Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Five

     This has been a tough week for me! But even with all that has happened this week which I'll detail more about in another post to follow later this week, I managed to lose one pound! Yay!!! 

     I know, it's not a lot, but imagine if you were to lose one pound per week? How many pounds would you lose in one year??? I can see you all doing the math. Let me make it easy for you...it would be 52 pounds!!! Amazing when you realize slow and steady wins the race!

     The bad thing about deciding to lose weight and eat better is that as human beings, we are a very impatient bunch! We are used to getting everything now! We don't stop to think that we didn't put on 30 extra pounds in a week, it took us a good 6 months to a year or more, so what makes us think we can lose it in a week?

     That is my mantra...slow and steady wins the race. I'm not just learning how to lose weight, I'm also learning how to cook and eat delicious food that can be eaten by me and my whole family alike. As I get older and realize that I want to avoid diabetes, which runs in most families, I know the only way to do it is to eat better and exercise.

     With that being said, let me tell you that while I stuck to my eating plan this past week, I really didn't have much time to try new things. But thank goodness for my co-worker, who decided to try to make a cookie using almond flour and coconut. I believe she found the recipe on the blog, I Breathe...I'm Hungry. These cookies are called Almond Joy Cookies and they are low carb and gluten free. 

Almond Joy Cookies

     We both discussed the fact that they were good, but could have used a little more Splenda to make them sweeter. We realize that would have upped the carb count, but as long as we are only going to eat one every once in a while it really wouldn't kill us. She too felt that maybe it would have helped to add some cinnamon for flavoring, but all in all, they were pretty good and went well with our morning coffee. She also made some cheesecake which I forgot to photograph.

     I usually like to try to make a nice meal on Sundays. It's a throwback to my mom and dad who always used to BBQ on Sunday. They would make enough food to feed an army! Last Sunday I made another Pork Tenderloin, but this time I made it the way my sister does, kind of like a pot roast. I loaded it with veggies. It look beautiful and tasted pretty good, but my familia is not big on the baked veggies and I myself like them only slightly steamed and still crunchy. But it's a pretty dish, don't you think?

     For this pork tenderloin I used a very simple dry rub, just salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, then I braised it in a cast iron skillet, added the raw veggies and into the oven it went.

     This Sunday was Easter Sunday. I was going to BBQ but it was windy in our neck of the woods and a bit chilly, so I decided to just make my famous (well famous to my family) Taco Bell Teriyaki Hamburgers with Guacamole for my son and daughter, and then for myself I decided to try a couple of new recipes that I've pinned on Pinterest. 

     The first was an Easy Cajun Chicken from...you guessed it, I Breathe...I'm Hungry! I just love her blog, so many wonderful recipes that are super easy to make. So easy that even I can do it!

     I did it exactly like her recipe except that I did not have any dried thyme so I just didn't use it. I had bought a huge pack of chicken drumsticks at the store the day before and I washed them, dried them, rubbed them with olive oil and then made the dry rub of salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, cayenne pepper and dried oregano and tossed them in that, placed them on a foil lined cookie sheet and baked them at 400 degree oven for about an hour. 

     They were soooooooooooo good! The skin was crispy and spicy as heck! And the meaty part of the drumstick was juicy and delicious. I made the whole pack which was about 5 pounds so I will have plenty of leftovers to carry me through the week.
     

     To go along with it, I tried another Pinterest recipe which I found at Linda's Low Carb Menus and Recipes called Broccoli Slaw. This was very similar to my Broccoli Salad  except it didn't call for bacon and onions, so I improvised a bit and added onion salt and when I served the slaw on my plate I added bacon bits. 

     I also added some guacamole that I made for the burgers. I froze some of the guacamole as a test as I have been seeing on Pinterest that you can freeze avocado and they are really inexpensive right now. I bought these for 50 cents each! So here was my Easter Sunday Dinner...yummy no?

     So that's it for this week's wrap up. I didn't get a chance to exercise as I had hoped, but I did stay busy doing other things, which again I will post more about later this week. I'll try to exercise this week, but again...not sure it's going to be possible since I'm a pretty busy gal lately. Have a great week!

 

Deflowered by PF Chang's!

Oh MY! Tonight I went to a dinner meeting at PF Chang's China Bistro and it was sooooooooo yummy! This was my first time, yes...I was a PF Chang's virgin. And I'm so glad I've been deflowered!

There were eight of us there and we ate family style. I ordered Dali Chicken which is
"A rustic combination of stir-fried chicken and rich Yukon Gold potatoes in a spicy chili sauce"

We also had:
ORANGE PEEL CHICKEN - Tossed with fresh orange peel and a mild chili sauce,
WILD ALASKAN SALMON - Straight from the cold waters of our 49th state,
CRISPY HONEY SHRIMP - Lightly battered and quick-fried in a flavorful sauce,
SALT AND PEPPER PRAWNS - Wild Jumbo Mexican Prawns stir-fried in a salt and pepper mix,
ORANGE PEEL CHICKEN - Tossed with fresh orange peel and a mild chili sauce, and two in our party order Broccoli Beef.

When the various plates full of food arrived we each took a plate, spooned some onto a clean plate in front of us then passed the plate to the right and spooned some more onto the the plate in front of us. So before you know it, the plates came full circle and you had a little bit of everything. The only bad thing is if you really liked something, you didn't know what it was, but that was a good topic for conversation.

It was a great meal and I would gladly go back again!

Broccoli Salad

So as mentioned in the previous post, my contribution to the office Halloween party was Broccoli Salad. I got this recipe from a good friend named Stacie. She really didn't want to share it because everywhere she went that's what she took and she always got tons of compliments. I had to promise and swear that I would never take the dish to the same event she was going to. And I haven't, especially since now she's living in San Diego and I never see her anymore!

Here's the ingredients first. The only thing missing is the sugar because I couldn't reach the Sugar container when I was taking the pictures. But don't forget the sugar, that's what makes this salad.

Here's the salad all put together. It tastes much better if you let it sit overnight, but if you can't wait, it still tastes great the second you make it. I love this stuff!

Since I wanted to save my appetite for the salad for the next day I had to make something for myself for dinner that night and that's what this next picture is. I made myself a Frito Chip Salad. It's kind of like a fancy Frito Boat that you can get at a high school football game.

It's super simple and no real recipe is needed. You just open up your favorite can of chili beans or chili with no beans, up to you. You dice up some lettuce, some tomatoes and some black olives. Place Frito's in a plate or bowl, pour heated chili over them, top with shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and olives and your favorite salsa. I like Pace Picante Sauce, medium hot and I like to place the whole bottle in the blender and grind it up. Then just dig in. Simple, fast and sooooo good!

And now here's the recipe for the Broccoli Salad...Enjoy!

Broccoli Salad

1 large head broccoli

1 med onion chopped finely

1 c. grated cheddar cheese (I use medium)

1/2 lb. bacon cooked & chopped (I cheat and buy the package of bacon pieces, see the photo above)

Dressing:

1 c. mayonnaise

2 Tbl Vinegar (You can use fancy flavored or wine vinegar, but I use plain old distilled vinegar and that works just fine)

1/2 c. sugar (Important point, you can also use Splenda if your watching your weight or are diabetic or just want to eat healthier)

Method: Grate cheese (unless you're like me and bought pre-shredded cheese, again see picture above). Chop the onion and cut the broccoli into small pieces, you will want to slice the stem portion really thin. Combine the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the salad ingredients. Mix Well.

You can also add any other veggies you like such as tomatoes, black olives (hmmm, are those a veggie?) or cucumbers.