calling all low-carbers

[ali23]

Please help!
Any decent dinners that are tasty and quick? Soups always a winner and anything for dins other than feckin' eggs!!

Hi, today I had seared scallops with ratatouille. A bit of prep involved for the ratatuoille, but I made loads and will keep some for a few meals. Totally quick - scallops take a minute, tops, in the pan. Tomorrow is steak tartare with salad. Again, quick as anything. The previous are not cheap, but you don't need many scallops or steak to make the meal special - for me, I would just use part of a pack and freeze the rest.
Us low-carbers do tend to rely on salad, but I try to make the salad a treat - with smoked salmon/crab/seafood mix, or, and you will hate me for this - a really good soft boiled egg, but a goose egg - these are sublime - they are my favourite food ever! If you can get them, give them 10-12 mins boiling time, depending on size. This will give a lovely, oozy yolk. Also, asparagus is coming into season - yum with melted butter.
Enough of my rambling - hope this helps. Keep the faith - it works - 6 stone down and still going.

shytalk, do you mind me asking what plan you are following? i ahve been low carbing for a month or so but have not really lost much weight and am finding it very hard to stay motivated . also , when i have fallen off the wagon (only for a day or so i noticed that i have regained weight almost immediately . i am wondereing if this is the wrong plan for me ...

Hi pipsqueak - no plan really, just my own low GI ideas. I have never been a "club" person, IYKWIM?
The bottom line is no potatoes, bread, rice or pasta. They are very high GI and will trash the weight loss. I do have butternut squash, sweet potato, chickpeas (hummous and also gram flour and chappatis - made of gram flour - good for sauces), dried and reconstituted beans, tinned beans (not the ones in sauce), lentils (all kinds).
I also eat a shed load of high-cal foods - cheese+++, butter, mayonnaise, meat, ham, chicken with skin.
I eat most fruit and veg, but avoid sweetcorn, parsnips, grapes, melon and bananas, as they are high GI. I have done this for a year now and am used to it. If I have an uncontrollable chocolate urge, I eat high cocoa chocolate - good for you, low sugar and it kills the urge.
Good luck, but if it's not for you, don't worry - there are as many ways to lose weight as there are people in the world.

thanks shytalk - your method sounds a bit more manageable than my very strict regime - which probably explains the lapses! not sure what to do really - it feels like one extreme to the other becuase if i swap to a low fat diet then it tends to be heavy-ish on the carbs and no cheese /butter etc. ... will have a ponder and maybe look at some GI books . like you i prefer not to do clubs but do need something to tell me what i can /cant eat else i interpret things very liberally!

is porridge good on hte GI front by the way? love porridge nad have craved it whilst low carbing? (hopeful emoticon!)

pipsqueak - basically, you have to give up something in order to lose the weight - it is up to you to decide what to give up. The basic choice is carbs v protein.`Losing protein = low fat, losing carbs = more leeway with the high-cal foods. However, no matter how you would like to, liberal interpretation is a no-go as it is only cheating on yourself.

pipsqueak - you can eat as much porridge as you can swallow - oats - low GI - slow release of energy - excellent food. Wish I liked it.

Riven - no carbs at all? does she have coeliac disease? Or similar?

Riven - just Googled it - heavens, that must mean some substantial planning for you. I trust and hope that she is doing well on it?

Riven - it must be hard to find nice food, and I am sure you would like to give her food that is as tasty as you can achieve. Absolutly no-carb is a challenge, as I am sure you are more than aware. Suggestions.

• Savoury mince served with her favourite vegetable.
• Pak choi, halved and baked in a parcel with chicken/fish, seasoned with sesame oil and chilli flakes (if liked), served with stir-fried vegetables.

- Any nice stuff your DD likes, served with salad. - A casserole, with meat and veggies, liquid kept to the minimum to avoid having to thicken, maybe a tagine, or similar? Served with a load of veggies. I hope that some of these help.

thanks shytalk - yes i know you are right . i need to make a decision and stick to it rather tha n veering between the two and not doing either well ...tis hard but do-able i know!

pipsqueak - hope to hear about loads of weightloss as and when.

Unfortunately low carbing is a very unforgiving way to try and lose weight. If you laspse, you will gain weight very quickly.

In terms of dinners, if there is a carb component to our family meals, then I omit it for me. So a protein element plus potatoes (or rice/pasta) for the family and I just eat more of the veg.

If I'm doing something like spaghetti bolognese, I substitute finely shredded, boiled green or white cabbage for the spaghetti for me. Sounds odd, but it's a very good carrier for the bolognese sauce.

yes - will update as and when - have lost about half a stone low carbing so far but put some back on and then off again and so on .. grrr at myself!