Category Archives: meal ideas
Day 18: The best tacos I’ve ever had
Lost: 0 Total weight loss: 11.5
Saturday mornings Rick and I like to go to the local diner. It’s our “celebrate the weekend” thing to do. The keto plan works well for breakfast anywhere; as long as there are eggs and sausage or bacon, it’s easy to start the day on plan.
After a breakfast of sausage and cheese omelet, we headed out to do some errands before it was time to pick up my friend at the airport. Jo and I were due at our trivia league finals, and before leaving home, I had an early afternoon meatloaf and cheese (1/2) low carb wrap.
At trivia, I ordered a Caesar salad with some water and lemon. (And our team performed terribly)
Dinner was the highlight meal of the day. I fried some ground beef with taco seasoning and made cheesy taco shells. While I was waiting for the meat to cook, I also threw together a pot of some Cincinnati chili with ground turkey, while I was cooking today’s dinner…I’m trying to get ahead on the meal plans so I have some quick choices when I’m hungry.
When the shells were ready, I put a couple of ounces of taco beef, shredded cheese, onions, and sour cream in each taco. Then I pitted and chopped up an avocado and topped each some of that. The result was the best tacos I’ve eaten in a long time. I’m not sure if it was the cheesy shells, the fact that I used beef instead of my normal ground turkey, or the avocado topping, but they were very very tasty.
I’m still amazed that I can each rich, delicious foods like this and continue to lose weight so quickly. I guess I was “allergic” to carbs? This is by far the easiest diet to adapt to that I’ve come across. At the most, I think I’ve lusted over the idea of some steak fries. Besides that, I’d like to find some type of low-carb bread, but I’m not missing that too much so far.
Day 17: Adapting cheesy meatloaf to lo-carb version
Lost: 1 pound Total weight loss: 11.5 pounds
Yesterday I worked from home – my day job for 8 hours, then my web business for another three. I had an early breakfast of omelet with cheese and sausage, the took a short break for bbq’d pork rinds and a couple of tbsps of artichoke dip for lunch.
Did have time for dinner until I was finished tweaking a web page around 8, but Rick had baked his famous cheesy meatloaf earlier. He adapted the recipe for my keto plan: subbed heavy cream for the milk, used crushed pork rinds instead of bread crumbs, and left off the bbq sauce topping. It was tasty, but not as yummy as his usual recipe. I’m not sure which switched ingredient made it taste more like traditional meatloaf, possibly the lack of bbq sauce. We’ll have to find or make a low carb version to try.
For some reason, I wasn’t too hungry for dinner, so I just had a large slice of the meatloaf with a glass of coconut milk.
I was really under on my daily carbs/fats, etc. I spent the next couple of hours relaxing and watching Downton Abbey while munching on chocolate mousse and dark chocolate squares dipped in natural peanut butter.
Day 16: More uses for pork rinds
Lost: 1 pound Total weight loss: 10.5 pounds
Finally, the numbers continue to drop. LOL. Of course, it’s only been two weeks, so I can’t complain about a 10-pound weight loss. Especially since this has been so easy to accomplish.
Yesterday, I ate the usual breakfast, but deviated from my lunch pattern and had leftover cauliflower and one slice of eggplant.
I had a pre-dinner snack of a cup of Greek yogurt with two tbsps of natural peanut butter stirred in (YUM) because I knew the chicken would take awhile to cook.
For dinner, I decided to try frying chicken strips with pork rind coating. My son, Brandon, had some good luck with it, although he used bacon grease as a frying medium. Since I don’t have any, I used olive oil.
I pulverized one whole bag of rinds in the food processor and used almost all of them. At around $1.80 per bag, that made the entire chicken dinner come to about $5 for both of us, which isn’t bad at all. I think I’ll do as Brandon suggested and process a couple of bags in advance and just keep them on hand in a container to use as breadcrumbs.
The chicken turned out very well. Rick loved it. I thought it was a little bland, so I added Frank’s redhot buffalo sauce and dipped the “wings” in blue cheese dressing. We had the inevitable cauliflower mashed potatoes left over from the night before as an accompaniment.
No dessert tonight. Somehow I went over a little on the carbs. Rick was out of Taco Bell hot sauce and used the verde packet instead. 2 carbs! Who knew? The hot packets are zero carbs each. I also am not sure whether I was actually on track or went over by 4. It depends on which nutritional info I use for the yogurt. I’ll have to investigate the actual package when I have time.
Day 15: Experimenting with pork rind crumbs
Weight loss: .5 pounds Total weight loss: 9.5 pounds
Well, the scale finally moved in the right direction. Not that this diet has been hard to “swallow.” LOL
Yesterday’s breakfast and lunch didn’t deviate from the usual pattern. When I find something that works, I stick with it.
After work, my brother took over hospital visiting duties, so I went straight home and continued building my new desk. This thing came with hundreds of pieces, and Rick and I have been assembling it bit by bit since the weekend. When I finished, it was about 7:30 and I was famished!
Due to Murphy’s Law, I was unable to quickly get online using my Macbook. I just wanted to find a quick and easy dinner idea. Rick discovered that our two heads of cauliflower had started to mold, so I decided to check out what other veggies needed cooking ASAP.
I cleaned the cauliflower, micro’d and made into garlic mashed potatoes. Then I grabbed one of the eggplant, sliced, and dregged through an egg wash. I dipped the slices in ground up pork rinds (a GREAT breading option!) and fried in olive oil. Once fried, I sprinkled a little shredded mozzarella on top of each slice.
Rick and I enjoyed the meal alot. The fried eggplant was quite tasty. I didn’t even taste the horrendous pork rind flavor.
I’m going to try doing this same method with some chicken strips.
Day 14: Spaghetti [squash] alfredo is the bomb
Lost: 0 pounds Total weight loss: 9 pounds
Well, the scale isn’t moving. However, I am not discouraged. This diet is the easiest I’ve ever encountered. Rick isn’t even on keto, and he’s scarfing down all the meals with relish!
Yesterday began with the usual eggs and sausage at work (prepared by Mr. Palmer’s Kitchen). Lunch was a high fiber wrap with bologna and cheese.
After a 2-hour hospital visit, we didn’t get home until 7 p.m. I was second-guessing my plan to make “spaghetti” alfredo. I assumed the whole process would be complicated.
It was easy-peezy. The spaghetti squash had microwaving directions printed on a stick-on label….”pre-micro” for one minute to soften a bit, cut in half, scoop out seeds and membranes, put one half in a microwave safe bowl with 1/2 cup water and micro for 12 minutes.
While that was cooking, I melted butter in a pan, added 1 cup cream, and reduced a bit. Then I added 1 1/2 cups of Dubliner cheese (we never have Parmesan in the house since we love the pungent Dubliner taste just as well) and some parsley. I could find the basil, so that was that.
I whisked that around a bit while 12 shrimp were frying in butter in a small pan on the next burner.
The squash finished cooking, and I scooped out the cooked flesh and fluffed with a fork. I added the shrimp to the alfredo sauce, cooked another minute and poured on top. Voila! 15 minutes tops!
And it was delicious! I called Rick in for a taste and he loved it. I microwaved the other half of the squash for him, and left him half the sauce, while I scarfed down my portion. Yummy!
The moral of the story: the numbers on the scale may be stuck, but I’m eating healthy delicious meals, so I’ll just continue with the keto plan and keep my fingers crossed.
Sidenote – my clothes are getting roomier!
Day 9: Surviving a 7-hour hospital ordeal and keeping keto
Weight loss: 1 pound Total weight loss: 10 pounds
Yesterday was quite a trial. I slept late because I’m still feeling mighty poorly. I had to get my dad to the doctor by 11:30, and that was a very long trek due to hazardous roads. By the time I showered and got out the door, I didn’t have time for breakfast, so I grabbed a tall water and kept on moving.
Wait, wait, wait, by 1 pm, I knew I was going to be trying to get my dad admitted thru the hospital ER (we were sent by his regular physician with suspected bronchitis). My stomach was begging for some nourishment, but no time.
After I got him settled in an ER bed, my savior, Rick, ran out and got me a bacon cheeseburger with no bun. It did the trick…for a while.
6 pm and I was finally back at my keto-friendly kitchen. I wanted something FAST. I threw some butter in a pan, added a chopped up yellow summer squash and a slice of onion, then, when it was almost cooked, I threw in 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. I added some rewarmed cauliflower to the plate and it looked pretty impressive for a 5-minute meal.
I grabbed some Greek yogurt with peanut butter and called it a night.
Here’s hoping today is a little more “ordinary” and I can have some structured meal time.
Day 7: One week and I’m not dead yet
Weight loss: 2 Total: 7
Whew! Rick felt better yesterday and went out to forage for produce. Well, okay, he went to Randazzo’s. I’m loaded up on veggies: cauliflower (one for pizza, one for “mashed potatoes”), romaine lettuce, spinach, avocado, squash, mushrooms, and spaghetti squash.
Rick also went to Kroger to pick up the other staples needed to work this keto plan: meats, 2 cartons of eggs, cheese, bacon, heavy cream, and…something I’m not too sure about… the Better Made BBQ pork rinds that my son insists taste like spicy BBQ chips, but have zero carbs. We’ll see. I already had a bag of regular pork rinds to use as a bread crumb substitute in recipes, but YECK, I wasn’t planning to eat them as a nosh.
I ordered virgin coconut oil from Amazon Monday. Should be delivered today. I understand a couple of teaspoons a day are essential for keeping “regular.” Enough about that.
I am blessed to have such a supportive husband. He’s always been a hard worker, and now that he’s retired, he is working on our website business, doing home improvement chores, helping with my father, and generally taking care of all the little details around the house. Best of all, he’s the chef at the Palmerosa, and he now has more time to prepare some great meals…and he also LIKES grocery shopping. Am I lucky, or what?
Back to the plan. I had the usual eggs, cheese, sausage breakfast with Taco Bell sauce. Reheating really improved the flavor (I’d been eating it about an hour after Rick made it, at room temp).
Still being without groceries in the A.M., meant Rick dropped by with a BK bacon cheeseburger and salad for late lunch.
My prospects improved at dinner with all the lovely ingredients waiting for me.
I decided to try oopsie rolls, which were a semi-failure because they were way too liquid to set up on the pan, so I made them in my mini-muffin pan and they turned out pretty well.
Rick reminded me that we had a couple of NY strip steaks left in the fridge, so I whipped up the creamy onion sauce again, Rick steamed 1/2 head of cauliflower which we turned into “potatoes,” and we enjoyed a lovely repast complemented by a glass of Flip Flop cabernet. What a life!
Of course, this gourmet meal was followed by chocolate mousse, and I made it through another day of hard-core keto dieting.
See my separate oopsie roll blog soon.
Bacon taco shell (a variation on the cheese shell)
I was waiting for Rick to finish his nap (he’s still a little under the weather) and was surfing for more keto recipe ideas. People are so imaginative! What will they think of next?
Bacon taco shells!
Credit goes to the Hungry Dudes on tumbler. Check out the site, but don’t scroll down too far, because the site isn’t entirely keto-friendly and has some bad food porn.
Day 6: Surviving my first trivia league night
Weight loss: +1!!
Total: 5.5
Yow! That was a rude awakening. I’m really not too upset, though, because I know I’m on track. AND I still feel fantastic. I even woke up on time this morning, and I am a notorious over-sleeper. I tend to hit the hay around one a.m. and the 6:30 alarm is pretty irritating. That snooze button is a delight. Today I only hit it twice. And, I made it to work two minutes before my starting time…a miracle for me!
However, I’m still not totally prepared for meals on the keto plan yet, so I keep winging it as best I can with what we have. I made it through yesterday on plan, but I was sadly lacking in greens. That should be remedied by this evening. (And I’m hoping Rick will pick me up a big salad for lunch.)
Yesterday morning it was Monday morning and back to work for me. Rick helped out by cooking up his famous breakfast sandwich without the whole grain muffin. Scrambled egg, 2 sausage patties (instead of the usual 1) and 2 small slices of dubliner cheese. He layered it in a small plastic bowl and dribbled on a packet of Taco Bell border sauce. I ate it with a knife and fork at my desk when I got to work.
Lunch was fly-by-night. I took the leftover pulled pork taco, and grabbed a can of tuna which I mixed with mayo. The funny thing was that I forgot the taco shell was made of hardened cheddar cheese. When I heated it up in the micro, it came out a pile of cheese with taco fixings inside. It still tasted just fine, despite it’s awful appearance.
Monday is trivia night, and our team usually orders a pizza. I read up on advice from keto redditors who said it’s perfectly acceptable to take the cheese and toppings off the crust, so that’s what I did. It was delicious and satisfying. The only difficulty was in not being sure how much cheese to calculate in my food diary. I guessed at one cup, plus onions, and sausage.
As an added bonus, Sassy, our Bluetick Coonhound, enjoyed my dinner biproduct. Pizza crust is her favorite pizza snack. (See the leftovers in the picture). Waste not, want not.
Almost forgot, in between lunch and getting off work for the day, I ate 2 ounces of hard cheese for a snack.
After trivia, I entered the last of my food portions into myfitnesspal.com. I was short 11 carbs! Hmmm. what to do? I grabbed 2 tbsp of peanut butter, and one square of 70% chocolate. I dipped the square in the pb for a scrumptious snack while reading a new novel loaned to me by a coworker. It was delicious, and my carbs were done for the day.
The only problem I see so far, is the lack of vegetables yesterday. Rick was supposed to go to the grocery store, but thought he was coming down with the flu and I gave him the day off (joke). He promises to go to the fruit market tomorrow while I’m at work. Today/tomorrow=more greens.
Day 5: Zero progress
Weight loss: 0
Total: 6 1/2
I was slightly disappointed to see no progress on the scale, but I was expecting it. I assumed that losing a couple of pounds a day was only a fleeting accomplishment due to water weight loss. I didn’t think that I would continue to lose at that rate, but I could always hope!
On the bright side, I have energy to spare. I haven’t felt this good in a long time. And I’m not really hungry at all. I guess lots of fat and protein leads to a satiated appetite.
Yesterday, I had some scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast; the eggs had onion and cheese in them.
Lunch was pulled pork tacos and some home made cheese-its with a tsp of avocado dip on each. I made 3 tacos, but was full after two.
Dinner was rushed. We took Dad back to my nieces, and by the time we got him settled, I was pretty hungry. I fried 2 Hebrew National Kosher hot dogs in butter, then topped them with Hormel chili/no beans. I was still pretty low on my calories/protein, so I through on some grated cheese and ended up with a satisfying, if gooey mess. I laugh every time I think of the odd combinations of “fattening” foods I’ve been cooking up. It totally goes against my grain to not seek out low-fat cheeses, condiments, and other foodstuffs. This takes some getting used to, but it’s certainly a pleasant way to lose weight.
Rick and I sat down to watch the Golden Globes and I literally whipped us up some dessert: heavy whipping cream with a tsp of cocoa. Yum.