FINDING GOOD JUNK FOOD

Let's be real. Most of us want to be healthy but we also want to eat some good old fashion junk occasionally right?

My "thing" is often a Burger and Fries. I love it! The problem is there are just too many Smartpoints in them (perhaps because it isn't actually healthy...just perhaps) . A whopper at Burger King (no cheese) for instance is 22 Smartpoints, and a small Fries adds on another 7. If you add only 1 tablespoon of ketchup to the fries, that is many people's entire food budget for the day gone in one sitting.

I still WANT the Burger and Fries sometimes though, and yesterday was one of those times.

I decided to see how Smartpoint friendly I could make it and wow did I learn something. If you aren't a WW member, the "point" discussion that follows won't mean a lot to you but I still think you will find the information interesting.

Please keep in mind that in my evaluation I am going by the nutrition labels on the actual package in the supermarket (which is the most accurate) and not by the more generic on-line database of Smartpoint values. I was at the Loblaws in Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto.

What I really wanted to do was figure out the best option for my meat. They didn't have ground Turkey, so I looked at Extra Lean Ground Beef and Lean Ground Chicken. The nutrition labels were for 100gr but I knew I would eat more than that so I doubled the amounts and entered the nutrional information into the app on my phone. Both came in at 8 Smartpoints.

Since there was no difference I thought: "I'm going for the beef!" :-)

It was then that I saw it...out of the corner of my eye I saw ground "something" in a green package. It was calling my name.

I looked at the package and it said the words: "Extra Lean High In Protein Meat". What was it? Ostrich!




I wasn't sure if I had ever had Ostrich before but it intrigued me enough to turn the package over to look at the nutrition label and I was truly shocked:



If you can't read it is says that in a 4oz serving (112gr) there are 110 calories, .2gr of Saturated Fat, 0 Sugar and 27g of protein! I checked out the company, Natural Frontier's, website and they say their products have no antibiotics, added hormones, or steroids. They also say: "All of our semi-wild species are given plenty of room to roam freely so that they can thrive and maintain overall herd health and quality."

After getting it home, weighing the actual meat (there were 280gr in the package ) and entering the adjusted figures for a 140gr burger (so we could have one burger each) it came out at 1 Smartpoint for a burger. That is right...I said 1 Smartpoint!!!! It also had 34gr of Protien per burger!

If you go to the online database it will tell you 5oz of Ostrich meat is 3 Smartpoints (still good), but this specific package is extra lean ostrich meat.

Now the packaging says it is "juicy" but I know enough about meat to know that if there isn't much fat there isn't much juice, so I employed a trick a WW member taught me once, and that is to put chopped celery inside the meat of the burger before making it. The celery releases water which helps keep it moist. I actually put celery, onion, garlic, and pepper in the meat.

I cooked the Burger on the BBQ so I didn't have to cook in oil, used my Actifry for the fries so there was only 1 Tbsp of oil (tracked as 1/2 Tbsp each), and ended up with a Burger and Fries calculated as follows:

Ostrich Meat: 1 Smartpoint
Bun: 4 Smartpoints
1/2 Tbsp of oil: 2 Smartpoints
Potato (I actually weighted it); 5 Smartpoints
Celery, Onion, Garlic, Pepper, Cucumber, Watercress, Tomato, Mustard: 0 Smartpoints

So the Burger and Fries came in at 12 Smartpoints! Awesome.

I'm not going to lie, I added a few extra toppings as follows, but they are choices you don't necessarily need to make:

Cheese: 3 Smartpoints
Ketchup: 2 Tbsp (for fries): 2 Smartpoints



It was really good. I wouldn't say it was "dry" but I would have liked it a little moister. I think I will put mushrooms inside the meat before cooking next time. That will hopefully add some more moisture.

This is my new "go to" for Burger and Fries night.

There is a little catch. The Ostrich isn't cheap. It was $12.49 Cdn for 10 oz of meat. My first thought was: That's crazy! My more rational afterthought was: That works out to $6.25 a burger. I would easily pay that for a burger at a fast food restaurant. Why wouldn't I value myself enough to pay that here and be healthier?

So good, friendly, junk can be found. You just have to look! :-)

Alan