The crocuses are blooming here in Southern Indiana, and the daffodils are up and nearly ready to bloom. That means it's time for me to start a vegetable garden. After all, with a ten acre yard (and another four and a half next door; we own the next house as a rental), and this economy, it makes all kinds of sense for me to grow as much of my produce as possible.

So That Nice Boy I Married and I are going to spend the afternoon making "lasagna beds" -- no, we're not growing pasta! They're a way of making a garden without digging up the ground. Here are a couple of links:

I'm wondering -- how many of you are on Twitter? Would you find it helpful to have contact with your fellow low carbers through Twitter? Would it help you to get messages from me throughout the day through Twitter, encouraging you to stick with your low carb plan? Just trying to figure out how to use the latest technology in the service of low carbing!

I'd like to make this website more useful to you. Among other things, I think I'll put up a page for all of you to post the names and contact info for any low carb-friendly doctors you've run across. But tell me, what else would be helpful?

Let’s talk a little about vitamin A. Vitamin A is important stuff, but it’s a bit complex. It’s essential for your health, but because it’s a fat soluble vitamin and can be stored in your body, it’s possible to get too much. It also comes in a couple of forms, both with their virtues and their drawbacks.

Breakfast:

Monterey Jack and Avocado Omelet

Lunch:
1 leftover roasted pork country-style rib
1 chicken drumstick
Cole slaw

Dinner:

Pan-broiled rib eye steak
Green salad (our neighbor Keith brought over the first fresh lettuce of the season, from his greenhouse.)

Snacks:

Sugar-free dark chocolate
Pecans

Beverages:

Tea
Sparkling water
Dry red wine

Totals: 2226 Calories; 166g Fat (74.9% calories from fat); 93g Protein; 33g Carbohydrate; 12g Dietary Fiber; 21 grams usable carb.

Breakfast:

Omelet of portobello mushrooms and onions, sauteed in bacon grease, and Monterey jack cheese

Lunch:

Roasted chicken thigh

Snacks:

Pork cracklin' strips
Sugar free dark chocolate
The drumstick leftover from the chicken thigh I ate for lunch

All of which left me so full, I wasn't really hungry for dinner. So all I had was:

Slice of the sorriest darned cheesecake I think I've ever made. I will not be publishing this recipe! Dry and bland. How'd I do that?

Have you seen it? It's all over the news today; a study in the New England Journal of Medicine "proving" that it doesn't matter if you choose a low fat diet, a low carb diet, or a Mediterranean diet. The only important thing, they say, is the calories.

We're back to "Just starve yourself for the rest of your life and you'll be fine." And we all know how well that works.

Under the thread about my liverwurst omelet, reader Sally asks:

Breakfast:

Liverwurst and sundried tomato omelet

Lunch/Dinner:

Leftover roasted chicken leg and thigh
Coleslaw

Snacks:

Two handfuls of peanuts while driving around on errands

Beverages:

Tea, both hot and iced
Sparkling water
Dry red wine

As the days lengthen, our chickens are stepping up their laying a bit, so it seems incumbent upon me to try to keep up! It doesn't hurt that I never get tired of eggs.

So this morning, in the tradition of poking around in the fridge and making up omelets from whatever I find, I made a braunschweiger and sun-dried tomato omelet. I used three thinnish slices of braunschweiger -- about 1/4" thick -- off a one-pound chunk, and about 2 tablespoons of chopped sun-dried tomatoes in oil. And it was quite nice. Next time I might add some thin-sliced red onion, too.

Breakfast:

I had a chicken drumstick left over from the night before, so I stripped the meat off, mixed it with a little diced celery, red onion, and mayo, and made a chicken salad omelet with Monterey Jack cheese. And quite yummy it was, too.

Lunch:

Leftover roasted chicken leg and thigh

Dinner:

Three medium-boiled eggs. All I had room for.

Color me happy! My yummy, yummy pork cracklin' strips came! They are SO GOOD! I immediately ripped the box open and ate about 2/3 of a bag! (Which, considering that the label says 1 bag is 8 servings, was a real gorge. A real gorge with zero carbs, I might add.)

I barely had any appetite for dinner, but since I got a good 30 grams or so of protein from the pork cracklin' strips, it's no big deal. Try that with your low fat pretzels!

Breakfast:

Leftover coffee cheesecake with chocolate sauce
Later on, three fried eggs

Lunch:

Didn't really have one, because of the snacks, which were...

Snacks:

Pecans
Another teeny sliver of coffee cheesecake with chocolate sauce
Pork rinds with cream cheese and sweetened jalapeno slices

Dinner:

A roasted chicken thigh

Beverages:

Tea
Sparkling water
Dry red wine

Totals: 2178 Calories; 154g Fat ; 113g Protein; 37g Carbohydrate; 11g Dietary Fiber; 26 grams usable carb.

An interesting article by Dr. Michael Eades, of Protein Power fame, about how, exactly, our brains make decisions on what temptations to resist and what to give in to, called Low-carb battles in your brain.

Here's what That Nice Boy I Married and I will be having for our Valentine's Day candlelight supper:

* Seared duck breast with apricot-mustard glaze

* Grilled asparagus

* Bayside Salad (this is a salad from 500 Low-Carb Recipes; it's basically a tossed salad with some bitter greens and some thin-sliced red onion, tossed with raspberry vinaigrette, and topped by crumbled bacon, crumbled blue cheese, and chopped toasted pecans)

* A nice bottle of pinot noir