Happy WIAW!! This is Jenn’s 109457th WIAW, soo good on her for that! What I Ate Wednesday doesn’t look a day over 109456.
Yesterday, I ate the usual…except for breakfast…
Breakfast was some banana split bread I had in the freezer, YUM!!
Lunch was peanut butter and honey on whole wheat and a pile of berries.
And we’ll get to dinner later. Right now, I want to answer a few questions I’ve received lately about recipe formulation.
I write and develop every recipe on this blog unless otherwise noted. If I prefer someone else’s recipe, I link back to the original I Do NOT type out the entire recipe on my blog, because I did not write it.
I think it’s AWESOME when people make my recipes. I love seeing their pictures, and pictures of their families enjoying it. What is really bad form is when I see other bloggers re-blogging he entire recipe. In blog-land, bloggers call that “recipe poaching” or “traffic theft”, and it happens all of the time. If you look, you’ll see Jenn’s, Gina’s, Janetha’s, and my recipes re-blogged all over pinterest. I am sure it happens to other bloggers a lot too, but since these are the blogs I most frequent, I recognize when I see one of their recipes in their entirety. Just because you shrink a cauliflower pizza into mini pizzas, or use canned tomato soup with your mozzarella balls, it doesn’t make them your recipes.
I know for a fact most food bloggers/recipe writers LOVE seeing when others make their recipes, and love it when you blog about it, just please, be good humans and link back to our post with our recipes on it, and it goes without saying, do NOT use images from someone’s blog without expressed, written consent. That’s simple theft.
Now that that’s out of the way….
Ways to turn a classic, unhealthy pile of junk food, into something healthy.
It starts with knowing just a few things:
Fat is NOT the enemy, saturated fat kind of is (some saturated fat, like coconut oil, is good for you) However, even if you are deep frying in the fat of blessed olives from Israel with healing qualities that make you look 20 years old, those calories still count.
White flour foods and white sugar foods WILL spike your blood sugar higher and quicker than whole grain and natural form sugar (molasses, honey, maple syrup, agave)
Skim milk will make your recipe taste thin–supermodel thin–For sweet recipes, I suggest almond milk or coconut milk as a substitute for milk, and for savory recipes, try evaporated milk and/or chicken/vegetable/mushroom stock.
Fiber is king. It helps keep your blood sugar steady and helps you feel fuller, longer. It also gives you something to talk about at the gym. “Did you try the new chia, flax, blackberry, coffee bean cereal bar? I hear it’s like an intestinal roto-rooter!”
Protein is queen, she keeps the body functional.
Your body needs LOTS of different colors. If you eat only one type of fruit or vegetable, you aren’t getting enough variety, even if you do REALLY love apples. You eventually need a blackberry or something.
When eggs are called for in a recipe, egg whites work just as well. 3-4 tbsp of liquid egg white=1 egg. This works for pancakes, waffles, souffles, etc.
When making pasta or rice dishes, add twice as many vegetables as you do pasta or rice or potatoes. You’ll eat less of the densely caloric foods, and be really full nonetheless.
Every once in a while, throw all of these ideas and rules out the window and eat a damn blue cheese burger. They’re delicious, and should occasionally be eaten, if not only just to remind us that there is G-d, and he loves us.
Dinner was comfort food at its finest. I’ve spoken about my MawMaw and her kitchen before, and this is one of my favorite recipes of hers, tomatoes and dumplings. This recipe is REALLY easy. Boxed dumpling mix, two boxes or cans of tomatoes, salt, pepper, a tiny bit of sugar, and corn starch. You can gild the lily and top with cheddar cheese, but I prefer it as is.
tomatoes and dumplings
Keywords: side entree vegetarian kosher
Ingredients
- 2 boxes or large cans of chopped or crushed tomatoes
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- buttermilk (whole wheat or white) baking mix, made into dumplings (as per package instructions)
Instructions
pour both boxes of tomatoes into heavy bottom stock pot
stir in sugar
dissolve corn starch into water to make a slurry
pour in corn starch water into tomatoes and stir
add salt and pepper
bring to a boil
roll out and cut dumplings into tomatoes or drop dumplings into tomatoes
cook until dumplings are cooked.
Love your run-down tips, there! Straight and simple. Dumplings look pretty good, too…
oh yum! and that piece of toast above looks like a piece of art. like you had fun with the drizzle.
who doesn’t have fun with the drizzle?!
exactly the reason I put it in a squirt bottle!
Oh that’s such a pet peeve of mine – seeing someone else’s recipe typed out on another’s blog. I love dumplings!
me too.
ditto
What great information and suggestions Cat – thanks!
I’m certain that in the epicurious after-life there is a special place for recipe poachers!
epicurious after life.
perfect.
The tomatoes & dumplings sound oddly delicious – I would have never thought to put dumplings in a tomato sauce… YUM! I know what you mean about the re-blogging… I was totally guilty of that as a new blogger, and only learned about it after seeing complaints from other bloggers, etc. I think there should be a “what to do and what not to do” article that every new blogger has to read before starting! I’m sure the majority of people do it simply because they don’t know better (or at least that’s what I like to think).
it’s a hillbilly thing. They’re great, though.
I would like to think that too, but sometimes??
That tomato and dumplin recipe looks so freaking good, and so much more flavorful than chicken and dumplins.
As far as reposting recipes goes, I whole heartedly agree IF there are no changes. But if, using your example, someone makes your cauliflower pizza into mini pizzas and then that changes the cooking time or topping proportions, I tend to think it’s okay to post the new, slightly modified recipe as long as they give full credit to who it was adapted from.
I agree with that…but yes link-love is a must! And take your own pictures!!
ALWAYS take your own pictures. I think slightly modified isn’t enough, if it is only slightly modified, I think you should just note the modifications.
True. I guess the blogger has to decide what is slight modification. Of course the safest bet is creating original recipes!
I definitely think it takes time to understand the rules of conduct when it comes to having a food blog. I did things in the beginning that I cringe at now..such as only changing one small items and typing out the recipe, not giving photo credit, etc.
It’s good that bloggers occasionally mention these things, otherwise how would the newbies know?
Also, banana split bread sounds AWESOME!
exactly, I think a few have done this in the past.
I am a banana bread addict and am always looking for new, unique recipes to make. Thanks for sharing yours, it sounds amazing and I can’t wait to try it at home!
These look good! Sort of like gnocchi
Thanks so much for your blogger etiquette lecture! I have had this happen to me recently, not maliciously, just out of ignorance.
I think that a lot of people are just unaware of how ‘copyright’ works on the internet. I took the opportunity to gently inform the blogger who re-blogged my recipe and picture (although I hate confrontation, and I stewed all day about the best way to do it!) and we are still friends (I think!)
I’ve never heard of tomato and dumplings but it actually sounds really good. How quaint
I think we need to have a bloggers spill all day and totally rat out the thieves. But I’m a teeny bit bitter and jaded =) Luckily we have each other’s back.
There are a few dozen innocent borrows out there – and its obvious that its just a newbie getting into the swing of things, but the deliberate “i jacked yo recipe” peeps that steal entire paragraphs copy and pasted from blogs, photos, and other shenanigans that need a good spanking. and not the fun kind.
I loved this recipe. I am always struggling with diversity in food. Eating chicken, fish and eggs as a part of my weight loss routine, with minimum carb intake. It delivers the results to me, but I am not sure how good it is for kidneys. It gives me that lean look, but I believe I need to get more variety in my nutrition.
While I’m not a blogger (yet?) I understand what you mean about the recipes. I’d be seriously angry/annoyed if people copied my recipes thus (at times un?)knowingly making them their own, too. Also, it sure makes a blogger proud to get a trackback with a review about their recipe. Let’s hope people get this and don’t mindlessly keep copying recipes.
Ah, these tomatoes and dumplings sure look delish. How many does your recipe serve?
at least 5.
This is how behind I am in life currently. Just reading this now and one word for ya: AMEN.