A Dress for Ireland - Part 4: Finishing touches.

8:18 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

The pattern I used
So I have the basic bones of the dress finished. I just need to add buttons and trim. Turns out I have just as much indecision picking out buttons as I do picking out patterns or fabric. Surprise, surprise. I narrowed it down to three button types and I also thought about using the black fabric I already had and was using for the trim to make buttons. I ruled the latter out because I am lazy. So it was down to three buttons of which I chose one that was not too ornate but in a certain light you can catch the hint of a square or diamond (depending how you see it) that I felt reflected the check like pattern in the fabric.
I had to use a houndstooth fabric from the store because I forgot to bring a swatch of my fabric. I love those flower buttons but chose to go more simple and settled on the buttons in the middle.
The pattern calls for 4 buttons but since I want to be able to wear this as a full dress at times I decided to put in one more button above those 4 and 5 more below it for a total of 10 buttons. If you have to shop at Joann Fabrics I recommend you check your phone for coupons because I got 10 of those buttons for $3 because of a 60% off coupon online.

I put the dress on and figured where I would want the top button and put a pin there. Then I found where my waist is and put a pin there for a button. With those two spots I measured the spacing for the rest of the buttons. It ended up about every 3.75 inches or so. I forget now to be honest. I was nerve wracked putting in the buttonholes because it was so darn permanent. I took some test fabric and put in three test buttonholes. They all went in perfect. Then I went to cut out the actual hole and I ripped a 6 inch hole going right past the pin I put in to stop just a thing from happening.
I was not going to risk anything with this dress so I double pinned the edge of the hole to not over cut. Perhaps I should not have used permanent red marker to mark the locations of the buttons...ya think?

Luckily this was just the test fabric but that made me even more nervous so I put in two pins when I did the real deal. Things turned out perfectly fine. I did make a small error in judgement when marking the location of the button holes though. I used chalk but once it came to aligning it with my machine I could never find the mark so I went with red. I didn't realize how much that would show up in the end. You have to look real close to see it luckily. Shhh it will be our secret.
I don't know what you are talking about.
Ok, buttonholes are in and I put in corresponding buttons by putting on the dress and sticking a pin in each buttonhole. I had to readjust a few buttons because it pulled weird but I am happy with the 10 buttons. I wanted to add one more bit of black somewhere on the dress because I felt it needed a little more pop so I thought to put it on the pockets. The question was now....and you already know I am terrible with decisions like this but....do I put the black trim on the inside or outside of the pocket?
The pocket on your and my left shows inside trim and the right is outside trim. Sorry for potato quality photo.

I tried to show more detail by putting my hand in each pocket so the difference showed better.

I asked my friends and family and we all decided the same thing...the outside. I put 1.75 inches of black sewn to the outside then folded it in and hand stitched it inside the pocket.

I put the dress on and found it to be super baggy so I took it in 1 inch on 4 of the seams for a total of 4 inches taken in. This made the dress a little hippy but I am still happy because I know I will have to take it out eventually. I want this to be versatile as a coat and dress as well as for various seasons and various body sizes I may go though. In the end I chose to not put a black trim on the bottom because I liked it the length it was at. The only change I am going to make from here is to put a hook and bar at the waist because it seems to pull a bit right there.
Finished product.
So I am finished with the dress. I will post better photos from the wedding next month when I wear this to Ireland. I feel like this will be warm enough to wear on a cold, likely wet, spring day and evening in a stone Irish farmhouse yet flouncy enough to dance in all night. It will also serve as a jacket for the rest of the 10 days I will be traveling around Scotland and Ireland. I am going to bring a sewing kit just in case I made some fatal errors but I feel this is a solid dress and will make the journey comfortably.

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A Dress for Ireland - Part 3 - Cutting and Sewing

7:50 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

I only had just under 5 yards of the fabric. Could I find a way to make the dress still??
When last we met, I had everything I needed to start my coat dress for the wedding in Ireland except I had about 2 yards less of the main fabric than I wanted and over 1 yard less than required to make the dress according to the pattern. I love this fabric so much that I was determined to make it work. I knew I could not use the layout guidelines as shown in the pattern like you see in the photo above. I had to get tricky. Luckily there were some tweaks I could make to save some fabric yardage. I decided to make some black trim and details. I bought yet another fabric that is soft and very black. I thought about doing black velvet but the only velvet I could find was shiny and I was looking for black black black. I chose a nice fabric from the suit wool section.
Extreme up close of the black trim fabric I used.
The way the pattern was made they have you cut out 4 front panels. There are two left panels and two right panels. You are meant to sew them together so the collar folds over and you see the same fabric on the inside and outside of the collar. I used the black fabric as the two inside panels so when you turn the collar out, it is black. I also cut the pocket panels out so they were half lining and half fabric instead of all fabric. This way I save fabric and I get to feel the silk when I put my hands in my pockets. Also, if the dress turned out shorter than I wanted, I was ready to add a few inches to the whole bottom in the black.

With all these changes in place I cut out all the fabric with enough to cut out an extra inch on the bottom! Hooray for high hopes and things working out. I cut all the fabric, lining and interlining out. The fabric needed serging big time since it frayed easily. I decided to kill to birds by just serging the muslin interlining to the fabric instead of basting them together like the pattern called for.
I ripped out all those serged stitches and it left a holy mess of loose threads and frayed edges.
The first snag I hit was just a mistake on my part. I serged the wrong side on one of the panels so that I ended up with two of the exact same pieces. This would have been easy to fix if the fabric wasn't so easily frayed but it ended up being a delicate operation. I had to seam rip very carefully all the way around and of course it was one of the front panels. I made a huge mess but it came out mostly together.
I had to remove the threads before I re-serged the fabric or it would show as sloppy in the finished product.
I had threads everywhere after ripping out all the serged seams. I used a lint roller to clean up all the little threads that were still stuck in the fabric and all the loose threads as well. This is a great little trick if you don't know about it.
A lint roller can pull out all those loose threads for you so you don't have to pick them with your fingers.
After I rolled out the threads I managed to serge the fabrics together without losing too much in the size. I had to cut some of the frayed edges off or the dress risked coming apart after much use. Once this problem was solved I continued along with little issue...until I put the sleeves on.

The sleeves were another area I used to save fabric length by adding black cuffs instead of plain fabric. Somehow, and I am still not entirely sure where I measured so wrong, I messed up my measurements of the cuffs and ended up with sleeves fit for Slender Man.
Arms that go forever and ever.....
I got frustrated at this point because I was in a bit of a hurry to use the sewing room at the college before spring break and Romeo & Juliet began. So I roughly measured and then chopped the sleeves off. I know, terrible idea. It worked out....okkkkkk....but not ideal. I sewed on new black cuffs, folded them in and folded them out like the pattern told me to. I sewed the fabric on with the inside facing out due to further terrible calculations. It is not noticeable thank the cosmos but I know it's there and it bugs me a little bit. That's what you get for rushing things.
The longest sleeves in the world? Possibly.
You can see in the photo above that I sewed both cuffs on differently. The one on the left I sewed on the outside and the one on the right I sewed on the inside. I chose to not fix it for two reasons. One, I would never see the point of stitching because of the way the pattern has me folding this way and that way and this way again. Two because I was about to toss the whole dress out the window (luckily the shop does not have windows!).
I folded and refolded the cuffs as instructed until I had the basic length of black I was looking for. 
I did a finishing stitch on the fold of the cuff to give it a sharp edge. When the dress was complete I also tacked the folded cuff down so it didn't every come unfolded to reveal my huge mistakes and blunders. Forever hidden...except for this blog of course.
You can see the finishing stitch I put on the end of the cuff here.
Once you have basically made the entire dress out of the fabric you get to make the whole dress AGAIN. Only this time out of the lining. This time around was much easier since I had made all the mistakes I was going to make the first time around.
Here is me putting together the two most difficult parts of the dress: the neck seam. I thought this photo would help illustrate it to make it easier for the next person but looking at this, I was wrong.
The part of the dress that was the most difficult to put together...to read on the pattern....for me was the neck seam. I could get all the sides and panels together but the neck seam was a little wonky looking in the pattern. I figured it out by knowing that I had to put right sides together and I also had to line up the seams. Once I knew those two things had to happen, the rest fell into place...no matter who weird it looked at first.

Once the two whole parts of the dress are made it was not too difficult to just sew them together. And boom! I had a dress. Next, I will add buttons, make adjustments and add trim.

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Dress for Ireland Part 2 - sizing and fabric

7:02 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

Mock up of size 14 in muslin

Now that I settled on a pattern, I need to figure out what size I need so I know how much fabric I need. I also need to choose a fabric. I was thinking about a nice neutral color like black or grey when the idea of a houndstooth popped into my head. Plaid also crossed my mind but since I am not quite a seasoned dressmaker yet I thought that matching up plaid lines would be a bit beyond my ability (or beyond what I am willing to do) at this point.
The pattern I am using

When you are buying a pattern be sure to check what size range you are buying. Patterns will come in a range of sizes in one packet but are often split into two size ranges. As you will recall, I am using a McCall's pattern M7478.  On the flap of the pattern envelope you will find the size chart. When I go shopping for clothes I am a size 10 so I figured I would buy the pattern packet that was size range of 6-14 since 10 fell right about in the middle there but thank goodness I bothered to look at the sizing on the packet. A size 10, according to McCall's has a freaking 25 inch waist!!
If you look waaay at the top there you can see a size 10 has a 25 inch waist. 
I work with tiny waisted 18 year olds at the college and even THEY do not have a 25 inch waist. So I measured myself and found that I am closer to a size 18 according to McCall's. This made me nervous because 18 is very, very different from 10. So I decided to make a quick dress out of muslin to see how it would fit me. I could have taken the pattern out and measured the various parts then summed them up and done some math and somehow ended up with knowing what the exact pattern size would be that would fit me but I didn't want to do all that and end up wrong due to an error somewhere in my measurements so I chose to instead buy some super cheap fabric called muslin and make a size 14 to see how it fit me. I am very glad I did because it did not fit me!
The muslin result of size 14 that I found did not fit me at all.


I bought the $2/yd muslin and cut out only the main parts of the outside of the coat. I stitched them together (terribly at that) to get a general idea of how it would fit. I didn't cut out the pattern to the size 14 but rather cut out the pattern to the largest possible and then chalked in the size 14 onto the muslin and cut that out. This way I would have the whole pattern intact to use at whatever size I ended up needing. I hope that made sense.

Patterns usually come with many sizes on one sheet as shown here with all those lines.
As you can see in the photo above, you can choose what size you would like to use on the pattern by cutting fabric out along a specific line. I did not want to cut the pattern too small so I preserved the entire pattern by using a transfer paper to mark where to cut.
This is a drawing of how to use transfer paper when plotting out fabric from a pattern.

After I put on the muslin dress I found that the measurements on the flap of the package were correct and I am, in fact, a size 16-18. The places I looked to see where the dress fit or didn't fit were the location of my natural waist, the apex of my bust and the location of the shoulder seams on my shoulder.  I didn't make sleeves in my muslin dress but I did measure them and found them to fit just fine in any size. I decided to use a size 18 to be on the safe side since I hope to wear this as a jacket over clothing. I figure I can always take it in and I will likely gain weight in the future. Hey, I am just being realistic! I would rather make a dress too big and take it in so I can later take it out if necessary than make a dress too small and have to toss it or give it away to a smaller friend.

OK, so with the pattern all figured out I now have to choose a fabric. I went to the local chain place and headed right to the suit wools. It is a jacket pattern but I am hoping to make it a sort of hybrid light jacket/heavy dress. A soft, light-weight wool sounds perfect to affect what I am looking for. I was thrilled to find a houndstooth in that section but it was a smaller pattern than I was imagining. Walking around the store I also found a couple black fabrics with a small pattern that I found interesting. Never neglect the home furnishing and upholstery section of your fabric store. I found a much brighter version of a houndstooth in this section.

A fabric I considered but it is very thick and would be heavy to travel with

Another fabric I considered but thought it would look dirty easily.

I liked the fabric that I found in the upholstery section of the store very much but the stiffness of it bothered me a lot. I want a flowy swingy dress. This fabric was a bit thicker and stiffer than I was looking for. I ended up buying a tiny strip of it for $2 to take home and wash to see if I could soften it up.
The wool houndstooth I first saw. Perfect weight and feel but the pattern is so small.
Here is the houndstooth I took home in hopes I could soften it in the wash.
I took the fabric home and washed the hell out of it in an attempt to soften it up because it has the look I am going for, just not the feel. It did soften up but not enough for what I wanted. It is difficult to have a specific look in your head because it is so hard to match up what you have to work with or what is available in real life with what the standards you created in your head! I really, really wanted this fabric to work but I wasn't totally satisfied so I headed into San Francisco. I grabbed my bff and the bf and we went to Discount Fabrics in the Design District. I love this place. It is a massive warehouse full of bolts and bolts of all sorts of fabric. The local place I was at before is so much smaller and their inventory is mostly seasonal. The season is Spring and I am looking for a warm wool so my chances are lessened.

Discount Fabrics was super fun. We went straight to the suit wool section and grabbed a few bolts that were ok. We spent 2 hours in there. After going through the whole store, we took the 4 or 5 bolts we liked the most and examined them. What we like to do is find a spot in the store where we can drape the fabric on something then take a long step back and really look at it. After doing that I decided I didn't like any of the fabrics enough to buy. I gave up. I was really bummed that I couldn't find the perfect fabric. I figured the houndstooth that I have to wash would be the best choice. We were standing by the checkout counter because of course we all found fabric we liked for other projects. The bf looked at the discount bin and said "What about this one?"

It was like angels sang Hallelujah! It was beautiful and perfect. I was cuckoo over it right away. We grabbed the bolt and I checked the pattern to see how much of it I needed to make the dress. This info is on the pattern envelope.
To make a size 18 coat, the pattern requires about 6 or 7 yards according to the back of the packet.

It says I needed 5.25 yards of fabric since it was on a 60 inch roll. I was hoping to make the dress longer so I want to add a yard to what it suggests. There was.....4 yards on the roll. My heart sank. Nooooooooo! It is too perfect! It can not be!! We separated and started to scour the store along with the employee we know is better than anyone at finding fabric, Augustine. The bf came to the rescue again when he found a second bolt hiding in the discount bins. Once again, I heard angels sing. It was meant to be. The cosmos were looking out for me and this damn dress. How much was on this bolt? Surely three yards. Nope. One. I bought it anyways. We WERE going to make this work with only 5 yards.
The fabric I chose is a unique check-plaid sort of pattern and a loose weave.

Now I had the much easier job of buying the silky lining. I knew I wanted a striking contrast color and I knew I wanted to to be super soft since this is what would be against my skin. I looked at some bright reds but settled on a nice burgundy.
A lining I considered but didn't choose because it was not soft enough.

Another lining I considered but thought it was a little too flashy.
The lining I ended up choosing is super soft, silky and a deep rich burgundy that will contrast nicely with the main fabric.

The pattern called for an interlining as well since it is a jacket. Interlining is meant to add a layer of warmth to the garment. I want that layer of warmth but I also want the dress to be flowy so instead of a flannel which I considered briefly, I went with a medium weight, soft muslin. This saved me some money, added a little weight and warmth and kept the dress light enough to swing around when I walk. To save money I did think about getting some cheap bed sheets and using that but Joann Fabrics was having a sale so it was worth it to use a fabric with less of a stretch.

In the next blog I will let you know if I ended up with enough fabric to make the dress or if I had to give up the pretty fabric that sang to me.

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A Coat For Ireland

7:54 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

My cousin in Ireland when she was 14
I am heading back to Ireland (and visiting Scotland for the first time!) for a family wedding and I want to make my dress.

How I met my oldest and dearest friend.
I have been away for a while for very good reasons. I have managed to get myself a job! Well, it wasn't all me. My oldest and closest friend in the world is a dresser for the SF Opera. That means she stands backstage of the opera and when the actors go on, she makes sure the right clothes are on right. Then when the actors come off she does the quick changes which means she tears off the old costume and pops on the new one in time to send them back on stage. She also does on the spot mending and fitting, fixing and repairing of costumes. She and I have been best friends since we met in daycare when we were 6 years old. I still remember that day. She sat down next to me and started eating her Chef Boyardee's Spaghetti-O's out of a Wonder Woman thermos. I recall being impressed by her thermos because I was a big Lynda Carter fan. We struck up a conversation and have not shut up since. We are very close and always have been. Funny thing is we consider ourselves twins despite looking completely different, physically. We were born less than 24 hours apart.
Beauty and the Beast on the Mountain Play. I made a good portion of the costumes shown here.

So this friend is also a costume builder and costume designer for Bay Area shows. She was invited to be the Costume Designer at the local community college. She wanted to do it but was unable to provide the time for the mandatory mid-week costume building class. Having taught at both a State University and community college in the past she asked if I could step in as her assistant. This was two plays ago and I have been asked to come back for the following year at least to teach the students about sewing and general costume building. Exciting right? Funny how life takes you in directions you didn't know you would go.
Some of the costumes I made for Government Inspector

Turns out I freaking LOVE sewing and theater and costumes! And I am not to terrible at it. I was able to work on The Mountain Play which is put on on Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County in an outdoor amphitheater. These performances have been put on every summer for over the past 100 years. It is considered quite prestigious. I worked on Beauty and the Beast last summer and have been invited to work on Mamma Mia this year. Beauty and the Beast won local awards and I am immensely proud to have worked on it. I have also built costumes for the very well received Government Inspector and Dickens' David Copperfield which, despite the so-so reviews on a whole, has incredible costumes. Next up is Romeo and Juliet! The latter three are all at the College of Marin.
A vest in the making for David Copperfield that I am particularly fond of.

So it's safe to say that I have gotten the sewing bug. This year both my female cousins are getting married. The first wedding is going to be in Ireland, just outside of Dublin and it is in a month....April! I know that most of Europe is having a record-breaking cold snap but what I don't know is what the weather will be like in a month. So I have been stressing over what to bring on this trip. I need something that can go to the wedding but it also needs to be packable (not bulky), lightweight (to fit with the luggage weight guidelines of the airline), versitile (to be used on the rest of the trip) and warm (if it is cold, rainy, blustery or sunny I need to be prepared!).
Currently, in Ireland

Where can I find such an item of clothing?? Nowhere I can afford I am sure. So I have decided to make it. I settled on a frock coat design. This way I can wear the coat essentially as the dress. I will make it light to medium weight so it can be used as both a dress and a coat on this trip.

I will talk more about the actual trip in a travel post but the plan is to fly into Dublin, Ireland. I will be with my parents and my brother for this trip as the BF has to stay home with the dog. Also, the BF isn't all that interested in spending a ton of money to be in the cold and possibly wet weather ducking into pubs, having a pint and some mashed potatoes (because he is a vegetarian the food is always limited for him). We will spend two days in Dublin then drive 45 minutes away to an estate where we will meet up with the rest of the family. The estate is both our lodgings and where the wedding will take place. After a couple days of rehearsal dinner, wedding and recovery we will head back up to the Dublin airport and take off for Edinburgh, Scotland. My parents and my brother have traveled to Scotland a couple times recently and just adore it so this is my chance to be shown around for a little bit. We will spend just under a week in Scotland and then head home so I can begin working on Mamma Mia!

Back to the frock coat. I love the look of a good frock coat, also called a coat dress. Princess Kate wears them quite often. I want a whooshy swing skirt and a fitted waist. Those are my main requirements.
Here is one of many frock-coats Princess Kate wears. I want mine to be much longer but otherwise similar.

The first pattern I found was Vogue 8875. I thought it would be a marvelous idea because it was both a dress and an overcoat that matches. I figured I could make both and wear the dress for the wedding and any fancy occasions I might encounter like high tea. I thought I could wear the matching coat to keep warm at the wedding or with other outfits I might bring on the trip. I went to my trusty pattern review site and looked at what other people had made using this pattern. I was not impressed in the final product so I decided to scrap this pattern.
A darling pattern, but not for this trip.

Next I found Simplicty 1732 which is a more theatrical looking pattern but I figured I would tone the fur and cuffs down. I did like what I saw on the pattern review website but started wondering if I would have to make too many adjustments to get what I wanted. I only have the time to make one coat so if I don't like what I end up with, I have to scramble for another outfit to wear to this wedding.
Take away the furry cuffs and collar and you have a pretty coat

I searched and searched and finally came up with McCall's 7478. This is pretty much everything I am looking for. I even love the giant pockets on the front which will give the look of an even fuller hip which is what I am looking for. I bought the pattern at the local Joann Fabrics.
The pattern I chose

That is where I am up to now. I found a wonderful posting on reddit from a woman who has made this pattern. She gives a step by step display of how she made the coat. I am going to use her guidelines to make mine. She did some extra steps beyond what the pattern suggests to ensure a very tailored look. Where she shortened the jacket, I am going to lengthen and I also plan on using a much lighter fabric. I am going to the fabric store tomorrow to choose the fabric and the lining. I have in my mind a medium houndstooth with a blood red lining.

Today I hope to head into my sewing shop and muck out a muslin copy of the coat to get a feel for the size. McCall's has a sizing chart on the pattern but it is not like other sizings women are used to today. I am normally a size 10 or 12 (because of my height it varies) when I shop for clothing. According to McCall's sizing chart I am a size 16. This makes me nervous so I hope to use the muslin to get a bearing as to what size to use and what adjustments I will need to make. That will in turn tell me how much fabric I need to buy.







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My Keto Faves.

7:27 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

Cute little recipe box! Source

I have put together my favorite recipes for the Ketogenic diet. I have been on it for a few months. In that time I have had a couple weeks here and there with absolutely no pain medications! I have also lost a few pounds which is fun in and of itself. I also went off my blood pressure medications. So all positive results from this diet. I don't think this is a lifestyle change for me but I do like it to drop several pounds very quickly.

I went on the diet about 6 months ago at the start of Autumn. I went off the diet for Christmas because....See's Candy mostly. I lost about 30 pounds in about three months. Once the holiday season began I had to have my sugar and carbs so I stopped completely. Not only did I stop but I went WWWWAAAAYYY overboard in typical Libra style. I had three pounds of See's chocolate to my dome. The BF didn't eat any of it...all me. I also had a tub of chocolate covered toffee, again, all to myself. I had major surgery in that time too so I really pampered myself with food and rest.

How much weight does one gain back after Keto?

Isn't that the main question we all have? Well, funny story. I weighed myself every few days while on this binge. (Did I mention the gallon of Three Twins Mint Confetti I ate in only two sittings?). I was amazed each time at how little I was gaining. It was almost like a challenge at one point. Why wasn't I gaining weight rapidly? This went on through the holiday season, through a trip to Hawaii and into January. One night a friend was staying at our house and we were talking about Nova, our cat. My friend and the bf said that she looked fat. I disagreed and I went to weigh her. I picked her up, held her in my arms and weighed the both of us. Then I put her down and weighed myself. Turned out Nova weighed about 0.8 pounds.
Mischievous makeup cap!

Wait, what?? How is that possible? I'll tell you how. It's not possible. Turns out a little cap to a travel sized tube of moisturizer had wedged its way under my scale! This whole time I was totally gaining weight. Which makes much more sense.

So to answer the above question, I gained around 8 pounds back. I am not sad about that though because I really went crazy. I mean really. BUT I am still off my blood pressure medication and I have a very clean bill of health. I had a complete blood test and physical before my surgery (got that Hysterectomy I have been asking for for most of my life!) and the only item that was of note was my crazy high Ketone levels. The doctors were totally cool with that and were also happy with my lowered pain and consequential lowering of pain meds as well as the normal blood pressure.

Enough about me, I want to share my favorite recipes with you. I got many recipes from Pinterest or Google searches but I have made up a couple as well. Any relation of my recipes to ones already out there are just coincidence because I randomly just shove tasty things together and see what I get. If it is good. I try to document it. First off are some great recipes I have found on the interwebs.

Stuffed Meatballs with Cream Cheese by Ditch the Carbs

Thank you, ditchthecarbs.com for this great recipe!!


This is the first recipe I made on the Keto diet and I ate a lot of these. So easy to make and it is also easy to just grab one or two pre-made meatballs and heat them up whenever I get hungry which isn't all that often on this diet. It is also super easy to pack these up and bring to work or even to a party. I didn't change the recipe one iota. It is perfect just how it is!

Creamy Tuscan Garlic Chicken by The Recipe Critic

Thank you, TheRecipeCritic.com for this awesome recipe!

This one comes from a fellow critic. I love this recipe because you can also make many variations on the dish depending on what you have around. The base of it is to fry up some chicken (I usually make it in smaller cubes to speed up cooking time) add some cream and parmesan and then whatever you want after that. I have added kale, green beans, cheddar and jalapenos, cherry tomatoes, feta, basil, pesto and olives. I also get lazy and add it all in one pan. I cook the chicken bits until almost cooked all the way through, then I add the cream (I skip the broth) and parmesan and bring it back to a simmer, cooking the chicken the rest of the way through. Then I add the veggie and additives of choice. Always be mindful of things like sundried tomatoes and cherry tomatoes because there is a bit of extra sugar in them.


"Just like the real thing" Keto Lasagna by Peace Love and Low Carb

Thank you, peaceloveandlowcarb.com for this yummy meal!


I have only made this once but I will make it again and it creates a week's worth of meals in one pan. The recipe has you make it in a loaf pan which I love because it is an easy to handle size. I like to slice off a bit when I am hungry, heat it up and then slather it in hot sauce. I might add some spicy sausage to the hamburger the next time I make it. If you crave Italian food then you will be satisfied with this lasagna. It is creamy, chewy, cheesy and fulfilling.


This post is getting long enough so I will leave you with these recipes. Next time I will share some of my homemade recipes.




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