Low Carb Freedom

Low Carb Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe

OK, I made these for my family and they loved them!

Ingredients: Large Mushrooms, onion, celery stalk, TGI Fridays Spinach Cheese and Artichoke Dip, parmesan cheese.

1. First, I bought a package of the large mushrooms at Costco. These were only $5.99 there. I then took about 20 of them and took off the stems, wiped them if needed, brushed them with melted butter inside and out, and put them on a cookie sheet.
2. Chopped up the onion and celery stalk in the Cusinart and sauteed them on the stove in butter until the onion was clear.
3. Chopped up the mushroom stems.
4. Cooked the TGI Friday dip per instructions.
5. Combined onion, celery, chopped mushroom and TGI Friday dip in a bowl and then put them in the mushroom caps.
6. Sprinkeld with parmesan cheese.
7. Convection baked them for about 5 minutes at 450 and then broiled them a few minutes or until done.

Easy and delicious!

Let me know if you liked them!

Great Low Carb Artichoke Dip

OK, most artichoke dips will be low carb, but this one has the advantage of being easy as well. It is TGI Fridays Spinach, Cheese, and Artichoke Dip and it actually stores in the freezer. Of course, you cook it and serve it hot. I bought this in a four or five pack at BJ's or Costco. I'll try to get exactly where and what price.

Now, I don't usually eat artichoke dips, but if I did, I'd eat them with low carb tortillas. However, I used this dip to make a killer low carb stuffed mushroom! I served them at Easter, and boy was my family impressed! Here is the low carb stuffed mushroom recipe.

	TGI Friday's Spinach, Cheese & Artichoke Dip
Serving Size	2 tablespoons (28g)
Calories	45
Total Fat	3.5g
Saturated Fat	1.5g
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	10 mg
Sodium	115mg
Total Carbohydrates	2g
Dietary Fiber	Less than 1g
Sugar	Less than 1g
Protein	2g
partial list of Ingredients	Spinach, alfredo sauce (water, cheese powder (parmesan cheese pwoder (part-skim milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), Cheddar cheese powder (milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), whey (milk), partially hydrogenated soybean oil, whey protein, concentrate, lactose, corn maltodextrn, salt, sodium phasphate, citric acid, natural and artificial flavor, lactic acid, annto), cream powder (cream, nonfat milk solids, corn syrup solids, dipotssium phasphate), dodium caseinate, modified cornstarch, cellulose gum, salt, xanthan gum, mono and digycerides, flavor enahancer My eyes are going blind typing the rest of this list in... Please read the package...

Quick Gourmet Dinner with Trader Joe's Picatta Simmer Sauce

Sometimes I come home and want a quick gourmet meal without taking everything out of the cupboards. Well, Trader Joe's has come out with a new (at least to me) sauce that I have used twice in one month. It is called Trader Giotto's (is this a new line?) Picatta Simmer Sauce for Chicken, Fish or Shrimp. It is actually a pretty low carb sauce, especially if you don't use a ton of it. The convenience is worth it at $2.99 a 15.5 oz. bottle.

Actually, I have never made a Picatta sauce, although I have had it in Italian restaurants. Best thing about it, hubby doesn't complain when I make it! All I do is pound some boneless breasts of chicken (to make them especially tender) and fry them in some butter or olive oil. No crumbs or anything. I then add a jar of the Picatta sauce and serve with a salad. If you'd like, you can also serve it with some low carb pasta for a real Italian treat. Add a glass of wine... well.. the rest is up to you.

	Trader Giotto's Picatta Simmer Sauce
Serving Size	1/4 cup
Calories	50
Total Fat	4g
Saturated Fat	1g
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	Less than 5mg
Sodium	250mg
Total Carbohydrates	4g
Dietary Fiber	0g
Sugar	1g
Protein	0g
Ingredients	White Wine, Natural Chicken Flavor (Chicken broth, chicken fat, stock of onions, carrots, celery, dextrose, yeast extract, natural flavors, salt, mono and diglycerides, xanthan gum), garlic, soybean oil, lemon juice, capers, lemon grass, shallots, butter (cream, milk, salt0, lemon est, orn starch, sugar, chives, parsley, black pepper.

Thomas' Light English Muffins: OK for Low Carb?

Thomas' discontinued their Carb Consider Bagels, but they have come out with the Thomas' Light English Muffins. Now, these DO have carbs, but many ready-to-eat low carb breakfast foods have been discontinued. (More on discontinued low carb products here.) If you can eat more carbs because you are on South Beach, or if you are on maintenance, or if you just want to cheat but not too badly, you can consider these.

Both my kids will eat these. I have tasted them and they are pretty good. They are very similar to the regular Thomas' English Muffin's texture -- you just have to toast them longer (I think) than the regular English Muffins.

Franky, if McDonald's had a choice to use these rather than the normal white English Muffins in their egg sandwiches, it would give a huge boost to their nutrition menu!

Judging by the shelf space that these English Muffins are taking in my local grocery store, and the fact that they are also available at Wal-mart and Target, I would guess that they are doing pretty well.

	Thomas' Light English Muffins
Serving Size	1 muffin 57g
Calories	100
Total Fat	1g
Saturated Fat	0g
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	Less than 5mg
Sodium	210mg
Total Carbohydrates	22g
Dietary Fiber	8g
Sugar	0g
Protein	7g
Ingredients	Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour, (Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Reduced Iron, Niacin, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid), Water, Modified Food Starch, Soy Fiber, Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Whey Protein, Farina, Polydextrose, Wheat Protein Isolate, Toasted Corn Germ, Grain Vinegar, Natural Flavor, Nonfat Milk, Perservatives Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid), Salt, Cracked Wheat, Rye, Leavening (Monocalcium Phasphate, Sodium Acid Pyrophasphate, Baking Soda), Malt Soybean Oil, Ground Corn, Datem, Soy Flour, Brown Rice, Oats, Whey, Soybeans, Triticale, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Mono- and Diglycerides, Millet, Flaxseed, Barley, Ethoxylated Mono-and Diglycerides, Sucralose, Natamycin (A Natural Mold Inhibitor).

Updated 4/12/06 Low Carb Discontinued Product Watch

Folks, I'm updating this again!

Here is the most low carb disctinued product recent update that includes Anthony's Reduced Carb Pasta, Mueller's Reduced Carb Pasta, and Carb Options Salad Dressings, plus hints of things that are changing in the South Beach product world.

If you choose gatric bypass...

Please, please, please read all these posts first and remember to take all of your supplements. Here is one documented case where a gastric bypass patient went almost blind, but the vision was able to be restored.

Low Carb Pasta Sauce: Hunt's No Added Sugar

Different people have different tolerant levels for spices. Kids, especially, prefer less spicy foods. My husband and I adore an "off-the shelf" pasta sauce: Emerils, but it is VERY spicy. My kids don't like it, and with so many traditional pasta sauces just LOADED with sugar, and many lower carb pasta sauces going off the market, I was at my wit's end. (Low carb spaghetti and meatballs is one of my "quick -- I don't have anything to cook tonight dinners!" And without a canned/jarred sauce that was acceptable to the family, it was out of my "quick" repertoire.)

HOWEVER, Hunt's has now come out with a No Added Sugar Italian Style Sauce. It is your basic sauce and it is kid friendly! There are no "chunks" to snarl at and pick out, and it has a very mild flavor with 6g of net carbs. (Just take a look at some of the other sauces out there. It isn't uncommon to see 15g or even over 20g of sugar in a serving! Who needs that???) I tell you, companies should be pumping out the No Added Sugar products for kids!

Now, is it for me and my husband? No. But it is for my kids. I pair it up with Dreamfield's pasta, which you can always order here and have it delivered, even if it isn't in your local grocery store. Throw in a few frozen meatballs and some sausages, if I have them, and, with a salad, it is a complete meal. All I do is have two saucepans on the stove, one with each brand of sauce.

You may have to look for it though. For example, my local Market Basket doesn't stock it, but my MUCH smaller market, Crosby's, does.

Let me know your favorite low carb spaghetti sauce!

	Hunt's No Added Sugar Italian Style Sauce
Serving Size	1/2 cup
Calories	35
Total Fat	0g
Saturated Fat	0g
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	0mg
Sodium	610mg
Total Carbohydrates	6g
Dietary Fiber	2g
Sugar	3g
Sugar Alcohol	0g
Protein	1g
Ingredients	Ingredients: tomato puree (water, tomato paste), water less than 2% of: salt, soybean oil, dehydrated onions, carrot fiber, spices, citric acid, xanthan gum, sucralose, acesulfame, potassium, natural flavor

Notice it is flavored with sucralose, which is Splenda. I'm sure that this is the "industrial" Splenda, which isn't combined with dextrose as the filler, which is just another carb laden filler that is used for bulk. Why Splenda doesn't come out with another version without dextrose, I just don't know.

Low Carb Market Bay Gourmet Frozen Entree Tilapia Fillets

OK, specialized low carb frozen entrees are expensive, but sometimes you just want something you can eat quickly with NO prep time. I came across this in Market Basket on sale for $4.99 on sale instead of $5.29 regular price. I had to try it.

For those of you who haven't had Tilapia before, you are missing out. It is a cross between haddock and flounder, but it "stays together" better than flounder. I buy it all the time at Costco. Costco has fresh Tilapia at $4.99 a lb. and also large bags of individually frozen Tilapia in the freezer section. I have to check on the price again.

The Market Bay Tilapia came from Ecuador and it was farm raised. One downside to this is that you can cook it in a regular oven but not a toaster oven in the container that it comes in. I'm thinking that this might be a problem in a workspace if you wanted to eat it for lunch. The other downside is that it has a lot of sodium. If you forgo the convenience and make it yourself, you can control the amount of sodium.

Anyhow, on the upside, practically no carbs and the fish tasted delicious! There were two shrimp on top of each Tilapia and the spices were aromatic and tasty. A great, great quick meal for an individual. (Of course, I ate both pieces of the fish! Who could only eat one?) Also on the upside, the cooking times are for when the fish is at 38 degrees or defrosted, so if you took it to work when it was frozen, it would be defrosted by the time you ate it at lunch. (Hmmm.... that could be a downside if you wanted to eat it right away from the freezer. I'm sure you could cook it. If anyone tries cooking it that way, please let me know how it turned out for you!)

	Market Bay Tilapia Fillets with Shrimp Marinara
Serving Size	6 oz. Servings in container about 2
Calories	130
Total Fat	4g
Saturated Fat	1.5g
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	65mg
Sodium	490mg
Total Carbohydrates	3g
Dietary Fiber	2g
Sugar	0g
Sugar Alcohol	0g
Protein	20g
Ingredients	Ingredients: skinned tilapia fillets water, diced tomato, shrimp, white onion, sweet red peppers, Parmesan cheese, garlic, hydrogenated vegetable oil (soya), balsamic vinegar, salt, dry basil, dry oregano, black pepper

REALLY Going Back on Low Carb

OK, unlike my last post of January 9, I really went back on the low carb bandwagon this Sunday and that means:

Induction.

No bread -- not even low carb bread. I went out and did a low carb shopping spree so my cupboards were full of options to take me through this time. (And I MUST update the low carb shopping list and the low carb discontinued item list!)

Anyhow, induction is best when you don't have low carb crutches, when you just have whole/natural real foods so you aren't tempted by having just another low carb tortilla chip. And I just don't get as hungry when I completely stay away from any wheat/corn products.

Here is a quick rundown of what I have eaten this week:

• Breakfast: 2-egg omelet with cheese/bacon (2 pieces) and coffee every day for breakfast (I know, I know, I shouldn't have coffee, but I do.)

I love eggs, and I can make them with onions and peppers, hollandaise sauce, salsa -- they are just so versatile. Furthermore, I never get hungry when I eat them!

• Lunch: tuna or chicken salad made with mayo and sweet relish with Splenda, a sausage cooked in butter and onions, celery with cream cheese or salad, mozzarella.
• Dinner: Tilapia, cheeseburgers (no rolls), chicken Caesar salad, salad
• Snacks: (if I need them, mozzarella with oil and spices or a cheese stick, an artichoke heart, a few berries)
• Dessert: (OK, occasionally I need something!) Sugar free jello with whipped cream.

And I take one oz. of a pomegranate extract each day. (It has 16 calories and 4 grams of sugar, which I don't like!)

So far, I have taken 3 lbs. off since this morning. (I also walked yesterday for the first time. It is finally getting to be nicer out around these parts.)

I think a lot of people are now going back to the low carb diet. Why? Because it works. As soon as people eat more carbs, especially if they don't exercise that much, their weight goes up. Sometimes it takes a while to reach that threshold where you have to do something, but once you reach it, lowering carbs works -- fast.

Now, the trick is to stay on it, even when faced with life's ups and downs, and even when faced with the food industry's relentless push of carbs.

So, I'm back on the journey!