I just found out I’m one of the cooking shows featured on OnlineCooking.net. I think it’s so great that there are so many sites out there devoted to cooking and video recipes! I know I’m not a professional chef so for people to like my videos enough to post them on their site is such an honor for me! Anyways, check out the nice folks at OnlineCooking.net!

I am excited to announce the Eating Low forum will be up soon! I have wanted to make one for some time but forums make me nervous! It’s just more web techie stuff to worry about! But, I love forums so I asked a friend who runs the forums for several well-known bands what she recommended. She gave me advice and my forum should be up soon! I will post when it’s up and running but I just wanted to let you guys know, it’s in the works! I’m all excited!

This is the response I got from EAS Canada when I asked them about the EAS Advantage Carb Control Shakes:

Amy,
Thank you for your inquiry and interest in EAS products. Unfortunately, the AdvantEdge ready-to-drink shakes are no longer available. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards

I hope this is only a Canadian thing because I live on these shakes! They are still in my grocery store. Hmmm, I’m going to have to look into this further!

I got a blog post earlier tonight from a girl who called herself Broken & Fat. I hope she doesn’t mind me reposting it here but I thought it deserved its own post. She said:

Hi amy. You dont no me I dont no you but I here at a point in my life where i need desperate help. I am 375 pounds. I found your website when I couldnt afford the cost of the kimkins diet, because I come from a family where my mom is on a fixed income. although as much as i would love to buy your cookbook, i cant. i am resorting to your recipes, or at least trying to. I am at the local libary writing this email to you because the above reasons. I dont no what to do. I dont no what to eat but this is putting me to tears. I guess I am asking for your help. What to do?What to eat? What to cook? That isnt to expensive. Thank you for your website and your posts. I enjoy them alot.

I gave her some advice in the comments and then of course all you wonderful guys even offered to pitch in and buy an ebook for her! Well, you guys don’t have to do that - it’s worth it to me to give away a book to give her a chance at getting healthy! She contacted me by email and after a few tries we got the ebook to go thru email to her so she is now printing out the ebook from the library! I told her to keep in touch and that I will check up on her progress. I won’t post her real name so instead of calling her “Broken,” let’s call her “Hope” from now on! Feel free to post any encouraging words for her here. She was really touched that you all pitched in with comments for her.

I started investigating what it would take to ship shakes to Canada and I’m finding out why many online stores don’t appear to ship to Canada! Canada has some of the strictest laws on what can be brought into the country. Also, shipping liquids doesn’t appear to be allowed (unless it’s ground transport). I talked to a friend who does shipping for work and she was saying that perhaps DHL or someone like that would do it but that it may be very expensive. I’m going to keep looking into it! Of course, I could just ship it like any old package, but I would hate to ship shakes to you guys in Canada and then have them confiscated or something so I’m looking both for companies that will ship to Canada and/or a way to ship shakes to Canada (inexpensively). I’ll keep you all posted on what I find out. There HAS to be a way! I even checked Ebay Canada…they had Myoplex (which is made by the same company as EAS but is more for bodybuilding) but I didn’t use those so I’m not sure how they taste!

Edited to add:
I’ve found this link that contains a list of Canadian online low carb stores as well as stores in Canada that carry some of the popular low carb products! Don’t go too crazy and stock up on all kinds of low carb chocolates and things like that though! It’s best to keep it real with real foods - but for a few things like the shakes can really make life easier!

http://www.geocities.com/alabastercat/canproducts.html

Someone asked to see pics of all the animals so here they are - all 6 of them!

This is Chiquita. She’s currently on a prescription diet from the vet. Her starting weight was 10 lbs and her goal weight (according to the vet) is 6 lbs. She looooves the cats although she’s very jealous (like most chihuahuas!).

This is Mr. Kitty. He is always in charge. He tries to keep everyone and everything is line! He likes to supervise stuff. When the floor guy came to do an estimate on getting wood floors put in, Mr. Kitty sat in the middle of the room and stared at him like - now what are the plans? How much is this going to cost us? You better do a good job! It really freaked the floor guy out!

This is Squeaker. She is related to Mr. Kitty. Squeaker has a weight problem. She also is an emotional eater (when she’s happy she eats, when she’s sad she eats).

This is Belle. She loves EVERYONE! She is probably the friendliest of the cats and she always tries to get along with everyone else. She is very social and likes when people come over to my house.

This is Nermal. She’s pretty shy. She loves wet food! She tries to steal the dog’s food every now and then.

This is Junior. He is Belle’s sister. He looks like a miniature version of Mr. Kitty. He likes to talk on the phone and show off his nails. He’s kind of a little brat but he’s a very sweet kitty!

I started investigating what it would take to ship shakes to Canada and I’m finding out why many online stores don’t appear to ship to Canada! Canada has some of the strictest laws on what can be brought into the country. Also, shipping liquids doesn’t appear to be allowed (unless it’s ground transport). I talked to a friend who does shipping for work and she was saying that perhaps DHL or someone like that would do it but that it may be very expensive. I’m going to keep looking into it! Of course, I could just ship it like any old package, but I would hate to ship shakes to you guys in Canada and then have them confiscated or something so I’m looking both for companies that will ship to Canada and/or a way to ship shakes to Canada (inexpensively). I’ll keep you all posted on what I find out. There HAS to be a way! I even checked Ebay Canada…they had Myoplex (which is made by the same company as EAS but is more for bodybuilding) but I didn’t use those so I’m not sure how they taste!

Edited to add:
I’ve found this link that contains a list of Canadian online low carb stores as well as stores in Canada that carry some of the popular low carb products! Don’t go too crazy and stock up on all kinds of low carb chocolates and things like that though! It’s best to keep it real with real foods - but for a few things like the shakes can really make life easier!

http://www.geocities.com/alabastercat/canproducts.html

GEORGE B.!!! George’s winning recipe was called Blackberry Chicken Salad. It contained blackberries, diced chicken, crumbled feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, green onion, and mushrooms on a bed of lettuce and spinach. Congrats to George - he wins an Eating Low Apron, a signed copy of the new cookbook, and his recipe will be featured in the cookbook!

Second place goes to Jen K. Her salad contained spinach, bean sprouts, water chestnuts or bamboo shoots (I used bamboo shoots), a hard boiled egg, crumbled turkey bacon, and a dressing made with low carb ketchup, splenda, soy sauce, vinegar, and worchestershire sauce. Jen wins an Eating Low mug. Since it was so close, I’m going to feature her recipe in the cookbook too and I’ll throw in a signed cookbook for her as well!

Picking a winner was soooooo tough for me. It came down to these final two and they were very different from each other. George’s recipe is what I would call a savory salad - the blackberries contrast the saltiness of the feta cheese. The other veggies add interesting texture and colors as well as flavor and the addition of chicken makes this a good main course salad. It’s a simple salad that is easy to make, yet is very complex in flavor. Ultimately, that is what made this the winning salad! George’s recipe actually didn’t list a dressing to use with it so I tasted it both plain and with a few spritzes of Balsamic Wishbone Spritzer. I actually liked the salad even without dressing (which is big for me!).

Jen’s salad was very creative and the dressing made it more of a “sweet” salad. I never would have thought to put hardboiled egg and turkey bacon with bean sprouts and bamboo shoots (I chose those over the water chestnuts because the bamboo shoots were lower carb). Her dressing was also really good! Her salad was also an interesting mix of flavors and textures and colors. So it was very difficult to pick a winner!

I want to thank everyone who entered! All the other entries were great too - these two just stood out a little more! To show my appreciation for your entries, everyone who entered will get a copy of my next cookbook in ebook format!

Again, thanks to everyone! And thanks for being patient while I decided a winner (I’m notoriously bad at making decisions)!

Here’s the link to buy the 4-pack EAS shakes online from Walgreens:

http://www.walgreens.com/store/productlist.jsp?CATID=302641&selectedBrand=304507

I still think they are cheaper at my grocery store.

I am getting loads of traffic this morning! I’m not sure why, but welcome to everyone if this is your first time here! I’ve been working on my site and trying to get it more organized so bear with me! I do this in my spare time so I’m not the most organized person in the world but I’m trying to get there!

I will announce the recipe contest winner tonight. I want to make my two fave recipes tonight so I can taste them before I choose! I promise - tonight there will be a winner!

Oh and I’ve made a myspace page for Eating Low. It’s http://www.myspace.com/eatinglow so feel free to add me if you are on myspace!