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Smok’n Moe’s BBQ

February 16, 2013January 29, 2013 by KTgreen

Local Places, Local Faces

At a neighbor’s recommendation, we stopped by Smok’n Moe’s BBQ last week. The place was crazy busy when we arrived for breakfast. But service was great. Food excellent. Everyone was super friendly. So good. REAL BUTTER!

Smok’n Moe’s BBQ is in Old Homosassa on Yulee Drive across from the First Baptist Church. Open from 6:30 am until 2:30 pm every day except Wednesday.

Smokin' Moes — Christine, Jeremy and Carol

Looking forward to going back for lunch. Yum!

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Popcorners

January 28, 2013January 23, 2013 by KTgreen

Are you getting healthy this year!? I found yet another tidbit that helps me. ‘Popcorners’

Yes, the new crunchy diet snack d’jour are rice and popcorn based crisps or chips. I’ve been snacking on these for a few months now and thought I’d tell you about them. They make me feel like I’m eating real buttered popcorn. Even though all they have is sea salt on them. Now there’s the key word – REAL.

A few weeks ago there was a sale on the new Special K snacks that were potato crisps and popcorn chips. I like the Special K cereals so I picked them up for a taste test. I won’t be buying them again. I was disappointed in the super ‘fake’ taste of the stuff they sprayed on them. There was like 15 ingredients on the label and their popcorn chips were half the size of the ones I had been buying.

My favorite Popcorners chips are found in my Publix deli – I guess the company who makes them doesn’t have quite the market presence that The Big K has, so you may need to hunt them down. It’ll be worth it. They cost a little less, even at $3.00/bag, because the bag is bigger, and they’re all natural. They’re twice the size of the diet ones, making them big enough to top with a slice of cucumber and a dollop of dressing – or even a slice of cheese. Hmmm, they come with cheese flavor too….ooo, something new to try. And a what’s ‘serving size’?

Well, I was curious so I broke out the scale because you know how it goes, a serving is like 5 chips …wrong…this is 1oz of Popcorners. So, at 3g/fat per serving I could, conceivably, eat my way through an entire bag on a Playoff Weekend and not destroy my diet?? Really? I’m sooo there!

I’m giving the makers a ‘shout-out’ because I don’t want to see them disappear. I must not be the only one buying them because they disappear from the shelves at Whole Foods and Publix really fast!

Michelle

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Impossible Cream Cheese Frosting

January 12, 2013January 9, 2013 by KTgreen

Hmmm, ‘No Carrots at Christmas’…that’s what Kathy said. I’m thinking my tight jeans may override that mantra next year. It’s a new year and I’ve got to shed those Holiday pounds! Last evening I made myself a batch of MY sugar cookies, and since I had some pumpkin left over from making pumpkin roll, I whipped up some lo-cal pumpkin cookies too. Now, Pumpkin Cookies WITH cream cheese frosting run a close second to our oh, beloved Pumpkin Roll. So, I worked up some cream cheese frosting that I can eat with my yummy little pumpkin jems. Mmmmmmmm – cream cheese frooooosting. Is there anything better? No, no – really, there are very few things that CC icing can’t improve on. (I heard that Donna!) Here we go…

That’s it! Whip it up – oh, so good. Yes, it has butter in it. That gives it the creaminess and keeps away the ‘I-am-a-diet-substitute’ taste.

Since you won’t be putting much on a cookie (very rich), I’m thinking 1 tsp each, the calorie count is only 12 calories per ‘serving’ (1tsp). You could lower it without the butter, and add in a bit of milk. Nah, maybe next time.

I listed this as “Impossible Cream Cheese Frosting”, because when I finished I had 3/4 Cup of frosting!?! What?! Where’d the sugar go? I’m no physics major (obviously), but when I add together a cup and a quarter of ingredients – mix it together and it reduces in size? No, no, no don’t explain it to me …. Just tell me that if I eat 1-1/4 cups of it that there’ll only be 3/4 cup of it to work off! (BTW, my recipe analyzer just exploded)

Michelle

Michelle and I both use Whey-Low in our baking–but it’s expensive and difficult to find. According to their website, it can be purchased at Whole Foods but that store is in “far far away land” for me plus Michelle tells me that it’s no longer at the Dale Mabry store in Tampa. So we both buy it online from www.wheylow.com. If you order $75 worth, you don’t have to pay for shipping, plus I receive emails with discounts from them. Brings the cost down a bit and one order lasts me forever since I don’t bake all that much. I feel the cost is worth the product since it does work just like sugar in the recipes and I love sweets but I also love fitting into my clothes!

Enjoy!