Stretching a Meal - Easy AND CHEAP! #lowcarb

One day last week I had planned steak with roasted vegetables for supper. Then my daughter asked if her friend could eat with us, and of course I said he could...though I'd gotten 3 steaks out of the freezer, cutting each into 4 chunks makes it easy to feed 4 people with 3 steaks. Then she asked if one of her girlfriends, who also has a toddler, could also come. So we were up to 5 adults and 2 toddlers for supper.

The roasted vegetables were no problem: I just added more to the baking sheet. I used cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, red & green bell peppers, and whole green beans - all simply tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and sea salt, and roasted at 425 until they just started to brown.

For the meat, I cut it into bite-sized chunks and seared it in just a little olive oil, then added a couple of cans of shitaki mushrooms and a couple of onions, cut into big chunks. Once those had cooked, I stirred in some garlic and chili powders, and some worchestershire sauce, and it was ready to serve with a big pile of vegetables, and some fresh tomato wedges.

We ate like royalty, on nearly double the amount of food I'd originally planned. The plates were beautiful and colorful, that last-minute addition of the fresh tomatoes added a perfect contrast to the hot dishes, and everyone had their fill, with enough left over for my husband to have an evening snack!

Best of all, the cost: I fed everyone for under $10! 2# of steak at $2.99/lb, a half-bag (2.5#) of frozen mixed vegetables at $1.50, 2 tomatoes were about 40c each, plus oil and seasonings. AMAZING!

Lately, It's Been All About Comfort #lowcarb

Between my pain and digestive issues, and things that have been going on in my life, my diet has been all about comfort. Not weight loss, not macronutrient ratios, not even about balance. Just about comfort. There have been days on end when all I ate was pasta - Dreamfield's of course - with olive oil, butter, and the mixed Italian blend shredded cheese from Walmart. Other days, it was buttered toast, just store-bought lowcarb bread, which I wouldn't usually eat, but it's been about getting through each day, so many days lately, and just being able to eat has been a blessing.

One of the great things about the way I eat is that thick'n'creamy - REAL creamy, with real high-fat cream - is comforting and lowcorb both! And while many days I didn't want creamy, many days I did. And I could. Creamy-cheesy comfort...

Some days, though, I have prepared actual meals, as I always have, but nothing very inspired. We're still eating through the surplus of meat, seafood, and veggies in our big freezer, and have just had to fill in the gaps with dairy and fresh produce - nothing worth reporting. But overall, June was a month of very few, very small grocery bills, and not a single "big" shopping. That really lowers our net average for groceries.

So while I don't have a whole lot to report, I do want to tell you about yesterday's fantastic 15-minute supper. So good, it deserves its own post :).

Great Article - Save $$ on Meat! #lowcarb

I have been getting Mary Hunt's newsletter, Debt-Proof Living, for years, and have an enormous amount of respect for her, what she's accomplished, and how she is helping others to get out of debt quickly, and fairly. She has some great money-saving ideas in her daily newsletter, and if you click on the title above it should take you to her article on saving money on meats. It makes such perfect sense! This is how I shop (am I paying for bone? added water weight? fat?), doing the math as to whether the edible portions of a $1.29/lb roast make it a real bargain over the $3.59 leaner boneless cut...but having the chart that she links to will really be a great help and probably more accurate. I hope you benefit as much from this article as I plan to do!

A New #LowCarb Player on the #YouTube Field

I think I've watched every low carb recipe video on YouTube so many times that I'd given up hope of ever seeing anything new. Not that I don't appreciate them all, of course! And I have so many favorites that I will never grow tired of watching! Somehow seeing other people make low carb foods is just really enjoyable to me even after 3-4 viewings...just the same though, the 'Tube was due for some new blood.

And last night I discovered FidgetForFitness. With all the zeal and enthusiasm of a new low carber she has been creating easy dishes and sharing them with us - nearly 100 videos (not all recipes, but still...) in just a couple of months! - and they look pretty darned good! I remember those days 6 years ago when I filled my kitchen with lowcarb ingredients and went to work creating, and it was so much fun! Well that seems to be where Fidge (an affectionate nickname, as I feel I know her after watching so many videos!) is right now, and it's almost as fun reliving it with her now!

I've already amassed my list of "gotta try" dishes, as well as a couple of questions that I will put forth to her eventually, but I'm so happy to have found new low carb blood on the 'Tube, and dishes that look easy and good, that I wanted to share :).

Stockpiling Meat #lowcarb (Comment on Another Blog)

If you click on the title of this post it should take you to Grace2882's blog, which I love! Today I read her post about stockpiling meat. I LOVE that idea! I guess I stockpile, since I load up on meat when it's on sale...at any given time I have at least a month's worth of meats in the chest freezer in the garage, usually more. But I don't to things as she does, with lists, plans, and menus, as I've written before. Rather, I tend to keep my own mini-low-carb-stock, as if I were stocking a personal-sized grocery, and choose my daily meals from that. I'm just not an ahead-planner.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing is because I was intrigued by Grace2882's numbers. If I'm reading it correctly, she spent about $70/wk for meats alone. She is happy with that, and that's great :). My budget, however, wouldn't allow $10/day for just meat - or even $10/day for everything. Granted, I do have the occasional day that is $10 or even more, but I can't do that on a regular basis for my husband and I (and he eats huge portions; what the 2 of us eat for supper would easily feed 3) and sometimes my daughter and her toddler son, plus my mom at least one day/week.

I think next month I will keep track of how much I spend just on meats. This month I won't be buying much (unless I see a big sale) because I have so much on hand at the moment. But because the focus of this blog is living lowcarb inexpensively, as well as easily, I thought I'd comment. I don't really know what others consider inexpensive when it comes to eating lowcarb, and it is interesting to find out and compare.

Thanks Grace2882, I love all of your menus, ideas, and information!

Strange Food Day #lowcarb

I didn't want much lunch so I took a handful of frozen cauliflower florets and partially thawed them, just so I could chop them with my chopping blade. Then I chopped some leftover ham and sprinkled cheese on top, then heated it up right in the bowl. It was maybe a cupful if that...and very very good.

For supper I'd gotten out a couple of NY strips for grilling for Pete and I, and planned to maybe heat up some green beans in olive oil...but suddenly got a taste for some great Koegel franks in the casings. So we went to the local market and picked a few out of the meat case, and grilled them with our steaks. And had a salad on the side, with my own salad dressing (about 1/3c mayo, 1/4c SF ketchup, 2T Ideal sweetener, and 1Tbsp vinegar). What a delicious supper! A little unconventional maybe, but totally delicious!

What I 8 Today (6/9/10) #lowcarb

No appetite today so I didn't eat until suppertime. But dinner was pork rubbed with brown sugar sub, garlic, onion, and chili powder, and sea salt, then roasted. I also peeled a rutabaga and cut it into 1/4" strips, tossed with olive oil and sea salt, sprinkled with a little balsamic vinegar, and roasted, plus I fried up some brussels sprouts in bacon fat.

My stomach handled everything ok, even though I ate a full meal. As I wrote in my ChiaChatter blog, I am not fully convinced that my illness and pain is even in my digestive tract.

Haven't done any shopping in weeks, except for some half'n'half and a couple of other misc. things. Nothing major. We still have so much food in the house and in the freezer that I may not have to do a big shopping at all this month. It pays to stock up on food when it's on sale!

You May Have Noticed I Haven't Posted Much...#lowcarb

I'm sick. Going through so much testing, different doctors, etc. And I'm not eating right. Oh I'm eating mostly low carb but my gut is so messed up that sometimes I don't want anything to eat, sometimes it doesn't matter what I eat I get sick, sometimes the pain is so awful that I swear I will never eat again...

So I eat what I can, when I can, and am just trying to get through this time the best way I can. What and when I eat are sporadic and based upon how I feel at the time, and certainly not worth blogging about.

If you're interested, I do talk about my health stuff on my ChiaChatter blog.

Drawing Your Attention To A Comment #lowcarb

I just approved a comment on one of my blog entries here. At first glance it seemed to be kind of spammy when I checked out the site, and certainly she's trying to promote a (free) ebook here. But that's ok, because the bread recipes on the page, though they don't show the actual carb counts, look good. And the website looks good - be sure to watch the video on how to not have to peel a hard-boiled egg! So, to make sure you see it, I'm putting her comment here:

Great Recipes for Low Carb Bread. Easy to make and really tastes great!! http://bestlowcarbcooking.info/you-can-have-your-bread-eat-it-too.html

Bessie Cook
Download your FREE Low Carb Recipe Ebook! http://bestlowcarbcooking.info

I will also add the URL to my blog roll.

CHEAP'n'EASY #Lowcarb Picnic Ideas!

Lots of picnic food is already low-carb - think grilled meats - but when you're with a large group of family and friends it just don't seem right not to have a table groaning with food! And since this blog is about "Cheap'n'Easy" lowcarbing, I have some suggestions for that crowd-pleasing, groaning table that people can be enjoyed by ALL - lowcarbers or not!

First, the meats. Grill several different kinds. You can get chicken drumsticks for <$1/lb any day of the week just about, hamburgers made from scratch or already-formed patties for about 25¢ each, brats for about 50¢ each, and hot dogs for as little as a dime each! (Note that the cheapest hot dogs have all kinds of fillers, even HFCS, so read that packaging carefully! Ditto your brats!) Once you put out a few platters of different grilled meats, you've got a great start on your groaning table!

Next, vegetables. Even vegetables haters can enjoy sliced eggplant, zucchini or yellow squash, or halved bell peppers, tomatoes, or onions once they've been grilled! Brush with olive oil and season liberally (try garlic and onion powders, chili powder, sea salt, etc...open your spice cupboard and use your imagination!) before grilling. All of the colors on the platters, with the lovely grill marks criss-crossing your veggies, some fresh herbs tucked in, and this creates quite an impressive showing!

And a grilled "salad" is an impressive and EXCELLENT offering! Halve a head of romaine, leaving the bottom intact to hold it together. Brush both sides with olive oil and grill the cut side first, just until it has grill marks and is starting to get limp. Turn it over and sprinkle the hot cut side with some chopped cooked bacon and a little shredded cheese to melt it all on as the other side grills, and serve your grilled salads across a platter with a variety of salad dressings, and little dishes of add-ons for your guests to top 'em off. Suggestions: more bacon pieces and shredded cheeses, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced 'shrooms, roasted/salted sunflower seeds, chopped hard-boiled eggs...even tuna, ham, or chicken! Guests will love these I promise!

For other side dish ideas, try slices of cucumbers with spoonfuls of chicken, tuna, or egg salad on top, garnished with smoky paprika and parsley. Or a standard faux-tato salad, using blanched cauli bites instead of potatoes...and you can add other veggies as well! Devilled eggs are an expected offering, and are already low carb! A fruit salad of berries and melons with unsweetened coconut is always lovely, and cheese chips and veggies with dips are great too! Nobody will even miss the potato chips but if you have the time, daikons sliced thinly on a mandoline, deep-fried until curly and brown, then immediately seasoned with garlic salt and parmesan cheese (from the green can) make a very reasonable substitute. These are best served warm, so bring them to the picnic in a big covered foil baking dish that you can toss on the grill for a few minutes before serving with your meal.

Since desserts are expected, meringue cookies, SF jello salads with REAL whipped cream, lowcarb no-bake cookies and/or fudge, or any of the many cake, muffin, or cupcake recipes made with almond and/or coconut flours and SF sweeteners that abound will definitely work, with dishes of nuts set among them.

There is no reason that we lowcarbers can't have just as great and plentiful of a family picnic as non-lowcarbers can, and do it just as simply and inexpensively!

Planning or Winging It? #lowcarb

I follow blogs about people who plan their meals in advance and shop accordingly. I guess I've never explicitly mentioned that that's not how I do - although it's probably obvious.

It's like anything else: whatever works for you! For me, I want to eat whatever I'm in the mood for that day. If I plan a taco salad on Thursday but wake up craving a steak, I won't be happy with a taco salad. So I stock up my house with all kinds of lowcarb foods and ingredients to keep my options open.

On the other hand, I can see another point in planning: less emphasis on food. Less giving in to our food desires/craving. Learning control over "living to eat" and rather concentrating on "eating to live" - providing what we need to survive, rather than spending our days craving and drooling and obsessing over that night's fare.

Because, the way I do it, that's what I do. As the day wears on that night's supper is always on my mind. I may be thinking of a lot of other things, but that supper is always there. I think about what time to make it, how to season it, what side dishes I'll have, and how great it will taste. I give it WAY too much power over my thoughts, all day every day. It becomes the focus.

Food is a fuel. An enjoyable fuel to be sure, but when it becomes more than simply a way to keep going and to keep healthy, then it becomes a god. Waaaaaaayy wrong.

I'm not a planner, in any area of my life, and won't become one, but food does have more power over my life than it should. I need to consider this, and decide what to do about. Those who plan are onto something.

A Lovely Dish! Sausage & Shrimp

I'd mentioned to my husband yesterday that for supper I was going to fix ground pork and shrimp together, seasoned with just chili powder, and "dressed" with maybe some sour cream and/or butter. By dinnertime however, I couldn't stand long enough to fix supper, so Pete took off on my idea and added some baby corn and some shiritake noodles, and seasonings of his own. I just put some butter on it in my bowl and it was fantastic! I had the rest for lunch today.

Supper was simple tonight. Just sliced about 4" of a pork tenderloin into 4 slices, seasoned them, and layed them in the bottom of an olive-oil-greased baking dish. They took up about 3/4 of the surface. In the remainder I put some brussels sprouts, frozen, that I'd tossed with olive oil, sea salt, and garlic and onion powders. Then I roasted them all together. It is wonderful how something so simple can taste so amazing! What helped, I'm sure, was the thick layer of fat on the pork...oh yeah, baby!
Oh yeah, and the sandwich I put in Pete's lunch for work today: A piece of FlatOut Light (6gN) bread, with mayo spread on it, then a layer of romaine leaves, a layer of thin-sliced SF ham, and a layer of swiss cheese. Rolled up it is lovely, huge, and filling! A 1/4c serving of roasted peanuts, 2 sticks of string cheese, and he had a very filling lunch that held him all day. Sometimes I also give him dill pickle spears, and I need to make a big pot of hard-boiled eggs also, he loves those - especially when I devil them!

Every meal I eat, I marvel at how anyone can believe that eating low carb is boring, or unhealthy - or expensive!