You've Got Peanut Butter in My Chocolate: Low Carb, Gluten Free Reese's Brownies

Peanut butter and chocolate? Yes!

I used to love marble peanut butter brownies when I was a kid.  Peanut butter and chocolate just go together.  When I started thinking about what kind of healthy holiday treat I wanted to make for Simply Sugar and Gluten Free's holiday recipe sharing session, I thought about brownies.

I attempted this recipe with a cool product that was recommended by a friend who is on Weight Watchers, Bell Plantation's PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter.  It's a pretty good find, but it didn't work well with this recipe.  I've been using it in smoothies and it's awesome for that.  The brownies in the photos were made using the PB2.  The recipe uses normal peanut butter, since I normally use regular peanut butter for these brownies. The PB2 didn't bake quite as well as regular peanut butter, so it's not as pretty.  Still tasty!

It comes in chocolate peanut butter too.  That's my fave.

The reason PB2 is so cool is that it's only 45 calories a serving with just 5 grams carbs.  Regular peanut butter is 188 calories and 6 grams of carbs.  That's a big difference in calories.  That being said, sandwiches with it are not quite the same.  I have a problem with weird textures, and this is weird.  You're supposed to mix it with water and turn it into "peanut butter," but I can't stand it.  For the same reason,  it's not good on celery.  It was ok in some cupcakes I tried it in, but not stellar.  I thought it would work well in this prep, but it was just so-so.  If you're really looking to shave calories, it might be worth trying.  For me, I think I'll reserve it for smoothies.  It tastes great in those, especially the chocolate and peanut butter variety.

Everyone has a low carb brownie recipe, but to keep this within the theme of the gluten free holiday, I made them low carb and gluten free using almond flour. It gives the brownies a nutty flavor.

Freshly ground almond flour.

Let's talk about making almond flour.  It's one of my favorite flours, because it's so easy and I always have almonds in the freezer.  If you have a fancy blender, it only takes a few seconds to make a batch of it.  If you have a food processor or coffee grinder, it might take a little longer, but you'll get something useable.

Making almond flour really is as easy as putting some almonds in the blender and blending until they become flour.  You have to keep an eye on it.  If you blend too long, they'll become almond butter (also delicious).  I use a Vitamix.  Since it gets hot, I use frozen almonds to make my flour.  I find the results are better, and they don't go as easily to almond butter.  After grinding the flour, I always push it through a strainer to be sure I have any big pieces or butter out.  After straining, it comes out almost as fine as processed almond flour.  You'll notice you still get some nut pieces (you can see them in the brownie photos).  You wouldn't get those with commercial flours.  You could process your flour twice, or in smaller batches, and eliminate those, or just enjoy the nut pieces.  I'm lazy.  I enjoy them.

Because of the almond flour, peanut butter and eggs, these things are protein packed!  It's like eating a delicious protein shake.  Each 2 by 1.5 brownie is about 5 grams of protein (a normal 2 by 1.5 brownie has 2.7 grams).  A person of my size requires 44 grams of protein a day, and I don't get even half that on most days.. That means I should an entire pan of these, right? No?  Oh well, worth a shot.

Low Carb, Gluten Free, Reeses Brownies
1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup of stevia mix for baking (Fructevia)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1/2 cup dutch cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder (optional)


Peanut Butter Topping*:
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoons stevia mix for baking (Fructevia)
1 tablespoon almond flour
1 egg

The consistency of the batter.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 8 by 8 pan with parchment.
2. Mix butter with cocoa powder, vanilla, almond flour and salt.  If you're using baking powder, add it now.  If you add baking powder, your brownies will be more cake-like.  They'll be denser and moister if you don't. Please note that baking powder is not always gluten free.
3. Beat eggs with stevia until doubled.
4. Mix chocolate mixture with eggs until just combined.
5. Pour into prepared pan.  Spread out evenly.
6. To make peanut butter mixture, combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth.  *Please note, when I used powdered peanut butter, I used 4 tablespoons.  You also need to add water to get the right consistency (it should be the consistency of brownie batter).   
7. You have two options.  You can spread the peanut butter mixture evenly on top of the brownie mixture (pictured). If you want them to look marbled, drop the peanut butter mixture by spoonful about 2-3 inches apart.  Use the back of a spoon or knife to "swirl" the peanut butter mixture into the chocolate.  *I couldn't get the powdered peanut butter to marble like regular peanut butter (it doesn't get as creamy) so you may be stuck with layering if you use it.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  
9. Cut into pieces.  I cut mine into 20 small pieces, but I like a bite sized brownie.
   

These use powdered peanut butter.  Low calorie, but not quite like real peanut butter.

Nutrition Facts for Peanut Butter Brownies

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Amount Per Serving (makes 20)

Calories:  140

Total fat: 12 g

Protein: 4.5 g

Total carbohydrate:  2.5 g

• Dietary Fiber: 1.7 g
• Sugar: 0 g

If you use the powdered peanut butter, one serving is 119 calories, with only 2.2 grams of carbs.  If you're eating a small serving, it doesn't really cut that much out, so I saw go for the gusto and use the real stuff.  If you're eating Panera Bread sized brownies, it might make a difference.

It's probably worth pointing out that a regular brownie of similar size (a small one, not Panera Bread size) is 243 calories, 39 carbs and 10 grams of fat.  That's not even for a peanut butter covered brownie.  We have more fat here, but I bet it's mostly because of the peanut butter (2 tablespoons of peanut butter has 15 grams of fat).

Oopsie Veggie Burgers: Low Carbing on Work Days

Low Carb Veggie Cheeseburger

It's hard to pack a healthy, robust vegetarian lunch. It needs to hold up to packing, fill you up and be low carb. I work long hours (12-13 hour shifts). It's too easy to run by the vending machine for a bag of chips halfway through my shirt, and sometimes even grab some trail mix or crackers later. I work at a hospital, so there's always free bagels, nutri-grain bars, candy, trail mix, crackers and everything else. If I'm hungry, I go for those quick snacks, so I try to pack a filling lunch.

One of my go to meals has always been either a cheese sandwich or a veggie burger. Now that I'm cutting back on carbs and eliminating grains, those are not an option. Or are they?

I tried Oopsie rolls for the second time and they turned out great. The first time I followed Cleochatra's recipe exactly and I thought they were a bit too creamy and soft for me. This time, I doubled the eggs and used less cream cheese.

My recipe:

6 large eggs
dash of apple cider vinegar (or cream of tartar. I don't keep that on hand)
4 ounces of cream cheese (the original recipe would use 6 ounces).

This makes about 12 "rolls" of induction friendly, gluten free, carb friendly "bread." These things are 74 calories, 4.3 grams of protein. 6.2 grams of fat and only 0.3 grams of carb each. It does take two to build a sandwich, but even then it's an amazingly healthy snack.

Oopsie rolls don't taste exactly like bread, but they are durable enough to make a sandwich, and the cream cheese makes it moist and delicious. Check Cleochatra's site to find the exact proccess. They are super easy. The hardest part is beating your eggs until they are stiff. They have to be super stiff, like you're making meringue. It took me less than 10 minutes to make them.

Oopsie rolls are perfect for lunch

I've found these hold up pretty well to packing. I store these on the counter. I tried the first batch in the fridge and they got a little moist (setting them in a warm oven for a bit helped).   You can freeze them and then heat them up in a warm oven once they're thawed.  If you're not going to eat a whole batch within a day or two, freeze them or refrigerate them.  You risk making yourself really sick otherwise.

The first day I made them, I used them as a meal side dish. When I had to work the next day, I tossed 2 into a plastic bag for lunch, and packed a cooked veggie patty and some cheese. I didn't refrigerate or microwave the oopsie buns, but I did stick the patty and cheese in the fridge. When lunch time rolled around, I heated the patty and assembled my burger.

These things are delicious with veggie burger and it held up well. I could have probably eaten two or three.  They do get a little smushy as you eat them, but so does bread.  In some ways, the little pockets of cream cheese really compliment the burger and make it even better than dry bread. Veggie burgers tend to be dry anyway.  

They hold up surprisingly well

These rolls are very versatile.  You can slather these with some garlic butter and cheese and pop them under the broiler for garlic bread.  You can flatten them out and make pizza.  They take well to molding. If you wanted them to look more bun like, you could use a small cake pan.  You could probably even fashion some sort of hoagie roll out of them.

Here's the breakdown for the whole veggie burger. Cutting out the cheese or using a lower carb cheese (I used American) would really cut the carbs.

Burger:
6.0 grams of fat
15 grams of protein
5.0 grams of carbohydrates

Cheese:
8.8 fat
0.5 grams of protein
6.3 grams of carbohydrates

Oopsie Rolls (2):
12.4 grams of fat
8.6 grams of protein
0.6 grams of carbohydrates

Total:
27.2 grams of fat
24.1 grams of protein
6.1 grams of carbohydrates

Mocking Macaroni: It's not a Laughing Matter

The real thing, it's not healthy.

My favorite meal of all time is probably macaroni and cheese.  I like mine best crispy on top, creamy in the middle and made from scratch.  I love it so much that even the Kraft blue box will do. I've been known to consume an entire box in one sitting.  I used to get those Easy Mac bowls and I would eat 2-3 of them before I felt like it was enough macaroni and cheese.

The USDA would probably consider macaroni and cheese a healthy food.  The box proclaims it to be a good source of calcium.  They even make whole grain mac and cheese.  If it's whole grain, it must be healthy, right?

Let's look at the facts:


Nutrition Facts for Kraft

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Amount Per Serving (makes 4) of Kraft Whole Grain Mac and Cheese (prepared as directed)

Calories:  390

Total fat: 17 g

Protein: 8 g

Total carbohydrate:  49 g

• Dietary Fiber: 5 g
• Sugar: 6 g

Amount Per Serving (makes 4) of Kraft Deluxe Blue Box Mac and Cheese (prepared as directed)

Calories:  320

Total fat: 10 g

Protein: 12 g

Total carbohydrate:  45 g

• Dietary Fiber: 1 g
• Sugar: 3 g

Both of these "healthy" meals are almost your entire carbohydrate intake for the day (or over it if you're doing Atkins style induction).  One cup of macaroni as my entire daily ration doesn't sound great.  When I eat a whole box, I'm getting 180 grams of carbohydrate.  I can hear my pancreas cursing me for torturing it.

To give my poor pancreas a break, I decided to try mockaroni and cheese.  I admit, it doesn't look as tasty as the real stuff, but it's partially because I was too hungry to photograph it well.  It is a good way to cut those carbs down and still get a similar flavor and mouth feel as real macaroni and cheese.

It doesn't look like macaroni and cheese, but it tastes reminiscent of it.

Mockaroni and Cheese
(Serves Four)

• 1 head of cauliflower, steamed and chopped
• 4 ounces cottage cheese
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 ounce of mozzarella cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste

Optional:

• Some people like to add things like onion, cayenne, oregano, tomatoes and whatever else to their mac and cheese.  You can add those, but I prefer mine plain.
• You can really use whatever cheeses you want
• You can use frozen, chopped cauliflower instead of fresh if you want to
• I've seen some recipes that use cream cheese instead of cottage cheese.

1. Combine all of these ingredients, except a handful of cheddar, into an oven safe bowl. Make sure they are mixed well.  
2. Sprinkle the handful of cheddar on top.  
3. Place the bowl into an oven that's been preheated to 350 degrees and cook it for about 30 minutes, until it's your level of brown.  The top will get crispy just like traditional mac and cheese.

This is what it looks like before baking.  It tastes better than it looks.

It really makes a convincing substitute.  None of these substitutes have the gluteny goodness of real pasta, but I don't really miss it in this dish.  The mouth feel of the cauliflower is very similar to the mouth feel of pasta.  With mac and cheese, the pasta is just a sauce delivery system anyway.

I served mine here with a feta and tomato salad and some roasted kale.

Nutrition Facts for Mockaroni

---

Amount Per Serving (makes 4)

Calories:  166

Total fat: 10 g

Protein: 12 g

Total carbohydrate:  9 g

• Dietary Fiber: 3.6 g
• Sugar: 0.2 g

You see a lot of the values we like (fat and protein) stayed the same.  That's because they came  from the cheese.  We didn't cut that.  However, the values we hate (carbs and calories) came way down.  Calories are more than halved and carbohydrates decreased by 80%.  Eight-percent makes a big difference to your pancreas. It's still yummy too.

Transformers, Pasta in Disguise: Spaghetti Squash

Low Carb Spaghetti? For real? Heck, yeah!

I don't like most fake pastas.  I've tried those shirataki noodles that Hungry Girl raves about and they made me sick.  I just can't take the weird mouth feel of them.  I'm not even a big fan of wheat pasta.  I like Dreamfields, but my blood sugar reacts to that almost like it does normal pasta so why pay the extra for it?  I often make my own pasta, but it's really not much healthier than the store bought stuff.  It just tastes better.

I hadn't tried spaghetti squash until my mom decided to go low carb.  I've always seen them in the grocery store and thought, "What kind of demon vegetable claims to transform into spaghetti?  That thing has to be the results of some kind of dark magic."  That and I thought it would taste like eating pasta sauce over yellow squash.  Yuck.

Since I'm challenging my perceptions of vegetables, I bought one and I can't believe I've lived all these years without them.  I've eaten it every week since then, because pasta is my weakness.  To me, spaghetti squash are just as easy to prepare as regular spaghetti, and almost as tasty.  The squash has a little bit of a crunch that pasta doesn't, but other than that, I find it quite nice.

I'm not going to give you a recipe for sauce in this post.  I've found this squash takes just about any type of sauce you can throw at it.  I've made it with regular marinara, chunky marinara, pesto, tossed it with vegetables and olive oil, tossed it with olive oil and herbs ... the only thing I've found it didn't taste great with is Alfredo sauce and other cream sauces (some people like it with Alfredo too).  That is awesome for low carb dieters, because you have almost all the variety of meals that pasta can give you, but it's low carb and low calorie.  Woo!

Squastimus Prime: Ready to transform.

When buying a spaghetti squash, choose one that is heavy for its size.  The smaller ones generally taste better, but even a small spaghetti squash should be large, compared to most squashes (except pumpkin).  They are generally about 8 inches by 5 inches.  They should be uniform in color without too many blemishes and no soft spots.  You want to feel it to make sure the flesh is firm all around.  The one picture is a little ugly, but it's still a good squash.  The flesh is firm, and a few blemishes are ok.

This thing is so amazing.  It lasts forever.  If you store it in a root cellar, it can last up to 6 months before it goes bad.  Even at room temperature, you have a few weeks before it starts going bad.  It also freezes well.  I can't eat a whole spaghetti squash.  It makes about 4-5 servings.  It tastes fine reheated too, but I don't like to eat the same thing every day.  I cook it and shred it (see below) and then put the spaghetti in a freezer bag.  It reheats and tastes about the same.  I've never frozen it with sauce, but I guess that would be ok too.  I use the sauce to heat the frozen squash up for 4-5 minutes.

I always give you the nutritional information, but the fact is that the spaghetti squash isn't really that nutritious.  It's mostly water.  Other winter squashes are better for you.  It's what it's lacking that makes it a great substitute for regular spaghetti.    According to the USDA, 1 cup of spaghetti squash has 42 calories, 0.4 gram of fat, 10 g of carbs (4 grams of sugar) and 2.2 g of fiber.  Compare that to regular spaghetti.  One cup of spaghetti gives you 220 calories, 1.3 grams of fat, 43 grams of carbs (0.8 grams of sugar) and 2.5 grams of fiber.   I can have a whole spaghetti squash for one serving of spaghetti.


You also have to factor in your sauce.  It can be low carb, high carb, low calorie, high calorie, nutritious or not.  The choice is between you and your pancreas.

You can cook spaghetti squash in a variety of ways from crock pots to pressure cookers, but the easiest and quickest way is to stick the whole thing in the microwave.  I was once told by a professional chef that a true food lover would never have a microwave in their house.  How pretentious. Microwaves are perfect for certain tasks, and cooking spaghetti squash is one.

To microwave the squash, you just poke a few holes in it with a knife (so it won't explode) and pop it in a microwave whole for about 12 minutes.  Let it cool for another 5-10 minutes before you split it open.  Baking and boiling a whole squash takes about an hour.  Sticking one in the crock pot takes all day.  A pressure cooker takes about 12 minutes too.  Alternatively, you can speed up the cooking by cutting the squash into cubes before you cook it, but these guys are hard to cut when raw.  The cubes makes shredding it a lot less fun.

After it's cooked and cooled, the next step is to cut it in a half and remove the seeds and the pulp, the slimy stuff that holds the seeds in.  You're going to think you've been gypped.  It doesn't look much like spaghetti at all.   It looks like a pumpkin.  Like pumpkin, that slimy stuff is not tasty, so even if you have to remove a bit of the flesh, get it all.  The seeds can be saved and roasted.  They taste a little like pumpkin seeds. 

What the...That doesn't look like spaghetti.

The next step is the most fun part.  You get to make spaghetti.  Invite your friends over and show them how awesome you are.  Just take a fork and rake up and down the cleaned flesh and you'll get "noodles."  I generally prop mine up in a bowl and shred the spaghetti squash over it.

That's more like it.

 I find that spaghetti squash taste best cooked with the sauce.  It's ok if you just pour the sauce over it, but cooking them together makes it really shine.  Most recipes serve the sauce over the squash, so I may be in the minority. You should try it with a variety of sauces and techniques and see what you like best.  You can pretty much do anything with it you can do with normal spaghetti, including baking it in a casserole. I've even seen a recipe for a mock lasagna with it.  The spaghetti squash was layered with lasagna ingredients.  My favorite way to eat it is sauteed with some fresh vegetables, olive oil, garlic and herbs.  I get the vegetables going first and add the squash in the last few minutes.  Yum!

"Noodles" close up.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (1 cup of spaghetti squash, cooked with no sauce)

Calories: 42
Total fat: 0.4 g
Protein: 1 g
Total carbohydrate: 10 g

• Dietary Fiber: 2.2 g
• Sugar: 4 g

If You Can't Beet Them, Enjoy Them

Beets are another one of those foods that I think people only hate because they haven't really had them prepared properly.  I remember those pickled, salad bar type beets of my youth.  They tasted like dirt to me and made a big mess.  We ate them a lot in my house, and I'm not sure why.  I remember scarfing them down first, so I could get it over with.  Whenever I saw beets in the store or on a menu, all I could think of is that super earthy, nasty flavor.

They actually shouldn't taste like dirt at all.  They have a mild, sweet flavor, and the consistency of a cooked carrot.  However, cooking them is very messy and beets will stain everything they come in contact with.  I generally operate on beets on only glass cutting boards and right over the sink.

Beet greens are delicious, and I hate most greens.  They're something that I was never served as a kid, but I think I saw Paula Deen make a batch on television once.  I thought to myself, you can eat beet greens?  I didn't think I'd like them, but I tried them anyway.  They have a milder flavor than most greens and a little bit of sweetness.  They are the only greens that I actually like quite a bit.  Now, when I look for beets I try to find ones that have lots of leafy greens.

Besides healthy greens, beet should be firm, colorful and free of blemishes.  I prefer smaller beets.  I think they have a sweeter, more punchy flavor.  The larger ones, like many vegetables, don't have as strong a flavor.

Beets are actually pretty good for you.  We could all stand to eat more of them.  Ancient Romans used them as medicine, mostly for digestive problems and as an aphrodisiac.  Today, we know they're packed with antioxidants, particularly betanin, which gives them their red color.  Interestingly, it's a different red pigment than you find in most red fruits and vegetables.  Most have anthocyanins.  Overcooking can destroy the betanin.  I'm pretty sure it was destroyed in those sludgy beets from my youth.  A correctly cooked beet still has some texture to it. Beets are also high in folates, vitamin C and potassium.

Beet greens are high in oxalate, which can lead to kidney stones.  If you're prone to kidney stones, the health benefits of beets might not be as seductive.

Beets are relatively low in calories with just 27 calories per half cup.  They are also relatively low in carbs and high in fiber, with about 7 carbs per 1/2 cup and 2 grams of fiber.

Beet greens are delicious, and they add a great punch of color to a plate.

Roasted Beets

Beets

Olive oil

Salt

1. Wash beets well and trim the tops, leaving about 3 inches of stalk.
2. Drizzle the beets with olive oil and a few pinches of salt
3. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes to an hour, or until tender.  Time depends on the size of the beets.  Start checking them around 30 minutes in.
4. Let the beets cool.  When cool enough to handle, slip the peels off.  I normally use a paper towel or vegetable scrubber, but the peelings easily come off if you just rub them with your fingers or you can use a peeler or paring knife.
5. You can serve the beets whole or you can slice and serve in a salad.

Beets are delicious by themselves or in a salad

Beet Greens and Onions 

Modified from simple recipes

1 pound beet greens
1 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 cup chopped onion or to taste
1 large garlic clove, minced

3/4 cup of water

1 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/6 cup of cider vinegar

1. Chop the greens into the bite size pieces.
2. Saute the onions in olive oil for about five minutes.  Add the garlic and saute for another minute.  Add water, sugar and red pepper.
3. Toss in beet greens.  Mix well.  Cook, covered, for 15 minutes or until tender. Stir in vinegar.

The vinegar is just a splash, really.  Don't make the mistake of adding too much.  I normally just add a few slices of onion.

Beet greens.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (0.5 cup each of beets and greens)

Calories: 74
Total fat: 3.6 g
Protein: 2.6 g
Total carbohydrate: 9.6 g

• Dietary Fiber: 3.2 g
• Sugar: 4.3 g

Parsnips Attacked: The Scared Carrot

Looks like a carrot with its blood removed.

Before my mom started her low carb diet, I had no idea how many potato substitutes there were.  It seems like everything in the grocery store wants to masquerade as a potato for a day.  There's celery root, cauliflower and jicama to name a few.  Low carb dieters must crave french fries and bacon more than anything.

Today's masquerader is parsnip.  Someone told me that parsnip was the best potato substitute.  I consider myself pretty educated in food, but I thought parsnip was something green.  I had no idea it was a root vegetable related to the carrot. When I went to find one for myself, I was reminded of a book I read when I was a kid: Bunnicula.  It's about a vampire rabbit that, instead of blood, sucks the juice of vegetables leaving a path of white carrots in his wake. This guy looks like he's seen a vampire bunny.

Parnsips are slightly sweeter than carrots, and also slightly more nutritious.   A half cup of parsnip has 50 calories, 11 grams of carbs and 3.2 grams of fiber.  It's a good source of fiber and potassium.

Choosing a parsnip is very similar to choosing a carrot.  The one difference is that you want a parsnips to be free from color.  The whiter the flesh, the sweeter the parsnip.  Much like carrots, you want parsnips to be firm, heavy for their size and free from blemishes.  The smaller ones are sweeter. 

I decided to really test the parsnip's ability to imitate the potato and make parsnip fries.

Sliced parsnips

 Parsnip Fries
2-3 parsnips
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel the parsnip like you would a carrot.  Julienne it to french fry size.  I used a mandolin. 
2. Toss the parsnip with minced garlic and olive oil.
3. Spread out on a baking sheet and cook for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees.  You should flip the fries a few times during cooking.
4. Toss with Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper before serving.

They almost look like real fries.

These I would definitely eat again.   They taste like a sweet french fry, but not too sweet.  I find sweet potato fries a little too sweet.  These are just perfect. With something like a cajun spice blend, they'd be to die for.  I tried adding rosemary my second attempt at these and it was great.  I think I'll be making these instead of sweet potato fries from now on.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 4)

Calories: 175
Total fat: 10.7 g
Protein: 6.3 g
Total carbohydrate: 14.3 g

• Dietary Fiber: 2.9 g
• Sugar: 3.8 g

The Muscles from Brussels: Getting to know the Belgium Sprout

Fish heads?  They do look more like baby cabbages I guess.

I was reading over my first few blog posts and I noticed it's full of pasta, fried okra and pizza.  I'm trying to live healthy and whole here.  It's easy to slip into old habits, I guess.  Today, this entry is 100% healthy.

I have a bad history with Brussels sprouts.  My mom says I liked them when I was little.  I don't remember that.  I do remember that my sister told me they were little, slimy fish heads at dinner one day.  I haven't really eaten them since then. I always see their little slimy lips and eyes just peering at me.  Yuck.  I know they're not really little, slimy fish heads, but it still grosses me out.

What Brussels sprouts are is cultivar of cabbage. They are named after Brussels, but the origin is unclear. They were believed to be first grown in Belgium in the late 1500s, though some believe they were enjoyed as early as the 13th century.  Brussels sprouts taste similar to cabbage, but are generally more nutritious than cabbage. 

Brussels sprouts have twice as much protein, vitamin C and folic acid than cabbage and more vitamin A, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium than cabbage.  They also have twice as many calories and 1/3 more carbs than the same serving size of cabbage, but neither has enough to really worry about (cabbage has 17 calories and 4 grams of carbs per 1/2 cup, Brussels sprouts have 28 calories and 6 grams of carbs).  Brussels sprouts and cabbage are both high in fiber.

Brussels sprouts contain sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol, like broccoli and cabbage, if you eat them steamed or stir-fryed.  This is why people claim they have anti-cancer properties.  There is some real, randomized study data on the consumption of cruciferous vegetables and cancer risks.  The data seems to indicate that there is some decreased risk with daily servings of cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts.   However, boiling or blanching the vegetables destroys the compounds. Raw is the best way to go, but a quick cooking method preserves many of these compounds.

To pick out fresh Brussels sprouts, look for the bright green ones.  The brightly colored ones with the fewest brown leaves are best.  They should be firm, compact and tightly packed.  It's best to choose sprouts that are similar in size. Avoid any with an odor.  I think the smaller ones are better because they require less prep, and taste sweeter.

This one really does look like a fish face.

I have a theory that most people don't like vegetables because they've never had them properly cooked or fresh.  It seems that whenever I try something I "hate" at a restaurant with a really good chef, I'm always shocked.  I actually like it.  People, including myself, don't like Brussels sprouts because we're used to the slimy, boiled and nasty type we were served as kids. 

Fresh Brussels sprouts taste fresh.  They don't have the bitter taste of the frozen, over-cooked variety.  Over-cooking releases the bitter, sulfur compounds, making them less healthy and less delicious.  Fresh Brussels sprouts have a sweet, almost buttery taste.

As always, the best way to try a vegetable out to see if you really like it is a plain preparation.  Here, I tried roasted Brussels sprouts.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
About a dozen Brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

The core.

1. Clean the Brussels sprouts well and remove any outer leaves that look brown or yellow.  Cut the bottoms off and you can remove the core, if they're bigger.  See the photo on the right.  The white part in the center is the core of the sprout.  Smaller ones have a softer core that is easier to eat.  It's tough on larger sprouts, in my experience.
2. I like to cut mine into halves or quarters so I get more browning, but you can roast them whole. 
3. Toss them with a few tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper.
4. Arrange the sprouts on a sheet pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until tender and barely brown.
5. Taste them, you can salt again if needed.

Even I like the simplicity of roasted Brussels sprouts, and they don't look anything like fish heads.  Well, maybe a little like a fish head.

Roasted and ready to eat.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 2)

Calories: 165
Total fat: 14.1 g
Protein: 3.2 g
Total carbohydrate: 8.9 g

• Dietary Fiber: 3.4 g
• Sugar: 2.2 g

Low Carb Peach Salsa

Salsa is a sneaky way to get some vegetables in your diet.

In my last post, I talked about growing okra.  Another vegetable I grow in abundance over the summer is tomatoes.  Salsa is dish that I like to make with them, because it's healthy, easily canned and helps punch up a low-carb diet.  I don't normally eat it with chips.  Most of the time I use it as a salad dressing, a topping or an ingredient.

Peach salsa makes a great, low-carb salad dressing.  If you leave out the peach, you'll have a really low carb salsa (3.7 grams per serving).   I use my Vita-mix to make salsa.  You can use a food processor or just chop the ingredients super fine.

This salsa has all sorts of fun colors and textures.

For 6 servings:

• 1 small peach
• 1 green pepper
• About 24 grape tomatoes, or about 6 oz of regular tomatoes
• 1 jalapeno pepper (I use the whole pepper, but I like it hot.  You can remove the seeds and the pith if you like.  With a whole jalepeno, it's too spicy for most people)
• A handful of fresh basil 
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of lime juice

Optional:

• If you don't like basil, you can use cilantro

Just toss all of the ingredients in your blender or food processor and process to the chunkiness you desire.  If you don't have a blender or food processor, just chop all the ingredients to a fine consistency and mix them.

Before blending

Salsas taste best if you leave them in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 6)

Calories:  21.7

Total fat: 0.1 g

Protein: 0.3 g

Total carbohydrate:  5.3 g

• Dietary Fiber: 0.6 g
• Sugar: 1.8 g

Okra: Delicious and Mucilaginous

Okra, an important part of traditional southern cuisine.

It's farmer's market season, so it's tough to buy things I don't like.  There are actually a few things I do like and they're all fresh and in season.  Okra is something I like.  Well, kind of.  I only like okra one way.  The traditional southern way: pan-fried.  It's not healthy at all, so I'm not even going to quote nutritional facts to pretend that it is.  Okra is generally low in calories and a good source of fiber and some vitamins, but deep frying it ruins almost all of that.

I've read in some, unsubstantiated, sources that since okra contains mucilage, it binds cholesterol and coats your colon enhancing colon health and lowing cholesterol better than other vegetables. I haven't found anything scientific to even halfway back that up, so I say bullocks.  Fiber, which okra does contain, of any kind is good for colon health and can help lower cholesterol.  It's not a special property of okra, it's a property of fiber.  Livestrong says eating okra may lower cholesterol.  Their reasoning is that if you eat okra, which contains no cholesterol or fat, you may be less likely to eat something that does have cholesterol.  Again, that's not a special property of okra.  We might as well say apples lower cholesterol.  We're pan frying it here, so let's not delude ourselves by saying, "At least by pan-frying okra, we're not eating all the carbs and fat in French fries."  Fried okra is not a health food.

I grow my own okra every year.  It's an easy vegetable to grow.  It withstands, even loves, hot Arkansas weather, grows easy from a seed and produces a ton.  Summer is the only time I eat fried okra, because I only eat it fresh.

Home grown okra.  This guy is too little to pick.

When you pick okra, either from the store or the bush, it needs to be bright green and pliable. If the pod doesn't have any give to it when you flex it, it's going to taste woody.  If you let okra grow too long or sit too long before prepping, the mucilage dries out and it gets fibrous.  It's not at all tasty at that point.  If you cut a piece of okra and it's black inside, it wasn't harvested soon enough and will be fibrous and woody.  The okra in the top photo is perfectly ripe.  Compare it to the photo below of over-ripe okra.  Notice that the over-ripe okra looks more fibrous and dryer than the top photo.  The good news is that you can save those black seeds and plant okra again next year, so the pod isn't a complete waste.

Bad okra.  May be ok for gumbo, but I probably wouldn't chance it.

Deep frying okra is like deep drying anything else.

Deep Fried Okra

Oil to cover about 3 inches of the bottom of a pan

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

Okra, sliced thin at moment of prep

Like any breading for frying, you want to mix the cornmeal and flour together with the salt and pepper (you can kick it up with some garlic powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes or whatever spices you want).  I mix it all in a plastic bowl that is big enough to shake my okra around in too.  After the dry ingredients are well mixed, I toss the okra in and shake it up.  If you slice the okra right before you want to coat and fry it, it's moist enough to hold the breading and you don't have to worry about dipping it in egg or buttermilk.  Okra's mucilage is kind of sticky anyway.  Add the floured okra to hot oil and fry until you desired level of browness. I like mine well done and crunchy.

It's important not to mess with it too much in the pan or it gets mushy.  I let mine cook completely on one side, then turn it (as best as I can).  I try to only touch it once or twice during cooking.

Yum.

Nutrition Facts

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Are you kidding me? There are none.  It's deep fried okra. Just enjoy it.

Braving Celery Root

A creature from another universe or food?

I don't normally eat things that look they've been stuck in the back of my fridge for a month.  I decided to give celery root, or celeriac, a try anyway. It's pretty nutritious and everyone says it makes a great addition to a healthy diet.  Hard to believe since it looks like something my cat could have coughed up.

Celery root is used a lot as a potato substitute. It has less than half the calories of a potato and one third of the carbs (reference). It's great for low carbers. However, nutrition wise, a cup of baked potato has about twice as much fiber, three times as much vitamin C, three times as much potassium and about the same amount of phosphorus. You're only cutting calories and carbs by substituting celeriac, not adding nutrients.  Celeriac is just less dense, with a higher water content than a potato.  That's helpful if you're trying to lose weight, but not if you're just trying to eat better. 

One cup of celeriac has 1.5 grams of protein, 9 grams of carbs, 42 calories and 1.9 grams of fiber. Vitamin C - 5.6 mg, Potassium - 268 mg, Phosphorus - 102 mg

One medium baked potato has 4.33 grams of protein, 27 grams of carbs, 161 calories and 3.8 grams of fiber. Vitamin C - 16.6 mg, Potassium - 926 mg, Phosphorus - 121 mg

Since this furry cousin of celery is a root vegetable I've always passed at the store and never thought twice about, I decided to purchase one and be brave.

Picking out a celery root is not that tough, if you can get past the hairy exterior. You want one that's firm, has no fleshy or soft spots and looks uniform in color. Like a lot of vegetables, smaller ones don't taste as woody as the large ones.

I had a problem at the checkout.  The young guy ringing up my groceries looked at it and then to me and said, "What is this?"
"It's celery root, or celeriac.  I'm not sure what it's listed under."
"Oh.  Is it supposed to look like this?"
"Well, I think so.  They all look like that."

He finally figured out how much to charge me.  Celery root is more expensive than a potato, in my experience.  The one pictured above was $3.  You can sometimes buy a whole bag of potatoes for that.

To prepare celery root, you have to wash and peel the skin. I tasted a piece raw. The raw piece had a strong celery flavor, but when I sampled a cooked piece I barely detected it. I hate raw celery (big surprise). This was actually much nicer. It has the flavor of celery but a nice, clean texture. It's more like a turnip in texture, which is so much nicer than the stringy celery plant.

I think I could like this vegetable.

For my first experience in celery root, I decided to make a very plain soup. I like my first sampling to be pretty plain.  I just used made my favorite leek soup, but used celery root instead of potatoes.

Celery Root and Leek Soup (6 servings)
2 tablespoons butter
Olive oil to coat pan
3 leeks (cleaned and chopped)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large celery root (peeled and cubed)
3 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of water (or to taste)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 cup whipping cream

1. Heat stock pot with butter and olive oil. When heated, add leeks and cook for a few minutes before adding garlic. Cook until translucent.
2. Add stock and celery root and simmer for about an hour. Check the celery root like you would a boiled potato. If you can pierce it with a fork, it's done.
3. Puree in a blender or use a stick blender until the desired consistency. I used my Vitamix. If the soup is too thick, which it probably will be, you can add the water (or add more stock if you want to). Season to taste.
4. Add the whipping creme and put the soup back in the stock pot. Reheat gently on low heat.

Great for a cold day.

I really liked the soup. It's said celery root tends to take the flavor of what it's cooked with, and this tasted as good as any leek soup I've ever had. Leek soup generally uses potato as a base, but leeks are such a  powerful flavor.  I always taste the texture of the potato more than the flavor. I can imagine spicing the soup up would make it even better. Also, if you really wanted a low fat soup, you could leave the whipping cream out.

Nutrition Facts

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Amount Per Serving (makes 6)

Calories: 122
Total fat: 9.5 g
Protein: 12 g
Total carbohydrate: 8.8 g

• Dietary Fiber: 1.1 g
  
• Sugar: 2.3 g

Cutting out the cream drops it to 87 calories, 5.8 grams of fat per serving. Protein drops to 1.5 grams and the carbs remain the same.