Low-Carb Eggplant Parmesan with Fire-Roasted Tomato Sauce & Fried Garlic {gluten-free}

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Veronica

Growing up, my Mom made an eggplant dish about once a year that was basically chopped up eggplant mixed with homemade marinara sauce, garnished with Parmesan cheese. The only way I could swallow the evil stuff was to absolutely drown it in Parmesan–I’m pretty sure I used half a bottle of the grated cheese every time she made it. It’s not that the taste was terrible, the marinara was always good, as was the Parmesan, but the eggplant itself was spongy and a bit bitter, so I had to distract myself by making it super cheesy in order eat it.

Despite never fully enjoying this dish, I was convinced that I would enjoy eggplant if prepared differently. I really wanted to try making eggplant Parmesan, sensing that frying eggplant and making it crispy could be the key. But for some reason, I just never got around to it. Probably because I had been tainted by a long history of a dish with similar elements that was always abhorrent to me. I finally tried eggplant on a pizza (click here for the recipe: Eggplant & Olive Pizza) and then in baba ghanoush (a Middle Eastern roasted eggplant dip) and discovered I was right, I did like eggplant!

Well, finally, in a lower-carbohydrate phase of our diet last month, I decided to try my hand at eggplant parmesan, using only cheese for “breading” before frying it. It. was. fabulous. I’m sure I’d love it with the breading as well, but this was truly delicious and in my opinion, need not be changed. I seriously can not wait to make this again. I’m now a full-fledged eggplant convert. They key, it seems, is not so much in the frying, which obviously doesn’t hurt, but in the salting and draining prior to cooking. This takes away the bitterness and makes the eggplant flavor much more enjoyable.

I also want to take a moment to mention the tomato sauce, which I snagged from Jenna’s blog and kicked up a notch with fire-roasted tomatoes, and a touch of fennel seeds and red pepper flakes. This is my most favorite marinara sauce I’ve made to date, very flavorful and a great compliment to the eggplant. It makes a large batch, so you’ll have enough leftover to freeze for future eggplant Parmesan meals, or to ladle over pasta. It gives me such a heady feeling to know this delicious sauce is waiting for me in pre-portioned bags in the freezer, and all I have to do is defrost it in order to enjoy it again. Thanks for the wonderful recipe, Jenna!

One last note: the fried garlic is totally optional but I highly recommend you throw some cloves into the oil while you’re frying your eggplant. I discovered that frying garlic gives the same flavor as roasting it, sweetening it and making it so delicious you can just pop the whole thing into your mouth without any of the sulphurous burning that usually accompanies such an act with raw garlic. It is so delicious, I’ve found it to be addictive! I ended up keeping this part of the recipe secret from my husband, who arrived after I’d eaten an entire bulb of fried garlic because I couldn’t keep my hands off of it after I popped the first clove into my mouth. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. :)

I’m submitting this recipe to Renee for this week’s BSI (Blogger Secret Ingredient contest): Parmesan.

Low-Carb Eggplant Parmesan with Fried Garlic

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 medium eggplant, peeled
Salt
2 eggs
¼ cup water
1 cup shredded or grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
Garlic powder
½ cup olive or canola oil
1 bulb of garlic, peeled
1 ½ cups Fire-Roasted Tomato Sauce, warmed
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Peel and slice eggplant into ¼” thick slices. Sprinkle both sides liberally with salt and place in a colander set over a bowl. Allow the eggplant to drain for 30-45 minutes or until 2 tablespoons of water have been drawn out from the eggplant. Tear off three sets of two sheets of paper towels (each set of two still connected), stack together, then lay out eggplant slices on top of it. Tear off another three sets of two paper towels, lay on top of the eggplant, and press down firmly on each slice to draw out excess moisture.

In a flat-bottomed bowl large enough in diameter to fit the largest eggplant slices, whisk the eggs and water together until foamy. Put the Parmesan cheese on a plate and have your garlic powder nearby. Line a baking sheet with foil, sprinkle evenly with garlic powder, and set nearby.

Dip each eggplant slice in the egg mixture, shake off, then sprinkle both sides with Parmesan. Lay the slices on the prepared baking sheet as you finish them. Once all slices are coated, sprinkle garlic powder on top.

Heat a cast iron or other heavy-duty skillet over medium-high heat. Add enough oil to cover the bottom well and come up about 1/8”. Place as many eggplant slices in the skillet as will fit, and tuck as many of the cloves of garlic in between them as you can. Fry the eggplant until the first side is golden brown, about 2 minutes, then flip. Flip the garlic cloves when then skin is golden brown and bubbled. Once the second side is golden brown, remove to a cooling rack lined with paper towels to drain. Remove the garlic as it is finished cooking as well. Continue cooking eggplant in batches until all is fried. If the first batch of eggplant has cooled too much by the time you are finished frying it all, pour out the oil in the skillet and add them back in to reheat for a minute. Alternately, as the eggplant is drained, you can add them to a foil-lined baking sheet and keep them in a warm oven until ready to serve.

To serve, arrange eggplant slices on plates with fried garlic scattered around. Scoop tomato sauce over the top and garnish with Parmesan and parsley, if desired. Serve hot.

Fire-Roasted Tomato Sauce

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1/3 cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
2 (14.5 oz) cans fire roasted tomatoes, undrained
2 dried bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon fennel seeds
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook for about 2 minutes, until soft and translucent. Add the celery, carrot, and some salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, basil, oregano, fennel seeds, and red pepper flakes, and cover the pot with a splatter screen. Turn down the heat to low, and simmer gently for 1 hour.

Remove the bay leaves and taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed. Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce until smooth. Allow the sauce to cool completely and, if not using immediately, pour it into freezer bags in 1-2 cup portions. It will keep frozen for about 6 months.

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Posted in Italian, Meatless, My Favorites and tagged breadless, diet-friendly, eggplant parmesan, fire roasted, fried garlic, gluten-free, gourmet, low carb, marinara, tomato sauce. Bookmark the permalink.

Cake for Dummies, part 4: “Decorating”

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Veronica

All right, since this is a cake for “dummies” series, I’m going to show you how to decorate a cake using natural embellishments that don’t require decorating skills. Truth be told, I really dislike traditional decorating (not the look, the process) and “decorate” my cakes in this manner whenever possible.

In this video, you’ll see me have issues as I proceed with my “decorating,” and I kept the footage in the video to give you an idea of how to overcome issues you might run into with your cakes as well.

Don’t let your cake intimidate you. You are the master of the cake, and I can tell you from experience that no matter how bad you mess the cake up, there’s almost always something you can do to fix it. Namely, by covering up the mistake!

Also, for those new to cake making, I want to reassure you because it will take some practice before you start turning out really attractive cakes. Don’t be discouraged if your first cakes aren’t as pretty as you would like. Just do your best and you will get better and better with each cake you make. And I promise that no matter what you think of your cake, your family and friends will always be impressed that you made it. You will be adored whether you’re a beginner with crumbs in your frosting, or have advanced to fondant and tiered cakes. Cakes that come out of your own kitchen are more special and when you give a cake made with your own two hands and your love, the recipient will be that much more grateful and impressed.

This is the first cake I ever decorated, for a friend who was moving to another city. If I hadn’t watched my mother make cakes for several year’s prior to this attempt, I assure you it would have been much worse. As it was, even with the imperfections, Brooke appreciated the cake very much. She knew it came from my heart.

And now, many years later, I’m making cakes like this Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake that actually require less decorating skills but are, IMHO, much prettier.

I hope I’ve encouraged you and helped you in your future cake-making adventures!

Much love, and happy caking!

For the previous videos in this series and other cake-related posts, check out this page: Cake for Dummies

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Posted in How-To & DIY, Videos and tagged cake for dummies, easy decorating, how to decorate a cake without decorating skills. Bookmark the permalink.

Cake for Dummies, part 3: frosting and stacking

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Veronica

I’ve made a “Cake For Dummies” page where I’ve linked to all the cake tips and resources on my blog, including those on tiered cakes and general baking tips. You can find the past videos from this series there if you have missed anything and would like to catch up. The first video includes my “water bottle trick” for ensuring a moist cake every time, and the second covers levelling. Now we’re up to frosting and stacking (which also includes a water bottle trick-I tell you that water bottle is my secret weapon!)–3/4ths of the way to a finished cake! Tomorrow is the final video and will cover “decorating.” I put that in quotations because my decorations are more like embellishments, but it still makes for a pretty cake, and is much more manageable for those without decorating experience.

OK, I’m a big dork. While frosting the cake, I got caught up in telling a story about my childhood when I should have been explaining what I was doing. I think by this time, I had lost my focus and forgot I was doing a tutorial. Oops.

Allow me to explain in writing. :) When you spread on your frosting, you want to make sure you don’t get any crumbs in it. If you do get crumbs in it, it’s not the end of the world, it will still taste great, but it won’t look as nice.

Just say no to crumbs in your frosting!

{Photo source}

To keep them out, you have three options:

1) Apply a thin coat of frosting over the whole cake to trap the crumbs before you apply a thicker layer. This is not my method of choice because it seems too time consuming to have to apply the frosting twice, but it works. Just be sure to refrigerate the cake for an hour or up to overnight after applying the crumb coat before you frost it again.

2) Pipe the frosting on using a large pastry bag fitted with a wide, flat tip, such as Wilton’s #789. This gives you an even thickness of frosting over the entire cake, and there is no risk at all of getting crumbs in your frosting because the cake is covered already when you start using your spatula to smooth it out.

3) Be careful and just go for it. On the rare occasion that I don’t use a pastry bag & frosting tip to pipe the frosting on, this is what I do. I just put a lot of frosting on each spot before I start spreading it and don’t spread it very thin, adding more before I get to the point when the crumbs start lifting up as I move the spatula. I make sure that my spatula never comes into contact with the cake itself, and I avoid lifting my spatula in a way that pulls the frosting (and crumbs) off the cake. This is the method you’ll see me demonstrate in the video.

Links that accompany the video:

The turntables: older versions of Wilton’s Trim ‘n Turn PLUS Cake Turntable and Trim ‘n Turn ULTRA Cake Turntable

The frosting tip: Wilton #789

The cake I’m making: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Check out this recipe using the leftovers from this cake: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake Bites

OK, that’s it for today-class dismissed!

9 Comments

Posted in How-To & DIY, Videos and tagged frost cake, how to, how to get perfectly smooth frosting on cake, no crumbs, water trick for smooth frosting, without crumb coat. Bookmark the permalink.

Cake for Dummies, part 2: levelling

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Veronica

Welcome to day two of my Cake for Dummies series! Let’s talk levelling.

So why, you may ask, do I need to slice the perfectly delicious top off my cakes? It’s simple: flat cakes stack nicely and will give you a better finished look than if you stack two domed cakes. Plus, slicing off the top enables you to chow down practice quality control on your cakes, so you will know if it is celebration worthy without leaving a tell-tale hunk missing from the finished cake.

Cakes are stacked with the bottom layer being top-side-up and the top layer being top-side-down, like a cake sandwich. Depending on how high the mounds of your domes are, you might have only a very small part of each cake meeting in the middle if you stack them without levelling, leaving a gap around the edges of your cake that will have to be filled in with frosting. If you go that route, you’ll have an unstable cake and will probably have frosting oozing out between your layers, which isn’t a great look. So unless you use Magi-cake strips or similar on your pans and have fairly flat cakes to begin with, I’d really suggest levelling them before stacking and frosting the cake.

Here’s an example of what you don’t want. Although the top cake isn’t top-side-down, which would have made the gap ridiculous, you can see that there is still a big gap between the sides, which makes for too much frosting around the edges and not enough in the middle.

{Photo source}

Compare that to this cake I made, which I leveled first. It is perfectly flat after stacking and I used the same amount of frosting over the whole surface of the bottom cake.

This shows the inside after cutting. Although the photo is a hot mess because some very hungry people attacked it with a knife and I took it in bad lighting, the even layers are still more attractive to cut into than the mounded cake in the first photo.

In the photo: Chocolate Ridiculous Cake

All that to preface the video, in which I’ll demonstrate how I level a cake. This tutorial on levelling is the shortest video in the series, so it feels a little funny to give it its own blog and it’s own separate video, but the next is long enough without this one being included, so today is a short and sweet video tutorial day. Enjoy!

I’m using the Large Wilton Cake Leveller in the video. This is the cheaper version I mention.

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has me in a reader for bearing with me overloading your readers while I updated my 2009 recipes to put the pictures back after they disappeared! As of today, I’m done updating all those old posts (as far as I can tell)! If you ever find any recipes or posts missing pictures, please let me know. Thanks again!

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Posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Cake for Dummies: How to Create an Attractive Layer Cake

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Veronica

Photographed: THE Mocha Crunch Cake

A layer cake is just about the prettiest dessert there is, don’t you think? Stacked high and impressive with a smooth buttercream finish and a few embellishments, a layer cake, properly done, is almost enough to take one’s breath away.

I am passionate about cake and I believe there should be at least one person in every family who can create an attractive cake, with or without decorating skills. Cake is used to celebrate so many special occasions, and unfortunately many of those celebratory cakes come from Walmart or other sub-par bakeries. Making your own cake is not only more economical than purchasing one, but it tastes better, and is more special. The cake you create will be remembered (not to mention crazy delicious), whereas that nasty Walmart cake will be forgotten within five minutes, even if it did have your child’s favorite cartoon character on it.

Therefore, I’m embarking upon a quest to give anyone interested the tools they need to create an attractive layer cake at home. My husband recorded me while I constructed a cake for a friend last month, and I used the footage to create a four-part video tutorial series which I will share every day through Friday. (Thankful Thursdays will be cancelled this week so I can get this series done, but will resume next week.)

You don’t need any sort of decorating skills to create a gorgeous layer cake, you only need a little know-how. I promise. You can do this. Let’s get started!

Click here to find out more about Magi-Cake Strips.

Click here for the Miracle Pan Release recipe.

Cake shown at the beginning: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake

I hope you enjoyed this and maybe learned a trick or two. I’ll see you back tomorrow with the next video in the series: levelling!

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Posted in How-To & DIY, Videos and tagged how to ensure a moist cake, how to flip a cake out of pans to cool, how to make a layer cake, tutorial. Bookmark the permalink.

Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Veronica

It’s Secret Recipe Club time again! I can’t tell you how thankful I am to Amanda for starting this club. The amount of fun I have with it is a little ridiculous. My favorite part is getting my blog assignment and stealthily stalking that blog, hunting down recipes that I want to make and post for reveal day. I always bookmark a million and it takes me an entire week to narrow down my choice to one recipe.

{You can find my past Secret Recipe Club posts here.}

This month I was assigned to A Little Nosh and unlike previous assignments, I knew which recipe I was going to make within a minute of clicking on her blog. I still went through Amy’s archives and bookmarked half her recipes, but did eventually return to the original that caught my eye and knew I couldn’t fight it. I had to make the crockpot chicken cacciatore because:

1) It’s beautiful and I like pretty food.

2) I’d never eaten or made it and thought it would be fun to try something new.

3) It fit perfectly in our diet plan while we were in the 2nd cycle of the 17 Day Diet.

4) I noticed the recipe originally came from one of my blogging buddies, Renee of My Kitchen Adventures, and it tickled me to think that I’d be making Amy’s and Renee’s recipe at the same time.

I changed the recipe to make it on a slightly larger scale with a higher ratio of veggies, and it completely filled my 6-quart crockpot to the brim. The leftovers were enough to last us all week, and what beautiful lunches we were bringing to work! The vegetables and sauce were such a tasty compliment to the tender chicken breast meat, which pretty much fell apart as soon as you touched it with a fork. So delicious.

Thanks, Amy, for sharing this great recipe. I never even saw it on Renee’s blog, so I’m glad to have gotten the opportunity through you and the SRC to try it!

Crockpot Garden Chicken Cacciatore

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

6 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 yellow or orange bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large ribs of celery, diced
3 large carrots, diced
2 (4 oz) cans sliced mushrooms, drained
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 (14.5 oz) cans of diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
½ cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
¼ cup cornstarch
1-2 tablespoons water or chicken broth
Additional salt and pepper, to taste

Place chicken breasts inside the bottom of a 6-quart crockpot. Add in the bell peppers, onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and garlic. Pour the juice from the tomatoes into a medium bowl, then put the tomatoes into the crockpot.

Into the bowl with the tomato juice, add the tomato paste, chicken stock, and balsamic vinegar. Mix well, then pour on top of the tomatoes and vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or high for 4 hours, or until the chicken is tender.

Mix the cornstarch and water together until no lumps remain, then pour over the top of the vegetables. Stir, turn the crockpot to high, and allow to cook for another 20 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over brown rice or your choice of starch.

Recipe source: adapted from A Little Nosh, originally from My Kitchen Adventures

To check out the other submissions in Group A for The Secret Recipe Club, click on the Mr. Linky below!

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Posted in Italian, Lighter Fare, Meats, Secret Recipe Club, Slow-Cooker/Crockpot and tagged chicken cacciatore, crockpot, diet-friendly, garden vegetables, healthy, low calorie, low carb, slow cooker. Bookmark the permalink.

Balsamic Vinegar & Garlic Glazed Flat Iron Steak

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Veronica

I have a significant backlog of recipes waiting to be blogged, but I made this one yesterday and two things prevailed upon me to post it immediately:

1) This week’s BSI (blogger secret ingredient) is beef so this is perfect timing to submit it for the contest, and

2) It’s so delicious, I couldn’t wait!

Fish aside, I’m not much for meat. I’ll put a bite on my plate, then fill the rest with dessert vegetables and potatoes, etc. Then I usually share what little meat is on my plate with Jessie. But this steak was so delicious I was sneaking bites of it from the platter before Dennis came home and almost couldn’t stop myself. Between us, we ate an entire 1-lb flat iron steak in one sitting. It was just incredible.

Dennis was beside himself. “How did you get it so juicy? What did you do to this? This is so good. What did you put on it? THIS is the best steak I’ve ever eaten.” “Even over the steak au poivre?” I asked. “Yes, even over that one.” An hour after eating, Dennis looked over at me and said, “That steak was really, really good.”

This recipe was inspired by my friend, Suzie*, who shared a recipe for Balsamic & Garlic Glazed Strip Steaks with me last summer. At the time, I knew my hubby would love it but I didn’t think I’d ever use it. Then I happened to pick up a flat iron steak because it was on sale and because I’d never heard of it before. I had NO idea what I was going to do with it so I searched all the recipes I had for steak to get some ideas, and found Suzie’s. The marinade was just PERFECT for this steak.

*Suzie just started her own food blog this week! If you’ve been reading long, you’ve seen many recipes on my blog from her. She’s a great cook with a great sense of humor. Check her out here!

Flat iron steak is the second most tender cut of meat, next to the tenderloin, and that obviously helped with the resulting steak. The acid from the balsamic vinegar also tenderizes it a bit during the marination process, so you’re left with an incredibly juicy and tender piece of meat. The marinade is simple but just perfect. I couldn’t believe how delicious it made the meat!

Balsamic Vinegar & Garlic Glazed Flat Iron Steak

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

½ cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 (1 lb) flat iron steak
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper

In a small bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil and garlic. Reserve ¼ cup marinade and pour the rest in a large Ziploc bag. Put the steak in, press out the air and zip it up. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour before grilling.

Meanwhile, light your charcoal mound in the grill (yes, I was grilling yesterday-the weather was so nice!) and then spread the coals out once the fire dies and they get ashy around the sides. Remove steak from bag, discard marinade. Salt and pepper steaks. Grill covered for ten minutes on each side for medium-well, brushing with extra marinade while it cooks.

Set grilled steak on a platter, tent with foil, and let rest for 5 minutes so juices can recirculate throughout the meat. Enjoy!

Recipe source: adapted from Suzie S.

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Posted in Meats, My Favorites and tagged Balsamic vinegar, best, easy, flat iron steak, garlic, grilled, juicy, marinade, simple, summer, tender. Bookmark the permalink.

Thankful Thursdays #66: modern medicine

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Veronica

My appreciation for modern medicine is surely shared by many. I’m sure most everyone alive has been thankful for it at some point in their lives, those that have survived cancer and life-threatening injuries probably more than we will ever know. Personally, I depend on it daily to survive and that constant reminder when I take my pills and my insulin makes me continually thankful.

Without modern medicine, I would have died before my 21st birthday.

I was diagnosed with Graves disease, a thyroid disease, when I was 19. This is a hyperthyroid disease (which means faster metabolism, faster heartbeat, etc.-my resting heart rate was 140 beats per minute) and has the fun bonus symptoms of a goiter and bulging eyes. Being young and reckless, I thought I knew better than my doctor and decided that rather than take the pills he gave me or take radioactive iodine to kill my overactive thyroid, I would try natural remedies and cure myself that way. Unfortunately in my case, I really needed an aggressive treatment to nip the disease in the bud, and while I was able to significantly improve my bulging eyes through chiropracty, bringing them back to the state you see them today, my disease was too progressed to be taken care of quickly enough with natural cures.

I clearly had a goiter on my wedding day, but I wouldn't be diagnosed with Graves Disease for another three months.

I let it go on for a year after my diagnosis. Then I started getting new symptoms. I would get strange floaters in my vision that became larger and larger as weeks passed, until I wouldn’t be able to see at all for 30 minutes to an hour after I ate. I was thirsty all the time and had to pee all the time. This too progressed until I kept the largest size cup that Quik Trip offered at my desk and drank one filled with water every half hour, and literally peed every five to ten minutes. I became weaker and weaker, and I remember going to buffets and Dennis having to get my plates of food for me because I couldn’t get up. I made a point never to squat or sit down on the floor because I wouldn’t have the strength to get back up. Eventually I couldn’t muster enough energy to even leave our apartment and I stopped going to work. When I did leave, Dennis had to carry me out to the truck. Despite eating tons of fattening food, I lost 30 pounds in 3 months.

Some people thought I held my eyes unnaturally wide, but this was my relaxed look. My eyes were so distended that when I blinked, one of them didn't fully close. You can also see the goiter on my neck is much more pronounced.

Dennis was worried I had diabetes but I refused to accept this. I knew it was just my Graves Disease getting worse, so I finally broke down and scheduled my date with the radioactive iodine pill. I hated the idea of taking a pill to replace my thyroid hormone for the rest of my life, but now that prospect seemed so much better than what I was living through.

By the time this picture was taken, my eyes had gone back into place thanks to months of chiropracty, but you can see how unhealthy I still look. My hair and eyebrows were thinning and I was losing weight. My bathing suit was hanging off me and my arms have never been this thin in my adult life, before or after.

Dennis had to roll me into the hospital in a wheelchair because I didn’t have the strength to walk. Simply standing and moving from the wheelchair into the doctor’s chair caused me to pant with exertion. The nurse who was only there to do some preliminary stuff caught a whiff of my breath and said it smelled like acetone, which she was familiar with because her Mom was diabetic. She checked my blood sugar and it was 697. I hadn’t eaten anything that morning so that was my fasting blood sugar. I can’t imagine how high it had been after meals.

I found out later that thyroid disease will eventually affect every organ in your body if left untreated, and that’s why my pancreas shut down. Because I didn’t want to utilize a cure for it that would leave me taking a pill for the rest of my life, I ended up causing myself another disease which requires four shots a day minimum.

So what was supposed to be just a quick swallowing of a pill turned into a week-long hospital stay while they brought my blood sugar into a normal range, replenished my electrolytes and taught me how to manage my disease, including the hardest part–injecting insulin. I nearly passed out before I got the gumption to stick that first needle into myself! Thank God my Mom was there with me, or I never would have been able to do it. We agreed to do it together on the count of three (hers was filled with saline solution) and that’s the only reason I was able to finally stick the needle in my stomach. After that, it was much easier.

This photo was taken five years after the last one. Happy and healthy again!

I know the normal reaction to discovering you have a disease is shock, denial, and “why me?” but all I felt was THANKFUL. While I’d been outraged when Dennis suggested I had diabetes, I had been through such hell before the official diagnosis that all I felt when I got it was relief. I’d already went through the shock, denial, and “why me?” when I was diagnosed with Graves Disease. But when I went into the hospital that day, I was at death’s door and a part of me knew it. When I found out there was an explanation for it, and that it could be managed with modern medicine, I was happy. Seriously happy. Overjoyed. Every day I was in the hospital, I felt better and better, was able to start taking walks, and it was like I was really living again. I was so thankful for modern medicine because I knew it had saved my life, despite my ignorance that had nearly snuffed it out. Modern medicine gave my life back.

That same thankfulness that was overflowing in my heart while I was in the hospital is still with me today. Because of it, I’ve never dealt with the regrets of diabetes. It has never felt like a burden to me. Sure, there have been times when I’ve wished I could just go on vacation without having to tote enough medicine to allow me to live through it. Sure, I’ve wished I could just eat a piece of chocolate cake without calculating how much insulin I’ll need to take to cover it. Sure, had terrifying experiences with low blood sugar that brought me closer to death than I’m comfortable with. But those thoughts are few and far between. Mostly when I think of my diabetes, I still feel that same thankfulness that I have something that can be managed with modern medicine. This wasn’t always true, and even when insulin finally began to be used, it was a terrible and painful process to administer it (in earlier times, they used reusable huge glass syringes that they boiled after using!!) and there was no way to monitor blood sugar so there was much more room for error.

So now you know why I have such incredible gratitude for modern medicine. Despite my pancreas not working, which is something required for my survival, I’m still able to live simply because of the time I live in. Thank God for modern medicine.

In what ways have you been/are you thankful for modern medicine? How has it impacted you personally?

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Posted in Thanksgivings and tagged diabetes, Graves Disease, modern medicine, thankful, type 1. Bookmark the permalink.

Skinny Dark Hot Cocoa

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Veronica

Hot cocoa? Hot chocolate? I’ve always said hot chocolate, no matter if it’s made with real chocolate or cocoa powder or a mix. I also have always said pop, not soda or soda pop. Potato, potahto I guess. What about you?

Anyway, remember how Dennis and I weren’t planning on having sugar on Valentine’s Day? Well, it would be just be unAmerican not to have any chocolate on the day when the rest of the country is eating 58 million pounds of it. (I know, right?) So, inspired by Faith’s delicious Skinny Caramel Hot Cocoa, I made this plain version for our Valentine’s Day dinner dessert, only changing the basic recipe a smidge to deepen the chocolate flavor (had to make up for our lack of chocolate candy, you know). We like our chocolate dark in this house.

This hot cocoa is so sweet, so chocolatey and delicious, creamy even, that you wouldn’t guess that it’s fat and sugar free. That it’s actually healthy. Protein and calcium-rich milk? Check. The antioxidant power of cocoa powder? Check. Totally natural with no chemical sweeteners? You got it.

I’m usually semi-opposed to healthifying sweet treats because, in my opinion, they’re called treats because they are meant to be enjoyed. Mostly what cutting out fat and sugar does is make them less enjoyable (although I hope to prove my own theory wrong because I’m going to be experimenting soon, given that we’ve nixed sugar in our house!). But when you can do it with such a satisfying result, I’m all for feeling great about drinking something that tastes so sinful.

*A note about stevia: I’m a huge advocate of using stevia to sweeten things, versus chemical sweeteners and even real sugar. This is the ONLY completely natural sweetener out there that is also calorie free. It is taken from the leaves of a plant and it is tremendously sweet so you need much less of it than sugar. I was blessed to win a bunch of NuNaturals products through a giveaway from Renee of My Kitchen Adventures (thank you so much Renee!), and hope to do a review soon with comparisons to other sugar substitutes. NuNaturals products are by far the best I’ve tried and I highly recommend them.

Since I’m not counting calories on the 17 Day Diet, I didn’t calculate them for this cocoa when we drank it, but just going from the labels on the milk and the cocoa (the only things that have calories in the recipe), I can tell you that there is 120 calories, 1 g fat, 22 g carbohydrates, and 2 grams fiber. Not to shabby, and I think you’ll agree that this hot cocoa is totally worth every healthy & delicious calorie.

Skinny Dark Hot Cocoa

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon Dutch process cocoa powder
2 packets NuNaturals NuStevia
Pinch fleur de sel or kosher salt
1 ¼ cups nonfat milk
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Whisk together the cocoa powders, stevia powder, and salt in a small saucepan. Add half the milk and whisk vigorously until the cocoa powder is dissolved. Turn the heat to medium, and whisk in the remaining milk. Heat until the hot cocoa starts to steam (do not boil), and pour into a mug. Enjoy!

For a caramel hot cocoa: stir in ¼ teaspoon caramel extract along with the vanilla at the end.

Serves 1

Recipe source: adapted from An Edible Mosaic

Yummy either way!

P.S. Happy leap day! I know this is crazy, but this is the first year I’ve actually been aware that it’s a leap year. How did I miss the other seven I lived through? Queen Oblivious here! I know I’m getting random here but did anyone else used to watch the show Quantum Leap? I honestly can’t remember a thing about it except I think I liked it (I was pretty young so maybe it was too mature for me), and I always associated the name with leap year. Did it even have anything to do with a leap year? OK, seriously, I’ll shut up now.

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Posted in Beverages, Sugar-Free and tagged diet-friendly, fat free, healthy, hot chocolate, hot cocoa, low calorie, Sugar-Free. Bookmark the permalink.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Veronica

It has been way too long since I’ve shared a recipe for our furry friends! This recipe is similar to the other biscuit recipe I have on my blog, except the liquid is chicken broth instead of milk, and it bakes up a bit softer, even if you go the route of leaving them in the oven overnight to dry out, and perhaps it is both those reasons combined that my Jessie loves them even more than the Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits.

These bake up soft like cookies, but you can leave them in the oven overnight to make them crunchy.

Full disclosure: I totally tried one of these in the soft-baked state, and I even thought it was pretty tasty! :)

Another advantage, at least for those of us with…shall we say “husky” dogs, is that there is less than half as much peanut butter in this recipe, therefore it is lower in calories. There are also more oats (more fiber) and less sweetener, which helps the calories as well. A treat that Jessie loves, and that is lower in calories than her former beloved treats is a win-win in our house.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Dog Treats

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used WW pastry flour)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
¼ cup wheat germ
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder, such as Rumford
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup honey
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two large cookie sheets with parchment. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, oats, wheat germ, and baking powder. In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, peanut butter, honey, and olive oil. Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture until incorporated. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes or up to an hour. This gives the flour and oats time to absorb moisture and it will become thicker and easier to work with as it stands. Roll out to ¼ inch thick on a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place treats on prepared baking sheet. You can pop the first one in the oven as you cut out shapes and place them on the second sheet. Bake cookies for 15 minutes.

If your dog prefers softer cookie-type treats, cool the treats at this point and package in airtight containers. If you want to bake them into hard biscuits, which stores better and has the added benefit of helping clean your dog’s teeth, simply turn off the oven with the cookies still inside and leave them in overnight, or until the oven is cool. If you bake them in batches, remove each tray as they finish, and let them sit on the sheet until all the batches are baked, then turn off the oven and return all baking sheets to the oven to sit overnight, or until the oven is cool.

Recipe source: Shared Sugar

So I’m trying not to use my voice right now, and Dennis is loving it. I’m recovering from the flu (yeah, that’s what I get for bragging on Friday night that I’ve never had it before…guess what I woke up with?) and my throat hurts too much to talk any more, so I am communicating mainly in gestures. He helped me choose the photos for this blog in the usual way, except that I asked him to help me with pointing and shoulder shrugging to indicate I couldn’t decide between two photos. Since I couldn’t argue vocally with his choice, I did a lot of fist-shaking and going back to the one that I preferred and he just laughed and asserted that his choice was the right one. Well, I went with the one I liked, the one right before the recipe, but I’ll let you guys decide. He like this fancier one. But I liked the former because it was easier to read and more simple. But now you get them both since I had to share our antics with you. :)