Still on the Overnight Oats train?

Are you on the Overnight Oats train? I am! I love cold oats more than their warmed-up counterparts.

That shouldn’t surprise me, since I also prefer to drink iced coffee year-round–unless I have a hankering for a hot latte.

Most recently, I’ve been enjoying my version of Apple Pie Overnight Oats.

It starts with rolled oats, of course, along with almond milk and 2 teaspoons of chia seeds.

But the star of my breakfast is homemade cinnamon applesauce.

I had some aging honeycrisp apples in the fruit bowl, and rather than toss them in the trash, I opted to peel, core and roughly chop them.

They went into to crockpot with 2 teaspoons of water and about a cup of water. After they cooked all day — making the apartment smell fantastic– I mashed the apples with my potato masher.

Why not? The masher doesn’t see much action otherwise.

Voila…homemade applesauce. It’s delicious — and the perfect addition to my overnight oats.

Never looks like much, but take my word for it. Yum!

Scale-wise, things are still bouncing around. Lost 3.1 two Saturdays ago, then regained most of it last Saturday.

I weighed myself this morning and have managed to take some of it back off. Hopefully by this Saturday, I’ll be able to enter the 240s.

Fingers crossed!

I’ve decided September is going to be my month of tracking. I want to track my eats–honestly, rather than tracking breakfast and lunch and then not finishing dinner & snacks.

I can do it, as long as I take it one day at a time.

Return to Broccoli Crunch — and another loss

In my little corner of the world, today’s been a pretty good day. The sun was shining and temps were in the high 50s — I was able to walk outside this afternoon in my shirt sleeves.

Even better? I posted another loss this week … down another 1.8 pounds, for a total of 17.8 since recommitting to low-carb life on Jan. 1.

Sure, a 1.8-pound loss is the smallest loss I’ve seen since the re-start. I also freely admit to drinking more beverages laced with heavy cream than I probably should have this past week. I also picked up a bag of sugar-free peppermint patties.

Eating sugar-free junk food is something I haven’t done yet.Perhaps I should keep it that way — and I most likely will once the bag (and its companion Sugar-Free Reese’s PB cups) are gone. What can I say? They were 2 bags for $5 at Walgreen’s, and I was looking for something to buy to get cash back.

And I’m still struggling to get enough water, even with the snazzy new stainless-steel water bottle I snagged myself with a gift card from my former roommate.

I know low-carb eating is a long-term commitment. There will be weeks when I don’t see quite as much progress, and I need to accept that reality.

The good thing about eating this way is how easy it is. I’m not constantly thinking about my next meal; I’m full for HOURS; and I can whip up smoked sausage and eggs anytime for a quick low-carb meal or snack. Grocery shopping is easy, too: hit up the produce aisle for zucchini, mushrooms, cabbage, turnips and radishes and then head straight to the meat, eggs and cheese.

Bam — in and out in less than 30 minutes!

After my last quickie shopping trip, I resurrected one of my old favorite low-carb recipes: Broccoli Crunch Salad.

Broccoli Crunch Salad is delicious and relatively easy to put together.

The link takes you to my blog post with the recipe, but it’s so simple you really don’t need a recipe. Just chop a head of broccoli, cook up several slices of bacon (today I went with six) and mix 1 cup of mayo with 2 Tablespoons each of cider vinegar and Splenda for the dressing. Crumble the bacon, throw in a cup of shredded cheddar (sharp for me, please) and toss until coated. Then enjoy.

Yum!

Of course, if I were really ambitious, I’d make my own paleo mayo, using Mel Joulwan’s recipe. I’ve done it before, and it always turns out fantastic (and free of those crappy seed oils some experts say we need to avoid). It might be even easier now that I have an immersion blender. (Note the Sept. 15, 2015 update at the top of Mel’s post.) But I haven’t tried that yet, so I can’t say for sure.

This batch of Broccoli Crunch (like all the others I made while losing 110 pounds on Atkins the first time) was made with plain old Hellman’s mayonnaise. If my food’s going to kill me, the damage is most likely already done.

Recipe is up at The Chicklets

I promised a recipe for the green bean dinner I shared in a photo earlier this week. Well, it’s up at Chicklets in the Kitchen now. The Chicklets, you might recall, is the group blog I share with a bunch of author friends. Exciting things are happening over there.

Click on the photo to get to the recipe at Chicklets in the Kitchen. Bon appetit!