Have you ever experienced a mood change while on a fad diet?

[DiracPool]

I wanted to launch a new thread because I ran a search and didn't see a recipe thread. If there is one, feel free to merge the thread.

What does it take to open a recipe thread? Well, for me it takes a meal I made 3 nights ago that I'm still drooling over. I'll introduce it in the next post

 

[DiracPool]

Scallops in brown butter sauce with fr0zen seasonable vegetables

I recently went on the Paleo diet, aka caveman diet cause my sixpack turned into a tupac. In any case, I found this recipe, and wanted to share. It's on the diet. It's all about low carbs.

The first thing you need to do is brown the butter. I've never done that before, so it seemed weird. I remember always trying to crack the eggs in the pan fast BEFORE the butter browned, or burnt.

But there's another way. What I did is take a whole cube of butter. You have to divide it by ten. Just take a butter knife (of course) and cut it into 10 equal portions. Put it into a small 6 inch pan or equivalent. Put it over medium heat. Let it cook. It surprisingly takes a long time to boil, at least on my ancient stove, yours might be different. But when it starts to sizzle, start stirring frequently. Keep it on medium, though, don't indulge the temptation to turn the heat up to accelerate the maturity. That's the key. You want to keep cooking it until it gets to a light brown color. It's going to look kinda gross and there's going to be brown suspension-ish particles in there. But persevere.

The acid test is when you start getting thick rich chestnut aroma, that's when it's ready. Pull out a ceramic bowl and pour the brown butter in it.

Now heat up a non-stick pan, or as DiracPool did, a cast iron skillet with those ridges in it so you get the grill marks. You can either put in a tablespoon of oil, or what I did is pour a little extra virgin olive oil on a paper towel, and rub the surface. Put it on medium high heat and wait until it gets real hot. The acid test is when you toss some tap water on it, it obnoxiously sizzles.

What I do at this point is just dump a bunch of Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper on a regular dish plate and dump the scallops on them. Before I do that, though, I made sure that I bought the big Sea Scallops from the store. I live in WA state, so you can find these at Top food and local butcher shops. There a little pricey. I paid about $22 USA dollars for a little over a pound.

{INSIDER TIP} Make sure the butcher takes the time to drain the water from the scallops before putting them in the bag. As physicists we know water is heavy, and at 20 bucks a pound, you don't don't want heavy water in your scallop bag. It's both art and science trying to not look cheap coaxing your butcher to drain the liquid from the scallops...But I digress.

Ok, back to the kitchen. Now you want to rinse the scallops in cold water. After that, dump them into a paper towel and dry them off as best you can. Then dump them onto the salt and pepper plate. By this time the cast iron griddle should be sizzling. Dump the scallops on the grill and let them cook for 3-4 minutes. It might get a little frothy cause their is still going to be some water retension, but you just dump that out.

Ok, now here's the money shot. After 3-4 minutes, turn the scallops over and dump in the browned butter sauce. {INSIDER TIP} In all the recipe's online that's what they say, but in practice you just shuffle them around with the spatula. There's too many little guys to properly turn over without going nuts.

Ok, now, what I did at this point is shake some tarragon, some thyme, and some rosemary into the pan. About a tablespoon of each. I did those portions clumsily, but it worked.

Let that concoction sizzle for about another minute or two, and remove from the stove.

For the veggies is just got one of those frozen stir fry veggie bags and followed the directions, which is basically just dump it in a 10 inch skillet, cover, put on medium high heat, and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the veggies to the scallops on the same plate and Bon appetite.

 

[jim hardy]

Just finishing a visit with my son. He's trying out the "Paleo" diet - a kinda back to the future fad that sings paeans to what they think was the ice age diet, particularly avoiding sugar wheat and salt..
Son has lost twenty pounds in two months on it.

Paleo-pancakes: two plantains, two tablespoons of oil, a bit of water, a couple of nuts, all in the blender until consistency of pancake batter. Wrap around some lightly boiled fruit (we had fresh Alabama peaches ) . Liberal application of real butter helped.

Paleo spaghetti: uses "Spaghetti Squash" instead of pasta. I was really surprised just how good it is.
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/02/21/how-to-cook-paleo-spaghetti/

EDIT i see DiracPool posted while i was typing. I had no idea this diet was well known.

old jim

 

[DiracPool]

Paleo spaghetti: uses "Spaghetti Squash" instead of pasta. I was really surprised just how good it is.

Lol Jim. I do Zucchini spaghetti, and it's delicious. The best thing is that the grinder looks like an hourglass lightcone. So I can visualize my 4-momentums while I peel. I lost 18 pounds in two weeks. It does work.

 

[Astronuc]

I had spaghetti squash a few weeks ago. I'd was delicious. I think it was mixed with grated cheese. I had never heard of spaghetti squash before. I presume it is a nutritious alternative to grain starch.

 

[cpscdave]

How are you finding motivation to stay on an odd diet?
A couple months ago I drastically improved my eating, cut my carb intake down to probably 1/10 what it was, tripled (or more) my fruits and veggies and less meat.
In a few weeks lost 15lbs.
Then I decided to start exercising as well, and my motivation to eat better went out the window. I've been hitting spin 3x/week but its all being wasted on shitty food :(

 

[DiracPool]

I had spaghetti squash a few weeks ago. I'd was delicious. I think it was mixed with grated cheese. I had never heard of spaghetti squash before. I presume it is a nutritious alternative to grain starch.

Plus, what's great about it is that you can eat it raw OR cook it. Either way it's delicious, at least the Zucchini that I've been doing. Haven't done the yellow squash yet but I'll try it.

 

[DiracPool]

How are you finding motivation to stay on an odd diet?
A couple months ago I drastically improved my eating, cut my carb intake down to probably 1/10 what it was, tripled (or more) my fruits and veggies and less meat.
In a few weeks lost 15lbs.
Then I decided to start exercising as well, and my motivation to eat better went out the window. I've been hitting spin 3x/week but its all being wasted on shitty food :(

That wasn't my experience. One of the reasons I liked the idea of the Paleo diet is that I do body build, and it made sense to go on a diet where I could basically eat as much protein as I wanted and still take my protein powder supplements (unflavored).

That wasn't a problem. The problem is that you're going to get a little funny in the head initially due to the lack glucose nourishing your brain cells. But you'll adjust to that after a while. I was was really angry and irritable the first two weeks, but then it stablizes. The Paleo diet is a low carb diet but it's not a NO carb diet like the Atkins diet, where you end up going into Ketosis. That's another thing I like about it, I can eat all the veggies I want.

 

[jim hardy]

OOps re my post 168 this morning re Paleo plantain pancakes

i forgot to mention the eggs. Put a couple of eggs in the batter too.


........

The Paleo diet is a low carb diet but it's not a NO carb diet like the Atkins diet, where you end up going into Ketosis.

Did you notice a mood change?
I got into ketosis once decades ago by living on hard boiled eggs and tuna fish while trying to shed a beer-belly.
It did that, but the effect on my psyche was profound. I got grumpy and felt i was in an ice-age survival mindset, ready to kill and eat anything i could subdue.
I wonder if that was unusual.

This paleo looks more sensible to me.

Somebody mentioned a plant called "stevia" which has leaves that are incredibly sweet. It's used as a natural sugar substitute in some countries, notably Japan. I'm wondering if it triggers the same cravings as refined sugar? A nearby nursery claims to have some plants, thought i might try to grow one. Has anyone experience with the stuff?

old jim

 

[DiracPool]

Did you notice a mood change?
I got into ketosis once decades ago by living on hard boiled eggs and tuna fish while trying to shed a beer-belly.
It did that, but the effect on my psyche was profound. I got grumpy and felt i was in an ice-age survival mindset, ready to kill and eat anything i could subdue.
I wonder if that was unusual.

Lol, that's hysterical. That's exactly how I got. There was a neighbor of mine practicing his drums one weekend and I had the most wicked thoughts. Picture me like Rambo standing in front of the mirror putting the camouflage paint on his face. Lol. I had to jeep repeating to myself, just breath, take it easy. So it definitely is not just you. Thankfully you get past that stage.

From what I've heard, stevia is great. It's the "go to" sugar substitute for the cool people. I just buy diet coke though, now, cause it's easier and I'm trying not to complicate things too much. Especially cause it might piss off Rambo. Lol.