Category Archives: keto appetizers
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 165: Wow! A huge weight loss!
Today’s weight loss: 5 1/2 POUNDS!
Total weight loss: 31 pounds
Wow. Getting back on track works like a charm! I stayed under on my carbs ALMOST every meal. I said “no” to a lot that I was tempted to eat, and I got a few laps in the pool. I knew my clothes were getting looser, so maybe some of last week’s weigh in debacle was water weight or something.
Yesterday was Friday and I didn’t realize I had no more yogurt left in the fridge at work. I substituted with some almonds and water. YUM
Lunch was a nice outing on a sunny day. We headed to a new coney place and I ordered two coney dogs with no bun. All totaled, the bill only came to $8 with Rick having a coney, fries, and soup. We’ll be back!
I wanted to swim before dinner, but I was pretty hungry. We decided to skip paying $40 to $50 at US12, where we often celebrate the end of the work week. I usually get 3-4 drinks, Rick gets 3-4 beers, and we have steak bites, plus whatever Rick orders. I really like sitting out in the sun and watching the traffic go by, and I especially like not being at home where I can see all the things I haven’t done. LOL. It’s a plus that someone waits on us, too. HOWEVER, we went to the grocery store and picked up some low carb snack items, and I knew I had some zero carb bread at home. Oh, and I also found some 2.6 carb beer. I’m not a huge beer drinker, but summer brings out a little craving for a beer once in a while.
Once home, I jumped into my bathing suit and quickly assembled a low carb appetizer platter. I cut several pieces of the disappointing, tasteless bread into small squares and topped them with sliced tomato, and mozarella cheese. I drizzled the plate with balsamic vinegar. Then I put the rest of the squares into a bowl with 2 side dipping dishes: avocado spinach dip and spinach hummus.
I grabbed a low carb beer and headed out to join Rick on the deck. It was very very nice (and MUCH cheaper!). The added bonus was jumping into the pool when we were done eating the appies.
The grandkids came by for a swim. After they left, I was tired and hungry. I heated up a cup of taco meat, topped it with cheese, sour cream, onions and jalapenos. YUM. Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate and peanut butter.
Day 111: Wait a minute? I can have French onion chip dip?
Total weight loss: 20 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, May 5th
Yesterday was Sunday, and I did my usual work at the computer when I woke up. I caught up on the week’s web business invoices and records. I’ve never been a breakfast person. I have to force myself to eat before 3-4 hours have passed, just because I know I must to wake up my metabolism. However, Sunday’s I go easy on myself.
Brunch was at Pizza Hut. We had tried it for it’s keto-friendliness a couple of weeks ago, and it worked out well. I ordered the personal pan pizza, salad, Diet Coke deal for $6.99. I love building a big salad at the bar, and I topped it with creamy Italian and bacon bits. The waitress helpfully suggested that she’d ask for thick toppings when I told I’d be skipping the crust.
For dinner, I reheated the Indian Butter chicken.
I was trying to think of uses for the new cheese snacks, when it hit me! I can eat chip dip. It’s basically sour cream. So, we picked some up and I ate tiny little cheesy crisps with dip while we watched some tube.
Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate topped with a tbsp of peanut butter.
Day 96: Inches coming off
Total weight loss: 26.5 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 21st
Day 88: A big fat ZERO
Today’s weight loss: ZERO
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 14th
AARRRGGGHHHH.
I’m tired of agonizing over what I could be doing wrong. My clothes are getting looser. That’s a plus. But, man oh man, I would sure love to see more progress when I get on the scale.
So, I’ll just keep keeping on. No alternative.
Yesterday was my numero uno vacation day. We started out eating at a new diner. I ordered the cheese omelet with onions and a side of bacon. It was great! The cheese/onion combination was very “pieorgi-like,” so I asked for a side of sour cream and it was even better. The bacon was also thin and crispy, just the way I like it. I finished my Friday NYT crossword, and declared it a wonderful beginning to my vacation week.
>We were off on lots of errands after that. When we got home, I wasn’t really hungry for lunch, so I had some almonds.
Rick napped, I relaxed and watched some “The Good Wife” episodes. It was nice just hanging out for a couple of hours.
Later in the evening, I joined Rick out on the deck. I wanted to have a vodka/diet drink, but hadn’t eaten much, so I made some ham, cream cheese, and onion pinwheels. You know, the kind mom made in the 60’s. You roll them up, then cut them and they look like little pinwheels…or eyeballs, if you ask me. Anyway, it was something I thought of the other night when trying to find a conveyance to get the cream cheese into my mouth without just eating it out of the package. Apparently, my family members think it’s an odd thing to do.
For dinner (at 9 pm!), I chopped up a bit of the chicken Rick had grilled. I put it in a large low carb flat bread and topped with cheese, onions, salsa, and sour cream. Those are my go-to toppings for just about everything.
Dessert was 2 pieced of 70% chocolate topped with organic peanut butter. I think I went over about 4 carbs.
Day 4: Yum, stuffed mushrooms and a crazy day
Today’s weight loss: 2 pounds
Total weight loss since 1/12/2012: 6 1/2 pounds
Yesterday, I got a very late start on breakfast.
My husband Rick and I have my 88-year old dad stay with us every Friday thru Sunday. He suffers from Alzheimer’s and can’t live alone. By the time I got him up, fed, showered, and settled in his room with some fresh clothes, I didn’t get breakfast until 1:30 p.m. There were some major difficulties during shower time…he was unable to get out of the tub and landed on the floor. He wasn’t hurt; he just sort of slowly slipped down to a sitting position. Nonetheless, my husband and I had quite a time trying to maneuver and lift him.
Once that trauma was over, Rick went off to get some groceries to aide in my new keto diet. He’s a very supportive husband and has tried each of the new recipes with me. He is also the grocery shopper and cook in the marriage, so with him on board, my chances of being successfully carb-free are great! As the “not-cook,” I am surprised to find I’m enjoying playing around with some of these wonderful recipes I’ve found online. Maybe this cooking thing isn’t so bad, after all.
So, at 1:30, I experimented with my nuked cheese crackers and enjoyed a relaxing brunch.
Because I ate breakfast so late, I never really had a true lunch. Dinner was stuffed mushroom appetizers, then 2 pulled pork tacos. (See a picture in my last post.)
Rick altered his classic mushroom recipe by using crumbled pork rinds instead of bread crumbs. He also left the sweet spicy hot sauce off (8 carbs a tbsp!), and I dipped mine in a small bowl to get a bit of the flavor without all the carbs.
My energy level is fantastic. I never feel like cleaning the kitchen after dinner, but I spent an hour and a half tidying up last night. It sparkles! I can’t seem to stop moving. So far, I’m a big fan of the keto eating plan!
Yesterday’s meals –
Breakfast: 6 “cheese-its” with avocado/spinach/parmesan dip
Lunch: 4 stuffed mushrooms with 2/3 tbsp of sweet/hot sauce
Dinner: 2 tacos made from Costco pulled pork, provolone cheese shells, grated cheese/onions/Taco Bell hot sauce
Snack: 2 pcs Lindt 79% chocolate and one glass of cabernet
Splurge: 1 diet coke