Category Archives: taco meat
Keto renewal – the great escape from carbs and their consequences
I haven’t posted in a long time. During the communication gap, my dedication to the keto eating plan has been sorely lacking. I have also felt lethargic, gained back all the weight I lost on the plan, and am probably in the worst shape of my life.
I started this blog a long time ago with great hope that the ketogenic diet was finally the answer to my weight loss problems. I still believe that notion was correct.
I am the only person who can make the decision to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start once again. The keto plan was the last great hope after trying and failing on several other diets. I am throwing myself back into the plan wholeheartedly. The food was delicious, reducing carbs gave me energy, and I saw a significant weight loss in a short amount of time. I have the knowledge, the recipes, and the ingredients. All I need is the will to begin again.
Today –
BREAKFAST…
was 2 eggs over easy with bacon. I had not made up my mind about going back on keto this morning, so I had one piece of whole wheat toast and 1/4 cup of hash browns.
Then came the decision to break out the recipes and get back to it.
LUNCH
Tacos: 2 pieces of provolone cheese, nuked and curved into taco shell shapes. I used Chichi’s taco flavored meat (about 4 tablespoons) and topped with 1/4 cup of grated cheddar cheese, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, and some chopped jalapenos. The Chi-chi’s is 3 grams of carbs per 4 tablespoon serving.
The entire process took fewer than 5 minutes and the tacos were as good as any fast food joint’s carb-laden version. The Chichi’s meat is definitely an expensive cheat. I could easily make myself the same mixture with some ground beef, but I think time and convenience will be of the essence as I reintegrate the keto plan.
DINNER
Rick grilled steaks and Portobello mushrooms. I made a salad with grated cheddar and blue cheese dressing.
VOILA! Drank lots of water until bedtime. Day one was a breeze.
Day 4: A really simple 2-minute low-carb / keto pizza snack
Breakfast – egg/cheese/sausage patty in a bowl
Lunch – leftover cream cheese and spicy sausage mixture in a low carb tortilla
Dinner – here’s where got creative…
I was pretty hungry about 4 pm, but we weren’t ready for dinner. I had some work to do for our web design company, and I wanted to finish it up before I started cooking.
I came up with this delish snack (probably not an original – but it was to me. LOL)
Take some pieces of pepperoni, mound about a tbsp of mozarella in the center of each, put the plate in the microwave for about 30 seconds – and VOILA! tasty hot pepperoni pizza treats. They were quick and delicious and assuaged my hunger until dinner could be prepared.
For dinner, I cooked a pound of ground beef, added taco seasoning and put the mixture on a plate. I topped it with grated cheddar cheese, chopped onions, one half an avocado, and a tablespoon of sour cream. I’ll admit, I do love a taco shell, deep fried flour tortillas and all those other crunchy Mexican carbs, but this meal still tastes good and is a great substitute for carby Mexican meals.
Day 286: Sunday at home – tacos
Total weight loss: 41 pounds
We stayed home today. There’s still a bit to do moving out of the sold rental house, but it was a chilly Sunday and we enjoyed taking care of business at home.
Rick and I made separate breakfasts, but ate them together. I grilled some diced onions, added 3 eggs and grated cheese. I microwaved 3 pieces of bacon to go with. The result actually tasted better than a diner breakfast and wasn’t very much trouble to make.
I wasn’t hungry for lunch, and I was busy on the phone chatting with a friend for awhile, then with my son and new daughter-in-law. By the time I was through, it was about 5 pm. I ate some almonds while I worked on some files.
For dinner, we decided to make do with what was left in the fridge. I had a pound of ground round and some low carb tortillas, so I cooked up some tacos, topped with cheese, lettuce and sour cream. They were pretty tasty. It was a big tortilla, so I only ate one.
I had an Adkins chocolate/coconut bar for dessert.
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 163: Shawarma pizza
Total weight loss: 25 1/2 pounds
Yogurt for breakfast, almonds for snack.
I heated up the taco meat and recreated my “taco salad” for lunch.
I was craving shawarma pizza from the Cherry Tree restaurant. It’s delicious and cheap. I ordered a large carryout and Rick got 2 shawarma wraps. I like to order the big one so I can (supposedly) have leftovers. Rick often curtails that plan.
I wanted to work on getting the pool cleaned up, so I ate one piece before swimming. After I was done enjoying the pool, I sat down to watch some Daily Show with THREE more pieces. Ah well. I overdid the carbs for sure. I even ate most of the crust. Maybe that pizza isn’t a good choice after all, or maybe it was just how I reacted to it yesterday. In terms of being balance about this, it’s been a good week, so I’m hoping some crust doesn’t throw me out of keto.
Day 162: Another day on track
Total weight loss: 25 1/2 pounds
Yesterday was another “on-track” day. I think that huge weight loss scared me into keto-compliance. It has been quite a few months since I started this plan, and I really hate going backwards and seeing negative progress (now there’s an oxymoron!). It just seems like I’m wasting my time when I KNOW the plan works, and I dabble in carbs.
I’m also trying to balance that attitude with the one that reminds me that this is a journey, that I’m going to be doing this for a long time until I reach my goal, so I should lighten up and get some balance about it.
Anyway, breakfast at work was yogurt. For lunch, I made 2 beddar cheddars.
For dinner, I thought I’d make something Mexican. That’s my very favorite food, so why not do it in a no-carb fashion and enjoy it as much as I can. I cooked up some taco meat, topped it with cheese, onions, sour cream, and jalapenos, and enjoyed it very much.
Rick made low-carb chocolate mousse for dessert.
Cheez-its? Taco shells? I’m all set, thanks.
I’ve never been a big bread eater, but chips are another thing. I love nacho chips, not for their own sake, but because they are such a convenient way to transport various dips into my mouth.
I was wondering how I would handle not having snack foods on the keto plan. I’m the type who often orders an appetizer as a dessert. I love cheesy artichoke dip, salsas, guac, and all those yummy good things that can’t just be eaten with a spoon.
Then I remembered trying this idea years ago: drop grated cheese into several small mounds on parchment paper and bake in the oven. Well, I don’t even have the patience for that, so finding this recipe on the “Sin or slim” website helped buoy my spirits. Just nuke the cheese!
Even more exciting was finding that provolone slices can be heated in the microwave (again, on parchment paper) and folded in half after heating makes them the perfect shape to use as taco shells!
Credit should be given to the reddit.com “keto” subgroup: http://www.reddit.com/r/keto/. The redditors are so supportive of fellow keto noobies, that most of my questions were answered just through their comments.
More about pulled pork tacos later.