Keto Tuna Casserole

DH went on the ketogenic diet late last year, and while I was initially resistant, I'm starting to slide down the slope towards eliminating carbs as well. I haven't decided if there's a firm line I'll tow, but I know that sugar is a poison and ultimately not good for me. I really like sweets and bread, and it's hard to curb snacking especially.

If anything, this keto diet is an invitation to increase the amount of vegetables I eat, and with that I have no complaints. I had a craving for tuna casserole yesterday and decided to make it keto. All amounts in the recipe are up to the cook. Vegetables are up to your consideration! I was going to add cauliflower, but actually had just the right amount of vegetables to fit the dish.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

1 medium/small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
4 mushrooms, diced
1 small crown of broccoli, chopped
2-4 leaves of kale, diced
2-4 stems of chard, diced
4 oz parmesan and cheddar cheeses, shredded
1 cup mayonaise
Salt, pepper, and red chili flakes
1-2 cans of tuna

Buttered 9x9 baking dish or casserole dish

Nutritional yeast
Slivered almonds
Zucchini noodles

1. Saute onion, carrot and celery in a few tbsp of olive or avocado oil in a high rimmed saute pan or wok for 5 minutes on medium heat until onion is translucent. Add diced stem of broccoli, then the broccoli florets, saute until broccoli is just bright green Add the mushrooms, and the kale and chard. Continue sauteing until the kale is just wilting. Take pot off heat.
2. Add the mayonaise, the cheese, and the tuna. Season as you like. Stir until well mixed.
3. Put contents into a buttered casserole dish, consider topping with more cheese. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 until heated through.
4. Serve hot. Consider topping with nutritional yeast and slivered almonds, and serving on zucchini noodles.

Lobster Mac and Cheese

For my friend's birthday potluck, I wanted to make her something special. I remembered she loved lobster mac and cheese (ala Purple Resaurant), and wanted to make it for her. However, never having had lobster mac or visited Purple, I didn't know where to begin. So I began with the internet.

And found this recipe (in a roundabout way-- I was searching for images!): Macaroni and Cheese with Lobster, from The Passionate Cook (blog).

I also found a Classic Macaroni and Cheese recipe on America's Test Kitchen website (they make you pay the price of membership to see it).

Originally, I used the same proportions as on the Test Kitchen recipe (8 people) and came out with enough to fill a 8x12 baking dish and a ~8x8 shallow casserole dish. I bought it to 2 parties! I think the recipe was relatively successful, especially the 2nd time, for which I made extra cheese sauce and dumped it on top of the bread.

I merged the two together and came up with this (thank goodness for electronic scales).


Lobster Macaroni and Cheese, with or without lobster (Swiss/Parmesan varietal)
For 4-6 people.

Ingredients
2 lobster tails (though honestly, the more the better. It's cost prohibitive)
50 g (1.76 oz, or 0.11 lbs) emmental cheese (grated)
50 g gruyère (grated)
50 g parmesan (grated)
3 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp flour
~1 cup milk
Small onion finely diced
2-3 cloves minced garlic (no recipe called for it, but I like it)
A few shakes of cayenne
Pasta of choice for 4-6 people
Bread crumbs or croutons (I used 1 inch cubes of bread. Sourdough sounds good)

Recipe

1. Boil pasta until done.
2. If you want lobster, shell and rinse. Boil for 15 minutes or until done. Keep it warm.
   
3. In medium pot on medium high, melt the butter and saute the onions and garlic until caramelized. It will eventually start bubbling. Add your flour to make roux and whisk to get the clumps out. Add some cayenne if you want. Slowly add the milk and whisk to prevent clumps. Whisk frequently until boiling (careful not to burn; should be like thick cream). Take it off the heat and slowly whisk in the grated cheese. Taste and season to your likings (salt?).
   
4. Combine pasta and cheese sauce. Put into baking dish. Top with pieces of lobster. Top with bread crumbs or croutons. Bake or broil to brown the crumbs and serve.
5. If your bread didn't turn out, you can make more cheese sauce and pour it on top of everything. That always helps. Decorate as you want! Cayenne looks nice on white sauce, and I think it adds an interesting/fun kick to otherwise normal mac and cheese. Other people garnish with green onion or parsley.
   
   

I can imagine using barbeque or honey glazed chicken on this dish, too.

I hope I get to enjoy this again, soon.

Lentil Soup

I bought lentil soup from the school cafeteria today, and brought it back to my office to eat. However, when I stirred my soup around, I found white crescent shaped things in the soup! There were so many. Worried that they were worms, I examined them. The first time, I couldn't be sure-- they were not all uniform, and I couldn't make out any segmentation-- seeming to say that they were not worms. However, for one or two of the white things I examined, I found a slight black spot near the top of the crescent. A head?!

Frantic, I googled "lentil soup white worm" and came up with a couple comments on blog posts reporting the same problem. Relieved that I was not alone in this, I read on. It seems that there is a small controversy among readers about whether these are indeed worms or if they're just sprouts.

The entries I looked at:
Red Lentil Soup Recipe at Dove's Eye View
Living the Life: Lentil Soup

Most readers seemed to think they were sprouts. Only one wrote a strongly worded comment saying it could possibly be worms, but she detailed her findings as "segmented crescents"-- which was not my case.

Upon further examination, some of these white crescents were attached-- seemed a part of-- a piece of lentil skin. This was quite often the case. Other crescents seemed to have a fibrous ending. I did not find any white crescents with segments. So, I have come to the conclusion that these are indeed lentil sprouts, and I am now eating my lentil soup in decided peace.

I intend to make lentil soup later this season and add kale from my garden for extra nutrition :)

December goals

I am going to start a goal list for things I need to do when I get out of school this fall quarter.

[ ] Finish the "little silk shrug" I started last year.[ ] Finish the "felicity" hip slouch beanie I started this quarter.

That's when I first started, about a week and a half ago?

There it is now, on top of my evidence base for a final paper.

[ ] Bake cookies. I bought chocolate chips in anticipation -.-;
[ ] Make HK style borscht. I first had it at LA cafe (the red soup)... but we no longer go to LA cafe, hopefully for reasons unrelated to the soup. Then I went over to my friend's house, and she made it for dinner... it was sooo good. To my surprise, she said it was borscht... but Chinese style. I guess good stuff will migrate across miles and cultures. Tomato (instead of beet) + water base (maybe throw some chicken stock in there?), plus onions, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic and parsley, perhaps? Maybe add chicken or beef? Yeah baby. Get me some bread and butter and call it good.
[ ] Finish up resizing my dad's old shirt for my personal use. My dad was going to Goodwill this shirt with a beautiful plaid pattern. "I'd wear that if it were my size," I thought. So I took it from the Goodwill pile and pinned tucks and folds into the back and front to draw it in at the torso. I'm not sure if it will work out or not, but if it doesn't-- I have only robbed an unfortunate person of a good find at Goodwill. Anyway, I pinned the approximate measurements last year, but this is what it has been looking like in my room since then:
The picture of which reminds me of another goal...
[ ] Clean up the room for real. I'm more of a "mess manager" right now... but I really need to figure out what to do with all the papers, books and crafts around my room. There's not enough space for it all! Sub categories:
...[ ] Get a new craft drawer organizer. I have this thing which has been holding everything from stationary to my beads to my yarn and needles to random crap. The wheel in the back is broken, so the craft drawer organizer slouches dangerously to the left.
...[ ] Figure out what to do with all my OT program papers. This is just a pile of the stuff I accumulated last year, not knowing what to do with it all/being too lazy to look through everything and recycle the unnecessaries:

By the way... thanks to Dorothy for that CD on the top: OC Mix 2, which actually has good music (although I never watched the show). Anyway... that pile is representative of my indecisive nature about what to do with anything in my room. It seems necessary to have it out at the time, for easy access. The second step is that the time to have it out passes, but I forget about its existence, so it stays out. The third step is accumulation of a pile.

I think that last goal is big enough to last 4 weeks, potentially. So I'll call the list good for now :)

rakkasei zoroi

I think that's what the package says in Japanese. They're beautiful, delicious Japanese rice crackers with peanuts on the inside and various outers. I love them... I could eat them all the time. I bought these kind in Japan. There are some pretty good ones sold at Uwajimaya here in Seattle, but they don't have this kind of aristry. Something to be savored.

Gardening

Lately I've been into gardening. Somehow, the idea of growing one's own food is very enticing. And, just growing things is somehow rewarding... caring for it, watering, weeding. I even cleared land to plant my plants!

I may be turning into my grandmother, although she never directly taught me anything about knitting, crocheting, sewing, or gardening.

One of my pots of strawberries, above. Squirrels keep getting the berries! Argh...

My bell pepper plant. I hope it flowers in time.

A bush cucumber. I just put it in and it's early July, so I hope I didn't plant too late.

Above three: I have 2 tomato plants in pots. A "4th of July" medium sized tomato (just starting to blush yellow... so not quite ready on the 4th of July as it claims), and a cherry "sungold." I got them at the Bellevue Farmer's Market and they were expensive, but they are working out better than the $2 tomato plants my mom got from Fred Meyer, so far.

My zucchini plant, "costata." It is growing leaves ferociously, but I'm not sure when it's supposed to fruit. By the end of summer, I hope.

I just sowed seeds for kale and swiss chard today, in hopes that I'll be able to harvest some in the fall/winter. We'll see how that goes. My mom is skeptical of plants that start from seed. I have a ton of kale seeds left over. I'll either have to clear the rest of the garden plot (a couple hours!), find an existing clear spot to grow them, or just keep the seeds for next spring. Or I could find someone to give seeds to. I don't know how to cook or fix chard OR kale, so I'll have to research that. I was just desperate for something to grow in midsummer, and my options were limited.