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.

Ok, peanut butter and jelly flavors work together. Most of us wouldn’t argue that. The PB&J is pretty much a standard in homes across America. It’s a tasty treat that goes back to many of our childhoods. However I have discovered that it doesn’t work great outside of sandwich form great.


The B-Up Peanut Butter and Jelly Protein Bar is a great example of this. It's not that it tastes bad necessarily, it's just that the protein taste with the PB&J doesn't jive well together. It’s a little bit of an unnatural taste that doesn’t sit well on my taste buds. Again it's not bad, but not really a flavor I would get again. The jelly taste is a bit to fruity for this and should be paired back a bit more.


Not bad though. I could eat it. But not great.

Low carb tortilla's are a big tool in my house. I use them with everything. Sandwich wraps, pizza, hamburgers, homemade cinnamon strips, and tacos are just some of the ways you can use them. They are a great way to help bridge the gap in low carb meals to fill them out and make them a bit more rounded and normal feeling. However not all low carb tortillas are the same. Some have many more carb's than others. And some taste better and more like a traditional flour tortilla.


La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortillas are pretty good tortillas. They have a nice texture and seem to do a pretty good job of holding together. They work well for wraps and tacos and almost are closer to a corn tortilla or a tradition wrap than a flour tortilla. They are only three carbs a unit which is pretty outstanding when you think about it. Especially when many other on the market range from 6-7. I use them frequently.


Where they do not quite measure up is when you want to bake them. These tortilla don't do well under a slow heat and tend to get pretty hard and chewy. Not crispy like you might want. If you are looking to make pizza or chips, these may not be your best option. I would use a flour tortilla for something like that. However almost anything else you want to use them for should be fine.


Personally I think they are best as a taco, or enchilada. Even as a wrap they aren't my favorite. The just lack any needed airiness to them. Still, they get the job done and keep the carbs low

I don't know about you guys but baked goods seem like a thing of the past for me. When you eat low-carb you just don't get a lot of opportunity to eat things that are baked sweets. Cakes, pies, and cookies I'll become off-limits. This can be difficult for those of us with sweet-tooth's.
 
After playing around with almond flour recipes here and there it seemed like it was a good time to investigate low carb cookies again. That and I had a craving for peanut butter cookies pretty fierce. I did a little digging around online to see if I could find any good low-carb cookie recipes and I spotted one that seem fairly easy to make without a lot of weird items to include into the recipe.  I hate shopping for weird hard to find items. Anyway, I did a little alteration and added some peanut butter into the recipe. They turned out really good and I would suggest others to give it a try. The trick is to use almond flour not almond meal. Almond meal mix cookies a lot more crumbly and seem to have a grittier texture. These were a lot closer to traditional cookies. 
 
If you try it out, let me know what you think.


Ingredients
Servings 16-18 Units US

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1⁄2 cup Splenda
• 1⁄2 cup softened butter, replace with what ingredient (if you want cookie that holds together a little more easily replace 2 tablespoons of butter with 1 l)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt (if using salted butter, omit salt here)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
• 1 egg (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Using and electric mixer blend softened butter for a minute. Add remaining ingredients and mix together.
3. Form dough into walnut sized balls and place onto ungreased cookie sheet. The oil from the butter and almond flour grease the sheet as the cookie bakes.
4. Bake for 5 minutes. Press down lightly with fork, then continue to bake another 18 minutes. The cookies do not brown.
5. Let cool on sheet for 5 minutes before removing.

I post a lot of meat sticks on here, but there is a stick that needs to be mentioned. Not for its taste, though it does have fantastic flavor. Not for its packaging or size, both of which are of a decent nature. Not even for price, although very affordable. No, I mention Homel's Pepperoni Stix because they are just that, Pepperoni in a stick form. And the best part is they have 0 carbs. That’s right, 0.  Great to have at your desk for those long days. And unlike other sticks out there, they have no fillers or sugar in them to give them unnecessary carbs.
 
Way to go Hormel!

I love Costco. You can hardly walk through the place without findings something you didn’t know you needed. Not to mention their amazing Kirkland brand that has some great prices to match your favorites.



Recently I discovered that Kirkland has come out with their own brand of low sugar/low carb Kirkland Protein Bars. At 4 barbs each let take a quick look and see how each bar measures up.

These actually taste a lot like the Atkins low carb cookie dough bars but have much better chocolate chunks in them. Great taste. They are a little sticky which is different at first but you get over that pretty quick. Also, unlike the Atkins version these don’t have a slight grit to them. Pretty chewy and very tasty.

Holy Chocolatey Goodness Batman! These bars are where it's at. They have a rich chocolate taste with nice big chunks of chocolate fudge in them. There isn't a strong protein taste which is good and the flavor works great. The size is standard for a protein bar, but these guys will still fill you up. I think these are super yummy and have a great chocolate taste. I actually love these with a cup of coffee in the morning. A great way to kick off the day. .



I am a fan of both of these bars and if the taste doesn't get you the price will. There are 20 bars in a box and the box was around $25. that’s about $1.25 a bar which for protein bars is a pretty good deal. And Kirkland products often go on sale too so if you time it right you can really get a deal.

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?
 

This month's box gave me mixed emotions. For the most part I was excited. I love getting to try a new protein bar even if the flavor sounds a little crazy. And a Greek vinaigrette is fun because a dressing will be something I can use for several meals. Adding in a Sugar Free Brownie mix was super exciting as it's not the type of thing that is easily found and can actually say is low carb. This one looks legit. Plus Chocolate! The tortillas I have had many times before so that wasn’t really a surprise. Although useful, not a surprise for me. Like a break even moment. The beef jerky is fun. Especially since you don’t see shredded like that very often anymore. I used to eat that as a kid and pretend it was chewing tobacco. Funny I know.  I guess it’s the Protings I was bummed by. And not even that much bummed, but using the same item twice in the same box seems lazy. I would love to try a new flavor, but do it again in a different box. Not the same.
 
Still that’s a minor thing since I haven't had them before and a good crunchy chip substitute is always good to find.
 
If you are interested in getting a box yourself you can sign up here.
 
 
Also, if you want more in-depth reviews of each product, you can find those below as I try them:
 B-Up Peanut Butter and Jelly Protein Bar
Machaca
La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Tortillas
ProTings Sea Salt Flavor
ProTings Nacho Cheese Flavor
Primal Kitchen Greek Vinaigrette
Good Dee's Sugarfree Brownie Mix

 
 
Anyone else use Keto Krate? or Tried these items from this box? What do you think?
 

Another BBQ Sauce that is sugar free has come across my path. While at first the idea of another low carb BBQ sauce gets me excited there is an issue with them I have discovered which I will explain in a moment. But first….

The sauce we are discussing today is Guy's Sugar Free BBQ Sauce. Overall, it has a great blend of sweetness and smoke taste. Not too spicy and a good amount of flavor. I love that the carb count is low which is great. However the issue I have discovered with sugar free BBQ Sauces has become the strong sucralose taste in them. You may not notice it the first time you have it, but upon repeated tastes it seems to become more prominent for me than the spices and the BBQ flavor.



Now don’t get me wrong, this is a good sauce, but I almost think that going forward I will pick a sauce that is not sugar free, but not as sweet so to help reduce carbs that way. The artificial taste of the sucralose just gets old for me pretty quick. I like natural flavors and really you don’t need a lot of sauce to go far.


What about you? Do you have any low carb sauces that you use frequently?