I have read lots of articles about Miracle rice and Noodles. Products like this that are made from a particular plan that imitate noodles with hardly any of the cost of carbs.
This stuff is weird. And I don’t really know if it works or not, you just have to trust the makers of the product.
You can read about it here...https://miraclenoodle.com/

The process to make this stuff is kind of crazy. First you have to drain the rice, then rinse it off in cold water. Then you have to boil it for about 2 minutes. After boiling you drain it again and put it in a pan to dry off over medium to high heat. It's not hard. It's just a lot of steps.


How does it taste? Fine really. Not a real strong flavor. The thing about this stuff is that it does a great job of absorbing any of the flavors that you are cooking with. It's great for Asians dishes. If it wasn’t so hard to find I might use it more often. Goof for a filler though.

I was sent a bag of Biltrong Season Dried Beef in my last Keto Krate. While the package was a bit undescriptive the snack was pretty good. So this is beef jerky at its most simplest form. No added sugars, starches , or sweeteners, and limited spices. The ingredients on the bag says Beef, Salt, Vinegar, Black Pepper, Coriander. Simple and easy. I like that.


Its hung dried and not done by traditional dehydration. The taste of vinegar was kind of strong in this meat at first but after a few bites it really grew on me. Its good, and if you want something that spare the unnecessary ingredients then this is probably a safe bet.

We have pancakes pretty regularly in our house. It’s a great standby and my 2 year old loves them. When we do we are usually doing Almond pancakes to keep the carbs low. That means I am usually using a sugar free syrup. Some of these syrups are pretty good. Some not so much.
 
The most recent Syrup I tried was that of Nature Hallow Sugar Free Syrup. Its maple taste was kind of light. Not very strong. Its sweet tasting but not a lot of additional flavor. I found it kind of boring and not very authentic tasting. Has a lot of sucralose taste. Meh. Not very impressed with this stuff. I actually think I prefer the name brand versions available in most stores for this. 

The Sweetwood Fatty BBQ Stick is a pretty great Meat Stick. Good flavor and taste. This is a great way to get through your day. But one stick will run you 7 carbs. There are a lot of other sticks out there that may get you lower carbs. Still this taste good and will fill you up.

I just can't quiet figure out the purpose of these Adapt Shots. I was sent another in my last Keto Krate and it seems like they're designed to help get you some fat in your body quick to help sustain your appetite maybe? This particular one is designed to go in your coffee and add some flavor. I had hazelnut which is usually fine. So I brewed up a cup of coffee using my K-cup machine. Normally I would do the old-fashioned way with a drip but I happen to be out of beans today.


After my cup was made I added a little bit of half-and-half to it and then poured in the contents of the hazelnut adapt coffee shop. First thing I noticed is how much of an oil like substance this looks like. It instantly put a film on the cup and that shot also affected the way that my Splenda dissolved into the coffee. Kinda weird. Normally Splenda dissolves almost instantly but this time it didn't do it. It took a couple extra stirs to get it all in correctly.


So how did it taste? Well tasted fine, just like hazelnut coffee. I really don't have any complaints about that. It did make my coffee feel kind of oily. Almost as if I mixed butter into the cup. I don't know, I just don't really understand what this is for. Is this supposed to be an alternative to a sweetener? Is this supposed to help curb my appetite? Is this supposed to give me the daily vitamins I need? They don't make it clear at all what the purpose of this product is for and why am I using it. Even on the website the info is hard to find. If want to sweeten my coffee with hazelnut can't I just use the sugar-free hazelnut creamer? Can I just use Splenda? I don't know. This stuff is weird. I'm sure there's a reason for this product, but I just don't know what it is

If you read this blog you know that I am constantly on the look-out for Low Carb products that meet my lifestyle and help to make my life a bit easier. Saving time on cooking, and having a variety of snacks available help to make the diet a bit easier on myself so I don’t get bored with the same old things. So when I discovered that there was a new subscription service that sends you products that fit within the low carb lifestyle I was on board.


Keto Krate is a new subscription box that is available in the long list of to your door monthly box subscriptions that is specifically geared towards the Keto and low carb lifestyle. They guarantee that all items in the box will be less than 5 carbs per serving and that the value of the collected items products will always exceed the cost of the box.


My desire to find some new snacks that were low carb is really what made me decide to give it a try, that plus who doesn’t like a surprise now and then.


My review's for the individual products in this box will be cut short here. I will be doing more in-depth reviews on each product and share links to those reviews here as I complete them. Right now I just want to talk about this month's box and what I got as a whole.

So every box has a nice little welcome card that explains all the items you received and then usually has some promo codes in case you need more of something. I have already found myself using this for a snack I receive in my last box that no one carried in the stores near me. I had to have some more so having a little discount was great to give me the incentive to get some shipped to me.


Lots of great items this month and a couple that I was pretty excited to try out. So what was in my box this month?

Overall this box wasn't my most favorite box I have received. I am not exactly sure why. Four of the items are new for me to try so I am looking forward to that. I love that the Miracle Rice is in it as I have wanted to try them before. And the Sugar Free Syrup could be great as we have pancakes a lot. I recently discovered that I like flavored pumpkin seeds so I am interested in trying a new brand. I think having the Fatty Stick in my box didn’t excite me because they sent me one of those not that long ago and the Adapt Coffee Shot was kind of a small item. That one seems like box filler in my opinion too. Even so, I'm excited to try some new things and as always love the surprise of what is coming.  If you haven't had Cello Whisps you are missing out. Those things are the bomb!
 
 
Cello Whisps
Biltong Seasoned Dried Beef
Miracle Rice
Sweetwood Fatty BBQ Stick
Skout Pumpkins Seeds
Adapt Coffee Shot
Natures Hallow Sugar Free Syrup

Breakfast has to be the easiest meal of the day to do low-carb in my opinion. You have options of making yourself some good eggs, omelets, quiche, Almond pancakes, or just have some sort of a bar that you can buy in the store. There's a lot of choices available that will help you keep it low-carb . But it's always nice to have a couple other options available to you if you're running short on time and don't have time to cook or prepare something for yourself. I was at the grocery store recently and I came upon a new product. Special K now makes quiches in the frozen food department. Basically it's egg and filler precooked you can throw in the microwave ready to go with no carb fillers. 

Special K Ham, Cheese, & Quinoa Quiche


I really enjoy the flavors of the ham in the peppers and this one. Had some nice bowl taste and even tasted fairly fresh from coming out of the microwave and a frozen refrigerator. I would do this again in a heartbeat.

Special K Sausage, Pepper, & Cheese Quiche
 
I love me some sausage. So the idea of trying to teach that had some of it and it was a no-brainer. Good fillers good taste great quick and easy.
 
The only bone I had to pick with these was probably the price and I'm not sure if that has to do with my local store or the price of the product themselves. However when I bought a box of these they were about four dollars. Now I could easily buy a carton or two of eggs for that price and make myself up a couple quiches then throw them in the freezer and have them ready to go for myself during the week. But that does take additional time. So is it worth the price or not? I guess it's up to you.  If you got the time you can easily save money and probably make something that's a lot more delicious and tailored to your taste.

If someone had told me a few weeks ago that there were brownies that existed that were low-carb and you could make it home I would have assumed that they're made by unicorns and elves that repair your shoes while you sleep. It's impossible to believe. I've seen low sugar brownies that exist in stores and they have less carbs than others mixes but even they still have pretty high carb counts. It just seemed like the options are limited.

So when I received a bag of Good Dee's Low Carb Sugar Free brownie mix in my most recent Keto Krate I was shocked. Especially when I looked at the nutritional value. These things are baked fresh and there's only about one carb per brownie! That's incredible. I decided to whip up a batch and see how they go. There's two types of options you can do. One is a fudgy version of the brownies the other is a less fudgy version of the brownie. Like any sane adult and lover of brownies, I went with the fudgy option. True as told these were fudgy. Great flavor too. These are really everything you want from a low-carb brownie. I was very impressed. For the first time I felt like I was able to make brownies at home simply and easily that had good flavor. That's super important. The problem I find with this particular brownie mix is this, they're not cheap. You go to website one bag of this mix cost about $11. That really doesn't fit within the realms of poor man's Atkins and my budget. While there may be a recipe out there I can make on my own often times it includes some sort of ingredient that's a little harder to find which makes things more expensive. So your option is either to go without brownies or to fork over the cash.
 
So is it worth it?  in my opinion these brownies make a great option for someone who is eating low-carb and want something that's homemade, baked, and needs a special treat. Maybe there's a birthday coming up or special event and you want to surprise someone. This is a great way to do it. Again yes it's expensive, but so are nice birthday cakes. What a great way to surprise somebody with a delicious baked treat they wouldn't normally get.
 
By the way these bars where delicious straight out of the oven warm.   Also by the way the fudge brownie batter even before it's cooked also delicious. My daughter and I licked off the spatula. Because one does not waste brownie batter. After all, we're not monsters.

You know what's weird. Shredded beef jerky. I'm not really sure why it exists. I mean if I had to guess I think it was originally created as a substitute for people who are using chewing tobacco. I remember this from my childhood when we would go down to the local gas station and buy those tiny little plastic tubs filled with shredded beef jerky. At the time we thought that was kind of cool. You know a marketing gimmick from the tobacco companies to get those kids hooked. Well ha jokes on you tobacco Company it didn't work. It did however grow my enthusiasm for beef jerky.  Well played Big Jerky Companies.
 
Let's talk about People's Choice Machaca, a shredded Jerky. There are two ways I tried this stuff. The first way is the obvious, I took and shoved a bunch in my mouth and chewed it up. That made me feel like a cowboy. But the kind of cowboy that is little uncomfortable about dropping food on his shirt. Like a modern cowboy, the one that probably paid to be a cowboy for a weekend and is hanging out with his family on some sort of dude ranch. So maybe not a cowboy.
 
Again beef jerky tasted great with nice flavor. When it's shredded it tastes a lot more dry in my opinion and it does get a little messy to eat. Also it is much more prone to get stuck in your teeth in the shredded form. Meh.
 
I also tried base of the recommendation on the bag and in my keto box which was to mix it in with some eggs and cheese for some Huevos rancheros. I love having some eggs scrambled up with some fresh meat inside but jerky doesn't really fit the fresh meat part. However it's a quick easy way to do it. How did it taste? OK, it did add flavor from the jerky and spices. But not near as much taste as adding fresh sausage or ham to my scramble would.
So in the end what's my review? Well it's OK. Shredded beef jerky, I don't know guess I wasn't super impressed.
Do some of you use shredded beef jerky in other ways? I'd love to hear what that is. Not sure I understand it.

Snack chip options that are low carb don’t seem to show up very often for those of use that like low carb snacks. Either you make them yourself creatively with low carb tortilla or something else, or you avoid them completely because the options aren't great.
 
Well a new option has arrived. ProTings Chips are a high protein based snack chip that help with high fiber to bring the carb count down. I recently got to try two of their flavors.
 
ProTings Sea Salt Flavor
A nice salty snack that has good taste. Not to bitter and grainy. Great with a cold drink on the side. These do have a protein taste to them but nothing that was gross. All pretty tasty.
 
 
ProTings Nacho Cheese Flavor
These were where it was at. The extra nacho cheese taste helped to hide a bit more of the protein flavor that some may not like. I would eat these regularly if I could.
 
However ProTings are not easily found near me and their price off their website is not cheap. Compared to regular chips they are very expensive and I can't really make the argument to pay for 16oz worth of these chips for their $20 cost.  I understand they are specialty items, but I can probably manage with a different type of salty snack.