Dana's blog

Bananas must have a killer press agent. Over and over folks ask, “But if I can’t have bananas on my low carb diet, where will I get potassium?” It is true that bananas are a pretty good source of potassium; one medium banana has 422 milligrams, or about 12% of the RDA of 3.5 grams. However, that banana also has 27 grams of carbohydrate, with only 3 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 24 grams, more than the 20 gram upper limit for those of you who are in the induction phase of the Atkins diet. Clearly we can’t count on bananas for our potassium! But where will we get it?

I talked to Fair Winds Press, my publisher, and asked about reprinting recipes here. They gave the okay for a couple of recipes per week. So here's the Creole Eggs Recipe from The Every Calorie Counts Cookbook. I made it with just three eggs, and ate 'em all myself. This sauce is also great for poaching shrimp.

Creole Eggs

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dried basil
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning (Tony Cachere's is good)

Daily Menu January 8th, 2008

Breakfast:

3 eggs, fried in olive oil
Salad with Dijon vinaigrette

Lunch:
Cashew-crusted chicken breast
Cauliflower-Green Bean Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette

Snacks:

A raw carrot (Nick the Pug gets the tops!)
Sugar-free dark chocolate
Sugar-free Mini Reese's cups, a couple of 'em (If you haven't tried these, they taste just like the sugary ones. They do have polyols, so go easy, or you'll regret it!)

Supper:

More Cauliflower-Green Bean Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette ('cause I'd made a big ol' batch to try it out)

Daily Menu January 7th, 2008

It's 11:06 PM, and I'm just getting around to posting this. The Webmaster (aka That Nice Boy I Married), who also functions as Network Admin and all-around adorable computer geek, has been dealing with hardware issues today. I'm on my third computer in as many weeks, this one a desktop he built me.

Daily Menu January 6th, 2008

Breakfast:
I was ravenous when I first set my feet on the floor, so while I read the Sunday paper I ate:

2 cups plain yogurt, with vanilla extract and Splenda stirred in
About 1/2 peach worth of frozen unsweetened peach slices, diced up
1/4 cup All-Bran

All of this makes a seriously tasty yogurt parfait. Next time, though, I'll buy the All-Bran with Extra Fiber (known around here as Super Colon Blow, a gag from an old Saturday Night Live bit) -- it has more fiber and less usable carbs than the regular All-Bran.

Daily Menu January 5th, 2008

Breakfast:

The same yummy mushroom/onion/liver/fried egg thingie I did earlier in the week. I still had livers and mushrooms in the fridge, and who wants to let them go bad?

Lunch: None. That Nice Boy I Married and I were out at the home improvement store, and I didn't get around to it. Which is why I was ravenous when we got home, and immediately had a huge dinner of...

Dinner:

I've written in the past -- and in several of my books -- about stevia/FOS blend. But for those of you who have missed it, here's the deal:

"Stevia" is short for stevia rebaudiana, a South American shrub with remarkably sweet leaves. (Indeed, the native name for the plant translates as "sweet leaf.") The sweet substance is extracted from the leaves to make a white powder. This is the stevia you find in health food stores, and it's a naturally occurring non-nutritive (that is, non-caloric) sweetener.

Daily Menu January 4th, 2008

Breakfast:
Creole Eggs -- three eggs poached in a quick Creole-style tomato sauce. This is one of the recipes from 15 Minute Low-Carb Recipes that I've come back to so many times I have it memorized.

Lunch:
The last of the roasted chicken thighs. I was out of coleslaw, so I wrapped bites in red leaf lettuce.

Snacks:

Sugar-free dark chocolate

Daily Menu January 3rd, 2008

Breakfast:

Mushrooms, onions, and snipped chicken livers, sauteed in butter, with three fried eggs on top. I never did this before, and it was so good it was ridiculous! (Of course, I'm inordinately fond of chicken livers.)

I decided I just had to add the recipe for this!

Eggs on a Bed of Mushrooms, Onions, and Chicken Livers.

3 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon butter,divided
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 chicken livers
3 eggs
salt and pepper -- to taste

It struck me that some folks -- newbies, in particular -- might find it instructive to know what a long-time low carber eats on a day-to-day basis. So every day I'll be posting a list of what I ate the day before.

Hey, Gang --

Okay, I admit it. I've been gone a reeeeeaaaally long time. It's been a rough couple of years. If personal details bore you, please skip ahead past the bullet-pointed list. In the past year-and-a-half:

I've been dilatory for a reason: I've been sick. Still am, actually. Bad cough, weak, dizzy. Tried to bluff my way through it and ended up at the local walk-in clinic, where the doctor listened to my lungs in alarm, and demanded that I take some time off. Which I've sort of been doing, though since I don't have a job with sick pay or anything, there are things I have to do regardless. Still, I've been trying to take it easy.

But there's big, big news today, and I had to be the first to let you know. So -

Read on!

[Update by Eric:] From Reuters: Diet study tips scale in favor of Atkins.

NOTE: This release based solely on what news accounts were available the afternoon of Tuesday, March 6th, 2007. I'll elaborate as I have more information.

Jimmy Moore is King of the Low Carb Bloggers. Read him at livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com

If, like me, you're a big low carb research geek, you can't do better than Regina Wilshire's blog - I love this stuff: weightoftheevidence.com. Technical, but oh, so informative.

Both Dr. Michael and Dr. Mary Dan Eades - the Protein Power folks - have blogs.

I wrote this column last spring, right around this time. Eggs should be cheap again within a week or two, so a reprint seemed in order. You'll notice this isn't a strictly low carb column, but the recipe sure is, if you use the recipe for Almond-Parmesan crust:

As I write this, I have a dozen cartons of eggs in my refrigerator. Why? Because they were three cartons for a buck. At that price, we can eat a lot of eggs! We like them fried, scrambled, and in omelets. But to turn eggs into supper, there's nothing like quiche.

Thanks to the French name, and the 1980s book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche," quiche has a reputation as foofy girly food. Hah! Quiche is simply egg-and-cheese pie, often with ham or bacon thrown in. That's some solid eating. It's easy to make, infinitely variable, and reheats well. What's not to love?