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Did Some Great Shopping Yesterday!

I'm planning some great meals this week! As I've written previously, I don't plan each meal...but with the things I have "in stock" and the fresh produce I got yesterday (it was a splurge, I didn't worry about $ as much as I usually do but rather just got what looked good!) I will make some great meals!

Bought radicchio, which I've seen used on TV but have never bought. This recipe looks very good, and I have everything I need to make it. But since I only bought one head I will obviously adjust the ingredient amounts accordingly.

I also got a daikon, some yellow summer squashes, and a couple of big yellow sweet onions that I will use, with ground sausage, to make a hash which we love.

Pork steaks and country-style ribs were on sale for $1.38/lb this week so we stocked up on 25# which will make a few good meals! In fact, we're having pork steaks today, with sauerkraut and salad. If time permits I may make some rolls (using the basic Oopsie recipe but adding some oat bran and golden flax meal to pump 'em up a bit) to go with them also.

I just love to shop, and love to cook, and love to eat! Even with my ongoing gut issues and pain (which will hopefully be resolved surgically yet this year), my enjoyment of food rarely wanes even as my ability to eat does. That I can eat lowcarb fare without worrying as much about portion sizes as other plans require (YMMV) is one of the greatest benefits of the plan! On those days that I can eat, I don't have to hesitate to enjoy GOOD food, EASY food, and CHEAP but HEALTHY lowcarb meals!

And With The Last of the Fresh Spinach... #lowcarb

...I had pasta :). Dreamfield's actually. All 3 of us (hubby, me, and 16MO grandson who lives with us) had our spaghetti different ways. Pete had his with SF spaghetti sauce and cheese - the traditional way. The baby had a hard-boiled egg with his, and parmesan cheese on top. He decided to put the egg actually into the spaghetti, and mash it all together with his fork - and loved it that way!

But on to the spinach part. I put a thin layer of spaghetti on my plate that I tossed with butter (it was cooked with EVOO on the water, as well as sea salt), then I layered the last of the spinach leaves, another layer of hot pasta, and cheese on top. OH YEAH BABY! We're talking good eatin', now! I love spinach in any way shape or form, and this was new but amazingly delicious. The hot pasta wilted the spinach just enough...

Anyway, we didn't end up having the burgers with our supper...didn't need them.

Now I (purposely) have some leftover Dreamfield's so tomorrow I will make a spaghetti pie :).

Lovely #Lowcarb Spinach Salad...PLUS lunch!

Last night I made a lovely spinach salad. I finely chopped about 1/4c of onion and fried it in bacon fat until translucent, then added some already-cooked bacon, chopped. Then about 1/4c of coconut oil, 1T of granular splenda and 2T of Ideal sweetener (I mix the splenda with the ideal until the splenda is used up - then I will be an Ideal cook!), a few scrapings of nutmeg, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. This I tossed with spinach leaves and chopped hard-boiled eggs, and it was an amazing salad for supper!

The bacon was $1.49/lb. The whole bag of spinach leaves was $1.99 - I used half. The onion was about 50c. The eggs were 11c each, I used 4. Excellent generous-sized supper for 2, for about $4.00.

Today I spread some honey mustard on a slice of Flatout flat bread and loaded it up with more spinach leaves and leftover (warmed) bacon, then rolled it up - it was really loaded and really thick - and REALLY REALLY GOOD! Excellent lunch!

Tonight: Dreamfield's pasta with EVOO, butter, and cheeses (sauce for hubby but not for me). Leftover grilled ground beef patty on the side. Each of us will eat for about $2.

Shakin' It Up, and Amazing Steak Dinner #Lowcarb #Recipe

I haven't been posting the samo-samo meals I've been eating recently, and in fact have started getting bored. So the last few days I've tried to shake it up a bit, using food I already have stockpiled. (For those of you following my grocery shopping posts, I haven't done a big shopping in at least a couple of months - yeah, I have that much stuff on my shelves and in my big freezer! Just filling in with the perishables, such as fresh produce, and dairy.)

Sunday dinners I like to "fancy it up a bit" especially since my mom spends Sundays with us - the nursing home where she lives has good food, but it tends to be a bit "institutional" anyway. This past Sunday I made some NY strips on the griddle. First I started frying up a pound of bacon because I needed the fat. While that was cooking I seasoned the steaks (onion/garlic/chili powders, sea salt) and let them sit while I halved half-thawed brussels sprouts and yellow squash slices - just had a small amount left in each package I wanted to use up - and quartered, then thinly sliced, a medium yellow onion.

After spreading some fresh bacon fat on the hot hot hot griddle, I put the steaks on. Then I removed the bacon from the frying pan and much of the remaining fat for later use, and tossed the veggies in the same frying pan. They required frequent tossing to brown evenly and cook through. The steaks cooked about 5 minutes on the first side and 3 on the 2nd, then I removed them to a platter and tossed about a cupful of straw mushrooms (from a can) right on the hot griddle with the bacon fat and the seasonings the steak left behind. As the liquid came out of the 'shrooms and I scraped/tossed them, they deglazed the griddle nicely and picked up some wonderful flavor. Meanwhile I also add butter, sea salt, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar to the vegetables.

What a lovely meal! A platter of medium-rare steaks with a pile of delicious mushrooms and colorful vegetables next to them...it was a feast for the eyes as well as the palate! Unforunately, after a day trip the day before, I'd left my camera somewhere out of reach (found it later) and we were too hungry to wait for me to find it...but I will definitely be making this again!

The steaks had been on sale for $2.49/lb - I used 3# of meat - certainly less than $2 in vegetables (and that's figuring HIGH), a $1 can of mushrooms...some butter, bacon fat, and seasonings - dinner for 4 adults plus a toddler for right around $10!

Every time I make a meal like this one, I want to defy the lowcarb naysayers to show me why they think that low carb eating is unhealthy...pfffffft! :)

THE BEST @Dreamfield's Mac'n'Cheese Recipe #lowcarb

This is one that I could easily go hog-wild on if I didn't have a lot of self-control. Thankfully though, yesterday was my cheat meal (love the Friday fish dinners at the local eateries, although I got frog legs yesterday) and I'm always craving the low carb foods - meats and vegetables mostly - after a planned cheat meal. So today I ate a heap of pan-fried green beans (the skinny whole ones from GFS, fried quickly over high heat in butter and EVOO, seasoned with sea salt and onion and garlic powders), a couple of grilled Kogel natural casing hot dogs - nice and dark and almost crispy like I like them...and only a small serving of the mac'n'cheese.

Let me say from a "cheap" perspective, this wasn't as inexpensive as my meals usually are. That's because we really splurged on the Kogel's. No other hot dog is the same, so when we have some extra $ left in our food budget we buy a package of 24 for $9.99. At 40c/dog it's pricey...but we think it's worth it!

Back to the mac'n'cheese: I boiled a whole box of Dreamfield's elbows in salted water to which I'd also added EVOO (keeps the pasta from sticking), just until al dente as instructed, then drained it and returned it to the pan. I stirred in 1/4c butter, 1/4c heavy cream, 1/2c shredded colby-jack, 1/2c shredded italian blend, 1/4c parm from the green can, and a half-tsp of nice strong paprika which spiced it up a bit and also gave it a great color.

Obviously we have a lot left, and I will use it tomorrow mixed with ham and asparagus chunks in a casserole, topped with a little more cheese and baked. With a salad on the side it will make an amazing Sunday dinner too!

Lovely Luscious Cinnamon Nutcakes #lowcarb #recipe

3 large eggs
1/4c heavy cream
1/4c almond flour
1/4c coconut flour
1/2t vanilla
dash salt
1/2t baking powder
1t cinnamon
1T brown sugar sub

Whisk first 2 ingredients together until they start to lighten up; add remaining ingredients and blend thoroughly. Scoop onto hot coconut oil-coated griddle; when they come easily away from the surface, flip to cook other side.

I put butter between them as I put them on the plate, and then SF syrup over the top. Very very rich that way and I don't eat a whole lot :).

Brussels Sprouts COULD Become my Favorite Vegetable! (recipe)

Tonight's supper was excellent! I have a freezerful of pork tenderloin that we had sliced into 3/4" slices by the butcher. I fried a few slices on our griddle, greased with bacon fat, and seasoned them with just some onion/garlic/chili powders and sea salt.

I did a "seat of the pants" brussels sprout dish to go with them. Here is what I did.

2T bacon fat
1/2 red onion, sliced into "slivers"
about 30 thawed, previously frozen brussels sprouts, halved
1/4 tsp. nutmet
1/4 tsp. sea salt
2T balsamic vinegar

First I cooked the onion in the bacon fat until the edges started to brown, then I stirred in the brussels sprouts. When they were tender (and the onions were quite brown, like I like them!) I stirred in the remaining ingredients, stirring in the fat over high heat until most of the liquid had evaporated and there was just a couple of spoonsful of "sauce" left in the bottom.

These were AMAZING! And so simple, and so cheap!

Let me just say here that I have never been a fan of brussels sprouts. I would eat 3 or 4 with a meal but that was my limit. Tonight, I even had SECONDS! Really really excellent! :)

At 1.5gN each, that's a little carby. Add in the 4 gm carbs from the balsamic vinegar and the 5gN from the onion and we're talking about 55gN here. I ate about 1/3 of the whole amount, for maybe 20gN. The meat had a low amount of carbs from the seasonings also - but just over maybe 20gN for a meal - yeah, that's fine with me...especially for a meal that was SO GREAT!

Going to Church - OOPS! Posted to wrong blog...

I posted this to the wrong blog, it should have been in ChiaChatter...my apologies!

Still Plugging Along...

My eating habits are still not as usual, and probably won't be until my gut issues are resolved. When I'm hungry I eat, when I'm not I don't, and I am allowing myself more leeway as far as carbs: most days are less than 50gN/day - often way less. But some days may go as high as 100. As long as I don't gain weight I don't really care at this point. I just eat what I can, when I can.

It's strange how priorities change. In 2004 losing weight was my top priority, and my daily plans all revolved around that, and to accommodate meeting that goal. By the time I decided to stop losing weight, shopping, cooking and eating low carb was 2nd nature, and I didn't really have to think about it much...and that's how it's been for the last 6 years. I guess maybe that's why my way of eating has dropped lower on my priority ladder: it's become a no-brainer. Nothing special about it anymore, just our way of life.

Given this, however, with all of my gut issues has come some interesting changes. I am wanting - and eating - foods that haven't been part of my life for years. Such as grilled cheese sandwiches...sure they are great with Oopsie rolls as the bread, but with the amount of pain and fatique (pain in itself is very wearing, as so many can unfortunately attest!) Just as an example, I find it easier just to buy a loaf of low carb, or even moderate carb (pumpernickel) bread and use that. Sure, Oopsies are easy as heck to make, but minimizing pain by minimizing my activity and time on my feet has taken over as a priority now.

Cheap and easy is my focus, as it always will be. But "easy" is relative, and "easy" on my body vs. "easy" in the kitchen these days. Hence the priority shift.

Things in my kitchen will go back to normal when *I* am back to normal. Meanwhile, I continue to recycle the same meals and recipes that have served me so well and that I've already written about here, even though my definition of "easy" has changed (to what previously I would have considered "lazy" - lol), it's still all about cheap and easy low carb shopping, cooking, and eating :).

Stretching a Meal - Easy AND CHEAP! #lowcarb

One day last week I had planned steak with roasted vegetables for supper. Then my daughter asked if her friend could eat with us, and of course I said he could...though I'd gotten 3 steaks out of the freezer, cutting each into 4 chunks makes it easy to feed 4 people with 3 steaks. Then she asked if one of her girlfriends, who also has a toddler, could also come. So we were up to 5 adults and 2 toddlers for supper.

The roasted vegetables were no problem: I just added more to the baking sheet. I used cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, red & green bell peppers, and whole green beans - all simply tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and sea salt, and roasted at 425 until they just started to brown.

For the meat, I cut it into bite-sized chunks and seared it in just a little olive oil, then added a couple of cans of shitaki mushrooms and a couple of onions, cut into big chunks. Once those had cooked, I stirred in some garlic and chili powders, and some worchestershire sauce, and it was ready to serve with a big pile of vegetables, and some fresh tomato wedges.

We ate like royalty, on nearly double the amount of food I'd originally planned. The plates were beautiful and colorful, that last-minute addition of the fresh tomatoes added a perfect contrast to the hot dishes, and everyone had their fill, with enough left over for my husband to have an evening snack!

Best of all, the cost: I fed everyone for under $10! 2# of steak at $2.99/lb, a half-bag (2.5#) of frozen mixed vegetables at $1.50, 2 tomatoes were about 40c each, plus oil and seasonings. AMAZING!

Lately, It's Been All About Comfort #lowcarb

Between my pain and digestive issues, and things that have been going on in my life, my diet has been all about comfort. Not weight loss, not macronutrient ratios, not even about balance. Just about comfort. There have been days on end when all I ate was pasta - Dreamfield's of course - with olive oil, butter, and the mixed Italian blend shredded cheese from Walmart. Other days, it was buttered toast, just store-bought lowcarb bread, which I wouldn't usually eat, but it's been about getting through each day, so many days lately, and just being able to eat has been a blessing.

One of the great things about the way I eat is that thick'n'creamy - REAL creamy, with real high-fat cream - is comforting and lowcorb both! And while many days I didn't want creamy, many days I did. And I could. Creamy-cheesy comfort...

Some days, though, I have prepared actual meals, as I always have, but nothing very inspired. We're still eating through the surplus of meat, seafood, and veggies in our big freezer, and have just had to fill in the gaps with dairy and fresh produce - nothing worth reporting. But overall, June was a month of very few, very small grocery bills, and not a single "big" shopping. That really lowers our net average for groceries.

So while I don't have a whole lot to report, I do want to tell you about yesterday's fantastic 15-minute supper. So good, it deserves its own post :).