As I’ve chronicled before on these pages, about 18 months ago I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and my dietary life changed dramatically, forever. It’s been a journey, but isn’t that what life is?
I keep my blood sugar under control without medication by eating a very low-carb, high fat, ketogenic diet. As a result, many foods are off the table for me simply because a portion size I can manage without spiking high is too small to make eating it worthwhile: foods like rice, bread, pasta, grains (yes, even whole-grain), oats, most fruits, most legumes, corn, and potatoes. Tonight I’d like to share with you yet another of the Things I’ve Discovered As Substitutes For High-Carb Food, after a word from our sponsor of course!
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Some of what I’ve already substituted for high-carb food:
Radishes make an excellent substitute for potatoes in things like home-fries and au gratins. Really! They lose their bitterness and fry up beautifully!
Cauliflower or broccoli substitute quite nicely for the pasta in macaroni & cheese.
Cauliflower also makes fantastic faux rice for stir-fries, or pureed into a mash next to roast chicken.
Cheese makes a brilliant pizza crust. Yes, you read that right.
Casa Brillig got invited to an impromptu afternoon BBQ last weekend, and given Mr. Brillig had just smoked some of the best pulled pork shoulder I’ve ever had, we volunteered to bring that. But I wanted some sort of side to go next to the traditional potato salad and chips, so I went to my favorite recipe source… Google. I’m not a huge fan of traditional potato salads primarily because no one else in my house likes mayonnaise, but I LOVE German Potato Salad. I mean… potatoes and bacon and onion and mustard and bacon fat? What’s not to like?! Well, in my case, the @#$% potatoes.
Enter our old friend, Cauliflower. It has the texture to hold up to cooking that radishes sometimes don’t, and it picks up seasonings easily. I adapted a recipe found here, and because I was rushing forgot to take pictures of anything but the final result. But trust me, it’s so easy no pictures are necessary!
Brillig’s German Fauxtato Salad (serves 10)
1 head Cauliflower, cut into small florets/chunks. Mine was about 1200g, or 2.5 lbs.
1lb pkg Bacon (cheap is fine, you’re crisping it and saving the fat)
1 large Onion, diced. Mine was a red onion, ~10oz.
6 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar
4 Tbs grainy mustard, I used coarse German mustard
2 tsp Horseradish (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1. Steam or microwave cauliflower until just tender but not too well done because it cooks more later. I microwaved covered for 7 minutes adding 3 Tbs water.
2. Pour onto paper towels and dry as much as possible.
3. Meanwhile, cook bacon until crispy in a large pan. The recipe called for cast iron, but I used a regular wide soup stockpot. Carefully remove the bacon to a plate or bowl, cool, and crumble but leave as much of the bacon fat as possible in the pan.
4. Add the diced onion to the bacon fat and cook until soft and starting to brown on the edges. Carefully remove the onion (I dumped it onto the crumbled bacon), once again leaving as much bacon fat as possible in the pan.
5. Add the dried cauliflower to the pan and cook, stirring often, til it’s browning in spots.
6. Add the onion and bacon back to the pan, stir to mix, and turn the heat off.
7. Combine the vinegar, mustard and horseradish if using in a small bowl and pour over the cauliflower mixture. Stir to coat everything. Taste, and add salt/pepper to taste.
8. Serve warm!
Nutrition facts, via myfitnesspal’s Import Recipe feature:
140 calories / 8g fat / 9g protein / 9g total carbs / 3g fiber
Total carbs minus fiber = 6g net carbs per serving. If a similar amount of yukon gold potatoes had been used instead of cauliflower, the total would have been approximately 28g net carbs/serving. 28g net carbs is about what I aim for in an entire DAY, so you see why this is a HUGE win :-).
So what have YOU been cooking or eating lately? We’re still munching on leftover BBQ and Fauxtato salad! Come talk food or emails or exactly what a Republican has to do to be convicted of Treason and if the same bar applies to anyone else in the comments, after perusing the Trio of Top Comments, Mojo and Pictures, brought to you tonight by the genuine BeninSC himself- no faux-formatters here!!
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From ItsSimpleSimon:
In TeacherKen's diary on nuisance phone calls.
This comment from
BalanceSeeker is a brilliant idea, and my nomination for suggestion of the day!
From MikeTheLiberal:
I would like to nominate this comment reply from john972, who has an interesting take on my remark about the ignorance of the Republican voter in Hunter’s thread Republican senators dismiss news Trump campaign directly sought collusion with Russian government.
Top Mojo ala mik!
For Monday, July 10, 2017, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on the subject.
2017-07-11, courtesy of jotter!