Behind starburst eyes

If You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again!

For my weekly weigh in and measurements this week, I’d lost a total of 9.6lbs since I started 3 weeks ago, and 1.5inches off my waist!

Then I had a rough day, I’ve gone back to university, so I have papers due because it’s nearing the end of the term, I was struggling to write one of them. Add in being scared about going for a CT Scan for the lump on my sternum and I made the bad decision to eat my feelings.

For the last 2 days I have enhaled carb filled, processed crap. I’ve also gained back 2lb cause when I go overboard, I’m damn good at it! So, I’m back up 2lb but I say it was a bad choice not a terrible one because I’m learning. I’m learning how deeply I really connect food with comfort. I am reminded of how many times that special time with my mom who passed away almost 3 years ago included “special foods”. I’m learning how vital it is for me to have at least a couple of pre-made comfort style keto foods frozen for myself.

To that end, I’ve found a delicious keto friendly chicken pot pie recipe, that at 3g net carbs means I can have 2 servings if I feel the need to do so without sabatoging my hard work!

The delicious recipe below is the creation of Kasey Trenum who you can find cooking up all kinds of fantastic recipes on her blog: Kasey Trenum

Ingredients
For the Chicken Pot Pie Filling:
2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup mixed veggies could also substitute green beans or broccoli
1/4 small onion diced
1/4 tsp pink salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 garlic cloves minced
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp rosemary
pinch thyme
2 1/2 cups cooked chicken diced
1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
For the crust:
4 1/2 tablespoons of butter melted and cooled
1/3 cup coconut flour
2 tablespoons full fat sour cream
4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup mild cheddar cheese, grated
1/3 cup Mozzarella Cheese, grated
1 1/2 tsp parsley (to sprinkle on top)

Instructions

  • Cook 1 to 1 1/2 lbs chicken in the slow cooker for 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low.
  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  • Sautee onion, mixed veggies, garlic cloves, salt, and pepper in 2 tablespoons butter in an oven safe skillet for approx 5 min or until onions are translucent.
  • Add heavy whipping cream, chicken broth, poultry seasoning, thyme, and rosemary.
  • Sprinkle Xanthan Gum on top and simmer for 5 minutes so that the sauce thickens. Make sure to simmer covered as the liquid will evaporate otherwise. You need a lot of liquid for this recipe, otherwise, it will be dry.
  • Add diced chicken.
  • Make the breading by combining melted butter (I cool mine by popping the bowl in the fridge for 5 min), eggs, salt, and sour cream in a bowl then whisk together.
  • Add coconut flour and baking powder to the mixture and stir until combined.
  • Stir in cheese.
  • Drop batter by dollops on top of the chicken pot pie. Do not spread it out, as the coconut flour will absorb too much of the liquid.
  • Bake in a 400-degree oven for 15-20 min.
  • Set oven to broil and move chicken pot pie to top shelf. Broil for 1-2 minutes until bread topping is nicely browned. Sprinkle dried parsley on top.

Nutrition

For 1/8 of the pie: Calories: 297kcal | Carbohydrates: 5.3g | Protein: 11.6g | Fat: 17g | Fiber: 2g

Leave a comment »

Chocolate Transforms Chickpeas!

So dear readers I’m sitting here eating my second cupcake, knowing that I won’t be sick from it because it’s gluten free (it’s also dairy free) as I was making a tester batch of cupcakes for a friend’s upcoming handfasting that are both gluten free and dairy free, to ensure that some of the guests can still enjoy them as well. I topped them with a chocolate hummus instead of icing to continue the dairy free theme, and fresh cut strawberries. SO GOOD!!!

Let me tell you, these are without a doubt the BEST cupcakes I have ever had in my life, and trust me, I did NOT get this curvy from avoiding delicious baked goods 😉

While I’m posting a link to the recipe, please note that I did make a few changes for mine:
1) I used applesauce instead of oil
2) I forgot the water
3) I used soy milk instead of cow’s milk.

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2011/07/gluten-free-chocolate-cupcakes-made.html

I started with the chocolate hummus recipe found at the bottom of that same page, but made changes, I added about 2tsp more cocoa powder as I like a really rich taste, I added a 1/4 cup of coconut milk powder, and I used pure cocoa powder (from before they add milk ingredients to it) instead of nut butter.

Leave a comment »

Back on track

From mid March until the beginning of May I had stopped working out and monitoring my eating habits as I was so wrapped up in appointments and paperwork stemming from N’s official diagnosis of ASD. While I did in fact lose some of my hard earned progress during those weeks I was determined to start again, which I did. I have now lost 5% of my total body fat since I got back on track! The reason this is so vital is because the hospital I want to have my surgery at has a requirement for how much adipose tissue one posesses before they’ll do the surgery. Now I could go elsewhere for my surgery, somewhere closer to my home that does not have any such requirements, however they also have a much higher re-occurance rate of the hernia coming back than my ideal choice of hospital. SO I am determined to continue with my weight loss goals in order to obtain the best chance of only having to have the surgery preformed once.

The place I want to go to is Sholdice Hospital, which specializes just in hernia repairs, and their reputation is amazing. I felt a bit discouraged about my goals recently as it’s hard to start again when you’ve stopped. It’s also honestly hard to find the time and energy when there is so much else going on in one’s life. But find the time and energy I will because having a hernia sucks, and with my recent success I’ve regained my motivation to keep on keeping on. Sometimes I need that extra motivation, for every single workout hurts in so many ways. It’s not because I’m pushing myself too hard, or because I don’t actually know what I’m doing, it hurts because I’m actually in pain every single day, all day and exercise only adds to that. I am lucky to have my massage therapy background as it has helped me to understand a great deal of how to best optimize my workouts for the results I want without adding any additonal injuries to myself. But motivations like seeing the inches come off, or seeing a decrease in my body fat percentage definitely help my mental state about said workouts. I’m off to the Y again today for more weight lifting and cardio, wish me luck dear readers!

P.S for those that have been reading my blog for awhile, I still can’t do a full sit up, as written about in “Would the real slim Starburst please sit up” found here but I’m getting much closer 😉

7 Comments »

Organizing Foods

MH900430659 N gets very excited by how foods are presented in bakeries, delicatessens, and the like.   He’s happy to try many different foods from these places, but when presented with these same foods at home he is unwilling to eat them. I was speaking with a friend who asked me an absolutely brilliant question about it. She asked me if I thought it was because of how visual he is and how neat and organized the foods are in those types of places that he preferred them. She asked me if I’d put his food into lines on his plate before and if so what did he do. To be honest I hadn’t done it before. I’ve made pictures with his food (happy faces or cutting roasted potatoes in the shape of cars) but I hadn’t actually taken his foods and made lines on his plate with them. With how much he loves organization, and lines in general I am actually quite hopeful that this just might work to help him eat better/more. Considering he’s currently on supplementations of various vitamins as well as a meal replacement drink due to his lack of current food intake I’m totally excited at trying something that just might make a positive difference in the amount of healthy foods I am able to get him to eat and enjoy! Wish me luck dear readers, this momma’s about to get the mandolin out to make some super organized veggie and fruit lines 😀

2 Comments »

Dietary Assessment

After a hopefully not too horrible trip to a laboratory near here for blood work for my youngest I then get to monitor every single thing he ingests for 3 days. All the way down to one bite or one teaspoon. All of this is for his dietitian appointment on Friday. With his self-limited diet I am concerned about his nutritional needs not being met. To that end I asked for an appointment be set up with a dietitian, and so while honestly I don’t really look forward to the blood work portion of tomorrow, nor to remembering to jot it down if I do get a bit of food finally into him I do look forward to the results from the appointment and of course the solutions that can be obtained from such an appointment. While I’d LOVE it if he ate healthily on a regular basis, with his texture issues that is not going to happen right now. So instead I simply wish to find out if Pedisure or something of that ilk would help to optimize his growth.

Leave a comment »

%d bloggers like this: