Low Carb Comfort Food

Low Carb Comfort Food with Craig Mitchell

Craig Mitchell is an Actor,  Stand-Up Comedian, Writer and Amateur Chef.

On September 8th 2016 Craig felt faint hours after dinner and at the weight of 380 lbs he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He then immediately embraced a healthy lifestyle with the guidelines of limiting his food intake to 1600 calories a day or less and 150 grams of carbs or less. 

Since that day, Craig has lost over 100 lbs and since Feb 5th 2017 has his Type 2 Diabetes COMPLETELY under control via diet ONLY.  He started "Off The Cuff: Healthy Cooking w/ Craig Mitchell" so he could share the methods, food and recipes that have changed his life FOREVER. Not a trained chef, Craig tries to promote delicious, easy to prep and cook meals that ANYONE can master. He has amassed 76 episodes (and counting) and loves to mix low carb healthy food and comedy! 

On stage he has appeared in over 40 productions. As a stand-up comedian, he toured for 15 years (1987–2001) and gained respect as a solid performer on the eastern comedy circuit and just recently has restarted his stand up career. In 1994, he co-founded the successful Long Island based improvisation group "The Comedy Express" (Originally named "The Online Comedy Express") which toured until 2003. In 2001, he moved from Long Island to Los Angeles to further pursue film and television projects.

He most notably portrayed the title character in the award winning 2004 dark comedy short film "The Lazy Assassin" directed by Jennifer Goyette. His most notable television appearances are The Ricki Lake Show, Boston Legal, The Sopranos, Saturday Night Live, Tosh.0 and Jimmy Kimmel Live. In 2008, Craig wrote and appeared in the "Stakeout Trilogy". A series of three short comedy films showcased on YouTube. On Film he has appeared in "Dozers" and in 2018 will be seen in "Give Til it Hurts" as Bob the dim-witted mechanic.

Craig currently resides in Van Nuys, CA  has Cat named Andy and is obsessed with "Air Frying

"Off The Cuff: Healthy Cooking with Craig Mitchell - YouTube

Off the Cuff: Healthy Cooking with Craig Mitchell | Facebook

www.feedingfatty.com

Full Transcript Below

Roy - Feeding Fatty (00:03):

Hello, and welcome to another episode of feeding fatty I'm Roy I'm Terry. So today we have, uh, Craig Mitchell. He's going to be our guest. He is an actor, standup comedian writer, and an amateur chef. Uh, I know that on September, uh, in 2016, uh, Craig, he had felt Fain after dinner and was weighing about 380 pounds at the time he was diagnosed with type two diabetes and then immediately embraced the lifestyle change. And, um, you know, that's what we really wanted to talk to him as some of the things that he's done, I'll let you, uh, I'll let him explain the weight that he's lost, but also he has, um, he has done some, uh, cooking videos on YouTube, uh, YouTube on YouTube.

Unknown (00:56):

And so we were going to get him the.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (01:00):

So, uh, you know, after we get through with this, we'll be sure and have him tell us, uh, how, because I think that's important as everybody walks through this journey. Uh, it's figuring out those little tips and tricks. So, uh, without further ado, Craig, thanks for taking time out of your day and being with us and welcome. Yeah.

Craig (01:19):

Hey, thank you very much. It's it? It's a pleasure. And I want to thank you for naming the podcast after me, but it's, it's all power all about me being fed and you know,

Roy - Feeding Fatty (01:29):

Yeah, no, that was what I thought too. I'm, you know, I'm always going to be, uh, although even if I lose weight, I will always be a, that little fatty inside. So that, that was kind of what

Craig (01:40):

It reminds me of Chris Farley, uh, because his default, he used to say, well, fatty falls down. It was sitting here and that's what he would do. So when you say feeding fatty, I just think of it as far away. I think of comedy and I want to be fed, so it all kind of fits into one.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (01:55):

That's awesome. Well, why don't you start out by telling everybody just a little bit about your story, kind of how much you've lost so far in your journey. Uh, you know, a little bit about how you've gotten there and we'll just, uh, start off with that and have a discussion based around that

Craig (02:11):

Good thing. Well, it started, as you said, it started in September of 2016 and since then I've lost. Oh no, my doctor diagnosed me as the worst case of type two diabetes he ever seen. Wow. I had an A1C of 12. I actually have heard people who have 16, so I don't know how you know that.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (02:33):

Yeah. And what does that translate into, you know, just like the, uh, I know that's pretty high for A1C, but what does that translate to just like taking it on the daily meter?

Craig (02:44):

Well, uh, I was probably for a while averaging in the high two hundreds. Oh wow. Okay. Averaging, you know, as a matter of fact, my right eye here grew an accelerated, um, uh, cataract, uh, because of the increased sugar and that's something I have to get treated eventually. Um, it tends to undermine drifts or if I look like Jackie lamb, don't worry.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (03:08):

Well, I think that's, uh, uh, I think that's a component of diabetes. A lot of people don't understand is it's more than just high blood sugar and not feeling well. I mean, not only, I think it's, you know, blood flow to the extremities. I know people that have had to have toes amputated, but also can affect your eyesight, your heart, I guess your liver kidneys. I mean, it's just, uh, it is so deadly. I just don't know. Uh, while we talk about diabetes a lot, I don't think people understand just exactly how terrible that it can be on, uh, on someone's body.

Craig (03:44):

Well, it's actually an epidemic and w and I, uh, I'm very, I'm bored. I'm a borderline a hypochondriac, but I did a lot of medical study, especially, uh, I wanted to be a doctor when I was younger. So I took a lot of pre-med courses. So the thing is, I always kind of touted myself as knowing what was going on. And if I didn't, I would learn it, but I was completely in the dark that my body was being ravaged by this. I mean, I was urinating like 12, you know, 12, 15 times a day, but I thought, well, you know, I'm 56, you know, it's probably my prostate or something. And, uh, and things got blurry. Well, I think while you, Oh, my eyes, you going. But, um, yeah, when I, when I, when I first had it on that, that night in September, actually it was the 50th anniversary of star Trek. September 8th was 16. So I'll never forget that I really went where not against

Terry - Feeding Fatty (04:42):

Them,

Craig (04:44):

But w when I, when I, I had three slices of PJ and I drank like a two liter bottle of Pepsi, regular Pepsi, and I got dizzy, like I had hyperglycemia and my roommate had a testing kit, and I think my blood sugar was like three 70 or something like that. Three. Wow. Yeah, that was just, yeah. Um, and my doctor wanted bariatric surgery. He wanted him to put me on glypocide and Metformin. Uh, I did go on Metformin. Glypocide me. I'm kind of allergic to it. Okay. And, uh, I told him, no, I said, uh, I remember in his office, he was like, well, you're going to have to have bariatric surgery surgery. You can't lose enough weight to do this. And I was like, yeah, hold my burrito, watch this. And don't ask me why I did it in six months. Uh, I had lost about a hundred pounds. Uh, I had reversed my type two. My A1C went down to 6.1 and I've been off the medication since,

Terry - Feeding Fatty (05:43):

And you've controlled it all just through your diet,

Craig (05:48):

Diet only,

Terry - Feeding Fatty (05:49):

That's it? Yeah. Wow. That is amazing. Congratulations to you. That's a feat. I mean, Oh my gosh. But

Craig (05:58):

It's, I didn't, you know, I was hoping, you know, what happened to me is I was taking the Metformin and it was right before dinner and I got really, um, woozy again. And my first thought was like, Oh, no, it is my blood sugar going through the roof again. And I tested my blood and it was like 57. And that was, it was before I took my night's dose of Metformin. So I didn't take it. And then the next day I tested it, it was like 90 or the next, and it just, from there on, I didn't take it anymore. I kind of took myself off it, which I would not advise, you know, but, uh, I did. Yeah. And you know, it doesn't mean it's right.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (06:36):

Do you know from my experience too, if you test enough test around that medicine, because I I'm back on it, but you know, there's, I've had doubts sometimes whether it really is helping me that much or not, because there've been times when I had failed to take it and would have much lower blood sugar. So anyway, when I would tell everybody out there to do is just be sure and test all around it. If it's not working and failed luck is not working correctly, go back to your doctor and talk to them because there are other, um, there are other avenues that you can go and go down. And of course, I've talked to my doctor and that's what he said. He wants me to go a little bit longer, but he said, we may look at changing it out.

Craig (07:19):

I mean, I'm, I'm still testing. I mean, I have this right here. I, I tested a couple of times a day. Yeah. I, um, well with this lock down, I kind of had a slide back. Um, I gained some weight. I mean, you can do it, even if you eat low carbon, whatever, I gained some weight and my numbers went up and now I've gotten them back down again. And I, I can actually see the difference in the video here. My face was a lot fatter. Believe it or not like two weeks ago, uh, it's an ongoing battle and you can do all the right things. And you know, it's like, I don't know if you're, are you a baseball fan? You don't want to be, you remember, you remember Prince fielder? Yeah. Like he was a vegetarian and people would say, what is he eating? Uh, truly. How did you know? Cause he was everybody said, who will, he's big and heavy and he's a vegetarian, well, you know what? You can eat low carb. But if you eat a lot of high calorie and go over it, you can still gain weight low carb too. So you got to find a balance.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (08:16):

Yeah. And you know, one thing my, uh, well, I'm not sure if I've ever talked about this before, but a few years ago when the Quito phase came out and was getting big, I would listen to a couple guys. I never went total KIDO. My doctor just told me, you know, try to stay between 40, 60 on my carbs every day, which is close, but not quite what I think they're what under 20 something like that.

Craig (08:41):

But one day only 20 per day.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (08:45):

Yeah. Well, no. He told me to be under 40 to 60 for the day as well. So I was fairly close, but not quite there. But, um, in some of those I heard a doctor and he was an MD. So I will, I'm going to vouch for him and say, he knew what he was talking about. He said that we, our bodies can learn that if we're, if we go low car, but if we're too high on protein, it will start taking that excess protein and turning that in to fat. So anyway, it just have to, you know, cause that's what I was doing. I was so extremely high on my proteins there for a while. I wasn't watching it. I thought, well, watching my carbs. So proteins just let them rip and uh, you know, eating all the bacon and everything, which, you know, a lot of fat, of course the KIDO wants you to have more fat than not. But anyway, it's still, it was still difficult for me. But uh, so

Craig (09:44):

I'm sorry. No, you're fine. Go ahead. No was only, I remember when actins came out 30, 35 years ago and uh, all my family were on it. I was a fat kid, so I was on it and we beat chewing on pepperoni sticks and having like 12 omelets, 12 egg omelets. And after three days I was just so sick of all of that, you know, you were ready. I was ready to like knock over a nun for a piece of bread. It was just like, you know, I would ask her politely before you shoved him to the ground. Right. We just need to tell

Roy - Feeding Fatty (10:20):

The audience, no nuns were injured.

Craig (10:23):

The taping of this. I was brought up Catholic. I would never do an gosh.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (10:29):

So what are some things that you have done? I know that you kind of lowered the carbs, but uh, you know, that's well for somebody like myself, that's difficult. Cause I love bread. We love chips. We love all that. So what are some things that you've done that have been kind of ingenious, I guess in order to have some good food

Craig (10:49):

To have the lower the carbs? I don't know if it's ingenious, but I researched, uh, when I, when I did my comedy cooking show because I want to be funny. And at the same time I want to share all these recipes. I, I, I go out re I researched recipes and at first I just followed them by the letter. I didn't know what I was doing, but now, because I've gained some experience, I can, I can mix and match and do what I think, Oh, this would be good in this to be good in that. And I just try to take comfort foods on my show and I mean, comfortable like pizza. She used cake chocolate cake, Snickers bars. Um, and I tried to make low carb versions of them that, you know, can give you that sense of satisfaction without feeling, you know, that you're, um, you know, you're not, no, what's the word when you're, uh, I can't think of that word. That word has left my vocabulary folks, that word that when you want something and you can have it and you've deprived, I'm sorry, because I'm a very deprived person. Um, yeah. And you weren't really,

Roy - Feeding Fatty (11:54):

Um, I think you had told me when we talked earlier that you weren't really a cook. You never really gotten a kitchen that much. So, I mean, like not only have you had to learn, you know, how to do some of these cool things, low card, but you've also kind of learned the whole cooking process as well.

Craig (12:13):

I have, I'm actually making sauces now. I mean, that, that, to me, that's like, are you kidding?

Terry - Feeding Fatty (12:18):

That's what I want to hear about are the sauces, Oh my God, three is good.

Craig (12:27):

Uh, a creamy Dijon, a low-carb Dijon sauce for, for pork. Uh, and it also works with fish, especially if you, you know, I air fry my bread it and like flax seed. So there's no carbs. And man, it's like, it's fantastic. And I've made a cheddar cheese sauce and Oh, I make gravy too. Like, I mean maybe last night we'll carve gravy with my, with my Turkey. I did not, I could, but I didn't do it.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (12:55):

Okay. I have all the fifth step to make it with, but I did not make it cause we had so much other stuff, you know,

Craig (13:01):

I, I, I got so bloated. I had, I had mashed cauliflower. I had mashed, um, uh, turnips. I had low carb biscuits and I made low carb gravy, which had a lot of fiber in it too. And I felt like a beach ball. And I think my total carbs I'd probably just was probably less than 10. Oh my gosh. So talking about the fiber, you know, again and that's, and, um, it was delicious. It was great. And I definitely don't feel deprived there, you know? Um, but you can make your own stuffing. I make a low-carb bread that I found online. I make it on the bread machine. It's like two carbs, a slice. Wow. Next year I'll, I'll take it. I'll let it get stale. Chop it up. I'll make that into a stuffing or bread.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (13:48):

Interesting. I never thought about a low carb bread, but we'll have to check that out because that's, that is the one thing I feel more, uh, you know, like deprived now that you brought that up, we'll use it again. I do feel more deprived of the, uh, you know, the bread and bread products. We can find a decent loaf, you know, commercially made that may be 10 per little bitty dinky slice. So, um, that'll definitely be something worth checking out because I do love bread.

Craig (14:16):

We're also very expensive too. Yeah. Well, there's like, there's a, there's a, there's a store here. Um, I'm not trying to, uh, plug it. It's called all of the famous happenings, this low carb bread. Um, but it's expensive and they, they are, they're always running out of it. So I went online and I saw this guy. I don't even know him, but he's called the KIDO King. And he had, he has a machine recipe and he has an oven recipe for a low carb bread. And so that's what I did and I share it because it's certainly not my recipe. Yeah. But I think he deserves a lot of for it because I have seen, I just had a Turkey sandwich before we went on the air, you know? And it's like, you know, I guess it's all about eating, you know, normally without just being all the carbs, he got all the trouble.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (15:05):

Yeah. Well, we, we do have all these here, so we'll have to check that out and see just not a, not a place we go to a lot, but it's one here in the neighborhood. So we'll check that out. Yeah. Cause you know, finding, um, low carb stuff in the grocery, in a regular store, it's pretty difficult nowadays. I mean, everything is just more bigger.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (15:26):

Well, and it is it, like you said, it is really expensive, but you don't want to the T you know, you don't know about the taste, you know, you're going to pay for that. And then it's going to taste like cardboard. And that's what, that's the first thought that I have is, Oh my gosh, it's going to be low carb or no carb. It's going to taste like cardboard. I'm not eating it.

Craig (15:44):

Some of it is, you know, and I won't say the company, but there's two rival companies that make bagels. They're awfully expensive. I think it's like a $25 for eight of them. You know, if you space it out, you know, you can enjoy yourself. But as one of them was really good, the other one was like, you know, chewing on cardboard. He, I, you know, I'm not going to bash them, but you know, I've made my own, but fad had, I don't know if you know about fat head stuff, no fat had is basically when you take, instead of using flour, you use like you'll use almond flour and then you'll use, um, mozzarella cheese and green cheese. And that becomes the binder. But I got to tell you after a little bit, it's I just get so overwhelmed the taste of the cheese, um, to be off after a while. I can't really have it.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (16:37):

Well, so tell me this originally you're from New York. So we'll plug that in there. That how does, how do you make pizza out of with cauliflower as a crust to slide it by the taste of a guy from New York?

Terry - Feeding Fatty (16:54):

How'd you fall for that?

Craig (16:56):

You want me to be honest, if you know the best, the best pizza I've made. Uh, I think I've made on my, on my show. I guess I've done 76 shows and I'd say I've probably done pizza about six times. So I'm always trying to find a better recipe. And the first one was so involved with the cauliflower, you got to do it and you got to squeeze the water out and you're burning their hands and you got to do this and you got to fly it out and it's, you know, you, and it was okay. And then I found another recipe that was better in another recipe. I would say the best they've ever done as I'll make something that sounds, that tastes like a DiGiorno pizza, which ain't bad, but it's not in New York. You know, you gotta be on

Roy - Feeding Fatty (17:39):

Well, and that's sometimes it's just that little taste, you know, for me, if I get a little taste of it, it doesn't have to be, uh, the very best, but just enough to kind of satisfy you and be able to move on when we

Craig (17:50):

Exactly I'm actually doing another one, uh, not this upcoming episode, by next episode, I'm making a flaxseed Russ pizza.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (17:57):

Oh, that's interesting. I'll be very curious about that.

Craig (18:02):

I do already. I tested it and it was good. It was from, but it was wham. So I'm going to have to throw in some flavors into it. Probably some Italian seasoning, definitely some more salt. And I have to make a little bit thinner because there was a little bit too, too fat for me. I don't, I don't, I'm not like the big, you know, New York, we have to have like the slice it's like really? Did you know

Terry - Feeding Fatty (18:23):

That guy?

Roy - Feeding Fatty (18:25):

Well, you know, that's one thing we've adjusted, I think is, uh, in the spice section, I know we do a lot more Kumon. Um, tumeric is because I had taken tumeric, uh, supp, uh, supplements for a while because they say that they help you a lot. But anyway, we started doing it, cooking with it, which was even better. And, um, but anyway, I think that kind of helps us overcome some stuff is when we kind of spice it. And what's the other, um, remember the bigger neutral

Terry - Feeding Fatty (18:58):

Nutrition, nutritional yeast, nutritional

Roy - Feeding Fatty (19:00):

Yeast, we've started using a lot of that.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (19:02):

I've never used that before in it makes stuff taste buttery. I mean, it's good.

Craig (19:07):

Matter of fact, I just found a recipe for a, well, they said it's actually keto brownies and nutrition. Nutritional yeast is one of the ingredients. And I said, Oh yeah, I have that. I can make this.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (19:20):

Yeah, we got really good at, at inputting everything. We ate into an app and, you know, we'll, I guess we'll plug it. It seemed to be the best to Krono meter. And there's so many little micro nutrients that we were missing out on. And so that's another thing is the nutritional yeast was really good for picking up some of the micronutrients that are just left out of resident, uh, recipes, just to try to balance it out, to try and get everything. Cause it's tough. You know, we, uh, we're busy and we love to cook. We got in the kitchen cooked together, but it seems to take so much time. So

Terry - Feeding Fatty (19:58):

Prep work and the whole, I mean the whole foods, all that stuff, it's just simple.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (20:03):

I going to the grocery store, making sure you got everything you need. So, you know, do you find that that has been a problem for you once you've started cooking or are you

Craig (20:13):

Actually, I've actually created a lot of shortcuts. Like when I was, when I was working, I would come home like at two o'clock in the afternoon and I would pre do dinner. Meaning if I, I would take out the chicken, I would, uh, defrosted, I would pound it. I would, uh, bread it in whatever, running it in, whether it be oatmeal, whether it be flaxseed and I would shut the, uh, chop, the vegetables, get everything ready, put the refrigerator, taken out two and a half hours, then wake up and I would cook it. So I got into like this, you know, into this routine that made it a lot easier. And plus I'm only cooking for one two, you know, it's um, um, yeah, some days you just don't feel like going through all the motions though. Like I, I made a really good design you on my show, but you know, it's a little laborious and sometimes you just like, Ugh, I just want to eat in 10 minutes. I don't, you know, I'll just have a burger. Yeah.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (21:07):

Right. Yeah. And that's our, that's our downfall usually is that too. And so w um, I guess that brings up a good question about when you, when you're cooking low carb, if you freeze it, is it as good, you know, once you unfreeze it as, as, uh, normal recipes as about the same, or is there any difference? Cause that's one thing that we usually do is cook a little bit more so we can have, like, I can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow, but then also we have a little bit put it back in the freezer and see, you know, sometimes it's hit and miss with the, the, you know, when we use like the, the, uh, was it diced or rice cauliflower, sometimes that stuff doesn't come out as good, you know, after you unfreeze, it has a lot of things.

Craig (21:57):

Yeah. That's that, that's true. Especially if you bought it frozen to begin with or if you make, so I make my own, most of the time I just take a hit of cauliflower and I grind it up. I just meat, I just muesli recently made, um, uh, stuffed peppers. And instead of rice, I use Brown, I used the rice cauliflower and ground Turkey, and I actually take the tops of the peppers and I grind them up and I put them into the middle two. And, uh,

Roy - Feeding Fatty (22:26):

What kind of machine do you use? The two grounded grinded up that fine.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (22:30):

Yeah. The kitchen aid attachment or something. Yeah.

Craig (22:32):

It's actually a generic, it's just a generic food processor that we got for. Yeah. Interesting.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (22:41):

Yeah. And we're not, we don't have a lot of gadgets. We're kind of adding some in, but it's, uh, you know, when you look at how fine they rise or chop that up, it's like, good. I didn't know. We could replicate that at home. So,

Terry - Feeding Fatty (22:52):

And, and, Oh, that brings up gadgets. AirFryer let's talk air fryers here. I just got a new one. My daughter just sent me a new one and it's got the basket and the rotisserie, all that good stuff. Um, what is your favorite thing? What, what's your favorite thing to make in the air fryer or

Craig (23:16):

I'm kind of often I'm kind of off it now while I'm getting my blood sugar back down, which mostly is, but French fries. Oh, I'm lucky enough that I can tolerate a potato a day. And, uh, but I'm trying to, like I said, right now, I'm trying to bring it down more and try and lose some weight. So I'm trying to stay away from it. But yeah. Air fried French fries, my favorite things in the world.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (23:38):

What's something that you go, Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry.

Craig (23:42):

No, no. I said I've got it down the recipe. I'm sorry. So what's something that

Terry - Feeding Fatty (23:46):

You didn't think about when you first got the air fryer? I mean, is there something that has surprised you that's actually been good in it?

Craig (23:54):

Yeah. And it's something, there's two things, uh, bacon. Yeah. Hmm. I could never make good bacon. Never. It was always over done too greasy. It's perfect. Every time the AirFryer perfect.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (24:10):

Better, better than, uh, I'm not better, but is it better for you than in the fried in a pan?

Craig (24:18):

Probably. It's not sitting in its own bacon. Fat. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. It does drop down unless, unless you cook it in and when sometimes I have, and then, you know, as far as carbs go great. As far as fats and calories, you're going to have to walk.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (24:35):

Well, we used to eat a ton of bacon all the time. You know, Saturday and Sundays was our morning to cook in. We would always eat. I'm not going to tell you how much bacon we cook. And that was one thing that we did cut out. But, uh, you know, this air fryer, well, you know, I think we had talked about this a little bit earlier as well. We had a small one that had, I mean, it was just limited space. And so we didn't, weren't able to do a lot, but this one has this big basket. I mean, it's like, uh, uh, I don't know. It was like a writer,

Terry - Feeding Fatty (25:05):

Bingo, bingo, caller, you know, the numbers, you know,

Craig (25:09):

So I prefer those type of, to the oven ones. Cause I have enough money to, through the other ones. To me, don't tend to keep the heat in it as well, because they'll have a glass front basket that goes in it really self-contained. And I think you get like for French fries and stuff like that, or a chicken cutlet or whatever, it tends to get hotter. I don't know if we talked about this when I, when I said hi to you guys, but, um, I, I, I bought a new air fryer that's coming and I can't wait. I bought a 9.5 quart air for it. Wow. Yeah. I want to be able to, you know, my cat's going to sleep in it.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (25:48):

Yeah. Say I don't know how big ours is, but I don't think it's that big.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (25:53):

No, but it's plenty big. Yeah. You just have to put everything in a single layer. I mean that little one is just, everything was in a single layer. You had to do it. It just made the timing and it just made everything more complicated than trying to use the old oven and the stove top, you know, but I know.

Craig (26:09):

Yeah. That's why I have more than one. I do siding and I do the main course and the other. Okay.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (26:13):

So you'll have five or you'll have six, four.

Craig (26:17):

Well, this, this is my seventh. I gave, I gave one away. Uh, one was, uh, it was a glass bowl when that cracked. So those are gone. Yeah. My first one I had at my old job, which I've been off from and, uh, I'm giving my power XL fryer away to a friend when they get this new one and I'm going to have three here. Wow.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (26:39):

I think that's an idea that you told us about when I'd never even thought of, but it be beneficial to have a couple of those things going at once. And in this one that we've got, the volume is going to be different, but that other one, I guarantee you that we cook 10 loads of stuff in it to try to make one meal. But we were so worn out by the time the last one came out, we're like, we don't even know what we were doing, what the meal consisted of. And we were just given, give out.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (27:04):

Yeah. And part of that is just me trying to figure out what, what to do anyway, but, and not read the instructions, you know? Cause I'm not. Yeah. I like to just do and it doesn't always work out so great.

Craig (27:17):

That's kind of what I did. I kind of found my own way. You know, I saw all these different, uh, all these people had these, I had this advice to make crispy French fries in the air fryer and you know, soaking them overnight and this and that. I'm like, no, no, no. And I just did it my own way and they're fantastic. And it's a lot easier. It's a lot less work. Uh, maybe it's me. Maybe they would taste more stars. You use somebody else, but I love them. Um, and I don't feel that word again. The private all with them. I feel like sticking it. Yeah.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (27:47):

Well, uh, one other thing we can, uh, wanted to ask you about was tofu. Do you ever mess with tofu that much?

Craig (27:55):

Well, my brother, my brother, my brother used to teach tofu and uh, I always tofu. All right. Uh, you know, I, I I've had tofu, um, uh, uh, but I go, I cooking, I think only tried once and I tried to, I try to like, it wasn't from tofu and I didn't like the texture.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (28:21):

Well, that was one thing that we tried that was extremely good in the smaller AirFryer, but I think she put some on a cookie sheet.

Craig (28:29):

Yeah. Well it was bourbon. Yeah.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (28:32):

Yes. It was, it was, it was extra firm and just cubed them up and put a little bit of soy sauce and a little bit of olive oil and that was I, or olive oil spray. And I mean, that was it. And it just kind of tasted like when we just popped it like popcorn, you know,

Roy - Feeding Fatty (28:48):

Smaller and she cooked, she cut them small. So I think it made them, uh, get done where they weren't like gooey inside. But yeah, I mean, I thought it was more like a, um, just like a cute potato, like you'd Cuba, Tatum and skillet cook. It's what it tasted like, but we've tried a lot with, um, mixing in with eggs and some chicken meat, you know, just kinda making it part of the dish because it seems to take on the taste of whatever you're cooking it with. So

Craig (29:18):

Yeah, you, you have to infuse taste to do it for sure. Yeah. I mean, I just used the not so firms, so it got very gelatinous and I didn't really like that. And then you should've got the firm like yeah, next time I will.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (29:31):

Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to echo that and say, definitely get the firm. Cause I, the first time that I tried tofu years ago, it was that soft, gross.

Craig (29:42):

No I didn't.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (29:45):

Well, and I think part of one thing, everything that we have cooked it with, we have cut it into the smaller pieces. So I don't know if that helps too, is just the smaller you get it. The more it seems to cook the moisture out of it. And, uh,

Terry - Feeding Fatty (29:58):

That's the thing is you have to press it to get the moisture out of it. So it's kind of, it's not, labor-intensive, it's just, you know, you just have to take it out and kind of press it between a couple of cutting boards on paper towels and get that moisture out. And maybe 10, 15 minutes

Roy - Feeding Fatty (30:15):

Found some, uh, tofu noodles that we had used one time that were pretty good. So

Craig (30:21):

What I found is hearts of Palm new years, um, and they now have a cane and they have spaghetti and linguine and it's an a can. And, uh, actually my friend in Oklahoma tried to eat could not believe how good it was really about making. I want to make weenie, um, uh, in clam sauce using that.

Terry - Feeding Fatty (30:44):

I have to look into that because I do love that.

Craig (30:47):

Yeah. Or Alfredo, I like, I love Alfredo's, you know, that's, it's a lot of fat and calories, but there's no carbs. So there you go. I'm just going to watch it,

Roy - Feeding Fatty (30:59):

Greg. Uh, we want to say again, thanks a lot for taking time out of your day to be here. Certainly appreciate it. Uh, so what is one thing that you do? Uh, it, it can be a cooking tool or just a habit that you have either through your, uh, you know, in your personal life, professional life. Just something that, uh, you couldn't do without on a daily basis.

Craig (31:23):

Um, well, I'll, I mean, we've been talking about for the past 10 minutes, but I, I use air fryers at almost every meal almost with me because I love the taste and I love the experience of fried food. And without the oil content, you know, without being deep fried, there's a lot less guilt. There's a lot less calories and it's better for you, but in conjunction. And this is then again, this is not my weapon. It was a great, excuse me. Like I talked about I'm, uh, but in conjunction is not my website, but I got this a website. I use almost everything called, um, uh, fat secret. And if you go to it, even, even at fast food stuff, you put, like, you can put an egg McMuffin in there and it's going to tell you how many carbs, how many net carbs, how many calories. Uh, and I use that almost everyday to keep the guide itself in a meeting. I don't know if the fat secret like a popcorn. Yeah. I think it's called pop secret this. Right. But you know, feeding fatty, that's great. You know, I should get together

Roy - Feeding Fatty (32:34):

Well, and that's so important. We can't reiterate that enough, that knowing you're eating is the key. I mean, that's, you know, I think part of it was for me, ignorance was bliss. Don't look at it. You don't know it, but it's still, you still ingested it. So, you know, you've got to figure out what's in this stuff in order to be able to control it. And some things that once you do find out what's in it and how many carbs it's like, Oh my goodness. I could not believe because it's not just that one thing usually. Well, my I'll say my experiences, if I'd have just had that one thing I would have been okay. But it was that thing. And about seven others throughout the day is what makes me why I'm overweight and have a blood sugar problem too. So,

Craig (33:21):

Yeah. And, and the key thing that I learned is that no matter what it is, a lot of people, I see it in all these groups on Facebook are really upset. They have type two diabetes, they feel like, are they going to be eating his lettuce and cucumbers the rest of their life? And absolutely not true. That's why I have my show out there is to show you, you can make these rich decadent meals and at the same time be of service to your disease and helping keep it arrested, you really can.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (33:47):

Right? Yeah. And that's amazing that you're off your meds because, um,

Craig (33:51):

That sounds weird. [inaudible]

Roy - Feeding Fatty (33:57):

Yeah, because I just know how hard I've tried and it's difficult. I mean, uh, like I think we talked that there was one point last fall last year, Matt year that, you know, we were exercising crazy. We were exercising at a level that was unsustainable. And I got mine down too. You know, I was in the eighties nineties a few times, but not, not, uh, you know, nothing sustainable. So, you know, it gets back to, I think it's like losing weight in general. It's kind of the same for controlling that blood sugar diet is going to be, you know, 80%, 80, 85% of that. And then that little bit can be some exercise, but you've got to start with the food and get that business under control for sure.

Craig (34:44):

Well, you know, my roommate told me today, um, cause he sees pretty much already. He says, you know what? You don't eat a lot. Um, he says, he, I'm not a Grazer. I'm not, uh, I eat ver when he means, but very literally he gives me, my portions are small. Uh, I don't go for seconds and stuff, but I think one of the keys when we talked about this earlier is a lot of my stuff is high fiber. Yeah. And when you eat high fiber, you're, you're done. You're, you're, you're full, you're satisfied. Um, I don't even crave sweets because after a while you get your by, you know, when you go your carbs down, you may know this yourself, after a certain point, you don't crave sweets anymore because your body's not screaming out for carbohydrates.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (35:25):

Right? Yeah. Not only that, but it's the weird stuff that starts tasting sweet to you. You know, other, other foods, I just noticed that I'll be like, wow, that tasted really. Yeah, exactly.

Craig (35:40):

Really sweet. Like, wow. Not raw, but need to cook mine. Yeah. So I put something on there.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (35:50):

Well, Craig tell everybody how they can, uh, get a hold of you, look you up on YouTube so they can look at some of your, uh, cooking shows.

Craig (35:59):

Sure. I wish they would. You can see me on Facebook. It's a facebook.com off the cuff with Craig Mitchell and on YouTube. Uh, it just, just, uh, put in off the cuff healthy cooking with Craig Mitchell. I know it's a, it's a long, it's a long title, but it'll get you there.

Roy - Feeding Fatty (36:18):

Yeah. And we'll have all these up on the show notes as well and on our web page. So yeah. Yeah. We'll, we'll make sure and get that for you. Well, Craig again, thanks a lot. We appreciate everybody listening again. You can find us at www dot feeding, fighty.com. We're on all the major podcast platforms, iTunes, Google play, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, uh, Amazon everywhere. If we're not on one that you liked to listen to, please reach out. We'll be sure. And try to get that added. Also, you can find us on Facebook. We have a Facebook group. We'd like to have a discussion, uh, anything that you want. And then also Instagram, Twitter, uh, all the major places you can find us there. So until next time I am Roy and Terry.