Diet Journey - Low Calorie Taco Salad

After a week of dieting I have lost 9 lbs and plan to keep on my healthy eating track.
I have cut out:
Refined Carbohydrates - Flour and Sugar
Starchy Vegetables
Root Vegetables
Fruits High in Sugar - Grapes, Bananas etc.
Chocolate
Deep Fried Foods
Pop

In sticking to a drastically reduced list of foods that I am eating, I have decided to post some of the creative ways that I am preparing a few basic foods.

100 g     Ground beef - cooked then rinsed in hot water to remove fat (198 Calories)
100 g     Iceberg lettuce (13 Calories)
1            Small roma tomato (13 Calories)
1 oz       Tacotime hot sauce (10 Calories, 0 g fat)
2            Melba toast (40 Calories)

Total - 274 Calories

Apple Pie

Pie Crust 

5 1/2 cups    Flour

3/4 tsp          Salt

1/2 tsp          Cream of Tarter

1 Tbsp          Powdered Milk

Sift Ingredients

Cut in 1 lb Lard

Add 8 - 10 oz Very Cold Water - Mix

Let sit for 20 minutes (a must)

Pumpkin Pie Filling

Thanksgiving Day Breakfast - Quiche

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups half-and-half cream
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup  Jarlsberg cheese, shredded
• 1/4  cup old cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell

You can also add: 

ham or bacon 

green onions

mushrooms, broccoli etc.

Be Creative

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (220 degrees C)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and half-and-half. Season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Place shredded Jarlsberg and cheddar in the pie shell. Pour egg mixture over cheese.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until crust is golden and filling is set. Allow to set 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Dill Pickles

Medallion Quilt

I started this quilt several years ago.  I was recently able to pull it out of storage after a few moves.  I will be working on it again to get it finished.






Because of my worsening arthritis, I will probably need to have it machine quilted when I am done.

Chokecherry Syrup

Ever since I was a young girl I have loved the flavour of chokecherry syrup.  We would often go and pick fruit - I think my dad thought it was safe to send us picking because the cherries were too bitter to eat and we would have lots of chokecherries in our buckets at the end of the picking.

Chokecherries are usually ready mid August to early September.  The chokecherry bush behind my fathers house was bare this year - the frost killed the blossoms in the spring.  We managed to locate some fruit further down in the coulies where the bushes were better protected from the elements.

After washing the berries and moving leaves and twigs, we boiled the fruit to soften and make it easier to mash to a pulp.

After mashing and removing the stones you add some water and boil a second time to get more of the precious juice.

When the juice is all collected you add sugar and heat it to a rolling boil.  After it thickens you add the juice to heated jars and sterilized lids and tighten the jar rings.  Within a half an hour you will hear the lids ping and pop, which is the best sound you can hear when canning.