Faux Noodles and Rice

Sometimes low-carbing is hard. When I was working in an office it was much easier to organize myself - make lunch the night before, have dinner thought out in advance and make a nice quick fried egg for breakfast.

Now that I'm back working in a restaurant, it's hard to keep myself on track. I still have to remember to eat healthy and have at least 3 meals a day. My biggest issue is that I forget to eat breakfast and then don't eat anything until about 2:30, and have dinner at 5:30. Which makes my body starve all day and then in 3 hour span get all the nutrients for the whole day.

So for breakfast I bought some sugar-free yogurt, and make sure to keep eggs stocked up.

As for dinner, we all miss rice and pasta sometimes so here are two super easy recipes that help take the cravings away:

Faux Rice

1/2 head cauliflower
Soy sauce

You can use a food processor if you'd like, but I normally just use a cheese grater

-Grate (or process) the cauliflower so that it is very small - the size of rice
-Microwave it in a covered dish with NO water (cauliflower retains enough water that it will steam itself) for 3-5 minutes or until it's fluffy and tender.

You can use it at this point as a substitute for rice (it's great with butter chicken or any rich sauce)

I like to fry it up with a bit of soy sauce to add flavor and eat it with steamed green beans and Korean beef (I'll post that recipe one day too)

Zucchini Noodles

2-3 medium zucchinis
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic
Salt & Pepper (to taste)

1. Cut off the two ends
2. Using a sharp vegetable peeler (or if you have it, a mandolin) peel the zucchini lengthwise to form long ribbons, continue turning and peeling until you get to the seedy inside. I normally chop up this part and use it in the sauce
3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the garlic. Saute until fragrant (2 minutes)
4. Add the zucchini noodles and gently toss with salt and pepper. Heat for about 3-5 minutes, until the noodles are tender.
5. Serve with your favorite pasta sauce! I love Alfredo with chicken, red onion and mushrooms or a nice red sauce with meatballs.

These two items have become low-carb staples for me!

Yummy, Healthy "Pizza"

Hey neglected weight-loss blog!

I'm still doing the Suzanne Somers plan - although I'm not super strict, I like to keep it up more as maintenance, I tend to gain about 10 pounds every winter and using this diet, lose the same every spring. I'm not sure if that's completely healthy but I don't think it's too bad.

My younger sister is getting married this summer so my mom has decided to join me. So far she has lost about 30 pounds (in the last 3 1/2 months) and I think wants to lose about 20-30 more.

I've lost about 12 and am aiming for probably 5-10 more pounds. Like I said, I'm not super strict like my mom is so this suits me perfectly.

On to the recipes:

Low-Carb Pizza

Crust:

6 oz Cream Cheese (room temperature) or creamy Goat Cheese
4-6 Eggs (4 = thinner crust, 6 = deeper dish crust)
2 tsp Italian Seasoning (or oregano, basil and rosemary)
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 cup Mozzarella, Parmesan (or your favorite blend of cheeses, 1/2 hard)
Black Pepper, to taste

Toppings (use your favorite pizza toppings, mine are below):

Tomato Sauce (Classico has the least sugar of commercial brands)

Zucchini
Mushrooms
Onion
Bacon


1. Using a food processor (or blender) mix together the cream cheese and eggs until smooth

2. Add the spices and blend again

3. Spread the remaining cheeses (Mozzarella, Parmesan, Asiago or those Italian 4-cheese blends work well) on the bottom of a well greased 9X13 pan. Pour the egg mixture over top

4. Bake for 22-25 minutes until the top is nicely browned. You may need to adjust the timing depending on how crisp you like your crust and whether you used 4 or 6 eggs. Just keep an eye on it when you hit the 20 minute mark.

5. While the pizza "dough" is baking, saute the other ingredients until crisp-tender

6. Take the crust out of the oven. Spread a generous amount of pizza sauce and all your favorite toppings.

7. Bake for another 10-15 minutes and enjoy!

This makes a doughy, cheesy crust so I never add cheese on the top of the pizza.