Two weeks down, a lifetime to go...

So I weighed in after two weeks of induction today and I’m down 11 pounds! WOHOOO! For some reason I feel exhausted today...I can think of two possibilities. First...it’s probably TOM which could start today or tomorrow...too much information, I’m sure, but it’s a reasonable explanation. The other entirely reasonable explanation is that I didn’t eat enough carbs yesterday...or the day before that, really. It was such a hectic weekend that I was pretty horrible about getting my veggies in...I was pretty horrible about getting ANY food in, really. I’d say through the course of the entire weekend, I probably consumed less than 2000 calories. Believe it or not, that’s not enough! Fitday says my body needs 3000 calories a day to maintain...you want to do a small calorie deficit to lose weight...too big of one and you can go into starvation mode. I gotta watch myself.

So I got up at 5:30am today and did 10 minutes on the elliptical...not my best performance, but I was WIPED after 7 minutes! I’m blaming this exhaustion! I then did 3 sets of 12 crunches and 1 set each of 10 oblique crunches...not great...I can’t wait to build on this. That’s all I eeked out this morning. I’m gonna eat some veggies today and try again for tomorrow.

The weekend was pretty great. Friday was the best...my cancelled birthday party turned into a small get together with Alan, Sandy, Sonja and Eli, Jenn, Allison and Kirsty. Alli brought her PS2 and a couple of fun trivia and karaoke games that were just a blast. Everyone got really hammered...except me cuz I didn’t want to waste the prime fat burning time...and it was a ball. I really had a wonderful birthday party.

Saturday Dad, Bonnie and Rachel drove down from MV to take me to lunch. I chose Ruby Tuesdays because people in the LC community RAVE about the mashed cauliflower there...really, I have no idea why. I totally make it better! But...I ate my prime burger and half of my mash and then went home to clean house for party 2.

Party 2 was just eh...SEVERAL people that RSVP’d didn’t show, so we had a ton of food for nothing. It rained and was super cold, which made hot tub use, doable but less pleasant...I didn’t go out there myself, but others did. Trinity was having an extra-special panic attack brought on by the meds prescribed to PREVENT a panic attack at parties...I spent most of the night baby-sitting her. The party ended relatively early (around 2am I think) and I was in bed just after 3....and then Sunday I just chilled. Ahhhhh....perfection!

So during induction I tried a few recipes...I’ll keep track here so that I can refer back from time to time.

Broccoli Quiche: ok, but next time I make it, I really need to freeze the additional servings. I tried to eat all of it in a few days and now I never want to see broccoli quiche again. That was a mistake. I used this recipe from Linda’s Low Carb site:

10 ounces frozen chopped broccoli, cooked and well drained
8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
2 ounces onion, chopped, about 1/3 cup
6 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper

Spray a large glass pie plate. Put the broccoli, onion and cheese in the bottom of the plate. Beat the eggs, then whisk in the cream, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over the cheese. Bake at 350º for 35-45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Makes 6 servings
Can be frozen

Per Serving: 379 Calories; 32g Fat; 18g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 3g Net Carbs


Broccoli and Chicken Casserole: this was made with cream cheese as the base for a sauce...I’m not sure I like this method much at all...just too much of an aftertaste with the cream cheese...and it was sooooo thick I couldn’t mix it into the broccoli. By the way...I over-cooked the broccoli, which is a pet-peeve of mine, so that affected the results, too. I will have to try something else for the cheese sauce. I used the following recipe but cubed up a chicken breast and added it for additional protein:

14-16 ounce package frozen broccoli florets
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
4 green onions, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 pieces bacon, chopped and fried until crisp

Cook the broccoli 4-5 minutes or just until tender-crisp; drain very well. Put in a greased 2-quart casserole. Mix in the cream cheese, cheddar, green onion, salt, pepper and bacon. Bake at 350º for 20-30 minutes, until bubbly.

Makes 4-6 servings
Can be frozen

Per 1/4 Recipe: 278 Calories; 22g Fat; 14g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 4g Net Carbs

Cheesecake: Delicious! I MIGHT omit the lemon juice next time...I’m not entirely sure why it’s in there and I think I can taste it....but other than that, very good! I did half the recipe and put it into single serving ramekins instead of making one cake. I used this recipe that I found on ADBB: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/desserts/28708-low-carb-cheesecake-induction-safe-when-crustless.html

Ingredients
cake:
4 packs Philedelphia Original cream cheese (8 oz. each), softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup equivalent sugar substitute (recommended: Splenda or even better, concentrated liquid splenda)
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream


1 tablespoon vanilla extract, should be a "no sugar" extract
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice (or lemon juice, if you prefer)
2 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
optional "crust" (add this when you get to OWL and add nuts)

1/3 - 1/2 cups pecans, processed into crumbs
1 T. butter
1 t. splenda
Equipment: 1 (8-inch) cake pan

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray the cake pan bottom and sides witha flavorless or butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray. Cut a piece of baker's parchment paper the size of the bottom and place inside. Spray this with spray as well. Set aside.

In a shallow roasting pan (that's big enough to fit the cake pan inside), pour about 1-inch of water and place it on the center rack of the oven to preheat.

IF including the crust, put pecans, butter and splenda in a food processor and pulse to form a moist mixture. Use this as if you were making a graham cracker crust. Put just enough butter so the pecan crumbs stick together, careful not to put too much or your texture will be off. Press this into the bottom of your cake pan as evenly as possible.

Completely soften cream cheese at room temperature or microwave for a minute or two. In a large mixing bowl, stir or mix with hands: softened cream cheese, sour cream and sugar substitute until well mixed. You don't want to use a mixer in this recipe or the incorporated air will prevent the texture from being dense and rich.

In a separate bowl, mix heavy cream, vanilla, lime juice, eggs, and egg yolks until well blended.

Pour the egg mixture into the cream cheese mixture. Stir or mix with hands until well blended.

Pour batter into the prepared cake pan. Place pan into the heated water bath in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes at 400, then lower the oven temperature to 275 degrees F. Continue baking for 1 1/2 hours, or until top is light golden brown and cake is pulling away from the sides of the pan. Turn off the oven and leave the cake in the oven to cool slowly for 3 more hours. (This will keep the cake nice and tall and prevent the top from cracking.) Remove and refrigerate before serving. Serve chilled.

Nutritional Information (both assume using powdered Splenda. Carbs will be less if using liquid Splenda.)

Parmesan Chicken Fingers: Pretty good. I did this with chicken breasts...will probably be better with thigh meat. I’ll try that maybe tonight. There really isn't a recipe, per se...I found the suggestion on ADBB to dredge the chicken in egg and then grated parmesan cheese and fry until crisp.

Honey Mustard: decent but grainy...might have been the Splenda. I will try making it with Sweetzfree and see if I get a smoother result. I Kinda made this myself on the fly...I don’t have actual measurements. I’ll try again and list measurements when I have something I’m happy with.

Pancakes: pretty good...I would make these again for something different. Sure am tired of eggs! I used this recipe that I found on ADBB:

Ingredients
2 large eggs
4 oz Cream Cheese
Sweetzfree (to taste) or Splenda
.5 tsp Cinnamon, ground
1 tbsp Flax Seed Meal (ground flax)


DIRECTIONS
Place the egg whites in a separate bowl and beat with electric mixer until stiff peaks appear.
Place the cream cheese in a large bowl and beat with the mixer until smooth. Beat in the egg yolks and the the sweetner, cinnamon, salt and flaxseed meal. Fold in the egg whites.
Heat large heavy fry pan over meduim low heat. Grease lightly with butter. Form pancakes using about 1/4 cup of the batter for each pancake. Cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes each side. Don't rush these- if you cook them on too high of a tempature, the butter will burn.