Christmas dinner!

I had:
pot roast
2 cups salad
2 tablespoons italian dressing
large scoop of green bean casserole (my "treat", off-plan but not TOO bad.)
dessert was 2 sugar-free reese's peanut butter cups and 5 sugar-free jolly ranchers.

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Christmas Dinner...
 

We had a great Christmas dinner: fresh grouper in mushroom sauce, cauliflower "faux mashed potatoes," brussels sprouts roasted in olive oil and garlic, collards, 2 tablespoons of amazing mac and cheese. My big treats: a bite of pumpkin chiffon cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and a real brownie!

This morning I had two more brownies and left the rest in Charleston! I've eaten super-Atkins the rest of today. It must not have been too bad; my ketostix was showing good ketones this afternoon.

It's very definitely true, though, that when I eat sugar and white flour, I just plain want more sugar and white flour.

Sausage and Cheese Quiche
 

That's what I'm making for my dinner tonight. Back on plan and back to eggs and sausage, Atkins Chicks! :)

I'm also drinking lots of hot tea this week, green tea...to help me get my water in and maybe lose a little weight.

At least you had a great Christmas! I can't do cookies or anything either--I did chew up and spit out a cookie or two over the holiday season LOL. It doesn't help anything except make me want to eat it.

Tonight I had spaghetti squash! I've never had spaghetti squash before and it was SO GOOD! I got the idea from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, but I made it my own and didn't really follow the recipe much.

1/2 of a spaghetti squash (mine was a really big squash, you might want to use more).
a large handful of chopped onion
can of diced tomatoes
clove of chopped garlic
small can of sliced olives
salt
oregano
italian seasoning

Put the seeded spaghetti squash facing down in a dish partially filled with water. I cooked mine for about 20 minutes and then let it sit in there for a while, just eyeball it because microwaves vary. Fork out the strands of squash and set them aside.

In a pan, sautee onion in 1-2tbsp olive oil. Add chopped garlic. Add the diced tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are just heated. I threw in some italian seasoning and maybe something else, I don't remember. Mix the tomato mixture in a small baking dish with the spaghetti squash. Salt to taste. Stir in olives and top evenly with shredded cheese, then sprinkle with oregano. Bake for a few minutes until it's hot and the cheese on top is melted. I cut mine into 9 servings I think, not sure of the carb count but it's probably not too high and it has lots of veggies so it's healthy.

Trust me, this is AWESOME! It tastes just like a spaghetti bake. you could probably add ground beef or sausage if you want to, but it's very filling without meat and a nice change if you're tired of meat dishes like I am. I ate about 1 1/2 servings with a handful of salad.

Homemade Tomato Soup...
 

It's cold in the Carolinas today, and one of my daughters is coming to stay overnight with me.

I'm making cream of tomato soup with cheese croutons from an Oprah Comfort Food recipe...no croutons for me, but it should be yummy! We're having grilled pimento cheese sandwiches with it - a perfect easy dinner for a cold night...8 degrees with the wind chill.

I'm using a low-carb whole wheat bread...Nature's Own low carb, low calorie: 19 net carbs in three slices. I'll use two for my sandwich and call it a day. I'm not on strict Induction (obviously) but I'm keeping my carbs from 20 - 40 a day until I finish entertaining and Christmas-ing.

Beef Short Ribs...
 

This afternoon I'm making Beef Short Ribs for dinner. I've been in my butcher's "marked down for quick sale" section again and found some great-looking short ribs. I'm also finishing up the rest of the homemade tomato soup and spinach for my green veggie.

Broccoli salad!
I made my own variation of a broccoli salad yesterday, and let me tell you it is scrumptious. I think most broccoli salads are made with raw broccoli, but I steamed mine and prefer it steamed. I don't have an exact recipe, but it was something like:

2 cups of steamed broccoli (let it cool completely. I didn't but it would be better if I had)
crumbled bacon
shredded cheddar cheese
about 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2-3tbsp mayonnaise
2tbsp white vinegar
1tbsp splenda/other sweetener

Steam the broccoli and let it cool in the fridge. Mix with the onion, crumbled bacon, and cheddar cheese. Whisk together mayo, vinegar, and splenda. Taste the sauce to make sure you don't need to tweak it a little bit. Pour the sauce over the broccoli and mix well, then chill so the flavors can meld. Delicious way to get your veggies in! You could probably find a recipe much more exact than mine on the internet, but I wanted to give you an idea of what's in it. I very much recommend this!

What a great idea, Linsy. I love broccoli salad. I think I'll steam mine lightly too. I'm making some as soon as I go to the store...no broccoli!

Dinner tonight: beef short ribs I cooked yesterday and a spinach salad, ranch dressing.

Lemon cheesecake muffin with whipped cream for dessert. I add a little finely grated lemon peel to the batter - delicious!

Dinner is going to be cheese-stuffed meatballs with homemade sauce served over spaghetti squash instead of noodles.

My mom found the meatball recipe in a cookbook, and it looks fabulous! Make meatballs the way you normally prepare them, and then cut hunks of string cheese sticks and wrap the meatballs around them. Once they're cooked, every meatball has a gooey cheese center.

The cheese-stuffed meatballs sound amazing...you guys come up with some good stuff to eat! Thanks.

I'm feeling "iffy" about dinner tonight. I'm not sure what I want. I think I may use Hardee's chicken tenders (13 carbs for 3) to top a spinach salad with homemade honey mustard dressing. I've been wanting fried chicken for days, and I don't want to cook it myself.

If I subtract the 2 grams of fiber, it doesn't sound so bad...maybe.

Meatloaf with a side of mashed cauliflower. I've never had mashed cauli, and I'm not a big fan of cauliflower, so hopefully it's good and not a waste!

I hope you like your dinner. What I like about cauliflower is that it's so mild in flavor, it takes on the flavor of what you put with it...cauliflower and cheese, cauliflower and bacon, butter...whatever.

I had a Starbucks frap for breakfast, Wendy's Baja salad with frenchfries for lunch, chia seeds with decaf tea and some dried Ancho Chilis with Splenda for snack. Not hungry now for sure. Hope I can get through this evening without eating any more. We'll see.