Keto Day 14 - So Much for a Daily Log (aka Read My Rambles)

Just when I think I'm over this bug, it likes to remind me I am way wrong. Yesterday was the non-stop throat clearing stage, to the point where I swear the back of my throat was bleeding. Today is the oh-so-pretty coughing up phlegm stage. Amazingly enough, not one cough while I worked out this morning, but the minute I stepped out the doors, coughcoughcoughcoughewwimgonnapuke.

Days 10 - 13 aren't posted because a) I was feeling too sick to; and b) I forgot. Even when the thought popped into my head I should write it up, I wasn't in the mood. Blogging is boring. Right now I have some time to kill. Writing up a shopping list for the week. This may bore the handful of people that still read this blog, but eh... life. I full expect those hits to drop.

I'm a little shocked that a place like Honest Weight does not sell treats that are both gluten free and sugar free. They have gluten free items, but they had sugar. There were sugar free items, but had grains of some sort. I may be wrong, and there is indeed something that fits that need, but no luck. I ended up eating some almonds and seaweed snax things. Savory is fine and all, but sweets damnit. I want a sweet. Got a fat bomb book that looks promising, I'll be posting some of my makes on here. When I remember, of course.

For those looking to forego bread, Red Robin offers a burger called the "Wedgie." It's on the menu next to the "Noogie," and the "Swirlie."

I joke. Mostly. Pretty badly.

Anyways, a burger with bacon and guacamole, wrapped in iceberg lettuce. It wasn't bad, except for the fact they cooked my burger wrong. I asked for medium rare, I got well. Maybe I should ask for blue next time, and if I'm lucky I'll get barely medium. Comes with a salad, under 500 calories, if that is something you care about.

Oh, I suppose my eating so far today

Breakfast - Coffee w/ half & half and mct oil. Two baked chicken thighs seasoned with cajun seasoning.

Snack - More chicken. If you can't tell, I'm trying to finish what I have on hand. Protein good. Blahblahblah bad. Lots of water. More coffee. Ho hum.

Lunch - Ended up eating on the late side, hit up the gym and I wasn't feeling hungry until the late afternoon. More chicken, surprise surprise.

Dinner - Blueberries. I was meal prepping (pork & chicken adobo, chicken stock, ground beef), and honestly nothing else sounded good. Although popcorn would have been nice while watching Twin Peaks.

When Enough is Enough

Let me just say the only reason why we went here is because of happy hour. 

Spent the holiday mostly studying, but I took some time out to go to Home Depot for paint. And since we were already in Latham, figured we may as well grab drinks at Brick House. It was after 4:00 and their happy hour runs until 7:00. Three dollar drafts and five dollar appetizers were right up our alley.

Except there was no happy hour. No signs at the tables, no mention of it anywhere. I don't think they did away with it altogether, because from what I remember from past visits, the place would be packed. It was probably because of the holiday. We never asked about it, and we probably should have just left at that point. Especially since we had to wait before our server acknowledged we were there.

But that's Brick House's thing - waiting. Waiting for a server. Waiting for drinks. Waiting to place our orders. Waiting for another drink. You get the point. Slow service, and food that's heavy on the grease, and on this visit, heavy on the salt.

Thanks to that burger crawl, I have been on a cheeseburger kick. Ordered the house cheeseburger, medium rare with cheddar, and fries. What you saw above is what came out. Twenty-three fries on that plate. Excuse my fry loving self, but are you f***ing serious? That looks like it was an afterthought. Hardly any fries, and the ones that were there were SALTY. I like salty food, but geez... had to shake the excess salt off. 

As for the burger, meh. I could see they were aiming for medium rare, since they left the marker still on the burger. Ended up being more medium, but medium rare is hit or miss at most places. Finished it quickly and tried to get the attention of our server about getting some less salty fries. She didn't hear me. She seemed a bit frazzled so I just let it go.

M ordered the Thai Tots, a new to us item on their menu. Tater tots topped with Thai BBQ and peanut sauce. There may be more, but I don't remember the description. And just happened with my fries, salt strikes again. Whomever is stationed at the fryer, salt bae they are not. Tots heavily salted, and then doused in sauces which have their own amounts of salt. 

Never say never, but I think we'll be staying away from here for a while. 

Too Much Salt is Asin

There’s this old Filipino joke that roughly goes like this -

Why did the priest stop eating salt? Because it’s asin!

You see, salt in Tagalog is asin. A sin. Ha ha! Alright… done with the silly jokes.

M and I went up to Clifton Park for a little bit of shopping and a quick bite to eat. I was leaning toward Saigon Spring, but burgers and fries are usually a good cure-all after a night of drinking. The menu at Red Robin has changed since we were last there, and I think the prices have gone up slightly. We both ordered the Whiskey River Burger, with the veggie burger.

I’ve ordered it several times before, and it was always really good. This time, nowhere near that. My burger was salty. And not just slightly salty, but extremely salty. At first I just thought it was some seasoning I had accidentally sprinkled over it while spicing up my fries. It wasn’t throughout my burger – there were bites that were completely fine. But it was salty enough for me to not finish it. It was starting to make me feel nauseated. M finished it, but also remarked how salty it was.

What the hell. So horrible. I actually wanted to have more fries, but anything with salt was making me sick.

M and I are thinking it was the onion straws. Someone went salt crazy and I was the unlucky victim. I really don’t think we’ll be going back to that location.

Non-Foodie Food

R is a foodie. I am not. Heck, I'm anti-food enough to have been a devout vegetarian for the past 14 years of my life, and as such, preventing me from savoring all that delicious beef, poultry, and pork (oh bacon). But I still manage. Here's a little something I threw together after R roasted up some veggies on the BBQ. A fried corn tortilla, vegetarian refried beans, mixed garden lettuce, roasted veggies, and cojita cheese. (Er, maybe being around R is starting to rub off on me a little bit.)

Toasted onion bagel, shredded mozzerella, tomato, salt & pepper, topped with fresh basil.

Double stacked Gardenburgers with cheese, lettuce, and tomato on grilled wheat.

The Brown Bag's Pineapple Bacon Burger

What do you do when the sky lights up and there's nothing but downpour?

You eat a burger. And let me tell you, that was one really good burger.

My Memorial Day

No grills. No fireworks. Not even real meat - these are Boca burgers. But M was leaving and I really don't think 4 patties is enough reason to burn some propane. Surprisingly, I liked these. They were the original ones, and reminded me of a Burger King burger. And I do likes those from time to time. Now I wish I had bought more when they were on sale. 

The Brown Bag (Troy, NY)

 Before I had to go across the river for some late night/night out eating. Now it looks like I won’t have to.

Oh, Memorial Day?

I celebrated. Just me… and the grill.

Hangover Remedy

 

M had just a little too much fun recently. And you know what happens when you have too much fun… the following day it comes back to haunt you. After filling him in on some of the events from the night before, I dragged him out of the apartment to settle his stomach.

Burgers sounded like a good idea so to Red Robin we went. The last few times I’ve been able to finish my burgers. I think it’s because I stick to the simple stuff- Natural Burger or the Gourmet Cheeseburger. I don’t need something fancy.

M went against the grain and ordered the Burnin’ Love Burger. It has fried jalapeño rings, salsa, Chipotle mayo, Pepper-Jack cheese, and of course the lettuce and tomato. Served on a jalapeño cornmeal bun. And of course he subbed the veggie patty for the beef. He liked it, but it may have been just a little too hot for him.

Red Robin Lunch

M and I grabbed a quick bite before he went off to work and I headed back downstate. I got a natural burger, M got the whiskey something burger with the veggie substitute. Very good, and both were eaten almost immediately. I felt a little guilty because I left a couple of fries… you have have to know when to say when.

Brown's Brewing Co. (Troy, NY) & Oliver's Beverage (Albany, NY)

M's dad and sister came out here for a camping trip. I didn't participate because 1) I'm not into camping, and 2) I had to take a review class. But I did watch the pets.

Both M's sister and brother-in-law are really into the homebrewing. Really into it. They sign up for homebrew contests, and even judge some. So M figured he would show them what we have to offer. I'm not sure if Brown's was the best place to take them, but compared to the Pump Station, it was a lot closer.

M and I split an order of onion rings, and it was unexpectedly good. As you can see, they are quite large (the menu referred to them as being "king-sized"), and battered. Not surprisingly, the batter incorporated one of their beers (Tomhannock Pilsner). These rings weren't very greasy, and we quickly gobbled them up. It would have been nicer if they gave us a dipping sauce to go along with it.

M as usual had himself a cheese quesadilla, and I got a bacon cheese burger... medium rare. It was okay, nothing spectacular. Wasn't really expecting much, since the focus I believe is on their beers.

Sis and BIL were not impressed.

After dropping M's dad back at the apartment, we drove to Albany make amends. I guess M's been talking up Oliver's and rightfully so... it's a great place. It's a drinkable beer library. There were a few labels that caught my eye and I'll be picking some up the next time I go there.

Sis and BIL took their time going up and down the aisles, and walked out with quite a few bottles. M bought a 36 pack for his dad, and BIL's daughter picked up some Stewart's root beer. I was tempted to buy some beef jerky, but I was good and resisted the tasty evil.

The night ended with us sitting around the living room, drinking the recently purchased beverages and watching movies.

Five Guys...Again

I went back to Five Guys. I pretty much had to after all these guys told me I got the sissy burger. Friday was the perfect day too- absolutely everything that could go wrong did and by the time I drove off campus, the only thing that would calm me down was a burger. A double.

And here it is. The double. Double doozy. With cheese. And ketchup, pickles, and grilled onions. It is the onions which explains why it was glistening. It was a good glisten. A tasty glisten.

No joke, I killed that burger in three minutes. I took some breaks here and there to not look like a slob, but I inhaled that thing.

These potatoes were from Idaho. They came right out of the fryer, and I happily ate them with malt vinegar. I see where you vinegar on fries lovers are coming from... it was pretty good. I really didn't need to order a large, but since I ordered the double doozy, I figured I'd go all the way. I ended up eating about half of the cup and bringing the rest home. They aren't bad reheated, btw.

Not that it's much to get excited over, but I love the fry spillage. It's a nice surprise.

Not feeling the greasy bag look though.

And AJ, I didn't touch the peanuts.

When Only A Burger Will Do

A burger and good company.

Sliders

I was finishing up my assignments for the day when one of the gentlemen in the room asked what I was doing when I left.

"I'm going to White Castle."

"Of all the places you can eat... you want White Castle?"

"What can I say? It's that time of year."

I always regret my decision afterward, but that was one great lunch. And of course, as I type about WC, I get the WC burps.

The Fireplace Restaurant (Paramus, NJ)

If you ever find yourself in Northern Jersey, head on over to the Fireplace in Paramus. I tend to get the burgers and fries, but they also offer pizza, fried chicken, soups, and other sandwiches. Their pickles are made in house, and you can have as many as you want.

Take a look at their website here.

You Call That A Side?! Stateline Diner (Mahwah, NJ)

After bowling on Saturday M and I met up with A at the Stateline Diner on Route 17 in Mahwah, NJ. I ordered a Black and Bleu burger deluxe platter, M had a breakfast platter, and A ordered two eggs scrambled with a side of feta.

Look at that feta... it's bigger than her order of eggs! I took a few more comparison photos, and we discovered her side of feta was the same size as my burger, and M's rye toast.

My burger was excellent, but the fries were obviously old and had that chock full of grease look to them. It also came with coleslaw and two pickles, but M ate them before I could get a bite.

 

 

There was so much feta cheese and my friend ended up taking the rest home. It was pretty cheap too, I think it set her back a couple of dollars.