One month Low Carb High Fat

Today has been officially a month on this new way of eating. Low carb high fat has been interesting to say the least. I found myself completely breaking down like what I would assume an addict would do on night number 2.  I just wanted something, anything, that was carb laden. Cookies, French fries, anything!  I was hateful to everyone. I started on a Monday, and by Wednesday night at church, I was praying that no one would say anything that would make me break.  I couldn't be sure if I would cry, or if the devil himself would crawl out of my mouth.   Amazing isn't it? We allow inanimate things to dictate our lives and our behaviors. I remember crying and telling my husband I hated him because his metabolism allows him to eat anything he wants. I was in pain, not figuratively, real physical pain.  They call it Keto Flu, and I had a brief go round with it. Still I pushed through. I'm not sure if it was God alone, or all of the prayers from my Wednesday night group, or just that my body detoxed quickly enough that the joint pains and cravings didn't have a chance to topple me. What I do know, is that I'm missing carbs less and less, and that I'm seeing inches and pounds lost. My weight loss has slowed, but I'm attributing it a few days I felt "hollow".  No matter what I ate I was hungry feeling, and ate way over my normal calories. I've also been eating Atkins snack bars. One every day. A lot of people say that it stalls them. So I'm going to cut them out too and see if that makes a difference.
As of today I've lost 21.4 pounds. I've dropped my BMI by 4 points and I have lost around 4 inches just in my waist.

Here are some sample dinners I've had, just in the past two weeks.
1. Steak with mushrooms fried in garlic butter and zucchini noodles in Alfredo Sauce.
2. Hamburger steak with mozzarella cheese and bacon, celery sticks, a pickle, and ranch dressing.
3. Pan fried tilapia, served over garlic butter zucchini noodles garnished with pan roasted almond slices.
4. Keto friendly Cauliflower crust pizza.
I must say that the zucchini noodles are probably my all time favorite!

So this is my weight loss journey so far. Hopefully soon I will get some pictures so that as my weight loss progresses I can share the changes I'm seeing.  I have a long way to go, and I know it will take a long(ish) time to get there.  Please feel free to share your weight loss goals, plans, and victories. Have a great week everyone!

Garden Journal pics

I've posted another journal to my etsy store.  This is just a little show of what I've done. I really need to get my rear in gear and get my store stocked!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust Review

Hey lovelies! Yes, two posts in one day since I was so behind this week.  Tonight for dinner we all had pizza. Yep, even me the no grains, rice, pasta, potatoes and sugar lady. I made myself my own pizza with a cauliflower crust. I have to say I was both skeptical and hopeful. I really love pizza. I mean when I was pregnant with little man, my youngest told me that she thought I was going to have a baby Ninja Turtle, because I ate so much pizza.  So here's the Link to the pizza crust recipe I tried. Debbie made a beautiful pizza. Mine wasn't so pretty, but it sure tastes good!  I think I left my crust a bit thicker than I should have but, that's an easy fix. I didn't have parchment paper, so I just oiled up the pan with olive oil spray, and baked according to her directions. It got beautifully golden brown.

This is my pizza.
This is the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 small head or 2/3 large head of cauliflower
• ¼ cups Parmesan Cheese
• ¼ cups Monterey Jack Cheese
• ¼ teaspoons Sea Salt
• ½ teaspoons Dried Basil
• ½ teaspoons Dried Oregano
• ½ teaspoons Garlic Powder
• 1 Egg

These are the instructions given on the blog.

1. Cut off the florets.  You don’t need the stem.
2. Pulse in the food processor until you get cauliflower “snow”.  You should end up with 2 to 3 cups.
3. Cover the cauliflower and microwave for about 4 or 5 minutes.
4. Dump the cauliflower out onto a paper towel and clean tea towel and let it cool off.
5. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.  Place your cookie sheet in the oven to heat it up.
6. Wrap up the cauliflower in the dish cloth and paper towel and wring out as much excess water as you can.
7. Combine the Parmesan cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, sea salt, dried basil, dried oregano,  garlic powder, and cauliflower in a medium bowl.
8. Mix it together with a spoon to combine the ingredients. Then add the egg and use your hands to form it into a dough ball.
9. Pat it down gently onto a piece of parchment paper with oil spread (or sprayed) onto it.
10. Use your hands to form it into a pizza crust, about 1/4″ thick.
11. Optional: Slide the parchment paper onto the heated up cookie sheet and bake the crust without any toppings for about 8 to 11 minutes until it is golden brown.
12. Remove from the oven and add your toppings.  (I highly recommend spreading on a bit of olive oil and topping it with feta cheese, mozzarella cheese, kalamata olives, red onion, cherry tomatoes and parsley.)
13. Bake it for another 5 to 7 minutes with your toppings on it.
14. Note: If you are only going to bake it once, leave it in for about 15 to 17 minutes.

According to my calculations according to my cheese packages and egg carton, and the internet's help for the medium head of cauliflower I used, one entire crust has:

394 Calories
17.58g of Fat
33g of Carbs
14g of Fiber
and 32g of Protein.
You can adjust your personal Macros by adding your toppings and then dividing by the number of slices you cut.

Mermaid Tail Afghan and LCHF recipe and update.

Hey lovelies! This week has been a been a bit hectic.  The baby started walking this past week!! He's been everywhere, and into everything. The new way of eating is still going good. If the rain would stop and the air would warm up nice and good and stay that way, I would be more inclined to go out walking and be spending more time outside. As of Friday, I'm down 21 lbs and have reached my first mini goal. I've also started making my own iced coffees to follow LCHF living.  In case you're interested, I'll share my recipe.
Keto-Friendly French Vanilla Iced Coffee

Take a cup of ice and put it in a cup or glass that holds about 20 ounces. To it add:
 10 oz. of cold coffee,
 2 tbsps.  Sugar Free French Vanilla coffee syrup, I use a brand from the Dollar Tree that I really like, but DaVinci brand is good too.
and 1 tbsp. heavy whipping cream.

It tastes very good, and I have one every afternoon as a sweet treat.

Next, I've finally started working on my first of a few Mermaid Tail Afghans. This one I'm making for one of my daughters. I'm doing the small size since the pattern author says it will fit a child 4-5 feet tall. My 11 year old is just a little over 5 feet, so I guess that will be a deciding factor as to who gets the first one. I'm trying to save some money by using only stash yarn. I'm also practicing this pattern because I've been getting orders from friends for Mermaid Tail Afghans already!
This is the blog of the tail I'm going to make.  She does a great job with the pattern, but she also has a video that shows you step by step!

So far I've only finished the first 3 rows. I just started last night, and well, I was trying to do it with a 1 year old squirming on my lap. It was slow going at best.  Ha ha! I'm using this blog to try to keep me accountable to get these things done, all while continuing my journals for etsy.   Here's my progress: 
Ch 153

Row 1: dc in 3^rd ch from hook and across, ch 1, turn (150 dc)

Row 2: *sc in first dc, skip 2 dc, 5dc in next st, skip 2 dc, repeat from * across, ch 3, turn (25 shells made)

Row 3: 2dc in same spot you chained up 3, skip 2 dc,* sc in next dc (the middle dc of shell), sk 2 dc, 5dc into sc,  repeat from * until you reach the last sc, 3dc in the last dc, ch 1, turn

 

This is what those 3 rows look like if you do not do a foundation dc as your first 153. I wanted to keep this as simple as possible while checking out the pattern. So far it's just shell stitch, but looks very pretty. As I said I'm using stash yarn, but I really think that the alternating rows like the author does, or even a single colored yarn would look MUCH better!

 

Thanks for reading, and staying with me. I hope that I'm teaching or inspiring you all some how. If there's something you would like for me to try out, comment below and let me know! Till next time, take care! Bye!

 

New Journal Pics and Still Sick

Hey lovelies!  I hope you've had a great week. I've spent much of mine trying to recover from this horrible sinus infection. Blah! Anyway, I thought that I would come post some pics of my newest journal which can be found on Etsy.com in my shop, Color Tree Creations.

Let's get started! This book was the vintage 1929 poem book. The binding was loose and the poems were a bit bawdy at times... LOL   The spine was a bit ragged so I tried to reinforce it with some lace on the outside, and some heavy scrapbook paper inside.

 

 

Next I gathered my papers for my signatures, then coffee dyed them.

 

Then I put the papers into the order I wanted and then embellished them and sewed them in.

 

That's it folks! The diet is coming along nicely. I'm down 13 pounds now. Yay!  I hope to start working on a mermaid tale lapghan soon. I'll be posting my progress and the pattern I'm using. Stay tuned!

 





Fair weekend and sick.

Hey all you lovely people. I'm sorry I've not posted anything this week. I've had two sick kids this week, and then last night (Thursday) I went to bed with a stopped up ear, and woke up with TWO stopped up ears and terrible sinus pressure. Blah. Anyway, I've been resting up trying to get better so that I can take my kids, who are all feeling better now, to the fair this weekend.
I hope you're all doing well, and until next week, take care!