Day 314: Cozy day at home
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
After the long birthday/Thanksgiving/trip out of town and back in 3-days, I was feeling pretty poorly. I actually developed a cold and upper respiratory ailment during the weekend, and just did not feel like rushing back to work. I ended up using a vacation day on Monday and staying home. I didn’t eat much more than a couple of low carb tortillas with cheese, and really don’t have anything to post. I’ll get back into the swing of things tomorrow.
Day 313: Back on track
I took a little break from blogging. Did you really want details of birthday celebrations, Thanksgiving feasts, car trips that involved fast food WITH buns? (5 hours up north on Friday; 5 hours back on Saturday – I just gave up fighting the carbs)
HOWEVER, I am back on track. Again, this prolonged no-carb trek has at least provided me with consistency and habits that I (hopefully) won’t lose. I go off, have a cheat meal, climb back on. I will have my day of reckoning soon (weigh day), but have made the decision not to weigh until I feel like myself again. Eating carbs sure has a bloating effect. My pants still fit, but not quite as loosely as before. At least I stayed in this lower size.
Sooo, after all the bad carb days of celebration and travel, I was finally back to a “normal” Sunday at home. I ate a home-made cheese and onion omelet with a few pieces of bacon for breakfast. Lunch was a few almonds and some low-carb tortilla with cheese.
For dinner, I decided to make a batch of low-carb taco soup again. It was really good the first time, and I love having things prepped and ready for the week ahead. I did forget an ingredient, but it was pretty good without the heavy cream.
Dessert was 2 squares of 70% chocolate.
I’m baaaaaack!
Day 308: Monday trivia failure!
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
Monday started out fine with a nice leftover quiche breakfast. Lunch was a couple of beddar cheddars and some almonds.
Dinner. Sigh.
I was at Albert’s for trivia. I always order a really good chicken salad. Today, I blew it. I just wanted pizza. I had 4 pieces of pizza AND some steak fries. I fairly wallowed in carbs.
That’s it. I blew it and tomorrow is another day.
Day 307: Keto-friendly crustless spinach quiche
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
I know I need to plan ahead to be successful on the keto plan, and to avoid all those carb-laden “easy” foods. Sunday morning, I decided to make a quiche that would last me the week. I used this crustless quiche recipe, from the Budgetbytes blog, and adapted it a bit.
I made a spinach, feta cheese and onion quiche, and it turned out a little too “green” for me. Next time, I’ll try adding more eggs and cream. I like my quiche to be eggier. Rick liked it alot. I like having an “instant breakfast” to take to work during the week ahead.
That’s all I really have to report for Sunday. I didn’t get time to blog all week, and I can’t remember what I had for dinner, but I was pretty strictly on keto since I know I’ll be having a few cheat days at the end of the week. My birthday is on Thanksgiving, so I’ll be having cake that day (plus whatever other carbs at dinner) and the evening before, my neice is taking me to dinner and a movie. I will have about 4 cheat meals in a row, so I’m eating as well as I can in anticipation.
Rick went shopping to get a variety of ingredients I need to create some keto-friendly Thanksgiving desserts. I’d like to try something with pumpkin and cream cheese. YUM.
Day 306: 8 hours at a restaurant and stayed on track
Total weight loss: 41 pounds (yes, I gained a 1/2 pound back!)
It’s difficult to believe but I spent more than 7 hours at a restaurant yesterday. It was the day of my league’s trivial finals, which took place at a restaurant/bar called Sneaky’s and lasted a full day.
I skipped breakfast, because I was running around in the morning, trying to get the house cleaned. I like to start off the weekend with a clean house, since there isn’t much time to clean during the week.
My friend/trivia partner Jo and I both ordered grilled chicken salads when we arrived at the league bar at 11. My salad was HUGE and kept me full until about 5 pm. At that point, we were in the midst of WINNING the league finals, so I didn’t want to distract myself by ordering more food. Unfortunately, we came in second, but the four of us won the 2nd place award of $700! I’m having a red-letter week!
I was hungry after the game, but I wanted to relax and chill on the deck (literally, since this is Michigan in November). I had a vodka and diet drink (Sparkling ICE Black Raspberry – which is quite tasty mixed with vodka). When we went in the house around 9ish, I heated up 2 bowls of taco soup. That was convenient! I’ll definitely be making some every weekend to have on hand as a quick and filling low carb meal.
I’ve learned that keeping delicious quick meals and leftovers on hand is really important for a lazy, non-cooking Ketokate!
Day 305: Delicious keto-friendly taco soup
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
Yesterday was Friday and the last day of diner eating. Rick and I decided it’s a bit much to go to breakfast every day – it’s a bit too much on his waistline and our pocketbook. I plan to make a quiche Sunday. I’m hoping that will motivate me to eat at home before work next M-W (Thursday is Thanksgiving, so no work).
However, we did eat at the diner, and I had the usual breakfast of cheese and onion omelet. Lunch at work was my quick and easy cheesy tortilla recipe (not much of a recipe. lol)
After work, of course I did not feel like cooking, because I NEVER do. However, I’ve been wanting to try a taco soup recipe my son Brandon has been making. He let me taste it at work this week, and it was really yummy.
Rick did the shopping while I was at work, of course. He makes keto easy!
I must give credit where credit is due, the recipe is from LINDA’S LOW CARB MENUS & RECIPES. She has a lot of really good keto-friendly recipes on her site. I had forgotten about this site, and I’ll have to reinvestigate it soon.
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/creamy_sw_taco_soup.html
I adapted the recipe a bit. I only used one can of rotel tomatoes. I assumed correctly that these made up the bulk of the admittedly small amount of carbs in the recipe, but I’m not that fond of tomatoes and I thought I’d save carbs where I can. One can equals 10 grams of carbs, so that’s a significant savings.
As I started laying out the ingredients, I sadly discovered that the cumin bottle was nearly empty. Sigh. Rick and I searched the cupboards for another jar, but there was none to be found. I did have a jar of taco seasoning mix, so I subbed that for the cumin and chili powder. It was still tasty, but not as good as the spoonful I tried of Brandon’s “original” recipe.
I think mine ended up about 2 3/4 grams of carbs per servings, which is very very good. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the soup, but it looked just like the one on Linda’s page. It only took about 15 minutes, so I’m sure I’ll be making this again.
Day 304: Movie night, no cheating
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
I ate the usual breakfast and had two cheese tortillas for lunch.
It was Thursday, so we did our new usual habit: Thursday night at the movies. We go to the 5 pm showing and get in for $5 each. Usually, we don’t order food at the concession stand, because 1) it’s too pricey and negates the cheap admission fee and 2) there are not a lot of great choices. I guess I could eat a hot dog with no bun, but I’d rather just pass. Last week I failed and ate the nachos. This week, I drank a bit of Rick’s diet cola and had about 6 kernels of popcorn.
Oh, and the movie was pretty good. We saw “Flight” with Denzel Washington.
I was pretty hungry after the movie, but I made it home without any restaurant or fast food temptations. I knew I still had some leftover chicken from Tuesday’s meal, so I heated up a little and had that for a small meal. I didn’t eat any sides with it. It was late evening, and I just wanted something to take care of the hunger, yet not a lot before bed. I know eating alot of processed pre-made foods isn’t great, but it sure hits the spot after working all day.
I know habits are difficult to break, but I’m pretty proud of myself for making it through movie night with no concession treats! I’ll have to think of the movie date as the treat, and ignore the overpriced “overcarbed” junk food that usually accompanies the occasion.
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 302: Costco foods that are keto friendly
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
Yesterday after our celebration cheat meal, we went to Costco to spend money – I mean, to stock up on supplies and food. They have a few options that are quick, easy, and keto-friendly, like the roast beef with gravy, lots of cheese and low carb dips, and something we hadn’t tried yet: chicken breasts stuffed with artichoke, spinach, and parmesan cheese.
The meal is only 5 grams of net carbs per serving (4 per container).
I decided to try it last night. First, I microwaved a 10-ounce bag of frozen cauliflower, then nuked the chicken. While it was cooking, I made the cauliflower mashed potatoes.
The result was a really delicious meal. It was like chicken cordon bleu, only tangier with the flavor of the artichokes and spinach.
It was a hit with Rick, too. We’ll be having this again soon.
Day 301: Celebration lunch – keto cheat meal
Total weight loss: 41 1/2 pounds
Well we finally did it! We closed on the house we’ve been working on for more than 3 years! It was a red-letter day, and I knew I would want to celebrate with food and drink. These habits are ingrained. Rick and I had planned in advance that we’d go to Macaroni Grill, since we both love their food and chianti.
I won’t go into great detail, because this blog is about KETO, not cheating. LOL. However, we did enjoy an appetizer that can be adapted to keto easily: Peppadew peppers with goat cheese and balsamic vinagrette.
We will be purchasing the pepper soon, and trying these delish appetizers at home.
No more to report. We’re tired and happy it’s all over. Back to keto tomorrow.