Low Carb Ain't Always Low Carb #lowcarb

When I was first learning about low carb eating, before I even started (I researched for 2 years before taking the plunge) I remember getting cook books from the library to see what I would be eating, were I to actually try that WOE, and I remember thinking, "This might not be so bad. I can still have sugar and flour..." Say WHAT???

Yeah. There are a lot of recipes out there that label themselves low carb, and in the broadest sense of the word I suppose they could be considered thus. After all, 8g/serving isn't much, right? And in my naivete I believed that all there was to low carb eating is counting carbs. Of course, as most of us do, I later learned that, just as all calories aren't created equal, neither are carbs.

So to this day, I really resent when a low carb claim is made for foods that are misleading to those who know that the whole point is insulin response, and it doesn't take many grams of some types of carbs to have an impact.

So even after 6 years following low carb eating, it's a sore point with me when I pick up a low carb cookbook at a thrift store for 59¢ because it seems to have some rather interesting recipes in it, and read, "1/2c all-purpose flour...3/4c sugar..." or tune into a YouTube "low carb" recipe video and see a woman and her little girl dumping sugar into a bowl.

In its purest sense, eating low carb is about good health. It isn't about seeing how many insulin-spiking foods you can get away with in a recipe, if you just make the serving size small enough. And we know that sugars and starches are unhealthy. So why...???

So the little cookbook is in the trash, and certain YouTube producers are on my mental "ignore that one!" list. And life goes on...with one more rant out of the way :).

What I 8 Friday (4/2/10) #lowcarb

I munched on some bacon in the morning, and had a grilled burger and a grilled hot dog in the afternoon. For an evening snack I had a couple more grilled hot dogs, with just a little SF ketchup.

I'm not a fan of hot dogs, usually. But put them on the grill and let 'em go until they are crispy and starting to get black and I'm a sucker for 'em. Grilling season in our house means the Koegel franks in the skins - oh yeah, baby! (Yes, there is a gram of sugar in each one, and I'm not thrilled about the sodium nitrate either...it's a choice we each make for ourselves.)

Today will be steaks on the grill early in the day, and something light later. I'm about to go have some of the heavy-cream-yogurt I made a few days ago. Very thick, thicker than pudding, and oh-so-decadent tasting!

Eating mostly fats and proteins I don't get hungry very often, and definitely don't get that gnawing "gotta eat NOW!" feeling.

What I 8 Today (4/1/10) #lowcarb

coffee with heavy cream, bacon in the morning

grilled chicken and a couple bites of buttered corn in the afternoon

fried hamburger with mayo in the evening

Easily less than $5 for the day but it's late and I don't feel like doing the math :).

What I've Been Eating...not much! #lowcarb

First, I've been sick. I went one day eating nothing at all (couldn't drink much either), and another day I didn't eat much. Then yesterday I ate some leftover steak and some leftover pork tenderloin. And some popcorn, heavily buttered as always, for an evening snack.

Today I had eggs fried in butter for breakfast, and ate an early supper at Taco Bell...love their chalupas, even though I don't know how many carbs are in them. Had one of those and a double decker taco. They were worth it - the last time I had them were probably about 6 months ago - hardly a habit, and good.

For tomorrow I have chicken thawing.

We're also cutting back on vegetables and concentrate more on fats (mostly) and protein. The reason for this is that my gut issues seem to be more hair-trigger, and I'm having a hard time controlling the bloat; we're not talking about just little bloat, but can't-wear-any-of-my-clothes-because-my-belly-is-so-massive, terribly painful bloat. (Yeah, I know, Taco Bell isn't the greatest for that problem; I'm paying the price tonight!) So we're cutting back to basics, for a few days, in addition to my enzymes, to get this under control again, then I will start adding foods back in. But cabbage won't be on the list for a while yet :).

Versatile Cookie Dough Mix #lowcarb

This is the basic dry ingredient mix that I use for all of my cookie recipes. More at the end about how to use it:
3 parts almond flour
2 parts polydextrose
1 parts granulated low carb sugar substitute*
1 part each: vanilla protein powder, oat bran, coconut flour

To make about 6 dozen cookies I use 3 cups of the above mix, plus
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
2 sticks butter (not oleo)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Then I add whatever else to the dough: unsweetened coconut, SF chocolate chips, nuts, etc. In addition, I add a flavored extract to complement whatever I add to the mix.

Today I made some lovely cookies by adding a tsp. of almond extract and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. They are delightful and go perfectly with coffee! Often I will add 2T of cocoa powder with 2T of instant coffee granules, and increase the sweetener slightly.

*As is the case with most people who have been low carbing for a while, a little sweetness goes a LONG way. If you want a sweeter cookie, adjust your sweetener upward. These taste lightly sweet to us - perfect with coffee - but to non-low-carbers I'm sure they'd taste really bland.

Has It Really Been 10 DAYS??? #lowcarb

Wow, I can't believe so much time has passed. Things have been so busy here, that sitting down to blog has been one of the "I'll do that when I'm done with this" things I've needed to do...along with making yogurt and several other things. But 10 days??? I feel really badly about that!

Eating has been going just fine. Haven't had to shop for anything much, but I did go yesterday to Sav-a-Lot because I forgot to get something out of the freezer for supper. I found big fat sirloin pork chops for $1.29/lb, and they had $2 off stickers on them! So I got a bunch of those. Also ground chuck, that were $1.99/lb with 50¢ off stickers, so I got several 1# packages. A couple loaves of "light" italian bread for $1.49/loaf (usually 2/$5) for my husband, and a bag of salad mix for $1.

So far this month our grocery bill is just about $350. (I lost one receipt so I can't say for sure but that's a pretty close guess.) For 3 adults - 4 on Sundays when my mom is here - and certainly much of this will carry over into next month. It's kind of deceiving, the monthly tally; just because I buy so-much in a month, doesn't mean that's how much it costs for us to eat. At the end of each month my big freezer is more full than it was at the end of the previous month, since I stockpile when I see a sale.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from meals I've eaten in the last 10 days, with explanations to follow:



First pic was grilled steak (lovely to have the grill out now that it's spring!), salad with an onion dressing, and halved mini-eggplants, roasted and served with a generous blob of butter on them. It was an excellent meal!

2nd pic was a GREAT salad, loaded with turkey and bacon, eaten with onion dressing, and a lowcarb tortilla that had been brushed with olive oil, topped with italian cheese blend, and stuck in a low oven for a few minutes, on the side.

Today is still up for grabs. Not sure what will be had for supper, or whatever else we'll eat. Today I've been catching up on emails and - obviously - blogging, and haven't given much thought to anything else. I'll report back :).

A Couple of Quick Shopping Stops #lowcarb

At Walmart:
8 quarts Half'n'Half @ $1.50 each
4 quarts of heavy cream @ $2.98 each
3 pkg. 8 oz Italian blend shredded cheese @ $2.12 each
2 store brand "Crystal Light wanna be" cannisters @ $1.98 each
1 package beef jerky @ $3.50 (hubby's splurge)
TOTAL = $34.76

At Sav-a-Lot:
3 cream cheese, 8 oz. @ $.99 each
18 eggs @ $2.23
2 frozen pizzas @ $2.99 each (I eat 1/3 for 35gN carbs)
1 23 oz. can of coffee @ $3.00
1 bottle ketchup @ $.99 (for daughter who doesn't eat lowcarb)
2 ham ends & pieces, 16 oz. @ $1.39 each
1 yellow onions, 3# (6 onions) @ $1.99
TOTAL = $19.94

Spent for groceries so far this month: about $285 (rounding in my head). I don't anticipate the need for any more grocieries this month, given that I have lots of meats and frozen veggies, and plenty of dairy - it's a given in my head that we'll need about 4 quarts of half'n'half a week so I'll probably have to get more of that...but this should be a typical $300ish month for us. ("Us" includes hubby and I, plus adult daughter who eats with us about half the time, and sharing our food/preparing meals for the 1YO grandson as well as my veggie-loving parrots - lol.)

Daikhetti and Steak for Supper! #lowcarb

One of my favorite new gadgets, as I may have mentioned, is a julienne peeler...and tonight we used it on a daikon to make long strings of "daikhetti"...

After peeling and julienning we squeezed as much water out as we could, and then cooked even more water out of it. Then I drained it, sauteed some chopped onion in a little oil, put it back in the pan with with onions and butter, granulated garlic, and seasoned salt, and finished it off (it was already soft) on high heat, stirring and scraping the pan as it browned. At the very end I added a drained can of shitake mushrooms; as soon as those were heated through, we ate it with some broiled rare steaks. It was DELICIOUS! No "radish" taste whatsoever, excellent taste and texture both. We will definitely be making this again!

The daikon was 79¢, the onion was about 35¢, I used a half-stick of butter for 25¢, and the steaks had been on sale but weren't in the original package; I'd bought a large pack and rewrapped them before freezing...but I'm sure that they weren't more than a buck each.

Earlier in the day I had had a couple of mozzarella string cheese pieces, and had a dish of SF ice cream with whipped cream for dessert. It was really a one-meal day.
What a great supper, and a great daikon experiment!

Great Mushroom Dish!

I've made stuffed portabella caps in the past, but yesterday I took the lazy way and made Cheap'n'Easy casserole. I just lined the bottom of a baking dish with the caps ($2.99)(they were about 2-3" each, not the great big ones) after cleaning them.

Then in a frying pan I browned a package of loose sausage ($1.49) in a little bacon fat, then stirred in some frozen chopped spinach (90¢), and put an 8 oz. brick of cream cheese (79¢) on top and covered the pan. In about 10 minutes the spinach was cooked through and the cream cheese was soft enough to stir into the mixture, which I spooned over the mushroom caps. Sprinkled about 1/2c of shredded Italian cheese blend (53¢ worth) and sprinkled with maybe 2T of parm (from the green can - 10¢ worth), and put into a 350º oven just until the cheese was melty and browning.

About 4 servings for just about $1.70 per...and filling and DELICIOUS! No worries about seasoning because the sausage already has it all...and as you can see from the photo, the serving size is quite generous. The fats and proteins really kept me full for a long time too, saving both time and money on another meal or snack for the day!

My #Lowcarb Shopping Trip

As I've mentioned, I usually do a big "stock up" shopping once a month or so - I try to do it in the middle of the month but sometimes I just have to go when I have the time, and a ride (since I can't see well enough to drive). So this month I was a little early but I also didn't buy as much as I usually do because there weren't a whole lot of sales going on for some reason, nor did I find many specials. So I got what I needed to get, at the best prices I could find, and that was that. Also remember that I often have a lot of stuff from the previous month left in my big freezer in the garage or in the cupboard or whatever...

First I went to GFS. Here is what I bought there:
5# b/s chicken breasts @ $8.99
* frozen broccoli florets @ $3.29
* frozen chopped spinach @ $2.49
* frozen yellow squash slices @ $2.29
* frozen cut green beans @ $1.99
(2) * frozen cauliflower @ $5.58
(2) * frozen brussels sprouts @ $5.98
(2) 36-count string cheese @ $14.98
10# frozen crunchy cod @ $32.99 (15gN carbs per piece)
(4) bags Veggie Straw snacks
(1) 32 oz. EVOO @ $14.99
(1) 16 oz. jar granulated onion @ $7.99
(2) frozen Angus Steakburgers, 15 per box, @ $27.58

* = Their bags of frozen vegetables are 2-2½# each; what counts to me is how many servings per bag, rather than how much each bag weighs. And I typically get 4 servings out of each bag.

TOTAL $149.10

Then to Meijer:
2.58# rutabagas @ $2.04
1.35# turnips @ $1.74
0.49# cute little tiny eggplants @ $0.73
(1) celery root @ $1.99
(1) qt. SF chocolate soy milk @ $2.49 (NOTE: I usually buy this at Walmart, cheaper, but knew I wouldn't be going to Walmart for several days so just bought 1.)
0.48# daikon radish @$1.20
(1) package of 6 portabella caps @$2.99
(2) pks of chicken leg quarters @ $7.90 (on sale for 79¢/lb)
2# catfish fillets @ $4.49
10.6 oz package (= 2# sugar) of Ideal granulated sweetener @ $4.99 (on sale)
1# raw almonds @ $5.99
(4) 1# frozen shrimp @ $19.95 (on sale)
10 boxes Dreamfield's pasta (variety) @ $22.90
TOTAL $79.01

We will still do some shopping at Sav-a-Lot and Walmart for a few things here and there this month...but the bulk of our shopping is done, for about $220.00 for low-carb food for the 3 adults in the house...once again, much less than what I spent before I starting low carb shopping, even though that was nearly 6 years ago and prices were cheaper. I spent a MINIMUM of $100/week, and that was just for food.

So there you have it, more of the "cheap" part of "cheap and easy" :).

What I 8 Today (3/8) #lowcarb

for lunch I had some Dreamfield's spaghetti with butter and cheese (finely shredded italian blend, walmart's brand). Supper was broiled steak with summer squashes, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots (came in a blend from GFS) cooked in bacon fat on the side. And a dish of SF ice cream, with whipped cream.

Made Lisa's Sticky Chicken This Weekend, and...

...it was GREAT! Really delicious, I can't even believe something so simple is so good! My chicken breast strips were only half-thawed when I added the marinade to them, and I let them keep thawing in it...I also added just a tsp of granulated splenda to counteract the (almost non-existent/barely there) ketchup-y taste...but it was really really fantastic.

If I did it right, you can click on the title of this entry and it will take to you Lisa's blog - one of my low-carb FAVORITES! - and her recipe. If not, click here to go there.

Lisa, this is a fun, simple, cheap'n'easy, and very tasty recipe, thanks!