Faux mac n cheese

So, recently i've found out that the supposed low carb pasta called "dreamfields" isn't really low carb (this will explain it for ya: http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/05/19/low-carb-pasta-in-your-dreams/ ) and I might as well be eating regular pasta.  This evening, I really wanted some mac n cheese, since pasta is outta the question, i decided to use my awesome cheese sauce recepie with some mashed cauliflower.  Here's what I did:
1- boiled a bag of frozen cauliflower (i cook it longer than needed to make it extra tender)
2- drain
3- mash it up with a masher, don't food process it
4 - mix in my cheese sauce (here's the link: http://wwamot.blogspot.com/2011/04/vanessas-thick-cheesy-sauce.html  )
5 - enjoy, i like mine with salt and pepper!

It's super easy and healthy.  If you can't get your kids to eat veggies (heck, if you are GROWN and don't like veggies), this is a great way to trick them. Here's a picture for ya.  I know it looks weird, maybe like eggs, but it's really very good and I can't wait to eat the leftovers!

Two amazing articles

Tom Naughton - the maker of the movie that changed my life "Fat Head", has posted 2 awesome blogs in the past few days.  Check out the links:

this first article is about how Drs., among others, are catching on that fat is not the culprit of all of America's illnesses, in fact, it's the foods they've been telling us to eat for all of these years.
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/05/16/what-everyone-knows-may-be-changing/
**I know reading this for some people still may not convince them to turn to a low carb diet, i know how shocked I was when I learned low carb was the healthy way to go.  To me, low fat and lotsa whole grains = healthy.  I would kinda consider myself the queen of losing weight.  I lost 100lbs in high school by following a mainsteam 'healty' diet. (and i'm back to losing weight, just not as much, due to my back2back pregnancies).  Man, i wish I knew then what I know now about what 'healthy' is!**

and this link is about how a woman found freedom from arthritis just from cutting out grains, breads, sugary sodas, etc.
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2011/05/14/weekend-bonus-grains-and-arthritis/
**this is amazing to me.  Maybe not all arthritis would be eliminated going low carb, BUT, i'm sure many people would find freedom from meds going this route (in turn saving money on pills?) or maybe their pain wouldn't be as severe.  Who would have thought that way of eating could make you arthritic?!**

If you haven't already, check these out:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/196879/fat-head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1RXvBveht0&feature=player_embedded
yes - these video links are are both by Tom Naughton.  This guy has soo much free time on his hands to do research and find out info for us! 

coconut milk that is TASTY and low carb

Today I went to Whole Foods and found coconut milk on the shelf sweetened with stevia and vanilla.  Only 1 net carb for a whole cup!  I'm shocked and amazed.  It was on sale for $2, so i decided to try it out.  Once it's iced, it's pretty darn tasty.  It's great for making shakes and replacing milk in recepies.  Here's a pic:

A smaller me forever...in progress

This morning the scale said I weigh 195.2!  When I started atkins on March 13th, I was 212.  So, that means I've lost 17 pounds in 8 1/2 weeks : )  I'm pretty happy with these results.  I could have done even better, but when my parents were visiting the week prior to easter sunday, I cheated once during the week and once on easter sunday, causing a couple pounds of weight gain.  Looking back, those cheats weren't worth it.  Now when i think about cheating on my diet, I think to myself "does it taste as good as being thin feels?".  The answer is always "no".  I can't wait to lose 15-20 more pounds.  I want to be healthy and in shape for my husband and sons, as well as for the air force.


For those of ya'll interested in starting atkins and need help, leave a comment!
Here's some pics of where I'm at and I'm able to wear a pair of jeans now that I haven't worn since early 2009 (when i first got pregnant)!  I didn't lose enough weight inbetween my pregnancies to get my favorite jeans to fit, but now they do and i'm oh soo happy!

Mothers day weight loss!

ok, I stepped on the scale this morning and got a great mothers day gift. After a 2 week stall, i'm down 2 pounds! And, I can offically say I'm UNDER 200 LBS NOW! Yes, i'm 199.1!  It feels good to finally see this number.  Good luck ya'll!

Make your own lard

Butter is great, but it can get pricey.  Also, when you cook doesn't have a very high smoke point.  So, what is one of the best cooking oils/fats?  LARD.  It's not just something you can just buy in the store any more.  Yes, Morrell makes a lard, but I wouldn't buy it, it's shelf stable and doesn't list the ingredients.  Lard is supposed to be refridgerated anyways. 
Here are the steps to make your own lard:
1.  Go to your local grocery store and ask for pork fat trimmings.  See if they can grind the fat, just like ground beef.  I was able to buy 5 1/2 pounds for $1.59 at the military grocery store (comissary).
2.  If they wouldn't grind the fat, just cut it up in chunks and run small amounts through your food processer (that's what I did).
3.  Cook the pork fat on the lowest heat setting on your stove in a stock pot.
4.  It's best to use cheese cloth, but I didn't have any, so I used a wire mesh strainer to seperate the liquid from the unmeltable fat, which works pretty well. 
5.  Pour it in a canning jar and store it in your fridge.
 Liquid gold! -*check out the pictures below!*-

The Vangriddle - low carb pancake sandwhich

I LOVE McDonalds McGriddles, to me, McGriddles and Mac Sauce are the best things about that place (not mixed together, of course!). BUT, my beloved mcgriddles are too high in carbs! This morning for breakfast, I decided to make some imposter mcgriddles aka 'Vangriddles' (the Van- comming from the first 3 letters of my name, duh!, haha), using a new pancake recepie I found through the atkins facebook page.  Here's the link to the pancake recepie:

https://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=51386773550&topic=16849 .
what you need to make 2 pancake sandwhiches:
- 4 small pancakes (the recepie makes just enough)
-2 egg rounds - To make my egg round, I have the metal circular egg cookers that you can cook your egg in, usually used with sunny side up/over easy to make them look pretty.  I poured the scrambled egg right into the ring sitting on the pan and it made nice round eggs. 
-2 round sasuage patties (jones mild natural)
-1 slice of  Tillamook medium cheddar cheese (1/2 slice for each sandwhich, i like using the tillamook because it's not processed, but it's conviently sliced for a sandwhich
-optional - sugar free maple syrup (to dip the sandwhich in)
voila!!  heres some pics:

the complete sandwhich!

 <---how it looks before putting the top on

some egg on the rings from using them this morning

Some great words from Melissa Monroe on the Atkins page."before I log off today I thought I'd share with you all what keeps me motivated & why in my prayers at night before I fall asleep, I thank God for putting Dr. Atkins in our lives...."I think about those mothers that can't get on the rides at Disneyland with their children be...cause they don't fit in the seat of a ride....I think about that man I saw on a plane that had to buy two seats because that was the airlines policy for overweight people....and I think about that woman that when she died had to be lifted out of her home by a forklift through a boken wall....when I think about these people and even cancer patients that don't have the ability to walk because they are soo weak, well I must admit my feet walk just alittle faster that day on the treadmill....Bless you all, and have a wonderful low-carb evening"

 

what's keeping you from going atkins and being healthy?  This is a great plan.  Is it coincidence that an atkins-like diet is what they put patients on who have diabetes?  Why not make the smart choices now to prevent suffering during your golden years?   

CLEAN atkins day/No foofoo friday!

I don't know about you, but for me, sweeteners are part of an everyday diet for me.  Today I'm making the commitment to have NO SWEETENERS, for ONE WHOLE DAY!.   It's already killing me.  I tend to have a piece of SF candy after every meal, i just crave the chocolate.  After my bacon and eggs this morning, my mind was thinking "chocolate time!", but i had to resist the urge.  Not to mention, i usually have starbucks sugar free syrup in my coffee, and soda and/or energy drink that is sugar free.  That's just too much daily sweeteners, and some of them are toxic after a long peroid of time.  It's hard, but I know I can do it....and I just tell myself a smaller body is in process!!
sooo, no SF candies, atkins bars/shakes, no sweetener in my coffee, and the list goes on, just clean foods today.  I'm hoping that after one day of doing this, i can do it AGAIN and that sweetened things will be a treat and not part of a daily diet.

If you are one of my non-low carb dieting friends, let this be a challenge to you as well, no sugar for a day!  Make sure you read the nutrition on packaging to steer clear!


**I've had someone say to me since i've posted this post "regarding the blog: Atkins is a high fat, moderate protein, and low carb way of eating. I don't exceed my 3 non-caloric sweeteners a day (and count them as one carb and one sweetener) because that is what the "new book" says".  Well thank you, because for some reason, i didn't feel a need to count a sweetener as a carb if it said 0 carb, but I think that if i counted the serving of sweetener as a carb, that would help me out a ton!
It's just hard to stay w/in the 3 allowed a day because most energy drink are 2 servings!  I need to start bringing a coffee cup and green tea bags to work with me!**


I MUST NOT BE THE ONLY ONE ON ATKINS WITH THIS ISSUE THOUGH, it's good to have some light shed on it though :)

HERE ARE THE RESULTS!
What I ate today:
-BREAKFAST: 2 eggs and bacon with hot green tea
-SNACK #1:     1 serving of macadamia nuts
-LUNCH:          Mcdonalds double cheeseburger, no condiments, pickles or onions, with lettuce and tomato
-SNACK #2:    salt and vinegar pork rinds
-DINNER:        steak w/ sauted onions and cubed radishes in butter with a salad (romaine, cheddar cheese, cucumber, 1 carb creamy ceasar)

It was kinda challenging the first half of the day, but this evening feels easier!  I'm happy I was able to do this.  I need to keep this up and keep better track of my sweetener count in the future.  It feels good to take control of my eating instead of my eating taking control of me. 

***the different colors in today's blog means I wrote those portions at different times of the day***.

wonderous xylitol!

I've been doing some research about sweeteners.  I've came to the conclusion that Xylitol is THE BEST sweetener to use.  Not only is it beneficial to your teeth, but it's NATURAL and it measures pretty much the same as sugar.  I also love Stevia, which is commonly sold by the brand "Truvia" in the supermarket.  Another NATURAL sweetener.  It is hard to stay away from artifical sweeteners on the Atkins diet IF you are consuming the delicious bars and shakes (contains sucralose, related to the sweetener "splenda", both artifical).  Even though it's hard to stay away from these, if you can control what you sweeten with at home, then that is great! 
A simple step to weed out artifical ingredients:
1. READ THE INGREDIENTS!
know what you are eating.  If it was a perfect world, everything I consumed would be natural, but in today's world, we are soo busy, atkins bars and shakes really help me out when I'm on the go and allows me to stay low carb at the same time. 
Since I mentioned Stevia, a GREAT soda that is sweetened with it is called Zevia (http://www.zevia.com/).  you should really check it out, it may cost a little more than mainstream soda, but it's worth it.  Below is a picture of xylitol I bought from "Vitaman Shop" and next to it is the fudge I made with my own recepie.  My intentions were to make a chocolate bar, but that's not what happened.  It turned out tasty and rich though, the recepie is below....

Vanessa's Xylitol Sweetened rich fudge
1 stick of butter
3 1/2 T of unsweetened cocoa
4 1/2 T of xylitol
6 T Heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt the butter first in a saucepan and then whisk in the rest of the ingredients.  Pour into a parchement lined loaf pan and let cool until it stiffens.  Enjoy!
*I think this recepie could be tweaked, but this is what I got on a first try and I'm pleased with the results*

Thoughts to ponder

Just realize this diet is forever.  What tastes good enough that is worth the weight gain?  There are low carb variations of almost everything, sometimes even multiple variations.  This way of eating is easy once you find replacements for your favorites.  I cheated twice in a week (one cheat led to another) and it made me gain 4 pounds.  The time I spent losing that gained weight, I lost time on my weight loss.  Think how good you will feel with that weight gone! It will allow you to do more activities, wear more fashionable styles, gain confidence, lower your risk for cancers/dieses/illnesses/etc - in turn, increasing your lifespan, which will also allow you to spend more time with friends and family. It's not always initially easy starting something new, knowing you have to be committed, but give the Atkins diet a chance and some time, it will be worthwhile.

Russell Stover's Sugar Free Candies

I must say - I'm in love with these candies, they taste great!  You an consume normally about 3 pieces or so of the candies for only 1 carb.  While I wish they made the candies with stevia, they are sweetened with splenda.  If you have a sweet tooth, these are perfect, instead of pigging out on full carb candies.  I swear, between my salt and vinegar pork rinds and these candies, i can't believe i'm able to lose weight, tastes too good to be true!
http://www.russellstover.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=124&path=1%2C2%2C4%2C24%2C124

there's the link to check them out for yourself!