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That Nice Boy I Married and I, finding commercial air travel almost as much fun as a colonoscopy, drove to Galveston and back for the cruise. As a result, I added Arkansas to my list of states I've been in. I also discovered that southern convenience stores have snack foods that this Yankee has never seen before!

Finally! A month after Christmas, and we got down to the bone of that whopper-sized Christmas ham. (No, it did not smell bad, nor did it have mold growing on it. Promise.) It was time to make soup!

In the past (now the distant past) I would have made split pea soup from a meaty ham bone, but it's way too high carb. Even half split pea/half green bean soup put weight on me, as I wrote here a few months back. (Also was even worse than maltitol at making me socially offensive.)

So here's what I did with the bone:

Breakfast:

Frizzled leftover ham
Fried eggs

Lunch:

Hamburger patty with a little toasted onion powder

Dinner:

Shirataki Carbonara, YUM!

Snacks:
Celery
Pork rinds with cream cheese and Herbert D. Focken's Sweetened Jalapeno Bites, from 500 More Low-Carb Recipes.

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling water
Dry red wine (this is getting boring, isn't it?)

Totals: 1965 Calories; 115g Fat; 126g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber

Embarrassing confession: I baked a 17.78 pound ham for Christmas. What's embarrassing about that, you ask? It was only me and That Nice Boy I Married for Christmas dinner. Unsurprisingly, we're just now working our way through the very end of the leftover ham. Thank heaven leftover ham keeps well.

So I was looking for something new to do with leftover ham, and found a recipe I could adapt for low carb. The decarbed version came out like this:

Shirataki Carbonara

16 ounces tofu shirataki
1/2 medium onion, sliced paper-thin
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons butter

Breakfast:

Pepper jack omelet with chunky salsa

Lunch:

Roasted chicken leg and thigh

Dinner:

Another roasted chicken leg and thigh

Snacks:
Pumpkin seeds
Peanuts
Sugar-free dark chocolate

Beverages:
Tea
Dry red wine

Totals: 2206 Calories; 120g Fat ; 180g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 7g Dietary Fiber

I measured those pumpkin seeds and peanuts! They're carbier than most tree nuts, and I didn't want to go overboard. Hit the 20 gram mark exactly!

ARGH! IT HAPPENED AGAIN! A stupid freakin' article just showed up on my screen misusing the term "glycemic load!" In this case it was referring to soba noodles. NOOOO! Soba noodles have a low glycemic index -- 42 (actually lowish, but not dirt-low.) But a cup of them -- surely a reasonable serving, especially at a "health food" restaurant, where these were being touted on the menu -- has 43 grams of carbohydrate. 43 x .42 = 18, which is NOT A LOW GLYCEMIC LOAD!

Sheesh.

Please note that this article is from 2004; many of the products listed are sadly no longer available.

Years ago, some furious online detractor of low carb diets threw at me the accusation that I ate “pork rind cake.” This is not true. I have never eaten a cake made from pork rinds, and had never heard of such a thing till the accusation was made. And though she subsequently posted a link to a recipe, that is the only time I have ever heard of pork rind cake in my near-decade on a low carb diet.

Breakfast:

Pork sausage
Fried eggs

Lunch:

Wasn't hungry!

Dinner:

Beef spare ribs, roasted with sugar-free dry rub I made myself. YUM.

Snack:
Walnuts
Pork rinds with cinnamon and Splenda (see below)
Sugar free dark chocolate
Sugar free Reese's cup

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling water
Dry red wine

Totals: 2466 Calories; 180g Fat ; 132g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber

Breakfast:
Three pork sausage patties
Three fried eggs

Kept me full till late afternoon!

Lunch/Supper
Chicken salad -- leftover dark meat chicken with diced celery and a little red onion, plus mayo.

Extra Supper:

Leftover Ham, Cheese, and Broccoli Puff

Snacks:
Sugar free dark chocolate
Sugar free Reese's cup

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling Water
Dry red wine

Totals: 2118 Calories; 136g Fat ; 102g Protein; 29g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber

Please tell me I’m not the only one who talks back to the television. Okay, what I really do is yell at the television. I yell at politicians, and the people on my soap operas. I yell with real gusto at food ads.

Recently, I’ve been yelling at ads for calorie-controlled snacks, like the Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs. Just think! You can eat this whole pack –– 15 “Oreos” or “Chips Ahoy” or whatever –– for just one hundred calories!

I beg of you: When you see ads like this, yell “100 calories of what?”

Breakfast:

Bacon
Portobello mushroom, onion, and Monterey Jack omelet

Lunch/Snack

Roasted chicken wings (ate seven of these -- whole ones, not "drumettes" -- over the space of several hours.

Dinner:

Ham, Cheese and Broccoli Puff -- a version of the egg casserole I've written about in the past.

Breakfast:

Three eggs, medium-boiled (whites solid, yolks set around the edges but liquid in the middle)

Lunch:

9 ounce pork chop

Dinner:

Induction Chili (recipe below)

Snacks:
Sugar-free dark chocolate
Sugar-free Reese's cup
Pecans
Roasted chicken wings

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling water
Dry red wine

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Totals: 1663 Calories; 99g Fat ; 110g Protein; 21g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber

Breakfast:

Monterey Jack omelet with chunky salsa

Lunch:

Pork loin chop

Dinner:

Pork loin chop

Snacks:
Sugar-free dark chocolate
Sugar-free Reese's cup
Pork rinds
Pecans

Beverages:

Tea
Sparkling water
Cider-Ade (apple cider vinegar sweetened with stevia/FOS blend, in water)
Dry red wine

Totals: 1350 Calories; 67g Fat ; 88g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber

Breakfast:

Omelet filled with sauteed portobellos, a little onion, and Monterey Jack

Lunch:

A really, really huge chicken leg-and-thigh, roasted.

Dinner:

Frizzled ham with cheddar melted on it
Leftover scalloped turnips

Snack:
Pork rinds
sugar-free dark chocolate

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling water
Dry red wine

Totals: 2084 Calories; 123g Fat ; 155g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber

Yikes! Passed 20 grams usable carb!

Breakfast:

Leftover steak and three fried eggs with a tablespoon of steak sauce (need to make my own!)

Lunch:

Pan broiled pork chop with Cajun seasoning

Dinner:

Roasted chicken thigh

Snacks:

Pork rinds
Sugar free chocolate

Beverages

Tea
Sparkling water
Dry red wine

Totals: 1866 Calories; 106g Fat (58.7% calories from fat); 154g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber

As of this morning my ketostix came up with trace amounts of ketones, thank heaven! So I had some veggies in my omelet this morning.