keto

GF SF Pizzookie + Ice Cream

Hey, y’all. 🙂

I’m feeling better. Last week was super rough. Initially I was supposed to only have 2 procedures but then ended up needing a 3rd one on Friday. The pain was unbearable at times but I seem to be turning a corner now.

If you’re following along on Instagram you already know this but if not…I ate super bland and comfort type food for the first few days and then Saturday tried cheese shell tacos.

Oh my gravy, y’all that was so good. Y’all know I make cheese chips all the time. I’ve been making those since the first time I tried Low Carb eating back in ’08. But I never tried turning them into taco shells.  So much wasted time. 🙂

Anyway, through everything I’ve stayed completely on plan and I’m kinda proud of that too. 🙂

🙂

So today was my half bday. 😉

Even Omaha Steaks ‘noticed’ and offered me some kinda 1/2 off birthday combo. 😉 I didn’t buy it but thanks, OS. 🙂

We’ve been doing the whole half bday thing for a couple years now. Last year I went out to my fav Mexican place but this year I didn’t feel like that at all.

I had to have a treat though and wanted it to be 100% on plan.

So…

First I made a 1/4 of this elana’s pantry chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I used butter instead of shortening. Swerve (doubled amount) in place of coconut sugar, and chunks of this chocolate bar I make weekly. 🙂 Mixed. Shaped and into icebox overnight.

😉

Then I made a half batch of 3 ingredient no churn ice cream

If you’re not familiar with that…the regular recipe is 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 2 cup heavy cream and vanilla.

Well sweetened condensed milk is not really keto friendly so I searched and found this recipe (scroll down to the bottom of the page for the recipe).

I made a half batch. Subbed Splenda for the Swerve because it crystalized like crazy.

AND I made it in the microwave instead of on the stove. I didn’t feel like messing with anything like that for hours. 🙂  In my microwave it took about 8 minutes to cook down by half. I kept checking every 2 minutes.

It reduced by half but didn’t really thicken until I added the xanthan gum but once I did (and it rested) it was perfect. Obviously not sticky sweet like regular condensed milk but the taste was great.

Sorry I don’t have pics of any of these stages but I’m just now feeling better and didn’t feel like messing with the camera while prepping all of this.

So then I used the Vitamix to whip the cream and vanilla. Then gently mixed in the condensed milk by hand.

Put it in the freezer overnight.

Then today had one of the best keto things I’ve made yet. 🙂

The cookie wasn’t quite that dark…that pan is an aqua / teal blue…something is off with the pics.

The ice cream did freeze solid and needed plenty of counter time to become scoopable but it got there. I want to do some research to see if I can add something else to it to keep if from freezing solid for next time. I’ve seen people add a tiny bit of vodka to their homemade ice cream before. Maybe that would help.

I don’t know but I’ll have to come up with something because I can’t imagine ever paying for another sugarfree ice cream. This is too easy to make and taste wise a million times better.

This week is early voting for local elections in Texas.  Maybe wherever you call home too, non-Texans.  Get out there and make a difference NOW, y’all.  Don’t sit around waiting for 2018 – 20.  Do something NOW and start at home in your own communities. 🙂

That’s all for today.

Y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

 

Chocolate Eggs AKA Total Fail

Hey, y’all…happy Friday. 🙂

I’m kinda liking the whole Instagram thing now. Thank you to those of you who are checking me out there…where you may have already seen some of this stuff. 🙂

JATGAHB

Since we last met…I took a road trip with the fam. Bluebonnets and lunch…loaded fajitas. No tortillas of course.

Just kidding. I don’t workout so that’s just my face in general when a good song comes on. 🙂

Cheesy cauli mash over left over roast and green beans.

Love this. 🙂

New before and current pic.

So…I tried to make some chocolate cream eggs. (This is the only one that survived and even it broke into a big ‘ol mess the second I bit into it.)

Do y’all love Cadbury Cream Eggs as much as I do?  I was in second grade when we got those perfect nuggets of delish in our little town and I’ve had an Easter love affair with them ever since. Mama B was the room mother of my class that year. Ok every year but specifically that year. When Easter was over and all the candy went on clearance she bought up all the little boxes of cream eggs and then when we had our end of  year picnic she gave them out to the whole class as our treat. My classmates thought she was the coolest.  Which of course she is.  And to this day she still gets me a box of cream eggs every single year. 🙂

Anyway…they’re my absolute fav Easter candy. I’m happy to say that this year I haven’t had one at all so far. I will be taking the day off for Easter and will devour a box of the real eggs but I saw this mock low carb version and decided to give it a try.

Things started off so well.

Cocoa butter, baking choc, powdered choc, butter, powdered vanilla,

powdered erythritol, sunflower lecithin. It looked so pretty and shiny.

This egg mold I ordered from Amazon was much bigger than described.

So my choc would only coat the sides of the egg holes in a super thin layer

which became a huge problem later.

Filled with choc and let set up in the freezer for a few minutes then filled with cream.

Let it set again then topped with choc.

I only made half the recipe and combined with the huge size of the

egg mold I didn’t end up with enough choc to cover that one egg.

Yeah.

Epic fail. The choc sides of the eggs were so thin it couldn’t support the filling.

I just dumped ’em all in a bowl and am eating it by the spoonful.

The taste is just barely ok and nothing I’ll ever attempt again.

Nothing can touch the real so I’ll just happily stick to the real thing once a year. 🙂

🙂

Ok that’s all for today. Y’all have a great weekend. 🙂

Check me out on Instagram for more frequent updates or I’ll see you back here soon. 🙂

 

 

Sugar Free Chocolate

Hey, y’all. 🙂

I’m just gonna jump right in today. When we last met I was waiting to see a Dr. about my ultrasound results. I’m going to have to have some vein surgery on my clot leg. I don’t have a date for it yet…waiting on insurance to approve it. I’m kind of scared but it’ll be considered out patient even though sedation is involved.

I decided to give Instagram a try.  JATGAHB

I don’t know though. I don’t know how I feel about it. I thought because my blog posting has slowed down since it’s taking awhile to get enough to post about that maybe just doing an Instagram pic every day or few days might be better.  Can’t say I love it though. I’m probably more of a sit down and pour it all out into one long post kind of girl.  We’ll see though.

I just truly cannot believe how proud some people are of being willfully and purposely unintelligent.

Went out today for a little retail therapy. 🙂  Wings and a caeser at the outlet mall.

Used this recipe to make some sugar free caramel. Mine is a little lighter in color than hers because I didn’t use as much molasses or coconut sugar as she did. It still turned out super delish. 🙂

I don’t know if it’s because I’m worried about my vein stuff or what but I’ve really been struggling with the whole keto thing for about the last 10 days or so. I haven’t fallen face first into a vat of chocolate…yet…but for the first time since I started back in September it feels hard.  Until now it really was easy.  I had a will of steel but right now that’s just not happening.

To help stay on track I made some sugar free chocolate and caramel. I’d actually experimented with SF chocolate several times before but they all ended in kitchen disaster. This was perfect. I used the ratios from the candy bar recipe in this book.  The book is paleo though and I needed mine to be more keto so I used:

65g cup cocoa butter

14g cocoa powder

20g erythritol / splenda blend

1 tbsp dry milk

big pinch of vanilla powder

1/2 tsp sunflower lecithin

I melted the cocoa butter in the microwave on 1/2 power til melted

While it was melting I put all the dry ingredients in the Vita mix and powdered them.

Then whisked dry into butter.

Poured into molds.

The taste was great but it was a little too liquid-y. It set up fine but you can see in the molding pic how thin it was.  The original recipe calls for 2 tbsp coconut butter.  I didn’t have any because I really can’t stand the taste of it but I think it’s probably needed for thickness so next time I’ll add it and see.

Overall I was very happy with it and it was perfect for me.  I like some of the commercial sugar free chocolates I’ve tried but they all have at least one ingredient that doesn’t agree with my digestive system.

Erythritol does nothing bad or gross to me so it’s perfect for this chocolate.

It does need to be powdered though to keep it from recrystallizing as it cools.

Also, if you decide to do filled candies like I tried to do with the caramel…let the first bit of chocolate you put in the mold firm up before you add the caramel. If you don’t the caramel will sink down to the bottom and you will end up with ugly looking candies like the pic above. They taste great. They’re just not pretty to look at.

🙂

On that note 😉 I’ll leave you for today.  Have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 Months ~ 50.2 Pounds

Hey, y’all. 🙂

It’s been awhile again. 🙁

A bunch of stuff is going on here.

  🙂

The business is awesome. 🙂

 😉

I’ve been trying to get some health stuff taken care of before those @ssholes in congress / those of you who put them there condemn those of us with preexisting conditions to certain death. 🙁

(Thanks for the bumper sticker, democrats.org.  As always…love y’all but no not putting anything political (or anything other than the Aggie sticker) on the car.  I will however share it here.  🙂 )

 🙁

Two weeks ago I had to have a bunch of blood work and x-rays. Then last week I had to have both legs scanned for possible clots.

They gave me these lovely disposable plastic shorts to wear. Look how baggy they were. 🙂

I’ve always had some circulation issues from the previous clots but it’s gotten really bad over the last year or so and they were looking to see exactly what’s going on.  I won’t know results til next week when the dr gets back from spring break. (If there had been any bad clots they would have let me know immediately…so now it’s just waiting to find out what if anything else they found.)

 

Then Mama B got pneumonia 🙁  (She’s doing much much better today)  🙂  Poor thing was sick on her birthday. 🙁  Happy b-day, best Mom to ever walk the face of the earth. 🙂

I LOVE  this lime mineral water from Whole Foods.  I add a few drops of liquid splenda and it’s like a milder Sprite.

I got my blood work back and some great news…my iron is up. 🙂  The whole reason I started eating keto though was to get my inflammation down and those results were still awful. 🙁  But I’m ecstatic about the iron. Y’all know how I’ve struggled with it for years. I’d tried everything to get it up and now 6 months of eating this way and it’s finally within range. 🙂  I’m feeling it too. I’ve got energy I haven’t had in ages.

Other eating news…I’m back on dairy (cheese / butter / cream) and so super happy. 🙂 I take a digestive enzyme if I have more than a slice of cheese and it’s working great.  I missed it a lot.  It helps make eating like this easier and I’m all about staying on track right now.

So…last Monday was 6 months of no grains or sugar (I also had 3 1/2 months of no dairy mixed in there too).  6 months, y’all. I’m so proud of myself for sticking with this as long as I have…and for continuing to stick with it. 🙂

I was at the dr the next day and…I’ve officially lost 50.2 pounds…with clothes on. 😉

I also happened to go shopping after the dr.

Left pic: before. Other two pics:  last Tuesday.

I’ve been checking the clearance racks for any cheap left over spring-y / summer stuff since I’m still losing and don’t want to waste money on stuff that will only last a month or 2.

I saw this halter jumper and thought it was a halter dress. I didn’t want to get completely undressed so I just put it on over my leggings and then realized it wasn’t a dress.   By summer it will be perfect. 🙂

How did I celebrate -50.2?

Homemade ceaser dressing.

Salmon burger.

Ribeye.

Cherry keto fat bombs (cream cheese / cream / splenda drops / vanilla / cherries).

So, yeah I’m still going strong with this.  I did recently get back to strict 25 carbs or less 5 days a week. 50 grams or less 2 days.

For about 5 weeks I’d been doing more Paleo style eating and even though it was all safe food and I continued to lose weight the higher carbs were making me hungry all.the.time.  A couple days back on strict keto and that went away.

Ok that’s all for now. Y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Lesson Learned + Cherry Christmas Cake

Hey, y’all. 🙂

Did you have an awesome Christmas / holiday?

Things were kinda blah here.

First, the week leading up to Christmas I had to take Mama B to the ER late one night. It was all kinds of drama that led to us having to leave before she could be seen because the ER Dr at our Podunk hospital wasn’t covered under her insurance. If you know me in real life and live in our town…don’t go to the local hospital unless you’re like 110% sure you’re dying. Drive to SL or V and see some decent nurses / doctors.  There was this one nurse there that must be the sister of Satan (and that’s being nice). And believe me…she’s already been reported.  So anyway thankfully the urgent care at her regular Dr’s office was open super early the next morning. She got seen 1st thing and her temp was 104. The Dr. said if she’d waited any longer it would have been really bad.

So she was sick and then Sister B got sick and wasn’t able to come home. We ended up meeting her for lunch on Christmas Monday but she’s still not feeling all that great.  Feel better soon, SB.  🙂

We still celebrated Christmas.  It just wasn’t the same as if everyone had been healthy.

Made the real kolaches and pigs for the rest of the fam.

Used the roll dough I wrote about in this post to make me some celiac / paleo safe pigs and prune kolaches. These actually turned out really well. And they held up in the icebox too. I’m so impressed with this recipe.

Usual Christmas Tex-Mex meal. (Tamales / Enchiladas / cheese rice / beans).

So are y’all starting to practice y’all’s Russian. 😉

About that cherry rum cake.

Unreal.

I made my regular rum cake recipe using gf Jules of course (you can use any rum cake recipe) and for all of the water (just the water) in the cake and drizzling sauce I subbed cherry juice from a jar of maraschino cherries.  I drained the cherries really well and pulsed them in the food processor then dried them even more on paper towels and added them to the mix. I left everything else the same.  Mama B said this was the best cake I’ve ever made. 🙂

Amen.

My fav Christmas presents (so far)…a Rubik’s cube and a Salt Life sign / decoration for the back fence (it needs to be dropped down a little bit).  We’re starting to decorate the back fence with old vintage and cute signs.  When Rubik’s cubes were first a thing I got one for Christmas and played with it for hours on end. They had all those retro toys out for Christmas this year and it was one of them.  My other fav won’t come until sometime next week.  I’ll share when it gets here.  🙂

 🙂

A progress pic. Left pic was Christmas 2004 (in the middle of a 4 year lupus flare) and right pic was the day after Christmas this year. White bar across chest = no bra. Also…while my stomach is in no way flat that is not a bulge it’s the way the white shirt bunched up.

So…about the title of this post.  I took 4 days off plan for the holidays and while it was worth it in some ways it was horrible in others. In about 48 hours my pain level went from around a 4 to a 24.  My face bloated up.  I was itching like crazy.  It was awful. I had planned to stay off plan thru Monday (because we were meeting SB for lunch that day and it was a road trip) but I went right back on plan after Christmas day lunch.  It took a good full 3 days for my pain level to get back to somewhat manageable.

Lesson learned.  I just cannot jump on and off from no sugar / grains (even with celiac safe ones).  I have to find ways to make this livable.  And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to figure out ways to make things I like so maybe I won’t miss them as much.  I did it when I had to go gluten – free.  I’ll do it with this too.  And of course I’ll share along the way. 🙂

Had to go out for lunch on Tuesday.  Saltgrass.  Caesar and Prime Rib. Forgot to take a pic of the steak but I cleaned the plate so you know it was delish.  This was a perfect back on plan meal. 🙂

Normally I wouldn’t post something with that many curse words in two sentences but I saw this and it is just so fitting right now.

Ok. That’s all for now. Y’all have a great / safe New Year’s Eve / Day weekend and I’ll see you soon.  🙂