[Recipe] Cauliflower Bacon Fried Rice + Teriyaki Beef Tips

Here's a fun little recipe I got to cook last night! I found a great Cauliflower Fried Rice recipe online and changed it a little to suit my needs - and it was the first time I've worked with Cauliflower in this way.

One of the things about this meal is being that it's an Asian style - the cooking happens very quickly. That being said - I was moving around like a mad man and didn't get pictures of the process, but I will explain what I did.

This recipe I break down into 3 servings, so here's everything you need and the nutrition information of the recipe.

Where it says "5 cups Cauliflower" - it's just one whole head of Cauliflower, minus the leaves and the main stalk. 

Here's a picture of my favorite ingredients from the list that I keep in my cupboard for anytime I do Asian styled recipes - and all were used in this recipe.

Kikkomans

I prefer Swerve Sweetener but I was out - so I grabbed the Harris Teeter brand in a pinch.

Sesame Oil (only in bulk on Amazon - you're local store should have it.)

Rice Vinegar

If you want to make this today - go to the Asian isle of your local grocery store or to an Asian grocery store and you should be able to find all of this (except Swerve or Erythitol).

Now for cooking.. I use two pans - a deep frying pan for the sauce/beef and a Wok for the fried rice. You wanna get the Wok hot as hell before you even begin cooking so put it on high heat first before you start prepping and let it just heat up. You want the "Flavor of the Wok" and the Wok cooking everything without adding oil and such. (Really stove tops can't get Wok's hot enough to really work the way they are supposed to - but they do fine for this home style cooking. If you ever have the opportunity to use a Large Wok on like a propane heated element - you'll really enjoy that!)

By this time I assume you have both pans on high and warming.

Now, I cook these at the same time - but I'm trained in a kitchen. If you aren't feel free to make these one at a time - as I make them to start my meals on the following day, it doesn't matter to me on what order I make them in, as they get tupper wared anyway.

Beef Tips First. 

Cut the Beef into small tips (unless you buy them already ready for pan frying).

You wanna throw them in the frying pan (I like to put a spritz of Pam Olive or Butter oil down before doing so) and sear them very quickly.. (I like my meat rare so I'm talking 1 minute to 2 max)

As soon as they are browning to your liking remove from heat on a plate and let them rest.

In the same frying pan drop to medium/high and put the following in: 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1tbls rice vinegar, 2tbls Swerve (or other sweetener), 1tbls Minced garlic, 1tsp minced ginger

Begin stirring.

At this time if I got a lot of evaporation I'll usually add a little more water/soy sauce by sight.

In a separate glass, mix 1/4 cup water and your 1tsp of Cream of Tartar (Xantham Gum is actually preferred for sauce thickening, but I have never found it at my local grocery stores)

Once that's mixed and looking milky, drop the heat to low and as it starts to lower throw in the Water/tartar mixture and wisk with the rest of the sauce, keep on low as it thickens up.

Once it's thick to your liking, throw in the beef tips, stir and get it all good and lathered up, and cover. Leave on low for 5-10 minutes depending on how rare you like your Beef.

Excuse the mess - I was wisking hella hard and my stove tops always cause everything to run to the sides of the pan lol.

This is done, you can remove to cool or if you cooked at the same time, serve!

Cauliflower Bacon Fried Rice

First of all, you wanna prepare the Cauliflower by removing the main stalk and greens, then tearing the cauliflower into small leafettes. Grab your Food Processor and throw the cauliflower in it as you shred it to little bitty pieces! 

Once you've done that to the whole thing you wanna put it on a plate that has a paper towel on it, then put a paper towel on top and start pressing it with your body weight - you want to dry the cauliflower out as much as possible. There are ways to do a quick bake of it to crisp it up - but I'm ok with hand drying it like this.

Prep 3-4 green onions(scallions) up about half way from the bulb. 

Take 3 slices of bacon and slice thin into tiny strips. 

Your prep is done!

Now - Throw the bacon into the Wok and start crisping it up - I like mine crispy on the almost burnt side - but cook to your liking, then remove the bacon onto paper towels (leave the fat in the pan).

Pour the Cauliflower straight into the pan on top of the bacon fat, add your 2tbls of Soy sauce and mix it all up as it fries. Once mixed, push off to the side of the wok and on the empty space drop your Scallions, 2tbls Sesame oil, 1tsp minced garlic, 1tsp minced ginger let that get warm for 30 secs - 1 minute then mix it all together. Add heavy black pepper here if you like or salt to your liking, but mix well for about a minute then push it off to the side again.

In the empty area drop 2 large eggs, I wisk it for a quick scramble, you can do whatever you like.. and then mix it in with the rice mixture, once mixed in drop the bacon on top and mix some more as you remove from heat!

All Done!

Looks strange but tastes amazing. My cleaning lady is quoted as saying "This is better than rice at a Japanese restaurant"

You can serve as you wish now - or do what I did and break it up into 3rds in tupper ware to eat for dinner this Monday-Wednesday.

Feel free to add chives or Sesame seeds at this point for aesthetics and taste; I put the extra sauce in the pan too to add to the overall taste of everything. I'll be eating my first round of this for dinner tonight and I can't wait.

Here's to much more usage of Cauliflower - it's fun, simple, and fairly quick to mess with. I felt it would be daunting but really it wasn't bad at all.

And for a 500 or so calorie meal with 13g net carbs - it's not too shabby especially because my lunch will be some fat bombing (or i'll lunch this and have a night full of hot wings!)

Keep Calm, Keto On.

See you at the Bottom

-Freeze

Recipe was inspired by Ruled.me's Cauliflower Rice. 

Klean Keto is Far Superior to Whatever the Fuck I Was Doing the Last Two Times

Keto ultimately failed for me the last 2 times I tried it. I understand why now. As I did research and spoke with people about ketogenic diets, the main theme that was thrown around a lot was "calories don't matter, it's all about the carbs"... I think that is skewed. I was told that it didn't matter what I ate and how much, as long as I was under 20g of carbs for the day.

That usually ended up with me eating a bag of pork rinds at night because I was so hungry. That then led to me using French Onion dip with my pork rinds. Still under 20g carbs per day, so it had to be ok right?

Wrong.

What it did was make me lose weight at such a slow pace, that I ended up giving up both times. The first time i went from 395 to 360 over the course of about 3 months. Granted, a lot of cheating happened, but I was always super strict with my carbs when not on a cheat day.. Still super slow.

The second time I went from 390 to 365, but that included 2 weekends back to back where i walked miles a day working conventions; a lot of exertion while not eating a lot (too busy). I was actually 372 before the weekend, so that 7 pounds was literally busting my ass all weekend. This was another 60 day time frame. Then I just started justifying cheating, and well, the rest is history.

2 months later; I had gained back up to 385. I decided to make the change but to do it different this time. If you go back to the beginnings of this blog, you will see that I lost substantial weight a few years ago eating small meals throughout the day. My best friend encouraged me to do that again.

So what I decided to do was a hybrid, a cleaner Keto diet, without all the cheeses and "this is high in fat, low carb, so binge on it" foods. No more night snacks, no more justifications, just clean ketosis. I call it Klean Keto.

My diet is Chicken, Beef, Broccoli, and Avocado. Mostly. In my last post I showed you what a day looks like. I have taken the 1/4th avocado out of each of the meals, and instead use a whole one at night in an Avocado Chocolate milkshake thats about 4-5g net carbs.

I was challenged by a vendor for VapeMania 15, Shawn, to a weight loss challenge. He had recently started Keto. He probably didn't know I had been cheating for 2 months solid. He also probably didn't know that I had just started back on my diet 2 days prior. Either way, I accepted. On Sept 4th, 2015 at VapeMania 15 (my convention) we will have an official weigh in to see who lost the most. The loser will donate $500 to the winner's charity, and wear a dress and make up the second day of the convention. This challenge has really gotten me more excited.

So what's the secret?

It feels like a game, a sport; and I don't fucking lose.

I started 11 days ago. 7 days ago I weighed in at 383.3, the next day I weighed 385.5. This morning, I weighed 372.6

Already in 11 days, I am lighter than I was going into that convention. I am feeling way better, I am abstaining from snacking at night, and I am losing the weight.

The other change is I'm actually going to the gym. Not every day, not yet. I'm slowly building myself back up to it, and within a couple weeks I expect to be able to work out 5-7 days a week again. I had a panic attack trying to do cardio 2 nights ago, and I think it's because I was trying to push myself too hard a little too soon, so I got off the eliptical, went and worked out weights for an hour, did some abs, then came back and did another spurt of cardio. It was a total of 15 minutes on the elliptical; but it's a start.

I expect to be able to go a full hour by July 11th, easy. The panic attack thing sucks, and I know I just have to fight through that shit.

I am not going to lose this competition, and I'm not going to quit. I am the type of person who is completely content with eating the same thing every day; so this is easy for me. Tomorrow I cook the next week's food, and that's a 2 hour workout in itself too!

I am more active already, I've chosen to go walk around the mall and Barnes and Nobles a few times already in the past week, when normally I'd choose to be stationary. I am wanting to move more; and that's a good thing.

Here's to July 11th, where I'll give an update on my weight and cardio time, and keep talking about how this cleaner keto is superior to lazier keto.

-Freeze

Quick and Easy: Rotisserie Chicken Salad

This is the southern way of doing a chicken salad!

First grab your ingredients. I got a Rotisserie Chicken at Food Lion for like 6 bucks.

Then Duke's Mayo (no carbs) and Mt Olive Sugar Free Sweet Relish (pretty low carb)

Pull the chicken. Takes about 5-10 minutes, making sure you dont get a bunch of little bones in there is the toughest part.

Mix in 2 cups of Mayo (or less or more, depending on how creamy you like it)

I mixed in half a jar of relish. And Voila. Done.

I just got in these stellar Pyrex Mixing Bowls for less then 20 bucks. Good deal and super sturdy. Comes with the lids for super convenience.

Here's 1/4th of the whole thing, I ate about 1/4th. You are welcome to break it up into smaller servings

Here's the entire nutritional info for the entire bowl. 

I think one of our under-utilized fat bomb style foods is Mayo. Especially one like Duke's which is 0 carbs. When you need some fat to satiate you I think it's a perfect option. 

Enjoy! I know I did. Feel free to adjust the mayo/relish to your tasting. Add some Frank's Red Hot to give it a buffalo chicken salad taste to it! Whatever your heart desires!

(Keto) Mug Cake w/ Ice Cream!

So I saw a mug-cake being passed around and I decided to give her a shot, while also finding a way to add a little ice cream. I didn't invent this recipe; but I sure as hell loved it!

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons Splenda
• Pinch salt
• 1 tbsp heavy cream/almond milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

In 2 separate bowls I did an egg and beat it. Then i put all the other ingredients in the other bowl and mixed.

Then I threw them all together in a bowl. 

Lesson learned: Maybe needed more splenda; could have been a tad sweeter.

Spray the mug with cooking spray (or rub butter in it) then place mixture into a mug, and then I microwaved for 1 minute 20 seconds; I wonder if it would have been more moist had I done it for slightly less and will experiment next time.

I found this pretty keto-friendly ice cream, and did half a serving of it!

And boom, I used the ice cream in conjunction with the cake to kind of moisten it up a little bit.

This entire dessert was 5 net carbs as per MyFitness pal, which doesn't add any carbs for Splenda for some reason, which probably was another 2 net carbs, for my guess of 7 net carbs. Not bad if you had a good day of not getting close to 20!

I do recommend trying it a few times and tweaking the sweetness and such; as mine could have used more sweetner even with the 2 tbls of Splenda!

Enjoy and tell me what ya think

-Freeze

Keto (And Gluten Free) General Tso's Chicken Over Zucchini Noodle Lo Mein

Freeze here back from a night in the kitchen to bring you a new, yummy recipe.

After grabbing my Vegetti the other day, I have been wanting to try any and everything I can with this. In my last blog I did Italian with a Chicken Parm.

Now let's take it to Asia with this new masterpiece.

General Tso's Chicken Over Zucchini Noodle Lo Mein.

Let's start with the homemade sauce. I'm going to pull a first here and list the ingredients (normally in my recipes they can be found in the nutritional break down at the bottom of the page)

That will be provided on this blog as well but the sauce is a laundry list of items.

Just for the sauce:
1/4th Cup of Chicken Broth
3 tbsp Rice Vinegar
2 1/2 tbsp Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Reduced Sugar Ketchup
2 Tbsp Splenda (or Erythritol if you have it)
2tsp Sesame Oil
1tsp Hoisen Sauce
1tsp Red Curry Paste
1tsp Red Chili Flakes
1tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Minced Ginger
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar (or Xantham Gum)

Put it all in a bowl like this:

Then mix it all together and set aside while we do other things.

Now while that sits to the side lets take chicken and cut it into cubes. I used 2 pounds of chicken tenders. (Go ahead and pre heat the oven to 325)

Then I made my breading which was grinded up pork rinds with a little bit of crushed red pepper.

Egg bath and dip in the breading.

Then we are going to pan fry it in Olive Oil with a hint of sesame oil too; I added some extra ginger here to bring up some more flavor.

Once all of them are done for a few moments throw them into a pan then pour the sauce on top./

Now we are going to bake this for 1 hour; flipping and mixing every 15 minutes.

So this is after 1 hour mixing every 15 minutes. Nice and carmelized and saucy. I threw in some chives and mixed it all up real good. 

Protip Lesson: I probably used too much chicken, so next time make more sauce. (because I liked this amount of chicken)

Now while the chicken was in the oven I grabbed 5 zucchini and used the good ol Vegetti.

Now what I didn't take a picture of was me pan cooking the zoodles into a lo mein.

Heated some sesame oil and threw the zucchini in. Tossed for about 2 minutes then threw in soy sauce (about 1/2 cup maybe more, i did it by sight) and tossed that in to get a nice browning throughout the noodles. 

Then I took out half the noodles and plated it.

Then half the chicken plated on top.

Added some olives because I like olives with dinner for the sodium.

and This is what I demolished: 

It was soo good.

Here's the nutrition first one one serving (which was half of the entire meal)

So total meal if you eat half like me: 16g net carb ( i leave myself all 20 for dinner)

And for the entire meal:

You probably could easily make this 3 separate meals; but I have been intermittent fasting so this is my main meal then i'll have a little fat snack later.

Let me know if you like it and try it!

-Freeze

Why I Haven't Started Going Back to the Gym.. Yet

It may come as a shock being that I am morbidly obese, but I love the gym. I always have.  There's a rush in the feeling of burning your muscles, and I miss it. I miss the elliptical; I miss knowing I was improving my body more every day.

And I haven't gone back since August.

There's a reason! Not an excuse, per se, but a reason.

In May I ran a 5k (color run), and by ran I mean I started running and heard a pop in my knee and walked the rest of the way. I really thought it would be easy, I was up to an hour on the elliptical and clearing 4-5 miles every time.

Lesson 1: Using an elliptical /= running on the road.

It was a hard lesson to learn... as I soon discovered I had messed up my meniscus in my left knee! (Which also happens to be the same ankle I've had injured for years and the same shoulder) My left side is my bad side! :-P

Anyway, so I made a goal to myself upon starting keto that I would go back to the gym when I got down to 350.

But here's the honest truth: I am feeling a ton better. 30 pounds down and I am walking way more, more active, not huffing and puffing going up the stairs, not begging to sit down after standing for a while... I just feel better. Which is crazy for the fact that I still weigh 379lbs!

So I'm going to go back sooner then later. My goal is this week to sign up at Golds Gym near my house and go cancel my Planet Fitness membership which is farther away.

Im going to take it slow and get back into the groove; then it's onward. 34 days into keto.. I'm thinking it's time to get to the gym.

So what's my goal for the year? Idk.. let's say 100lbs. By the end of 2015 I would like to weigh 300 (i started at 410 the first week of december) so I'd say to be at 300 by the end of 2015. If I can get there, I will feel super accomplished, then keep pressing forward.

Here's to months of bacon, meat, cheese, and other yumminess on my way down the mountain of a scale.

See you at the bottom

-Freeze

Bio: Who is Freeze?

Hi! My name is Freeze! Thanks for checking out the blog. I have had an entire life of struggle with obesity. I have never been lazy, and would be considered a very active obese person... but I was just never able to really get the weight off. As you will see in the archives of this blog, quite a few years ago I did manage to lose a significant amount of weight; that was regained after a lot of life happenings steered me off course.

As I've gotten older (currently 27) I have begun to finally feel the physical affects of morbid obesity. 2013 was the first time I ever felt tired from standing around or walking short distances. 2014 was the first time I ever cussed out loud because the only bathrooms in my apartment are both upstairs, while everything I use is downstairs.

I knew it was time for something drastic. I tried Juicing (After watching Fat, Sick, And Nearly Dead,) but it just didn't work for me as a sustainable option.

It was then through research and hours of scouring that I discovered Keto. It was actually by accident. I was reading through reddit's Progress Pics subreddit when I saw a guy, similar age, who was huge. Then his after shot where he was ripped up and healthy. I read through his comments and found out his diet was keto, and he would eat wings 3-4 times a week. I was sold. I decided to do research,

I did keto for 4 months and lost 55lbs! Then I got gout. After recovering from that it took me until December of 2014 to finally hunker down and commit. No longer scared of having a goutbreak; I delved in. I discovered my gout trigger (diet soda during keto) and cut it completely out.

My goal with this blog is to continue to update it with recipes I may accidentally discover, with real results as they happen, progress pictures; the good and the bad stories; and everything in between. Lastly, my goal is to find the best deals on keto-friendly things around the internet and provide them to you, links and discount codes included. This will range from actual food items (like MCT Oil) to kitchen wares that are essential.

So one blog at a time, let's see some real results, here at RealSults.

-Freeze

(Day 30) Philly Cheese Steak Salad

I saw some Steak-ums and thought... hmm let's try a philly cheese steak salad.

Here's the final product (I ate way too much of it, this was half of the recipe)

Now Last year when I visited Philly I learned that real Philly Cheese Steaks are made with Cheez-Whiz. I couldn't find any at the store, so I used this off brand stuff (found at walmart and you will see in the nutrition below) It was a bad choice. I broke this recipe into 3's so my carbs weren't that bad but I need to find a better cheese; and maybe improve on veggies that I use with it (besides just onions) And I probably put too much cheese on it for the average person.

Here's the nutrition of the entire meal before breaking it into servings (again I did 3)

Of course, if you can find a lower carb cheez whiz ( I know I will experiment) then this could get even better.. Plus I really didnt want the steakums to get so small; but that's just my shitty stove!

This was super tasty, I did add some NuSalt (potassium salt) to salten the meat up, coulda used more. Really, the key here is the cheese; I need to find the perfect cheese for this. And some different veggies and do it as an all-in-the-pan recipe. Will update after experimentaion.

Enjoy!

-Freeze

(Also: 30 days in 28lbs down.. lets do this!)