Mousse, Delectable Pork Ribs and an Icy Cold Day

Temperature outside: 0 degrees
Oh how I love you Wisconsin....sometimes. Being shut up in the house during this blast of unrealistic cold has left me with a most wonderful urge to just cook like crazy.
I was so excited because I found this amazing recipe for Mocha Muffins that are completely THM, but then it dawned on me that I have 3 racks of incredible pork ribs slow cooking in my oven....sooooooo, there will be no baking.

By the way, these ribs are also THM if you don't use honey in the sauce and are absolutely out-of-this-world incredible.
 Rubbed Barbecue Pork Ribs Paleo Style
The dry rub used in the above recipe is just wonderful. I use it to season chicken legs, thighs, whole chickens, turkey, any pork cuts. Basically, if it's meat and you want to season it, this is a great rub to use.

Oh, another thing to celebrate! Our local Wal-Mart has begun selling Joseph's Pita Breads! So exciting!!! These pita's are perfect for sandwiches, buns - hotdog or burger - and toast. We really missed eating eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast, but no longer! They toast nicely, although they aren't so nice if toasted too much, and you can eat them in an S meal, so enjoy the blessed butter!

So, back to my dilemma of not being able to bake because the oven is on. I found a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Mousse and it looks really good. I think that's what I'll start with.


Okay, I must admit, I have this fascination with recipes using gelatin. I remember learning all about gelatin in biology at one point and I have been fascinated by it ever since. The fist thing this recipe tells me to do is let gelatin sit over coconut milk for a few seconds! Awesome! Love watching gelatin change as it sits.

Then you get to whiz up a few more wonderful ingredients like cream cheese, pumpkin, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice.

 Glorious deliciousness. I did a little less than 1/2 teaspoon of stevia and it was just the right amount.

Now that mousse will be for my Dad and I, but my Mom is trying to avoid Stevia and erythratol so now I'm going to attempt to do a simpler copycat using 1 teaspoon of molasses for sweetener.

1 oz. cream cheese
1/3 cup pumpkin
splash of vanilla
few shakes pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon molasses - can I just say that I adore molasses!

I mixed that all together....not to shabby but not thrilling by any means

2ish Tablespoons Coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon glucomannan
Beat it to smoothness....not too bad. If you like sweet go with the other mousse recipe, but if you can't have sweeteners then this is yum.
 :)

Just a Picture

Just a picture to hopefully brighten you day and remind you that eating good food can be every bit as delightful and more than eating foods that harm your health. This was breakfast a few days ago. (And it will be breakfast again very soon.)

Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes

For the first time this week, I have tried my hand at THM menu making. I've made plenty of menus and grocery lists in my day, but this was the first time making a THM menu.  It takes a little bit more thought and planning, but it was good practice. Now that school has started up, Mom's extra busy teaching and since I am now officially done with school it was high time that I learned how to make the menus. :-) So I pulled out the THM book and a random Taste of Home cookbook and got to work.

This recipe is a revamped recipe from the Taste of Home 2004 cookbook. It would normally be a Satisfying meal, but I cut out a few things to make it Energizing so that we could enjoy some fresh, on-sale fruit. Yum! They were tasty! We usually eat our tuna fish on Ezekiel 4:9 bread, but I think I have found a new favorite way to serve my tuna.

Tuna-Stuffed Tomatoes
2 cans tuna, drained and flaked
1/2 to 3/4 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 Tablespoons dill pickle relish
salt and pepper to taste
5-7 medium tomatoes, cored
In a bowl, combine tuna, mayo, celery, onion, pickle relish, salt and pepper. Chill (or not) Cut an opening in the top of each tomato and clean all the wet seeds out. Fill the tomatoes with tuna mixture. Top with green onions if desired.

Since this is an Energizing meal, we had cantaloupe slices with ours. It was so light and fresh and TASTY! We shall see how the rest of the week with my menu planning goes. :-)

Trim Healthy Chocolate Custard

 

Well, I succeeded and I won't lie, I am exceptionally happy!!!

Ice cream is probably my favorite food in the world. But custard is amazing and personally when I say ice cream, I mean custard or ice cream. In my book, they are both incredible.

A few months ago we found Breyer's Carb Smart ice cream and that tastes pretty good, but the sweetener that they use gives my Mom headaches and makes her feel light headed. Not to mention, only their vanilla tastes any good. Chocolate was bleck!

 

Needless to say, we really needed a good chocolate ice cream that actually tasted REAL!!! So that was my mission. To make a delicious, REAL tasting chocolate custard.

And I did. :-)

*happy dance*

 

Before I start, I should share the original recipe that I worked off of.

Click here to see the original recipe.

 

 

First you mix together 1 cup of Almond milk with 3/4 cup of Turvia (homemade), 4 Tablespoons cocoa powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

 That may seem like a lot of Truvia, but our homemade stuff is about the equivalent sweetness as sugar.

 Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until it is at a hot simmer.

Then you are going to mix 1/2 cup of this hot mixture with 3 egg yolks. Once it's well mixed you add that to the pot and cook until it is about to boil. You DO NOT want to boil the mixture because your egg yolks will clump and that will not be a delightful experience.

Take the mixture off of the heat and refrigerate it for a couple hours or until completely cooled.

 

 

While the custard mixture was in the fridge, Rachel and I mad this scrumptious lunch of hot tuna on pitas, with a egg/spinach salad that had the most incredible flavor. I like spinach about as much as most people. But this had some red wine vinegar mixed in with some seasonings and it was the best!!!!

 

 

After the chocolate mixture is cooled, you add 2 cups heavy whipping cream and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Doesn't that just look like the most beautiful chocolate/cream painting ever?! Seriously, this makes me want to paint so bad!

 

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker. For my machine, we churned it for 25 minutes which made it a soft serve consistency. It may take longer or shorter depending on your machine.

Now that is some serious yumminess right there!

I scooped mine out and put it in the freezer until after dinner, but you could eat it right out of the ice cream maker.

 

Sorry about the sad pictures. Our ice cream scoop broke, so I tried using this round plastic measuring cup and when I tried to scoop the ice cream up, the handle broke off. Very sad.

Yes Mom, now I need to add 1/3 cup to the list of kitchen utensils that I have broken in the last couple of weeks and need to replace. :-) 

 

 

And now here is the more official looking recipe that will be much easier to copy selection and print.....plus it will save printer ink without all of those pictures.

Please tell me I am not the only one who thinks like this.....haha.

 

Trim Healthy Chocolate Custard - S dessert

1 cup Almond milk

3/4 cup Truvia

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons cocoa powder

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

 

Combine Truvia, almond milk, salt and cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a simmer. Place the egg yolks into a small bowl. Gradually stir in about 1/2 cup of the hot liquid and return to the saucepan. Heat until thickened, but do not boil. Remove from heat and refrigerate for about two hours until cold, stirring occasionally. When chocolate mixture has completely cooled, stir in the cream and vanilla. Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

 

I hope y'all enjoy this as much as we did!!!!

Stacy Makes Cents Link-Up

 

Chocolate Custard - Are You Ready For A Challenge?

Today is a very emotional, difficult day for my family. I'm sure I'll share more later, but for right now I'm just going to ask you for your prayers.

One of the wonderful qualities of food is it's comfort capabilities. God is the only one who can totally fill our hearts with peace and comfort, but food can often help our emotions. Today is just one of those days where chocolate custard is a necessity.  So amidst the sadness and emotional struggles I am going to attempt to make a THM version of chocolate custard.

Hopefully it works.....we shall see.

#1 Ahhhhh!!!! Trip Healthy Mama Amazon Rap

Energizing Peach Pancakes



 

 

It's finally that time of year when peaches start going on sale and the whole world just starts getting better. I used to dislike peaches immensely. They're mushy, hairy fruit for heaven's sake! But alas, they have won over my affections and I now love them.

Well, a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine from The Confessions of a Cookaholic blog, made these incredible peach pancakes and posted pictures of them on Facebook. Of course, that caused some instant cravings amongst the members of my family - myself included - so Mom established that I really needed to try making a THM version.

 

"Trim Healthy Pancakes" (pg. 223) are Energizing, which means we can have fruit with them so I just stuck to that basic recipe. It's so easy and I can whip up a batch lickity split.

I pitted and sliced up a couple of ripe, but not mushy peaches.

Then I went ahead and made a batch of pancake batter.

Heat your pan up before you pour on the batter. Sadly since it is an energizing meal, you can't grease the pan with butter so I just lightly misted it with cooking spray. This may be difficult for die-hard butter fans, but believe me, the peaches make up for the butter.

Ahem....my batter was a little runny this morning.  But if your pan is heated up all the way before you pour on the batter it won't matter if your batter is a little runny. The above issue only happened with the first 3 pancakes.

 

With the first batch, I just plopped on a peach slice right before I flipped them. The problem is, that gives the dough under the peach no time to cook. And doughy peaches are really not that appetizing.

So, I got a little smarter. I poured the dough on the pan and after 10 seconds I put the peach slices on and pushed them down as far as they went. This way, the peaches got to cook longer and the dough underneath them was cooked.

We topped our pancakes with Greek yogurt sweetened with homemade Truvia and I added some fresh peach slices cause it made 'em look perty.