Recipes

Now you're a low carber and those bygone non-Low-Carb lunches of yesteryear are out of the question. You're losing weight and feeling great on your Low-Carb Lifestyle, but you're still a bit stumped over what to have for lunch. I mean, really! How much tuna salad can a person eat without sprouting gills? What in the world do you put the meat between to construct a sandwich? What could possibly replace canned soup?

I promised my husband fish a few days ago, so tonight we're having Italian Fish Fillets. I find that it takes more fish than beef to fill me up and make me feel completely satisfied, so I always count on one half pound of fish per person. That doesn't mean that my family of four always polishes off two pounds of fish, but to my way of thinking it's better to have too much (and have leftovers for lunch the next day) than it is to have too little.

There are certain instinctive drives that all human beings share. Hunger is one of them. Eating is necessary for our survival as individuals, so we eat. We can't live without eating, so the drive to eat is hardwired into our psyches. As individuals, we can live without sex, but as a species we cannot, so that drive is also hardwired into our psyche.

I'm a beef person; my husband is a fish person. Tonight I'm satisfying MY taste buds and serving Steak Diane. Sometime over the weekend I'll fix some salmon, his all-time favorite fish, just to be evenhanded. (Don't you just hate being fair and considering everybody's tastes? As far as I'm concerned, being "nice" is highly overrated. Why do I keep on doing it?!? Because I'm a patsy, that's why.)

The inspiration for tonight's menu comes from Susan M., someone I've known from various low carb lists and a CarbSmart Magazine reader. The Sizzling Steak Salad she suggested sounded so good that I asked her if I could use her idea for Low Carb Cooking 101. Thank goodness she said yes, because I really wanted to share it with all of you. Thanks, Susan!

I served this meal last week out in the sunroom with all the windows up and the ceiling fans creating a mild tempest. Judy went nuts with her crayons and markers and made Mexican placemats and napkins. She wanted me to buy a pinata, but I drew the line at that. After all, we're moving in a few weeks and the one thing I don't need is anything more to pack!

Ah, Memorial Day! It's not just a day off work. It's time to take the opportunity to remember those military personnel who have given their lives so that we can remain a free nation. Take a moment to remember our fallen men and women. Fly your American flag, and be thankful.

I like lamb. I like lamb A LOT. But as fate would have it, I am married to a non-lamb-loving man. He doesn't hate it, exactly, but he does nothing more than tolerate it unless I jazz it up with some sauce of some kind. Sauces he likes - the more sauce of any kind, the better. He likes it best when there's so much sauce that he can barely see the meat or fish under it.

Spring and Easter always make me think of baked ham. That makes sense within the context of ham being a traditional Easter dish, but then I start wondering why ham is a traditional Easter dish. Hogs are traditionally slaughtered in the fall, not the spring. It would make more sense if ham were traditional for Thanksgiving or Christmas, not Easter. But then, how long does it take to cure a ham? Weeks? Months? I honestly don't know. Maybe ham is traditional for Easter because that's when it is finally cured/smoked to perfection.

I'm always trying out new salmon recipes for Rod, and came up with Broiled Salmon With Zesty Lime Mustard a while ago. While the recipe calls for broiling the salmon fillets, you could cook these on an outdoor grill, too. I have a nifty little device that was made especially for grilling fish on an outdoor barbecue. It is a metal "cage" with a long wooden handle, and eliminates the problem of the fish fillets sticking to and/or falling apart when you cook them. Mine is a big one that holds 6 to 8 salmon fillets, but I have seen smaller ones for 1 or 2 fillets. In fact, I saw one at one of the dollar stores earlier this spring, and bought several to give away as presents - and kept a couple for myself, too, of course. They were only about $3.00 each, and worth every penny.

Franklin Roosevelt promised "a chicken in every pot" when he was first campaigning for the presidency. The Depression was in full swing, and having chicken for dinner - or any kind of meat! - was a luxury many people couldn't afford.