Dino Drac’s Countdown to Christmas!
Welcome to Dino Drac’s Countdown to Christmas! This feature will be updated daily (or close to daily) through December 25th, with some kind of holiday-related thingamajig. You never know what might turn up!
This one’s really for the old schoolers who prefer blogs to algorithmic timelines full of ads for dicey hair products. I won’t be plugging it often off-site. If this is up your alley, remember to check back often!
11/17: Keto Stuffed Mushrooms!
I’ve been in a ketogenic situation for a while now, and don’t plan to stop before the holidays. This means limited carbs and sugar. If that sounds like it’ll be tough to manage at Thanksgiving and Christmas… well, yes and no, but mostly no.
My family accepts that I will be bringing my own meals to the parties, and since Thanksgiving comes first, I’ve started to test out keto-friendly adaptations of the TG dishes I’d otherwise miss – like stuffed mushrooms.
It turned out to be a cinch. Shown above are extremely keto-appropriate stuffed mushrooms. The whole plate clocked in at 385 calories, and the only carbs are from the mushrooms themselves.
The shrooms were 50 calories. The filling is a mix of the chopped stems, two diced sticks of cheddar cheese (160 calories), six strips of crumbled center-cut bacon (150 cal), salt, pepper, plus a wedge of light Laughing Cow cheese (25 cal) to help bind the mix. All I had to do was fill the caps and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees, and bam, they were done.
Done, and DELICIOUS. They’re basically loaded potatoes without the potatoes. I dunno if I’ll want nine stuffed mushrooms with all of the other foods that’ll be in my little Tupperware bento box, but for under 400 calories and almost no carbs, even the whole plate wouldn’t break the bank.
Food is a big, fun part of the holidays, and it’s nice to know that I can keep it that way while staying “in the mode.”
11/16: TMNT Mini Stockings! (1990)
I hopped at the chance to pick up this old set of Ninja Turtles mini stockings, in part because I thought they’d perform well on social media (they didn’t), but mostly because I owned and LOVED them as a kid.
I had this wonky little fake tree in my bedroom, maybe two feet tall, with branches that were barely stronger than pipe cleaners. I distinctly remember decorating that poor tree with these four stockings, and marveling at my work like Ralphie with his Red Ryder essay.
Not sure what’s up with Donatello’s caption, though. “How’s this for a shocking stocking?” My headcanon is that the art got cropped, and he was meant to be holding some sort of electrified Christmas doodad.
11/15: Telco Rudolph! (1993)
Some of you probably got nervous when you read the word “Telco.” Don’t worry, this feature won’t turn into a Telco-thon like the Mausoleum of Madness did. I’ll be good, I promise.
I have no plans of collecting Telco’s many Christmas Motionettes, but I made an exception for this vintage Rudolph. One thing you don’t know about me is that I’m a total sucker for miniaturized robot deer. With his gently-swaying head and light-up nose, Rudolph is the hottest fire hazard of the holiday season.
Ugh, okay, I guess I’ll be honest here. Telco also made the same reindeer without the light-up nose, and yeah, I bought that one, too. In my defense, I was unaware of the Rudolph version when I did, and you can’t expect me to settle on a black nose when the other one looks like a strawberry Blow Pop.
But I swear, that’s it. Two Telco Christmas Motionettes, and no more. Cross my heart.