Need help with meal planner, mainly low carb

[notforthefainthearted]

We've been eating mainly low carb and find we feel better and lose some weight too but I am bored of eating the same things every week.

Does anyone have a low carb meal planner? or can recommend a good recipe book, also suitable for children (although my daughter does eat carbs, so usually I do a portion of potato, rice or pasta for her).

Nothing too complicated though!

[notforthefainthearted]

Forgot to say, I mainly eat dairy free as milk or cream make me feel ill. I'm not allergic and ok with butter and a tiny bit of hard cheese.

[PirateShit]

We have been trying to reduce carbs and I have just planned the weeks meals. I have to say though, I'm not following a strict low carb plan, so I might have included a few things that are a bit dodgy carb-wise, but here goes.

Monday- sausage and butter bean casserole
Tuesday- lamb steaks with capers and garlic, spring greens
Wednesday- chick pea and cauliflower curry with raita
Thursday- chicken stuffed with feta and tomato, cabbage salad
Friday- smoked haddock, egg and brown rice thingy
Sat- off for a child free meal, whoop whoop
Sun- roast beef with all trimmings, I will try and avoid roasties

As I said, not religiously low carbing, just trying to avoid potatoes, pasta and bread really. That and not eating choc or crisps has helped me lose 12 pounds in the last 5 weeks.

[notforthefainthearted]

Thanks. The stuffed chicken sounds nice.

I only do roast potatoes for my daughter with our roast dinner but do roast parsnips for us. They're quite carby but not as high as potatoes I think.

I gave up chocolate, crisps and biscuits for over half a year but since Christmas am struggling to get back on track.

[spilttheteaagain]

Last week I did BIWIs bootcamp which is pretty hardcore low carb, so obv you could be a lot less strict! But here is what we had, hope there's some ideas you like:

Breakfasts:
-Eggs scrambled in lots of butter with either bacon, smoked salmon, cold leftover sausages, cold leftover gammon or garlic butter mushrooms.
-Eggs scrambled over spring onions and chilli with grated cheese mixed in (a winner!)
-Herby/cheesey scrambled eggs (thyme & cheddar was good, am going to try basil, chopped tomato and parmesan tomorrow)
-Obv you could do fried/poached/omelette etc, we just like scrambled!
-Greek yogurt
-Want to try smoked bacon + avocado + sliced tomato and topped with grated cheddar, it sounds nice!

Lunches:
-I made mini quiches in muffin moulds with no pastry for a couple of days. Very easy to make - I filled them with fried leeks, broccoli, mushroom, chopped gammon and grated cheese, then the egg & cream custard and bake for about 30 mins. Had with salads.
-Veg soup (think about carby-ness of veg and try to avoid onions, carrots, peas, squash if being strict. Leeks, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac all much lower in carbs and good in soup) with cheese, cold meat, salad
-Bolognaise sauce on buttered shredded cabbage
-Smoked trout or mackerel fillets (the hot smoked that you can just open packet and eat) with salad of spinach, radish, cucumber, avocado, grated broccoli stalk, spring onions
-Chicken breast fried in spices of choice, mixed with lettuce, cucumber, feta and olives
-Leftover roast pork fried up with sliced fennel, squeeze of lemon at the end
-Leftover roast pork fried with beansprouts, garlic, ginger, soy, five spice, sesame oil, then mixed with sliced spring onions and peeled cucumber strips and served in lettuce wraps

Dinners:
-Roast pork, crackling, mashed swede, broccoli & savoy
-Crispy duck legs with Egg fried cauliflower rice and stirfried broccoli & savoy
-Chicken breast stuffed with butter and garlic, wrapped in bacon, with mashed swede, green veg
-Chicken breast diced and fried with broccoli, leeks, gammon, mushrooms, garlic, in a cream sauce over buttered cabbage
-Cauliflower and broccoli cheese with sausages (if being strict then you can't make the cheese sauce with flour and milk - melt cream, cream cheese and grated cheddar together to make the sauce)
-Smoked paprika & cayenne seasoned chicken legs casseroled with leeks and a tinned tom and stock sauce, served with cauliflower rice and broccoli
-Beef casseroled with swede and celery (and a small bit of onion & carrot), with smashed celeriac and broccoli
-Home made burgers (pig out night!) topped with cornichons, mayo, smokey bacon, melted cheddar, with a big salad and celeriac chips

I think celeriac chips and mashed swede are two big winners for us, you don't really have to think "argh no carbs" as they feel just like the carbs.
Celeriac chips
I also want to try these swede chips as they look really good too.

Cauliflower rice is also very quick and easy and a really useful substitute.

There's a whole Low carb recipe section on MN here and a number of the meals we had were from there.

Hope that helps!

[LimeFlower]

spilttheteaagain thanks for the menu and recipes,will definitely try celeriac chips as it's my favourite veg beside beetroot.
Congrats on joining the Low Boot Camp",I was looking at it a while ago but never had the guts to join.

[notforthefainthearted]

Thanks, that all sounds great.

I'm a bit hampered by avoiding dairy but will have to try making cheese sauce with rice milk instead.

I'll have a look at the recipes in the recipe section too.

[notforthefainthearted]

I've seen celeriac chips mentioned before but can never find celeriac in the shops.

We do have swede a lot because we like it a lot.

[LimeFlower]

lidl definitely has it,tesco and morrisons

[LimeFlower]

Cream of celeriac soup is fantastic-boil celeriac,liquidize,add some creme fraiche and grated cheddar cheese.

[timidviper]

I have a cookery book called "Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way" which is very good. Easy and quick recipes, can thoroughly recommend it

[spilttheteaagain]

Sorry notforthefainthearted I missed the bit about not eating dairy so I realise some of that is useless to you!

tbh limeflower I won't stick with the Bootcamp, I never intended too. I wanted to cold turkey remove carbs to try and break the carb cravings/dependency and crack my sugar addiction. I think I've done that now (as far as I ever will anyway!), so I am cautiously reintroducing a little fruit and some nuts (both Bootcamp contraband ). Having had no sweet taste in a week, honestly one strawberry was like nectar - gorgeous, but so very sweet!
I'm also going to phase back in the rest of the veg, and in a bit will add pulses and maybe porridge from time to time.

I don't think potatoes/bread/rice/pasta will ever be the 2-3 times a day staple that they used to be, but I will have them from time to time.

It's been great tbh to really make you think about what you eat and why, and force you to try new things/recipes/more variety etc. I have discovered I like feta, avocados and mushrooms which is all new. And realised that DD (18 months) will eat plain greek yogurt so I can ditch the sugary fromage frais, result!

I would have climbed over my own mother for a golden syrup sandwich 6 days ago, but now, meh, not interested. It's very liberating!

Energy levels are steadier and I'm not having those shakey blood sugar crashes and ravenous times.

It's easier to go into if you tell yourself you will stick it for 1 week properly and then can reconsider. That's 21 meals, I told myself, I can do this. And for most people 1 week is enough to get past the carb withdrawal and desire to throw in the towel and you will be feeling really good and want to carry on (or at least I do!). Good luck if you decide to give it a whirl, there's loads of info and support on the Bootcamp threads.

Now I will shut up and stop hijacking the thread! Sorry notforthefainthearted!

[spilttheteaagain]

Sainsburys, Lidl and the greengrocers here all sell celeriac, and they aren't massive stores. Maybe it was the wrong time of year last time you looked? (Lidl was the cheapest btw)

[notforthefainthearted]

I do my online shop at Asda and they haven't had celeriac nor have my local Sainsburys. I'll try Morrison's next time I'm in town.

[notforthefainthearted]

spilttheteaagain, I'm interested to read about your low carb experience so need to apologise for hijacking thread.

[notforthefainthearted]

Thanks timidviper I'll have a look for the recipe book.

[LimeFlower]

notfor thefainthearted sorry for hijacking your thread

spilttheteaagain I went low carb once,managed to ditch a few pounds and came back to some old habits again.I have never believed in all this diet talk,this one convinced me-seeing is believing.I didn't realize that sugar is sooo addictive.

Avocadoes are fantastic,try some mashed avocado with broad beans or salad with chicken(or prawns) and hard boiled egg.

Thanks for the info and the inspiration :)

[notforthefainthearted]

Sorry, that should have read "so no need to apologise"!