Paula Dean's Heart Attack Burger

I'm not the biggest fan of Paula Dean's recipes, but her Southern hospitality and twang and bubbly personalty makes her shows fun to watch. It seems like all her recipes start with a pound of butter and are finished with a jar of real mayonnaise. But this morning Paula had a show about brunch and I saw the most disturbing single dish on Paula's show, or anywhere for that matter.

It started innocently enough: a 1/2 pound juicy hamburger made with ground beef and lots of parsley. To make it brunch-like she added a fried egg- a little ridiculous, but not off the charts... yet. Then came three strips of fatty bacon. Wow, this was one hell of a burger. She had a big basket of English Muffins, and naturally I thought she would use this for the bread of this monster burger. But, next to the basket of muffins, there sat 1/2 dozen large glazed donuts. I thought there was no way... but, she took one of the donuts, put in on her plate, and placed the burger, egg, and bacon on top of it. Unbelievably, she then took another large donut to complete the sandwich. Her and her friend each had a bite before it went to commercial. I had seen enough. At one point in my life, I think I might have to try this thing, but maybe not until I have a chronic illness or something.

She called this thing "The Lady's Brunch Burger"--- yikes.

Some quick calculations from FitDay.com: 1269 Calories, 90g Fat

Foodies on a diet

As Erin mentioned, we are making an effort to eat healthier, lose some lbs and get into shape. Well, doing all that while eating interesting and delicious things is not impossible, but it is an added challenge. General rules of thumb include eating less cream/cream sauce (which I generally avoid because I think they are gross), cheese, fatty meats, cut down on portion size and snacks, and generally reduce complex sugars and fat. One thing I have found effective was keeping track of the fat and calories that I eat.

Many websites can assist you in this, but my calorie calculator of choice is FitDay.com

Also, Men's Health has a good compilation of several restaurants' nutritional information:
Nutrition Facts - Men's Health

So, over the next several months if you see us substituting skim milk cheese for regular cheddar or ground turkey for ground beef, you will know why. And while it might not be the foodie thing to do, we should be pretty successful at making these healthier options just as delicious.