Category Archives: pasta substitutes

Day 102: Pizza “Squasherole” – and a bad weigh-day

Today’s weight loss: +2.5 pounds!

Total weight loss: 24 pounds. Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 28th

DAMMIT! Gained again!
Saying I lost 26 and half pounds sounds WAY better than 24. I’m guessing it was the 10 or so alcoholic drinks I had last week. They were no carb, but I think they play with my hydration and loss. I did have that one carb-laden muffin, and I skipped a few meals. All in all, I need to get back on track with some healthy eating.
Yesterday was Friday and the end of a stressful and depressing week. My dad is still in hospital, although he is doing better. Rick and I are also trying to finish up the rental house repairs so we can sell it and recoup our investment. I’m back at work, plus we’ve been doing brochures and business cards for our clients.
Enough complaining…yesterday, I wasn’t hungry for breakfast, again. I waited until around 11 a.m, then had 2 Beddar Cheddar smoked sausages.
After work, we went to see my dad, then went back to Albert’s to have some more drinks on the patio, but this time, I ordered the steak bites with teriyaki sauce. They were good, but the 2 wings with blue cheese dressing that Rick gave me were even better.
We didn’t stay late, since the weather turned overcast and cold. Since I’d only had 2 meals, I was hungry by 8 pm. Rick was eating little pizzas made on English muffins. I couldn’t do that, so I decided to improvise and create a meal that would appeal to my need for comfort food.
I heated a small portion of spaghetti squash, then layered it into a glass dish. I topped it with 1/8 cup of pizza sauce, a layer of grated cheddar/mozarella cheese, then a layer of chopped onions. I topped that with a few dabs of cream cheese and I baked it in the oven with Rick’s pizzas for about 7 minutes at 350 degrees. I think I’ll call it “pizza squasherole.”
It turned out pretty good, not great. I ate about 3/4 of it, then had 2 squares of 70% cocoa bar with peanut butter for dessert.

Day 69: Another great day for bicycling

Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th

The weather was great again, but I had quite a few items to take care of before I could go out and play. I heated up the leftover mockaroni and cheese for breakfast and sat down at my desk to get my dad’s taxes and other paperwork in order. I also worked on our website business and various bills and other chores.

After I got some laundry done, Rick persuaded me join him on a bicycle ride up to the diner for lunch. I ordered the gyro with fries, gave Rick the fries and ignored the pita bread.

After dinner, I went a little wild and ate 3 french fries. They weren’t as good as I thought they would be.

The mockaroni and cheese from breakfast was calling me again. I ate the rest of the leftovers for dinner. We had some chocolate mousse for dessert.

 

Day 68: Beautiful weather: time to get out the bicycle

Weight loss: 17.5 pounds; next weigh day: Sat., Mar 24th

It was a beautiful Saturday and we had lots of work ahead of us: more garage cleaning, plus finishing that floor tile. I also needed to to bills, arrange some of my dad’s paperwork, and, in general, get some of my affairs in order.

Rick arose earlier than I did (no surprise) and ate breakfast alone. I showered and got right to my desk. Around noon, I decided to have brunch at Del Taco. Rick was off riding his bike and met me there.

I ordered a steak taco Asada and a chicken taco and removed both tortillas. That did not assuage my hunger in the least. I looked around online to see what else was recommended low-carb fare at Del Taco. They didn’t have the taco salad on their menu, so I went with another choice: a beef burrito. It was made up of seasoned ground beef, cheese, onions, and sour cream.

I unrolled my giant tortilla and found that it was very similar to eating a taco salad with no shell. It was really really delicious, so I have now fortunately added another fast food menu option to my growing list. I plan to be on the keto diet for around a year until I reach my goal. It’s always nice to have some choices along the way.

I finally got to the tiling I’ve been attempting to finish. Unfortunately, I was one or two tiles short, and Rick couldn’t get them at the local Home Depot. We’ll have to go to the one in Canton tomorrow. We did get another truck load of Salvation army donations together and will deliver those tomorrow, as well.

It was a gorgeous day and we both enjoyed working outside. By the time we got home and unloaded the truck, it was close to 8 pm, and I had been hungry for hours. I took a quick spin on my bike, just to get my sea legs back. Then I set out to find a meal idea.

Rick said he felt like hotdogs. I felt like something more, and wanted to make him a treat because he had worked so hard. I looked around online for “keto appetizers,” keto snacks,” then started thinking…doesn’t macaroni and cheese sound great with hotdogs? My next search for “keto macaroni and cheese cauliflower” did the trick. I just KNEW cauliflower would be involved. I made this recipe for Mokafoni and Cheese.

I was a little short on the cream cheese, so I subbed with a little parmesan. It was a hit! I’m going to add it to my list of favorite keto recipes, since mac and cheese is an old comfort food of mine.

While the mock and cheese was baking, I took a glass of vodka and Diet Coke outside and sat with Rick under the gazebo. I didn’t want to miss a March summer night. We ate a late meal and skipped dessert.

 

Day 59: More of the same

Weight loss: 17 lbs; next weigh-in: tomorrow

Yesterday began with eggs at work. For lunch, I heated leftover taco meat and assembled 2 tacos in Mama Lupe tortillas. They made for a delicious and filling meal.

I left work at a reasonable hour and had an early dinner. I used the spaghetti squash I had prepared earlier in the week as a base for  Cincinnati chili. It was just okay. I think something happens to the texture/flavor of squash after a few days in the fridge.

We were out of cocoa, so I made sugar-free lime jello with cream cheese mixed in for dessert.

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!