Food Challenge Style Dishes

This catergory is inspired by my recent trip to Las Vegas, where I participated in 2 food challenges (think Man vs. Food style; I’m no professional eater). I won the first one and became a certified weenie at the other one. Each recipe in this catergory shall be a low-carb version of a food challenge anyone has seen or participated in. There are no real rules for finishing these dishes because each one is different. And you can also use these recipes for a potluck gathering or large get-together or shrink them down smaller if you insist (but that’s not as challenging, is it?). The main thing is to have fun (and if you feel like you’re going to throw up, that means you’re probably done trying the challenge and you should save or share any leftovers).

Sorry, don’t know Man vs. Food. The idea is to eat as much as you can as fast as you can?

This challenge is inspired by the 6 pound, 24-inch B3 burrito that I couldn’t finish (I was declared a certified weenie and got a pink weenie shirt since I could only eat about half of it). I attempted this challenge at the Sahara Hotel’s Nascar Cafe in Las Vegas soon before they were scheduled to shut down. Here’s what their burrito looked like:







B3 Burrito

6 large faux burritos (recipe follows)

1/2 pound precooked refried soybeans (my recipe for that is in the Mexican food section)

1/2 pound freshly grated cauliflower, steamed (aka faux rice)

1/2 pound fresh jalapenos, sliced (try to put some red ones in if you can find them)

about 3-4 pounds ground or shredded precooked meat of any sort

3-4 packets taco seasoning for meat, or other suitable seasoning

1 can enchilada sauce

1 recipe nacho cheese sauce (see mexican section, under my nacho recipe)

sour cream

1 can olives, sliced

fresh diced tomatoes and sliced green onions for the top

guacomole
some grated cheese for garnish

Place 6 tortillas together on a large platter in a 3x2 pattern so that they measure as big as possible with about 1/2 inch or 1 inch overlap or so. The inside is filled with refried beans, faux rice, jalapenos, and seasoned meat, so spread those ingredients to form a length of 24" on the inside of the burritos and pile it up from there. Fold the burrito and carefully move it so that the seam side is down (you may need some help). Spoon the enchilada sauce, Nacho cheese, olives, tomatoes, green onions and big globs of the sour cream and guacomole on top until it looks like the photo. Try finishing it in one sitting by yourself. If you succeed, let me know…



Mandarin Pancakes (aka faux tortillas)

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp low carb flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup boiling water

2 tbsp cold water

some cooking oil for brushing

Stir together 1 1/2 cups flour and salt. Pour 1/2 cup boiling water slowly into flour, stirring constantly with a fork. Stir till well blended. Stir in 3 tbsp cold water. When cool enough to handle, knead in the rest of the flour till smooth and elastic (8-10 minutes). Shape dough into a ball, put it back into bowl, and cover with a damp towel. Let stand for 15-20 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and divide into 6 equal portions. Flatten each piece of dough with the palm of your hand, then roll each piece into a circle. Brush the entire surface of one side of each pancake with the cooking oil. In a heavy ungreased skillet or griddle, cook the pancakes, a few at a time, over medium heat 20-30 seconds per side or until bubbles appear on surface of pancake. Quickly remove from pan. Makes 6 pancakes that should work well for the B3 burrito (hopefully).

Basically, yes!

What low carb flour do you use? Just curious, how many carbs in the grande burrito? No way I could eat 6 lbs of food, or 3 lbs. I’d get the weenie award for sure:)

You may use whatever low-carb flour that you normally use for this. Some recommended low carb flours include soybean, almond, and coconut flour. They all have different total carbs and net carbs amounts in them, so use whatever causes your BG to spike the least if you know what does that. (YMMV). Another thing you could use to wrap it up in would be the seaweed wraps used to wrap sushi in, although it would taste different. (I forget what kind of seaweed it is, but carbs are negligible in any seaweed). The only carbs in this burrito are from the cauliflower, refried soybeans, other veggies, cheese, milk for the nacho cheese sauce, and whatever flour you use if you make the faux tortillas. If you send me a personal message to my page that entails how much burrito you wish to make and the exact ingredients you’d like to use to make it, I can calculate your total and net carbs for you.

Thanks. I was wondering what flours you used because different ones & combos of flours give different results. I’ve tried making tortillas with low carb flour substitutes they haven’t turned out well. Either they were too heavy, too dry, the taste was off, or they weren’t flexible enough & tore. Hard with flours that don’t have gluten for elasticity. So, interested what you used that was successful. The only carbs are all the ingredients except for the meat:) I’ve made my own enchilada sauce to cut down carbs & I don’t use much since tomatoes have a lot of carbs.

Nori is the seaweed that comes in sheets.

Figured since it was a low carb food challenge, the carbs for a 6 lb. challenge might have listed it for the participants. Just curious.






(go to http://www.cheeseburgerland.com, click on the Hawaiian lady, then on Menus, then on Las Vegas and scroll down to see their picture of this challenge since I couldn’t copy their photo of it).



This recipe is based on the challenge I won at Cheeseburger Las Vegas, which is described below in their words that were used in the restaurant menu (not the online menu):



GARBAGE CHEESEBURGER™ aka The Baddest Cheeseburger On The Planet!

TwoBurgerPattiesSwissColby/JackCheeseThousandIslandSauteedOnionsKaluaPorkFriedEgg

GuacamoleBaconSauteedMushroomsJalapenosLettuceTomato,Surrounded ByABigPileOfChiliFries. Medic Available on Request! Finish it and we’ll give you a free shirt!

Turns out you CAN have it all!



It actually is much easier to finish in one sitting than the Nascar challenge, so here’s my interpretation of what it should have to make it low-carb (which is a lot better for BG levels than what I devoured).



Low-carb Garbage Cheeseburger

2 of Debra’s low carb Burger buns (look in bread section for that recipe)

1 pound ground beef or turkey, divided in half and shaped into 2 patties

1/2 cup’s worth of: Precooked pork, shredded with two forks and seasoned as desired

1 egg, cooked overeasy with yolk hard

1 recipe of eggplant chili cheese fries (see side dishes section for my recipe)

mixture of swiss, colby and monterey jack cheese

some sauteed mushrooms and onions

a handful of canned jalapeno peppers

1 lettuce leaf

1 tomato slice

low-carb mayo, ketchup and minced sugar-free dill pickles mixed with desired amount of sweetener until it tastes like thousand island dressing (see condiments section for low-carb ketchup and low-carb mayo recipes)

guacomole

1 or 2 slices of bacon, cooked crispy and broken into pieces to fit the patties

Cook the burger patties as desired with cheese. Assemble all ingredients as desired on a deep dinner plate (the one they used was kinda like a cross between a bowl and a plate), or make it look like the photo on their menu. Dig in and enjoy!

Sorry about that. Their challenge wasn’t low-carb at all, so I modified what I ate to have less carbs. They had white flour tortillas, white rice, and refried pinto beans in their burrito. (It was bad for my BG). If you like my simple recipe, you may add eggs to improve texture and elasticity. If you want to try something else, I just found this recipe on www.lowcarb.ca This tortilla recipe may work better for you:



low carb tortilla recipe

By : shelley



1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup wheat gluten flour

1 cup soy protein powder

3 tablespoons lard

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup water



Mix all flours, protein and salt. Cut in lard with pastry cutter. Mix in water 2 tablespoons at a time. Form into a ball,cover and let rest 1/2 hour. form into 16 balls. Roll out between 2 sheets of waxed paper. Fry in nonstick dry skillet until browned on both sides. Store between damp towels until finished frying all dough. Can be frozen in ziplock bags.



Variation; I kneaded in 1 teaspoon garlic powder and 2 teaspoons oregano just before frying.



I also tried breaking into pieces and deep frying. Good with dip.



Plain tortillas 1.7 grams carbs. (a little more with garlic and oregano.)

Thanks, pinky. So sweet of you. Funny because that’s the recipe I used. I found it on lowcarbfriends. Guess these recipes make the rounds. It tasted awful & the texture wasn’t like a tortilla. One cup of water for 2 cups of flour seemed a lot & it was a sticky mess. Tried it again with less water & it was still like paste. I subbed the soy protein powder with whey isolate protein powder because I have thyroid problems & don’t like the taste of soy.

Here’s another tortilla type recipe I just found on the same website as the website I found above. I guess you could sub the soy protein isolate with another low-carb flour or flour substitute if you don’t like soy.

Low-Carb Tortilla/Wrap
By Tamarian Shepherd
This makes an excellent pita/wrap bread with very low carb count.
It also makes a good pizza crust as well.
1 cup soy protein isolate
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tsp whipping cream
1 cup water (Approx, I add water until soft but not runny)
1 Tsp olive oil
2 Eggs
(no salt or sugar needed, since as a thin pita, it’s not dense)
Mix eggs, add cream and oil, add dry mix, add water while mixing until soft mixture with no lumps. I use a hand mixer. Bake at 350 for 10 - 12 minutes. Make sure to spread thinly on a well oiled sheet. This can get very thick. I spread very thinly, but avoid making it transparent. This makes it very flexible as a wrap. This mixture can make about 8-10 pitas, depending on size and thickness.
Total carb: 9 g, or 0.9 g/pita.

I just remembered a few other things you could try to wrap this in or substitute for tortillas. Some thin omelets should be flexible and strong enough. Also could try making this into a bunch of mini wraps by using a bunch of lettuce leaves; you would just spoon a little of the filling into each leaf and roll up and proceed with the toppings when done. You could also try some of Debra’s coconut flour pancakes or you could try shaping her burger bun recipe into tortillas. Another thing you could do would be to just make a bunch more faux rice and spoon it evenly around the filling before topping it. Or just forget tortillas if nothing I suggested sounds right to you. Just make sure it weighs at least 6 pounds before you attempt eating this as a challenge, good luck, and have fun!

Thanks, pinky. I won’t be eating anything that weighs 6 lbs:)

I found this challenge described on the website www.ibetyouwont.com. Below follows a suggested recipe for how to attempt this at home.







This 5 pound monster is sure to satisfy your bacon needs for the next 5 years. So if you’re in Chicago and looking for a great place to get some beer and bacon make sure you hit up Paddy Long’s. And if you’re feeling deprived of bacon, make sure you give the Bacon Bomb Challenge a try!



Where: Paddy Long’s

1028 W. Diversey

Chicago, IL

773.290.6988 | http://www.paddylongs.com



Challenge: The Bacon Bomb consists of 5 pounds of ground sausage, pork and beef mixed with spices and wrapped in a weave of brown sugar bacon, and then slow cooked on their pig roaster… along with a huge side of fries.

Time Limit: 45 Minutes

People: 1

Prize: If completed you get a free T-shirt, a spot on the wall of fame and your Bacon Bomb is FREE! ($50 value).

Rules: None mentioned but make sure to ask your server before attempting this challenge



Ok, here’s a recipe based on the above description:

Low-Carb Bacon Bomb

1.5 pounds ground beef

1.5 pounds sausage

1.5 pounds ground pork

1/2 pound regular bacon

your choice of herbs and spices (examples: italian seasoning, taco seasoning, chili seasoning, etc…)

some of your favorite sugar substitute

a bunch of eggplant fries or other low-carb fries

Coat the bacon with enough sweetener on both sides. Mix the ground meat with desired seasonings. Wrap up the ground meat in the bacon, then bake at the lowest possible heat for 12 hours or overnight. (You may wish to put foil around this to keep it juicy). Coat with some low-carb bbq sauce if desired. Serve with your veggie fries.