For those of you who have asked how is the cookbook coming...here's an update that I shared with my ASU professor. You can look to purchase your own copy of the cookbook by next summer! Stay tuned!
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| Chocolate Mousse Pie - one of the featured recipes in the cookbook |
Fall, 2013 –
Semester Review
The completion of this semester has brought with it much
awareness of the work involved in writing a cookbook. I have accomplished much this semester in
determining the contents of the cookbook, but I had no idea how much work that
would actually entail.
Last semester I collected many recipes that I thought would
be worth adapting for sugar free, gluten free, low carbohydrate, high fat
recipes. This semester I culled through
that collection and experimented with them until I found recipes that Alexx and
I agreed were “cookbook worthy.” Many of
these recipes took multiple trials to get to the point where we felt they met
our flavor standards. Some of them never
made the cut (for example, barbeque chicken lost out to crab stuffed chicken)
and some passed our flavor standards but didn’t pass the glucose test. (Turkey noodle soup was one of Alexx’s
favorites, but his glucose rose over 30 points when tested. Our standard mark is no more than a 20-point
increase.)
One of the great awakenings I had about the way I cook
brought me a greater appreciation for cookbook authors. I hate to measure. When it comes to adding spices and fats, I
like to eyeball it. Of course, when
creating or revising a recipe, I have to be able to duplicate what I have done,
so that means measuring. I also need to
measure so I can be accurate with my nutritional information. I have learned to be more disciplined in measuring
ingredients for the purpose of the cookbook, but I don’t enjoy it. Part of the fun in cooking for me is free
forming on the creation. Alexx, however,
much prefers that I am measuring and recording how I make something. In the past when he enjoyed something, he’d
often comment, “I guess I’ll never get this again, will I?” I’d laugh and agree as I often couldn’t
remember what ingredients I used, let alone how much of them.
I also learned from developing these recipes that I have
been stocking a big variety of ingredients.
Although it’s fun to have everything that any recipe ever calls for on
my shelves in the pantry or refrigerator, it really isn’t necessary in order to
achieve great flavors. There are many
benefits to using fewer ingredients: it’s easier and faster to cook, it uses
less dishes, it’s less expensive, and most importantly for cooking in the
motorhome, few ingredients take up less space!
This semester I created a blog to capture many of my
discoveries and shared them with people I met in my travels as well as family
and friends. I had hoped to create a blog
for all 15 meal plans, but half-way through the semester, I found organizing the
cookbook by 15 days of meals was not really user friendly. The posts gave my readers ideas for different
recipes, but no one except us seem to desire a fully planned meal for a day,
let alone 15 consecutive days. Given
that discovery, I will still offer recipes for 15 breakfasts, lunches, dinners,
snacks, and desserts in the cookbook ; however in addition to the full day of
meal planning, the recipes will be organized by their categories. I am also adding a category of side dishes
which will include salads, vegetable dishes and breads. This way the cookbook user can choose more
than one side dish if they wish. For
instance, they might want to make a big salad to accompany an entrée one night,
but the next night they might prefer a vegetable dish and some nut bread. We found that we didn’t always want to choose
the original side dish that I had planned for the cookbook. I might have planned a bean side dish for one
entrée, but that week we may have found asparagus to be on sale or more
available at the farmers’ market.
The recipes that have made the final cut follow:
Breakfasts:
1.
Green Eggs and Ham
2.
Basted Eggs with Sausage
3.
Chocolate Chip Pancakes
4.
Shrimp and Veggie Omelet
5.
Veggie/Chorizo Hash and Eggs
6.
Creamed Tuna on Crackers
7.
Poached Eggs on Veggies with Sausage
8.
Chili Relleno Casserole with Eggs
9.
Beefy Blankets
10.
Lox and Egg Crackers
11.
Veggie Seafood Quiche
12.
Granola
13.
Cheesy Egg Scramble and Bacon
14.
Lox and Cheese Omelet
15.
Shrimp and Pepper Crepes
Lunches:
1.
Chicken Enchilada
2.
Shrimp and Walnuts
3.
Boca Burger
4.
Curried Salmon Cakes
5.
Tuna Salad Salad
6.
Peanut Butter and Bacon Wraps
7.
Hot and Spicy Chicken
8.
Turkey and Cheese Wrap
9.
Hamburger Sliders
10.
Shrimp and Avocado Salad
11.
Chili and Cheese Toasty
12.
Hot Soup and Egg Salad Wrap
13.
Tuna Melt
14.
Chicken Satay
15.
Jerk Chicken Salad
Dinners:
1.
Grass Fed Cheeseburger
2.
Herbed Catfish
3.
Crabby Chicken Rolls
4.
Grilled Blue Steak
5.
Spicy White Fish
6.
Kung Pao Chicken
7.
Chili Relleno Casserole
8.
Paprika Salmon
9.
Shrimp and Egg Casserole
10.
Stuffed Meatloaf
11.
Cajun Seafood Pasta
12.
Chicken Lavosh
13.
Corned Beef Sandwich
14.
Korma (Chicken, Beef or Lamb)
15.
Perfect Pork Tenderloin
1.
Almond Buttered Apple Slices
2.
Stuffed Jalapenos
3.
Cottage Cheese & Granola
4.
Butter Clam Bisque
5.
Berries and Whipped Cream
6.
Cauliflower and Ham Soup
7.
Smoked Oysters and Crackers
8.
Red Pepper Soup
9.
Nutbread, Cheese and Lunchmeat
10.
Cheese and Crackers
11.
Cottage Cheese and Fruit
12.
Cheese and Lunchmeat Wraps
13.
Berry Smoothie
14.
Popcorn and Peanuts
15.
Sardines and Crackers
Side Dishes:
1.
Lovely Lettuce Salad
2.
Peas and Peanut Salad
3.
Cranberry Gelatin Salad
4.
Bacon Blue Wedge Salad
5.
Sautéed Peppers and Onions
6.
Cauliflower Mash
7.
Stuffed Mushrooms
8.
Veggie Glop
9.
Green Beans and Walnuts
10.
Cauliflower Patties
11.
Asparagus and Pepper Stir Fry
12.
Brussels Sprouts and Cheese
13.
Easy Yeast Bread
14.
Squash Muffin Bread
15.
Cinnamon Bread
Desserts:
1.
Chocolate Hermit Cookies
2.
Frozen Custard
3.
Strawberry Crème Pie
4.
Toffee
5.
Cheesecake
6.
Pumpkin Chocolate Bars
7.
Chocolate Mousse Pie
8.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
9.
Sugar Free S’mores
10.
Best Brownies
11.
Pavlova Berries
12.
Ice Box Cake
13.
Lemon Bars
14.
Fruit Crumble
15.
Chocolate Layered Squares
The nutritional information has
been calculated for seven meal plans which include 42 recipes and appear in my
blog: DiedreCooksLoCarb.blogspot.com. In addition to five days of meals there are two
special posts: “Cooking Out with Friends” and “Special Holiday Meals.” This was a very time consuming task using a
free calculator program online as provided by Sparkpeople.com. Up to this
point, my process has been to create the recipe, then enter it for nutritional
evaluation, and then write it into the blog.
This tedious three-step process will be reduced next semester as I have
purchased the Cookin’ software
program by DVO Enterprises, Inc. This
will allow me to enter the recipe once and automatically generate the
nutritional information, post it to my blog, print it on recipe cards and save
it as a pdf version for publication purposes.
This should make the organization of the cookbook much simpler if the
software indeed does all that is promised in the marketing material.
Winter, 2014 Semester Work Plans
My proposed work for next
semester will be to finish entering the remaining 10 meal plans which will
include 60 more recipes and writing the “stories” that go with the meals as I
have done with the blog posts. Since I
have already created the recipes, this should not take as long as generating
the first seven meal plans.
I will need to ensure standard
formatting of the meal plans for the cookbook so all meal plan recipes will
need to be entered into the Cookin’
software. I will also need to review and
edit the recipes and stories for accuracy and continuity. I will need to capture pictures for all of
the recipes that I do not currently have recorded.
I will also create shopping
lists for the cookbook. There will be quick
reference shopping lists for a five-day meal plan (in case the user opts to use
the cookbook the way we use it) and one large shopping list to help the user
see all the ingredients that are needed to prepare the 15 meals. This will especially be helpful for the
people who need to conserve space like those who cook in motorhomes. I plan to use the large shopping list to help
me plan “a place for everything” when I’m loading the RV for our annual trip
and then as a reminder when I am running low on an ingredient. Not having a lot of space means I need to
shop more often; consequently lists will be set for five-day meal plans.
Finally, an index will be
written that organizes the recipes and major ingredients alphabetically for
easy reference.
For the most part, I have
included only recipes that meet Alexx’s nutritional needs as have been
determined by his physician. However,
sometimes we stray from her guidelines when Alexx is really hungry for a
particular food (examples of rice, peas, and Culvers Frozen Custard come to
mind). In those instances, we have
included that food in a small enough amount that he can tolerate it based on
his glucose test. There are also a
number of foods that could be included in the meal plans but are not, because
they are foods Alexx doesn’t like. This
cookbook will primarily serve our needs, but it is creating interest for others
who are curious about seeing the success Alexx is having with this meal
plan. To that end, I will also include Alexx’s
testing results for each meal plan as well as his long term A1c levels over the
two years of writing this book. At this
point, his improvement has been significant, moving from 12.1 before starting
the lo-carb, high-fat approach to eating to 6.1 within three months and then
5.6 after six months.
The overall intent of this
cookbook is to encourage people to seek a healthy meal plan that works for
their unique needs and tastes. Many
people have expressed interest in Alexx’s story of having to dramatically
change his diet and how he manages the change.
Does he miss the foods that he enjoyed for so many years – the Dairy
Queen Blizzards, the candy bars, the huge plates of pasta, and the terryaki
rice bowls? Yes, of course he does. But he also recognizes the importance of
managing his glucose with meal planning that works for him. We are excited about this cookbook as a tool
to help us with that management and hope that others may benefit from it as
well. It is my intent to have a finished
copy of the cookbook by the end of the Winter semester.
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