Make your own lard

Butter is great, but it can get pricey.  Also, when you cook doesn't have a very high smoke point.  So, what is one of the best cooking oils/fats?  LARD.  It's not just something you can just buy in the store any more.  Yes, Morrell makes a lard, but I wouldn't buy it, it's shelf stable and doesn't list the ingredients.  Lard is supposed to be refridgerated anyways. 
Here are the steps to make your own lard:
1.  Go to your local grocery store and ask for pork fat trimmings.  See if they can grind the fat, just like ground beef.  I was able to buy 5 1/2 pounds for $1.59 at the military grocery store (comissary).
2.  If they wouldn't grind the fat, just cut it up in chunks and run small amounts through your food processer (that's what I did).
3.  Cook the pork fat on the lowest heat setting on your stove in a stock pot.
4.  It's best to use cheese cloth, but I didn't have any, so I used a wire mesh strainer to seperate the liquid from the unmeltable fat, which works pretty well. 
5.  Pour it in a canning jar and store it in your fridge.
 Liquid gold! -*check out the pictures below!*-

The Vangriddle - low carb pancake sandwhich

I LOVE McDonalds McGriddles, to me, McGriddles and Mac Sauce are the best things about that place (not mixed together, of course!). BUT, my beloved mcgriddles are too high in carbs! This morning for breakfast, I decided to make some imposter mcgriddles aka 'Vangriddles' (the Van- comming from the first 3 letters of my name, duh!, haha), using a new pancake recepie I found through the atkins facebook page.  Here's the link to the pancake recepie:

https://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=51386773550&topic=16849 .
what you need to make 2 pancake sandwhiches:
- 4 small pancakes (the recepie makes just enough)
-2 egg rounds - To make my egg round, I have the metal circular egg cookers that you can cook your egg in, usually used with sunny side up/over easy to make them look pretty.  I poured the scrambled egg right into the ring sitting on the pan and it made nice round eggs. 
-2 round sasuage patties (jones mild natural)
-1 slice of  Tillamook medium cheddar cheese (1/2 slice for each sandwhich, i like using the tillamook because it's not processed, but it's conviently sliced for a sandwhich
-optional - sugar free maple syrup (to dip the sandwhich in)
voila!!  heres some pics:

the complete sandwhich!

 <---how it looks before putting the top on

some egg on the rings from using them this morning