Spicy Coffee BBQ Sauce

I don’t think it’s ever happened in the nearly 11 years we’ve had our dog.  I was sound asleep and I heard our dark barking.  Just a “woof” and it took me a while to realize I wasn’t dreaming.  Then once I was awake I thought maybe he was having a bad dream.  He usually sleeps at the foot of our bed on a blanket on the floor.  He wasn’t there.  Then I thought maybe he was sleeping in Hannah’s now empty room, and somehow the door shut and he couldn’t get out.  Nope!  He was barking to be let out at 5:07 a.m.!  He ended up wandering our back yard for 20 minutes.  While I was waiting for him to come in, I went on Nicole’s site –you have to check out her bull dog Lily – so cute!

Well after 20 minutes I was kind of awake.  I did have the slightest temptation just to hit up the gym, but I knew I would be dog tired later in the day and went back to sleep until 7:15. 😀

I didn’t realize I had 205 carbs yesterday until I entered my food into fatsecret.com.  To offset that,  I thought I’d have a low carb breakfast – I made something similar one time before, but remembered that I had thinly sliced roast beef – so this time I asked my deli person to slice it a bit thicker so it stayed rolled.  Sadly, my camera battery died just as I was taking the picture, so my smart phone had to step in.  I scrambled ½ cup of egg whites with ½ a cup baby spinach and ½ an ounce of cheese.  When I got to work I split my 100 calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole between the two slices of roast beef.  Reheated the eggs for 45 seconds, then put that at one end, and just rolled it up.  With a touch of hot sauce and cilantro on top – this delicious breakfast (with the 1 cup of watermelon on the side) comes in at 366 calories, 16 fat, 18 grams of carbs, 3.9 fiber and 37 protein.

Not only was this breakfast delicious, but super filling.  I ran/walked for 50 minutes then when I got back to my desk I had a few rushes and didn’t even eat lunch until 2:00 p.m. – and I probably could have lasted longer, but I knew I had a delicious lunch waiting for me!  I have Jacky and Kevin to thank for my lunch.   Tony and I smoked a pork shank over the weekend.  A 4.5 pound piece of meat!

I’ve mentioned before, but my husband, as much as I love him, will not eat leftovers.  Except for the occasional piece of fried chicken or meatloaf.  It had a pretty big bone in the middle, but I went to cutting it down in thin pieces – I ended up with 12 ounces of meat.  I’ll save the bone in the deep freeze for soup later on.  As I was googling “spicy pork sandwiches” I actually found my friend Jacky’s recipe for Asian Pulled Pork.  While I didn’t follow her method for cooking the pork (not sure I could get my husband to eat anything with Chinese Five Spice!) I(Also, check out her recipe for Buffalo Cauliflower Dip – holy shizz!)  was intrigued with her Asian BBQ sauce. I tweaked it slightly – hoisin sauce is pretty sweet, so I reduced the amount in this recipe since I was only going to be tossing the sauce with 12 ounces of meat, and I left out the scallions – sorry Jacky!  Oh, and I didn’t have an sesame oil too – that would have been a nice addition!

Asian BBQ Sauce

(adapted slightly from Jacky of Jax House)  (makes 4 servings:  157 calories, 7.75 fat, 19 carbs, 1.2 fiber and 1.9 protein)

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon white wine
• 1 tablespoon sriracha
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
• ½ cup bottled hoisin sauce
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves, minced

Heat the oil in a saucepan.  Add ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Stir in wine, brown sugar, sriracha and soy sauce.  Cook for another 2 minutes.  Add hoisin sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Once cool, stir in the minced cilantro.

The topping?  Vietnamese pickled carrots and daikon radish.  I really wish I knew sooner how easy it is to pickle!  My only change from Kevin’s recipe is that I doubled the amount of liquid.

Vietnamese Pickled Veggies

(adapted from of Kevin at Closet Cooking)

• 2 cups water
• ½ cup white vinegar
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 large carrots, cut into match stick size
• 1 large daikon radish, cut into match stick size

I brought the water, vinegar, sugar and salt to simmer, and simmered for about 10 minutes, or until the sugar and salt dissolve.  I put my carrots and radish in a large mason jar, and filled it up to the top.  Once it was cool, store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

My first idea was to just drizzle the sauce over the sandwich, but then I decided to just mix it all together.  I shared this sandwich with three of my co-workers and it made 4 servings.   The responses:

·        Holy shit – this sandwich rocks!

·        That sandwich was absolutely delicious!

·        OMG, I can’t believe I am eating this whole thing – it’s the perfect amount of spice!

Yep, that’s me.  Changing lives, one sandwich at a time.

It wasn’t until I put my food into fatsecret.com again, that my lunch came in kind of high – when I make this again I’ll either ditch the sweet potato chips for chopped fresh veggies, or ditch the hamburger bun, which would have saved me about 150 calories either way.  Even still, this was worth every calorie.  606 calories, 28 fat, 60 carbs, 5.2 fiber and 25 protein.

My store had cut up chicken on sale for .99 cents a pound.  I am a sucker for that deal!  Tony loves grilled chicken thighs, just with garlic salt and pepper.  Me?  I wanted a spicy bbq sauce!  Only problem was, I didn’t have any.

A quick google search gave me some ideas of what I wanted to do – this is really a combination of several recipes, so it was either going to be stunning or taste like ass.  Happily, it tasted stunning!

Spicy Coffee BBQ Sauce

Per tablespoon:  16 calories; 0 g fat 4 g carbohydrates; 0 g protein; 0 g fiber

• 3/4 cup strong coffee
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup habanero ketchup
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 1 jalapeno – pierced with a knife

Combine all the ingredients into a pan.  Cook over medium low heat for fifteen minutes – it will thicken slightly as it cooks.

Guys, this was the perfect amount of flavorful heat – I was literally licking my fingers – I am klassy like that.

My plate: 2 chicken wings, 1/2 cup of noodles mixed with baby greens and grilled zucchini – that I slathered in that bbq sauce.   Dinner comes in at 441 caloires, 17 fat, 35 carbs, 2.8 fiber and 39 protein.

Stats for Tuesday:

• 1443 calories, 63 fat, 104 carbs, 11 fiber and 102 protein
• 33% of calories from carbs, 40% from fat and 27% from protein
• 50 minute walk/run at lunch
• average blood sugar 188 – for some reason my blood sugar really spiked after my run – it was 302 when I got back!

I have Errign to thank for today’s Inspirational Diet motivation.  Check out this article “Enough With the Bullshitting!”  It was a very motivational read – thanks Errign!  Make it a great day!