A disaster becomes a sucuess

Today, I ventured back into the kitchen to do some low carb baking. I found a recipe for snickerdoodles and changed it slightly, (it calls for all splenda..I used LakantoS instead) Unfortunately, the cookies spread out to thin and were to soft to place on a cooling rack.

Hmmm.. I think next time I will baking powder instead of baking soda... and less butter.. Anyways, as the cookie wafers cooled they crisped up... so I thought how can I use these.. I tasted the shreds and they were tasteful then I thought hmmm.. strawberries and fresh creme and voila I put them together and got a wonderful LC dessert.

Kids are truly funny

Last night I was goofing around with my daughter and teasing here about her recent development of pimples. I was chasing her around the room and when I finally got my paws on her I was laughing so hard that my mouth was gaping open. Well, my child did the unthinkable act of stuffing the small piece of toast in mouth.. I was shocked and my own reaction shocked me even more! I darted over to the garbage and started spitting out the piece of bread as if it was poison. Once I felt that most of the intruding carb monsters that had entered my mouth had been dispelled enough, I made extra sure by going over to the sink and rinsing out my mouth and gargling water.

After, I finished.. I pondered, what the rush was and why I acted so quickly over small piece of toast. It was at that moment that I realized how committed I am to this new lifestyle and how big of part it plays in my life. My daughter on the other hand was acting rather sheepishly and started to apologize. She was almost on the verge of tears. So I asked what was wrong? She replied, "Dad, I did something really mean to you! You are being so good about your diet and I tried to make you break it just so you wouldn't pop my pimple."

I looked at her and she looked at me. Then we started laughing so hard it was unreal about the events that had transpired. I told her, "Well, I guess I won't try to pop any of your pimples!" and she said, "I won't try and sabotage your diet!" and all was good.

Then today, we are making cookies and I was experimenting with sweeteners, I made some cinnamon sugar out of splenda, LakantoS and another sweetener that is a mixture of sucralose and erythritol. I decided to give it the "Kid test!" so I told my daughter to make a piece of toast and bring it to me. She looked at me with a befuddled expression on her face and I said, "Really, Go make a piece of toast!" She left the room and made a piece of toast. She brought it into me and looked like she was about to cry.. I buttered the toast and then sprinkled the Cinnamon sugar over the toast and cut it into four pieces. Then I proceeded to give each of my children a piece of the piping Cinnamon toast. My daughter let out a huge sigh of relief, this time it was my turn to looked at my daughter with a befuddled expression.. and she said," Dad, when you said make me a piece of toast I thought you were going to give in on your diet! I thought about telling you "NO!" but I couldn't do it after what happened last night." I started to laugh saying, I thought we were over that?? She said, "Yeah, I know but.." I stopped her and gave her a big ole bear hug and said, " Emily, No worries! I love you and always will." All was good again as we munched on some fresh baked snicker doodles....

May 3rd,2009

Breakfast:Scrambled Eggs
Snack:Atkins Bar
Lunch:Steak and creamed brocolli.
Dinner: 3 pork sirloin steaks and 1/2 cup of creamed spinach.

Dessert: Making cookies we will see how they turn out..

May 2nd, 2009

Breakfast: 3 Scrambled Eggs and Bacon

Snack: Atkins Bar

Lunch: Bacon Cheese burger Meat Balls & Green Salad

Snack:Atkins Bar

Dinner: Lunch was so good I repeated it with left overs :)

Today, I decided to make a new recipie. I took ground beef and I added garlic, soy sauce, cumin, cardamon, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, mayonaise, ground cabbage, Parmesan Cheese and eggs and mixed it thouroghly. I cut up cheddar cheese into 3/4 inch cubes and pushed them into the meatballs and enclosed the cheese in the meat. Then I sliced some bacon up and placed them on top of the meat balls and baked for about 30 minutes.. results were Yummo :)

I suggest everyone try these :)

May 1st, 2009

Oops... some how I got off a day...

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs and bacon

Lunch:I was out and about so a double quarter pounder w/cheese no bun, mustard,pickles, onion or ketchup and 5 small yakitori from a street vendor

Dinner: Salad(lettuce and broccoli sprouts) and 2 pork sirloin steaks.

Dessert:Yogurt Cheese, Strawberries, Blue Berries, Cream and Natural sweetener.

The picture is a little funny because I used frozen blueberries :) Nothing wrong with them just frozen..I placed this back in the fridge for 2 hours and then mixed it up.. it was a little tart..but I rather liked it. Newvision had an article up about yogurt that stated that in the process of making the yogurt carbs are lost so you can actually count half of the carbs that you normally would. If you want more info on that please check out her blog.

Yogurt Cheese

To make yogurt cheese, scoop the desired amount of yogurt into a coffee filter and let drain in your fridge for about three hours or over night you will get something that resembles a cross between sour cream, ricotta and cream cheese. (to make it sour and use like sour cream add a little lemon juice and stir..let set for 15 minutes before serving..)Make sure you put something beneath the coffee filter and holder..if you don't you WILL have water all over your fridge! Also make sure you use non sweetened sugar.

If you want to try something funky.. I was thinking that if you can buy yogurt sweetened with Splenda you might be able to make a cool flavored dip or frosting for a cookie or even a spread for a flax cracker.. unfortunately I don't have that option available here.. but someone please try it and let me know how it works. :)

Now, you might ask why I have incorporated yogurt into my diet. Well, here in Japan there are many cases of pylori caused infection if the stomach or digestive tract and yogurt and broccoli sprouts help keep that unhealthy bacteria found in our stomachs in check. If you want to find out more check out the blog "Healthy Fellow" here is a link:http://www.healthyfellow.com/203/broccoli-sprouts-and-ulcers/.

April 29th, 2009

Breakfeast: A hearty 3 egg, bacon, Parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese and spinach scramble.
Snack: Atkins Bar Peanut Fudge Granola Bar
Lunch: 2 pork sirloin steaks and 2/3 cup of fresh steamed broccoli
Dinner: Salad including 2 kinds of sprouts, 2 kinds of lettuce, tomatoes and homemade vinaigrette sweetened with Splenda and a steak.

Monthly Weigh in

Although weight loss was very slow during the first half of the month.. I ended up losing 12 pounds for the month. During the first part of the month I was eating pecans everyday because I bought them in bulk at Costco. I stopped eating any Atkins bars, and I swore off artificial sweeteners hoping that I could increase my weight loss and be even more healthy eating all natural snacks (pecans, strawberries etc) however, that was not the case. I started eating Atkins bars again, about a week ago.

In conclusion, I have decided that I will reintroduce nuts on a daily basis when I am within 15 lbs of my goal. Until that time I will not swear off them but will eat them sparingly. At that time I will also go more (LC) whole foods. As for artificial sweeteners, I will still eat them sparingly, however, I have about 50 packs of crystal light and 20 packs of Jello (sugar free variety) I will use them. But when they are gone I will not replenish them. I have found a drink mix that is sweetened with Stevia that will be here shortly for me to try. I will do a product review, Iwill also do product reviews on Atkins bars.. but it seems Atkins is doing another flavor change and some of my favorites are no longer offered. I only have about 30 bars left from my original purchase back in January.