Football Sunday Food!! Bacon Cheddar Burger Balls!

I was wondering this morning what I could eat that would be low carb, that my family would like and that would be easy to munch on while I watched football since there were three really good games on the schedule!

My facebook page had a post from djfoodie for Burger Balls! I just happened to have all the ingredients. Here's the picture that caught my eye on facebook...

Photo Credit: djfoodie

Don't those look yummy? Don't let the simplicity fool you, these are labor intensive. They aren't hard to make, just time consuming and there are a lot of steps, but they are good! You can find the recipe right HERE.

I followed it exactly this time, didn't made any changes. I think next time I would like to try them with pepper jack cheese and not bake them for as long as I did. They seemed a little dry. Oh..and I used ground beef, but I think I would prefer ground turkey. I love ground turkey!

Here are the meatballs ready to be seared in the pan. But before you get to this part you have to dice onion and garlic and caramelize it in a pan with oil. Then mix the meat, one egg and the carmelized onion/garlic and make the meatballs. 

You have to flatten the ball and then put a little bacon bits and a cube of cheese and then gently roll the ball back up.

Then you sear them in a pan and it should be an oven proof pan, but I didn't have one so I just put them on a baking sheet all together. 

Here they are, all seared and ready to go in the oven. You can see there are three with toothpicks in them...those are special for my mom as she won't eat any onion. Just searing them they start oozing cheese if you didn't form them correctly, which obviously I didn't!

I baked mine at 450 for 10 minutes, I should only have done the 5 to 7 minutes suggested as I thought mine were a little overdone. Here they are straight out of the oven, you can see they oozed quite a bit more cheese. You have to really seal them well. 

Here they are, ready to "come and get'em!"

I made a quick cole slaw using an angel hair cabbage slaw I found recently at WinCo. I like it because it's a lot easier to chew and it's pretty! 

As you can see, even though a lot of cheese came out during the process there was still plenty inside...yum! Low Carb and delicious!

So the Chargers won...Yay! And my Cowboys won...Yay! Yay!  Now I'm watching the Broncos and the Patriots and it looks like it's going to be an easy win for the Broncos, but we shall see.

How was your Football Sunday? Any great snacks you had while watching?

    

Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Twelve

This was a great week! I finally got beyond the dreaded "weight loss plateau"! I reached the first goal I have set for myself! It honestly takes a while to learn your body and what you need to give it, to not only lose weight, but do so in a safe and healthy manner. I feel great at this point and can't weight to reach my next goal!

My weight loss group has been very helpful, not only in the tips and recipes that they provide, but also in the encouragement I've received from them. Having my friend and co-worker, Angelica of Angie's Life Changes on this journey with me means I have a daily partner around to kick my butt and keep me on track and I do the same for her. The only thing she hasn't gotten me to do yet is exercise more, but I'm trying! Ok...I'm not trying, but I will this next week, I promise!

So anyway...who would have thought that eating more fat would help me to lose weight? But it has and this past week I lost 3 pounds! Yay!!!

Great thing is that not once have I felt hungry or deprived. Would you feel deprived eating these?

These are Jalapeno Popper Meatballs! Meatballs stuffed with cream cheese, cheddar cheese and roasted jalapeno's then wrapped in bacon! Yum! 

The recipe is courtesy the a low-carb, gluten-free genius, Mellissa Sevigny, creator of the blog "I Breathe...I'm Hungry". I've mentioned her blog many times and have made quite a few of her recipes...remember Buffalo Balls which I made in Week Eight? Mellissa does a Meatball Monday and always has a new one you can try out. Not only are her recipes awesome and easy, her photographs will make you want to lick your monitor and drool on your keyboard!

I only made four wrapped in bacon because on her blog Mellissa explains that you have to broil the bacon wrapped ones but to be very careful as the bacon grease will make them pop and since they are right under direct fire it could cause a fire in your oven and I'm a big old chicken and figured I could careful monitor four of them as opposed to watching out for twenty of them a'popping and a'sizzling! So in the photo above you can see how the ones not wrapped in bacon looked. I ate them with a few slices of avocado for healthy fat. Here's how they looked inside.

Look at all that gorgeousness! Melted cream cheese mixed with cheddar cheese and roasted jalapenos!                    
Be sure to visit I Breathe...I'm Hungry to get the recipe!

Here's a few more pictures only because I'm pretty darn proud of how great they look!

Unwrapped and ready to be baked!

I love this closeup!
See the roasted jalapeno that was mixed in the meat?

Here's the four I made with bacon waiting to be baked!

DUTA from the blog Places with Character mentioned last week in a comment on Week Eleven that my photos are of cook book quality. Thank you DUTA...I'm humbled and grateful you enjoy them. If you would like to read a great blog that is educational and informative and shows you some beautiful pictures, then be sure to visit her blog. 

So I've mentioned my co-worker Angie that is eating low-carb alongside me. She is a great inspiration too. She also has a very demanding sweet tooth! I'm not real big on sweets, but every now and then I crave something. She does not disappoint. While I was making Jalapeno Popper Meatballs, she was making this...

That's a CHOCOLATE MINT FUDGE POP!!!! I know...I'm yelling, but that is how excited I was when she walked into the office one morning and told me she had brought me one! Of course I had to eat it right then and there for breakfast! Oh my gosh...was it delicious. She used the recipe from the blog All Day Long I Dream About Food. 

And she wasn't done with her sweet tooth yet, she also made these amazing Chocolate Flaxseed Muffins! They were so delicious and she brought me two! I had one with my coffee that morning and I ate the second one with my coffee this morning and I slathered it with melted butter (another healthy fat). 

She found this recipe at Maria's Nutritious and Delicious Journal. this blog is full of so much health and diet and lifestyle info! I love it!

Photo Credit - Eat Yourself Skinny

That is it for this week's wrap up. Remember to drink lots of water to keep your body hydrated and prevent nasty water retention. I'm trying to get into the habit of drinking detox water during the weekend to keep myself hydrated. Just slice up half a cucumber, 1 lemon, 1 lime and about 12 small mint leaves and put in a pitcher with water in your fridge on Friday night and drink it during the weekend instead of soda. Healthy, yummy and refreshing!


 

Weekend Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Eleven

Welcome to week eleven! It's been a good week! I've only lost one pound but I had been stuck on the same weight for the past two months, so any loss is a win in my book! Been doing excellent in staying on track and watching carbs. 

I recently joined a group of people that are trying to lose weight. Some are doing Atkins Low Carb - High Fat, some are on Weight Watchers, some on Skinny Fiber, some counting calories, but the point of the group is the support that we are all receiving from each other. The tips and ideas are great too. 

I mentioned how I was stalled and not losing any weight and what I was eating and how frustrated I was and several told me that I was not eating enough fats. I explained that I really don't like fats, yuk! I like lean meats and always remove the fat on my chicken but told them I was willing to try eating more fat. I never thought I would purposely eat more fat, but I did and I did lose 1 pound. I will continue throughout this next week and see what happens. 

My co-worker Angie was nice enough to make a recipe we've been seeing all over the web called "Fat Bombs", see the picture below. These yummies consist of coconut oil, almond butter, liquid Stevia, cocoa powder and melted butter. She found them on the website My Low Carb Road to Better Health - High Fat, Moderate Protein, Low Carb. 

Let's see, what else did I eat throughout the week? One thing was a tried and true friend...my Cajun Chicken Drumsticks and Broccoli Slaw. I love these and could eat them morning, noon and night! And now I am even eating the skin so it's a good thing that the rub I use on it gives it such great flavor!

Oh...one of the members in the group asked all of us how we "Latinize" our low carb foods. Well my mom cooks for me pretty often and all she needs to do is add jalapeno and tomato and it's Mexican food for me!

Here she takes steak and cuts it into bite size pieces instead of strips and makes her version of steak fajitas. She also makes this wonderful dish that she has made ever since I was a little girl. She takes Anaheim Chile Peppers and roasts them over an open flame, peels the skin off and then stuffs them with Monterey Cheese and microwaves them for a bit to melt the cheese. Kind of a Chile Rellano without the breaded outside. I love them! All I add is a salad. 

Earlier today my sister accompanied me to do my weekly grocery shopping. We were on our way to eat at Applebees and we saw that right across the street there was a Farmers Market going on so we went over to check it out. And it was a good thing we did because we found these yummy baked veggies! 

They had all kinds. In the picture below are Beet Chips and Carrot Chips with Garlic. They had samples and it's a good thing they did or we never would have tried them!

I also bought a bag of Okra Chips, which I didn't take a picture of because earlier today I went to go visit my dad for Father's Day and I took them to him and he was in Okra Heaven! He loved them and in a couple of days I will take him the beet ones and then later the carrot ones. I'm sure he will love these as well. They are baked by a company called The Kloster Company, but I could not find a website for them.

We bought some other goodies at the Farmers Market. One of the items was a Raspberry Pomegranate Vinaigrette so tonight for dinner I made myself a refreshing summer salad of Romaine Lettuce, Avocado, Cucumber, Strawberries and Red Onion and topped it all with the Vinaigrette and some cracked black pepper. It was one of the most delicious salads I've ever had!

And lest you think that I didn't have any fats today, this is what I had for lunch at Applebees!

I asked our server to bring me some butter and he was kind enough to bring me about 1/4 cup of melted butter which I drizzled all over the veggies and on the steak. I ate every bit except for the carrots!

As I said...it's been a great week and I feel fabulous and I know I look much better and my clothes are feeling looser. It is only one pound I've lost on the scale, but it's not just about the scale. It's about feeling better and feeling better about myself!

Photo Courtesy of Trains Fitness

 

Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Ten

This should actually be week thirteen but I've been bad and not done a weekly wrap up for four weeks now! But I'm going to get better because as you can see from my previous post I'm killing my Sugar Crush addiction and focusing more on blogging and napping! My two favorite things!

But...just because I have not been posting a weekly wrap up does not mean I've gone off the low-carb wagon! Oh no...I've been doing good, well maybe not good but I've been trying.

I've always been a believer in only weighing in once a week on Friday mornings. For the past couple of months every single Friday I have weighed exactly the same! I was getting so frustrated because no matter what I did I wasn't losing weight!!!

So two weeks ago I decided I was going to weigh myself every day to see if I could detect a pattern...see how scientific I am? What I found out is that I was defeating myself. On Friday's I would weigh myself and then that evening I would go out an eat just a few chips with salsa (ok, maybe a whole bowl).  Then on Saturday I would go out shopping with my mom and I might eat a few more chips and salsa, maybe a frozen strawberry margarita, then Sunday I usually make a nice meal for my mom and my kids and I might have just a smidgen of mashed potatoes or some Doritos casserole.

I found that all those little cheats made me add 3 to 4 pounds by Tuesday and then even though I was good and ate low carb the whole week all I was really doing was losing the weight I gained over the weekend and therefore by Friday when I weighed in I was still at the same weight! Silly me! Defeating my own self! Grrrr!

So this weekend I have stayed true to my low carb plan and have not partaken of any carbs! At least not more than the 20 to 25 allotted during the induction phase of Atkins. This weekend we have had a heatwave, so yesterday morning, before it got too hot I made some tuna salad, some chicken salad, some guacamole and some turkey, cream cheese and pickle roll-ups  Plus I made some detox water. 

Turkey, Cream Cheese and Dill Pickle Rollups, Guacamole and red pepper strips for dipping! Recipe for the roll ups can be found at http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2011/02/easy-recipe-for-ham-and-dill-pickle.html

My son found this wonderful video for me, three ways to cook eggs in the microwave, here's a picture of the ones I made and the video is posted below.

Scrambled Egg in a Cup in the Microwave

I also mentioned that I made Lemon Detox Water yesterday and I've been faithfully drinking it today. It's so simple to make, just slice lemons into a pitcher and fill with water then let sit in the fridge overnight. I also added a lime and I wanted to add cucumbers and fresh mint, but I didn't have any. I found information on detox water at fitsugar, but I've seen it all over pinterest too! 

Again this morning before it got too warm I made a turkey roast tenderloin and a pork roast tenderloin. I buy the Jennie-O Turkey Roast Tenderloin, the Savory Roast flavor is below, they have several different flavors, the one I made today was Island Marinade and it had a sweetness to it that was excellent!

I cook it exactly as I do the roast tenderloin, you can go HERE to see how I do it. 

I hope that my detox water and careful planning of food and snacks for this weekend helps me to finally start showing some results! 

If you have any good low carb meals you make feel free to share them with me. I'm always looking for new things to cook. Have a great week everyone!

      

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 Eight?

Notice my little question mark after the title? The last wrap up I did was April 15th and that was week seven. I went a bit AWOL after that last one. BUT...I have kept my low carb lifestyle going. It's not a diet, it's a way of life so there's no turning back now! So that's about three weeks of low carb goodies I have to show you. 

To be honest, I have not had a lot of time to try new recipes. I have pinned several in Pinterest that I will be trying out in the future, but for right now my priority is being with my dad. I mentioned a few posts ago that he had taken a fall and broken his pelvis. He's in an assisted living facility and I try to visit him at least once a day, sometimes twice. On the bright side he is getting better and his break has healed enough that this next week he will be beginning physical therapy! 

Dad and I. Celebrating his 82nd Birthday!

Just yesterday we celebrated his 82nd birthday and he was in a wonderful mood. Happy and talkative, enjoying his family and eating Nopales (cactus) which is his favorite dish. My sister made them for him and now that I think about it, Nopales are low carb, I sure wish I liked them but unfortunately I don't like them or mushrooms either.

My dad holding his containers of Nopales (Cactus) cooked with scrambled egg and onion.

One new thing that I have found and tried and really like are Persian Cucumbers! I love any kind of cucumber but especially these as I am not really fond of all the seeds in the middle and hate scooping them out before I slice them. With the Persian Cucumbers I found I didn't have to. They are super crunchy and I like to dust them with Pico De Gallo powder, which is very spicy and then drizzle them with a bit of lemon. So delicious and low carb. Really satisfies that craving for chips and salsa!

Another new item I tried was courtesy of my co-worker and co-partner in this low carb lifestyle, Angelica. She made the most delicious low carb lasagna! Yes, you heard right, low carb lasagna! But Alicia, you say...pasta is very high in carbs! I know, I know! But not when your pasta is made from Zucchini! This photo doesn't do this dish justice, but trust me it was fabulous!

Low Carb Zucchini Lasagna!

In previous low carb wrap ups I've done I've mentioned the Easy Cajun Drumsticks that I've made and I love them, but I decided to try to make them with boneless chicken breast. My son loved them and I thought they were delicious, but I really love them as drumsticks much better. They are just more flavorful and not as dry. Served them with a drizzle of lemon to cut the spiciness a bit and steamed some broccoli. I love eating low carb!

Easy Cajun Skinless Chicken Strips

One of the things I do miss eating on a low carb lifestyle is burritos and tacos. But I found a great new way to kinda/sorta eat a burrito and/or taco. Use a leaf of lettuce! In the photos below I show you several different fillings that I've tried and they were all 100% delicious!

Shredded Beef Romaine Lettuce Taco with Green Beans and Roma Tomatoes

Beef Carnitas Romaine Lettuce Tacos

Chicken Salad Romaine Lettuce Tacos with Slices of Cucumber

Didn't those all look delicious? And so easy. Almost anything you can wrap in a tortilla you can wrap in a lettuce leaf. 

This next dish tastes much, much better than this photograph would lead you to believe. The original recipe calls them Buffalo Balls. They are from an awesome low carb website, I Breathe...I'm Hungry!

I followed her recipe almost to the letter, the only thing I changed is that I added Parmesan Cheese as I didn't have and don't particularly like Blue Cheese. They were really delicious and my co-worker/friend/co-low carber Angelica really loved them as well. You use Frank's Red Hot Sauce...this stuff is fabulous! Meatballs are a really easy way to eat low carb.

And last but not least...a low carb tip for you. A quick and easy Breakfast or mid morning or mid afternoon snack are hard-boiled eggs. I usually just peel two in the morning, cut them up and put them in a plastic container, add a dollop of mayo and some salt and pepper and head out the door. At snack time I just open up the container, mix everything up and eat. Easy, tasty, flavorful!

So there you go. Hopefully I redeemed myself from missing previous low carb wrap ups and we will see what this next week hold for me. Have a good one!


 

Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Seven

My weeks are still jam-packed with trying to take care of and spend time with my dad, but that hasn't stopped me from continuing to eat healthy. 

 I unfortunately don't have a lot of time to try new things so I'm sticking with the tried and true, meaning I made those delicious Cajun Chicken Drumsticks again. I made a whole pack of them, which was sixteen! And that is pretty much what I ate every day. 

But that's ok because they are little morsels of deliciousness like no other! And....they are only $4.54 for the whole pack!

I ate them with salad and with green beans and with avocado, something different each day and yet they never did get old.

I have another whole pack thawing out right now that I plan to bake tomorrow. So bear with me while I help to get my dad healthy and back on his feet again and then I'll definitely be trying new things during the week.

 

Weekly Low Carb Wrap Up - Week Six

Ha! Bet you thought I forgot to do my weekly low carb wrap up right? Never fear, I'm just a little bit late. What with taking care of my dad and all I'm getting a little bit behind. But I am still trying to stick to my new way of eating. So while I didn't try a whole bunch of new things, I did try two.

But first, thanks to everyone who wished my dad well and prayed for him and my family. He's getting better and stronger every day and I'm hopeful he's going to heal well and be able to go back to his little home where he has his independence.

So this week I did get industrious one night and I made stuffed bell peppers. I checked out a whole bunch of different recipes that I had pinned on Pinterest. I love Pinterest, it makes it so easy to save things you want to find later!

Aren't these beautiful? I used a recipe from Linda's Low Carb Menus and Recipes. She has more delicious low carb recipes than you can shake a stick at! I used her recipe for Make Me Stuffed Peppers! I tweaked it a bit because I had way too much hamburger meat and in order to get my son to eat what I didn't use in the bell peppers I had to make sure I didn't cook it with onion. So I browned the ground beef in a pan with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, then took out what he was going to eat and added raw red onion and Roma tomatoes in the meat left in the pan.

I also had tons of Monterey Jack cheese in the fridge, so I used that instead of Cheddar and....I used red bell peppers! I'm such a rebel! So here they are after I've boiled the peppers in water for three minutes, then stuffed them, placed them in the pan and topped them with cheese.

Here they are, fresh out of the oven. All warm and gooey. Don't they look good? I think next time I will sprinkle some diced green onion when they come out of the oven, just for flavoring.

The night I made these I ate them with a simple green salad with ranch dressing and it was so good. It's nice to have a comfort food and these definitely were that!

I took some to work the next day and my co-worker and fellow low-carber Angelica ate one and she loved it! She's not a big fan of bell pepper but she loved these and said she is going to try making them. I'm excited to see what she does cause as I've said before, she's an outside the box thinker and I'm sure she'll put her own little spin on them!

Here is the bell pepper just nuked in the microwave for lunch. A healthy, delicious and filling lunch!

That night when I got home dinner was easy because I had all these stuffed bell peppers, so I just made a quick pork fried cauli-rice (rice made from riced cauliflower...it's delicious!) My second new thing I tried this week. You take your riced cauliflower and saute it in a pan with some olive oil and butter, season it with salt and pepper and cook for a couple of minutes. I added diced up ham and cooked that another minute then I moved the whole concoction over to the side for a bit and scrambled a couple of eggs in a bowl and cooked them in the side of the pan until they were set then blended them with the rice, sprinkled green onion, a shot of soy sauce and sesame seed oil and a healthy shot of Sriracha Sauce cause I love me some spiciness. See my beautiful little stuffed pepper in the background there? Yum!

Because I am so good at eating left overs I can make a whole bunch of these and eat them non-stop morning, noon and night until they are all gone. In fact I ate one again today at lunch!

So that was it for new things this past week. Bear with me, I have tons of new recipes I will be trying and I may even invent a few of my own. But until my dad gets better and gets back home, I will be spending at least a couple of hours every day after work with him, making sure he eats and that he's not too lonely and that he know how very much I love him.

Have a good week!