Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle

I’m sooo happy it’s Christmas ! I’m a Christmas Kid, like my Auntie. There’s part of me that hates the holiday season,…no, not my wallet,…my thighs! Ugh – everything is either covered in chocolate, laced with heavy cream or filled with some decadent use for cream cheese. My list for that last one’s really pretty long!

The other day I was out shopping, (shocking, I know) and once again found myself in front of the dairy case dreaming, or drooling over the 50 varieties of Eggnog now available. BTW, none of which can even come close to MY Eggnog. If you’ve been to a Beal Christmas Party (well, except the last one) you’ve had my eggnog  – and probably needed a cab too! It’s Martha’s version. Who know she was such a party-girl. There’s like a dozen eggs, cream, milk, and almost 6 cups of booze! I pulled that recipe out and ran it thru the analyzer and nearly fainted – 395 calories (I’ll call it a solid 400!), and 23.7 g of FAT. OMG. I had to laugh when I looked at the booze included, the program gives a grading on the healthiness level of each ingredient. Apparently, bourbon is slightly more healthy than cognac and much better than rum – hmm, is that why Capt. Jack Sparrow’s so svelte? BTW – they all scored an F. Ha ha ha ! Or, Ho, Ho, Ho….Yo,ho,ho…

Wait a minute, at the store they had a lo-fat one by Bolthouse Farms (I’m sure there are others, but this one caught my eye) – and for a mere $6.00 you could have a small bottle of it. Not even in the 1/2 gal size. OMG. I looked at the label and thought,.no, no, I can do this. And not for $6.00! This is what I came up with…

Step 1: The ingredients (no, I didn’t use the heavy cream. But everything was so clean for a photo)

2 Cups Almond Milk

1 can Evaporated Fat-Free Milk (12oz)

3/4 Cup Fat-Free Half&Half

1 Egg

1/2 Cup Whey-Low reg.

1 tsp Vanilla

Nutmeg to taste

Optional booze:

1 shot Bourbon

1 shot Cognac

2 Shots Dark Rum (cause I like rum!)

Step 2: Get the milks in a sauce pan on low and begin to warm.

Step 3: Whisk the egg and sugar, and vanilla together and whisk into the milks before they get too hot. (or you’ll have sweet scrambled eggs!) S L O W L Y bring it up to a steam (about 160-165 deg). It’ll thicken a bit, but not the ‘drinkable custard’ that store-bought is. You’ll need more eggs for that, and my thighs said “NO!”

Step 4: The Optional booze – yeah, right! Nobody but me drinks it here – so, load the cannons my friends! It’s Christmas!!

Step 5: The pricey supermarket bottle listed ‘whey concentrate’, which I took as a thickener. I’ve got that, sort of (we use it for smoothies). So I took a 1/2 cup of the finished product and whirled it up in the magic bullet. It was ok, a little thicker. If you have some you can do that. Not worth the added calories to me though.

Finale: Makes 6 cups of an awesome substitute! The analyzer came up with more fat than I thought at 10g, but still only 155 calories. It still is eggnog, with an actual whole egg (I guess I could try it with EggBeaters too,…but I was out) and everything is a kitchen staple here. So, it probably made the equivalent of $12.00 worth of the supermarket stuff,…and that’s with MakersMark and Friends! (yes, those are kitchen staples here too….you know me, right?) Yo, ho, ho and Merry Christmas!!!