My favorite new gadget

I bought this scale about 20 years ago, when I went on Weight Watchers for the first time, back when they used exchanges instead of points. I've used it off and on during all those years when I have dieted. It works pretty well. But now that I have diabetes my food weights need to be much more accurate so I bought a new scale.

Bought this handy dandy digital scale that not only weighs ounces it weighs grams as well. Pretty thrilled with this one right now, but I still have to either look up or know how many carbs are in the food I just weighed. Therefore, my next scale (when money allows) will be the kind that you enter in the type of food you are weighing and it calculates based on the food and weight how many carbs are in it. That will make life alot easier, and I'm all for an easier life right now.

Diabetic S'more

LOVE THIS SNACK. One thing that I get to do, now that I have diabetes, is eat a bedtime snack. I should have around 30 grams of carbs with a little protein (milk is carb and protein at the same time) before I go to bed to keep me from having a low blood sugar while I sleep. I have dieted most of my teen and adult life, eating right before bed was always a no, no.

I got a portion of this recipe here. I put 2 tablespoons of cool whip between a graham cracker broken in half, wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer and let it freeze. I thought it was yummy just as it was. I told my daughters it tasted like a s'more without the chocolate. My oldest told me to try shmearing a little Nutella on it. So I looked at the number of carbs in the Nutella, I could put a 1/4 tablespoon on it. so the next time I made them I did. It is sooooo good, it has a total of 17 carbs, the original version with one marshmallow and 1/2 hershey bar has 31 carbs. There is 30 total carbs (including the milk) in this bedtime snack.

My Daily Diet

Breakfast: Day off, just my morning diet pepsi.

Lunch: Reward Meal, while out running errands with Amanda we had LaBou, yumm. Half roast beef sandwich, bbq chips and I ate 1/2 of the chocolate chip cookie. Will eat the other half tomorrow.

Dinner: Chicken salad, made with romaine lettuce, grated cheddar cheese, popcorn chicken and ranch dressing. As I mentioned in a previous post, I don't stress about the breading on the chicken.

My Daily Diet

Breakfast: This was supposed to be a soft boiled egg, but when I put it in the pan it cracked, so some came out and was poached and the egg turned out to be a deformed lightly hard cooked egg with 2 sausage links.

Lunch: Taco Salad, these ingredients were left over from last nights tacos, so I threw them together at work.

Dinner: Reward meal, Shrimp Melt sandwich, leftover Julienne potatoes, and chips. I was going to post the recipe, thought I had pictures of the process, but not completely so I will post the next time I make it. It is basically raw shrimp cut into pieces, cooked in a frying pan with my favorite salsa. Sliced avocado on the bottom bread, shrimp mixture, jack cheese then put under the broiler till the cheese melts. I have made this without the bread as well, so it makes a good low carb meal.

Dessert: with Reward Meal, the last Snicker Doodle muffin.

My Daily Diet

Well, I knew it was bound to happen, I forgot to take a picture of my breakfast. Though for breakfast I had my version of a Breakfast Jack. A slice of ham, 1/2 slice American cheese and a fried egg, no bun.

Lunch: Breadless Philly Beef and Cheese. In this container is sauteed mushrooms, green pepper and onions, deli roastbeef and provolone cheese. At work I warmed it in the microwave till the cheese melted.

Snack: The other half of this bag of peanuts.

Dinner: Reward Meal, 2 tacos, spanish rice and black beans. I was stuffed after eating this. I think next time only one taco.

Dessert: with Reward Meal, ice cream cone.

In a future post I'm going to tell you about the most crazy diet I've ever been on. Stay tuned.

My Daily Diet

Well today I was a little "under the weather", where did that saying come from? Anyway, I got up, fixed Hannah breakfast, once she was off to school I went back to bed. So all I had this morning was my "morning cup of coffee".

Breakfast: Diet Pepsi, my "morning cup of coffee". I don't drink coffee.

Lunch: Taco Salad from Taco Bell. I asked for it with no rice and beans, and told the guy I was eating low carb he asked me if I wanted it without the shell, so that's what this is.

Snack: Half of this bag of peanuts. The whole bag had too many carbs.

Dinner: Homemade Pizza. The crust I buy from Winco already made fresh in a bag, put some squeeze on Pizza sauce mozzarella cheese, then top with our favorite stuff.

Dessert: Snicker Doodle Muffin

I stayed in bed till it was almost time to go get Hannah from school, so I was really hungry, and decided to stop by Taco Bell. Then when I took her to dance the salad hadn't been quite enough to get me through to dinner so I needed the snack. I don't like being on a low carb diet when I'm sick, because all I want to eat is Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and Saltine crackers.

My Daily Diet

Breakfast: Half an omelet with ham, cheese, onions and spinach, 2 pieces bacon, Michael made breakfast this morning.

Lunch: Tuna salad. Not crazy amazing.

Amanda, Hannah and I had to go to a Girl Scout training today. Before we went I was helping Michael with some stuff on the computer, and before I knew it, it was almost time to go and I hadn't eaten lunch yet. Mixed this up real quick. I sooooo wanted to put it on bread, and have bbq chips with it. When I was a kid, I would have in my lunch box everyday, tuna sandwich, bbq chips and Ho Ho's. So now I just can't eat a tuna sandwich without the chips. I don't have to have the Ho Ho's but there nice.

Dinner: Corn dog, Chili Cheese Fries, Pepsi.

After the training the girls were hungry, and we had some errands to run so we had dinner out. I didn't feel like ice cream tonight, and that's pretty much all they have, so I didn't have a dessert.

My Daily Diet

Breakfast: Fried egg and sausage links.

Went to the mall to get Hannah some shoes so lunch was from the Food Court.

Lunch: McDonald's Bacon Ranch Crispy Chicken Sandwich, as you can see I put the bun aside and ate it with a fork and knife. The chicken has a little breading but I'm ok with that. I forgot to take my camera with me, Hannah's phone died, so this picture was taken with my ancient phone.

Dinner: "Reward Meal", Broiled Steak, Betty Croker Julienne Potatoes and sauteed zucchini, onions and diced tomatoes. When I go shopping I buy NY strip steaks, I bring home the steaks and cut them in half, part economical, part reducing the amount of red meat we eat.

Dessert: with "reward meal" Snicker Doodle Muffin, recipe can be found here

Ok, so far I think I've made this "diet" seem really great. I mean, on how many diets can you have a regular dessert, or low carb diets where you can have potatoes. Not many.

Here are some draw backs to this diet, 1. I prefer eggs with a runny yolk. Omelets are ok, so are scrambled eggs and hard boiled eggs, but I love a runny yolk egg. The problem is I desperately, yes, I said desperately, want a piece of toast or biscuit to sop up that yolk, but unless I want breakfast to be my reward meal I can't have it. I don't usually make that meal breakfast, because it doesn't give me anything to look forward to. 2. Another draw back are tasty little morsel such as the ones pictured below.

I've decided to call these Pizza Poppers, recipe here these are crescent roll dough filled with pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese.

I made these today for Hannah, they are soooo good fresh out of the oven, they are flaky and the cheese melts, mmmmm. Could I have any, NO. I had to save one and have it with my "reward meal" they just aren't the same warmed over. So there is good with bad on this diet.

Friday's Meals

Hannah was on the computer all evening working on a project so I didn't get my meals posted last night. Better late than never.

Breakfast: 2 slices of Canadian Bacon, Canadian bacon has less fat than regular bacon, half slice of American Cheese, and a fried egg. This is my muffinless Egg Mcmuffin.

Lunch: Chicken, apple, gouda cheese sausage, there's just a small amount of apple. Sauerkraut, and some sauted mushrooms leftover from a mushroom burger I made for Hannah, one night. Food doesn't look as appetizing in a plastic container, but what are you gonna do when you have to take it to work.

When I got home from work Hannah and I both wanted a snack. She wanted the leftover meatballs from the meatball sandwiches so I ate one of those.

Dinner: "Reward Meal" Hannah wanted Chinese Chicken Salad, and I didn't, so I went for the freezer and pulled out some stuff. On this plate is a Chimichanga topped with cheddar cheese, lettuce, onions, tomatoes and salsa. Chicken taquitos and some quacamole for dipping. I also had some leftover spanish rice I had in the freezer, but I forgot about it till I started eating so it didn't make it in this picture.

Dessert: with my reward meal, Ice cream again. Love the stuff. But I think I may bake something today. Hannah decided she wanted the other half of my Green Velvet cupcake. I almost said to myself, "to be young, and to be able to eat what ever you want", but I was a "chubby kid" as well, and have been on some sort of diet since I was in high school.

My Daily Diet

Breakfast: Diet Pepsi, I know not a great breakfast. I had today off from work, and when I take a day off I like my mornings to be real lazy. I fix breakfast for my daughter before she goes to school, and when I'm off I like to just relax, get on the computer, read, anything but cook another breakfast. However, I do know it's not good to skip breakfast when dieting. I once heard a fitness expert say "eating breakfast jump starts you metabolism", so if you don't eat breakfast your metabolism is sluggish, and gets a slower start, which is the last thing you need while dieting.

Lunch: My "reward meal" Togo's, half pastrami sandwich, with half BBQ Chicken Ranch Salad, chips and a "real" Pepsi. That was the biggest half sandwich I'd ever seen. I had some errands to run so I felt like having lunch out today. If I had wanted to save my reward meal for dinner I would have had a whole salad, asked for the bbq sauce on the side, so I could control the amount that I ate, and taken off some of the tortilla strips, but probably not all of them.

This was my dessert with my reward meal. In celebration of St. Patrick's Day I had a Green Velvet cupcake purchased from this cute little cupcake shop in the town I live in. That's Icing on the Cupcake in Rocklin CA, If you live in the area you must stop by and get their cupcakes, they are tasty. The cream cheese frosting is so rich I only ate half of the cupcake, I'll probably have the rest tomorrow.

Dinner: Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach, I got the recipe for this dish from the Food Network website The recipe calls to put this over cous cous, I tried it that way once, Hannah didn't like the cous cous, and I'm not going to make it just for me, so without it this becomes a low carb meal for me.

Another little diet trick, I use the smaller salad plates when I eat most of the time. It tricks the eye into thinking I have more food than I actually do. It looks full.

My Daily Diet

Breakfast: Soft boiled egg, and sausage patties.

These are the ingredients for my lunch. Many, many years ago Carl's Jr made a sandwich with thin sliced roast beef, swiss cheese and ortega chiles. This is my version, minus the bun.

Lunch: I put all the ingredients in a container for work, when I was ready for lunch I microwaved it just enough to warm the meat and melt the cheese. If this isn't enough food you could steam some vegies along with this, have a salad or some cut up vegies with ranch dip.

Dinner: This was my "reward meal", Meatball Sandwich and fried potatoes the recipe for this meatball sandwich can be found on my Recipe Blog.

I also had this dessert along with my "reward meal".

I know, anyone who has followed Atkins is thinking how does this work, I don't know it just does, for me at least.

Here is the disclaimer on the "reward meal". According to the book that I read "the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet", your body starts processing carbs into sugar approximately one hour after you start eating carbs. Therefore, you must stop eating carbs within an hour. When I explain this to some people they tell me "I could eat alot of carbs in one hour", it's not eat carbs for an hour straight. Once you start your "reward meal" eating carbs you must be done within an hour including eating your dessert. If you start your meal (dinner for example) at 6:00 pm, and you finish say around 6:30, if you are going to have dessert, or alcohol you must consume it before 7:00. You can't wait around till 7:30 or 8:00 and then go back and have that dessert. If you are the type of person that nibbles while they are cooking, as soon as you start nibbling on those carbs, that's the beginning of your hour, so I don't recommend it. Hope that makes since. All I know is it works form me, it is slow weight loss, on an average 1 pound per week, but I'm happy with that, as long as I'm not gaining.

My Low Carb Diet

I have been on a version of a "Low Carb Diet" since January. I got this diet from a book called, "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet". In a nutshell, you eat 2 meals per day that are low carb, 4 carbs or less. The third meal is called a "Reward Meal", you can eat anything you want during this meal, including dessert. If you snack throughout the day they as well need to be 4 carbs or less. There is too much detail for me to go into, so if anyone is interested in this diet I recommend reading the book.

Today on Facebook, my neice and a friend told me they were going "low carb", and wanted to know what I ate, I'm guessing since I've been on the diet for 2 months now. So I decided I would try every evening to post what I ate for the day, that way they might see something they never thought of, and try it. The key to this way of living is variety, and food that is tasty, if I ate just meat and salads all the time, I think I would go nuts.

The only thing I have for today is my dinner, as it was almost dinner time when I read the comments I had. This is a stir fry. It is actually a recipe that I got for Egg Roll filling. One time I made egg rolls, and this is what was inside of it, I had some leftover and thought it would be good for lunch the next day.

In this bowl are a couple handfuls of a bagged cole slaw mix, yes there are some carrots, but I don't think there is really enough to do much damage, 2 chopped green onions, a few shakes of ground ginger and a spoonful of crushed garlic (you could used diced if that's what you have).

This is a leftover chicken breast, I actually split it in half length wise before I cooked it last night because it was going to be in a sandwich. If you don't have leftover chicken, you could cook a fresh chicken breast and it will already be warm.

I diced up the chicken.

I mixed it all together and sauted it in a little olive oil, till the cabbage was just a little cooked and the chicken was warm.

I added a splash of soy sauce, and mixed it up a little.

I only ate half of it, I will take the other half to work for lunch on another day, when I first started the diet, I would have eaten all of it, or had some vegies with it.