, plus relatively high amounts of salt, and if I told them, they’d really crap a brick since they’ve bought into the USDA nonsense hook, line and sinker. So I just don’t tell them what they don’t need to know, and I get peace of mind in turn. :p
Tom said: “No, fortunately for me, I don’t react quite that strongly to pizza. The stuffed pizza in Chicago is stuffed with the good ingredients, thin on the crust except around the edge, so I skip that part of it. Compared to a regular pizza, it’s a much higher ratio of meat and cheese to crust.”
Ah ha! Even when you indulge, you still practice some degree of going low-carb. 😀
Ah well, that I can fully understand, and I agree with you, it’s about the choices. Many pizzas these days mix in preservatives and such that you can’t be sure you’re reacting to that, rather than just the carbs. When I “fall off the wagon”, I sometimes do something similar. For example, when I indulge in a peanut butter sandwich or grilled cheese, I use old-style peanut butter, and use non-wheat bread, like brown rice bread.
But here’s a little thought for you; if we accept the USDA guidlines for what they literally state is good for us, then pizza would be the perfect food to eat. I mean, it’s got the carb angle totally covered with all tha bread crust, right? It’s got every other food group covered with the toppings. So why’re we not eating nothing but variations of pizza every day, with maybe some green veggie salads on the side? Maybe the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were right after all! 😉
“I think as most of us kick the carb habit, the amount of sweeteners we use drops so low that the “natural” or “laboratory” question tends to become moot in the absence of n=1 bad reactions.”
‘Tis true. My concern stems from experiences where people think, “Gosh, that [alternative sweetener of choice] is dangerous. I’d rather have the ‘real’ thing,” when in fact the AS isn’t dangerous and the person then makes a “choice” that IS dangerous. Example: newly-diagnosed diabetic who refuses anything made with sugar alcohols because the diabetes educators have told him that they are baaaaad. Also, diet sodas contribute to obesity. Then the NDD chooses to eat a giant oatmeal cookie with 60 grams of carbs (no AS or sugar alcohols!) and covers it with a load of insulin. Sad but true. I’d like NDDs to feel comfortable having a serving of Dana Carpender’s killer chocolate mousse if they’d like something sweet, rather than opting for “safety” and end up killing themselves. There is just so much hysteria surrounding AS on the internet that has absolutely no basis for concern.
Re: no evidence that splenda is bad for you? Remember how long it took to figure out what vegetable oils/transfats have been doing to us. Not to mention how long it might be before the full effects of GMO stuff will be known.
Re: reintroducing wheat. I had been grain free for over a year until last year’s birthday at my town’s only fancy restaurant. Sisters talked me into having a slice of almond cake as a birthday treat. Result: blood sugar of 140 after 2 hours (I am a diabetic), which might not have seemed bad if I hadn’t seen the 179 after 1 hour. Next day, all day, flat on my back in a dark room with a migraine which was constantly interrupted by trips to the bathroom with IBS. Needless to say, I won’t be doing that again. The good news? Resumed grain free (has not been a problem for me) and at my last physical my A1C was 4.7 without any meds and I haven’t had a migraine or IBS problem since. Well worth doing without grains for me.
I’ always amazed at how much sweetener there is in most low carb recipes. Way too sweet for my taste–even some savory things have sweeteners in the recipe–since I don’t like that much sweet I’m never sure how much to use.
I’ always amazed at how much sweetener there is in most low carb recipes. Way too sweet for my taste–even some savory things have sweeteners in the recipe–since I don’t like that much sweet I’m never sure how much to use.
“Re: no evidence that splenda is bad for you?” Can YOU provide any?
Sucralose is one of the most-tested substances on the planet, approved for use in over 80 countries. Researchers have tried and tried to prove that it is not safe, but that hasn’t happened. Personally, I would like my diabetic loved ones to be able to drink some lemonade on a hot summer day or have some pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving without feeling as though they were poisoning themselves–because they aren’t!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10882825
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14647086
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19464334
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20691239
Such food envy! My family events are chock full of carbs and pudgy, diabetic relatives asking me how I keep the weight off!
I will definitely be trying that squash casserole.
It’s been a real hit. It’s also got the classic casserole trait that it seems to get even better as a leftover!
— The Older Brother
I read your listed studies and the top 2 were 13 weeks and 3 months long. Hardly long enough to show long-term damage. Most of the “perfectly safe” medications taken off the market were studied much longer than that and still ended up causing harm or killing people.. And vegetable oils are still right there on the shelf in every market.
I’m certainly not suggesting you or anyone else should not use anything you like. I’m just saying that I would not use it myself because I have a hard time believing someone who wants to sell me something telling me it’s safe because “they” tested it. And, by the way, I made a pumpkin souffle for Thanksgiving using Stevia and a tiny bit of honey. It was enjoyed not just by me but my family and my blood sugar survived just fine.
I think for most of us on the low-carb wagon who aren’t dealing with diabetes or known (n=1) reactions to specific foods, limited use of sugar, carbs, or artificials for the occasional indulgence isn’t going to be a main health driver. Keep in mind, we’re in a society that averages over 150 pounds of sugars a year.
If someone is trying to sub in 150 pounds of artificial anything to avoid changing their lifestyle, I suspect they just don’t “get it.”
Cheers!
“Re: no evidence that splenda is bad for you?” Can YOU provide any?
Sucralose is one of the most-tested substances on the planet, approved for use in over 80 countries. Researchers have tried and tried to prove that it is not safe, but that hasn’t happened. Personally, I would like my diabetic loved ones to be able to drink some lemonade on a hot summer day or have some pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving without feeling as though they were poisoning themselves–because they aren’t!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10882825
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14647086
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19464334
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20691239
Such food envy! My family events are chock full of carbs and pudgy, diabetic relatives asking me how I keep the weight off!
I will definitely be trying that squash casserole.
It’s been a real hit. It’s also got the classic casserole trait that it seems to get even better as a leftover!
— The Older Brother
For the crab/avocado recipe, is that 1 cup cream already whipped, or 1 cup liquid cream, whipped?
I put 1 cup of heavy whipping cream in the mixer and whipped it. Not sure what the volume was after whipping. I originally used 1/2 cup when noodling out the proportions; I decided to use some more to add volume and liked it better, so the specific measurements are pretty forgiving.
As a side note to folks who are maybe just getting interested in expanding their culinary repertoire, most recipes are pretty forgiving when it comes to proportions. The best thing is to try making it to the recipe the first time as a baseline, then increase, decrease, or substitute ingredients to suit your taste. Make notes on the recipe of changes you’ve made and liked. We don’t have many without a few scribbles in the margins.
I once heard an explanation that cooking is mostly art and baking is mostly chemistry. That’s because the ingredients in baking so have specific properties, reactions, and interactions that need pretty close tolerances to get the correct result. But since we’re low-carb, we don’t do much baking!
— The Older Brother
I’m really not suggesting that people substitute a habit of 150 lbs. of sugar with Splenda. All I’m objecting to is the classification that it’s poison, and the hysteria that goes with making such unsupported claims. Again, there is no evidence of any such harm, not with sucralose or any other “artificial” sweetener. On the other hand, a “natural” one, agave syrup, has indeed been shown to be harmful by skyrocketing people’s triglycerides. Bottom line is that I would hate for someone, presented with either HFCS lemondade or Splenda lemonade to choose the HFCS one because it’s not “poison.” Ok, they could choose water, or tea, but that’s not my point.
I read your listed studies and the top 2 were 13 weeks and 3 months long. Hardly long enough to show long-term damage. Most of the “perfectly safe” medications taken off the market were studied much longer than that and still ended up causing harm or killing people.. And vegetable oils are still right there on the shelf in every market.
I’m certainly not suggesting you or anyone else should not use anything you like. I’m just saying that I would not use it myself because I have a hard time believing someone who wants to sell me something telling me it’s safe because “they” tested it. And, by the way, I made a pumpkin souffle for Thanksgiving using Stevia and a tiny bit of honey. It was enjoyed not just by me but my family and my blood sugar survived just fine.
I think for most of us on the low-carb wagon who aren’t dealing with diabetes or known (n=1) reactions to specific foods, limited use of sugar, carbs, or artificials for the occasional indulgence isn’t going to be a main health driver. Keep in mind, we’re in a society that averages over 150 pounds of sugars a year.
If someone is trying to sub in 150 pounds of artificial anything to avoid changing their lifestyle, I suspect they just don’t “get it.”
Cheers!
For the crab/avocado recipe, is that 1 cup cream already whipped, or 1 cup liquid cream, whipped?
I put 1 cup of heavy whipping cream in the mixer and whipped it. Not sure what the volume was after whipping. I originally used 1/2 cup when noodling out the proportions; I decided to use some more to add volume and liked it better, so the specific measurements are pretty forgiving.
As a side note to folks who are maybe just getting interested in expanding their culinary repertoire, most recipes are pretty forgiving when it comes to proportions. The best thing is to try making it to the recipe the first time as a baseline, then increase, decrease, or substitute ingredients to suit your taste. Make notes on the recipe of changes you’ve made and liked. We don’t have many without a few scribbles in the margins.
I once heard an explanation that cooking is mostly art and baking is mostly chemistry. That’s because the ingredients in baking so have specific properties, reactions, and interactions that need pretty close tolerances to get the correct result. But since we’re low-carb, we don’t do much baking!
— The Older Brother
I’m really not suggesting that people substitute a habit of 150 lbs. of sugar with Splenda. All I’m objecting to is the classification that it’s poison, and the hysteria that goes with making such unsupported claims. Again, there is no evidence of any such harm, not with sucralose or any other “artificial” sweetener. On the other hand, a “natural” one, agave syrup, has indeed been shown to be harmful by skyrocketing people’s triglycerides. Bottom line is that I would hate for someone, presented with either HFCS lemondade or Splenda lemonade to choose the HFCS one because it’s not “poison.” Ok, they could choose water, or tea, but that’s not my point.
The line about baking being chemistry is exactly why, even before I started eating low carb, I rarely baked. Just before I converted though, I was just starting to get good at baking bread. Yeah … I do kind of miss that sometimes.
I think a lot of people get spooked out of cooking because of bad baking experiences, not realizing it’s two different things.
The Wife has a sourdough starter that she’s literally kept going for decades. She still makes some loaves about once a month and gives them as gifts and “thank you’s.” Something of an ethical quandary!
I usually stay away from it until the end of the loaf to minimize temptation. I always considered it one of the best delivery systems ever for gobs of melted butter.
Cheers!
The line about baking being chemistry is exactly why, even before I started eating low carb, I rarely baked. Just before I converted though, I was just starting to get good at baking bread. Yeah … I do kind of miss that sometimes.
I think a lot of people get spooked out of cooking because of bad baking experiences, not realizing it’s two different things.
The Wife has a sourdough starter that she’s literally kept going for decades. She still makes some loaves about once a month and gives them as gifts and “thank you’s.” Something of an ethical quandary!
I usually stay away from it until the end of the loaf to minimize temptation. I always considered it one of the best delivery systems ever for gobs of melted butter.
Cheers!
Perhaps the deer wasn’t stupid, perhaps it was just unusually trusting? Perhaps it wanted to be your friend? It looks delicious in any case.
Well, I suppose. But any deer who trusts a guy in the woods wearing camo and an orange hat and carrying a gun in December probably isn’t a member of the Deer Mensa Society, if you get my drift.
Cheers!
Perhaps the deer wasn’t stupid, perhaps it was just unusually trusting? Perhaps it wanted to be your friend? It looks delicious in any case.
Well, I suppose. But any deer who trusts a guy in the woods wearing camo and an orange hat and carrying a gun in December probably isn’t a member of the Deer Mensa Society, if you get my drift.
Cheers!
To all you arguing about artificial sweeteners: Your body thinks Splenda is a salt. it’s basically a very sweet salt. Your insulin doesn’t rise at all when you eat Splenda. It may not be the healthiest option out there but it won’t screw with your insulin like sugar does.
To all you arguing about artificial sweeteners: Your body thinks Splenda is a salt. it’s basically a very sweet salt. Your insulin doesn’t rise at all when you eat Splenda. It may not be the healthiest option out there but it won’t screw with your insulin like sugar does.
I’m wondering about the statement about the crab salad where it says “Not a carb in sight.” Avocados do indeed have carbs, at least according to any info I have seen. Or are you talking about net carbs? The fiber comes pretty close to cancelling out the carb count if a person is using only the net carb value….
That salad does sound great.
You’re correct in that avocados do indeed have carbs. About 5 net carbs each. I tend to not count what I consider “extraneous carbs” that tag along with foods that are primarily protein and/or fat.
So, using about three avocados at 5 net carbs each in a recipes that made 9 or 10 servings, you’re at approximately 1 & 1/2 carbs. So there are in fact a couple lurking around, but I didn’t count them as enough to worry about.
Cheers!
I’m wondering about the statement about the crab salad where it says “Not a carb in sight.” Avocados do indeed have carbs, at least according to any info I have seen. Or are you talking about net carbs? The fiber comes pretty close to cancelling out the carb count if a person is using only the net carb value….
That salad does sound great.
You’re correct in that avocados do indeed have carbs. About 5 net carbs each. I tend to not count what I consider “extraneous carbs” that tag along with foods that are primarily protein and/or fat.
So, using about three avocados at 5 net carbs each in a recipes that made 9 or 10 servings, you’re at approximately 1 & 1/2 carbs. So there are in fact a couple lurking around, but I didn’t count them as enough to worry about.
Cheers!