Keto candy Thursday

A super-quick blog to address how I handled my (very) strong desire for Reese's PB Cups during Halloween. Specifically, I wanted the Reese's PB Bats, but I digress.

One fun thing about this whole keto WOE (way of eating - learning something new every day!) is that it allows for a lot of what you want to eat. It just takes a little bit of time to learn modifications and adjustments to recipes. 

Thus far, in no particular order, I've made the following foods in a way that complies with keto "rules". I use the term "rules" loosely. Hence the overuse of quotation marks.

- Pizza (Fathead pizza crust is on another level)
- Breakfast burritos
- Peanut butter cups
- Chocolate chip cookie dough
- Pancakes

The list goes on. Since I plan to keep blogging the recipes, though, I'll add more - as well as more blogs with recipes - to expand what I've been doing. 

This is what I made last week for my peanut butter cup cravings. And also, I made it again today. As in, just now. 

I am unable to make candy in a way that is neat. This is not problematic for me, however.

The recipe is simple. Here's what you'll need:
- 1 cup all-natural peanut butter (peanuts and salt should be the only ingredients)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- Sweetener of your choice to taste - I use about 2 T of a stevia/erythritol blend (optional)
- 1/2 cup of Lily's dark chocolate chips
- 1 T of coconut oil 

You can also sub in almond butter if you like. 

Line a mini-muffin tin with paper liners - or not. These will slide out fairly easily without. 

Melt the PB and  1/4 cup coconut oil over low heat in a saucepan, or in the microwave in a bowl. Stir together, and after removing from heat, add your sweetener.  Make sure everything is mixed well, and then fill mini-muffin tins about 3/4 full with the melted PB. 

Melt the chocolate chips and remaining 1 T of coconut oil in the microwave in 20 second increments, stirring until smooth.  To get the drizzled, marble effect here*, just add a generous spoonful of the melted chocolate to each cup. 

*Note: I will make true PB cups - where the chocolate encases the PB - in another post. This is the fastest way to make them.

Stick in the freezer or the fridge until firm. Most of the chocolate sinks to the bottom, creating a lovely chocolate layer on the bottom, while the rest of the PB cup is swirled throughout with chocolate. 

Nutritional info (per each PB cup): 100 cal, 8.6 g fat, 2.8 carbs, 2.4 protein

Keto grocery shopping, and more running music

I recently went through the painstaking process of cleaning my pantry and refrigerator.  For most, I don't think it's all that difficult of a concept, but I was raised in a household that believed you should always have enough food in the pantry to survive a zombie apocalypse, space and convenience be damned.  So, my natural train of thought after cleaning it out was, of course, to fill it right back up again. 

I did Keto way before it became a "thing", but...

So, I've been hearing a lot about keto, ketosis, the keto diet...it all started back in the summer when Billy Football (intern for Pardon My Take, pretty much the best sports podcast out there - if you don't know who Big Cat and PFTCommenter are, we need to talk) got his bosses onto that keto lifestyle.  Drinking a gallon of water a day, cutting out carbs...these guys were roasting sausages in the office and peeing on keto test strips on the daily in order to lose weight. 

I didn't think much of it myself until a few friends got really serious about it, then decided to take a little keto journey of my own.

Garlicky Smashed Potatoes

We need to lighten things up a bit around here, so I'm going to throw in a food post that will hopefully make everyone who tries it as happy as it made us here. We love potatoes in this household, and I enjoy trying out new recipes whenever possible. I bought a 5 pound bag of red potatoes recently, and after looking at something similar from Ree Drummond (also known as The Pioneer Woman), I decided to give it a try. 

Gouda bacon mac n' cheese, and an update

I have to give props to my friend Colly for calling me out on not posting here, even though I post snippets of food porn onto my Facebook feed with some regularity. Last night, in celebration of Mama P's safe arrival and general happiness at the end of the week, I decided to make honey garlic chicken, Gouda bacon mac n' cheese, kale chips, and a pear-strawberry cobbler.  Save for the kale chips, the original version of all of these recipes can be found on my Pinterest page.

Roasted Eggplant Parmesan Stacks

So it's been a long time since I posted a recipe...I posted the following photo onto Facebook and found that a few folks wanted to know how to make this, so I decided a blog would be a quick and easy way to put it out there :) 

Christmas Crack (technically, Turtle Grahams)

OK - so one of the most loved recipes I made last Christmas was a recipe I'd found online called "Turtle Graham Bars" by Claire Robinson, host of Food Network's 5 Ingredient Fix. Her recipes are usually pretty decent, so I decided to give this one a whirl. I ended up adapting it to what I had in house, which happened to be mixed nuts (versus pecans) and light brown sugar (versus dark). The end result was still lovely, however, and so I've decided to go ahead and put it here. 

Recipe: Oreo cake truffles

It has been WAY too long since I've posted a recipe, so I decided to kick this off with a bang. One of my favorite desserts as of late has been the cake truffle. I first had one at my favorite restaurant here in South Bend - Uptown Kitchen - and ever since I've been wondering how to make one. They taste like a wonderfully decadent cake...but words don't really do them justice.  While researching different ways to make cake truffles, I happened upon the Oreo cake truffle. This recipe doesn't actually involve cake, per se, but the texture is almost exactly the same as a cake truffle, and the way of assembling the dessert is the same. Enough of an introduction, eh? Let's get to the recipe.

Chicken and white bean chili and a trip to the Keys

I have been spoken to firmly about why I haven't been posting, so I'm back now and deciding to update this woefully neglected blog.  In my defense, I spent the last two weeks in FL with my Mama - she had surgery (nothing complicated), and I flew down there to help take care of her, cook, grocery shop, all that good stuff.  We also managed to make a trip down to a family friend's home in the Keys...in my opinion, there's nothing more healing than salt water and the sound of the ocean.  Our friends - who you would recognize if you were at our wedding, as Richard gave the father of the bride speech, he was one of my Dad's closest friends and he and his wife have always been close with me and my Mom - have the most lovely house on the Gulf of Mexico. 

Chicken, veggie, and fruit kabobs

Just for fun, I thought I'd throw some easy recipes out there for summertime.  John just got a new grill for his birthday, so every weekend we like to grill steaks, burgers, et cetera. However, I really want to start experimenting with things outside of the standard grill and BBQ fare, and so I am starting small and working my way up.

Casserole disasters and tooterfish dreams...

Lately, I've been a kick where I want to make casseroles. King Ranch casseroles, tuna fish casseroles, anything that I can just throw into a dish and then throw into the oven sounds good to me. Unfortunately, however, the love of my life is much less interested in these pursuits than I am, and so nary a casserole has been seen in my kitchen.

Secret blogs and Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

So, friends in the blogosphere, you've noticed that my blog has become private. I'm completely safe, and there's nothing crazy going on with blog stalkers or people who have become violent in an attempt to make me confess my Mom's secret bulgogi recipe. (Don't get any ideas - I'll cook it for you anytime, but I'd never share the actual recipe. Have you ever been beaten with chopsticks? I have, and it's not pretty.)

Fish tacos, Cayman style

One of my favorite places in the world is Grand Cayman Island, where I spent my honeymoon last year.  I had the opportunity to go back again this March, and it's been firmly cemented as not only one of my favorite vacation spots, but my favorite dive location as well.  The place that we always eat first when going to the island (and usually visit several more times throughout the stay) is a little resort called Sunshine Grill, made famous by their fish tacos and their Painkiller cocktails.

Food blog: Spinach fettuccine with shrimp, goat cheese and veggies

Apologies in advance for the lack of pictures in this blog...

So one of my favorite dishes that I've created is this spinach fettuccine pasta dish.  I was tooling around in my pantry trying to figure out how to best make use of spinach pasta, and I had quite a few veggies that were sitting around in the fridge, so I came up with this.

Birthday cakes...(please don't call me a Wreckerator)

So, the love of my life turned 28 today. (I'm the older one in this relationship...hehe.) And I decided, since we were celebrating our wedding anniversary and his birthday this weekend, that it'd be fun to take on a whole new cake project in order to celebrate his birthday.  You see, with last year's wedding and honeymoon, his birthday sort of went on a back burner, and I've felt badly about that...so I wanted to go all out and make his birthday really special.

Food Blog: Sun-dried tomato and feta turkey meatloaf

First of all, sorry for the hiatus! A lot has been going on since I returned from Georgia, to include cutting my first orders for my Reserve job (really, this isn't complicated, but it was my first time so I was a little freaked about if I was doing it right), but I'm back on track.  I've been cooking a LOT lately, as well, and reading some foodie autobiographies, so I have a lot to update. 

Been too long!

OK - so I'm usually pretty good about updating this blog, but between doing a ton of Air Force stuff this week (note to self: service dress blues simply will never look, fit, or feel the same way as a civilian business suit, and one should not be crestfallen one when looks into the mirror and admits this fact after 2 years out of the uniform), having my Mom come into town, and heading out on a girls' road trip, it's been crazy!

However, a few things: one, I started back up on my training for my next race and it's going smashingly. Sometime after finishing my last race, I realized that I have no excuses to stop on a run - unless I'm injured or sick, obviously - because I've proven to myself that I CAN do it, and therefore, owe it to myself and to my training to finish what I start. This "mental breakthrough" of sorts has been instrumental in me succeeding at my first bout of speedwork for this next race, and I intend to write much more on the topic.  My first experiments with speedwork have been doing one-mile 5K pace repeats...as a 5K race pace is much, much faster than a half-marathon pace, these have really been helpful.  Next up - fartleks.  Might be a word you don't like to say out loud, but they're great for picking up the speed :)

Secondly, I've really started getting into the creation of new desserts, so I will be posting a great recipe on how to make triple chocolate toffee cookies - they're the size of bakery cookies and just as delicious, and very easy to make....you just have to buy a lot of ingredients, because like the name says, they use three different types of chocolate.  I'm also experimenting with shortbread - it's the kind of cookie where you can make a ton of different flavors with very basic core ingredients of flour, sugar, and butter, so I'm looking forward to posting about that here. 

Now you can see why I have to counteract the cooking of the blog with the running of the blog, yes?  

Food Blog: Chicken Cordon Bleu Redux and Asparagus with baby Portobellos and sun-dried tomatoes

Today's blog focuses on a complete meal - Chicken Cordon Bleu (adapted from Tyler Florence, I admit that I take it easier on the butter and olive oil than he does to cut fat, and I use a little less cheese as well), along with my own creation of fresh asparagus stir fried with fresh baby Portobello mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes for a punch.

Food Blog: Sun-dried Tomato Marinade

As promised, there is a marinade recipe that goes along with the post from this week's pasta dish.  As I had already made it and had the chicken soaking in the marinade, I didn't have any pictures, but I thought I would still go ahead and post the recipe.  Here's what I used:

Food Blog: Penne with Butternut Squash, Goat Cheese, and Walnuts

OK - so while I mentioned long ago in this blog that I absolutely love to cook, I noticed that I have yet to write about it.  I think food is an important part of this blog, however, for one of many reasons - as a runner, I love to eat. I follow a fairly specific diet to fuel myself for each run (especially the long ones and the races), and so I'm always looking for healthy, light, complex-carb laden meals that will actually taste good.  Every now and then, I create a new recipe, and I will feature one of those later on this blog.