Playing with Food

For the past few months I've  been enjoying cooking  - I've always enjoyed it but due to my long work hours in the past  was not able get too creative. I tried a little here and there but you know if you're short on time you almost always screw it up. There's nothing worse than trying to short cut your way through a complicated recipe only to end up dumping the whole sorry -and often expensive - mess in the trash. To add to it you have to either find something to replace it or just order a pizza, I had just found it too anxiety producing in the past. As we get together every week  with our friends it's a fun excuse to find something new to serve. Kim is working to control her blood sugar and we are both trying to lose weight -  that makes it challenging. It could be annoying but it's not - I've been having a ball low carb, low calorie no sugar wending my way through all sorts of different foods. And yes, I've had a few bungles - but that's to be expected. We've discovered that low carb/low calorie does not always translate into low blood sugars - we quickly discovered a lot of the rice based foods - rice crackers for instance sent the glucose readings through the roof. UGH. We both have been tweaking different foods  and researching - it's interesting to see what works and tastes good at the same time.

Recently I've been experimenting with different types of cuts of beef - since I can't eat it I have to cook blind, I use David as my tester if he's around. He's a good sport though occasionally flinches, like when I handed him a spoonful of pesto - that's one of those foods that looks horrifying but tastes great. He's gotten more adventurous and found he liked it, then went on to try the peppers. This weekend for our weekly dinner with Kim and Steve I made a Beef Roulade, Tofu Roulade, rolled stuffed roasted peppers. You might say.......

I was on a roll.😅😆😛

I had bought a flank steak that cost $23 - ON SALE so you know I was being careful. To start with you have to butterfly the meat and it is recommended this be performed by a butcher as opposed to a vegetarian  that has never seen a flank steak- despite all the cautionary articles I read  at the end it was not that difficult. I had frozen it so when it was partially defrosted I started cutting it - it was easy.  I beat it with a rolling pin to make it thin, then marinated it for 24 hours. I stuffed it with fresh mozzerella, pesto and spicy peppers - rolling it up was a whole other ball game trying to do it evenly without pressing it too hard while keeping the whole thing from sliding around as it was covered in marinade. I had boiled whole sweet peppers and peeled them, I used riced cauliflower, sauted onions and low cal whipped cream cheese and rolled that up. It was supposed to be an appetizer but they were freaking huge so they became a side dish. The tofu roulade came out way better than I thought it would, I used flax meal to stiffen it up and then used the same ingredients to fill it. 

I roasted butternut squash and teeny potatoes, we use Whisp Parmesean crackers for the cheese and crackers - not only are they low calorie/low carb but they don't wreak havoc with Kim's diabetes. Kim made sugar free brownies for dessert and we've found a lot of no sugar creamers that taste pretty decent. In the end the menu was 

Wine and Beer 

Parmesean Crackers and Brie

Caesar Salad

Roasted seasoned small potatoes

roasted and seasoned butternut squash

Stuffed peppers

Beef Roulade

Tofu Roulade

Sugar Free Brownies and coffee

And it was as much fun to make it as it was to eat it.

Bon Appetit!!