Any vegetarians cutting down on carbs? What do you eat (not eggs)? And how many carbs per day?

[LegoTherapy]

I’ve started this week and although I’m not overweight I am trying to get my blood sugar back down because I’m now at risk of diabetes. I love carbs. Carbs made up most of my diet but I cut back on Monday and have lost over 3lbs already.
I see low carb posts and there’s lots of eggs and meat and fish and I don’t eat those things.
What do you eat? How many grams of carbs per day do you eat? Are you very active?

Yesterday I made some patties from one block of firm tofu well drained, one small onion, two garlic cloves, two scoops of unflavoured protein powder, one scoop of gram flour, one scoop of oat bran all bunged in the food processor until smooth. I added a cereal bowl of mixed peas and sweetcorn and seasoned well then put it in the fridge to set. After dividing into ten I made patties and fried them. I served that last night with a Thai style slaw which I also made. I’m actually trying to keep my carbs lowish rather than actively going low carb and I’m attempting to eat more protein. I ate two (36g protein) and froze the rest. You could adapt the recipe by leaving out the sweetcorn and adding chopped pepper instead. It was yummy with some green Tabasco.

I try and eat low carb and high protein. I’ve found chatgbt a game changer. You can type in your likes, dislikes, how much protein you’re trying to get etc and it will create meal plans for you. After you’ve had a few you can say which ones you like and dislike and it’ll adapt the next set of meals - and create a listed shopping list for you! I do eat meat and eggs so can’t recommend any specific meals but might be worth a go.

Thank you. How many carbs and protein are you aiming for @Icanthinkformyselfthanks? I was eating well over 220 each day, no doubt more on lots of days and I’m trying to keep to around 120g carbs now. I’ve not craved chocolate all week which is very odd for me.

@LegoTherapy , I’m not being strict but am aiming to keep carbs as low as possible and protein as high as possible. Yesterday was tofu skewers in a Moroccan marinade with salad, lunch today was salad with eat lean cheese, tonight I’m having a salad with avocado and black beans with a lime and coriander dressing.
I love salad and eat it all year round but will switch to more warm vegetable based meals like a tempeh and veg stir fry when it’s not so hot.

I’m not counting anything but trying to cut carbs a bit (still eat loads of fruit though so I’d assume my carbs are higher than they should be). I eat a lot of beans, lentils and chickpeas, generally from jars for convenience (and they taste better than the tinned ones). I also have a bit of a favourite meal at the moment: stuffed tomato baked in the air fryer on top of a bed of spiralised courgette. About 30g of couscous is plenty and it doesn’t need pre-cooking or soaking because of the juice of the tomato pulp. I vary the herbs and spices but add a bit of lemon juice and some feta cheese. All in all a very quick and tasty meal. Mostly I’m eating loads of salad at the moment though.

In colder weather I make a lot of vegetable gratins. Also, crispy air fryer tofu is delicious.

Lots of useful low carb info and support on the ‘low carb boot camp’ threads

Here is (I hope) a link to the vegetarian recipes thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/low-carb-recipes/3146576-Vegetarian-Low-Carb-Recipes?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share.

I joke that I subsist on cheese and vegetables when I'm low carbing. Hey, there are worse diets 😆

Add quorn, Greek yogurt, tahini and eggs, and it's pretty much the truth.

Do you eat cheese? Halloumi is lovely grilled or cooked in a frying pan. I also love lentil pasta with a sauce. Buy the Human Being diet cookbook … it has lots of ideas without carbohydrates.