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This was a GREAT supper! What you see here is creamed spinach, cheesy caulimash, half of a NY strip steak, and sauteed onion!

For the spinach, it's simply chopped frozen spinach, cooked, with butter, sea salt, and then onion chip dip mixed in. (I am using chip dip instead of sour cream a LOT lately - so much more flavor! And Kent Altena recently recorded a video about how make your own!)

The caulimash is kind of pink because I added ham which I chopped in the food processor and it turned it all pink. But who cares, it was SO GOOD! I also added butter and LOTS of shredded Monterey Jack cheese...I have some left over which I'm looking forward to digging into for a snack later! (As you can see I added a big hunk of butter on my plate, as well as to the spinach. Everything is better with butter!)

The onions I just put in the electric fryer, sliced, with some olive oil over medium low, covered them, and let them cook until soft, stirring occasionally. When they were soft and starting to brown I moved them to the side and cooked the steak in there; by then the onions were started to get really dark (like we like them!). I of course took the fatty half of the steak!

This was a dinner that wasn't as cheap as most but I wanted to make something special, and this was definitely it!

 
I have been eating more than usually low carb/high fat lately. For almost 3 weeks actually, with only 2 carbier* meals during that entire time. I'm down 13#. Golly - wasn't expecting THAT! Thought I'd take off 20# or so, but now I'm not so sure, as just with the 13# I'm dealing with increasing saggy flab and I hate that so much, it is the whole reason I choose not to lose any more weight than I already have.

But if I eat the way I feel the best, I automatically lose. Whether I want to or not. Since my Nissen Fundoplication 2 years ago, I tend to lose weight more easily. I lost 40# in the 7 months following that surgery and I was eating more carbs during that time as well; I've been gaining/losing by a few pounds ever since, depending on how in balance my macronutrients are. The lower the carbs/higher the fat, the more I lose - and the better I feel, of course...but I'd rather be at a higher weight than bumping my tummy skin with my knees when I walk!

Anyway, not sure how this will all turn out, maybe I'll keep the weight loss going (keeping the fat content this high is NOT EASY but it means my weight goes down easily) until I can't stand the flab anymore. Or maybe I'll change my mind again...all I know is that we are eating so well these last few weeks - like royalty! And it's all low carb/high fat, delicious, cheap, and easy!

* to me, a "carbier" meal means one that either has one carby food in it, or has more carbs than I would usually eat in a meal. Carbier doesn't mean going crazy and eating every carby food in sight. I usually do have 1 carbier meal every week.
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This was our breakfast/lunch today. And it was DELICIOUS! My 3YO grandson had his with ranch dressing; he eats EVERYTHING with ranch dressing! As you can see, it is very cheesy. But this is a teaser. I plan to do a post showing how it was done the next time I make it. So you'll have to wait until then...sorry!

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This was our supper tonight. Meatloaf, baby corn, and mashed "taters" with lots of cheese and butter.

The meat loaf was just ground beef with finely chopped onion, crushed porkies (pork rinds), an egg, some of my ketchup, and seasoned salt. 

The baby corn (just 10gN for the whole can!) always tastes just a tiny bit pickled to me. So tonight I rinsed it, added just a drop of EZSweetz to about 1/4c of melted butter with some salt, and simmered it in that. It helped.

The "taters" are from a box. Once or twice a month we have them as a guilty treat. They're probably awful for us, but we're not paleo eaters, just low carbers, so we do indulge. There are 17gN per serving; doesn't matter - they're great! You could, of course, sub fauxtatoes with cauliflower, as I usually do.

Between these 2 meals I've been full all day. No snacks, no need for anything else except coffee, tea, and water.

Is it so awful that I love my own cooking so very much???

 
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This was our Christmas Dinner. The sandwich wasn't low carb. Well, it wasn't TOO bad, at about 30gN per big slice of bread. You can see how huge it was on this 9" plate - I ate half of a sandwich (or 1 slice). The bread was sourdough, and it was fried in loads of butter, with 5 kinds of cheese inside. And that's all I'll say about that!

Parenthetical note, without the parentheses: On special days, when I eat carbier, like Christmas, I still try to keep my total carbs under 100gN. Today I had probably half of that. Just a steak for supper later. YAY for me!

I've posted a tomato soup recipe before, and it will end up here eventually, as I'm still working - but not very hard - at moving all of my recipes here from my old blog. Anyway, I made it differently today, and I think it's even better!


Here is how I made today's version:

2 large cans crushed tomatoes (NOTE: if you are here from the NF group and want to eat this during early healing, substitute tomato sauce so there are no chunks or seeds!)
1 big can of tomato juice
24 oz container of full fat ricotta cheese
7 drops EZSweetz (or equivalent)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp dried basil flakes
2Tbsp balsamic vinegar
pint of half'n'half
grated asiago for garnish

Using a BIG pot (mine was bigger than a dutch oven and about 2/3 full), warm the first 2 ingredients until they steam, stirring to prevent scorching; this will make the cheese melt more easily.

Whisk in the ricotta cheese until fully melted.

Whisk in remaining ingredients EXCEPT half'n'half and asiago; keep whisking as you bring soup back up to a simmer.

When fully blended and starting to simmer (it will be pretty thick at this point) stir in the half'n'half and return to a simmer. Once it is simmering, lower heat to medium low, cover, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes.

Ladle into soup bowls; grate asiago cheese over the top.



 
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This is about as "cheap and easy" as it gets! We got a pork tenderloin @ $1.89/lb, sliced into 3/4" slices; there were 3-4 slices per pound. So these two lovely slices of meat were about a buck. Onions were around 70¢ for both. The can of mushrooms was 59¢. The beans were about 1/5 of a bag that cost under $3, so let's say 60¢. This is a great meal for 2 for well under $4! I did coat the onions and the meat with olive oil, as well as the bottom of the pan...and then sprinkled seasoned salt over the whole thing before I popped it into the oven. 350 for about 25 minutes. And then dinner! Low carb. Cheap. Easy. Pretty on the plate. And DELICIOUS!

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This is on my plate. I cut up the onion (it still held its shape - if you like your onions mushy, slice it in half horizontally before roasting) and slathered it with butter after I took this picture. I have to say, this is a favorite meal of mine. If the onion is too carby for you, certainly eat just half of one, or substitute the root vegetable of your choice; just be aware that many root vegetables will take longer to cook, and may need a head start.

 
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Tonight's supper was hash, low carb style. Browned some ground pork sausage ($1.27 for about 1.25#), added 1/2 of an onion (was 49¢ for the whole thing), coarsely chopped, 2 yellow squash (99¢ ea), diced, and a box of mushrooms that were on the "last day" rack for a buck, sliced.

A nice, CnE, "pile it on your plate and pour some ketchup on top" kind of meal. I used 2Tbsp. out of the $2.29, 14 oz. bottle of lowcarb ketchup, 16¢. Pete used some out of the big huge Gordon Foods bottle, so his was less. Anyway, still under $5 for all we could eat (there are leftovers), for both of us.