Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy this last week so I have not been able to try some new recipes. Things should settle down by Monday. I made a bunch of fajita chicken and for lunch the last four days I have had fajita salads for lunch, eggs and cheese for breakfast, and a meat and veggie for dinner. Nothing fancy but quick and easy. I will be posting a Carobonara recipe and Pad Thai recipe sometime this week. I am reading all of my followers posts but I have not had time to comment.

Well if all goes well..

Hopefully, by March 6th my scale will arrive from America so I can start posting my wait loss. I am going to try and get new recipes up 2 or 3 times a week. I think I will create a low carb Pad Thai dish using shirataki. IS there anything else you guys want me to try to come up with?? I will do my best to not disappoint.

This week is very busy for me as it is test week so I will just be posting menus with out too many pictures.

Breakfast
3 eggs with some grated cheese

Lunch
Large salad with 7 kinds of greens topped with some thinly sliced pork and my own vinaigrette

Dinner Chicken Breast Mexicana and sauteed spinach

ps for those of you that caught the (wait loss / weight loss) hehe I have waited for that scale for so long that I dont want to wait anymore nor do I want to wait for my weight loss to continue.

Beef and Snow Pea Shirataki Stir Fry

Ingredients
1 lb of good stir fry meat ( I used sirloin cut paper thin)
8 oz of snow peas
2 packs of shirataki
2-3 garlic cloves minced fine
2 tsps finely minced ginger
1 cup broth ( fish chicken or beef ..depends on personal taste)
4 ozs of your favorite mushrooms
3 T soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
1T rice vinegar
2 tsps splenda( optional)
lc thickener

Directions
Fry the seasoned (salt and pepper)meat in 2 T of oil, add the minced garlic and onion and cook until meduim rare. Take out the meat and put aside. Do not change pans add the mushrooms into the pan so they soak up the the juices and help deglaze the pan or wok. Add the shirataki, broth, soy, splenda and rice vinegar stir and cook for 5 minutes. ( this helps the shirataki take on the flavor of the broth) Add the meat back for a couple minutes.. drizzle the sesame oil over the stirfry and plate the stir fry on a large plate leaving the sauce in the pan. Now, taste the sauce. reduce and thicken with LC thickener to desired consistency. Pour over the plated stir fry and bon appetite.

Now options: when reducing the sauce try adding 2 table spoons of butter and 1 T of LC oyster sauce. If you want spice.. I have another recipe coming for that :) Also, in Japanese cooking a commonly used ingredient is Mirin or rice wine.. be careful using this as it is full of carbs.. this recipes is adapted from my usual 3 T of soy and 2 T of mirin pre LC lifestyle change.

Serves 4 5 net carbs per serving

Fajita Salad and Todays menu

Well after that depressing post I thought I would post something lighter :) Todays Menu:
10 Am 2 eggs and 15 grams of cheese

1:30 pm Fajita Salad (Iceberge, daikon sprouts, spinach, 2 other Japanese leafy vegetables( I dont know the English names)( all locally grown organically:) but they have the same carb count as spinach... cheese, no sugar vinegarette, chicken, cheese and guacomole. Yummy :)

3:00 Atkins Bar

8:00 Asian Beef and Shirataki stir fry recipie coming later

Anyway, I teach at a local high school and I talked to the head of the PE department and got permision to use the weight room for FREE!! SoI have a place to work out until I out grow it :)

Is there a hole big enuf???

Well, I had a free day today so I thought I would go check out some gyms around town. Unfortunately, I only made it to one and it was a nightmare!! The gym that I chose to go into was running a promo..no entrance fees, first month free and free tour and guidance to begin a program. At first I was very excited, it was a very nice modern gym with everything that I wanted. (variety of classes, pool, free weights, treadmills and bikes, etc)

I go to the front desk and talk to the receptionist telling her that I am thinking of joining their gym and that I would like to take the tour and have the guidance session. Up till this point there was a big smile on my face.. then I meet the trainer that was doing my guidance session and tour. As soon as she saw me it seemed that she was sick.. in other words disgusted about my size. We toured the facility and then went back to her office for the guidance session.

After I sat down in her office she asked me, "Why do you want to join our gym?". I replied," I am looking to get in better shape to help me lose weight." She then began to lecture me.. you have high blood pressure, you are fat because you eat too much, you can't exercise, your arteries are probably clogged etc.. I was shocked. I did not know what to say really. Then she went on to say that I could not join any of the classes, I could not use the treadmills because it would be unsightly and basically the only thing I could use was the free weights.. but then she made sure to insinuate I sweat too much with the comment.."you need to bring my own towel to wipe the sweat and smell off the equipment!" She said I would not be able to use the showering or locker facilities either.

She said she would not waste her time making me a training schedule, as "You will never follow it anyway!" was thrown in my face. I asked her, " So in other words you just don't want me here??" and she replied, " You disgust me!". At that point I got up and walked out of her office.
The manager and receptionist were at the front desk and politely asked me how my tour and session went. I was at a loss for words so I just kept walking and manager followed me into the parking lot. He asked me if I was going to join. I turned red around and said,"No, your trainer says I am to fat to exercise and that I am disgusting!" "Goodbye!"

You know the really sad part about this is my blood pressure is not high, it was getting close (145/83) so not so bad. This trainer totally wrote me off with out really finding out about me. She never gave me a chance. So it looks like I will be doing a lot of laps around the Jr high track that is right next door.

Hamburger Stroganoff with shirataki

Ingredients
4 6-8 oz hamburger patties(fresh ground beef is better)
3 oz of mushrooms( I used shimeji mushrooms but use what you have..)
2 packs of shirataki (cut into bite size pieces
2 cups no carb chicken broth
1 cup unsweetened soy milk or 2/3 cup cream
2 T red wine
1 T worscestershire sauce
2 T butter
2 slices cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream and parsley to garnish

Directions
Season the hamburger patties and brown both sides, cook to a medium rare or medium and take out of the fry pan and put on a plate and cover with a lid. Then add the mushrooms and butter to the pan and saute the mushrooms in the hamburger drippings. Add the wine after about 2 minutes of sauteing to fully deglaze the pan. Then add the broth, worchestshire, soy milk or cream and cheese. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer and add shirataki and hamburger paties, cover the pan and simmer for 5 minutes to 10 minutes. Plate the hamburgers and taste the sauce add salt and peeper to taste. Reduce the sauce to desired consistancy and turn off the heat. Spoon the sauce over the hamburger patties and garnish with a dallop of sour cream and pinch of parsely. Enjoy :) Sorry the picture doesnt show the sour cream I had enuf for two servings and my children started eating them before I could take a picture. haha

The shirataki always need to be rinsed before using and its better not to smell them until they are cooked.. the noodles will soak up the flavors of the sauce..

Nutrition Info ( For Soy milk version)
Serves four 3 net grams per serving( make sure to adjust for changes you make ie boulion instead of broth etc.) Vit A 481 mg Calcium 200 mg sodium 1009 Chol 201

only 2 net grams for cream version

Who do you believe??

You know some of the things that I find that are very annoying are the discrepancies in the carb counting charts.. for example one of my favorites "Shiitake" mushroom.

In my Japanese official nutrition catalogue it has the above mushroom tallying in at .5 carbs with .4 carbs per mushroom but the Atkins carb calculator has it at a whopping 2.2 carbs per shroom.

Another example is the all powerful and breakfast favorite "eggs". In Japan, a whole egg is counted at .2 grams where as we all know that in the Atkins plan it is counted as .6 grams.

hmmm..

I talked to the nutritionist at our school about the discrepancies and she said it was to due to the type of feed that the chickens eat that lay the eggs. Hmm..so I wonder are Japanese chickens on a low carb diet?? As their lower stats on the all important carb line shine when compared to their American counterparts?!

I wonder can someone give me a better explanation? Cuz this enquiring low carber really wants to know. o.O and btw.. most of the nutrition stats are the same or really close to each other when comparing.

Chicken in Spicy Mushrrom and tomato sauce

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
3 cups chicken stock
4 to8 sliced mushrooms ( I had shitakii available so I used them)
1 cup unsweetened soy milk or 2/3 cup heavy cream
1 medium tomato diced
1 clove garlic (minced)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
garnish with some freshly chopped parsley

Directions
Season the chicken breast to taste using your favorite dry rub. Brown both sides on medium heat in some olive oil. When the second side of the chicken is done pull the chicken out of the fry plan and put on a plate add 1 T of butter and the mushrooms and garlic and saute 1 or 2 minutes. Add the stock, milk, tomatoes, cayenne pepper and stir. Then add the chicken breasts back and simmer for 20 minutes. When the chicken is done plate it and reduce the sauce to your own liking and spoon over your chicken. Garnish with some fresh parsley and enjoy.

roughly 6 grams net carbs per serving

Alfredo Pasta

1 cup broth ( fish or chicken)
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 oz/ 60 grams Camembert cheese( this is what was in my refrigerator...)
1 oz / 30 grams Parmesan cheese
2 packs shirataki (rinsed and drained)
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp of garlic powder
1/8 tsp of all-spice
1/2 tsp of finely chopped fresh parsley

In fry pan combine everything but the shirataki and parsley and bring the mixture slowly up to a rolling boil and immediately lower the heat to low add the shirataki and simmer for 10 minutes. Just before removing from the heat add the parsley. The sauce will thicken more as it cools let stand for 5 minutes garnish with some Parmesan cheese and parsley and enjoy.

As always with my recipes please feel free to add or subtract or replace as needed. I made this for the first time today and I gave my kids a bite and they wouldn't give it back. I think many different ingredients can be added to make it to a different dish including artichokes, olives, sun dried tomatoes etc to make it even better or for variety. Most white cheeses will work Romano and Gorgonzola to name a few.

Makes one serving and nets you 6 grams of carbs

Low carbing in Japan

I am an American living in Japan with my 4 beautiful children. As I started my new lifestyle I was really struggling with the fact that two biggest parts of the diet meat and dairy are extremely expensive( 10 oz steak is about $30.00 and 1 quart of cream is $23.00 not to mention cheese hehe) here in Japan. I was in a quandry as for what to do for low carb foods like wraps, shakes etc. I placed an order to Netrition for almost 200 dollars....1/3 of that was shipping and I have come to the conclusion that I was wrong on both accounts.

I am in Japan, so I should use what I have here and easily available. I am very lucky as I can buy chicken cheaper than the states ( about 5 lbs breast meat deboned for $7.00) and my new favorite shirataki noodles which I can get on sale for about 58 cents a bag. :) As well as a plethora of cheap fresh low carb foods like daikon, bok choy, pak choy, spinach, fresh greans,sprouts and tofu, and that is what I am going to and have been eating. Eggs are also relatively inexpensive and the area I am living in is famous for free range chickens. :) I can also eat locally raised pork that have been raised entirely on sweat potatoes and another that has been raised on mushrooms and the by products of making sake and shochu. ( all natural foods btw no chemicals added)

I happy to say that my quandry is no more. As I move forward I will be posting more and more recipies featuring asian cooking and shirataki. I hope all that follow this blog will get some new ideas from my menus and not feel that they have to be special food to live this lifestyle as it can be done any where. :)

Bacon and PakChoy Creme Soup

4 cups water
2 cups Unsweetened Soy Milk
400 grams shirataki (cut into more manageble pieces)( about 2 packs)
60 grams of Camemebert Cheese ( Any cheese will work...use what yu have :)( about 2 oz)
120 grams bacon (about 6-8 slices)
2 medium Pak Choy
45 g shitakii mushrooms(your favorite muxhrooms will work)( 3 mushrooms)
2 T parmesan cheese
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
2 bouillon cubes

Directions:
Cut the bacon finely, slice the mushrooms and cut the pak choy into bite size pieces. In a soup pot add the butter and olive oil, bacon and saute, when the bacon is almost done ( nice and brown but not crispy) add the pak choy and mushrooms saute about 2 minutes. ( I used real garlic so I added 3 finely minced cloves at this point too so they did not burn)

Add the water, soy milk and cheese. Bring to a low boil and lower the heat to simmer. Add shirataki and spices and Simmer for about 20 minutes. Please adjust seasoning to taste. You can garnish with fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese.

note: this is a great base to make many soups.. drop the pak choy add spinach, kale or triple the mushrooms and make it a cream of mushroom soup.. If you can use homemade chicken broth and drop the bouillon cubes. Will taste better and be better for you... :) Lastly, I use this to free up my fridge before shopping and it also saves me buying cream which here in Japan is about $20. 00 per liter(1 quart) compared to 3 dollars for soy milk.
Also if you want to save on carbs drop the mushrooms. When I made it today, I had three shitakii mushrooms so I put them in and it was great :)

Nutrition info:
Serves 4 as main course or 6 to 8 as a side
4 grams if served as main course and less of course as a side :)

Well I cheated....

When you read the words "cheated" what comes to mind??? A carb loaded dessert?? A carb loaded entree like pasta or pizza or maybe even a bag of Doritos? Or even worse an all out carbmaniacal binge. The answer is none of the above.

Let' start with the good news first. I made my first mock danish... the bad news is that I made my second and third as well and ate them throughout the day. Although my total carb count was 35 grams for the day. I never really even realized how many carbs these low carb gems had and lost track of how many lower quality carbs I was putting into my body.

I have completed my sixth week of this new life style so if I go by the Atkins standards I did not really cheat as my total intake of carbs in the 6th week can be as high as 40.However, my personal goal is to try and to stay at 30 or less as I have a ton to lose. So I cheated on myself. This type of eating lead me to my weight I am at now. Whether it being a carb loaded doughnut or a carb smart mock danish. I must work on changing my eating habits and style of eating so I can break the chains of weight gain forever. From now on new and delicacy low carb snacks will be done in moderation with knowledge before hand of how many carbs I am ingesting.

Thank God for children!

The other day my son came into my office with a very serious look on his face. I asked what was the matter. He replied, " Dad I have been thinking.. you know my birthday is coming up in a few months and I was wondering if you are going to still be doing this diet??" I replied, "Yes." He then said, " I feel so bad that you can't eat a birthday cake with me that I don't want a birthday cake. We can just skip it this year." Well needless to say I was touched... how many kids would be willing to give up that special cake that they get only once a year. ( he is 8 years old)

So I have decided that I will try to find a cake that I can eat with him and stay on play as it just reaffirmed the reason why I am changing my lifestyle and that is for me and my family.

Have a great day:)

PS if any one has a great cake recipe( low carb of course) please send it to me by March 1st. 2009.

What do I eat??

Dinner
Pan roasted chicken breasts and
sauted spinach with bacon.

Breakfast
This is an egg, sausage, spinach scramble topped with 1/4 of a diced tomato and 2 tablespoons of cheese.














Lunch
This is grilled chicken salad. Grilled chicken on a bed of ice berg lettuce ( sorry that is what I had in the fridge) topped with chedder cheese, diced daikon and a creamy mustard dressing. Yummy...now how many net carbs hehe

Losing weight the low carb way

The peak of the low carb craze has come and gone... so why would I choose this style of dieting to try and lose weight... Well the answer is simple. I have to lose weight and it is the only thing that will work for me. I do not believe in invasive surgeries or magic pills. The low fat approach never worked for me so I am going the low carb route. There are those pundits that say the diet will kill you or you will pay for it in the long run... I say to them, Wrong, if I don't lose weight now I will be dead in 5 years.

Now which diet or better lifestyle do I follow. There are numerous people in the know(doctors) pandering low carb diets with marketing hype saying they are the best. But, I chose the Atkins Diet and I read the book before I started my diet. I wish I could say this is my first time on this plan but it isn't. 3 years ago I was on this plan faithfully for two months but an unfortunate death in the family and my wife be hospitalized for almost 2 and half months put an end to the diet although I lost nearly 50 ponds during the time I was faithful.

3 years has passed since then and my weight has ballooned to the highest it has ever been for many reasons. Probably, the biggest reason being not the quantity of food but the poor choice of food and timing of when I ate.

I am one of those people who won't eat anything all day and when I think about food then I start eating... say at around 8 o'clock in the evening and then I am hungry again at midnight and finally the worst I eat a snack just before going to bed at 2 am. As you can see a very unhealthy lifestyle.

I have been living the low carb lifestyle since January 6, 2009 but to be honest I have no idea what my actual weight is. Hmm... makes you wonder, right? Well, i live in Japan, in a rural area and they don't have scales that can weigh me... that is unless I swallow all my pride and get on a scale at the livestock auction. I can see the news headline now. " American is so big that he has to get weighed on a scale made for cattle." But there is good news I found a place online, www.livingxl.com that sells scales for large people. The scale will be ordered on Friday so as soon as it gets here I can let you all know how much I weigh at this juncture. I am also planning on posting my weight loss on a monthly basis. I will also try to post my blood work or at least make it available to those pundits and non believers.

Thanks for reading the lowcarb guy :)