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Well, today Gregg and I are starting a low carb eating plan. I dont really want to say diet since this will not be just for weight loss.I realize that I cant eat most wheat based foods and eating low carb will become more of a live style for me. So I am taking Gregg along with me for the ride…lol. There will be some major changes to the way we eat. Especially at family functions. No more baked goodies. No breads, some fruit but mostly just berries. Low carb is more about vegies and meat.

We tried the Atkins diet many years ago and it did work, but this time I am going to go more of atkins/south beach style. I am doomed to fail is I have only 20 carbs a day. This week it will still be a bit higher since there are some foods that need to be eaten first. There is no way I am throwing out food.

Eating low carb will also make me feel better by leaving out my allergy foods. Which is mainly starches and grains. No wheat, corn, potatoes or rice. As for fruit, well I already know that apples, bananas and oranges dont agree with me. I do have a weakness for summer fruits like watermelon and berries, but I can eat those on CL since they are lower in carbs. I dont have a problem eating my greens, I love vegies. Meat, easy, love meat too.

I’m sure Gregg and I will adjust to this way of eating over the next few weeks. I know my starting weight isnt that high, but Gregg has gained some back again. Not sure how much and if he would want me to post it here. I have kept most of my weight off that I lost a few years ago. Tho I had started out at 175lbs I am now at 152. I want to be around 135 if I can, but 140 is fine too. It would be great to see Gregg at 200lbs, but I think it will take some time to get him there.

With the nice weather starting, we will be going for walks in the evenings and I have many Wii games for us to play. Latest addition is Zumba and Just Dance 2. I plan to try them out this afternoon. As long as my back is feeling up for it.

I will try to do a weekly update. Maybe even start a new page to post LC recipes and post our weekly weigh in. Might help keep us on track better.

Mom explained that water is NOT needed. So I milled the rice. it was very loud and it took about 45 minutes to grind down 2 pounds of Brown rice.

Now I needed to find a recipe! I had a couple ripe bananas to use up so banana bread it is! Well, muffins.

MMMMMM! So tasty! Even Gregg said that they are good! Tomorrow I see if I can make rice bread!

So what am I doing on my special day? Gregg and I are going to have our morning coffee as usual, and then get ready to go over to Mom’s. Pick her up and head to the border. We are going to stop off at Wal-mart and meet up with Mom’s sister Susi for a coffee. After wards we will get back on the road and drive down to Bellis Fair Mall where I will be buying my present. I have been needing new runners and I have decided that I want the Skechers Shape-ups. I hope they help with my back pain and my sore heels when I walk. I sure want to be able to go out walking and not have to stop after 15 minutes from the pain. Its so frustrating to try and get in shape and not have good shoes.

I also need jeans. Since I finally am at my goal weight I need some jeans that I dont have to keep pulling up or have to wear a belt. Plus I dont want stretchy jeans. I cant find any that are normal jeans around here unless they are flared, low riders and cost way too much and I dont do the skinny jean, I just dont like them. I like a boot cut or straight leg and long. At least a 34 inseam. Most are 32 and that is too short for me. But why do jeans have to have lycra in them? I want regular old school jeans…lol

Well maybe I’ll find them at the Mall. After the shopping is done we are going to take mom for some real Mexican food. Gregg and I have both been craving Tacos el Pastor. I want Mom to try them too. I think she will enjoy them.

Well, going to go start dinner. Its House and heroes tonight.

Meat Muffins

1 pound ground meat(beef,chicken,pork)
Spices(I used Mexican,but you can spice the meat how you like)
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped mushrooms(optional)

Fry all that together till brown and yummy. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Then drain the fat out. Put in paper towels to squish the rest of the grease out. Let it cool down.

Make some pancake batter. I used Krusteaz’s buttermilk pancake mix(found it at Costco). You want whatever mix you make to be a bit runny so it pours. Take a muffin pan and fill the bottoms of each just so they are covered. Then spoon in the meat  and cover with the rest of the batter. Makes 12 muffins.

Put in preheated oven(375c) for about 20 minutes or until the tops are brown. Remove let cool and then….

NOM NOM NOM!!!!

It’s that easy!

So, Last week I took on a project that I thought would be easy. Well, it was easy but very time consuming. I was going through my google reader and checking on some of the craft bloggers I read daily, and I saw something that I thought would make a great party favor for all the women that came to the birthday lunch we had planned.

I was on the Coterie Blog and saw this post and loved the idea. So I made a list of all I would need and headed out to get the supplies. Instead of Banana bread I did cake mixes. My list was simple.

• 35 4 inch pots
• 8 cake mixes
• ribbons
• sparkly things

Sounds easy right? Not so! I had to find the pots. Gregg came with me and we went to Wal-Mart and found 16 there. Then it was over to Home Depot, they had none. Then we drove to Rona and got all we needed. After that it was off to the Dollar store for ribbons and decorations. And finally to Save-on Foods to get the cake mixes and eggs and oil and powdered sugar.

I started with washing all the pots. I ran them through the dishwasher. The next morning I decided that I would white-wash them all. I found some white paint and watered it down and gave them all one coat. They dried and got another coat. That took up most of the day. At about 3pm I started with the decorations. I finished 27 pots by 7pm.

The next day I started with the baking. I did a test run to see how many pots I would need per cake mix. 4 pots worked well. The baking went pretty good. I only messed up on one pot. Each set of 4 pots baked at 350 c for 35 minutes. Then I pulled them out and put in the next 4pots. While those were baking I removed the cakes out of the pots and let them cool. I washed the 4 pots and started over.

I then took the cooled cakes and put them into the decorated pots and labels them on the bottom so I knew what flavor it was. I kept rotating between the 2 batches of 4 pots I was using to bake with. All together it took me 6 hours to finish all the baking.

I took a break, had some dinner and a shower. I then started on the icing. That took another 2 hours to do. Then I realized I still needed to get a layered salad ready for the party. I thought my night would never end!

I finally finished them all. 32 pots decorated and ready to go. In the end it was all worth it. Everyone loved their potted cakes.

There was a ton of yummy foods to eat. My sister made 2 different fruit punches. We ordered a birthday cake from my Niece’s friend that makes special cakes. We got her to put a big ring on top with all of us 5 kid’s birth stones. Mom didn’t really see the cake until we pointed it out after she has opened the box with the gold family ring we got her as her present. She was so happy I thought she might even cry.

At about 3pm almost all the ladies had left. Then the family started to show up for the BBQ. We all relaxed and a good time as a family. We all laughed and enjoyed the rest of Mom’s day.

Today is her actual birthday. So I called her to wish her a happy day. She is having some friends over for coffee and to eat some more of that yummy cake.

I had to use up some bananas today. I decided that I would make some low calorie muffins. Its a simple recipe. Anyone can make these and they taste pretty good.

Mix together the first 4 ingreidents.

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Then mix the rest, and blend it all together.

1/2 cup no calorie splenda
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup low calorie vanilla yogurt (can try other flavors)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup bananas

Pour into muffin pan or loaf pan, I used silicone muffin pans. This makes 12 muffins. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes or until brown on top.

The calories for one muffin is 110 cals . 1 gram of fat. 22 grams of carbs. 1 gram of fiber. 6 grams of sugar.

You can add nuts or top with frosting. Or maybe add a few dark chocolate chips. There are so many things you can do with this simple recipe. Now we will see if Gregg like them

Anyways, Yesterday afternoon They called to let me know that the skirt steaks were in. So I walked up. Lucky for me its only a 10 minute walk. (It was nice to get out of my condo since if was filled with pot smoke from Dippy below). I got there and was surprised. They had moved to a new building on the other side of the parking lot form the old place. I got to the doors and they swooshed open. No need to touch, that was nice. I walked in and looked around. The first thing I noticed, the lighting, it was bright. THen the cashier, smiling at me and wanting to help me.

So I asked about my order and she walked me over to the butchering area and grabbed it for me. I quickly asked if it could get cut into strips and he said sure but it was already cut thinly.We agreed that I would use it as is and let him know how it turns out. So walked around a bit looking at prices and meats. They have a tiny coffee counter with sandwiches and such. There was also a section of breads and spices.

I was very pleased with everything I saw. I admit that I will go back. Now that the place looks like a real butcher shop. The floors and freezers were spotless. The whole place felt friendly. Plus I like to see the butcher area. If I can’t see the butcher working then I don’t trust the meat. I think thats why I only buy meat from Costco or Save-on Foods. You can see what they are doing.

I bought some marinated chicken while I was there and we will be having it for dinner this evening. Tomato and basil sauce, I hope its yummy!

When we were in Mexico, we noticed a steak that was served almost at every restaurant. Its called “Arrachera” which means flank or skirt steak. Its actually a simple meal. I think its all about the spices and how long it marinates. Anyways, we really enjoyed it. So now I am going to make it for us. We drove into Vancouver on Saturday and stopped by a Mexican grocery store and found the spice we need.

The recipe is very easy, all you do is marinate the meat in the spices for 1 day. Then grill and serve.

Season both sides of meat with GOYA seasoning and lime juice. Cover entire meat with lime and season lightly.
Once the meat is limed up and seasoned you roll it up, like a sushi roll, nice and tight and place all of the meat all rolled up in rolls in a deep dish and pour beer on top making sure it gets all over. If you marinate your meat with beer and you don’t roll it up, you wash off all of your seasonings.
Cover the meat with plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge over night, but 2-3 hours works just as well.
Then just grill each side for like 5-6 min less if you like it medium. The meat will be tender, juicy and full of flavor. Enjoy

I’m really curious if this will taste the same. I hope so! I have been wanting it for a while now. Here is a picture of what we had in Mexico at H&C restaurant/butcher. You get the steak, a baked potato, half an avocado and lime and a hot green pepper. Gregg and Glen both gave me their avocados.

And with steak you must have a tasty beer to wash it all down.

The only problem with this, is that I can’t get Leon Beer here. It doesn’t get exported out of the Yucatan. So Gregg will have to have something else. A cold glass of diet coke with a twist of lime on ice sounds good.

So far Gregg has enjoyed them…a lot. Me too…hehehe If you want to see the rest of the cookies just follow the link to our Flickr site. Or you can go to my new Photo page.

So I went on a internet search for some new recipes to try. I was hoping to use Gregg’s Mom’s recipes but I still havent found them. I did find 8 recipes just not the ones I wanted. So I found some online and tried them out. I have been reading a certain blog for a while now and really enjoy all the recipes they have. A lot of the food reminds me of the food I grew up on. If you know anything about German Mennonite cooking you will love this blog.

Here I found the recipes for snow drops. I made these but changed a few things plus renamed mine to Reindeer Poop.. lol. Instead of Crispex (I couldnt find any) I bought a box of Rice Krispies and a box of Corn Squares. Mixed and crushed them together. Then melted the chocolate chips and peanut butter. Poured that over the cereal and stirred. I didn’t have a paper bag so I used a large zip lock bag. I added the mixture to the bag of icing (which, by the way was made out of splenda and cornstarch) And shock the bag till it was all coated. Then scooped it our with a large strainer to get some of the sugar off.

Once it was all coated I put it in a pan and then into the freezer. An hour later it was hard and easy to package into containers.

This stuff is so yummy! So I made a second batch For Gregg’s dad. He is Diabetic so it was made with 8 unsweetened baker’s chocolate squares and a cup on Splenda. I actually forgot the peanut butter and poured the chocolate on the cereal mix and then covered it the same way with the Splenda and cornstarch icing sugar. It tastes good too!

Well,  I spent the day baking. I never did find all the recipes from Gregg’s mom. I found about 8 so far. No idea where I put the rest. Its ok I found other recipes to try. I made shortbread cookies, sugar cookies, truffles, rum-balls, reindeer poop, and oat fudge bars.I still have a few more things to bake tomorrow.

I’ll put up pictures and the recipes over the next few days. I am way too tired to do it all right now. I’m off to have a soak in the tub and then into pj’s and watch TV. Have a good evening!

I realized that today is Gregg’s Mom’s Birthday. She isn’t here to celebrate this day anymore. She died many years ago in a terrible car accident. It’s sad, I know, but we go on. Anyways, the last couple days Gregg has mentioned how at Christmas time his mom would bake cookies. So I am on the hunt for her recipes. I know they are in the storage room in a box. I just have to find the right box…lol

He says that his Mom made the best Bird’s nest cookies ever, along with a few others. So I want to start making these for Gregg so that he can have some and remember the good times of Christmas. Just like I remember all the good times I had as a kid. I think the one thing that always makes Christmas better is all the smells of baked goodies and the turkey cooking. Christmas music playing in the back ground and people laughing and enjoy themselves.

Well, I will go hunt these recipes down, then share them with you all.

My day started off great. Had coffee with Gregg and then went to shower and there I thought about what to do for the day. I do a lot of my thinking in the shower. I got out and told Gregg I would love to hang out with Mom. He said sure. So I called Mom and asked if she would like to go to Ikea. Yup, and the plan was made.

We picked her up at 1pm and headed out. Ikea is about a 30 minute drive from home. We got there and I could see that Mom was excited. She hadn’t been to this big new Ikea. We started in the showroom area and followed the big blue arrows on the floor. Mom got a bit confused a few times as to what direction were headed, but I kept telling her “follow the blue arrows”.

I think she was a bit overwhelemed. There was so much to look at. Plus 100′s of people. Normally it would be me getting confused and dizzy. We both saw a couple items we wanted. She even picked up a mirror for her new condo.

We stopped at the cafeteria for a drink and to rest our feet. We then headed down to the checkout. We paid and got out of there. The three of us decided it was dinner time and off we drove to the Cactus Club 2 blocks down the road. When we got there they told us we would have to wait about 15 minutes. Instead Gregg saw a table open in the bar. Off we went!

It just so happened that it was Hockey night and the bar was very loud and full of people. It was a bit hard to talk. We each ordered a drink, yes, even Mom. and then ordered our food. It was all very good. We were there about an hour. Afterwards, we headed back to Mom’s place.

Once there, we relaxed and watched the DVD we brought over for her of all her slides we had scanned into my PC. I could see that it brought back a lot of memories for her and me too. Its not see to see Dad in them. It must be really hard for Mom to see her whole life with dad in those pictures. But she held it together and didn’t cry. We finally were ready to leave and had a group hug and said good night. It was just after 9pm when we got home. I was still feeling good.

I am so thankful that I had this day with Mom and Gregg. I don’t get many good days like that anymore.

So that’s it! We are low carbing it until Christmas. Not too low. About 20-50 carbs a day. I don’t want us to starve! We will be following the south beach plan, more or less. Low carbing is actually very easy. No rules really. All you need to do is cut out all the “white” foods.

Stop eating white flour. So, no more white breads, no crackers and no more baked goodies. Cut back on fruit and have berries. Eat lots of veggies, but not the starchy ones like potatoes and corn. Rice is ok as long as its brown. No milk, which I don’t drink any ways.You can eat as much meat as you want, but I try to stay with normal portions. Cheese is good too. And you can have real butter and cream.

That’s about it. Pretty simple. Just need to read labels and make sure the carb count is low and if the fiber is high that is great. You can subtract the fiber from the carb count.

The best part I like about low carb, my tummy feels better. Not so bloated anymore. I guess we’ll see if it works. Last time we didn’t stick to it cause there was too much going on. I hope we can this time.

After my morning coffee I was checking my emails. I signed up at a few sites the day before and was waiting to get email back. I got email from Red Robin‘s telling me to come get a free Birthday burger and Dairy Queen saying I can have a 16oz blizzard for free. So my lunch was planned!

We got dressed and headed to Red Robin’s for lunch. I ordered a Guacamole burger with fries.

After that we drove down the road to Dairy Queen where I got a Fudge brownie cookie dough with Reese’s peanut butter cup blizzard.mmmmmm! We took our blizzards and headed back home. Gregg gobbled his up right a way. I still have half of mine in the freezer. I was stuffed from the burger. So I get to finish it today.

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It seems that Thursday nights we have pizza. Not sure how this started, but now we do this every Thursday. We grill our pizza on the bbq. It tastes so much better that way. Makes the thin crust crispy. Melts the cheese perfectly and everything in between is hot.

I dont buy just any old pizza. Gregg and I discovered about 2 years ago a frozen pizza at Costco. We were looking for one that had toppings we liked and that was low in calories. Well we found one. Its called “Palermo’s“. It comes in many different flavors. We have tried them all and like them all. My favorite is the Hawaiian and Gregg likes the Chicken Cesar but we both enjoy the Sweet Thai.

We buy the Primo Thin pizzas. Costco only carries 4 flavors, but on the website you can see they have more. The calorie count is low. You can eat half a pizza to yourself and its under 600 calories! We add extra mushrooms and some onions to bulk it up. After 2 slices I am stuffed!

So that’s whats on the menu this evening. Pizza and a beer. Plus a night of great TV. Its Survivor, CSI and ER. Gregg only watches Survivor with me.

We had a great day. We left home and picked up Mom at noon and headed to the Tradex Center. Once there we found parking which was 3.00 on the way out later. We walked in and our sniffers were hit with all kinds of goodness.

As we came through the main gate we grabbed a bag for all our goodies. We started to walk around and looked at all the different cooking supplies and foods and drinks you could buy. There were lots of products to look at. Some stands had samples to taste.

After going through all the vendors we headed for the food and drink section. We had to buy tickets to use for buying samples. 2 tickets would get you an once of wine. 5-8 tickets would get you some type of food.

I found a beer I really liked. Its made from rice. It was very smooth and tasty. I will be picking some up soon.

Gregg watched Bob Blumer “the Surreal Gourmet” make grilled pizza. We both thought it was funny since we already do it at home on our bbq. Its one of the best ways to cook pizza.

I also found a new wine that I must try again. Its made by “Lotusland Vineyards” right here in Abbotsford! The wine is a new creation called “Ortega”. Its a white wine. It was so yummy I could drink it every day. I will put this on my Christmas list.

My Sister and her hubby showed up half way through the afternoon. When it was time to leave they took Mom with them and headed to my Niece’s place in Langley for a coffee. Gregg and I headed home.

Once we were home, I sorted out all the stuff in my goodie bag. Check out all the swag! Lots of cat food samples. Baby likes them, but Bunny thinks that Duck flavored food is not yummy. I got recipes and coupons and the V8 fusion plus the razors were being given away at the door as you left. I tried out the razor and must say I like it. It would be a good thing to take with for traveling.

So, all in all, I think it was a nice day. We all had a good time.

P.S. Sorry this is a week late. I was waiting for Gregg to edit the pictures.

We will be taking pictures and will blog all about it on Monday.

Anyways, I am able to eat better again. And I have to say I missed eating fresh vegies and fruits. I found a great site for recipes. I signed up and get emailed weekly. Its called Eating Well, I’m sure you have all heard of the magazine. There are some really great recipes there and its a simple site to use. I have also signed up at a few others that are good too. Here is a list.

• Calorie King is one I go to often I use their diet program to keep track of my calories.
• Calorie Counter is also a good one.
• Cooking Light
• Simply Recipes
• Betty Crocker
• Mennonite Girls Can Cook This last one is great. Many foods here that I grew up with.

And there you have it! Enjoy!

I looked in the fridge to see what I could eat for lunch. It came down to peeled cucumber slices and some ham. I just couldn’t get myself to eat anything else. Everything looked like it would hurt except for the yogurt. I can eat that. I just don’t think I could survive on yogurt. And how much can a person eat? I think I will be having a lot of soup over the next couple weeks. Maybe I will finally lose that last 10lbs…LOL