Doing the trick- PBJ wrap, lemon-cheesecake pudding

Regular peanut butter- out. Way too much added sugar.
Regular jam, jelly, marmalade and preserves- out. Way to much natural AND added sugar.
Bread- Come on. Do I really need to say it? Bread is the loaved version of heroin, crack cocaine, or gambling for me.

Enter...

Natural peanut butter! The kind where the oil separates!

I used to eat this stuff as a kid, actually liking it quite a bit, but when I moved out and was earning well under $800 a month, I realized how much cheaper the giant tub of preservative-filled peanut butter was. So I never even really entertained the idea of buying something natural and organic.

Well I am a little older, wiser and fatter, so I recently picked up a jar of store brand natural peanut butter. It is still delicious, and has only 6 carbs per serving.

But wait...there's more...

Enter....sugar free strawberry preserves!

As I have mentioned before, I am not one of those people that goes shit-house crazy over sweets, so even before I started watching my sugars and carbs, I never bought much jam or jelly (yet somehow it was always in the house?) However, one simply cannot have a PB&J wrap without the J, so I picked up a jar of store-brand S/F strawberry preserves. It tastes a little splenda-ish, certainly nothing like Mom used to make, but the title of this entry is 'Doing the trick", not "Fooling me entirely", so I'll take it.

And finally...the Mission Carb-Smart large wheat tortilla.

These. Things. Are. AMAZING.

Quesadillas, burritos, soft tacos, tostadas, breakfast burritos. I grew up in California and guess what? I love Mexican food! But what isd a burrito without a tortilla? A quesadilla without a tortilla is nothing but a mound of melted cheese! (mmmm...) I love beans, cheese, guacamole and sour cream but I was getting tired of putting them on lettuce.

The Mission carb-smart wheat tortilla is amazing. First of all, it doesn't taste like...well...a rubber hose, rawhide bone, ash mixed with water, or anything else you can think of. It doesn't taste like the flour tortillas your Abuelita would make on the stove, or even what you'd find at your city's Cinco de Mayo festival, but when you're counting carbs, it is heaven.

The best part? 6 net carbs! They do this by somehow putting a whopping 21 grams of fiber in each tortilla. Needless to say, these bad boys will also help keep a gal (or guy) regular.

So anyways, I got a powerful hankering for a PB&J today, so I spread my delicious natural PB on a tortilla with some only slightly sub-par jelly, rolled it, and ate it. Wonderful. This kind of stuff is called comfort food for a reason. And I don't feel any crushing guilt from eating gobs of Skippy and Concord grape squeeze jelly on wonder bread either.

This concoction also really fills you up. I think it's the mix of natural fats in the peanut butter combining with all the fiber in the tortilla. The trick is to make one, eat one, and then wait a few minutes. Don't gorge! Peanut butter takes a while to slide into your belly, and I swear you'll be full after eating this.

My other brilliant concoction was my Lemon "Cheesecake" mousse with almonds.

You will need:

1 box sugar-free lemon flavor pudding
1 box sugar free cheesecake flavor pudding
4 cups cold 1% or nonfat milk
1 container sugar-free whipped topping
Slivered almonds

In a large bowl, slowly beat together the four cups of milk with the lemon and cheesecake pudding mix for two minutes. Let it firm up in the fridge for five minutes or so. After it is firm, mix in the whipped topping. This is what gives it the "mousse" texture. Upon serving, sprinkle with slivered almonds.

This makes something like eight or nine servings, and it is great to practice portion control and all, but I like having a dessert on hand where if I overdo it, I'm not undoing all my hard work as well.