February Low Carb support thread

[leslieann]

Hi, everyone. Last month's thread was very helpful to me. I finally got into a groove and then got sick with pneumonia, and I am still recovering and eating too many carbohydrate foods. So my goal is to get Back On Track within the next couple of weeks.

Anybody else? Some folks had really good results last month.

[razz]

I am still in but had to recover from visiting friends for a few days who feel that lavish food outlay is a good sign of hospitality. It is hard to be a gracious guest and still cut carbs. I was reading my exchanges list again at lunchtime and am back on track.

[leslieann]

I had to laugh at your friends' "lavish food outlay." I think that I am the same way; I want to FEED people when they visit. I have to remember that I am not doing them any favors to pile on the carb foods but they are the ones we (I) think of in terms of hospitality.

I can manage a dinner menu with low carbs but how do you handle appetizers, and snacks when having visitors? I think these are pretty good questions....I wonder if Jane 2.0 has any recommendations?

Friday afternoon I had a meeting with colleagues at a wine bar. The food choices were cheeses and crackers. I was drinking watered down orange juice, due to still feeling ill, which turned out to be really frugal, but I was hungry and the food was not on my options list! I need to figure out some ways around all of that. I used to carry raw almonds with me; that worked at the time.

Looking forward to hearing from more folks. Razz, did the visiting impede your weight loss? I had lost nearly five pounds but most of that is back on (probably in retained fluid) since eating carbs again.

[lhamo]

I haven't been as strict as I probably should, but weighed in at 65 kilos at the end of the month, which I am pleased about.

Over the holiday here I read a great new book my sister alerted me to called "The Smarter Science of Slim" -- it is really great, probably one of the best summaries of the related science I have read so far (I like Gary Taubes, but his writing is not as "readable" somehow and Jonny Bowden is also great, but already clearly firmly on the low-carb train). This book clearly leans toward a low carb approach, but is a bit more neutral (he likes legumes, for example -- yay, beans are back on our menu!). Anyway, if people are loooking for useful resources to help stay motivated and on track, I would recommend this as one.

We are facing a bit of a crisis at home -- our long-time helper left (for very good reasons that we are happy about) and the friend she suggested might be able to help us isn't going to work out (also for reasons we understand and agree with). So we are helperless for awhile here. That means I'm on dinner duty all week. Upside? I can focus on more protein-rich/carb low options that we can all eat. Downside? I have to cook dinner every night after i get home from work, which is not what I'm used to. I'm sure I can manage, but it is a major shake up in our routine.

Very interested in people's quick and easy low carbish family meal suggestions -- maybe that's a topic for another thread, though.

lhamo

[leslieann]

Maybe another thread but I can suggest the crock pot. My DIL has a beef stew recipe that is pretty low-carb; good quality stew meat, onion, carrots, a can of tomatoes, a handful of green beans and a handful of cooked Italian white beans. It also calls for a can of beef gravy which I leave out, and a teaspoon of sweetener (she uses Splenda because she makes this for her diabetic dad). Add a hefty tablespoon of "Italian seasoning" which, as far as I can tell, is mostly basil with a little oregano and tarragon. Salt, pepper, and let it cook all day. I have left out the beans when I am avoiding legumes and I can serve it with rice for other family members or bread. The secret seems to be to get a really good bit of beef. I have stopped buying "stew meat" and get odd steaks on sale and cut them up myself.

If you started another thread, lhamo, then I guess this post is in the wrong place! Congrats on maintaining your weight loss and staying focused even through a family emergency (losing your helper counts as an emergency, IMHO).

[lhamo]

Thanks for the suggestion -- I did mention the idea of a crock pot to DH earlier today. Might be a good time to make that investment.

lhamo

[leslieann]

I have been lusting over the simplest possible crock pot; it was fifteen dollars at Wally World before Christmas and I have no idea why I didn't just buy it. False frugality, I guess. Everything here seems expensive (to my US eyes) but this was a plain and simple, removable insert, two temperature, pot. Nothing programmable, nothing that required a manual....and of course now the price is up to $20 but the big deal is that they don't actually have any of them.

I have a tiny crock pot that does not have a removable crock. I bought this early in my separation when I had some belief that I didn't deserve or need a full sized anything (you wouldn't believe what I wasted money on because I had to have small everythings). Anyway, it is a PITA to clean and I can actually afford the twenty bucks...

There are some fabulous crock pot and slow cooker cooks on these forums, as I recall.

[AmeliaJane]

Yes, any recipes for fast meals, and also lunches and snacks, would be handy. The low-carb thing seems to be working for me, but unfortunately the time I picked to start was also an insanely busy time at work, and at least the recipes in the South Beach cookbooks are timeconsuming. (Not hours of cooking, but still more than I can spend just now.) In my higher-carb phase, I had a roster of meals and snacks for busy times, that I could throw together without thinking but I am finding myself caught short a lot...getting tired of "grape tomatoes and cheese sticks" as a fallback.

[lhamo]

Amelia Jane, do you like clam chowder? There is a recipe in the Low Carb Cooking for Idiots book (I think it is that one) that I have adapted to be even more ridiculously simple than what they have suggested.

Basically, chop some leeks up and saute them in a small bit of olive oil in a large pot (no need to fuss about separating the green parts and white parts -- just toss everything in there).

While the leeks are getting soft, chop a ton of mushrooms (recipe calls for 1lb but I usually use closer to 2) and then throw them in and cook until they release their juices.

Then add a decent amount of whatever stock you have available -- recipe calls for chicken but veggie would probably be fine too -- and two cans of chopped clams, including juice.

Add salt, pepper and a small bit of nutmeg if you like the taste. Let it boil covered for 15-20 minutes.

Just before serving, add in about 1 cup of whole cream and stir well. The temp of the soup in the pot will be enough to bring the temp of the cream up without curdling it and you can turn the heat off at that point and serve.

You can blend it with a stick blender a bit if you want it more thick. The original recipe had you doing a roux with butter and flour, but I think that is overkill and not in the spirit of a low carb recipe.

I'm probably going to make this for dinner for DH and I one night this week -- I'll make the kids french bread pizza.

lhamo

[JaneV2.0]

I had to laugh at your friends' "lavish food outlay." I think that I am the same way; I want to FEED people when they visit. I have to remember that I am not doing them any favors to pile on the carb foods but they are the ones we (I) think of in terms of hospitality.

I can manage a dinner menu with low carbs but how do you handle appetizers, and snacks when having visitors? I think these are pretty good questions....I wonder if Jane 2.0 has any recommendations? ....
Looking forward to hearing from more folks. Razz, did the visiting impede your weight loss? I had lost nearly five pounds but most of that is back on (probably in retained fluid) since eating carbs again.

I weighted in on Stella's appetizer thread. You can do antipasti with cheeses and olives, giardiniera http://allrecipes.com/recipe/hot-italian-giardiniera/, deli rollups, stuffed mushroom caps; meatballs (I like ground chicken with ginger, garlic, scallions, and dipping sauces); roasted or fried stuffed jalapeno poppers; guacamole, clam or crab dip with crudites...Mixed nuts are always good. Smoked salmon and cream cheese on cucumber slices...Chicken wings (sans breading)....rumaki (marinated chicken livers, bacon, water chestnuts on skewers).

ETA: http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/lowcarb-snacks.html