End of Month 1....

And I'm down 11 pounds!

Yay.

Start weight: 141 (I say 138/139 bc that scale was weird)

Weight today:

Sample Meal Plan:

Breakfast: bottled water, 2 scrambled eggs

Lunch: steamed fresh green beans, grilled chicken with avocado and salsa, bottled water

Snack: hard boiled eggs or cucumbers dipped in homemade greek dill dip (I know there's a name for it....)

Dinner: Turkey Meatballs with tomato sauce, roasted vegetable (I like eggplant, brussle sprouts or zucchini)

Dessert: Jell-O brand sugar free rice pudding cup. Have you had those? Best thing ever.

I'm also getting in my 8 glasses of water per day (64 oz= 4 bottles of 16 oz bottled water). The water is helping to flush my system, but as an added benefit my skin looks better than it ever has before. Yay!

I hope to introduce good carbs back into my diet at some point, but I still think i need to drop just a couple more pounds to feel comfortable again so I'm going to wait on that.





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Super LOW CARB Cheesecake

Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts.  My step-mom's daughter-in-law (step SIL?) makes these wonderful cheesecake bites that taste like something you might find at the pearly gates of heaven, and seriously the last time my dad had a party and she made them, I ate like 10.  And then I hid another 10 for my trip home.

Since I can't eat like that anymore, Im forced to make healthy alternatives to my favorite foods.  Desserts are especially hard to make healthy, and I generally don't like artificial sweeteners, but I was literally going out of my mind eating nothing but lean mean and vegetables so I HAD to have something.

This is an Italian cheesecake, and definitely not as dense as the American cheesecake we're all used to ordering at Cheesecake Factory.  But trust me, after all those weeks of not eating anything sweet, this is just absolutely delicious.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients: 3 tablespoons pine nuts 6 large eggs, separated 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon granular sugar substitute 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 (32-ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions: Position rack in middle of oven and heat oven to 275°F. Lightly coat a 9" springform pan with cooking spray. Spread nuts on a baking sheet and toast until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Cool. Increase oven to 325°F. In a large metal bowl, with an electric mixer at high speed, beat egg whites until frothy, about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes more. Set aside. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks, 1/3 cup of the sugar substitute, and vanilla for 1 minute. Add ricotta and zest, and beat on high until smooth. Gently fold one-third of the white into the yolk mixture, then add the rest of the whites and gently fold until well combined. Pour batter into pan, place pan on a baking sheet, and bake until cake is golden and mostly set, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Remove cake from oven and cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Combine lemon juice and remaining 1 teaspoon sugar substitute in a gently brush the surface of the cooled cake with two-thirds of the warm lemon mixture; drizzle the remaining mixture into the cracks. Sprinkle the top with pine nuts. Cool cake completely, then run a knife around the edge before releasing from pan. Chill, loosely covered, for 4 hours or overnight. Serve chilled.

Nutritional Information:

140 calories

9 g fat (4.5 g sat)

5 g carbohydrate

11 g protein

0 g fiber

140 mg sodium

***I didnt do the pine nuts part...not generally a fan.

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Weigh-In, week 3

After 3 weeks of eating no carbs, then low carbs- I am 4 pounds from my goal weight.

I am not going to the gym and I'm totally cheating everyday with one or two cookies from Mia's snack stash, so id say things are going well. It also helps that the hubs has been making me some yummy egg salad and vegetables so I stay on course.

4 more pounds!!

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Lunch With A Sick Baby

Well, I don't know of sick is the right word, but she's definitely got a fever and has been crying all morning. Her 2 year molars are coming in (a bit early!), and as we all know, when babies are teething they cry, have a fever, and sometimes a runny nose.

I have a drawer full of bits and pieces of random vegetables and I wanted to use them up before they went to waste. I also made some chicken in the crock pot the other day so I would have shredded chicken on hand for chicken salad, enchiladas, etc.

Mia didnt want to be put down, so I managed to cut as many vegetables one handed as I could, throw in some salt & pepper, light soy sauce, water (to steam) and let it cook for 10 minutes while she hung out on my hip and shoulder and cried. Poor kid.

It's called Fridge-Fry- like stir-fry, but not as fancy. There's also no rice, making it low-carb diet friendly.

Disclaimer: eating healthy or without carbs isn't fun, and definitely not as tasty as adding in white rice, water chestnuts, cashews (no carbs, but really HIGH in fat!), but you use what you have and do your best. It's very different from the fatty southern food I'm used to eating, but it's a whole lot cleaner!

So I guess the message is: don't be prepared to be "Wow'ed" from this dish.

Half a zucchini
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 chopped green onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
Frozen peas and carrots
1 piece of chicken- shredded or whatever you want

Cook in a wok with a little olive oil, then pour in water to steam, covered, for 5 minutes. Add salt, pepper to taste. Add a splash of light soy sauce and a dash of garlic powder.

Mia ate half of this, no joke. She loves everything I've made without carbs so far!

*the reason I use shredded chicken is to trick my mind into thinking it's white rice.


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Buffets Without Guilt

We ate the Rio buffet on Monday and I was scared that I was going to cheat on my diet. How can you NOT cheat with an ENTIRE buffet line of JUST COOKIES? Luckily for me, they had a huge salad section and a pretty nice seafood selection.

I drank almost a full glass of water before I got my (first) plate, which helped me to feel satisfied and not go nuts at the mashed potato/fried chicken/pasta section. I started with some baked salmon and whole cherry tomatoes. Then, I filled up on a plate of garden salad and raw veggies, followed by another big glass of ice water.

The best part for me was the tomato salad. Yellow and red grape tomatoes with olive oil and basil....yum.

Mia had a corndog. So not fair! I'm trying to come up with a casserole using low fat ricotta, but without the noodles. How about an eggplant and ground turkey parm? Worth a shot?

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Healthy Shepherd's Pie

My Mother-in-Law makes the BEST shepherds pie.  I mean, IT IS SO GOOD you will want to eat the entire casserole dish.  I've made it a few times, but since I don't like ground beef I used ground turkey.  I think what made her so good was the grease from the ground beef and the bbq sauce base. 

Her recipe is simple:
1 pound ground beef
1 cup Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce
1 tbsp yellow mustard
Frozen peas, corn & carrots
Garlic mashed potatoes (no idea....just add garlic to mashed potatoes, I guess)

Brown the beef, then add bbq sauce and mustard, then frozen vegetables.
Make mashed potatoes.
Layer the beef mixture, then the potatoes, bake at 350 for 30 min.

YUM. But not healthy.

Here's my healthy, figure-friendly version:

1 pkg Jennie-O LEAN ground turkey (That's the best brand, in my opinion)
1/2 pkg Lawrey's Beef Marinade
1 tbsp bbq sauce
1 squirt of mustard
4 splashes Worcestershire sauce
2 cups frozen vegetables (peas, corn, etc- whatever you like)

Brown meat, then add all ingredients, adding more of whatever you like.  Salt & Pepper if you want, but I never do,

Mashed Cauliflower:
1 large package frozen cauliflower
1 can of fat free chicken broth, plus a can of water (in the broth can)
1/2 cup parm cheese
1/3 cup fat free cheddar shredded cheese
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp of plain fat free yogurt or fat free sour cream, whatever you have
salt & pepper to taste

Boil cauliflower for 10 minutes or until very soft, drain.  Add the other ingredients. Mix together, then mash.  Can also be put in blender or food processor to desired consistency.

Put meat mixture in dish, put cauliflower mash on top, bake 350 for 30 minutes.

I hope you enjoy it! Mia LOVES this dish. Mashed cauliflower is hard to get used to and pretend that it's potatoes, but I love it.  MUCH better than mashed potatoes! 

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First Blog Post

On my other blog, OMG...I'm a Mom!, I mentioned that I was doing the 17 day diet. I made it to day 14 before I realized I could lose more weight by cutting out some of the carbs. I'm still eating the recommended food and using the recipes, but I've decided to take out the fruit and Kefir shakes. I guess I'm basically doing the Atkins diet or South Beach. At my first weigh in3 weeks ago, I was 141. Here was my scale 2 days ago:

I don't know why these pictures always look like crap when I post from my iPhone.

It's also that time of the month.

Currently the only exercise I'm doing is walking to and from the park with Mia. Once I get down to 129, I'll start doing some cardio.

Come here for more updates on the diet and for recipes!


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