ArcaMax

It’s funny how trends change.

In the 1950s, you could not watch a movie without seeing just about every character in it smoking a cigarette. In the 1960s, most sales were done over a three-martini lunch. Very few now. That’s pretty much frowned upon.

Most trend changes like these are precipitated by a group of adults who decide something is “bad” and decide to change it. But for the long run, for the change to stick, you have to get it in the heads of kids.

Case in point:

In my own family there are a couple of stories. I recall my brother and sister-in-law telling us one night about how their kids came home from school to announce smoking was “bad.” Their parents didn’t smoke (well, at least not by then anyway), but others in the family did. My parents both smoked for decades until my mother got mouth cancer and my father came down with emphysema. They quit immediately. All of us around them benefited from their quitting the “bad” behavior of smoking. Now, you rarely see any character smoke in a movie. If you do, it’s usually the “bad guy.”

A couple of years pass. The same kids are a bit older. They come home this time and announce to their parents that drinking alcohol is “bad.” Hm. They must have gotten another lesson in school. So how did my brother and his wife handle this one? They quit drinking around the kids. They might have a cocktail after the youngsters were in bed but they went years like this; until the kids were older and understood that there is a version of drinking that can be done responsibly. Even the beer companies now use “drink responsibly” in their advertising. And TV commercials selling booze are gone.

I’m trying to start a new trend (along with several medical professionals). I want to make sugar the next “bad” thing. I’d like to see the kids of this generation come home and tell their parents that sugar is bad. How do we do it? With video productions like this one. I’d love it if you would watch the 4 minute video (below). Then think about how you can pass it along...

Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com

Barbecue Burgers, Zola Style

There’s no way to use a commercial sauce for barbecued meats. They ALL have copious amounts of sugar in them. I know. I checked every bottle in the store, so I set about to come up with a rub and a sugarless barbecue sauce for Plan Z.

There are three stages to making burgers this way. The Rub. The Burger. The Sauce. If you are not a major cook don’t worry. This looks harder than it is. Stick with this and you’ll love your burgers.

Servings: 3 burger patties (1/3 pound each)

Ingredients:

For The Rub

½ tsp of smoked paprika
1 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of Truvia
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of celery salt
1 tsp of dry mustard

For the Barbecue Sauce

1 small onion, minced
1 clove of garlic minced (you can use jar garlic)
1 tsp of liquid smoke
6 oz of tomato paste
1 cup of white wine or low carb beer (water is ok, too)
¼ cup of tomato sauce
1 Tbl cider vinegar (or a bit more of you like your sauce to have a vinegar bite)
3 Tbl of dry mustard
2 pinches of pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tsp of Truvia (stevia)
hot sauce to taste

For the Burgers

1 pound of ground sirloin
olive oil spray

Instructions For the Rub:

Mix all of the rub ingredients together in a bowl. If you want you can make double and it will keep in your cupboard in a sealed container.

Instructions for the Barbecue Sauce:

Put the onions in a sauce pan. Heat on medium until the onions wilt. Then add the garlic. Stir to heat. Add the other ingredients and cook on medium for 15 to 20 minutes to blend the flavors.

Instructions to prepare the Burgers:

Get your charcoals going so they’re nice and hot. If you use a gas grill, you’ll want to get your grill heated up a bit before cooking up your burger patties. If you’re using a grill pan indoors, spray it with a little bit of olive oil spray and heat the pan on medium high.

Spread the rub on both sides of your patties. You can let the rub soak into the patties or grill them right away.

Grill your patties for about six to eight minutes per side, depending on how well you like your burger cooked. You want to get a nice crust on each side to seal in the juices (the rub will help form this crust better on a charcoal or gas grill).

Brush a couple of tablespoons of the Barbecue sauce on the burgers just a few (two to three) minutes before you’re ready to pull them off of the grill.

Check the flavor and make personal adjustments as you please. Some people like spicier burgers so you can add a dash of Tabasco sauce to spice it up a bit.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola