Such a Delicious Day Today! #lowcarb

Breakfast: 2 eggs and chopped spinach fried in butter with cheese melted on top

Lunch: 2 burger patties and a slice of melted swiss between them

Supper: mixed greens with shrimp and ranch dressing

Snack: pork rinds dipped in full-fat sour cream

I made a loaf of bread this evening so I could make sandwiches for Pete's lunches for work. With the lovely smell of fresh-baked bread filling the house, I'm not sure I won't have a piece of buttered toast yet this evening. It may be only a few grams of carbs but I'd really not wanted to have grains of any sort these few days...my resolve is crumbling though...we shall see if I cave or not :). (Of course I simply can say no, and I realize that - I think I'm just torturing myself!)

It's Still July 5th Because I Haven't Gone To Bed Yet! #lowcarb

Per my earlier post today, I'm going all out!

Today for breakfast I had 2 eggs fried in butter, with cheese and full-fat sour cream.

Lunch was a large chicken leg quarter, with skin including all the fat deposits.

Supper was a salad made up of a bunch of different greens, with leftover tilapia, cheese, and ranch dressing.

Meal #4 was two 100% beef patties with butter and a little bit of "low sugar" ketchup.

Cost for today's good eatin': 22¢ for eggs, 89¢ for the 1# leg quarter, 80¢ worth of greens (bought on sale), $1.20 for the tilapia, $1.60 for the beef patties, plus the butter, cheese, dressing, sour cream, and Tbsp of ketchup...let's be generous and add a buck for all that, for a total of $5.70. Yup, cheap'n'easy! :)

Weekend Splurge! #lowcarb

I haven't had a splurge in I-don't-know-HOW-long, but this weekend was it. And it was because we ate out more than usual. And if you've been reading my blog long, you know that my will power flies out the window at restaurants - sad, but true. So typically we only go to restaurants on Fridays for the fish fry a local eatery has. And I make no bones about enjoying it, especially since doing so has no effect on my weight - as long as it's just that once a week.

This weekend I not only went to the fish fry on Friday, but Saturday was the day we went to the city for our "big grocery shopping" for the month and went to a Chinese buffet for lunch; Sunday was the monthly potluck at church; Monday we stopped at a local restaurant on the way home from the Independence Day festivities over at our county seat, starved and not wanting to wait until we got home and took the time to prepare a proper meal.

4 splurges in 4 days is too much and I feel lousy. I'm up a few pounds on the scale but don't care so much about that as I do how I feel: logy, addle-headed, mildly achy and headachy...

So between now Friday evening's fish fry, I'm going all-out low-carb/mod.protein/high fat. NO grains, not even my Lowcarb Lovely Loaf, and of course no sugar. Butter and coconut oil on everything. This morning I had 2 eggs fried in butter with some shredded colby-jack cheese on top, and a generous dollop of full-fat sour cream. Lunch will be a huge chicken leg quarter that I baked this weekend, it has lots of fat deposits around the skin. And I have a box of frozen 100% angus beef burgers (not cheap!) in the freezer, I will fry them all up and put them in the fridge for some quick meals - reheated with butter and/or sour cream on top will be great! Lowcarb vegetables loaded up with butter and/or olive oil, and salads with shrimp or tuna...these will be my meals between now and Friday evening.

If I'm not back to normal after all of that, then I'll stick to it until I am. 'Cause this just ain't right!

Oh. My. Goodness! What a Supper! #lowcarb

You know I'm all about Cheap and Easy - hence the name of this blog. But what good is cheap and easy if food isn't also flavorful? People who eat my food tell me I'm a fantastic cook - I know I love my own cooking :) - but this SUPER-SIMPLE chicken was soooo good...

All I did was brine the chicken pieces, as I usually do, with sea salt, and some onion and garlic powder, in the fridge overnight.

Today I pulled the pieces out of the liquid and rolled them (without rinsing or drying) in a coating of 2 parts peanut flour to 1 part coconut flour. I put it on a rack in a baking pan, sprinkled all sides with S&P, and baked it at 375F for an hour. That's IT! And it was soooo good! Just a hint of the peanut flavor to remind me of peanut chicken at the Chinese restaurant, a little sweetness from the coconut flour...and a nice crispy coating. Plenty of fat from the chicken skin - plus it was all dark meat - kept it from being dry.

I served it with whole skinny green beans sauteed in olive oil and butter, seasoned with garlic and onion powder and sea salt - a favorite of ours that we have a couple of times a week.

The dinner was about $4, considering the chicken was only $2.47 (with a "last day special" red sticker on the package), the amount of beans was less than a buck, and negligible amounts for the flours and oils and seasonings. I thought about making some biscuits (easy CarbQuik ones) but I'm glad we didn't, so we could eat more chicken! (No leftovers tonight, by the way...)

The only addition I might make, if I were feeding someone who liked a little spice, might be some red pepper in the coating. We don't like heat in our food though...

This was so good that I will probably use this coating on chicken breasts, cut into strips, for our church's potluck dinner this-coming Sunday.

I'd Rather Gain a Few Pounds, Than...

...hurt or insult someone. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not a lowcarb nazi. I eat lowcarb for all but one meal every week (and that meal is what I'd call moderate, (less than 100gN, with very few, 10gN at most, the rest of the day). And I'm losing 1-2# every week now that I'm eating to lose again and in fact am now back to my over-20-years-ago weight!

I went downstate for a funeral earlier this week, and spent 2 days there. My step-mother, who is wonderful and not wicked in the cinderella sense at all, lovingly prepared a beautiful meal for our arrival with her rheumatoid-arthritis afflicted hands. And it was DELICIOUS! Chicken and pork chops, floured and breaded with panko bread crumbs, served with potato salad, applesauce, and bread and butter. I would never reject her offering just to save on carbs, or to avoid a temporary gain of a couple of pounds, the mere thought of that is hurtful to me. And I enjoyed every single bite without guilt!

The next day there was a lovely luncheon after my uncle's funeral, which included a pasta dish, scalloped potatoes, rolls, breaded pork chops, a roasted vegetable mixture, and salad. I started with a hefty helping of salad and a couple of spoonfuls of the veggies. Then I ate a little of each of the other dishes, and skipped dessert. It was my main meal - only full meal - of the day.

2 days of carbs have taken their toll on the scale, yes...to the tune of about 4# actually. I know it's mostly water bound to glycogen molecules and will be gone shortly, if not already. And I'm having bread cravings like crazy too, that I'm fighting with the help of my Lovely Loaf, and modified oopsie rolls that include a little flax meal to give them more body. I had a serving of the bread today, and will have a couple of rolls with supper later this evening. Tomorrow I'll just eat the rolls and skip the bread altogether, and should be past the cravings.

Would I have preferred to eat low carb? Of course! But given the options I had, I absolutely made the right choice for my situation. I'm blessed that I don't have a health condition that totally prohibits carb consumption, obviously that would be a different story - and you might have written the story differently if it were your situation as well :).

I have a gentler heart than many, perhaps...but as one who also shows her love for others through food, I can't imagine rejecting that, not even for a few pounds.

Fresh New Blog & YouTube Channel #paleo #lowcarb

She is delightful, adorable, smart, and does great basic cooking - from making cauli-rice to zucchini noodles, I've enjoyed reading this fresh new blog and watching her very informative videos!

Can I Talk Yet AGAIN About My Lovely Loaf? #lowcarb #bread

I just wanted to mention that I changed some amounts, and one ingredient, which has resulted not only in a consistently more beautiful, lighter, real "Bread-y" loaf, but also has reduced the total net carb count by nearly 25%! These small tweaks have been made, and marked on the last post I made about this bread as it has already been bookmarked by quite a few people. But changes have been clearly marked :).

Cheap'n'Easy - and Quick! Peanut Butter Cup-cakes #Recipe #lowcarb

I wanted to whip up something quick for my husband's lunch last night so I got out my hand mixer, a mixing bowl, and started adding things to it. Readers of this blog know that I don't measure anything, but I used a 1/4c measuring cup and a couple of measuring spoons for everything so I'd be able to repeat the recipe if we liked it. And we LOVED it! "Frosted" with a little sweetened whipped peanut butter, these are really really good!

Whip together
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp soft butter

Stir in
1/3c peanut flour (it was a rounded 1/4c actually)
1/4c polyD
2 packets Truvia
2 Tbsp erythritol
2 Tbsp xylitol
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
tiny splash vanilla

Blend on high until smooth and creamy. Divide evenly among 6 well-greased cupcake wells and bake at 350F on center rack until a toothpick comes out clean; tip out on rack to cool. "Frost" with smooth peanut butter whipped with a little sweetening agent of your choice. (I used a drop of liquid sucralose.) (Note: you can add a little peanut oil or softened butter if your peanut butter is too stiff to whip.)

These were so fast and easy, I started them at 10:30 and by 11:30 there were 2 packed in his lunch bag!

(It is difficult to figure out the cost for these, the Truvia is the most expensive ingredient at 16c/packet, but these are EASILY less than Little Debbies with all of their sugars and additives!)

Rich and Decadent-Tasting #LowCarb Supper!

When I eat something really rich and sweet and salty all at the same time, I don't think "diet food" - well, I do now, but until the last 7 years I didn't! But tonight is the proof that this is indeed great food for my healthy way of eating!

I started out with a couple of big fat boneless country pork ribs, each about 1-1/2" thick. After seasoning them heavily with garlic and onion powder and sea salt I seared them in a pan with a little hot olive oil. (I had just used the last of my bacon fat earlier today, dangit!) Then I covered them and turned them down to medium low and went on to other things. Over an hour later I started thinking about my supper - normally I cook by smell, I have a nose like a bloodhound, but right I have a cold so it cooked longer than it otherwise would have - I took the lid off and lifted out this AMAZING pork rib meat! The seasonings on the bottom, with the fats in the pan from the meat, had developed this delightful sticky crunchy crust, and the rest of the meat just fell apart when it saw my fork approaching, it was that tender! That crust was so rich and flavorful that I felt like I was really eating something special!

I'm still eating on that big bowl of cole slaw I made yesterday - or was it the day before? - and with something this rich I needed a little sweetness. (I used to always eat my pork with fruit, for the sweet taste.) So I sprinkled some xylitol, maybe 1/2 tsp, over it and stirred it in...

There is no way to describe the way that first bite gave such pleasure to my mouth...the rich, slightly salty/garlicky/oniony warm tender meat with the intensely flavorful chewy/crunchy crust with the cold crispy sweet/creamy cole slaw, exploding with that rich mix of flavors and textures and temperatures and sensations all at once as I bit into it...well, it is just impossible to describe! Although there is no experience like the first bite of something so amazing, each successive bite renewed the happy feelings in my mouth and never disappointed...

This was an easy meal, and a cheap meal...but every bit as wonderful as the most expensive dinner I've ever had! I took a photo of it (which doesn't do justice of course...the slaw lacks color and the meat looks way darker in the picture) but I was only able to eat half of this meal and I am plenty full.

What an experience!!!

P.S. To complete my daily food listing, I had a ground beef patty with low-carb ketchup for breakfast, and a 16g/N South Beach bar for an afternoon snack. I doubt if I will need a snack tonight, I'm sure I'll be full until morning, now...

My Sassy Little #Lowcarb Sandwich Rolls - Tweaks

OK, so if I can tweak up my lovely loaf of bread, I have found that I can tweak up my little sandwich rolls from the original recipe I posted. All along I've been doing minor tweaks here and there, so here is a re-write of that recipe, with all of the changes, the way I make them now:

8 oz. soft cream cheese (full fat)
3 eggs
4 drops (equal to 4 tsp sugar) liquid sucralose
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4c Carbquik (or 1/2c any other low carb baking mix)
1/2c wheat protein isolate
2T wheat or oat bran (for color more than anything)
1/2c full fat plain yogurt

Beat the cream cheese in the mixer until smooth; add eggs and liquid sucralose. Beat until very smooth, add the remaining ingredients in no particular order, mix on low speed until blended then on medium speed until smooth and almost glossy.

Put a glob of batter into each WELL-GREASED well of the muffin top pan, and spread it from the middle to the sides; fill the wells only halfway. Bake at 325F for 10-12 minutes on the middle rack, or until you see them browning around the bottom on the edges. They will puff up to the top of the wells. Let them cool slightly - until they pull away from the sides and unpuff - before removing them to a cooling rack.

One last addition: for half of the rolls I sprinkle some sesame seeds across the top before putting them into the oven. Just adds not only to the flavor, but to the sense of really eating an honest-to-goodness bun! :)

NICE #Lowcarb Supper Tonight!

Tonight's supper was light and delicious! I seasoned and pan-fried cod, and served it with a cole slaw that I'd made earlier today - cole slaw is always better after sitting a while in the fridge, right? For the slaw, I used a bag of slaw mix, and made a dressing in a shaker bottle of full-fat mayo, cream, a couple drops of liquid sucralose, paprika, seasoned salt, and celery seed. For the baby corn, which doesn't taste very sweet straight from the can, I rinsed it, and heated it thoroughly (until it started to soften; as fibrous as it is, this took a while!) in butter and onion powder, with a half-packet of truvia and a little sea salt. It was really sweet and delicious this way!

In the old days, before my surgery, this would be about half of a meal for me. Now, though, it's definitely a complete meal, and all I can manage.

Earlier in the day I'd had a ground beef patty with a smidge of low-sugar ketchup. For my evening snack I had a slice of my lovely loaf, heavily buttered, with a schmear of peanut butter, then folded in half; growing up, we called this type of sandwich a foldover :).

Can I Talk Again About My Lovely Loaf?

Back on March 18th I posted the bread recipe that I had been using - and actually I've used that recipe for quite a while since then. The last couple of loaves, however, I have further tweaked it. Now instead of 2T heavy cream I use 3T plain full-fat yogurt. And I add 2T wheat bran (because I ran out of oat). And I'm using CarbQuick as the baking mix. And I'm only use 3/4c of the vital wheat gluten, and 1/2c of the wheat protein isolate. This last tweak has removed the gumminess from the texture, and it is light and slightly chewy just like "real" carby bread! It is so amazing, I'm betting that non-low-carbers wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Seriously! It is so good that I'm going to re-write the recipe and brag it all over the map!

Hmmm...as long as I'm going to re-write it, I will go ahead do so here:

- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 tsp yeast
- 3/4c hot water

I sprinkle the first 2 ingredients across the bottom of my pan, then add the water fairly slowly, all around, so that it mixes as it lands, then close the lid. As the yeast is getting happy, I prepare the remaining ingredients.

Into a medium mixing bowl I whisk together

- 3/4c vital wheat gluten
- 1/2c wheat protein Isolate
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/3c CarbQuik*
- 1/2c ground flax
- 2T oat or wheat bran

Into a smaller dish I whip together until well-combined:
- 2 eggs
- 3T full fat plain yogurt
- 10 drops liquid sucralose

In another small dish I melt
- 2T real butter

By this time, my yeast is mixture is foamed up. I gently stir in the egg mixture with a spatula, then the butter. Then I add the dry ingredients. I set the machine to 1.5# loaf, light color, basic cycle (3 hours), and start it. Then I wash up the dishes I'd used, except the spatula, and by that time it is mixed pretty well, except for a fair amount of dry ingredients around the sides. I scrape that back into the dough, then I close the lid and leave it alone to consummate the loaf.

I don't touch it again until it beeps that the mixing/rising is done, when I wash my hands and lift out the dough to remove the paddle. I pat the dough back into the pan so that it's even all around, and let it finish.

NOTE: The dough will continue to rise as it bakes and doesn't reach full height until 1/2 hour before it's done.

Once the bread is done, I remove the pan and let it cool for about 15-20 minutes, then turn the loaf out onto a plate, where I leave it, uncovered, overnight. This isn't an essential step, but it lets the crust dry out a bit and makes it easier to cut in the morning. I get 14 slices, about 1/4-3/8" each, out of each loaf, and that lasts us about 4 days. This bread is divine either plain with butter, for sandwiches, or toasted. It doesn't have the gummy-ness that so many lowcarb loaves have, it is light and slightly chewy, as any bread should be!

*I have also used Bob's Red Mill Low Carb Baking Mix, and it worked about the same; I'm hazarding a guess here that most such mixes would be fine.

I can't imagine that any more tweaks would improve this bread at ALL!