Oopsie Rolls, Now What?

Well, if you haven't heard of oopsie rolls, where have you been? They are all over the internet in low carb forums and blogs. These little beauties are what I made tonight for the first time. Apparently, lots of people have trouble getting them to turn out, but I got it right the first time. The recipe was a mistake of a blogger named Jamie, but on the Low Carb Boards, she is known as Cleochatra. You can find her recipe on her blog, Your Lighter Side.

They look pretty good, don't they? I made them in my new ice cream sandwich pan. I was looking for a muffin top pan, but Bed, Bath, and Beyond only had these, and I had a coupon. What was I supposed to do? The only difference, really, is that these have a waffle shape in the bottom of the little wells. They are about 3 inches in diameter. Just right for making little sandwiches. I put some green can powdered parmesian cheese, oregano, and some garlic powder in these and skipped the splenda/stevia. I think that a grilled cheese sandwich will be yummy using these. If you have any other veggie ideas, please leave me a comment. I already tried one with a spoonful of roasted garlic hummus. It was delicious.

And speaking of delicious, I invented a low carb ice cream. It's not perfect yet, like I'm sure the liquid isn't supposed to separate from the ice crystals. Next time I'm going to try to put a little bit of xanthum gum into the mixer. Also, I highly recommend you freeze the protein shake in a zip lock bag to make it easier to break it into pieces without stabbing your finger and needing to go get stitches. Ask me how I know. Well, I didn't go get stitches, but I should have. I think I hit the bone with the knife. Lesson learned. Here's my recipe:

Protein Shake Chocolate Ice Cream

1/2 frozen Atkins Protein Shake
2 oz Hoods Calorie Countdown Chocolate Milk
2 oz Half and Half or heavy cream
1/4 tsp. Xanthan Gum

Break up the frozen shake (or chop it if you're not clumsy like me) and put it into a blender or mini food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until it looks like my picture. Hopefully the Xanthan Gum will prevent the separation. If you try it before I do, let me know how it works out. It's delicious, by the way. Only 2 carbs per serving.

What Low Carb Can Do Once. . .

In November of 2009 I went in search of a way of eating I could maintain for the rest of my life that would help me to lose weight, and then keep it off. At a class, I ran into a friend who had shed a significant amount of weight in a short period of time. "How did you do it?" I had to ask. She went on to tell me of a book written by Diane Kress called Metabolism Miracle. Of course I went straight out and bought it. Miracle, it is not. What it is is a low-carb diet. But what turned on the light bulb for me was that it discussed how to do low-carb and eat a vegetarian lifestyle. What? Unheard of! But no. It's true!

I went on to follow Ms. Kress's diet for five months. The results can be seen in the photo above. Pretty dramatic, if I do say so myself. Her diet is not Atkins, however. She required that you eat only 5 carbs every 5 hours for the first 6 weeks and then start adding in carbs, between 11 and 20 carbs every 5 hours until you lose all the weight you want. What? Go from 20 to 60 or more carbs a day? Of course my loss stalled. Then my MIL was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Then I moved into her home to take care of her. Then I started increasing my carbs, then I was off low-carb completely.

OK, two years later, this is me today. Actually, it's me 3 weeks ago just before I went Veggie Low-Carbing. I am fat and unhealthy all over again. I don't know what I'm smiling about. Maybe it's because I have hundreds of beautiful fabrics behind me that will someday become gorgeous clothes for the new, trimmer, firmer, thinner, athletic me. (Remind me to put make-up on before anyone wants to take my picture.) God, I look I'm wearing shoulder pads in this picture and my spare tire (which is competing with my boobs) has it's own spare tire!

Now I suppose you want a recipe, right? Who am I to deny? This is what I made after reading about.com's almond pancake recipe. I was craving chocolate, so that's the direction I went. I usually leave out the cocoa powder and use sugar-free maple syrup instead. Mine came out to 16 net carbs for the entire recipe. I got 4 servings at 4 net carbs/serving.

Low-Carb Chocolate Pancakes

3/4 cup almond meal
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cocoa powder
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp canola oil
1/4 cup sugar-free chocolate syrup (mine is Torani brand)
2 tbsp heavy cream

In a medium size bowl, wish together the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry ingredients. Add a tiny amount of water to make the batter pancake batter consistency if you need to. Pour onto a heated oiled griddle until bubbles form on top and the bottom is browned. Flip and cook the other side until brown. Pretty much like you cook any pancake.

These a pretty sweet and very delicious and super filling. I at three silver-dollar sized ones with peanut butter for breakfast. I have plenty more for a couple more breakfasts if my husband doesn't eat them all first.

Low Carb Vegetarian style

I decided a couple of years ago that I wanted to lose weight before I turned fifty. And I did, only about half of what I needed to lose. And then I gained it all back when someone very close to me was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I had to take care of her. But, you know, I've had some sort of excuse for being fat ever since I became a vegetarian. But the truth is, when I gave up meat, I replaced it with carbs. Lots and lots of carbs. It didn't really become a big problem until I gave birth to my son. After that, I couldn't get a handle on my weight. I've been yoyo dieting ever since. Well the baby will be turning 18 this summer and I'm turning 51. Yikes!

NO MORE EXCUSES!
I simply refuse to turn 51 and be fat and unfit. I've gone back on my low carb diet, but this time I feel like I can be successful, even if a tragic even should come my way (fingers crossed that it doesn't). One excuse I used was that it's too hard to be a low carb vegetarian. There really wasn't a lot of information out there about it. In fact, lots and lots of people say you can't eat low-carb and be a vegetarian. WRONG! You can, it's just a bit harder. But really, it's not that hard.

Take my dinner from tonight, as an example. I made up a lasagna recipe I read from somewhere and tried to make from memory. It turned out fantastic and the tortillas made an excellent substitution to pasta. Good thing too because I have sworn off pasta for the rest of my life.

LOW CARB TORTILLA VEGETARIAN LASAGNA - My recipe

2 meatless Italian Sausages - I use Trader Joe's brand, Chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
5 medium mushrooms, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
16 oz ricotta cheese
2 eggs
2 oz Parmesan cheese, divided
6 small low-carb tortillas - 3 net carbs each, cut in half
1 jar low carb spaghetti sauce - I used TJ's 4-cheese sauce and had about 3/4 cup left over
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Saute onion, mushrooms, and onion in the olive oil until soft. Add Italian seasoning and set veggies/sausage aside. In a medium bowl, wisk 2 eggs. Add the ricotta and 1 oz of the Parmesan cheese and whisk until smooth.

To assemble, put some sauce in your glass baking dish. Just enough to cover the bottom. Place four 1/2 pieces of the tortilla in the pan, cut edges against the edges of the dish. Your dish should be rectangular and small enough that most of the bottom will be covered. Drop half of the riccotta mixture onto the tortillas, and spread them to cover. Take half of the veggies/sausage mixture and sprinkle evenly over that. Place half of the spaghetti sauce over the veggies and then cover that with 4 oz. of mozzarella. Lay 4 more half tortilla pieces on the cheese. Cover with the rest of the ricotta, the rest of the veggies/sausage mix, and most of the sauce. Place the last 4 tortilla halves on top and cover with the left-over spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling around the edges and in the middle and the cheese is browned. Let sit for 15-20 minutes before serving so the cheese can set up. This makes 8 large servings. I could only eat half of the serving from the picture. I had grilled some red peppers, mushrooms, and half of a zucchini and ate that while I waited for the lasagna to set up. I'm stuffed!

Who says low-carb vegetarian was hard?