IF YOU'RE GOING TO BURN DINNER....

For the last month or so I've been on a mission to empty the large freezer of everything that's still fit to eat.  I came upon a large tray of thighs from back in January that I was too lazy to separate before freezing.  So I asked my husband if his cooker/smoker (Big Green Egg) would hold that many thighs.  The answer was affirmative.  Big Green Egg Cookbook

We put the thighs on partially frozen and set the heat for 300F to cook for an hour.  We left them on for 1-1/2 hour or more and we overcooked them.  Now normally you'd have to try really hard to burn something on the Big Green Egg but we got distracted.  So we ate 4 thighs between us, choosing those that held out promise of some moisture.  The others, hhhmmm...  What to do, what to do?  I have to doctor up 11 chicken thighs because I sure don't want to throw food out!

So here's what I did with 4 of those thighs for lunch today.  They yielded about 1 cup of meat.  You don't have to use charred chicken to try this low carb recipe at home!  :o)

CHOPPED CHICKEN AVOCADO SALAD
Serves: 2
Carbs: 11
Net Carbs: 6.5
Calories: 550

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup cooked chopped chicken
• 1 small scallion (green onion), finely chopped
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 large Haas avocado, chopped
• 1/2 plum tomato, chopped
• 1 crisp bacon strip, crumbled
• 2 cups torn Romaine
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix first 4 ingredients together thoroughly.
2. Stir in chopped tomato.
3. Divide Romaine onto 2 plates.
4. Mound chicken mixture in the middle of the lettuce.
5. Sprinkle with bacon bits and season with pepper.

 We ate it as soon as the recipe was completed.  We both felt that if it had been sitting in the fridge for a couple of hours, the flavors would have blended more and been even better.

This is Day 5 of being back on the Atkins program and I feel energized and thrilled to finally be back on track.

I'll be weighing in tomorrow.  Judging by all the trips to the loo, I expect to see a large weight loss.  I completely understand that the first few pounds are water loss and low carbing is a strong diuretic.  I checked and I am definitely in Ketosis... big time!  Yippee!  No wonder I feel so darn good.