More food

Having eaten enough chips and dip (Ruffles + Lipton Onion Soup Mix dip) to very nearly make myself puke yesterday afternoon, today I've redoubled my efforts to have good, low carb options at hand. (Although, I have to say that the occasional overindulgence could be a good diet trick for me, in that I really don't care if I never see another chip + dip, let alone eat it, again. Bleeeeechhhhh.)

So, today I've got happy little Peanut Butter...Bloops? They're certainly not "cups". See for yourself:

These are pretty simple, and quite tasty, I must say.

1 c. natural (no sugar) peanut butter

1/2 c. Splenda

1/4 t. vanilla

1 16 oz. bag GOOD semi-sweet chocolate chips (I'm partial to Ghiradelli, myself)

Mix first three ingredients. Melt chocolate. Shape peanut butter mixture into small balls (size is up to you). They will be kind of goopy...do your best. Dip into chocolate, set on wax paper to cool. Dust with cocoa powder b/c it's pretty.

You have to work pretty quickly with these...if you linger, the peanut butter ball will melt into the chocolate, and you'll quickly have a little pot of goo. Tasty goo, yes, but not quite what you're going for, really.

I also made a low carb pumpkin pie, using Laura Dolson's recipe. (She's my hero.) But I just used my almond meal crust (1 1/2 c. almond meal, 3 T butter) instead of the pecan one she suggests. It's looking good, but I haven't tasted it yet. Update on taste tomorrow.

I also recently made the cauliflower souffle thing (I follow the recipe except for adding 1/4 c. sauteed onion), that I describe in the For the Love of Side Dishes post. It's really a very happy food. You will want to roll in it. Or possibly rub it in your hair. Or both.

For the Love of Side Dishes

I'm loving my low carb life (I've lost 15 pounds since January, and haven't felt deprived for one second.) But lately I find myself tiring of evening meals that consist solely of a tasty meat and a yummy veggie. Come supper-time, I find myself hankering for a good ol' side dish (and apparently, for adapting southern speech affectations, too.) I've learned to listen to my hankerings...to try to ignore or suppress them is the sure route to relapse and weight gain. I must find satisfying low carb alternatives to mac & cheese, potatoes au gratin, etc. But I don't want cruddy knock-offs of those fabulously comforting dishes...I want something that gives me the same effect, without leaving me saddened and depressed that I'm left only with a cheap substitute, and still longing for the real thing.

Last weekend, I was surprised to find this craving fulfilled by the cheesy cauliflower souffle thing. That recipe has a bit of flour in it (I used brown rice flour, given DH's celiac-ness), but it's not a lot, and I find I can tolerate a few carbs in the evening without risking any damage to my low carb soul. I used Italian seasoned almond flour (almond flour mixed with Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese) instead of the bread crumbs on top.

Now today, when I was out walking Boca, I started envisioning deep fried zucchini cakes...something like crab cakes, but with zucchini instead. Given the nature of the internet, I assumed that not only would someone else already have had that same vision, but would undoubtedly already have posted a recipe on-line. Click Yahoo, enter "zucchini cakes", scroll down to find an entry that also includes the words "deep fried", and viola, satisfaction after about 3 seconds of effort: Zucchini Cakes! Yee-haw! I plan to use almond flour instead of the bread crumbs in the recipe.

I'll try them tonight and post the results later. If this pays off, I shall continue my search for satisfying low carb side dish recipes.