Tree’s been up for weeks. If you’ve followed me for a while you know I’ve been searching for my forever tree for the last few years. This is it. 🙂 I love it so much.
It snowed in South Texas last night. So pretty…but this summer girl says thanks for visiting…you can return to wherever you came from now. 😉
Because of the stomach issues there’s just no way for me to do keto or even low carb right now. Combined with the steroid shots I was up 20 pounds the last time we met. Now I’m only up between 8 and 10 depending on the scale (or I guess time of day). I don’t weigh at home but at all these different Dr. appointments I’m holding right there between 8 and 10.
I’m ok with that for now. Considering in my past when I’d lost as much weight as I’ve lost over the last 15 months…the first taste of sugar and I went off the deep end gaining it all back plus some. This time I went up some and then got it going right back down in the right direction.
Before / current comparison. (Yes…wearing Santa leggings as pants…because they are pants.) 😉 Same dressing room. I shop very little at Penny’s but I like to run in there every now and then to take a current pic in the same dressing room as the before. It really helps me when I see how much less of the door is covered by my body. 🙂
Ok That’s all for today. Hopefully I’m going to start doing some Christmas baking next week. I’ll share here or on insta whenever I get started with that. Until then y’all stay safe and warm and I’ll see you soon. 🙂
If you’re not following along on Insta we’re all safe and dry here from Hurricane Harvey. We had about 14 inches of rain spread out over 4 days. Friends and family weren’t so lucky. Please continue to keep Houston and the Texas coast in your thoughts and prayers now that the media attention has died down.
Reddit ftw today. #DACA
I mean seriously, y’all take a look around you today at the garbage in your lives who want innocent kids sent to places they’ve never even set foot in…and honestly how many of them are willing to take low paying jobs where they’d actually have to do something? Anything?
GT, doesn’t it seem like you could just roll this quote out every other day now?
Reminder this is my space. If you don’t like it here…don’t let the door hit ya…
Reminder 2: if you’re disgusted today (and every day)…join us. A lot of people are already putting in the hard work RIGHT NOW. Funnel the anger you’re feeling today (and every day) into meaningful action. 🙂
Let’s see…since we last met I’m loving
Blackened salmon.
Blackened Cajun salmon.
Dump nachos with chichies.
Mug cakes and brownies.
ICE CREAM. 🙂 This is called Bubblegum Bliss and it’s from a book called The Keto Ice Cream Scoop by Carrie Brown. It is so unbelievably good. It totally got me thru all the hurricane nerves.
Yeah, Minnesota. Stay in your lane. 😉
SO…
A year ago today I quit sugar and all grains cold turkey. Technically the calendar date was Sept 6th but it was the day after Labor Day and today is the day after Labor Day so I’m calling it year one in the books. 🙂
Those first 2 weeks were pure hell. I seriously thought I was going to die. But then the magic kicked in and my head started to clear. I spent the first 7 weeks doing pretty much hard-core keto. I lived on hamburger patties, cheese, chicken wings, blue cheese and mayonnaise.
I took the day off for my birthday in late October and then the next day went back to the way I was eating but removed diary.
I spent the next 60 days dairy free and edged more into paleo style eating.
And that’s when this whole thing got harder. Introducing more foods and allowing maple syrup and potatoes really set me back a little. I started jonesing for the next off day and inhaling every potato I ate.
I kept losing weight just fine but mentally I was out of it. I was just going thru the motions and counting down the days til my next off day.
In total from Sept 6, 2016 – April 16, 2017 I had 8 off plan days…on purpose. I planed for them.
On April 16, 2017 I went back to what I was doing in the beginning…Keto (25 net carbs or less) and haven’t looked back. I haven’t had one off plan lick, bite, taste, etc since then and don’t plan to anytime soon.
What changed?
Well I stopped making it harder than it needed to be. I like food. I like cheese. I like sweets. I like to cook.
And now I do. For me I think it’s far better to just go make me something safe and on plan (like a mug cake or brownie or ice cream) than to tough it out and then end up inhaling every real sugar sweet in sight on a planned off day.
Since I stopped making it hard…it’s easy. The other people in the house eat carbs all day long. I eat out with other people…and never flinch. It’s honestly just how I eat now. I don’t have to think about it anymore I just do it. And that freedom feels amazing.
I’ve lost 73 (point 4) pounds but even more important than that my iron is up for the first time in YEARS. I have energy for the first time in YEARS.
It still hasn’t helped my lupus / inflammation pain as much as I’d hoped it would and I’m going thru some inflammation stuff right now (why I was getting the MRI the other day) but I’m hopeful that eventually I’ll get those benefits too. Autoimmune stuff is just…hard. 🙁
So here’s the newest before / current pic. Left – shopping for fall 2016 Right – shopping for fall 2017. I didn’t buy the current dress because I don’t pay full price for anything. 😉 I’m having some issues with my vein surgery so that’s why I’m having to wear the black compression stocking again which totally sucks in this heat.
I’m still struggling to see the current me. I still see the left side me a lot of the time.
I’d like to lose 30 more pounds (15 would put me a couple below ‘normal’ and then 15 for a buffer) but if I stay right here I’m just fine with that. I’m going to keep on keeping on and let the weight land where it lands. I don’t plan on restricting my food anymore than I am now so I’m sure things will slow down but I want this to be something I can easily maintain…so I’m not chasing a number or a size. If I get there great if not I’m so far better off now than I was on the left…I’m good. 🙂
Tomorrow is Mama and Papa B’s 48th anniversary. I say this all the time but in the grand parental lottery we hit the super-duper power ball. 🙂 One number to the left or right on either side and…I shudder. We were so lucky to grow up in a home with two PEOPLE who are still head over heals in love with each other today. (Notice I said people there because…love is love, y’all.) More than anything I want to thank them for raising us in a home that taught us kindness, respect and empathy for those with less than us. Mama B’s a saint and Papa B is our comic relief. I love you both more than words on this silly blog could ever express. 🙂
Hope things are good in your part of the world and that your summer is off to a great start. 🙂
It’s crazy hot and humid here.
I’ve got an appointment with my vein doctor today. It’s just taking this thing so long to heal up. 🙁
🙂
Except for the vein stuff everything else is pretty good here. Still rocking grain free / sugar free / keto (9 months now) and I have gotten to a place where I actually love it and am not jonesing for the next planned off day. In fact I don’t even have an off day planned at all right now. Not saying I won’t plan one but right now…I don’t need or want one and that feels so good. 🙂
Reminder: I’m still posting over on Instagram. More frequently than here anyway. 🙂
I made these real kolaches for Papa B for father’s day and it didn’t bother me one bit.
Get the bad people / things and energy out of your life, y’all. Your world will change for the better almost instantly. 🙂
Chopped steak, caesar, loaded mashed cauli. This is one of my fav keto meals.
How many times a day do y’all feel like sayin’ this? For me it’s at least forty seventy billion.
So…what’s this cookie butter you mention, Texas Girl? 🙂
Well…it’s not actually cookies but it totally hits the spot for me anyway.
First you’ll melt 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp sugar sub (I use swerve) and 2 tbsp cream.
Get it all bubbly and a little bit thick (about 3 minutes).
Remove it from the heat and add sweetener drops to taste.
Of course I use liquid Splenda but you do you, boo. If you think Splenda is going to make you grow a second head…well I can’t help you. Pick something else and move on with your life. 🙂
While that cools off a little bit…take 1 – 2 cups of raw nuts (cashews are best but for a lower carb option I like macadamias). Yes I know these aren’t raw but I like the roasted taste too and this is all I could find here in Podunk and I wanted some cookie butter right that second. 😉
(Also…if you don’t want to use fresh nuts you can just use a cup of cashew butter or other bland flavored nut butter and save some time.)
Ok so take your nuts and put them in your high powered blender or your food processor.
Blend til smooth.
Add one heaping tsp of Gingerbread spice and 1 heaping tsp of Apple Pie spice plus the melted butter / sugar / cream mixture. Blend again til all mixed together and smooth.
Pour into a jar and cover. This lasts about 5 days in the cabinet or longer if you icebox it. Honestly it’s never lasted more than 3 or 4 days around here. We all love it.
So what can you do with this magical butter concoction, you ask? 😉
Well first you can make you a mini spice cake mug cake.
Melt 2 tbsp butter in a mug add: 1 heaping tbsp of your cookie butter, 1 egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla.
Mix it all together and add:
3 tbsp Almond flour, 1 tbsp Coconut flour, 1 tbsp sweetener (I used swerve) and 1/2 tsp baking powder.
Mix again and cook in micro for 1 minute.
Remove. Slice in three little layers.
Spread some of your cookie butter between layers. (See that Cookie Butter Torani Syrup there? It’s sugar free and to make the cookie butter easier to spread I thinned it out with a little bit of the syrup…it’s not necessary but it was good.)
Stack and ice. I used a mix of Mascarpone / Butter / Swerve and vanilla.
Oh my gravy, y’all this was GOOD. I’m honestly surprised I haven’t already made it again. (It’s only been a couple days.) 🙂
My Mema’s shrimp pasta salad minus the pasta. Topped with garlic and parm flavored Whisps. Instant seasoned ‘croutons’.
I flavor Whisps and those chicharones with popcorn seasoning. It makes them taste a million times better and I hardly ever miss chips now.
🙂
Something else to do with the ‘cookie’ butter…
I take a Snickerdoodle Keto Kookie…heat it up either in the micro or in the toaster oven. Plop a spoon of ‘cookie’ butter on top. Mix it up and eat. Almost like eating chunky cookie butter. 🙂
Finally…a before / current. This was actually a week ago. I had Sister B take a non-mirror pic but we were in Walmart and when I looked at the pic at home I realize there were some questionable items in the background so we’ll go with this one. This is one of my most favorite summer shirts but I probably won’t wear it out of the house again. The top part is way too big and the straps won’t stay up at all. Don’t wanna have a wardrobe malfunction at Walmart. 😉
Ok. Y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂
Things are good here. I’m still doing my day to day posting on Instagram. Check it out if you miss me. 🙂
Hope y’all are having a great long weekend and that you took a moment to remember why we have a long a weekend. 🙂
Shall we get caught up?
just a reminder…if the pics in my post show up super small refresh the page and that usually fixes it
Some of this will probably be familiar if you’re following along on insta but as usual I’ll be a little more wordy here. 🙂
I tried peace love and low carb’s lasagna ‘noodle’ recipe. Oh my gravy, y’all this is a keeper. I LOVED this. Check out that link to her recipe if you wanna try it out. It’s super easy and is just eggs, cream cheese, mozz, parm and spices. I used my own sauce recipe.
If you’re missing watermelon this summer try this out. It’s watermelon lime sparkling water with some sugar free watermelon syrup.
🙂
This cup of deliciousness is sugar free sweetened condensed milk.
You’ll need it for a couple recipes coming up so here’s how I made it. It’s the equivalent of one can.
I put:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup swerve
in an 8 cup pyrex measuring cup. Micro’d for a total of 8 minutes stopping and stirring about every minute and a half.
After 8 minutes
I stirred in:
1 tsp vanilla
24 drops liquid splenda
1/4 tsp xanthan gum.
I let it come to room temp then transferred to a bowl and into the icebox til ready to use.
after eating a few tbsp of course …this stuff is so good I just wanna drink it with a straw. 🙂
Me too, awesome granny. Me too. 🙂
Sugar free deconstructed key lime pie. 🙂
If you’ve been reading me for a while you know I dream about key lime pie. The last thing I made before going sugar free last September was the best key lime pie filling I’d had in years.
This isn’t as good as that and it does have sweetened condensed milk (which I complained about in that post) but man this did hit the spot given how I’m eating these days. 🙂
I don’t know if y’all have seen Keto Kookies or not but I ordered some chocolate chip and snickerdoodle cookies from them.
They have a recipe on their blog for using the snickerdoodle as a pie crust.
I tried that multiple times and lost seven pretty expensive cookies in the process. They burned no matter how low I set the temp. Not willing to be deterred…or waste anymore cookies…I decided to deconstruct the ‘pie’.
I layered a snickerdoodle cookie with some pie filling and topped with homemade sugar free whipped cream. It was so good.
This is just a regular sugar full recipe that I followed exactly replacing the real condensed milk with my homemade sugar free one. Here’s how I made the pie filling.
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk (the recipe above)
splash of vanilla
I made half the recipe since it was probably going to be just me eating it.
Beat the eggs and whites til completely smooth. Slowly add lime juice, milk and vanilla.
NOW here you would pour this into a pie crust and bake at 325* til set.
I am not scared of raw eggs and since I was deconstructing this I took mine in its unbaked state and folded in about half a cup of whipped cream then ice boxed it til ready to eat.
Like I said…I loved it but if you’re scared of raw eggs then you’ll need to figure out a pie crust or just bake it without a crust and use a water bath.
I’ll leave y’all with my most recent before current set of pics. I’m standing in the same place for all three.
Left to right: Late 2015, Early Oct 2016, Last week late May 2017.
Y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂
Y’all know we have to kick off summer with my fav summer anthem. 😉
January is a slow month for my business. I’ve been using the time to do taxes and restock so when it picks up this month I’ll be ready to go.
If I wasn’t getting a refund I would have seriously given some thought to not filing myself. 😉
Also I hadn’t written about this yet but after I’d made 100 out of 104 days of dairy free…I tried adding dairy back. I ate if for a week and let’s just say that my body rebelled big time.
I’m back off of it now and feeling a lot better.
Because of that I haven’t done any kitchen experimenting since we last met.
Did make a pressure pot of short ribs yesterday. They were so good. The gravy is the arrowroot thickened pan juices. This was also one of my higher carb days so yes, those are potatoes. 🙂
JKR…taking out the garbage one tweet at time. 🙂
Decided to try the Siete chips. Right choice. 🙂 They are totally worth it. Totally. These are nacho flavor but they have no dairy at all. That’s a bowl of ‘Frito’ pie…subbing the grain free tortilla chips for the Fritos. I don’t add the chips to the bowl all at once though I just do it a couple at a time so they don’t get too soggy.
It comes boxed with a bow and they included two extra bars as a little gift. If you like dark chocolate most of this stuff is pretty good. Well, what I’ve tried of it anyway. I’ve tried the green bar (72% dark chocolate), the red bar (72% dark chocolate with almonds) and the banana cream cups. I don’t particularly enjoy dark chocolate but I’m trying. 🙂
The one thing I didn’t like AT ALL was the hot chocolate. I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for hours. It is super duper bitter and definitely not for someone who is just learning to like dark chocolate.
I’ll let y’all know what I think of the remaining items as I try them. I only allow stuff like this a couple times a week though.
We have to keep the pressure on these businesses, y’all. Let them know we won’t spend one cent in their stores if they support or give these monsters an outlet. #GrabYourWallet
More so than ever right now it’s up to each of us to be the good to counter all the hate and garbage. 🙂
😉
Dear democrat senate and house members, over the last 6 years…every.single.day…the republican led senate acted out a ‘youtube-esque’ tutorial on government obstruction for y’all in living color. Take their blueprint and run, y’all. Obstruct this shit in every conceivable way (and some ways y’all don’t even know of yet). Love and thanks, Texas Girl. 🙂
Also…if anybody in Texas wants to join us click that pic above and it should link to battle ground texas. 🙂
New current pic. Went shopping with Mama B and Sister B this past weekend. When I saw that seated picture I seriously asked them if I really look like that. I struggle so much with seeing myself as I really am. In my mind I still look much larger and I’m still automatically drawn to tent like clothes. Automatically I pick up big baggy stuff. Every time. Why is that?
I know part of it is style choice. I love flowy / boho / hippy stuff but it’s really more that I just can’t see myself as anything other than huge. It’s so annoying. So if you see me in person and wonder why I’m wearing something 97 sizes too big…that’s why. I’m working on it. 🙂
Anyway…that’s all for today.
Y’all have a great super bowl weekend and I’ll see you soon. 🙂
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