I ALMOST have it right. It’s not perfect yet and I am still tweaking the recipe but I think I have found a way to make a low carb and, dare I even say healthy version, of Denny’s famous Moon over my Hammy breakfast sandwich. As mentioned in my earlier post, this famous and funny sounding sandwich has been one of this chain restaurant’s best-selling meals since its introduction in 1978. It’s a wonderfully decadent melange of slices of swiss and american cheese, layers of Ham, 2 scrambled eggs all sandwiched between two slices of butter-slathered sour dough bread served hot with hash browns or grits.

As this description alone is enough to cause a coronary, please keep in mind that the team behind the I LOVE FOOD DIET , (me, myself and I) are working very hard to recreate Denny’s Hammy so it could be yours and MY HAMMY.

I think that I have come close to making this happen as I have just discovered “powdered gold” in the form of Flax Seed. According to Web MD, flaxseed (also known as linseed) may be “one of the most powerful plant foods on the planet”. There is some evidence that this wonder food can help reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart disease. The three major healthy components of Flax seeds is that they contain Omega 3 fatty acids ( ignore the word fatty, trust me these Omega 3’s are good for you), Lignans (have amazing anti-oxidant qualities) and fiber (the stuff that helps moves things along and out).

Flax seeds have been around for a very long time. According to the Flax Council of Canada, Flaxseed was cultivated as far back as 3000 BC! In the 8th century, King Charlemagne, often refered to as the father of Europe, believed so strongly in the powers of Flaxseed that he passed special laws requiring his all subjects to consume it.

This stands in direct opposition to that silly french queen century’s later, who when confronted with thousands of starving peasants callously uttered those famous last words, “Let them eat cake”. Not long afterwards, the French Revolution broke out, the peasants took over and they subsequently chopped off her head. What she should have said was, “Let them eat Flax!”, and maybe her outcome would have been different.

I found a recipe on Flaxseed bread. and baked a loaf last night. You can either buy flax seeds whole and ground them yourself or you can just buy the pre-ground flaxseed meal. As my life is complicated enough, I opted to NOT ground the seeds at home and just purchased the package of meal.

I followed the directions and popped the bread in the oven. 25 minutes later, I pulled it out and placed it on the counter.

My 6-year-old son wandered into the kitchen asking, “What smells like pancakes?” I proudly motioned to my freshly baked bread. I enthusiastically asked him if he would like to try some, to which he took one look at my work and said “No, thank you mommy.” 😦

My elder son came over and stared at it and concluded by saying,  “It looks like meat loaf”.

“Meatloaf???? It’s not meatloaf! It’s really good and  healthy bread, low carb bread that I can actually eat and make sandwiches with!”, I replied in exasperation. “Don’t you want to at least try it?” I implored? “No thank you, mom” was his response too. 😦

Not one to let this get me down. I valiantly pulled out my frying pan and dropped a heaping teaspoon of butter in it. I took a slice of my freshly baked flaxseed bread and layered it with swiss and cheddar cheese, ham and scrambled egg. I placed another slice of the bread on top and grilled it while simultaneously pressing firmly on the sandwich with a spatula.

The result? Well, lets just say Rome was not built-in a day. Although it wasnt bad, it’s still a far cry from Denny’s Moons over My Hammy.  I hope to be able to perfect the recipe for flaxseed bread soon and will continue  working in my lab/kitchen till I can proudly present to all of you the I LOVE FOOD DIET’S version of the decadent sandwich which I intend to call,  MOVE OVER MY HAMMY.

Chow for now!

Related Articles

• The Benefits of Flaxseed (webmd.com)