More positives to report: my blood pressure and fasting blood sugar levels are gradually decreasing. And I still feel more alert than I have since I started bingeing at Thanksgiving.
So here's a look at how I ate this week:
BREAKFAST
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Every morning prior to leaving for school, I ate two deviled eggs (that's four halves).
I have to be at school by 7:30, so I usually grab these around 7:10.
Thursday
Since it was Mark's day off and school was cancelled due to snow, we were both home.
So Mark made scrambled eggs and bacon for us: 3 eggs each and 5 slices of bacon.
He obviously does not use my method for scrambling eggs, but they were still good.
Mark always has to start off his non-work days by watching The Price Is Right,
so breakfast on this particular morning wasn't until 10:45.
Friday
I had another snow day and Mark was back at work, so I made myself an Egg McNuthin'
a little after noon. I call it that because it's like an Egg McMuffin without the muffin.
Just cook the sausage patty and top it with a slice of cheese (I prefer Monterey Jack).
Then fry an egg or two to place on top of the sausage and cheese (I had two eggs).
It's a pretty hearty breakfast for less than 4 net carbs.
SNACK
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Around 10:10, between 2nd and 3rd periods, I had a slice of Monterey Jack cheese.
I love mild cheeses, especially cream cheese, ricotta, provolone, and Monterey Jack.
Usually I pre-cut 1.5-oz slices to put in snack bags so they're quick to grab in the morning.
Thursday
At 4:30 it was too late for lunch and too soon for dinner.
So I just had a snack: 2 squares (0.7 oz or 19.85 grams) of dark chocolate.
I've tried all four brands of dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa) available from Walmart.
I think Godiva is the smoothest and creamiest of the four.
Friday
No snack today!
LUNCH
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
At school, I have lunch around 11:45. This week I had an Atkins frozen meal each day.
This is an old photo (notice there's no snow on the ground), but you get the idea.
This week I had Swedish Meatballs, Orange Chicken, and Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo.
They are quite tasty, and just enough to leave you feeling satisfied but not stuffed.
Thursday
I skipped lunch today. Since we had a late breakfast and ate dinner earlier than usual (5:00), I just made do with my dark chocolate snack.
Friday
For me, lunch is the hardest meal to plan when I do low-carb.
Breakfast is easy because I love eggs, which can be prepared 101 ways.
And there are thousands of low-carb dinner menus, dessert recipes, and snack ideas.
As a working woman, I mostly need something quick and easy to prepare and pack.
That's why I do the Atkins meals and sometimes--when there are any--leftovers. Luckily, for today,
I found this container of leftover green salad from Tuesday dinner. It was still fairly crisp.
So at 4:00 I diced up three thin deli slices of ham to add a bit of protein and enjoyed
this green-lettuce-and-ham salad for dinner...with olive oil and red wine vinegar, of course!
AFTER-SCHOOL SNACK
Monday:
Having eaten lunch before noon at school, I'm always starved by the time I get home around 4:00 or later. Yet, with dinner only 2-3 hours away, it's tricky to find something that soothes the rumbly in the tumbly (as Pooh Bear says), without losing your appetite for dinner in two hours or so. On Monday, there just happened to be some leftover green salad from Sunday night's family dinner, so that became my after-school snack. And it held me over till dinner very nicely.
Tuesday:
More leftovers saved the day. I had put aside two tuna cakes from Monday night's dinner. With a bit of homemade tartar sauce, they did the job of keeping me satisfied until dinner time.
Wednesday:
No afternoon snack today. You see, I'd had an MRI done on my knee on Monday, Dec. 28. I had made an after-school appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for Wednesday, Jan. 13, but two days after the MRI his office called and told me he'd read the report and wanted to see me sooner. So we rescheduled for this Wednesday, but of course there were no openings after school. I might have taken the whole day off, except we were starting our first day of online Galileo testing, about which my students were very nervous, and I simply couldn't desert them. Since my appointment was at 2:15, and since my 5th and 6th period classes weren't involved in Galileo, I just requested a substitute for those two hours and left school at 1:15. As it happened, Mark had a physical therapy appointment for his back at 2:30, and it so happens that the PT office is exactly next-door to my orthopedic surgeon's office. It was only 2:10 when we left the house together, and thus I felt no need for a snack yet. By the time we were done with our appointments it was 3:45, though, so we went out to an early dinner at Denny's! But more on that below.
Thursday, Friday:
No school (snow days) means no need for after-school snacks!
DINNER
Monday
Another 8:00 dinner: Tuna Cakes, which are roughly similar to Crab Cakes.
Mix 25 oz. albacore tuna (drained well) with salt to taste, 1 Tbsp lemon juice,
1 cup shredded Parmesan, and 3 eggs. Blend well, but don't break down tuna chunks too much.
Heat oil while forming tuna into patties. I usually get about a dozen from this recipe.
Frying for 8 minutes per side will give you crunchy patties like these, the way I like them.
If you prefer them less done, go about 6 minutes per side. Optional: sprinkle with paprika.
I ate four or five of these, topped with the sauce below. No side dishes tonight.
I hate Tartar Sauce. Hate it! Unless it's this homemade version, which I adore.
Simply whisk together these ingredients: 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1 Tbsp lemon juice,
2 Tbsp Splenda, 2 Tbsp dill relish, and 1 tsp dill weed.
From Cooking TLC (Truly Low Carb) Volume II.
[Note: any leftover tartar sauce is great mixed in tuna for sandwiches or tuna salad.]
Tuesday
Dinner at 7:30: Green Salad topped with Rotisserie Chicken.
After I got home from work, Mark and I headed over to Walmart to stock up on supplies.
Since we had three storms rolling in this week, complete with winter storm warnings,
I wanted to be stocked up so we wouldn't have to shop at all until next week.
To simplify things, I picked up a rotisserie chicken at the Walmart deli for dinner.
After we got home, Mark put together a lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad for us
while I pulled the meat off the chicken. My dressing was olive oil and red wine vinegar.
Wednesday
Early dinner at 4:15: Sirloin Steak Dinner at Denny's.
Mark had received a $25.00 gift card from Denny's as an after-Christmas bonus,
so he'd invited me to dinner for Wednesday night. We went right after our doctor visits.
It was fun to see the special treatment Mark received. His co-workers clearly like him.
Mark ordered the big T-bone steak meal, while I ordered the sirloin steak dinner,
but ordering is never a simple matter for me. I negotiate to get my money's worth.
I told the waitress, "It comes with two sides and bread, but I can't have the bread.
Is it possible for me to have just one side and then also get a side salad instead of bread?"
(The side salads are not included in the list of optional sides from which to choose your two.)
The waitress grinned. "Honey, you order two sides and I'll bring you a salad." So I had
steamed broccoli, "dippable" veggies with ranch dressing, and a green salad with ranch.
And I ate them all and was halfway through the steak before I remembered to take a picture!
It's not a very appetizing photo, but the steak was actually quite tender and juicy.
Thursday
This was unplanned, but we ended up with subs for dinner on Thursday.
Usually you can eat everything on a sub except the bread, so I turn mine into a Sub Platter!
Eating low-carb usually requires a lot of menu planning, but there are some shortcuts available.
This is one I use sometimes on rushed days. Pick up a sub that looks good and eat all but the bread.
Just lift everything off the bread and plop it right on the plate! Occasionally,
I also make my own breadless sub using sliced meats and cheeses from my own fridge.
It's cheaper and just as tasty, but not quite as quick and convenient.
After a night of heavy snow, Jake had tried to drive to work in Dylan's car at 6:30 Thursday morning. After fishtailing and spinning across the median facing oncoming traffic, he returned here, pretty shaken up. Remember, he had NO driving experience before five months ago, and driving in snow is nerve-wracking. So I drove him to work and returned at 3:15 to pick him up. I'd planned to make Chicken Parmesan for dinner but I needed mozzarella cheese, so we stopped at Safeway on the way home. That's when I saw these meat-packed subs that Safeway makes, and I thought, "Hmmm...I can make Chicken Parmesan tomorrow." So that became the new plan.
There are usually a couple of thin, anemic tomato slices flattened under the meats
with a couple of limp pieces of lettuce (barely visible in this pic), but I need more.
I always add some fat tomato slices and some mayonnaise. Then it is edible!
If I'd had some, I would also have piled some alfalfa sprouts on top!
Friday
Finally, on Friday night we had the Chicken Parmesan.
Pour a jar of pasta sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Tomato-based sauces can be very high-carb,
so read the labels. This Classico Florentine Spinach & Cheese is only 5 carbs per half-cup.
I've seen pasta sauce with as little as 4 carbs per half-cup, but nothing less than that (except alfredo).
Next, stir in one-fourth cup (or more) of shredded Parmesan cheese. And not the canned kind!
My siblings used to dump that stuff on their spaghetti, but to me it always smelled like baby puke.
Then place 5 or 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts in the sauce, rolling them to coat well.
Cover the pan with foil and put in a preheated 375-degree oven for 45 minutes.
Note: if the breasts are very thick, you might increase the initial cooking time to 1 hour.
After 45 minutes, remove the foil and cover with grated mozzarella cheese.
I use a whole 16-oz round because my family loves it cheesy, but you could use half that.
Replace in oven, uncovered, for 15 minutes longer.
That's all there it to it! This is one of my family's absolute favorite dishes.
They pour the pan sauce over their chicken, but I just eat the breast with the cheese
and whatever sauce is stuck to it. That keeps the carb count lower.
DESSERT
Wednesday
With our late dinners on Monday and Tuesday, it was easy to retire without a dessert.
On Wednesday, however, having eaten so early at Denny's, I had the munchies by 9:30.
I ate two squares of dark chocolate. Then I wound up staying up until almost midnight
since we'd been notified school would be on a two-hour delay the next morning.
(The next morning school was cancelled altogether because the snow was so heavy all day.)
By 11:30 I wanted something else, so I enjoyed a tall cup of sugar-free hot cocoa.
Thursday
Since we'd had such an early dinner at Denny's, I did want something later that evening.
Something salty sounded good, so I enjoyed about a quarter-cup of mixed nuts.
Then, before bedtime, I wanted something creamy.
I had 1/4 cup of heavy cream (about half of a 5-oz Dixie cup) mixed with water,
with one spoonful of Torani sugar-free "S'mores"-flavored coffee flavoring stirred in.
It really does kind of smell and taste like graham-crackery s'mores.
My favorite flavor is plain old chocolate, but I haven't been able to find it for months.
Friday
No dessert tonight! I find I'm already not hungry after dinner, unless I stay up until midnight or later (which I sometimes do on non-school nights). However, when I occasionally curl up to watch a Netflix movie on some evenings, I find myself wanting a snack. Not because I'm hungry, but because a snack and a movie seem to go together. Tonight I started watching Pan, but I was able to resist a bedtime treat.
I hope these meal ideas and recipes will be helpful if you are a low-carber. As the weeks pass, these blog posts will grow shorter, because I won't repeat recipes and pictures. I'll simply reference them (as in, "see post on 1/9/16") and only do the pictures and recipes for meals I haven't featured on this blog before. Be happy and be healthy! See you next week!
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