Friday Meatspiration (or Cheesespiration, Maybe)

I just had my first piece of pizza without the crust in a loooooong time.

I remember when Tracey and I first read the Atkins book several years ago and were so convinced that every stick of sugar-free gum and every can of Diet Coke was going to throw us off the weightloss train; we'd stress about the tiniest carb intake. My company would order pizza every Friday, and I'd only eat the white pizza because I thought the tomato sauce had too much sugar. But the white pizza had fresh mozzarella, which I figured wasn't hard enough to count as one of the acceptable cheeses on Atkins. Fridays felt like a field of land mines to me.

Then, when I got interested in the Belly Fat Cure last year, I started allowing myself a whole slice of pizza if I ate one without the crust first. Those initial toppings would seem so dumb to me when all I wanted was to get at that second slice with the crust still intact. The problem was that once I gave myself the freedom to eat some crust, I'd end up going back for the leftovers with my co-workers a few hours later and have another whole slice. And sometimes two. I'm not good with an un-strict diet.

Now, I'm trying to eat according to the primal blueprint with some protein shakes added in for convenience, so I made myself eat a salad for lunch today with the promise of a crustless slice for a snack later, and boy, did it taste great.

Maybe treating diet-appropriate foods as if they were treats is the way to go.

Friday Meatspiration

A little Thanksgiving meatspiration this week:

Even though this photo comes from Worth1000, a sharing forum for creative uses of Photoshop, we can all dream of Thanksgiving turkeys that actually come in this size.

Friday Meatspiration

For Halloween, this year, it's SCARY MEAT HEADS all around.Craft bloggers and food bloggers alike are showing their excitement about the opportunity to sculpt cold cuts around a plastic skull and fashion eyeballs out of eggs, onions, & olives.

I'm not quite sure how you're supposed to eat one of these things. Let your party guests pick off the slices to put on their sandwiches until they clean him off and hit the red-jell-o-y, cream-cheesy skull?

Friday Meatspiration

Super Meat Boy:



Available now for Xbox download and coming to WiiWare, Windows, and Mac in November.

Friday Meatspiration

Meat Puppets:

Feeling inspired?

Friday Meatspiration

The Mona Lisa, rendered in Italian sausage:

Not quite as timeless as the original, but bigger and tastier.

Friday Meatspiration

For the executive looking to stand out in a crowd and provide a low-carb snack to potential clients, there's nothing quite like beef jerky business cards laser-etched with your name, title, and contact info.

These are, in fact, a real thing. Get 'em at www.meatcards.com.

Friday Meatspiration

Yeah, yeah. So Lady Gaga wore a dress made of meat to last weekend's MTV Video Music Awards, prompting Jimmy Kimmel to claim, "This Atkins Diet is getting out of control!"



But despite all the attention she got for it, Lady Gaga is certainly not the first one to think of turning raw meat into fashion.

Remember Cycle 10 of America'a Next Top Model?



That's right, Gaga. Tyra beat you to it. Meatwear is soooo 2008.

Friday Meatspiration

I'm no trekkie, but this sausage/pepperoni/salami Starship Enterprise makes me want to live long and prosper.

(Via Foodbeast)

Friday Meatspiration

Haute hot dogs with unusual toppings have been trendy here in NYC for a couple of years now, and I've approved of every last concoction.

A schmear of cream cheese and everything bagel seeds? Totally. Pineapple? Okay, sure. Avocado? If you say so.

But Bachelor Girl sent us a link last week to this hot dog balloon featured on Craft Gossip, and it's really testing the limits of what I consider appropriate hot dog condiment:



At first, I thought it was a heart-shaped hot dog with a ketchup kite string and a mustard middle. Even though I've never seen the sugar-free ketchup that the rest of the U.S. is apparently enjoying here in NYC, I figured a packet of regular ketchup here and there is no problem.

But then I realized that the yellow filling is egg. Am I being a baby, or is that objectively weird?

Friday Meatspiration

A man and a woman had a little baby; yes, they did.



They had three-ee-ee in the family . . .



That's a magic number.

Friday Meatspiration

Turbaconducken (Turducken wrapped entirely in bacon):

Friday Meatspiration

Meat Tea Cup:




Hommage a Meret Oppenheim, Betty Hirst

Friday Meatspiration

American Meat Institute, 1947:



(Via Plan59 Prints)

Friday Meatspiration

Crown of Beef:



(Via FOODBEAST)