Lunch at the Hospital

Sometimes the hospital doesn't have anything on my low-carb diet except salad and I'm not a huge fan. Sometimes the meat is all right and there is one vegetable that is green and not fried.  Today they had hamburger steak with gravy and mushrooms...but they were separate so I didn't have to get the gravy but could ask for the hamburger and mushrooms.  The steamed cabbage was good and on my diet.  But the other lovely thing was a baked sweet potato.  They didn't make some kind of sugar-laden casserole.  They put a tub of brown sugar so people could add it, but I could have the sweet potato without it if I could manage to keep walking past it and not help myself!  I did.  The sweet potato was small so I had a really nice lunch without getting off my diet.  I'm aware that a sweet potato isn't low-carb, but it is also one of the healthy carb things so I just enjoyed it.

Today's Brilliant Snack Idea

This was our first really hot day.  I still had some sour cherries in the refrigerator (with fruit fresh)...but not enough for another pie (need 4 cups).  So I had been mulling over the problem of what to do with them.  Finally I decided to make sugar-free vanilla pudding (I make mine with half and half:).  I put it in the refrigerator to finish setting.
I put the pitted sour cherries from our tree in a skillet with splenda, a half teaspoon low-carb thickener, about half a teaspoon of almond flavoring and a little water.  I stirred it on low heat until all the splenda, etc., had mixed nicely and put a couple of tablespoons on the pudding.  It was cool and tasted marvelous!

 I had picked a couple of ripe blueberries that I dropped in, too.

I had done that with apples; it is kind of like pie filling.  I don't eat a whole serving because apples and cherries, even sour cherries, aren't low carb.  So just a little on top of the pudding really dresses up the pudding but doesn't feel like deprivation to me.  I just gave Larry his in a bowl because he doesn't like pudding.

It's Best

I made a pasta salad at my husband's request.  I used dreamfield's pasta and put tuna, a cucumber, a bell pepper, a can of asparagus pieces, some olives, a small can of English peas, two boiled eggs, a can of kidney beans, and mayonaise.
It didn't all fit in one container so I put some in a bowl to eat and asked my husband if he was ready for a bowl.  He said, "It's best when it's cold."
I said, "It's best when I'm hungry."