Jason's Log

Texas-style chili

We made our first pass at the Texas Chili recipe from the Low-Carb Slow Cooker recipe book, and the results were very good. The roast chuck, from Dittmer's of course, was absolutely perfect.

The only negatives were:

1. We cut the amount of meat used in half (from 3 pounds to 1.5), and kept the seasoning levels the same. The only seasoning/ingredient we should have reduced was the beef bullion, which brought a bit too much saltiness.

2. We like our chili with a bit more spice to it. We will add a bit more red pepper flakes the next time around.

So our version would look like this:

1.5 pounds chuck beef, cubed
1.0 tbsp minced garlic
0.25 cups chili powder
2.0 tsp red pepper flakes
1.0 tsp guar gum (thickener)
1.0 tbsp dried oregano
1.0 tsp cumin
1.0 tsp beef bullion
1.0 tsp ground black pepper
7.0 ounces beef broth
0.5 yellow onion, finely chopped

Cooking directions: combine all in slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Faux potato salad

To go along with our Texas style chili, we also tried a potato salad recipe that repalced the potatoes with cauliflower. The results were decent, but it had a few issues:

1. It was surprisingly bland. We like the stronger mustard flavors of other potato salads.

2. It was also not spciy enough, se we'll up the pepper and Tobasco next time around.

3. The red onions didn't do much for us, so we'll probably decrease the amount next time.

4. The cauliflower was a bit undercooked. I did it to my usual 'fork tender' doneness level, which gave it a slightly too-crunchy texture for a potato salad.

Our improved recipe would look something like this:

0.66 cups mayonnaise
2.0 tsp white whine vinegar
2.0 tbsp spicy brown mustard
1.0 tsp celery salt
2.0 tsp ground black pepper
1.0 tsp Tobasco sauce
3.0 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
0.33 lb bacon, cooked and chopped
1.0 large head of cauliflower, cooked until soft
0.25 medium red onion, finely chopped

In the process, Young found a great 'recipe' for hard boiled eggs: Put eggs in water on stove. Cover. Bring to boil. Turn off heat. Let sit 12 minutes. Perfect hard boiled eggs.

Shower heads and the federal gov

Recently, Young and I decided that the water pressure comeing from our shower head just wasn't quite what we would like. Although we didn't want the Seinfeld-like blow-Kramer-out-of-the-tub type power, we found our current situation lacking. It just seemed that over time, the water pressure had fallen off to a point where our showers seemed lacking a bit.

We had been using the WaterPik Cascadia shower head, which we had initially been very happy with. After a bit of research, I learned that the US Federal Government requires shower heads to output no more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute as long as the plumbing system can supply 60 psi of water pressure. In order to take this into account, shower head manufacturers installed flow restrictors into their shower heads.

Futher investigation revealed that the WaterPik Cascadia included a removable flow restrictor.

So I went down to the Home Depot, and picked up a new one. Before installing, I went ahead and removed the flow restrictor. Wow, what a difference that makes. My first test shower with the new shower head sans flow restrictor was wonderful - plenty of hot water in a nice strong stream.

Is this environmentally questionable? You bet. Does it feel really good? Absolutely.

Fall has officially arrived here

This evening marks the arrival of fall in northern California - signaled by the fact that my evening dog walk with Taylor tonight was accompanied by a constant light rain. Fortunately, I was prepared: gore-tex shoes, pants, jacket and hat were all in place.

On the positive side, it probably means that I won't need to do as much lawn sprinkling any more this year, which gets fairly expensive in the mid-summer months.

Further cheesecake refinements

As part of my ongoing low-carb cheesecake chronicles, this is the latest batch of tweaks that I've made to the ingredients and technique.

Base crust recipe (which I normally double):

1.0 cups plain almods
0.25 cups vanilla-flavored whey protein powder
6.0 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
0.33 cups Splenda
1.5 tsp vanilla extract

I put everything into the cuisinart with the blade attachment and run until the almonds are chopped very finely. I then spoon the mixture, one spoon at a time, into the cooking-spray coated muffin-pan forms (this is enough for 6 muffin-forms).

After using the bottom of a narrow glass to smush the crust mixture evenly into the bottom of each muffin form, I precook the crusts for 5 minutes at 375 (preheated oven, of course). Once precooked, I set the muffin pan aside.

Base cheesecake recipe (which I normally double):

3 blocks (8 oz each) cream cheese
Pinch of salt
1.1 cups Splenda
0.2 cups of sour cream (just less than 1/4 cup)
1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3.0 whole eggs
1.0 egg yolk
1.5 tsp lemon juice

I put all 3 blocks of cream cheese into the mixer, along with the salt, Splenda, sour cream, vinalla, and lemon juice, and mix at low speed for just a minute. Stop, scrape.

I then add the egg yolks, and mix for about a minute at slow speed. I then add the whole eggs and mix one last time at slow speed for about a minute, scraping the sides as needed.

The mixture will seem a bit lumpy, but it is important to NOT OVER MIX. You are not making puffy cakes, you are making something heavy and creamy. Beating eggs too much will make things puff up.

I then spoon this mixture into the 6 muffin forms, one spoon at a time to make sure they're all about even.

I then cook these at 375 degrees for 21 minutes. The internal temperature should be just under 150 degrees at that time. Anything more than and they've cooked too much.

I let them cool on the counter for a good long time. Once fully cooled, I remove them and place them into hefty zippered freezer bags (two will fit nicely into the quart sized bags) and place them in the freezer for safe keeping.

Cold brew is a winner

As the next step in my quest for good coffee, Young and I decided to give the Toddy Cold Brew system a try. We ordered the basic equipment from Amazon.com, and it arrived a few nights ago.

I ground up about a half pound of coffee that we had ordered from The Coffee Fools, and placed the grounds into the brewing container. I added the water as per the directions, and let it sit overnight. The next morning, I let the coffee concentrate drain off. I then filled my coffee mug about 1/3 with the coffee concentrate, and 2/3 with water. I microwaved it for two minutes.

The results are amazing: No acidity, no sourness, no burnt flavor or taste. The flavor of the coffee comes right through, just as you would expect it.

So now I\'m going to order another concentrate carafe and some replacement filters so that we can keep a ready supply of caf and decaf concentrate in the fridge at all times.

You really should try it.

How I managed to eat low carb...

I've had to tell this story to a number of people, so I figured I'd record it in a more permanent place. I lost 50 pounds, and have kept my body fat in the 13% range for about a year now.

Here are some websites, tips, and tricks that I've used:

1. To find out how much carbs a food ingredient brings with it, check out:

http://www.nutritiondata.com/

2. The Atkins website also has a nice PDF document with lists of ingredients and their carb counts:

http://atkins.com/img/assets/609/atkins_carbgramcounter.pdf

3. I've used the book '500 Low Carb Recipes' that I ordered from amazon for many of my base recipes. It also has a nice introduction on how to substitute various ingredients in order to create low-carb versions of existing recipes. The atkins.com website also has a section for recipes, and allrecipes.com has a section for low-carb recipes now.

4. Remeber the formula for evaluating product labels: Look at the total carbohydrate number, then subtract the number for fiber, then subtract the number for sugar alcohols if listed (this is the technical name for items like splenda). What is left over is starch and digestible sugar, which is what will increase insulin levels, which induces your body to store calories as fat.

Example: One bowl of Honeynut Cheerios- 24g total - 2g fiber = 22g sugars and starch. One Pria Carb Select Bar- 21g total - 2g fiber - 17g sugar alcohol = 2g starch and sugar.

5. Some of my recipes:

Fauxtatoes- http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=98
Fauxtatoes- http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=99

Turkey Burgers- http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=106

Cheesecake- The whole story of how i did it...
http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=89
http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=90
http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=91
http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=92
http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=93
http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=94
http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&pid=95

To see all of my 'Cooking' category weblog entries:
http://www.buberel.org/myphpblog/archive.php?blogid=2&cid=10

6. A typical food day for Jason

7am - Coffee with cream, splenda - 0g carbs, 50 cal
8am - Adkin's Advantage Bar - 2g carbs, 220 cal
1:00pm - Two Morning Star Grillers Prime patties with slice of cheese and lettuce - 6g carbs, 400 cal
3:30pm - Afternoon tea with splenda - 0g carbs, 50 cal
7:00pm - Grilled chicken breast, salad with ranch dressing, small side of broccoli - 5g carbs, 900 cal
8:00pm - Evening tea with cream, splenda - 0g carbs, 50 cals

Total Carbs: 15g
Total Calories: ~ 2000 cal

Periodically-
2 scoops of Bryers Carb Select Ice Cream - 4g carbs, 150 cals
2 pieces Reeses Sugar Free Peanut Butter cups - 1g carbs, 100 cals
One muffin-size sugar free cheesecake - 2g carbs, 250 cals

If you have any questions, just let me know.

-jason