Best of Austin Low-Carb

Jimmy John's

I had been long looking forward to arriving into Austin, the first stop on our US road trip. Known for having a large hippie population, and a load of hipsters to boot, there was bound to be plenty of food alternatives for the difficult-to-accommodate diner.

JJ Gargantuan Unwich snatched from www.jimmyjohns.com

First stop Jimmy John's, one of Samantha's favourite sandwich bars and home to the 'Unwich' – essentially all the goodness of any of the bread rolls on the menu, but minus the roll. I had been saving some of my protein up for the meal but, unaware that full nutritional information was available on their website, I went a little overzealous and ordered the JJ Gargantuan unwich which turned out to be a bad decision when I saw that it contained 5.5 grams of carb and and a lot more protein than I had to spare.

Although a teaspoon or so of coconut oil would still be needed to supplement the fat content of this meal, what I should have ordered was the Club Lulu unwich and an extra serving of mayonnaise:

fat:  54.4g, protein:  25.4g, carb:  2.8

ratio: 1.9:1

The nutritional information on this website is fantastic, so try putting together your own perfect unwich!  For instance, the JJBLT unwich is perfect if you have lower protein needs.

Leaf

On day two we were keen to visit a place we had been reading about called Leaf which had been receiving rave reviews for its healthy salads, composed primarily of fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. With so many good choices on the menu, it was hard to choose which salad to go for, but I opted in the end for the Capitol City Cob (comprising grilled chicken, a hardboiled egg, blue cheese, roma tomatoes, black olives, bacon and avocado – served with blue cheese sauce), removing the tomatoes and the tasteless black olives, and replacing the blue cheese sauce with a healthy dose of extra virgin oil. Whilst we cannot provide exact figures for the salad, it tasted great and we are sure it could not have been very far off the mark when supplemented with a tablespoon of coconut oil to ensure I hit my 63g fat for the meal.

Leaf menu board