Day Twenty-Three
I did not get to weigh myself today, although I was curious about my weight, because I was brought breakfast in bed. My husband made me eggs and bacon, and also oatmeal with fruit in it.
I was excited to try some of the sugarless desserts in my new Keto cookbook that came in the mail this week. Yesterday, one of the many stores we had to stop at was a health-food store way downtown so I could buy some coconut flour and arrowroot. I had already picked up golden monk fruit sweetener and Swerve during a prior shopping trip, but had not known how to use them. The only problem with these items is that they come in tiny bags, and cost a lot. My first recipe used up almost all the monk fruit sweetener I had bought. It had directed me to mix a couple of tablespoons of it with cinnamon, and the snickerdoodles only used about half of that, so I had a bunch left over that seemed it would go to waste, while another recipe also called for monk fruit, and I was almost out.
After thinking about it, though, I just used the monk fruit sweetener and cinnamon in the second recipe, because it was for ginger cookies, and cinnamon is fine in those.
I have mixed feelings about the recipes. They all turned out okay, but I had to make some modifications. They called for almond flour, which sounds lovely, but which I did not guy, because it would kill one of my sons, who has a nut and seeds allergy. Obviously, cooking with almond flour would provide fewer carbs, which would be good for me, but I did not want to have to make an ER visit on Mother's Day. So I used regular all-purpose wheat flour. I don't know how the almond flour would have behaved, so I cannot say for sure that the recipe was lacking, but when I got the dough together with that one substitution, there was no way I could gather it together to make balls. It was just way too dry.
I glanced over the recipe again to make sure that I had done it correctly. I added a bit more butter, because I had not actually measured but had eyeballed that, but the dough was still to try to form into balls. I did not want to waste all my monk fruit sweetener, nor end up without the cookies, which all of us were looking forward to, and I realized that there had been no eggs called for. The butter and vanilla were the only wet ingredients. So, I added an egg. The cookies turned out okay. They were a little dry on the outside, but lovely on the inside. They were plenty sweet. We ate pretty much all of them over the course of the day.
The second thing I made was lemon bars. I was particularly looking forward to these. Again, I used flour in the crust, not the almond flour the recipe called for. The recipe had called for me to line the bottom of a square baking pan with parchment paper. When I later cut the bars, the paper had moved over to one side and done little good, so I won't be doing that again. Also, I had had to go and play the prelude music for church, and had asked my husband to take the lemon bars out of the oven when the timer went off, before he joined me at church (we live next door to it), so I wasn't there to judge whether or not they had set up. (It said twenty minutes or until middle is set.) The middle two bars, when I later cut them, were a little bit goopy. Other than that, though, this recipe worked out very well. The lemon bars were delicious. I felt decadent eating a couple, but they had no sugar, so I allowed myself to.
The third recipe was for ginger snaps. It was intended for the dough to be rolled out and cut into shapes. I didn't have time for that, after church, gospel study, and a trip to the cemetery to put flowers on my mother's grave. And, again, the dough was way too dry to use. I added an egg, as the recipe had called for none, and, on a whim, some applesauce. My daughter then pointed out that the applesauce had sugar in it. So that resulted in these being for my family. They turned out okay, but, since I messed up the recipe in three ways, I can't fairly judge it as having been bad.
But who makes cookies without eggs? Maybe someday I'll try these again with almond flour and see if it is wetter than wheat flour.
I had a lovely day with my family. Again, there were some extra things, and it was a very busy day, especially with trying to cook three new recipes in addition to dinner, attending two extra church-related meetings, one with our bishop and one with our stake patriarch. We wrapped it up with a shepherd's pie dinner with less meat and extra beans in it, and a reading of the last two acts of Twelfth Night, in preparation for our trip to the Shakespeare Festival this summer. We each take parts and read aloud, stopping to discuss hard passages. I am very fortunate that all of my younger children, at least, are interested in Shakespeare, and it is really fun to do this. It's just hard to find time when everyone is off work and can sit down for a half hour or hour and read, so it has been a while, but we have completed one of the three plays we plan to read together.
So, how did I do today? I declined to eat all of the bacon I was served in bed, and added most of it back onto the platter for the family. I asked Mark how many eggs he had served me, because it looked like four, but he said it was only two, so I ate those. I was full by then, so only had a small portion of the oatmeal. Some of my children had some oatmeal, too, and I put the rest away. I know oatmeal doesn't keep very well, but I'll heat it up for breakfast tomorrow and add some milk.
I declined to eat chocolates I was given, along with all the other women, at church, and also the cinnamon knots that were passed around in the women's meeting. I did notice my brain going on a short vacation there, as I found it lying to me that maybe they had been made without sugar. I had been baking without sugar today, but that hardly meant that everyone else in the world was, too. I laughed at myself and passed the basket on without partaking. Silly brain. They looked good, but no one noticed that I didn't have one.
I did have some of the sugarless cookies--maybe more than I should have, because we ate the snickerdoodles hours before we ate the others during the Shakespeare reading, but, what a treat! I haven't had any other kind of dessert in over three weeks. Overall, I did okay.
My oldest son at home gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, but both he and my husband declined to give me the chocolates they knew would normally have pleased me. Everyone is supportive of this project, which I appreciate. My husband gave me a gift and helped the children have gifts for me, and he gave me a wonderful card that had me in tears right before church. My oldest son called from California. My older daughter had planned to drive down, but changed her mind because her car was acting up. I agreed that having something happen to her on the freeway would not make for a good Mother's Day. She is planning to buy a new car this week, as the insurance company totaled her old car after a semi hit it at low speed, and she has already found the car but is just waiting for the check, so she will come down later in the week. I hope there are still some of the cookies left, as I made them partly for her visit. I'll put some away for her before I go back to bed.
I was excited to try some of the sugarless desserts in my new Keto cookbook that came in the mail this week. Yesterday, one of the many stores we had to stop at was a health-food store way downtown so I could buy some coconut flour and arrowroot. I had already picked up golden monk fruit sweetener and Swerve during a prior shopping trip, but had not known how to use them. The only problem with these items is that they come in tiny bags, and cost a lot. My first recipe used up almost all the monk fruit sweetener I had bought. It had directed me to mix a couple of tablespoons of it with cinnamon, and the snickerdoodles only used about half of that, so I had a bunch left over that seemed it would go to waste, while another recipe also called for monk fruit, and I was almost out.
After thinking about it, though, I just used the monk fruit sweetener and cinnamon in the second recipe, because it was for ginger cookies, and cinnamon is fine in those.
I have mixed feelings about the recipes. They all turned out okay, but I had to make some modifications. They called for almond flour, which sounds lovely, but which I did not guy, because it would kill one of my sons, who has a nut and seeds allergy. Obviously, cooking with almond flour would provide fewer carbs, which would be good for me, but I did not want to have to make an ER visit on Mother's Day. So I used regular all-purpose wheat flour. I don't know how the almond flour would have behaved, so I cannot say for sure that the recipe was lacking, but when I got the dough together with that one substitution, there was no way I could gather it together to make balls. It was just way too dry.
I glanced over the recipe again to make sure that I had done it correctly. I added a bit more butter, because I had not actually measured but had eyeballed that, but the dough was still to try to form into balls. I did not want to waste all my monk fruit sweetener, nor end up without the cookies, which all of us were looking forward to, and I realized that there had been no eggs called for. The butter and vanilla were the only wet ingredients. So, I added an egg. The cookies turned out okay. They were a little dry on the outside, but lovely on the inside. They were plenty sweet. We ate pretty much all of them over the course of the day.
The second thing I made was lemon bars. I was particularly looking forward to these. Again, I used flour in the crust, not the almond flour the recipe called for. The recipe had called for me to line the bottom of a square baking pan with parchment paper. When I later cut the bars, the paper had moved over to one side and done little good, so I won't be doing that again. Also, I had had to go and play the prelude music for church, and had asked my husband to take the lemon bars out of the oven when the timer went off, before he joined me at church (we live next door to it), so I wasn't there to judge whether or not they had set up. (It said twenty minutes or until middle is set.) The middle two bars, when I later cut them, were a little bit goopy. Other than that, though, this recipe worked out very well. The lemon bars were delicious. I felt decadent eating a couple, but they had no sugar, so I allowed myself to.
The third recipe was for ginger snaps. It was intended for the dough to be rolled out and cut into shapes. I didn't have time for that, after church, gospel study, and a trip to the cemetery to put flowers on my mother's grave. And, again, the dough was way too dry to use. I added an egg, as the recipe had called for none, and, on a whim, some applesauce. My daughter then pointed out that the applesauce had sugar in it. So that resulted in these being for my family. They turned out okay, but, since I messed up the recipe in three ways, I can't fairly judge it as having been bad.
But who makes cookies without eggs? Maybe someday I'll try these again with almond flour and see if it is wetter than wheat flour.
I had a lovely day with my family. Again, there were some extra things, and it was a very busy day, especially with trying to cook three new recipes in addition to dinner, attending two extra church-related meetings, one with our bishop and one with our stake patriarch. We wrapped it up with a shepherd's pie dinner with less meat and extra beans in it, and a reading of the last two acts of Twelfth Night, in preparation for our trip to the Shakespeare Festival this summer. We each take parts and read aloud, stopping to discuss hard passages. I am very fortunate that all of my younger children, at least, are interested in Shakespeare, and it is really fun to do this. It's just hard to find time when everyone is off work and can sit down for a half hour or hour and read, so it has been a while, but we have completed one of the three plays we plan to read together.
So, how did I do today? I declined to eat all of the bacon I was served in bed, and added most of it back onto the platter for the family. I asked Mark how many eggs he had served me, because it looked like four, but he said it was only two, so I ate those. I was full by then, so only had a small portion of the oatmeal. Some of my children had some oatmeal, too, and I put the rest away. I know oatmeal doesn't keep very well, but I'll heat it up for breakfast tomorrow and add some milk.
I declined to eat chocolates I was given, along with all the other women, at church, and also the cinnamon knots that were passed around in the women's meeting. I did notice my brain going on a short vacation there, as I found it lying to me that maybe they had been made without sugar. I had been baking without sugar today, but that hardly meant that everyone else in the world was, too. I laughed at myself and passed the basket on without partaking. Silly brain. They looked good, but no one noticed that I didn't have one.
I did have some of the sugarless cookies--maybe more than I should have, because we ate the snickerdoodles hours before we ate the others during the Shakespeare reading, but, what a treat! I haven't had any other kind of dessert in over three weeks. Overall, I did okay.
My oldest son at home gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, but both he and my husband declined to give me the chocolates they knew would normally have pleased me. Everyone is supportive of this project, which I appreciate. My husband gave me a gift and helped the children have gifts for me, and he gave me a wonderful card that had me in tears right before church. My oldest son called from California. My older daughter had planned to drive down, but changed her mind because her car was acting up. I agreed that having something happen to her on the freeway would not make for a good Mother's Day. She is planning to buy a new car this week, as the insurance company totaled her old car after a semi hit it at low speed, and she has already found the car but is just waiting for the check, so she will come down later in the week. I hope there are still some of the cookies left, as I made them partly for her visit. I'll put some away for her before I go back to bed.
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