Low and lower carb ways of eating

[TheFoodTutor]

He did point out that he felt that one of the ways Atkins works is that the food's so boring that you can't bring yourself to eat any more of it than you absolutely have to.

I have similar feelings about it, because when I've done Atkins, my tendency has been to fix the same foods for myself over and over. However, the longer I stay on the diet, the more creative I get with that group of ingredients.

I did Atkins when I worked at the I.R.S., because when I have a desk job, I have to take drastic measures to keep my blood sugar from plummeting throughout the day. If I eat a carb-filled breakfast and go to work in an office, by 10 a.m. I will be drooling and unable to finish my sentences because my blood sugar will be that low.

My routine at the time was to make a variety of omelettes for breakfast, salad with protein for lunch and a fairly simple meat and veg for dinner. The thing that I found astonishing, however, was that my co-workers, who had bought whatever they wanted to eat from the cafeteria for lunch, would always be jealously eyeing my salads - sometimes a nicoise assembled in a used cottage cheese container, or whatever I managed to throw together that day.

I really think there are a lot of fairly pleasant things to eat on low carb plans, and the limitations on carbs tend to force one to use the more nutritious and lower carb vegetables, instead of eating bread or rice.

[NulloModo]

I really think there are a lot of fairly pleasant things to eat on low carb plans, and the limitations on carbs tend to force one to use the more nutritious and lower carb vegetables, instead of eating bread or rice.

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That is the way I see it. When pizza/subs/pasta suddenly pretty much leave your menu, you have to get creative. Starches and sugars are the most boring foods on earth, and those are all that you are eliminating. Were it not for jumping onto Atkins I would have never gained an interest in Indian cuisine, nor making my own sashimi, nor lots of cool thai dishes, brasies, and great composed salads.

It may just be my personality, but I find it far easier to be creative and to get a little crazy with ideas when I have some limitations imposed. If I have given total free reign I tend to gravitate back to my boring comfort zone, so, the restrictions in the Atkins plan actually serve to make what I cook and eat more interesting, and not less.

Speaking of which, I need to come up with some ideas for creative football food for tomorrow night. First official game of the NFL season calls for good eats.

[FL Heat]

Football food, huh? Lemme see what I can remember us having for Super Bowl last year at a low-carber's house. . .there was a cheese fondue with vegetables for dipping. . .wings in barbecue or hot & spicy (they were rubbed with spice mixes instead of baked in sauce), along with sauce for each of them for the non-Atkins folk; some sort of custardy dessert thing with raspberries; burgers, both chicken w/ feta mixed into the patties or sirloin w/ cheddar, and whole-wheat buns were available. . .hmm. . .a big plate of fruit, I remember blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, melon slices. . .roasted peanuts in the shell to snack on outside around the grill. . .I know there was more, but that's all I can remember

I just started a new job yesterday, and already people are coming by to see what's in my lunch. . .today was really simple (I thought). . .a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and blue cheese, with a raspberry vinaigrette ("You make your own SALAD DRESSING????", they exclaimed), some tuna/white bean/tomato salad, and tabouleh. And mid-morning snack of Wasa Rye crackers & a low-fat cream cheese.

They keep asking when I'm going to bring in sweets, though

Diana

[purplewiz]

That is the way I see it.  When pizza/subs/pasta suddenly pretty much leave your menu, you have to get creative. Were it not for jumping onto Atkins I would have never gained an interest in Indian cuisine, nor making my own sashimi, nor lots of cool thai dishes, brasies, and great composed salads.

This has been one of the unexpected but wonderful benefits of changing how we eat- all the new things we've been discovering. I realized I'd gotten to be a lazy cook - instead of actually making something interesting for dinner, I found myself more often than not just tossing some pasta in pot, throwing some sauce over it (and not from scratch, either!), and calling it dinner.

I think in the last 10.5 months, I've made more new recipes than I made in the last three years combined. I've found out I really like kale, that green beans cook up really nicely on the grill, that stinky blue cheeses are wonderful, that radishes are a vegetable and not just for on top of salads, and that the more I make reduction sauces, the better I get at them.

And as I was explaining to my mother today, who still doesn't get this "weird diet", I LIKE the food I'm eating. It's not penance, as most "diet food" seems to be. It's stuff I'd happily eat anyway because it's good and tasty and enjoyable.

Speaking of which, I need to come up with some ideas for creative football food for tomorrow night.  First official game of the NFL season calls for good eats.

My parents always used to serve cooked sausage, cut into rounds, with a variety of mustards for dipping into.

Marcia.

[redfox]

("You make your own SALAD DRESSING????", they exclaimed)

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But bottled dressing is... icky!

Right now I am eating a little round of toasted whole-wheat pita with a big helping of tofu (née egg) salad that I think must have started its existence as a vegetarian (kosher for dairy?) chopped liver. It is much less gloppy than standard egg salad, and not mustardy or anything -- you make it by sauteeing mushrooms and onions, then chopping these and the eggs or tofu together until you get a rough, fluffy puree. Salt, pepper, LOADS of dill, and just enough mayonnaise to moisten. Mm!

[NulloModo]

Yesterday I dropped by an Ollie's Bargain Outlet (think flea market meets scratch and dent meets wal-mart meets Oddjob/Big-lots) and was delighted to discover they had a ton of low-carb baking supplies on sale super cheap (almost the entire MiniCarb line, plus a number of Atkins branded products, all for 1.99 a box, huge deal).

Now, a lot of it I had no interest in, such as the Atkins pasta (Blech), or the Atkins Crunchers chips (double blech), but there were definately some good deals to be had. I picked up a number of hot and cold cereals, and so far have tried the MiniCarb Carbsense Country Spice Flax Cereal (and won't be using it again as cereal, it totally blows, but it might be a useful baking aid) and the Atkins Morning Essentials or whatever Almong cereal, which is actually very, very good. I picked up lots of protein isolates/mixes/etc there as well, so, I plan on playing around a lot in the kitchen in the coming week to see what I can come up with from it all.

[patti]

Nullo, have you come up with good low carb stir fry sauces, like for beef 'n broccoli, or any other combination?

Also, in your blog you pictured a bacon wrapped stuffed pepper. Care to give details about how that was prepared?

[NulloModo]

The peppers are super easy:

Take a Jalepeno, remove most of the seeds/ribs, stuff with cream cheese, wrap in raw bacon, and bake at 375 for like 45 minutes, salt, pepper, and voila.

I do stir-fry sometimes, but just use whatever I have, a couple dashes of soy sauce is pretty low-carb, so is sesame oil, a dash of lemon juice for acid, sometimes some wasabi or fish sauce.

[mrsadm]

Hurray for this thread! Thank you for starting it.

I have been hoping egullet would encourage low-carbers who like good food to get together.

I have been hanging out (on occasion) at lowcarbfriends.com. They have a very active bulletin board and a huge collection of recipes. There are some members who are very knowledgable about low-carbing, both through technical knowledge and through experience. It is also a very positive crowd that really encourages and helps each other out, like an online support group.

Their cooking, however, is ...... not too sophisticated. But I have found their recipes useful in learning how to use substitute ingredients, such as ground nuts instead of breading; guar gum to thicken sauces, and so on. Some recipes have really surprised me and I've learned to use food in new ways.

There is also a Food Network TV show called "Low Carb and Lovin It" where chef George Stella offers some delicious looking dishes. The recipes are on the food web site; the show is on 12 noon ET on Sunday and repeats twice during the week.

I hope we all remain active in this thread and post favorite recipes, food discoveries, low-carb cookbook reviews (I'll do a few of those!) and much more.

[NulloModo]

I have checked out lowcarbfriends before, there are some decent recipes in that forum.

I will also take the moment to plug the Atkins forum I help moderate: www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com. Since another major site, www.atkinsbythebook.com just shut down its forums it is getting even busier than normal over there, but it is fairly Atkins-centric, so if you are on another plan it might not be exactly what you are looking for. The other food/cooking moderator on that site, Naja, is a real guru when it comes to lots of stuff, check out her posts in the low-carb cooking lessons if you really want some great ideas.

[helenjp]

OK, now how about CHEAP low/mod carb cooking? I don't get paid again till November...

In Japan, recent health scares of one kind and another have driven up the price of eggs and almost every kind of meat, and hot weather is keeping the usual seasonal fish away from Japan's fishing grounds. Drat! Those sauries, mackerel, and sardines heard me tapping my gutting knife on the chopping block, I'm sure.

So what else does a cheapskate eat?

[redfox]

OK, now how about CHEAP low/mod carb cooking? I don't get paid again till November...

In Japan, recent health scares of one kind and another have driven up the price of eggs and almost every kind of meat, and hot weather is keeping the usual seasonal fish away from Japan's fishing grounds. Drat! Those sauries, mackerel, and sardines heard me tapping my gutting knife on the chopping block, I'm sure.

So what else does a cheapskate eat?

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Oh dear! And you're allergic to soy, too, aren't you? (Or am I remembering wrong?) I go in for a lot of cabbage, wonderful cabbage, and eggplant.

[helenjp]

>>you're allergic to soy<<

Yes, I am, and if I see another egg, I'll shoot it!

Our loyal farmers dumped a whole lot of cabbage to stop it getting too cheap, and were rewarded by tropical cyclones and ash eruptions which laid waste to PLENTY of cabbage and kept the prices as high as they could have desired, had they had anything left to sell!

Chicken breast is always cheap here, and I often cook it either Egyptian sofrito style (not Spanish sofrito), simmered in water with olive oil and plenty of sliced lemon; or a similar Japanese variation with sake and ginger. Sofrito is then good cubed into bean or tomato/okra salads, and the Japanese version is good shredded over cucumber, with a spicy peanut sauce.

[chefs13]

Great topic.. I myself have been on Atkins since October 2003, I have lost 54 lbs and many inches. I eat believe me I eat. The vegetables are plentiful and cooked/flavored in many ways. I have never eaten so healthy.

Heres one of my favorite recipes. It is an origanal (thought of by moi) so there are no copyright infringements to worry about.

4 chicken breast halves, I remove the skin, this is optional

1 medium onion diced

Olive oil

2 tbsps beef stock powder. Beef soup base can also be used

1 cup of regular mayonaise. I use hellmanse

1 personal bad of pork rinds.

Grind the pork rinds as you would to make bread crumbs.

Saute the onion in olive oil until slightly blackened not burnt. Add onions and beef stock powder to mayonaise. Roll chicken breasts in the mayo mixture, then in the pork rinds. Bake at 350 degrees until done.

this recipe has only 6 net carb grams for the entire recipe. Enjoy

[NulloModo]

Hmm, cheap and low-carb don't seem to go too well together ;).

Are vegetables in general still relatively inexpensive in Japan? I have to plead ignorance towards knowing what prices are like for most items over there. When I really want to stretch the budget I tend to make a lot of big pot stews/psuedo-gumbos/chilies. I tend to just take a protein source, some vegetables I like, lots of spices, toss it together, cook till the flavor blends, and serve it up with either more veggies or with some sour cream or a bit of cheese on top. Just good old fashioned stick to the ribs one pot cooking. I was really impressed with Black Soy Beans for use in chili, but if you are allergic I guess that wouldn't work for you. There are other low-carb legumes you could easily try though, and a nice white chicken chili is always tasty.

[purplewiz]

Cheap and low carb seems to be an oxymoron *sigh*.

But when I want a cheap meal, and eggs are out, I go for canned tuna. I don't know how cheap it is in Japan, but for $0.99/can, I can get pretty good chunk light stuff. Tuna salad, tuna bean salad, tuna vegetable casserole, tuna combined with cream cheese on zucchini rounds (or in zucchini cups).

Overall, though, I shop sales. We have a chest freezer, and when the stores have their semi-annual loss leader sales, I stock up.

And yes, in season vegetables. Lots of in season vegetables. Again, if I can freeze them, I will. Just froze a lot of green chiles (on sale for next to nothing right now) for future pork green chile stew.

But sadly, it's just not cheap.

Marcia.

[NulloModo]

I also often go to the grocery store after midnight when the bargain meat stickers start to appear, and stuff lots of cheap marked down cuts into the freezer. These later become great additions to stir frys, chilis, stews, etc.

[helenjp]

Marked-down meats - yes, but I avoid them in the hottest part of summer. More than once the meat has been discolored and stinky when I got it home.

The average flake tuna can here holds about 3 oz, costs about 70 cents per can?? I use it mostly with yogurt cheese, and also as a dressing for vegetables.

Slices of thick-cut deepfried tofu are good added to meats in stirfried meat dishes.

Those huge dried white beans (lima?) and chickpeas are both good at absorbing flavors in stews...but beans are not a really cheap food here, thanks to extreme protectionism.

Freezer space is really small in Japan, so when buying meat on the cheapest day of the week, I freeze half and marinade half in miso or sake etc.

[helenjp]

What I meant to say was, extra costs are one reason why people are reluctant to try low/mod carb eating - if people who cook can figure out ways around that, so much the better!

What are the cheapest protein foods for most of you? Any good lurks for penny pinchers? Soup must be #1 in really dire straits, I guess.

Cheap protein foods here at this time of year (still a bit transitional) are fresh sardines, squid, mackerel, and usually some cuts of pork and chicken. Tofu often very cheap, if you don't mind watery tofu with a weird texture that is better cooked than fresh, eggs are moderately priced, milk often cheap...cheese is expensive! I live in a peanut growing area, so excellent quality long peanuts are only moderately priced (they don't sell the small cheap round ones at all!)

[NulloModo]

For dinner tonight I had to break into my stash of LC convenience foods. I had a serious hankering for pancakes, that simply had to be satisfied.

The Atkins QuickCuisine pancake mix produces a product that is not exactly a pancake, more similar to an egg crepe I'd say, but it still is far from bad. I enjoyed mine with some Honeytree low carb honey (far better than any of the LC syrups availble) along with a couple eggs and some bacon. Simple, filling, and oh so satisfying comfort food.

[FL Heat]

For cheap foods. . .hmm. . . .

Beans, definitely. Beans with garlic, beans with meat, beans with tomatoes, beans with. . .well, just about anything. I tend to stock up when prices are good (canned beans at the store this week at 10 cans for $4.00!), and we utilize the deep freeze pretty extensively.

Chicken wings were on sale last week, so we bought several pounds of those, as well as country ribs. I'm guessing the specials aren't the same in Japan as they are in Florida, though. We've enjoyed the country ribs cut into cubes & skewered, then grilled. Plus it's quick. . .I'll put the cubes in marinade in the AM, then skewer and grill in the evening, and fix a fluffy salad to go alongside.

Diana

[purplewiz]

I made "zucchini noodles" tonight.

I used three reasonably sized zucchini for two people, and used a vegetable peeler to cut the outsides (everything but the seeds) into long thin strips. Boiled them in lots of water for about 3 1/2 minutes until the raw taste went away and they were kind of limp. (I'm at altitude, others might need less time.) Drained. Tossed with a homemade alfredo sauce (butter, cream, asiago (because I like aged asiago) and nutmeg).

Only one tactical error: I didn't drain the "noodles" properly, so my nice thick alfredo became a nice but somewhat thin alfredo. Oh, well, now I know.

I was extremely pleased with the taste, mouthfeel, and texture of this - the zucchini made a surprisingly passable pasta substitute. The only thing it didn't do was absorb some of the sauce like pasta does, but then, I haven't found anything that isn't high carb that does that. (I'm all ears if people have any ideas.)

I served it with sliced grilled chicken and grilled baby bok choy.

I have a feeling this is old hat to people who have been doing this for awhile, but I still get all excited when I find something really nifty and good .

Marcia.

[helenjp]

Zucchini noodles - sounds good! The nearest to noodles that I know of is beanthread vermicelli.

Chicken wings - we had some today too...put them into a very hot pan and cooked both sides till they showed a little color, then added soy/vinegar mix - about 1 cup water, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1-2 tab soy sauce, and cooked fast until reduced and wings cooked. Other cuts of chicken do better cooked slowly in the mix, but wings can take anything! Served room temperature for lunch.

You can add shreds of lemon peel or ginger, red pepper, garlic, etc., or add some funghi or leeks partway through cooking time.

By the way....net carbs, effective carbs...this sounds to me like an alternative way to predict blood sugar impact, in the same way that the glycemic index shows results of blood sugar tests (there are some discrepancies in values reported by different sources, so I'm curious to find out whether net carb count and GI come up with the same foods as "good" or not!).

Anybody know a detailed online source for net carb counts?

[scott123]

By the way....net carbs, effective carbs...this sounds to me like an alternative way to predict blood sugar impact, in the same way that the glycemic index shows results of blood sugar tests (there are some discrepancies in values reported by different sources, so I'm curious to find out whether net carb count and GI come up with the same foods as "good" or not!).

Anybody know a detailed online source for net carb counts?

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Net Carb count and GI share some common ground, but not all. A lot of low carbers dwell under the misconception that low glycemic and low carb are one in the same. When someone says "I tested my blood sugar after I ate _______, and it didn't rise," that's seems to be the green light for mass consumption. Unfortunately, there are exceptions. The first that comes to mind is Channa Dal. High net carbs, almost 0 on the glycemic scale. Dreamfields pasta is another. When the product first came out, 1, 2 and 3 hour blood sugar readings were low enough to send droves of people to buy this stuff. Recent research, though, has shown that the spike/carbs from this stuff can kick in way down the line, 7-8 hours later. I don't know how other low carb diets see it, but Atkins is very clear about it being a low carb diet, not a low glycemic one. Glycemic values can be helpful in preventing spikes/cravings, but ultimately it's the net carbs that count.

As far as obtaining nutritional info online, there's quite a few sites, but most of the ones I've run into seem to pull their data from the USDA National Nutrient Database. Unfortunately the USDA database frequently conflicts with product labels causing much gnashing of teeth and consternation all around.

In other words, if your sources for GI values are conflicting, don't expect a trip to the carb reporting arena to shed any more light on the subject. Nobody seems to have a monopoly on cold hard facts anywhere.

[Maison Rustique]

I don't have a problem with cooking low-carb/low-fat nearly as much as when I don't want to cook.

I put off going out with friends once because of the diet (South Beach) and simply couldn't do it again. So tonight we are going here. I think I'll manage so-so, though I know that I'll be very tempted by certain items.