Been Awhile; Corn Dogs for Supper

Promised my dad before he died that I'd lose this weight that has been plaguing me the past 2 years. Nothing has worked, finally a doctor said it was a stress (and age- I'm ignoring that, 29 forever!) response. This doctor told me it wasn't in my head and I should really give a ketogenic diet a try. It's helped others lose weight and rebalance hormones. He then proceeded to tell me it was horribly hard to follow.

Thanks for the encouragement, Doc.

He was almost right. Eating a ketogenic lifestyle is hard, IF you don't have google. I've been making recipes left and right. Had some successes and some failures. A friend suggested I chronicle my adventures in "new fangled" cooking. Especially my failures (there aren't that many) and what non-keto eaters like and loathe. They mostly loathe anything I make- on principle!

Last night I made CORN DOGS! From the wonderful blog of Maria at Keto Adapted. I've learned a lot from her site in the last week and wish I'd found her years ago.

Sticking to the pan and do these look a bit inappropriate?

The recipe was fairly simple and quick. I doubled the recipe, used 6 hot dogs, paprika for spice, and added 1/2 tbsp of Swerve to the batter. I like the sweet taste of corn dog batter. The batter filled my entire mini muffin pan so I had 6 servings instead of the expected 4. I'm not sure how I'd get this batter to really stick to a whole hot dog to fry, besides the mini muffin style is cute for kids. It crossed my mind to pull out the deep fat fryer to finish these off, however the corn dogs stuck to the pan terribly. I greased that pan a lot after reading the comments and it still didn't work. I think a silicone pan would have worked and perhaps dusting the pan before adding the batter would help.

No worries, it still came out okay and it went over well with my nephews and my mom. They'd have liked it better if I'd left the cauliflower off the plate. I found the taste satisfying, the texture acceptable. This is something I will make again. The nutritional profile works for me too. (per myfitnesspal.com recipe calculator)

Yucky cauliflower and yummy mustard and chipotle mayo 

Nutrition Facts
Servings 6.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 248
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 18 g	28 %
Saturated Fat 7 g	37 %
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 154 mg	51 %
Sodium 591 mg	25 %
Potassium 77 mg	2 %
Total Carbohydrate 8 g	3 %
Dietary Fiber 5 g	19 %
Sugars 1 g
Protein 13 g	26 %
Vitamin A	8 %
Vitamin C	1 %
Calcium	1 %
Iron	12 %

Pancakes!

I wanted to write a post, Welcome To The Velodrome! but I've never been to a velodrome and likely never will, so I'll just have to share with you a recipe I've been working on for the past month or so.

Pancakes Rule!

Pancakes are also carby creations created solely to seduce our taste buds into destroying our diets. Ah, that's when a friend gave me a recipe for protein pancakes she'd seen pinned to something (I think she means pinterest, but I've never been a magazine clipper so why start now?) They were... meh. They did keep me full and for 330 calories it felt like a lot of food. My goal was to make them tastier and still be healthy. And if I can use up holiday leftovers, bonus!

Cranberry-Orange Pancakes

Ingredients

3 egg whites
1/4 cup Greek yogurt (plain)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2-1 tbsp OJ concentrate
3 tbsp fresh or frozen cranberries (about an ounce)
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup oat bran
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of cinnamon
1 tbsp chocolate chips*

In a blender, add the 1st 5 ingredients (through cranberries), blend till cranberries are chopped/ground/blended. Add through the dash of cinnamon, blend a few seconds. Stir in chocolate chips (*note chocolate chips add 70 calories. 70! In one teeny tiny tablespoon! Who decided this! Why is the world so unfair!)

In a skillet over medium heat cook the pancakes about 3 minutes on the 1st side, flip and cook about 2 minutes on the other (not physics). Makes 2-4 or more depending on your pour (like metaphysics maybe).

Nutrition Info  (minus chocolate chips-- damn you chocolate!)
The whole recipe comes in 345 calories, 49 g carbs, 10 g fiber, 28 g protein.

Variations
No oat bran? All oatmeal is great. No flax? No problem, leave it out and cut calories. Have some chia seeds? Throw in a tablespoon. Hate cranberries? What's wrong with you! Cranberries are awesome! But you can leave them and the OJ out; try adding bananas and walnuts, or fresh fruit-- play with it!

I usually split the recipe into 3 or 4 servings, becauseI like an egg for breakfast (omelet style with onions and peppers and hot sauce). So depending on how hungry I am I'll eat 1/3-1/2 the recipe and use the other pancakes for snack-- post workout with a little nut butter, yum.

If you try my recipe, let me know what you think. My mom and sister hate it. My dad, 2 nephews, and a niece all like them. And of course me. I like them. I like them a lot. They are never going to replace the fluffy, golden pillows of taste bud seducing deliciousness that IHOP serves up... but life isn't perfect.