Accountability?

You’re welcome to friend me but I don’t make it a point to hold people accountable.

When people try to hold me accountable, I usually dig in my heels and do the opposite of whatever they’re pushing- even if it was me who asked them to “help” me out in the first place.

I’m also Deep South.
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It’s possible to make simple substitutions for our foods, same as we would anywhere else.

Bisquick’s Heart Smart version tastes just the same as the regular. If I’m making pancakes, I’ll add an extra tsp baking powder for fluffiness.

I make Bisquick dumplings with 25/cal Silk plain cashew milk. There’s a recipe for a smaller batch on the side of the box. At first I found it irritating, now I like that I can’t pig out, and there’s no extra biscuits hanging around the house.

Ham biscuits: dry fry the ham in a sauce pan til nicely crusted. I had ham biscuits for breakfast yesterday morning and fried up some Honeybaked. 2.5oz (about 145 cal) was plenty for three biscuits. Some cuts of Smithfield type grocery hams are pretty low cal.


Unfortunately I haven’t found a low cal version of cornbread 😢

Cobblers- I just cut the topping recipe in half and even cut the sugar down from there. It’s plenty. You can sub out margarine for butter to save some cals. Instead of sweetened canned fruits, I use fresh or frozen and add a tbsp of flour to thicken them. I don’t always add the Tbsp of sugar to the fruit, esp if it’s already a sweet fruit like ripe peaches or apples. I’ve made a killer cobbler with a can of sugar free cherry pie filling and a cup or two of fresh blueberries.

Fried chicken. I do not go there. That’d be Pandora’s box. I can eat my weight in fried chicken without even coming up for air.

Fried okra- still experimenting. A bag of breaded frozen okra isn’t high calorie. I’ve tried misting it lightly with olive oil and putting it in the air crisper. It wasn’t awful but nor was it worth the trouble.

Hash browns- I don’t buy those but my daughter is visiting from overseas and sorely misses them so we are experimenting with a box of frozen hash browns in the next day or two. Happy to share results with you.

Green beans- easy peasy. Either stick in a small piece of ham to season, or season with some Kitchen Accomplice type concentrated broth. Green beans are one of the lowest cal foods so knock yourself out.

I cut pork loin into steaks, put a tbsp.Vidalia onion relish on top and grill them for 10-12 minutes in my air fryer. Yum.

Grits- I don’t go there. Never cared for them. Husband loves em and works them into his calories. He just cooks them with water.

Mac and cheese: I go heavier on the roux and less heavy on mixing the cheese in. No one in my family notices that I’ve used skim milk, margarine, or part skim cheddar shred. They devour it anyway. The pan I just made (daughter is getting all her faves while she visits!) was 6,000+ calories BUT it divided into 28 generous servings, even with real butter and un-skim cheese. With a grilled chicken breast and side salad that’s still a nice meal for low cals.

Blackening: I use Victoria Taylor’s blackening seasoning on chicken breast and throw it in the air fryer to grill. Tastes much better than the hideous salty “blackened chicken” I got at a restaurant the other night.

Stubbs makes a good BBQ sauce that’s low cal. I’ve learned you don’t have to use a lot of sauce if you supplement with Colgin’s Liquid Smoke. Throw any low cal chicken pork or beef in the crockpot with a couple Tbsp Stubbs and a tsp smoke and dinner is ready by the time you get home. Walden Farms makes a zero cal BBQ that’s good straight from the bottle. I’m going to try it in the slow cooker after daughter leaves.

Fried green tomatoes: another kryptonite I have to avoid. If I see it at a restaurant I’ll take the opportunity but no one cooks it right anyway. *sigh* there’s nothing like a good fried green tomato. With salt. As a side dish. Not on a sandwich and def not with blue or goat cheese. I mean WTF?

If your diary is open and you're planning on losing the healthy way by all means feel free to add

I just started my journey again yesterday after a long battle with depression. I meal prepped for the whole week and I am determined hit my goals! I'd love to have some friends along the way!