So weebly reminds me that I haven't blogged for a few days.  So here's a new blog.  I promise to post more recipes, but I haven't been cooking so much recently because we've been invited to dinner a couple of times. 

My weightloss progress?  Since I have just come off of "that time of the month" I expected that there would be a few days to regulate my weight.  I also feel like I've been retaining water.  That means, especially due to this hot weather, that I haven't been drinking enough.  SO I'm really really trying to up my water intake.  School is pretty much over so I'll have more time (and no excuses) to go back to the gym.  I will do that in half an hour or so actually.  I went shopping last week for some clothes to take to Toronto and I was happy and sad.  Happy because I can finally buy clothes that aren't in the plus section.  It's nice not having to look at tent-sized clothing.  However, I have so much extra flab hanging from my weightloss.  It's like I can fly with my arms and float away with my thighs.  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating somewhat but probably not so much.  My belly does seem somewhat smaller though.  Can one have "defined fat"?  I reckon it's just the fat kinda melting away in odd shapes that I'm imagining the beginning of seeing my abs.  One can dream right?

But yeah, back to weightloss progress, I'm back to under 69 kg today.  Weighed in at 68.9.  My lowest was 68.7 before I went on my period and my highest during my period was 70.  So it's going backwards.  That 68.9 was also before doing...number...ya know?  SO I could actually be less!  That's what I'm telling myself anyway.


Gonna  check my auctions on Diablo III and then get ready for the gym.
 
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Coconut "oopsies" with coconut whipped cream
So, I haven't updated in a LONG time, so this will be a longer than normal post filled with quite a number of pictures and random babblings.  Reason I haven't been updating is well...Diablo III.  Yes, I play computer games (I met my husband playing World of Warcraft) and now the long-awaited Diablo III was released last week.  I still stuck to my LCHF diet, so that's a good thing.  It was also "that time of the month" so I knew that the scale would be a bit skewy with the water retention and all. 

Here's my update.  I made a few more recipies from my various cookbooks and magazines and some with more success than others.  I also did a bit of experimenting.  Those were less successful!  To the left is a picture of my more successful creations.  It's two "oopsies" (I made them more coconuty by adding some shredded coconut and stevia to the mixture) with some coconut whipped cream (whipped cream with pressed virgin coconut oil, vanilla powder and stevia) with raspberries and blueberries.  Seriously, this was scrumptious.  As a side note, the stevia I used is the white one that's meant to be used like sugar.  My husband said that it was like eating waffles.  I let it sit in the fridge for a little while before serving so the oopsies became a little moist.  I felt that it added to the overall taste and texture.  My original plan was to make a meringue top, which I did, but it just didn't turn out to plan as well, stevia doesn't make the egg topping hard like sugar does.  It tasted "okay".  My daughter liked it.  It was like eating marshmallow on top of an oopsie.  Looked kinda funky in any case!

I also tried making coconut waffles.  Waffles made with coconut flour.  Didn't like them.  The texture was too grainy for my liking.  So I won't share that recipe with you.  I then made a "tiger cake" which tasted kinda like french toast.  It was a bit eggy.  Now, if you like french toast, like I do, it may not necessarily be a total failure.  But the idea was a cake, so in that case, it did fail.  It did get eaten though, so it wasn't a total waste.

Then on the weekend I made a chocolate pie LCHF style.  I think it tasted pretty good.  I did the coconut whipped cream to it, think it was a bit too much coconut so next time I'll skip that.  I also put a bit of shredded coconut in the crust (yes, I like coconut!), that tasted good though.  It does need a cream, so regular whipped cream will suffice.  I added a bit of stevia here and there to the original recipe in order to get it sweet enough for my liking.  Probably not wise seeing as that you wanna wean yourself from any sugar cravings.  I'll post the recipe for the chocolate pie either tonight or tomorrow.

All in all I'm coping quite well I think with the diet.  Now we're going to begin in earnest!  Will load up some pictures of my new LCHF finds during the next day or so.  Also, this weekend may be a bit of a challenge.  My sister-in-law is in town and so we're going to be eating with family on Friday and Saturday.  Friday will be a bbq, so I'm thinking I'll make some dessert or maybe some daikon gratin or coleslaw or caulflower dish and then on Saturday we'll be on the lake on my father-in-law's boat so it'll be "fika".  That's usually some cakes, coffee and sandwiches.  So I may make some LCHF goodies for that outing as well.  I'll keep you posted and post pictures!

 
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Sometimes (okay, often times) we don't have the time to make our own spaghetti/pasta sauce.  Yes, we can do a simple alfredo, but homemade tomato sauce or a homemade pesto would take quite a bit of time to make.

Whilst basil pesto is low on carbs and accetable on a LCHF diet, tomato sauces are a whole different story.  They are usually laden with sugar, much to much sugar for a low carb diet.

But it's not impossible to find a suitable tomato sauce.  If you live here in Sweden, Saltå Kvarn's Pastasås Napoletana has only 5g of carbs.  For a tomato sauce that's awesome.  It's also organic (ekologisk).  So my tip for you is make sure you read the labels. 

 
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Entrecote with a LCHF "potatoes au gratin"
So, today I made my first LCHF gratin.  Whilst my husband didn't feel it was anything to write home about, I thought it was really good!  That said, I love gratin, so just having that sort of sensation today was a real big plus!

So for dinner tonight we had steak, marinated in a LCHF friendly marinade of soy sauce, sambal oelek, pressed garlic, canola oil and a couple of drops of liquid stevia, served with a low carb gratin.  Now, this gratin (or gratäng as they call it here in Sweden) was made out of Daikon, aka Japanese/White Radish or Rättika to the Swedes.  I changed it up by adding some egg and feta cheese and the results were very good!  I will definitely serve this again if I have people over, or perhaps for Christmas at the Julbord (Christmas Table) so that I can have a low carb side dish. 

Now that my eyes have been opened to the possibilities of daikon, I expect to be using it more often in dishes.  Perhaps a "potato salad"?  So much to try!  For tomorrow I'm thinking LCHF pasta, made from eggs and cream cheese and then baked in the oven...that said, we still have some gratin left, so maybe it'll be meatballs or meatloaf...we'll see!


 
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Today for dinner I made a meal out of ground beef and zucchini.  I had some meat left over and I was going to put it into the fridge to be eaten another day.  I then wondered, "What can I do to make something interesting with this leftover meat?"I had some broccoli and tomatoes left over from my oven chicken the other day.  I figured I could put everything together, add some cream and eggs, season it up a bit and voila, mini egg muffins!

Going on a LCHF diet can be expensive.  There are a number of ingredients, like the flours and sweetners, that can make the pocket a bit light.  Not to mention buying the meats.  If you are even more health and/or socially conscious, you then opt for organic/free-range/ekologisk products, which also usually has a higher pricetag attached.  My suggestion in making things a bit easier is make use of your leftovers and try to be creative with them.  With this same ground beef mix that I had left behind, it could have gone into a personal portion of pasta served with LCHF noodles, or make a LCHF friendly crepe/pancake to make a type of taco or burrito.  Not only do you save money, but you also get some variety with regards to meals.  Small bits of vegetables?  How about a filling omlette or add it to a salad?


 
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So this morning I woke up early and decided to bake the garlic and cheesy biscuits that I found on Get Fit Katie's Low Carb Blog.  They were pretty good.  The key with substitutions is to enjoy it for what it is rather than comparing them to the normal variant.  That's what I'm learning to do.  This is a lifestyle choice right?  So breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs made with whipped cream, salt and parsley, with turkey bacon, cheesy garlic biscuit and a dollop of may just for good measure.  Still not convinced as to what I'm going to make for lunch/dinner.  Gonna go watch Grey's Anatomy though first, and then work out, and then I'll decide about dinner.  I'm leaning towards a pizza variant using zucchini as the "crust", some tomato paste spread on top and then a topping of ground beef and onions, shredded cheese and perhaps a couple of cocktail tomato slices.  Should be yummy!

14:18 pm

So, I have two pieces of entrecote meat sitting in the fridge marinating.  They're for tomorrow.  The plan is some steak with some rättika (Daikon) gratin and I dunno, maybe some homemade bernaise.  Need to find a recipe for that.  In any case, I'm hoping that the marinade tastes good.  If it does, I'll post the recipe!


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19:32 pm
So, dinner tonight was zucchini with a bit of tomato paste spread on it and a ground beef blend topped with shredded cheese.



 
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So there's the proof.  For gamers, it'd be my "screenshot" proving that I indeed weighed under 69 kg today.  I'm well chuffed with that result because it means that I have lost weight past any regain that should have occured after my VLCD. 

I am thrilled to be seeing some results already and that I'm enjoying the diet so far.  I baked some LCHF cupcakes today too.  They don't taste like regular ones, but I guess that's something that I have to live with!  You can find the recipe in my recipes section.

I also picked up an almond grinder so that I can make my own almond flour.  That should save a few pretty pennies.  For those in Sweden, I picked it up at Coop Konsum, on sale from 179 SEK to 99 SEK. 



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Today's dinner
Dinner today was some chicken sausage in a creamy sauce with some boiled eggs on the side.  Lunch was leftovers from last nigh and breakfast was...boiled eggs and cottage cheese with a little bernaise sauce.  I ♥ Eggs.

Here's to hoping that I still see a loss tomorrow, or at least the gain isn't so much!




 
Came across an awesome looking blog with such tasty recipes I just had to share.  Unfortunately for those that can't read Swedish it may not be of any use unless you run it through googletranslate.  The blog is 56kilo.se and the blogger is a woman who lost 15 kg after having a baby.  It's a very popular blog here in Sweden, so, if you are Swedish, or if you take the time to run it through a translator....enjoy!
 
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Paprika & cheese 2 egg omlette with turkey bacon.
So I weighed myself this morning and it came to...69.5 kg.  I'm actually very happy with that because it means that I still haven't gained much back with respect to what I lost from last week's VLCD.  I'm hoping by the end of the week I'll be under 69 kg.  Here's to that!  My current mini goal is 67 kg.  I believe that takes me from the obese category to overweight.  My overall goal is 55 kg, which if I recall correctly, will take me to the middle of normal weight.  It's a bit to go, but I'm really hoping that this works!

Last night I asked that my husband watch a video regarding low carbs and cholesterol.  It's the one I linked a few days ago.  I know he wasn't looking forward to watching it at first, but in the end I think he didn't mind it because he learned a few things from it.  I wanted him to watch it, not because I feel like he needed to go on the diet too, but I wanted him to understand, not just support my diet plans.  It's important that your support system is on board.  Trying to explain LCHF to sceptics isn't easy.  Luckily for me, my husband was already an advocate of a low carb diet.  The only thing he didn't understand was the cholesterol/fat debate.  I felt that was keeping him back from totally understanding why I needed to add more fat into my diet, and how it wasn't going to affect me detrimentally.  In any case, obesity is the real killer and by getting out of the obese range I greatly improve my life expectancy. 

So, this morning, we continue on.  For breakfast I made a two egg omlette with some gouda cheese and spanish paprika in it.  I then had two pieces of turkey bacon.  I cooked this all in ghee (clarified butter).  It's not in the picture, but I added a dollop of mayo for good measure afterwards, to ensure that I had enough fat.  My current concern is that I haven't been adding enough vegetables to my meals.  I have been so focused on adding all the fatty stuff which I had been avoiding that I haven't restocked my fridge with the veggies.  Later today I'm think gonna head to the store and buy some broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and rättika (I think it's called winter radish or black radish in English, in any case it's Daikon in Japanese). 

Been feeling a bit guilty that I haven't worked out the last few days.  I think I'm going to TRY Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (30DS) again.  I always hurt every time I start it up, and when I got to level two, I started getting knee pains, which at that point I was afraid that my knee would give in from the impact of jumping up and down.  I do know that if one persists with the 30DS, you get results, and results is what I'm after!


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Nomnomgal's Oven Chicken
Update:
Today for dinner it's a dish of my own creation, inspired by a recipe that I found in my new LCHF cookbook.  I've put the recipe for this chicken in my LCHF Recipe section. 




 
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So, bought a new cookbook today.  Very excited about the recipes that are in it.  I bought it because the types of meals in them weren't very far from what I was accustomed to making, so I thought it would be a good cookbook to make the transition seemless to LCHF.  I made the halloumi bread today.  Seemed to go quite well with the salmon that I prepared. 

Whilst I was in town I got a bit hungry, not overly though.  I think that's because I didn't eat enough fat during lunch time.  I was in a hurry to catch the bus so all I had was a 1 egg scramble with generous dollop of cottage cheese.  Whilst I did fry the egg i butter, I didn't add any additional fat to the meal, which may be why I was a bit snacky later in the day.  Good thing I brought some macadamia nuts with me.  Had a few of those and some mineral water and we were good to go.  Planning to make either pancakes or waffles this weekend using one of the recipes in the book.  By then I should have received the ingredients that I ordered over the net the other day.  I must say that I have never been as excited to do a diet as I am now. 

Among the other things I picked up today were turkey bacon (I don't eat pork) and ghee (clarified butter)