Hey There

Hi, y’all. 🙂

It’s been a while.

I spent the last couple months making some changes and just couldn’t worry about the blog right then.

I’m also running the business and doing volunteer work for the election.

Y’all know I’d been going thru a bunch of health stuff for well over a year.  On top of all of that my pain level was just off the charts. Because of my blood thinner and an allergy I’m limited in what I can take for pain. What I can take wasn’t working. At. All.  It was time to try something different.  It was time to try a little swap…

This grain / dairy / sugar loving girl has gone keto with a little Paleo mixed in for variety.

Yeah.

It was about as rough as you’d expect in the beginning. I honestly just wanted to go ahead and die for about 2 weeks.

But now I’m all in.  I won’t even pretend to profess this is gonna be a forever thing but right now I’m in.

My meals have looked like a lot of this…

Hamburger / guac / hot sauce (this pic has cheese and sour cream but I’ve since removed all dairy too)

and this…

BBQ plate from my fav local place (I didn’t eat all that at one time…and that’s homemade bbq sauce Mama B made me…it’s a de-sugared version of our family sauce so I can’t share the recipe)

and this…

‘Chili bowl’  aka hamburger meat / spices / broth / topped with guac.

And this…

Paleo almond flour pancakes / sausage / egg  / xylitol based syrup (plus a couple of spoons of cooked down blueberries…that’s where the Paleo comes in).

And a lot of chicken wings (don’t have any pics).

For the first month I ate the same thing over and over…hamburger patties / cheese / may0 / guac.

Then I started branching out and getting a little more creative.

Honestly let me tell y’all…after those first two weeks I was doing great…until I removed the dairy (specifically cheese) and then I wanted to kill somebody.  Anybody.  I thought giving up the sugar would be the worst thing ever but I’m finding it harder to stay out of the cheese than the candy right now.

I’m working on a solution to that and if it works out I’ll blog about it.

Let me add here that I’m just doing my own thing and not following a specific plan or book or whatever.  I don’t want a bunch of email telling me something I post isn’t this or that. You do you and don’t worry about me.

I’m using alternative sweeteners (splenda in my tea and stevia / eryth in baked goods).  My only rule is to stay under 20 net carbs.  Most days I’m way way below that but I have to have a little variety a couple of times a week.

I’m on day 61 today.

The black and white dress pic was on day 50

before-and-current-dresses-copy

The red dress was last year. I’d already lost some weight between red dress and starting in Sept but I forgot to take a pic the day I started.

So anyway…that’s what’s going on here.

I’m starting to feel like trying new recipes and ideas (I made some keto brownies today but haven’t tried them yet) and will share the more interesting ones but it’s really all kind of boring.

Ok that’s all for today.

(y’all vote if you haven’t already)

Hope y’all are doing well. See you soon.  🙂

 

 

 

Key Lime Pie

Hey, y’all. 🙂

Hope y’all are well.

I’m finally feeling better. Finally finished all the antib’s for the staph infection. Those things were rough on the stomach.

So this week I made…

…a pizza. Using gfJules of course. I used my recipe and her flour (but her pizza mix is really good too). Ps. it didn’t shrink up…I just didn’t make enough dough to fit that size pan.

 😉

I’m totally sick of the Colin Kaepernick flag / anthem junk but I’m feeling better so let’s pause for a little rant shall we…

Some people are so focused on the symbolism of a piece of colored fabric that they’re (purposely of course) ignoring the very real issues inspiring the protest. People are DYING right here. Right here in this great country…not in war…RIGHT HERE.

Just because this is the greatest place in the world doesn’t mean we can’t be BETTER. We don’t get to rest on greatness when MILLIONS of people in this country are being disenfranchised (and worse) every.single.second of the day. MILLIONS…African Americans…Hispanics…Muslims…the LGBT community…women…it goes on and on and on. We’re supposed to be better than this. But as usual instead of bothering to listen to the very real problems they change the topic and start whining about a piece of fabric or screaming about the military.

Are some people seriously so cognitively challenged that their brain can’t entertain two separate topics at the same time? You know…it IS possible to be angry about cop murderers while still supporting the GOOD cops. It IS possible to support those who join the military while still abhorring war. You CAN love this great country and still want us to DO BETTER.

For the record…I put my hand over my heart every time I hear the national anthem even in my home when there is no one around. But if you have a reason for not doing that yourself…then I totally support that too. Because THAT is what this country is SUPPOSED to be about. Not forced assembly or sing – song time. Oh and Ps number 2: The flag belongs to ALL of us. Not just the military.

Oh one more thing then I’ll move on…ya know what I find a kazillion times more offensive than someone choosing not to stand / sing? All the people wearing flag do rags and tube tops. A sight which can be seen every single week at white trash conventions all over the country…aka Nascar races. Funny how it’s totally cool for them to disrespect the flag by putting it on their bodies while chugging / spilling who knows what all over it.  But whatevs. Garbage in garbage out, y’all.

Weight loss tip for the long weekend. 😉

Speaking of…do y’all have big plans?

Here’s another recipe perfect for squeezing out these last few weeks of summer.

1 cup flour (regular or gluten free…I used gfJules). 1/2 cup sugar. 6 tbsp soft butter. 1 egg yolk. 1 tsp vanilla. Beat for about 2 minutes. Double or triple as needed.

Baked about 8 minutes in the convection oven.

Key lime pie filling.

Layered like banana pudding in individual bowls. I forgot to get a pic of the Whipped Cream and garnish on top.

So have y’all seen this Margaritaville Key Lime Pie filling? It doesn’t claim to be gluten – free but the only questionable ingredient is modified food starch…which they don’t specify the origin of…but no one in the Texas Girl household reacted to it so I think it’s  just corn.

Anyway…when I was growing up I lived on the Texas Gulf Coast and one of our family fav restaurants was a little shack right on the water and right across from the Naval Base. They had the BEST key lime pie. I still dream of that pie. This was the closest taste to it I’ve ever had. I don’t know if you’ve seen a lot of KLP recipes but almost all of them use Sweetened Condensed Milk. Which if you know me you know I’ve been known to drink out of shot glasses. 😉 So I love that taste…but not in Key Lime Pie.  I’ve always known without a doubt that the KLP that haunts my dreams didn’t have it in it. After tasting this I’m even more convinced. Another thing they used was a butter cookie shell. I was going to do that…thus the cookie recipe above…but I didn’t end up with enough cookies to make a pie shell so I decided to do individual servings layered like banana pudding. They were perfect.

Anyway…this was really good and our Walmart is clearancing the pie mix right now.  If you like KLP I highly recommend giving this one a try. They also have a coconut pie mix. I picked it up too and will maybe try it this weekend.

Y’all have a great / safe long weekend and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

 

 

Pink Lemonade Cake

Hey, y’all.

Hope things are great in your world. 🙂

I have been so sick here in my little corner of the world. I don’t know if y’all noticed or not but prior to mid July I was doing a lot better. I went back on Plaquenil in Sept ’15 and if you’re not familiar with that medication it takes a while to build up / start working. Spring of this year it definitely started to kick in and I was feeling better all the time. I started a business and was a lot more active than I’d been in a while.

The business is starting to take up more of it’s allotted space in the house so right after I blogged the last time I started working on clearing out some more space. I was on the floor cleaning and didn’t see a baseboard nail that was sticking up. I ran my cleaning hand over it and shredded my index finger.  It bled for 9 HOURS straight (because my INR had spiked)  AND I got a staph infection.

If you’ve never had a staph infection…yeah don’t get one.  It is horrible.  Had to get a tetanus shot too. The antibiotic was making me sicker than the staph. I ended up with a reaction to the meds and that led to more meds which I’m currently on.

So yeah…it’s been one big party over here.

I guess it could be worse…;)

I did manage to cook a couple things in the middle of all that.

2016-08-11 21.11.42

Banana muffins.

Started watching this new Netflix show The Get Down. It’s set in 1978 and is the story of a bunch of kids in the South Bronx. It’s pretty good and definitely has the potential to keep me interested.

So perfect for this election season.

So this has turned out to be the summer of cakes around here. I was thinking about it and it seems like all I baked all summer was various cakes.

This was another keeper and is perfect for squeezing out these last few weeks of summer.

Once again I took gfJules perfect vanilla cake recipe and tweaked the liquids.

I used her recipe and subbed butter for the oil plus 1/4 cup of milk and 1/4 cup of frozen pink lemonade concentrate for the 1/2 cup of milk. I added some red food coloring to get the more vibrant pink color.

For the icing I just did a basic icing recipe and added a couple tbsp of the pink lemonade concentrate.

This was delish and I’m definitely making it again next summer. 🙂

Ok that’s all for today. Hope y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

 

I Take That Back aka Vanilla Cakes

Hey, y’all.  🙂

What’s up?

It’s still so so very hot here.  The new business is going great but I had a little health setback last week so I wasn’t really in the mood for blogging.

Since we last met…we had our Christmas in July meal.  🙂

Dinner out. (Longhorn)

 🙂

Had to get a new whisk. 🙁  For years I used my Meme’s whisk ’til it finally wore out and then I switched to my Mema’s. It just made me feel like a little bit of them was still helping me out in the kitchen. I kept trying to piece the last one together but it finally met its last bowl so I got this one.  I have to admit it’s pretty good. 🙂 Still miss my beloved ones though.  🙁

Made some chicken fried chicken with gfjules.

😉

Y’all know I’m a proud Texan Southern girl…how had I never heard of sugar butter? Rolling a chunk of butter in sugar? I feel like someone in my youth failed me.  😉

I know some of y’all only read here for my political stuff but really what’s left to say?  I don’t want to type that horrible piece of garbage’s name on my blog. Watching him go after the parents of a dead SOLDIER makes me want to vomit. The only thing worse is watching / listening to those of you who continue to support him. There’s a very special place in hell…

 

Now how bout some cake to make the good and decent amongst us feel better 🙂

 

So a while back I told y’all about this cake and said it was the only vanilla cake I’d ever need.

Please forgive me for I was wrong.  🙂

This gfjules recipe right here is the only gluten – free vanilla cake recipe I’ll ever need. 🙂

Now y’all know we’re a rum cake family.  Plain, orange, lime, strawberry as long as it’s got rum we’ll give it a try.

I’ve wished so many times that Jules would make a vanilla box mix to go along with her other mixes.

Well a couple of weeks ago I saw she posted that vanilla cake recipe and called it the best ever or something like that. Of course I’d have to be the judge of that myself. 😉  So that night I took her recipe and weighed out all the dry ingredients into a bag and put it in the cabinet. Then this weekend I used it as a dry mix for a traditional rum cake. I used her liquid ratios but subbed some of my own liquids (so rum instead of milk…a mix of butter and oil instead of straight oil) plus a box of vanilla pudding. Just like the traditional Bacardi Rum Cake recipe we all grew up with in the 70’s.

I didn’t even mix it with a mixer.  I just used my Danish dough whisk thing.

This worked perfectly.

Only vanilla cake recipe you’ll ever need.  🙂

Ok that’s all for today.  Hope things are great in y’all’s world and that you’re still staying cool. 🙂

See y’all soon.  🙂

🙂

 

German Chocolate Brownies

Hey, y’all. 🙂

Is it 10 million degrees where y’all are?  It sure feels like it here.

Even so I did do some cooking this week.

If you read the old blog you know that fig preserve making day is one of my most favorite days of the year. 🙂  I guess because of all the rain we had all winter / spring…this year’s figs are out of this world good.

That second to the last pic is to show y’all what I’ve been doing with Glutino crackers to make them more palatable for me and for the non celiacs in my life.  I melt a little butter. Brush it all over the crackers and then bake at 325* in the convection over for just a couple of minutes. They don’t get soggy at all and once they cool off you can store them in a Ziploc bag and they stay super crisp for weeks.

Up next…

A batch of my Mema’s shrimp pasta salad.  I used that Barilla gluten – free pasta (macaroni size) I wrote about a while back and hands down they made the best gluten – free batch yet. I’ve tried other gluten – free pastas with this recipe and they are awful compared to this (actually all other gluten – free pasta is awful compared to the Barilla).  I’m so scared they’re going to stop making it.

I didn’t have any gluten – free croutons made up so I used crushed up Doritos on top.  No need for croutons anymore. 🙂

I know some you only stop by here for my political thoughts / rants but today I’m gonna hand the mic to this awesome 14 year old boy…and by extension his parents.  In EVERY way imaginable y’all are doin’ it right. 🙂

 

Now to those brownies…

First let me say that for a full brownie pan you should double the amounts listed below. These are thin because we don’t need a full pan in the house right now due so some blood sugar issues of others in the house and I couldn’t find my smaller pan so we’re just having thin brownies. 🙂

2 oz German Chocolate and 6 tbsp Butter. Melt completely and cool.

1/2 cup Flour gfjules of course plus 1 cup Sugar and a dash of Salt

Add melted Butter / Chocolate plus one Egg and a splash of Vanilla. Super easy.

Spread into pan and baked at 325* in the convection over for about 23 minutes.

If you’ve never used German Chocolate for baking…go get you some right this minute. 🙂  This is like brownies on crack…just how I prefer my crack I mean brownies. 😉

Ok that’s all for today.

Hope y’all are having a great weekend and are staying cool.  🙂

See you soon.