When thinking of recipes for the low-carb portion of my maintenance diet, I thought of moussaka. It's a Greek dish like lasagna, but uses eggplant instead of noodles. While at the local 99 cent only store, I found some nice eggplant, and saw some ingredients that I could use for a creative twist on the Greek classic.

All ingredients from the 99 Cent Only store:
2 medium eggplants
2 9oz packages soy chorizo
2 8oz tubs low-fat cottage cheese
2 4oz packages of queso fresco
2 4oz bags of shredded pepper jack cheese
chipotle hot sauce (optional)
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425. Peel eggplant and slice in 1/4" thick pieces lengthwise. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or spray with cooking spray. Lay slices on the cookie sheet, slight overlap is ok. Spray lightly but evenly with cooking spray, season with salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes, until cooked and a little dry looking.

Turn oven down to 350. Line the bottom of a 13"x9" pan with about 1/2 the eggplant, like you would with noodles, some overlap is ok. Spread evenly on top in layers, one package each of; soy chorizo, dashes of hot sauce (optional), cottage cheese, crumbled queso fresco, and pepper jack. Repeat with another layer of eggplant and toppings,ending with the pepper jack cheese. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Weight loss day 6 - 2.5 lbs.
What I ate, in order during the day:
tilapia ceviche (with tomato)
6 strawberries
Singapore-seasoned tilapia and zucchini baked on the grill
6 strawberries
(cheat) 1 grilled cherry tomato

It was really tough not to snack at a 4th of July BBQ.

Weight loss day 7 - 1.5 lbs. Total loss to date - 7.5 lbs
What I ate, in order:
6 strawberries
pan-cooked shrimp and spinach with garlic and basil
6 strawberries
baked krab (crab-flavored pollack) and tomato seasoned with Zatar

I was finally not ravenously hungry all day.

I had more energy tonight, and cooked protein and veggie combos for the next 3 day's meals. I've been doing the foil packet in the oven scheme. I lay out pieces of aluminum foil, weigh out and chop up the veg for each, then top the veg with weighed out protein portion. Then I season each one differently, fold up the foil packets, arrange all on a baking sheet, and put in the pre-heated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. I did the same thing when I did the Atkins diet years ago.

Weight loss today - 1.5lbs. Total loss so far - 3.5lbs

I'm getting more creative with my food now. I made some cucumber salad for my 2nd vegetable last night, and more for today. It came out really tasty and is super simple: Armenian cucumber cut into chunks, raw apple cider vinegar, some salt and pepper, dried lemon peel. I also started some shrimp ceviche last night for eating today, and a bigger batch to bring to irena_seraphina's house for D&D.

Ceviche can be pretty simple:
Cut up raw peeled shrimp (my 3.5oz portion), you can also use other fish, like tilapa
Add lemon (or lime) juice (2tbs for mine) and season (salt, pepper, cilantro, onion, hot sauce)
Let mixture sit in the refrigerator overnight, stirring once to get juice contact on all pieces.
You can eat this as-is, or add:
And equal amount of fresh diced tomatoes (3.5oz for me)
Add some more seasonings to taste and let sit in the 'fridge at least and hour for flavors to develop.

Food for today:
Breakfast: Lemon-cured shrimp (with onion and cilantro), Maya's apple cut into cubes and dusted with cinnamon, clove, and cardamom then heated in the microwave for 1:30 (very tasty)
Later: Armenian cucumber salad, shrimp ceviche, 1 Maya's apple

My co-worker, Ashish, said that he really enjoyed the last of my fattypants dessert from yesterday, and it was easy to make, so I thought that I'd share. Just in case you wanted something delicious and easy, and it's gluten-free and low glycemic, for those who are concerned with such things.

8oz mascarpone cheese
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup raw unsalted shelled pistachio nuts

Mix together mascarpone, agave nectar, and cardamom until smooth. Whip cream until stiff (I used a whipped cream whipper). Fold cream into mascarpone. Fold in nuts. Yum!

I originally planned on using the nuts for a crust and making it like a cream pie, which I still think sounds good, but I didn't have enough nuts.