Sunday Snack - Hot Dogs

Alright so there's nothing healthy about a hot dog but for the time being I didn't have any gourmet or nitrate free hot dogs, there wasn't a ton of money until pay day, and I was really hungry!

Doing a search about if a diabetic is allowed to have a hot dog or not can feel confusing. Important matters when it comes to eating hot dogs:

The fact that what you just ate can turn into sugars that will spike your insulin
Can you eat the bun?
What condiments are okay?

You may be able to avoid your body metabolizing your hot dog or hot dogs as sugar by checking your levels first. I didn't have anything to do this but keep very, very, very, close eye on what I was eating throughout the day.

A hot dog cooked on a grill or a grill pan is preferable over one that's been cooked in a pan (like mine was) because of the extra oils you're now just adding on.

When it comes to hot dog buns, basically the answer is no. If you're going to eat just one like so many people urge then it seems eating half of the bun is permissible. There was no way I was going to eat only one hot dog.

You should generally steer clear of ketchup because it contains high fructose corn syrup, which will of course leave you with an insulin problem. Mayonnaise is another sugary danger to you. If you really feel you really must have ketchup or mayo - go very, very light on it! 

Mustard is a great condiment to use and you can load up on veggies that haven't been sauteed. Grilled veggies would be okay but you need to steer clear of the oils that in the end would rob your veggies of extra vitamins you need anyway.

The relish you see here was made by me, not pre-packaged.

How to solve the bun issue? I peeled leaves of red cabbage off and did my best to keep them as whole as possible and used those as a bun.

How was it? Not the same as if I were allowed to eat a bun but still pretty good.

Pintesting In The Kitchen - Caramelized Onion & Mushroom Brie Grilled Cheese

Sometimes you come across a pin you need to make ASAP. That's how I felt when I saw this picture attached to this pin.

Oooooooooooh cheese-its yes!!! Just looking at this picture makes me want to make another.

The original recipe (which I strayed ever so slightly from) can be found here.

This bread screamed badass sammich so I had to have it.

The pieces of bread aren't quite nearly as frighteningly massive as they appear. This is actually 4 pieces of bread.

Thankfully grocery day was only a few days away and that evening I scurried into the kitchen to get to work. I assembled the majority of the necessary ingredients.

Thinly sliced my beautiful sweet yellow onion.

Seriously buttered up my large pan and added the onions and then dusted them with garlic powder.

Once the onions began to nearly get caramalized, I added my mushrooms as well as some more butter.

Things were coming together beautifully. Once the onions and mushrooms were reaching the point that the onions were finished caramelizing and the mushrooms were nearly tender I added beef stock. It's really up to you how much you add. Then I dusted it with some flour and mixed everything together to form a bit of a gravy.

Meanwhile I set to work prepping my bread in a way similar to how I had to when I worked at a small gourmet sandwich shop.

Cut your bread using a serrated blade.

Butter what would typically be considered the inside of your sandwich and then dust it with a little garlic powder (the garlic powder is all me, the place I worked just put the bread together this way to make their panninis.)

Fire up your George Forman grill or pannini press - whichever you may have. Place one slice butter side down onto the grill and build your sandwich from there. When you've finished putting all you desire to be the inside of your sandwich onto that slice of bread, place the last slice of bread butter side up on top.

In the case of this particular sandwich my first layer was onion, followed by mushroom, followed by brie.

Then cook inside your press until it's reached the point you consider done. Remove it from the press. Place it on a plate and enjoy!

How was the sandwich? Needed a little salt. But otherwise pretty darn tasty and it went fast.