Listing Ingredients For Stocking Up Pantry Plan

Low Carb Zucchini Lasagna

Since I started eating low carb foods, I have deleted white flour and any product that is made with it. I now use almond meal/flour, flax seed meal, coconut flour, pork rinds, hazelnut meal/flour in place of flour or bread products. If you are making fried chicken or oven fried chicken, you just bread it with any of those. We love a mixture of the flax seed meal and almond meal coating the chicken. My husband loves when I include a little of the coconut flour too.

I also forgo sugar and most artificial sugar substitutes. I like stevia. It has no aftertaste, at least to me. I have heard other people complain that it does, but my husband and I both like it very much. I buy the Sweet Leaf brand in the little packets and also have it in liquid form for cooking. It is hard to mix into cold drinks at first, so I mix it into a little warm liquid if I am using the powdered form. I will use Splenda, but usually only as an ingredient in the DaVinci's sugar free syrups. Those are something that make my low carbing a pleasure!

I do not use margarine as I believe that is something that is REALLY bad for you. I used to love it, but have not used it at all since 2008, except when my husband bought it at the store instead of butter. I mainly use butter, olive oil and coconut oil. Occasionally, I use peanut and sesame oils for flavor.

For beverages, I am a coffee and tea drinker mainly. We drink a lot of water around here. And I also buy seltzer in a couple different flavors. Natural flavor only, lime being my favorite and plain for my special low carb egg creams I make.

Blackberries are a low carb fruit!

Meat, salad, low carb vegetables, eggs, cheese, berries and cream are the main foods I use. So now that I have figured that out, I can now work on building the ingredient list of foods to stock. My main dish list was here in the post, Planning Your Meals Around Special Diets. Today, I am posting on the main dishes only. 

Cheddar Cheese is always available for low carbers

My Main Dish List:

1. Chicken Thighs with Hot Wing Sauce
2. Steak (or low carb stir fries)
3. Pork Country Ribs
4. Roast Turkey Breast
5. Beanless Chili
6. Tuna Salad 
7. Oven Fried Chicken (almond flour/golden flax seed coated)
8. Pork Chops or Roast
9. Beef Stew (do not eat high carb vegs) (thicken with low carb alternatives)
10. Turkey Salad
11. Baked or Grilled Fish Fillets
12. Ground Beef Dishes (low carb meatballs, meatloaf, hamburgers, casseroles)
13. Chicken or Turkey Stew
14. Zucchini Lasagna (no pasta noodles)

Look at your recipes for each dish and list the ingredients you need. It is that simple. Those are the foods you need to stock. I figure 14 meals mean I can serve these twice a month. Maybe one or two will be once a month and two or three others will be three times or more a month. Make it suit you and your family.

My Ingredient List: (example)

chicken thighs

garlic powder

tarragon

hot sauce

celery seed

white vinegar

butter

blue cheese dressing

If you are freezing your meats and various foods than that is basically all you have to do. Get the food divided up into your meals and clearly mark on them what they are and the date. You may want to add what they are for...........if you are anything like me, sometimes I forget what I bought something for and will use it for something else. You and keep a list or a calendar of what you will be serving each day and that does make it easier.

Canned ground beef and chicken

Now I can my foods usually. So my meats I bring home and prepare them to be canned. If I want the chili for maybe four meals through out the month, I will make a couple of big pots of it and can that in quart jars. I probably would need 2-3 quarts for each meal, so I need to make at least 12 quarts for the month. If we don't use it all up, good. But I will make more the next month to keep adding to my pantry shelves.

Salad from my garden!

Since we will be eating mainly low carbs, all my meals usually will have a salad as a side dish. Meat and salad. Salad ingredients I will have to buy it fresh in the store during the winter, until I get my sun room completed, a green house built or a cold frame set up. All summer we eat it from our garden.

• So make a list of all your main dishes.
• Study your recipes and list your ingredients.
• From that, make a list to take to the store.
• Need not be done all in one day or one week-end.
• Keep it ongoing. So you eat some meals and you make more.
• It is not set in stone. You can change your recipes or menus anytime.
• Make your meals tasty and inviting!

I like doing this. I like seeing my husband looking forward to meals instead of  wishing he was eating at Burger King! He is one of those men who does not like to go out for meals mainly because he knows I can always make it better. It is a good feeling to know you are feeding your family members good food that they really like, and it is better for them.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole