ArcaMax

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

More than one thing flows green on St. Patrick’s Day.

My favorite thing that flows green is the Chicago River. Just about every year we go watch the dyeing of the river ceremony. This year I think I perfected our participation.

About 500,000 people attend the dyeing of the river and the parade afterwards. It gets pretty crowded as the people line up on both sides of the river and across the bridges. Sometimes the viewing is six people deep. Pretty challenging to see what’s going on below as the plumbers cruise the river in their boats pouring a vegetable dye in the water that goes from orange to an electric green in seconds.

Here’s how I perfected our viewing experience.

I drive into the city center on a street called Kinzie. This street runs parallel to the river and is not used by tourists coming into the city, so it moves pretty fast. Kinzie Street dead ends under the Trump Tower. You drive under this massive 96 story building and take a right into one of their parking lots. Just drive up a couple of levels and park. This lot is never full in my experience, and this year it was just about wide open. Get out of the car, walk about 50 feet to the door, open it, and you’re smack dab on the river, raised above the river walk on a viewing platform. It was like being the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace. We practically had a private terrace raised above the river from where to view the dyeing operation and the throngs of people dressed sometimes head to foot in Kelly green. We were eventually joined by 4 other people but we could not have had a more clear view. The day was about 35 degrees, sunny and clear. We watched the dyeing for about 40 minutes and set off to shop on Michigan Avenue. Perfect.

The other thing that traditionally flows green for St. Patrick’s Day is beer. I was observing the colorful get ups that people were wearing on Saturday morning but I was also observing what they were carrying in their hands. Most of them had coffee. It was a subdued crowd. Well behaved.

But as the weekend progresses and as the crescendo arrives today, the green beer will be flowing out of taps all over the city.

Most of the green beer is cheap beer. But that brings up the question of what beers are best.

I must disqualify myself at this point. I am by no means a beer expert. I am not even a beer aficionado. I hate beer. I have had no more beers than I can count on one hand in my entire life so I have to rely on others for beer tasting experience and expertise.

The interesting part of the topic for me is the subject of low carb beers. To put the carb count in perspective, the average adult male can probably handle about 80 to 90 grams of carbohydrate in their system per day before they’d begin to gain weight. That includes everything you put in your mouth that has carbs in it. Even fruits have carbs. Plenty of them. Veggies too. So it depends on what you eat and drink when you add up how quickly you’ll hit 80 to 90 grams or even more.

So it might behoove someone to check the carb list and figure out a strategy for their beer drinking.

With the growth of low carb eating and diets like Atkins and Paleo, the beer companies have gotten a hint and are designing more low carb beers. It used to be there were just a handful.

Put out this year by Livestrong.com, is a listing of the best low carb and low calorie beers put out by major brewers. You can see the list is growing.

Michelob

Michelob Ultra was the first marketed low-carb beer. The original Ultra has 2.6g carbs and 96 calories and the Amber Ultra has 3.2g carbs. You can also get a variety of Ultra flavors, however, these beers are higher in carbohydrates because they have more sugar.

MillerCoors Brewing

The best options from MillerCoors are Miller Lite, MGD 64, Coors Light, and Keystone Light. Miller Lite is 110 calories and 7g carbohydrates per 12 oz. serving. For lower numbers, MGD 64 has only 64 calories and 2.4g carbohydrates. Coors Light is 102 calories and 5.3g carbohydrates and per 12 oz. serving, while Keystone Light is 103 calories and 5 g carbohydrates.

Anheuser Busch

Budweiser, produced by Anheuser Busch in St. Louis, Missouri, has two products on the market -- Budweiser Select and Budweiser Select 55. Budweiser Select has 99 calories and 3.1g carbohydrates. Although Budweiser Select 55 offers fewer carbs and calories -- 1.9g and 55 calories, you also only get a beer with a 2.4 percent alcohol content. Also by Anheuser Busch is Busch Light with 95 calories and 3.2g carbohydrates.

Imported Beers

If you prefer imported beers, you may want to try Amstel Light or Corona Light. Amstel Light has 5g carbohydrates and 95 calories, 35 percent fewer calories than the regular lager. Corona Light contains 5g carbohydrates.

Now, most beer aficionados that I consulted would say most of these beers taste like watery garbage. But interestingly, one guy who lost a lot of weight on Plan Z, but still wanted to drink his beer, became a fan of Budweiser Select 55. He said he used to be a craft beer drinker but now has decided he’s perfectly satisfied with Budweiser Select 55. My theory is that as his system cleared out during his time on Plan Z and his taste buds became more fine-tuned. People tell me they can taste strawberries better than they ever could before. They taste sweeter now that they’ve done Plan Z. So maybe for this guy what might have been a beer he’d avoid, became a beer he liked. He probably liked it even more because of the low carb count. The mental part counts too.

So now for the beers on the other end of the spectrum.

I always thought Guinness Draft would be the highest carb beer. I had one once. I had it on St. Patrick’s Day too. I thought it tasted like a loaf of melted bread. And it filled me up so much I could hardly eat dinner. Turns out Guinness Draft comes in at 10 grams of carbs per 12 oz. (Not quite a pint). That’s twice-to-three times as much carbohydrate as the ones listed above, but it’s not the worst. And I’m not even sure I found the worst, but here’s a sampling of what I found.

Sierra Nevada Big Food has 32.1 carbs. It also has a very high alcohol content for a beer but be that as it may.

Leinenkugle Berry Weiss has 28 grams. That’s from my home state of Wisconsin. Good beer drinking country.

New Belgium has 25, Sierra Nevada Stout has 22.3, Sam Adams Lager has 18 carbs. There are plenty of beers that fall in the 20 grams category. This is just a short sampling. The beers that the beer aficionados enjoy most will likely all fall in this category and some of the people who drink beers like these end up with a beer belly and others manage to avoid it.

The beers that most likely flow green today include Miller, Miller Lite, Budweiser and Bud Light (at least from my survey of a neighborhood pub). You’ll be able to find plenty of green beer in town tonight but if you prefer to drink brown or golden beers, you’ll find those too.

Celebrate responsibly and count your carbs.

Cheers and bottoms up.

For your recipe today I thought I’d give you a green vegetable to go along with the “wearing of the green theme”. I had a brussel sprout in mind, but instead I’m going to give you a dessert treat so you can celebrate. If you’re dead set on green you can top this off with a green cherry.

Dark Cherry Dream

This is a wonderfully light dessert. It comes together in a flash and can be mostly prepared ahead. Serve this to company and be proud. Or save it for you and your family. You deserve to feel special too.

Serves 6 small portions. Can be doubled easily.

1 can (16 oz) of dark cherries or frozen dark cherries thawed (2 cups)
4 tsp of Truvia, divided
¼ cup of Grand Marnier or Cointreau (orange liqueur) or if you don’t cook with alcohol you can just skip this or put in ½ tsp of orange flavoring
2 cups of full fat (Fage brand will say Total on the label) plain yogurt
1 cup of whipped cream
4 tsp of vanilla, divided

Open the cherries and drain off almost all of the liquid. (You don’t want the sugar from the syrup). Put them in a small bowl. Add two teaspoons of the Truvia and the liqueur and stir. Let set in the refrigerator, covered, for at least 15 minutes. (I did this hours ahead. You can do it earlier in the day and it will be ready when you want to present dessert).

Combine the yogurt with two teaspoons of vanilla and 2 tsp of the Truvia. Mix well and put this in the refrigerator too.

When ready to serve...

Whip the cream with two teaspoons of the vanilla. (If you own an ISI Whipper you can make the whipped cream ahead too and just keep it in the refrigerator til ready to serve. I love my ISI whipped cream maker!)

Combine the yogurt with the whipped cream. Just gently fold together.

Get out pretty little bowls (or in this case I used antique champagne cups. Put a few soaked cherries in the bottom. Maybe four. Then put a dollop of cream/yogurt mixture on top. A few more berries. (Each person gets only maybe seven or eight cherries). Then another dollop. I squirted a bit of whipped cream on top and then topped it off with another cherry. Voila!

Serve immediately.

Note: This dessert can be made while others are clearing the table.

If you are serving to your kids while they watch TV at night this is MUCH better for them than ice cream and just as grand! It’s not enough liqueur to make anyone tipsy but if you don’t want to serve your kids any alcohol just leave it out and maybe put in a bit more Truvia to sweeten the cherries.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola