Food Diary Monday, April 30

Breakfast

You already know the drill.  Awesome boyfriend and I are
NOT morning people.  I pack our breakfasts in plastic
and we both take them to work.  

2 eggs scrambled with
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 C jack cheese
1/2 Tbsp dry minced onions
butter, chili powder, garlic salt, pepper
3 pieces of bacon
1 cup Bigelow vanilla caramel tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Lunch
My Big (Not So) Fat Greek Salad

Snack
1 Cheesecake Cloud
1 wedge Laughing Cow Light

Dinner

It's so easy I feel like I'm cheating.  

1/4 rotisserie chicken
1 C chopped Romaine tossed with
1/4 C shredded Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp Newman's Own creamy Caesar dressing

Supplements
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
B complex- 1 with breakfast
fiber- 1 with lunch
fish oil- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch

Lazy Chicken Caesar Salad

On Monday nights I have guitar lessons and on Thursday nights I have class.  Getting home at 9:00 makes it hard to cook an awesome meal, eat it, clean up, and spend some time with awesome boyfriend before bed.  I have a few recipes that I keep in my pocket for nights when I'm in a hurry.

These chickens are one of my secret weapons.  For $7.99 and minimal
effort you get 4-6 meals.  You can't beat that!

Ingredients
2 C romaine lettuce
4 Tbsp Newman's Own Creamy Caesar
1/2 C shredded Parmesan cheese
1 grocery store rotisserie chicken







Directions

1. Remove all meat from the rotisserie chicken.  These chickens are really greasy and make a huge mess.  I have a big cutting board I like to put down to do this.  You can keep the skin if you want but you don't have to.  You should be shredding the chicken a little bit while you pull it off.  Don't worry about getting it too small, but you want bite size chunks for a salad.  
2. Separate the chicken into 4-6 piles.  This will depend on how much chicken you have.  
3. We are only going to be using 2 of the chicken piles.  Put the rest away for tomorrow.  
4. Chop the romaine lettuce.  Remember that you only get 2 Cups of low impact vegetables a day so make sure you measure.  
5. Put the chopped romaine in a gallon zip lock bag.  
6. Add the shredded Parmesan and the Caesar dressing to the gallon zip lock bag.  
7. Close the bag and shake until lettuce is evenly coated with dressing.  
8. Separate the contents of the bag onto two plates.  
9. Top with your two piles of chicken.  
10. Enjoy!  Super easy.  

This recipe makes 2 salads.  If you only want one just half the ingredients.

Feel free to add bacon bits, maybe some cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, cracked pepper, or whatever else you like.  Just make sure to count carbs if you add more vegetables.

Could it get any easier?

This is the best Caesar around, hands down.  And at just 1 carb for
2 Tbsp, you can afford to have a little extra.  

Th

Food Diary Sunday, April 29

Eggs are a great meal because you can do so much with them.  Onions,
garlic, cilantro, cheese, gyro meat, tomatoes, pizza sauce- it's hard to get
bored with so many options.  

Breakfast
3 pieces of bacon
2 eggs scrambled with
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/2 Tbsp dry minced onions
chili powder, garlic salt, pepper
1/4 C jack cheese

Lunch*
(out)
side Caesar salad no croutons
chicken and mushroom skewers
-best guess: 1 small chicken breast and 2 portabella mushroom caps cooked in sesame oil and topped with sesame seeds
1 draft miller light

Dinner*
(out)
4 wings in mild hot sauce
1 Tbsp ranch dressing
3 restaurant celery sticks

Snack
1 Banana Nut Flax Muffin
1 C Celestial Seasonings apple cranberry tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

water water water

Supplements
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast, 1 with dinner
fish oil- 1 with breakfast, 1 with dinner
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast, 1 with dinner
fiber- 1 with breakfast, 1 with dinner
B complex- 1 with breakfast

*I was out with awesome boyfriend looking for a new sofa from about 1:00-7:00 today.  We had a late breakfast, lunch around 3:00 and stopped to grab some wings on our way home.  Like I said, don't let your diet get in the way of your life.  Eating out can be hard because even good choices come with hidden carbohydrates and sugars.  When we sat down for lunch they brought us hot cornbread that I really wanted to eat!  And awesome boyfriend's salad came with some really yummy looking breaded onions on top that we had to throw away.  Be prepared to face some challenges in terms of saying no when you are dining away from home.  Wings are always a safe choice, but beware of sauce!  Most hot sauce is really low in carbs.  Any seasoning or rub is also a good way to go.  Steer clear of barbecue, honey mustard, teriyaki, or anything with sweet in the name.  When in doubt, get plain and ask for the sauce on the side.

Food Diary Saturday, April 28

Breakfast/Lunch*
2 pieces of bacon
2 eggs scrambled with
2 Tbsp cream
1/4 C shredded jack cheese

If you like Greek food you will love this.  

garlic salt, pepper, chili powder, butter

Snack
1 low carb peanut butter cookie

Dinner
My Big (Not So) Fat Greek Salad
Coke Zero

Snack
1 low carb peanut butter cookie
green tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Supplements
fish oil- 1 with breakfast
vitamin D- 1 with breakfast
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast
B complex- 1 with breakfast
fiber- 1 with breakfast

*If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times- do not skip meals to try to cut calories!  I'm sure you've been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that is because it's true.  If, however, you are lazy like me and lay in bed studying (watching Netflix) until 11:00 on a Saturday don't feel like you have to squeeze in three meals just for the sake of having breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

My Big (Not So) Fat Greek Salad

Who would have thought that chicken, cheese, and veggies arranged on a plate could be so enticing and so delicious?  The key to this recipe is the dressing so don't skimp on it.  Olive oil is a wonderful heart healthy fat and ingesting it has numerous health benefits including lowered cholesterol, increasing blood sugar control, and reducing your risk of heart disease.  This is a great meal to make for company because it is really easy, inexpensive, and the cucumber ribbons trick people into thinking that you did something fancy.

Ingredients
5 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb chicken tenders*
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp thyme*
1 tsp Splenda
1 cucumber
1 smallish tomato
1/2 C green olives*
4 oz feta cheese*
salt
pepper

Directions

1. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high.  
2. While oil is heating, sprinkle chicken tenders with salt and pepper on both sides.  
3. Add chicken tenders to hot oil.  Cook for 4 minutes, flip, then cook an additional 4 minutes.  Remove from pan and set on a paper towel to rest.  
4. Run a vegetable peeler down one side of the cucumber.  Discard the first layer of skin- it is very bitter.  Keep peeling off ribbons of cucumber until you get to the seeds, then flip the cucumber over and repeat the process on the other side.  Once you have peeled down to only seeds, discard.  
5. Slice tomatoes.  
6. Arrange cucumbers, chicken, olives, tomatoes, and crumbled feta on a plate as seen in above picture.  
7. To make dressing, add 4 Tbsp olive oil to a leak proof plastic container.  Add vinegar, thyme, Splenda, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Shake to mix and drizzle over all other ingredients on plate.  
8. Enjoy!  

This recipe makes 2 salads.  Dressing is meant to be enough for both.


*Notes on ingredients (warning: soap box moment coming):
This recipe was inspired  by a much breadier thing that I saw in a foodie magazine.  It called for fresh thyme, and squeezed lemon juice, and whole feta cheese that you crumble yourself, and a food processor, which I think is dumb.  I get frustrated with food shows and magazines because they sometimes make cuisine so much more complicated than it has to be.  Part of what I'm trying to do with this blog is provide recipes in their simplest form so that anyone can eat a varied and delicious low carb diet without breaking the bank or the brain.  I don't even own a food processor, but if I did I darn sure wouldn't drag it out when you can just add some stuff to a Tupperware and shake it.

That being said, here are the notes.

1. I hope I don't need to say this but just in case, 'chicken tenders' doesn't mean breaded frozen ones.  It means the raw chicken from the butcher section that come wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam.  
2. Thyme from a plastic jar in the spice section is fine.  I use it all the time and it is delicious.  Even the stuff from the jar has a really strong flavor that is perfect for this dish.  
3. Green olives are a great snack.  During my bartending days I used to eat them by the jarful.  You can get them in lots of varieties.  The ones I bought were stuffed with feta cheese but they also had olives stuffed with with almonds, garlic, mushrooms, and jalapenos.  Shop around and find what tastes good to you. 
4. Feta cheese can get a little pricey so check in your regular grocery store dairy section first.  My grocery store has a store brand that goes for about $3 per four ounce container.  Feta is not a cheese that I would recommend spending a lot of money on to get the higher end stuff.  

Food Diary Friday, April 27

Breakfast
2 eggs scrambled with cheese
2 sausage patties
1 can diet coke

Lunch
1/2 recipe Say What?! Egg Salad
spread on 3 large romaine lettuce leaves
1 wedge of goat cheese

Snack
went out after work with coworkers:
3 grilled chicken fingers topped with jerk seasoning
2 Tbsp ranch dressing
1 Michelob Ultra

Dinner
Spicy Steak and Broccoli Stir Fry

Snack
1 low carb peanut butter cookie
1 Cup Green Tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

water all day

Supplements
fish oil- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
fiber- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
B complex- 1 with breakfast

General weirdness: I was craving carb rich foods all day.  I found myself fantasizing about pizza on the way home.  This can mean a few things.  First, I shouldn't have had that diet coke with breakfast.  Diet sodas that contain artificial sweeteners are known to stimulate hunger and can actually make you crave sugar.  The second possible culprit is the beer.  Even a small amount of alcohol can turn me from a carb controlled machine to a wild, eating-everything-in-sight mess.  The third possibility is that my body is still going through a bit of withdrawal.  Eating carbs does give a quick energy boost before the inevitable crash.  This is part of the reason that they are so addictive.  Sometimes when you are feeling poopy you may find yourself craving bread.  The good news is that cravings generally pass after about ten minutes or so.  Try to hold out, drink some water or decaffeinated tea, and do something to keep yourself busy.  Cravings will lessen with every week that passes, so I can promise you that it will get easier.

Say What?! Egg Salad

When I first heard about people putting cream cheese in egg salad I was like, "say what?!", but my cooking rule of thumb is to follow the recipe the first time and then modify it during subsequent trials.  I spent the better part of yesterday evening making several versions of egg salad.  Thanks to hungry coworker guinea pigs, I think that I have settled on a truly awesome recipe.  If you like a rich and creamy egg salad you will love this.  It sounds strange but trust me, it's awesome.

image via

Ingredients

4 eggs

1/2 C cream cheese

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp horseradish

1 Tbsp mayonnaise

1 Tbsp dry minced onions

1 packet Splenda

1 lemon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

Directions

1. Add your eggs to a small pot and cover with cold water.  
2. Bring the water to a rolling boil.  
3. Allow the eggs to boil for 1 minute.  It is really important that you don't overcook the eggs.  If you boil them for too long the yolks will start to take on a greenish color.  
4. Remove the pot from heat, cover, and allow eggs to sit for 20 minutes.  
5. After 20 minutes have passed, dump hot water and replace with cold water.  Set aside.  
6. Put your cream cheese and butter in a microwave safe container.  Cover and microwave for 20-30 seconds.  You are not trying to turn the ingredients to liquid, just get them warm enough to melt together to an even consistency.  Stir until butter is completely melted and incorporated into cream cheese.  
7. Add horseradish and mayo to the cream cheese mixture and stir until incorporated.  Set aside.  
8. At this point you can remove your eggs from water and peel them. Chop eggs and add them to a large bowl.  
9. Add cream cheese mixture to chopped eggs.  
10. Cut lemon in half and squeeze juice into cream cheese and egg mixture.  Be sure to remove any seeds that come out.  
11. Add onions, Splenda, salt, pepper, and garlic to bowl.  Mix well with a spatula or wooden spoon.  When you mix the ingredients the egg yolks will incorporate into the cream cheese mixture.  Once your egg salad has taken on a yellow color and you don't see any more yolk it is ready to eat!

This recipe makes 2 servings.

As with many of my recipes, you can customize this to your own taste.  Feel free to play with proportions and ingredients.  Maybe you want to add another spice or some celery or nuts.  I ate this today spread on romaine lettuce leaves and it was a great combination of zesty and crunchy.  You could also try this spread onto some Atkins Revolution Bread or maybe some celery sticks.  Serve with a pickle and some pork rinds for a perfect low carb lunch!

Yolks will turn green if you boil the eggs too hot.  Follow directions
above for perfectly yellow yolks.
image via 

Successes and Struggles: Week 3

Successes:

1. Each day I feel myself needing to snack a little bit less, which is amazing.  Before I started low carb I felt like food ruled my life.  While I was eating one meal I would be thinking about what to have for the next meal.  Now I just eat when it's time and am able to fill my brain with other things.  
2. Speaking of my brain, I am feeling super alert and able to get things done.  I've been extremely productive at work over the past two weeks.  It's possible that the nice weather is the cause of this but I like to think that eating better has something to do with it.  
3. Can you believe I've gone so long without a drink?  I had one beer at happy hour with some coworker and one beer with awesome boyfriend while we were out shopping one Sunday.  Gone are the days of after work tequila.  
4. My wallet is super happy about not eating out and even more happy about not paying for booze out.  Awesome boyfriend and I are thinking about buying a new sectional sofa.  
5. After work snack is kicked!  I'll have a little something if I am hungry but there's no longer and all consuming need to eat just because I am home.  

Struggles:

1. I'm still craving sweets occasionally in the evening.  I've been making low carb peanut butter cookies and cheesecake clouds which usually does the trick, but these things have carbs and it would be nice to not depend on that sweetness after dinner.  
2. I'm tired.  Cooking three meals a day for two people is just too much.  Awesome boyfriend has been helping, but there are so many dishes and so much prep.  We're probably going to be doing more hot flax cereal for breakfast and less bacon and eggs just to cut back on cooking.  
3. I just registered for classes next semester and it looks like I will be out 2 nights a week.  Plus guitar lessons makes 3.  I've been spoiled this semester by a professor that dismisses us very early, but this might not be the case come September.  I'm going to have to develop some more quick fix meals.  
4. I feel bad that we are using so many plastic bags.  I try to pack things in plastic containers when possible but then I don't want to lug 6 containers to work so some things go in sandwich bags.  I don't want to keep throwing them in the trash.
5. I really miss diet soda.  Not all the time, but sometimes I want one in the afternoon or at work.  I love drinking so much water, but I still want a diet coke from time to time.  Maybe this will pass like the other cravings did.  
6. I am really pissed that the scale I ordered isn't working!  And I keep forgetting to take it to the post office to return to Amazon so I haven't been able to get another one yet.  Must remember to do that tomorrow.  

Food Diary Thursday, April 26

Breakfast
Ate at Plato's Diner in College Park*
1 medium ribeye steak
2 eggs scrambled with
1 slice American cheese
4 tomato slices
decaf coffee with 3 creamers

Lunch
Say What?! Egg Salad (1/2 recipe)

Jerk seasoning is good on everything.  

spread on 3 romaine lettuce leaves
1 pickle spear

Dinner
Ate at The Greene Turtle in Columbia*
Caesar side salad, no croutons
7 wings with jerk seasoning
1 celery stalk
unsweet tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

lots of water all day

Supplements
fiber- 1 with breakfast
B complex- 1 with breakfast
fish oil- 1 with breakfast
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast

*During induction I really don't recommend eating out this much, or at all if you can help it.  It's too hard to control calories and too easy to accidentally eat something that is not in the plan.  If you do eat out stick to your meats and raw veggies.  Cooked vegetables in any type of sauce can be a gamble (even cheese) because flour is often used as a thickener.  Also, most restaurants fry everything in hydrogenated vegetable oil, which I generally try to stay away from.  Today, I had a working breakfast with a vendor, and awesome boyfriend and I really wanted to go out to watch the NFL draft this evening.  Don't let your diet get in the way of your life!  Just try to make sensible choices as much as possible, and get back on track the next day.

Awesome bonus today!  I went to the container store and picked up a couple of things to reward myself for three weeks of hard work.  There are lots of great products there that make packing a meal much easier and more fun.  I highly recommend you check it out, especially if you're packing a lot of lunches.

Little containers are perfect for salad dressing, nuts, vitamins, or spices.  

Hanging basket so that all of my veggies can stop
taking up all the room on my counter.  

Food Diary Wednesday, April 25

So good.  No carbs.  They also make a BBQ
flavor and a hot & spicy flavor.
Truth time: I at the whole bag in one sitting
at lunch today!

Breakfast
1 serving egg-eronis
1 cup Celestial Seasonings blueberry tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Lunch
1 burger topped with
1 slice deli swiss
wrapped in 3 romaine lettuce leaves
1 pickle spear
1 bag salt and vinegar pork rinds

Snack
4 pieces of bacon

Snack
low carb root beer float (diet root beer with a squirt of whipped cream)

Dinner
1 serving Spicy Steak and Broccoli Stir Fry

Spicy Steak and Broccoli Stir Fry

Snack
Sweet and Creamy Chai

so much water

Supplements
B complex- 1 with breakfast
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
fish oil- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
fiber- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch

Spicy Steak and Broccoli Stir Fry

This recipe is great because it is really versatile.  You could add whatever veggies you want- snow peas, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions- as well as adjust the seasonings to your own personal taste.  If you are adding veggies remember to count those carbs!  You are only allowed 2 Cups of low impact vegetables each day during induction.

Ingredients
1/2 lb flank steak
1/2 C broccoli
1/2 C bean sprouts
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Sriracha hot sauce (optional)

• You may know this as Rooster Sauce.  It's pretty common in Asian restaurants and it is REALLY spicy.  You can find it in the international aisle in your grocery store.  If you are a spice weeny you should start with less than 1 tsp and add more if you need it. 

Directions

1. Add butter to pan and melt over medium high heat.  
2. Cut broccoli into bite size pieces and add to pan.  
3. Cut flank steak into small strips and add to pan with broccoli.  You should be stirring ingredients periodically with a spatula.  
4. Add garlic powder, soy sauce, and Sriracha to pan and integrate all ingredients with a spatula to form an even consistency.  
5. Add bean sprouts last.  They are delicate and will only need to cook for about a minute or so.  
6. Serve hot.  Serve with additional Sriracha on the side.  

Start cooking your broccoli first.  The steak is thin so it will cook fast.  

This whole recipe takes about 15 minutes to prepare and cook and only uses one pan, so it's in my arsenal of recipes for when it's already 8:00 and I haven't started dinner yet.  You can keep flank steak on hand in the freezer.  It's so thin that it defrosts pretty quickly.  If you really want to speed things up you can even cut your flank steak before you freeze it.

Bean sprouts

This is the kind I like.  They are always fresh and crunchy.  

Egg-eronis

This is a great breakfast recipe when you are getting tired of plain scrambled eggs every day, and it smells great when you cook it.  I really like eggs in all forms because they reheat pretty well in a microwave or toaster oven.  I generally cook them at night then reheat them when I get to work the next morning.

Ingredients

These pepperonis are my favorite.  

1/4 C pepperonis
2 Tbsp heavy cream
3 eggs
1/4 C shredded Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper

Directions

1. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat.  
2. Add pepperonis and cook for a couple of minutes.  They should be warm but not burning.  They'll be giving off a strong and delicious smell when they are ready.  
3. In a bowl, scramble eggs, cream, garlic, and pepper together.  
4. Add the egg mixture to the pan and mix with a spatula.  
5. Keep stirring until the eggs are no longer runny.  
6. Once eggs are firm, add the cheese and mix with spatula.  You'll only be cooking the cheese long enough to melt it.  
7. Once the cheese is melted it's ready to go.  
8. Serve with hot sauce (optional).  

Food Diary Tuesday, April 24

Breakfast
2 eggs scrambled with
1/4 C shredded Jack cheese
3 pieces of bacon
1 flax muffin
1 cup Celestial seasonings tea Blueberry with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Lunch
1 C chopped Romaine lettuce topped with
1 C sliced deli roast beef
1/2 C sliced deli Swiss cheese
2 Tbsp almonds
2 Tbsp Italian dressing
1 cup Yogi Berry Detox tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Dinner
1 onion garlic ranch burger
sandwiched between 2 pieces Atkins revolution bread
topped with 1/2 slice deli Swiss cheese
1/4 C arugula
1/2 Tbsp mayo
1/2 Tbsp mustard

1 C chopped Romaine lettuce topped with
1/4 C shredded Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp Caesar dressing

Snack
1 Sweet and Creamy Chai

water all day

Supplements
B Complex- 1 with lunch
fiber- 1 with lunch
L-Glutamine- 1 with lunch, 1 with dinner
raspberry ketones- 1 with lunch, 1 with dinner
fish oil- 1 with lunch, 1 with dinner

Food Diary Monday, April 23

Breakfast
2 eggs scrambled with butter and
1/4 C shredded cheddar cheese
3 pieces of bacon
1 flax muffin
1 cup Celestial Seasonings blueberry tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Lunch
1 serving Crunchy Chicken Salad 
sandwiched between 2 pieces Atkins Revolution bread
1 cup Yogi Berry Detox Tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Snack

Atkins Revolution rolls will change your low carb life.
No more eating things with forks that are meant to be
eaten as a sandwich!

Sweet and Creamy Chai

Dinner
1 Onion Garlic Ranch Burger
1 cup chopped romaine topped with
1/4 C shredded Parmesan cheese tossed in
2 Tbsp Newman's Own Caesar salad dressing

Snack
1 slice low carb cheesecake

I drank tons of water today!

Supplements
fish oil- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
fiber- 1 with lunch
B complex- 1 with breakfast
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch


Super Tip:  Packing a salad for lunch?  Save your old prescription medication bottles from the pharmacy.  They don't leak and they hold almost exactly 2 Tbsp of dressing.

Stroke of genius.  

Onion Garlic Ranch burgers

Check out my recipe for Atkins Revolution Rolls.  No more fork burgers! 

These burgers are yum.  On Monday nights I have guitar classes so they are really handy for a quick dinner when I get home.  You can make the patties a couple of days before hand, just make sure that you keep them covered.  Serve with a Caesar salad and call it a meal!




Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 packet Hidden Valley ranch seasoning
1/4 C dry minced onions

• You can find dry minced onions in the aisle with the spices.  They are good on pretty much everything from scrambled eggs to steak.  

2 Tbsp garlic powder
Atkins Revolution Rolls for buns (click here for recipe)
Swiss cheese
whatever other toppings you want- bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, etc.


Directions

1. Add ground beef to a large bowl and break up with a wooden spoon.  
2. Pour entire contents of ranch seasoning over ground beef.  
3. Add minced onions and garlic powder to ground beef.  
4. Mix well with your hands.  You want to get an even color and consistency throughout.  
5. Mold the ground beef into four patties.  They should be about 4 inches in diameter and about an inch thick.  
6. Heat some butter and olive oil in a pan over medium high.  
7. Add burgers to pan and cook for 3-5 minutes on each side, depending on how well you want them to be cooked.  Remember, you can cover and keep the uncooked burgers for a few days.  I usually cook two and save the other two for later in the week.  If you'd prefer to cook your burgers on the grill you can do that as well.  You'll still heat over medium high but your cook time might be a little longer.  
8. Place burgers on a paper towel on a plate to drain.  Immediately cover with cheese.  Once the cheese has melted they are ready to eat.  
9. Serve between two Atkins Revolution rolls with your choice of toppings.

Burger patties are ready for the pan!
Notice that you can see the ranch but it's spread evenly throughout.  

Remember, ketchup is not allowed on a low carb diet!  It is loaded with sugar.  You might be able to find a low sugar low carb ketchup like this one from Walden farms, but in my experience they just aren't very good.  Load up on other toppings like mayo, mustard, avocado, kale, shallots, tomatillos, or jalapenos and
you won't even miss the ketchup.

Burgers fresh out of the pan ready for some cheese.  

Low Carb Cheesecake

I won't tell you a lie, this cheesecake recipe takes a little bit of doing.  It has to bake for an hour, cool for an hour, and refrigerate for 24 hours.  Awesome boyfriend and I spent the better part of our Sunday counting down the minutes until we could eat the cheesecake that had been taunting us all day.  The good news is that the wait was worth it.


Ingredients: Crust

1/2 C pecans

1/2 C walnuts

4 Tbsp butter

1 C almond meal 

• You might be able to find almond meal in your grocery store.  If not, they will definitely have it in your local health food store.  It is basically just finely ground almonds.  

Ingredients: Filling

24 ounces cream cheese

16 ounces sour cream

1 1/3 C Splenda

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

juice from one lemon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  
2. Melt butter in the microwave.  
3. Add pecans, walnuts, butter, and almond meal to a food processor and blend until you have a crumbly sand like texture.  There may still be some larger nut pieces and that is okay.  
4. Press the crust into a pie pan, going up the sides if possible.  If you run out of crust just make some more with the same proportions.  (I only coated the bottom with crust when I made this and it turned out just fine.  Don't waste too much energy fussing over the crust.)  Set crust aside.  
5. Add cream cheese to a large bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until fluffy.  
6. Add sour cream, Splenda, eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice to cream cheese and continue beating with electric hand mixer until all ingredients are incorporated.  
7. Pour cream cheese mixture into pie pan over crust.  
8. Bake for one hour.  Don't worry if it puffs up.  It will shrink while cooling.  
9. After one hour remove cheesecake from oven and let cool for one hour before refrigerating.  
10. Once the cheesecake has reached room temperature, refrigerate for 24 hours.  

Cheesecake ready to go into the oven.  

I've heard about recipes like this being split into 8, 12, and 16 servings.  Awesome boyfriend and I split our cheesecake into 8 servings partly because we are greedy, but mostly because we are very strictly carb controlled during the day.  

Splenda does have carbs.  You could try sweetening with protein powder or a sugar free syrup if you want to cut back a little bit more.  If you want to cut back even further, skip the crust.  Place muffin cups in a muffin pan and add filling to those.  You can even take those to go!

Side view before the oven.
You can see that my crust only covered the bottom of the
pie plate.  It was still delicious!

So.  Good.  

Lemon Butter Tilapia

Do you ever have those nights when you just don't feel like cooking?  I love to cook so they don't happen to me very often but sometimes I just want to sit on the couch and watch Hulu.  Under the old regime awesome boyfriend and I would have either gone out for wings or gotten some Chinese food delivered but those days are on hold for now.  This recipe is perfect for a rainy, cold, don't feel like cooking Sunday.  You can buy frozen, individually wrapped tilapia fillets in the grocery store and keep them on hand.  Just pull a couple out in the afternoon and leave them in the sink and they'll be ready in time for dinner.

Yum.  Serve these with a bag salad and you're good to go!

Ingredients

2 boneless frozen tilapia fillets

1 Tbsp lemon pepper

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1/2 Tbsp black pepper

1/2 Tbsp kosher salt

2 Tbsp butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Line a baking pan or dish with a piece of foil.  The foil should be big enough to completely cover the baking dish and still have enough on either side to fold over.  (If you don't already have one think about investing in a Pyrex baking set.  They are so useful and dishwasher safe.)
3. Grease the foil that is lining the baking dish with butter.  
4. Lay tilapia fillets on the foil and sprinkle with half of the lemon pepper, garlic powder black pepper, and kosher salt.  Flip tilapia fillets over and sprinkle the other side with the remaining portion.  These measurements are not firm.  Feel free to use more or less of any seasoning, or add another if there is something you like.  
5. Cut butter into four portions.  Place two portions of butter on each tilapia filet (see picture below).  
6. Fold foil over to cover making sure to seal as much as possible.  You are cooking with steam so you want to trap it in the foil if you can.  
7. Bake for 30 minutes.  
8. Unwrap and enjoy!  You should be able to just slide these out with a spatula without them breaking or sticking.  

Food Diary Sunday, April 22

Breakfast/Lunch*
2 pieces Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage
topped with 1/4 C shredded jack cheese
sandwiched in between 2 pieces Atkins Revolution bread
1 egg scrambled in butter
1 cup Celestial Seasonings blueberry with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Snack
1 piece Atkins Revolution bread spread with
1 Tbsp chive flavored cream cheese

Dinner
1 Lemon Butter Tilapia
1 C green beans sauteed in butter then baked in the oven topped with
2 Tbsp shredded jack cheese

1 piece Atkins Revolution bread

Snack
1 slice low carb cheesecake
1 cup Celestial Seasonings cranberry apple with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

water water water

Supplements
fiber- 1 with breakfast, 1 with dinner
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast, 1 with dinner
fish oil- 1 with breakfast, 1 with dinner
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast, 1 with dinner
B complex- 1 with breakfast

*I woke up around 10:00 today and by the time I got breakfast ready it was after 11:00.  Normally I don't skip meals because it actually slows down your metabolism.  If you're not hungry you certainly don't have to force yourself to eat, but don't make a habit of skipping meals to cut calories.

Food Diary Saturday, April 21

Breakfast
3 Atkins Revolution Rolls topped with
1/4 C shredded precooked chicken and
1/4 C jack cheese
microwave the whole thing for 1 minute


Lunch
salad with 1 C chopped romaine
1 C deli roast beef cut into one inch squares
1/2 C deli Swiss cheese cut into one inch squares
tossed with 2 Tbsp Italian dressing*
1 cup white peach tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Snack
1 low carb peanut butter cookie

Snack
10 small pieces of broccoli spread with
1 Tbsp chive flavored cream cheese

Dinner
2 snow crab clusters boiled with Old Bay and dipped in butter

1 C broccoli boiled then topped with
2 Tbsp shredded cheese
1 Tbsp bacon then baked in the oven for 5 minutes

Snack
1 low carb peanut butter cookie
1 Sweet and Creamy Chai

plenty of water all day

Supplements
Vitamin D- 1 with lunch
raspberry ketones- 1 with lunch, 1 with dinner
fiber- 1 with lunch, 1 with dinner
fish oil- 1 with lunch, 1 with dinner
L-Glutamine- 1 with lunch
B complex- 1 with lunch

*If you're looking for a good carb free salad dressing this one is AMAZING.  It goes great on all kinds of greens, chicken, green beans, marinade for steaks- they sky is the limit.  They sell it in the grocery store.  It will be with the fancy salad dressings near the nuts and croutons and other things they try to make you impulse buy.

Atkins Revolution Rolls

This is a variation on the original recipe for Revolution Rolls from the Atkins diet.  I'm still pretty perplexed about how these ingredients work together to create bread, but they're so good I'm not too worried about it.  When I baked them last night the whole house smelled like baking bread, and awesome boyfriend and I devoured them all between last night and this morning.  There are endless versions and varieties of these rolls, both sweet and savory.  I'll be adding updates as I get a chance to try some different things.  I hear these make great burger buns!

Ingredients
Pam (or any baking spray)
3 eggs
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3 Tbsp ricotta cheese
1 packet Splenda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  
2. Separate eggs very carefully.  It's very important that none of the yolks get into the whites.  If you don't know how to separate eggs, you can check out the video from Good Housekeeping that I've included below.  
3. Spray Pam onto a nonstick muffin pan.  
4. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until egg whites are stiff and small peaks form.  If you're not sure if they are ready try to turn your bowl upside down.  If the egg whites slide out, keep beating.  When they are ready they will literally sit still in the bowl.  
5. In another bowl beat egg yolks.  
6. Add ricotta cheese and Splenda to egg yolks.  Mix well.  
7. Add egg yolks mixture to egg whites and fold in with a rubber spatula.  Be gentle!  You should only mix for about a minute or less, otherwise the egg whites will start to break down.  
8. With a large spoon, add the mixture one spoonful at a time to the muffin pan.  You're only making 6 rolls.  Just keep adding spoonfuls of the mixture to your six muffin cups until you run out. 
9. Bake for 45 minutes to and hour.  Rolls should be toasted on top, but only a light brown. 
10. Let rolls cool slightly before removing from pan.  If they stick, run a knife around the outside edge and they should pop right out. 

This is what your eggs whites will look like when they are ready.
I'm holding the bowl up sideways and they are not sliding.  

Rolls going into the oven.
(I didn't read the directions well enough.  You should only have six!)

I've read that if you want to make burger buns you can do this same recipe and just drop the egg mixture onto a baking sheet instead of a muffin pan.  The mixture will spread out while it bakes, kind of like cookies.  Ours stuck to the muffin pan a little bit, so I would highly recommend putting down some baking paper if you don't have a silicone baking sheet.   I've also read that you can add a scoop of protein powder for a more bread like texture.


Update


I made rolls again this morning without a muffin pan and they are awesome.  I just dropped them onto a silicone baking pan that was coated with butter to prevent sticking.  I doubled the recipe so I got 12 instead of 6.  I only cooked about 30 minutes because they were looking a little brown on the edges.  Also, I added a scoop of protein powder this time and it did help make a more bread like consistency.  We had sausage and cheese sandwiches for breakfast this morning, using the rolls of course, and they were yummy.

Rolls on baking sheet before going into the oven.  

Ta Da!  Perfect for sausage and cheese sandwiches.
Can't wait to try them with burgers.  

Update # 2
I tried these with some vanilla protein powder thinking I would get a sweeter roll and the results were not so good.  The rolls were sweeter, but they tasted like a chewy vanilla protein shake.  Also, I did not take out the Splenda to compensate and I probably should have.  The texture is much better with the protein powder, but I'll be sticking the unsweetened plain kind from now on.

Food Diary Friday, April 20

Breakfast
bowl of hot flax cereal
1 cup Celestial Seasonings blueberry tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Lunch
3 large romaine lettuce leaves filled with
1 serving of Crunchy Chicken Salad
topped with 1 sliced hard boiled egg

Snack
Sweet and Creamy Chai

Snack
low carb root beer float (diet root beer with a squirt of whipped cream)

Dinner
1 large ribeye pan fried in butter and coconut oil
seasoned with garlic powder, black pepper, kosher salt, Worcestershire sauce
1 C arugula tossed with
2 Tbsp balsamic vinagrette

Snack
1 low carb peanut butter cookie
1 cup Bigelow Vanilla Caramel tea with 1 packet of Splenda

drink lots of water all day

Supplements
fish oil- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
B complex- 1 with breakfast
fiber- 1 with lunch

At meals when I have flax I don't add a fiber supplement.

Crunchy Chicken Salad

This is my go to meal when I don't have time to cook.  It makes a huge amount and you can do a lot with it.  Play around with this recipe and see what tastes good to you.  I don't like a really wet salad, but some folks might want more mayo.  Maybe add celery, sunflower seeds, or hard boiled egg.  Just stay away from fruit!  Grapes, apples, raisins, and cranberries are all pretty high in carbs and sugars.

Top with sliced almonds or crunchy onions before serving.   So crunchy.  

Ingredients
1 rotisserie chicken (the kind they cook at the grocery store)
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp sliced almonds
2 Tbsp broccoli- crowns only and finely chopped
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
crushed red pepper to taste (optional)

Directions

1. Pull all of the meat off of the chicken and put it into a bowl.  Throw away bones.  (You'll need a large space to work with the rotisserie chicken.  I have a huge cutting board that works, and I pull the trash can up next to me.)
2. Add remaining ingredients.*  
3. Mix with a spatula.   

This recipe makes four servings.

*For maximum crunch, add almonds just before eating.  They can soak up moisture and get soggy.  If I'm making it in the evening to go for lunch the next day I just throw them in, but any longer than that and I take them along in a separate container.

I love rotisserie chickens.  They are inexpensive and have so many uses.  

You don't really need a knife to get the meat off of the chicken.  If it's still
warm you should be able to just pull it off with your fingers.  

Chopped chicken.  I like mine bite size, but not too small.  

Serve on bibb lettuce topped with crunchy onions.  Yum.  

Have A Good Morning Hot Flax Cereal

This hot cereal is similar to oatmeal in flavor but a little bit thicker.  I love it because it's something a little sweet in the morning, and it keeps me full all the way until lunch.  Plus, flax is a power food (more about that later).  It's high in fiber and protein and a great addition to a low carb diet.

Ingredients
1/4 C milled flax seeds
1/4 C heavy whipping cream
1/4 C water
1 Tbsp butter
2 packets Splenda
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a microwave safe container and stir.  
2. Microwave for one minute.
3. Stir again.  Cereal should be hot enough, but if you would like it hotter you can nuke it for another 30 seconds.  
4. Enjoy!

Easy, right?  Once again, if your mornings are anything like mine you are running out the door with your jacket half way on.  You can prep this ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator overnight.  Heat it up in the morning or take it to work with you and heat it up there.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

This recipe will knock your socks off.  Plus, you can prep the night before and store everything in the refrigerator.  Turn the slow cooker on before you leave for work in the morning, and it will be ready just in time for dinner.  What's better than that?

Ingredients
4 1/2 pounds corned beef brisket

• They sell this at the grocery store in the section with all the steaks.  It will look like a huge slab of beef and the label will say corned beef brisket.  If you can't find it the butcher should be able to help you.  

1 medium onion
1 head of green cabbage
1 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp vinegar
1/4 C Splenda
2 C water

Directions

1. Add water, vinegar, Splenda, and black pepper to crock pot and stir.  
2. Dice onion.  Add to crock pot.  
3. Add meat to crock pot.  Place it right into the water and onion mixture.  If necessary, cut it to fit.  
4. Cut cabbage into quarters.  When you cut the cabbage, cut out the core and throw it away.  
5. Place cabbage quarters on top of meat in crock pot.  
6. Cook on low 10-12 hours.  

This meal reheats pretty well in the microwave.  Just make sure that when you store the meat you add some of the juice to the container so that it doesn't dry out.

This meal can be eaten during induction.  Remember that during induction you are only allowed 2 C of low impact veggies per day so you need to measure your cabbage.

Successes and Struggles: Week 2

Successes:

1. Still staying full during work and after.  Awesome boyfriend doesn't get home until around 7:00 or 7:30 so staying full is important if we want to eat dinner together.  
2. I bought several boxes of decaf tea at the grocery store and am loving being able to have something hot to drink during the day.  Also, tea has tons of antioxidants.  I'm doing some research on other health benefits of different teas and will be reporting on that soon.  
3. Awesome boyfriend and I haven't had any alcohol since we started back into the regimen and we have both found the transition very easy.  We spent some time outside at a park on  Sunday instead and were surprised at how good we felt.  
4. Guitar lessons are going well.  Staying busy in the afternoon has helped ease after work snack withdrawal.  

Struggles:

1. I love having such a wide variety of sweets available but I wonder if it might be too easy to fall off the wagon.  I'm always tempted to have four peanut butter cookies even though I know I'm only supposed to have one.  
2. I am getting tired of prepping so much stuff every evening.  I really have to get this figured out.  Tonight I got out of class and got home around 8:30 and I still had to eat dinner and get all of our food ready for tomorrow!  
3. I'm thinking about adding some more supplements to my diet but the wide array of things available is quite confusing.  It's hard to tell what is actually going to benefit my progress and what isn't going to live up to the hype.  I'm looking into a GLA/CLA combo, but still having trouble understanding exactly what it's all about.  
4. Mashed turnips were terrible!  I've actually never eaten a turnip before, but I had high hopes because they get mashed with butter and sour cream and what could be bad about that?  A turnip tastes like a cross between a potato and an onion.  I put a lot of effort into boiling and mashing those darn turnips, and we both dumped them straight in the trash.  Can't win 'em all I guess.  

Food Diary Thursday, April 19

Breakfast
1/4 crustless quiche Lorraine

Snack
1 cup Sweet and Creamy Chai

Lunch
1 C Arugula tossed with
2 Tbsp Newman's Own original recipe Italian dressing
1/4 rotisserie chicken pulled and topped with salt, cracked black pepper, and cayenne pepper
1 cup Celestial Seasonings Blueberry Tea with 1 packet Sweet'N Low

Snack
10 pepperoni snacks- spread a dab of cream cheese between 2 pepperonis

Dinner
1 serving Corned Beef and Cabbage

• 1 serving is approx 1/2 lb beef and 1 C cabbage

20 oz bottle Coke Zero*

Snack
1 low carb peanut butter cookie

Per usual, lots of water all day.

Supplements
fiber- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
L-Glutamine- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
raspberry ketones- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
fish oil- 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch
B complex- 1 with breakfast

*Sodas with artificial sweetener have been known to increase cravings for sugar and stimulate overall appetite. As a rule I would NOT make them a part of your low carb diet.  I had a massive headache this evening and I broke down and picked one up while I was in the grocery store.  Once in a while is okay, but if you are a one a day drinker diet soda drinker it might be good to cut back.  Also, caffeine stimulates the appetite and acts as a diuretic which means that you could be losing precious nutrients that your body really needs.  Caffeine is not allowed during induction and during maintenance it should be limited as much as possible.

Butter Pecan Creme Brulee

This creme brulee is so good that awesome boyfriend and I got into a fight over the last cup!  We ended up going halvsies on the creme brulee and a low carb peanut butter cookie, but it got ugly there for a minute.

Ingredients
2 C heavy whipping cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt (any kind)
2 Tbsp Splenda (if you like a really sweet dessert you can add a little more)

Ingredients for Butter Pecan topping
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 C chopped pecans
1/2 tsp Splenda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. In a saucepan heat cream over medium high until little bubbles start to form on the surface.  Be careful not to scald.  
3. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.  
4. In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks, vanilla, salt, and Splenda.  
5. Slowly whisk in cream.  Cream should still be warm, but no longer bubbling.  
6. Strain mixture through a fine colander or sieve.  Don't skip this step!  You need to strain to catch any larger pieces of egg that are still in the mixture.  
7. Divide mixture into four small oven safe cups. (I have some Pyrex ones that are awesome!)
8. Place custard cups on a baking sheet or baking dish.  
9. Add hot water to baking dish.  Water should be about one inch deep.  
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Custards should be set, but still jiggly, and slightly browned on top.  
11. Chill for one hour.  

Directions for Butter Pecan topping

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  
2. Stir in pecans and Splenda.  
3. Continue to heat until nuts begin to color.  
4. Butter Pecan topping should be spooned warm on top of custards just before serving.  (Yum!)

Each creme brulee with topping will have about 6 carbs.  If you want to cut the carb count down to 5, use only half of the pecans.

Make sure to keep stir cream occasionally while it heats.  Otherwise
it might scald.  You're not trying to bring it to a boil, just warm it.  

Slowly whisk the hot cream into the egg mixture.  

I love these little oven proof cups.  They came with lids, so they are great
for keeping things in the fridge.  

Just came out of the oven.  Ready to go into the fridge for an hour.  

Butter pecan topping bubbling away.  When it looks like this it is ready.  

To serve, creme brulee should be cool from the fridge, and butter pecan
topping should still be warm.  Serve quickly so that the butter does not
start to harden on the surface of the desserts.