Thursday, 4/21/2011

I sang at this evening's Maundy Thursday church service, which started at 6pm.  I made up a pound of taco seasoned ground beef before I left for church.  Ben had some of the beef with hot sauce and cheddar cheese melted on top for his dinner.  Katie had a little burrito with cheese and beef..  I waited until after the service to have my dinner.  I made a taco salad.  I used chopped iceberg lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, some of the ground beef, hot sauce, and chipotle ranch dressing.  It really hit the spot. 

Wednesday, 4/20/2011

Tonight was my chicken sausage do-over dinner.  With the carbon scraped off of the grill cover and the gas still on when I put the sausages on, they came out great!  I put the sausages on the grill as far away from the main source of the gas as I could.  Ben mentioned that the grill is hotter on that side.  Sure enough, they didn't burn like they usually do.  Fantastic!  I also grilled asparagus for a side dish.  The sausages grill on indirect medium while the asparagus goes on direct medium.  They are perfect companions for maximizing the grill. 

When we shot Spencer and Kate's engagement photos at Pike Place Market, one of the produce vendors told us that asparagus is actually sweeter and less stringy when it is bigger.  He said that the outer, woody part is what develops first and just stretches out to cover the sweeter insides.  So, the thicker the stalk, the less woody the outside is and the sweeter the inside.  Finally, after two months, I listened.  He was right.  The thicker stalks were sweeter and easier to eat.  I have just purchased my last bunch of skinny asparagus.  Thanks produce guy!

Tuesday, 4/19/2011

Our PEPS group gathered at Barb, Tadd, and Ronan's house for dinner tonight.  Before we ate, we got to check out their new chickens.  Raccoons got a couple of their chickens; so, these were the replacements.  They were still small, but past the cute fluffy stage.  Katie DID NOT want to touch them.  She eventually stepped into the coupe with me, but never got up the courage to touch one.  

Barb made pulled pork sandwiches for the main dish.  We knew that there were more carbs in the sauce than we were allowed, but decided not to sweat it.  We avoided the buns (which we brought for the potluck) and skipped the salad croutons and dessert.  The nuts in the brownies made it pretty easy to resist the dessert temptation tonight.  Unless we are talking Reese's peanut butter cups, I find it rare to really like a dessert with nuts in it.

Monday, 4/18/2011

I purchased a pre-marinated pork tenderloin at the grocery store this morning.  As usual, the grilling instructions on the package left out an important detail.  The package said to grill the tenderloin on Medium heat.  It didn't say if it was supposed to be indirect or direct.  I turned to our Weber cookbook for general guidance.  I followed the instructions in the cookbook and went with indirect heat.  Well, it was still too much.  The pork was VERY charred on the outside.  Thankfully, once we were pasted the burned part, the inside was still tender.  

We had roasted broccoli with garlic as our side dish.  After spending many frustrating nights scrubbing the charred broccoli off of my cookie sheets, tonight I covered the sheet with foil first.  I don't think the broccoli charred as nicely as it would have directly on the sheets, but it was still pretty good for broccoli.  And, the smoke detector still went off, so it felt like I was doing something right:)

Sunday, 4/17/2011

I made Buffalo Chicken Fries tonight without the carbs, and it turned out better than I expected.  I didn't dredge the chicken in flour; I stuck with just salt and pepper.  For the buffalo sauce, I left out the honey and just used the hot sauce and butter.  The sauce didn't stick to the chicken quite like it does when the chicken is coated in flour, but it stuck enough.  I poured some of the extra sauce into a bowl and used it to dip my chicken fries in.  By the way, this recipe makes far more sauce than you need for the amount of chicken it calls for.  You can easily half the sauce recipe or double the amount of chicken.

For a salad, I combined mixed greens and mushrooms with a chipotle ranch dressing.  I think I am starting to really like mushrooms in my salads.

Saturday, 4/16/2011

One of our biggest concerns about maintaining a low-carb diet has been potlucks.  We participate in at least three potlucks each month and carbs are a big part of them.  Our monthly church potluck took place tonight at Hilary, Kurt, and Esme's house.  In order to stick with the Mexican theme, we decided to bring a taco salad.  We brought chopped iceberg lettuce, diced tomatoes, corn, ground beef with taco seasoning, chipotle ranch dressing, and hot sauce.  I really enjoyed my salad and think I'll make it again.I had everything except the corn and also added some hot salsa that someone else brought. 

Friday, 4/15/2011

My plan was to cook chicken Italian sausages on the grill and serve them with a side salad.  Well, when I went out to turn the grill down from high to medium, I must have turned off the gas too.  I don't remember doing it, but when I went out to turn the sausages, the flame was out.  Geez...talk about a dinner fail.  The other thing that was weird was that the sausages were sprinkled what I thought was paint flakes from the inside of the grill.  Not wanting to risk ingesting paint, I brought the sausages inside, took the casings off, and browned the ground sausage in a frying pan.  

After the sausage was cooked, I added a couple eggs and cheddar cheese to make a large omelet.  Ben did some research after dinner and found out that the black flakes on the inside of the grill cover were carbon and not paint.  We've brushed the rest of the flakes off and will resume our normal grilling.