Category Archives: keto taco soup

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 313: Back on track

I took a little break from blogging. Did you really want details of birthday celebrations, Thanksgiving feasts, car trips that involved fast food WITH buns? (5 hours up north on Friday; 5 hours back on Saturday – I just gave up fighting the carbs)

HOWEVER, I am back on track. Again, this prolonged no-carb trek has at least provided me with consistency and habits that I (hopefully) won’t lose. I go off, have a cheat meal, climb back on. I will have my day of reckoning soon (weigh day), but have made the decision not to weigh until I feel like myself again. Eating carbs sure has a bloating effect. My pants still fit, but not quite as loosely as before. At least I stayed in this lower size.

Sooo, after all the bad carb days of celebration and travel, I was finally back to a “normal” Sunday at home. I ate a home-made cheese and onion omelet with a few pieces of bacon for breakfast. Lunch was a few almonds and some low-carb tortilla with cheese.

For dinner, I decided to make a batch of low-carb taco soup again. It was really good the first time, and I love having things prepped and ready for the week ahead. I did forget an ingredient, but it was pretty good without the heavy cream.

Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate.

I’m baaaaaack!

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 305: Delicious keto-friendly taco soup

Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds

Yesterday was Friday and the last day of diner eating. Rick and I decided it’s a bit much to go to breakfast every day – it’s a bit too much on his waistline and our pocketbook. I plan to make a quiche Sunday. I’m hoping that will motivate me to eat at home before work next M-W (Thursday is Thanksgiving, so no work).

However, we did eat at the diner, and I had the usual breakfast of cheese and onion omelet. Lunch at work was my quick and easy cheesy tortilla recipe (not much of a recipe. lol)

After work, of course I did not feel like cooking, because I NEVER do. However, I’ve been wanting to try a taco soup recipe my son Brandon has been making. He let me taste it at work this week, and it was really yummy.

Rick did the shopping while I was at work, of course. He makes keto easy!
I must give credit where credit is due, the recipe is from LINDA’S LOW CARB MENUS & RECIPES. She has a lot of really good keto-friendly recipes on her site. I had forgotten about this site, and I’ll have to reinvestigate it soon.

http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/creamy_sw_taco_soup.html

I adapted the recipe a bit. I only used one can of rotel tomatoes. I assumed correctly that these made up the bulk of the admittedly small amount of carbs in the recipe, but I’m not that fond of tomatoes and I thought I’d save carbs where I can. One can equals 10 grams of carbs, so that’s a significant savings.

As I started laying out the ingredients, I sadly discovered that the cumin bottle was nearly empty. Sigh. Rick and I searched the cupboards for another jar, but there was none to be found. I did have a jar of taco seasoning mix, so I subbed that for the cumin and chili powder. It was still tasty, but not as good as the spoonful I tried of Brandon’s “original” recipe.

I think mine ended up about 2 3/4 grams of carbs per servings, which is very very good. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the soup, but it looked just like the one on Linda’s page. It only took about 15 minutes, so I’m sure I’ll be making this again.