[00:00:00] Carl Lanore: [00:00:00] Welcome back to superhuman radio. Today is November seven, 2019. For those of you listening to this show a hundred years from now, and realizing we were so far ahead of the curve, uh, today's show, we're going to talk about nutrition, but we're going to talk about, uh, some fun things. Uh, my guest today is Shannon Yorkton Penna.
[00:00:20] How are you doing Shannon?
[00:00:21] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:00:21] I'm good. How are you? And
[00:00:22] Carl Lanore: [00:00:22] Shannon is a self-described, I remember one time you said to me that you were a foodie, but you're so, you're so much more than a foodie. Yeah. I mean, really. I mean, that's a downplay.
[00:00:31] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:00:31] Um,
[00:00:32] Carl Lanore: [00:00:32] no, I mean, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're part health advocate.
[00:00:36] You're part physical. Culturist uh, you're part Alchemist and then your part chef and you, you, you've blended all of these things together. Uh, for those of the audience that are not aware, and you've been living under a rock who Shannon is, Shannon is the person who created the quest bar that ended up building $1 billion company and her kitchen [00:01:00] looks like an average kitchen when you walk into it.
[00:01:03] Um. She's got this giant queen Mary that's hidden in a closet that she pulls out with all her iterations of what she's working on. So she can move them out of the kitchen and turn back into a regular household. But it really is like a lab and it's where she does her creating, and she's still creating.
[00:01:19] She's creating for legendary foods now. And this is really something that you love, right? You don't, you don't get up in the morning and go, Oh God, I have to work on these products today. You, you love doing this, don't you?
[00:01:33] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:01:33] I do, I do. And I'm motivated by different things. You know, some days I'm, you're definitely not into it at all.
[00:01:38] And some days I'm watching the food channel and I just kind of go, Ooh, Oh, can I make that healthy? Like how could I, how could I transform that? And, uh, you know, and then I'm motivated by magazines and. Often the stuff that you see is, you know, it's, it's high carb, high sugar, high, whatever it is.
[00:01:54] Um, and so I'm always just trying to see if I can make it more my, you know, my [00:02:00] style, which is, you know, a lower carb type diet
[00:02:03] Carl Lanore: [00:02:03] and we have to establish something for my show and myself, I've promoted a low carb lifestyle for 14 years now because. There is so much good evidence that shows that a lower carb intake, especially high-glycemic, high-glycemic load carbohydrates, is bad for you from an aging standpoint, from a health standpoint, from a body composition standpoint, and everything else that goes along with it.
[00:02:27] So low carb is mainstream today. Everybody understands it. Heck. A Jenny Craig in their commercials that they ran all summer long. You know, they put kedo friendly on everything. You know, it's amazing how, how far that has gone,
[00:02:41] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:02:41] right.
[00:02:41] Carl Lanore: [00:02:41] But, but the reason I even thought of having this show today was because Alisa and I was sitting and we were watching the food channel, and I texted you, I, and I was astonished by two things.
[00:02:54] Number one. Nobody at the food channel has gotten the memo yet that [00:03:00] like gobs and gobs and gobs and gobs of refined sweeteners are not good for you. I shouldn't say sweet as sugar. Uh, number one. And number two, uh, I have a saying it. Cook like me and look like me.
[00:03:16] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:03:16] But
[00:03:17] Carl Lanore: [00:03:17] I started saying that about that guy, Mario, the redheaded guy.
[00:03:21] I was like, this guy is, he's, he's obese, he's, he's bloated, his face is ready, clearly has gut issues. And I, and I started saying, you know, cook like me, look like me. And, and I said to Alisa, Shannon makes, I've tasted stuff when I've been visiting the most decadent. Desserts in the world and they're all sugar-free that you can't even believe it.
[00:03:43] It's not even like you have to go, well, I'll accept this flavor because I don't want sugar. It's like I'd eat this instead of the one with sugar costs. It actually tastes better. I thought, why doesn't Shannon have a show on the cooking chat?
[00:03:56] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:03:56] Yeah. That's funny. Yeah. I [00:04:00] mean, so a lot of it is. I think people got used to things that were, you know, trying to be healthy.
[00:04:07] They just sort of had to taste bad if it was, you know, going to be healthy. And I'm a pastry chef, so I went to pastry school and you know, just, it was more to learn. I wanted to understand how things, you know, how they worked, um, and you know, wet sand dries and when to combine and blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:04:23] So I did all that and obviously I took a lot of that skill and. You know, decided to say, Hey, how can I take this and make this clean? So granted, I learned how to bake and cook with flowers and sugars and all that stuff, but. There are ways to transform those things and change those things, um, and bake those things with cleaner ingredients.
[00:04:42] Um, and so everybody's version of the word clean in quotes is going to be different. So people tend to hate the word Oh, clean. Well, what does that mean? You know? Well, that's different. It all depends on what kind of diet you're on. Um, or nutrition plan you follow. I don't choose to die it anymore.
[00:04:58] I used to compete and [00:05:00] so, um, when I did, I was following a certain competition prep type diet. And I always had the sweet tooth. And so for me, that's where it really took off, is learning how to make things that would fit my lifestyle of whether I was dieting, not dieting or whatever, but my whole goal was to not gain 20 pounds, 30 pounds after I stopped competing to stay relatively where I was.
[00:05:23] Um, and that's, that's kind of where this all came from for me now, I was already. Making quest bars at the time before they were even considered quest bars. I was doing that for years before. You know, plus became anything. And that was kind of the, the quest bar was sort of the start of my whole, uh, clean eating, baking, cooking, whatever style.
[00:05:43] So from there, yeah, it's kind of, it's more, um, you know, as I tried the ketogenic diet and, you know, I played with different things because you learn with everything you do, you learn what either works for you, doesn't work for you, it works for your training. What doesn't, um, and you, you, you morph with those things.
[00:05:59] You change with those [00:06:00] things. So, you know, I. Did a very strict hardcore ketogenic diet for almost four years, and now I'm much more high protein. I still consider it low carb Quito, but I've, I've gone much higher protein. So now all my baking stuff has much more protein in it than when I was Quito, cause Quito.
[00:06:15] It was just all about
[00:06:16] Carl Lanore: [00:06:16] fat. And there was a study that just recently came out that was done on women that showed that a higher protein, a low carb. Diet versus higher fat, low carb diet are the higher protein preserves more muscle, and we have that. We can't ignore the value of muscle, not just for the aesthetic of it, but the, the undeniable evidence that the more muscle you carry later in life.
[00:06:47] The longer you live and the, the longer you stay away from age-related health issues. So muscle, you know, I started saying 14 years ago, muscle is metabolic currency. [00:07:00] Get into the gym and make a deposit today. We know now that that is truer than I ever thought it would be. When I started saying that.
[00:07:07] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:07:07] Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. And that was kind of my whole thing, grow, you know, growing up, um, starting in the gym at about 15, 16 years old. It was always the goal of like, yeah, you want to look a certain way, for sure. But I was always wanting to be a fit and strong and capable. You know, I wanted to feel like I could, you know, if I needed to move up a couch and shove it around the house.
[00:07:27] Like, I can do that. I don't need to go hire two guys to do that. You know, I just always wanted to feel capable and as you age, to keep that capability. So that was always really important to me and still is today.
[00:07:38] Carl Lanore: [00:07:38] So let, let's talk a little bit about some of the things that you had to start switching out.
[00:07:44] There are some natural things that lend themselves, uh, like, like, uh. I know that you make a regatta or ricotta cheesecakes, correct?
[00:07:53] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:07:53] Right. Yes. Yeah. And I mean
[00:07:57] Carl Lanore: [00:07:57] my mother made ricotta cheese cake cause that's how the Italians we [00:08:00] made, we made it with some citrus shrines, you know, and it was, and you bake it down.
[00:08:05] And, and the mistake that most people make. In my humble opinion, making ricotta key cheese cakes is they don't let their, the regard that cheese dry out long enough and
[00:08:14] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:08:14] going to move the moisture without, yeah. You've got to get the liquid out. So, I mean, if you can buy it, great. And if you're going to make it yourself fine, either way, you've gotta get all that moisture out.
[00:08:23] So, I mean, that's an easy thing to do. You can, you know, put it, um, you know, on, on while even a towel and just let it drain. I mean, you can, you know, put it. Yeah. Put it on anything where you're going to get more of that moisture out. But aside from the ricotta, there's a lot of things to use.
[00:08:39] Um, I make a lot of cheesecakes with just, you know, the cream cheese and I use mascarpone. Um, so mascot and other great cause it's just, it's just basically like heavy cream. Right. Um, but it gives it a thickness and a deal. Sort of a decadence to it. Um, and so I make a lot of cheesecakes with those things.
[00:08:55] I've even done cheesecakes with a cottage cheese to just bump up the protein [00:09:00] without actually putting protein powder in it. Um, but then I, my, my newer trick in a sense is people love to bake with Protein powders, but I found that whey protein isolate is not ideal for baking for a lot of reasons.
[00:09:12] Depending on the thing you're trying to make is it can a become too hard, um, if you don't have enough fat or moisture in it. But the other side of it is, is my solar casing is a really wonderful, wonderful protein to bake with. It's super soft, you know, like. Baby powder has no grit to it, it will thicken things.
[00:09:32] Um, so that's one of the things in the rice pudding that you like so much. Um, it's, it's, that's actually a super high protein dish. So. It's using my square casing because it's just got a very neutral, almost bland or less than Milky type taste. It's very, very kind of a neutral things, so,
[00:09:52] Carl Lanore: [00:09:52] and soups and stuff.
[00:09:54] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:09:54] Absolutely. Absolutely. Wow. Yeah. Oh, for sure. It does. So to me, I [00:10:00] think my sister casing, for me right now, at least, is the best thing to bake with over overweight protein isolate, or, you know, I don't like to use concentrates in general, but, um, yeah, I, I think my SAR casing is like magic in baking.
[00:10:13] Carl Lanore: [00:10:13] That's interesting. Now, what about. Obviously the, the biggest offender in most desserts is the sugar content. And you know, and I, one of the things that's laughable to me is like when people go, well, it's, it's, it's a Gavi or it's honey, it's like, or it's maple syrup. It's like, yeah. Have you ever looked at their sugar cognitive maple syrup?
[00:10:33] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:10:33] It's shocking. You know? And again, that's the thing where people, a lot of people feel that we'll, if it's natural, it's good for you. And you know, I love to joke that like, well, you know, arsenic and Sinai, those are natural occurring things too. You don't want to eat those. And it's, it's meant to be a joke, but you know, just because something's natural doesn't need me and you need to eat.
[00:10:51] High quantities of it either if you want to have an Apple or something, once in a great while, it's fantastic. But people tend to eat bowls of fruit and then, uh, you know, a glass of [00:11:00] juice and then later they're having pasta. It's just too much, you know, pick and choose your things. If that's what you want to do for me, you know.
[00:11:08] I don't care whether it's an, um, you know, an artificial sweetener. I am a big sucralose user. I know people want to like, kill me for that. That's fine. Each to their own. I like sucralose. I, um, I love the blend of Stevia and urethra tall. Um, so I, I don't like Stevia on its own. I find the taste, um, just not pleasing for me.
[00:11:29] So, but a blend of it, just enough of each thing. It's a beautiful blend. So you have to play with some of these things. Um, sometimes individually you need to buy the, the bags or containers of them and find your perfect sweetness. Um, you know, I, like I said, I don't personally like Stevia, but people love Stevia.
[00:11:45] So if you want to bake with Stevia. Be my God. Yes.
[00:11:48] Carl Lanore: [00:11:48] Stevia to me isn't really sweet and, and in order to use enough of it, it's almost like has a combination between saccharin. Flavor and ah, and a [00:12:00] bitter taste that it finishes
[00:12:01] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:12:01] with and, and that, and everybody's palette's a little different. So some people like love Stevie and think it's amazing.
[00:12:06] Other people like me find it very bitter. Um, there's different types of CB out there. The typical, um, is more the, the bitter type. If you get the more expensive things, which is not typically sold on the shelves. Um, there are different forms of what's called, like, there's rub a rub, and there's different types of Stevia, and those, um, can, you know, tend to have a mild or taste.
[00:12:28] Um, but again, like I said, if you blend it with other sweeteners, even the bitter ones become much more mild and very palatable. So it's, it's just playing with it, you know? And, and part of that. Cooking, baking, all that stuff is, it's a, it's time and B, it's the interest. Um, and if you don't have either of those, then you're not going to be very successful in cooking or baking.
[00:12:46] But if you have at least a little time and a little interest, you can make some really great things.
[00:12:51] Carl Lanore: [00:12:51] So, so, um, what have you ever tried using the amino acid glycine [00:13:00] as a
[00:13:00] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:13:00] sweetener? I have. It's very, very mild. It's not
[00:13:04] Carl Lanore: [00:13:04] sweet. And that's another one where. In order to add enough to really be super sweet, it has a metallic finish.
[00:13:12] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:13:12] Right? Right. And so that's where something, you can use a small amount of it if you're making ice tea or some people, I've, I've known people to put it in coffee. Um, but it's just, again, that's gonna be your palate because you know. Tease with tannins and, you know, coffee and things like that, you may get a strange taste from it, so you, people have to just play and find what works for their palette.
[00:13:33] Um, but yeah, I, I've, I've played with things, um, like that, you know, obviously a lot of people, um. You know in, if you make like homemade ice cream using things like a little bit of glycerin, it works really well to stop crystallization and things like that and ice cream. So like there's a lot of things to do that you're using it.
[00:13:50] People go, Oh, well that's not low carb or that's not Quito. Glycerin has, you know, has carbs and it's like, but you're using such a small amount for the whole batch. It doesn't even factor [00:14:00] into. A gram per serving. You know, it, it's, it's how that little bit, that teaspoon or that tablespoon or whatever you're using is affecting the entire batch.
[00:14:10] That might be 12 servings. So, you know, people get really worried about like, Oh, you can't use that. Like one of the things to do when you're making a gravy, for example, is like using a little bit of cornstarch people go with, that's not Quito, that's not low carb. Well, but you're using a teaspoon or maybe a tablespoon.
[00:14:25] If you're making a large portion, it's not going to factor into, you know, like a carb maybe at best per serving. That's, that's really good.
[00:14:33] Carl Lanore: [00:14:33] Do you have, do you, do you have a threshold, like when you're, when you're working on a new. A recipe, I want to say formula because it's kind of like a, do you say, well, you know, I, I have to blend my sweeteners so that they taste good and they contribute no more than one gram or a half a gram of, of, uh, of, uh, carbs too.
[00:15:01] [00:15:00] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:15:01] Like an idea of what I'm trying to make, and I can kind of eyeball things now. So I know like, Oh, what a tablespoon of this, or a cup of that is going to be. Um, you know, so typically, I know, like if I'm using a cup of cottage cheese and something that's going to give me about four grams of carbs.
[00:15:15] So it's like I already have that idea of what I'm making. And then if I Find that like, okay, the total carbs per serving is 15 grams now of carbs, then I'll, I'll look at it and then just adjust and go, okay, I'm going to use a little bit of more, you know, mass Capone instead and pull out some of the cottage cheese.
[00:15:30] Now I've dropped my carbs by this much, and you play with it if, if you're, if you're willing to go, you know, and do those extra steps. Um, but yeah, I have a format in which I like kind of work.
[00:15:40] Carl Lanore: [00:15:40] And, and, and, and for the legendary, you created the nut butters. I remember one day I was there and you let me taste one of the, uh, one of the new ones I want to say.
[00:15:50] And so you created the nut butters as well, correct?
[00:15:52] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:15:52] Yeah. So I did the nut butters. Um, and that was something I wanted to do originally for quest, but, you know, just quest being [00:16:00] quest it, you know, it's a long time to get things put out. So it was, uh, something that I said, okay, well, if we're going to do these season nuts.
[00:16:06] And stuff for, for legendary foods, then, Hey, I want to do my nut butter. So, um, kinda jumped on that and got some of those fun flavors going. And that was the whole goal with nut butters is, you know, we've all probably tried the protein nut butters of the world. And, um, I never liked the textures.
[00:16:21] They were very gummy because of the protein put in. Um, we've tried everything under the sun to try and see if you can still get enough protein in there without it being gummy. That's just what protein does by nature. The second it gets Oh, you know, wet, moist by whether it's water or anything else in oil.
[00:16:36] It becomes very tacky and gummy and stretchy. And there's kind of no way really around that. So I decided I'm going to do nut butter that tastes really dessert, like and delicious, but I am not going to put protein in them. People can get protein elsewhere, like they don't need it in the nut butter.
[00:16:51] You know, like if you're throwing up butter in a shake or a smoothie or whatever, you can also throw in your scoop protein powder. That way you don't actually need it in the nut butter. So. [00:17:00] Um, I just decided to do more fun, clean, um, clean meaning low card,
[00:17:05] Carl Lanore: [00:17:05] and also, and also has a greater mass appeal.
[00:17:09] Let's face it there, you know, we. I live in this bubble where, yeah, but 99% of the world, they don't care if high protein, peanut butter.
[00:17:21] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:17:21] Right. Exactly. Exactly. And a lot of people just don't, they don't even get it. Like I've had so many people say to me like, Oh, well what am I supposed to do with this and that butter.
[00:17:28] And it's like, what did you do with peanut butter and almond butter? I like tried it on my toast or my bagel. Great. Do the same with this. Waiver doesn't change it. So people are really like, they were kind of surprised, and I'm talking about like what I call the regular people of the world, not the fitness bodybuilder bus, who just literally were like flavored nut butter.
[00:17:45] I, I'm not quite sure what to do with that. So spread it on your pancakes, whatever you want to do, you're getting less sugar. So that was just kind of the goal behind it was to have fun. Um, you know, stuff like all of us fitness people we know like a peanut butter. A jar of peanut butter doesn't last much more than a week in [00:18:00] our houses.
[00:18:00] So, you know, it was, it was a way to just do more fun versions of that.
[00:18:05] Carl Lanore: [00:18:05] Yeah. And the other thing is that you don't use any oils you don't like, like a lot of, I like a lot of people buy a conventional commercial peanut butters. And when you look at the label, they have. Other oils in them. It's like, why?
[00:18:22] Why do you need to add other oils? If peanuts have oil, why don't you just use peanut oil?
[00:18:26] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:18:26] You know? It's like, well, so depending on the harvest, a lot of it has to do with that. Depending on the harvest, sometimes nuts aren't as, um, as oily. It, it, and then they grind them down and they're very pasty and dry, and you have to add oil to them to make them smoother and spreadable and all of that.
[00:18:42] So that's part of what that is. Um, but I, I've noticed even when you buy, like, um. You know, let's say a pack of nuts, I'm in a bag or whatever. There is always added either peanut oil or some type of oil to it because it's how they get the salt and the seasonings and things like that to stick.
[00:18:58] And that's pretty standard when that, [00:19:00] when you're talking about like whole nuts, um. But, and, and we even do that at legendary. We add, um, a sunflower oil, and that's, um, you know, part of that is just getting the stick on there without having to add sugar. So most companies, um, would, you know, add their sugar and their, um, you know, seasonings to the nuts and then stick them on there by the sugar melting and holding the seasonings to it.
[00:19:23] So we don't use any sugar. So all of our nuts truly are as low carb as a nut can be for whether it's an almond or whatever. Um. By just using a little bit of oil or Palm oil. Right? And that will hold the seasonings on there without having to have the added sugar or maltodextrin. So a lot of companies use maltodextrin as well.
[00:19:41] Carl Lanore: [00:19:41] I see. I guess what I was trying to bring out is that you use good oils. I know you use it. You use a high oleic sunflower, say flower. Sunflower oil. I'm
[00:19:52] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:19:52] sorry.
[00:19:55] Carl Lanore: [00:19:55] Excuse
[00:19:56] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:19:56] me. I'm
[00:19:57] Carl Lanore: [00:19:57] still struggling with this. So
[00:19:58] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:19:58] like the respiratory, that poor [00:20:00] cold.
[00:20:00] Carl Lanore: [00:20:00] Yeah, it's almost gone. But anyway, when you look at like Jif.
[00:20:04] I mean, it's got like really crappy, like soybean oil in it. Why did you, why not just use peanut oil? It's peanut. Yeah. Well,
[00:20:13] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:20:13] surprisingly soybean oil is even cheaper, so it's, you know, a lot of it is just for cost purposes. Companies, you know, really will try and save money wherever they can, and assuming that the consumer doesn't really know better, so, you know.
[00:20:25] Interesting.
[00:20:26] Carl Lanore: [00:20:26] Yeah. So, uh, so, so the nut nut butters where your designs, and I have to tell you that I, I can't keep a jar of the Apple pie. Uh, one or the, uh, the banana one. The
[00:20:39] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:20:39] chocolate chocolate. Yeah, peanut butter. Chocolate
[00:20:42] Carl Lanore: [00:20:42] banana. I eat it with a spoon. Like a cat, like a golf bone. You know what a gov own is?
[00:20:47] An Italian Galvan a gov. Owen is a. So, so in Yiddish it's HASA. If you know a hog, somebody who just like you invite them over and they eat everything, they don't know when to stop. That's what a Gambone is.
[00:20:59] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:20:59] I love those [00:21:00] people though.
[00:21:00] Carl Lanore: [00:21:00] Yeah. I know that I'm one of them. And when I, when I get even close to a jar of the, uh, the Apple pie or the, the new banana, it's gone.
[00:21:10] It, I just eat it with the spoon. I don't even bother spreading it on anything.
[00:21:13] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:21:13] Well, I love it. Good for me. Maybe not as good for you, but
[00:21:17] Carl Lanore: [00:21:17] anyway. Uh, so what are some of the replacements you use instead of, because you make a rice pudding. Is so delicious, but there's no rice in it.
[00:21:30] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:21:30] Right?
[00:21:30] Right. So, no, it's, so a lot of people have a bad idea of what you're talking noodles are. Um, and basically it's made with what's called konjac flour. It's known as yam noodle. So it's a, it's basically like an ocean tuber. Um, and it's, it's all fiber and water. There's not much else. And in
[00:21:48] Carl Lanore: [00:21:48] fact, it isn't, it isn't that gluco man in fiber
[00:21:52] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:21:52] that, that
[00:21:53] Carl Lanore: [00:21:53] glucomannan fiber.
[00:21:54] Is what, uh, um, Oh God, I'm going to forget her name now cause she's been married a couple [00:22:00] times, but, uh, dr Cassandra foresight was her maiden name when she wrote a book for women's day magazine. And all she had people do was take three to four, uh, small scoops of. Oh, right. Glucomannan flower fiber like 15 minutes before every meal, and these women lost insane amounts
[00:22:22] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:22:22] of weight.
[00:22:23] It swells with water, and so it fills your stomach up, you know? But a lot of people were like, Oh, that's not fun to do that. Who wants to take this powder down every day? They have it in pill form now too. It's a very simple thing to do. For people who are like struggling with, I'm never full.
[00:22:37] I'm hungry all the time now. I think there's a bigger issue with that and we can get into that another time, but that, that issue is more, I think people are actually craving fats. I think, you know, just by my time doing a very strict ketogenic diet, I, it's squashed my cravings. I was a big peanut butter girl, chocolate girl sweets.
[00:22:57] Like that was my thing. If I had an opportunity to eat [00:23:00] some sweets, like that was my GoTo. Whereas most people. A lot of people are salty people. They want chips and popcorn, and I wanted sweets and dessert. The second I went high enough fat for about it took me about four months. I lost my cravings.
[00:23:11] I've never gotten them back. Um, and I still eat fairly high fat. But, um, I think, I think those issues are more, people are always, we're trying to eat the low fat diet. Um, or keep that, you know, fairly low. And I think that's just hormonally, there's issues there. But I think also for women, it's, it's a much bigger issue going low fat than even for men.
[00:23:32] Um, so anyway, side note, but yeah, I think that. The glucomannan or, or, you know, konjac flour or however you want to call it. Um, it, it swells with water. And so that is how they make these, these noodles. And they also started making a rice version. So it's like little pieces of rice, but it's made from this flour and water.
[00:23:51] Um. And it's all fiber. There's nothing else in it. And that's what I make my rice pudding with. And so I, you can do it many ways. [00:24:00] I love to do it with heavy cream, but if you want to go lower and use unsweetened almond milk or a coconut milk, like you can make it any way you want, any liquid you want.
[00:24:09] Um, and all I'm doing there again, is the Meisler casing. Um, I have it, I have the recipe on my page.
[00:24:15] Carl Lanore: [00:24:15] I'm going to give you a page, and it's so, so, so this is the best. This is the best way to learn all of these amazing recipes. And keep in mind that Shannon shares all of her recipes. It's, you know, it's not like she makes them and she keeps them to herself.
[00:24:29] If you go to, if you're on Instagram and you look for quest creator, all one word, Q,U E, S, T, C, R, E, a, T, O, R a. And follow Shannon, you'll not only get these amazing recipes for yourself. But you'll get a glimpse inside of her life. Uh, she's a very, very generous person. Uh, you'll, you'll get to meet a Fiji, uh, and, uh, and a mowing her two girls.
[00:24:55] Uh, I am very partial to Vizslas was the first dog [00:25:00] I ever owned as a, as a young adult. And there are two beautiful Vizslas. You'll also see how hard she works. I still maintaining her, her level of athleticism. Uh, and, and, and, but you'll get more recipes than just desserts. You know, this, she, she makes all sorts of great stuff.
[00:25:15] So, so do that. Go to instagram.com, forward slash quest creator. You can get the that way or through your app and follow her. So, so the, um, this particular rice pudding. Which I love rice pudding, but I don't eat it because I don't want all the rice. I this, this, this is a fairly easy recipe to make, isn't
[00:25:37] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:25:37] it?
[00:25:37] It's, I mean it's, it's, it's so easy. And that's the thing. I grew up with my mom who, who love rice pudding and tapioca pudding, but we ate the real thing cause I think didn't exist then. So that's something I've always missed is that ti, I'm a texture girl. So like. Cree, you cheese cake for me with the cream too, like I love that texture or ricotta cheesecakes and I'm an ice cream girl.
[00:25:57] Like I love those textures. So I [00:26:00] love to make things, whether it's, you know, creamy texture or whatever it is. But rice pudding is one of those textures I really, really like. Not to mention, you know, also the cinnamon, the vanilla, like it's just a really, it felt very holiday to me to also kind of make it, um, with Thanksgiving, Christmas coming around, anything was cinnamon.
[00:26:16] Um, or pumpkin. You can even turn this into a A pumpkin rice pudding, like there's a lot of ways to play. You just gotta be willing to kind of give things a shot. But yeah, it's a super, um, I'm not looking at the recipe right now, but I feel like it could be five ingredients. I forget what it is.
[00:26:30] It's pretty simple. Um. And you know, it's basically just the, the, I call it the full rice, the sheer talky rice. Um, I have a few brands listed that I like, um, heavy cream and my, um, my solar casein. And then I also have really over the last about five months now, six months. Really gotten into collagen, but not as a, as a protein, you know, substitute.
[00:26:52] I don't use it to substitute protein the way a lot of people were like jumping on collagen and just using it instead of, um, you and I, and [00:27:00] Ron have talked about, you know, the use of collagen for, for different reasons, but yeah. Um, yeah. You know, I, I'm just using it. I've found a huge change in my nails.
[00:27:07] Like I've never been a girl who's had long fingernails. They would just chip and break. Like my nails have changed. Your
[00:27:14] Carl Lanore: [00:27:14] skin changes everything. Your skin changes, your hair changes collagen and see, because we don't eat the entire animal any longer, we don't get the collagen that our ancestors naturally got.
[00:27:26] And that means that. We don't get the glycine, which blunts the effects of Matthias has been been implicated with advanced aging and high protein diets while the glycine blunts that effect, and all you need to do is eat more collagen. You know, if anybody ever goes to a restaurant with me and I'm eating chicken.
[00:27:47] I eat pretty much the entire
[00:27:48] bowl.
[00:27:49] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:27:49] I
[00:27:50] Carl Lanore: [00:27:50] eat the bone. I mean, I suck the marrow out. There's little splinters left. You know, people look at me and they think I'm crazy, but I watched my father eat like
[00:27:57] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:27:57] that, you
[00:27:58] Carl Lanore: [00:27:58] know? But anyway, yeah. [00:28:00] So there is collagen and I'm
[00:28:01] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:28:01] looking at that. But if people don't want to do that, you don't have to.
[00:28:05] What I found, um, to make the rice pudding work. So I'll just say this, using the sheer talking noodles, a lot of people didn't like it for pasta and things like that, because what was happening is they'd make it, they'd put their pasta sauce on it and they'd say, Oh, it doesn't stick to the noodles.
[00:28:18] It's slides right off. Right. And so all their sauce would be sitting at the bottom of the bowl. So I tried to figure out a way that that would stick, stick to the noodles, stick to the, the, the sheer talky rice. Um, and I discovered that collagen. It's a really great way to do that, and you don't need a ton of it.
[00:28:34] Um, I'm trying to amp up my amount, so I've got like seven scoops of collagen in my rice pudding, but, um, you just need to sprinkle it all over the rice. Once you rinse out the rice or the noodles and you just dust it with the, um, collagen and it, it. It becomes very tacky. Um, I
[00:28:50] Carl Lanore: [00:28:50] don't know if it's
[00:28:54] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:28:54] like a glue.
[00:28:55] Yeah. So it gets tacky and then anything you put on it will now stick. So you want to [00:29:00] pour your pasta sauce on it now. Now it's going to stick. You want to put, you know, your your cream mixture with the cinnamon and the vanilla to make rice pudding. Now it's gonna stick. And so you get these really great textures, but you get To get your spices or your sauces or whatever, to now stick to these noodles and rice.
[00:29:17] And so that's kind of the new thing, um, that I've been doing and I've been playing with that and I really enjoy it. And it also helps me get the extra collagen, cause I try and average about 30 grams of collagen a day, which is like three scoops basically. Um, that's like on my, hopefully on my low end.
[00:29:31] Um. Yeah. So that's that. So, so
[00:29:35] Carl Lanore: [00:29:35] now you only use a small, you on eighth of a teaspoon of pure sucralose. Because I think part of the problem is when people think about sucralose, they're thinking about Splenda, which is actually more dextrose,
[00:29:50] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:29:50] maltodextrin, dextrin. And then there's a tiny bit of sucralose.
[00:29:53] And the reason that is, is they use it. Bulking agents. So if you put sucralose in a packet, you'd tear open the little [00:30:00] packet and almost nothing, you know, so they had to put a bulking agent. So you look like you're getting something and you can dump it in your drink or whatever. Um, so mostly what you're getting is carbon.
[00:30:09] That, so Splenda packets or Splenda, a box or a bag of Splenda is predominantly maltodextrin and dextrin. Um, and so that, that's card and I just buy the pure sucralose. You can buy it on Amazon. Um, it's very easy to get. And you need very, very little, but if someone wanted a soup, substitute that for.
[00:30:27] Um, Stevia or urethra tall, then you can do that and it works just fine. So it's not like, Oh, you can't use other sweeteners. If someone wants to use a liquid sweetener, you can do that as well. Um, so you know, everything works. The amounts may change a bit, but it's, it's, it's very, very easy to figure out, cause as you're making it, you start with a little, you taste test and go, Nope, I need more sweetness.
[00:30:47] You add a little more and you figure out your amounts. So.
[00:30:52] Carl Lanore: [00:30:52] A secret gold Brown sugar alternative.
[00:30:56] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:30:56] Okay. So I'm, I'm a major Amazon shopper [00:31:00] and I just discover all sorts of things. I'm a Hunter of foods and ingredients and things like that. It's kind of just a hobby, I'll call it, um, a pastime for me.
[00:31:08] So sucrose is a company from the U K and the, that's just their name. And they came out with their version of, um. You were at, they're tall and they have a version called gold, and it's a Brown sugar. I'll, you know, alternative. Got that sort of yet I'm a little bit of that taste in it, and so it's colored.
[00:31:31] Um, and.
[00:32:02] [00:32:00] The thing with baking or cooking, it's dependent on your palette. So do you want something super sweet? Cause some people have told me, um, my desserts are not always sweet enough for them, but that's because I went through Quito. And so anything is super sweet to me. So if you ha, you know, if you're a typical carb or sugar eater and you're trying to get off of that, well then you're going to want something really sweet.
[00:32:21] So you might want to, you know, add more, whether it's another half cup or it's a few more tablespoons. So that's, you know, you've got to play with your palette that way. But yeah. For the most part on all sweeteners, it tells you how to substitute sweeteners. It tells you how to use it in replacement of sugar.
[00:32:37] Um, so it might say like, you know, yeah, if you're using a cup of real sugar, you may want to use an equal cup, or it might say a cup and a half. It just depends on what you're using. So I know like Stevia for example, you can't use a a cup of CVS, you know, so you have to look at what you're using and just see.
[00:32:53] But normally all substitute sweeteners will tell you, um, you know, if you're using sugar, this is how you substitute for it. The amount.
[00:33:00] [00:32:59] Carl Lanore: [00:32:59] So you and Ron had been traveling with pure. Um, sucralose for very,
[00:33:05] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:33:05] very long time. A little
[00:33:07] Carl Lanore: [00:33:07] like a little snot. It looks like a little snuff box. It's like aluminum,
[00:33:10] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:33:10] like I have cocaine.
[00:33:11] And
[00:33:12] Carl Lanore: [00:33:12] so rod told me a funny story that like a lot of times you guys would go someplace in valet park and then you'd look for it to be gone. And Valley pocket though. It was Coke.
[00:33:23] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:33:23] Well, that's my thinking because why else would they take it? So I think they were super curious and just snagged it and yeah, it's hysterical.
[00:33:29] You don't notice it until days later, but you're like, Hey,
[00:33:33] Carl Lanore: [00:33:33] it's missing. Just put a little label
[00:33:38] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:33:38] on it. I probably should. I probably should, but yeah, I always keep one in my bag or backpack or whatever. And that way when you go anywhere you. You know, want some coffee or whatever, you've got a little sucralose with you.
[00:33:47] And that's my sweetener of choice, just because I like the sweetness. It is the closest thing to a tasting like sugar in terms of the sweet, it's 600 times sweeter than sugar, so you don't need very much of it. Um, so the very, very tiny [00:34:00] amount. Um, like I said, I can't stand Stevia in coffee. I think that's one of the worst case.
[00:34:04] But Pete, my mother specifically, she loves her CDN or coffee, so everyone's different. You just got to find your thing, what works for you, what you like best, and you don't have to suffer. There's enough options out there that I don't think people need to be suffering with certain sweeteners or things anymore.
[00:34:19] You know? It's just the world has gotten too creative for that.
[00:34:21] Carl Lanore: [00:34:21] Yeah. I want to take a first commercial break. I want to remind people to go to Instagram and follow you at quest creator because there's a lot more recipes than just desserts on there. You make some amazing meals as well. And, uh, and, uh, so, so people need to do that.
[00:34:39] I want to take a quick commercial break. When we come back, I want to talk about the cinnamon rolls because I want to know what you used instead of, you know, the bread flour type of stuff. We're talking with Shannon Norton Penna. Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more super human.
[00:34:56] Welcome back. Just want to make a mention here. Uh, you, [00:35:00] you heard a couple of new sponsors Vanga CBD, uh, be strong blood flow restriction. Oh, I'm sorry. B strong has financing now for their, uh, blood flow restriction system because it's a little expensive. It's a, it even with the 10% discount you get for using the SHR code, it's 300 and something dollars, but they're well worth it.
[00:35:22] They will last a lifetime, but they now have a six month. Financing option a. So when you click the banner ad on a website, or you go to the website, uh, directly, uh, using the, uh, URL B, S, T, R O N, G, a. Dot. Training forward slash super dash or hyphen human, uh, you'll see a link for something called Partial dot L Y.
[00:35:48] And then you can pay it off in six months. I promise you, you won't be disappointed. I thought people who wore these bands with dorks, I really did. Shannon, have you seen [00:36:00] anybody wearing a blood flow restriction? Bands in the gym?
[00:36:04] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:36:04] Physical therapy. I myself have done it.
[00:36:07] Carl Lanore: [00:36:07] Oh my God. You know, I didn't want to be that guy.
[00:36:10] Oh, look at what the hell. So this is what I've discovered about them. Uh, I wear the one I trained and I continue to wear them for about four hours after. I also wear the leg bands at the top of my legs when I walk. It's like, it's like a session of doing a walking lunges and my, and I haven't been training a lot because I've been sick and blah, blah, blah.
[00:36:30] My upper arms, my forearms, my legs look better than they've looked ever and these bands I've, I stopped. I actually interviewed. The Japanese scientists who did the research on katsu, that's what it was called in 2007. And I never ever thought of trying it. I thought, Oh, it sounds so silly. I don't want to be that guy.
[00:36:54] I won't train without them ever again. I really won't.
[00:36:56] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:36:56] That's interesting. That's a G. yeah. I've only used it in physical therapy, um, [00:37:00] for rehabbing an injury and stuff like that. But it is really amazing. And it's, um, I remember having it wrapped around my leg and having to do leg press, and it's.
[00:37:11] Yeah. It's amazing what it makes you feel like. You feel a, you feel weak and you, you feel like you start to fatigue just so much quicker on one leg than the other. And it's just a very interesting thing. But it does get your legs to swell or anybody part for that matter. I've also done it. Um, we had it wrapped around, well, just above my bicep where your shoulder would connect there.
[00:37:34] Um, and that was a really interesting feeling to, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's, I don't know if I would do it like. All the time in the gym, but I definitely can see doing a session of it here and there as like as help.
[00:37:45] Carl Lanore: [00:37:45] Well, you know me, I overdo everything.
[00:37:47] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:37:47] So you wouldn't be Carl.
[00:37:50] Carl Lanore: [00:37:50] That's me.
[00:37:51] So let's talk about, let's talk about the cinnamon rolls. They look amazing and you, and on your Instagram page at quest creator, you have a video [00:38:00] of you rolling them out with a rolling pin and everything. So talk about these. These are beautiful.
[00:38:04] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:38:04] Oh, thank you. Well, I kind of did the video this time is, I've posted the cinnamon rolls a lot over the last probably year or so, but I make them quite often.
[00:38:11] It's probably my most loved dessert. Um. By like friends and family and whatnot. But, um, I did the video because a lot of people were like, I don't understand how you do it and I don't under, you know. And so I thought I'll kind of do some of the little stages. It trust me, none of my stuff is professional looking.
[00:38:25] Um, but it just showed how like, you have it all rolled out. It doesn't have to be perfect or pretty or anything, and you just smear all the, the cinnamon stuff inside. Um, but that came from, that's not my world. This is my version, my recipe. But there has been what's called fat head dough, which is like from the Quito world, and it's how you would make like a pizza or whatever.
[00:38:45] And it's this dough that's made basically from almond flour, um, and mozzarella
[00:38:49] Carl Lanore: [00:38:49] cheese. And so
[00:38:53] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:38:53] they go, wait, wait a second. You're making a dessert out of mozzarella cheese. You have to stop thinking about It as mozzarella cheese, like something you'd [00:39:00] put on a burger or pizza or whatever. You have to think about it.
[00:39:02] No different than cream cheese or any of those things. They're all made from this kind of the same idea. They just have a different processing, but it's a very, mozzarella cheese is very neutral and bland, so you can use it for everything. So you just microwave it down, melted down, um, and you add your little bit of cream cheese to it and it makes this very smooth, silky, glossy.
[00:39:24] Um. The thing, and then you just add your almond flour, your eggs. And you just start mashing it. It's super simple. You have to do it by hand. That's the one that everybody loves to throw everything in a blender cause they don't want to get messy. It will destroy it. It won't work if you chop it up like that, it has to be folded and mashed by hand and it doesn't have to be even.
[00:39:43] That's the wonderful thing about everyone's always trying to, Oh but my eggs and my, my Alma flour didn't get all blended in. I see areas. It doesn't need to be, it's not that kind of a thing. It's super simple. Like a child could literally do this. Um, and, but that's basically the ingredients.
[00:39:57] It's almond flour, um, mozzarella cheese, a little [00:40:00] bit of cream cheese and, and eggs, whole eggs. And that is it. There you're feeling then is the cinnamon vanilla? Um, I like to add heavy cream to my cinnamon mixture. Um, but you can just do water. It just needs to be like a little pace that you, you know, spread in there.
[00:40:15] Um, and then you just roll the thing up, cut it up, put it in a. Baking dish or whatever, you know, whatever you have, you can even put it in little separate tins. Um, and you bake it. And that is it. It's a super simple recipe. Um, I've done it for turnovers. I've made danishes. I have done pizzas.
[00:40:32] You can do all sorts of stuff with it. So that basic recipe dough is a very easy one to find online. I've just morphed it to make it work for whatever desserts I want to make.
[00:40:41] Carl Lanore: [00:40:41] So, theoretically, three cups of blanched almond flour and six cups of shredded mozzarella and some, uh, and some butter.
[00:40:49] And baking powder. You have a dough that you can use for just about anything.
[00:40:54] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:40:54] Yeah. You need the eggs. Don't forget it. Otherwise, yeah. It's that simple. It's not 50 different [00:41:00] ingredients. And you know, and honestly, I got to the point where I used to, I know that the cinnamon roll dough recipe, so well now, but.
[00:41:07] I used to measure everything. Exactly. Cause baking has always been one of those things that it has to be very exact. I pretty much now just kind of scoop the Alma flour in and then I dump about four bags of of cheese and it will work even if you're off the measurement. So it's not like this one is one of those.
[00:41:22] Things that works really well and doesn't have to be super exact. Whereas a lot of recipes, like if you're baking a cake, it's gotta be pretty measured exact, you know, um, this is just one of those things that works really, really well. And like I said, you can sweeten the dough if you want. You don't have to, you can use it to make pizza.
[00:41:39] You can use it to, you know, like I Even done some things for kids where you wrapped a little hotdog pieces inside the little dough and you make those little like hot dogs and blankets picks it up and
[00:41:47] Carl Lanore: [00:41:47] gets whatever it looks like, that kind of dough, right? A
[00:41:51] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:41:51] blanket. Yeah. So you can do all sorts of these types of things and make, you know, healthier food for kids.
[00:41:55] Cause kids are gonna always love their chicken nuggets in there, you know, pigs and blankets [00:42:00] and all that kind of stuff. So here's a real easy way to do that type of stuff, or make desserts, um, that kids will like and adults will like. And, you know, in all honesty. The, um, Ron just always says to me, which is wrong with my husband.
[00:42:13] For those listening, um, he's like, I don't know why I would ever go back to eating anything like that full of sugar that way. He's like, you know, when you look at what a Cinnabon cinnamon roll, the calories and the carbs, I think he read to me the other day, it was over a thousand calories for one cinema.
[00:42:30] And they kind of do after you eat, when it's so delicious, but then you're like, Oh my God, that was just a load of sugar. And I think something, the carbs are really up there, like 76 carbs, you know, which predominantly is almost all sugar except for the dough. Um, but anyway, it's that type of stuff, um, that you can really change and have that.
[00:42:48] If you do have that sweet tooth or, and I make a big batch of it and I keep it in the fridge and it lasts a very long time, you can freeze them and you can throw them. So I mean, there's no reason not to do a big batch of it. It keeps some of it in the [00:43:00] fridge, put the rest in the freezer and bring it out on a rainy day.
[00:43:03] Carl Lanore: [00:43:03] One of the things I was amazed by some of your recipes call for whipped cream, and in some of these you're using a high protein or protein enriched whipped cream. Yeah, and I didn't realize if you just took heavy whipping cream and added. A good vanilla protein powder to it, then it would stay. It would still stand like, or does it wait, stand fast?
[00:43:25] Or maybe,
[00:43:25] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:43:25] yeah, it's, it's, it's amazing. And it, it, you know, you can do things to give it flavor or not to, like I always have a canister of heavy whipping cream. In my canister, like made and ready to go, and I add a little bit of vanilla to it. I'll add a little sweetener and I make my own homemade whipped cream so that I can use it because all the store bought stuff either has, you know, some crappy oils in it or it's got sugar in it.
[00:43:47] It's hard to find one that's got no sugar. So I make my own and I just keep it in a canister in the fridge, and that stuff lasts forever. Also. Um, it's not like you got to eat it within the week. Right. Um, and we use it on everything, on the rice pudding, on that, on, you know, whatever you want to make.
[00:43:59] But, [00:44:00] um, but yeah, that's, I mean, those are really simple things that all people have to do is just buy a canister and the cartridges for the, you know, the Eno. Um, I was actually
[00:44:07] Carl Lanore: [00:44:07] surprised, I that like, there was one Christmas that we made some desserts and, you know, so I whipped the cream and I left a bunch of it out in the refrigerator in the garage, and literally like two months later, it was still good.
[00:44:24] And I actually have a container. Of, uh, of, of heavy cream from a farmer and it's, it's been in our refrigerator. Probably for six months. I mean, it's like an experiment now and every now and then I pop it open and smell it and it's not rancid yet. And I'm like, I don't understand how long, I guess because it's all fat if this lasts long.
[00:44:46] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:44:46] Yeah, it does. A cream heavy cream does last a lot longer, you know, jug of milk, things like that. Um, tend to, you know, have their quicker expiration. But yeah, I don't know if it is because it's basically all fat. I mean, fat still goes bad, [00:45:00] but yeah. Um, it just takes a lot longer. And I would assume maybe the farm fresh stuff is, is a bit different than the store bought, you know, things.
[00:45:06] But yeah. Yeah. So, but yeah, I mean, I make a lot of things. I mean, you have to get creative with food sometimes, especially if you, if you're someone who likes variety, I'm a variety girl. I mean, I, I definitely can eat the egg whites and chicken breast and broccoli till the cows come home.
[00:45:18] So, I mean, if I have to do that, I can do that. But I love variety. Um, so I've also made a lasagna. And I don't do it with zucchini, like the typical veggie vegetarian style. Um, I do it with hearts of Palm. And you know, you just have to get creative. So you take your hearts of Palm. There are, there is a company now that actually sells flat sheets of heart, healthy hearts of Palm oil.
[00:45:40] You can, you can cut it yourself. You can take them with a super sharp nice if you're, you know, capable enough and you can just cut those rounds into a flat. Right? Um, but you use those as the sheets of instead of pasta, you know, and now you're getting another vegetable version that isn't zucchini.
[00:45:57] Um, and you layer your cheese and your meat and your sauce, and [00:46:00] then you do another layer of hearts of Palm. And it's, it's, that's also on my page too. So, I mean, there's just a lot of fun ways to do food that it's not the traditional, you sometimes have to think outside the box, but, um, but it's a lot of fun to play.
[00:46:13] Yeah. And, and, and that, I guess
[00:46:15] Carl Lanore: [00:46:15] so. Do you start out in the morning with things that you want to kind of crack the code or do you see something, you
[00:46:25] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:46:25] know, I tend to see something, I tend to see something on TV or in a magazine or I don't know. I, I re, I did a pumpkin, um, the pumpkin cinnamon rolls recently, and that was because I was out to dinner with some friends and my girlfriend ordered a pumpkin ravioli.
[00:46:43] And she's like, you've got to have a bite of this. It's so delicious. And so I tried it and I was like, Oh my God, pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I've never done that. And it's, it's not a wild, you know, variation. You're just adding some pumpkin. But I have never made a pumpkin anything other than a pumpkin cheesecake.
[00:46:57] Right. So I thought, Oh my God, holidays are coming. I'm making [00:47:00] pumpkin cinnamon rolls. So that was the recent one I did. But yeah, I tend to be inspired by something. I see food-wise, or I'm out at a restaurant somewhere and I see somebody being served some dish and I go, Ooh, I want to make that like, yeah.
[00:47:12] You know, everybody has tried probably at this point, you know, the cauliflower mashed potato C no, no, no. But what I'm saying about that is most people have not had a very good version of it, and it's how you make things. You really have to boil the cauliflower down so it becomes super, super soft.
[00:47:30] Um. And then you really have to handle in it. So it's completely blended through and how you flavor it, how you season it, you know, do you add heavy cream butter, things like that. That really changes it and makes it much more like a mashed potato. If you boil it down enough, you lose the cauliflower taste.
[00:47:47] Cause most people say, Oh, whenever I eat cauliflower mash, it still taste like cauliflower. You're not boiling it down at. So that's a trick. It's a small trick, but you've got to boil the hell out of it. And it sounds crazy and I understand, okay, you're losing all the [00:48:00] nutrients, blah, blah, blah.
[00:48:01] That's fine. But the point is, you're trying to make a mashed potato, right? So you just gotta do what you gotta do. Um, but yes, boil, boil, boil, boil, boil, and you get rid of that cauliflower taste.
[00:48:11] Carl Lanore: [00:48:11] And, and what about ice cream? Do you make your own or do you, I know that you promoted lots of different halo top when it came out.
[00:48:18] And then
[00:48:19] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:48:19] halo top I've never been into, but I do love rebel, rebel ice cream. I'm big into them. And enlightened just came out with and I've got to say they did. Phenomenal job. It's, it's divine, delicious, creamy, amazing. They have a coffee and cream that's just to die for. So, um, I do love those two companies and I always keep stocked in the fridge.
[00:48:39] But yes, I do make my own. I tend to make custards more. I like, yeah, I love Costa. I love Flon.
[00:48:46] Carl Lanore: [00:48:46] Do you make fun?
[00:48:47] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:48:47] I don't, but you know, I should for my mom, cause she's a big flop.
[00:48:50] Carl Lanore: [00:48:50] Oh my God. I, Alisa never had flaunt in her life until we started dating. I, there's a Cuban restaurant we go to.
[00:48:58] And they have a birthday [00:49:00] Flon, which was designed to serve like four or five people. It's, it's, it's rectangular. It's
[00:49:04] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:49:04] a big thing.
[00:49:05] Carl Lanore: [00:49:05] And it comes with a big scoop of, um, tress let chase
[00:49:09] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:49:09] on screen. Oh, I know.
[00:49:11] Carl Lanore: [00:49:11] And, and, uh. I and I get that and Elisa says, I'll have one spoonful and she does, and I eat the whole thing
[00:49:18] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:49:18] cause
[00:49:19] Carl Lanore: [00:49:19] I love fluff and I justified.
[00:49:21] I said, yeah, but it's protein, it's protein.
[00:49:23] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:49:23] I mean, there's so many things I have on my page.
[00:49:30] Carl Lanore: [00:49:30] I just saw that.
[00:49:32] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:49:32] So like, those are delicious. Um, it's just, it's just a yolks and, you know, you can do heavy cream. Again, if you don't want that much fat, use unsweetened almond milk or light coconut milk or whatever.
[00:49:42] But there's, you know, there's so many ways to do these things. You just have to figure out like how you're kind of wanting to eat what you kind of, if you're concerned about like your macros that way, um, you can add Like I've said earlier, the my casing, you can add that into just about anything without getting a protein.
[00:49:58] He tastes cause that's one thing I don't love [00:50:00] about baking with certain protein powders. Um, and I don't mean brands, I'm just talking about type. Like, you know, whey isolate to me is not a great one to mix in. It's very grainy and it's hard to get rid of that and oftentimes you can taste it.
[00:50:11] I've found that my soar casing is just amazing. For that. So you can, uh, scale up your protein in just about anything, including cheesecakes, including ice cream. Um, you know, there is a limit to some things how high you can go with the protein because the protein will bake. It will puff to a degree.
[00:50:27] But again, it's playing with, uh, you know, fats. If you keep enough fats in there, it weighs it down. So it's just. You know, you can start with like my recipe or anybody's recipe. There's a world of cookbooks out there for, whether it's low carb, Quito or general baking, and you just got to kind of play in more for round with stuff and figure out what your goals are with it.
[00:50:45] Carl Lanore: [00:50:45] What about, I just saw some chocolate. They, they must be peanut butter filled. They, but they have like the love and the peace mold.
[00:50:53] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:50:53] I just,
[00:50:54] Carl Lanore: [00:50:54] Oh, pecan pie. Cheese cake. Chocolate cups.
[00:50:58] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:50:58] Holy mackerel. [00:51:00] Yeah. If, yeah, if you, um, look at the recipe on that one. I'm trying to,
[00:51:03] Carl Lanore: [00:51:03] yeah, yeah, I've got it.
[00:51:04] I've got it. So it's a jar of legendary foods, pecan pie, nut butter,
[00:51:08] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:51:08] six
[00:51:08] Carl Lanore: [00:51:08] tablespoons of heavy cream.
[00:51:12] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:51:12] Yeah. That's just, yeah, that's more, kind of, almost to like make the, the. The cream cheese in it is what gives it the cheese caking that's, you don't taste the cream cheese. Um, but it gives it a good sickness so that you feel like when you're biting into it, it's, it's like cheesecake middles.
[00:51:30] Um, and so, yeah. And then the rest of it is just like, I took lilies, I didn't have to make my own chocolate on this little, you can if you want. Um, and I just melted their chocolate down. And then you make a, you know, a separate bowl, you know, the mixture of the nut butter and the, um, heavy.
[00:51:43] A cream, I use a heavy cream powder. And that again, is something you can just buy on Amazon and it, it smells and tastes very much like heavy cream. Um, and that dries, you know, using a powder that way it dries up all the oiliness or whatever. And then you get this [00:52:00] nice thick, uh, sort of creamy paste, if you will.
[00:52:02] And that becomes your filling in the
[00:52:06] Carl Lanore: [00:52:06] middle. How do you get to
[00:52:08] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:52:08] the bottom of, so I just take a Ziploc bag. You fill it, you know, fill it up, and then you cut, snip the end, and then you just pipe it into the little molds. Yeah. You don't have to be fancy. You don't need a fancy piping bag. You just tick a Ziploc baggy, fill it up with.
[00:52:22] Yeah. And then you just type in the, in the middle, isn't it? You can spoon it into if you want, like, however, but it's just, it's meant to be fun. Food is, is fun and it should be very much enjoyed. Um, but hopefully in a healthier way so that you can, you can eat the things you want to eat. Um, you're just cleaning it up a bit.
[00:52:39] Carl Lanore: [00:52:39] I'm hungry now. Watch, they're going, I'm on your page and I'm thinking about what I want to eat after the show today.
[00:52:44] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:52:44] I love it
[00:52:45] Carl Lanore: [00:52:45] because. You made an amazing breakfast one day when I was visiting you and it was eggs. I'm trying to think.
[00:52:52] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:52:52] Well,
[00:52:53] Carl Lanore: [00:52:53] yes. So
[00:52:54] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:52:54] here's
[00:52:55] Carl Lanore: [00:52:55] what I want you to do. Okay. Eggs and purgatory.
[00:52:58] Really? Oh, that's [00:53:00] really great. So look, let me take out my last commercial break. Will you give us that recipe when we come back?
[00:53:04] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:53:04] Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:53:06] Carl Lanore: [00:53:06] And please go to quest, add quest creator on Instagram and follow Shannon because I promise you, your friends will think you're amazing when you start making some of the foods that she has on her.
[00:53:18] On our page here,
[00:53:22] welcome back to superhuman radio. We're talking with Shannon Norton Penna, so. This recipe. You made this after Ron and I trained one morning, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I was like, Oh my God, I need to learn how to make that. So it's w, what's the name of it again?
[00:53:40] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:53:40] So it's called shack shuka, or the other known version in most cookbooks and stuff, it's called eggs and purgatory because it's sitting in a red sauce.
[00:53:47] So it looks like, you know, you're in hell right. Um, but yeah, so it's a, it's a really simple recipe. Um, both everything is in a jar or can, aside from, from the eggs and cheese. So you just, you [00:54:00] know, um, put your eggs in there and you start cooking them however you want them. I like to do sunny up, but you can do over medium, all those different things.
[00:54:07] Um, you know. Pour your sauce in there. I tend to like, people think I'm creating, I like pizza sauce. I don't like to use, um, a typical like pasta sauce or whatever. But you can use as a street like tomato sauce. I like pizza sauce. I find the flavors in pizza sauce. They're just seasoned really well.
[00:54:25] Carl Lanore: [00:54:25] And plus and plus most pizza sauces are, are strained, highly strained. So they're not lumpy. They're very smooth.
[00:54:33] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:54:33] Yeah. I love just like, I'm a big oregano girl, so I just, I love all that kind of flavor in there. So you pour your sauce in there in the pan too, while your eggs are cooking, and then you cover it in some cheese and you just kind of, uh, it's really all it is.
[00:54:45] You can add what you want. A lot of people do, like. Tereso and you know, you can do anything you want to it. Um, but that's basically all it is. It's the eggs and cheese and sauce. And then I love to add a green sauce over the top. That can be store-bought. Like, I love taco bells, green sauce, so you can, you [00:55:00] know, um, play with it however you want.
[00:55:02] Um, the other one I love that Ron really loves is breakfast, chia keyless, which is, um, here's like a guilty plug I guess. But, um, it's, you can use the quest, um, tortilla chips, but you can use any chip you want. And then, um, you put those out on your plate and you cook your eggs and you put those on top, and you do your sour cream, your guacamole, whatever you want to do, more cheese, um, a sauce, red sauce, a green sauce, and then you just take your, your, your nachos, if you will, and, you know, dig that all into the eggs and the everything.
[00:55:34] So Ron loves that one. It's got a really great taste. It's a crunchy, but it's a breakfast thing. So, um, there's just a lot of fun things you can do.
[00:55:42] Carl Lanore: [00:55:42] Oh my God, I just found the recipe on your page. So while you're talking, I'm looking at your page. I'm actually liking pictures that I didn't like before here.
[00:55:51] And I look and I see this dish. That looks like a sunshine with tortillas. And
[00:55:55] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:55:55] I go, that's it.
[00:55:56] Carl Lanore: [00:55:56] And here it is.
[00:56:00] [00:55:59] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:55:59] It's delicious. It's really, and it's fun. You eat with your hands. It's, it's, you know, basically almost like a nacho dish, but you've got eggs in there. Um, and again, if you want to throw ground beef in there or you want to do something else, um, you can do that, but it just becomes a nacho plate.
[00:56:14] Ron always says to me, he's like, I don't understand why more people don't make nachos. They just eat the, the quest tortilla chips as quest protein chips out of a bag. Um, and. You know, I, I make notches out of them. I take the, dump them out onto a plate, pour cheese on them, throw some chicken, you know, cut chunks of chicken and I make like nachos out of mine all the time.
[00:56:32] It's just a much more fun way to eat them.
[00:56:34] Carl Lanore: [00:56:34] You know, I actually, when the first, uh, the, when the first quest potato chip came out, what'd you know? The quest chips came
[00:56:40] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:56:40] in?
[00:56:41] Carl Lanore: [00:56:41] Yeah. I actually put them in a plastic bag and say, well, actually, I commented on one of your posts that when you're in the car, it's easier to eat them.
[00:56:52] If you just crush them all and then you use the bag like a funnel and you just pour them in your mouth,
[00:56:56] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:56:56] right? Yeah.
[00:56:57] Carl Lanore: [00:56:57] That's the vote in me. Right. I just want to get to [00:57:00] eat it. I don't want to happen.
[00:57:00] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:57:00] Yeah.
[00:57:01] Carl Lanore: [00:57:01] But, but what I, what I discovered when I started crushing it most that I could use them to instead of breadcrumbs.
[00:57:08] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:57:08] Yeah.
[00:57:08] Carl Lanore: [00:57:08] And I actually made fried chicken oven, baked fried chicken using the chips. I bet you could do the same thing with
[00:57:14] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:57:14] the tortilla chips. The same thing with the tortilla chips. Yeah. You can coat anything. Take your chicken breasts or your whatever and do your little egg wash and then roll them in, you know, in the, in, in the chips or the nachos or whatever and or the tortillas.
[00:57:26] And then, yeah. And then you can fry. You can air fry him now with the air fryers that are out hand do it. You can bake it in an oven. I do a lot of the oven baked stuff, but yeah. I mean, you just got to play and get a little outside the box and a little more creative and um, and just try things.
[00:57:40] But
[00:57:40] Carl Lanore: [00:57:40] if you're not creative and if you don't want to experiment, just follow Shannon on Instagram quest creator, and you'll be able to cook for your family and be happy that you're cooking low carb, minimal amounts of sugar, healthy dishes, healthy meals that [00:58:00] aren't going to make you look like. One of the chefs on the cooking show.
[00:58:05] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:58:05] There you go.
[00:58:05] Carl Lanore: [00:58:05] I'm sorry. I, you know, I know it's mean, and I don't, I
[00:58:09] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:58:09] guess it's all taped, honest. I mean, it is true. You look at all this, you know, food and people love food. But yeah, everybody on the, on the food channels tend to be overweight. And that's. I mean by nature of the job, you're, you're a chef, so you're constantly tasting and eating.
[00:58:22] And you know,
[00:58:23] Carl Lanore: [00:58:23] and I don't understand why the food channel hasn't said, why don't we get someone like you? I mean, I've thought, I know that you love your life. I know this about you. You love your life. You don't need anybody to Oh, modulate or change. But I always say. Why doesn't Shannon have a show on the cooking channel?
[00:58:42] Because people would actually be able to make foods that they enjoy that don't turn them into fatty acids,
[00:58:48] Shannan Yorton Penna: [00:58:48] you would think so. I have wondered myself why there isn't a show on there that is about cleaner, you know? Again, that word cleaner eating, but more low carb cooking and stuff. And I don't know if it's just because it's not as [00:59:00] interesting to people if it's not super crazy decadent with the bun and the gooey cheese and all that stuff, but there's ways to make these other things really very good.
[00:59:08] I'm never going to compare a pretzel bun to a, you know, a low carb almond flour bun for sure, but there are ways to really make a lot of foods great. Um, but yeah, I, I have a feeling it's just more because it's not as interesting to people. It's not as decadent. Like, you know, but I don't know.
[00:59:24] I think, I think, I think in time it will happen because the world is getting more and more creative, more and more interesting ingredients are being developed or discovered or, you know, whatever. And so it's time. I think it'll all, it'll just be time.
[00:59:38] Carl Lanore: [00:59:38] You know, I, I the, I did a show in 2007, and I'm trying to think of the doctor's name.
[00:59:43] In fact, he actually passed away not too long ago, and he was a young guy, but he wrote a study that showed that, uh. Cellular senescence starts with glucose signaling. And the takeaway from this study was [01:00:00] the higher your blood sugar levels for the longer periods of time, that faster your cells age, and if your cells age quickly, they turn over quickly.
[01:00:11] And if they turn over quickly, you start to have changes. And, and, and DNA. And then things, the blueprint gets fuzzy and the cells don't replicate properly and blah, blah, blah. So if you can, if you can maintain stable, relatively low blood sugar levels, you will age better, simple, simple, simple message.
[01:00:31] Very, very simple. And that was the moment in time that I thought to myself, Hmm, I guess I need to strive. To have the lowest functioning glucose levels that I can. And I, that's when I was, you know, I had just started doing the show a couple years before, right? And, and, and I was coming out of being a big, fat, sick person.
[01:00:54] And today my blood sugar levels in the morning, my fasting blood sugar levels are 67 to 76 [01:01:00] I mean, and I met and I, and I function. I train fasted and I function that way. Now. That didn't happen overnight. But if you can reduce the amount of carbohydrates you eat, you will fare better. Period.
[01:01:13] And the story
[01:01:14] Shannan Yorton Penna: [01:01:14] that's, I agree.
[01:01:16] Carl Lanore: [01:01:16] I look, I want to thank you so much for making time and humoring me on this discussion cause I think, and I think that people will come away, especially if they go to your Instagram page quest creator and follow you with amazing recipes that you know. I, I make the same recipes forever.
[01:01:34] Once you learn a good recipe and you make it, you make it forever. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:01:37] Shannan Yorton Penna: [01:01:37] You do. And there's also, there's a lot, there's a lot of great cookbooks out there that are, you know, like I said, even if you're not a keto person, there's a world out there of Quito stuff that you can morph to fit your theme more, but at least it's already cleaned up.
[01:01:50] You know the carbohydrates and the sugar. If you don't, you know, want to quite eat Quito, you don't have to. Um, but I, I find the Quito cookbooks out there so motivating right now cause there's so many great [01:02:00] recipes that you can just add some more protein to or, you know, slightly reduced the fat some if that's what you want to do.
[01:02:05] So find some, you know, cookbooks out there and just find those few, um, if you recipes, you know, one thing my husband always says to me is like, if you buy a book and you only get one thing out of it, it's worth it.
[01:02:17] Carl Lanore: [01:02:17] Oh my God. I say the same exact thing on the show.
[01:02:20] Shannan Yorton Penna: [01:02:20] So you don't have to buy a cookbook to, you know, hopefully you find five, six, 10, 20 recipes.
[01:02:24] But if you really only get one or two, um, that are just fabulous and you make them all the time, it makes that $25 purchase. So
[01:02:32] Carl Lanore: [01:02:32] worth it. So worth it. Yeah, it's great. Listen, Shannon, thank you so much for coming on the show.
[01:02:36] Shannan Yorton Penna: [01:02:36] Absolutely. Anytime. Thank you. And
[01:02:37] Carl Lanore: [01:02:37] we'll talk soon. And, uh, that's it.
[01:02:39] I am not on the air tomorrow. Uh, I am off the air, but I will be in the studio. So we will see everybody Monday with more superhuman radio. Thank you for listening today and share the show. Oh, there you go. Okay. Take care. [01:03:00]
