Hiiii, blog muffins. (Oooh, muffins sound gooood!)
This is good too, though. Buffalo Chicken Boat —
I took a break from my low-carb diet protocol Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and now I’m back on it for another week or so. Happy to report that I have dropped most of the water weight I gained in Dec-Jan. Only a few pounds away from my lowest weight. I’ve been using the formula of low-carb, intermittent fasting, calorie restriction, and exercise. What took me a month to gain took just 10 days or so to take off, which is why I know it was mostly water weight gain! I chose lower carb for this purpose, which I think works well. Lower-carb is great for dropping water weight quickly. Of course it can come back easily, but I’m ok with fluctuations, just not 20-pound ones! I fully expect to regain a bit of water when I increase my carbs, but not nearly as much as I packed on from the holidays. As long as I am mindful.
Close to 90 lbs. total lost so far! I was past the 90 lb. mark, but yeah, holidays and birthdays and other stuff happened! Oh well.
Low-Carb Menu January 21:
We picked up dinner from Moe’s on the 21st. I got a chicken burrito bowl without rice or beans, and then had it with extra thin Mission corn tortillas at home. Obviously I’m not trying to be Paleo-perfect or anything of the sort. I’m just shooting for a lower carb intake in general, not avoiding anything specific besides gluten. Also, AF was in town all week, so I haven’t even eaten extremely healthfully, just wanted to keep carbs low to drop some pounds. It worked. I’m satisfied.
Low-Carb Menu January 22:
I’ve been saving my carbs for later in the day so I can sleep better. I don’t sleep so well on low carbs!
Dinner on the 22nd was this awesome idea I had for making a Buffalo chicken boat:
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. chicken tenderloin, diced
- 2-3 TBSP coconut oil or fat of choice for cooking
- 1-3 TBSP or to taste Frank’s Red Hot sauce or hot sauce of choice
- 1 celery rib, diced
- 2 oz. blue cheese crumbles
- 4-8 lettuce leaves
Method:
- Add coconut oil to frying pan; preheat until oil is hot, then add in chicken. Cook thoroughly.
- Toss cooked chicken with celery and hot sauce;
- Add chicken mixture to lettuce leaves, top with blue cheese crumbles
Yields 4 lettuce boats
Plus, a small boiled potato topped with Kerrygold butter + Green Valley sour cream, S+P:
And I still had enough carbs left for Haagen-Dazs.
Low-Carb Menu January 23:
My go-to low-carb meal is a salad with random fridge stuff thrown on it. I was inspired to make egg salad when the carton was down to 3 eggs…
Quickly boiled 3 eggs, then chopped and mixed them with pink Himalayan salt, black pepper, and soy-free Veganaise mayo. Made a bed of lettuce, then topped it with half of the egg salad, Applegate Farms salami, 1 oz. Kerrygold Dubliner cheese, grape tomatoes, Roland cornichons gherkins, extra virgin olive oil, and red wine vinegar.
I needed some comfort food in a bad way on this day. Pasta is high on my comfort foods’ list, but it’s sooo high in carbs! Thankfully there is a such thing as low-carb pasta! Remember the black bean spaghetti I’ve had before? It’s perfect when you’re keeping carbs low but want pasta.
Only 15.5g NET carbs per serving!
It comes in black bean and mung bean fettuccine, which has similar carb content.
I was DONE with anything meaty for the day, so decided peas + pecorino romano cheese with tomato sauce sounded perfectly delicious and very comforting in this pasta dish.
- 50g black bean spaghetti
- 1/2 cup Bove’s tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup sweet peas
- 1 oz. grated pecorino romano cheese
= 31g NET carbs vs. 56g for brown rice pasta
Pitiful little bowl of iceberg lettuce for crunch and as delivery system for red wine vinegar + olive oil.
This (and ice cream!) was exactly what I needed after a long, exhausting day.
Being I’m back on board for another week or two of low-carbing it, I decided to increase my carbs to NET between 70-100g/day on average, or as needed. If you missed my first post about this temporary hack, check it out here to catch up! I wouldn’t want to do this for too long, but I do like the variety and challenge.
See last week’s low-carb menu highlights here.
The weather is YUCKY outside! Dustin and I zoomed to the store early this morning before it got bad out. Um, I’m ready for Florida.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Jenn. Wow…black bean pasta? Sounds amazing. I kinda like being called a blog muffin too!
Have a great week.
You are the sweetest blog muffin, Roz! Stay warm in the north!
Twitter: avericooks
January 28, 2013 at 8:29 PM
Hold the phone. You’ve lost 90 lbs?! In like…very, very short order? I am so confused! And in awe. Here’s to you reclaiming your health, Jenn! So impressed by your dedication to this all. And you deserve a nice, long trip to Fla!
Haha, I lost 90 lbs. over the past 5-6 years, but recently just a few more! Still going. Florida here I come… some day.
That is quite an accomplishment! I always gain between 5 and 8 pounds during the winter. The older I get, the harder it is to shed those few little pounds. Congratulations! Come springtime you will have a whole new perspective on things.
Thank you! You’re right. Spring does have a way of renewing everything. Sounds good!
Twitter: chowstalker
January 29, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Wow, I had no idea that you had lost that much! Janice is right, it definitely gets harder as time goes on, so glad you are moving in the right direction now while you’re still young! Love the lettuce boats…simple deliciousness.
It’s been an ongoing process, slow and steady, but I’ve been in a downward trend since 2007! It’s not easy at any age, but with age also comes all the wisdom and tools we didn’t have in our younger years, right?
I know so much more now at 33 than I did at 15 in regards to weight loss (and life in general). By the time I’m 70 I’ll be the grand wizard of weight loss, hahaha.