Lunch (4:30pm): 8.40 oz asparagus with 15 grams butter. Then 4.09 oz (raw weight) 80/20 ground beef cooked with 3.21 oz celery, 6.00 oz sliced mushrooms and mixed with 1.62 oz sour cream.
This was the most delicious meal I have fixed since I have started this diet. It was amazing. I cooked the asparagus by putting it in a bowl with about 1/4 cup of water and steaming it in the microwave (with a plate on top) for about 5 minutes. Then I added the butter when I plated it. The hamburger, celery, mushroom, sour cream combo was also very very very good. This meal came out to 612 calories, 46.0 g fat, 19.5 (-8.2 grams fiber) = 11.3 grams NET carbs, and 32.6 grams protein. Fabulous stats and soooo tasty.
We went to the store this afternoon. We got 67 lbs of boneless pork shoulder ($0.99 per pound!!) that I am going to make homemade sausage out of. Store bought sausage always gives me a stomach ache from the nitrates. So this will be a lot cheaper and a lot healthier. I got a 2.5 lb package of mushrooms for $5.49!! and asparagus for $0.99 per pound! (I have never got it that cheap in my whole life)! I also got a head of cauliflower for $1.29. So I am set for a while with great veggies and I LOVE it when we can stock up on meat for a cheap price. I have a meat grinder and so we are going to grind the pork shoulder up with it and package it in individual quart freezer bags. If you don't have a stand alone freezer, you should think about buying one. We bought one off of Craigslist for about $80. It paid for itself very quickly. We buy a lot of a meat any time we find a great sale and package it up into single meal sizes (there is just my husband and me). At any given time we normally have 50-80 lbs of beef hamburger, 20-30 pounds of chicken, 20-30 pounds of pork (shoulder, steaks, bacon, sausage, etc) and 4-5 pounds of beef steak. Beef steak is the hardest thing for us to find on a good sale. I am hoping that on father's day we can really hit the beef steak sales, as most stores seem to think everyone grills in the backyard for father's day. Right now though, I am very happy to make my veggie meat (that I eat almost every day) with either hamburger or chicken. I think making them with sausage will be a nice combo as well. Two years ago, I did a zero carb diet (all meat diet) for 50 days. During that time I ate a ton of beef steak and kinda got burned out on it. So it's not a big deal for me now to make my veggie meat mixes with a cheaper cut of meat. This way of eating doesn't need to be any more expensive than the standard american diet (SAD) if you shop sales and plan your meals. I think a family of 4 or 5 could eat just as cheaply as a SAD eating family if they use a freezer and buy a lot of in season low carb vegetables. Maybe my veggie-meat mixes don't appeal to most people though. I don't know. To me, they are quite delicious and by adding different combos of veggies and different meats I come up with a lot of different variations. Mainly though, after eating them, I feel happily full, but never feel gross full.
A lot of people complain that Atkins or low carb or whatever is too based on meat, but I think you can see from my food logs that it actually isn't any more meat. It a lot more veggies than I normally eat and a lot more sour cream and heavy cream. About the same amount of cheese as I used to eat, I think. More nuts than I used to eat. (We got salted roasted cashew (pieces) today at our local store that has bulk bins for $2.88 per pound).
My husband and I live a very frugal, modest lifestyle and we can really keep our food costs down by buying in bulk and repackaging. We also bought a 5 pound bag of shredded cheddar/mozzarella blend today. We split that up as well into 4 (1) quart freezer bags. Cheese freezes well, if you push all the air out of the freezer bag before you freeze it that you can and then temper it in the refrigerator before you want to use it. The 5 pound bag of cheese was $12.54. If you have never purchased food at a restaurant supply, or felt that your family was too small to buy in bulk, you should reconsider. =)
Dinner (7:15pm): 3.99 oz (raw weight) 80/20 ground beef cooked with 2.93 oz celery, 6.00 oz mushrooms and then mixed with 1.62 oz sour cream, salt and pepper to taste.
Daily totals:
1,029 calories, 78.7 grams fat, 26.7 grams (-10.3 grams fiber) = 16.4 grams NET carbs, 56.6 grams protein
68%f, 10%c, 22%p
I took a Melatonin tonight to see if it would help me get back onto a normal sleeping schedule (it's 7:22pm now).
I also wanted to say again how helpful celery can be for bulking up your LCHF meals with very little carb cost. I throw it in with the raw meat and slice it as thin as I can, so it can get nice and tender. When cooked like that, it doesn't add the crunchy stringy aspect you tend to think about with celery. It's not too different than cabbage when cooked like that.
Daily Totals:
