Slightly pickled...

Yes, I know, it has been a whole month since I posted last.  I've been busy!  I've been working mostly from my sister's house trying to watch her kids and mine and do my work at the same time.  Money saving, to be sure, but nerve wracking as well.

Anyway, I've been doing really well.  I bought jeans yesterday a size smaller!  Yay!  They are a tad tight but at the rate I am going they should feel great before long.

I am into my fourth month of eating essentially carb free.  I thought I would get tired of it by now so therefore, commencing to eat a loaf of bread or a pie or something but not so!  I am treating it like I would alcoholism or an extreme food allergy.  I can't just have a little, I can't have any at all.  That strategy seems to be working for me so I am going with it.

One of the most difficult issues for me is still snacking.  Sure, I can have cheeses and salami, etc. but they are high in fat.  Chips are right out.  Vegetables and dips are good but you have to be careful about the dips, that they are not too high in fat.  I have spoken before about pickles.  Pickles are good.  Pickles are tasty and spicy and satisfying. Pickles have no fat.  Although some pickles contain sugar!  Yes!  Demon sugar.  Not good.

I love bread and butter pickles, you know, the sweet cucumber slices that taste so awesome on sandwiches.  Unfortunately those kind of pickles are loaded with sugar so I set out to find a way to make some at home that were just as tasty but not so carb heavy.  I tweaked the recipe some to add some additional vegetables and the Splenda.  I don't remember where I found the original recipe so I will send some "I'm sorry" vibes out to the internet.  If I could remember, I would credit you, oh writer of easy and delicious pickle recipes.

Bread and Butter Mixed Vegetable Pickles

3 kirby cucumbers (about 1 lb.), trimmed and thickly sliced
1 small yellow or red onion, thinly sliced
1 small head cauliflower, broken into florets
4 small carrots, quartered then cut into 3" lengths
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 1/4 cups white wine vinegar
1 1/4 cups Splenda
3 tsp. mustard seeds
3 tsp. celery seeds
1 tsp. ground turmeric

1. Put cucumbers, onions, carrots, cauliflower and salt into a large bowl and toss well. Add 3 cups ice cubes, cover bowl with plastic wrap, stir occasionally and refrigerate overnight.

2. Drain cucumbers and onions well, discarding the salty water; set aside.
Put vinegar, Splenda, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and turmeric into a very large
pot, stir well, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the cucumber–
vegetable mixture and stir well. Allow liquid to return just to a boil.  Stir several times
about 5 minutes then remove pot from heat. Transfer pickles and their liquid to a
large, clean plastic container. Set aside to let cool to room temperature, then cover
and refrigerate overnight. Serve pickles the next day or store for up to 1 week.

Delicious!  You can eat these as much as you want and not feel guilty one bit.  I chop them up and put them into salads, put a heaping chopped pile onto a bowl of chili with my fat free Greek yogurt.  Of just eat them out of hand as a part of a deli tray.

Low carb does not mean snack-free.

Thank God.  Amen.

Working Girl

No, no, no, not THAT kind of working girl.  I am a wife, mother and a full time employee of a large, unwieldy corporation.  I know I haven't posted in a while but I've been busy.  Luckily for me, I work from home or as some call it "virtual office."  I wish I were "virtually working."  I still have meetings and deadlines and such but I take care of those things with the aid of a laptop and a cell phone, no cube-farm environment required.  This is both good and bad.

It is good because my schedule is a little more flexible.  I work on the west coast but my office is on the east coast.  I have only met my current boss once and he wasn't even my boss yet at the time.  The last time I was required to come into the office was 5 years ago.  I work in sweats and t-shirts, no shoes, no makeup.  I can kiss and hug my daughter goodbye before school and I can pick her up afterward.

It is bad because I am very close to my refrigerator.

When I am frustrated at work (often) many times I will turn to my refrigerator for comfort.  My refrigerator comforts me, it understands me, it loves me and feeds me.  (Is this too much information?)  Anyway, as we all know, I should not be so friendly with my refrigerator due to the "mad love" fallout that is currently my stomach and my ass.  Me and my refrigerator need to break up. 

So far, I have been making giant pots of soup and chili and curry to aid in my curing my heartbreak.  Unfortunately, some of that has come to an end.  While working from home I could carve out a half an hour to chop and dump ingredients into a big pot for simmering but I AM NOW A COMMUTER... well, sort of.  During the summer I am bringing my daughter to my sister's house.  I'll work from here while keeping an eye on her kids and mine to save us from child care costs.... but now I am far away from my new lover, my soup pot.

Now my soup/stew/curry making has to be relegated to Sunday afternoons.  I bought a bunch of single serving sized semi-disposable storage bowls so I can freeze my concoctions.  I've been bringing one over to my sister's every day.  Chicken wings.  Don't knock 'em.  Hot wings are not that high in calories and hot sauce has almost no fat at all.  About 6 wings is very filling and about 250-300 calories.  Cook up a big batch and freeze them (once cool) in freezer storage bags.  They take 20 minutes to re-heat in the oven or 5 minutes in the microwave.  Make the teriyaki sauce I used for my stir frys and use that on the wings for a change of pace.  There are also low-fat cheeses that come in handy 1 ounce sticks to be found in the dairy section of the grocery store. 

So, today, my point is... even if you can't be at home, all is not lost.  Just plan ahead.  I doubt my refrigerator even misses me.