I lose slowly anyway, so I can't tell whether alcohol stalls me or slows weight loss. I have noticed, though, when I drink, I also tend to eat things I shouldn't. Most weeks I've had no alcohol; out of 10 or 11 weeks, I've probably had 1 - 4 vodka drinks three of those weeks. This weekend I had two drinks Friday night. (vodka, club soda, lots of lime)

I'm not much for vodka. But give me a ice cold corona with some salt and a lime and we're in business Naturally, haven't had any since starting Atkins

I made a fabulous dinner last night :

Mustard marinated pork tenderloin (I added the insides of a bag of herbal tea to the marinade and used a flavored mustard)

I chopped up an onion in the bottom of the pan & it carmelized beautifully as it cooked - mainly for my husband but a little bit added quite a flavor punch

Mustard cream sauce (5 teaspoons of mustard, 1/2 cup white wine, 3 tablespoons creme fraiche)

Started out the meal with soup made from spinach and zucchini and 3 tablespoons of cream

I also made my husband a nice dessert (none for me, I didn't need it).

Tonight we'll clean the fridge of leftovers, probably will make a meatloaf later this week along with mashed cauliflower, since both sound highly appealing to me right now...

Wow, Sarahinparis, your menu sounds delicious, and I'm going to steal your mustard sauce! I'm glad you're doing well. Have a great week.

Uncooked spinach topped with taco meat, cheese, sour cream, jalapenos, and some guacamole+salsa dip

Wednesday Night Company Dinner: Grouper with Mushroom Sauce, wild rice (for those not counting carbs), crisp, steamed green beans tossed in olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese. Adding a simple spinach salad would've been nice, too, but I didn't get that far.

bacon/egg scramble with a sprinkle of cheese and a few sliced jalapenos. A slice of pumpkin cake w/ cream cheese frosting for dessert.

Broccoli/Caulifower cheese soup and a ground beef patty...got home from work late. Thank God for left-over soup!

Spinach with 4 strips of crumbled bacon, ranch, and 2 slices of pepperjack cheese.

You can make a delicious ranch dressing by buying the dry hidden valley ranch packets and replacing the 1 cup of milk with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream. Then prepare it like the package directs by mixing the water, cream, mayo and ranch mix. It makes a really rich dressing.

Quick chicken casserole made from the last of the chicken salad and a ground beef patty...I know, I know, it's not a great dinner. Home late, starving, etc...

But after I ate, I made Linsy's cheesecake muffins...if they taste as good as the batter does raw, I'm in love. I halved the recipe because I only had one package of cream cheese, used Truvia instead of Splenda and kept the vanilla at 1/4 tsp, a big squeeze of a reasonably fresh lemon half. YUMMY! I'm cooking them in muffin papers - half of the recipe made 7 muffins. I hope chilling them for a few hours works, 'cause I want one tonight.

Linsy's recipe is on "Recipes from 'What's for Dinner?'"

Sandy, the recipe is fatklr's, not mine. I had to look back in the thread because I was like "wait, when did I make cheesecake muffins?" haha. They sound delicious though, maybe I'll make a batch when I get back from my trip and finish off these pumpkin desserts I made.

Dinner tonight was SO GOOD. We need to go grocery shopping--BADLY--we hardly have anything. There was a jar of alfredo sauce that was 3 carbs per 1/4 cup and I was planning on dicing up 2 chicken breasts with 1/2 cup of the sauce and having some tonight and tomorrow. Well, my mom told me that I needed to throw something together for everyone so I thawed out a few more chicken breasts, diced them, cooked them in a pan with the whole jar of alfredo sauce and some canned mushrooms. I served it over fettuccine noodles for them with bread and just plain chicken and sauce for me, it was fabulous. I didn't even miss the noodles, and I'll estimate it was only about 4-5 carbs for the meal.

Last night I had dinner with a friend at Mr. P's, one of my favorite restaurants. I ordered Flounder Oscar (flounder topped with asparagus, crab and lemon butter sauce) and double green beans steamed lightly and tossed with olive oil, garlic and shaved parmesan cheese. Delicious!

I also had one vodka, club soda, lime...not so Atkins!

Later I had two chocolate cheesecake muffins with whipped cream - Fatklr's recipe. (That sounds really awful, but they're quite small!)

Last night I had dinner at Chili's with a friend...I ordered chicken fajitas, didn't lift the lid on the flour tortillas...and a decaf coffee. I dressed my fajitas with lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream...yummy!

I like that the nutritional information for Chili's menu is online on several sites. Before I left home, I checked the site and decided what to order. I noticed that Wings over Buffalo with bleu cheese had only 4 carbs in an order, but more than DOUBLE the calories in my chicken fajitas, so they seemed to be a better choice.

I hit the marked down corner again yesterday...2 beautiful Angus beef tenderloin filets. I cooked them in brown butter...ate one with asparagus steamed and topped with butter and parmesan. Incredible!

Finished last night's filet today for lunch, and I'm having the other tonight with more asparagus. When I buy marked down beef, I usually cook all of it right away and eat it for several meals...great quality food, and I only have to cook once.

I'm stir-frying the asparagus tonight in the bit of butter I'll use to reheat my filet.

I'm cooking today to take goodies to Charleston, SC for Christmas. Here are the low-carb goodies:

Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins
Chicken Salad
Chicken Taco dip

Here's what is so NOT low-carb:

My daughters' favorite brownies (sugarshockaholic!)
Southern chicken 'n pastry

I'm taking pork rinds, deli ham, green tea and low-carb bread to help me with my way of eating.

My kitchen's a wreck, but I'm never happier than when I'm cooking for my girls. Enjoy your holiday.