Day 3 of low-carb week was fast, easy and delicious and only about 6 net carbs per plate. As the main entree I liberally
rubbed some pork chops with lemon pepper and simply fried them. Shannon really enjoyed the Lemon
Pepper Pork Chops, as did I. She doesn't care for the fat, so I trimmed it, but I think fried pork fat is delicious!
Pan frying is definitely my favorite way to make pork chops since the high heat sears them nice and crispy, which makes the
flavor and texture so much better, and also reduces the cooking time in the process.

I gave Shannon the choice between having cabbage or zucchini for dinner and for some reason she choose zucchini. Poor
neglected sulphurous lettuce, you'll get your turn! Anyhow, I just quickly sautéed some Zucchini and Mushrooms with garlic and red pepper flakes. I think mushrooms and zucchini go
together very well since they both have meaty textures and tend to absorb the flavor of whatever they're cooked in.
Naturally, anything cooked in garlic is bound to be quickly gobbled down.

Finally, we had little bundles of Bacon Wrapped Asparagus. Shannon said that the
asparagus tasted bitter, which I agreed on for the tips, but I thought the stalks were actually quite succulent. I really
enjoyed the center cuts with the crispy bacon and just-crisp sort of sweet bite from the roasted asparagus.

Homemade Guacamole is really easy to make, extremely nutritious and very
delicious. It's definitely important to have ripened avocados, so try to buy them a day in advance since it's often hard to buy them ripened just enough. If you need the ripening process to happen faster, you can put them in a paper bag with a
banana and they'll ripen overnight. Unfortunately, we didn't even have time for that and our guacamole turned out a little
chunky. Nevertheless, chunky guacamole is still good guacamole. This is a simple recipe, you can always add tomatoes and
extra spices like cumin or cilantro, if you want to. Guacamole makes a good dip for vegetables as well as an accompaniment
for spicy meats or, say, a Taco Salad.

This whole meal has, what, maybe 3 net carbs? Not surprisingly, taco salad is an apparent staple of many low-carbers; novice and veterans alike. How can you resist a salad that combines
everything from crisp lettuce to spicy meat and gooey cheese? The tortilla part of taco salad is rendered obsolete.
Everyone knows the real prize is the meat, cheese and all those fresh vegetable toppings. I ate this with a healthy dose of the homemade guacamole. I can't get enough of that stuff. Hot peppers are also a great way to add a lot of flavor with
hardly adding any carbs.

To go with the Mexican theme I decided to share a super-simple recipe for Hot Cocoa. Hot
cocoa is one of those things that I'm baffled has an instant version. There are only 3 ingredients, plus water! You have to be hard-pressed for time if you need an instant cocoa fix. It's not uncommon for me to drink 3 cups of cocoa or more a day during the winter. Everyone knows it's a perfect warm-up when you come in from the cold. After the crazy snowstorm we had today, I think I earned this one.

3 years ago today I started the Atkins diet. To make a long story short, I effortlessly lost around 60 pounds in 6 months and changed my life forever. I'm sure it's ironic to many when I say this, but Atkins, the "bacon and eggs diet" is what inspired me to learn more about health and nutrition. I'm not going to go on a rant about it, because I understand why low-carbohydrate diets in general have a bad reputation. I can't possibly refute every argument categorically point by point, so I'll save my breath. When I started it I was under the same impressions, so I know how hard it would be to reason with a naysayer. The only thing that changed my mind was by doing it and noticing such an incredible difference not only in my waistline, but my general well-being and health… in only 2 weeks.

In celebration of this, over the next week I am only going to prepare Atkins-friendly dinners. I'm going to try and cover a wide range of induction friendly vegetables and delicious entrees from various protein sources. Of course there's no reason why anyone not on a low-carb diet wouldn't want to try these recipes as well!

Tonight we had Tuna Bake Florentine with Parmesan Crisps. The whole dinner is about 6 net carbs a plate, pretty much entirely from the brussel sprouts. The parmesan crisps are a nice touch, I think, but for presentation and as a nice compliment of flavor and texture. Shannon absolutely loved the tuna bakes and I can't say that I blame her. As a general rule I'll enjoy anything with baked cheese, but the flavor of the baked tuna with the spinach is delicious. Just a little bit of lemon goes a long way to make it all that much better.

On the side I had some Bacon Brussel Sprouts. Brussel sprouts are still a tricky one for me since I don't particularly like them that much. Boiled with butter is still my preferred method of choking these down, but I'm still looking for another way!

I am happy to report that I have my first ever migraine headache today! How proud I feel to be unable to rotate my head or
move my eyes without wishing I were dead. This is a landmark moment for me, one that I hope I never have to repeat. In other news, the Chicken Soup tasted better today, both because soup generally does taste better after a day or two and because I'm getting my sense of taste back. Still, eating a meal seems a bit of a daunting task. I have been craving something in particular, a plain Cheese Omelette, so I figured I'd whip up one of those.

There are many types of omelettes with many different textures and tastes (and that's before we start talking about what
should be added other than eggs!) The best omelette I've ever had was from the Medicine Hat airport restaurant that opened
up 3 minutes early just to prepare it for me. It was a nice little rectangular package very much like a burrito with the
perfect texture. I was amazed by it, so naturally I asked him how he made it. He laughed at the compliment of "World's
greatest omelette" and told me he just "flattens it out on the grill and folds it up." Sounds simple enough… if you have an industrial-sized flat surface grill!

My least favorite omelettes are the ones you get from bitter brunch staff who totally overcook them with their little Bunsen burners and tiny thin pans. Everything is brown and basically inedible without a large dose of salt and pepper. This seems to be the most prevalent type of omelette and I'm unsure if that's because people actually like them that way or if no one ever learned to make them any different. Perhaps it's just a way of reducing the risk of salmonella-related lawsuits, I don't know.

I think omelettes cause quite a bit of unnecessary frustration and grief to many people when they try to prepare them in
their own kitchens. Generally speaking, for a lot of people omelettes are the long way of making scrambled eggs. Making the perfect omelette is really easy if you have a really good non-stick pan. It is also important to make sure that your pan is hot enough to start cooking the eggs when you add them or else it will be exceedingly difficult to flip, but it cannot be so hot that the pan quickly browns the eggs before the rest of the mixture has a chance to cook. It's also important to portion your vegetables since the water comes out on contact with the heat and can make very an unpleasant runny texture. It might sound complicated before you've mastered it, but if you're in the business of learning how to make the perfect omelette, try starting out with a simple 1 egg cheese omelette and work your way up.

Enough about omelettes. I also made a simple Honey Mustard Spinach Salad. Honey mustard
dressing is very easy to make in several different ways. The one I chose was a recipe from the internet that claimed it
tasted exactly like The Outback's. Whether or not this is true I don't know since I've never eaten at The Outback. If so, their honey mustard dressing tastes pretty much like honey mustard mayonnaise. I prefer making a simple vinaigrette with 2 parts oil to 1 part prepared mustard and enough honey to sweeten it, but I thought I'd try something a bit different.

Prepared yellow mustard definitely gives it a nicer color, but I prefer using the whole grain mustard for simple ingredient salads like this to add a bit of texture. If I thought I could stomach more food I would've added some bacon bits, tomatoes (sun-dried or otherwise) and some red onion. Fruits like pears, apples and oranges work nicely with it, too. For a twist you could add a bit of orange juice to the dressing and use an apple pear (Asian pear? what do they call these in Asia?) for a combination of all three!

I'm still not feeling well and figured it'd be pointless to make dinner that I didn't have the appetite to eat. Instead, I
asked Shannon if she wanted to make something. She chose one of her personal favorites, Honey
Hot Chicken. This was perfect for her since she's just beginning to get her appetite back and wanted something she
typically craves. Before I met her she used to make this all the time. She likes the sweet and spiciness of it. This time around she was using Frank's extra hot hot sauce and after the first couple of bites she said her ears were burning. I took a bite and started coughing once the heat kicked in, but it's a good way to clear the sinuses! She eats it with Creamy Coleslaw to try and soothe the burn a bit.

I don't normally get sick at all, so it's quite odd that I've been sick twice in the last couple of weeks. I guess after the first time the old immune system is worn down and I'm more susceptible to viruses. For about an hour the aches and nausea subsided and I thought it'd be a good idea to make some Wild Rice and Chicken Soup. By the time it was done, I could barely choke down half a bowl before the nausea resurfaced.

I originally felt ambitious enough to create a soup and salad combo, but I'm glad I didn't. As it stands I doubt this
enormous pot of soup will get eaten unless I can regain my appetite soon. Shannon has not recovered yet either and it's hard for both of us to want to have much of anything. From what I did have, the soup tastes commercially prepared. This might be a good thing to some that prefer the Campbell's style flavor. It's simple and easy to make, but unfortunately just isn't easy enough on the stomach right now.

Garlic is one of the most inexpensive, healthiest and tastiest things you could put into your mouth. There are many tools dedicated solely for garlic (the garlic press, garlic roaster etc.) and many more ways to use it beyond cooking (ointments, medicine etc.) It can be found in cuisines throughout the world; from Italy to Thailand, and is used in many different ways. The more garlic you eat, the more it becomes a part of your life. It even permeates your body so that you breathe and sweat it! Yes, garlic helps you repel unwanted company while simultaneously encouraging you to brush your teeth and bathe. Garlic does pretty much whatever your heart desires (and it's good for your heart, too!)

I tried to use garlic in as many ways that I could think of without needing a steep cup of ginger tea to soothe my stomach after dinner. Not surprisingly, ginger also pairs with garlic quite nicely. We had it raw, roasted, fried and steeped; which covers a wide variety of garlic's culinary uses. If you wish to continue the garlic adventure, check out Garlicster, the blog dedicated entirely to garlic related content.

It wasn't hard to determine what dishes I was going to make once I decided I was going to do a garlic themed dinner. My
first dish was Chicken with Roasted Garlic. The skin is quickly crisped and then the heat is reduced to allow for beautiful caramelization. The natural sugars from the onion and garlic are brought out from the process taking away from the bitterness and leaving behind a delicious flavor.

I placed the chicken on Garlic Risotto with Peas and allowed the drippings to seep into the rice. This was the only dish that was below perfect in tonight's dinner. I had rushed the making of the garlic broth and the flavor was not as pronounced as I had expected. My risotto was also not very creamy, which is the first time I've ever had a bad experience making risotto before. I'm not entirely sure what happened.

On the side was a Whole Roasted Potato with Garlic and some Braised Garlic Broccoli. The potatoes are first boiled to soften and then allowed to bake
until crisp, giving them a great texture. They are then rolled in raw garlic to give them a nice bite. If you minced your garlic and leave it on the counter while the potatoes are baking the flavor is enhanced. If you wish to diminish the bite of the raw garlic, chop instead of mince it or simply cook it. I think that broccoli and garlic are wonderful together, like garlic and pretty much anything is. The braising allowed the broccoli to soften and absorb the flavor of the garlic.

To help with cleaning up after this meal, a little lemon juice can help to take the smell away. Just rub a cut lemon on your cutting board and on your hands and you're good to go. Of course, garlic is wonderful with lemon as a sauce or dressing instead of a cleanser, so feel free to squeeze some of that juice on your plate before you take it to the counters.

A friend of mine requested an Alfredo Sauce recipe, so that was the basis for this meal.
Alfredo is one of the simplest sauces to make being comprised of only 3 ingredients; cream, butter and parmesan cheese.
Sure, in essence, it is little more than flavored fat, but it's a delicious, rich sauce that compliments so many things. A
little goes a long way and is extremely satisfying. I like to add a little bit of nutmeg to my alfredo, but you could add
basically any Italian spice/herb and yield great results.

I'm not a big fan of bacon, but I really love carbonara. Carbonara is very similar to alfredo, except involving mushrooms
and bacon to add to the flavor. I made some homemade Ravioli stuffed with sautéed mushrooms and bacon to give the whole dish a bit more dimension. The nutmeg in the sauce compliments the mushrooms and with some grated white pepper for a little bit of a nutty kick. Shannon described this as "the most amazing cream sauce I've ever [not] tasted." She's sick and has defunct taste buds, but you get the idea. It's worth checking out.

I served the ravioli with a simple Cannellini and Spinach Sauté that's infused with the
flavors of lemon and garlic and a bit of a kick from dried red pepper flakes. The meaty texture of the beans compliments the similar texture from the mushroom filling of the ravioli and the combination of the lemon, garlic and alfredo sauce is
absolutely perfect.

There's nothing even remotely fancy about tonight's dinner. I used some of the leftover Espresso Rubbed Roast from last night for a Southwest Stew. It is much more difficult to tenderize a tough cut of meat after it's already been roasted! I must've simmered for the better portion of the day before the fibers finally started to break down. Even then it wasn't nearly as tender as if I had made it with cubed stewing beef.

I liked it enough to have second helpings, but I thought it was quite salty. I used bouillon instead of actual beef broth
for the liquid and the amount of sodium in those little packages can be extremely overwhelming at times. Were I to make this again I'd likely use actual broth, a low-sodium bouillon or just half as much.

Dinner tonight was fine, but would have improved drastically with a bit of patience and planning. See, I had a spur of the moment decision to do a coffee themed meal. I found a recipe for an espresso rubbed roast and before I even figured out what I wanted for side dishes, I'd fixed it up and threw it in the oven. That was mistake number one. Finding side dishes involving coffee proved to be far more difficult than I originally thought, especially considering I'd already used the Chipotle Coffee Bean recipe.

Mistake number two is that I was so excited about trying out the roast recipe that I completely negated common cooking
practices and roasted instead of braised a very cheap and gristly cut of meat. Even at rare it was that sort of tender/tough combination that lets you know that had this been a prime cut of beef that it would've been perfect, but instead it's sort of chewy.

Aside my foibles, the flavor of this roast is great. You can definitely taste a roasted coffee musk to it, but it's not
overpowering. In fact, I think you're likely to taste the molasses hint from the brown sugar before the espresso. Over a fire pit this would probably be fantastic. It's not good enough to be my favorite, but it was nice to try something that's very different from what I'm used to. What really set this apart was the gravy. Bar none, the gravy for the Espresso Rubbed Roast was the best gravy I've ever had.

If you're wondering why I'm talking so much about this roast, it's because the side dishes were lackluster. Yams with Ginger Sauce had potential, as basically any yam dish does, but didn't really wow me at all. I like the subtle heat from the pepper-infused oil, but (and this is no fault of the recipe itself, I suppose) the yams were very bland. I'd never bought an organic yam before tonight and my current experience is that they're small, tasteless little brothers to the GM version.

The Orange and Beet Salad seemed as though it had potential. Vinaigrette and beets should
taste like pickled beets, right? Oranges are just tasty anyway, how can you go wrong? If I haven't already admitted so, I'm not really a salad fan. I love my vegetables, but salads don't do it for me. I'd like to chalk my dislike for this salad up to simply disliking salads in general, but I can't. It's just not good. The dressing seems lost in some strange contrast of the beets and oranges, which I thought would go well together, and the walnuts and greens just faded into the background. We didn't even bother keeping this for leftovers; it went straight to the garbage.