Save Time with these Hacks (but not others)

Have your groceries delivered

During the pandemic, I had groceries delivered whenever I had a cold. Back then, delivery time slots filled up fast and there were a few odd substitutions because of shortages, but those problems are pretty much gone. When I use Instacart now, I can get groceries the same day and I'm happy with items (like produce) that the shoppers pick.

Whole Foods now delivers groceries even if you aren't a Prime member. Instacart delivers from Kroger, Wal-Mart, Target, some regional grocery stores, and a long list of hardware stores, dollar stores, drug stores, etc.

I don't recommend meal services, though--the kind where someone delivers a recipe and just enough ingredients for one meal. You still have to cook, you still have to clean, and you still have to shop for coffee and eggs.

Use a Food Processor

I used to be a prep cook at a restaurant, so I'm pretty fast at chopping, shredding and slicing ingredients. Even so, I use a food processor to prep ingredients for fermented produce like cultured cranberry-apple treat. It chops, shreds and slices food in seconds. You can also use it to make liver pâté, mayonnaise and hummus. I use a Cuisinart like this one I've had for over ten years. If you make a lot of these foods, it might be worth it to have one.

I don't recommend many kitchen gadgets, though. We didn't use them at the restaurant where I worked. A good set of knives (chef's, paring and serrated) and a good food processor are more versatile and durable than a bunch of little specialty choppers. If you're not ready to buy a food processor, check out this video from America's Test Kitchen on 3 knife skills everyone should know.

No-Fuss Fermentation

Making yogurt takes five minutes' prep and three ingredients. And yet I constantly see people adding make-work steps and looking for things to fuss over as if they're operating a nuclear reactor. Keep in mind that people have been fermenting food for thousands of years without thermometers, instant pots or ranges. I used to make yogurt in an insulated grocery bag with a heating pad (the setup I still use to ferment produce). In fact, I rarely see anyone complaining that simple methods like this didn't work for them--complaints are almost always from people using expensive equipment.

That said, do pasteurize raw milk before you ferment it. Bad bacteria can multiply exponentially during fermentation--killing it is time well spent.

Comments

My New Favorite Sweetener

If you're looking for a low-carb sweetener with no aftertaste, no franken-ingredients, and that doesn't upset your stomach, try monk fruit (also known as luo han guo). This is what Quest bars were sweetened with when they first came out. Monk fruit is Dr. Davis approved. You can buy monk fruit in powdered or liquid form; both are super-concentrated. They might seem expensive, but you use the powder by the spoonful (even in baking recipes) and the liquid by the drop. The baking recipes I've made with the powder have turned out well. Available from Amazon . Beware monk fruit sweeteners with erythritol. The package of powdered monk fruit sweetener I bought says, "Use 1/8 teaspoon to create the same sweet taste as 1 teaspoon of sugar." But it's so sweet that I use 1/10 the amount. To replace a cup of sugar, I would use 5 teaspoons of monk fruit sweetener. Tip: hand-stir this in before using the beaters. It's such a fine powder that it flies up and out of the ...

Mince Meat Pie Recipe, low carb

The star of Christmas dinner this year was made of unlikely ingredients. Fruit and beef tongue sound high carb or unpalatable, but mince meat pie was so popular 250 years ago that it was in many cookbooks from the time--and it wasn't just for Christmas. My version cuts the carbs by using tart cooking apples, cranberries, monk fruit sweetener and a nut flour crust. The main flavors are orange and slightly tart fruit; the meat and fat make it filling. Have it for dessert or with coffee or tea for breakfast. Make some soup with the collagen-filled broth and discover how tender and tasty the rest of the beef tongue is. Worth the time and effort. IMPORTANT--start this recipe the day before. Links in the recipe go to hard-to-find ingredients and directly to the cookbook with the recipe for the pie crust. (I made the almond flour variation of the crust.) Recipe 1 beef tongue (I get mine here ; look for farms or ranches in your area that sell directly to consumers) 2 Granny Smith apples 1 ...

Is the NIH Privately Helping Patients with COVID Vax Injuries?

In a recent letter from several attorneys general (AGs) demanding an explanation as to why so few vaccine-injured people have received so little compensation, the AGs asked a curious question: We have been told by constituents that NIH [National Institutes of Health] is privately helping patients across the country with COVID-19 vaccine–related injuries and is even bringing patients to NIH for study and treatment. Is that correct? Why have these activities not been better publicized? What sorts of studies of these patients is NIH currently conducting? What treatments is NIH administering? Photo from Pixabay . Most of the letter focused on compensation for COVID-19 vaccine injuries. As you know, vaccine manufacturers in the US have immunity from lawsuits, but people suffering from vaccine injuries can be compensated by the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP). But among the 10,000 COVID vaccine related claims, only 20 claimants have received compensation. "And but for...

Magnesium Tea: Peachy, Minty, Refreshing

Most readers know that magnesium supplementation is important, especially on low-carb diets. Magnesium deficiency is common, and low-carb diets require more magnesium--a mineral that's important for heart, muscle and digestive function and helps regulate blood sugar. Photo from Unsplash . The magnesium powder in this recipe is the best form I've found--I had a lot of trouble with magnesium supplements during the pandemic not working, or giving me diarrhea, or (in the case of all the milk of magnesia) being contaminated with bleach. This magnesium powder doesn't require a carbonation machine, unlike some other powders. The peach flavor is only mildly sweet. Note--limit servings to two per day, preferably spaced out several hours apart. Too much magnesium at once can have a laxative effect. 4-5 mint tea bags filtered water (enough for 1 medium pitcher) Doctor's Best magnesium powder, peach flavor Boil a cup of the water and add tea bags. Let steep for five minutes. Add...

How would Dr. Oz Treat the DTs?

"You let me in your house with a hammer." -"Candy Shop" by Andrew Bird Low-carb proponent Gary Taubes appeared on the Dr. Oz Show March 7. In one entertaining segment, Dr. Oz spent a day eating a low-carb diet and complained of the greasiness of the sausage, feeling tired, constipation and bad breath. That's a drag, but when I stopped drinking Coke in 2007, I felt even worse: stomach ache, headache, tiredness, and mental fog. Should I have gone back to drinking Coke? If you quit a bad alcohol habit and start seeing snakes, do you need a drink? If my legs hurt from working out Monday night for the first time in two months (which they do), maybe I should resume my exercise hiatus indefinitely. I respect Dr. Oz for having Gary Taubes on his show and letting him share his ideas. I'd respect Oz even more if he looked into low-carb diets more carefully. What he didn't seem to consider regarding his one-day low-carb diet was that he spent a day...

Pain, Pain, Go Away!

Search This Blog