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Now that I've posted the back column about 100 calorie snacks, here's the quiz question: What is a "calorie?"

More tomorrow.

Got it done. The manuscript went to McGraw-Hill Wednesday night. I confess I spent yesterday doing very little indeed. And I need to spend this weekend cleaning my house!

Then, I'm afraid, I have to prepare to leave town. I'm going to San Diego for a couple of weeks to oversee the rehabbing of my Dad's condo. I'm hoping to take a laptop along and blog from there. Can't guarantee it, though; my laptop needs a new fan.

Anyway, I'm still in recovery mode, so here's a column reprint for right now:

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Book goes in tomorrow. Racing my deadline (which they already extended by two days.) Barely taking time off to eat and sleep. More soon.

Back to my manuscript.

Daily Menu January 17, 2008

Breakfast:
A Monterey jack omelet topped with chunky salsa

Lunch:
I didn't really have lunch, I had instead several snacks over the course of the afternoon

Snacks:
Sugar-free dark chocolate
About 3 ounces of leftover pork steak I warmed up
A carrot -- Nick the Pug ate the top.
Late afternoon I was starving, so I had two fried eggs
Half a slice of the new low carb bread I tried, with butter

Dinner:
Pork chops browned then simmered with sliced onions, apple, and green pepper, with some chicken broth and Worcestershire

Beverages:
Tea

What with all this talk about low carb bread, I thought I should post about my recent experiments with baking my own.

I included several bread-machine recipes in 500 Low-Carb Recipes. They all worked great for me, or I wouldn't have put them in the book. But of all the recipes I've ever published, they're the ones that have turned out to be most problematic. For every reader who has written me raving about the bread, another has written to say that they couldn't get it to rise for love nor money.

I'm up to my eyeballs with this book; I haven't even be entering stuff into my program. But today I had

A couple of Coconut-Chocolate Chip Cookies with my tea when I got up. They've got vanilla whey protein in 'em, so they keep me going for a while. Which is good, because I'd totally spaced out that I had a massage client scheduled at 11. I was just getting ready to cook something when he showed up.

For years now, I've been recommending Natural Ovens Carb Conscious Bread, because it's hands-down my favorite low carb bread. It was my favorite low carb bread even when there were lots of choices on the market. It has the taste and texture of a good, hearty whole grain bread -- and it makes a killer grilled cheese sandwich. I've been buying it six loaves at a time, and stashing it in the freezer.

Daily Menu January 13th, 2008

Breakfast:
Had a huge Sunday breakfast of Poor Man's Steak and Eggs -- a 6 ounce hamburger patty and three fried eggs. Wasn't hungry for a looong time!

Lunch:
A couple of leftover spareribs from the night before

Snacks:
Made a batch of Coconut-Chocolate Chip cookies, working out the recipe for the new cookbook, so I had a couple (and no, I'm not posting the recipe. If I post all the recipes for the new book as I come up with them, I have a feeling McGraw-Hill will be unhappy with me.

Sugar-free dark chocolate

Dinner:

Daily Menu, January 12, 2008

Breakfast:
An omelet filled with the disappointing brie dip from the night before. It was better as an omelet filling, but it still needs work.

Lunch:
A pan-broiled hamburger patty, with ketchup, mayo, mustard, and a pickle.
2 Fiber Rich crackers with butter

Snack:
Sugar-free dark chocolate
Sugar-free mini Reese's cup
Granny Smith apple

Dinner:
Spareribs, oven roasted, with barbecue rub and a little Stubb's barbecue sauce (Stubb's is the lowest-sugar bottled barbecue sauce I've been able to find, and it ROCKS.)

Beverages:
Tea

Daily Menu, January 11, 2008

Sorry I missed posting a day. I'm getting down to the wire on this book, and I'm seriously pressed for time. But here's yesterday's menu:

Breakfast:
Pan-grilled pork steak with Creole seasoning

Lunch:
Chicken and Smoked Gouda Salad. This was HUGE -- enough for two people, really. It contained:
4 cups romaine
4 cups red leaf lettuce
about 1/4 cup thin-sliced red onion
1/4 cup shredded smoked gouda
a couple of strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
A good 6-7 ounces of grilled chicken breast
Apricot-Mustard Dressing

Daily Menu January 9th, 2008

Breakfast:

Cheddar Cheese omelet

Lunch:

Leftover pork steak
Leftover Cauliflower-Green Bean Salad with added cherry tomatoes and watercress

Snacks
Sugar-free dark chocolate
Sugar-free Reese's Cup
Granny Smith Apple

Dinner:

Five-Spice Chicken Wings
Yet more Cauliflower Green Bean Salad with cherry tomatoes and watercress (This is what happens to cookbook authors. We make a big batch of something to try, and wind up eating it for days. At least those of us who live in two-person households.)

Beverages:
Tea
Sparkling Water

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.