Rainy Sunday

     I am really glad that my birthday was on a Friday this year. I got to have a couple of days of fun and hanging out with people I love and I didn't have to worry about getting up to go to work. So that was nice. But I am kind of wishing that I had another day or two for the weekend to get a few more things done. Adulting is hard.

     Last night I worked on finishing up a set of splint boots for my friend Joan. She's painting some poles for me (I can't remember if I mentioned that or not) and asked if I'd make her some boots. And now they are done. And I seem to have put them in a safe place... hopefully they turn up soon.

    This morning I tried out the Keto White Bread to make French toast. I didn't have any because it was way too early for me to eat, but I made it for Travis and he seemed to really like it. But that kid really likes eating so that might not be the best indication of whether or not it was any good. 

    So what I can say about it without having tried it myself was it did soak up the egg and it looked like French toast.  But the bread being a little bit dry I would have been surprised if it had not soaked up the egg. The experiment seems to have been very successful and I will try the French toast myself some time. At this point I have had this bread plain, with butter, in a sandwich and made it into French toast. It has been good for all these things. I'd say it is a really good, universal bread. I do still have some others I want to try and I want to tweak this one with a bit of oil in the batter the next time I make it. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect low carb bread. This is close, but not quite it. I was looking at some low carb bread cookbooks on Amazon last night and I am very tempted to get one. So, maybe. 

     When I made my birthday cake I made a small, 8x8 cake on purpose. I didn't want to have tons of leftover cake because I would absolutely eat it all. And low carb and no sugar doesn't mean low calories. Though it was not too crazy really. So I cut up the rest of the cake and boxed up the slices for my cake volunteers at school. I put a piece in the freezer in case there is an emergency party at Travis's school (well, not an emergency, but last minute when I don't want to make a cake) and Travis and I split the last bit. I think that was a good plan. 

     I spent a lot of time this afternoon going through clothes. One of the side effects of my weight loss is of course that none of my clothes fit anymore. So I have been going through periodically and pulling out stuff that is in great conditioning and listing it on Poshmark. Then I use the money I made selling the stuff that doesn't fit to buy stuff that does fit. Win-win all around. But I store the sales stuff in the back of my car for lack of space inside the house. It has gotten a bit messy back there so today I went through all of it and pulled out stuff to make a regular give-away bag. I organized what was left and I went through my clothes again and pulled out more stuff to list. The tricky part was that it was raining today. So I folded down half of my backseat and sat on that to get at the stuff in the cargo area in the back. It was not the best situation, but it was not the worst. In the end I pulled out a big bag of stuff to donate, I gathered a big bag of clothes to photograph, list and try to sell and I got the whole cargo area of the car organized and cleaned. All in the rain. 
     Before my adventures in clothes sorting I went to Joann's to get stuff to work on making a cowboy curtain and a bridge. Well, I tried to get the things I needed, they did not have everything. So I got some of the things and will have to get the rest of the stuff soon and get to work. But at least I have some of the stuff and maybe I can get started soon. I have 2 weeks until Long Island Model Horse Expo. I need to build some props and make a show plan. Hmm, maybe I should look at the class list.

    I should get supper started and then see if I can get a couple of the neglected weekend cleaning chores taken care of. I don't really want to, but I probably should. Adulting is hard. But at least I am making progress in all of the things I am trying to do. That has to count for something.

Buffalo Chicken Dip and Tortillas

     Yesterday I wanted to make low carb tortilla chips and buffalo chicken dip. I really wanted to eat those. But when I got home from school Ethan spoiled me with a pile of gifts, Elecktra came over, then Ethan and I went out to eat and took a walk by the river. And then there was cake. I had no time to make the tortillas or dip. But I have been wanting to try the chips. So today I did. 

     They are not super challenging or super easy to make. But they are tasty. Low carb tortillas are based on a fathead dough. I like the ones we tried. There are other recipes as well. Ethan says the dark ones are his favorite. They are crunchy. The other ones are chewy and he thinks those are kind of weird. It's true, they are a bit weird. But they are tasty. I could see the chewy ones being awesome with some cinnamon and sweetener instead of spices. I may have to try that sometime. Anyway, the flavor is good, though really nothing like a corn chip. I like them though and will probably make them again at some point. 

     I have a recipe for buffalo chicken dip that I have made a couple of times that is so amazingly good that people will literally eat it by the bowlful. I made that one several times, even before we were low carb, but I didn't make it this time around because I still have not found a ranch dressing mix that we can eat. I might have to make some. But until then I tried a different dip recipe. It is pretty good, but not quite as wow as the other one. Still, if you are looking for a fast and easy buffalo chicken dip this is not bad at all. 

    My best friend, Crystal, came over today and brought me a couple of birthday  gifts. A very funny magnet that I won't share in case kids are reading this and some gorgeous swarovski star earrings. They are the cool ear-thread kind and are super gorgeous. I would love to buy her swarovski stuff for gift giving occasions but unless she has a wish-list posted somewhere I would not even know what to buy, lol. So I will think of other things. We had a really excellent visit and talked about the struggles of finding clothes that fit properly and the need to buy new clothes after a big weight loss (she has also lost a lot of weight). 
     I decided to plant the mums Angelique gave me. It was super warm today, T-shirt weather, even with the wind. Too bad that won't last. But there is more of it way off in the 10 day. I am happy it is finally getting to be Spring. I am tired of being cold. I imagine the mums don't want to be cold either. 

40

     Today I turned 40.  I am actually really happy about that. I have heard so many good things about the 40's from friends who have gone there before me. Plus, I really LOVE my birthday! I am a weird mix of little kid and grown-ass adult. I love my birthday but my wishes for my birthday are fairly simple. I want everyone to know it's my birthday and to say happy birthday to me. I also want everyone to be nice to me or nice around me. And I want cake. That is basically what I want. And for my birthday I got all of that and so much more. I am feeling really spoiled today.
     So last night I made the cake that I had searched for for such a long time. It is a chocolate cake made with coconut flour. 

     I made the cake yesterday afternoon after I made the bread. I let it cool, but apparently not quite long enough. When I took it out of the pan some of it got left behind and I had to glue it back in with frosting. Whatever, more frosting. Which by the way is a very nice peanut butter frosting. It was really soft when I put it on the cake and I was not sure how well, or if, it would set up. Regular frosting with sugar in it does but low carb frosting is different and doesn't always work that way. But anyway, cake.

    So I got to school this morning and my friend Nicole was getting there at the same time. That never happens. She said she had to get there early enough to catch me walking by her classroom. Because I walk all over the school every morning. So I went to her class and she gave me some really fun gifts. There was this awesome unicorn sleep mask. Which I said was for those times you absolutely needed to sleep in school. 

    In case you can't read it it says "Unicorns are just horses that are ready to party". Which is awesome. Plus I needed a new sleep mask. And now I have one with unicorns on it!

    There were several other things but I needed to share the cake she got me. Because of course I can't have real cake, but she knows I love miniatures, erasers... and cake! These are fantastic.

     I went and walked around a bit and mostly visited people. Jenn, Heather and Laura gave me a card with some scratch tickets in it. I didn't win, so I guess I have to keep working. I asked Angelique to take my picture. For years I dreaded having my picture taken, and now I really love it. I guess that might make me a bit vain but I have worked very hard to lose the weight I have lost and to get as fit as I have managed so far. And I think I am a little afraid it's not real or that it will go away. So pictures. Angelique also gave me some pink mums I am going to figure out if I can plant them. I think all the flowers in my flower garden are dead. Or summer flowers. I don't know. I mostly kill plants. Even though I try to keep them alive. I am just bad at it. 

     So I had a really nice day at school and everyone was nice and pleasant all day. A ton of people said happy birthday and I got to see some of my favorite people. I just remembered my sister sent me a video of her second block class (she is a teacher in North Carolina) singing happy birthday for me. I was in a Spanish class where they were taking a quiz when the video came in. I still need to watch that. 

    When I got home Ethan met me at the door with the pinkest roses I have ever seen! They are beautiful and I love them! They really are the pinkest ever. 

     There were the roses and a set of paint brushes I wanted and when I thought it was done he would go down the hall and come back with another. It happened several times!

     Then he came back with a gift that he said that he wrapped himself and was going to be a bit of a challenge. Yes. Yes it was. That is red duct tape on that box. It was actually kind of fun to open, being somewhat like a puzzle. I guess I could have gotten scissors and just cut into it, but finding the ends was more fun. This box contained an empanada press (yes! Those are coming soon!) and a cooking from The Hungry Elephant. Sadly there is a disclaimer in the front of the book that the recipes in there cannot be shared anywhere. But the vanilla pancakes that are on her website are in there. So if I make things I will see if I can link them that way. 

     Anyway, my friends at school spoiled me, Ethan spoiled the crap out of me, Elecktra came over and brought me more paintbrushes and a couple of other things. Then Ethan told me that I should get Travis something to eat because he was going to go hang out with a friend of ours so we could go out to dinner alone. What? Like a date? That almost never happens! But it did today. We went to the 99 and ate prime rib and then went and took the River Walk near the Ludlow Mills. I have never been back there and had no idea that was there. It's kind of nice. 

    So I really had a fantastic birthday and there were friends and gifts and cake. There was also cake. And so far I am really loving being 40.

show prep and other important things

   Tomorrow is my birthday. I am still in the weight loss competition at school so I am not going to get all crazy with my eating. But I am only going to turn 40 once and I have decided that is kind of a big deal. So yesterday I went out and got ice cream. I wish that was as easy as it sounds. This is the only brand I have found locally that is made with erythritol and has some (not all) flavors that don't also contain sugar. The closest places near me where I can get any of the no-sugar flavors are Whole Foods and Shoprite. Whole Foods is about 35 minutes away. Shoprite is in another state. Though that is not quite as daunting as it sounds, we are fairly close to the border of Connecticut so it's about a 30 minute drive to Shoprite. So yesterday Travis and I went out to Whole Foods and I read a lot of labels and found some more salad dressing we can eat (yay, no sugar!) and some other cheese chips that look fun. BUT, Whole Foods is no longer going to be carrying the Enlightened brand ice cream! The only flavor they ever carried that (was any good) that we could eat was chocolate. They had no chocolate. 
    Whole Foods is now dead to me.
    So after supper we also went to Shoprite. In Connecticut. Not a huge deal, but that was a lot of driving around to buy ice cream. It would be SO much easier (and cheaper) if I ate sugar. But at least I have ice cream. Which was very important to me.

     I've had some really busy days lately but I have managed to pick away at my show prep list. I did a few things and then I added a few things. It seems that things to fix, make and do relating to horse shows is never ending. I guess I will never get bored.

    One of the things I managed was rehairing my Elecktra doll. My real Elecktra has not had a short pixie cut in a ton of years and the doll was getting bald spots. Which is also not accurate. Elecktra rarely braids her hair, but it is neater for a doll, so she got a braid. And no more bald spots. So one project down. I also fixed the neck on Halestorm's English doll so she can stop looking up into space. 

    I tried out a new bread recipe today. I put the recipe into My Fitness Pal and this bread, apparently, has ZERO net carbs! It has a ridiculous 22 grams of protein (being made from quite a lot of protein powder, this is not surprising) which is not super for keto but it is fantastic to have made a bread that is so very carb friendly. And it is basically a perfect sandwich bread. The flavor is nice, but mild. It will be great for any type of filling, or grilled cheese (I SO want a grilled cheese!) and might work out for French toast. I will have to see. It is a tiny bit dry, but not too bad.The comments on the post said some people have added a bit of oil to the bread and that has helped. I will be making this one again. Though I have another recipe I want to try first before I do a repeat. But this one is good. Not crumbly but it has a good crust. Not spongy and weird. Absolutely no eggy taste, because there are absolutely no eggs in it! I like it. I am having a sandwich for lunch tomorrow. Ridiculous amount of protein or not...

    My big trouble with bread is once I taste it I want to keep on eating it. Real bread, keto bread, whatever, I love bread. As I have mentioned. Oh and for anyone interested, this bread recipe came from The Hungry Elephant website that I have mentioned before. I need to go poke around there some more when I am done with the competition. I think I am going to take a break from keto for a bit. I will stick with low carb, but I need to relax things at least a little bit for a little while. I'll keep working out too. But anyway, this Basic White Bread may be the best low carb bread I have tasted so far. And zero net carbs is amazing!

     I had another busy day today. It was media day for the Spring sports teams so we had to be out at the track to get pictures done. It was fairly warm, but super windy. So with that, bread baking, cake baking, an errand to the grocery store, where I ran into a former student who told me he still studies his math for personal finance book we made at the end of the year (I taught that class last year) and other assorted things... I am basically out of day. I need to find some clothes to wear tomorrow and then head to bed. 
    It is 8:48 pm. I will be in my 30's for a little over 3 hours and that's it. Seems weird. I have heard so many good things about the 40's from people though, I am pretty excited! I am healthier and fitter than I was for all of my 30's and a lot of my 20's. I have a feeling that turning 40 will be pretty great. And tomorrow, there will be cake.

Priorities

     Yesterday was laundry day. Every Tuesday is laundry day. I have spent a lot of time in the laundromat and I have done a variety of different, potentially unusual things in the laundromat. Last week I think I was hairing heads. The week before I was working on chaps. Or at least these things happened recently. Yesterday I was working on making a set of splint boots for my friend Joan. She is painting some poles for me and asked for some boots in trade. OK, I can do that. But all of the days I have meant to get started on them so far have filled up with so many other things that I have not managed to get to them. She doesn't need them until a show in the middle of April, but I don't want to keep putting off making them. Priorities. 
    I also worked on making a new cutting chaps pattern that will fit the Mego type cowboy dolls. The cowboy I finished the other day needs some chaps. And I wanted a slightly different look than the pattern I already have for the man dolls. So I got a bit of doll work done, got all the laundry done and went home and had dinner a bit early. 

    I was extra busy yesterday because of my priorities. The Department of Developmental Services was having an awards ceremony to honor several individuals and many of the unified track teams from the area. Travis was one of the people invited to represent his team and accept the awards for the Ludlow Unified Track team. And of course we needed to be there. 

     Travis has a very hard time sitting still and being quiet, but he did an amazing job! He did bounce around in his chair a bit and made a bit of quiet noise, but in general he was a rockstar. Jenn (my friend, and the coach) was sitting across the table and when she saw Travis leaning into me like this she said it would be such a great photo. I agree, it's pretty cool. And it was helping to keep him calm so he was more than welcome to lean into me.

     I won't post a photo of the whole team with the awards because I don't have permission to publish photos of all of them. Just know, our group is awesome. 

    This morning we had another day of state testing. I had a new goal for today to amuse myself. Yesterday I got my 10,000 steps by just after 9:15. My goal today was to get my 10,000 steps before that. I managed to get over 10,000 before 9:00! Not very exciting, but it amused me. I got tired today and just didn't feel like doing tons and tons of extra steps. But I more than met my step goal for today already. 

     Yesterday was incredibly busy and I spent a large portion of it running from one thing to another. It might have been nice to have a break while I was doing laundry but I really needed to get started on those horse boots. It could have been nice to relax in the evening, but we had the awards ceremony for Travis. Sometimes days are insanely busy because of our priorities. And there is nothing wrong with that. 

Progress

      Have you ever had one of those days when you have everything scheduled out and you are going to be super productive and get a ton of stuff done? Then has the world gotten in your way to eat up a bunch of your time and mess up your carefully scheduled day? That happened to me yesterday. The first few things I managed in pretty much exactly the timeframe I expected. I was only about 10 minutes behind in my plan, which is nearly nothing and doesn't bother me. I finally managed to get a good photo of my unicorn hair. I used the Overtone purple for dark brown hair and it is so dark that it doesn't really show up on me. Not even in the sunlight. But now after several washings it is fading out a bit and it's visible. Unicorn hair makes me happy.

     After the happiness of finally getting a good photo of my hair things went downhill for awhile. I had to drop off some packages at the post office. Since I have the postage already on them technically I can skip the line and just leave the stuff on the counter. Which I was going to do because I was on a schedule. But then some woman jumped in front of me and said she had just stepped to the side. I could have still done it but I didn't want to seem rude. But that led to at least 10 minutes for a 30 second stop...

     Then I had to go and redeem some cans. We drink so much seltzer that I usually have a couple of giant bags a week. Well, I picked the wrong day to redeem cans. There were 3 people ahead of me, the machine filled up and it took awhile to get someone to empty it. After that I needed a handful of things from the grocery store. The woman in front of me in line had one item. It took her 15 minutes to be done. She wanted an item that was on sale but it was out of stock so she needed a rain check. So many delays. My quick errands took an hour longer than they should have. But at least I got them finished. 

    And I did in fact make progress on the dolls. I only remembered to get a picture of this cowboy but I got him and 2 casual western ladies done as well. The basic casual dolls are finished anyway. They all need chaps or chinks, but I have some already made for the ladies, I just need to dig them out and see which ones look best with each of their outfits. I need to make some for the cowboy. Not sure when I will have time for that. Travis has an awards ceremony for unified track tonight and tomorrow I need to go and buy ice cream. I wish I could just eat regular ice cream, things would be so much easier. I can eat Enlightened ice cream but only certain flavors. So I need to go out to Whole Foods where they have at least one or two of the flavors I can eat. Because I will never understand why a sugar free ice cream would also contain sugar. But a lot of the flavors have that problem. 

     Today at school we had state testing. One of my main jobs for helping proctor the test is to circulate among the students as they take the test. Which means I do laps around the room. That leads to stats like these, very early in the day. Note that the time says 9:16 and I already have over 10,000 steps for the day. I figured out that I average about 100 steps a minute. Not bad really. I am going to have so many miles under my belt by the end of the day!

     So between laundry and awards tonight, a trip to Whole Foods tomorrow, potential track practice Thursday (we're not sure yet) plus the need to bake a cake, and my birthday on Friday, I may not get any more doll work done at all this week. Which is OK, sometimes I need a break just so I don't get burnt out. I may at least find some time to get the chaps for the cowboy made. I think the next dolls I make will be a batch of hunt seat dolls. I sold the only one I had in my stock over the weekend. Those are definitely good to have on hand. 

     Spring is here but today it is so cold that it is hard to believe. With luck things will warm up soon and there will be nice weather for being outside. There are only 3 more weigh ins for the weight loss competition and I am looking forward to not having to care (as much) about the number on the scale. Today I feel thin and kind of fit. I would like for that to be what I can focus on. 

Prepping and fat bombs and dolls, oh my!

     As of today I have 30 blog posts for 2019. This one will make 31. My record is 39 in a year, which was in 2010. Last month I decided I was going to post more often. It started at about once a week but quickly turned into just about every day. I can't always think of anything interesting to talk about but I have heard from people saying they are enjoying the blog. I'd love to see more of those comments on the actual blog instead of just on Facebook. I'd also love to know what people prefer to read about. I see that more people read the show reports and doll posts, which makes sense to me since this is technically a blog about model horse hobby dolls. But one of the big things I am into lately is finding fun and easy low carb recipes. So I guess I will keep on sharing those. There is some of that today but also some stuff about prepping horses and doll stuff as well. Today you get it all!
     Yesterday my plan had been to make a variety of fat bombs. That didn't happen. I only ended up making just the one type, which was the chocolate coffee ones that I don't love. Today I was planning on making a different version of the chocolate coffee fat bombs but I was making up a recipe.
    So for anyone who doesn't know what a fat bomb is, it's a small tidbit that is often a dessert type flavor. Not all of them are, but most of them are. The point of a fat bomb is to get a high concentration of fat in a small bite of something. For low carb and keto diets you need a lot of fat and it's sometimes tricky to get enough fat in your diet. So to help that there are fat bombs. The base of them is of course some type of fat. Mine are made with a base of coconut oil and butter.

     I added in cocoa powder and golden monk fruit sweetener.

     And I added a bit more of each when it seemed not quite right. I also added some caramel extract. 

     The recipe is still a work in progress. There were chunks in the bottom of the chocolate mix when I was done pouring. This may need more heating and stirring to dissolve everything, or I may need to cut back a bit on the sweetener and the cocoa powder. If I had any more small ice cube trays I would have also separated into more servings. Which brings down the calories of each one as well. Below I put the recipe as I think it should be (I used one Tbsp more of cocoa but I think 3 is enough).

 Salted Caramel Chocolate Fat Bombs
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup salted butter
4 Tbsp golden monk fruit sweetener
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp caramel extract
pink Himalayan salt

instructions:
melt coconut oil, butter and monk fruit sweetener in the microwave or a small saucepan. Stir in cocoa powder and caramel extract. Pour into ice cube trays and sprinkle with pink Himalayan salt. Put in the freezer for 2 hours to set. Store in the freezer.

macros: 30 servings, 30 Calories, 8g fat, 2g carbs. 0g protein.

      Since the weather is supposed to be so nice today, at least compared to how it has been, I decided it was time to start working on the prepping of all the minis I have gotten lately. So first they all got a bath to remove any mold release on them.

   In the past I have used Comet for this but this time I just used Dawn dish soap. It has excellent grease removers in it so should be perfect for these. I scrubbed everybody with a toothbrush and rinsed well.

      After everyone is dry I will do any seem removal that I see right up front and go out and do the first coat of primer. 

    Back to fat bombs. The next type I made was a Lemon Cheesecake fat bomb. I didn't use lemon zest so these only have 4 ingredients to them. You just soften the cream cheese and butter and then blend that with the lemon juice and sweetener until smooth.

     The recipe recommends you put it in candy molds, but I don't have any and my small ice cube trays were full of chocolate. 

    So I put them on some parchment paper on a plate by teaspoonful. Then I stuck them in the freezer to firm up. They came out well, taste good and I may have eaten a few of them instead of just one to try them out...

    I needed to keep on going with prepping the minis so I brought the group outside. There had been no wind all morning but as soon as I brought the horses out it started to get a bit gusty. Grr. My prepping plans were sort of ruined. Not completely, I did get a layer of primer on everyone. 

     With the wind, several of the horses got knocked over so I need to fix some blobs in the primer here and there. I doubt anyone is ready for painting, there is almost never a cast that clean. But at least I got the prepping started finally. And maybe soon I can have another day of prepping and get some more done on everyone. If I can get past the prepping, I can get back to painting!

    I decided to make some pepperoni chips for Travis for a snack this afternoon. The are actually super easy to make, though I have never made them before. My oven was full of a roast I was making so I decided to make these in the toaster oven. I followed the directions from the beginning of the recipe and put it on 400 degrees and baked them for about 20 minutes, then I took them out and blotted the grease with a paper towel. After that I deviated from the instructions and switched the toaster oven to toast to really crisp them up. 

     There was a lot more grease to blot and they were stuck really well to the foil. I imagine if I use parchment they will come of easier. These are very easy to make. Just lay out slices of pepperoni, sprinkle with parmesan and then top with mozzarella. And bake them for about 10 minutes. If they are not crispy let them go a little longer. I have never made them before so I don't know how they will come out in a regular oven. But they are crunchy and fun. 

     I did in fact get to some doll work today as well. I almost skipped it since Travis said he wanted to go somewhere. When I questioned him he said he wanted to go to Memere and Pepere's  house (my parents). I asked him what he wanted to do there and he said lay on the couch. For anyone that knows Travis (who is only partially verbal) this was quite a lot of information. Sadly, I had to tell him no since I had that roast in the oven. 
     So we watched one of the Scooby Doo movies and a few episodes of Family Guy and I worked on this trio. Sometimes I work in batches of dolls, though I don't often work on all the same type all at once. But it has been convenient to work on several casual dolls at once. The bodies all got prepped awhile back (I did about 20 at one time) and I cut and sewed all the clothes for this group at the same time. Today I got the shirts on and the jeans. There are still a bunch of details to do on all of them, but I got a good start on them. And it only took me 4 days, lol. I am a slacker. 

     Tomorrow there is a professional development day at school, but the paras don't have to go to this one. And I am OK with that. Travis however does have school so I still have to get up at 5:00 and get him off to school. Maybe I can push it until 5:30. What a treat! After that if I can manage to stay up I can certainly get a lot done. We don't have track practice but we do have to go to the high school for a quick track meeting. So if I do my workout early, maybe as soon as Ethan gets up (so I don't wake him up with the noise from the DVD) I will be done in plenty of time to work on the dolls for hours and hours before I need to go to school. If I manage to function well I may even be able to get them done! We'll see. Five days until I turn 40. This year so far I seem to be more productive than I ever have been. It's been great so far. Hopefully I can keep it up. 

Fat Bombs and Stroganoff

       A few weeks ago I made a beef stroganoff that Ethan and I both decided was OK but not great. I have had on my list of recipes I want to try, this recipe for ground beef stroganoff. This one was really good. And it was fast and easy to make. First you melt some butter and brown the garlic. 

                                               

    Then you brown the hamburger and then remove it from the pan. 

      Melt some more butter.

     And cook the mushrooms with some beef broth. I should note here that the recipe calls for white wine or water. I don't happen to have any whine at the moment and water seemed boring so I switched it to beef broth. 

     After the mushrooms are cooked you take it off the heat, stir in the sour cream and heat it on low.

     You add some lemon juice and put the meat back in and heat it a bit more and you're done. I added zoodles but I feel this was a mistake. The flavor was good but I should have heated them separately and then mixed everything. I had to heat much longer than was stated in the recipe and turn the heat up. This may have thinned out the sauce somewhat. 

     This was an incredibly tasty beef stroganoff and everyone liked it quite a bit. Travis scarfed it down and asked for more. Ethan said he really liked it and suggested next time I make it I save 20 calories in my day so I can add a bit of parmesan cheese on top. I said next time I make it I think it should go over mashed cauliflower. Ethan agreed this was a good plan. So I might make this one again next week. It was that good. And with track season starting I will need some easy and fast recipes. 

    Yesterday I had it in my plan to make a few different types of fat bombs. But then laziness struck, my mom came over to visit and the day got away from me and I only ended up making one type of fat bomb. These are chocolate coffee fat bombs. They are really tasty, but they needed a lot of tweaking and they are sort of crumbly and I feel these could be better in so many ways. 

     The first thing I did was use instant espresso instead of instant coffee because that was what I had. I feel that was an excellent choice. The recipe calls for 3/4 of a teaspoon of Stevia. I don't know what they even think that will do because that would leave them extremely bitter and there would be no point. I decided I wanted to use Monk Fruit sweetener anyway, and I started with 2 teaspoons. I would mix and taste a bit and in the end I had added 10 teaspoons of the sweetener. They are still not super sweet. But they do taste like a lightly sweetened coffee. While they were sort of a pain to make and I don't love the texture (they are primarily made up of crushed pecans and feel like you are chewing coffee grounds a bit) I can't seem to stop eating them. When I made the cookie dough fat bombs  they were super delicious, the first sort of sweet thing I had had in over a month, and I still managed to behave myself and only eat one. Which these coffee ones I had 3. They do have about half the calories the cookie dough fat bombs have, so that is something. Anyway, I like the flavor, don't love the texture and I am not sure how they will survive storage. Even in the freezer. 

     My hope for tomorrow is to make a couple more types of fat bombs because having a variety would be nice. Having ones with more and less fat and more and less calories would be great too. I like options. And different flavors. And having something that is a tiny treat will definitely keep me going. 
    As of this morning I have lost over 50 pounds in just under a year. I am really pleased with that. Now I just need to find ways to keep motivated and keep on going. So hopefully I can talk myself into making some more fat bombs and maybe even doing a bit of doll work.