I like deviled eggs once in a while. They are a pain to make, but they are good. And when I do make them, I usually eat them just as fast. But they not low fat. I decided to try making some low fat deviled eggs. This is what I came up with. These were okay. There is still room for improvement. I think using regular yellow mustard instead of dry mustard? I can play with it.
Ingredients:
6 tbsp egg substitute (such as Egg Beaters)
6 hard cooked eggs
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons reduced fat mayonnaise
Paprika
Directions:
Pour egg beaters into an 8 inch non-stick skillet, and heat over medium low heat until in sets. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Cut eggs in half and remove yolks. Discard the yolks. Mash up cooked egg substitute with fork, and mix in mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and dry mustard. Fill whites of egg with mixture. Lightly dust with paprika.
I was looking through the circulars for my local grocery stores. The one I normally shop at had no Healthy Choice/Lean Cuisine/Weight Watchers meals on sale. So I checked the ad for the other nearby grocery store. Cool! They had all Lean Cuisine meals (6-12oz) on sale for 6/$10. And on top of that, there was a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $50 or more! So I went into the store, and gathered 30 of them. I tried to get the larger sized ones that looked interesting. As they rang them up, I saw that some of them normally sell for over $3, while others normally sell for $2.29. But they all rung up for $1.69. And with the $5 off coupon, it brought the price down to $1.50 each. I loaded up the freezer with them. I still have a little more room in there. Maybe I’ll go later this week. Since I eat two or three of the meals at work everyday. And my wife eats them too. So by the end of the week there will be more room, and I might be able to pick up another 30 Lean Cuisine meals. Yum!
A friend gave me some venison to try. I am not a hunter, and haven’t had venison in years. Shee gave me a couple steaks, some ground venison, and some stew meat. I liked the steaks. The ground venison made some very lean burgers. I still had the stew meat. I am not really big on stews. But I pulled the venison chunks out of the freezer to thaw, and decided I would do something with them. I decided to run them through my meat grinder, and make more ground venison. I had a meat grinder attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer, but have never used it. So I pulled it out, washed it, and read the directions. Grinding the venison was a snap. I made some low fat Venison Stroganoff. Venison is VERY LEAN MEAT. It almost makes me want to take up hunting for cheap lean meat. And the deer from our area eat a lot of corn, so the meat is very mellow tasting and good.
Ingredients:
8 ounces uncooked egg noodles
1 pound ground venison
1 cup chopped onion
1 (8-ounce) package sliced fresh mushrooms
1 (12-ounce) jar fat-free beef gravy
1 (8-ounce) carton fat-free sour cream
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon sherry (optional)
Directions:
Bring a pot of water to boiling. Add noodles, and cook for 10 minutes.
While the noodles are cooking, brown meat along with onions and mushrooms in a large non-stick skillet on medium heat. Stir the mixture so that meat crumbles. Drain any excess grease.
Add gravy, sour cream, garlic salt, and pepper to the meat mixture, and mix well. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the sherry if you’d like.
When noodles are done cooking, drain them. Place noodles on serving plates, and spoon some of the meat/gravy mixture of the noodles, and serve.
If you own quality cooking equipment, you are going to enjoy cooking a lot more. And if you take care of it, it will last for many years. Now when I say quality cooking equipment, I dont mean the fancy designer stuff. Yeah that stuff looks great, and is expensive. But will it last? I have seen some Calphalon that looks heavy duty. It is made of thick aluminum, and has riveted handles. The the aluminum is anodized, and colored. The stuff is going to scratch, and look like crap, or you are going to have to hand wash it all the time, and be careful not to bang it into other stuff.
When I buy my cooking equipment, I go to a restaurant supply store. I buy the same stuff that restaurants use. Stuff that is NSF certified! (NOTE: NSF actually related to food safety certification, not quality…but restaurant grade stuff is going to be NSF certified). It’s not cheap. But the stuff is going to last a lifetime. And you really don’t need to buy a lot fo stuff. Sure you can go buy a whole set of pots and pans for $100, but the stuff isn’t going to last, and it will likely not cook evenly, and burn your food sometimes. And will you use all of the pieces?
My wife had the Corningware glass set of pots. I hate cooking with those. They always seem to burn food. A couple have broken over the years too.
I love Wear-Ever brand made by Lincoln. The NSF certified restaurant grade stuff. I own several regular finish skillets, an 8 inch, 10 inch, and 12 inch. I also own an 8 inch non-stick Wear-Ever skillet too. I am going to be buying a 12 inch non-stick skillet hopefully later today. These skillets can cost $30-$50 each. Like I said, they aren’t cheap, but they will last, and they work really well. I love going to a restaurant, or seeing one on TV, and I see them using the same pans I use at home. Of these, about the only one I don’t use much is the 8 inch regular finish. That because I will often use the 8 inch non-stick one instead. It’s great for making Omelettes. And the non-stick finishes? The one that I have I think is Silverstone or Silverstone II. The new one I am looking at buying is Ceramiguard II. These non-stick pans have come a long way sicne the old teflon ones. These surfaces last a long time!
For pots, I also have several Wear-Ever brand pots. And the lids ate interchangable witht he skillets too.
I have a large 20 quart stock pot. It’s not Wear-Ever. I think it is Atlas? But it is restaurant quality (NSF certified). I used to use a large cheap stainless steel stockpot. But it didn’t distribute heat well, and would burn stuff to the bottom of the pot. Liquids would also leak from where the handles were rivited to the body. I hated that pot! My new stock pot works so much better!!!
I have a stainless steel baking pan that I use all the time. It’s great for making lasagne, or baking salmon. I also use a Pyrex Glass type baking pan sometimes as well.
You want quality knives! But you don’t need a block full of them. I use main use only two of them. I have a 10 inch chef’s knife, and a paring knife. These are both made by Mundial. But similar knives are made by Wusthof, or Henkel. I also have a cool knife sharpener made by Wusthof. Buy a couple quality knives, and take good care of them! If you only buy one knife, buy a good quality chef’s knife! You will be using this one knife 90% of the time!
I also have some stainless steel tongs. I got these at the restaurant supply store too. They were actually only a few bucks each, but I use them all the time.