Paula Deen's Donuts

I was watching Paula Deen on Food Network yesterday and she's taking fat and calories to a whole new level. Her "homemade" donuts consist of cutting holes in Pillsbury Grand biscuits and deep frying them. Then she generously coats each one with glaze and sprinkles.

These rich, buttery biscuits already have about 200 calories and 9 grams of fat per biscuits - that's before being dunked into a bath of boiling peanut oil. Giada DeLaurentis does something similar, but she uses pizza dough, which is much lower in fat and calories.

Of course Paula's donuts looked fabulous, but dang...deep fried biscuits??? The other day, she fried up a bunch of crunchy ramen noodles in a whole stick of butter. Never mind that the noodles are already fried prior to packaging. That's like fat on top of lard on top of grease on top of melted oogles of oil.

But, I still love Paula Deen, and it's fun to watch her make her crazy concoctions. It's kind of a miracle that she isn't bigger than she is, or that her son Bobby manages to stay so fit. More power to 'em, I guess.

Attack of the Killer Muffins

This is what was waiting for me in the kitchen when I got to the office this morning. We have a ritual of buying donuts/bagels/other sweet & fatty treats for breakfast on Fridays. It's a really nice gesture but after checking the nutritional info, I think I better stick to my super high fiber grain cereal or an Omega-3 egg. Yeah, that's like having a tempeh patty when you really want a porterhouse, but I guess it's all about balance (remember the BLT I had yesterday?). So I passed on these today.

Muffin: "Eat me!" Pastry: "No, eat ME! I have more butter!"

Just to make it easier on myself (because these treats will be sitting on the counter for the rest of the day, calling out to me to just have a bite), I looked up the calories. The data was enough to send me running for the broccoli and cayenne-maple-water-cleanse hills, let me tell you.

Chocolate muffin: 700 calories; 36 grams of fat (7 sat. fat); 50 grams sugar

Apple danish: 600 calories; 32 grams of fat (14 sat. fat); 44 grams sugar

Blueberry muffin: 680 calories; 38 grams of fat (7 sat. fat); 44 grams sugar

Banana muffin: 740 calories; 38 grams of fat (5 sat. fat); 54 grams sugar

Blueberry danish: 600 calories; 32 grams of fat (14 sat fat); 42 grams sugar

Thanks, but no.