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 - 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.

Pintesting In The Kitchen - Cheesey Vegetable Chowder

Still trying to stay on top of any picky-eater problems I may at any moment encounter with my little lamb I keep trying to make sure I'm frequently offering veggie filled alternatives.

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

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

1 celery stick, finely chopped (feel free to add more celery if you like celery; I don't, so I don't add much)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth (I usually use a mixture of low-sodium chicken broth and broth made with chicken soup base because it gives it such nice flavor)

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a large soup pot.

Chop up your onions,

and your carrots,

and your celery.

Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute over medium heat until tender.

 Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes.
This is a good time to chop up your potatoes. I used one of my personal favorite kinds - Yukon Gold.

Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender.

Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened.

Now wash and separate your broccoli. I had broccoli crown so I just broke off pieces until I was breaking off what I considered "soup-sized" pieces.

 Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through.

You're supposed to stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve - but I managed to forget to do this. How I could ever forget cheese I really don't know. The soup was alright and my little lamb seemed to really love it. I'm going to call this a pin worth trying.

Kitchen Fail - Chicken With Noodles Revisited

There are pins on pintrest referring to "cream of chicken soup" as "cream of chemical soup."

Having already decided to add chicken with noodles to our regular rotation I found myself planning to make it for a second time. Only this time I wanted to do it without the added chemicals. This meant making my own cream of chicken soup.

I used this recipe to do so. The resulting soup definitely doesn't look like what I'm used to from the can but that should most likely be considered a good thing . . . right?

The recipe is a little vague about which herbs and spices to use in making your soup. I used parsley, garlic powder, kosher salt (bc at the moment I was cooking my sea salt had mysteriously disappeared), black pepper, and herbs de Provence.

For good measure I made sure to give the mixture of the called for chicken stock and my home-made cream of chicken soup to avoid any lumps and then threw my butter on top.

Here comes the fail - when I went to go check on our dish this is what I saw.

Somehow a bit of soap must have gotten into or was left on something I was using. The food had to be gotten rid of :(

Epic Pinfail In The Kitchen - Red Velvet Cheesecake

My parents were coming for Christmas, and despite a recent conversation with my mother about my fathers cholesterol I didn't deviate from my plan to make a dessert sure to delight both my husband and my father.

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

First you have to make the red velvet cake.

Your dry ingrediants will be mixed in one bowl.

You're going to need a sifter for your cake flour.

Your wet in a second.

And the butter and sugar will be creamed in either another bowl or your mixer.

It says that it doesn't really matter too much what kind of pan you bake your cake in. Because I was planning on probably making the cheesecake the same day I didn't want to have to wash spring form pans all night in addition to all of the other measuring cups and what have you.

Once the red velvet cake was finished I set it out to cool.

Why is there a huge dent in the cake? Because it bumped into another one of my oven racks. After I moved it the cake pretty much just deflated.

Then I put the cake into a bag for the evening because the cake will end up being broken up anyway.

Between making cakes I still had to do dishes and wipe down my mixer.

If you've never made a cheesecake before (and quite honestly I'd only made one once before, years ago, and it went terribly) it's a pretty quick thing to make. Once you have an ingredient list it's just about as simple as, "mix all of your ingredients and then put into the oven for x amount of time."

Making this cheesecake is ALMOST that simple.
1)  line your spring form pan with aluminum foil.
2) you're going to break apart half of your red velvet cake.
3) cover the red velvet cake bottom with your cheesecake mix.
4) place your cheesecake into a ban marie (hot water bath.)
5) put the entire thing into the oven and wait 45 minutes.

When your time is up turn off your oven and wait another hour - the original poster urges you NOT to open your oven and peek. This wasn't a problem because I had approximate 12,037,102,934,835,724,387,092,348,238,427,345 things to do in preparation for my parents arrival.

Around the time my cake had come to room temperature

it hit me - I had my hands so full that I forgot to mix red velvet cake chunks into my cheesecake! In my mind the cake was now 100% ruined and I'd just wasted two days. My husband told me all that had happened was that I made a delicious cheesecake with a yummy crust and yummy topping. I was miserable. Then my mother texted me to tell me they were probably not coming.

The time came to get the cake into my cake saver for the night. I released the tab on the spring form and everything looked okay. When I flipped the cake onto a plate I sensed that everything had gone badly. I had to unwrap layers of foil to see just how badly it was and each layer of foil just made me more certain that this was a disaster. Closer to the cake there were small layers of cheesecake inside the foil. When I got down to the plate the cake looked a bit like someone had dropped it from a standing position. Maybe I can still save it? The cake was now upside-down and would have to be flipped again. Cake pretty much went all over the kitchen from there. There was cake all over the floor, cake all over the plate, cake all over the cake taker . . . it was just really horrifying for me right then.

I was left with a huge mess and a bag full of half of a red velvet cake. FML and FTP (Eff This Pin).