If you’ve jumped on the low carb bandwagon and found it has worked really well for you, chances are you’ve run out of meal ideas at one time or another. When cooking low carb, it isn’t always easy to come up with new foods to keep it interesting. Here, we’ll discuss some easy low carb foods you can prepare that’ll mix things up a little and prevent low carb boredom.

Cooking low carb means you should always have a few food necessities around to whip up a good meal that is high in protein.

Some of these low carb necessities are:

1.) Low carb bread crumbs
2.) A variety of cheeses such as Muenster, Provolone and Mozzarella – which are lower in fat than orange cheeses like cheddar.
3.) Low carb wraps that are about eight inches around and high in fiber.
4.) Cottage cheese
5.) Yogurt
6.) Almonds, macadamia nuts and brazil nuts are all excellent sources of protein and omega 3 fatty acids, which help slow the absorption and utilization of calories.

7.) Flavored tunas – a favorite of mine is sweet and spicy tuna by Starkist.
8.) Brown rice, the slow cooked variety.

Once you have these “staples”, you’ll always have food around for a simple lunch or dinner and snacks. The cheese can be used as a snack by itself or you can wrap a piece of deli pepperoni around it and have a snack that tastes like pizza bites. If you want to have a hot snack, try frying pepperoni in a pan with the mozzarella over it, and you can even dip it in a tomato sauce. Another good snack is deli ham rolled with cream cheese and a slice of dill pickle. Believe it or not, this is a great flavor combination!

Yogurt with some slivered almonds also makes an excellent snack, and they even have some low carb varieties of yogurt on the market that are pretty tasty. You can also eat this as a breakfast since it is filling enough to replace a meal. The same goes for cottage cheese. You can even make a low carb lasagna with special whole wheat pasta. Layer about two rows of the whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce, small curd cottage cheese, some cooked and crumbled hamburger meat which can also be mixed with either vegetarian or pork sausage, and mozzarella cheese. As mentioned previously, you can also make this a vegetarian dish by substituting the meat with either soy versions of meat or a vegetable of your choice such as broccoli or spinach.

Another excellent low carb meal is eggplant parmesan. Lightly salt thinly sliced eggplant, dip it in egg whites and fry in a pan with olive oil or low fat cooking spray until golden brown. Layer the eggplants with sauteed mushrooms, mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 miutes.

If you want a lighter dinner, try flaking the sweet and spicy tuna over a small bed of brown rice. You may season the rice with a dash of salt and pepper and a hint of sesame oil for extra flavor also. What you end up with is a delicious low fat, high fiber meal that leave you feeling lighter and satisfied for hours.

More Low Carb Cooking: Comfort Foods that Won’t Pack on the Pounds

An excellent low carb substitute for a common comfort food is turkey meatloaf. This one is both light on carbs and light on fat. Take 2 pounds of ground turkey, about 3/4 cup of low carb bread crumbs, 2 eggs, and a meatloaf seasoning packet such as McCormicks meatloaf seasoning. Mix it all together and bake. An optional topping is a low carb BBQ sauce for an extra zing.

You can even make a low carb pizza. Specialty stores and even some grocery stores carry special low carb pizza crusts. The toppings are all naturally low in carbs. Just add some tomato sauce – preferably one without any sugars, mozzarella or provolone cheese and toppings such as pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms or other veggies.

Eating low carb no longer has to be a prison sentence. There are hundreds of specialty low carb foods now available at your local grocery store and all it takes is a little creativity to eat a diet filled with variety and flavor.

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If you are committed to the low carb way of eating, but also craving some of your old comfort foods you may still be able to satisfy those cravings with a little bit of creative substitution. Some of the foods that you used to know and love, have a low carb alternative available – the taste might be a little bit different but you will soon get used to that and be well on your way to happier and healthier eating!

Here’s some tips you can use to make your low carb cooking easier and tastier:

1. Make low carb bread crumbs for breaded foods. Foods like chicken Parmesan and stuffed peppers need to have a bread crumbs to have that full taste. While you may be able to buy low carb bread crumbs, you can also make them by using low carb bread. Simply toast the low carb bread in the oven on a cookie sheet. Once it is hard, grind it up in the food processor or blender.

2. Use soy flour or bake mix. When you need to use flour for baking or coating breaded foods, substitute soy flour or a bake mix like Atkins bake mix. You can convert your favorite recipes that use white flour to use these.

3. Use low carb chocolate bars for cookies and muffins. Now that you’ve converted your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe using soy flour, you don’t want to put in those high carb chocolate chips. Chop up a low carb chocolate bar into small pieces and use that instead.

4. Use Splenda instead of sugar. Recipes that call for sugar can be modified to use Splenda instead. It is much lighter so you will have to expirement with it and it may not work for everything but if does bake up nice for the most part.

5. Make great smoothies with low carb yogurt. Ok, well it’s not technically cooking, but if you love smoothies you can make them with low carb yogurt and fruit. Just make sure you use fruit that is low in carbs and the whole fruit not the juice as the fiber will help keep down the net carbs. Check my site below for a list of low carb fruits. Add a dash of vanilla or flavored syrup to the smoothie for added flavor.

6. For a great low carb pasta substitute use spaghetti squash. We all know that low carb pasta tastes horrible so why not try a food that is low in carbs and natural too. Cut the squash in half and bake at 400 degrees F for about 40 minutes. The squash will scrape out in strings and gives the texture and feeling of spaghetti. Trust me, it taste a lot better than the low carb pasta and has about 7 grams carbs per 1 cup serving.

Lee Dobbins is owner and editor of Low Carb Resource a site which features articles on low carb and low glycemic index eating and where you can find a collection of low carb recipes

Many people these days want to control their diets so they are eating low calorie foods, but low calorie foods that still taste great. The way to get low calorie foods that taste great is through light calorie cooking. There are a few tips to consider when embarking on light calorie cooking adventures where the calories are low but the taste is high.

Margarine As Opposed to Butter

When following recipes when preparing a meal, there are many recipes that now list a choice between using butter as an ingredient or margarine. By using margarine in the recipe instead of butter the cook cuts the caloric content significantly yet still keeps a good taste overall. It is very hard to tell the difference between margarine and butter that is used in cooked foods and since margarine is lower in calories it is a great substitute. So, the next time you are cooking and run across a choice between butter or margarine as an ingredient make the healthy and low calorie choice by using margarine. The taste will remain great and it won’t affect your waistline!

Splenda as Opposed to Sugar

Another great way in which to save on the caloric intake is to use Splenda in one’s recipes as opposed to sugar. Splenda consists of sucralose, which was approved for sale on the market in the late 1990s. Not only is this ingredient low in calories but it is great tasting as well. Splenda is also a wonderful ingredient to use in baked foods as it is heat stable and there is no real loss of the substance during cooking. For these reasons, Splenda is a great ingredient to use when cooking using those recipes which call for sugar. You won’t notice a difference, but you will enjoy great foods and beverages with considerably less calories!

These are two ways in which a calorie-conscious individual can make fantastic light calorie meals that are abundant in the taste department and easy on the waistline as well.

DivineRecipes features hundreds of light cooking, low carb, and vegetarian recipes. Visit http://www.DivineRecipes.com for over 25,000 food and drink recipes.