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ldyjocelyn

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You can also thicken soup with rolled-oats, I think you call it oat-meal. If unsure, just heat a small amount of soup in a small saucepan, when hot, put in a dessert spoon (or less) of oat-meal and cover the saucepan, stove off or VERY low. Leave for 5 minutes to thicken

I used to add rice to my dog's food of meat and vegetables. Now I have replaced the rice with oatmeal. Much simpler and she likes it. She gets a bit of rice from what i cook for myself.

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Last year I started giving my grandson rolled oats for breakfast, and cut out the dry cereal.

I make it with 2% milk and zap it in the microwave, then add a bit of sugar and cinnamon.

And a teensy sliver of butter, because someone we loved always put butter on his oatmeal, and we still think of him every time we do that. I love the feeling of continuity - "Pop-pop's oatmeal"!

(My grandson is almost 14, I also love that he still cares about this).

I had noticed that even the big store brand bags of dry cereal - and I never bought the sugary stuff - were gone in a day or two. So now we just have the oatmeal, better for us and for my pocketbook.

Heeee....almost 14, six feet tall, 185 pounds. Luckily he loves Caeser salad and veggies almost as much as he loves pizza.

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I like butter, almonds and sometimes craisins in my oatmeal, but never sugar. I agree the boxed cereal goes fast. We buy the gigantic box of Cheerios at Costco for 4.99. It's usually gone in a few weeks. If wheat chex or miniwheats are buy one get one free I'll get that in the grocery store.

I dislike sugar in my cereal but have no idea why.

luckiest, I make broccoli soup with homemade chicken stock. But mine is not as low cal as yours. I like butter and some cheese in it.

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I think this soup would work just as well with chicken stock. I quite often use it, I just didn't have any yesterday. As it is, I put all the ingreds into thedailyplate.com and divided into 3 servings (generous) and it says 166 calories with 6 grams of fat and 4 grams of fibre. Not too bad! I could probably have done it without the oil, and just boiled the veggies in the stock instead.

I love oatmeal, I eat it almost every morning, but I wish I could find a taste for it without sugar! It reminds me of my grandmother, who used to heap the brown sugar on it for me when my mother wasn't looking, LOL. Nowadays I buy the variety packs of individual ones to take to work (apples & cinnamon, maple & brown sugar, etc, etc), but at home I just use the old fashioned rolled oats and brown sugar.

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You can also thicken soup with rolled-oats, I think you call it oat-meal. If unsure, just heat a small amount of soup in a small saucepan, when hot, put in a dessert spoon (or less) of oat-meal and cover the saucepan, stove off or VERY low. Leave for 5 minutes to thicken

I used to add rice to my dog's food of meat and vegetables. Now I have replaced the rice with oatmeal. Much simpler and she likes it. She gets a bit of rice from what i cook for myself.

Not sure if I have mentioned this before but I watched a current affairs type show and a man said that he lost a huge amount of weight without eating any less or exercising any more. The only thing he did differently was to remove sugar from his diet.

Sugar is hard to do without once you have acquired a taste for it BUT you can very, very slowly reduce it so that you become accustomed to eating only half as much as you do now. I think life is too short to deprive yourself of certain things you really enjoy but it is just a matter of balancing things, I mean, life IS too short but then do you want to shorten it even more by eating too much of the stuff that has been proven to create serious health problems when you reach your middle years?

I recently went on a chocolate binge when my favorite Tim Tams were hugely discounted at the supermarket because they were introducing brand new varieties of it and so I had to buy one of everything to try them out and I loved ALL the new stuff, dammit :cryingwlaughter: But now that I have gotten that out of the way, I probably won't be eating it again for at least couple of months.

It's hard, luckiest but it's very doable, i.e. reducing the sugar intake slowly... and add fruit instead. Unless, of course, oatmeal is the one thing you really REALLY enjoy with sugar, so just remove sugar from OTHER things you usually eat, just reserve it for your oatmeal. SEE how I do deals with myself.... but it works for me.

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About 2 years ago I radically changed my diet and lost 40 pounds (which I've kept off). I cut sugar from my diet (except on special occasions), I reduced my fat intake, and I increased my fibre. I also started walking daily. Right now I'm just trying to maintain....maybe once the warm weather comes and I can start walking more I will aim to lose more. Which will mean back to plain oatmeal, or maybe a pack of Splenda. ;)

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I don't like sugar AT ALL, I give my grandson the minimum, and I sweeten his tea with honey. I never put sugar on my son's cereal either, I just don't like the taste. And he did not get to choose!

I like my oatmeal and my grits with butter and pepper.

Part of my childhood was spent with my Welsh family who put three spoons of sugar in a cup of tea, I think I just got sick of sugar, I don't avoid it because it is not good for me. :-O

So I don't have any sugar in my diet to get rid of, it is the fats and carbs. If I stick to a no-carb diet for any length of time I can drop the weight.

I recently read that Atkins dieters were amazingly and surprisingly low on the cholesterol scale, too. Last time I had mine checked I was pretty low on the scale.

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Okay, if you are deeply into eating healthy, step away from this post.......

I just roasted baby asparagus (anointed with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic).

And made my own Hollandaise sauce to dip it in.

Nothing unhealthy about asparagus and olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.

It's the Hollandaise sauce that's a bit of a worry!!!!

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It's the Hollandaise sauce that's a bit of a worry!!!!

I cheerfully confess that if someone made Hollandaise Sauce ice cream I would buy it and put hot Hollandaise sauce on it.

And sprinkle it liberally with cayenne pepper.

I have never craved or gone out of my way to buy any sort of sweet whatsoever, never bought into that dessert-always-follows-dinner thing.

And I dislike breaded and fried stuff.

When I am living by myself the only carb I buy is fresh French bread, and I put olive oil and herbs on that and make lovely tomato sandwiches, every once in a while.

BUT I have always felt that there are very few foods that are not greatly enhanced by the sauce, and I sometimes have looked at certain foods as Hollandaise Sauce Delivery Systems :-O

Hollandaise - homemade with only butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper, really really easy! - is great for Atkins, no carbs.

Last time I had my cholesterol checked, it was actually low, too! I think genetics does play a role in cholesterol problems.

I love that engineering recipe site. All the pros and cons about whether to use hands or a plastic bag to coat the asparagus with olive oil (less mess, more waste, good for skin, there is a spray, etc.) - sort of like sitting in a meeting with other engineers and deciding how to program something.

I may buy one of their RTFM tank tops.

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When annabear (or was it luckiest1) enlightened me to the fact that avocados can be frozen, the first thing I thought of was this:

I have been using these Toastabags for a couple of years and I just love them. They are especially useful if you have kids and want to freeze sandwiches for them for a quick snack rather than eating convenience foods.

As shown in the video, you simply make a sandwich, pop in in the Toastabags and then into your regular toaster. I went one step further by making sandwiches (Vegemite, peanut butter and honey, marmalade, cheese, etc) and freezing them in a snap lock bag and writing the description on the freezer bag. When I get a snack attack or too lazy to create something to eat with my morning coffee, I simply grab one of those ready made sandwiches and pop them into the Toastabags. It works really well in most toasters already in your kitchen.

No I don't have shares in the company, just wanting to share this as it really is a huge convenience. I buy good quality bread so it's a healthy snack. I don't buy ham but if you do, that works as well in a frozen sandwich. I will be freezing chicken and avocado sandwiches this week. They cost about A$15.00 for a pack of 2. The Toasta bag shown in the video is the cheaper one, about A$10 for a pair. I bought the heavy duty one for $15 (for 2) because they last for a couple of hundred more uses. It is also great for work, more hygienic as your sandwich is in the Toastabag and does not come in contact with a toaster. I bought a new toaster and have used it for quite a while and it is totally clean, no crumbs in the toaster itself. I freak out using a toaster the regular way because a friend told me that at her mother's house, a mouse was stuck in the toaster and they didn't know until they tried to make toast..... :o .

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I was watching The F Word yesterday, and one of Gordon's guests cooked up okonomiyaki - savory Japanese pancakes - right at the table. Gordon was appalled. Heeeee.

Yum. I had them over there a couple of times, once at a restaurant where they give you bowls of all the ingredients and you sit at a table with a griddle in the middle, you cook your own. And once at someone's house.

There is no entirely healthy way to make a traditional one - pancake batter, shredded cabbage and/or other veggies, an egg.

Plonk a big spoonful on the griddle, on top of a couple of strips of bacon sometimes, letting the bacon cook into the pancake.

Brown both sides, plate it, and........drizzle with what tastes like thick sweet worcestershire sauce and then drizzle with mayonnaise.

Mayonnaise is served like ketchup in a squeezey bottle, it is also put on pizza.

Great comfort food.

Sort of kitchen-y tip, dunno if I have mentioned this over here - I have those wire shelves in my pantry, and I always sorta hated them. A couple of years ago I went to Lowe's and had a guy cut plexiglass to my shelf measurements. They do the cutting for free, just like they cut glass and wood for free.

Awesome!!!!! And I can properly Windex them!

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I was watching The F Word yesterday, and one of Gordon's guests cooked up okonomiyaki - savory Japanese pancakes - right at the table. Gordon was appalled. Heeeee.

Yum. I had them over there a couple of times, once at a restaurant where they give you bowls of all the ingredients and you sit at a table with a griddle in the middle, you cook your own. And once at someone's house.

There is no entirely healthy way to make a traditional one - pancake batter, shredded cabbage and/or other veggies, an egg.

Plonk a big spoonful on the griddle, on top of a couple of strips of bacon sometimes, letting the bacon cook into the pancake.

Brown both sides, plate it, and........drizzle with what tastes like thick sweet worcestershire sauce and then drizzle with mayonnaise.

Mayonnaise is served like ketchup in a squeezey bottle, it is also put on pizza.

Great comfort food.

Aren't there noodles in there somewhere? I'm sure there were noodles in mine!

I really liked okonomiyaki when I had it as well, but I was picky, of course---didn't care for "the brown stuff". Also it was usually made in my area with shrimp, and I was allergic. It would be cool to be able to make them.

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I have become slightly obsessed with Jamie Oliver......no not the man :lol: but his cooking. I love his attitude and outlook on food. Well, except for his excessive use of olive oil and butter, but that is easily remedied. So I've been cooking a few of his recipes, some from his Jamie's Ministry of Food show (quite simple recipes that teach people how to cook from scratch), and some from Jamie At Home (which centres on using all the produce from his home garden). I've even splurged and bought the cookbook that goes along with each show, so now I don't have to hit pause with my sticky fingers as I cook. :P

Anyways, some really great recipes I've tried out lately, and I would recommend to anyone, are:

Cheat's Papparadelle (I skipped the "parma" ham and covered with some parchment paper instead, even my picky boys at this!)

Chicken Chow Mein (I use the 3 minute chow mein noodles and whatever veggies I have on hand, sometimes I substitute shrimp or beef)

Courgette Carbonara ("courgette' = "zucchini", but I substituted green and yellow beans, again this one was boy friendly)

Baked Beans (I used fresh "cranberry" beans that I got at the farmer's market, in fact I had these for lunch today with some toast :) )

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Putting this recipe here as well as in the diet thread - really great easy quick bread, only one net carb per slice!

Made with flaxseed meal. The carbs in ground flaxseed are almost all in the fiber. So a good-sized piece of this bread has less than one gram of carb, since the rest of the carbs leave you with the fiber. And lots of fiber is good even if not on a diet, so just good stuff all around.

I found one pound bags of ground flaxseed at Winn-Dixie, I assume I can get it cheaper on the web, also this does take 5 eggs, but makes quite a big slab of bread.

Also, I cut down on salt, can't leave it out entirely as it is needed for rising. Plus I used olive oil and some garlic and Italian herbs. Very easy and quick to make, there is also a video!

I used Stevia for the sweetener, just a tiny bit, though.

very low carb focaccia

I may try putting in some shredded cheese next time, and this is a soft bread, need to figure out how to make firmer slices somehow. And I used plain aluminum foil to line baking sheet - the oil in the batter was sufficient.

Oh - read all the comments - there are lots of really good variations and suggestions.

And now I can haz cheezburgers.

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I take it you mean the ready made frozen version? - Best invention and use of freezer ever!

Just remembering the dismal failure of my pastry making (all Types) in Home Ec.- Apparently I have Hot Hands. Its a not uncommon affliction apparently...but it is my burden to bear...... :clay:

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LOL what did you make? The first time I used it I made a ground beef wellington recipe and it turned out great. Then I made a tarte tatin with apples and it puffed up like crazy! But it's great stuff, isn't it?

Ausdon definitely the frozen puff pastry.

So Lucky I was ambitious and was going to make 3 different things but was so worn out by the first two that I never got to the dessert, which was going to be some sort of apple cinnamon thing.

http://www.dianaskitchen.com/page/ground/bbstrudl.htm

This was what I was trying to make ... but I got so crazy about how thin that pastry was...and I was so worried about it drying out although I was trying to follow that direction...and my alex was my butter girl... so after I got it all together and in the over Alex goes...Auntie what's the broccoli for. I had totally left it out of the recipe. It was good anyway.

The second thing I made was sauteed portabello mushrooms, green onions with some hot chili paste. By that point I just laid out the layers of puff pastry flat...added that concoction and added more puff pastry. two layers..forget trying to wrap it up..the pastry was getting hard to work with and breaking up so easily. But it tasted good.

But I was beat and no apple dessert. Everybody liked it though so I will try again and be more prepared since I know how it works.

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I love working with phyllo dough - just keep a barely damp dishtowel over it -

Back when I had more energy, I would make 4 or 5 different kinds of savory fillings - chili, mushroom, chicken and green onions, stuff like that - and then spend a while making appetizers.

I love the idea of Thai chili paste, will have to try using that!

Just cut the phyllo into two-layered strips, brush with melted butter, put a bit of filling on the end, fold up in a triangle like a flag, a bit more butter.

Then freeze on wax-papered cookie sheets. When frozen solid, put into freezer bags.

Then just bake at 350 or 375, until a bit brown around the edges, as needed.

Sadly, there is no low-carb equivalent for phyllo dough.

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BBQ SHRIMP

I went in search of the correct recipe..I knew I remembered chicken broth which the original one I posted didn't have. I see all sorts of substitutes for that butter out there but hey it's new years LOL.

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup chicken broth (canned is fine)

4 teaspoons finely minced garlic

5 whole bay leaves, torn into pieces

4 teaspoons dried rosemary, crushed

1 teaspoons dried sweet basil

1 teaspoon Greek oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon (or more) cayenne pepper

4 teaspoons paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 pounds whole fresh shrimp in the shell (with heads if possible)

In a heavy saute pan or saucepan melt the margarine, then add the oil and mix well.

Add all the other ingredients except the shrimp and broth, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce begins to boil.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently, then remove the pan from the heat and let it stand, uncovered, at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.

Add the shrimp to the sauce, mix thoroughly, and put the pan back on the burner. Cook over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, or just until the shrimp turn pink.

Add the broth, shaking the pan back and forth to mix. Preferably, place the pan into a preheated 450 degree F oven and bake for 10 minutes. Or simmer loosely covered on the stovetop for about 5 or 10 minutes.

Serve equal portions of shrimp with about 1/2 cup of the sauce ladled over each one.

You will need bibs and lots of bread to sop up the sauce. Also, fingers are a necessary eating utensil.

Makes 5 generous (nearly 1/2 pound) servings.

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Here is the low fat non dairy cheesecake recipe that I referenced on the main thread. Hey, if my kids will eat it, you have to know it's good! :cryingwlaughter:

Better Than Cheesecake (from the book Eating For IBS by Heather Van Vorous)

Crust:

8 graham crackers, finely crushed

1 tablespoon canola oil

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly spray 10 inch non-stick heavy gauge springform pan with cooking oil. Mix all crust ingredients together and press firmly into pan. Bake 4-5 minutes. Cool on rack

Filling:

Two 12.3 oz packages Silken tofu (mine was 20 oz so I just decreased the rest of the ingreds a little)

1/3 cup fresh lemon (or lime or orange) juice

Grated rind from 2 lemons (or 4 limes or 1 orange)

4 organic egg whites

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2/3-3/4 cup granulated sugar, to taste

Raise oven temp to 350. Mix all ingredients together in blender at high speed until throughly combined. Do not use mixer, as recipe will not work using it. Slowly pour filling into cooled crust. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Pie will not set completely in the middle. Cool on rack and chill several hours or overnight. Carefully spread with fruit topping (optional) Chill until topping is set. Run a long thin knife around edge of pan and carefully remove sides. Serve chilled.

Summer fruit topping:

2 cups fresh blueberries, pitted cherries, skinned/chopped apricots or peaches or raspberries (I used raspberries)

1/2 cup fresh lemon or orange juice

1/4 cup granulated sugar plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch stirred together

Bring fruit and juice to a boil in saucepan or microwave. Simmer 2-3 minutes. Berries should pop, other fruit should start to disintegrate. Remove from heat and stir in sugar/cornstarch mixture. Fruit should thicken as you stir without further cooking. Spread over cooled cheesecake and chill until cold.

By my calculations, for 1/12 of the cake it was 163 calories and 3.5 g of fat. So is it wrong that I've had 3 pieces today, one with every meal? :cryingwlaughter:

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I don't think I've ever had anything with tofu. Does the fake cheesecake actually taste like cheesecake, and how is the consistency compared to real cheesecake?

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