[Mike Nolan]

I made my first two attempts at a keto-friendlier version of my mother's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies today, using carbalose as the flour and allulose as the sugar, with just a little molasses to give it that 'brown sugar' taste. I used Guittard Sante chocolate chips, they're made with coconut sugar and are low net carbs.

They show potential, I think the taste is similar but it needs more oatmeal flavor. I used 1/4 of the usual amount of oatmeal in the first batch and doubled that in the second batch. The oatmeal itself adds a little under 1 carb per cookie, so I've got room to increase it further.

They're not crispy, they're more chewy/soft, and a bit too flat. I think those things can be worked on, too, possibly by increasing the amount of shortening.

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[Mike Nolan]

We had the 2nd half of the pizza for dinner tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't had a banana sandwich in years. When I was very young (around 6), there was a family from England trying to establish a farm outside of town, and we'd go out there on Sundays to visit. Their barn always had a bunch of farm cats that were very friendly, and they had the usual assortment of barnyard creatures, including a goat and sheep. (Eventually they decided they couldn't make a go of farming and moved back to England, we used to get Christmas cards from them every year.)

But at 4PM, everything came to a full stop for tea. They always served tea with milk, I still drink it that way though lately I've been using cream because it is more keto-friendly. As one of the characters in "The Great Escape" said, "Tea without milk is just so uncivilized."

They also served some sandwiches, but the only ones I remember were the banana sandwiches, mashed banana mixed with butter and spread on bread. Yum. (Elvis would have been disappointed - no peanut butter.)

I used to make them for our first son, the second one didn't care for them.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a keto fudge yesterday using a recipe I found online, but it isn't setting well, so it's more like a spoon fudge. But I think it'll heat up decently for hot fudge sauce.

Followup: Not quite hot fudge, but pretty good and 3.5 carbs per serving. (And it'd be fewer carbs if I used the Guittard Sante chips, which I haven't found locally yet; I found ones that were similar at Target, just a little higher in carbs.)

[Mike Nolan]

Tonight's pizza

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[Mike Nolan]

I took the two chicken thighs left over from the other day, warmed them, spooned some tomato sauce on top, added a slice of tomato and topped that with a slice of swiss cheese, then melted the cheese under the broiler.

Sort of a cross between chicken cacciatore and a tuna melt. 🙂

Very tasty, too.

[Mike Nolan]

I bought a bunch of 4 and 8 ounce freezer jars and froze both of the batches of tomato sauce I made, and I've got enough jars left for a third batch. I also want to freeze some quart-size containers for things like spaghetti and lasagna (both made low-carb), so I'm hoping I get another 3 or 4 batches of sauce made from this year's garden.

My Celebrity and Rutgers tomatoes are doing so-so this year, but that's true of well over half of the plants I started in March. I don't think it's just me, I've talked to others in Lincoln and their tomatoes are not having great seasons, either.

I'm probably going to try Defiance tomatoes next year instead of First Lady, for which I haven't found a reliable supplier, but will probably stick with the 4th of July, Italian Heirloom and Amish Paste varieties, though I'm getting a lot of shoulder splits on the Amish Paste tomatoes this year. Not sure if I'll do Porter next year, though it has been a reliable producer, a lot of little ones but the weight adds up. I haven't done Big Boy or Better Boy in a while, I might try them, and I am tempted to try the Burpee Supersauce tomato, though my experience has been that when tomatoes get over a pound in size, they aren't as flavorful.

The UNL urban soil improvement project we're in ends with a third set of soil samples next spring, so I will probably pull the cages and landscape cloth afterwards and re-till the garden for 2025, most likely throwing in a few bags of peat or sphagnum moss.

[Mike Nolan]

Pork is underutilized nearly as much as it is misunderstood. Aside from bacon and ham, I probably only cook pork 3 or 4 times a year.

I used to buy the Smithfield smoked pork chops and cook them on the outdoor grill, where they only take a few minutes, but they're really high in sodium and when I started cutting back on sodium (per doctor) that was one of the things that got dropped from the menu.

They're fairly keto-friendly, though. There also seems to be a consensus among those on keto that increasing electrolytes is a key to avoiding the 'keto flu', and that usually includes going well over the recommended levels on salt. I may work them back into the repertoire, they're a fast meal prep. (I like them with applesauce, though, and applesauce is NOT very keto-friendly, but if I limit it to a tablespoon or two, it shouldn't break the carb bank.)

[Mike Nolan]

cantaloupe and salami here, I also had a salami and tomato sandwich

[Mike Nolan]

The oven-baked chicken thighs were good enough that Diane actually ate the breading/skin, which is unusual for her.

There was sage in the mix of herbs and spices I used, but I think it made the breading taste more like a stuffing. Not a bad taste, just not a 'fried chicken' taste. Next time I'll leave it out. A simple salt-and-pepper blend is worth trying, too.

The rest of the dredge blend was: salt, pepper, oregano, paprika, ginger, celery salt, dry mustard. Diane thought the chicken needed salt, I'm not sure adding more to the dredge would have helped.

I didn't have quite enough of the KA keto flour mix and didn't want to open another bag yet, so I added some oat fiber. Not sure that was worth repeating, though.

The dip had egg, diluted cream (instead of milk) and paprika. That seemed to work well. I need to practice my breading technique a bit, though.

[Mike Nolan]

A number of Italian Heirloom and Amish Paste set in the cool spell a few weeks ago, today I picked 5 Amish Paste, and had one on my salad. The Italian Heirlooms are a day or two away.

I may have enough smaller tomatoes (3 or 4 different varieties) ripening to do another batch of tomato sauce on Sunday or Monday. I can do up to about 10 pounds at a time in my 8 quart induction-ready stock pot. I'm freezing a lot of it in small batches (4-8 ounces) which is the right amount for a pizza or other dishes that need just a little tomato in them, and I'll probably freeze some larger batches for things like spaghetti or lasagna.

[Mike Nolan]

We had salami and tomato sandwiches tonight.

I'm planning to do oven baked chicken thighs (bone in, skin on) on Friday, using the King Arthur Keto Flour for breading.

[Mike Nolan]

Made my weekly run to Aldi today, eggs were up from $2.59 a dozen to $3.29 a dozen today.

[Mike Nolan]

Yes, they make 2-3 cubic foot upright freezers, most seem to be around 27-33 inches high, 18 inches wide and 20 inches deep. Check the big box stores (Lowes, Home Depot, WalMart) near you, might have to order them for pickup in a week or so.

Ideally it should be garage-ready, or maybe that's more of an issue with refrigerators.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a second small batch of tomato sauce yesterday, using 6 pounds of tomatoes.

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