Standing Firm in the New Year?
How’s everyone New Year’s Resolutions going? Sticking to the master plan?
So far, about 8 days in …
- I have consumed a gallon of water a day. I fill a jug with water at the end of the night, then drink it all day, the following day. Wash … rinse … repeat!
- I’ve lost at least a pound already!
- I joined a gym and have gone daily, since I’ve joined. I haven’t taken a day off, yet (and BOY AM I SORE!!! My legs feel like heavy painful salamis!)
- I have read about half of an educational book about food writing (I need to learn how!)
- My plant has survived another week.
- I have eaten plenty of bacon!
- I didn’t dig a tunnel in the snow, but I DID go sledding (I just forgot the whole “dig a tunnel” thing).
All in all … my year is off to a great start!
Ok, before we get into the meat of this week’s post … let’s show the previews!
Coming Attractions
Fennel-Horseradish Pork Spare Ribs with White BBQ Sauce
Pan Seared Salmon with Veggies and Tomato Water
Whole Roasted Pesto Rubbed Chicken
ZipList.com: Makes Grocery Shopping a Breeze!
About 2 weeks ago, I asked for recommendation and thoughts from my readers. I was offered a wealth of fantastic information!
When I first started this thing, I really had no idea where to start or where it would go. I knew it had no real focus, but I also knew one would develop in time and that if I waited for crystal clarity … I’d be waiting for a very long time. So … I just started! I needed to establish “something” … a track record, if you will. Having done that for a few months, it has given you fine folks something to compare against.
Based on the responses from people, I’ve spent this last week … chasing myself around a room … for lack of a better way to describe it. I’ve been poking under the hood of my website, rethinking the directions I study food, diet and nutrition, plotting, planning and scheming … all in an effort to bring you the very best possible low-carb recipe experience that I can muster!
I received two recommendations for a way to save recipes, plus several more for better printing abilities. The good news is … one is now done … and I’m REALLY optimistic that I’ll have the other done within a week or two.
Enter … ZipList.com … an incredibly, unbelievably cool tool for collecting and organizing recipes. I spent most of my work hours this past week trying to get ZipList to work with my recipes. You may have noticed the blue button and green arrow stating that I was testing. Yikes! Without getting too into the technical mumbo-jumbo … it was tough! There was some kind of barrier preventing it from working. I was stumped, the company that hosts my website was stumped … even ZipList was stumped! All tests showed it to work, ZipList confirmed it worked … it actually even seemed to totally work … a very small percentage of the time, but … no. Nope. Nada. In the end … zippo. It stayed stubborn and frustrating, all weekend long … until a breakthrough on Monday. YAY!!!
Now, all my recipes work with ZipList’s tools, which … are wonderful and powerful and pretty and seems to work pretty much everywhere you’d want it to! (download their app!) I was thoroughly impressed with it. I wholeheartedly recommend using it and playing with it and … of course … filling your recipe box with my recipes!
Once they’re there, you can mingle the recipes with recipes from other websites. As your recipe box fills, you can create meal plans for your family and spit out shopping lists … so you know what to buy! This is a MUCH better way to store recipes than Pinterest. SO COOL!
To add a recipe, go to any one of my recipes and click the “SAVE RECIPE” button. If you’re not logged into ZipList, you’ll need to log in, but … if you are … it’ll just add it to your Recipe Box, where it’ll live … forever! (until you remove it, but … I can’t imagine why you’d ever do that!)
This is a very new tool. All my tests show that it’s working, but please let me know if you have any issues with it. I literally just finished implementing it about an hour ago (1:30 PM PCT). The paint is still wet!
Speaking of Pinterest …
One of the other “under the hood” type of changes was the addition of a Pinterest Board in the bottom-left corner of my home page. I’ve gotten back to playing more with Pinterest and do really think it’s a FANTASTIC tool and a very attractive and well organized way to share recipes that I like and think might be of interest to you. I’m still new, but … I’m in there … tweaking, playing and refining. Check it out!
Share the LCve
I know I’ve plugged Karen before, but I just really dig the way she does things. She posted a link to her Pinterest boards on Facebook the other day. WOW!!! My draw completely dropped. She’s clearly put a huge amount of time and effort unto curating an amazing collection of low-carb recipes and ideas. Check it out!
Ok, that’s about all I’ve got. I’m still organizing my thoughts on the upcoming future. Below are these week’s recipes. Also, coming in the near future …
Kid friendly meals, more induction friendly recipes, crock pottery, quick meals, tips for dining out, Mexican food and … so much more!
Don’t forget you can always email me, or just play around with my Facebook page. I’m almost always there!
I hope your year is going well and … I’ll see you in a week!
DJ
ALL NEW Weekly Recipes!
“Baja Style” Fish Tacos I lived at the southern tip of Baja California for about 8 years. I remember the local tourism rag (dubbed the “Gringo Gazette”) hosted a cooking contest, to try and create a true local and indigenous dish. I read about it too late to enter, but it got me to thinking about what an indigenous dish at the tip of a desert state would be! Most all other famous Mexican dishes come from various other states in mainland Mexico. What was Baja’s big contribution? |
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Curried Chicken Salad I LOVE a good curried chicken salad. Thankfully, it’s also so easy to whip up, too! The only real pickle of the whole ordeal is the actual chicken, itself. When I was younger, I worked in an upscale deli for about a year. We had one of those big rotisserie roasters along the back wall (great for your rump on a cold winter’s day!). We’d roast chickens all day long, but … at the end of the night, there were always a few left over. Those would get picked clean, the meat cut and chilled, then tossed into soups and various salads … one of my favorite being this style, right here! . |
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Smoked and Pulled Pork Butt I LOVE Pulled Pork. I was born loving pulled pork. There’s just something safe and comforting in a big bowl of soft, moist and tender porky goodness. While it does take a long time, it’s also INCREDIBLY easy and almost impossible to mess up! Beef Brisket tends to be Pulled Pork’s more difficult nemesis. Pulled pork is far more forgiving, especially if you leave all the fat and shoulder blade in place before you smoke it. It just seals in all the moisture, which has melted all throughout the muscle. Breaking it apart with a fork … couldn’t be easier. |
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Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing Many store bought salad dressings have added sugar within them (READ LABELS!). The quality on the ingredients can also be questionable. Whenever I can, I like to make my own sauces and dressings. It doesn’t take as long as you might think … and the flavors can just POP! |
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Honey Dijon Glaze This is barely a recipe. It’s just two awesome ingredients … swirled together forming a fantasmagoric mélange of flavors. You get the sweet notes from the fake honey, but also the pungent tang of the Dijon. The small uncrushed mustard seeds throw a texture into it that pulls it all together. This “recipe”, if you can call it that, is about as basic and versatile as can be. Brush it onto pork or chicken before grilling, season with salt and pepper and … you’re in heaven! |
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Curried Pumpkin Soup with Coconut I’m a pumpkin lover. I’m a nut for pumpkins. Ask anyone. Anyone that knows me will quickly respond, “Yep! DJ loves pumpkins!” It’s true. I love fall and early winter, because pumpkins flood the marketplace. I love to carve faces into pumpkins (watermelons in the off season). I love the giant car sized pumpkins you see at fairs. I love all the sizes and weird shapes they come in. I love to roast them and just eat them with a little butter, salt and some fake maple syrup. I love to steam the flesh and bake it into pies, cakes and muffins. I also make a “Holiday” flavored ice cream with the stuff … |
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Cool Pasta Salad I can’t be the only low-carber on the planet that loves pasta. I suspect many also love pasta SALAD. It’ s hard to believe you can eat a nice chilled pasta salad while low-carbing … isn’t it?! Well … you can! (at least most of you can … some of the time) |
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