Category Archives: Indian food
Day 3: Successfully dodging the temptations at work
Yesterday was hump day. I started the day with breakfast at home: scrambled eggs with cheese and a side of bacon.
I decided to start acknowledging the successes in each day:
- There was a workshop going on at work. I circumnavigated the donut and juice table and went to my cubicle.
- On the way to the printer, I passed the Doritos, grabbed my paper and returned to my cubicle.
- After a skype meeting with the boss, I ignored the candybar bowl and grabbed a handful of almonds from the can in my drawer.
WHEW. I made it! I may “fail” quite a bit at staying on plan, but I also succeed several times a day/week/month.
I heated up my Indian butter chicken over cauliflower for lunch.
Once home, around 7pm, I relaxed with my man and a Michelob Ultra 2.5 carb beer. For a snack, I had barbecued pork rinds. I can’t believe it myself. The thought of pork rinds used to make me gag. They weren’t so bad, especially since they are zero carb. I can see this is one of those items I need to buy in bulk from Amazon. In fact, I’m a little disappointed that Amazon no longer offers 3 packs of chili lime almonds. I can only order one pack as an add-on to any $25 order. Bring back the cheap 3-packs, Amazon! I need my daily almonds.
For dinner, I heated a Costco pot roast and made 2 or 3 days’ worth of cauliflower mashed potatoes. It’s good to be prepared!
Rick and I have started watching old episodes of the Twilight Zone on Hulu. We each had an Adkins coconut bar.
Day 192: Pizza lunch and some new lo-carb Indian food
Total weight loss: 31 1/2 pounds
Yesterday the entire work force got together for an emergency “fire” meeting at my boss’s house. On the way, I downed a quick low-carb yogurt and drank lots of water (I always seem to forget the importance of that).
At lunch, we were served some delicious pizza and salad. Oh yes, I forgot I DID have 2 mini donettes for a snack. It was not a good choice, but it was way way better than eating all the other bad choices that were being offered.
Back to the pizza. It was a chicken, pepper, very low sauce type, not sure what it was, but it was very good and the toppings were thick. I didn’t feel deprived not eating the crust.
I also had a small salad with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. It was 7 grams of carbs per tbsp, so I ate very little.
After the meeting, Rick picked me up and was feeling poorly. He had a really high temperature. We headed home, where I had an almond snack and worked a bit. It sure is nice not rushing over to work on the rental house.
For dinner, I had 2 beddar cheddars and some of the leftovers from Rick’s meal. He made basmati rice (which I skipped), and tried a new kind of Indian food that was very low carb. It was Passage to India brand, Korma simmer sauce, and it was very good, even all by itself in my little bowl.
Dessert was the usual fake peanut butter cup.
Day 172: Small weight loss is better than a gain
Today’s weight loss: 1/2 pound
Total weight loss: 31 1/2 pounds
Not thrilled, but still happy to be maintaining and losing size. I decided to have a cheat meal today and, hopefully, kick the weight loss up a notch.
Yesterday was Friday. I had a yogurt for breakfast and almonds for snack.
Rick came by and took me to the My Place Diner. I once again ordered a flaming cheese and a single coney dog without bun. It was a nice afternoon break. I usually worked through lunch at my desk, but I’ve decided to get out more often, because I come back refreshed and ready to get back to work, especially now that I eat low-carb lunches. Back in the day, I would eat something heavy and carb-laden and want an afternoon nap afterwards. Keto has changed all that.
We decided to skip working on the house. It was a beautiful, hot hot day, and I wanted to get to the pool. I quickly threw together some Indian butter chicken and popped it into the microwave. There is nothing easier! Water, butter, a packet and some quickly thawed chicken tenders chopped into bite-size pieces. Nuke for 22 minutes on half power, and voila!
While the chicken was cooking, I shredded half a head of cauliflower in the food processor. When the chicken was done, I put the cauliflower in for 5 minutes. Then I popped out to the pool.
A few hours later, I was soggy and happy. I joined Rick on the deck and drank two bottles of Michelob Ultra – 2.6 carbs each, then warmed up my Indian meal.
It was a perfect keto meal and great end to the day. Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate with natural peanut butter.
Day 96: Inches coming off
Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st
Day 80: Anyone else like cream cheese?
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: tomorrow!
I started work at 8 a.m. Another crazy day at work, another missed breakfast.
At noon, Rick took me to get coney dogs at the local diner. I asked for them without buns, and all was well.
Around 4, I ate the usual handful of almonds.
At 7:30 p.m., I left work tired and hungry. Thankfully, I had a serving of Indian butter chicken and cauliflower rice left over.
Around 9 p.m, I wanted a little snack. I still had about 8 carbs left. I ate 3 oz of cream cheese. Odd, I know, but delicious.
As a side note, I found this about the benefits of eating cream cheese. Okay, it was a site for pregnant women, but the bennies still hold true for the rest of us.
Benefits of cream cheeses:
Cream cheeses, unlike other unsafe cheeses are made from pasteurized milk which makes it safe to eat.- They are a good source of protein.
- Calcium and phosphorous content of cream cheeses can be trusted highly in preventing bone decalcification.
- The carbohydrate content of cream cheeses is in a minimum extent so would not add on weight to your body.
- They have considerable amount of vitamin A.
I was still well under carb count (and calorie count) for the day. I just hope I don’t UNDER do it and trigger starvation mode (if it even exists!).
Day 79: Surviving the celebration lunch at work
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Sat., March 31st
Yesterday was our celebration day at work. Our first shipment of the new engineering textbook we’ve been working on for more than a year was due. As it happens, the shipment didn’t come in on time; however, lunch went on as planned.
I ate a yogurt for breakfast, since lunch was at noon and I wanted to be hungry enough to enjoy it.
We went to Hayden’s, which is one of my favorite area restaurants. I hadn’t been there since my birthday last November, which was before keto.
The menu offered a few keto-friendly sandwich and entree choices. The appetizers were not anything that I could eat. The boss ordered some fried mozarella balls. I tried one and it didn’t have a lot of breading, so I ate 2 more. I’ll have fun trying to figure out the carb count on those.
I opted for the blue cheese, bacon, balsamic burger. It came open-faced and I moved the bun to my bread plate, but ate the burger using the bottom bun as a sort of bed. The bacon was nice and crisp and the burger was well cooked. It was a great low-carb choice.
Dessert. Hmm. Since it was a celebration, the boss told us to select whatever we wanted. There DEFINITELY wasn’t a good choice on the menu. Cheesecake, ice cream, waffles, carbs, carbs, carbs. I was a little tempted to call it a cheat day and order the deep fried Oreos, but nah. If I’m going to have a cheat day, it’s going to be on my own terms with at least 2 of my favorite forbidden meals.
My coworker Jim and I are also on the Monday night trivia team. We often share what we order. He piles his jalapenos on my plate, and I give him extras of things I don’t like. He very graciously gave me a small bite of his cheesecake. It was okay. No big temptation and crisis averted. Here’s a lovely picture of what I DIDN’T eat.
I wonder if I would eat a deep-fried Oreo on a cheat day? Maybe, maybe not.
I worked until 6:30, and I became a little hungry by 5. I ate a handful of almonds.
Back home after work, I did a few chores, then thawed and cooked some chicken tenders in Indian butter chicken sauce. I put it over the usual cauliflower “rice” and topped the dish with sour cream. YUMMMMMY. I followed it with a bowl of keto-friendly chocolate mousse.
Day 66: Chili dogs at the diner
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Sat, Mar 17th
Now that our textbook is off to the printer, the pressure is off a bit. However, now it’s time to get our software finished. I was running late in the morning, plus we were out of breakfast sausage, so I grabbed a yogurt.
Around 11, I was getting hungry, but Rick was out delivering a client’s newsletter, and I wanted to wait for him to finish and meet me for lunch. We didn’t get to the diner until around 2 pm. I ordered 2 chili dogs. I never bother asking restaurants to remove the bun, since that always seems to get complicated (don’t know why). The buns did make nice little beds to hold my dogs and chili. I treated myself to a Diet Coke as well. I knew it would be a long day and I wasn’t getting off work until 7 pm.
Once I finally arrived home, I heated up some Indian butter chicken and the rest of the cauliflower from the fridge. Even after dinner and mousse, I still had carbs left again. I have to plan better.
One discovery I forgot to blog about was in the “healthy” isle at Kroger. In the refrigerated section where they keep the soy milk, I found hummus that had only ONE net gram of carbs per 2 tablespoons. …and it was on sale! I microwaved little piles of cheese to make some handy little crackers. The whole snack was only the amount of carbs in the hummus, because the cheese was zero.
Day 65: Love that Indian food
Weight loss: 15 pounds; next weigh-in: Sat, Mar 17th
I got to work at 8 and never had time for breakfast. To hold me over until my late lunch date, I had a handful of almonds.
It was a beautiful sunny day, so Rick and I decided to meet for lunch and Checkers and eat outside. It’s only a little ways from work, so I walked down to meet him and we had a nice time outdoors for a bit.
I ordered a Baconzilla with mayo and tossed away the bun. 
I worked until 6:30, then met my niece Marsha at the nursing home to visit my dad. The visit didn’t go too well, he was depressed and not too aware of what was going on. I didn’t get home until 8.
Rick had thawed some chicken tenders for me, so I cut them into pieces and made some Indian butter chicken from the convenient package mix. I chopped up a half head of leftover cauliflower and micro’d it a couple of minutes to use as the rice base. I didn’t eat dinner until 10 pm, so I ate very little. I followed it with some chocolate mousse.
I know it was way too late to eat, but I usually don’t get to bed until after 1 a.m., so it’s probably the equivalent of most people eating dinner at 6, then going to bed by 9 or 10 p.m.
I did my day’s calculations and was way under on the carbs again. I also drank very little water. Time to get back on track with both of those goals today.
Day 53: Weigh-in day did not disappoint
Today’s weight loss: 3 pounds
Total weight loss in 7 weeks: 17 pounds (woot!)
I had been assuming that today’s weigh-in would not go well. Not because I went off, or went over carb count, but because the past few weigh-ins have been so disappointing. I know my clothes are looser, and I have lots of energy, but the more I thought about only losing 14 pounds in 6+ weeks, the more this keto plan didn’t seem like the quick weight loss dream I thought it would be.
I know 2 pounds a week is a safe and practical amount to lose. But when one accomplishes a 14-pound weight loss on day 39, and that hasn’t changed by day 46, it becomes frustrating.
Wait. What did I just read? It was only one week later that I weighed in and had a zero weight loss? And, now, a week later, I’ve lost 3? That isn’t bad at all!
I’m guessing most of the frustration developed in that week between day 39 and day 46, when I was weighing myself daily. Now that I’ve settled on a weekly weigh-in, it should show a little more progress than tiny increments of weight loss per day (or no weight loss per day). I’m still doing well; I think I’m just used to seeing those big numbers the contestants accomplish on The Biggest Loser. Even in terms of a 2 pounds a week goal, I should only have lost 14 by today, so I’m 3 pounds ahead. I think I’d better focus on continuing with the plan and not focus so much on the scale.
C’mon 20! [Okay, not focusing on the numbers is going to be difficult.]
Yesterday, I had some errands to run and things to accomplish before starting work at 10. We didn’t have time for Rick to cook, so I bought 2 McDonald’s sausage, egg, and cheese, breakfast sandwiches (on sale for $3 for two). Of course, I removed the delicious smelling biscuits. I’m glad I ordered two, because after the biscuit removal, and with no hash brown patties, one would not have satisfied me.
At 2pm, I discovered that I did not have a yogurt in the fridge. Oops. I ate 2 ounces of almonds and a beef stick. Yum.
After work, I was pretty hungry, but we needed to get groceries. Usually Rick goes without me, but I was interested in looking over the health food aisle to see if there was something I was missing out on. I bought some soy hummus (1 carb per serving) and some almond “peanut” butter – $9.99!!! This had better be good.
Rick has some kind of whole grain bread that he buys, and he said it was only 5 carbs per slice if I ever wanted a tuna fish sandwich or something. I’m not willing to sacrifice 10 of my 20 grams of carbs for a sandwich, but I did decide to toast one piece and top it with the almond butter to stop the hunger pangs while I started making dinner. The almond butter had about 1 1/2 inches of oil on top and I could not get it to mix in with the thick and dry substance below it. Maybe at 10 bucks a bottle, no one is buying it and it sits on the shelf awhile. Rick manage to dump the whole thing in a bowl and use his formidable muscles to stir it into a nice gloppy, spreadable butter. It was pretty good.
I thawed some chicken breasts for Indian butter chicken, and mistakenly started getting the spaghetti squash ready. Then I realized that I use chopped cauliflower as a rice substance. I finished cooking and forking out the squash anyway, so now I’m ready for another dish that uses that.
I had leftover cauliflower rice (“crice”) from the Mexican rice recipe, so I heated that, topped with microwaved butter chicken and enjoyed a delish meal. Dessert was the usual chocolate mousse. It never gets old. LOL
Oh yes, I almost forgot. My low carb food order from netrition.com came in. That was very quick. Almost tops Amazon. I now have some experimenting to do: low carb “Carbquik” for pancakes and other pastries, those odd shiritaki pasta, Mama Lupe low carb 7-inch tortillas, barbecue sauce, and Margarita mix (I couldn’t resist that last one). Let the experimentation begin!
Day 38: Indian food on the keto plan
Total weight loss to date: 12 pounds
Next weigh-in Saturday, Feb. 18th
Yesterday didn’t start well for my nutritional intake.
We were out of sausage, so I opted to take leftover Cincinnati chili w/ squash for breakfast and grabbed a pack of hotdogs for lunch. I decided I could put some of the chili over the hot dogs to spice them up a bit, since bunless franks are a bit droll.
When I got to work, I discovered that the microwave was broken. Ok. I can adapt. I thought I’d make the hotdogs on the toaster oven for breakfast instead. Only there never was a good time. We had meetings, I had deadlines, and I never got back to the kitchen for breakfast.
At 2 p.m., I went back to make those hotdogs and found a new microwave, not yet installed, but set up for use. I ate the Cincinnati chili.
Rick called about 4 pm with a dinner idea he discovered while down in the pantry. Last year, he built himself a fabulous larder in the back corner of the basement. It’s pretty barebones, but it does have overhead lighting and lots of built in shelves where he stores cases of food or paper supplies he buys at Costco or onsale at Kroger. I also buy alot of our staples on Amazon through “subscribe and save,” so we had need of a place to store these items.
He was getting something from the larder and noticed my packets of Kitchens of India butter chicken seasoning paste. I love this product! It’s about as close to the traditional Indian restaurant dish as I’ve ever had. Lo and behold, one serving [the packet makes 4] is only 5 grams of carbs! Needless to say, I was a happy gal.
When I arrived home that evening, I had a glass of cabernet while waiting for a pound of chicken tenders to finish thawing. I usually make the meal on the stovetop, but discovered it can be made easily in the microwave – my kind of cooking!
I cut the chicken into bite-size portions. I threw those, the packet contents, 3 tbsps of butter, and a cup of water into a covered glass dish and set the micro to 22 minutes. WRONG! I sadly discovered it was supposed to be set at 22 minutes on MEDIUM. Oops. It was pretty dried up, and less appealing that usual, but DELICIOUS.
While the chicken was cooking, I set out online to discover what to use in place of rice. Cauliflower, of course. Processed it with the grater blade on my food processor, put in a covered glass dish, and put it in for 5 minutes after the chicken was finished.
I topped the “rice” with my somewhat dried out chicken, and added some sour cream. What a tasty treat it was!
I took a picture for the blog, and discovered even better news! There are 2 grams of fiber in a serving. My net intake for 2 servings was only 6 grams of carbs [not including the cauliflower]. WOW
You can bet this will become a weekly staple of my eating plan. Next time, I’ll be careful to cook it correctly, so I end up with some of that savory sauce instead of the dried up [but did I say DELICIOUS?] meal.
I’m sure glad Rick took the time to investigate. He knows how much I like this dish, and his thoughtfulness made me a happy gal.