I have a couple theater shows of my play left this weekend and then I will be out for a week. The wife and I are celebrating our wedding aniversary on a large boat. I hear it's full of carbs. Pray for me, or don't. After all, we are sailing into international waters, I hear carbs don't count out there. :)

Be back after the 4th!

    To kick of the first day of summer on tuesday my wife and I filled our gas grill with new propane and tossed on some Marinated Carna Asada for some tacos. They were awesome! You can find good carna asada in most stores pre-marinated and its super easy and cooks in a jiffy. Some stores have it prepackaged and other have it behind the meat counter. If you live in an area like we do, you can head over to a real mexican carniceria (Butcher shop) where they keep the good stuff.  I could eat this stuff every night if I had my way. :) Add some cheese, fresh avacado, cilantro, onions and your set.

    I mentioned a couple days ago that my wife made some cookies for me which a affectionately call Muffin Butts. The real name is simply Sugar Free Maple Cookies. Not quiet as fun to say at all. I gave them the name Muffin butts because I figured they tasted like a muffin, but not. Some people think they are too much like pancakes in taste. That really doesn't bother me. I imagine you could just use different flavorings if the maple thing didn't work for you. I like them, they are light and air and a good source of fiber. 

    Anyway here's the recipe and a note my wife gave to help out with it...

    Remember that for a lower carb recipe, use Almond Flour/Meal instead of a cup of flour and possibly replace the other cup with Oat flour. I do sometimes use a little bit extra Maple flavoring. It does come out a little like a pancake or muffin but they taste great!

    If you are on Atkins, you probably stopped drinking milk. If you stopped drinking milk, you probably have dry bones and all the kids call you Mr. Glass. Your not getting your calcium are you? Come on, be honest. Ok, Maybe you are some other way, I'm sorry to jump to conclusions. 

    Regardless, if you're on Atkins you probably stopped drinking milk when you discovered its high carb count. Maybe you're like me and you miss having that cold glass of milk with your low carb cookie. Well, there is an solution for that yearning in your heart. 

    An Atkins friend of mine introduced me to a yummy milk substitute that Blue Diamond just came out with called Almond Breeze Vanilla (unsweetend). With hardly any carbs at all its a great creamy treat for milk that has a nice vanilla taste to it.

    The sweetened version tastes even better, but will get you up to 16 carbs a cup. This one has a far less sweet taste but still tastes of vanilla, which for a milk replacement is probably a better choice anyway. . I also feel the need to mention that it has about twice as much calcium in in than regular milk does. So now your bones wont break every time you hit a pothole with your car.

It's good. use it in your coffee and teas, or for cooking if you need to

1 Cup
Carbs -2
Fiber - 1
Dietary Fiber - 1

    Today I tried something for the first time. At least I think it was the first time. If it wasn't the first time its because someone tricked me in the past and I didn't know I tried it. Today for the first time (at my own will) I tried a turkey burger for the first time. I know, right! They are everywhere these days. Why haven't I had one of these before. Oh, I don't know, probably because I am a man and I love meat that drips red with the blood that flows through it. ***Grunts at the moon***

    Carl's Jr. recently started selling Turkey Burgers. Normally my brain would ignore anything so silly as turkey in a burger but on this particular day for reasons unknown to me I had a coupon in my car. "2 Turkey Burgers for $4.00". Made sense to try it. 

    I got just the regular turkey burger and addded Jack cheese to them with Lettuce wrapped instead of a bun. They were not too bad. Granted it does taste like turkey, its a new tasted and wasn't too bad. I actually think that Carl's could create a good spicy version of this burger that would be pretty awesome as Turkey and Pepper go hand in hand. Really I would be interested in trying in again especially the version with guacamole on it. And at under 400 calories, what's not to like, In the world of low carb its all about finding variety, and turns out that for me, that may mean the occasional turkey burger.

    Eight years ago yesterday my wife and I went on our real first date. It was awkward, it was cute, and it was the beginning of something awesome. For the date we went to Downtown Disney and walked around together and got to know each other and then had dinner at the Jazz kitchen. They have an awesome pasta jambalaya there that I will probably never enjoy again since the new life change. 

    Anyway, to celebrate the occasion of eight years I came home to find my wife making one of my newer favorite low carb treats which i simply call "Muffin Butts". They are like the tops of muffins, BUT not. Really yummy. I'm gonna post the recipe and pics here soon. I would say they were easy to make, but my wife does all the work. :)

    Sorry for the lack of updates recently. One of the many things I do in my spare time is get involved in the arts. I actually graduated with my degree in Theater. Anyway, I have been filling my time lately with a theater show I have been involved in at the American Coast Theater Company. We are telling the story of Corrie Ten Boom in The Hiding Place. Its a pretty touching story, yet a bit of a downer due to the content. Concentration camps and Nazis usually don't make for a light heart-ed show. 

    Anyway, the show runs for a couple more weekends and then that's it. So hopefully I will get some new posts up soon. We will see. Its hard to want to write a blog at the end of the night when you tell story like the Hiding Place. Kind of makes me feel silly for having a blog about food when som much else is going on.

    I had lunch with a friend the other day and we meet at Rubio's Mexican Grill. I usually go for the previously posted Balsamic and Roasted Veggie Salad, but I decided to try their new Chipotle Ranch Salad. 

    They said it was a new recipe. Not sure what the old one was, but here is what the new has in it...



Salad includes:
Grilled Chicken
Salsa Fresca
Guacamole, cojita cheese
Tortilla chips
Romaine and spring mix lettuce
Cabbage
and Creamy Chipotle Ranch dressing

It's a simple salad. I ordered mine without the tortilla strips of course. This should take the carbs down quite a bit. Because they use a good amount of dressing and Guacamole the salad is very creamy. Lots of fresh tomatoes too with the salads which is great source of fiber. In short, I liked it and will have it again soon.

Net Carbs 10

    We love breakfast in our home. Seriously love it. We are the breakfast for dinner types. This is very convenient for the Atkins part of me because as we all know breakfast is a lot of eggs, meats, and fruit. But there has been a part of breakfast that had been lacking for me for some time. But what on earth could possible be as good as those other breakfast components I already mentioned. I will tell you. The fluffy carb dream known simply as the pancake. 

    Most pancakes mixes are filled with flour and of course that equates to carbs so having instant pancakes isn't quiet as easy as it use to be. Finding a mix that is low on the carbs has been difficult thus far and because of that I have been on a quest to find my perfect pancake low carb replacement. My search wasn't very effective until just recently. Heres a recipe I came across that was pretty tasty, low in carb, and incredibly simple.

    These turned out pretty good when I tried them. Only they seemed a little thin. I might try to use a little less water next time so they might be a little fluffier. Still, i can't complain. I loved having them. Top off the cakes with some Sugar free maple syrup or some fresh fruit. My wife love peanut butter on hers. 

One 4 inch pancake
Carbs - 3
Dietary Fiber - 2
Net Carbs - 1