Vegetarian & Low Carb Recipes And Discussion

[peeplessinNC]

Is 2% milk, yogurt and cottage cheese considered low fat? That is usually what I buy. I'm going to get back into making my own yogurt using 2% organic milk.

My breakfast today consisted of 1/4 of a breakfast casserole and 1 small slice of whole wheat toast with butter/oil blend. And 2 cups of coffee. This kept me going all morning w/o getting the low sugar shakes and feeling hungry.

Since I am trying to eat better, I've decided to try to switch to decaf coffee over time. If I buy a pound of coffee this week, I can gradually mix the reg. and decaf so maybe I won't notice any difference? At least I don't drink a lot of coffee all day, only 1-2 cups in the morning and sometimes I make a cup of tea, so I shouldn't notice any caffeine withdrawal.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

PC, I saw your comment about using the rice cooker more. White rice is nothing but starch which also turns into sugar. My DD is borderline diabetic and the dr said to avoid white rice like the plague. I assume in moderation like everything else it would be ok but she loves it and ate alot of it. You're better off to use whole grain or wheat flour and make pasta (I've seen that pasta maker in action!) or use the different brown/wild rices that are available.

My SIL swears by a gluten-free diet and she lost 30+ lbs.

Add starch=sugar to the list!

 

[peeplessinNC]

You are correct, lil...mama! Many people don't like brown rice because it is more chewy and I was one of these people! But the more I ate brown rice (and not big amounts of it but as a meal with stir-fried meat/veg dishes) the better I came to like it. Really! And cooking it in a pressure cooker is so much easier! I cook 2 cups at a time for only 18 minutes under pressure then I freeze the rice in portions just for me. Also, I cook for my little mini poodle and he eats brown rice and barley also. I like barley more for use in soups, but need to learn to eat it with meals too.

Wifezilla, I suggested low fat cottage cheese not non fat. I usually buy 2% Breakstone. Would full fat be a better choice?

 

[PurpleChicken]

I use Basmatti rice that I buy in big bags from Costco and various
brown and whole grain rices I find in small portions in grocery stores.
My dogs diet is about 10% rice I cook in the rice maker (super easy
and steams vegies too). The chickens eat whatever is left over.

Suggestions on rice sources are welcome and appreciated.


As for low and non fat items that is one thing I instinctively stayed
away from. I've never had an issue with using butter, regular cheese,
whole milk, and cream. Now ya all have made me feel better about that
choice.


Any opionions on sugar substitutes? Aspartane(Nutrasweet) and
Sweet & Low(saccharine) are both poisons in my eyes.

 

[Wifezilla]

Is 2% milk, yogurt and cottage cheese considered low fat?

Would full fat be a better choice?

Yes and Yes. You probably will find you wont eat as much as the reduced fat products and feel just as full.


Good sugar substitutes...

Stevia.
Pros: Herbal, natural
Cons: Expensive and some notice a strong aftertaste (like me)
Xylitol:
Pros: Not too expensive, tastes good
Cons: has a cooling effect. Too much can cause stomach upset. Poisonous to dogs.
Erythritol:
Pros: Tastes good. Works in baking and recipes. No stomach upset.
Cons: expensive. Somewhat of a cooling effect like xylitol, but it doesn't bother me.

I like erythritol. I also use Splenda and don't stress about it too much. Compared to the damage I did to myself with eating sugars, grains and starches, the potential Splenda issues are NOTHING!​

 

[EweSheep]

I started using Splenda for all the sugar I would need to "sweeten" things up. Not bad! found a big recipe book of Splenda and goodness, alot of things I can make out of it.

I tried that fudge recipe you showed, Wifezilla, and DD and I had a taste, it was pretty gross. LOL! It was disappointing but however we will give other treats a try!

I fell off the bandwagon time and time again but I know I felt better once I get back on the wagon. So far I have avoided pasta and rice and bread. I love potatoes tho along with hamburgers, steaks, shrimp and chicken. I can not handle pork except for sausage and bacon.

Not easy at this time of the year when Girl Scout cookies are in the air and my DD's fundraiser for those Bach's candies. UGH! I threw them all in the freezer downstairs and some waaaaaaaaaaaaay up in the cupboards because I am lazy about getting them out. Sometimes when I am looking for something up there like a crockpot, I have found items over a year old sitting there. Now that is a place!

I use butter in most of my cooking but limited in veggie oils in frying or baking.

I love stir fry but its the rice that has the carbo that makes me avoid them. My recipe also includes the cornstarch, soy sauce, broth, ginger, bead molasses as the sauce for stir fry. Any subsitutions????????? I got Splenda in white and brown sugar.

I love my pork and beans for grilled meats....using that Splenda brown sugar and dried mustard with a half teaspoon of soy sauce, makes it delicious. i usually add ketchup but with this type of thing, no need for the ketchup. However I hav enot found any Heinz sugar free ketchup.

 

[peeplessinNC]

I usually keep on hand plain white sugar, brown sugar, honey, molasses, turbinado sugar (sometimes called raw sugar) and Splenda. These days I don't bake sweets nearly as much as I used to when my boys were home. (Funny, but neither of them eat sweets very often now either.) I put a little brown sugar on my oatmeal and sometimes half a pack of Splenda or some honey in my cup of tea. Coffee I drink black.

Lundberg Farms is a producer of wonderful rice - US, organic, eco-farmed production. They have brown jasmine, basmati, and brown sweet rice.

http://www.lundberg.com/products/Lundberg_rice.aspx

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Dad's diabetic and his doctor has him using Splenda. Mom cooks and bakes with it just like regular sugar and if she didn't tell us, we'd never know.

 

[ninjapoodles]

I made the low-carb fudge, and it was a big FAIL for me, too. It turned out right, just tasted awful to me. I used Splenda, though, which I normally don't, so that might've had something to do with it.

JUICE: I love fruit juices, and really felt deprived to give them up. My solution was smoothies. BUT, I had even learned to make smoothies with fruit juice as the base liquid, so I had to re-think them. Here's what I do: I make a kind of sugar-free "limeade" with water, key lime juice, and stevia extract (I love stevia, and find that you kind of have to shop around to find the BRAND that is compatible with your taste buds. Some have an aftertaste, some don't, and not everyone perceives it the same.). Then I add frozen berries. Strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries are my favorite. Sometimes I add a little more stevia after it's all blended up, if it needs it. I raid the farmer's markets in the spring and summer when berries and grapes are in season and freeze gallons of them just for this purpose. And when you use frozen fruit, you don't have to blend up any ice!

DAIRY: I am completely unwilling to give up dairy. I just love it, and without it, I feel so madly deprived that I would fall off of ANY dietary wagon. I have completely switched over to full-fat dairy products. Food tastes SO much better, and is so much more satisfying. I also love milk. Love it. Often, I crave it. But the carb cost in my old friend skim milk was just crazy high. At first, I switched to whole milk, but even with that, I was looking at a carb content so high that if I wanted a glass of milk, I'd have to trade an entire meal's worth of carbs for it. My answer to this (and this makes peoples' heads asplode) was to start keeping Half & Half on hand. When I get a strong craving for a glass of milk, I go and have a glass of half & half, for ONE GRAM of carbs. Since I'm still trying to lose weight, I do have to be mindful of the calorie count in dairy products, so I don't just consume them with abandon...but I'm not overly concerned, either.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Oh - I forgot to mention that DBF does NOT salt the eggplant.