Happy July & a Jalapeno Popper Recipe that Won't Burn Off Your Tongue

Things are trucking along over here.

Managed to weigh myself at the doctor's office, down only 3 lbs in about 6 weeks. However, my body shape has completely changed and I've dropped almost 2 sizes. I attribute that to this DVD workout (which is only 20 minutes and very doable, yet offers striking results).

I've also cut the carbs back drastically to try and jump start weight loss. However, without a scale handy I don't actually know if I'm losing weight, although I think I am still losing inches.

What have I been eating?

-Egg muffins. The recipe is from Mark's Daily Apple. They are not my favorite thing, but they are convenient for batch cooking and reheating throughout the week.

-Cajun bleu cheese hamburgers, which really don't reheat well, but are great fresh off the grill. Today was day 4 of those and I couldn't finish them, the taste was too 'off' from being a leftover.

-Dinner has been protein and veggie. I have a great new recipe for drumsticks, although the sauce does use jam. I am okay with some sugar in marinades and sauces so long as everything else is pretty low carb. It doesn't hurt my weight loss. Your mileage may vary.

Anyway, I'm making the drumsticks again this week so I can take a picture. That is my big downfall--forgetting to take the picture!

I'm still eating BLTs when I can, my lettuce is almost out in the garden. Time to reseed, but we'll be going on vacation soon and I hesitate to leave lettuce to summer's not-so-tender mercies without me there to provide water.

Snackwise, I am loving jalapeno poppers. However, I can't handle hot food and the first batch I made, using jalapenos, was screaming hot. So just wanted to pass on that Banana Peppers and Cubanelle peppers are a better choice for tender tongued eaters like myself. Although, sometimes they are too bland so I've taken to dicing some jalapeno and mixing it in the cream cheese for a little kick.

Emphasis on little.

So here's what you do.

-Pick your peppers based on your heat preference.

-Halve them and scrape out seeds as well as any membrane

-Fill each half with plain cream cheese

-Wrap in bacon

-Bake at 400F for 15-25 minutes until the bacon is done.

These are absolutely delicious and they look nice enough to bring to a party (sorry, no pic, although I think I'm making these tonight, so I may update). Phenomenal. Real comfort food and super quick to put together. The cream cheese does not melt and ooze all over, it stays firm and can even get a bit crusty on top in spots where the bacon doesn't cover.

What I'm Eating: Low Carb Menu Update

Of late, I have not been eating much.

I still have pretty significant food aversions and a hard-to-please appetite. This is all related to the health issues I had back in March which have presented ongoing challenges in one way or another.

Mostly I eat a low carb chocolate muffin for breakfast and as an afternoon snack. Sometimes I add in some Cool Whip (which is low carb, although not technically real food of any quality). Cool Whip makes the muffins taste like a seriously decadent dessert and once I topped that with fresh raspberries, which wowza, talk about yummy.

Lunch is, lately, salami and some cheese. Yesterday I had a BLT in a low carb tortilla with lettuce and dill fresh from my garden. Lots of mayo. Really hit the spot.

Dinner is a crap shoot. Yesterday I snitched some of the family's french fries and had one chicken tender. (I was too pooped to cook and left it to them to figure it out so they raided the freezer for frozen junk food.) Not sure why I thought I didn't need dinner, I hadn't eaten a whole lot that day. I did expect the fries I'd snitched to carry me through for some reason.

So no surprise that I began to feel pretty awful around 9pm. Low blood sugar awful. So I made myself another BLT, heavy on the mayo and had a teaspoon of jam while waiting for the bacon to cook just to get some sugar in me. That did the trick and I felt much better.

I think the BLTs are going to be my new 'thing.'

Most of the other meals I listed a few posts back have not been made. We're just busy. Lots of stuff going on so cooking is limited. I have made ribs twice and while the flavor is fantastic, they are not as tender as we would like so I need to figure that out. Maybe cook them in the oven longer????

Rosemary Mustard Chicken Recipe

Of the new recipes I've tried lately, this is one of the better ones. I find that I like mustard based marinades, which is news to me! But mustard really infuses the meant nicely.

Marinade:
1/2 cup brown mustard (I use Stadium mustard instead of Dijon as it's cheaper)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup olive oil (I used 1/2)
Fresh minced garlic
3 tbsp fresh minced rosemary
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp Poultry Seasoning

Marinate for 6-8 hours.

Grill and discard leftover marinade.

Very tasty!

2 Week Low Carb Meal Plan

Here's the current 2 week meal plan--I will post any keeper recipes and actually have a few waiting in the wings that I need to sit down and type up. Time is in short supply of late!

-Chicken Chickpea curry

-Hamburgers with coleslaw

-Hamburgers with rutabaga fries

-Parmesan chicken with salad

-Lemon caper chicken with frozen broccoli

-Pizza

-Rosemary mustard chicken with salad

-Brats with kraut

-Italian marinated chicken on the grill with frozen green beans

-Orange Thai Beef kabobs with broccoli

- Greek chicken kabobs with asparagus

- Ribs with salad

-Short ribs with salad

Update (Now with Photos)

Hi. I haven't abandoned this blog. My health has not been good and I've been too tired to blog much here. I am still low carbing, but have had issues, related to my health, with hypoglycemia so I am eating more carbs than I would otherwise.

Hopefully, I'm on the mend. Weight has fluctuated all over the place due to medication and water retention, but I haven't gone up more than 5-8 lbs. Unfortunately, I haven't gone down much either--I hope this changes soon. It has really been a challenge lately, but I'm trying to stay positive.

In the interim, I did upload pictures for the following recipes:

Carb Conscious Peanut Butter Cookies

Flank Steak Salad with Jalapeno Onion Chutney

Low Carb Shepherd's Pie

Low Riders & Other Announcements

1. My jeans are loose, but I can still wear them, which is a good thing. I'm not ready to go shopping! They're on the edge though of falling off--pretty soon I won't have to unbutton them to put them on or take them off.

2.My capris from last season are falling off though and can't be worn out of the house for fear I'll moon someone.

3.I can't find the USB cable for my camera which means I haven't been able to update recipes with photos! Grrrr. Hopefully I find it soon!

Ciao!

Carb Conscious Peanut Butter Cookies

Before low carb, I was an accomplished baker.

As in people fought over my cookies. On occasion they would hoard them and squirrel them away from others. Hubby took some to school once and he has one professor that still, to this day, occasionally emails to ask for the recipe. If I do say so myself, I make some damn fine sweets.

I still make a few things but just for the holidays. I briefly contemplated trying to sell cookies (some of my recipes are original) but realized I would not be able to abstain from the sugar. It was best to give it up for my health.

Anyway, with the current weight loss effort, I've been approaching things more holistically in the sense of challenging myself to learn how to cook all over again.

The hubby says my cooking has improved. :) Although he misses the cookies. :(

Recently, the toddler started driving me nuts with a constant refrain of 'I'm huuuuuuuungry!' I almost bought snack crackers for her at the store. I was that tired of the whining and scrambling to find food to keep up with her appetite, but I couldn't find any with a food label that passed muster.

So instead I decided to make a 'protein' cookie for her in the hopes that would help appease her increasingly demanding appetite. It's gotta be a growth spurt, she's out eating both myself and the hubby of late.

The end result of my experiment was a gluten free, protein packed peanut butter cookie. These are really delicious and very simple to make.

Ingredients
1 cup natural peanut butter (I nuked it a bit to make it runny)
1/2 cup sugar or sweetener (again, I don't feed the toddler chemical sweeteners)
1/2 cup almond flour OR ground flax meal
1 egg
Some vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar for coating cookies prior to baking

Optional add ins like chocolate chips. I had some white chocolate laying around that I tossed in (I know, not the greatest thing but 6 white chocolate chips aren't going to do anyone in).

Instructions

Blend the peanut butter, egg vanilla and sugar.

Add the almond flour/flax meal and baking soda and chocolate.

Mix the ingredients--you might need to use your hands.

Form into small balls (about the size of a big marble).

Roll in sugar.

Bake 10 min at 350F. Not a second longer or they'll burn.

Makes about 16 small cookies.

Not a super low carb food, more a balanced protein-fat-carb food, but good for growing toddlers I think. If I were making it for me, I would use dark chocolate chips as well as the Splenda brown sugar blend but still dip in sugar.

These were really yummy. I had to slap the hubby's hands away (else he would've eaten them all and the asphyxiated me with peanut induced farts all night). Hopefully, they'll fill the toddler's tummy.

Just in case, I made some pumpkin spice almond-flax muffins too.

The toddler will probably be around 6' at full height and she eats like it too! I hope I can keep up with her appetite.