Tag Archives: cheese

Happy Cinco Low-Carb Enchilada De Mayo

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Today, I made myself a great protein snack.  Since it is Cinco de Mayo, I decided to go “Mexican”–but low-carb.  It was My low-carb enchilada.  It is easy to make and I have enough for 3-4 at a time, so I make a few and refrigerate.  This way I don’t have to cook nightly, but if you have the ingredients and you have done this more than once, it shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to do this.  You just need a stove and a flat pan.

Here is the link to the recipe.

https://skinny-rules.com/tag/enchilada/

Here was what I made today.  One for today, two for other days.  I used low-carb tortilla, non-fat sour cream, low-sodium turkey meat (diced), lite Mexican blend cheese.  A couple of minutes each side cooked–whallah!

enchilada

YUM!  Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Thanksgiving Post Mortem and YummybCauliflower Cheese Souffle/Casserole Instead of Mashed Potatoes or Stuffing

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I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  It was nice to stay home in my pajamas.  But, I was smart and I did an hour on the elliptial too!

Now, let’s get down to business.

My dinner was about 15g of carbs and my dessert, which will be one of my six proteins for the day, will be about two hours after dinner for another 16g of carbs.

Not bad.  Remember, I want to keep my carbs between 50 and 100g a day.

Some people can do about 200g of carbs or more on Thanksgiving without blinking an eye.  A piece of pie is over 50g of carbs, in of itself.  The potatoes, casseroles, bread, stuffing–will kill anyone’s diet or make someone need to go on one.

My Diet Soapbox:

My belief is that Halloween starts the cycle and following guilt of over eating of sweets, and this puts people in a tailspin of weight gain.  Then,  Thanksgiving really does them in and then they say, “screw it”,  and keep up the damage with a bad Christmas dinner, parties with a lot of bad food, alcohol and candy, cookies and cakes all month long at work.

This is why the diet industry is so big.  You have to learn how to do a holiday wisely and then be ok most of the year and not mess yourself up.  The cycle of putting on the weight and then losing it half the year, not only sucks, but is hard on  your body.

Ok, enough said, so this was my T Day dinner:

Salad (not shown), sliced turkey breast and a touch of gravy with a dish of twice-baked cauliflower cheese was quite enough food.  I was stuffed.  Looking forward though to my low-carb dessert later sugar free pumpkin cheesecake flavored frozen yogurt.

The recipe that I posted for the twice-baked cauliflower needs adjustment.  In my opinion, it was missing some things.  So, here is my adjustment.  (forget the bacon bits-yeck)

MISTAKE IN THE PICTURE:  I SHOULD HAVE USED SHREDDED CHEESE, ALL OVER THE TOP.  MORE CHEESY WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH TASTIER.  It was good, but I love cheese!

Here is the picture of the two that I put back in the oven and put enough cheese on top and boy, can’t wait to eat those.  Looks like cheese souffle!

Aylene’s Twice Baked Cauliflower Recipe

1 medium head of Cauliflower

Sour Cream, 1/4 to 1/2 a cup.  Depends on how milky you want it

Chopped Chives or onion, 1 tsp

1 cup of shredded cheese (you choose the cheese.  I think Cheddar is great)

If you love bacon, cook a couple of strips and break it up in it.  I am skipping bacon.

Butter, salted, 1 tbsp

Garlic powder,  1/2  tsp
Salt, 1 dash
Pepper, black, 1 dash

Directions

Cook cauliflower until tender (10-15 min.).
Preheat oven to 400F.
Chop fine with pastry blender, potato masher or knife.
Add all ingredients together in a medium bowl, fold until mixed.
Use cooking spray on 4 seven ounce ramekins or other small oven safe dishes and spoon mixture into dishes.
**IMPORTANT**  If you want this sucker to be totally delish, you have to put extra shredded cheese on the top of the mixture so that when it bakes, it is extra cheesy on the top.  If you don’t do this, it is kind of boring.
Place all small dishes on a cookie sheet for easier handling.
Bake for 15 minutes on middle rack and then broil for a few minutes until top is golden brown.
Makes 4 servings.
Number of Servings: 4
I hope that if you did any damage, you try not to continue the damage with leftovers.  Give them away.  Be good to yourself and learn to make adjustments to meals that are better for you and you can wake up in the morning and fit into your clothes.

I Want To Lose Weight, But I Can’t Seem to Do It With My Chips and Ice Cream!

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I was talking with someone the other day about losing weight.  They have a desire to do it, but they aren’t willing to learn new habits.  They are in a rut.  They need to re-learn how to eat a healthy lifestyle diet and not just eat foods for a “diet.”  These people want to “nosh” on things when they are home, and they are all comfort foods:  Chips, crackers, ice cream (low-fat).  Their health is not as important as that need to satiate their addiction to carbs, sugar, salt and fat

Wrong  Philosophy Makes You Stay Fat:

chips

If you are eating potatoes of any kind (chips included), and you aren’t putting in any exercise, then you will not lose weight.  You most likely will gain.

Some people think that if food is from Trader Joe’s, that it is good for them.  However, if items have flour in them and are processed, no matter where they are from…they are not good for your diet.

Some people think that low-fat is good way to diet.  I have news for you, NOPE!  Read about it online.  It is an advertising scam that we all fell for and that is why everyone got fat.  We eat low-fat, but they replace things in food to taste good that are high in carbs to make up for it (like Fructose Corn Syrup) and that is the stuff that is making us all fat and getting diabetes.

If you read anything that Dr. Mark Hyman writes about in his Blood Sugar Solution, he talks about how you need to eat food that is fresh and covers a wide variety of colors in the rainbow–eat, not juice and drink.

Let’s look at Empty Calorie Snacks:

1.  Lay’s Baked Potato Chips:  1 ounce bag or about 15 chips:  24g of carbs

2.  Ruffles Potato Chips: 1 ounce bag:  15g of carbs and believe it or not, the light, no fat is more at 17g carbs.

3.  Cheese Its Crackers:  29 crackers:  20g of carbs. (Reduced fat is the same)

4.  Trader Joe’s Mini Cheese Sandwiches:  13 crackers:  16g of carbs

5.  Trader Joe’s Multigrain Crackers:  14 crackers:  22g of carbs.

(AND THERE IS LITTLE TO NO PROTEIN in crackers, so you are eating empty calories.  If you ate something good that had protein, you would be less likely to be too hungry again later and scarf your next meal.  You would be better off making a turkey sandwich on whole wheat or a pita, for the same amount of carbs than to eat a bunch of white flour that does nothing but bloat you.  Eating mindlessly does nothing to help your diet or your health.  If you learn to have a nutritional snack between lunch and dinner and after dinner and stay away from snacking on bad foods, you will feel and look better.)

6.  Dreyer’s Reduced Fat Slow-Churned Vanilla Ice Cream (12g of sugar or about 4 sugar cubes):  for half a cup (have you seen how small half a cup is???):  15g of carbs.  If you eat it like most people, you are probably eating 1 1/2 cups at 45g of carbs.  The three main ingredients of this are all forms of sugar.

Fat doesn’t matter!  THE REGULAR DREYERS is 16g per half a cup.  You are NOT going to keep your weight down with the slow churned REDUCED fat ice cream.

Carbs-are-killing-you-top-Hoboken-NJ

Better Choices:

1.  There is Breyers Carb Smart Vanilla ice cream and that is a better choice if you have to have ice cream.  It is 4g of carbs per half cup.  That is a huge difference.  Less carbs means less sugar–less fat on the body.

2.  A low-carb tortilla or sandwich bread protein sandwich.

3.  A protein salad.

4.  Western Bagel Perfect 10 Bagel at 10g of carbs per bagel.  You could even melt some cheese on it!  Make your sandwiches with it! (sold at Western Bagel or Westernbagel.com)

5.  A low-carb protein bar or shake.

6.  Two low-fat string cheese or slices

7.  Low-carb Greek Yogurt and some fruit

8.  Measured out nuts (look at the label on how many nuts equals how many carbs).  Try to keep your snack under 15g of carbs, which is a lot, considering that if you want to lose weight, you must have between 50 and 100g of carbs per day.  But, if you have most of them in this one snack, it messes up your whole day.

Eat a good protein lunch with salad and veggies so you aren’t starving before dinner and a protein snack will be enough for you until dinner time.

Try this:

(LC) A low-carbohydrate diet minimizes sugars and starches, replacing them with foods rich in protein and healthy fats.

(RF) “Real food” means choosing foods that humans had access to throughout evolution. Processed, unnatural foods with artificial chemicals are avoided.

LCRF is not a “diet.” It is a way of eating, a lifestyle change based on bulletproof scientific evidence.

For more information:

http://authoritynutrition.com/how-to-eat-healthy/

 

 

 

Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal of the Day For Concentration and Skinniness

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Eating a balanced breakfast sets you up to succeed in your healthy eating and your focus for the entire day. Studies support that you need to start your day off with a healthy breakfast because there are many benefits to eating it.

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The benefits of breakfast include:

IMPROVED MOOD:

Eating breakfast can lift your mood. People who don’t eat breakfast are more tired and irritable.

MORE ENERGY FOR THE DAY:

Before you eat in the morning, your body (like a car with little gas) is running on empty. You get energy from high-quality protein, carbohydrates, and fats.

BETTER CONCENTRATION:

Eating breakfast also improves your ability to problem solve. You will be more productive and better able to handle tasks that require memory. Going to work or sending your kids to school sets everyone up for a mismanaged workload and poorer performance than those who eat a healthy breakfast (pop tarts is not healthy!)

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT:

Studies show that if you eat breakfast, you’re more likely to be at a healthy weight than people who don’t eat breakfast.

VITAMINS AND MINERALS:

Having an egg or two, with some low fat cheese or turkey (I put vegetables and/or spinach in mine) and a piece of fruit will give you great protein, minerals and vitamins. If you are able to put in some flax, chi or other seeds into your eggs, then you are adding good carbs and fiber. For those who are able to fit in the carbs for the day count of 50 to 100, you can have a slice of whole grain bread or just a small measured portion of oatmeal (depending on the brand is oatmeal, a cup of oatmeal is about 30g of carbs), whole-grain cereal (not the high sugar Honey Nut Cheerios). Try a little almond butter instead of butter. 2 tablespoons of peanut or almond butter equals 6g of carbs. Another great breakfast option is Greek yogurt. Strawberries and blueberries are great in yogurt, cereal and oatmeal.

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Please pull out a measuring cup and become acquainted with how small a cup is vs. what you might thing a cup looks like in your mind.

Basics of a Quick and Balanced Breakfast

One of the most common excuses for not eating breakfast is being short on time to get to work or school. But breakfast doesn’t have to be fancy or time consuming. You can wake up just a little earlier to fit in a nutritious breakfast. The small investment in time in breakfast (and in you) pays off through the whole day.

If you really love cereal, then compromise and put a few for flavor and texture in your oatmeal or your yogurt.

Next time you’re racing against the clock, try these effortless and healthy breakfast ideas:

*You can make a quick smoothie with yogurt and fruit, with some ice cubes. Throw in some chi or flax seeds.
*Western Bagel and some low carb places sell low carb bagels. The Western Bagel Perfect 10 bagel is really good. Lots of fiber and protein and 10g net carbs. Get them at Westernbagel.com and refrigerate them.
*Have hard-boiled eggs available and ready to grab on the run. Places like some selected Costco and Trader Joes has them already hard-boiled and peeled, in bags, for those who really are super busy.
*Low carb shakes in a can (like Pure Protein) or low carb protein bars (like Power Crunch or Nature Valley Protein Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate).
*Low carb Greek yogurt in a small ready-to-go containers (like Dannon Greek Light and Fit)
**Come on, scrambled eggs don’t take that long.

PREPARE Your Daily Protein: For Weight Loss and Reduce Cravings

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During the day at home or at the office, you might find yourself getting hungry.  You are supposed to eat breakfast, (about 3-4 hours apart from your meals)lunch and dinner, but you are supposed to have three healthy snacks in-between and after dinner (about 3-4 hours apart from your meals).  SIX PROTEIN MEALS IN ALL PER DAY!

Healthy protein snacks/meals can help normalize your blood-sugar levels at crucial points in the day. If you reduce  swings in blood sugar, it helps to curb cravings and keep you on a successful weight-loss track.

I try to keep between 50-100g of carbs a day to lose/maintain weight.  Most meats and cheeses have barely one carb in them.  Nuts, Greek Yogurt and protein bars too have carbs.  Look at labels….

 

10 Suggestions for protein snacks

 

  1. Raw veggies, such as celery, green or red bell pepper strips, cauliflower, and broccoli florets. Use hummus or 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter for dipping (2 tablespoons).
  2. Lean, reduced-sodium deli meats (turkey or chicken breast, roast beef, boiled ham), about 4 ounces.
  3. Part-skim mozzarella cheese sticks (no more than 2 sticks or low-fat mini Baby Bells).
  4. Nuts (15 almonds, 20 peanuts, or 30 pistachios, or about 1/4 cup of any nut, is a serving), but be sure to stick to one serving and count it toward your daily protein. OR Sunflower seeds (3-tablespoon serving; count these toward your daily protein.
  5. Low-Carb Protein bars or drinks.  Look at the labels.  Try not to go higher than 20g of carbs.
  6. Cottage cheese (1%, 2%, or fat-free varieties) with salsa, or one of your two small servings of your fruit for the day,or chopped cucumber added
  7. Dry-roasted or boiled, ready-to-eat edamame (green soybeans) or a hard-boiled egg
  8. Greek yogurt (plain, nonfat) (again you can add one of your two small servings of fruit
  9. Low-sodium tomato juice or vegetable-juice blend, single-serving can for the day)
  10. Water-packed light tuna or salmon (individual cans or pouches)

Do not eat on the run.  Go shopping on the weekend if you are too busy and buy stuff for the week and put what you need for each day aside the night before and have it ready to go for the morning.  You can have stuff to eat in the car if you have to do it that way, but PREPARE and don’t buy crap at drive-thru places, where you are likely to succumb to cravings or smells.  Learn to do this daily and it will become habit, a way of life and you are more likely to get and stay skinny!

man_eating_in_car

Make a Tasty, Yet Healthy Salad, Not a Fattening Salad

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I had to re-examine why I was stuck on weight loss, and it was because I slowly started to increase some things into salads, which were not conducive to weight loss.

Yes, you are supposed to have proteins six times a day, but if you eat half of a cup of regular cheese and not lite, then you are adding more fat into your diet.  Technically, there are no carbs, but you still have to watch portion size.  You are better off with lite cheese, but if you do regular cheese, you have to use less and less often.  I know that was a problem for me and I will be watching this from now on.

saladgood

So, here is a list of items that are basically No-Nos for a salad while trying to get or stay skinny.

1.  Regular fat cheese (already covered that).

2.  Candied nuts.  You already have to watch the amount of nuts you eat in a day because they have carbs, but the added sugar in candied nuts is over the top.

3.  Croutons.  Very high in carbs and they have no nutritional value.  They are made from stripped white bread.  If you must have bread, have a wheat roll or slice (I don’t recommend eating bread while trying to lose weight, but you can eat a   wheat roll or slice once or twice a week instead of having fruit.

4.  Won ton noodles or tortilla strips or chips.  Same as croutons.  Basically, one tortilla chip has about 1g of carb per chip.  Are you willing to sacrifice for that?  Have a serving of carrot in your salad instead.

5.  Sun-dried tomatoes.  Too much sodium.  Get fresh tomatoes.

6.  Watch the salad dressing.  Some are filled with carbs.  Get a good balsamic vinaigrette or lite ranch.

Don’t forget that you can add a protein into your salad like egg, chicken, turkey, etc. and make it tasty.