Week Five - Day Five: Time to restock the pantry!

And now for the rest of my day...

I did go grocery shopping.  Armed with my list for New Earth, I was disappointed that the only thing I could find was the almond flour. No Carbquik, no shirataki noodles. Bummer... I then went to the meat market. I bought some homemade chili verde and a pound of bacon. I was going to get some burger but he had just run out and I didn't want to wait around while he made more. At least you know it's fresh! 

Their chili verde is so good! Chunks of tender pork, sliced jalapenos, large chunks of onion, and a very tasty tomatillo sauce. As soon as I got home I cooked it. My portion was about 3 ounces and that was perfect. Just so very good and filling. I have leftovers for the next few days!

The only other thing I did tonight was make my peanut butter cookies.  How can I resist them? I can't... True fact...

The recipe I want to share tonight is One Minute Cheddar Bread and Buns. I'm so excited because this recipe makes 4 rolls (approximately the size of hamburger buns), and each roll only has 1.88 grams of carbs. Yes, that is one-point-eight-eight grams.  How awesome is that? They use the golden flaxseed meal as the flour; and although 1/4 cup has 8 grams of carbs, it also has 8 grams of fiber, which your body does not absorb, so they cancel each other out That adds up to zero net carbs. :D  Happy girl!

Do these not look like the yummiest rolls ever???

I won't get to make these until Sunday because I have plans tomorrow. Well, we have plans tomorrow. The Firefighters Burn Institute is having their annual crab feed!!! If I avoid the bread and butter I will be fine. It's going to be all about the crab and salad. We are meeting friends Greta and Kalle there. Kalle (pronounced "collie" like the dog) is a fellow retired fire captain as well. I'm telling you, those firefighters know how to party! Good heavens... 

My day has now come to an end. All in all, it's been a good day. It's been a satisfying day. It's been a successful day. I'm not craving anything or wanting to eat everything in sight. And those Triscuits, which are still hanging around, have not been calling my name. 

I hope you had a beautiful night. 

…Lin…

Week Five - Day Four: Captain's Birthday Dinner!

Sorry for being a wee bit late on this blog. This is actually the day after...

We finally celebrated Captain's birthday last night. He wanted to go to Pasquini's, a small family run Italian restaurant just north of Yuba City. 

We had a coupon for a free appetizer, so he got the lotus prawns. MMMmmm... Large prawns in a tempura-like batter, with seafood sauce and chinese mustard to dip them in. I had two, he had three.

They also serve this amazing homemade bread with olive oil, sweet balsamic vinegar and pressed garlic, of which we both partook. OMG let me tell you - divine. 

To go with the bread you also get a lovely salad with the best champagne vinaigrette that I've ever tried.

For dinner he had the shrimp scampi, which had 10 large prawns swimming in butter and lemon.

I had the tagliatelle bolognese. Yes, they make their own pasta fresh everyday and it melts in your mouth!

Not on my plan, I know. But it is now the last birthday to celebrate for almost 3 weeks! Yeah! But I did eat most of my salad and maybe 1/4 of my dinner, so Captain has leftovers for his dinner.

This morning he wanted to hit the bagel shop. Finally we found it! I had the breakfast bagel on a cheddar jalapeno bagel with egg, bacon, canadian bacon and cheddar cheese.  He had his on an everything bagel. They were both excellent! He ate all of his and 2/3 of mine. It is on our "must do it again" list. Freshest bagels I've had in years. 

And now that all of these temptations are out of my way I can move on with more low carb fare. I feel like I have been bouncing around for weeks TRYING to do low carb and not being able to do it completely. 

Today I am off to do some grocery shopping and restock my depleted pantry. It will be nice to have food around that I can eat and enjoy and not feel guilty about.

Until tonight... Or tomorrow... Whichever comes first. Thanks for hanging with me!

Week Five - Day Three: Another Day, Another Chance!

Today is a new day and another chance to continue on my path to weight loss. Here goes...

I really do need to do some grocery shopping but have not felt up to going. Tomorrow I will defintely go, but today I'm staying in because it's cold and rainy outside. I do have chicken, tuna, eggs, cheese, some green beans and salad makings that I can eat and still stay on plan. That is a good thing.

I have found something called Carbquik, which is a low carb version of Bisquik. There is only 2 net carbs per biscuit, which is awesome because Bisquik has 13 net carbs per biscuit. I have a recipe for Mexican Egg Bake which calls for flour and baking powder, so I can swap it out for the Carbquik. MMMmmm... I think I can buy it at New Earth Foods, but if not you can always buy it online. (Not my preference. I want instant gratification! Hahaha!)

While perusing the Carbquik website I came across an ad for a book called Fat Fast Cookbook: 50 Easy Recipes to Jump Start Your Low Carb Weight Loss. It's for low carbers who hit that weight loss plateau and helps get you going again. You can get it either paperback or Nook. I got it for my Nook. It's that instant gratification thing! And who knows, it just might contain the extra inspiration I need to keep focused. I will take the help wherever I can get it.

I really didn't have any breakfast today, but late afternoon came and I was kind of hungry! I had some rotisserie chicken and a bowl of veggies with ranch dressing. I also finished off my bunch of radishes. Gosh I love those crunchy, spicy bites of goodness. Best of all, it satisfied my hunger and I wasn't looking for something else to eat. Yeah!!!

Talk about inspiration?!? I was reading my new book (see above) and perusing all the yummy recipes I could eat on the one week fat fast (should I decide to do it). Remember, it's all about the carbs, or lack thereof, on this plan. There are recipes for cheesecakes, pumpkin custards, mac n cheese, and all carb free! Lots of eggs, lots of heavy cream, lots of cream cheese, and the noodles are called shirataki noodles, which have NO flour whatsoever, some are soy free, and very low in carbs! They also come in different styles, like macaroni, spaghetti, fettuccine, etc. 

Sorry for rambling. I'm just so excited to find different things that I can eat and that the days of the dull, boring diet food are going away.

Anyhooooo...  

So, knowing that I need to go grocery shopping, knowing that I don't have a lot of things in my fridge to choose from, and knowing how Ina Garten makes beautiful hard boiled eggs, I decided to make deviled eggs for dinner.  Plain? Yes. Tasty? You know it. 

And how does Ina Garten do it? Cover the eggs in cold water, put them on medium flame, bring to a boil, turn the stove off, cover the pot, and let them set for 13 minutes. Drain, cool and peel. Perfect hard boiled eggs every time.  Mash the yolks, add a little mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic and onion.  MMMmmm... Delish and filling.  Yes, I also had a small salad. It was not an "egg only" feast.

My day has come to an end and it has been a successful one. Surprisingly I didn't have any cravings like I did yesterday. Possibly because I feel a lot better than I did? We all know how comforting food can be. That's what it was like for yesterday. Those fritos hugged me. As did the Sees Candy, which has now been put away again.

In an effort to get a jump on my day tomorrow I took the rest of my rotisserie chicken and made chicken salad out of it. That will be my brunch. As for the rest of my day tomorrow, well, I'm not sure. Captain is coming up and we are having a belated birthday dinner as Pasquini's. 

MY GOAL!!! 

Good night, my friends! Thanks for hanging with me today!

...Lin...

Week Five - Day Two: The Cold Continues... Ugh!

Yes, the cold continues.  No, not that "I'm freezing to death... I can't get out of my house because the snow is 8 feet deep... It's the polar vortex..." cold. Just a plain old head cold. Last time I thought I was sick (remember just a couple weeks ago?) it was really food poisoning.

Problem? I don't really feel like eating, and it's really hard to eat what you're supposed to and stay on track. Trying... to... stay... 100%... on... track...

For instance, this morning I ate 2 of my peanut butter cookies so I could take my meds. Later I was kind of hungry so I cooked a bit of sausage and one egg.  So far, not too bad.

Sausage patty, slice of cheese, and a poached egg.
Poaching in the same pan as the sausage was fried in adds extra flavor!
Love that runny yolk!

Unfortunately I wasn't as hungry as I thought, so I almost ate half and Maddie got the rest.

Speaking of Maddie, isn't this the most pathetic thing you've seen? I was laying in bed and she decided she wanted under the covers and then proceeded to lay down on my chest and poked her head out. I could not resist snapping this pic!

And now back to whining about my day.  (Maybe I should be "wining" instead!)

Dutcher Creek Vineyards in Healdsburg. All wine, no whine. :)

Later in the day I had some leftover chicken wings.  Actually 1 1/2 chicken wings to be exact. What I really wanted was that can of soup and a big glass of orange juice that my daughter-in-law Cheryl brought over the night before and left hanging on my front door. She's a smart girl as she has 2 kids at home that don't need to be around extra germs as they are already exposed to enough at school!!! I resisted and finished my lunch with my peanut butter cookie. Those things are my saving grace, let me tell you!

And now...

I am embarrassed to say that I blew it. I was just having a pity party for myself and ate a handful of Fritos...

and that evil box of Sees Valentine's Day Candy. Two pieces. 

There are not enough words to express how frustrated I am with myself. All I can say is, thank goodness tomorrow is a new day and a chance to try it one more time. 

Have a beautiful night, my friends.

…Lin…

Week Five - Day One: Happy Monday!

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I'm not going to bore you with the details of mine, as you have probably already read about it!

Looking back over the last four weeks I realize I talk a lot about recipes I want to try, but I've been very sporadic about actually making them. Now my eclectic pantry has been depleted and I'm going to work on being more focused with my groceries. I don't want to just buy things because I can eat them on my plan, but I want to actually plan one meal a day. I also want to try to stick to just eating 2-3 meals a day and not graze my way through my day. Make sense?

I have a nifty app on my phone (Oh Samsung Galaxy, how I love you!) called inkpad, and you can actually use the same program on your laptop and sync it to your phone. I turned the sync off on my phone so it only syncs when I want it to, not whenever it wants to, because you only get 3 free syncs a day - unless you upgrade and pay a premium for not having ads and unlimited sync. I don't need premium that badly. ;) On my laptop I find a recipe that I want to try, I copy and paste it into inkpad. Then when I go to the grocery store I sync my phone, check my recipe, and I have my "grocery list" of what I need to make it. 

This is what my list of notes looks like!

This is what the recipe ingredients looks like when I copy and paste it.
See the little icon on the top right?
This is the list format. 

This is the check list format so I can check them off as I shop.
See the little check icon on the top right? 

And as I check them off I can see what I still need!
Isn't it an awesome app?

So that is what I did with the Layered Mexican Casserole Recipe today. I checked off what I had at home and that left me with what I needed to get at the grocery store. And now, I am ready to make the casserole!

This was no easy, quick task, I can tell you that! I think part of the problem is her list and prep steps felt disjointed to me. There were 4 different things. Prepping the onions and bell pepper, reducing the sauce, grating the cheese, and shredding the chicken. I sautéd my onions and bell pepper, then stirred in the beans. At this point she says that if you want the bean layer to stick together better then you could lightly mash the beans as they heat up. Really? Why didn't I just add one can of refried beans and one can of pinto beans? Whatever... The green sauce needs to reduce to almost half, then you have to let it cool a bit, add the sour cream, and finally the shredded chicken. 

Whew! Prep is done and NOW I get to build my casserole. Layer of beans, layer of chicken sauce, layer of cheese. Repeat. I have to admit, it does look good. 

Thirty minutes later and the timer goes off. How does it look? Another 10 minutes to brown up the top.

(Disregard the oven that needs to be cleaned.)

Oh... my... goodness... Hot and bubbly out of the oven, and that glorious slightly browned top. Now I have to wait 15 minutes to eat it.

Be sure to let it sit, otherwise you will scald yourself!

I have to say, mine didn't turn out layered, it turned out really sloppy. But it sure does taste good!

Mine...

Hers...

You win some, you lose some. I probably won't make it again. Too beany, not chickeny and cheesy enough. If you make it, let me know how yours turns out!

On a happy note, today is Captain's birthday! Too bad I'm sick. The cold that everyone else has had finally caught up with me. When this first started two days ago I thought my throat was irritated because my next door neighbor smokes outside and I could smell it. Nope, just a cold. So we will celebrate in a couple of days when I'm better.

Happy Birthday, Captain! I love you!

And those are my adventures for the day. I am going to bid you all good night and be off to bed. I certainly hope I feel better tomorrow. 

Lin... 

Week Four - Day Seven: The End of Week 4!

Week 4 has come to an end!

I now have almost one month behind me.  What an adventure it's been.

I woke up this morning with that scratchy throat and tickley cough that everyone seems to be getting. Fortunately Ricola cough drops seem to help. No, they are not sugar free, sorry to say.

Does anyone know what this horn is called?

So to continue on with my day, and struggling to stay the course, I had a Spanish omelet for breakfast. Monterey Jack, Colby Jack, and salsa made it a very tasty dish. The afternoon rolls around and I'm hungry. Unfortunately my pantry is bare and I don't feel like going grocery shopping. I threw on some clothes, put my hat on, and Maddie and I headed to Popeye's drive-thru for chicken. Came home and ate two chicken legs and I was good to go.  I still had some corn dip left from Jon's birthday so I did have a couple bites of it, as well.  It was not my favorite, but Captain loves it! Owell...

Tomorrow morning I have a committee meeting at Peach Tree Healthcare, and then the CEO is taking me on a tour of all 4 clinics. I'm very excited to see how they operate. Being on their board has been an eyeopening experience for me. I'm still in that learning curve as I only started last July.

Our new logo!

Well, dear friends, I know it's only early evening, but I think I will call it a night. Thanks for hanging with me on this boring day. Hopefully tomorrow will be more exciting. Have a beautiful night!

Week Four - Day Six: The Weekend is Here!

I am such a dork. I have repeated myself two days in a row.  As I was writing last night about Cheryl wanting me to make something I thought, this sounds familiar. It was because I had written it the day before also! Just proof that I am becoming a goober. And that blogging every day isn't as easy as one would think because events throughout the day may overlap into other days.

Today is another day back on track. Well, I can't really say "back on track" because I still have some disruptions in the next 3 days. So let's just say that for today I am sticking to my program. One day at a time!

I slept in a little bit this morning and it was wonderful. It was later than usual for my morning meds but I took them, then had to wait a half hour to eat something and then take my other meds. I had just a couple of those extra smokies I made yesterday. (They were the extra ones that wouldn't fit into the big casserole dish. Darn... ~giggle~)

I finally got hungry for a bit of brunch so I made a ham and cheese omelet. In retrospect it really isn't an omelet, although that was my intent; it is more like scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. I must have been hungrier than I realized because it was a two-egg "omelet" and I usually have only one egg. It was yummy and filling!

Tasty, indeed!

This afternoon I tried a third peanut butter cookie recipe. This one, by far, is my favorite. I didn't realize I bought crunchy peanut butter, so to compensate just a bit I added an extra tablespoon of smooth peanut butter. With the addition of the baking powder and baking soda it really makes them much lighter. I love them! This recipe is from Heart of the Country Home. As I've said before, this is a great website with lots of low carb options. 

Best one yet!

Tonight for dinner I had a piece of chicken breast left over from the other night, a small salad and the cheese crisps. Of course in heating up the oven I forgot that my Paula Deen pan with the silicone handles was in there, and that smell... Oy vey! It is one that I would prefer to never have to smell again. Even with the vent on high it is almost overwhelming.  Note: Learn from my mistakes! Hahaha!!!

And then as luck would have it, I overcooked my cheese crisps and had to start all over again. Can we say "epic fail?" Apparantly I'm not having a good night...

So on that note my day is officially over. It has been a great food day and I am pleased with myself.

Until tomorrow, my friends!!!