Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Nine

I have to be honest, I had a lazy week, ate some things I shouldn't have eaten but all in all tried to stick with the program. I think it's just the fact that the weather has gone crazy here! Can you believe it's almost 100 degrees today, Mothers Day! And it's only May! That doesn't bode well for the rest of the summer!

I had thought to try to BBQ today for Mother's Day but since I knew it was going to be 100 degrees I instead made a Doritos Chicken Casserole. Trust me, this is in no way a low carb dish, but I made it for my son as a special request, cause isn't that what moms do?

Photo Credit: blogchef.net

Doesn't that look yummy? Trust me it was. I have to admit I had a bite, ok...more than a bite but less than the whole casserole dish...promise. It is Mother's Day after all!

Back to the wrap up though. Early on in the week I made those wonderful Easy Cajun Chicken Drumsticks and that's pretty much what I ate for lunch the whole week. I also ate a lot of hard boiled eggs and Foster Farms Chicken Wieners for snacks. I ate some avocados and steamed zucchini and roasted asparagus throughout the week, so I stayed in the eating plan, I just didn't make anything new and exciting. 

But I do want to have something interesting to blog about especially for those of you that may be following my weekly wrap-ups just to get ideas on what else you can eat low carb. Many of you who follow me on facebook thank me for sharing these recipes so let me tell you now that they definitely are not my inventions! As I've said before when it comes to cooking I am strictly a "cook by the recipe" kind of cook. I may occasionally tweak a recipe here and there but I've never truly invented a low carb dish.

Lucky for me there are dozens of great low carb bloggers out there that share wonderful recipes, tips and ideas and I always give them credit in my posts but today I want to list a few for you so you can go visit them, show them some love and if you want to tell them I sent you that would be just great!

1. I Breathe...I'm Hungry  - This is one of my favorites for great recipes that are easy and do-able and I usually have the ingredients for. I found the recipe for the Easy Cajun Drumsticks on her blog! Mellisa Sevigny is the brains behind this blog and I love her recipes so much that I bought her online cookbook, The Gluten Free Low Carber! At $9.95 it's a deal and a steal!

2. Linda's Low Carb Menus - You can't be a low carber and not have heard of this amazing blog! I have made many of her recipes, her Make Me Stuffed Peppers, her Broccoli Slaw, and my co-worker has made her No-Bake Jello Cheesecake many times! Her website is very well organized and has photos which I always love to see so I know how close I am to the original when mine is done.

3. Living Low Carb One Day At a Time - Really this is what I do, just take it one day at a time and if I mess up I don't beat myself up, I just continue on...one day at a time! My co-worker made her Tuscan Chicken Soup and it was wonderful! Everything a soup should be, hearty and filling and comforting, yet low carb. I have pinned lots of her recipes to try in the future but you can just head on over there and try some for yourselves...don't wait for me!

So there you go, three great websites to visit if you are interested in eating healthier, low carb, paleo or gluten free!

Hoping the weather cools down so I will have the energy to try some new recipes this week but I'm not promising anything because not only it is going to be hotter than hell around here this next week but my co-worker will be on vacation the whole week and that means double the workload for me, so I'm going to be one busy and tired and hot little puppy!

Hope you all have a great week! Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there including my own wonderful mother and my little sister Lisa!

My sister Lisa, my mom and ME!

 

Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Four

Since beginning my low carb eating regimen I've lost 12 pounds. I'm kind of stuck now or what is known as "being stalled" or "plateauing". Call it what you will it's really irritating!!!

Last week I did a little experiment on myself. I have been following the Atkins recommended 20-24 carbs per day and that is how I lost the 12 pounds, but I've been stuck at the same weight for about 3 weeks now. This week I stayed under 17 carbs per day. I know that sounds awful, but it really wasn't because you can still eat protein and fats to a point that you truly feel satisfied so it's not like when you count calories and you get to 1200 calories and you can't eat anything else the rest of the day. You will see in my wrap up that I continued to eat delicious food, just less carbs.

So I only lost 1/2 pound eating under 17 carbs and that bums me out. The reason it bums me out is because I think that in order to unstall myself I'm going to have to turn up the exercise and physical activity portion of my regimen..which doesn't require much since I've been doing literally nothing!

That is my goal for this next week. I'm going back to 20-24 carbs but I will be exercising every single day and we will see what the scale says on Friday morning...wish me luck!

So on to the food wrap up, I ate some of my normal things that I eat each week, my turkey salad, which I don't think I've pictured on my blog before. It's just ground turkey sauteed in a pan with some taco seasoning, then I make a gorgeous salad with every veggie we have in the fridge, bacon, shredded mozzarella cheese and ranch dressing and top with the turkey...I love it!

But I did try some new things and knowing that I would have to put something new in my weekly wrap up made me a little more energetic and inspired me to try something new.

First off though, my co-worker made a wonderful low carb soup last weekend and brought me some for my lunch on Monday. I love my co-worker, she's a doll!

Doesn't that look delicious? She got her inspiration from the Tuscan Chicken Soup recipe shared by Karen at Living Low Carb One Day at a Time. Angelica, my co-worker is one of those outside-the-box cooks that sees a recipe then adds her own spin, but me...I play it safe and follow the recipe to the letter! The soup was delicious and really hit the spot for a nice lunch. Thank you Angelica!

I wanted to make something new to share with her too, so one night when I was feeling especially energetic I decided to try to make Lemon Almond Shortbread, sounds delicious doesn't it? I saw the recipe on the blog, I Breathe... I'm Hungry! I followed her recipe to the letter and you can find the recipe on her blog HERE. 

If I'm going to be honest, I have to say that while it looks beautiful it was not as sweet as I had hoped. Next time I am going to put a bit more Splenda, even though it will increase the carb count and I am going to add some cinnamon, maybe some anise for flavoring. It has the most delicious crunch though!

Didn't it photograph perfectly? I'm in love with these pictures!

I also tried another Atkins Frozen Food, this time it was the Italian Sausage Primavera. I loved everything about it except the sausage  but I'm not a big fan of sausage. If you like sausage though you would probably like this meal.

The only other thing out of the ordinary that I ate this week was my lunch I had yesterday when I was out shopping with my mom.

She had been wanting to go to a restaurant called Famous Dave's. It's a BBQ place and it surprised me that she has been wanting to go for so long as she's not a big fan of BBQ  When we first got there I told the hostess that it was our first time there and they treated us special, they even gave us a free bottle of their BBQ sauce and a free appetizer next time we go there. Which may not be soon as mom didn't like it! Seriously! After all that time of her wanting to go she didn't even like it. But I did!

Because I had to stick with my low carb diet, I ordered their Southside Rib Tips which came with french fries, but I requested a substitution for their broccoli and they were more than willing to do that for me. I love them! I was a little bad in that they served us Bread and Butter Pickles. I adore Bread and Butter Pickles, but of course they have sugar, but I only ate at the most 6 pickle chips...Yum!

That was my week. I ate well, I feel great, my clothes are fitting better each and every day. If I can just get that stinking scale to move I will be happy.



 

Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week 3

     Darn it! I have to get better at this! I've been doing this low carb wrap up for a few weeks now and I'm not getting any posting done during the week. I think I'm going to have to start posting this stuff on a daily basis for two reasons: 

1. It will make for more posting throughout the week. 
2. I forget what stuff I made during the week and comments I wanted to make on it.

     I'll do the best I can during the week since it is American Idol season and I love them and won't miss it for anything in the world!

     Have you all been hearing about the health benefits of Kale? I know I have, and aside from the health benefits I've been told that Kale Chips are the next best thing to Tortilla Chips. May I just tell you right now that is  a big fat lie  a bit far-fetched! Yuk! Kale Chips are not the thing for me! Now those of you that love them, don't hate me, they are just not for me, just as Seaweed Chips are not for me even though I know those that love them.

     The photo above is where they are all washed and dried and seasoned and ready to be baked. I used the recipe from the very excellent low carb blog, I breathe...I'm hungry...

     I'm pretty sure it's not the fault of the recipe or the blog or the blog creator, Mellissa Sevigny, it's just that kale chips are not for me, just like I don't like mushrooms, it's just a matter of personal taste.

     I baked them just as she instructed and tasted the ones that burned a little bit and tasted the ones that were perfectly crisp and nope...not for me. I want to think that maybe it was the Soy Sauce or the Sriracha Sauce so I am going to try to make it one more time with a different recipe that just calls for olive oil, salt and pepper. I'll let you know what happens.

     One new item I did try this week is the new Atkins Frozen Meals. I tried the Crustless Chicken Pot Pie. I gotta say, it wasn't bad. It didn't taste like a pot pie, but the chicken was fresh and delicious white meat with a very nice tenderness, not dry at all. The veggies were pretty good and the sauce was rich and gooey. It didn't seem like a lot at first and I didn't know if I was going to get full, but it was very filling due to the fact that there was quite a bit of chicken and the pieces were pretty big. I would definitely recommend this and I will be buying it again. Right now Wal-mart is the only store carrying them and of course, they don't carry them at the store I go to!

     Atkins has a whole line of them and I also purchased the Italian Sausage Primavera which I will probably try for lunch tomorrow. You can see their whole line on the Atkins website. 

     I tried another new thing this week, I tried making Buffalo Roasted Cauliflower. I used a recipe from a new blog I've found via Pinterest. The blog is called Closet Cooking because the blog owner, Kevin is "Cooking in a closet sized kitchen".

     Again, I don't blame Kevin for my not being thrilled with the recipe, I think that I just don't like roasted Cauliflower. I love Cauliflower, but just not roasted. I may try it steamed as I did like the flavor of the buffalo sauce.

     I served the dish alongside a favorite dish of mine that my mom makes, you can see it below. She chops up steak and pan fries it in oil and when it's done she adds chopped tomato and jalapenos and it's almost like a steak fajita except there is no onion as mom can't stomach onion (I love, love, love onion!). See those burnt parts on the cauliflower? Those parts are supposed to have a delicious nutty taste, they just tasted burnt. You can't see the buffalo sauce very well, I actually added more later.

     That night I went to bed wondering what to do so I wouldn't waste the rest of that cauliflower. Voila! Overnight a wonderful idea came to me, why not fry it up with some scrambled eggs? Hence is born my Scrambled Egg Buffalo Roasted Cauliflower! 

     The egg really cut down on the burnt taste and the marinating overnight of the cauliflower with the Franks Red Hot Sauce made for a spicy delicious breakfast. It made enough for two servings and I put it in plastic containers and enjoyed it two mornings at work. The office smelled awful, but we opened the door and aired it out and it was ok. I recommend this dish if you love spicy. Just make Closet Cooking's Buffalo Roasted Cauliflower and chop it into bite-sized pieces and heat it in a pan with some butter and olive oil, then throw uncooked scrambled egg in and cook to your desired egg consistency. Yum!

     Now...let's see, what else did I try this week that was new and exciting? Oh yeah! I made a pork tenderloin that was to die for!! I almost killed my mom making it but she said the flavor was almost worth it. I used a cast iron skillet on the stove top and seared the whole tenderloin while it had the dry rub on it. Because of the Cayenne Pepper in the dry rub, it makes it noxious to breath. It didn't bother me but it drove poor mom out of the house!

     I've actually made this dish before and blogged about it here. My daughter found this recipe a while back and asked me to make it for her. The original recipe was adapted by a recipe from the blog, Little B Cooks: Chronicles from a Vermont foodie, quite a title!

     The first time I made it I used the exact recipe as Little B posted on her blog, but when I went to go get the recipe out of my little personal cookbook where I write down recipes I like, I noticed that I had jotted down some notes. I said my family didn't care for the cinnamon and to leave out the glaze if making low carb as it does have brown sugar....so I did that, it was smack your mama delicious! I believe I served steamed broccoli with it, but I don't remember now.

     And my co-worker, who loves to cook and try new low carb dishes made a tasty little dessert for us and she brought them to work and we had one every day for our 3pm break. They are these delicious  creamy little bites of heaven! It's called No-Bake Jello Cheesecake and it has just 3 carbs each! Really satisfies a sweet tooth! She found the recipe on a really excellent low carb website, Linda's Low Carb Menus. I love this site!

         Can you believe they are made with just 4 ingredients, one of them being water? Unbelievably delicious!

       So that was my week! Hopefully I can do even better in trying out new things this next week. I'm also going to try to cut down on my carbs from 20 -24 to 17 -20 carbs per day as I'm stalled right now and haven't lost any more weight. I feel lighter and my clothes fit better. Health wise I feel great! No indigestion or that yucky bloated feeling after eating, but it's always nice to see that scale drop too. So wish me luck and if you have any low carb ideas for me, I'd love to hear them!

     Oh yeah...my co-worker and I also started walking during our lunch hour. She can walk for miles, but then again she's the same age as my daughter. I made it almost a mile and then told her she had to go get the car...hahaha. No I made it back to the office but I guess I bit off more than I can chew and need to ride my stationery bike more before I tackle a mile again...but it's a start!

     Have a great week all!



 

To think that I shall never eat another M and M...

It makes me sad to know

That I shall never eat

Another M and M

That preciously sweet treat.

    


     There, that’s my poem for the day! You didn't know I was a poet now did you? A sweet lament to the fact that there are so many sweet treats that I can no longer enjoy.

     Imagine knowing that for the rest of your life you can never have another M and M, Butterfinger bar, Skittles, Pixy Stix, Licorice Whips…ahhhh. And don’t even get me started on ice cream and cookies and cake..Oh MY!

     See, I know that my body does not process carbohydrates well. I’ve blogged about it before here and again here! But do I listen to myself when I blog these things? No! I don’t know why I don’t listen to myself when I totally expect everyone else to listen to me!

     Once upon a time, almost two years ago, I began eating healthier and exercising and riding my stationary bike every morning for 7 miles and every evening for another 7 miles, I was even contemplating training for a 5K Run. I lost almost 30 lbs and felt great.

     Then for one reason or another I slowly began slacking and eating a few things here and there that I shouldn’t, like the M and M and chips and salsa…oh and Cheetos too! Of course that meant that slowly the weight started coming back on, but always in the back of my mind I told myself “Don’t worry, you will be good again tomorrow.” But of course we all know that I don’t really listen to myself so that little voice did me no good at all.

     Well now, it’s not my own little voice telling me “Hey dumb-dumb, stop and listen to yourself!”, nope…now it’s a bigger, scarier more important voice telling me that. It’s the voice of my doctor who told me yesterday at the appointment to go over the results of my recent physical that I need to STOP!! My cholesterol is too high, my blood sugar is too high, my weight is too high…everything is too high except my salary! (But that’s another story for another day!)

     So she threatened me. She gave me two months to get myself under control or else she was going to have to prescribe medication to lower the cholesterol and she was going to have to put in my “permanent record” that I am now officially a diabetic. I remember in grade school and high school how fervently I guarded my permanent record!! And now to have it threatened in such a way…oh the agony.

     So if I am going to be healthy and happy and look cute in dresses again. If I am going to make my doctor happy and keep her from ruining my pristine “permanent record”, I am going to have to check myself and realize that I am not 21 years old anymore. I can't eat whatever I want, I do have to get off that couch and become more physical and I have to do it now as I only have two months to turn this pumpkin into a Princess...I know, I know, in Cinderella the pumpkin turns into a carriage, but I want to be a Princess!

     So I'm going to go back to eating low-carb and high-protein and I'm going to start exercising again and getting up earlier each morning to ride my bike. And maybe, just maybe, someday...when I reach my goal weight and I no longer have the threat of having my "permanent record" destroyed forever...I just might sneak an M and M or two or three...who knows.

     I actually began eating healthier and exercising on January 3rd, unbeknownst to my doctor. I've lost eight pounds but then had my little bout with Sciatica and I gained back two. But recently I found this awesome recipe that I want to share with you. Even if you aren't dieting, this dish is to die for! Yummy, spicy, addicting ..that's why it's called Crack-Slaw, it's as addicting as crack.



     So help me out. What do you eat that's healthy?    




 

Changing my eating habits

Like everyone else (99.9% of women) I've spent my life dieting and despairing about my body and how my clothes fit (or don't fit), about exercise (or lack thereof). As I've grown older wiser, I've realized that my body doesn't like carbs. My mouth and my head and my heart L.O.V.E. carbs, but not my body. My body hates carbs so much that it hangs on to them with this death grip and doesn't allow them to just give me energy and get burned out of my body. Oh no...my body insists on holding them hostage until in futile despair they turn into fat and decide to permanently set up camp on my butt, my arms, my shoulders and my back! (For some reason my legs always stay super skinny and if you combine super skinny legs with a chunky little body, well I look like a baby chick!)

So since January 17th I've been cutting down my carbs to only about 20 per day. You would think 20 carbs would be plenty but one slice of wheat bread has 10, one medium apple has 17, one home-made pancake has 20! And that's without adding syrup! My beloved tortilla chips have one carb per chip and I've been known to eat the whole bag...oops, did I just tell the world that? Well no, cause only about 7 of you really actually read what I write, so it's all good!

So if I can't eat carbs what do I eat? Well lots and lots of lean meat, especially chicken which I adore! My favorite way to eat it is in chicken salad; chicken, dill pickles, hard boiled egg, mayo, tiny sliced up fresh jalapenos, onion, salt and pepper...Yum! I could eat buckets of it. I've also been eating quite a bit of cheese, in cubes and string cheese and my favorite Babybel cheese rounds. Have you tried these? Delish!

I've also been eating lots of vegetables, zucchini, celery, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and a really odd one that I'd never tried before but find that I absolutely love it. Jicama!

Doesn't that photo look like a big, round, crusty piece of delicious, warm, fresh bread....*sigh*. But no, it's actually Jicama. Jicama is a root vegetable that looks like a turnip. I eat it raw, but I understand it can be cooked. It has the consistency and crunchiness of an apple so I'm finding myself wondering if it could be baked with cinnamon and perhaps some Splenda (to keep those evil Warlord carbs in check)? Anyone know?

I'm finding myself addicted to it. It's not sweet, but not without flavor either. It's hard to describe. In order to get to that white goodness you have to watch a youtube video instructing you on how to prepare it (at least I did cause I had no clue). Lots of people douse it in lemon juice and chile powder and salt, but since lemon has carbs and chile powder and salt would just add sodium (which I don't need) it's best just to eat it naked! Eat the jicama naked I mean... not me! Wow, somehow that still sounds bad doesn't it?

Eating this Atkins Diet based way has been fairly easy for me, but then again I'm not a sugar/chocolateholic, I'm more a popcorn/chips &salsaholic. I've lost 13 pounds so far and I've been riding my bike about 4 miles per day. I could probably do more than 4 miles but I tell myself I've given up chips & salsa, do I also have to do an extra mile? I find I can talk myself out of almost anything!

A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down!

And a spoonful of sugar makes the blood sugar go up!!
My cousin Stella sent me these pictures in an email and it really makes you stop and think.

Each cube of sugar represents 1 teaspoon of sugar.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. . .

Another great lunch idea from Rachael Ray

Great lunchbox idea. I bet this fondue is great for dipping all kinds of things in. And I think kids would really love it too. Last one though, but she has lots of great lunch ideas each week on her website www.rachaelray.com

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Pork Chops & Applesauce

Quick, simple and yummy dinner idea that won't eat up all your after work time so you have time to blog! This is the recipe that I can't wait til winter ends so I can turn my oven on again!

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Lunchbox Chicken Tender Salad

Rachael Ray shows us a great, simple, fun idea in creating a lunch for kids or adults thats healthy, yum-o and easy!

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I love Rachael Ray!

I used to love watching Rachael on the Food Network, but since buying my house, I've gotten rid of cable and so I don't get that channel anymore. I do get the Rachael Ray show on daytime tv, but since I'm at work at the time, I've never had a chance to watch. Well since I'm home recuperating from my surgery I've been watching a lot of daytime tv and I happened to catch a pretty decent Rachael Ray show today. I didn't like her decorating or hand-me-down segments, but the segments about packing school lunches and the quick dinner ones were great. I can't wait to feel better and for the weather to cool down so I can turn my oven on and make this great dinner!

Lunches first. I've been taking my lunch to work for almost a year now on a regular basis trying to stay within my budget since I bought my home. Usually I take leftovers from the dinner the night before, or I make a quick sandwich of turkey or bologna. But Rach had some pretty good ideas today.

The first recipe was for lunchbox chicken tender salad...so simple and it looked yum-o (as Rach loves to say). In the post above, you can actually see the show segment. The cool thing I thought was that Rachael packed all the plastic bags in a rectangular plastic box with a lid, then you just open all the separate bags and sprinkle into the plastic box, then the dressing, then you put the lid back on and shake the box to mix everything around!

Here are the ingredients, but watch the video on the post above this one.

Lunchbox Chicken Tender Salad
Ingredients
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 English cucumber, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into half moons
1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped
4 chicken tenders, breaded and baked, then cut into pieces on a bias
1/4 cup honey mustard dressing
1 cup baked corn chips, crumbled
Yields: 1 serving
Preparation
Pack cherry tomatoes and cucumbers together in a re-sealable plastic bag. Pack remaining ingredients separately in your kids' lunchbox. At lunchtime, they can combine all the ingredients in a bowl to make a healthy chicken salad. Yum-O!

No Carbs Start Now

I started my "no carbs" diet. This is the 2nd time that I've been on it. I had great results the first time losing about 30 pounds and I stuck to it for about a year. So far I've done good on my first day.

Breakfast:
Two eggs, fried with salt & pepper 0 carbs
1 cup Ocean Spray diet CranGrape Juice 2 carbs

Lunch:
Tuna Salad with Lettuce, 1 T Mayo
1 tsp pickle relish, salt and pepper 5 carbs
8 flaming-hot Cheetos 3 carbs
(The Cheetos are not on the diet, but I had a whole bag in my desk drawer and I was craving something crunchy with my tuna)

Snack:
1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese 6 carbs

Dinner:
1 medium size hamburger patty
1 cup green beans fried with 2 carbs
1/2 small Roma tomato 3 carbs
1/2 large jalapeno 4 carbs

Total Carbs: 25 carbs

I should only have eaten 20 carbs during the induction phase of the plan, but in my defense, I did play tennis at 6:30 when it was about 95 degrees outside and I got a good sweat going. Granted I only played for about 1/2 an hour but hey, it's a start. So we'll see what tomorrow brings.

I know that tonight when I cooked my hamburger patty I cooked an extra one for tomorrow and I'm going to have that along with the other half of the green bean, tomato and jalapeno side dish.

I think the hardest part is giving up chips and popcorn, like right now I'm really craving some Cheetos! But I can't mess up the very first day so I won't.

I found a really good website I'm going to check out further, so this is all for now.