Get By With A Little Help..

I am a loner. I really am. I would be in my glory being by myself all the time. I do love being with my kids and enjoy time with my family but I don't really have any friends and the ones I do take advantage of me. I think this is why I like the internet so much :).

So where does a loner go for support? http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/ . I've been a member of the message board there since 2003, wow! I am not going to post my user name here because I post my weight there and no offense, I don't want people who know me IRL to know how much I weigh. I know I get some traffic here from that site but that doesn't mean you need to be blabbin' my weight, lol!!

Someday when I have lost a lot more, I will talk about my highest weight here. It hurts because I hear people say terrible things and make horrible jokes about people who weigh less than I do and I wonder what they would think of me knowing what I weigh. I hear people who act as if they are the biggest, fattest slobs on the face of the earth and they weigh a fraction of what I do. People who are complaining they are 120lbs (or less) and think they are sooo fat make me wonder what they must think of me. It's like "goodbye, self esteem", not that I had much to begin with.

Maybe that's why I'm a loner. I'm a caterpillar inside a great big cocoon waiting to come out as a beautiful butterfly. I long for the day I can do things because I felt like, simple things people take for granted like wearing a bathing suit or swimming in public, going for a long walk, hanging out with friends.

Even things like eating out lately is a cause for fear because of the possibility of gluten contaminated food and the embarrassment of how it affects me. No matter how careful people try to be, it doesn't seem to be careful enough, which I hate to say because I am grateful for the effort. It is just easier to eat nothing but I feel rude doing that too :(

I will get to where I want to be someday. It will just take time, patience and diligence on my part.

Short and Sweet

Just wanted to check in. Everyone but me has been sick this week and I'm starting to feel like I'm coming down with something. Meal plan has not been stuck to, but we've made do. Tonight DH and I had delicious wild salmon and broccoli and I had a heap of sauerkraut. I had a few sour pickles earlier. I've basically been living off the turkey wings and chocolate cake the last few days so it was nice to have something different. I need to make some kefir as mine got mouldy and I want to keep the good bacteria going on in my body.

TMI Alert!!

I had a wicked boil on my bottom (I had one as a teenager that landed me in the hospital for a week and I truly feared that is where this would land me, only the hospital is so overrun with H1N1 that probably isn't a concern). Plus I'm having other problems which make me think that I'm all out of whack inside. Yeast has always been a big problem. It's my moon time and that always ensures that I am overcome by the yeastie beasties. It is so hard getting to a place of normal when all your life you have unknowingly contributed to problems by consuming foods that you did not know were good for you. Low fat, high carb, high sugar and high processing all leave certain people paying a high price for health.

Well, I said this would be short and sweet. I need to work on my internal health. I'm coming a long way but I have a long way to go. I owe it to myself to become healthy!

Coconut Milk

Many people who are gluten free find that they must also be dairy free. Generally this is an allergy to casein, which accounts for the majority of protein in milk products. You will often find recipes listed as GFCF, which means gluten free and casein free.

I do not know if I need to avoid dairy yet. At some point in my journey I may find that I have to. I do not consume great quantities of it. I would probably be better off if I did not consume dairy, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

An excellent dairy replacement is coconut milk. I find that I am using it more frequently lately as it is so versatile and it is very low in carbs. It is rather expensive though. I cannot find organic around here and it is too expensive to order online. I currently favor the Rooster Brand. It comes in two types, regular and gold. The gold is ultra thick and is worth the extra 40 cents IMO. Right out of the can it is thick and creamy.

In some places you can buy coconut milk in tetra packs. It is even showing up in refrigerated sections of some grocery stores. Look around and who knows where it may pop up.

I came across a recipe today to make coconut milk right from the coconut. This may indeed prove to be very economical and no doubt healthier as it would be less processed than those intended for longer term storage. If you click on the title, it will bring you to the page where I got it, which also contains a number of recipes you may find enjoyable! ETA: I'm having trouble getting it to become clickable so here is the original page to give credit where credit is due: http://www.wildernessfamilynaturals.com/recipes.php#Coconut-Milk

I have not made this yet but I plan to as soon as I can find a reasonably priced coconut.

Making Homemade Coconut Milk from Fresh Coconuts For those who might want to try preparing coconut milk at home, the following provides instructions for doing so. Pierce the eyes of a fresh coconut, drain the liquid inside and place the coconut on a rack and bake in a 325F pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes. Remove the coconut from the oven, let it cool a bit and crack it with a hammer so that the shell breaks into several pieces. Remove all the coconut meat from the shell, peel off the brown skin and cut the meat into very small cubes. If you have a coconut knife and grater, then you may take the fresh coconut, open it and grate the meat without using any heat. This takes the place of the first 4 steps. Place the meat in a blender, add hot water (include the coconut water from the center of the coconut for increased flavor and nutrition). Only add enough liquid to cover all of the meat. Blend until finely pureed. The less liquid you add the thicker and richer your milk will be. Place a sieve covered with cheese cloth over a bowl and pour the coconut meat and water into the sieve squeezing handfuls of the coconut meat. Extract as much liquid as possible into the bowl. The harder you press, the more milk you will be able to remove. If you are going to use the milk in a curry you may want to just use the blended, non-strained milk. It is thicker than strained milk, white and “coconuty”. The plus to using the entire concoction is that it still contains all the fiber. Discard the squeezed coconut meat or use it in your favorite dish. Refrigerate the coconut milk that has been extracted. This delicious coconut milk should be used within 1 or 2 days. If you cannot use it that quickly, freeze it in ice cube trays to use later in smoothies, exotic drinks, and other dishes. You may also want to culture this fresh coconut milk just as you would culture the cow's milk or cream. For a good culture to do this check out our Kefir culture. Another link I found: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/04/homemade-coconut-milk.html

Wing Me!

A lot of low carbers seem to really enjoy wings. I never really got into them because wings are usually around $4 a pound here and that is too much for something that is mostly bone in my opinion. Plus they are puny and not much meat, which means I would need a lot to fill me. I've never got them in a restaurant as I know some places bread them or even lightly dust in flour so I don't know if I could trust them, especially now where I have to be extra careful to avoid gluten.

Enter Mr. Turkey. I mentioned yesterday I found some turkey wings yesterday for $1.79 a pound and bought 6 packages. These puppies are huge! The drummie is the size of a regular chicken drumstick, although the bone is much bigger.

I made turkey drumsticks a while back and they were much better than the ones I made today. These ones were a lot milder; last time Mark drank a glass of water after every bite. I like heat; he doesn't. I was very low on Franks Hot Sauce and I learned that the store brand simply does not compare. Too bad as it is so much cheaper, but you get what you pay for and this time you pay in lack of flavor and heat.

I decided since it's not very economical to bake that I would cook all 6 packages and just reheat or even eat cold. I think they won't make it to the freezer though. They pretty yummy!

I made two different kinds. Hot and curry. For the hot, I just doused liberally with hot sauce and the curry, I sprinkled liberally with my favorite curry blend. Then I drizzled them with butter and popped them in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes. I turned them over, reduced heat to 325 and baked another 45 minutes. Here they are after about an hour in the oven. I had some at this point because it was lunch time, they were cooked through but were better after a little more cooking time.


TaDa! Lunch time!!

German Chocolate Cake

I promised chocolate and I will deliver, at least in virtual form :). I am sorry this may not be the most attractive food picture but it's a rainy day here and I stink at taking food pictures.

I wanted to make a cake that we could all enjoy for DH's birthday. I came across this recipe: http://www.elanaspantry.com/a-new-german-chocolate-cake/ and got excited. I could easily adapt it to what I wanted since I don't have or use agave. It also kind of morphed as I made it.

My original plan was a 9x13 base cake with a small snowman cake on top. However, the snowman was rounded and I didn't want to cut it. Plus after I thought how expensive the ingredients were racking up at that point, I thought I would freeze the snowman cake for me to have when I later made them a cake around Christmas. Oh, and it just didn't look right ;)

I also had to make a batch of the cupcake recipe I posted the other day to make enough. This recipe plus Elana's was enough for a 9x13 cake, a snowman cake a little smaller than 9x13, 3 mini cupcakes so the kids and I could each have a taste after they were done baking and a regular sized cupcake that I planned to bring to the IL's house last night, but forgot. So it made a lot of cake! The layer cake alone would easily serve 12 big portions, even for people who really like cake!

Without further ado, German Chocolate Cake, the way I made it:

Low Carb/Gluten Free German Chocolate Cake
1 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1.5 teaspoon baking soda
13 eggs
1.25 cup oil (I used half peanut and half vegetable)
1 ½ cups sweetener (I used 0.5 cup xylitol, 0.5 cup splenda, o.5 cup blend of honey and maple syrup. I also added some liquid stevia to taste. With chocolate, I find a blend of flavors makes a richer taste when baking low carb)
2-3 tablespoon vanilla (love it :o )

In a small bowl, mix dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, blend remaining ingredients.
Add dry ingredients into large bowl and stir together.
Oil your pans and dust with coconut flour or cocoa.
Pour batter into pans and bake at 350° for 35-45 minutes (or until done, top springs back if you press it; my oven is often unreliable so I have to check a lot towards the end).
Remove from oven and allow to cool before removing from pans.

I didn't make the chocolate frosting and what I did make was too runny so it has to be kept in the freezer (it would of been perfect for ice cream!). I didn't have arrowroot powder so I tried using a little cornstarch because I forgot I had xantham gum until I started writing this. You may want to follow the original for better results, but here is what I did:

Coconut Pecan Frosting

Bring 1 can of coconut milk mixed with 1 cup of sweetener and a pinch of salt to a gentle simmer. Mix together 5 tsp starch with enough water to make a paste.
Stir into simmering milk mix; remove from heat.
Add 1 cup of butter or coconut oil, stirring until it is all melted and combined.
Place in freezer until it solidifies.
Remove from freezer and add 1.5 cups each pecan meal or pecan pieces and unsweetened shredded coconut as well as a healthy splash of vanilla and blend with a hand mixer until fluffy and well combined.
Use to frost cake.

I cut the 9x13 cake in half and made it as a layer cake. I could of added a thicker layer of frosting in the middle but, ummmm, it was really good :0. Like I said, it would of made a nice ice cream and I enjoyed tasting it.

This whole recipe was so good! I highly recommend it. You can also easily adapt what you coat it with. I was thinking whipped cream would be nice or a cream cheese frosting. Mmmmmm! You could even make low carb/gluten free Cake Balls out of the base cake! Your imagination is your only limitation!

Shopping Trip

We just got back from being out. What torture, going to Pizza Delight and not being able to eat anything. There was nothing at all that I felt comfortable eating except a salad which cost $10 and the dressing was questionable (I'm cheap; I couldn't pay $10 for a salad that would cost less than $1 at home). The rest of the family enjoyed it, except my 5yoDD who is feeling under the weather.

We stopped at Sobeys to pick up a few things. The kids really like fruit so I had to get some but there were a lot of good buys. Here is what I got:

5lbs Mac apples (2.99)
2.5lbs Granny Smith apples (88 cents/lbs)
3lbs oranges (88 cents/lbs)
2lbs zucchini (99 cents/lbs)
2lbs eggplant (99 cents/lbs; I want to make ratatouille soon)
1 tub ricotta cheese (1.99)
small slab of emmental ("swiss") cheese (1.89)
6 big packages of turkey wings (1.79/lbs; where I live, turkey in any shape or form rarely goes under $2.00/lbs)
1 jar of fermented pickles (2.25; they were half off! I was so excited :D )
2 bags of marshmallows :o (1.19, for Christmas baking)
bag of mini carrots (1.27)

This came to about $33, which was pretty good IMO for 3 huge cloth shopping bags of groceries! (It seems like we had more than that but I don't have the slip handy to see what I'm forgetting. The turkey alone filled one bag). Where I live groceries are pretty expensive and everything I got today was half off or less (except the baby carrots and marshmallows). I get so jealous reading about the Americans and their 40 cents a pound or cheaper turkeys, which is all they seem to be talking about lately!

I recently bought a skirt at Frenchy's. I would say it was second hand except it still had the tags on it. A $45 skirt for $3.50! Well, it's falling off me already! Several times while wearing it I have had to pull it up as it droops down or slips down while I am walking. I am really slimming down. A lot of my tops are getting too baggy at the top, which sucks because I need them big to fit my bat winged arms. I am losing in weird places that make it hard to wear smaller clothes, not that I can afford to buy them. I have a tote of clothes I want to fit into but I need to lose another 25-50lbs first. I will get there!

Meal Planning Monday November 23rd, 2009

It's the start of a new week! Today is DH's birthday. We ended up eating at his parents house. We'll be going to Pizza Delight tomorrow for lunch. I am expecting that there won't be a single thing there I can have but who knows. I know he is dying to try the bread grill bar and chow down at the buffet. The kids will have pepperoni pizza. I'll have a glass of water. Or maybe I'll have a salad, but they are so expensive there I hate to waste my money to only come home and have something else.

So it's Meal Planning Monday. My first one. Honestly, I haven't sat down and planned anything yet so I am winging it here.

Here is how it works. I don't always know when DH is working but we always have our main meal when he will be home. Sometimes it's breakfast, sometimes it's supper. Breakfast is almost always eggs. Small meal will be leftovers or soup or salad or whatever I feel like having. The main meal is the daily planned meal. Here goes:

Monday: Salad at IL's, Eggs and leftover pork when we got home (the meat was all breaded and I hadn't eaten anything all day so I was famished!)
Tuesday: Eating out (come home and have pork soup, I'm making the broth overnight in the crockpot)
Wednesday: Crockpot roast, a couple of veggies (have some brussel sprouts need to get used up)
Thursday: Spaghetti for family, salad and taco bake for me (in freezer)
Friday: Pizza (regular for them, legal for me)
Saturday: Pork tenderloins in crockpot, rice for family, salad and another veggie
Sunday: Breakfast for Supper (bacon, eggs, pancakes, fruit)

I have a treat to post about tomorrow. Since it was DH's birthday today, that may give you a hint, as should chocolate and yummy :)

Celestial Seasonings

We don't drink regular tea but herbal tea is a staple in our home. It can be very cheap if you watch the sales and use coupons. Sometimes the Health Food Store has samples. It is naturally low carb, especially if you don't add anything to sweeten it. Then if you do like a little sweetness to it, you are free to control it and what you put in it.

One brand we really like is Celestial Seasonings. They consistently have good teas and such a wide variety. We don't have access to all the flavors in Canada but I'm starting to think that isn't such a bad thing.

I have been on the hunt for their Sugar Cookie tea for years (well, ever since I heard about it on some low carb message boards; it just sounds so yummy good!). I would always look at the herbal teas, well, not just for this but any new interesting herbal tea flavors. I recently found out it was one of their holiday flavors. All the Christmas teas are out and again it is not among them. I also recently found out this particular tea has gluten in it. Yikes! Gluten in herbal tea? I guess gluten can be anywhere. There are a number of Celestial Seasonings teas that contain gluten.

http://www.celestialseasonings.com is really good about listing if their items have gluten in them. Definitely check if there is one you like and are unsure about. Then you can enjoy a nice warm mug of tea with no worries :)

Marvelous Mayo

If there is one food I really love, it's mayo. It is so yummy and creamy good. Rich and satisfying. Heaven on the tongue.

Well, I thought I knew mayo. I always bought the big jar of PC brand real mayo, $4.99 for 1.5 liters was a pretty good deal. It would last a while, not long enough IMO, but it certainly was cheaper than the others. Hellmans was my favorite, but it never went on sale. When it did go on sale, it was still too expensive to stock up on.


Well, as I became more familiar with food and concerned about what it contains, I noticed that store bought mayo almost always contains oils and other ingredients that I wasn't happy eating (not that I am the most diligent about what I eat). When you are eating low carb and/or in a Nourishing Traditions way, you know that you need healthy fats. They are good for you, satisfying and nourishing. Here is a link about fats if you want some more information, but I will probably talk more on this on another day: http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html

My first batch of mayo was a disaster. I tried to make olive oil mayo in the blender. It was *terrible*!! Ugh! I later found out that olive oil does not stand up well to being in the blender, that it needs to be treated more gently. I don't know if it's true but it seemed to make sense. My second batch was with a set of hand beaters using all olive oil.

Now I used to really hate olive oil. I think it was because I had a bad bottle once and it turned me off. Plus for some people it is bit of an acquired taste.

So my second batch was very green but it tasted decent, very strong of olive oil, but edible. Since then I have used other oils in conjunction to the olive oil to off set the taste. We have some canola oil, which I'm not crazy about but need to use it up (from our food storage and oil doesn't last forever; can't afford to just dump 6L of oil). I recently bought some peanut oil. Some people aren't crazy about peanut oil in mayo but I thought it was lovely! It was a combination of half a cup of olive oil, 3/4 cup peanut oil and a little canola drizzled in until it reached desired consistency. I used garlic and sea salt for the seasoning with a little apple cider vinegar as the acid. This is my best batch yet! The picture at the top is from this (I need better lighting in my kitchen! It is so hard to take decent pictures as we get no natural light and have all energy saver bulbs).

So how do you make mayo? It is much easier than I ever thought. I wish I had of tried it earlier instead of being intimidated.

• 1 egg yolk
  
• 1 tsp mustard powder (or other seasonings. Personalize your mayo with your favorite flavors!)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar (or a mix of both)
• fine sea salt to taste
  
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
  
• 1 cup desired oil (plus more to reach desired consistency)
• 1-2 tbsp boiling water

Beat yolk until creamy then add in seasonings and lemon juice/vinegar. Beat well. Start adding in your oil slowly. I drizzle it in with a spoon. As it starts mixing in easier, I drizzle it from the cup in a slow steady stream. I usually get about 1.25 cups of oil in it and could probably add a little more. After you have finished adding the oil, blend in the boiling water which will result in a creamy consistency. Enjoy!

T-Zone Results

How can I feel bad about such good results?

I went to T-Zone today, as usual. I am there getting my shake on and the worker asked how I was doing, if the machine was helping. I said good, that it really was working. Then she asked when the last time I got weighed and measured. It had been about a month so she offered to do it for me.

I was rather hesitant since it isn't the same person who usually does it. Different people measure in different places and in different ways. Plus I had really thick bunchy clothes on. But I consented.

Weight loss was 17lbs since I started a month and a half-ish ago :)

Inch loss, now at 23.5lbs.

I don't think she measured the same as it showed a 13 inch loss just in my abs but no loss in my hips. She also didn't measure my calf. She also thought I lost that in one month, not in a month and about 3 weeks.

So while I'm excited about the results, I just feel they are a little marred. I tried to point out the time it took but she was so exited about how much I lost. I any case, it *IS* great and I am very happy. It gives me motivation to put more effort in to eating cleanly.

Compliment

I got a compliment at T-Zone today. I was laying on the floor getting my legs massaged by the machine and a woman got on the machine next to me. I thought it was a little peculiar since all the other machines were empty and she kept looking down at me. She was a similar size to me (or in other words, very obese). When I was done the massage, I easily got up and she commented that she couldn't believe how agile I was. I think she was waiting to see if I would be rolling on the floor like a turtle stuck on its back. I have pretty much mastered how to get up since a) I fall a lot, b) I like to sit on the floor, c) it is pretty easy once you know how to maneuver around your own self, even if you are very obese. I'll take it as a compliment :)

We have had a bit of a financial shock. Our car has been having a lot of problems and has been in and out of the garage. Well we got the verdict that it will be over a thousand dollars to fix. To put it in perspective, that is about what DH makes in an month and I am a SAHM. Shock, shock!! My parents are helping us out. However, the whole situation has be re-evaluating things. The biggest drain on our finances is our grocery bill. I have a very addictive personality. It is what has gotten me so overweight in the first place, aside from potential allergies/intolerances/diseases.

A dangerous habit I have gotten into is shopping every time I go to T-Zone. I get lots of great deals but I also pick up a lot of things we often don't use. I am going to have to stop this and get tight on our grocery budget. Thankfully we have a huge food storage. Unfortunately, I can't eat most of it. Some of it I will be selling, a large portion will go to the food bank (I like to help), the rest I will be meal planning.

I am going to designate Mondays as my meal planning day. I will actually do it on Sunday but post on Monday. I really want to get this blog rolling because I think it has a lot of potential. I need to brush up on my photography skills, get creative in the kitchen and find interesting things to write about. Yes, I will admit that I need to start making money somehow and blogging is one of the few ways I know how.

I also signed up for SwagBucks (they have it in Canada, Yes!!!). I have wanted to for ages but now is the time. It is an easy way to earn things, which I plan to save for gifts for the kids.

Sorry to get off on a tangent there. Finances affect every aspect of our life. I plan to write more about this in the future and how it relates to low carb and gluten free eating. I think in these tough economic times, this is something that is on the minds of those whom it affect.

I've come to the conclusion....

...that gluten-free isn't the easy road to low carbing. I know that sounds stupid. What I mean is I subscribe to a lot of gluten-free sites and I have been taking books out of the library. There is so much focus on having bread and sweets and making life "normal" that it really twists food. I'm sorry but a recipe that calls for 5 different kinds of starch has no appeal to me. And in one book I read, there was a recipe for gluten-free pasta salad. I kid you not when I say it went something like this: 1 pack of gluten free pasta, can tuna, veggies and gluten free mayo. I mean really, do they think people have no creativity to come up with something like that on their own? Well, someone must read it for people to keep grinding things out. That may work fine for some people but not me. I find corn bothers me, as do many other starchy things. I think this sets me up perfectly for low carbing, except the mental aspect of things. There are so many things gluten free non-low carbing people can have I feel like they don't know how easy they have it.

I am going through the mourning the loss of how I eat. I used to think it was stupid, that it wouldn't happen but in a way, I think it always does when I start to LC. I feel like I am not normal, that I have to constantly be viligant, that the tiniest slip up will be terrible. It is. The kids and I went to Digby yesterday. We ate at McDonalds (their choice). I had bunless burgers. But the cook probably had gluten on his hands from the kids buns. So in about half an hour, I was flying to the bathroom, praying to get home quicker as we were far from home. It has me paranoid because there is only so much I can do. And people wonder why I don't want to eat out of the home.

Today I came off an almost 24 hour fast. I decided after breaking my fast I would go back to regular low carb. I lied, I drank a glass of milk because it's so good, fresh and local. I went to the movies with Mom, some aunts and a cousin to see 2012. I resisted the snack bar, which isn't hard since snacks cost more than the movies. I didn't eat much supper and had a piece of ham when I got home.

Tomorrow I am going to have turkey wings made up like chicken wings. Yeah, not the same but they were way cheaper and I'm game for trying different things. What I really need to do is write up a menu plan. That is so helpful. So is having food on hand to snack on when cravings hit. It isn't much of a leap for me to go from eating right to throwing it all down the drain by munching on our 2kg bag of Chippits chocolate chips.

Did I just admit to owning one?

lol! I can't find any good cheap dark chocolate lately. The cheap-cheap dark chocolate is just, well, cheap. You can taste the cheap. In chocolate it tastes like wax and is devoid of quality. I sometimes luck into good chocolate at Dollarama but more often not. Sigh. I have chocolate on the brain and I should be going to bed soon. I think tomorrow I will make up little baggies of chocolate cupcake mix, heavy on the chocolate :)

Sleep. I was reading how it can slow weight loss if you aren't getting enough sleep. If that's the case, I'll never catch up. I don't sleep well. I go to bed late, get up early because I can't sleep in and I get up to pee at least once, usually more. I also need to drink more water. It is so easy to focus on what we should do, so why is it so hard to actually do them?

I think I better sleep on it :)

Chocolate Cupcake Perfection

I am a self confessed choco-holic. I often ruin my plan with chocolate, although I have sucessfully eaten much chocolate in the past while losing weight. Today we were shopping and I blew it with chcolate. My weakness is dark chocolate but I cannot afford the really good chocolate in the quantities that I would like to consume it in.
I have been known to buy 25 bars of chocolate at Dollarama when they have good dark chocolate in the big bars :)

I have made chocolate concoctions that never really turned out. Coconut milk mixed with cocoa and some sweetner does hit the spot, but it too can get a little pricey. Plus sometimes you just want a baked goodie.

Voila!

I came across these last night and I had to make them. They are coconut flour chocolate cupcakes and I found the recipe at Elana's Gluten-Free pantry. It is perfect! It takes a small quantity of ingredients and it makes enough so if you eat the whole batch, you don't feel bad. The recipe said it would make 10 but it only made 7 for me. I probably could of made 10 if I realized they really were going to rise but they would of been puny. They are super yummy, even without frosting! I am planning on mixing little baggies of the dry ingredients to have on hand to make quick batches of cupcakes.

So without further ado, here is the recipe:

Chocolate Cupcakes
¼ cup coconut flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
¼ cup oil (I used olive but whatever you prefer)
½ cup equivalent sweetener (I used a combination of stevia and, xylitol plus a splash of splenda since I need to get it used up)

Mix together dry ingredients
Blend dry ingredients into wet thoroughly
Line a cupcake tin with paper liners and scoop a scant 1/4 cup into each
Bake at 375° for 20-22 minute.
Cool and cover with frosting (if desired) and serve.






Yum :)

Cooking Day

I had a good cooking day the other day. I made a large Taco Bake, 3 ham & cheese crustless quiche, 4 chicken quiche and 3 white castle hamburger pies. Cooking a lot of things at once saves time, money, ingredients and it is so nice to have something you can just heat up.

I have probably shared the white castle pie recipe here before. I love it so much! The rest were based on other recipes but really, I just kind of threw everything together.

In a big pot, I browned a large pack of hamburger, probably about 3-4lbs worth. While I did that, I chopped up a few large onions, a red and a green pepper. I also grated a block of cheese (600g, I think is how big it was, but I also grated some off another block plus I used mozza for the chicken quiche). In the food processor, I mixed 1/3 block of philly cream cheese, half a dozen eggs and half a cup of yogurt. I poured this in a 9x13 pan and baked at 350 about 10-15 minutes. I filled small loaf pans half full with ground beef mixed with a couple teaspoons of onion soup mix and covered with a layer of grated cheese. I covered the bottoms of the pie pans with a blend of the onions and peppers then covered with grated cheese then the meat (I used canned ham and leftover chicken breasts chopped up). For the quiche, I just mixed about half a dozen eggs for each pie pan. For the taco bake, I left the fat in the pot and mixed it with a can of tomato paste (if you drain it, you can add a can of chopped tomatoes). I added in the remaining chopped veggies then I spread it over the base. I covered it with grated cheese. For the white castle pies (loaves I guess, lol!), I blended half a block of cream cheese, a dozen eggs and a cup of yogurt, which I poured over the hamburger base. I sprinkled on the remaining cheese.

Each pan was baked until the egg was set, cooled then cut into serving sizes for the freezer, except the white castle pies, which I just wrapped in the pans. It took less than an hour of prep work and I was finished in less than two hours. I probably could of made a lot more but I didn't have enough pans, lol!



Taco Bake: Super yum!

Monday Update

I took the weekend off low carbing. I am back on. I don't think I can keep going back and forth. While I am still way under the average persons carbs, it is more than I can handle. So I will keep feeding the freezer so I'm not bored. I made two huge batches of the pumpkin soup for the freezer. Today I am going to make some taco pies, crustless quiche and some other things. I got a lot of hamburger and eggs and I know how to use them, lol! I boiled up a pot of eggs. We ate the last of the really tempting treats last night (TGIF's Bacon Cheddar potato crisps) and what is left I can resist. I have more power than I give myself credit for! I can resist. It is very easy for me to resist gluten items but there is so much that doesn't have gluten that is tempting. I need to mentally put them in the "can't have" category.

I did get down to 15lbs lost but I was up today due to the extra salt and stuff over the weekend. It will come off quickly but I need to start pushing myself to lose more! I have a long way to go but it's not a quick sprint but a marathon. I need to pace myself so I can get to the end. Slow and steady. I won't be perfect, but I can only blame myself for my lack of willpower and restraint.

I think what is important is focusing on real food. Nourishing myself with real food that isn't processed. Treats are ok once in a while but moderation is needed, sometimes in vast amounts, lol!

New Direction

I have been giving this some thought. I am commited to gluten free and I'm getting there with low carb. I need to do something. Today is the first day I have had any energy, however minute it is, in ages. I'm still not to the point where I feel like going for a walk or doing a mad cleaning of the basement or anything, but I don't feel like I have to lie in bed all day (although a nap sounds good, lol!). Some of it is long recovery from the flu. Was it H1N1? I don't know. We're not getting the vax, probably much to the horror of people who know us IRL.

I think I am going to call this my Low Carb Gluten Free blog. It will be where I discuss low carbing and eating gluten free. I hate filling my family blog with this and it doesn't really fit with my simple living one so rather than not blog because I can't decide where things go in regards to gluten free living, I will put it here. Food with food :). I hope to also delve into Traditional Foods/Eating as I learn more.

Today I am baking a ton of pumpkins plus a winter squash and a sweet potato. I lost half my pumpkin seeds down the drain when I was rinsing them after soaking, boo hoo! The remainder is roasting with some Himalayan salt. I also baked the kids cookies. I find when I make things with flour, I get sick so I bought some of the premade, cut out dough (half off) since I don't want to totally deprive them. I am going to look into getting a dust mask so I can make them things without worrying about getting sick breathing in the flour.

With my baked pumpkin I am going to make curried pumpkin coconut soup. It is my favorite! I am making a ton in case I get sick so I can have something to easily heat up. I usually make it with sausage but I will omit that. I have 4L of ham bone broth I made up. It should be really good!

I am getting in a snack rut already. I have been opening the fridge every 15-20 minutes even though I already know every single thing that is in there, lol! I need more things on hand to snack on, things that appeal to me. That can be tricky.

I am down another few pounds, so down 13 in the past month and a half. That is one month of eating terribly and 2 of working through things. I think that now I am back on track, I will start seeing more steady loss. This is for life!