We're just a few weeks out from Easter, and you know what that means -- eggs are going to be cheap. Religious holidays aside, late winter/early spring is always a great time for eggs -- that's why they became a symbol of this spring religious festival. I have occasionally seen eggs as cheap as 4 dozen for a buck -- these were medium-sized eggs, to be sure, but still, at that price they might as well be giving them away. At prices like that, we can eat a lot of eggs.

I am, as we say in our house, "baking a beet loaf" -- making a meat loaf. It's similar to the recipe for Philippa's Meat Loaf in 500 More Low-Carb Recipes, with some substitutions based on what I had in the house. I combined:

2 pounds ground chuck
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs, from stale low carb bread
1/2 cup half-and-half
2 eggs
1 big onion, chopped fine
2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
1 scant tablespoon Vege-Sal

Daily Menu February 21, 2008

Breakfast:

Leftover Shepherd's Pie, warmed up and topped with two fried eggs (this was soooo good!)

Lunch:

Sliced cold lamb
Half a ruby red grapefruit

Snacks:

Spiced peanuts
Sugar-free dark chocolate

Dinner:

Oven-barbecued Pork "brisket" -- the edges cut off of spare ribs.
Cole Slaw

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling Water
Dry Red Wine

Daily Totals: 1689 Calories; 94g Fat; 108g Protein; 48g Carbohydrate; 15g Dietary Fiber

As mentioned in the Daily Menu, I roasted a leg of lamb Sunday evening. It had been in the freezer, vacuum-sealed, for over a year; I'd bought it on sale at $2.99/lb, and been waiting for an occasion when there were more than the two of us in the house. After all, it was almost 10 pounds!

This soup is amazing. It's my clone of a soup I tried at the Ellicottville Brewing Company in Ellicottville, New York. If you're ever in western New York (or even western Pennsylvania) the EBC is well-worth a trip out of your way.

Like all soups, it's best made with homemade broth. I'd just made broth Saturday, so soup for supper seemed mandatory.

African Peanut Soup

1/2 large onion -- chopped
1/2 cup diced celery
2 teaspoons butter
1 1/2 quarts chicken broth -- or three 14 ounce cans
1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cubed

Daily Menu February 18th, 2008

Breakfast:
Jalapeno jack omelet with salsa

Lunch:
Leftover African Peanut soup (This is too good. I'll post the recipe separately.)

Snack:
Sugar-free dark chocolate

Dinner:
Roasted leg of lamb (let it marinate for an hour or two before roasting in garlic olive oil and lemon juice)
Turnips roasted in the pan around the lamb.
Roasted asparagus

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling water
Dry red wine

Daily totals: 1809 Calories; 101g Fat; 101g Protein; 58g Carbohydrate; 18g Dietary Fiber, 40 grams usable carb

I'm home! I'm home! I got in in the middle of the night Wednesday, and spent a few days recovering. I'm still tired and achy, though I've started cooking again.

To address a question that came up since I've been away:

Yes, I've tried shirataki, both the "traditional" and "tofu" varieties. They've earned a place in my fridge, though I use them probably once a month or less.

Finally checking in. I've been in San Diego since January 30th, and haven't had a quiet moment.

Well, finally! Somebody answered the question "What is a calorie?" I was starting to wonder if it was just a slow day on the internet, or what...?

Got the answer right, too -- a calorie is a unit of energy, though I prefer to phrase it a "measurement of fuel." Just as we buy fuel for our cars in gallons (or, in the rest of the world, in liters) we buy fuel for our bodies in calories.

Daily Menu, January 24th, 2008

Breakfast:
Monterey jack omelet topped with salsa

Lunch:
Leftover rotisserie chicken, wrapped in romaine lettuce leaves

Snacks:
Sugar-free dark chocolate
Sugar-free Reese's peanut butter cup
A raw carrot

Dinner:
Curried Chicken Salad -- the remains of the rotisserie chicken diced and mixed with diced celery, a couple of sliced scallions, half an apple, also diced, toasted sliced almonds, and light mayo seasoned with curry powder and garlic.

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling water
Dry Red Wine

Now that I've posted the back column about 100 calorie snacks, here's the quiz question: What is a "calorie?"

More tomorrow.

Got it done. The manuscript went to McGraw-Hill Wednesday night. I confess I spent yesterday doing very little indeed. And I need to spend this weekend cleaning my house!

Then, I'm afraid, I have to prepare to leave town. I'm going to San Diego for a couple of weeks to oversee the rehabbing of my Dad's condo. I'm hoping to take a laptop along and blog from there. Can't guarantee it, though; my laptop needs a new fan.

Anyway, I'm still in recovery mode, so here's a column reprint for right now:

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Book goes in tomorrow. Racing my deadline (which they already extended by two days.) Barely taking time off to eat and sleep. More soon.

Back to my manuscript.

Daily Menu January 17, 2008

Breakfast:
A Monterey jack omelet topped with chunky salsa

Lunch:
I didn't really have lunch, I had instead several snacks over the course of the afternoon

Snacks:
Sugar-free dark chocolate
About 3 ounces of leftover pork steak I warmed up
A carrot -- Nick the Pug ate the top.
Late afternoon I was starving, so I had two fried eggs
Half a slice of the new low carb bread I tried, with butter

Dinner:
Pork chops browned then simmered with sliced onions, apple, and green pepper, with some chicken broth and Worcestershire

Beverages:
Tea

What with all this talk about low carb bread, I thought I should post about my recent experiments with baking my own.

I included several bread-machine recipes in 500 Low-Carb Recipes. They all worked great for me, or I wouldn't have put them in the book. But of all the recipes I've ever published, they're the ones that have turned out to be most problematic. For every reader who has written me raving about the bread, another has written to say that they couldn't get it to rise for love nor money.