Bread Alternative Lunch

Good Saturday afternoon to you!

I just ran to the store with my little fam and picked up the goods for our fried chicken birthday dinner. My son Alex turned 13 yesterday! All my guys want this meal for their birthday and it is a labor of love! Phew

Maybe I'll post about that later, but as I am grabbing a quick lunch, I remembered I wanted to share one of my favorite things that help me not miss bread so much!

Wasa Thin & Crispy Flatbread. They have a few flavors, but I'm partial to the sesame myself :-)

Today, I put some preservative/additive-free ham on top with some ranch dip I made out of plain Greek yogurt, cream cheese, ranch dressing mix and seasoned salt.

Sometimes I use turkey and cheddar cheese or chicken salad. It's a great alternative to bread...11g carb for 2 slices and a gram of sugar!

Tortellini Bake

I don't have a picture of tonight's dinner experiment but at least I can tell you about it!

I had a couple packages of Buitoni Whole Wheat Cheese Tortellini in the frig so I had a thought that I could use that and make a lasagna-type dish.

I defrosted a small bag of sausage as well as a small bag of beef. I poured a thin layer of Classico Four Cheese spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish (a trick to avoid sticking). I then used the remainder of the sauce to mix with the tortellini in a bowl. I put all that in the dish, then mixed the meat with some garlic seasoning and another jar of sauce and poured it on top the tortellini. I put a mix of Italian shredded cheeses on top and covered it with foil.

I baked it for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees and then removed the foil. I popped it under the broiler until the cheese was brown and bubbly!

I served it up with a simple organic romaine salad and it was splendid!

Fast Steak & Asparagus Lunch

We had steak for dinner the other night, so I took what was left and cut it into small strips that I could use later for steak fajitas or something else.

Today for lunch, instead of fajitas, I sauteed the steak in a little butter (REAL butter!), some garlic salt, chives, minced onion, and A1 sauce.  

I had some asparagus that sounded scrumptious as well.  I snapped off the ends, rinsed it in a colander, and threw it on a cookie sheet with extra virgin organic olive oil, Lawry's seasoned salt, and pepper. I toasted it under the broiler on high for about five minutes.  I really wish I had remembered to squirt some lemon juice on it, as my sis-in-law just told me the other night that she loves that.  

It was a delicious little lunch on the fly!  

Don't be afraid to try an idea.  Some of my favorite meals have come out of my experiments!

Happy Thursday everybody :)

Warm Lemon Coconut Water

I've discovered another yummy coconut oil drink!

Warm water-8 oz (I got mine from the Keurig)
Organic, virgin coconut oil-1 Tbsp
doTerra Lemon Essential Oil- 2 drops
Truvia-about 1/2 tsp (you could use Stevia if you don't like Truvia)

I wish I could have this ice cold, but the coconut oil would solidify. It's nice though.  You could use honey to sweeten as well.

Midnight Coconut Cocoa

I've been learning about the amazing benefits of coconut oil for a while now and last week I really committed to trying to get 3 tablespoons in my diet per day.

My favorite way to make this happen is in a warm drink. I can't drink coffee very often though, as my system doesn't like it. I like green tea okay, but I drink it a lot when I'm sick so it kinda just has bad associations now. Shiver. Other than that, I'm just not a huge tea fan.

Tonight, I was lying in bed, unable to sleep because I woke up with a tickle in my throat! I began (night) day-dreaming of something warm I could drink when all of a sudden, an idea popped...

So up I arose out of the bed, grabbed my fluffy robe, crept to the kitchen, fired up the faithful Keurig for some warm water, and gathered my supplies:

Organic, virgin coconut oil
Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa
Truvia
Rhedi Whip

I have no idea how much of anything I threw in the mug in my midnight excitement, but I can promise you it hit the spot, warmed me up, and put a stop to that tickle in my throat real quick!

By golly gals, I believe I've found a new favorite drink :-) And the cool thing is that since adding the coconut oil to my diet, I've noticed my joints and muscles feel better, I've lost a half inch on my waist, and my endometriosis is better!

(No picture available as I slurped it down before I even thought of that!)

High-Carb Day

In general, trying to keep my complex carbohydrate and sugar intake low has become my norm. However, I find the hardest time to do that is when the people I spend the most time with are eating anything and everything on the weekend.

My husband, like many husbands I know of, doesn't care to make all the changes I want to make. So, of course, when he is home on the weekend, the boys get treats that I don't buy on a regular basis anymore. 

Rather than fight over it, I just use the weekend, usually only one day, to relax and have a high carb day, which can actually work in my favor if I am trying to lose weight!

Put simply, this sort-of works to jolt my metabolism so when I go back to low carb the next day, my body will respond to the change and not plateau. (You can study carb cycling if you are interested.)

This method seems to work out okay for me. I don't typically "fall of the wagon"  and ruin what I've been doing.

So, to show you an example, my meal for this past Sunday included a baked patato, which I tend to stay away from through the week. We also had steamed broccoli and pork loin, which we cooked in the crockpot with a bottle of pork marinade on low all day. Mmmmm!