While I'm in a menu kind of mood, let's talk about Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've got a cheat day scheduled for Thursday the 25th, which is Thanksgiving Day for us Yanks. I'll also be doing the cheating thing in December after my doctor's appointment, which is on the 16th. My boss is throwing a Christmas party at his place on December 18th, so that's a cheat day.
For Thanksgiving, I'm doing a more-or-less standard menu, but we're forgoing pumpkin pie in favor of apple because, last year, my attempt at pumpkin pie was a mess, but my apple pie was a success on the second try. Here's the Thanksgiving menu:
Ham
Stuffing (with homemade sausage)*
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Corn
Carrots
Peas
Cranberry Sauce
Apple Pie
For Christmas, I'm going to make only two items: (1) the huge quiche I made this past March (see here), and (2) a mess of pulled pork (pic here, but scroll down, or see here from 2018). In the first case, the quiche is for the sake of my boss's wife, who adored the previous quiche; in the second case, my coworker's pro-chef wife raved about the pulled pork, so I think I have no choice but to make it again for her, and I'll make a ton so she can take some home with her (maybe I'll pre-pack a portion in its own separate container).
Reeling back our vision a bit, I'll be planning my new carnivore menu for this week. Meal planning is going to be so, so much easier on carnivore since proteins are pretty much it, expect maybe for sauces. I might risk making a pesto (mainly for chicken and seafood; pesto is very keto, but probably not carnivore, especially in large quantities), but I'll try to use it sparingly. Chimichurri is lighter than pesto, and I'll use that a bit more liberally on steaks and such. And there's also the Korean classic of sesame oil plus salt to be used with pork. Those three sauces really ought to cover the gamut of my proteins. If I get a wild hair and decide to cook some snails, I'll find fresh parsley and pair it up with garlic and butter (no breading, alas, but snails in a butter-parsley-garlic sauce will still be awesome).
Dr. Ken Berry also recommended canned sardines for budget carnivores. Canned food is actually not that cheap in Korea, but I'll see what sort of canned fish might be available.
This coming week, then, I think my menu is going to look like this:
Tuesday—beef and chimichurri, plus Korean sausage later in the day if necessary
Wednesday—Atlantic cod and pesto, plus kielbasa later in the day if necessary
Thursday—scallops and chimichurri, plus bacon later in the day if necessary
Friday—cheat day!
Saturday—pan-fried pork belly with sesame oil and salt, plus chicken breast later if necessary
Sunday—keto meal of 90-second toasted bread with tuna and veggies, plus 2 handfuls of nuts and a large pudding made with chia seeds, blueberries, almond butter, vanilla, and a little erythritol (don't worry: we'll bring chocolate back into the rotation the following week)
Today and tomorrow are my last days for shakes; I'm almost done with my supply of SlimFast, but I do have unsweetened cocoa powder and keto sweeteners to make my own non-SlimFast shakes. But as I said, those shakes aren't carnivore, and the SlimFast shakes, which are sugary, will appear only on cheat days.
I have really high hopes for what this new dietary regime will do for my blood sugar, and if weight starts to drop off again, that'll be a huge plus. In terms of exercise, I'm doing my first 100 reps of jump rope later tonight after I'm back from my long walk, and I start doing 2 full staircases' worth of walking next week. Whatever it takes to strengthen the heart and keep blood pressure down.
__________
*Are you really going to be the scold who insists that it's to be called dressing if it's prepped and cooked outside of the bird? Do you stop calling it toothpaste if it's outside the tube? I'm sorry, but I can't take the "It's dressing!" camp seriously. Here I stand. I can do no other.
I've actually never considered the difference between "stuffing" and "dressing". Both terms mean the same to me and I don't really have a preference for how that dish is prepared. But my mama used to cook the dressing stuffed inside the bird, so doesn't that make it stuffing?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the pedants, if it's cooked inside the bird, it's stuffing. People began cooking the stuffing outside the bird when certain experts raised the issue of food safety. Thus began the whole stuffing-versus-dressing debate. I think it's stuffing no matter how you prep and serve it.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's icing versus frosting...
"And then there's icing versus frosting..."
ReplyDeleteOMG, I hadn't even thought of that one! My dad used to exclaim, "if that don't frost your balls!". I guess his bad grammar was the icing on the cake. And hereditary.