3-Ingredient Pulled Pork...

Several women in my "mommie groups" posted about making pulled pork with only three ingredients, even more posted about making pork using Root Beer (What?!)!  Turns out they were all talking about the same basic recipe!

Here (follow that link) is an example...they all look about the same, others have you add spices and such though.  Now...how do we "healthy-fy" that?  I mean seriously, it only has three ingredients (pork, root beer, and BBQ sauce for those that didn't follow that link)!

For the Pork...rather than an expensive Tenderloin, we bought Boston Butt (or shoulder roast or butt roast or pork shoulder...they're all the same cut), it's way cheaper!  Last time we made it, we bought a 6 pound Butt for less than the 2 pound Tenderloin!

Root Beer was replaced with Diet Root Beer, cutting out all of the carbs from that!  Really this is just the liquid you cook the roast in...if you must have regular, go ahead, but count those 39.2g carbs into our meat!

Barbeque Sauce...I made a low carb sauce to use, the one I made only had about 12g in the whole batch (and you use the whole batch plus more to go on top) because I used the 1g net carb Ketchup.  Next time I'll sweeten this up a bit with Brown Sugar Twin I think..

All you do is plop (technical term) your meat into your slow cooker, add a can of (diet) root beer, and turn to low and cook for 9-10 hours.  Once it really gets cooking, you may want to evacuate the house...it smells like what comes out of your rear end!  We kept checking the baby for "number two's" and following the dog around looking for any "presents" she may have left us!  Bare with your stinky meat though, it tastes wonderful when it's all done!  At your 9 or 10 hour mark, pull the meat out of the slow cooker and dump the liquid down the drain, goodbye stinkiness!  Now, turn off the slow cooker or set it to warm for a little bit. You need to "pull" all that pork!  Don't pull it so far apart that you don't have to chew it...that's over-pulled pork and it mushes in your mouth (so much so that Garrick refused to eat the leftovers).  I pull out the big chunks of fat and such because we don't like eating that part anyway.  I put my pulled meat right back into the slow cooker as I pull it (which is why I turn it down, there's no liquid in there right now).  Once all the meat is back in, dump your barbeque sauce in an give it a stir.  When making your sauce, remember you need 18 ounces, or 2.25 cups, make more than that so you can top your pork with extra sauce!  Set the slow cooker to high and let it go one more hour to heat the barbeque sauce and let it meld with the meat!

Serve Hot!  For anyone who eats carbs, this goes on a bun or roll for Pulled Pork Sandwiches.  For anyone watching their carbs, Cauli-rice is a good option, topping a green salad is another way to go, or (like my lunch today) just eat it in a bowl with a fork!

Now, I'm off to play with a baby and maybe get some cooking done tonight (dinner for sure)!

Revisiting the Fat Bombs...Already!

Well, the fat bombs are a hit at my house (meaning I can;t stop eating them)!  The first batch of Chocolate Peanut Butter Fat Bombs are long gone, so is half the batch of Lemon Bombs (cream cheese and sour cream in these bombs)!  Today though, I picked up a couple sets of Silicone "mini" muffin liners!  Rather than getting one big bomb, now I can have two little bombs!  This will prove especially handy if I ever get more than one flavor going at any given time (like if I make just Peanut Butter Bombs...yum), then I can mix and match for my snacking pleasure.

Not only have I miniaturized my bombs, I tweaked the recipe a bit as well.  The idea of a fat bomb is not mine by any means, nor are the ratios (though I did accidentally double the coconut oil this time).  All that is truly "mine" here is the flavor combination (or rather the ratios of everything I put in).  What I did manage to do, mostly by being more careful with my ingredient selection, was reduce the net carb count from the original 2.3g I had figured down to a "measly" 1.2g net carbs for 2 Tablespoons (2 small bombs or 1 big bomb)!  Hello chocolatey snacking goodness!

Without further ado, here is the updated recipe...

"New" Chocolate Peanut Butter Fat Bombs ala Marcy

• 1 stick (yes, the whole stick) Butter, I use Salted...it's yummy in "sweet" things!
• 1 cup Coconut Oil, Melted (Remember, do not measure coconut oil in it's solid state, melt it first)
• 8 Tablespoons Peanut Butter (I used Skippy Natural, Creamy because it is only 4g net carbs per 2 Tablespoons)
• 9 Tablespoons Sugar Free Hershey's Chocolate Chips

Melt Butter, Coconut Oil, & Peanut Butter in a glass bowl (I use my 8-cup glass measuring cup) in the microwave for 30-60 seconds.  Just until it's hot enough to get everything to mix and make a smooth liquid, it's very runny until you set them up in the fridge or freezer.  Then add your chocolate chips (I keep mine in the freezer, so I probably need to melt mine fore longer than you would if you had them sitting out), give it a stir to start the melting process and break up the clumps a bit.  Microwave another 30-60 seconds until your chocolate is almost melted and then stir until smooth.

Measure your bombs out into something you can get them out of easily once they have set up, I use silicone baking liners because you can just peel them away and reuse them over and over!  Pop them in the freezer for 10-15 minutes or in the fridge for much longer (I have two dinner plates covered in bombs in the fridge but I still don't know how long they take to set up, the batch in the freezer took about 10 minutes (I've eaten one already)!

Your nutritional information may vary a bit from mine...but to figure mine, I subtract all dietary fiber and sugar alcohols, I also don't count Splenda or the like as a general rule (there isn't any added sweetener in this recipe).

For the whole batch, the numbers are scary high, but remember this turned into 40 servings!

• Calories - 4120
• Fat - 420.5
• Carbs - 105
• Dietary Fiber - 17
• Sugar Alcohols - 63
• Net Carbs - 25
• Protein - 33.5

Per Serving...things look much better!

• Calories - 103
• Fat - 10.5
• Carbs -2.6
• Dietary Fiber - 0.4
• Sugar Alcohols -1.6
• Net Carbs - 0.6
• Protein - 0.8

That means I can still have two (or even three) for only 1.2 (or 1.8 for three) net carbs!  Twice as much of thi batch is close to the original recipe!

Now I'm off to make Green Goddess Grilled Chicken (from the New Atkins for a New You cookbook) (2g net carbs) to go with a side salad with a bit of Green Goddess Dressing to go on top!  Dessert tonight will be a Fat Bomb or two...all for well under my carbs for the day, yeah!

Campbell's Go Soup - A Review

 Another day, another BzzCampaign review!  This time, Campbell's Go Soup, I received a pouch of Spicy Chorizo & Pulled Chicken with Black Beans.  According to the packaging, it serves two people, but it's only enough soup for one of my soup mugs...I ate the whole dang package myself one day for lunch (and had to eat something else to fill up)! 

Nutritional Info (per serving, 1/2 the package):
Calories: 210
Total Fat: 7g
Total Cholesterol: 20mg
Sodium: 710mg
Total Carbs: 25g
Dietary Fiber: 6g
Sugar: 5g
Protein: 11g

It was a good tasting soup, just not hearty enough for me.  It was also very spicy!  But, this is also 19g net carbs per serving, so I won't be buying it again any time soon.  Sadly, since the pouch was such a small serving size, that I ate in a rush between the baby's naps, that I really don't have a ton to say about it!  Give this one a try if it fits into your diet...email me if you'd like a $1 off coupon to give it a try too!  I have three coupons left to give out!

MorningStar Farms - A Review

Another BzzCampaign to tell you all about! 

For this campaign, I was given a coupon for a free box in my choice of flavors, I chose Grillers California Turkey, which has bits of Avocado and Tomato in them.  They were really good!  Since I didn't have any buns in the house, I used regular old white bread with a little mayonnaise on it and I added a slice of Sharp Cheddar Cheese too.  

These are a quick fix item, just a few minutes in the microwave, which makes them perfect for grabbing a quick meal while the baby is sleeping!  I devoured my box (4 patties) over the course of lunch two days in a row, then I wished I had another box, they were that good!  Of course, my time away from the low-carb lifestyle was short lived (in the grand scheme anyway...I was off the diet for 12 months), so I did not buy any more of these.  Going meatless, even one day a week, I could see how these would make a good substitute for the real carnivores in your family!  I never really have understood why these sorts of foods exist though...if you are choosing to not eat meat, why would you want to replicate the flavor of meat?  Just eat meat I say.  Or don't eat meat...I would think this sort of product would make you crave meat though.

Bottom line, if you are on a restricted calorie diet, these would be perfect for you (at only 90 calories per patty), as long as you have enough self-discipline to not eat the whole box in one sitting!   Now that I have taken a good look at the nutritional information (here), these are only 2g net carbs per patty too!  

This with a good salad would make a great lunch or dinner (or even a breakfast if you served it with an egg on top), assuming you don't react to anything in the ingredient list of course!  7g carb, but 5g are dietary fiber...yup, only 2g net carbs!  These are way better than I had assumed they were.  Looking at the carb/protein/fat ratios, it's pretty darn good too, assuming a 20-25g carb diet (oer day), you get 10% carbs (2g), 40% protein (9g), and 50% fat (5g), if you track that sort of thing (I do not, but I try to keep the pie chart tipped more in this fashion).  These do have a lot of wheat in them though, and the main ingredient is TVP (texturized vegetable protein), so these are not a good choice for the gluten-free crowd!

Overall, this is a good tasting product that I would buy again.  But, only as a treat when I really need a break from the "same old" foods that I tend to eat every day.

Starting Anew!

After putting off (re)starting my low-carb diet because we had too much food in the house that wasn't diet friendly, or because it's just "easier" to not follow the low-carb diet, I have finally jumped back on the bandwagon!  After replacing the battery in my bathroom scale yesterday, I was guilted into not putting it off any longer...it said I had gained 25 pounds since getting pregnant one year ago!  That's half of what I had lost prior to that!  So, we are resetting the weight tracker at 280.0 pounds...I still need/want to get to somewhere around 150 pounds, so I need to lose approximately 130 pounds (a whole person, all be it a small one).

Things that have helped me stay on track so far?  My Mom made a batch of LC Monkey Bread (3.85g for a twelfth of the recipe), pre-sliced and bagged up in the fridge for fast breakfasts, Atkins Frozen Meals for lunch (I had Crustless Chicken Pot Pie today, 5g net carbs), and The New Atkins For A New You Cookbook!  All of the recipes take around 30 minutes to prepare, which is perfect for Garrick to help watch the baby after he gets home from work while I get back into the habit of making dinner every night!  So far, the Greek Meatball recipe is one of my favorites...24 meatballs with a grand total of 8g carb (it's supposed to be 4 servings of 6 meatballs), we split it three ways for 2.67g servings.  It went together in about 5 minutes and only took 20 minutes to bake in the oven, we warmed up a little Spaghetti Sauce to pour over them...it was yummy.

Last night, I made Chicken Continental out of the 500 More Low Carb Recipes book (by Dana Carpender)...again, 8g net carbs for the whole recipe, split three ways instead of 4, we counted it at 2.67g per serving.  This one is just chicken breast, ham, and asiago cheese!  It took a little longer, about 40 minutes, but it was our favorite meal of all week!

Another "helper", to help curb my sweet tooth, is the Fat Bombs I made today...at 2.3g for a tenth of the recipe (which I will share with you), it made for a good dessert after lunch, and they only took 15-20 minutes to make and freeze (and have ready to eat)!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fat Bomb

• 4 Tablespoons Salted Butter (or unsalted, doesn't really matter)
• 4 Tablespoons Coconut Oil, Melted (don't measure it in solid form)
• 6 Tablespoons Peanut Butter (Use what you like, I used Chunky because that's what I have)
• 8 Tablespoons Sugar Free Hershey's Chocolate Chips (Or any sugar free chocolate really)

I cubed my butter, put it into my 8-cup glass measuring cup, added the oil and peanut butter, and microwaved everything for 30-45 seconds, just until the butter is almost melted (it came right out of my fridge).  Stir to combine into a smooth liquid (melted peanut butter and oil...), then I added the chocolate chips, stirred, and put it back in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, just to melt the chocolate.  Stir one more time, then line a plate with silicone muffin wrappers.  I decided to make my bombs with 2 Tablespoons each (1/8 cup) and I got 10 servings this way.  If you have smaller wrappers, you could do 1 Tablespoon bombs that would only be about 1g carb per bomb (if you run closer to your max carbs for the day, but still need to up your fat, I'd go this route).  Pop them in the freezer until solid, remove from freezer when ready to eat it, they melt extremely fast!

Nutritional Breakdown:
Whole Recipe:  Calories;2002, Fat;184.4, Carb;23, Protein;31.6
1/10 recipe (2 Tablespoons): Calories; 200.2, Fat; 18.4, Carb 2.3, Protein; 3.2

Check your products though, the Peanut Butter I used had 7g carb, 5g net carb!  Tastes just like a peanut butter cup though, and the bits of peanut were yummy!