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.

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