Pintesting in the Kitchen - Cream Cheese Pancakes

Most nights I hit up Pintrest for diabetic-friendly recipes now. Planning ahead seems like the most likely way that I have a chance of eating anything.

If I wanted a bagel for breakfast I'd have to only 1/4 of it and my toppings would also end up limited. That's no fun for a girl who considers bagels a vehicle for cream cheese. I take cream cheese somewhat seriously - as a child I snacked on UTZ potato chips and cream cheese (much to the horror of my parents, especially my health conscious mother.)

I needed an actual breakfast food to enjoy in the morning instead of just some random recipe that would do the job.

Today's pintest comes via this pin and the information found here.

Yield: Four 6-inch pancakes

Serving Size: 1 pancake

Ingredients

• 2 oz cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 packet stevia (or any) sweetener
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

If you're uncertain of how to tell if you have 2 ounces of cream cheese, I refer you to the size of the packet where, as I'd never bothered to notice before, there are markers telling you each ounce.

I don't have any stevia so I used 1 tbsp of raw, organic honey.

Instructions

Put all ingredients in a blender or magic bullet.

 As it turns out my mother gave me hers on my last visit home and I hadn't used it yet

Blend until smooth. Let rest for 2 minutes so the bubbles can settle. 

Pour 1/4 of the batter into a hot pan greased with butter or pam spray. Cook for 2 minutes until golden, flip and cook 1 minute on the other side. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

 I took a bite of these with no syrup and they tasted a little like dirt.

Serve with sugar free syrup (or any syrup of your choice) and fresh berries. I didn't have free syrup but I was almost certain the night before I read that generally, a serving size of syrup was a tablespoon so I put about a tablespoon on.

Bingo! It was now edible.

Notes

Approx nutrition info per batch: 344 calories, 29g fat, 2.5g net carbs, 17g protein

Another great way to save on calories and sugar is to try to eat this in front of your toddler - you won't be eating the entire thing by yourself anymore.

Pintesting in the Kitchen - Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers

Cheese steaks are one of my favorite foods. When I liked in South Philadelphia (feeling like the lone mooly in Saint Monicas perish), (pretty much) the only two places I felt worth buying them was Tony Lukes or a place called George's on 9th street which you can find in the Italian market. Don't be a tourist and waste your money at Pats

 or Genos. Genos always looked to me like the sort of place that should actually be selling tacos.

As much as I would love to enjoy the crackle and chew of a sub roll with a steak and cheese - gestational diabetes has other things to generally say about my carb intake.

Today's pintest comes via this pin and the info found here.

It all begins with some green pepper.

That you wash and then slice lengthwise.

Remove the rib and the seeds.

If you like wash it one more time to rinse away the seeds that may be remaining.

Slice up some onion and mushrooms

then gently sautee them.

Once they are soft you can stop sauteeing.

Place a slice of provolone cheese inside the halved green pepper.

Then, because I was going to use Steak-Em's I chose to cook a bit of them a little before adding them to the inside of the pepper. Steak-Em's are oily/greasy and I didn't want my green pepper packed with grease.

Return your mushroom and onions to the pan with the meat.

Add the mix to your green peppers. I put a little salt on top of this.

Top with a slice of provolone cheese.

Then place it in the oven to cook until your cheese is nice and melty.

Plate with whatever else you plan to eat with them. I had mine with eggplant caviar and a red cabbage salad drizzled with red wine vinegar and honey.

The dish was disappointing. It was bland and even with more salt it didn't improve. You are unable to get the steak and cheese mix thoroughly throughout the green pepper. I got bites that were nothing but green pepper and others that had too much of the somehow bland tasting steak and cheese mix.

And despite my effort the steak-em's still leaked grease.

Pintesting in the Kitchen - Eggplant Caviar

Making the adjustment to having gestational diabetes isn't easy. Still in the stage where all I knew was that I had to eat and that I had to be even more mindful of what I was putting into my body I really had no choice about trudging forward and trying to make this work.

Today's pintest comes to us via this pin and the information found here - in French.

Ingredients you're going to need:
3-4 small eggplants - I chose to just use 1 large one

 3 tablespoons tahini / tahini / tahina (or sesame paste)

1 clove of garlic
Juice of one lemon
1 dash of olive oil
1 c. in s. of Labane or buttermilk
1/2 c. to c. ground cumin
salt
 
Description 

Preheat oven to 200 °.

Wash and prick the eggplants all over with a fork 

and place them on a baking sheet.  

Bake 20-25 minutes, turning halfway through cooking. By the time my 25 minutes was up, because I used a large eggplant the center wasn't cooked as well as I was going to need. I cut it open, removed a few seeds, and put it back in for another 12 minutes and 30 seconds. 

I was getting nowhere really fast and my headache and hunger was only getting much more intense. I flipped the eggplant over, turned the heat up to 300, and set my timer for 15 minutes and 30 seconds. I removed as many seeds as I could 

and hacked up the insides 

and put it all back into the oven for another 15 minutes.

Let cool, peel by holding the stem and remove the seeds. Keep only the flesh. Yes yes it is a bit tedious but the result is much better without grains!

Then mix together the flesh of the eggplant with garlic, tahini, lemon juice, cumin, Labane (or in my case buttermilk), a drizzle of olive oil and salt.

Stay far, far, far away from this time consuming recipe. Nothing about this was worth it for me.The taste was no good and I just about wish I could get that time back.

Saturday Snack - Eggplant Involtini

Eggplant is another one of those foods I can't get enough of, yet somehow I always managed to forget how long they can take to prepare.

The second I saw this pin while searching for things I should be able to eat while "stuck" with gestational diabetes I knew it was for me. The link from the pin doesn't go directly where it should go but here is the page you should end up on.

 Looks completely mouthwatering doesn't it?

I had my head in the game just this side of early enough to make myself a late lunch out of this. You better bet I did all I could to motivate my pregnant booty to waddle into the kitchen and start prepping for it.

Involtini
1 eggplant
kosher salt
olive oil for frying
tomato sauce 
heavy cream
freshly grated Asiago cheese or Parmigiano Reggiano (I used the stuff in a shaker because it was all we had at the time)

Stuffing
bread crumbs, about 1/2 cup, made from about 3 slices day-old bread I used panko
1 cup whole milk ricotta
grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, minced
1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1. Trim the stem end of each eggplant. 

Put those end pieces in your composter, compost bag, or wherever it is you keep your food waste.

Using a mandoline, cut the eggplant lenthwise into 1/4-inch thick slices. You should have about 12 slices. I didn't use a mandoline, I used a large serrated knife.

Sprinkle the eggplant on both sides with kosher salt, layer them in a colander, and let stand for 1 hour. (I was impatient and only let them drain for about a half hour… worked out just fine.)

Press the moisture from the eggplant and blot them dry with paper towels. As you know, I try to avoid using virgin paper sources so I went ahead and used my UnPaper towels for this.

Pour olive (or canola) oil to a depth of 1 inch in a deep, heavy saucepan or large skillet and heat to 360ºF on a deep-frying thermometer. (I did not use a thermometer — just watched the oil and tested when I thought it was ready.) I didn't use a thermometer on the oil either.

Place 3 to 4 eggplant slices in the hot oil and cook until the slices take on some color, 3 to 4 minutes.

Using tongs, transfer the slices to a colander (or paper-towel lined plate) to drain. Repeat with remaining slices.

2. Meanwhile, make the stuffing. In a bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, ricotta, lemon zest, juice, thyme and salt.

3. Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Spoon tomato sauce into a medium-sized baking dish till bottom of dish is covered in a thin layer.

Place a spoonful of filling at one end of each of the eggplant slices.

Roll the slice around the filling and place it seam-side down in the dish on top of the tomato sauce.

Spoon a tablespoon of cream (or less) over each roll to moisten. I just poured a bit of cream over all of the ends and as you can see it made a little mess.

Bake until the edges of sauce around the sides of the dish are dark and the rolls are nicely caramelized, 20 to 25 minutes.

Garnish with the Asiago (or parm) before serving.

So how was it? I thought it could use a little less lemon juice. It wasn't bad though. TEENSY bit bland in the stuffing department.

Saturday Snack - Pin Fail - Cloud Bread

All I ever do is think about food, because it seriously seems there's nothing I'm ever allowed to eat. I spend my nights hunting for recipes I can eat the next day. I wake up starving and all day I have to plan how to make the next meal while I continue non-stop cleaning the house all day. What makes matters worse is having mealtimes where I have to make three meals. One for myself, one for my daughter, and one for my husband (who doesn't eat vegetables, cheese, or condiments.)

I am alone in my struggle in this household.

Once again I was truly starving and needed to find something I could eat. I was still having periodic energy crashes, plenty of fatigue, and regular migraines.

Cloud bread sounded heavenly, and not just because you can associate heaven with a land of clouds.

No money in the bank account and no gas in my car, I only had four eggs left in the refrigerator - this recipe really had to work or I'd now be out of a source of protein that I was in desperate need for.

3 eggs, separated 3 tablespoons cream cheese 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 packet of stevia - which by using this chart I tried to substitute with 2 tsps of sugar


Preheat oven to 300 degrees.


Separate the eggs.
 

In one bowl, mix together the egg yolks, the 3 Tablespoon Cream Cheese and the one packet of Sweetener until smooth. My Magic Bullet was still out from the morning so I chose to use that.
 

In the other bowl add 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar to the whites and beat the whites on high speed until they are fluffy and form nice peaks. I accidentally put 1/8 tsp into the wrong bowl but I sallied forth and put the other 1/8 into the correct one. Genuinely week with hunger I did my best to whip the egg whites.

 Very carefully fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites until mixed, but try and not break down the fluffiness of the egg whites too much.

Prepare two baking stones or sheets with parchment paper.
 
With a large spoon, "scoop" the mixture into 8 rounds on the sheets. And that's where it all went to crap. I tried putting it on a pizza stone.

Then I tried putting it on some aluminum foil on a baking sheet (I have no parchment).

Having the correct amount of cream of tartar was key as was properly whipping the eggs until they formed peaks. I'd meant to use the Magic Bullet to do this but in my desperation to get some food into my body I got it all mixed up.

I threw everything into the sink and came back into the bedroom to post about my epic fail. I have no idea what I'm going to eat tonight.