Kirby's Culinary Crawl

This evening I was going to a function where everyone was bringing a covered dish and I was concerned there wouldn’t be any keto friendly food to be had.  So I decided to contribute, one to be hospitable and two to ensure I wouldn’t go off the rails with my food choices.

I rushed out of work, stopped to pick up a pack of chicken thighs and a variety of blocks of cheese to shred for the casserole and headed home to cook.  Well, the three dishes were a hit and needless to say there were no leftovers to be taken home.

So when all else fails, bring a dish you know you can eat so you can stay true to your new eating habits.  There is always a way…and here’s to discovering whatever that is for you.

Everytime I stroll the produce aisle I always get my steady Eddie items….zucchini, yellow squash, spring mix, spinach and tomatoes. Well upon my last visit to Walmart I picked up an artichoke and two heads of cauliflower. Jennifer had sent me a pic of some cauliflower with cheese and it piqued my interest. And then I remembered eating smashed cauliflower a couple of times and I really enjoyed it as a mashed potato substitute. So I found the most delicious recipe on pinterest provided by kalynskitchen.com for baked cauliflower and decided to give it a try tonight. I highly recommend you checking out her site for delicious healthy recipes. I know this won’t be the first I try from her site!

I love dishes with only a few ingredients and this one qualified for sure. Cauliflower, butter, fresh cracked pepper, fresh grated parmesan, fresh grated sharp cheddar and third of your choice, as long it melted well, to top it off.

I am over the moon for this dish! It’s like a healthy mac n cheese! And being that it’s just me, I have premade keto meals for lunch for a couple of days. Thank you for sharing this deliciousness with the world Kalyn Denny, we are all the better for it.

I accompanied my cheesy cauliflower with two grilled chicken thighs seasoned with my favorite rub. If you’ve been following this blog you know what that is, if not…you need to get busy catching up here.

Now living a keto lifestyle is not the only thing I’m doing to get healthy. I have been walking the Lake Murray Dam every night for the past four days. It is 3.3 miles over and back. Last time I went I actually ran some of it and I’m working up to running the entire thing but baby steps.

Now today I took a break from the dam and set out on a new adventure with my friend Jen. You see I went kayaking for the very first time a couple of weeks ago with Jen, being her sister was kind enough to let me use her kayak and today we were going again. The first time Jen took me out on Lake Murray where the water is still except for a wake or two created by a passing pontoon boat or jet ski. This time, being she gave me an A+ for my first time out, we went launched into the Saluda River. Yeah baby, this is going to be good!

We were out on the river for 4 1/2 hours! What an upper body workout! Instead of launching at the top of the river and going with the current back down Jen suggested we paddle upstream and then relax, get in some fishing and enjoy the ride back down. Well, I thought at several times my arms were going to give out. At one point we decided to get out and pull the kayaks along the shore because the current was just that strong. Eventually we passed the rapids and got to a calm part of the river to where I could fish and we could just really enjoy the beauty.

At one point we both got startled by a screech, which turned out to be a blue heron launching from the brush. We decided maybe we were near her nest so we continued on. Jen even saw a snake, which I do not have a picture of for obvious reasons.

Ahhhh… to be young and foolish

Well I didn’t end up catching any fish but what I did end up taking home was a wonderful memory of an awesome day spent on the river with a great friend. Here’s to living life to its fullest and making memories along the way.

I know that for me to loose weight and tone up diet alone won’t do it. I know this from past experience. Exercise is a must. So today I got myself reacquainted with my nemesis…the damn dam. You see I used to run the Dreher Shoals Dam a time ago prior to my surgery and now I have committed to walk the dam everyday after work. Notice I said walk. Baby steps folks…baby steps. To go over and back is 3.3 miles, which is a smidge more than a 5k. So you heard it here first people, I am committing to cross that dam everyday by foot.

Eventually I’ll get back to the point of running again but just for today I am okay with just walking. Now for what was on today’s menu.

Being I got out of work early today I didn’t have to rush through making lunch.  I did take my hard boiled egg along with my cuke, tomato, avacado and red onion to work with me but being I left early I decided to cook instead.

I decided to grab the 2nd rib eye out of the fridge along with a zucchini and on the grill they went.  Only seasoning them with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and of course Butt Rub for the steak.  For another side I tossed together cucumbers, tomato, avacado, a hard boiled egg and drizzled with Skinnygirl balsamic vinaigrette.

I still have to work on getting the whole breakfast thing down pat but I’ll get there.  This diet has been alot easier than I imagined.  I suppose when you are ready anything is easier.  Willingness is always the key…

Being eating on keto is very different than the way I used to eat  I had to make some changes to the inventory in my cabinet and refrigerator.  Hence the purge.

Most of the food in my apartment was processed, prepackaged and high carb/sugar stuff so it had to go.  The only thing I left in the fridge that I won’t be eating was a bottle of ketchup just is case company wanted some for a burger but everything else went.  I loaded up the bags, there were actually more than the two in the above picture, and brought them to my dad’s.  Just because I don’t eat it doesn’t mean it has to go to waste.

For lunch I decided on two hotdogs, sans the bun of course, with a pickle and a salad of spring mix, tomato, a garden fresh cucumber and an avocado drizzled with Skinnygirl sugar free balsamic vinaigrette, salt and pepper.

My sister had invited me over to grill out and asked me to stop at the grocery store to pick up burgers.  While walking the aisles I tried think of something for a side.  Normally I’d pick up a container of potato salad, some potato chips or a bag of frozen french fries.  What’s a newbie at keto supposed to do?  I headed right to the produce section and grabbed some asparagus, zucchini and tomatoes but avoided the corn due to it’s high carb content…lesson learned from yesterday.  Kelly had some provolone at the house already so I was set!

On a couple of keto recipes I noticed almond flour as an ingredient so I picked some up.  Looking forward to using it to create some crispy good eats.

My keto mentor Jennifer told me how important meal prep is when on keto and I have struggled with this aspect alot.  So I am breaking the cycle and beginning tonight with planning tomorrow’s lunch today.  I referred to one of my keto food lists, rummaged through my fridge and began to plan.  I hard boiled 4 eggs, 2 for tomorrow, for my protein.  Then I cut up some red onion, cukes and tomatoes and threw them in a Tupperware with some kalamata and manzanilla olives and drizzled them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper.  I left an avocado by my coffee pot so I don’t forget to put it in my lunch bag so I can add it to my tomato & cuke concoction.  I am very determined with my change of diet and it has improved my outlook on how I see myself and has cemented the goals I’d like to accomplish.  Just call me Keto Kirby from now on!  If it works work it…so I will😊

Well I certainly didn’t know that there are 35 net grams of carbs in one ear of corn!  I’ll take a half of ear from now on.

So I neglected to post my delicacies from yesterday so here they are…

Sooner or later I imagine bacon grease is going to start emitting from my pores but that doesn’t phase me one bit.  I love the smell of bacon almost as much as I love the smell of coffee.  Maybe I’ll patent a new cologne.  Let’s see, what should I call it?  I’ll have to think on that.  Back to the food!

After work I stopped at the Walmart to get three things…hairspray, makeup & shout stain remover.  Well $100 later I have a refrigerator full of awesome ingredients to prepare my keto healthy meals.  And yes, I actually remembered to get the three items I set out to the store to get!

I went all out and bought a two pack of rib eyes.  Threw one on the grill, but not before I seasoned that bad boy with some Butt Rub and olive oil and the other went in the fridge.  All for me!

But before that beautiful piece of meat went on the grill I prepared some sides to go with it.  First was Baked Zucchini Fries, which is a recipe I found on pinterest compliments of Downshiftology by Lisa Bryan.  I encourage you all to check out her site!  If you are wondering why there isn’t a photo of the finished product, that is because I didn’t fully follow the instructions.  I used aluminum foil because I didn’t have parchment and that was a big mistake.  Those zucchini stuck to the foil and I almost couldn’t pry them off!  A few “F” bombs later I shrugged my shoulders, wrote parchment paper on my ongoing shopping list on my fridge and carried on.

The ingredients in the left photo are for the lemon aioli dipping sauce.  Oh my…when I ran out of zucchini fries I started dipping my steak and anything else I could find in it being I was that good!

I sliced the cucumbers, diced up the tomato and drizzled them all with balsamic vinegar then added salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.  Threw those in the fridge with the dipping sauce and forged on.

There’s the culprit for those sneaky net carbs!  Corn.  I must say one thing that has been extremely beneficial to me by embarking of my keto journey, it is giving me an amazing education on the nutritional value of the foods I eat.

So there it is folks, the end result of my kitchen being blown up.  Don’t you just wish you could take a bite of the steak?  Or dip one of those scrumptious zucchini fries in the lemon aioli sauce?  It took alot of work but I had a blast cooking it.  And knowing that I made it from scratch, with all fresh ingredients, made having to clean that tore up kitchen all worth while.  Healthy eating everyone…you’ve only got this one body, treat it good.😉

If any of you out there have been keeping up with my blog you know two things.  First, I haven’t posted on here in over a year and second, I deal with an ongoing  struggle with my weight.  My good friend  Jennifer told me about keto and it intrigued me, although I didn’t know if I could commit fully to the entire lifestyle change.  But I am willing to try and willingness is the key to anything.

So I am going to try and incorporate the principles of keto to the best of my ability, coupled with a rigid walking regimen and kayaking with my other friend Jen, to see if I can’t get some weight off and tone this body of mine.  My “Jen” squad to the rescue!

I did an initial food shop today and also purged alot of “junk” that doesn’t work with what I’m attempting to do here.  Amongst the items in my grocery cart were as follows:

Avocados, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, tomatoes, lemons, organic almond butter, unsweetened cacao powder, coconut milk, fresh spinach, corn on the cob, zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, Skinnygirl sugar free balsamic vinaigrette, chia seeds, a block of parmesan cheese, bacon, pork chops, chicken thighs, pickles, uncured beef franks…and I think that about sums it up.  I already had some Stevia at the house so I didn’t have to pick that up.  I pinned a couple of keto smoothie recipes and downloaded a keto shopping list to keep me on track too.  Isn’t  the internet wonderful!  Well….for the most part it is but that’s a topic for another blog.

So let me share with you the first thing I prepared for dinner this evening…

Oh my…this omelet was to die for!  Definite foodgasm moment over here in Kirby’s Cafe!  The ingredients I used were some fried up bacon, fresh spinach (which I wilted in that magical liquid left behind by the bacon), fresh grated parmesan, tomatoes and garnished the top with diced avocados.  I paired it with a side of sliced avocados being I remember Jennifer telling me that avocados played a big part in what she ate.

I am very excited about this new journey to becoming the healthiest me possible, as well as for the fact that I have returned to putting pen to paper, or I should say thumb to key, blogging once again.  I hope you all haven’t forgotten about me…I look forward to sharing my life with you once again.  Trusting the journey…one day at a time.