And now for something completely different...

I don't get the whole "New Year's Resolutions" thing. And apparently I'm not alone in this. In my youth, I put stock in the concept mainly because my mother did so and encouraged me to, also. But I don't recall ever keeping the resolutions. Come to think of it, I don't recall her keeping them, either.  So somewhere along the line I gave up and decided the entire process was inherently flawed.

What I didn't realize as a child, teenager and even most of my adult life was that goal setting without a plan to achieve the goal(s) is fruitless. At least for most of us. We humans aren't born knowing how to make Tiramisu, how to save to pay cash for a car, or how to raise responsible and loving children and if we aren't given good models and/or a plan we simply don't "get it". More than willpower alone, that explains why so many of us say we're going to learn to cook and keep making macaroni and cheese (from a box, no less!) for dinner. Or say we're going to be better with our money and continue to live paycheck to paycheck. Or say we're going to be a good parent and wonder why our kids turn out as they do. Our goals are vague and the knowledge that we need or want to do something in particular takes us only so far.

Excellent instruction in goal setting and planning for success in personal finance is shown by Dave Ramsey. If you don't know much about Dave, I encourage you to read his books and learn all you can about his personal finance philosophy. I don't always put into practice what I learned from Financial Peace University but I have a better handle on that part of my life than I did before the course and I know that if I work that plan, it works for me. Every time. Although what he says is common sense and should be common knowledge, most of us don't appear to have or use that knowledge and Dave lays out, in simple (but not always easy) steps the whys and hows of achieving financial security. He provides a plan to succeed with money and I think that explains his huge, very loyal, and debt free or soon to be debt free fan base.

There are a few tricks to help us set and achieve goals. I learned some of those tricks through FPU, used them without intent in recent months, and inadvertently achieved some major progress in goals. When I realized this, it was as though a light bulb went off over my head. In addition, I realized that for each goal I've not progressed in, there was no plan. That goal just sat dormant in the back of my mind with no action on my part. I think of it like this: I can fantasize about eating quiche for dinner all day long but unless I get off my fanny and make it (or order it in a restaurant!) I'll probably have turkey bacon and eggs for dinner. Again.

So I'm going to continue to work on old goals and try to reach a few new ones in the coming weeks and months. Meh, this might be the same thing as setting New Year's Resolutions (a horse by any other name...) but it hasn't felt that way to me and I hope it continues to not feel that way!

I've limited my goals because overloading myself will lead to none being met but here are three I'm either continuing to work on or have set for coming months along with the steps I'll take to achieve them:

Goal: expand my cooking skills
Steps to achieve this: attend local cooking classes, actually reproduce some of the amazing looking dishes I've seen in online cooking tutorials rather than just watching and wishing I could make the dish, and share some of the successes and failures (there will be some of both) on this blog

Goal: continue to lose weight
Steps to achieve this: increase my walking from 30 minutes 3 times a week to 45 minutes 5 times a week, increase my dance/exercise time from 15 minutes 4 times a week to 30 minutes 5 times a week, and continue to follow my lower carb way of eating

Goal: stop smoking
Steps to achieve this: throw out my cigarettes, buy and use the smoking cessation patches, and join a smoking cessation support group

I can't say that I'll have success with each goal but if there's progress I'll know I'm headed in the right direction and that will help to motivate me.

So here's to a new year, new goals, better health, and new foods to eat!

December 26th - January 2 Menu & new recipes tried

Shame on me, I haven't posted an entry in two months! But life got hectic and even a little scary for awhile and now that it shows signs of calming down I hope to get back to my regularly scheduled programming, including blogging. Thank you for the prayers, comments, and emails for my mother and stepfather. They're doing better and although I'm not under any delusion that all is well with them, they're managing for now. And finally, the holiday rush at work is almost over and I see a little more free time in my future.

The last few weeks I've been trying to:

scale down my cooking so I don't have a fridge full of leftovers I plan to use and end up trashing
vary my diet a little more
and cross a few things off my ever-growing "try this soon" list

So last week I made two new recipes that helped with those goals, Cornish Hens with Stuffing and Shortbread Squares. Both recipes turned out much better than I expected.

Here's a shot of one of the cornish hens. I prefer the taste and texture over the typical whole chicken and the amount left over was very manageable so it's now my whole bird of choice.

And here's the shortbread squares. They were delicious! I can't eat them often but they were a nice treat. Most of these gems were shared with my co-workers and I took a second batch to my family's get together over the weekend. I've been mulling over ideas for a lower carb version of these and hope to get busy on that soon.

By the way, I bought a dream KitchenAid mixer on Black Friday. And I didn't have to wait in line or brave stampeding crowds for it, either. I simply went to the store at about 7 PM that evening and there it was, just waiting to jump into my cart. Oh my, it's everything I dreamed it would be and more!

Now, on to this week's menu:

Yesterday I had soup made from the remains of the cornish hens. I just added a little more than a cup of vegetable broth and a hand full of whole grain noodles to the leftover meat and onion stuffing, let it simmer until the noodles were done, and the resulting soup was very good.

I also prepared chili con carne yesterday and will have that and a salad for dinner tonight.

The rest of the week I'll have, in no particular order:

Leftover chili with a spinach salad

Grilled kabobs made with beef and a lot of vegetables

Lemon butter fish with leftover grilled vegetables, faux rice, and salad

Two egg omelet with Italian turkey sausage and hash brown wannabes

Whatever leftovers are in the fridge and need to be eaten

And that's it for this week's menu. If you're bored with your food lately or want to learn more about menu planning, spend some time perusing Menu Plan Monday, hosted by the lovely and very organized Laura!

No menu for this week - life intervenes

I haven't planned a menu for this week and don't intend to. Two hours after I posted the last entry and got to bed my phone rang. It was my sister telling me my stepfather's heart had stopped and he was moved to cardiac ICU.  He's still there but hopefully will be moved to a regular room today or tomorrow. I'm trying to keep my sanity and work and help my mother and I don't have time for menu planning right now. The reality is I probably need it more now than ever but I just don't have it in me to sit down and plan meals.

I have part of an uncooked roast in the fridge and will put that in marinade before I go to work in awhile and then cook it when I get in tonight. I'll have that tonight with roasted brussels sprouts and probably take whatever is left to Mom's house in the morning. My sisters are there and it will feed us for a meal or two, at least. Other than that, food isn't even on my mind.

Hopefully things will be calmer in a few days and I can give a little more thought to healthy eating. For now, just eating is a chore.

I think I hate October

I've decided that I really dislike this month. It's been crappy. Between things at work and family issues, I'm ready for November to get here. I'm tired of the heat and while I don't like cold winters I'm ready for the cool of Autumn.

On the second of this month, my stepfather fell while riding his dirt bike and got scraped up pretty good. Not a major thing, really, but he ended up with Staph infection and then developed pneumonia. I'm sure he'll be okay but it's becoming more and more obvious to me and my sisters that he and Mom are almost, if not already, at the point where they just can't take care of one another without substantial help. And we aren't sure what kind of help they need or we can provide.

It's frustrating, stressful, sad, and depressing. They love one another but his dementia is taking its toll on them both. And her health seems to be deteriorating in ways, too. I saw this coming a couple of years ago but thought I had more time and I'm not ready for this.

Maybe I need to curl up on the couch with a blanket and pillow, watch "The Notebook" again, and have a good cry. Or maybe, since it's 1:35 in the morning, I just need to take my exhausted self to bed and start all over tomorrow. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

But when I wake up it will still be October.

October 17th - 23rd Menu

Thanks to those of you who emailed me to make sure I was following last week's menu. I did really well with it until I got started feeling sick on Friday and from then it was downhill! It was nice to hear from y'all though.

I'm still sick with strep throat, bronchitis, and a sinus infection so I haven't eaten much the last three days. I'm improving and assuming that trend continues I plan to have a pretty good food week. If it doesn't continue, I'll just roll all or most of this menu over to next week.

Right now the refrigerator has leftover sticky chicken that needs to be eaten so a couple of dinners will use that. I also have some leftover vegetable soup that I'll probably eat for lunch at work one day.

Tonight I'll have a fajita using a homemade egg wrap rather than a tortilla but will have all the trimmings with it - bell pepper, onion, guacamole and homemade pico de gallo.

The rest of the week I'll have, in no particular order:

Homemade chunky chicken vegetable soup with a flax muffin

Stir fried steak and vegetables with a little wild rice

Breakfast meatballs with scrambled eggs and spinach

Vodka sauce chicken & vegetables with a salad

Leftover night when I finish off whatever's haunting the refrigerator.

If you like to plan your menu or if you want to plan but aren't sure where to start, come on over to Menu Plan Monday and see what Laura and the others have cooking. There are some great recipes to be found there and the folks are happy to answer menu planning questions.

Stuffed Mushrooms Redux

Since I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days (strep, bronchitis and a sinus infection) I haven't eaten much. Ice cream sounds good but not much else and since I don't have ice cream and everything I've tried to eat makes my throat hurt even more I just haven't eaten much.

This evening, though, I started craving mushrooms. Stuffed mushrooms in particular. So I dragged myself into the kitchen and made a batch. Fortunately, they only take a few minutes to make so I managed to get a batch of five made and I even managed to eat all five of them. Wonder of wonders!

Of course, they're so nice to look at and so tasty to eat but I was surprised that eating them didn't hurt my throat. Not much, anyway. Drinking water makes it feel like lava is sliding down it so go figure.

Anyway, here's a picture of the mushrooms I just made a bit ago.

Aren't they scrumptious looking?

I used the same recipe I always use but instead of turkey bacon I browned two tiny beef sausages, cut into very small pieces and I used red onion instead of green.

So yeah, next time you feel like the fires of hell have taken up residence in your throat, try this.

What to do when the meat you prepared isn't as good as you hoped...or Beefy Cheesy Spinach Soup

I bought some tenderized skirt steak yesterday and broiled it thinking it would be really tasty with a salad. I wasn't impressed with the meat at all though, Apparently I don't like skirt steak when it's been tenderized but I couldn't handle the thought of throwing it out so I morphed it and some leftovers from the fridge into this lovely soup...

It actually turned out beautifully, tasting a lot like spinach cheese dip, and I'll make it again the next time I have the same leftovers.

Those leftovers, by the way, were skillet cooked spinach, a hand full of green beans, some queso, and some broth. I added green onions, a little half and half and some crema mexicana, some snipped fresh cilantro and voila, a delicious soup perfect for a cool night.

As a bonus there are leftovers to eat before I head to work this evening!

A question for those who buy for one or two adults, only

I didn't get to the grocery store until today. Now, that doesn't mean I've been eating horrible food all week. I haven't. A friend treated me to lunch one day (Tex Mex) but I controlled myself, difficult as it was. It does mean that I've eaten breakfast a lot this week and I finally got tired of it and went grocery shopping today.

I went to two groceries, Albertson's and Brookshire's, a local chain that is higher than a cat's back. I go to the latter store strictly for sale items and even that's rare.

Since I moved into this place three months ago I've done little shopping..you know, run to the store and get a few things then go again a few days later. It's taken me this long to get my basics so today I did 'big shopping', which probably is nothing compared to those of you who have large families (at one
time I shopped and cooked for a large family so I know how that goes) but was pretty big for me.

At Albertson's I spent $126.52 and got:

Green tea, diet pepsi, chicken and beef broth, Rotel tomaotes, vegetable stock, some spices, a whole chicken, two beef roasts, mucho breakfast meat, eggs, a lot of half and half, cottage and sharp cheddar cheeses, a lot of frozen vegetables (10/$10), two packages of John Soule's cooked fajita beef (not cheap but still cheaper than eating out after a long shift at work), fixins to make pico de gallo which I eat at least once a day, two jars of Claussen kosher dills, a couple of limes, mushrooms, and raw peanuts. I did remember to take my canvas bags with me and got a $.50 bag discount. Wooot! ;)

I spent $23.96 at Brookshire's and got seven packages of raw skirt steak and three avocados (10/$10) and one gala apple, my treat for this week.

So I spent almost $151.00 today on food for one person. That's the most I've spent grocery shopping in these three months but taking into account that I eat low carb most of the time, making cheaper things like rice, beans, and pasta not part of my regular diet, it wasn't too bad. Honestly, I live on meat, vegetables, and eggs. The food I got will last at least a month with the addition of a couple of runs for eggs and fresh produce.

Even though I think I did fairly well I feel like I spent too much. Damn those grocery prices! ;)

If you're in a household of one or two adults, how much do you generally spend for a month's worth of groceries? Really, I'd like to know.

October 10th - 16th Menu

I'm back to planning my meals at least a week at a time, but haven't been posting the menus here. And of course, not keeping to the plan for the most part! I'm not sure just why but putting a weekly menu up here for the whole world (potentially, anyway) to see keeps me on the straight and narrow. I thought I'd be fine not planning meals but what happened is I ate a lot of turkey bacon and egg suppers and too many take away meals from Long John Silver. The former isn't good for variety and the latter isn't good for my blood sugar. And though I tried to incorporate some variety into my diet, that isn't easy with turkey bacon and eggs and grease soaked frish (fried fish) so readily available. So, I'm asking y'all to please hold me accountable. How? Well, if you read this entry, please come back in a day or two and ask if I've actually prepared/eaten the stuff listed here or if I've been a slug and eaten breakfast food or junk food. I won't lie about it and if I don't eat what I have listed here, or a fairly healthy alternative, please berate and belittle me. Or something similar.

So, this week's menu contains the wonderful Caramelized Onions. I have a craving for those so when I'm off tomorrow those will be going in the slow cooker, simmering at a leisurely pace, smelling the kitchen up so wonderfully! I don't know if I can find Vidalias right now but other onions will work if I can't. If you like cooked onions and haven't tried that recipe yet, I highly recommend it to you.

Now, on to this week's menu!

Tonight I'll have leftover Swiss Steak. I made it on Friday and need to finish it off so I'll have that with a bit of wild rice and a small salad.

The rest of the week I'll have:

Mimi's Sticky Chicken with faux mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts

Ribeye steak with caramelized onions, a very small baked red potato, and a bit of sour cream and butter 

Chicken Fajita bundle (meaning I omit the tortilla and just pile the ingredients on a plate and eat with a fork), made with leftover sticky chicken, caramelized onions, plenty of shredded sharp cheddar and pepper jack, and homemade pico de gallo.

Fire Roasted Tomato Chicken soup, my own creation that rocks the socks, folks! When I make that, I'll share the recipe in a separate entry. It's loosely based on my Fire Roasted Tomato Soup with a few changes and with cooler evenings upon us, it will be a welcome dish one night this week.

And last but not least, Saturday night I'll have whatever's languishing in the fridge and needs to be eaten. I really detest throwing food out so I try to eat up those leftovers, whatever they are, on Saturdays. It's a good plan and works well most of the time.

So that's it for this week. Hopefully I'll stick to my plan, folks. If I don't, call me on it. Please!

To find out what others are having this week join us over at Laura's Menu Plan Monday. There seem to be some seriously good cooks into menu planning and I get wonderful ideas reading their menus.

September 5th - 11th Menu

Now that it's just me I'm cooking for, I struggle a little with whether I need or want to plan my weekly menus. However, without proper planning the temptation to pick up some kind of fast food is occasionally just overwhelming. I usually don't give in to that temptation but each time I do is one time too many so back to menu planning for me.

You know, it doesn't seem that cooking for one person would be much different than cooking for two people but it is, at least for me. I don't mind eating leftovers but I prefer to either plan for them ahead of time or revamp them so that I don't feel like I'm eating the same thing over and over and over. But sometimes my kitchen creativity gene is dormant so unless the main dish is something basic like broiled steak, fajita meat, or roasted chicken I try to cook just enough for one meal.  And that's when the trouble starts. I think I'll eat all that lovely homemade meat crust pizza but I actually eat only a little bit and I really don't like it warmed up for a later meal. So this cooking for one without having many leftovers trips me up now and then!

Anyway, a friend and I are going out for dinner one night this week, her treat, but we haven't yet decided where. We'll probably go for Chinese or Tex Mex but who knows, we might get wild and crazy and have barbecue!

Last night's dinner was a very nice crustless quiche that used the last of a fantastic cheese sauce I made a couple of days ago. The sauce was the same recipe as I use for Alfredo but I used Mozzarella cheese rather than Parmesan and half and half and water rather than milk. To make last night's fare I just dumped the sauce in a bowl and added three eggs, about 1/8 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, a bit of chopped red bell pepper, about 3 Tablespoons of leftover green beans and some spices, mixed it, poured it into a baking pan and baked it at 325 for about 20 minutes. The resulting quiche was excellent with roasted brussels sprouts and a tossed salad and there's enough for at least two meals, both of which will probably be lunch at work.

Tonight I'll have grilled ribeye steak with sauteed mushrooms and green and red bell pepper. If there's any left, I'll have it for lunch at work the next day.

The rest of the week I'll have, in no particular order:

Beef and chicken fajitas with a little wild rice and guacamole

Homemade chunky vegetable soup

Jambalaya made with riced cauliflower instead of rice

Leftover fajita meat with steamed fresh vegetables, homemade queso blanco, and avocado slices

And that sums it up for this coming week. I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow and get some basics but I don't plan to buy a lot. Of course, if there are any great deals on meat or vegetables I'll take advantage of those but otherwise, I only need a few things.

Here's to this week being a good one! Mosey on over to Menu Plan Monday, hosted by the lovely Laura, and see what others are planning to eat.

Pardon my dust and Friday eats

I'm playing with the design of this blog so please bear with me as I figure out just what to do with it.

My lunch before I head to work is going to be the last of the pan fried round steak I cooked on Wednesday. I'll make a creamy cheese sauce using this recipe (with a couple of adjustments) and add bite size pieces of the steak to it then serve it over a small amount of Dreamfields Angel Hair. Served with the last of the leftover green beans and some sauteed mushrooms and bell pepper it should be filling and as long as I have just one serving of the pasta it shouldn't spike my blood sugar too badly.

I won't get home from work until late so I'll probably have a repeat of lunch without the pasta or perhaps some turkey bacon and eggs. Either way, I'll be ravenous when I get home and will have to whip up something. 

Ugh!

I can't seem to get rid of that lovely photobucket block that says an image has been moved or deleted. I can't find the code that's causing the problem. If any of you have an idea why it's happening or what I can do to fix it, please let me know!

I found the solution! It was some little bit of fluff but it's gone now. :)

Worthy of a comeback - Fire Roasted Tomato Soup!

Not for the soup but for me! It's been way too long since I posted on this blog. Really, I should be a winner of the Worst Blogger Award if there is such a thing. However, today I made Fire Roasted Tomato Soup for the first time and it was so good I just have to share!



I had fire roasted tomato soup for the first time a few months ago at Newk's Express. It was incredibly good and I hunted for a recipe that I thought would give me a dish close to theirs. None that I found seemed to be right, though, so today I just experimented and came up with my own version. It's not quite as good as the soup at Newk's but it's darn close and a little more playing with it should give me a just as good fire roasted tomato soup.

If you like the look of the soup and want to try it, here's my recipe so far:

1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
12 ounces chicken stock
1 Tablespoon dried whole rosemary
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
a few red pepper flakes
1/4 cup crema mexicana

In a skillet or wok heat the olive oil until it's hot but not smoking. Add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is tender. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the tomatoes and stock. Simmer about 15 minutes then add herbs and black pepper. Reduce heat a little more and very slowly add the crema mexicana and red pepper flakes, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for about five minutes. Serve topped with sour cream or more crema mexicana and whatever cheese you like. I used sour cream and a little parmesan this time but plan to really play with cheeses for this dish.

I think this soup could easily be adapted and a version with black olives, cilantro, chili powder, and cheddar or pepper jack would help make a great fiesta inspired tomato soup. Watch for more experiments with this basic recipe. I promise there will be some!

March 21st - 27th Menu

I haven't blogged much lately because between work, the dietary restrictions, and life in general the menu has been pretty dull. But I really need the accountability of posting entries here (and judging by the emails sent to me some of you really miss me! lol) so I've planned a menu of meals that require a little more work on my part but should help alleviate some of the boredom in our diets.

Last night I worked until after 8 and when I got home I was famished so I whipped up a quickie chili with Laura's Lean Beef, some no salt added canned diced tomatoes,  dark red kidney beans, a little green onion, and some spices. It was very good topped with a little shredded cheddar and there's enough for our lunch today. It isn't as low in carbs as I wish, thanks to the kidney beans, but all in all it's a healthy dish.

Tonight we're having Mexican Chicken from The Everyday Low-Carb Slow Cooker Cookbook made with Sanderson Farms chicken breasts. I don't know if that brand is available where you are but if it is, you really should try it. The chicken is always juicy, meaty, and tasty without having added hormones, additives, and other garbage. And the breasts are huge! One is usually enough to feed the two of us and trust me, we can put away some chicken! We'll have this savory-sounding dish with some leftover Chipotle Cauliflower and low carb tortillas.

The rest of the week we'll have, in no particular order:

Vegetable stir fry with riced cauliflower

Triple decker vegetable omelets (from The Low-Carb Bible but also found online) served with zucchini fries

Salt-Baked Rosemary Chicken (modified from the original recipe to use less salt), steamed green beans, and tossed salad

Breakfast burritos made with low carb tortillas

You're On Your Own (YOYO) night when we clean out the fridge, eat leftovers, or go out for dinner.

And that's it for this week's upcoming evening meals. Some of them are a little more interesting than our usual fare and that's a good thing. I hope your culinary week is a great one and join us over at Menu Plan Monday for more great recipes and menu plans!

March 7th - 13th menu

This week promises to be a busy one for me so most of our dinners will be easy to prepare. Because it simply needed to be done and to make things easier on myself, today I took some time and reorganized the pantry shelves. They were a mess and it was hard to tell what we had and what we need so now not only does it all look better but I should have an easier time making my shopping list and keeping up with what's in inventory.

I was determined to thoroughly clean the refrigerator, too, but didn't succeed in that although I did eliminate almost all the leftovers in it. Tonight's dinner was soup made from some of the leftovers. In the fridge I found about a cup and a half of leftover homemade vegetable beef soup, part of a can of diced tomatoes and most of a can of Rotel tomatoes. I dumped all of that in the wok, added a handful of Dreamfields elbow macaroni, a smidge of garlic salt, and some freshly ground black pepper and set it on low and a few minutes later our revamped soup was ready. It was excellent and there was just enough to feed us both so we're starting the week with very few leftovers.

If you'd like to learn more about meal planning please take a look at Menu Plan Monday, hosted by Laura and visited by hundreds!

So, on to this week's menu!

Monday night's dinner is seasoned turkey tenderloin with steamed spinach, edamame, and tossed salad.

The rest of the week we'll have:

Leftover turkey tenderloin with low carb gravy, with wild rice and steamed green beans

Chipotle chicken with tossed salad and buttered carrots

Cauliflower Leek Soup with Carbquick bread sticks

Stir fried vegetables with beef

YOYO (You're On Your Own) night when we eat leftovers, sandwiches, etc.

And that's it! Short, sweet, and not a lot of intense cooking going on this week. But it's all healthy, low in carbs, and thrifty. It works for us!

Spicy Chicken and Avocado with a Colby Jack "Wrap"

You know how sometimes you have a little bit of roast chicken leftover from a meal but there isn't enough to feed the whole family? Well, today the man person didn't want chicken but I had a skosh of last night's delicious chicken and this was the perfect opportunity to make good use of it.

I dug through the fridge, found a few ingredients and came up with this:


The picture isn't great (not sure why but my pictures are blurry lately) but this turned out to be a delicious lunch today and I thought I'd share the 'recipe' (cough) with you.

1/2 cup cooked chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1 green onion, sliced
a few cloves of roasted garlic 
3 or 4 thin strips of bell pepper
2 Tablespoons Rotel tomato
freshly ground black pepper
garlic powder
chili powder
chipotle pepper seasoning
1 thick slice Colby Jack cheese
1 avocado

In a skillet or wok, quickly cook the bell pepper on high heat until soft but not limp. Lower heat and add sliced onion, garlic and pepper. Add cooked chicken and cook until heated through and pepper is cooked to your liking. I like mine crunchy so it doesn't take long at all. Add the Rotel tomatoes and let simmer. Quickly mash avocado and add whatever spices you like. I prefer to add just a little pepper and garlic. If you want to add chopped tomatoes and onions, that would be tasty, too.

Place cheese on a plate and top with the hot chicken mixture. Spread avocado mixture over all and sprinkle with chili powder and chipotle seasoning. You can eat this like a taco, roll it like a burrito, or do as I did and use a fork to get every scrumptious bite. Mmmm!

Strange food combination and I'm such a lamer!

I slept in a little this morning, until about 8 AM. I wasn't hungry when I got up and my fasting blood sugar was 125 (too high) so I shot 5 units of Novolog and enjoyed my morning coffee while checking email and playing on Farmville and Cafe World. I finally got hungry at about 10:30 but waited until 11:30 to do something about it. I wanted eggs but didn't want breakfast meat with it. I wanted some kind of bread but just a tad, not much. I also wanted to eat the veggie fries from last night. So, I made scrambled eggs with mushroom, yellow bell pepper, and a little colby jack cheese and ate it with 1/2 an english muffin and the leftover veggie frites. It was actually very good though it was a little weird.

I had errands to run today;bank, Drug Emporium, grocery store, etc. and while I was out I bought a cooked whole chicken. I don't do that often - jiminy, I have chickens in my freezer and my homemade ones are better than the store bought ones and much healthier! But I've had a rip roaring headache going for about three days and I didn't want to cook so I took the easy way out. Umm, at least it's low in carbs and we'll have it with steamed spinach, also low in carbs.

Don't hate me because I'm such a lamer....

March Recipes to try

I love cauliflower, just about any kind of cauliflower. Raw, boiled, steamed, grilled, sauteed, or stir fried, I'll eat it. And I enjoy leeks or at least I think I do. I haven't had leeks (that I know of) in years so I'm not positive about that. But I found a nice sounding recipe for naturally low in carbs Cauliflower Leek Soup so it's on my list of recipes to try this month. The recipe calls for 3 cloves of garlic and I happen to have several cloves of awesomely delicious roasted garlic snagged from Newk's so I'll use those.

Speaking of roasted garlic from Newk's I'm obsessed with that stuff and the only way for me to get it is to go to Newk's. While I really do love their food, eating there isn't very thrifty and the sandwiches certainly aren't low carb so I've decided to try my hand at roasting garlic. I know it, it aint no big thing but I haven't done it before and I've been a little hesitant to try it but I've decided to bite the bullet. So, my other recipe to try this month is roasted garlic and the recipe is from simplyrecipes.com, one of my favorite cooking blogs. If I can roast my own garlic I can stay the heck away from Newk's and a little more freely indulge my passion for garlic.

Wish me luck!

February 28th - March 6th Menu - late but still good

I'm late getting my menu posted this week. Between work and life I just haven't had a lot of time. But better late than never, right?

Sunday night was YOYO (You're On Your Own) night at our place. We had way too many leftovers for comfort so we took the opportunity to reduce them a little. I like nights like that since it means I don't have to cook much, if at all, and the cleanup is minimal.

Last night I prepared a beef roast with carrots, potatoes, onions and mushrooms. The man person had left a little of his homemade salad dressing (olive oil, the juice of 1/2 a lemon, and Spike) on the counter so I poured that over the roast and vegetables before popping them in the oven. The vegetables were very good but the meat was tougher than we like so we ate a little of it and some of the vegetables and I considered what to do with the meat to make it more tender.  I decided using it in soup or stew would be an efficient way to use it so I cut the uneaten roast into bite size chunks and used about 1/4 of it and the leftover vegetables with a few more fresh veggies to make tonight's dinner which I just called 'Leftover Soup'. I discovered awhile back that stir frying the soup vegetables brings out their flavors so that's what I do. I just throw them in the wok with a little olive oil and when they're almost done I add the meat, stock, and spices, cover, and let it all simmer awhile. The result is a rich, robust soup with a nice combination of flavors. It's slightly different each time, too, since I vary the vegetables and spices. Tonight I used a little potato, a few green peas, carrot, onion, and some asparagus with rosemary, garlic, pepper, and chipotle seasoning. Mmmm, it was quite tasty and there's enough left for lunch tomorrow so we'll have that and dinner will be chicken fajitas made with leftover chicken.

The rest of the week we'll have:

Chicken in homemade Alfredo sauce served over thinly sliced and gently steamed zucchini with a salad and fresh green beans

Meat loaf with faux mashed potatoes (cauliflower) and salad

Omelets with Carbquick rolls

and Saturday will be another YOYO night to use up whatever leftovers are in the fridge. Another soup might be in the picture but we'll have to wait and see.

Oh yes, I haven't forgotten about posting the pictures of the zucchini lasagna but they're on another computer that I can't get to right now. As soon as I can, I'll get them and show them to y'all. Mmmm, that was good stuff!

Enjoy your food!

February recipes to try

So, I've already tried one of the recipes for this month and that was Mock Crab Cakes. Yeah, I cheated and decided to make it a recipe to try after I'd already made them but it's my blog and I can do that. ;) They were very, very good and will be on our menu now and then, I'm sure. The man person and I agree there isn't really a crab taste to them but they're tasty and filling, anyway, and the recipe is definitely a keeper! If you check out the recipe, do browse Shannon's blog a bit. There are some fantastic recipes there and her blog is entertaining.

The other recipe for this month is Zucchini lasagna. I absolutely love lasagna and hadn't made it in a very long time so I was really excited about this one. I've read many recipes for lower carb lasagna but most of them leave me unimpressed. This recipe was different, though, and I'll write about it later today.

I'm working on March's recipes so stay tuned for those!