A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

recipe

20 Days of Chill: What’s cookin’ (Day 18)

The finished product! Yum!

Mmmmm New England clam chowder (errr… chowdah!)

This is, by far, my favorite type of soup. I don’t like Manhattan clam chowder. But New England… that’s chowdah!

I’ve made some different types of it in the past, but I had recently been scouring pinterest in the hopes of finding another one to try.

What I stumbled across was a slow-cooker recipe and, with a few small tweaks, I think I’ve found a great recipe that is well worth keeping.

If you want to see the original recipe at Baked by Rachel, click on the above link. I cut a few things out (namely red pepper flakes), and added more clams, as well as going with a shallot instead of just onion. Below is how I did it – and my thoughts on how I might change it up a tad more next time (and, mark my words, there will be a next time)!

Ingredients:

  • 3.5 cups of potatoes (I would have gone with the 4.5 in the original recipe, but didn’t have enough …)
  • 1 tsp garlic (I used minced)
  • 1 cup onion chopped (about half of mine was shallot)
  • 1/2 cup celery chopped
  • 1/4 tsp dried thyme
  • 6-8 slices of bacon (I put a bit more than the original recipe)
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tbsp bacon grease
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 1/4 cup of half and half
  • 5 6-ounce cans of clams (I used more than in the original recipe
  • 8 ounces of clam juice (basically the juice out of two of the above cans of clams

What to do

Get everything prepped. It’s the best way to do it, isn’t it? Do all of your cutting and chopping and measuring. Get the clams ready and the juice. Peel the potatoes and put them into the size pieces that you like in your chowdah! (I like them a little smaller in mine).

Prepping!

And then …

Heat the olive oil in a decent size skillet. Then drop in the veggies, cooking over a medium heat. And it will smell divine. Once those onions get translucent, add the garlic and thyme for another minute or two, or until fragrant. Once ready, put all of that in your crock pot/slow cooker.

Now drop those potatoes in the crock pot, along with the clams, the clam juice and all the seasonings. Stir it up and take a whiff (hint: it smells good) and set your timer – 5 hours on high (that’s what I did), or the original recipe noted 10 hours on low.

If it didn’t smell good enough already, well, it’s about to get better. Cook all that delicious bacon. Get it nice and crispy. Take the 1/2 tablespoon of bacon grease and add it to the slow cooker. Chop up that bacon and add that to the pot as well (though, you should keep a bit of it aside, so you can have it on top of the chowder later!), cause … everything is better with bacon! Let everything continue to cook

With about 45 minutes remaining, add the flour to the half and half and whisk it really well. Like, take the time and do it right. Once you hit 30 minutes remaining, add it to the crock pot and let it cook the rest of the time.

When done – ladle some of that chowder out, have some awesome bread and enjoy how amazing this is. I mean, it’s crazy good. It also freezes pretty well, so portion it out and pull some out any time you want this chowdah!

Enjoy!

*****

This post is part of the 2018 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge hosted by A ‘lil HooHaa. Please check out the link if you’d like to see others or join in. You don’t have to do every theme if you don’t want! And for those participating, take a moment and check out the other participants! This is also part of the 2018 HooHaa Blogging Challenge. 

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Can overnight oats help the battle?

I’ve been reading on what kind of things can help with diabetes.

Over the past several years, I’ve backed away from oatmeal because the carb count was so high. It worried me and I didn’t want to do something that could throw me out of whack.

Alas, I’ve been seeing a lot – and I mean A LOT – of recipes on Pinterest for overnight oats. Several years ago, I tried it and didn’t like it, though I am starting to think it was because of the chia seeds, which I don’t think I enjoyed. That being said, I haven’t fully given up on chia seeds as I have been reading that they have some serious benefits for one’s health, including fighting aspects of diabetes. I think, however, if I start adding these to these recipes, it will be in a much smaller quantity.

Prepping some overnight oats.

So oats … seem to have some healthy aspects, too. Despite having a decent amount of carbs, it seems they can help overall. According to Healthline, “Because oatmeal has a low glycemic index, it can help maintain glucose levels. This can be beneficial for people with diabetes.” The website also warns, however, that pre-packaged oatmeal can be packed with sugar, which is why it’s better to create your own wonderful mixtures.

The first few nights, I followed recipes pretty much to the word. But I also realized there was a lot of ways to do overnight oats. Nothing had to be set to a recipe as you could do what you needed to make it taste the way you want. And, though many people eat it cold, I’ve found putting it in the microwave for about 1:30 warms it enough to make it really tasty!

I found a recipe that seemed interesting, but I tweaked it a bit to my liking. See below:

 

  • 1/2 (ish) cup of oats
  • 1/2 (ish) banana mashed
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 3/4 (ish) cup of almond milk (or regular milk) (I use “Almond Breeze Vanilla with a hint of honey”)

Put a small layer of oats at the bottom of a pint-sized mason jar (I use the wide-mouth ones). Add the mashed banana. Then put the rest of the oats. On top of that, add the cinnamon, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and milk. Mix up either with a spoon or shake vigorously to mix everything together. Refrigerate overnight.

I came up with this, in regard to carb count:

  • Oats: 30g
  • Banana: 12g
  • Maple syrup: ~7
  • Almond milk: ~6
  • Total: ~55 grams of carbs

This seems like a pretty safe bet for breakfast and with so many ways of making overnight oats, the tastes can be different each day. I’ve made ones with blueberries and such as well, which adds to it. I’m going to keep trying and see where it goes.

So far, I’m not sure if it’s been good, bad or indifferent. I’ve had these a few days so far (different flavors) and it hasn’t been perfect. But I am wondering over time. I have to see the diabetes educator in about a week, so I am hoping she can shed some light on things.

I know this much — it’s filling and tastes good. So I’m not as hungry later in the morning/day. It’s all part of the process, so hopefully I can keep going in the right direction.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Warming up on a snowy night with some real hot chocolate

Hot chocolate, anyone?

With snow in our local forecast for Wednesday night into Thursday, I knew it would be a night of not doing much outside of catching up on some television and maybe some blog posts.

I don’t know what made me think of it — maybe the first significant snowfall we’ve seen in two years — but I got the urge for some hot chocolate. I’ve never been a coffee drinker (I know, odd for somebody who worked in newspapers), so my “cold weather” drinks of choice have always been hot chocolate or tea.

Getting the necessary ingredients.

One thing I miss about not living in a place bigger than my current town is the ability to run to the local Dunkin’ Donuts to grab a hot chocolate. I may not always look to go to those places for the unhealthy (but yummy) food, but I love the hot chocolate. I would rather a sugar free version, but sometimes you have to splurge.

I wasn’t about to brave heading out for a 20-mile ride over curvy and hilly roads for hot chocolate from Dunkin’ Donuts, however. That meant I was looking at the sugar free Swiss Miss I have handy. But I wanted a bit more.

Google saved me.

I did a search for a single-serving of hot chocolate to see what I could come up with. Most of the recipes I saw were quite easy, so I needed to dig around to see what was available to use. It turns out I needed a few things, so off I went to the local grocery store. As I was sweeping off the car, I figured we were just shy of two inches of snow and it was still coming down.

Looks like a little snow this year.

The forecast is calling for anywhere from 4 to 12 inches, depending on the area and the source — the National Weather Service, The Weather Channel or the local television news. Turns out we got about 6 or so inches. At least that’s what it seemed like when snow blowing this stuff.

I intend, at some point in the future when I’m a little more on my feet and back working and such, to do some “foodie” things with this blog. Believe me, it won’t be a food blog by any means — but it will be more along the lines of things I’m eating and such. But that’s in the future.

This post is something along those lines as I want to share this hot chocolate experience and my thoughts.

I ended up buying the Hershey’s cocoa because it was only 40 cents more expensive than the store brand. It also had a similar recipe on the container to the one I had found online.

Score!

When I got home, I opted to use the recipe on the Hershey’s container, with some slight tweaks.

Here’s the recipe:

  • 2 Tbsp. sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. cocoa
  • A dash of salt
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix the sugar, cocoa and salt in a mug. They say to microwave the milk on high for 1-1 1/2 minutes or until hot. However, I did it the old fashioned way — on the stove. Then slowly add the hot milk into the mug and stir well. Stir in the vanilla extract.

The finished product.

I used Equal instead of sugar and it was fine. I also probably had 9 ounces of milk, rather than the cup (8 ounces) it called for.

It wasn’t a bad recipe. I think it could actually be good, pending some tweaks. Tasting it, I thought it was extremely chocolatey.  I liken it to a hot chocolate I got at Starbucks a few years ago. It had an extremely strong chocolate taste, almost making it a big stronger than needed.

I will be trying this again soon. The tweaks I will make include:

  • Likely 1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp. of cocoa
  • Likely a cup and a half or so of milk — I want to fill the mug

In the end, it was pretty successful. Using the Equal helped me cut down on the sugar, which I’m always looking to do. I think if it has a slightly lighter taste, it will be a definite keeper.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!