Snacks...

Just a snacks hack. . I cut my quest bars up into little cubes. Keep track of quantity if you combine flavors.  And divide cubes into little snack packs.  They remind me of the various fruit or gummy snacks for their size, and you can eat them like a hard candy letting them dissolve in your mouth a bit. Overall, makes them last longer and you feel like you're eating more.

Kwicky Keto Kitchen

Ramblings on how to have quick meal prep, especially for those who don't like prepping much ahead of time!

Tools I have that I love (that I get that most people don't have, but find useful)

-A working but basic dehydrator
Recent uses: Dehydrate sauteed mushrooms, tomato, ginger slices, and anything else that always seems to either go bad, or that I run out of, that's a pain in the a$$ to always have on hand.
Also: dried red pepper is friggen amazing! It's keto version of licorice you never knew you loved! Dry in julienned strips. you won't regret it.

- a second hand Omega single masticating juicer - I love this thing
Recent uses: Grinding above mentioned dried mushrooms, tomatoes, ect, so that I have ready to use mushroom powder, tomato powder ect on hand, when my fridge is shamefully lacking. Also great for grinding your own nuts and seeds to make your own flours and seed crackers. Or, for making "ice cream" out of frozen raspberries, ices chips, mint leaves and whatever else your heart desires. If you're off keto, try a mix of frozen banana, berries, and shaved chocolate. you might hate me from hereon in.

-A soda stream for making my own carbonated water.

-A dutch oven bought during a  black Friday/boxing week sale from Canadian tire, on steep discount. It's sunshine yellow. I love it. Note on dutch ovens: review recommended getting one with "dimples" in the lid for good circulation of moisture. Double check to make sure the dimples are well coated with lacquer before lugging it home, especially if you take a bus, otherwise you'll ended up like me and cursing Murphy, and having to trudge out again in -20 weather to return a 10 lb dish because your pot will more likely fail and rust in the next few years due to the shoddy lacquer jobs. grumble grumble. Get one with lid-dimples. Otherwise moisture just drips down the inside, and doesn't work as hard at keeping your food succulent. 

Things I try to have prepped to make food making quick:

-frozen homemade chicken stock
-dehydrated and pulverized via omega juicer lots of things  (mushroom, tomato, in chuncks and pulverized)
- Pre-chopped frozen union chunks, "fresh" and  sauteed
-pre cooked, or at least pre-prepped frozen meat, often in fast-cook "crumbled" form, aka crumbled ground beef, turkey, cut up cooked sausage ect. I try to freeze "loose" food on a baking tray first, and then transfer to a freezer baggie or two. I try  at much as possible to make sure the food in bags does not clump to reduce sticking together, I try to lie bags flat and seperate food bits, to make it easier to use just what I want at a later time.

IE Breakfast:

The night before I put into a small glass mason jar:
-2 cracked eggs
-salt/pepper/garlic powder, or other spices/green onion as desired
- a bit of water

In the morning I plop a pat of butter in my frying pan, grab some pre-cooked meat-crumble from the freezer, take egg-mix jar from the fridge, give it a good shake, and throw everything into the pan on low-medium heat. I got to other am prep things, go back to the stove to give it a stir, go to other prep things, return, turn off heat, stire, and before I walk out the door , put the egg/sausage into a mason jar, and eat once at work. Quick breakfast!

Kylie's Kwicky Keto Kitchen #1 Cabbage Hamburger "chilie"

Allo allo.
So. Diving slowly back in. The last two days I've mainly stayed in the "keto safe" food area, however I havn't been couting, and honestly the first two days I cheated as I still had desirable lying around. But.. at the very least, last night I flushed the last of 3 peppermint chocolate bark squared down the toilet, this from the person who despises letting decent food be tossed.

So: KKKK recipe update:

Ingredients:
Disclaimer, I don't really measure, I just pour. So. Do what you think will be good.

Into the pot goes:
@ Medium heat:
- 1 medium freezer baggie of homemade chicken soup stock ( I make about 3/4 full in freezer baggies, then lie flat. Makes it quick to thaw/remove later. I removed from freezer, ran under hot water a few seconds until I could break it up with my hands, then threw in the pot to melt.)
-various herbs and spices as you see fit (salt/pepper, dried red pepper bits, dried ground sauteed cremini mushrooms, onion powder, garlic powder, and defrosted, pulled into bits hamburger defrosted raw ground hamburger pattie.
-Once there's no read meat left, reduce head.

- add .5 - 1 full bag of  bagged coleslaw/cabbage salad mix ( I used 3/4)
-shredded geriatric cheese. Okay. 2 year old Balderson in this case. But only once the meat is cooked, on lower heat. If the cheese gets too hot, it'll clump. But hey, if that's your thing. Amount to preference, I would say mine had about 1/4 cup.
A bit  more water if you like.

Let it simmer as you please. I try to stop the heat when veggies are still medium firm, so they don't mush on re-heat. You didn't think I was making just one meal did you?!

Voila! I think this is something akin to a chunky chili, sans carbo-beans.

Time: Uhm.. I should have paid more attention. Short enough that I wasn't annoyed at being in my kitchen. 12 minutes or so for assemblage, and then let simmer for 10 odd minutes and turn heat off. I shredded the cheese while the bits of ground hamburger were cooking.

Keto Foods: Bacon Walnut Brussel Sprouts

Figuring out what I can stand to take the time to cook, and then to eat... is a massive part of my challenge. I'm the size I am for a reason: Cereal, grilled cheese or KD for dinner? One Pot? Simple? Yes please!

I'm very rearely allowed to buy cereal any more. Because it WILL be gone in 2 days. Maybe.

So: Most recent:

Heat pan, but bacon fat from fridge into pan. As needed.
Get brussel sprouts. Rince, cut off the ends, and chop in half. Add to pan.
Salt / Pepper
chopped garlic
Once sprouts are nicely caramelized on one side, flip, and add handful of walnut pieces
Cook until slightly soft. Never mush your vegetables! Should be tender, not squishy!
If preparing for leftovers, remove a portion now, so wont much on reheat.

Optional add ons:
- Parmesan cheese
-blue cheese
-whatever the hell else you want
-Onions/caramelized onions
- bacon bits

It's so delish it's become an easy go to!

Book List

Books, sites, and other things I find useful:

Weight loss/goals tracking journal:
I looked high and low before finally finding the perfect journal: It's small and purse sized, has a two day spread for each day, and doesn't follow any particular restrictions. it comes with stickers, and a weighloss tracking chart grid that is a lot of fun to use!
The Ultimate Pocket Diet Journal  - Alex Lluch.

Keto/weight loss/food or Recipes:

http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/

Brains: 

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - by Norman Doidge 

Self emotional healing books: 

Tapping into success
The Dark side of the light chasers

Virtual places I like: 

www.pepperplate.com -- best online storage for the recipes you come across

Keto-focused

With recent reading I've learned:

- Your brain is very much malleable and can be reshaped/trained to work in new ways

- Sugar and glucose have the same effect on your brain and body as cocaine and alcohol, you can very easily be addicted to sugar. 

-Ever food/beverage producer in the world knows this, and so makes their products as addictive as possible

- The health pyramid is a fraud: and they care dick all for your health.. it's just your dollars they want. Basically, nearly everything they say is a lie. Instead of taglines like "How to eat healthy"... they should reaveal their plans to be: "How to stay addicted to foods and develop diabetes". If you're here.. you might already know.. grains of any type convert to sugar/glucose/make you addicted/fuck up your system. Avoid them. If you want change in your life. 

So... With this in mind.. forward onto owning my body... and kicking all the ill-meaning corporations out of it. 

I have joined a group on Facebook .. Keto for weight-loss. I am seeing remarkable results from these people in very short time periods! So... to battle my friends! 

Is it safe?

Is it safe to come out??? I've been hiding over here.. behind my pillar of shame...
I havn't really been couting or tracking or.. anything.. since my last post. Though I was amazed, and thankfull, a few days ago when I steped on the scale and found my body had been kind to me.. and stayed a low weight. But then I've been bad these past two week.. food wise... time to get back on the band wagon. I'm not beating myself up though..I know this is how it goes for me. If I had a "no derailments allowed".. I'd never make it to where I want to be.

So.. I've put up a goal board.. it has some pictures of sexy bodies. I honestly thought those images would help me out more.. but so far.. it's kinda dissapointing. Oh well. I've started playing roller derby.. or more to the fact.. learing how to be a ref for roller derby. Actually derby sounds far too dangerous... all I read about are torn ligaments with cadaver grafts, or metal pins having to be inserted into bones... um... NO THANKS!! I'll get a T-Shrt that says WUSS!!! and proudly wear it.. and stick to being a ref. Besides.. the refs apparently have to learn to skate better than the players.. so there's some pride in that. And apparently the refs skate as much, or more, than the players.. it's non stop motion. HF. said he lost 40lbs in the first 18 months he was reffing. I 'm so psyched! And from what I've done so far.. skating.. learning to skate, is more fun that exercise... so.. sk8on!! In my area, I seem to have 4 nights of opportunity. The other bonus is, refs are always in demand and float about the leagues.. and it's free.. which I'm very happy about in my current situation.. I don't have $50 a month for it right now otherwise. It also counts as volunteer work.. sweet!So.. free skating lessons, free gym/social club, what's not to love!? There's a lot to love, that for sure. I'll admit it. I was totally drawn in by the outfits and the attitudes. I saw it.. I wanted to be it. Simple as that. Though I definitely need to take better care of my body... I need to really start doing yoga, and stretches. I need to be taking health supplements for ligaments and between the bones joiner materials. And I need to do a better job of cutting out gluten. I tried making a gluten free bread tonight. I didn't have olive oil, so the  net told me i could sub equal amounts of apple sause, same with coco flour for xanthum gum. The batter was a liquid in the pan, when it's suppose to be like muffin batter. I added more flour, and I should have added another egg. It crumbled right apart... there's no chance of slicing it. damn. didn't stop me from frying crumnbs in not soy butter and making myself a grills soy-cheese sandwhich! Tasted not too bad.

Tommorow, I need to hit up a grocery store. And re invigorate myself with healthy recipies, and buy a steamer. Food has been pretty gross lately.. time to change. BTW.. my derby number is eitehr 126 , 128, or 12X, as a weight goal!