Atkins Day 14 - The Final Day of 2 Weeks of Inspiring Induction Meals! Ends With (da da duhhhhhh) Crack Slaw!

Jambalaya Crack Slaw is a twist on normal
Crack Slaw made with ground beef. Jambalaya Crack
Slaw features chicken, sausage and shrimp.

Unless you were just dropped off the turnip truck last week, you’ve heard about Crack Slaw. Heck, maybe you’ve even made it. The recipe is legion and has been flying around the low carb world as long as I’ve been around (over 14 years) and maybe longer.

It’s an unlikely recipe for such fame. It’s simple food. Maybe even peasant food. But it has the 3 mysterious components that when combined, goes viral with enthusiasm: cheap, easy, delicious. That’s it.

Atkins Induction Day 11 - A Newbie's Guide to Meal Planning!

Well whaddayaknow! We DO eat salads during Atkins Induction!

When you first start out on Atkins Induction, meal planning may feel daunting. How do you count carbs? How do you know you won’t run out too soon? How do you know WHAT to eat!? Oh my! Intimidating! You only have 20g of Net Carbs during Atkins Induction? As I’ve demonstrated on my fasting days (not part of Atkins Induction), it’s easy to eat 20g of net carbs in a single meal! The CHALLENGE is figuring out how to spread those carbs over an entire day – 3 meals and possibly snacks if you need them!

Venison Meatloaf Makes a Great Atkins Induction Dinner!

Venison Meatloaf - a GREAT Atkins Induction Meal

I love windfalls. Completely unexpected, we were blessed this week with a windfall of epic proportions! A friend brought us a package of ground venison, some venison backstrap, and wild boar steaks along with a bit of venison sausage. I couldn’t believe our good fortune! You see, we grew up with hunter-gather daddy who loved to hunt and fish. Most of our meat was shot, caught, or wrestled to the ground with pure skill and cunning! And Dad was feeding a family with 2 growing boy, plus 3 daughters with healthy appetites, in addition to Mom and WaWa (Dad’s mama). So that was no easy feat to bag enough wild game for that size a family. But he did it. Successfully!

Kitchen Sink Chile Rellenos - Low Carb Tex-Mex Goodness

Hard to believe Chile Rellenos are Low Carb

Low Carb Oven - Roasted Kitchen Sink Chile Rellenos
taste perfectly sinful!

Well kiddy troopers, I solved the dilemma of which comes first the Asian Dino Wing or Kitchen Sink Chile Rellenos by publishing these two post simultaneously! Crafty!

I will try to get back to post more images on how to make these, but I’m pretty pressed for time right now. It’s likely you will not see me much over the next couple of weeks. I’m having the first of 3 to 4 reconstructive surgeries starting next Tuesday. The first surgery will be a big one at somewhere around 7-8 hours long. They will be taking 2 muscles from my shoulders and implanting them into my chest wall so that there is living muscle capable of holding up my implants. I don’t have any muscles left cuz they took it all

Yes, Virginia, You Do Eat Veggies On a Low Carb Diet

Summertime Tomatoes Shine In This Easy Caprese Appetizer Bites Recipe

Caprese Appetizer Bites make a quick
and delicious low carb appetizer!

I always get a chuckle from some of the assumptions made about low carb living. One of the biggest gross generalities about low carbers is that we don't eat any veggies and that we eat SO much protein. People always want to know whether or not I eat veggies at all…and don’t get me started about the questions that usually begin with, “How can you eat all that fat?”

The irony is that I eat way more veggies on a low carb diet than I ever did eating SAD (Standard American Diet). And summertime with its vegetable bounty is one of my favorite seasons. Honest, this is straight from the mouth of a low carber!

*the crowd makes a collective gasp and swoons*

And tomatoes, a summertime superstar, offer great options for quick and easy recipes! From salads to ingredients in main dishes and veggie side dishes, tomatoes brighten the summertime plate. Every spring, my blood starts pumping as I plan recipes highlighting the new tomato season.

I’m going to focus the next couple of posts on quick and easy vegetable dishes that feature some of the summer’s brightest stars, and why not kick this off with the beloved tomato? I want to illustrate that our low carb lifestyle isn’t all about the meat, although it’s lovely to fearlessly chow down

Okra and Tomatoes a Southerner's Summer Love

A Song of The South...the sweet lure of gumbo and okra 'n' 'maters.

Okra and Tomatoes - a summer Southern Classic!

“Are you a complete idiot?”

“No!” I replied with reason.

“You must be!”

“Why do you say that? That’s harsh,” I continued.

“Because you must be a moron to drive your readers away like you are.”

I instructed, “You shouldn’t end a sentence with “are”. There are better sentence structures.”

“Ok, let me rephrase this for you,” the heckler continued. “Because you must be a moron to drive your readers away like you are, dumbass.”

Oven Fried Green Tomatoes a Low Carb Summer Sensation

Tomatoes Make June Heat Waves in Texas Totally Worth It!

Low Carb and Paleo Friendly to many, Oven Fried Green
Tomatoes make a great side for Barbequed Pulled Pork and
Coleslaw!

Summertime and the livin’ is easy! Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high.

June in Texas is more than Gershwin tunes and tall cotton! June means triple digit thermometer readings. On the Gulf Coast, June means the hurricane watch begins and will continue into September. But June, means something else in Texas.

June means tomato season busts wide open and between now and about mid-July, it isn’t rainin’ men (thank you to The Weather Girls for helping me continue my musical theme), heck, it isn’t rainin’ much of anything. Texas is in a drought, you know!

Nah, I think this song best describes the affinity I feel towards homegrown tomatoes. Wish I could embed the video but maybe you'll go listen to the link. Apparently there are others who feel as I do! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-QzLIjL1u4 (Homegrown Tomatoes by Guy Clark).

Texas Chicken Pizzaiolo - It's Texan, Low Carb and Paleo! Yeehaw!

Oh Texas Chicken Pizzaiolo How I love Thee. You Paragon of Leftovers Complete Me!

As I mentioned in the Armadillo Egg post, this is a love story devoted to leftovers.

Texas Chicken Pizzaiolo will never give your secret away.
No one will ever call you the Leftover Queen!

Texas Chicken Pizzaiolo translates to the Pizza Maker’s Chicken – Texas Style! Why do I call it Texas Style? Well because there are big honking jalapenos and goat cheese involved and jalapenos and goat “anything” is almost synonymous with Texas. Look up Texas on Wikipedia. You’ll see a goat and a big honking jalapeno. Would I lie to you?

Texas Chicken Pizzaiolo really translates into a marriage between three leftovers and cheese – the lovely cheese - that scrumptious cement that binds. Armadillo Eggs, Roasted Tomatoes (recipe follows), and Pizza Sauce (recipe follows) layer to make a breathtaking entrée that will never resemble leftovers. In fact, you will love it so much, it might take the place of Chicken Parmigiana!

Tomato Feta Stack and Mustard Glazed Salmon

Day 12 - 2Week Atkins Induction


Dr. Seussesque Tomato Feta Stack with
Mustard Glazed Salmon

Thanks for being patient. I took yesterday off, blog-free. I needed to rest and refuel my engines! But never fear, I still remained a sturdy and stauch Inductioneer. I’m on the downhill side of the most restrictive period of Atkins Induction (and also Phase I of South Beach).

This post is actually about Friday’s nutrition and menus. It was another Fasting Meatless Friday – always a challenge in a home headed by a meat-and-taters guy, and 5 sock monkey boys who also think meat and potatoes (and bananas) hung the moon. No, I can’t forget the bananas for the boys. They have them at every meal and

I Want To Be A Vegetarian When I Grow Up Cuz I Love Working With Animals So Much!

Vegetarian Yellow Squash Tomato Bake - an efficient use
of leftover Grilled Veggies

Quick Meatless Yellow Squash and Tomato Bake Hits The Spot

Calling all Southern vegetarians! Heck, you don’t even have to be vegetarian. Or Southern. I won’t tell. And I won’t even ask if you’re Catholic and eating Fluffy Chix’s Yellow Squash and Tomato Bake on a day other than Friday. It’s just that good!

Hey but who knows where the title came from? Write in the comments if you remember that line! (Hint: It was said by a blonde bombshell on tv...)

Remember the 60s and 70s when we still thought parmesan cheese only came in a green can and was pronounced par-meee-seee-an cheese? (Déjà vu, yes, I’ve said that before…more than once – see? You WERE listening!) I was part of the group

Roasted Vegetable Marinara Sauce

Give BPA the boot! Vote With Your Pocket Book!



Roasted Vegetable Marinara ready for use with vegetable lasagna!

I developed the recipe for Roasted Vegetable Marinara due to my abject fear of continuing my Bisphenol A (BPA) habit.

Yeah I didn’t even know I had a BPA habit. I guess loving canned tomatoes like nobody’s business and loving the convenience of canned soups and boxed broths and the occasional mushy canned green bean cooked for hours in bacon and onions means I’ve been going steady with BPA my entire life. Especially since my mom loved these same foods and ate them while she was preggers with me. That’s not a good thing.

You can read more about BPA here in the Fluffy Chix Talk Nutrition area. I won’t bore you here.

All I will say is…can you say, “Hello breast cancer? It’s me Susie. Not happy to meet you!” *wah* *hic*

Fancy Pants Swiss Chard With Sun Dried Tomatoes, Pine Nuts and Garlic

Swiss Chard – An Anti-Cancer Rock Star

Find Printable Recipe Here

Few people south of the Mason Dixon can claim ignorance about “greens.” No, I don’t mean salad greens either. Salad greens = Iceberg Lettuce back in the day. We might see an occasional curly or red leaf lettuce but that was only after Mama and Daddy got
 

Spicy Sambal Spinach

My Spinach Does The Sambal – Can Yours?

I See Dancing Spinach

Find Printable Recipe Here 

Sometimes spicy spinach is the only thing between you and insanity. I mean it. Some days are completely nuts here and just when you’re about to lose it, you happen to glance over at your sauté pan and see your garlic doing the tango and you spinach doing the sambal! Oelek that is. Sambal Oelek.

Quickly now.

Repeat after me. Sambal Oelek.

Now rush to look in your ice box (fridge by any other name).

Wha? What? Don’t see it? Horrors!

Don't panic! OK?