Daily Favorites: Nashville Hot Chicken

 

I had these extra chicken thighs and this whole box of corn flakes. And I'd always wanted to try it but haven't been to Nashville. I had high hopes and big expectations. 

The original dish uses bone-in deep-fried chicken and a lard glaze (or a butter and lard glaze). So to hit our calorie goal, I'm not deep frying or using butter or lard in the glaze. I used this recipe as a starting point, but still made some healthy alterations where I thought I could. The technique is very similar to the cheesy cornflake chicken I made a few days ago, but with a marinade that acts as the wet station. I like that because you can do it in advance, so it's one less step when it's time to cook. 

This has four layers and each one has cayenne peppers. I had no idea if it would be too hot or just right. Or possibly, somehow, not hot enough. You just never know. 

Although there's four layers, each one is really easy. I'll post the ingredients and then talk through the method.

Marinade 

1/4 cup almond milk

1/4 cup pickle juice

1/8 cup Crystal cayenne pepper hot sauce

sprinkling of smoked paprika and cayenne pepper powder

Seasoning

mostly cayenne and smoked paprika, with salt, garlic and pepper.

Dredge

cornflakes, smidge of flour, and the leftover seasoning blend

Glaze

Crystal cayenne pepper hot sauce with a few pinches of brown sugar.

In a big ziploc bag, place the fresh chicken pieces and add the marinade. The recipe said 6 hours, but I did mine for 2 and turned out great.

Put a layer of foil under the wire rack and apply non-stick spray to the rack. Place the wet chicken on the rack. Mix the seasoning in a bowl and sprinkle over both sides. Mix the dredge in a bowl and apply to both sides. 

I baked these thighs at 400 (but really 390 because my oven runs hot) for 33 minutes. 

With 5 minutes to go, get a small saucepan on the stove with a small layer of Crystal hot sauce over medium heat. Add pinches of brown sugar, stirring and tasting until it's how you want it. I probably used about a tablespoon of brown sugar by the end of it. 

When the chicken comes out, use a brush to apply the glaze to the top. (I didn't bother trying to get the bottom.) Serve with pickles and white bread if you want it. 

- - -

Let's talk taste, then healthy stuff. 

Man, this was good. I would say the heat is exactly where I wanted it. Definitely hot and each bite builds. But not obnoxiously hot. In fact, I would say it was more hot than spicy, if that makes sense. I could take two bites in a row but then want a pickle to kill the heat. If you love heat, you could certainly make this spicier, or if you prefer it milder, you could go less cayenne in the seasoning. The smoked paprika is nice as the smokiness comes through as well.

It reminded me of buffalo wings, which makes sense. Both Frank's and Crystal are cayenne pepper based sauces. But I did feel like I could taste the layers of flavor, it wasn't one spicy punch on top, but deep hotness throughout the chicken.

- - -

I had read that Nashville places use Crystal sauce in their marinade. Pickle juice is an underrated ingredient, and I knew Chick-fil-A uses it in their marinade. Instead of buttermilk, I went with almond milk to save on cals. 

The cornflakes do a good job of giving a crunchy crust in the oven, to simulate the frying flour in oil texture.  

And for the glaze, instead of building it with butter or lard and adding cayenne pepper, I just went straight for Crystal, a zero-calorie cayenne sauce. I feel like that was pretty brilliant actually. I did allow myself to keep the brown sugar but kept it small. A tablespoon is under 50 cals. It was definitely worth it as the bit of sweetness really give it more than just heat. 

All in all, I would definitely make this again. I do think it was better than the other cornflake chicken as the cheese in that gets a little lost in the baking process. 

I took a picture of the ingredients that make this dish happen. First off, the Crystal bottle says that it contains 71 servings and I used half the bottle in this dish, lol. I'm super glad that I can find no sugar added pickles and other ingredients like bbq sauce these days. You really can't taste the difference. 

Weight Loss by Month: April 2021

August – November 2020: 30 pounds 

January 2021: 7 pounds 

February 2021: 5 pounds 

March 2021: 4 pounds

April 2021: 3 pounds

I've been doing this for 9 months and lost 49 pounds. I have several thoughts about the pace of current progress. First, in early April I started a pasta journey and had some birthday celebration food for my youngest. So around April 12, the scale was showing that I had gained 5 pounds in April. So if I measure from that point forward, I actually lost 8 in less than 20 days. (Of course, those five up & down are easier to come by than true progress.)

Also, I both expected progress to not be as fast 9 months in as it was when I started. For one, I do weigh a lot less so by percentage, 3 pounds now is equivalent to 4 pounds when I started. Plus, I know the body adjusts. I'm not going to be burning as much as I was back then, no matter what. Also, this year I have been lifting weights, so there might be some muscle growth that is offsetting actual progress on the scale. And one more little note, the 4th pound I lost in March actually showed up on the last day so it was probably more accurate to say 3.5 in March, 3.5 in April. 

I'm decently happy with how I look now, so I'm okay with 3 pounds a month. (I've also tried to be kind to myself on days when I'm extra hungry and/or go over my calories. I'm human and if that means that I don't beat myself up and lose 3 instead of 4 in a certain month, that's ok.) Lesson learned though, I shouldn't ever make estimates about when I'll hit a certain target weight. 

In mid-April, I was going to be content with just breaking even this month. But near the end of the month, I'm like a cop trying to hit my monthly quotas for speeding tickets, extra motivated to stay on track and not have any cheat meals. 

At 49 pounds, I can finally tell a difference on zoom. Still looking forward to surprising people when I go back into the office. 

- - -

The biggest thing that happened in April was that I started my new Daily Favorites cooking series. (I originally named it Every Day Favorites but recently changed it to Daily Favorites so that the initials would match my own.)

This has been fun and personally satisfying on multiple levels. It's wild that it took me this long to do something like this. 

Back in 2007(!), I had identified four hobbies. Writing, music, photography and cooking. This new series combines three hobbies into one project. (And I'm listening to more music this year as well.) 

But more than just fun, this series is proving to be helpful already and will continue to be a good resource indefinitely. This is my pandemic/quarantine self-improvement project. For years, I anticipate opening my Daily Favorites Collection before I do my grocery shopping. It will be easier to stay on track long-term if I have a huge variety of tasty meals in my arsenal. Perhaps, I will think back to the pandemic and wonder if I would have ever done this without the year+ of working from home. 

In case, you're wondering, I lost steam on learning Italian once it got difficult, about 11 days in. But starting that led me to the Pasta Journey. And starting that led me to the Daily Favorites series. Which I just started less than two weeks ago, but already feels like one of the most important things for myself that I've ever done. So you never know what something like a whim of trying Italian on an app can take you. 

- - -

In May, I'm excited to cross the 50 pound lost barrier. My goal is just to keep stacking good months on top of each other. This monthly check-in keeps me accountable. And it's definitely working. 

nfl draft 2021 liveblog

I remember back in the college football playoffs that everyone agreed that Lawrence was the #1 QB and that Fields was the #2 QB. They even played each other in the Sugar Bowl and Ohio State won 49-28, with Fields being the MVP. 

So I don't really understand how Fields can drop from clearly the #2 QB to not being one of the top 3 QBs taken. I think whoever gets him will be sitting pretty. 

Edit: Oh God, the Lions are on the clock with Fields sitting there. The classic good for the team, bad for the player situation...

2nd Edit: Jesus Christ. A franchise QB was just sitting there and the Lions passed. Or they could have gotten DeVonta Smith for Jared Goff, but no, they grab a lineman who didn't play in 2020. GMs really overthinking this. Smith and Fields were awesome and nobody is taking them.

3rd Edit: Goddamnit. Fields to the Broncos. So now the Chiefs have Herbert and Fields in the same division. Super disappointed all the teams that let Fields fall. Worst case scenario.

4th Edit: Holy shit. So that's why you don't use Wikipedia as your draft tracker. LOL. Someone edited Fields in as the Broncos pick but the Broncos were still on the clock for a few more minutes. They pick Patrick Surtain's kid. Surtain played four seasons for the Chiefs from 05-08 so I hope the kid is good, but I'm very relieved that Denver got a CB and not Fields or Smith. I'll call this best case scenario now. Really hoping the Fields doesn't go to Patriots or Steelers at this point.

5th Edit: Cowboys move down, Eagles move up. The rare trade between two teams that hate each other. Personally, I would like for the Bears to trade up and get Fields. Would be fun for my Bears friends. Eagles get DeVonta Smith. I'm relieved that he'll be in the NFC East and not going to an AFC West team or an AFC contender like Ravens/Patriots. Whew. Nice job Eagles!

6th Edit: Holy shit. Bears moving up to 11...this has to be for Fields!!!

7th Edit: They did it! They got Fields! What a move. Love this for them. 

8th Edit: Mark needs a new team. He's not even from Detroit. And they clearly don't care about winning. So he's earned a new team pass. Who would be a good team for him? The Jaguars have been the most international team and now's a good time to get in on the ground floor with Lawrence. With Edelman retired and Mitch Schwartz a free agent, not a lot of Jewish stars on any teams to pick from. Jerry Jeudy of the Broncos wears a Star of David because people call him Jeu.  Mark could keep rooting for Matt Stafford on the Rams as a form of continuity. Or he could pull a Brett Favre and go to an inter-divisional rival. Stick it to Detroit by rooting for the Bears and Justin Fields. (Or you know, there's always room on the Chiefs bandwagon. Mahomes has got another 14+ years here. Might as well root for him.)

9th Edit: The Patriots get Mac Jones without having to trade up. I wasn't sold on him being good, but it will be hard to fail under Belichick. 

meal philosophy

So this series has had me thinking about how to construct new dishes to fit around 600 calories. 

Typically, I start with a meat both because I like it a lot and it's filling. So chicken or lean beef is a good starting point.

I'm going to want some sort of sauce/flavoring. But this is where you can try to go low-calorie to save room for other items. Like instead of full-calorie ranch dressing or a honey brown sugar sauce, there's tons of ways to get flavor for less: hot sauce and vinegars, lemon and lime juice, light sour cream, soy sauce, etc. 

If you have low-calorie flavoring, then you have room for something like rice or a bun. Burgers are better on buns, a burrito bowl without rice is kinda sad. 

But say you want a different premium ingredient like cheese or bacon. A good way to do it is to go meat + low-cal flavoring + no bun or rice. In other words for the same calories you can either have a hamburger on a bun or a cheeseburger on a plate. Instead of serving a sloppy joe on a bun, I could serve it on a plate with grated cheddar. Yesterday, I had chicken + cheese but no rice or bun. 

I saw someone serve sloppy joe mix on tater tots and covered with cheese. If I wanted tater tots and cheese, I could do it, just would need to replace the meat. It's like those sports roster memes where you only have $15 to build the perfect team. You can't take 5 players all worth $5. You have to make trade-offs to get what you want under the constraints.

Daily Favorites: Cheesy Cornflake Chicken

Some loyal viewers, and whether or not they're viewers hasn't been decided, have been wondering where's the cheese? Hearing you loud and clear! This dish has two types of cheese, which almost has to be better than one.

I first made this dish back when assembling my holiday meals cookbook. I hadn't made it since. It's not hard or anything, it's just you get into habits and I haven't been in the habit of shopping for specific recipes. Instead of chicken breast, I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs. The only healthy change I made was instead of using butter as the base of the wet batter, I used almond milk. 

When I've previously used chicken thighs, I've used bone-in, skin-on and they turn out great. I start the skin side down in cast-iron and then finish in the oven. So I was used to that shape, small but thick thighs. But boneless, they really spread out, which worked out nicely for this as I was able to get a ton of surface area for the coating.

So the wet station was a pie plate with a layer of almond milk, with garlic powder, salt and pepper stirred in.

The dry station was a cup and a half of crushed corn flakes, half a cup of grated cheddar, fourth of a cup of grated parm, garlic and pepper. 

Dip in each piece in the wet then dry using the wet hand, dry hand technique. Then place on a wire rack. I baked at 400 (but actually 390 because my oven runs hot) for 33 minutes. 

It came out great, crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside. 

I made it with the boys and they had a lot of fun crushing the cornflakes and making it. My youngest said the first bite was great. Then he rage quit dinner after the second bite. He said the interior chicken was too chewy. It wasn't tough though. I think he just didn't like the moist, juicy chicken. The chicken that he's used to at Chick-fil-a is firmer on the inside. My oldest didn't like it either. Again, probably a texture thing. 

So this is a solid technique/recipe, but it might be a while before I go through the trouble of a wet and dry dredging station just for a solo dinner.

Daily Favorites: Sloppy Joe's From Scratch

 

For a long time, I wouldn't have considered having sloppy joe's for dinner. It would have sounded like cafeteria food, or some one-note dish from childhood. But I was wrong. These are great. 

Earlier this year, inspired by Babish, I made two batches of sloppy joe's for the boys. The first was Manwich sauce out of a can. Nice flavor but too thin, took a long time to reduce down. The second was mostly bbq sauce with some seasonings. Good but missing that classic sloppy joe flavor. 

Today we made our own sauce and this was the best batch yet. 

I started by browning a pound of 85/15 ground beef. I could have even gone leaner but 85 is a nice sweet spot for flavor, leanness, and price point. I minced a quarter of a large onion, and added when the beef was mostly browned. I was using this recipe as a starting point which called for bell pepper, but I knew the kids wouldn't want that in so I left it out. Generous salt and pepper.

Once the beef was fully cooked through, the onions were getting soft, so I started adding the sauce. A tablespoon and a half of tomato paste. Squirt of ketchup, mustard, two squirts of bbq sauce. Sprinkling of soy sauce (in place of worcestershire). Big pinch of brown sugar. Just a drizzle of water. Then for seasonings went garlic powder, cumin, and smoked paprika. 

Brought it all together and tasted. It was flat. No worries. Another round of salt and pepper. More soy sauce, pinch of brown sugar, garlic and smoked paprika. Tasted again. Seasonings were there but it was missing something. Added more bbq sauce and we've got a winner. (I could have added chili powder, cayenne pepper, or hot sauce but my kids aren't into spicy food yet.)

The #1 thing that makes this dish better than I ever had it growing up is toasted buns. I pretty much always toast my buns now. On some occasions, like for cold cuts, I might like a soft bun. But for sloppy joe's, you absolutely need a good toast on the bun so it doesn't get mushy and fall apart. (Also, it drives me insane that recipes will call for toasting your buns in the same pan, some 20 minutes before the rest of the dish is ready. Nobody wants a cold toasted bun.)

The end result was really delicious. It had some bbq notes but a nice depth of flavor. Felt like a classic sloppy joe but didn't feel like a dish past its prime. Felt like you could order this at a modern street food restaurant. 

A pound of meat easily makes four sloppy joes. We each got an extra scoop of meat at the end and it's just as good without the bun on the plate. 

This took about 25 minutes altogether but it is a one-pan meal so easy clean-up. 

As for the calories, I looked at the package and it says 4 ounces of 85/15 meat was only 230 cals. I probably had at 6-7, but still. Since I'm using no sugar bbq sauce and only a little brown sugar, there's nothing in the sauce to rack up the cals there. With a 160 cal bun, a sandwich alone is probably 500, plus another 100 for a second small scoop of meat.

Daily Favorites: Teriyaki Beef Bowl

This was my first time making something like this. The title of the recipe that caught my eye was Korean Beef Bowl but I'm doubtful this recipe is authentically Korean. So just to be safe, I'm calling it a teriyaki beef bowl. (Also, I think it looks better on a plate, but I did stir it up like a bowl.)

This is more subtle than the General Tso dish I made recently. My first bite was a little underwhelming. But it grew on me with every bite and by the end I was scraping the pan for the last bit of sauce. 

Also, it didn't take long at all. I started preheating my pan and grated a nub of fresh ginger, three garlic cloves, and julienned the carrots. 

Browned a little over half a pound of beef, seasoning with salt and pepper. Then added a generous amount of Kikkoman teriyaki sauce, the grated ginger and garlic. Stirred until they dissolved. Tasted and decided to go ahead and add a pinch of brown sugar. 

Added the carrots, added more teriyaki sauce and let them cook together for a minute while I sliced some green onions for garnish. The teriyaki sauce is so thin that it absorbs into everything. So it doesn't *look* saucy but it actually is.

The boys actually tried and liked this, which worked out because the plate above was probably 2/3 of the meat in the pan. 

I'll guess the meat was 400, the rice was 200, the sauce was under 100. 

I do love fresh ginger and should really use it more often. I won't make this that often, but it was tasty for sure.

Daily Favorites: Buffalo Tenders & Homemade Cole Slaw

 

Okay, not a ton of actual cooking going on here. But this has been my #1 go-to lunch over the last 6 months. I quickly wrote about it in November. This lunch comes together in 5 minutes and checks every box: tasty, filling, low-calorie and super simple.

The chicken is Foster Farms Buffalo Tenders and the sauce is Bolthouse Farms blue cheese dressing. I microwave the chicken and then finish on the electric griddle to get a crispy exterior. 

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, I mix a scoop of Hellman's light mayo, some red wine vinegar, lime juice, drop of no sugar bbq, plus some montreal chicken seasoning, and everything bagel seasoning. Stir and then fold in some dry bagged cole slaw cabbage. Done in 2 minutes. 

Estimating 450 cals for chicken, 50 for blue cheese, 30 for cabbage, 70 for homemade dressing. 
600 all together.

If you went and ordered this at a restaurant it could easily be 600 for the chicken, 300 for the blue cheese, 30 for cabbage and 300 for the coleslaw dressing. Just a few simple substitutions and I've chopped the calories in half. 

Meals like this are what make my healthy eating for weight loss plan sustainable. It doesn't feel like I'm depriving myself of foods that I like. Just figuring out ways to work them in.

Daily Favorites: Easy General Tso's Chicken

 

Sometimes things just work out. 

My first attempt with a low-cal orange chicken sauce didn't go very well. The sauce just smelled and tasted bad, some strange off flavors that were in the realm of beefy dog food. So I figured I'd have to do some experimentation and figure out my own low-cal sauce. I figured I was in for a lot of trial and error.

But then yesterday I went to the store and when browsing for a soy sauce, I found these two bottles:

The teriyaki is mostly soy sauce so I wasn't that surprised by the calorie count. The general tso's sauce on the other hand seemed too good to be true, as most other sauces were triple that. If you need 4 tbsp, there's a big difference between 80 and 240 cals in sauce. 

So I figured, let's try it. I happened to have one chicken breast left over from the previous dishes. I marinated it with the teriyaki sauce for a few hours, then cut it up into teriyaki chicken parallelograms, browned it in a pan with cooking spray, salt and pepper. With pieces this small, by the time you get decent browning, they're cooked through. When they're about 95% cooked through, I added the general tso's sauce. I kept it stirring constantly so it wouldn't scorch. Once they were fully coated, I added a little extra sauce because I like to have enough to coat the rice too. 

This sauce is awesome. It's spicy enough but not too spicy. It's sweet enough but somehow low in calories. And it's thick enough to really coat the pieces and the rice. 

This was a small chicken breast, so I'm estimating 300 for the chicken, 200 for the rice, and 100 for the amount of sauce I used. 

I know traditional general tso's chicken has a breading and is deep fried. Obviously I wasn't going to go that route for making a 600 cal dish. (For comparison, the orange chicken plate w/steamed rice at Panda Express is 1360 cals.) And while that is extremely delicious, so was this. I honestly like the fresh feel of this not being fried.

I don't know how much the teriyaki marinade matters. I'm sure one day I won't have fresh chicken on hand and will try it with frozen chicken and just the general tso sauce. I bet it still gets me 90% of the way there.

This is obviously a super simple dish to make at home. But it also felt indulgent in a way that something like the lemon pepper chicken doesn't. That dish is bold and bright and you feel healthy eating it. This feels more like comfort food, like I'm going over my calorie limit without actually doing so.

If I ever wanted to, I could try to add some fresh grated ginger and orange zest/juice to give it a boost.

Daily Favorites: Aloha Burgers

The first time I had pineapple on a burger was at a Margaritaville in Grand Cayman in 2007. I even wrote about it. I think that was probably the last time I had pineapple on a burger. Until today. 

- - -

My friends and I love cheese. But... it's pretty calorie-dense and not very filling. In other words, if I'm trying to lose weight through healthy eating, cheese is going to be one of the first things to go. Same story for bacon. I love crispy bacon on a burger. But cheese and bacon...is it Mardi Gras?

So let's build this thing from the ground up. 

A burger starts with beef. The pineapple adds juiciness and sweetness. So you need something smoky and sharp to balance it out. BBQ sauce is smoky and red onion has a nice bite. Since this is an Aloha burger, a Hawaiian bun seemed appropriate. 

- - -

I got my cast-iron pan preheating at medium for a solid ten minutes. Meanwhile I cut a nice slice of onion and start making my sauces. I actually made three sauces for this, only one is super essential. All three shared a common ingredient: Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce. I took a long look at the soy sauce aisle and decided that this is soy sauce+. It's a very thin, not sweet sauce. It's only 15 cals/tablespoon. It's basically soy sauce with a little extra flavor. Perfect for what I'm looking for.

The essential sauce it a bit of no sugar added bbq sauce mixed with a drizzle of teriyaki. Still wanted a smoky bbq sauce but something that would compliment the pineapple. 

The second sauce was some of the pineapple juice mixed with teriyaki. I used this to baste the onion while cooking, though I could have just drizzled the straight teriyaki. 

The third sauce was a teriyaki mayo for under the burger. You couldn't see it or really taste the teriyaki part so that was just for fun. 

Meanwhile, also got my electric griddle going and my bun toasting. 

Back to the beef. Formed a patty, salt and pepper both sides, into the hot cast-iron. Red onion goes in. Once the burger is ready to flip, add the pineapple ring to the pan. Gave that a sprinkle of teriyaki as well. It seems like I'm adding it to everything, but just a little. Once I was done, the bottle looked essentially unused. I also gave the burger a slight glaze with the pineapple/teriyaki sauce. 

It all comes together at once and pretty quickly. Teriyaki mayo on the bottom bun, then beef, then onion, pineapple and bbq sauce. 

- - -

For burgers everyone recommends 80% lean so it's plenty juicy. For this I went to 85% to save a few calories and the whole thing was very juicy. (Hard not to be with a freaking pineapple ring on top.)

It's hard to estimate the cals in the beef. I think it was a 5-6 ounce patty some sites are telling me that 85/15 meat is 60 cals/ounce. I'll say 400 for the beef. The bun was 160. The pineapple 30. The red onion and sugar free sauces maybe another 30 together. So right around 600 for this.

Pineapple instead of a slice of cheese saves you 80 calories, so if you wanted a bbq cheeseburger you could do one for around 700 and be fine. But this was great and it's fun to say aloha burger anyways.

Daily Favorites: Lemon Pepper Chicken

Now this is something I would make for guests. Bright, big flavor, looks great, yet couldn't be easier. Oh yeah, super healthy too. 

I've been late to the lemon pepper game but trying to catch up. This definitely delivers bigly on lemon pepper but the other herbs round it out so it's not overpowering on one note. You think it's going to be super bright and acidic from all the lemon, but the pepper is there just as much. Great stuff. 

Preheat to 350 F. I used a little cooking spray on a double foil lined pan (for easy clean up). Zest the lemon. 

Cover each chicken breast in a capful of olive oil and a couple squeezes of lemon juice and rub it in all sides. In a small bowl mix together a seasoning blend in these ratios:

1 tablespoon lemon pepper

2 teaspoon dried basil

2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon salt

I just eyeballed it, 2 parts lemon pepper, 1 part basil, 1 part oregano, big pinch of salt. Rub that in on both sides. I added my lemon zest on top. 

Baked at 350 for 30 minutes. My oven runs hot so I pulled it at 27 minutes, let it rest for two minutes, cut into it and it was perfect. Topped with parsley and extra squeeze of lemon. Really felt restaurant-quality. 

The internet says a chicken breast is 425 cals. I paired it with a little bit of rice which was nice because the chicken almost has too much flavor. Tasty and filling plate for around 500 cals.

progress

I'm really excited about my Daily Favorites series. 

It's easy to make tasty food. Add cheese and bacon to a burger. Add brown sugar and honey to orange chicken. Make cookies or brownies with tons of sugar and chocolate. 

It's a lot more challenging to make tasty food that's also under calorie thresholds. You have to use limes, vinegar, spices, garlic, onion, peppers, things like that. 

It's been eye opening trying to make a lower-calorie orange chicken. Every recipe even for healthier recipes call for honey, brown sugar and sesame oil. I tried this sugar-free orange ginger marinade for lunch today and I ate it but there was something off on the taste of the sauce. Cooking method worked great though.

So I'll need to go back to the drawing board. I'm thinking I'll try a homemade sauce with rice wine vinegar, lite soy sauce, zest + juice from an orange, red pepper flake, garlic and maybe a little bit of a good stir fry sauce to help it out. Since there's no endpoint to this series, I've got plenty of time to experiment and get it right.

Meanwhile here are the ingredients of the jerk seasoning I buy: scallions, scotch bonnet peppers, salt, black pepper, all spice, nutmeg, citric acid, cane sugar, thyme leaves. 

Basically all vegetables with a tiny bit of sugar at the end. Huge flavor for 5 calories a serving. If I was more knowledgable of Chinese-American cuisine, perhaps I could replicate the technique of the jerk paste with orange chicken flavors: scallions, Chinese red peppers, and correct seasonings (Szechuan  peppercorns or five-spice powder?) We'll see.

2021 scene

Lately I've been listening to a lot more albums and artists discographies as opposed to one-off songs. 

Here are some of the artists I've been enjoying this year and when I primarily listen.

Death Cab for Cutie (working)

Motion City Soundtrack (showering)

Alkaline Trio (driving)

Jimmy Eat World (anytime)

Panic at the Disco (exercising)

Fall Out Boy (basketball)

With the exception of Death Cab, all of them are bands that I've liked and listened to for a long time. I kinda decided that now is a good time to focus on the good stuff. Instead of looking for something new, that I should dive deep into my favorites. 

Death Cab on the other hand is a revelation. I've had their Transatlanticism cd since 2004ish but never really listened to anything else by them. They didn't crack my 2014 list of favorite 80 bands. But the songwriting is incredible. I Will Follow You Into The Dark is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard.

Daily Favorites: Chicken Patty Sandwich

 

This is a humble college classic. But the classics never go out of style. 

I use the electric griddle to toast the buns and crisp up the patty as well. While that's going I whip up a seasoned mayo. I was going to use the same basil garlic mayo that I used on the sausage sandwich, but I called an audible on the fly and did a lemon pepper mayo with garlic. 

I'm a big fan of taking something frozen/jarred and giving it a few extra touches to amp up the flavor. 

The chicken is only 200 cals, this sesame seed bun is 140, so with the light mayo I'd say about 375. 

Quick, filling, easy, low-cal lunch. I keep the house stocked with tasty granola bars, english muffins and sometimes dried mango. So I like when my main is 500 or less and I have room to round out the meal with one of those items.

Daily Favorites: BBQ Meatballs

 

If it makes for a good hors d'oeuvre, shouldn't it make for a good meal?

The answer here is yes. 

The secret to this dish is using turkey meatballs. I've very picky about my meats and I simply won't entertain the thought of a turkey burger, turkey chili or anything like that. But with the seasonings and the meatball form factor (plus covering them in sauce) these taste pretty darn great.

And the calorie difference is incredible. 2 turkey meatballs is 100 cals, so this plate of 8 is very filling at 400 cals. 2 traditional meatballs are 240 cals, so this plate would be 960. Yikes. With the sauce, it's probably 450 or so.

As for sauce, I use a blend of two different bbq sauces, one spicy, one sweet. This time I had Gates original and Ray's no sugar. I did try adding just a touch of strawberry jam and that was delicious as well. Strawberry jalapeno is a great combo, so I'll look at trying that in the future. 

I've done this in the style of chicken parm before and it's good that way too. But somehow when I have the meatballs I'm always craving the spicy sweet bbq flavors.

This is at the top of the list of most filling per calorie foods I have. So on a day like today where I had an extra granola bar as a mid-afternoon snack, I turn this. Even 6 of these are very filling for 300 cals.

For plating, it would be nice to have some chopped chives or sesame seeds or something, but let's be honest. It's just me.