Baked Beans Adaptation

Well, it looked like baked beans so my next question was how would it taste?

I used all the regular ingredients (bacon, onions, hot peppers, Worcestershire sauce). The ingredients I changed were beans (pinto beans), ketchup (tomato paste), brown sugar (diet root beer concentrate).  The next thing I had to be aware of was portion size.  I decided that 1/4 cup is correct for portion size.  My blood sugar was 111 this morning so I think it is all right.

For taste, I thought it was good but waited with trepidation for Larry's evaluation.  He said it was good.  But.  Sometimes he says it is good and I have to watch to see if he ever eats more.  He doesn't want to discourage me from cooking:)

Rural Retirement

 The clusters of apples are beautiful to me but we thinned them today so hopefully we'll get larger ones. I am not a farmer of any sort so growing fruit seems magic to me.

 Larry sprayed the peaches this year so we may actually get some.

This is where I dropped the daylilies into an erosion wash. With absolutely no care, even to the extent of planting them...only dropping them into the wash, they not only live, but thrive.

Idea for Baked Beans

I wish I liked salad, but it isn't one of the things I automatically put on a holiday menu.  I've been told that baked beans aren't fancy enough for company.  It is possible that it wasn't fancy enough for that company.  But my idea of cooking for company includes the knowledge that we will have to eat the leftovers.
But I really want baked beans every time we grill.  So today I decided that since beans aren't low-carb, but are high fiber, I should try for a reasonable adaptation.
So today I started soaking pinto beans.  Pinto beans aren't the lowest carb dried bean, but I like to have a large number on hand in case of emergency.
I plan to sweeten the baked beans with the diet root beer flavoring that I use with my soda stream.  I will also use ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, bacon, onions, and hot green pepper I put in the freezer last fall.
I guess I like to play with my food.

Both Knees

I had surgery on the right knee, but putting all the strain on the left knee isn't doing it any favors. I think I'll avoid stairs today.

Ice Cream

 Homemade ice cream from Atkins, phase II and up.  The ice trays are an attempt to solve the problem of how hard it freezes.  It is difficult to gouge it out of a container after it has been in the freezer.  I've tried using the pampered chef containers and ice shaver, but it is likely to just stay in the freezer because I don't want to eat a whole container at once.  The ice trays should allow me to get a couple of chunks and Larry to get how many he wants...easily.

I also froze the remainder of the homemade barbecue sauce in ice trays.  I have at least a half dozen extra ice trays on hand.  Once the cubes are frozen, I empty them into freezer bags.

Happy Fourth!

When we were first faced with our home containing no children, my impulse was to ignore holidays.  I guess I would have continued to do that, but Larry started mentioning holidays and what he wanted to eat. This attitude of  'why bother, it's just us' led me next to the idea that when we married it was just us, and we observed holidays.
Life feels better with holidays. So, this fourth we have our menu pretty well figured out...good thing, today's the fourth.
Larry will grill ribs and brats for himself.  I want chicken thighs with homemade barbecue sauce.  I have a gorgeous fruit salad made (sweetened with splenda, blueberries from our bushes. everything else from the store). We made potato salad.  I'm going to make an Atkins recipe of homemade vanilla ice cream.  I think I'll cook green beans we canned last year.
We've only done fireworks once since the kids flew the nest.  This year neither of us mentioned fireworks.

Fruit Salad for the Fourth

I used Splenda in this fruit salad.  It is for tomorrow but there is plenty for taste-testing:)

The blueberries are from our garden.