What are you Cooking the Week of February 18, 2024?

[Mike Nolan]

I've got some more keto-friendly veggies to play with.

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[navlys]

I need some creative thinking here. I have left over pork chunks from the baby back ribs I cooked in my slow cooker. I purchased the ribs from Aldi's and they were super meaty. I must have at least 11/2 cups of meat that I chopped off the bones. They were bbq flavored originally. Any ideas what I can make with this leftover meat?

[Mike Nolan]

You could use them in tacos, on a salad, in a pork-noodle casserole, or like pulled pork on bread. The barbecue flavor will perk up the dish.

Or maybe kind of a cassoulet or faux Feijoada with beans?

People make tuna salad or chicken salad all the time, why not pork salad?

[BakerAunt]

When we have leftover pork, I make a stir-fry with farro and vegetables. I've also used it in soba noodle stir-fries.

[BakerAunt]

I made applesauce on Sunday to have for dessert, after we had pea soup and Scottish Scones. The apples are from my last bag of seconds that we bought in November. I have enough for one more batch. However, about half of the apples cooked to the requisite broken down texture, and about half stayed somewhat firm, which is not ideal for making applesauce with a food mill. It was not a matter of where they were in the pot, since it was the same for those on the bottom and those on the top. This bag was supposed to be an Ida Red mix, so there is probably another kind of apple, although they look mostly the same to me. The apples released much less juice, and the flavor of this batch of sauce is somewhat blah.

[chocomouse]

I made a big pot of Duchess soup today, and we had some with rolls from the freezer for dinner tonight. I filled a quart mason jar with some of the leftovers to take to Maine this week, and froze the rest for future meals.

[Joan Simpson]

Tonight I had chargrilled chicken breast with a baked potato.

[Mike Nolan]

We had vegetable beef soup with a salad.

One of the challenges with a keto diet will be coming up with enough different dishes to keep meals interesting, both from the perspective of cooking and eating them. Years ago we bought a lot of NY strip steak through the Nebraska Public TV auction and put most of it in the freezer. That summer it was, "What, steak again!" more than once. 🙂

Without much starch, including things like wheat, rice and potatoes, that'll be challenging. I've looked at some of the keto cookbooks online, so far I haven't seen one that really impressed me. I may have to visit the bookstore to browse a few of the ones on the shelf.

I need to try some cauliflower rice, to see how it would work with a stir-fry.

[navlys]

I thought about a pork salad sandwich but think it may be too chewy. Tacos and stir fry sounds doable.

[cwcdesign]

Vet Sunday night I made Cianfotta (mixed vegetables) from Nancy Verde Barr. We took a cooking class with her about 40 years ago at Sakonnet Vineyard in Rhode Island. I learned so much. The basic recipe is garlic, onion, peppers, potato and tomatoes. It gets sautéed on the stove and then simmers to cook the potatoes.This time I added chicken sausage and zucchini. I think I cooked it about 5 minutes too long. We have enough for tonight.

[RiversideLen]

I had chicken meatballs and pasta yesterday, with green beans and carrots.

Tonight will be the same, but with brussels sprouts .

[Joan Simpson]

I had a chicken sandwich and fruit.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover roasted chicken breast, more roasted sweet potato chunks with the few that were left over from Saturday, microwaved fresh broccoli, and more of the applesauce.

Mike--I think that any change to a new way of approaching food and nutrition initially throws us for a loop, since much of the previous repertoire gets wiped out or has to be modified, and it takes time to develop a new batch of recipes. I could not find much that was useful when I sharply curtailed the saturated fat in our meals, and I ended up pulling from a variety of sources.

I've not had cauliflower rice, but it will probably be best NOT to think rice when you are preparing it and anticipating eating it. Instead, think of it as preparing and eating a known food in a different way.

[Mike Nolan]

The interesting thing about the keto diet is that butter and cream don't really matter, the goal is to have most of your calories coming from fats and few from carbohydrates.

I'll be interested to see what my cholesterol levels are in two weeks when I have followup labs scheduled. But there's a fair amount of research that says dietary cholesterol has almost no impact on blood cholesterol levels, at least for most people.

[navlys]

Mike your journey should make for an interesting story. There are several keto recipes on the web. It is scary to shift gears after thinking and eating a certain way in the past. The body is a mysterious machine and the information we are fed about it's needs are not always accurate or so it seems.

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