Category Archives: Cheese
Starting all over again, Day 1
The keto plan was the answer to my weight-loss prayers: I lost approximately 40 pounds in around 6 months. And then I started fooling around…
Well, maybe I’ll have a couple of pieces of toast. How bad could it be?
Boy, that pizza crust looks great. Maybe this one time, I’ll eat the entire piece of pizza, not just the toppings.
Hmm, maybe I’ll eat what I want at this party, then I’ll get back on track starting Monday.
I regained the weight – at least 35 of those pounds straggled back on. So, I started over, and stopped, and regained. And started over, and stopped, and regained.
And…in order to beat myself up a little more, let me remind myself that – not only did I regain all that weight – I also could have been LOSING another 40 (or more) during this same time span! An 80-pound weight loss puts me into “normal” sizes and a happy happy place.
What to do? Go back to the beginning.
Strict keto, journalizing, immerse myself in the topic. I started a keto recipe site last year; keep that up to date. Live, eat, and breath the keto lifestyle. No other choice. It worked before, and it will work again.
Day 1:
Breakfast – 2 scrambled eggs, one sausage patty, topped with 2 ounces grated cheddar.
Lunch – mixed greens, 2 ounces grated cheddar, topped with Wishbone Buffalo ranch dressing (2g carbs) and 14 almonds
Dinner – one small squash (cut to resemble fettucini) topped with Rick’s marinara sauce and cheddar cheese (we’re out of mozarella).
Snack – salt and vinegar pork rinds with 2 tbsp french onion chip dip.
Day 2: Chicken Marsala in a foil pack
So far so good.
I was running late yesterday morning. I would have gotten to work about 1/2 hour early if I skipped breakfast or stopped for a drive thru McDonald’s breakfast. Hmm. Hardly the way to get back on track. I had really been looking forward to hitting the diner with Rick, but we both hate rushing through breakfast in fewer than 25 minutes.
I hit on the remedy – carryout breakfast from the diner. It’s just a little out of the way from work, so I called ahead and ordered an omelet and bacon. We swooped by to pick it up, and I arrived at work 1/2 hour early, where I relaxed, did a crossword and ate breakfast at my desk.
It was more expensive than a breakfast at home, and a couple of dollars more than a Micky D’s breakfast, but I’ve spent money on worse things. It was a good start to a fresh keto diet day, and I’m glad I thought of it.
Lunch was late – around 2 pm, after an afternoon meeting. I ate 2 Beddar Cheddars and some almonds.
Dinner was a recipe I haven’t posted before: Rick’s chicken Marsala. He makes a quick and convenient dinner in individual foil packets that we can both easily eat as leftovers the next day – or for lunch. He usually sacrifices and leaves the leftovers for my eating pleasure, because he can eat anything, after all.
Here’s his recipe.
And the final product, with some cauliflower mashed “potatoes.”
Dessert was an Adkins coconut bar.
Day 321: Monday trivia and a cheat cupcake
Total weight loss: 39 1/2 pounds
We started our week at the diner. We’ve pledged to only go 2 times a week, and I think Monday morning is the perfect day to start.
I had the omelet and bacon.
For lunch, I heated 2 beddar cheddars at work. In the late afternoon, I ate some almonds.
Dinner was at Albert’s for trivia. I have to say, their chicken club salad is one of the best salads in town. In fact, my trivia team and I agree that ALL their food is really really good. The salad is chock full of ingredients: arugula, cheese, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, really good “real” bacon bits hot off the grill, and of course, the grilled chicken. I gave away my tomatoes and cukes and it still took me about 45 minutes to eat the salad. I’ll take a picture of it next week.
I drink about 4 glasses of water while I’m at trivia. For one thing, although the food is delicious and well cooked, the pop leaves something to be desires. Flat and tasteless. So, since I’m always trying to drink plenty of water, I opt for that in most restaurants in the evening, especially if I start the day at a diner and have pop for breakfast. I really am trying to cut down, even if I only drink diet cola. I just know it isn’t healthy, even tho low carb.
There were 2 birthdays being celebrated last night. I was offered 2 cupcakes, and I caved on the second offer. I ate it. It’s over. ‘Nuff said.
Day 319: Doomsday (er, I mean weigh day)
Total weight loss: 39 1/2 pounds. Sigh.
Yes, I gained 2 pounds. How depressing. I’m over it by now, but it took quite a pep talk – from myself. Rick chimed in a bit. It could have been worse. I’m doing okay. 39 1/2 pounds is a significant amount. Yada yada. I just hate going backwards. I want to see that 50 pound loss and soon!
So, I went on. I ate well and stayed under carb limit. We had breakfast at home. I didn’t feel like cooking and Rick was already enjoying his newspaper over cereal, so I didn’t ask him to cook for me. Instead, I ate a bowl of leftover taco soup. That finished the pot I made last week, so I’ll be sure to make some more to carry me through the upcoming week.
Lunch was cheese in a low carb tortilla topped with jalapenos.
We worked on the garage a bit. The house we renovated may be sold, but its former contents are still stowed in boxes all over our garage and basement. After that, I did something rare: I went grocery shopping with Rick. I know, I am spoiled. Most people have to go into a grocery store more than one time every few months. However, if the man LIKES it, and I don’t, who am I to insist on accompanying him on such a mundane task. He buys all the food I need for the diet, and has become a real expert on finding the lowest carb foods and ingredients. I just decided to take a quick walk-thru and see if I found any new inspiring foods.
I was craving coney dogs, but didn’t want to eat out again. I headed over to the canned bean aisle and found some canned chili toppings for hot dogs that were only 1 net carb per serving. I’m looking forward to trying them out this week. Other than that, I grabbed some low carb yogurt and some avocados, and we headed home.
Dinner was 2 beddar cheddars.
Day 318: Mongolian Barbecue inspires
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
After the usual breakfast at the diner, I headed off to work. I only needed to work until 1:30 because I worked late a couple of days this week. Rick called and offered to take me to Bonefish Grill for lunch to make up for a “bad vacation weekend” as he called it. It’s true, Thanksgiving Day/birthday was great fun, but driving up north and back in two days, followed by an upper respiratory ailment did make for a short and awful vacation.
But I digress. We stopped by the Apple store to pick up a new battery for my Macbook, then headed to Bonefish Grill. We were both very hungry since breakfast was at 7:30 am. I am not a fish lover, but I do really really like their shrimp tacos. Unfortunately, the sign on the door said they opened at 4!
What to do? Well, if you read the title of the blog, you know the answer. Brandon has been telling me that Mongolian Barbecue is a great place to eat on keto, since they now labeled all their sauces with nutritional content plus offer lettuce for wraps in place of tortillas. We decided to check it out.
I loaded up my bowl with chicken, shrimp, onion slices, and mushrooms. Brandon recommended the Asian black bean sauce. I know beans have carbs, but the label says 1 gram of carbs per ounce. Sounded good to me! I added a bit of garlic and waited for the griller to do his work.
It was very very very good. It was one of my favorite keto dinners to date! Rick liked his alot too. I went for seconds, and didn’t change a thing. It was spicy, nutritious, and delicious. We didn’t take the waiter up on the offer to take a full dish home in a carryout container for only $2.49. I was full and it didn’t appeal to me, but the next day, I rued that decision. It would have made a cheap and delicious leftover meal on Saturday at home. Oh well. Next time.
I do have to say, the only spoiler was trying to roll up a lettuce wrap around a portion of my meal. It was just too soggy to handle. I ate the meal with a fork and ignored the lettuce altogether. I also ignored the bowl of rice. I know it is deceivingly delicious looking. In reality, I didn’t need it as filler to detract from my flavorful dish.
All in all, I would say this is in my top five low carb keto meal choices when eating out. In fact, if I could find that Asian black bean sauce, I would cook this at home in our wok at least once a week. So far, I have scoured Amazon.com and other sites, but many of them have similar looking sauces without any nutritional info. I’ll keep searching.
Day 317: Family trivia night and some boring food
Total weight loss: 41 1/2
Wow. My fingers slipped on the keyboard, and I accidentally posted 51 instead of 41. I can’t wait to see that number. I have been stuck at this weight for months. Of course, that’s bad AND good. I still have more than 40 pounds off. That’s a bit of success for me.
Yesterday started at the diner, AGAIN. We really will stop doing this, but after some long busy and broke months, we are relishing the free time and the extra cash. Pampering ourselves feels good. And my breakfast is always very low carb.
Sooo, enough rationalizing…we ate at the diner, and I had the omelet and bacon. For lunch, I heated up two better cheddars in the late afternoon. My niece picked me up from work at 6:30 and we headed straight to the bar/grill for trivia at 7. I was really hungry. I hadn’t eaten much and drank a bit of water to hold me over.
I ordered a grilled chicken salad. I had looked at the menu online before going to this new venue. It always pays to be prepared. The salad was extremely boring. Not enough GOOD lettuce (I really having iceberg lettuce in a salad) and there wasn’t much cheese or anything else besides grilled chicken. I made it through the day on keto, but didn’t have very inspiring meals. Let’s hope it gets better tomorrow.
Day 315: Back to work after the long holiday weekend
Total weight loss: 41 pounds? (I haven’t weighed in weeks – Saturday is D-Day)
I still felt a bit under the weather, but it was time to get back to work. I only have a week of vacation left, and I don’t want to waste it lolling about the house in the winter. I foresee a beach in my future.
Since I had to make the sacrifice of getting out of bed and all, we treated ourselves to breakfast at the diner. I had the onion and cheese omelet. I keep reading that eating the same foods as a habit for each meal is good for you. I hope so, because I do that alot.
Lunch at work was a tortilla with some shredded cheese and a dab of cream cheese. Low-carb tortillas are a pretty good way to stay on keto yet still feel like I’m having my traditional Mexican food. Quick, easy, comfort food, all rolled up in one gooey cheesy tortilla. YUM.
I had some almonds for a late afternoon snack.
Dinner was the chicken with artichoke that I bought from Costco. (I love Costco!) It takes 6 minutes and tastes great with some quick caulitatoes. I know processed food isn’t good for you, but I worked all day, I was tired, and it took less than 10 minutes to have a nice warm meal. So sue me.
Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate (topped with 2 squirts of Reddiwhip! – 1 gram of carbs per 2 tbsp).
Day 314: Cozy day at home
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
After the long birthday/Thanksgiving/trip out of town and back in 3-days, I was feeling pretty poorly. I actually developed a cold and upper respiratory ailment during the weekend, and just did not feel like rushing back to work. I ended up using a vacation day on Monday and staying home. I didn’t eat much more than a couple of low carb tortillas with cheese, and really don’t have anything to post. I’ll get back into the swing of things tomorrow.
Day 288: Oops, cheat lunch at Chinese restaurant / excellent keto-friendly lasagna
Total weight loss: 41 pounds
We finally decided not to go out to breakfast. Just too costly. Rick made my “breakfast bowl”: 2 eggs, 2 sausage patties, cheese, and Taco Bell hot sauce. He puts it in a bowl, and I reheat, chop up, and eat at my desk. MMMMMMMM. Thanks, honey.
I was going to eat 2 Beddar Cheddars for lunch, but I got a surprise lunch invite from my niece, Marsha. The AUCE Chinese restaurant that we both love is very near my workplace, so I agreed to lunch with her.
I debated if I could do a low carb lunch, or if it was too difficult with the few options that I should just do a cheat meal. I sort of did a blend of both options.
I went to the Mongolian section and made a bowl with chicken, onion, garlic, and a little crab. I asked the cook to use garlic oil – he offered spicy; I said sure. It turned out to be delicious. Unfortunately, the Mongolian counter was at the back of the store, past the crab rangoons and the tempura sushi. Sigh.
So, I sort of did a half and half cheat meal. I had a main course that was low carb, and side dishes that were coated with breading. I do think I’ll get some garlic oil and try to make my own “Mongolian” stir fry at home. It’d be pretty easy, and keto-friendly. Always looking for some fresh ideas for keto recipes.
While I was off galavanting with my niece, Rick was home slaving away over the stove – for me! He made marinara sauce with the low carb tomato sauce and diced tomatoes he found yesterday at Kroger. He also cooked a pound of ground up Italian sausage. He was preparing the ingredients for a new keto-friendly, low-carb lasagna recipe I wanted to try. I thought I’d make it pretty close to my Dad’s traditional recipe, only using spaghetti squash as the lasagna “noodles.”
I saw this idea on several low carb sites, but most of the recipes, although low carb, were too high in carbs for keto. Rick did some investigating while shopping and found that a 14 oz can of Del Monte diced tomatoes with zesty mild green chilis was 7g per can, and Kroger tomato sauce was ZERO net carbs per can. He used 2 cans of each in his recipe, with 2 tbsp of olive oil (og), and various ingredients like garlic, 1/2 cup onion (10g), and 1/2 cup of red wine (4g). The whole recipe is posted here.
After work, I cook a whole large spaghetti squash, gathered the rest of the cheeses and ingredients and assembled a lasagna. Approximately one hour later, we sat down to a delicious bubbly authentic-tasting lasagna meal. At approximately 7.4 grams of carbs per serving, it surpassed my wildest dreams. I am no cook, but Rick’s marinara sauce is really flavorful and added to cheese and pepperoni, this tasted almost like my dad’s traditional recipe!
Here’s a picture of the whole pan…
So, dinner was a hit, and I have lots of servings to warm up during the week. This will definitely be a staple of my keto diet, and I’ll be making it a couple of times a month. I have to recalculate and be sure I didn’t mistake any of the carb counts. For instance, the mozzarella cheese said less than one gram of carbs per serving. Well, if you have many servings, when does that become 1 or even 2?
We each had an Adkins coconut bar for dessert. It was kind of an up and down day in terms of the keto plan, but creating such a keto-friendly pan of lasagna was a real high point of the day.
Day 286: Sunday at home – tacos
Total weight loss: 41 pounds
We stayed home today. There’s still a bit to do moving out of the sold rental house, but it was a chilly Sunday and we enjoyed taking care of business at home.
Rick and I made separate breakfasts, but ate them together. I grilled some diced onions, added 3 eggs and grated cheese. I microwaved 3 pieces of bacon to go with. The result actually tasted better than a diner breakfast and wasn’t very much trouble to make.
I wasn’t hungry for lunch, and I was busy on the phone chatting with a friend for awhile, then with my son and new daughter-in-law. By the time I was through, it was about 5 pm. I ate some almonds while I worked on some files.
For dinner, we decided to make do with what was left in the fridge. I had a pound of ground round and some low carb tortillas, so I cooked up some tacos, topped with cheese, lettuce and sour cream. They were pretty tasty. It was a big tortilla, so I only ate one.
I had an Adkins chocolate/coconut bar for dessert.