Pork Chops with Herbed Goat Cheese Butter and Green Beans and Oatmeal with Poached Egg

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I've been overwhelmed with papers and dogs. I still have my dad's dog, Heidi due to an unexpected bout with tape worm-infested cat poop. You don't want the gory details. However, I've been keeping up with this diet and cooking different meals. The most recent one I tried was tonight's supper, Pork Chops with Herbed Goat Cheese Butter and Green Beans It was ok, but I'm not a big fan of green beans. I like them best when they are French cut. I have the tool to do it, but I was following the recipe. If I choose to try this again, I will be French cutting them. In the picture, all that green is not green beans. I also had asparagus. I try to have at least two vegetables per meal. The best part of this meal was feeding Teddi and Heidi green beans. Teddi loves them, but Teddi loves most vegetables. Heidi on the other hand, not so much.

One of the things I've discovered while on this adventure is that sometimes I need more protein than what I'm getting with the recipes. A while ago I was just craving poached eggs. It was driving me crazy. The way I usually eat poached eggs is on toast, and bread is a major calorie problem. So I thought about it for a long time, and one morning, I made oatmeal, but rather than adding fruit and a little sweetner, I added sauted shallots and a poached egg. It was really good and satisfying. I haven't had it since, but I've been putting an egg into the rice cooker with the oatmeal. I've found that helps out a lot.

I've learned a lot while on this diet. I think one of the biggest things I've learned is the value of small amounts. I learned to cook for my family as a kid. I've always cooked by adding a lot, which means I eat more. With this diet, I find myself measuring an 1/8 of a teaspoon a lot, and rather than 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 teaspoons of butter. Seriously, when I put maple syrup on my oatmeal in the morning, I add two teaspoons of it. You can afford to buy the good, real maple syrup when you measure it out that way.

If you're wondering, I've lost 22 pounds since I started this almost a month ago. I had started working on losing weight earlier in the year, but not as effectively. I've actually lost 32 pounds since then.

I'm still enjoying this, but I'm getting creative as well. I thought breakfast was going to be a problem, and it's not. My problem meal has been lunch. I've since found a few good recipes I like from the diet, but I also make wraps on some days. I'm making things like BLTs and Tuna salad in a wrap. Like I said, bread is a killer, and tortillas make so much more sense. I'm sure as I go, I'll create a lot more changes, but it's been a lot of fun so far.