~ Dinner With Dad ~

 Once a week dad and I have a dinner date.  Most of the time I cook the meal here, then load it up in the car and reheat the meal at dad's house. Dad takes the leftovers from our date to his friend Bruce that is 84 yrs old.   Every now and then we go to a restaurant but that is rare because both of us are very mindful of what we eat these days.  This week our visit was cut short due my lack of sleep.  Once back home, I was wide awake.  Yes, I feel a bit guilty but in my defense dad keeps his house very warm.  The menopause thermostat at my house is on 65 during the winter.   I've always liked things a bit cooler than most but this year my internal thermostat is broken. I'm sure in time it will reverse and my kids will dread visiting the old lady hot house.  Anyway since I was awake it was off to the Studio to put the finishing touches on my current project and make a final pull for my next project.  The quilt math is complete and I'm ready to start cutting and piecing today.  The quilt will require (2) FQ each of the following...yellow, green, blue, red.  (1) Pink FQ, (4) F8 brown.  Yardage for the background, borders and binding.  Soon I'll give you a peek of the blocks.  

So..... back to that dinner date with dad.  Dad eats a low carb, low sugar diet.  My diet is low carb, NO sugar.  Most of the time he's fine with eating healthy he occasionally likes so called REAL down home cooking.  This week was a mishmash of both.  I made a big ole pork roast Tuesday for me and Mr. Podunk.  Making meats that can be used for several days in several different dishes reduces my time in the kitchen and more time in the Studio.  The first night the pork was served up as plain ole pork roast with two sides, green salad and potatoes.  No potatoes for me.  For the dad dinner date it was turned into barbecued pulled pork for dad.

I don't eat sugar so for me it was just plain ole pulled pork.  Well that's not true, I added some of this yummy collagen and fat to my pork.  See how it looks like jello?  That stuff is liquid gold!  Great for your hair, skin, and nails.  Fights wrinkles by making your skin more elastic!

Yes it looks nasty on the spoon but once heated it turns into liquid gold soup.

And what goes with soup on a cold winter day?  BREAD!  Sadly, I no longer eat wheat and grains, so real bread is out of the question.  But where there's a will there's a way.  No grains, no gluten and no sugar in my homemade buns.

Every couple of months I'll make double batch for us to share.  He eats more sandwiches than I so I  usually give him most of them.   I bet your wondering how to make bread with now wheat or grains.  If your interested here's the video recipe I used.   I add a couple extra things to "spice" up the bread.

The additions 

1.  3 TB Nutritional yeast-  Natural source of vitamin B

2.  1 TB Bread Machine Yeast -  adds a little flavor but can not rise due to the lack of sugar in the recipe

Who can eat a BBQ sandwich without fries or chips?  Remember I don't eat potatoes and dad is low carb.  So I whipped up a no potato, low carb, no sugar Tater Tot.

It takes a little effort to eat a low carb, no sugar diet.   These tasty little Tots were made from cauliflower.  Again I altered the recipe a little bit to suit my diet and taste buds. Click here for recipe.

No, the cauliflower don't taste exactly like a tater tot but they are a great vehicle for a no sugar added ketchup.  They reminded me more of old fashion southern potato cakes.

No dinner date is complete without dessert.  Dessert can be tricky when you don't eat white sugar or most fruit.  Fruit is full of sugar that WILL raise my blood sugar.  The little single serve cheesecakes I whipped up were a real treat.  No recipe for the filling.  I just started dumping .....cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, Monkfruit sweetener <--- (cheaper at the grocery) and a touch of lemon extract.  The crust is made using crushed pecans.  Even if I started eating sugar again I'd use this crust recipe for some of my pies.  It's amazing with Monkfruit sweetener I bet with sugar it would be even better!  MMMM....YUMMY!  The video tutorial for the crust can be found by clicking here.  I omitted the cooking of the crust for a quicker softer crust.  

After Dinner(lunch to you younger folks) we usually chitchat or watch a movie.  This weeks chitchat was about this Elvis Presley cookbook.  Remember Bruce from earlier in this post?  He LOVES Elvis.  His Elvis collection is quite impressive.  Well he wanted me to see this book.....

.....and the recipe for Meatloaf.  So guess what I'll be cooking next week?  I'm pretty sure my normal meatloaf recipe is better than this one.  I say recipe but really my recipe is dump a little of this and that.  But I'm a people pleaser and if an 84 yr old friend wants Elvis meatloaf I'm more than happy to accommodate his wishes. 

The Elvis cookbook is basically a southern cookbook with what we now call comfort foods.  Rare pictures and stories were tucked into the pages to make it extra special for the Elvis enthusiast.

As I thumbed through the pages a recipe for Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches gave me a chuckle. I knew Elvis loved peanut butter and banana sandwiches but do we really need a recipe?  LOL!   And honestly I've eaten a PB&B but not like this recipe!