How to scramble eggs the Keetje way!

I love scrambled eggs!

Since being taught by my father how to scramble eggs at the age of about 10, these wonderful things have been a staple in my diet.

Almost everyone knows how to do this, but for some of my more culinary-challenged readers, I shall just do a quick run through of how to produce Keetje's Scrambled Eggs.

-------------------------------------------

You will need

2 or 3 large eggs per person
Some butter
Enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan
1 tablespoon of cream (or milk) per person
salt or pepper to taste

Break the eggs into a bowl and add the cream. Mix with a fork or a whisk until the mixture in the bowl is a uniform yellow colour. Add your salt or pepper and mix again. I tend not to use salt as it is famous for raising the blood pressure.

Get a saucepan and put the olive oil in it to heat up and add the butter.

Once the oil and butter have melted, add the egg/cream mixture and stir with a wooden spatula/spoon. I find it is good to keep the heat down a bit to avoid burnt bits and the mixture sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Keep stirring until the mixture has a fluffy texture, then serve.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I like to add things to my scrambled eggs. You can use smoked salmon (especially nice) or a favourite of mine - bacon and mushroom. I just cut up about four mushrooms and one rasher of bacon per person and fry them in the oil/butter mix before adding the eggs.

The added cream makes scrambled eggs a very satisfying breakfast that will keep you going until lunchtime.

When in Holland (where is it particularly difficult to find nice bacon) I lay a couple of slices of ham on the plate and just put the scrambled eggs on the top.

Keetje

Finally joined the Gym

Hello Everyone,

Been a while since I blogged - mainly due to time away from home and a nasty old stomach bug that really messed up my eating regime.

The stomach bug pushed down my weight a bit, and I seemed to have maintained that weight - it was ALMOST worth all that suffering!

Today, I decided to finally enlist at my local gym. I love swimming, but at this time of year the pools are full of exuberant children - so it's not a lot of fun for the older generation trying to get in a few lengths for fitness purposes. I am also, I must admit, a bit fussy about changing rooms and pool facilities - and the public pools around here are not that great in that respect. So I wandered off down to the health club near my office to sign up so I could at least get access to a decent pool and nice changing rooms with hairdryers and free shampoo and moisturisers for dried out post-swimming skin.

I was given a guided tour by an enviably slim young lady, who was most kind and encouraging. She was deeply impressed with my weight loss so far and suitably sympathetic about my bad knees! When she took me into the gym itself, the place had a number of people doing scary-looking exercises with medicine balls and weights, I even saw some bloke rolling around on the floor. This was not due to excess alcohol consumption, as is more usual in my home town - my guide informed me that he was indulging in some form of exercise.

I think my guide noticed that I had paled rather at the sight of the scary gym equipment and reassuringly told me that I would be allocated a personal trainer who would make sure that I did not do anything that would aggravate my poor old joints - I have to admit that I was getting pretty worried that I would jump onto the gym equipment and end up with knees like balloons!

I was then taken into a studio that is used for a form of exercise called 'spinning'. The place was full of bikes bolted to the floor. Apparently this 'spinning' involves getting on an exercise bike and pedalling like crazy while being yelled at by a gym instructor. My regular readers will know that I love riding around on my bike - but one look at the saddles on these exercise bikes made me realise that perhaps 'spinning' was not for me. I think I will leave this to stronger and better women than me.

I felt a little happier after checking out the pool and the exercise studio that is used for yoga, pilates and tai chi. A rather intriguing touch was a switch by the door of the studio that said 'yoga mode'. I suppose it pipes relaxing music or something? or perhaps tapes of Tibetan monks chanting mantras to uplift the exercisers?

I paid my money and joined up and tomorrow I will be visiting the place for the first time to have an induction session with the personal trainer, who will work out a plan to get me fit and moving.
Once he has finished with me, I suspect I will be heading for the pool to do a few lengths in a child-free environment, sit in the jacuzzi and open a few pores in the steam room.

Wish me luck!


Keetje

Things to do with green stuff (1) - Lettuce

OK, green stuff is very boring..in fact so boring I have managed to avoid it since I was given any choice in the matter.

My mum, bless her, had little idea of what to do with green stuff, her idea of salad preparation was to wash lettuce leaves and stick them on a plate along with a sliced up tomato, some cheese or ham and a dollop of disgusting salad cream.

Let's face it, the English (and the Irish) have no idea how to deal with green stuff - the average English cook's view of potential ingredients is that if it cannot be boiled or roasted - forget it!

It was only when I travelled in France a bit that I started to get some idea of how to prepare a salad. The french have the wonderful notion of the hot salad - which basically involves the preparation of salad leaves and tomatoes and maybe onions - cooking something fatty in oil and then stirring them all together in the same bowl. Any Atkineer would see the distinct possibilities in this hot salad idea - especially as regards lettuce - which is not noted for being terribly exciting.

Tonight, I cooked one of my favourites - Feta Cheese and Bacon Salad, which goes thus:-

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feta Cheese and Bacon Salad

(per person)

50g Feta Cheese
1 tablespoon of olive/sunflower oil
200g of mixed salad leaves (lettuces of various varieties, or rocket, my particular favourite)
2 slices of back bacon

Chop salad leaves and put in salad bowl
Chop Feta cheese into 1cm square chunks and add to salad bowl, mix
Slice bacon into 1cm wide strips
Heat oil in frying pan and fry bacon strips until they are of the desired consistency
when bacon is cooked, remove from heat and transfer straight to salad bowl, mix

Serve

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That is a very basic hot salad. You may, of course, add other salad vegetables such as tomatoes or onions, but I find that the very strong flavours of the feta cheese and the bacon go very well with the salad leaves.

You can use different cheeses (mozzarella is nice)
Or leave out the cheese and go for a different meat or poultry (chicken livers are particularly interesting).

Hope you enjoy this, I certainly do.


Keetje

PS for the Dutch Reader, you can get ready made bacon lardons at Albert Heijn (spekblokjes)

This is for Wendy

Hello everyone and most particularly Wendy,

I was talking with my chum Wendy from the Atkins Diet Bulletin Board. She is getting herself into a right old pickle because she will keep stepping on the 'metal monster'. I can sympathise, I have the same problem myself, which has only resolved itself since I put the scales out of reach! We have decided that perhaps the greatest happiness of the greatest number will be served by Wendy and I keeping away from the scales for a little while.

So especially for her (and me), I have found this sweet little cartoon. Hopefully it will be a reminder to us both about avoiding those daily and oh-so-depressing weigh-ins.

Keetje

New Goal Ticker

As the ticker seemed to be a good reminder for me to watch the weight and stay 'on plan', I have made myself a new one for my next goal.

Hopefully the snail will not travel too slowly.

Keetje

1st goal met - thrilled to bits

On the advice of the lovely ladies at the Century Club on the Atkins Diet Bulletin Board I decided to break my weight loss down into several little goals.

My first goal was to weigh 113kg before heading off on my holidays.

Today I can officially report that I have met (and exceeded) my holiday goal. I was due to weigh 113kg before Monday 7th July and today I weigh 112.5kg!!

I am now going to set myself a new, slightly more challenging goal - 102.5 kg before my birthday in October. Getting down to this weight will take me below the 40 bmi mark.

Wish me luck.

Keetje