Great set of lists, looks like I'm pretty much doing the right thing as there isn't much listed that I either don't have or never considered.

A few things though - a couple of folks mentioned Newman's Ranch dressing - My GF picked up a bottle of his Creamy Italian and I found it had relatively high carbs, and 'illegal' sweeteners - we haven't given the bottle away yet. It has 2g carbs / 2TBS serving, and lists sugar as a "2% or less" ingredient. Maybe the ranch is better.

IMHO the 0 carb dressings that I've tried so far have left us pretty underwhelmed. The ranch is tolerable, but the rest fall in the 'bland and tasteless' category, especially the so-called 'Blue Cheese' varieties uke: I've decided that after I've used up the stuff we have on hand I'm going to start making my own - it might be higher carb, but I want something with TASTE!

Possibly one of our biggest concerns is bacon / ham / sausages / deli meats - we have checked every major supermarket chain in our area (DeMoula's MarketBasket; Stop & Shop; Wild Harvest (organic chain); Roche Bros; Hannafords, etc) and several small ones and found that nearly ALL the available meats have sugar or other sweeteners listed in the ingredients. The only exceptions were some of the Hebrew National brand kosher meats, and I just found today that Hannafords house brand Lo sodium bacon doesn't have sweeteners and neither do their 'extra hot' Italian Sausages (the rest do) - Even the organic grocery's meats were sweetened, just w/ 'raw sugar' instead of '*ose'

Now Atkins says "NO sugars" so we haven't been purchasing these items (and we miss them, as they 'should' be legal and we liked them back in the pre-LC days. So now I see them on lots of lists - are people ignoring the sugars (I will say that the sweet stuff is usually way down next to the preservatives on the ingredient list, and the labels still claim 0 or 1 carb) as a non-problem? Or are you getting sugar free versions - if so WHERE???

Lastly, there was some discussion about ways to cook eggplant... I make 'mini-pizzaoids out of it.

Peel eggplant, slice crosswise into rounds approx 1/4 - 3/8" thick. Dunk rounds in seasoned olive oil and place on cookie sheet or jelly roll pan (I foil cover the pan for easier cleanup) Bake in 350*F oven ~15 minutes until the eggplant starts to brown a bit. Remove from oven, and smear a dab of tomato paste on the top of each round, then sprinkle with oregano and your favorite other italian spices. Optionally add your favorite pizza toppings (pepperoni, anchovies, burger, 'shrooms, peppers, etc.) and cover w/ mozzerrella cheese (or other favorite good melting cheese) and return to oven for a few minutes until cheese melts. This was actually something I used to make occasionally back in my pre-LC days, and I'm glad to find it's something that is still 'legal'

Gooserider