Low Carb Freedom

Low Carb Pizza: Take Out?

This is a good article about some pizza chains that are adding low carb pizza dough or even providing pizza in a bucket -- without the crust.

Here is another article about low carb pizza in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

In Marblehead, MA, a one-shop pizza shop, Pizza Rustica, has a low carb pizza on the menu. They don't use sugar in the dough or the marina and have found low carb substitutions for some other key ingredients like honey. According to Lou Mastromarino, the owner, he wants his customers to get what they want and remain healthy. He serves some great salads too. Call Lou at 781 639-9800 and tell him that Low Carb Freedom sent you!

One word of advice, these pizza companies will be able to go mainstream in the low carb market when they get their net carb count officially analyzed.

And pizza shops can buy the low carb bread dough from Keto.

For those of you with no low carb takeout pizza in sight, my husband has perfected making a low carb easy pizza at home. Here is the recipe!

Low Carb Valentine's Day

OK, for all you men and women out there just looking for what to do with your low carbing loved one, just read this post. You're bound to find something that suits your love.

Low Carb Dinner Out:

You can go just about anywhere and get a low carb meal as long as you stick to meat and fish, sans bread. A salad bar is wonderful, try the full fat ranch dressing, or a Caesar Salad without the croutons is also great. You can also choose to cater one of the restaurants that have specific low carb menus like TGI Fridays or Ruby Tuesdays -- they have low carb whipped cauliflower, etc. Wine is just fine! Or order a Michelob Ultra or other low carb beer if that is your preference.

Low Carb Dinner In:

Start out with a Caesar Salad made with Cardini's Caesar Salad Dressing and shredded parmesan cheese found in the cheese case (not on the shelf!)

If she likes seafood, have scallops wrapped in bacon as an appetizer, followed by pasta with white clam sauce (It tastes sinful!) or crab cakes! (Just make them cakes instead of balls.)

If she likes steak, I would order from Omaha Steaks to get some good ones (I prefer their top sirloins), or go to your local meat market and have them help you out. I always marinate mine in Durkee Grill Creations Marinade Mix, but I still have to try the new Carb Options marinade. Here is one recipe for Beef Wellington. (It uses a little phylo dough, which should be OK since it is so thin.)

Or try some other recipes in the recipe index.

Now for a low carb dessert, low carb chocolate strawberries! I would buy some Carb Safe 3.54 oz. Dark Chocolate bars, heat them on the stove (slowly and not too much), and take some nice luscious red strawberries and make my own chocolate-covered strawberries for a great presentation! These are available at Trader Joes. If you can't get to a Trader Joe's, get the Pure De Lite Dark Chocolate bars and try the same thing. Or a bowl of raspberries topped with whipped cream (see the Low Carb Gift Basket below for more on this) would be a luxurious treat.

Low Carb Gift Baskets:

For your love, try some Russell Stover Low Carb candies (available from BJs) mixed with Carb Safe Chocolate from Trader Joes. The Russell Stover Low Carb chocolates have a nice red package, and the Carb Safe Chocolates have a nice black package. Mix them up in a small red or black basket with a red or black ribbon for a distinctive but appropriate look. (Some Pure DeLite bars also have a red package.)

If you would like an even bigger basket, I would add the following:

Some low carb jam (I really prefer the Keto over the Steels.)

Some low carb syrup (The kahlua is the best. Some of the newer types, like egg nog, seemed to have been rushed into production and don't taste the best.)

Some sweet nuts (These are so good!)

I would cap this all off with a deluxe whipped cream dispenser that allows you to have low carb whipped cream anytime! My husband got me this for my birthday last year and I love it. You can get these at Kitchen, etc. stores or on Amazon. The dispenser can be kept in the refrigerator and you can use it for two weeks. They need CO2 chargers, which can also be purchased at Kitchen, etc. or at Amazon. (My husband mistakenly thought that they came with the chargers and didn't purchase any so we couldn't use it the same day.) I have only used the deluxe model so I don't know how the other models work, but there is a price range. For my model, I need two CO2 chargers for each batch.

Whipped Cream Charger Pack ($5.95 for 10)

iSi Cream Whipper Chargers, N20-24 Pack (24 pack)

iSi Dessert Whip-Pint, White ($39.95)

iSi Gourmet Whip-Pint, Brushed Stainless Steel ($89.95) (This is the one I have. Also good for hot sauces.)

Valentine's Day for Kids

I am going to buy my kids a small toy, a book and give them a few small low carb chocolate bars or low carb cookies. For insertion into their friends' Valentine cards, I will give them a tattoo, a sticky toy or some small gift instead of chocolate. For parents who haven't discovered bulk toy shippers on the Internet, let me give you these links:

Rhode Island Novelty (Great shipping time to the Northeast! A minimum $50 order, but you can buy stuff for all the holidays.)

Oriental Trading Company (They will pack small orders, but I find them more expensive than the other bulk shippers)

Balloon and Novelty (In Texas)

Let me know some of your ideas!

How To Set Up a Low Carb Menu in Your Sandwich Shop

Feel free to print this out and pass it on to your favorite low carb sandwich shop! If they knew how EASY it was to add low carb products and create a low carb menu, we would all have LOTS more places to eat!

1. If you already sell sandwiches, just buy some La Tortilla Wraps or Low Carb Pitas. You can even freeze these if not ready for use. Make your existing sandwiches with mayo, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. Don't use sugar!

2. Make a batch of some no sugar coleslaw. (Use it in the sandwiches!)

3. Make sure you have diet drinks sweetened with Splenda available.

The above is the minimum investment to put up a low carb sandwich menu. How much out of pocket expense would this cost you to try it out?

If that is successful, you can add the following for additional sales:

4. Have some low carb cookies on hand. (I have to post the cookie battle.)

5. Have some Hain's Carbfit Twirls on hand. (The winner of the low carb snack battle.)

6. Have some low carb chocolate on hand. (So many good ones!)

7. Have some no sugar DaVinci syrups on hand to flavor coffee, etc.

8. Have some low carb ice cream on hand. (Breyer's CarbSmart.)

9. Buy some low carb pasta and do low carb versions of your pasta salads, etc.

If they want the links to work, tell them to go to http://www.lowcarbfreedom.com/how_to/index.html and tell them to scroll down.

Let me know of more tips to add!

Eating Out with Low Carb Bagels

New World Restaurant Group, which owns and franchises a lot of bagel chains, is adding low carb bagels to the menu! These bagels have the same amount of carbs as Thomas' Carb Counting Bagels at 18 grams, and slightly less than the Senible Bagels at 20 grams. (See the low carb bagel battle.)

Chains include:

Einstein Brothers
See their menu!
Find their locations!

Noah's:

They aren't advertising the new lower carb bagels yet, but I assume they are available according to the article. You can probably just substitute a lower carb bagel in any of their menu items.

See their menu!
Find their locations!

I'll update their other chains, Manhattan Bagel Company and Chesapeake Bagel Company in March when they add their own version of low carb bagels.

As always, don't eat more than 300 calories of low carb bread, pasta, candy, etc. -- anything that is not naturally low carb -- a day. The metabolic advantage isn't unlimited!

Burger King Goes Low Carb in a Small Way

David Bernstein of the Volokh Conspiracy nicely sums up what Burger King has done about low carb:

"Hold My Buns! Drudge links to a report noting that bowing to the low-carb craze, Burger King will now offer bunless Whoppers, for the same price as Whoppers with buns. How is this different then in the past (1) ordering the Whopper, but stating, "no bread please"; or (2) ordering the Whopper, and throwing the bread away, feeding it to birds, etc.?

Next thing you know, automakers will "offer" cars without tires for the same price as cars with tires. New advertising slogan for Burger King: "Offering you less, for the same price!" "

At least Hardees gives you an extra piece of lettuce or two to help eat the messy thing without fork and knife. (And the real reason they did this was to make it easier for their people to place the orders... I'll have a number 9... rather than making people learn the complicated register to have it "their way" sans bun.)

Holiday Inn Hotels go Low Carb

Breakfast has always been a great low carb meal if you like eggs... but it is nice to be catered to...

Holiday Inn is giving low carb menu space.

Low Carb Beers

I was so happy when Michelob Ultra appeared on the market with its great ad campaign that highlighted carbs. For a low-carb devotee, it showed that American companies were willing to buck the "experts" and provide consumers with what they wanted -- and what consumers found worked.

With the internet, the "reformation", which, according to the blogger Armed Liberal, "is the notion is that truth might not have to be derived from a priesthood," is happening in industry after industry. In this case, the priesthood is the group of politically correct nutritionists that seem to see a difference between carbs but don't want to acknowledge that any fat can be good for you at any point.

When I went out, I asked for a Michelob Ultra. If they didn't have it, I ordered a soda. (Does anyone know the profit margin between a soda and a beer?) It was the only way my voice could be heard.

I love watching the beer ads now. They each try to top each other with the low-carb claims. Low carb is mainstream when you get pummelled with it on ads during the football game.

Brand	Calories	Carbs
Michelob Ultra	95	2.6
Miller Lite	96	3.2
Amstel Light	95	5
Coors Light	102	5.0
Bud Ice Light	110	6.5
Corona Light	109	6.5
Bud Light	110	6.6
Busch Light	110	6.7

 

To find information on lots more beers, go here, but remember to hit on the alpha navigation above the table to get the beers from M-Z.

Fast Food Restaurants

You can always leave off the bun in any fast food restaurant, although it makes it extremely difficult to eat on the run. I have done it. Here is a list of the biggest restaurants that you can drive through.

McDonald's

McDonald's has created a handy tip sheet for low-carb eaters that includes full nutritional information for low-carb substitutes. They get my thumbs up for most user-friendly, albeit low-tech method, of informing their customers. Sometimes quick and low tech is best.

Read the tips/menus.

Wendy's

Wendy's needs to look at what McDonald's did in terms of the nutritional information for low-carb dieters. Their "build a menu" is an interactive monstrosity that is way too complicated when you need a quick guide.

The best bet is to look at their total nutritional information and then pick and add it up on your own.

Nutritional Information

Burger King

Burger King's interactive menu is a bit better than Wendy's, but that isn't saying much. You need to click on the "update" button to get it to subtract out what you have deleted, like the bun. It took me a couple of tries before I figured out that it would do this. I kept hitting nutritional information and it would give me the Big Mac's nutritional information for the whole burger, including bun.

Click here to see the nutrition wizard.

Burger King also has a great carbohydrate sort that is quite useful though. I would use this, but you need to first click on nutrient sort and then on carbohydrates in the pull down menu. (Anyone who works at Burger King, please send me a static url to the carbohydrate sort.)

Taco Bell

They have a similar menu wizard to Wendy's. I wouldn't try to wade through it. Their printable nutritional information is just a pdf of their in-store brochure, way too hard to read or print with the dark green background. I don't think that they think their customers care about this type of information.

If you absolutely have to have their nutritional information, try this nutritional caculator, or the pdf.

Hardees & Carl Jr.'s

These two chains, run by the same company, just wrapped their burgers in iceburg lettuce and serve it in a paper half wrap. They also cut down on the ketchup because ketchup is loaded with sugar. Unfortunately, there aren't any of these in Massachusetts.

Read about their new offerings!

Find their nutritional information. They have yet to update their site with the new offerings. They also have an interactive guide and a pdf available.

Find their locations.

Let me know what other fast food restaurants you want added.

Chains with Low-Carb Menus

You can always order meat and vegetables at any restaurant to keep eating the low carb way, but sometimes you want to try something more adventurous -- and know what you are eating. Many chains are capitalizing on this trend by creating custom low-carb menus. I will be adding to this list.

Ruby Tuesdays:

See their menu!

Find their locations.

T.G.I. Fridays

See their menu!

Find their locations.

Blimpies (rollout begins in the NorthEast)

See their menu!

Find their locations.

Just announced:

Subway

See their menu! (Doesn't seem to be anywhere else on the site yet.)

Find their locations!