Category Archives: grilled chicken
Day 303: Home-made chicken salad
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
We went to the diner for breakfast, again. I had the usual grilled onion and cheese omelet with bacon.
For lunch at work, I went back to an old stand by. I love Mexican food, and I concocted a simple yummy and quick lunch. Two low carb tortillas (3g each), a handful of shredded cheese in each. This time, I also added 3 dollops of cream cheese, just for the heck of it. I microwaved them (open) for about 1 minute and a half, then added a few sliced jalapeno peppers to each and ate with a sour cream garnish. For some reason, I don’t like the peppers as well when cooked inside the tortilla, so I add them last. Quick, a bit spicy, and low carb. Yum.
I worked late and I was famished, but I didn’t feel like cooking. We passed fast food places and restaurants on the way home, but nothing appealed to me. I really didn’t want a sit-down restaurant meal, but I didn’t want a processed fast food meal, either. As we passed Big Boy, I was tempted to order a buffalo chicken salad to go, then realized that I had all the ingredients at home, and the only cooking required was the chicken tenders. I decided to give it a go.
I thawed a few chicken tenders in hot water, then sauteed them in oil until cooked, then sliced it into smaller pieces. I had one of those big plastic bowls of mixed greens that Costco sells, so I tossed some of that into a bowl, topped with chopped onions and chicken, drizzled buffalo hot sauce on top, then ate the salad with a side of blue cheese dressing. Oh, and I had no crumbled blue cheese, so I used feta instead. It was as delicious – or more – than the restaurant version!
It seems to get easier and easier to come up with quick keto-friendly dishes. I guess when you do something for nearly a year (!), you learn lots of tricks. There is no need to pay $8 or more for the carryout version when this recipe is so easy.
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!
Day 284: Two more pounds (yay!); working towards 50
This week’s weight loss: 2 pounds
Total weight loss: 41 pounds
Wow. I finally hit above the 40 pound mark. Nine more pounds to 50! Keto works.
Yesterday’s food journal:
I was happy it was Friday. We’ve been really busy this week, and I looked forward to the weekend. We went out to breakfast again. I know, it’s pretty extravagant to eat breakfast out each morning, but it’s also a nice, relaxing start to our day. I enjoy my NYT puzzle and Rick reads the paper. I get some “me time” before heading off to work. We also eat pretty cheaply.
Breakfast was the usual: cheese and grilled onion omelet with a side of bacon and topped with sour cream.
Lunch: I sort of skipped lunch. These breakfasts keep me full for a long time. I was working on a deadline project. It needed to be done by 2 pm, so the boss could take it with him on a trip. I had a snack around one o’clock – some chili lime almonds and some small pieces of cheese. By the time I left work at 6, I was famished.
That was something I forgot to blog about – I bought some individually wrapped cheddar cheese portions in a large bag at Costco. I put the whole bag in the fridge at work and always have a low carb snack on hand.
On the way home from work, I decided I’d like to have another of those buffalo grilled chicken salads like I had the day before. Here’s where I found out that I had eaten more carbs on Thursday than I originally thought. Rick wasn’t hungry, so I ordered the salad as a carryout from Big Boy. I ordered the “Buffalo grilled chicken salad” with blue cheese. The server asked, “do you want the grilled chicken or chicken tenders?” Hmm. I did say GRILLED, which is what I had ordered the day before for lunch. I did point out to Rick that the chicken looked like it had some kind of coating, but the menu said it was grilled, so oh well.
Turns out I must have been eating chicken with coating which would have had more carbs. Sigh. I think it would bother me more if I didn’t see the 2 pound weight loss.
Rick built a fire in the yard, and I joined him with a drink made of 3 shots of vodka and some raspberry Sparkling Ice. It was a nice end to a long work week. I also had 2 squares of 70% chocolate with peanut butter.
Day 283: A really good salad: Big Boy’s buffalo grilled chicken salad
Total weight loss: 39 pounds
Well, I really enjoyed that early morning breakfast Wednesday, so I made the effort to rise early and try it again. This time, we went to the Senate Coney Island, which is a bustling diner even at 7:30 am. I ordered a cheese omelet, asked them to add grilled onions, and skipped the toast. The side of bacon was enough for me to share with Rick. I topped the egg with sour cream (of course) and called it a meal. The service was fast, the omelet was delish, and the bacon was perfect. No extra hash browns to deal with and I just skipped the toast. We’ll be back.
Lunch was on the run, again. More paperwork and banking to do. This house closing is dragging on, and there are still details to cover and items to move from the house.
We went to Big Boy. Since this blog is all about honesty, I had a really difficult time deciding NOT to eat carbs. I love BB fish and chips, so that was hurdle one. I was tired, stressed and hungry (too hungry), so my decision making processes were hampered by the need for some comfort food. I had tried the buffalo chicken salad a while back and decided to try that. The spiciness might make me feel like I was having some tasty treat, and the blue cheese dressing that comes with would be creamy and fill that need for comfort.
It was a hit! I was a little worried that I made a wrong choice when I saw that the chicken had some kind of coating on it, but at that point, I was eating it no matter what. The tangy buffalo sauce was subtle on the small slices of chicken and blended well with the blue cheese. It was filling and delicious.
Again, I forgot to take a picture, so here’s one that looks similar. I will definitely be ordering this again soon, so I’ll get an authentic one on my next visit.
I looked up the nutrition information when I got home and it passed muster. Without croutons (which I removed), it’s 10.2 grams of carbs minus 2.3 grams of fiber, for a net of 7.9. That’s not counting the blue cheese dressing, but after a really low carb breakfast, I knew I’d be able to stay under 19 for the day. It also looks like they have similar salads at Chili’s and other restaurants.
Bad afternoon – I worked until 6:30. At 5:30, that damned Halloween candy bowl at work called my name. I ate a peanut butter cup and 9 whoppers (actual circles of candy, not packages). I have no defense. I do think a salad doesn’t stick with me long enough to ward off the temptations. Whatever. I guess I’ll just have to plan ahead in case I’m tempted again tomorrow – drink a lot of water and eat almonds in the late afternoon?
Dinner – home late again. Rick didn’t feel like cooking, so we stopped to pick up a rotisserie chicken. Again, I was tempted. I had already eaten candy, so how about some macaroni salad on the side? NO NO NO. Rick didn’t buy it, and I made cauliflower mashed potatoes instead. Wonder why this is so difficult lately.
Oh, here’s a tip I figured out in the past few months. I really like the cauliflower mashed potatoes, and I really don’t like cooking very much (in case you didn’t figure that out). I now buy small frozen packages of cauliflower and have about 4 on hand. I use the same recipe as I have posted here, but here are the amounts of the ingredients I use with this size package….
Easy peasy cauliflower mashed potatoes – open one bag of cauliflower, pour in bowl, microwave 5 minutes. Put the cauliflower, 3-4 tbsp of cream cheese (definitely less than half a package), and one tbsp of butter into a food processor. The cauliflower should be steaming hot to melt the cheese easily. Process and eat. One package makes a little more than 2 servings. If Rick doesn’t eat his, it warms up well the next day.
Well, that quick recipe was a life savor, and I avoided the carby macaroni salad. I ate about 6 ounces of chicken with the “caulitatoes.” Dessert was 2 squares of chocolate with natural peanut butter.
Day 191: Back in the keto routine
Total weight loss: 31 1/2 pounds
Well, I’m officially back in the routine. I ate no carbs yesterday, and I admit, it was a bit difficult staying true to the diet.
We’re in the midst of the house showing, with some competing bids, and a lot of stress. I worked at home again, and there’s a bit of stress there, too, since the building we work in is smoked damaged and we’re winging it as best we can. The stress, a headache, and being a bit exhausted by too much life, left me tempted to have some comfort food a few times. And by comfort food, you know I mean carbs.
But I didn’t succumb to temptation.
I ate yogurt for breakfast, almonds for snack, and beddar cheddars for lunch – no bun.
For dinner, I chopped up some leftover grilled chicken, put it on a low carb wrap, and added salsa, onion, and sour cream. I followed it with 70% chocolate and peanut butter dessert.
I’m BAAACK on track!
Day 116: Small meals and not much appetite
Today’s weight loss: 3 pounds Total weight loss: 23.5
Well, it appears I’m going in the right direction again. I’m not as excited about a 3 pound loss when it’s the same pounds the second time around. I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. If I lose another 4 pounds, I’ll be at my lowest weight since starting keto. Hope next week’s numbers are just as good.
Some Fridays I work at home. Other Fridays I only have a few hours to work. Yesterday was a short day.
I had yogurt for breakfast, but didn’t have any lunch. I got off work at 1:15 and headed over to the nursing home to see my dad. I’m trying to switch up when I go to visit in hopes that he’ll be awake and aware.
He was. I buzzed his hair with an electric clipper and he fell asleep. LOL
We headed home, and I made a lunch of some Mama Lupe’s tortillas filled with Monday’s leftover chicken. I topped it with grated cheese and sour cream. It was dull.
I wasn’t hungry for dinner, so I drank a couple of glasses of water and had some cheese.
Later, ate a handful of almonds, then had a container of one of the delicious new low carb yogurt flavors from Kroger: banana cream pie. It was really good and hit the spot.
Day 89: Working through the disappointment
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 14th
After yesterday’s weigh-in, I debated having a cheat day, or even just a cheat meal. We were at breakfast, and I ordered eggs with cheese and onions. My meal came with toast and hash browns. I don’t particularly care for hash browns, but this restaurant also offers potato pancakes as a substitution. I ordered them.
When the meal came, I stared down the pancakes. I really really like them, and I was still reeling from the zero loss disappointment. Should I just have a cheat day? Naw. I gave them to Rick. I think I need to NOT cheat when it’s an emotional decision. If I’m having a cheat day, it’s going to be because it was a planned maneuver to restart my metabolism.
We worked on the rental house all day. I finished grouting tile, painted a door, put on new door hardware, tried to unstop a drain, put an electric box cover on, and painted a fence.
In between chores, Rick ran up to Del Taco and got me the mucho grande burrito, or whatever it’s called. I skipped the tortilla.
Back home, we were both pretty tired, but our own house needs work, too. We started cleaning off the deck and getting the yard ship-shape. By then it was late, and I was too tired to cook. I had a handful of almonds and joined Rick outside by the bonfire for a drink. Afterwards, I heated up grilled chicken in a Flat Out tortillas with the usual garnishments. We had some chocolate mousse for dessert.
I made it through the disappointment. I’m going to beat this fat or die trying.
Day 88: A big fat ZERO
Today’s weight loss: ZERO
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 14th
AARRRGGGHHHH.
I’m tired of agonizing over what I could be doing wrong. My clothes are getting looser. That’s a plus. But, man oh man, I would sure love to see more progress when I get on the scale.
So, I’ll just keep keeping on. No alternative.
Yesterday was my numero uno vacation day. We started out eating at a new diner. I ordered the cheese omelet with onions and a side of bacon. It was great! The cheese/onion combination was very “pieorgi-like,” so I asked for a side of sour cream and it was even better. The bacon was also thin and crispy, just the way I like it. I finished my Friday NYT crossword, and declared it a wonderful beginning to my vacation week.
>We were off on lots of errands after that. When we got home, I wasn’t really hungry for lunch, so I had some almonds.
Rick napped, I relaxed and watched some “The Good Wife” episodes. It was nice just hanging out for a couple of hours.
Later in the evening, I joined Rick out on the deck. I wanted to have a vodka/diet drink, but hadn’t eaten much, so I made some ham, cream cheese, and onion pinwheels. You know, the kind mom made in the 60’s. You roll them up, then cut them and they look like little pinwheels…or eyeballs, if you ask me. Anyway, it was something I thought of the other night when trying to find a conveyance to get the cream cheese into my mouth without just eating it out of the package. Apparently, my family members think it’s an odd thing to do.
For dinner (at 9 pm!), I chopped up a bit of the chicken Rick had grilled. I put it in a large low carb flat bread and topped with cheese, onions, salsa, and sour cream. Those are my go-to toppings for just about everything.
Dessert was 2 pieced of 70% chocolate topped with organic peanut butter. I think I went over about 4 carbs.
Day 86: Deli fare
Total weight loss: 21.5 pounds Next weigh-in: Saturday, April 7th
I skipped breakfast since I was busy and not very hungry. My appetite is definitely waning this week.
For lunch, I ate 2 beddar cheddars.
After work, I had an impromptu hair appointment. I was pretty hungry and we had time to explore Plymouth, so we stopped a little deli. I ordered the chicken caesar chiabbata sandwich with parmesan cheese. Of course, I didn’t eat the bread. It was filling and had nice flavor. I like that I am far more adept at wading through the high carb menu items than I was at the beginning. I can usually find something that is adaptable to the keto plan.
In the evening, I worked on my dad’s paperwork again. This time for about 3 hours. When I was done, I wanted a drink. I had a vodka and Diet Coke out on the deck with Rick. I wasn’t hungry for dinner, so I ate some almonds instead.
After watching some TV, Rick wanted dessert, so I whipped up some mousse.