The Key To Low Carb Cooking

A Low carb supper

I am excited today because I have posted my very first guest post on another blog! Living A Changed Life is a fantastic blog written by Jennifer, who has photos showing how she lost a tremendous amount of weight! Be sure to go to her About Me page while you are there this morning to see the photos. My guest post is titled, Low Carbing And Loving It, and I'd love for my readers to stop by there and give some blog-love. Please leave a comment so I know you have been there!

The key to low carbing is to be able to cook from scratch. I have had comments about how expensive they think this way of eating is. But if you start adding up those loaves of bread, potatoes chips, potatoes, ice cream, rice and pasta, you will see a savings that can go toward the foods you thought were so expensive.

Meat is the center of a low carb meal. It doesn't have to be expensive steak. It can be cheaper cuts of meat. What you need to get started is to get some good low carb recipes and work from them. I make a variety of dishes and they are tasty and we look forward to them.

For example:

Sausage, Pepper and Onions is really good. My husband will eat the sausage as a sandwich as he does not care for peppers or onions. But it is a good low carb meal and I love it.

Chicken with hot wing sauce. We love this and have it often.

Turkey salad, this is one of those fast foods for us. Mix the turkey with mayonnaise (Yes, you can have it on low carbs and not the low fat variety!) and make a tossed salad and top your salad with the turkey salad. Mmmmm!

Pork Chops we like a lot. I cook them in my big covered roaster and they come out tender every time.

Casseroles that call for cracker or bread crumbs can still be made by substituting almond meal or flaxseed meal for the crumbs. Any recipe that calls for milk I use heavy cream for. And any recipe that calls for potatoes I use cauliflower for. I use zucchini from my garden for making many dishes, but the Zucchini Lasagna is one of my favorites by far.

I have completely banned white flour, cornstarch, and white sugar from my house. If it is not there I won't be tempted to use it. To tell the truth, the meals taste better without it. If I want gravy with my roast beef or turkey, I do what low carb chef, George Stella advises in his cookbook, Livin' Low Carb, "classic French cream reduction." That is using cream with the meat stock and some butter and reducing it to the thickness you want. A lot more taste than cornstarch or flour!

The trouble with low-fat, low calorie diets is they don't give you enough food to eat. It doesn't taste particularly good, and you feel deprived. I know, I was a Weight Watcher for many years. Lost weight, gained weight, over and over again. Now the low carb eating plan gets you into losing weight before you even realized that happened! Within the the first week, I lost 12 pounds which is unheard of for me, a slow loser. Are you a slow loser? Then you know what I am talking about. You are thankful if you've lost  a half a pound! Now I am eating bacon and eggs for breakfast and feeling better than I ever did on any diet! And losing weight too!

What is wrong with cooking from scratch? It is cheaper in the long run. My pantry seemed empty at first without the canisters and jars of flour, sugar, cornstarch, cornmeal, pastas, and don't forget rice! Everyone has to have rice, right? Not in our house. The funny thing is we ate a lot of rice and  beans before I started low carbs, then my husband admitted to me that he never really cared for them. So we easily eliminated them.

After you have gone through the Induction period, you will find that you are eating less food. Yes, you will. You will not want 4 slices of bacon, only 2. Not 3 eggs, only 1 or 2. It is how it works scientifically in your body. Everyone is different so you may need more food than the other person, but it works. Give it a try.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Updated 2020