If anyone is interested, the recipe is up for the meatloaf –> Sun-Dried Tomato Meatloaf

Calories (per 1/12th): 410 cals (24g fat, 34g protein, 14g carbs)

I’ll be back to post more after I have lunch, but thought I’d share today’s bread. I don’t usually share the recipes for my high-protein bread baking attempts. Mainly because they don’t usually turn out as well. (I think I’m getting better at it.) This is meant to be a lemon loaf, but I use mixed dried peel. For the purposes of the calorie count I used 3oz of raw peel. What I do is peel oranges, lemons, and/or grapefruit - bring to a boil in water, then dehydrate them. The original recipe called simply for peel.

Total calories: 2737 cals, 29% protein, 9% fat, 62% carbs
per ounce: 68 cals, 5g protein, .67g fat, 10.5g carbs

I had the end piece with a little butter for my morning snack, but it will be a great breakfast toast with a little jam.

Recipe here (with my rambling comments)

I should have taken a picture, but we had started eating before I thought about it. This was supposed to to use apricot nectar (I’m assuming juice), but I used our homemade apricot jam instead. It was super easy and took just over 15 mins from start to end. It was a nice slightly sweet sauce with a gingery bite.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (~8oz used)
3 Tb apricot jam (140 cals)
1 Tb chopped gingerroot (4 cals)
4 oz chicken stock (11 cals)
4 secs canola oil spray
salt, pepper

Spray small, non-stick pan. Season chicken with salt and pepper while pan is pre-heating on high heat. Brown lightly on both sides (about a min on each side). Mix all other ingredients together and pour into the pan. Cover with a lid and simmer for 12-15 mins. Lift chicken breasts out (keep covered) and boil sauce vigorously until thickened. Serve.

Notes: I used a small pan, and half a cup of liquid was enough. In a larger pan you probably would want more chicken stock. Since I never pan cook chicken I cut it in half to check if it was ready, so I ended up slicing it and spooning the sauce over top. My homemade jam is a less sweet than most commercial jams, however, you could add a little lemon juice if you needed to. The original recipe called for apricot nectar (12oz), but this would have been way too much liquid for my pan. You could also use oil as I tend to use the canola spray as it’s handy.

Sauce: (serves 2) 195 cals (42 from fat, 5 from protein, the rest - carbs)

I made this tonight in the crockpot. I’ve already considered some changes:

I used the following:

10oz can condensed beef broth
1 tsp beef bouillon powder
2 Tbsp tomato paste
8oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup pearl barley
2 carrots, chopped (used ~ 3oz)
2 celery stalks, chopped (used ~ 3oz)
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

The changes I would have made would be to perhaps swap out some of the beef broth with a splash of wine, add a little garlic, and perhaps a bay leaf. And definitely cut back a bit on the barley (as the portion size was quite big).

Total calories in the above:
592 (33g protein, 3g fat, 117g carbs)

To that I added 13.6oz of top round steak (cubed). It’s not the ideal cut for the crockpot, but it still worked very well. So, the above, divided into two VERY generous servings was:

562 cals (59g protein, 11g fat, 58g carbs)

The original recipe had 2Tb butter, but I wasn’t sure that I needed it, so I left it out. I would seriously think that this could be easily used to serve three (@375 per).

(oops - this cooked easily for just under 6 hours on low)

I also have a workout to log, but I’ll likely get that done after dinner (going to light the BBQ in a minute). This was an attempt at a breakfast bake. I used:

1/2 Tbsp butter

melted it, then cooked:

8-oz mushrooms, sliced
1.5-oz onions, sliced

Used a little salt, pepper and garlic while cooking. Adding in 1/2 cup beef broth and then a few minutes later 1/2 cup salsa, and cooked until fairly dry. I put in into a sprayed 8-inch square glass dish, added 1-1/2 oz shredded cheese blend. Covered the whole thing with:

1-1/2 cups egg whites
3 large eggs, beaten

Baked for about an hour. I cut it into four pieces, and had one piece on a ‘thintini’ (see picture) for breakfast. It was very filling. I plan to cut the egg whites back to a cup, and use only two eggs next time, and will probably chop up a smoked turkey sausage.

It was really quite tasty, and the 1/4 of the ‘bake’ was 196 cals. The thintini was 170, so it wasn’t a bad breakfast. Tomorrow I’m going to toast the bread and then nuke another piece.

This ended up making a lower calorie/lower protein serving than I had expected.  I thinned it down with another 8 cups of beef broth when it was made (as it really was pretty thick).  Next time I might divide it first, adding the beef broth, if needed, when reheating.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Turkey/Beef Minestrone <— Recipe here

Tonight’s dinner was a dish I really quite enjoy, but haven’t made in a while. Although the macros are a little high on the fat and low on the protein, but they could easily be adjusted if you wanted. The calories are low enough that you can play around with it.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Crab-stuffed Mushrooms <— Recipe here

I’m playing catch-up on some of the cooking posts. This is another of my ‘lunch’ options. The hardest part about making this was the slicing it up. Although I understand that a slicer might be in my future in the new year.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Eye of Round Roast <—- Recipe here

When I made this tonight I thought the sauce didn’t have enough taste. However, when served with the oranges slices over the top, it really was quite nice. Oh, and the 6 hours was just perfect for two pork chops.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Orange Pork <— Recipe here

I made my soup today and it turned out fairly well. Okay, I made my mother the official tester as I’d already taken something out for my lunch, but I trust her judgment. I also did taste the spaetzle just to make sure they weren’t horrible.

A Recipe for Weight Loss: Turkey Spaetzle Soup <— recipe here

Calories (12oz): 182 cals (20g protein, 6g fat, 12g carbs, 4g fiber)