Category Archives: keto snacks
Day 3: Chicken and stuffed jalapeno pepper leftovers
I AM FEELING THE ENERGY!
I even had a coworker notice. She said I wasn’t as groggy in the morning as I usually am. I am reaping the keto bennies already! Why oh why do I ever go off this plan?
I had the usual breakfast at my desk at work: 2 scrambled eggs with cheese and 2 sausage patties
For lunch, I had a small salad and about 6 of the leftover stuffed peppers from last night. I made the rounds at the office, offering my coworkers some hors d’ouevres and the peppers were a hit!
For dinner, Rick cooked chicken and green peppers in a delicious spicy green Mexican sauce. I forgot to take a picture, but I have pictures of the jar. It’s low carb (3 g. per serving) He used the whole jar with 9 chicken tenders, cut into bite sized pieces. I ate about half the jar, or 9 grams of carbs.
It was just the right amount of heat and spice, and tasted really good.
Later, I was still a bit hungry, so I took some of the leftover cream cheese/spicy sausage mixture that I used to fill the peppers and stuffed it into a low carb tortilla. It was quick and delicious. Gotta love leftovers!
I’ve been trying to cut down on the diet pop consumption. Zero carb Sparkling Ice helps a lot. I especially love the black raspberry and lemon lime flavors.
Yummy new keto snack to add to my arsenal: salt & vinegar almonds
Rick and I went to the movies last night, and I knew enough to prepare by snacking on something before going in. Those concession stands are nothing but a big, expensive, and carb-filled enemy to the keto plan.
I love chili lime almonds and eat them daily as a snack at work. They have often saved me from pigging out on one of the fatty treats that my workplace always has on the snack table. I am a BIG lover of salt & vinegar potato chips, so when I discovered S&V almonds on Amazon a couple of months ago, I started looking for them on the local shelves. I always order in bulk from Amazon, and I didn’t want to take a chance by ordering a whole lot of something that I didn’t like very much. I needed a small taste test first.
Well, Rick found a 1.5 ounce pack at CVS, and they are as good as a handful of salt & vinegar chips. I loved them! I felt like I was indulging in some forbidden treat. Needless to say, I ordered a dozen cans from Amazon this morning. That amount should last me quite awhile, and I’ll always have a nice back-up treat when temptation calls.
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.
Good info about ketogenic diet with food list, menus, and advice
Found an inspiring blog with some solid keto diet advice. I especially agree with this:
One of the most effective tricks during a diet is routine. Eat the same meals over and over or plan your meals ahead for the whole week. I’ve found it effective to pre-make dishes on Sunday and have them ready for the week. That makes it incredibly easy to stick to the diet because I avoid thinking which means I avoid creativity and creativity requires decision making which leads to hard choices. Just avoid the hard choices and have it all planned and some of it ready to grab and go.
The Basic Keto Diet, a page on Mike Maunder’s blog, has about everything you need to understand the ketogenic diet principle, plus a list of foods and menu plans. It’s thorough and inspiring.
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 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 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 292: Busy Saturday – stayed on track
Today’s weight loss: 1 pound
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
Today, I did something a little different. I reweighed myself. I gained a 1/2 a pound at yesterday’s weigh in, and I wasn’t terribly upset about it. However, last night I was reading a motivational article for business owners that says one should chart small victories and I decided to reweigh this morning to see if yesterday’s gain was an anomaly. This morning I weighed one pound less than yesterday, for a net loss of 1/2 a pound since last week.
That’s more like it! Only 8.5 pounds to reach the 50 pound goal!
Saturday breakfast at the diner – cheese and onion omelet with 4 pieces of crispy bacon
We stayed inside and worked on websites all day. We have 3 currently in the works. I updated the product information for the ecart client, while Rick worked on the layout for a church and a hair salon. It was a relaxed day and we both really enjoy working on our business.
I paused for lunch around 3pm – leftover keto lasagna (yes, there is still some left! and it’s as good as ever)
Dinner – I wasn’t very hungry after my late afternoon lunch, so I just had a handful of chili lime almonds and 2 squares of 70% chocolate while watching a movie.
Day 289: KFC on Keto
Total weight loss: 41 pounds
Breakfast yesterday was Rick’s sausage, egg, and cheese in a bowl.
Lunch was leftover Keto lasagna.
Dinner was late. I was hungry. We took 31 bags of leaves to the curb and packed up a couple small boxes at the sold rental house. I wasn’t in the mood for a restaurant, so we stopped at KFC and I picked up a grilled chicken breast. I was thinking the cole slaw might be okay on keto. I asked for the nutritional information brochure. Nope. 20 grams of carbs and no fiber. The only side that was keto-friendly was the green beans. EEEWWW. I guess it’s obvious that I don’t care for green beans, soooo…..
Once home, I nuked a package of frozen cauliflower and made mashed “potatoes.” It was a quick and easy dinner and filled the void.
I ate NO Halloween candy, although I watched my granddaughter sort through her bag of goodies, and I watched my husband eat some of those goodies. Of course, polite Beccy offered me some of the candy, but I abstained and ate a few chili lime almonds.
Later, I ate an Adkins coconut chocolate bar, and hit the hay early. The orange frosted Hostess cupcakes that we picked up for our other two grandchildren were sitting on the kitchen island, and I avoided them by going to bed before I lost my battle. I know I don’t even like them that much. It was a totally emotional temptation.
Drank a glass of water, read a little, and drifted off with no cheat meal or snack behind me.
Success!!
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!