Category: Food

Dana Carpender: Low Carbing on a Budget

kaitiscotland3 Comments

Dana, how can you follow a low carb meal plan if you are on a tight budget?

Well, first, you’re going to have to cook. 🙂

maxresdefault (5)

A year or two after I went low carb, my husband started grad school, and had to reduce to part time hours. I was not yet writing for a living. The budget was definitely slim.

I find the greatest friend my food budget has is a freezer. Even a little one, maybe 5 cubic feet, lets you take advantage of loss-leader sales and markdowns. As I type this, mine is full of chicken thighs I bought at 49c/pound and pork shoulder I bought for 99c/pound – oh, and bacon that went down to $1.99. I am not above buying meat that’s been marked down because it’s nearing the pull-by date; that’s how we afford rib-eye steak now and then. One delirious day I got 10 pounds of bacon and 8 pounds of pork sausage because they’d all been marked down to 99c/pound for clearance. Indeed, I rarely buy meat at full price. Heck, I have a turkey in there that was marked down to 79c/pound after the holidays. It’ll be great smoked on the grill this summer.

You’re thinking “How do I afford a freezer?” Check Craigslist; our big chest freezer (and by “big” I mean I could fit a body in it if it weren’t full of marked-down meat) cost us $125 and the hauling; it has saved us that many times over. It’s run beautifully for 6-7 years now. Do shop for one that’s fairly recent vintage; it will cost you less in electricity. You can also shop scratch-and-dent stores. Prices run higher, but you may get a warranty.

Keep in mind that your body doesn’t care if you get your protein from those 49c/pound chicken thighs or from lobster tail. It will be just as happy with cabbage as with out-of-season lettuce. Speaking of seasons, even today there is some seasonal variation in food prices. Take advantage of them.  We just stocked up on eggs when they were cheap at Easter; eggs are great any time of day. When Kerrygold butter went on sale, I bought 6 packages.

I’m a dinosaur; I still get a dead-tree newspaper daily, so I see the weekly grocery store flyers. As a result, I know when Aldi has avocados at 49c a pound, and when Lucky’s has a sale on prime rib – yes, I got a prime rib roast for $4.99/pound. That’s roughly half the usual price. I also try to be aware of who has the best prices on what on a day-to-day basis. We go through a lot of pork rinds, so it’s more than worth it to drive 20 minutes across town to Aldi, where they cost 99c a bag, instead of $2.99 a bag at the nearest grocery store. I buy them a case at a time. If you don’t get a paper, see if you can get the local grocery store circulars online.

Don’t waste food. As I said above, I eat leftovers a lot. I also save the bones from my chicken and steaks in plastic grocery sacks in the freezer, and turn them into broth when I have a bagful.

Most low carb speciality foods are pricey, and none of them are essential.

Two more thoughts:

One, many carby foods are expensive. I have long thought of cold cereal as a conspiracy to get suckers to pay $4 for 15c worth of grain. How much did the potatoes in that bag of chips cost? Why do you think pizza places keep bragging about their crust, or offering “free” Crazy Bread? They can appear generous while sucking dollars out of your pocket for something that cost them pennies. Cut the expensive carby junk out of your food budget, and you’ll have more money for bacon and eggs.

And two, any food that makes you fat, hungry, tired, and sick wouldn’t be cheap if they were giving it away.

 

Dana Carpender is the author of nine cookbooks, including the best-selling 500 Low-Carb Recipes.

 

Avocado and Chorizo Salad

Emma2 Comments

low carb saladsThis is an embarrassingly easy salad – so simple, it barely justifies a recipe. I thought I’d share it anyway because it’s really delicious.

Do cook the chorizo, even if it’s one that doesn’t have to be cooked. If you cook the meat, then the juices and oil run and it can form the dressing for the salad.

Avocado and Chorizo Salad

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 1 large, ripe avocado
  • Packet sweet and crunchy salad leaves
  • 150g chorizo, sliced
  • Salt and pepper
  • White wine vinegar

Fry the chorizo in a pan for five minutes until lightly browned. Turn frequently to stop it burning.

Arrange the salad in two bowls – I use soup bowls – and chop up the avocado. Put the pieces on top of the salad and sprinkle with a little vinegar, and salt and pepper.

Tip the chorizo, oil and all, on top.

Allow about 8g of carbs per portion.

 

Chicken Curry

kaitiscotland4 Comments

 

1.25 kg chicken pieces, bone in                           1 tsp salt

Black pepper                                                      2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp fresh ginger                                               1 large clove garlic, crushed

5 tbsp full fat yoghurt                                         1 ½ tbsp ground coriander

2 tsp cumin                                                        ½ tsp cayenne

6 cardamom pods

2 tbsp finely chopped onion or shallot

 

Serves 4

 

  1. Put the chicken in a large casserole dish in a single layer. Add salt, juice, lots of pepper, mix well and set aside for 20 mins.
  2. Combine ginger, garlic, yoghurt, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne and cardamom in a bowl. Mix well.
  3. Rub chicken with mix, cover and put in fridge overnight.
  4. Heta oven to 200C/gas 6.
  5. Bring chicken to room temperature. Brush with oil, scatter with onion. Bake in middle of oven for 30 mins. Turn chicken over and put back in oven. Cook another 40 mins, basting every 10 with juices.

 

cardamom-166833_960_720

Low-Carb Pizza

Emma10 Comments

low-carb pizzaLow-carb pizza for dinner? Anyone who follows a low-carb diet for diabetes is probably familiar with the work of Dr Andreas Eenfeldt.

The Swedish practitioner set up the Diet Doctor blog in 2007. The blog is now the most popular health blog in Scandinavia and the website offers all kinds of useful resources for those wanting to take up a low carb high fat diet. There are expert videos, how to courses and lots of recipes.

I decided to try one out this week – for low-carb pizza. This version uses aubergine slices to replace the bread. I adapted it slightly, but you can see the original recipe here.

Don’t forget that our book, The Diabetes Diet contains plenty of low-carb recipes and advice on how to adjust your medication when you embark on a low carb diet, which applies to those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Low Carb Pizza

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 1 aubergine, medium to large
  • 200g minced beef (use pork or turkey if you prefer)
  • 200g tinned tomatoes
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • ½ small onion
  • 150g grated cheese – use a mix of mozzarella and cheddar for the best taste)
  • ½ tbsp. dried oregano
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Slice the aubergines length-wise about ⅓–½ inches (1 cm) thick. Coat with olive oil and bake in oven for about 20 minutes or until they turn a little in colour. Turn them half-way through cooking.

Fry the meat, finely chopped onion and garlic in pan until the onions have softened the meat is browned. Add the tomato sauce and seasoning. Let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes or more.

Remove the aubergine slices from the oven and spread the meat mixture on top. Sprinkle with cheese and oregano. Place in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Serve with a green salad.

Allow roughly 10-13g of carbohydrates per portion.

 

Dana Carpender answers: what if I can’t cook?

kaitiscotland2 Comments

Dana, many of our readers find cooking from scratch a chore. Often they even lack the basic cooking skills. How do you help the low carber who says “I can’t cook!”

First of all, by saying, “Yes, you can. You just haven’t done it enough. It’s nowhere near as hard as you think.” It’s such a tragedy that cooking has been eliminated from school curricula. But truly, folks, I can remember making gravy and mashing potatoes when I had to stand on a step-stool to reach the stove. That’s pretty much the definition of “child’s play.”

Get a good, basic, simple cookbook, find the recipes in it that work for our nutritional plan, and give it a few tries. I think you’ll be surprised.

That said, you can be a low carber without cooking. There are low carb convenience foods to be had, although you’ll spend more money than you would cooking from scratch. Consider:

* Rotisserie chicken

* Steamed lobster (if you have the cash, many groceries will do the deed for you)

* Salad bar salads

* Bagged salads

* Frozen cooked shrimp

* Canned tuna, crab, sardines, and the like (put ‘em on top of some bagged salad).

* Frozen vegetables – microwave according to package directions

* Frozen hamburger patties – you do have to cook these, but you don’t even have to thaw them first. 3 minutes per side in a hot skillet works great. Get a non-stick skillet for easy cleanup.

* Frozen grilled fish fillets

* Deli meats and cheeses, rolled up with mayo and mustard sandwiched in between the slices. Read the labels for the ones with the least added carbohydrate.

* Hot wings, but only unbreaded ones – Pizza Hut makes these. Be careful about sauces; many are sugary. The Pizza Hut Garlic Parmesan, Cajun Rub, Ranch Rub, and Naked Traditional Bone-in Wings are all good choices. Skip the “boneless wings;”they’re breaded.

* Pizza with extra cheese and low carb toppings – peel off the toppings and eat them, discarding the crust.

 

My local grocery stores have “bars” beyond the salad bar. One of my favorites is the Mediterranean bar, with a selection of olives, marinated feta, and the like. The grocery store deli is worth browsing. You can’t have potato or macaroni salad, of course, but you may well find chicken or tuna salad with no high carb ingredients. I’ve found tasty roasted vegetables, too. Be wary of coleslaw; often it’s heavily laced with sugar, but it’s worth asking. With growing awareness of food sensitivities, many grocery store delis post signs listing ingredients with each dish.

Ironically, I find the Atkins frozen dinners to be higher carb than I’d like.

hqdefault (3)

Taco Salad – Low-Carb Dinners

Emma2 Comments

‘Tis the season… for summer salads! Take some veggies, plenty of spice and good quality minced beef and what do you get? A Taco salad. The whole Taco thing is more popular in the US than over here, but if you take the meat and spices bit alone you’ve got a good low-carb dinner recipe.

I adapted this recipe from the book AltShift (an alternate low-carb/higher carb diet).

Taco Salad

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 500g minced beef
  • 1pkt crunchy salad leaves mix (roughly 150g)
  • ½ onion, finely chopped
  • 1 fresh chilli, chopped (leave the seeds in if you like it hotter)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1tsp cumin seeds, ground in a pestle and mortar
  • 1tbsp smoked paprika
  • 75g grated mature cheddar
  • 2 spring onions, chopped
  • ½ courgette, diced

Dressing:

  • 4tbsp sour cream
  • ½ tsp onion granules
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • Salt and pepper
  • ½ tsp paprika

 

Fry the beef and onion in a large saucepan or frying pan, stirring regularly to break up the clumps, until it is evenly browned. Add the cumin, pepper, salt, paprika and chilli and cook for five minutes more. The excess liquid should have evaporated and the mince should be evenly coated with the spices. Leave to cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, empty out the packet of salad leaves and add the chopped spring onion and diced courgette. Mix together the sour cream, onion granules, garlic powder, salt and pepper and paprika. Mix the dressing and cheese in with the meat and tip the mince into the bowl. Mix well to combine everything and serve.

Serves 4. Allow about 5-8g of carbs per portion. You can use turkey mince, which will make the recipe cheaper too.

Spinach and Feta Crust-less Quiche

Emma4 Comments

low-carb recipesI’m writing this in the middle of a heat wave. In Scotland. Yup, you read that right. For the last ten days, the BBC weather forecast has looked topsy-turvy with the western upper half of the island illustrated with suns, while the eastern section down below shivers in wind and rain.

Ha!

Heat waves don’t go along with cooking, unless it’s barbecue. Most barbecue foods lend themselves well to a low-carb diet, but if you’re bored of burgers, a crust-less quiche is a delicious alternative.

I don’t bother with fresh spinach these days. Frozen spinach is much cheaper and easier to use. It’s already shrunk down so you don’t have to battle with an over-flowing pan as you try to get it to wilt.

frozen spinach

Allow roughly 4g of carbs per serving.

This goes well with a sliced tomato salad. Slice tomatoes finely and dress with shredded basil, some olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar.

For the carb-eaters, serve with a baked potato or some crusty bread.

 

 

Crust-less Spinach and Feta Quiche

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 300g frozen spinach, defrosted
  • 150g feta cheese, crumbled
  • 8 large eggs
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tbsp double cream
  • 4 spring onions, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

 

  1. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C. Lightly butter a Pyrex or equivalent dish.
  2. Spread the spinach evenly over the bottom of the dish. Mix the eggs, crumbled feta, salt, pepper, garlic powder and double cream together.
  3. Pour over the top of the spinach and sprinkle with the chopped spring onions, along with a little extra black pepper.
  4. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for another 10 minutes to brown the top.

 

 

Spinach pic thanks to Karen Arnold on publicdomain pics.

 

Dana Carpender: What do you eat on a typical day?

kaitiscotlandLeave a comment

4415406430_7a5ba031bb_o.jpgDana Carpender, author of several low carb cookbooks, generously gave her time to be interviewed for this blog site. Over several posts she will be sharing her wisdom about the low carb lifestyle.

My first question: What do you eat on a typical day Dana?

Honestly? Leftovers. 🙂 What with trying recipes, and only two people in the house, I eat a lot of leftovers. The summer I wrote The Low Carb Barbecue Book I ate chicken or ribs for breakfast every day for weeks.

In the absence of leftovers? Probably an omelet for breakfast, especially if there are ripe avocados in the house; cheese-and-avocado omelet with chipotle hot sauce is a big favorite of mine. Dinner will be a fairly simple protein — chicken, steak, burgers, pork steaks, something like that, with a low carb vegetable or salad with it if we feel like it. I confess we don’t always bother. If I want just a little something, I might well have shirataki with a fatty sauce – or just butter and Parmesan.

This is, of course, when I’m not working on a book. If I am, it’s a wild card! It depends on what sort of book it is, what I have in the house, what idea I’ve had.

If I snack, it’s usually on nuts. I’ve snacked less and less as the years have gone by, and as I’ve deliberately increased fat as a fraction of my calories.

Perhaps the most notable thing is that I have long since slipped away from the three-meals-a-day format. I rarely eat more than two meals a day anymore; I’m just not hungry enough. I try to do some intermittent fasting, so I often don’t eat until noon or one — a good 16 hours after I ate the previous night — although I drink copious quantities of tea.

Long-time readers will note that this violates a previously stated rule to always eat breakfast. I no longer consider that a hard-and-fast rule, but rather one that depends on circumstance. If someone works away from the house in a place where carby garbage is available, like the donuts in the break room or the candy bars in the vending machine, then I feel breakfast is imperative, even if it’s just a couple of hard boiled eggs or individually wrapped cheese chunks grabbed on the way out of the house. This is especially true for those who are just starting out, and not yet solidly in the mindset of “this is how I eat.”

But if, like me, you have more time freedom, and have achieved a blissful lack of regard for starchy, sugary stuff, postponing breakfast until you’re genuinely hungry is a good way to work in some intermittent fasting.

Too, I’ve lost the idea that some foods are “breakfast foods,” while dinner needs to be a protein and two veg. I’m perfectly happy having leftover chicken and coleslaw for breakfast, or whatever happens to be kicking around the fridge. And I’ve certainly been known to eat eggs for dinner, or just make something snack-y, like Chicken Chips. (Chicken skin spread on the broiler rack and baked until crisp, then salted. Yum. I buy 10-pound bags of chicken skin from my speciality butcher.)

One other oddity: I don’t feel any need to snack during movies or television. It’s common for people to feel that there should be something they can munch on mindlessly for hours while consuming entertainment, but low carb foods don’t lend themselves to that. They’re filling. Eat a bucket of mixed nuts the size of even a small movie theater popcorn and you’ll make yourself sick. People need to get away from the idea of food as entertainment.

 

Making the Most of Herbs

Emma6 Comments

herbsThanks to the recent spell of good weather (in Scotland too!), we’ve got a glut of herbs. There’s something special about going out into the garden to pick herbs for a dish you’re making, but at the moment I can’t keep up with our herb growth rate.

I found a recipe for pork loin steaks the other day which neatly took care of some of the excesses. The delicious, tender results were an added bonus.

If you have any left-over herb paste, use it to baste fish or chicken, or dilute it slightly with more oil and a little vinegar, and use it in salads.

We got our pork steaks from the wonderful Nethergate Larder stall at the near-by Farmers’ Market, which runs at Loch Lomond Shores the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month.

Pork Loin Steaks with Herb Paste

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 4 pork loin steaks
  • Fresh basil (2-3 generous handfuls)
  • Flat-leaf parsley (1 generous handful)
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • 4tbsp rapeseed or olive oil, plus a tsp
  • 1 heaped tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • Salt and pepper

Take the pork steaks out of the fridge 15 minutes before cooking. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree C.

Place the basil, parsley, lemon zest, 4tbsp oil, mustard, salt and pepper in a mini food processor or blender and whizz till you get a thick, green paste.

Brush the pork steaks with the tsp of oil and fry on each side for a minute to seal and colour the meat. Remove from the heat, brush with the herb paste so each steak gets a thick coating.

Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of the individual steaks. Pork meat should be cooked through and the meat white, but be careful not to overcook the steaks.

Serve with salad and green beans.

Carbs – about 2g per serving.

 

 

New UK “Eat Well Plate”: same old rubbish!

kaitiscotlandLeave a comment

The UK government has released a new version of the risable “Eat well plate” which gives us at diabetesdietblog.com even more heartburn, if that were possible.

In this they have given due pominence to fruit and vegetables but have also advised even more starch such as bread, potatoes, breakfast cereals, pasta and rice. Low fat dairy is encouraged and protein is under represented again. Vegetable oil and low fat spread is given a little sliver of prominence. They have advised us to eat 30g of fibre a day and limit sugar to 30g a day.  Lordy, some of us don’t even eat this in total carbs a day! carbohydrate.jpgThey have said that 150g of fruit juice or smoothie can count as one of “your five a day”.

Cardiologist Aseem Mahhotra has tweeted, “Is this a joke?” Well, sad to say, probably not.

The government are grimly determined to back a diet that will lead to more obesity, diabetes, acid reflux, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Isn’t the NHS in enough of a mess already? Obviously the government don’t think so.