Sometimes you just have to adapt....

Not every recipe I try works out. Honestly, I've had my fair share of failures! While it is disappointing and, frankly, depressing, I try not let it bother me too much. Easier said than done, of course.

Case in point, my dad and I tried to make bleenies (also known as blinies, potato pancakes) to take to potluck yesterday. It did not go well. I wanted to make them with sweet potatoes (due to their minor impact on my blood sugar), but we must have done something wrong. I thought we followed the recipe (grabbed it off the coal region website - www.coalregion.com) exactly (with the exception of the potatoes) but they wouldn't stay together. The second we would flip them over, they'd fall apart. I shredded the potatoes, but my dad said that maybe we should have made them smaller. They looked like shoestring potatoes, so maybe I should have cut the potatoes in smaller pieces before shredding. I don't know. I would like to think it wouldn't make a difference with using sweet potato rather than a regular potato, but I could be wrong! I was also wondering if they'd do better if we dropped them in a pot of oil, like a funnel cake, instead of trying to fry them. I don't know. I'll have to do some research or perhaps, call one of my aunts in Pennsylvania to see if they can suggest anything or tell me what I may have done wrong.

So, since the bleenies did not work out, I had to figure out what to do with my shredded potatoes. Well, I turned them into hash browns, sort of. I dumped the shredded sweet potatoes and shredded onion mixture into a frying pan, added some freeze-dried chives, and just fried them. I added some mozzarella (not a lot) to them when I put them in the stoneware container I was taking them to potluck in. They actually tasted pretty good, so I guess it wasn't a total loss. Making lemonade out of lemons, right? I added some pork carne picada (found it at Walmart) to the leftovers for dinner and it was even better. I did used some low salt butter to fry the potatoes to give it a little more flavor and also added some of the salt substitute I have at home.

I found a recipe online for low sodium deviled eggs that I've used a few times (www.lowsorecipes.com) that always seems to go over well. Though the recipe uses mustard powder instead of actual mustard. I adjusted it a little, using a little less mustard powder than the recipe asks for, so it had less of a horseradish like flavor. I used a low sodium mayonnaise (the Better Body Foods brand at Walmart is the best, I think, for low sodium) for the filling, but I used regular dill relish (can't find a low sodium version of relish). Deviled eggs is one a few go to recipes I have for when I don't really know what I want to do for potluck.

My dessert? Bread pudding. I asked my dad what he'd like, because I was considering making banana pudding, and he said he'd like bread pudding. I used a low sodium, low carb, and low sugar cinnamon raisin bread (Ezekiel brand found in the freezer section at Walmart) for the recipe instead of regular bread. One loaf was more than enough for the 9x13 deep dish pan I used. I added a box of golden raisins to it as well, because my dad loves a lot of raisins in his bread pudding and he prefers the golden ones over the darker ones. I have found crock pot versions of bread pudding but the one I used was made in the oven. The recipe is called Easy Custard Bread Pudding and was created by Amy Desrosiers (www.sizzlingeats.com). It turned out pretty darned good! I didn't used the icing recipe, instead opting for a vanilla sauce to pour over the warm bread pudding. The sauce recipe I used was attached to a different bread pudding recipe I found on All Recipes (www.allrecipes.com/recipe/217181/best-bread-pudding-with-vanilla-sauce/). Kudos to Gail Cobile for her wonderful creation! The pudding didn't get completely eaten, but a fair bit of it was. My dad was okay with it, because that meant he had some leftovers he could enjoy later!

I think I've gotten pretty good at adapting recipes or finding the lower sodium versions of recipes I used to use a lot. I've also purchased more cookbooks (usually off of Amazon) for low sodium and/or diabetic recipes. The only problem I have now is the fact that my FATHER weighs less than me! How embarrassing! LOL. Hello, exercise bike, my nemesis. Shall we dance?

God Bless!