So...whats for dinner?

I learned "composed salad" from Susan. The brisket sandwich tasted good last night and dh enjoyed his meatloaf dinner.

Tonight will be baby back ribs. I plan to tenderize them in the slow cooker.

I miss Susan too--every time I read of bed & breakfasts, I think of her.

Sun. night I gathered & reheated leftovers: ribs, steak, branzino, mac & cheese, collard greens; I also made a cherry-tomato Caprese over arugula. Our tomatoes are ripening faster than we can use them--except for one green one that fell off into my hand when picking a red one; will likely wait another week and if it stays green then slice & dip it in beaten egg and almond flour and pan-fry it with a little remoulade on top.

Last night I had a small Chilean sea bass filet I had to use up, so I jury-rigged a little pan out of tinfoil and grapeseed-oiled it. S&P on the "pan" and atop the fish, baked on the gas grill along with grilled eggplant slices (S&P, EVOO and herbes de Provence) and blistered shishito peppers. Dessert was nuts & berries, with a square of 78% dark chocolate (no artificial sweeteners so no unwanted consequences). Tonight if Bob is working late again I will either nuke chicken wings or grill a hot dog or brat with sauerkraut on a keto bun. Because I had a 1pm ocular onc appt. (all is well) and stopped eating at 11 pm last night (had brunch at 3 yesterday), I didn't eat today till I got home at 4pm: low-carb "everything" bagel with cream cheese, lox, tomato, red onion, dill & capers. Since we're going to a special 1pm lunch tomorrow (which, because it's a set French menu, will involve cheating), I have to be done eating tonight by 9-ish, unless I don't mind having a fast tomorrow of only 13-14 hrs. or so.

Eric - is your MIL going to live with you? Or in a separate house/apartment?

Dinner was leftover creamy orzo/asparagus/mushrooms - with extra sauteed mushrooms to use them up. And for "afters" - Godiva chocolate pudding made with heavy cream & Tia Maria added to the milk. Yum!!!

I've made chicken that way, Reader and it has always turned out well. The dutch oven is perfect for this.

We converted what would have been the garage into a MIL suite. It turned out very well.

And, to make up for the lack of a garage, we are having a detached built--one large enough for the truck/cars/hobbies. The concrete work is done, so now it's just waiting until the concrete hardens enough before continuing.

I’m in a chicken and fish “rut”. Monday was chicken cutlet with apricot, lemon and sumac with roast veggies and Bulgar wheat. Yesterday was Barramundi with roasted and stuffed mushrooms. I stuffed the mushrooms with quinoa, carmelized onion, garlic, mushroom, toasted Panko, thyme and parsley (I made too much toasted Panko when I stuffed the pork loin.). Today we had Branzino with a lime, parsley and grilled pineapple sauce with leftover mushrooms and quinoa. I made a Caprese salad since we need to eat the tomatoes before they go bad.

For dessert, we split a Heavenfull stroopwaffle ice cream sandwich that DH picked up at Costco yesterday. OMG is that good!

reader425, I hope Noom is helpful for you. I also use the app and am focused on maintenance and health after losing 34 pounds. I could lose more weight but I’m no longer trying to speed up the process, so I still enjoy eating snacks and dessert. I’m not thin but I fit into all my clothes that I wore before I was diagnosed, so that’s a win. 🙂. I refuse to give up butter and cheese, but I do watch my portion sizes carefully.

I started a new medication yesterday and my throat feels a little better. I’m not having the headaches that I had with the Diflucan, but I’m still struggling to feel healthy. Cancer treatment is such a long process

Last night's dinner was chicken thighs cooked in the slow cooker with salsa and black beans, a version of Laurie's chicken salsa. Brown rice out of the freezer, a bit "gummy." Fresh beans, green and yellow, cooked with new potatoes. Condiments: grated cheese and sour cream.

Avocado toast & egg for brunch, with a handful of nuts afterward. For dinner, Bob brought home a Costco chicken. I made a tomato/basil/arugula salad with blood orange EVOO, balsamic (the Lucini cheaper stuff), and Sicilian orange sea salt; I also made sauteed garlic-ginger green beans with Monday's farmer's market find. Dessert was a ripe apricot and a square of Lindt 78% chocolate. Gordy came over today and I sent him home with some tomatoes for Leslie (he's not a tomato fan). Still have more ripening than I can use. Might make zoodles pomodoro tomorrow night with round two of the roast chicken, and either peppers (bell strips or blistered shishitos) or asparagus. Might do a veggie-provolone omelette for brunch tomorrow.

I made another zucchini casserole, tweaking the original recipe a bit more to my liking this time and it was muy declicioso! Even dh was impressed. The recipe calls for shredded sharp cheddar and I added more of it and less bread crumbs because last time the texture was a bit gritty. Great way to use up zucchini; it's all gone and I can't wait to make it again. I've had different zucchini concoctions with mozzarella cheese but now I am a convert to using cheddar; it adds a delicious zing to the dish.

This is the first year I grew roma tomatoes and now that they're all ripening, I made a batch of fresh salsa using a packet of salsa seasoning mix and chopped red onion. Yum-Oh!!!! It turned out great. It's a good way to use up an abundance of tomatoes as I cut up quite a few to make 4 cups. I loved the roma variety for the salsa and will definitely plant them again next year. The main reason I grew them (and when I say me I mean dh as he is the vegetable gardener) is to try to make bruschetta, something I most especially love. I haven't made it yet but maybe when the next crop of tomatoes turns red I will get to it.

I think the point of intermittent fasting (per my NP and a book whose author I forget) is to maximize the length of time you're not secreting insulin. But the idea of an 8-hr "eating window," during which time you should refrain as much as possible from eating in order to stop spiking insulin, sounds little better (and nearly as "deprivational") than 16 hours of eating nothing at all. I am not seeing results other than maintaining--and I am sure it's not the tomatoes. I will bring this up with the NP next month. Sure, eating even small amounts of whatever normal food I wanted, interspersed with going "back on the plan" eating keto-friendly foods, has had disastrous results--having to intermittent-fast is the only thing keeping me from those nighttime carb-cheat binges. But it's a vicious cycle: sure, the later in the day I have my first bite means the later I can set my "stop eating" time--but then it means I have to wait again the next day till it's been 16 hours.

However, eating early in the day and then stopping at 6 is not gonna work. I have to sleep late because not only are Bob's hours so unpredictable (his weekend schedule changes with the whims and religious observances of the doc with whom he shares call), he gets phone calls & pages all night long--they wake me up so I can wake him up to answer them. The only way I can get my 7-8 hrs. is to sleep in. And he shuns breakfast (nowhere to stop en route on his long 20+-mile commute when the gastro-colic reflex kicks in), so his first meal of the day is also lunch. Neither of us are particularly hungry till at least 7, more often 8pm--which is often the earliest I can make a reservation if we go out, traffic being what it is these days. My NP does not understand why I don't tell him "the hell with it, I will eat when I ought to" and not wait for him. Well, we didn't stay married 51 years by saying "my needs come first." He works hard and I don't.

Tonight we reheated more Costco chicken. I made "zoodles pomodoro" from the NYTimes' spaghetti pomodoro recipe (spiralized a yellow squash, squeezed out as much water as I could, and made a sauce from a dozen cherry tomatoes, EVOO, fresh garlic, a squirt of tomato paste for umami, butter and basil). It wan't the real thing but as a vegetable it was fine. The other veg was steamed asparagus tossed in lemon juice, EVOO and flake sea salt. Dessert was a 2 gm. net carb Halo Top ice cream bar. Its taste & texture is closer to the real thing than the brand's faux ice cream scooped from a pint; it''s enough to satisfy me and the erythritol does not spike my blood sugar nor have the unfortunate digestive side effects of the earlier-generation maltitol sweeteners. I do avoid aspartame & sucralose, though, because they fool the pancreas into squirting out insulin in anticipation of the sugar that never arrives to be burned or become glycogen--so the insulin helps the liver convert the food instead to fat which gets stored. And except for the small piece of baguette and a couple of macarons at Wednesday's luncheon, I have been avoiding sugar & starch.

Pure keto (with percentage "macros") doesn't work for me--it's simply not adapatable to the real world and social life. I accept the fact that I won't be going into ketosis, but with low-carb at least I am holding the line on further gain for now (lost a couple pounds this month, depending on time of day and what I'm wearing).

I never liked Splenda--things (especially beverages) sweetened with it tasted more of "sweetness" than the underlying flavors--sort of blunted the edges of the foods' tsstes. Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) let the flavors shine through. But it breaks down in heat & over time--as anyone who's opened a 6-month-old can of Diet Pepsi stored outside the fridge in summer will attest. (I had a singing partner who swore that to her it tasted like mold--but then again, that's how patchouli smells to me). Then there's Sweet & Low--I could always taste the saccharine's bitterness and the "blah-ness" of the stuff it was cut with to stretch it out; but my mom's generation adored it and insisted restaurants serve it. Erythritol tastes the closest to sugar, IMHO, and measures like it too. Lakanto foods (especially their "maple-oid" syrup, which tastes more like maple than does Log Cabin and is thicker than the "diet" syrups) are especially good. I do miss the neutral sweetness of good ol' liquid Sucaryl (cyclamate), though--it remained legal in Canada for years and I'd have friends smuggle me back a bottle.

Eric, the thought of having an oven on with temps like yours....OY. But YUM on the bread!

Nachos last night; I'm baking off some bacon as I type, before we hit the 70s, to make BLTs for tonight.

Seattle will hit a possible 90+ degrees again next week thursday (?)...that will tie them for 12 90+ days from 2012 (I think). Stupid climate change.

Went to see "The Everly Brothers" Great show by two guys about the brother's lives and of course, wonderful songs. Dinner was at Katz Deli. I had a NY Patty Melt. Excellent. The taste of the accompanying onion rings was good, but there was 20x too much breading. I couldn't find the onions,

Mae - great to see you. Hope your recurring treatments are going OK and you're proceeding with the Beach Bar - not to mention the house.

Too lazy to cook tonight. Went fishing and caught zip. Frozen pizza.

Not really hungry--slight headache from not drinking enough water and being out in the sun so long (long sleeves & jeans didn't help when the temp hit 80), plus the mile walk afterward to the bus stop--where we waited 20 minutes in the heat. Bus was extremely crowded, traffic awful--it was over an hour ride. That plus worry over my HK. I had a pretty large portion of brisket, and I'm not used to real (as opposed to keto-fake) carbs. Might have a salad or some sardines later.