Yummy Friday leftovers for dinner!

We just ate a lunch of salad, broiled sirloin steak, and fresh asparagus.


Some of the leftovers went into the fridge for DH's dinner and some went in my bento box, along with a little leftover broccoli with cheese sauce and an avocado, for dinner tonight at work. If the dinner is half as good as the lunch it will be fantastic. The fact that the steak was a 3.5 pound one purchased for $5.49 and the asparagus was $.99 a bundle makes it all the more sweeter!

I just love coming up with a lunch that's low in carbs, tasty and inexpensive.

Quick & easy lunch & dinner out

I worked 5.5 hours today and got a 15 minute break and no lunch period which meant any food I took had to be low carb and quick and easy to eat. Since I'd gotten fresh asparagus at Albertson's yesterday for .99 a bundle (yes, that cheap!) I took some raw asparagus and cheeses. Raw asparagus is one of my favorite snacks but since its normally almost $4 a pound, I just don't buy the stuff. Anyway, today on my break I ate my asparagus with some Colby Jack and Havarti cheeses. It was a very tasty snack, thank you.

Dinner was nice but not too exciting. We went to Jucy's where DH got a burger and onion rings and I had a large beef salad.

I think I'm coming down with something. I don't have time for this!

Cream Cheese Cupcake

Last night I whipped up one of my favorite treats;cream cheese, splenda, and vanilla extract. I ate a few spoons of it and put the rest in a cupcake paper in the fridge. I then put the cupcake paper in a plastic 1/2 cup measuring cup so the cheese wouldn't spread.

This morning I was greeted by this:

How pretty and tasty! This is about 1/3 of a block of cream cheese so it has about 6 grams of carbohydrate in it. Don't even ask about the fat content but I think one could substitute low fat cream cheese and get the same results.

Goody, a new treat for my bento!

Pretty fair fare tonight!

Tonight we had SeaPak's Seasoned Ahi Tuna Steaks with spinach and peas and carrots. I'd planned to have salad, also, but we're out of salad stuff...

The tuna steaks were excellent but although a serving is listed as one we each wanted more! I'd only prepared two, though, so we sucked it up and just ate our tuna and vegetables.

The tuna comes pre-seasoned and although the seasoning is good, its a little on the salty side for me. Next time I'll rinse some of it off the fillet before baking.

One of the nice things about this meal is that it took less than 20 minutes, from beginning to end, to prepare. It's also heart healthy, low in carbs, and although it isn't what I'd call dirt cheap, it was quite reasonable. The box of two steaks costs slightly less than $5 and I can't even get greasy fried fish for that price around here.

Will we have Seapak's Seasoned Ahi Tuna Steaks again? You bet we will! And pretty regularly, too. :)

Chili & Children

I made some excellent chili for dinner (but we ate it for lunch today) and it was so easy and quick to prepare.

I browned turkey breakfast sausage in a skillet with a little water and when the sausage was cooked, I added a can of mild Rotel, a can of diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup of cooked black beans, and a small can of tomato sauce. To that I added 2 chopped green onions, tops and all, chili powder, cilantro, crushed red pepper, garlic powder and freshly ground black pepper. I let the stuff simmer for about an hour then served it topped with some shredded Colby Jack cheese.



And today my sons and I drove to a nearby town to visit the graves of my daughters, Alison and Alyssa. Alyssa died prior to their birth in 1987 and it was 11 years ago today that Alison died in her sleep. This was a hard and long day for the three of us but it was good to be together. I got a few pictures to share.


The three of us in front of DH's office before we headed to the cemetery. From the left, there's Jon, me and Jeremy.


Jon, outside the restaurant where we ate lunch


Jeremy, outside the restaurant. Incidentally, I think this is the only picture of my oldest where he looks like a 'redneck'. ;)


Closeup of Jon reading in the car


Closeup of Jeremy while talking to me

So there you have it - pictures taken today of me and my sons. They're both handsome keepers!


And just so y'all will know the face of one of the precious ones we visited today, here's Alison. I still love and miss you, Ali...

Another week's menus

So here it is..time for Menu Plan Monday again. I so look forward to this and miss it when I don't partake! It's great incentive to plan my week's menu but it's also nice to see what others are eating. I get some great ideas from their menus and they help me work a little variety into ours.

I'm off tomorrow and hope to spend more time with my oldest son before he heads back to Austin. In light of that, dinner will be something that needs very little attention - slow cooked chili. We'll have salad with it and DH will probably have crackers, too. Some of the leftovers will more than likely land in one of my bento boxes. There's no need to throw away a small spoon of something when you have a bento box. Leftovers, even little dabs of them, are perfect for filling it!

The rest of the week we'll have, in no particular order except for when leftovers are used:

Pressure cooked spicy chicken with garlic green beans and salad

Chicken salad made with leftover chicken. DH will more than likely have his as a sandwich and I'll put mine in lettuce and top it with homemade pico de gallo.

Meat crust pizza with salad and steamed broccoli

Ahi tuna steaks seasoned with garlic pepper, served with salad and brussels sprouts

Slow cooked flat cut brisket with a few new potatoes, carrots, and cabbage

As you can see, most of the meals are very low in carbs and when carbs are involved, there just aren't many of them. It's working to control my blood sugar and help me lose weight so I'm keeping at it!

If you haven't participated in Menu Plan Monday but are interested in menu planning, give it a shot. I think you'll be glad you did. :)

Weight loss, blood sugar, low carb eating, & bento style lunches

While at my mother's house yesterday I weighed myself. I've lost about 15 pounds in the last few weeks and now weigh 170 lbs. Supposedly, the "ideal weight" for someone my height and age is between 119 and 125 but I think that's too small. I'm aiming for 145 and once I get there I'll adjust the goal if needed.

My mother commented that I look smaller from behind. Ha, thanks Mom! ;) I probably do, though, and I appreciated the notice of it. A friend of hers commented that I look like I've lost "a lot of weight". Wow, are 15 pounds that noticeable? Hmmm, I guess to her they are.

At any rate, the friend wanted to know how I've done it so I told her I'm eating low carb and using bento boxes for meals at work. We had a nice discussion about the bento boxes and she seemed pretty enthused about the concept. Hopefully she'll do a little research and perhaps give bento a shot.

Using the bento boxes to help with portion control has made a difference but eating low carb is making the larger difference, I think. Regardless, the combination seems to work for me and I'm thrilled! More important is the fact that my blood sugar is just about under control now. I don't go over 140 often at all and most times hover around 100. Plus, I have very few hypo episodes now. What improvement!

Okayk, time to work on the menu for the coming week so I can partake in Menu Plan Monday again.