Food Diary 🍽 Burger Stacks & Keto Pasta Hacks

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My weight is still dropping. Yay! I tried a few new things this week, and I cooked – for a change! lol Some of the new things I tried were “meh” and some were GREAT.

Here’s a photo tour of my low carb life this week…

I’ll just start right in the middle, because Wednesday’s meals were GREAT – that’s the one day that I cooked. 😉 I actually made two meals at once while I was up and in the kitchen. One was inspired by a Facebook Ad ha!, and I did NOT expect it to turn out as great as it did.

First BBQ Burger Stack with sautéed onions, sugar free bbq sauce & colby jack cheese.

I usually add spinach, but was going for quick & easy – and already had the onion sautéed and ready to use. I like to keep onions prepped in advance to add to omelets, sausage balls, chicken salad, my ham & egg scramble, etc.

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Speaking of Sausage Balls (that’s my original recipe), see this AMAZING version: Spinach & Onion Sausage Balls those are SO good!

The burgers were FABULOUS. I didn’t make a side this time, but a bag of frozen steamable broccoli is my go-to most of the time (you just microwave it right in the bag: steam & serve!) or you could throw together a side salad for a quick dinner too, as another option.

I made 1/3 pound patties, seasoned them a bit with a dash of this & that, added a bit of Guy’s Sugar Free BBQ Sauce to each side plus the sautéed onions – then topped them with cheese at the end. Easy!

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This is my original Low Carb Spinach Burger Recipe

BBQ Spinach Burgers Recipe

I used Guy’s Sugar Free BBQ Sauce – it’s keto friendly and delicious! The perfect combination of sweet & tangy.

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Perfect Keto is running a sale/promo on their Keto Mac & Cheese this week so while I had the meat out… I decided to make a low carb version of Hamburger Helper with that.

It turned out way better than I expected!

Mock Hamburger Helper (Keto Style)

The Perfect Keto Mac & Cheese gets mixed reviews, and a lot of people here in our group said they didn’t love it. But it did make a REALLY GOOD mock Hamburger Helper.

I added a little extra cream, the optional butter (always!) and pimento cheese. That plus ground beef & onions. About half pound of browned ground beef is perfect for this recipe.

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I had company. He DEVOURED it – plus a double BBQ burger. I had one burger patty and a small helping of the burger-mac. There were NO leftovers lol – always a high compliment, right?

I used ground beef & onion browned together + pimento cheese, butter & cream…

I used the Perfect Keto Yellow Cheddar Mac & Cheese (one box). 1/3 or half pound of ground beef is about perfect, crumbled & browned. Optional: toss in diced onion to brown with the meat.

I used 2 tbsp of butter, started with about 1/4 cup of pimento cheese, and “eyeballed it” with the cream & pimento cheese to get the perfect amount of creaminess – then finished it off with a sprinkle of black pepper.

That was SO good! I’ll be making this again.

Perfect Keto Mac & Cheese Deal

I also have the White Cheddar Mac, and think I’ll add grilled chicken, sautéed onions + Queso Blanco Dip – and maybe a mix of diced red & green pepper then top with cheddar and bake… and serve it with avocado or guacamole, plus salsa & sour cream.

If you still have a box of the PK mac & cheese in your pantry (too), try one of those ideas!

I love it way better as a meal than as a side by itself.

I’ve been craving onion and enjoying it in pretty much everything lately! You can dice or chop fresh onions and freeze them, then just grab what you need for any recipe anytime.

For convenience, I use frozen diced onion and saute the whole bag in butter – then keep it in the refrigerator to easily add to meals all week as I go. * see this video

Other than those two meals I made at the same time on Wednesday, I’ve been having my usual “meals on repeat” lately – still. I ate this one FOUR days in a row.

It’s chicken, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower – and I added a little cheese.

It’s the Atkins crustless chicken pot pie bowl, just a heat & eat meal.

Here’s my recipe for making it at home very versatile & great for meal prep!

Low Carb Oven Stew Recipe

EASY Low Carb “Oven Stew” Recipe: Chicken & Veggies in Alfredo Broth

I’ve been keeping my meals really simple lately, so when I do “cook” I usually just have my ham & egg scramble. I use 3 eggs, 2 ounces of diced ham, the pimento cheese & sauteed onions, and scramble it all in half tbsp of butter:

I start every day with my collagen coffee first thing in the morning then usually a protein bar for lunch then one of those two meals for dinner (the eggs, or chicken & veggie bowl) – on repeat.

I don’t mind eating the same thing most days, if it’s good. I’m pretty happy to be eating daily again! It also makes shopping easy – lol. I feel good today 🙂 and I felt great on Wednesday, but otherwise I’ve been resting a lot (still) and catching up on work when I am up, so I don’t have a lot of extra time & energy to spend on shopping & cooking.

Besides, it’s just me here and I’m easy to please. 😉

I’m also eating simple as part of my recovery, so I’m sticking to foods that don’t cause me to have flare-ups – so I can get back to work more hours, and feel up for getting out a little more too!

I’m still having the Electrolyte / SuperReds drink most days, and that really seems to be helping with focus & energy. Plus it’s super tasty and perfectly refreshing on a warm afternoon.

(note: it would be GREAT with a dash of rum, too!!) 😉

Best Keto Meal Replacement Bars

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve switched it up and used any other protein bars, or found ANY other bars that I loved as much as the Almond Butter Brownie PK bars – that also hold me over like a true meal replacement. But I was really impressed with the CanDo Keto Krisp Bars I tried last week, so I ordered more – to try a variety of their flavors. Then I wrote to them and requested a special 20% off discount code for us, in case you want to try them too. 😉 * That code is: LOWCARBTRAVELER

I’ve tried A LOT of keto bars over the years, but these are my two TOP favorites!

The Almond Butter Brownie bars are 30% off on this page when you get 3+ or code LYNN20 will always get you 20% off at Perfect Keto.

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If you order 4 boxes at 30% off, you also get a free gift. That’s the BEST deal on Perfect Keto bars. If you use them daily or often like I do, it just makes sense to stock up – because they have a GREAT shelf life.

In my last post I mentioned REALLY wanting to try the Blackberry Almond Butter flavor of Keto Krisp bars. A friend found some of the smaller boxes at a store for me, and I ordered several other flavors to try from their website too – and just got those this week!

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CAN DO Keto Krisp Bars
20% off code: LOWCARBTRAVELER

You’ll also find them in stores like Publix, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Sprouts, Whole Foods, etc:

CanDo Keto Krisp Store Locator

The Salted Peanut Butter Keto Krisp Bars are amazing!!!

Those are my favorite so far. 😉

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I’ve been taking it easy for the past couple of weeks because I crashed pretty hard after going to that HUGE concert up on the mountain a week ago Sunday. It was worth it though, I had a great time. I’m feeling better overall, and the crashes are less severe and don’t last as long, so that’s GREAT news and exciting progress!! (finally)

I’m still figuring out my new limits, and still have to pace things out and rest a lot – and stick to simple eating because my digestion is super finicky. But I’m SO happy my recovery is going better lately, and my baseline has been bumped up a few notches.

We have a GREAT outdoor pool here, and that will reopen in a few weeks (yay!!) so I look forward to getting back to my water workouts. That helped me SO much last summer!

In the meantime, I’m still doing “bed yoga” and looking into Wall Pilates on YouTube to see if that’s something I can manage too.

I’m going to make the egg wraps I mentioned in my last post – and stuff those with chicken or tuna salad, or maybe grilled chicken & queso. I’m craving something different lately!

I’m going try making single-serve keto cheesecake bars this weekend too.

I also have some chicken in the freezer, so I may do the Oven Stew recipe or a simple baked chicken or crockpot chicken. All 3 are super easy! But parmesan chicken has been on my mind the last couple of days…

Chicken Parm is SO good and SO easy!

This post has some fun twists for mixing it up – plus simple low carb sides you can throw together super fast for easy keto dinners:

Low Carb Chicken Parmesan Recipes + Simple Sides

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What are you eating today, and how did your week go?

I started watching The Mentalist which is pretty great, and avoided watching the new Whitney Houston movie on Netflix (so far). I’m not sure I’m up for that…

It was really nice to have company one day this week, and someone to eat with. Being so sick for so long (30 months now – geez!) has been insanely isolating, especially when I can’t drive. When I can get out, it’s SO nice to go grab a meal or hear a band or see a concert – and just be around people!!

That’s one of the things I love about doing my physical therapy & workouts at the public pool. It’s always so full of children playing, people laughing, teens goofing off, and just lots of real people doing real life with ZERO filters… I love that. 🙂

I’ve been putting a lot of thought into what I’m going to do next. I’m turning 50 soon, so it feels like a great opportunity to brainstorm exactly how I want to spend that decade. The only thing I know so far is that I want it to be HAPPY and FUN – everything else is just details I’m still working out…

What about you?

If you could do ANYTHING or CHANGE anything in your life, what would that be? If you imagine that happiest healthiest version of yourself living the life of your dreams… how does that look?

Food for thought! xo

Best,
Lynn Terry
aka @LowCarbTraveler

p.s. I reviewed the Perfect Keto Mac & Cheese when it first came out, and I like it okay as a side dish. I included a video in this post so you can see how easy it is to make. But like I said, it does have very mixed reviews – and I definitely like it WAY better turned into a meal. 😉

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It’s not something I personally stock up on when they have sales. I love their collagen, protein bars & the newer Super Reds supplement. But I had some in the pantry from when I ordered it to try before – so it was nice to find a way to REALLY ENJOY it. The whole “Hamburger Helper” vibe made me very nostalgic and brought up some great memories, lol.

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