January 8, 2007

Low carb "way of eating" (WOE) or What do you eat?

In response to questions on our family blog about our weight loss and switching to a low carb lifestyle I have decided to bring some of that discussion over to my homemaking blog because cooking and recipes are better suited here. I also am hoping by sharing what we are doing and the recipes I have found to work for us, will not only inspire some of you, but also inspire/motivate me to keep working on finding new recipes and sticking with low carb for the long haul.

Breakfast:
This is the easiest low carb meal of the day for us . We eat 2 eggs and bacon (2-4 pieces) every day. Eggs can be made different ways; scrambled, with cheese, with the bacon mixed in, with some peppers, with garlic, with a touch of Da Vinci sugar free syrups (like their pancake syrup), add cream to your eggs and some flavoring (my friend Karen adds the sugar free DV Toasted Marshmallow syrup) and make a thin batter and cook them up like crepes. When I get a chance I make low carb muffins to go with our breakfast. At first I made these mostly from ground flax seed (I grind my own - more on that in the next post). Flax seed does make a nice muffin, really. My problem is either my taste buds got burned out on them or I'm just burned out on eating muffins every morning. I have been playing around with using Almond Meal, Hazelnut Meal and psyllium with the flax seed. Then, there is figuring out adding flavor to the muffins. Mostly I use extracts (vanilla, almond, maple, etc.) and the DV syrup flavors. We really like making a blueberry muffin with the DV blueberry syrup, and add just a few blueberry's to each muffin.

The other part of breakfast is the morning beverage. Tea is easy, just add some cream (milk and half and half have milk sugar/carbs in them and cream, i.e. heavy whipping cream, is almost all fat/no carbs, but be sure to read the label) and I use just a couple of drops of Sweetzfree. Hubby likes just plain black coffee, but I'm a "foo-foo/Starbucks" type coffee person. I have found that the Torani White Chocolate Sugar Free Sauce makes a pretty decent White Chocolate Mocha. Just add two tablespoons of the sauce, two drops of Sweetzfree and cream to your liking. Yum.

One thing to remember anytime you have any carbs is that you have to have protein with them. So, my faux white chocolate mocha is at breakfast, with all the protein in the eggs and bacon. Why? Protein raises blood sugar levels much more slowly than carbs or even low carbs alone do.

Next posts:
Muffin recipes
Fast and easy way to make great tasting bacon for two, twelve or twenty!

7 comments:

Roberta said...

Thanks for answering the questions on your family blog and thanks for continuing it here.
Perfect topic for the New Year!
I'll be soaking it in...fighting my sweet tooth every step of the way! :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm so excited to read your methods! We feel like we've gotten in a real rut with low carb eating.

Thanks for the inspirations!

Mom of thirteen said...

Roberta,
Hopefully you will learn some tricks and recipes for dealing with that sweet tooth. I have a mouth full of them! LOL!

Meredith,
I hear ya! I find one thing we like and we eat it till I can't stand it anymore or find a way to alter it! My taste buds seem to burn out easily when it comes to food. Hubby doesn't seem to have this problem as much as I do. Hopefully we can inspire each other and find the time to try new recipes to keep low carb fun and tasty!

~jerri

Julie said...

I have a scrambled egg tip! I saw this done on a cooking show and now I do it also. Instead of using milk in your scrambled eggs, use sour cream. It makes your eggs taste fantastic, and you don't have all that liquid to evaporate! We also use salt and lemon pepper, and of course cheese!

Mom of thirteen said...

Oh, that sounds good, Ju.

This is skipping ahead a bit, but I like to add a dollop of sour cream to the top of a steak or a piece of baked chicken. It reminds me enough of eating a baked potato that I don't miss the baked potato as much. ;)

Meg said...

We don't scramble eggs too often anymore- we bake them. Much less hassle than standing over several large skillets of eggs while supervising morning chores.

I whirl eggs in the blender with salt, pepper and maybe a little rice milk (no dairy over here.) Many days we add chopped up veggies like bell peppers, broccoli, onion, mushrooms, spinach, etc. Pour into a greased pan and bake on 350 until a knife comes out clean, usually about 30 minutes. Avocados, green onion or salsa make wonderful baked egg toppers.

Mom of thirteen said...

I agree, baking eggs would be easier, but I have the bacon going in the oven at the same time I am cooking the eggs. I would need a second oven...**sigh**

Besides we have a pan that works well on one burner with 30-34 eggs in it at a time, so only one pan to stand over. =)

~jerri

 
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