keto

New House Updates

Posted by Lisa Eirene

We are slowly getting settled. Still unpacking a little, still organizing. We went to IKEA recently and got a bunch of stuff we needed.

Since our new house is a 1920’s Bungalow, part of the house that was original and not remodeled has the old lath and plaster walls. So you can’t really hang art or stuff on the walls. In our old house our TV was mounted on the walls. We can’t do that in this house so we bought a TV stand at IKEA (this one, without the bookcases). It looks really cute with the house.

We also got a dresser for our bedroom! Our new master bedroom is big enough to finally have one. 🙂 We got this one in brown. It looks really nice in the bedroom.

We got a free treadmill, too! A family member was getting rid of theirs and we happily took it. We haven’t set up our home gym yet. That will be in our basement.

The new house is nice. We are getting used to it. Bella loves the new house! The backyard is smaller than our old house, which is nice for us because it will be much more manageable for us. But there is a long section on one side that is perfect for Bella to run and chase her ball. 🙂

There is a bike/running path nearby. I took Logan there to explore and bike over the weekend. He loved it!

In other news, Michael got me a gift certificate recently to Loyly Spa and I finally went. It was really nice and I needed the break to recharge after such a stressful period with house-hunting and moving.

Saturday was women only. You arrive and get a bathrobe, towels, a cup and key for a locker. For women only time you can be naked or wear a swim suit. You can go into the dry sauna or the steam room. There is a cold shower right outside the sauna. Then there’s a lounge area where you can hang out in between. You can do face treatments or foot treatments and buy snacks/tea/kombucha etc.

It felt really nice! It was so relaxing. I would spend about 10-15 minutes in the sauna at a time, go out, take a quick cold shower, get more cold water to drink, sit on the lounge benches for a few and then go back in. After an hour, it was time for my 30 minute massage. Which was amazing!

After the massage I had another hour of the sauna. I did about 35 minutes of it, then showered and got dressed and went home. Super relaxed and mellow. It was bliss!

After a month of taking a break, I am back on the keto diet. Dinner was a delicious chicken cobb salad. It was so good. I could eat that salad every night!

And finally, after three days of being on the market, we accepted an offer on our old house. We are pending right now and hoping to close at the end of July! Keep your fingers crossed for no drama!

Keto Update

Posted by Lisa Eirene

I think I’ve been back to keto for about two full weeks now? Maybe three. I weighed in last weekend and I was happy to see that I was exactly the same weight I was right before my surgery. So taking two weeks off and eating all the carbs didn’t do a ton of damage, thankfully! I weighed in this week and am down another pound, so moving in the right direction.

I’ve doing ok back on the keto diet. I’m still struggling to get to 20 net carbs a day. No matter what I do, I am still averaging around 25-30 net carbs each day. I looked at my diet and I guess I should probably drop my plain Greek yogurt. I mean, it’s not a ton of carbs because I eat a half a serving, but I add berries to it, and those are the carbs. I thought I was being smart by adding a spoonful of ground flaxseed (fiber) and chia seeds to it to try and offset it but I am still getting carbs with the berries. So I think next week I will try and go back to trying nuts, bone broth and maybe cheese sticks for snacks at work and see what happens.

I found a keto recipe website I like a lot. I’ve only tried a few of the recipe so far but so far I like it and the website/instagram is really visually pretty, so there’s that, too. 🙂

PERUVIAN CHICKEN WITH TANGY GREEN SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 2 tablespoon avocado oil
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
  • 1 lemon, zested and juiced
  • 4 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken

Salsa Criolla (Lime Pickled Onions + Tomatoes)

  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 roma tomatoes, quartered
  • Juice of 2 limes
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Tangy Green Sauce:

  • 1 large bunch cilantro, stems and all
  • 10 large mint leaves
  • 1 jalapeño
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons avocado oil
  • Salt, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
  2. Mix together the cumin, avocado oil, paprika, salt, pepper, oregano, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Brush the chicken with the lemon juice then rub with spice mixture. Place the chicken in a large cast iron skillet and transfer to the oven.
  3. Roast the chicken for about 60 minutes until the internal temperature reads 165° F.
  4. While the chicken is roasting make the salsa criolla by placing all of the ingredients into a jar and shaking well, refrigerate until ready to use. *They get better as they sit so feel free to make ahead
  5. To make the cilantro green sauce simply blend together all of the ingredients.
  6. Serve the chicken with the green sauce, salsa criolla, and additional lime if desired. 

Calories: 824 Net Carbs: 4.3 Protein: 58.2

I used chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken. So I think the calories are a little off for the recipe. Chicken thighs are generally around 250-300 calories each, depending on the size (we had small ones). The sauce was made with real mayo, so there was definitely calories there. But overall, I don’t think the dinner was 800 calories worth. I’d put it more around 500.

I cooked the chicken thighs for about 45 minutes in the oven.

The dinner was absolutely divine! One of my favorite new recipes I’ve tried! I loved the tangy sauce. I love the “salsa” with the chicken. All the flavors worked great together.

This would be a great recipe to make for a dinner party if you want to impress your friends!