Karl’s Banana Oat Muffins with Pecans and Blueberries

Several months ago Cook’s Illustrated had a oat muffin recipe. I made it very closely to the recipe and my household was very disappointed in it. While it was a tasty oat cupcake, it was not a “muffin!” Cook’s illustrated did, however, have some good techniques for enhancing the oat flavor by toasting the raw oats and then grinding them into flour.

Karl’s Banana Oat Muffins with Pecans and Blueberries

Karl’s Banana Oat Muffins
with Pecans and Blueberries

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Filed under bread, Breakfast, Side Dishes

Karl’s Refrigerator Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is a comfort food for Jan and she has had a busy week. Monday was high stress university budget meeting, where she was standing in for the dean. Tuesday, she was the “relevant parent” for Eilene’s registration into college. Wednesday and Thursday she was working at a conference up in Sausalito that our older daughter, Myr, was running. I knew that she would want something for dinner tonight that would help calm her down.

Karl’s Refrigerator Chicken Soup

Karl’s Refrigerator Chicken Soup

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Filed under Main Dishes, Poultry, Soups

Karl’s Asian Chicken or Pork Lettuce Cups

I am still trying to adapt to the combination of low fat and Ketogenic diets of my family. This Sunday I am posting two closely related recipes. This is the original recipe made with Hoisin sauce and sweet chili sauce, both of which have added sugar. I am going to adapt this recipe to be more in keeping with a Ketogenic diet in my second recipe.

Karl’s Asian Chicken Lettuce Cups

Karl’s Asian Chicken Lettuce Cups

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Filed under Main Dishes, Poultry

Karl’s Keto Hoisin Sauce

I decided that I should make a Ketogenic Hoisin sauce to go with my pork lettuce cups.  I looked online for a recipe to tweak and was very disappointed in what I found.  In my opinion, there are three things which really do not belong in Hoisin sauce: peanut butter, honey, and ketchup.

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Filed under Sauces and Spices

Karl’s Keto Asian Pork or Chicken Lettuce Cups

Lettuce cups are very much in keeping with a Ketogenic diet, high protein and leafy greens. The problem with the original recipe is the Hoisin and sweet chili sauces, both of which have added sugar. Hoisin sauce is mostly bean paste with sugar and Chinese Five Spice added. I will make a keto hoisin sauce by leaving the sugar out. I will replace the sweetened chili sauce with a sugar free chili garlic sauce.

Karl’s Keto Asian Pork Lettuce Cups

Karl’s Keto Asian Pork Lettuce Cups

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Filed under Main Dishes, Pork

Karl’s Spicy Garlic Stem, Chinese Celery and Bamboo Stir-fry

My original thought was not to have a separate vegetable dish this weekend. However while I was in Lion Market I saw garlic stem! I had to have it.

Karl’s Spicy Garlic Stem, Chinese Celery and Bamboo Stir-fry

Karl’s Spicy Garlic Stem, Chinese Celery
and Bamboo Stir-fry

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Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables

Karl’s Chinese Chicken Salad

Chinese/Asian Chicken Salad is a popular dinner salad at my house. Of course, like chop suey, this is a truly American dish and you would never find anything like it in China. The flavorful chicken, crisp vegetables and crunchy noodles of this salad take me back to my childhood and the many church potlucks and American Chinese/Japanese festival food stand offerings.

Karl’s Chinese Chicken Salad

Karl’s Chinese Chicken Salad

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Filed under Main Dishes, Poultry, Salads

Jan’s Celebratory Mocha Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Adapted from a recipe by Robyn Stone

Eilene had a few friends over to celebrate graduating from high school. Jan decided to make cupcakes to celebrate.  Jan thinks the coffee enhances the flavor of the chocolate, so she will frequently add some to her chocolate cakes. It was a very hot day so the buttercream frosting suffered a bit.

Jan’s Celebratory Mocha Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Jan’s Celebratory Mocha Cupcakes
with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

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Filed under Cake, Desserts & Treats

Karl’s Ham and Three Fresh Beans

For me Ham and Beans has always meant slow cooked dried beans with ham. As I was researching recipes recently, I found a few that included fresh green beans. This got me to thinking about really mixing up this recipe, If one fresh bean, why not all fresh beans.

Karl’s Ham and Three Fresh Beans

Karl’s Ham and Three Fresh Beans

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Filed under Main Dishes, Pork

Karl’s Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Jan wants Jamaican Jerk Chicken this weekend. Chris, my son-in-law has also mentioned that this would be a good thing. Since I am still trying to reconcile their diametrically opposed diets I will be leaving out the sugar and cooking some of the chicken skin-off and some skin-on.

Karl’s Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Karl’s Jamaican Jerk Chicken

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Filed under Main Dishes, Poultry