Category Archives: Avocado on keto

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.

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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 298: Hidden carbs sabotage my meal

Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds

Yesterday was Friday. We started the morning at the diner, where I had my usual: cheese and onion omelet with a side of bacon. I was very happy it was Friday, but I knew I had a long day at work ahead of me. Breakfast out was my “pre-treat” to myself.

For lunch, I ate 2 Beddar Cheddars. I had almonds later for a snack.

While I was working, Rick was also working on websites and newsletters. In the afternoon, he cooked up some chicken fajitas and stopped by the grocery store for some low carb tortillas, so I could eat right after getting off work.

I don’t know what I would do without his support. He is supposedly “retired,” but each day is spent working on our web and print design business. He also took care of a million details when closing the house we sold, does the banking, grocery shopping, and most of the cooking. I might cook something twice a week. Anyway, he has been behind me 100% and goes out of his way to buy low carb foods and find me low carb dinner ideas. My husband is one in a million!

So, back to the food diary. I ate 2 servings of the fajitas, and topped them both with avocado slices and sour cream. They were delicious and low carb. The tortillas are just sliced up frozen chicken tenders with a spicy marinade from a bottle. He uses all different kinds, like Lawry’s. Oh my. I just looked at the carb count on the marinade. It says one serving is 4 grams of carbs. Well, that sounds dandy, until I read the details: the bottle contains 24 servings!!! Rick says he uses about a half a bottle, which makes 4 servings when combined with chicken and cut up peppers and onions. That means 12 servings x 4 grams of carbs = 48 total, or 24 grams of carbs if I eat 2 servings, as I did last night. That one meal puts me over carb count for the whole day. Sigh. I guess I’ll have to find some other seasoning for this meal.

There have been a few other incidents like this, where I think I’m eating something just fine, but discover later that the meal was overflowing with carbs. The Taco Bell hot sauce in a packet that Rick adds to my morning egg dish is fine. The Taco Bell verde sauce is not. Guess it pays to be more conscious of those hidden carbs!

Day 67: Seeing progress–a good weigh day

Today’s weight loss: 2.5 pounds; total weight loss: 17.5

I was relieved and happy to see the numbers starting to go down for a change. It still seems like slow progress, but as Rick says, it’s going in the right direction.

TGIF. I worked four 10-hr days Monday thru Thursday, so my weekend began yesterday. Rick and I started our day at the Toast diner. I tried a 3-cheese mushroom omelet with a side order of crispy bacon, and it was very tasty. I forgot how much I used to enjoy mushrooms with my eggs.

Around noon, we worked on cleaning out the garage and I skipped lunch. After going to the funeral home to see a coworker whose mother passed away, I was tired and hungry and didn’t feel like doing much, including tiling the floor as I had originally planned. We stopped to get some groceries then headed home.

I heated up 2 Beddar Cheddars with a side of almonds and had a quick nap.

I didn’t have much for dinner: some microwaved cheese chips with guacamole.

A few hours later, I had quite a few carbs left so I made 2 pieces of low carb toast with almond butter.

Day 44: Taco salad

Weight loss: 14 pounds

Next weigh-in: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012

I was really busy at work, so I ate a late breakfast yesterday. I had the usual egg bowl made by Rick, which is a really convenient and delicious start to my dad.

I had a “midmorning snack” at around 1, then ate a boring lunch: two hotdogs on a plate, topped with mustard. That’ll teach me to plan ahead.

By dinnertime I was looking for something different. I decided to adapt my taco salad recipe to the keto plan.

I cooked ground beef, added onions and black soy beans. Those are the only type of keto-friendly bean I have found. They are okay tasting, will help me get more fiber into my diet, and make a nice filler for mexican meals. I added taco seasoning and simmered it all together.

I ripped up some lettuce, added grated cheese, and topped with the beef mixture. Then I sliced up an avocado and put it on top. I used 2 Taco Bell taco sauce packets, because those are low carb. The only thing missing was the crunchy bag of Doritos. I cut a Flatwrap into triangles and sauteed in olive oil until mildly crunchy and broke a few up and tossed them into the salad. Of course, I topped it all with a dollop or two of sour cream.

The result was meh. It tasted just okay. I think there were too many tasteless items and not enough spicy ingredients to make up for the missing Dortitos. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t nearly as good as traditional taco salad. Experiment #1 was a failure.

Day 39: Progress!

Weight loss: 2 pounds    Total weight loss: 14 pounds

Oh, this is much better. It’s been 4 days since my last weigh-in and I’ve lost 2 pounds. I will now continue to weigh in only once a week, on Saturdays. I knew logically that if I continue to eat on this plan, I will lose weight, but going up and down a 1/2 pound or a pound at a time was very frustrating after eating nearly perfectly to the ketogenic plan. Seeing bigger numbers once a week should be much more satisfying.

I only needed to go into work for 4 hours yesterday, so Rick and I had a leisurely breakfast at the diner. I chose the spinach/feta/tomato omelet with 4 pieces of bacon. It was a filling start to the day.

After work, we went to Costco. I walked through the cheese and dip section looking at the carb count on all the products. I purchased the tzaziki sauce (2g), a jalapeno yogurt dip (1g), a crab dip (1g), guacamole (1g), and of course, Dubliner cheese. I’ve been eating a couple of avocados a week, but they spoil quickly. I’ve had the Costco guac at my friend Walter’s house and it was pretty good, so I thought the guacamole would be more cost-effective than avocados, due to the individually wrapped portions.

I walked through the cracker/chips aisle hoping to find something low carb, to no avail. Nothing good in the frozen section, except the vegetables, of course. I thought I might find pre-made eggplant lasagna or something like it, but nope.

I looked at the nutritional info on so many items, that I automatically checked the back panel on the shampoo I was looking at! Oops.

After making it through Costco for just under $200, we were both hungry. (We NEVER get out of there without spending lots of money, but we do have plenty of toilet paper and paper towel!) I had been craving a 5 Guys burger earlier in the week, so we dropped in there. Rick was concerned that I would be tempted by the french fries, but I’ve never been a big fan of theirs.

I ordered a bacon cheeseburger (the 2 patty version) with mayo and double grilled onions (no charge). I wasn’t sure if their relish is sweet pickle or regular pickle and the sweet type has a few more carbs, so I passed on the relish. Rick automatically ordered two pops, so even though I’ve cut down drastically on my diet soda intake, I decided to live it up! They had a cool new pop dispenser and I found Coke Zero lime, which was really a treat.

Back at the table, I removed top and bottom bun (of course) and ate with a knife and fork. It was a flavorful experience, and I ate slowly while finishing a crossword puzzle. Low carb, good flavor, win, win.

After a visit with my dad, we went home for the evening, and I headed to my office to work on client websites. We’re also updating our own website. It’s been a few years since we revamped it, and we were never really satisfied with the lack of information on the original site (the shoemakers children, etc.). While working, I snacked on some cocoa-flavored almonds. They were just okay, but I could see how they might be a nice treat if I am ever craving a chocolate fix.

For dinner, I reheated the other half of the Indian butter chicken and cauliflower, topped it with sour cream, and enjoyed it just as much as I had the day before. Dessert was chocolate mousse.

This keto plan is really the most satisfying I have ever come across. I have craved carbs maybe one time in the last 5 1/2 weeks. I don’t crave junk food, and I can pass up donuts, sweets, and chips without batting an eye, because I know that there is some form of low carb treat I’ll be able to eat instead. Of course, I have to give a big shout out to Rick! He has gone out of his way to study which foods are low carb, keeps the larder stocked, and cooks up dinners that I can eat on the plan, even while he sometimes makes a second meal for himself. The ironic thing is that he likes BBWs. That’s true self-sacrifice on his part. LOL

Thanks, honey.

In three days, I will have been eating on this plan for 6 weeks and so far I’ve lost nearly 15 pounds. I think I have gone over on my carb count 1 or 2 times – barely – and I have enjoyed many many of the meals. I have more energy, and it’s pretty thrilling to feel my clothes get looser. I haven’t had this much success on any of the past 5 or 6 attempts to cut calories and exercise. Viva keto!

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 10: I think I can do this forever

Today’s weight loss:  0     Total weight loss: 10 pounds

Yesterday was pretty haphazard in terms of structured eating, and my normal routine.

They’re keeping dad at the hospital, in fact may be taking him to a facility to stabilize him mentally before sending him home. I know we are all a little relieved, because the stress level in two households is pretty high.

I still have a respiratory ailment, so I didn’t go visit. I also didn’t feel like eating much, but I know I should keep up the calories and fat (who would ever expect THAT statement on a diet?). I had 2 eggs fried in coconut oil with a side of bacon for breakfast, and lots of water – which will help my diet AND my illness.

Still not hungry by late afternoon, and sorely needing a nap, I grabbed some BBQ pork rinds and used them to scoop up some spinach, artichoke, parmesan dip, then softly drifted off to sleep.

Waking refreshed (in the EVENING. lol), I was pretty famished. I think I had only consumed about 4 carbs so far. I’m trying to get more fiber, so I looked to find a good source. Avocado!

Back to my trusty Ipad …I found a recipe for avocado fries. It was simple and tasty. I think my avocado was a couple days too late to end up with crispy fries, but they were easy to eat with a fork. I combined with 2 Hebrew National dogs fried in coconut oil and an arugula salad with Caesar dressing. YUM.

I finished off the night with even more fiber by slicing up 1/2 cup of strawberries to add to my whipped heavy cream dessert. Rick agreed that it was delicious.

 

 

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.