Low-Carb bagel dog & pizza dough?

Cafe Society
1

My doctor just read me the Blood Sugar Riot Act. It was then that somebody decided to make pretty much all bread products really high in carbs. Case in point: a Burger King “plain” Double Cheeseburger, with just beef and cheese, has 1 gram of carbs - oh, you wanted a bun as well? Make that 24 grams.

I am trying to find decent low-carb substitutes for:
(a) bagel dogs
(b) hamburger/hot dog buns (besides “lettuce leaves”)
© pizza dough
(d) rice
(e) pasta for Mac & Cheese - how well would “just substitute raw cauliflower for the pasta” work, either in the oven or on a stovetop?

Any recommendations, either available in stores or recipes?

2

You could try an open-face burger. Using just one half of the bun still lets it taste like a burger, but you get more of the meaty taste.

3

To be honest you’re going to be disappointed with any substitute and for the most part they’re not worth it. If you’re not going to “true low carb it” (shoot for ketosis, that is) and just want to cut carbs, I recommend cutting carbs but indulging in only the best carbs on occasion. Fresh brioche buns for burgers once a month but otherwise bunless, your favorite pizza once every three months but otherwise cut out pizza, fresh bakery cookies but never Chips Ahoy, etc.

Burger King double cheeseburgers are my favorite without buns. Fairly easy to eat too!

Rice is flat out. Replace regular white rice with basmati rice but still eat less rice.

Low carb pizza dough is not worth it. There are cauliflower crust recipes out there but I dunno, they never seemed too worth it to me. The ones with regular flour plus cauliflower are ok. Oprah’s new low-er carb cauliflower crust pizzas are fine.

I like this lady’s recipes.

I used to like to make could bread when low carbing. It didn’t taste like much but it was good for putting tuna salad or club sandwich fixin’s on.

4

Fathead dough. I can confirm it makes an amazing pizza crust, and there are recipes for various other “breads” such as bagels, etc.

Made this, and it was truly good: How To Make Fat Head Pizza Crust (Keto) – Ditch The Carbs

5

All the above are variations on using almond flour as a replacement for wheat flour. Not as gluteny, so it’s not going to hold together as well as wheat does (that’s why we use wheat). Also consider looking into the Mediterranean diet for general recipes that don’t emphasize having half the plate covered in carbs at every meal.

6

I got that Blood Sugar Riot Act lecture from my doc a few years ago. He said I wasn’t diabetic or even pre-diabetic, but he didn’t like the direction my numbers were going. I resolved to do something about it before it became a problem. No more peanut brittle for breakfast.

I didn’t take the low carb approach so much as the low glycemic approach. I mostly eliminated simple carbs. I focus on lean meats, healthful fats, most vegetables (no starchy or sugary ones, though), nuts, legumes, whole fruit (one serving per day only). Completely out except for very special occasions are cake, cookies, pies, potatoes, rice, bread and white pasta. I will occasionally use whole grain pasta with emphasis on the meat sauce, or soba (buckwheat) noodles for some Asian dishes.

Instead of potatoes or rice, I have either 2 vegetables with the meat, or a side of beans and a veg, or a veg and a salad… like that. Just dump the rice, pasta and potatoes. After a short while, you won’t miss them.

In the first 6 months, I dropped my fasting blood sugar level by 35 points. I’ve kept it within normal ranges ever since.

But you asked about pizza. I have a great dough recipe. It uses 1 cup of regular unbleached flour, 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of garbanzo bean flour. It makes 8 servings, meaning you get 1/8 of a cup of the “bad” flour per serving. That’s not much. I freeze the dough in individual servings and have a pizza every couple of weeks made with good sauce, lots of vegetables, cheese and either sausage or pepperoni. Really satisfies the pizza craving – and the crust is fantastic. If you prefer a thin crust style pizza, you’ll love it.

If the recipe interests you, just PM me and I’ll send it along.

Ethilrist is right – follow a Mediterranean-style diet if you can. I recommend South Beach. Very humane.

Good luck with the blood sugar thing. Best to get a handle on it now. Diabetes is really scary.

7

How low carb do you want to go? 24 carbs for a meal isn’t all that much, if that’s all the carbs you are eating. As a T1 diabetic, I try to aim for less than 50 carbs per meal, and that’s relatively easy to do.

A few hints:

  • As ZipperJJ said, eat your (restaurant) burgers/sandwiches open face.

  • If we’re talking burgers at home, not all burger buns are created equal. Look at the carb counts on the packages - you can get burger buns with as few as 25 carbs if you look around. Same with hot dog buns, I’ve seen them around 20-22 carbs.

  • For pizza, think thin pizza. Thin crust isn’t overly carby at all. Or use sausage as a crust - I’ve patted sausage into the bottom of a pie pan then topped with pizza sauce, cheese, veggies, etc. It’s pretty decadent.

  • For rice/pasta, the only thing that’s worked for me is watching the portion size. 1/2 cup of cooked white rice is 22 carbs; pasta is about 8 carbs per cooked ounce. A 25-35 carb portion is enough for a small meal.

Overall, I mostly watch portion size, and also bulk up on vegetable sides. I get thin crust pizza, for example, and a large salad. By the time I’m done with the salad, 2 slices of pizza are more than enough to fill me up. Same with pasta or rice dishes; if you have a largeish veggy side, the small portion of the main dish is just fine.

8

I think this is good advice. If you’re going to have pizza, why have crappy frozen pizza, or pizza from one of the crappy nationwide chains. Everywhere I’ve lived, there have been a few, good, local pizzerias. Now, at the one I like, the pizza is thirty bucks or so for a large, versus ten bucks for a pizza from one of the chains. But it’s better. And if you treat it as an indulgence, it’s not so bad. (And thin-crust pizza is always better.) I’m not a fan of hot dog buns, as they are generally flavorless and just functioning as a holder for the hot dog. So just have the dog without the bun. And if I have a hamburger, I don’t get fries any longer.

9

I’ve made these low carb bagel dogs without the everything topping:

I normally dislike low-carb substitution foods like cauliflower rice or crusts, but I liked this recipe and will make it again. Takes about an hour start to finish.

10

Mission Carb Balance flour tortillas. At 4 to 5 bucks a package they better be good, and they are. They are soft but have a nice chew, maybe like a bagel dog. They make great wraps for lunch to replace a sandwich. You can crisp them up in the broiler or on a griddle to make a pretty decent thin cracker crust for a pizza.

11

Never mind… learned something new!

12

That panel says fourteen grams of the carbs are dietary fibers.