Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Low Carb Cheeseburger - Not Your Average Quarter Pounder with Cheese!

One of the hardest things about eating LCHF (low carb, high fat) is eating out at restaurants, but it can be done!

Today I want to share a tip about eating at fast food places. McDonald's has always been one of my favorites. 


Photo Credit - McDonald's.com
At McDonald's my favorite was the Quarter Pounder with Cheese! The whole meal with fries and a drink. Of course you have to buy the meal, it's cheaper that way...that's where they get you!

The other day I woke up and was exhausted and couldn't even begin to imagine what I was going to take to the office for my lunch. So I didn't take anything. Lunch time rolled around and I had the bright idea to go to McDonald's and get a burger and bring it back to the office and throw away the bread. 

That's exactly what I did, I bought just the burger, took both the buns and threw them in the trash and ate just the meat, cheese, onions, pickles, mustard and ketchup. It was delicious, you could really taste the meat and condiments, whereas before I just tasted bread.

So I've been trying the bun less burger at other restaurants. The great thing is to order it bun less, or lettuce wrapped, that way you don't waste food by throwing away the bun...it killed me to throw away the bun!

When I got home from work today, I was wondering what I could have for dinner. I had made some ground turkey with taco seasoning last night. 

So I thought maybe I could mimic the quarter pounder with cheese using the ground turkey and no bun. Check out this beauty!



I heated up my previously cooked ground turkey in the microwave. While that was heating I sliced up some iceberg lettuce, dill pickle and onion and took out a cheese slice. 

I put down a layer of the lettuce, then the cheese slice and then the hot ground turkey. I plopped on a dollop of mayonnaise and liberally topped it all with yellow mustard. Put down my pickles and onion and Voila! 


I have to tell you it was delicious! I ate it with a spoon and it was easier than eating it wrapped. Since the turkey was already ground and not cooked as a patty it was easy to just pick it up with a spoon so I was sure to get a great bite in every spoon.

The whole thing was LCHF, as you can see from the nutrition info from myfitnesspal.com food diary that I enter information into.

The first column is calories, then carbs, then fat, protein, sodium and fiber, giving me a total net carb of 5. When I'm trying to stick with 20 to 24 carbs per day that is pretty great for just one meal, one very filling and satisfying meal. I think I'm having this for lunch tomorrow!

Just for he sake of comparison, below I have the nutrition info for a quarter pounder with cheese with the works, as it comes straight from McDonald's, as I used to eat it. See that? 42 carbs!

Nutrition Info  - McDonalds.com

Here's the nutrition info without the bun and without ketchup, as ketchup has sugars in it and increase the carb count and I prefer mustard on a burger anyway. Is that crazy? 5 whole carbs and if I subtract the 1 gram of fiber my net carb is 4!

Nutrition Info - McDonalds.com
McDonald's website has a "make your meal" tool where you can take off or add items and it will give you the same info I posted above. Very handy and makes it easier to customize foods if you plan on eating at McDonald's. 

So you can eat out on a LCHF way of eating, you just have to plan and become familiar with nutrition info on various foods. Myfitnesspal.com is a great resource for that and I love it!


 

4 comments:

  1. The problem with McDonalds and other fast food places for me is the sodium. You get a month's supply in one meal!

    I must confess a certain love affair with carbs. Give me carbs or give me death! Hmmm. May come to regret that.

    Good luck with your dietary life style.

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    1. Oh definitely, the sodium is outrageous, but actually, the home made meal I made had more sodium that McDonalds. I think it was the cheese I used and perhaps the mayo? They don't put mayo on the 1/4 pounder with cheese. But at this time, sodium is not an issue for me blood pressure wise. I don't go crazy with it, but I've cut out all forms of potato chips, corn chips, popcorn, french fries, etc, so if sodium is a little high on one meal I don't really sweat it.

      The funny thing is the first time I heard about this way of eating I too said, "oh no, I can't give up my carbs, I love them too much, no more chips? Bah...begone with you!" But if you do this WOE faithfully you actually lose the cravings. I admit I am enjoying feeling slimmer and trimmer and I am exercising around 30 minutes a day in 5 minute low impact walking exercises with Leslie Sansone. You should look up her videos or to a fews posts earlier than this one and I posted them. She's very cute and the videos are super simple and you will feel the results in no time! I'm loving it!

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  2. Interesting! One thing to be careful of is that some places put bread crumbs in their burgers and shine cheeses have carbs in them. But to have ask that for only 5 carbs is pretty great!

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    1. It is amazing what some places put into foods. I don't know if this is true, but Denny's has been said to put pancake batter into their omelets to make them fluffier. So if you are eating low carb and you order an omelet and think you are safe, think again because you may as well have had a pancake! I do try to stick between 20 and 24 carbs per day, but I don't obsess about it. If I eat a burger that had a few bread crumbs I give myself credit for not eating the bread. You still want to have a great quality of life and enjoy food.

      This burger was so good that I had it again for dinner last night and and having it for lunch today, I'm obsessed!

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