What have I been eating?

Haven't posted anything in a while. Things have been hectic since we came back from a family visit in Georgia. So, what have I been eating lately? Well, I thought I would show you some pictures of what I eat. I subscribe to a lot of blogs and for the most part, I get my recipes from those. I am not to the point where I can create my own recipes from scratch and post them yet. That is my ultimate goal. In the meantime, I will just have to get my ideas from others. Don't worry, I always give credit where credit is due. Unless I come up with a recipe on my own, or make several changes to something, I link back to my original source for the recipe. So, without further ado, here are some pics of a handful of things I have made and the story behind them.
First up is Better Butter Chicken. This is the one recipe I can't give you. See, I got it out of a book and I would not re-post it without permission from the author, Sarah Fragoso. She authored the book Everyday Paleo and that's where the recipe came from. I purchased this book when it became available in Nook format and it was well worth the $10 I spent. Lots of great recipes and other info if you are trying to transition your family to this way of eating. So, how was it? It was excellent! I had it over some steamed broccoli with half of  a Sandwich "Muffin" to sop up the sauce with.

My 2-year-old liked it too!

Up next is breakfast from one morning. I had some center-cut bacon leftover in my fridge, so I decided to make a sandwich. I once again made my trusty Sandwich "Muffin" and scrambled up an egg. I topped it with a slice of Deluxe American cheese and voila! Breakfast is served. It was quite tasty and reminded me of the bacon, egg and cheese biscuits I used to get at McDonalds only way better!

Last up is a recipe I came across on a Pinterest board  for donuts, and had to check it out. I am very glad I did because these were some of the tastiest donuts I have ever had. And they are low carb to boot! These were created by the genius over at Your Lighter Side. The only changes I made were in the glaze. I did not have any 80% chocolate and did not want to run to the store to get some. So I just used 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate and upped the sweetener amount. I also made them in a standard donut pan. I will definitely be making these again!

My donuts fresh from the oven!

These came out of the pan fairly easily.

All glazed up and ready to eat!

Seriously, who needs Dunkin' Donuts?

So, there are some of the things I have been testing out and happily eating. I hope you will try some of these recipes yourself and see how tasty and satisfying eating this way is.

Pancakes for Breakfast

I was in a pancake mood with the first hint of Fall outside today. I put some center cut bacon in the oven and went to work on the pancakes. They take a little bit of work, but they are definitely worth it! Fluffy and satisfying, I served mine up with some sugar free maple syrup. YUM! You can find the recipe I used here. Check out the blog while you're there, too. She makes some seriously yummy stuff!

So, what's going on with your blog?

This may be a question you are asking. After all, I have billed my blog as a fitness blog, so what's up with all of the recipes and no exercise stuff? This is true, and I may be changing the theme of it as I am truly passionate about cooking and baking, too. We will see what time holds for me. In the meantime, I am going to give a little rundown on what has transpired so far on my journey. So, back in January, I decided to start dieting and exercising to lose my accumulated baby weight. I started exercising 4-5 days a week and eating a low-fat diet. Needless to say, I was great with the exercise. I felt better, had more energy and was sleeping better at night. My diet, not so much. I was dealing with constant cravings, always feeling hungry and just not satisfied when I finished a meal. An hour after I was done, I was looking for a snack. Needless to say, this aspect of my journey was extremely frustrating. And to top it all off, the weight was not coming off! I felt like my appetite was out of control. So after 8 months of low-fat dieting and exercise, what did I have to show for it? Yes, my clothes were a little looser, and  I definitely felt better but I was extremely disappointed by the crawling rate of weight loss. At that time, I had only lost 6 pounds in 8 months. Talk about being frustrated! So then, I came across a documentary in Netflix. This documentary really got me thinking about the way I was eating. If you have not seen it and have the Watch Instantly option for Netflix, go watch it today! The documentary is called Fat Head. I really began to think about some of the things he was saying and agreeing with some of the stuff. So, I then began to do my own research starting with one of the books cited in the movie. It's called Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. This is a great book with a lot of factual information. It's not an exciting read and is very tedious, but it's got a lot of good information that refutes the low-fat diet that we have all been brainwashed to believe in. So after more research on the internet and finding some great blogs on the subject, I felt confident in my decision. I decided to start eating low-carb. So how did my first week go eating low-carb? I lost 5 pounds. I had finally found a way of eating that works! I know, you may be thinking, "eating all of that fat can't be healthy"! Oh, yes it can. We have all been led to believe that fat is bad and we must put our trust into "healthy whole grains". Have you ever noticed you don't just see grains? It's always "healthy whole grains", like it's one word. Needless to say, I have had some raised eyebrows and questions from my family. "You're not eating carbs? Not even whole grains??" No I'm not. So how do I feel now? I finally feel like my appetite is under control.  I love to eat this way. Food is flavorful and satisfying when it has fat in it. And to top it all off? I feel SATISFIED when I finish a meal. I am not looking for something to eat an hour later. Sometimes, I can go 4 or 5 hours before I feel truly hungry again. When I do feel like I need a snack, I find that I only need a few bites of something to satisfy me. So you tell me, is eating low-carb really bad for you? The difference in my appetite is proof enough for me. If you are like I was, always feeling hungry or not satisfied, or counting the hours until your next "cheat meal", then maybe you should looking into eating low-carb too. After all, there is PLENTY of information out there about this way of eating. Just do me a favor before you blow this off. Do your due diligence. Give it a try yourself, or at least look at some of the information out there that dispels the low-fat diet. Some good books to look at are:
Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It by Gary Taubes
Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis
Eat Fat Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig
The Great Cholesterol Con by Dr.Malcolm Kendrick
How I Gave Up My Low-Fat Diet and Lost 40 Pounds by Dana Carpender
These are just a few of the sources I found. There are tons of blogs to look at as well. Just look at the blogs I follow. So, this is where I am now, and why I changed my diet. To date, I have lost 12 pounds eating this way. I finally feel like I can lose all of the weight I gained during my pregnancies. I finally feel like I am in control of my eating. It's a good feeling!

Frozen Strawberry Yogurt

So, I have been missing ice cream lately, but I didn't want to get a sugar-free one from the store that has God knows what in it. After some debating, I decided to try my hand at making some frozen yogurt. Thinking back to my childhood, I started remembering the times we would visit my grandparents and eat really unhealthy food. One of the things I remember eating was my grandmother's homemade strawberry ice cream. Cold and creamy, and probably loaded with tons of sugar! It's one of those great childhood memories I wanted to see if I could recreate for my children without all of the sugar. I remember seeing a show on the Food Network where someone had taken a bag of frozen strawberries and put it in the food processor with some sugar and milk. I decided to use that as my inspiration. I went to the store to see if I could find some whole milk Greek yogurt, which is not so easy to find in large grocery stores in this area for some reason. All they have is fat free stuff.  Not wanting to make the drive downtown to Whole Foods for just yogurt, I decided to improvise with my recipe. I ended up using heavy cream to make up for the fat missing from the yogurt. I had a half bag of frozen strawberries in the freezer, so I went to work. I was pretty pleased with the results. The finished product was definitely creamy, with only a  slight lingering quality you get from most low carb ice cream recipes that call for lots of cream. I think next time, I will go to the effort to find full fat Greek yogurt, or just make my own with this really easy recipe I found. I posted a couple of pics with the ingredients I used and the   finished product before it went into the freezer. You could probably make this with fresh fruit and put it into an ice cream maker as well. Enjoy!


Frozen Strawberry Yogurt
8 oz frozen strawberries, or whatever berries you would like
¼ cup xylitol 
¼ cup Zsweet or granulated erythritol
1½ cups fat free Greek yogurt
1 cup heavy cream
In a food processor fitted with the S blade, place the frozen berries and sweeteners. Pulse until it's the consistency of coarse sand. Add the yogurt and cream. Pulse until everything is incorporated. Check for sweetness and place in freezer-proof containers. If you let it freeze solid, be sure to let it sit on the counter for at least 15 minutes to soften up again.

All of my ingredients

The finished product. Yum!

Cookies!

Well, I have been slowly trying different recipes that I find on the internet and I came across one that I had to try. It's for Tiramisu Cookies. I found this little gem over at All Day I Dream About Food. A blog after my own heart. Carolyn, the author of the blog, comes up with some incredible desserts and baked treats. She shares some interesting similarities to me. She is a stay-at-home Mom of 3, just like me! She is also diabetic, I am "genetically predisposed" for diabetes; one of the reasons I decided to look into eating low carb in the first place. I am amazed with the creativity she puts into some of her recipes. This one is no exception. I did tweak the recipe a bit, per her advice on her post. Instead of doing 2 different fillings, I left out the cocoa powder and just mixed everything else together into one filling. The filling came out a little too sweet, so I think next time I will cut back on the sweetener. I will leave the original amount of sweetener there and you can adjust as you see fit. I don't know if I would still call these tiramisu, though. Don't get me wrong, these cookies are divine. However, I think I would liken them more to a mocha cookie. I can definitely see a peanut butter adaptation of the filling. I think I will try that out and post the results here. So head on over and look at the original recipe here. I am just posting my recipe for the filling with my changes. I hope you give these a try. They are definitely worth the effort!

Mascarpone Filling:

4 oz mascarpone cheese

1 tbsp coffee liqueur, such as Kahlua

⅓ cup powdered erythritol

2 tsp strong-brewed coffee

For the mascarpone filling, whisk everything together until combined.  To assemble, spread the bottom of one chocolate cookie with the mascarpone filling and press together to make a sandwich. Repeat with remaining cookies. Chill in refrigerator 20 minutes to set fillings.

So what about sandwiches?

So what do you do when you are craving a sandwich, but you have sworn off bread? Well, nowadays there are many options open to you. Enter your friends almond flour and coconut flour. Both are low-carb (speaking in net carbs here) and gluten free. With all of my perusing of the web and various blogs, I have come up with my own recipe for sandwich bread which I am quite happy with. Until I can get a Magic Line Loaf Pan, I will continue to use this recipe. There are many variations of it on the Low Carb Friends site. I just picked one and tweaked it a little bit. You can make it sweet or savory, depending on what you add to it. I was craving tuna for some reason, so I got my can of Tonno in olive oil and added some homemade Mason Jar Mayonnaise to it. The results were very satisfying!

Sandwich "Muffin"

Makes 1

¼ c. Almond Flour

1 Tbsp. Chia Seeds (you can also use flax seed meal)

½ tsp. Baking Powder 

Pinch of Celtic Sea Salt

¼ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1 Egg 

½ Tbsp. Butter, Melted

In a small bowl mix dry ingredients and set aside. In another small bowl whisk together egg and melted butter.  I like to melt the  butter in the ramekin dish you bake it in. Add the wet to the dry and mix well. Spoon mixture into 6 oz. ramekin and microwave for 50 seconds to 1 minute. (Mine was perfect at 1 minute).

Dinner last night

Well, I tried a recipe last night that I saw online a few weeks ago. It intrigued me, so I decided to follow this blog and I am glad I did! If you have never checked out Your Lighter Side, you should! Jamie aka "Carbarella", comes up with some tasty stuff that is delicious even though it is low carb. If you are one of those people who think eating this way is boring, then you should check out some of the blogs I subscribe to. Anyway, back to dinner. I decided to try a recipe I had seen posted for Chili Cheese Tots. Just looking at the picture made me want to try it. I have to say the results were good enough that I will definitely make this again! The Cauli Tots will have to be worked on a little bit. I don't think I squeezed out enough liquid when I made them and they definitely need to be baked a little longer. Here are some pictures of my endeavors. This recipe is basically 3 recipes in 1. Don't let that intimidate you though, I made it last night for dinner and was able to get it on the table in a little over an hour. You could also make the Cauli Tots in advance and pop them in the oven when you are ready to make dinner. Without further ado, here are the pictures of the 3 components and the final product which was then inhaled by yours truly! Head on over and check out the recipe here. You won't be disappointed, I promise!

Here's the finished Cheese Sauce. I made this while the tots were baking.

I made the Chili while the Tots were in the freezer.

Here's the tots after I pulled them out of the oven. I think next time, I will leave them in there longer.

And lastly, the finished product. It was delish!