Category Archives: eating out
Day 4: Macaroni Grill on keto and movie night success
Thursday is date night. We keep our dates economical, and we discovered that Thursday night is a great night to go to Macaroni Grill.
First of all, they have good happy hour deals between 4 and 7 pm nightly. Wine is $3 a glass, and appetizers are 2 for $9. On Thursdays, they also have a deal where you can buy a bottle of wine half off.
Here’s how to handle this while working the keto plan:
- Order bottle of Chianti ($30, half price = $15)
- Order two appetizers that are (hopefully) keto-friendly – peppadew peppers with goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette
- Order husband a $5 sausage pizza
- Ignore bread and oil
- Drink one glass of wine and follow up with multiple glasses of water
Note that BOTH plates of peppers became mine. It was like a $9 gourmet meal.
The total bill is about $30. This is not exactly the cheapest meal one could hope for, but it’s very good for Macaroni Grill, plus half a bottle of wine goes home with us for another night. In our hey dey, we had lots of money to throw around and we would rack up a $100 check at M.Grill, so this seems like a good deal.
As for the movie night success part, see my blog about salt and vinegar almonds here.
Here’s a peppadew pepper recipe. It’s basically the peppers stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. YUM.
Day 328: An effort to stay on track
Total weight loss: 38 pounds
After a day of weight gain, and looking ahead to a couple of holiday celebrations at the end of the week makes me realize I need to take advantage of the next few days and eat under carb count as diligently as possible.
Monday morning, and we decided to make that diner breakfast day. I had the cheese omelet and bacon.
Lunch was leftover keto-friendly Cincinnati chili warmed up at work.
I ordered the delicious grilled chicken club sandwich with blue cheese at trivia. I have to say again, Albert’s on the Alley makes good quality and delicious food. I ate 2 steak fries.
Day 324: Success at the movies again
Total weight loss: 39 1/2 pounds
Breakfast – diner – omelet and bacon
Lunch was disappointing. I had purchased some shredded pork at Kroger when I went searching for new meal ideas the other day. The package claimed the pork was spicy and good for making carnitas. I heated it at work and made it into a taco with a low carb tortilla. It was bland and boring. I didn’t taste even MILD spices. Bleck.
After work, we went to see Skyfall, the new James Bond movie. On the way, we stopped in a McDonald’s for a quick 20-min dinner/snack. I ordered the angus wrap and ate it without the wrap.
I had a Diet Coke during the movie. Success! (The nachos sure did look delicious, but, oh well.) I discovered a really good treat, though: a small cup of jalapenos. They were salty and good and reminded me of eating a small bag of potato chips. Who needs the nachos to go with them? They were quite delicious by themselves.
When we got home, I had 2 squares of 70% chocolate with peanut butter.
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 306: 8 hours at a restaurant and stayed on track
Total weight loss: 41 pounds (yes, I gained a 1/2 pound back!)
It’s difficult to believe but I spent more than 7 hours at a restaurant yesterday. It was the day of my league’s trivial finals, which took place at a restaurant/bar called Sneaky’s and lasted a full day.
I skipped breakfast, because I was running around in the morning, trying to get the house cleaned. I like to start off the weekend with a clean house, since there isn’t much time to clean during the week.
My friend/trivia partner Jo and I both ordered grilled chicken salads when we arrived at the league bar at 11. My salad was HUGE and kept me full until about 5 pm. At that point, we were in the midst of WINNING the league finals, so I didn’t want to distract myself by ordering more food. Unfortunately, we came in second, but the four of us won the 2nd place award of $700! I’m having a red-letter week!
I was hungry after the game, but I wanted to relax and chill on the deck (literally, since this is Michigan in November). I had a vodka and diet drink (Sparkling ICE Black Raspberry – which is quite tasty mixed with vodka). When we went in the house around 9ish, I heated up 2 bowls of taco soup. That was convenient! I’ll definitely be making some every weekend to have on hand as a quick and filling low carb meal.
I’ve learned that keeping delicious quick meals and leftovers on hand is really important for a lazy, non-cooking Ketokate!
Day 296: Yummy pot roast from Costco
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
You may notice that I skipped Tuesday’s blog post (day 295). It was election day, and I knew I was going to attend a party at my friend Jo’s and would probably succumb to the temptation of her moist and chew brownies. I declared a cheat day in advance, and ate a Mexican pizza from Taco Bell for dinner, plus the aforementioned brownies and some chips and dip.
I had actually planned to have a cheat meal yesterday, since we were supposed to close on the home sale and celebrate at Macaroni Grill. Unfortunately, the closing was postponed until next week. This is the most difficult home sale we’ve ever had – and we’ve been through a few in the past 15 years. Since the cheat meal on Weds. was cancelled, I just moved it to the election party on Tuesday.
Yesterday morning began with a cheese and onion omelet at the diner. I added a side of crispy bacon and it was a very good meal.
Lunch was at my desk. I ate 2 Beddar Cheddars.
I had chili lime almonds for a late afternoon snack.
I worked late and didn’t get home from work until 7 pm. I popped a Costco pot roast from Costco into the microwave. I’ve had it before and I thought it was pretty tasty. It only takes 10 minutes to cook. I ran off to do some cleaning and sorting in the basement. When the 10 minutes were up, I tossed a bag of frozen cauliflower in the micro for 6 minutes and went outside for a quick vodka and diet drink on the deck.
It was a REALLY quick drink, because it was 40 degrees outside. Rick may enjoy the great white north, but not I. I cut my drink short and went back inside to whip up the cauliflower into mashed potatoes.
We had a quick and hearty meal in fewer than 25 minutes.
For dessert, Rick wanted me to whip up the keto-friendly chocolate mousse from heavy cream that I used to make. I did, and we had a lovely dessert.
Day 291: Italian restaurant – chicken piccata
This week’s weight “loss”: +.5 pounds
Total weight loss: 40.5 pounds
Today was weigh-in day. I gained .5 pounds since last week. I’m not thrilled, but I’m used to the ups and downs. In order to keep my spirits up, after weighing I put on the smallest jeans I own…and they fit. That made me feel a little better.
Yesterday was Friday. Again, I had no time for breakfast. My son, Brandon, and his new bride, Lindsey, found a house they may bid on, so I called Rick and asked him to take me by on lunch. We wouldn’t be going until 1 pm, so I ate some almonds and 1/2 slice of lasagna around 11 am.
After checking out the house – which we both like very much – we went to the Senate Coney Island. I ordered 2 coney dogs and didn’t eat the buns. Rick didn’t order fries, so no temptations there.
Since I had a few long lunches this week, I needed to work until 6:30 to achieve 40 hours. When Rick picked me up after work, I was really tired and wanted to splurge and indulge in something to fill the emotional void. We debated the restaurant choices, and ended up at Angelo Brothers Italian restaurant. I had been there years ago for a Christmas party with my former coworkers at the school system. Rick had never been. I was really hoping I would find something satisfying AND low carb. I was thinking chicken marsala or some such item.
I actually did find a possibility: chicken piccata. I’d never had it before. When I visit an Italian restaurant (pre-keto), I usually go for something with lots of cheesy pasta. The ingredients listed for the chicken piccata: thin-sliced chicken breasts, garlic, butter, white wine, and mushrooms. Sounded good, so I tried it. I skipped the carb-laden sides and asked for extra mushrooms. The side salad was just a lot of iceberg lettuce, but it helped assuage the hunger while I waited for my meal. So did the glass of red wine.
I ignored the bread basket and dug into the chicken. It was so so so delicious. I checked the carb count afterward, and it ran from 5 to 20 grams per serving, so I’m not sure how well I did. I’m sure there was flour or cornstarch involved; however, I do know that I will be trying a low carb version at home, and I’ll just leave out those items. Rick took about 5 tastes of mine dinner. He loved it….even better than his pizza. The two of us will experiment with the new recipe soon. In the mean time, I’m proud of myself for picking something as low carb as possible, and not pigging out on pasta, pizza, and bread.
Once home, I had an Adkins bar for dessert.
I think I’ll go without the Adkins treats this week and see if that did impact my 1/2 pound weight gain. It’s not a real scientific experiment, but it may give me some indication if I lose a bit more next week after not eating them.
Day 290: Successes and failures…and lessons learned
Total weight loss: 41 pounds
Breakfast – skipped
I took my breakfast bowl to work, but our morning meeting went so long that I wasn’t hungry for breakfast by the time we got out. My friend Wally called unexpectedly and invited me to lunch. I decided to wait to eat until then.
Lunch – Big Boy buffalo grilled chicken salad with bleu cheese dressing. It was delicious, as usual – and Wally treated. Thanks, friend. Good food, good conversation.
Snack – Rick and I decided to go to a 5:00 movie: Cloud Atlas. I knew I wouldn’t make it until after it was over to eat dinner, and I didn’t want to show up at the theater hungry and get tempted to buy something bad at the snack bar. (I am learning to plan ahead.) I was already getting hungry, since the salad for lunch was all I had eaten for the day. Around 4, I heated a leftover portion of lasagna and ate that as a preventative measure. It was really tasty. Most “pasta” dishes seem to taste better when reheated since all the flavors have time to blend.
Movie – 2 sips of Rick’s diet Coke. Very determined NOT to buy concession food
After movie dinner – We didn’t eat out. When I got home, I heated another portion of lasagna. I have no problem repeating meals when I like them.
I congratulated myself on my restraint. I had a perfect keto day.
Then, an hour before bed, I decided to read and have a choco/peanut butter low carb snack.
I went in to the kitchen to get some 70% chocolate and noticed that Rick had eaten one package of the Hostess cupcakes we had purchased for the grandkids. How are we supposed to give only ONE grandchild a pack of cupcakes? Boy, they sure looked good. They were orange frosted. I could just taste the tangy citrus flavor of the frosting and the creamy center. So I did. I ate two Hostess cupcakes.
BLECK. I was SOOOO close to going to bed. Why didn’t I just close my eyes and ignore them? They were a total of 60 grams of carbs. I know I was well under 80 carbs for the day, which is probably fine on a low-carb diet, but for keto, I’m sure I knocked myself out of ketogenesis, and for no good reason. They were just okay tasting, nothing to get excited about.
Lessons learned:
- I am not perfect.
- I should probably fill up more on water.
- Don’t skip breakfast.
- I probably did not eat enough during the day, and allowed myself to be too tempted.
- NEVER have junk food in the house.
Day 287: Monday – back to the old grind and trivia night
Total weight loss: 41 pounds
Well, we did it again. We went to the diner for breakfast. It was another nice relaxing outing before starting the workweek, but we do have to stop. It’s a bit extravagant on our budget.
Breakfast – cheese/onion omelet and 4 pieces of bacon
Lunch – once again, breakfast kept me full well into the afternoon. I was sure to drink lots of water, and I had an almond snack around 2.
I left work by 3:30 in order to get more done on the move before trivia started at 6. We unloaded some of Brandon’s things from the truck, but after that, neither of us felt like going over to the house. Instead, I made a list of grocery items for Rick to pick up and I worked on my computer backups and server issues while he grocery shopped.
I’m trying to plan ahead and make some interesting keto recipes. I want to bring back the sense of excitement that I had when I first started the plan. I saw one idea for making a fake lasagna using spaghetti squash. The recipe called for marinara sauce and it was a little steep in the carb grams for keto. Rick checked out tomato sauces and diced tomatoes. He found diced that were net carb zero! and sauce that had 4g of net carbs (1/4 cup, I believe). The plan is for Rick to make a marinara sauce during the day, and I’ll make the squash and layer up some lasagna after work. Fingers crossed that this turns into something edible!
Back to the journal. For lunch, I brought leftover steak and cauliflower mashed. Ended up that I had about 4 bites of each left in the bowl, so I didn’t eat much. I drank another 2 glasses of water.
I didn’t eat again until trivia at Albert’s, where I ordered my traditional grilled chicken club salad with blue cheese. I haven’t been to trivia for a couple of weeks, and I sure missed this salad. My coworker and trivia team member, Jim, ordered a basket of steak fries. Sigh. I LOVE Albert’s steak fries. I decided to ignore the basket and eat my salad, then see if I was still tempted after eating. By the time I finished, his basket was empty. WHEW!
However, there was also a bucket of Halloween candy on the table. At the very end of the game, temptation overcame me and I ate 2 mini peanut butter cups. I’ll sadly check out the carb count now. . . . .
11 grams
Well, I may not have been knocked out of keto (if I’m even back in, after eating the churros on Sunday). I’ll have to use a keto strip later to find out where I stand.
That was it for the day. Oh wait. I lied. I ate an Adkins coconut bar while watching The Good Wife.
I do have to comment on something I’ve noticed this week: my pants are getting baggy! (and I only recently achieved going down to this size). And my rings are loose. How annoying, NOT! KETO IS GREAT!
Day 284: Two more pounds (yay!); working towards 50
This week’s weight loss: 2 pounds
Total weight loss: 41 pounds
Wow. I finally hit above the 40 pound mark. Nine more pounds to 50! Keto works.
Yesterday’s food journal:
I was happy it was Friday. We’ve been really busy this week, and I looked forward to the weekend. We went out to breakfast again. I know, it’s pretty extravagant to eat breakfast out each morning, but it’s also a nice, relaxing start to our day. I enjoy my NYT puzzle and Rick reads the paper. I get some “me time” before heading off to work. We also eat pretty cheaply.
Breakfast was the usual: cheese and grilled onion omelet with a side of bacon and topped with sour cream.
Lunch: I sort of skipped lunch. These breakfasts keep me full for a long time. I was working on a deadline project. It needed to be done by 2 pm, so the boss could take it with him on a trip. I had a snack around one o’clock – some chili lime almonds and some small pieces of cheese. By the time I left work at 6, I was famished.
That was something I forgot to blog about – I bought some individually wrapped cheddar cheese portions in a large bag at Costco. I put the whole bag in the fridge at work and always have a low carb snack on hand.
On the way home from work, I decided I’d like to have another of those buffalo grilled chicken salads like I had the day before. Here’s where I found out that I had eaten more carbs on Thursday than I originally thought. Rick wasn’t hungry, so I ordered the salad as a carryout from Big Boy. I ordered the “Buffalo grilled chicken salad” with blue cheese. The server asked, “do you want the grilled chicken or chicken tenders?” Hmm. I did say GRILLED, which is what I had ordered the day before for lunch. I did point out to Rick that the chicken looked like it had some kind of coating, but the menu said it was grilled, so oh well.
Turns out I must have been eating chicken with coating which would have had more carbs. Sigh. I think it would bother me more if I didn’t see the 2 pound weight loss.
Rick built a fire in the yard, and I joined him with a drink made of 3 shots of vodka and some raspberry Sparkling Ice. It was a nice end to a long work week. I also had 2 squares of 70% chocolate with peanut butter.