Foodie Alert

Me and the grandkids had a great time yesterday. We played with Granny’s toys and I managed to get the dishes from the night before done. Later on it stopped raining and the sun came out for a bit so we went to the park by the community centre to play on the swings. They have a baby swing and a toddler one so I had them both going at the same time. I used to love swings so much when I was a little girl. We had our own metal set in the backyard and my dad had to cement in the legs and wire the top to the trees and the garage so we wouldn’t knock the whole thing over with our mad swinging! They could barely get me off long enough to come in for supper.

The slide was too wet to slip and I forgot a cloth to wipe it off so we played in the wet sand with our sand toys. It was pretty dirty but fun to make “cakes” with sticks for candles. I had to stop Stargazer from eating the gritty sand about a dozen times. You know you had fun when you go home all dirty. Heh! On the way home we ran into T-Man looking for us and it just started raining so my timing was good. When their parents got back we ended up chatting until dinner time (wonder how that happens?) so we made bison burgers and a salad for dinner instead of ordering pizza. T even managed to barbeque the burgers out on the deck in the dark. It was pretty chilly but at least it had stopped raining! A fun day but today I’m totally exhausted. Wonder why? It was only 9 hours with little ones. 30 years ago I could handle it 24/7. Oh yeah, I forgot — I was 30 years younger then!

I wasn’t so exhausted today that I couldn’t make a low-carb crustless quiche:

I don’t usually include food in my blog but this one is really yummy and changes with whatever I have in the fridge. For this quiche I used bacon, steamed cauliflower, sautéed onions and mushrooms to nearly fill the baking dish. Then I blended 3 large eggs, a cup of cottage cheese and two cups of grated cheddar. Sprinkled in a little flavoured pepper (figured there already was enough salt in the bacon) and poured it over the stuff in the dish. I always poke it a little with a spoon to make sure the egg mixture is getting down to the bottom but it probably doesn’t really matter. Then bake at 350º for 40 minutes or until set, cool as long as you can stand it and enjoy. Leftovers keep well in the fridge and you can eat it cold, room temperature or nuked for a short while to warm it up. Your choice.

I’ve made it with shrimp, barbecued salmon, fake crab, or sausage meat. The veggies could be asparagus, broccoli, green beans, red pepper or whatever else you can think of. Onions are always good and you could add some garlic to keep the vampires away. You can also substitute other cheeses or a mixture for the cheddar. Try some herbs too. There’s a lot of room for creativity here. It always tastes yummy. You don’t even notice it doesn’t have a crust.

After I got the quiche in the oven I made some more of my low-carb pancake mix because I’d run out. The recipe has a lot of ingredients but once it’s mixed the pancakes are easy to make. I keep it in a plastic container that stays in the fridge. With a 1/3 cup measuring scoop (the size doesn’t matter but the proportions do) I mix 4 scoops ground almond (flour) and 2 scoops each ground flax, whey protein powder, soy protein powder and buckwheat. The last ingredient raises the carb count a bit but tastes good. Then I mix in 2 tablespoons alum-free baking powder and 2 teaspoons sea salt. When I make pancakes I use 1/3 to 1/2 cup mix per person. Add 1 egg, 1 tablespoon olive or other oil (I like walnut) and enough cream or yogurt (or a combo) to make a spreadable batter. I usually add blueberries or sometimes blackberries (fresh or frozen and partially thawed) and maybe a teaspoon of cinnamon too. Cook like regular pancakes but watch because it burns quite easily. It should make 2 pancakes which are very filling. Serve alone or with a preferably low-carb topping. (Or else what’s the point of expensive low-carb pancakes?) My favourite is cream cheese. Fresh strawberries or other fruit and yogurt is good too. I know, it’s not syrup. But once you get used to less sweetness in your diet, you won’t notice the lack. Or go for savoury with smoked salmon cream cheese. Delish.

Did I mention that I also cleaned up the entire kitchen disaster after all that cooking? Including the mess from last evening. Whew. No, I don’t have a dishwasher. I AM the dishwasher.

Twilight Queen is still in time-out. I’m knitting on the Auntie92 gloves and reading until T gets home so we can go for a walk while it’s still sunny and relatively warm out. This is what it looked like from my back deck at 7 am — foggy:

Come to think of it, I’m still feeling a little like that.