Saturday, March 19, 2011

Chicago Dogs

During my two-year stint in Chicago, IL I learned to truly LOVE two specific new foods: White Castle chicken rings and Chicago style hot dogs.  Nothing at White Castle is healthy or belongs on a new and improved diet plan, but I was pleasantly surprised to find Chicago Style hot dogs in Cook This, Not That! Easy & Awesome 350-Calorie Meals.  There have been certain things that I had prepared myself to say goodbye to, forever: Nielson's Frozen Custard, Blizzards from Dairy Queen, mom's chocolate cheesecake, Sliders, and hot dogs.  Even though I modified the traditional Chicago style dog a little bit while living in Chicago, the ones we made last night for supper were like heaven on a bun to me.

I used to prefer my dogs with a little bit of mayo, mustard, onion, tomato, pickle/cucumber, sauerkraut, celery salt, and sport peppers.  Aside from the absence of mayo (and because I can't stand sweet relish anyway) these dogs were almost identical to my ideal dog.  We didn't have sport peppers but I sprinkled some Frank's on mine to add the missing kick.  One thing was lacking; somehow dogs always taste better when they come from those little sidewalk carts with the umbrellas over them that you find all over the place in downtown Chicago.  I've never found a dog anywhere that tastes quite as good as those dogs do but hey, other than that these were pretty awesome good, especially for only 250 calories per dog (I figure adding sauerkraut and leaving off the relish equal each other out).



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee /wcreamer
1 leftover Chicago dog
1 foot long chicken sub
>>the usual
-------------------------------
Daily Caloric Intake: 907



Activity:
Walking: 7 miles (14,121 steps)

3 comments:

  1. wow, your daily caloric intake looks like a really small #! you must be losing at a rapid pace! do you feel hungry at all at the end of the day? also, do you feel energized while working out? (i ask because i'm genuinely curious--i tend to feel really hungry even when i stick to 1200 calories).

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have been CRAVING a Blizzard for weeks now! Haven't given in but I really want too.....Don't say good-bye to Blizzards forever!!!! They have the new mini size! I know what you mean though! Sometimes a small just leads to eating a large....
    Glad you are finding substitutes, they definately help keep on track, especially if you don't feal deprived and the scale is still moving.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Struggling: Believe it or not, my daily caloric intake GOAL is 1,500 calories but several months ago I started finding that by changing my food choices that it's actually a lot harder for me to eat that many. I don't feel hungry at the end of the day. In fact I don't "go hungry" during the day either. I eat when I'm hungry, I stop when I'm not and it seems like I just always seem to come up low. Fiber One bars, for example, are surprisingly filling for only 140 calories. That with coffee totals only 177 calories and keeps me completely satisfied until well after noon when I go to lunch. By the time I take my lunch break I am usually hungry but not starving. My lunches average around 200-400 calories and, usually when I eat supper I'm not even actually hungry but Snack Monkey is so I cook it and eat it anyway. Suppers are around 300-500 calories, we eat early (around 5:00 pm) and I'm good for the rest of the evening. I usually work out around 7:30 and although I don't always have the motivation to be excited about it, I feel like I have plenty of energy for it. That leaves me room for the occasional dessert (like those banana nutella crepes we make a few days ago) which brings up my count but I consider those calories more like indulgences than nourishment. It's funny but the food choices we make can make all the difference in how much we eat and how satisfied we feel. When I first started this journey it was really hard because I was picking dinners that were 1,000 and spending the whole morning and early part of the day trying to compensate by practically starving myself. Three squares a day, 300-400 calories per meal and it suddenly gets a whole lot easier.


    Cupcake: If I were to have one or the other I think I'd take a Neilson's over a Blizzard. For one thing a large Nielson's is about the same price as a mini-blizzard and they taste soooo much better. I wish the rest of the world knew the joy of Nielson's frozen custard. Seriously, you can't understand until you try it. :)

    ReplyDelete