Day of Reckoning

Hello, low-carb friends.  I was in Galveston, TX last week on a petites vacances with my husband.  I enjoyed some delicious pineapple and fish throughout the week, and I managed to indulge in some creamy desserts with mango and coconut.  While on vacation, I find that I do better when I live the 80-20 rule: be diligent for 80% of the meals, and allow off-limits treats for 20% of the meals.

So, although I did indulge in some high glycemic fruits and sweet things while in the near-tropics, I didn't go overboard on my regular meals.

Now, I promised you a food diary from my travels.  I do not have the food diary.  It, er, got lost. 

I did do a couple of good, really good things, this vacation that I don't usually do:

• I intentionally exercised.  There were plenty of strolls, but I made it to a fitness center and worked out with free weights.  Ah, the happy soreness of muscles recently pushed through a regimen of flys, presses, and anything that elicits a ladylike grunt.  I like it!
• I only had three glasses of wine the entire week.  I don't know about you, but I tend to throw sobriety out the window when I'm away from home.  But I just didn't feel like it this time.  Was it the warm weather?  The blog accountability?  The ladylike grunting from the previous bullet point?  Perhaps it was the observation of people too old to party like they're 21 and seeing what complete buffons they were.  And are.  Pass me the water, please.

This week is "detox week" for me, which really means just a return to sensible, low-carb eating habits and the shunning of all fake things.  Oh, the headache I have from a few sweet indulgences last week!  My tummy is rumbling ("I want mago gelato, and I want it RIGHT NOW."), my head is banging around for a diet soda, but thank goodness my refrigerator and pantry are absent of items too tempting for a middle aged woman stalking for sugars so she doesn't claw her husband's eyes out. *

Here's to a healthy week!

*It would never come to that.  I could always make a cocoa smoothie.

Rebekah

A Tale of Two Pizza Crusts

Low-carb cooking has come a long, long way since I first tried Atkins back in 2003. There are so many tasty and inventive recipes out there.

I created a board on Pinterest where I am amassing quite a collection of low carb recipes and trying a couple each week. You can follow my board by clicking here. Let me know if you need a Pinterest invite and I'll send you one.

One of the first recipes I pinned is Rebekah's cauliflower pizza. I always think of it as Rebekah's recipe, but  the original creator is Jamie of Your Lighter Side (a fantastic low carb blog).

I made it recently. It was delicious and easy, my family loved it. The only negative is that it needs to be a bit more crispy for my taste. Next time I will take Rebekah's advice and make mini-pizzas.

Mushroom, pepperoni, bell pepper pizza on cauliflower crust. With lots of cheese! 

I also came across this recipe in my Pinterest recipe search. It's a flaxseed-based crust. I made it for my family earlier this week and got mixed reviews. It's heartier, and a bit more crisp, but the flavor and texture makes one think more of a pizza box than a pizza.

Classic pepperoni and extra cheese. 

Perhaps some butter, seasonings and garlic added to the flax meal, parmesan and egg batter would help. I will give it a try sometime soon. It's a very healthy and fiber-rich crust. If you are looking to add more fiber to your low carb diet, this is the way!

If I had to chose between the two pizza crusts, the choice would be cauliflower all the way!

Have you tried any new low carb recipes lately? 

Please share! 

Adrienne 

Friday Q&A

Do you have a favorite exercise?

Rebekah

I’m not a cardio person.  I like walking, but only enjoy it as a means of transportation to a destination.  I’ve never been a fan of walking circles in the neighborhood, and I’m even less a fan of walking on the treadmill – though it’s better than walking in snow and ice or 108 degree summer days!

My favorite exercise is weight lifting, and my favorite move is the assisted chin-up.  I use a wide-shoulder stance.  When I was first introduced to this move, I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it, and I was mad at the very patient trainer I had at the time who wanted to prove to me, her client, that I was stronger than I thought I was.  I was hooked right away, even though I struggled and grunted just like the big boys in the gym do.

It’s one of those exercises that has real-life application (like hauling yourself out of a swimming pool or over a fence) and instant gratification (I’m lifting myself!).  I’m far away from doing this exercise without the assist, but I’m farther down the road then I was when I started this move over a year ago!

My other favorite exercise is the leg press.  Women have strong legs in general, and I have really strong legs in particular.  Even though my thighs are encased in fat, when I flex my hamstrings you can feel the hard leg muscles underneath.  As we age, we all need solid leg muscles so we won’t be prone to falling and breaking our bones.  Strong leg muscles (and bones) equal longevity!  So load up the plates on your leg press if you have a gym.  If not, squats and lunges are your best friends.

Adrienne


On the not-so-frequent occasion that I do exercise, my favorite is hiking. I love hills, I like to have a destination and being out in nature does wonders for my spirit. Unfortunately, I am too scared - or too smart - to hike alone in the wilderness. We have far too many cougar and rattlesnake sightings around here for me to feel comfortable being alone in the hills. 


When I can't find a friend to hike with or can't convince my husband to join me, I go for walks. There is a retirement community up the road from where I live. I found a hilly loop that is about 3 miles long. The community is safe, clean, has wide sidewalks and plenty of fresh air due little traffic. 


I also have a lake nearby that is 2.25 miles long. It's a poplar place for people to fish, kayak, walk, ride bikes, or simply walk. My husband and I bought a pass for the year so we don't have to pay each time we use it. The goal is to use it frequently enough that it pays for itself a few times over. 


As far as toning exercises go, I do not like to lift weights. I do girl push-ups (on my knees) and try to do 40, but not usually in a row. I do as many as I can, then rest, then resume. I also do 100 crunches, again, not all at once. Form is more important than repetitions. I get more out of 25 crunches done properly and with purpose than I do 100 crunches done quickly and with disregard for form. 


Exercise used to be a huge part of my life. I was a personal trainer and exercise instructor in my mid-30's. These days, in my mid-40's, I have gotten so far away from regular and frequent exercise, it feels foreign to me. It's become a "thing" that I am working on remedying, but with poor results. There are seems to always be something more pressing or more interesting to do other than exercise. And I have a feeling it has to do with my passion for blogging. 

What is your favorite exercise? 

Do you feel that you exercise enough?

Rebekah and Adrienne 

We are asking for questions from our readers for Friday Q&A. 

If you have one for us, leave it in the comment section 

or send either of us an email and we'll be sure to answer it!  

Carmelized Onion, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Crustless Quiche

Do any of you remember the blog, "Euro Chic"? It was one of the first I started reading when I got into this wonderful blog world.

The author was a beautiful career woman in her early 30's. She posted pictures of herself in classic and stylish outfits, wrote introspective thoughts on living a French chic lifestyle and kept her readers abreast of her growing social life in Boston. She was elegant and intelligent and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her life.

Euro Chic would often post recipes on her blog. One recipe that I kept in my regular rotation was a Carmelized Onion, Mushroom, and Goat CheeseTart. I made it many times. It was a great dish to take on picnics.

Unfortunately for us all, Euro Chic stopped blogging and shut down her blog last year. I neglected to print or save a copy of her recipe and so the exact ingredients and directions are unavailable.

Thankfully, I made it frequently enough that I remember most of the ingredients and steps. I have modified it here on Sugarless, Flourless and Fabulous by making it crustless and therefore, low carb.

Carmelized Onion, Mushroom and Goat Cheese Crustless Quiche

Adapted from Euro Chic

Ingredients*

2 large red onions, sliced about 1/4 inch thick 

3 cups sliced mushrooms - I used 4 cups. It was a little too much. If you love lots of mushrooms, use four. 

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

12 ounces goat cheese

1/4 cup organic heavy cream

9 organic eggs

Salt and pepper to taste ( I use white pepper - it's prettier in this dish)

First, caramelize the sliced red onions. This takes about 30 minutes (see below for what you can be doing in the meantime). Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large sauté pan. Add the onions and stir. Cook the onions over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until they have shrunken considerably and turned a golden color - not browned, but carmelized.

Remove the onions to a bowl and set aside. 

Melt the rest of the butter in the same pan and add the mushrooms. Sauté them until just cooked. Use a slotted spoon to remove the mushrooms and add to the bowl of onions. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir.

While you are busy sautéing and caramelizing, get out your blender. Turn your oven to 350 degrees. Crack 9 eggs into the blender, add the cream and 8 ounces of the goat cheese - the rest of the cheese will be going on top later. 

Blend the eggs for about 30 seconds, don't over blend. Pour the mixture into a 9 x 13 casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking oil. 

Pop it into the oven for about 7 to 10 minutes. All you want is for the egg mixture to set up a bit. Check on it frequently to make sure it's not getting firm. It should be jiggly. 

Take the casserole out of the oven and add the onion and mushroom mixture. Stir to combine. Place dollops of the remainder of the goat cheese on top. Place back in the oven and bake another 30 - 40 minutes. It's ready when the goat cheese dollops start to brown a little.

Take it out and let cool for 10 minutes before serving. This is a great dish to make ahead for to-go breakfasts and lunches. And it can even be served as dinner dish, just add a green salad with a tangy vinaigrette. 

Adrienne 

* I vaguely remember there being an herb added to this dish but I can't recall what it was. Thyme? Tarragon? Next time I'll experiment. 

Pilgrim's Progress

Greetings, low-carber’s.  We are past the half-way point of January, the traditional month for fat-loss resolutions and the dirty habits and eating methods we allow to re-capture our lives before the month is through.

How’s it going so far?  Are you struggling with some of the healthy changes you’ve made, or is it smooth sailing and easy-peasy?

I’m going to be out of town for a few days of vacation (November, December, and the first half of January are very busy times for my work) and am going to struggle with you as I encounter my biggest saboteur: me away from my kitchen and sheepish justifications for eating garbage.

·    “I’m on vacation!”

·     “Oooh, I’ve never had banana crème brulee before!  Just this once…”

·     “How many glasses of champagne have I had?  That can’t be right…”

And the worst one, and don’t tell me you haven’t done this:

·    “I feel bad about my body.  I hate myself in this swimsuit/shorts/sun dress.  And now I want a brownie.  Brownies make me sick, but gosh they taste good even if I will be a bloated, gassy mess tomorrow.  But since I won’t be thinner tomorrow – no matter how many carbs I don’t eat – I say ‘screw it’ and eat the brownie.  Two brownies, please.”

Keeping a food journal at home is easy – at least compared to being away from home.  It’s not so easy when you are on a needed-break from regular life.  But I’m bringing the journal with me, and I’m going to report back here on Monday, January 30^th, what I ate. 

Even the off-course things. 

Even the dreaded brownie-moments.

How are you staying accountable to yourself, especially if you just need to maintain an already healthy weight and lifestyle? 

Rebekah

Mock Salade Nicoise

The easiest thing to eat when on a low-carb regimen is a green salad.  One day for you who live north of Texas it will be Spring again.  Until then, you can still make a salad that isn't full of dreaded cucumber and ranch dressing.


Salads can be composed, they can be full of crisp things from the garden, or you can make something like mine which is an amalgem of leftover roasted vegetables and a can of tuna.


I read an interview a couple of weeks ago wherein the journalist wrote that his interviewee was serving him a salade nicoise for lunch.  I thought that sounded heavenly and expensive.  I remembered that article while I was starting at the contents of my refrigerator today trying to determine what to have for lunch. 


The Ingredients:



At one net carb per ounce, feta cheese packs so much flavor and adds a briny kick.  All these ingredients were purchased at Costco.




Leftover roasted red potatoes, fennel, and asparagus instead of traditional haricots verts.


The result:



I added a pinch of sea salt flakes, a nice olive oil, and lemon juice for a quickie vinaigrette.



The bubbly:




A workable substitute for those who'd like a glass of champagne on their lunchtime trip to Marseilles.

Rebekah

Friday Q&A

What off-limits food or foods is your greatest challenge in following a low-carb lifestyle?

Rebekah

It’s hard to nail it down to just one.  There are many temptations out there that sometimes (I allow to) sneak in:

• Popcorn (but just at the movies); it's surprisingly lower in net carbohydrates than I thought, but it's still a grain.
• Alcohol - also low in carbohydrates, but it is a mammoth stall-inducer in weight loss.
• Any confection from Fran's, a chocolatier in Seattle.  I can inhale sea salt caramels like no one else I know.

The most sinister of all temptations for me is French fries, but only if they are a certain variety.  I like the thin, shoestring variety, and there are two restaurants in Austin who make them to perfection: Cover 3, who also covers them in herbs and parmesan cheese, and P. Terry’s – a natural fast-food chain with the best skin-on, greasy and salty French fries on the planet.  And I’ve had lots of fries…

I encounter fries on a weekly basis when my husband and I have a burger each Friday at lunch before setting off for an afternoon of counseling projects.  He shoves fries into his mouth with wild abandon which causes severe cognitive and marital strife inside my head because he’s thin and has excellent blood work stats.  For the last couple of weeks I’ve intentionally brought my food journal with me to the restaurant so I can be reminded why I’m restraining myself, that it’s not just for esthetic torture.

The best thing I’m eating on a low-carb regimen that I didn’t eat before was pan-fried pancetta and slices of salami with cucumber – all without nitrates, of course.  I have to be careful that I don’t indulge in these high-fat treats without regulation. 

Adrienne

What tempts me varies from day to day, week to week. Lately, I have been missing comfort foods like macaroni and cheese, French onion soup with a big slice of French bread, and chicken pot pie. Instead of indulging in those foods, I am waiting it out. I know the cravings will pass and for me, none of those foods are worth the side effects of bloat, water retention, and sluggishness. 

The foods/beverages I always miss and will, on occasion, treat myself to because they are sometimes worth it, are:

• French croissants - the smallish, flaky, buttery kind they make in Paris. Not the gigantic, doughy, flavorless croissants I usually find here. Not tempted by those one bit. 
• Champagne
• English muffins and crumpets for breakfast
• Pizza - crispy, thin crust, like the pizzas I ate in Italy
• 
  

To help satisfy my cravings for pizza until my next trip to Italy, I am going to make a low-carb pizza with a cauliflower crust this weekend. I discovered this recipe on Rebekah's other blog, Cupcake Caramel, and have been wanting to make it for months. 

English muffins, crumpets, and croissants are reserved for very special occasions. When I do indulge in one, it must be the very best I can locate. 

The only decent croissants in Sonoma County can be found
at Downtown Bakery and Creamery in Healdsburg 
and Chloe's. 

Like Rebekah said, most alcohol is low-carb, but your body burns alcohol off first before burning carbs and fat, thereby interrupting and stalling your weight loss. Having said that, I do enjoy a glass of champagne or wine a couple times per week. It's my treat of choice. 

What are your greatest food challenges when it comes to low-carb living?

Rebekah and Adrienne