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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Everyone these days wants to find easy, low-carb recipes to build a healthy diet that is low in carbohydrates. With the recent low-carb craze, dieters can find information all over the place. Here are some guidelines to help you get what you want out of the low-carb phenomenon.

Whether you are searching the Internet, paging through a cookbook or digging through a friend’s pile of recipes, you need to keep in mind what it is that you want out of this diet. You should desire low-carb recipes that appeal to you, that will help you lose weight healthily, that you want to eat and that you can prepare without too big a headache.

Just because foods are low-carb and diet-friendly doesn’t mean they have to be bad or boring. You can find easy, low-carb recipes without sacrificing foods you enjoy. You can easily find recipes focusing on meat, poultry or seafood. You can find dozens of great ideas for breads, pastas, sauces and dips, as well as low-carb desserts and snacks. You can even have low-carb beer and other alcoholic beverages.

When preparing meals containing meats, be sure to choose carefully. As you make an effort to avoid carbohydrates, you will naturally move toward foods higher in protein. Many of these high-protein foods are our favorite meats, but many of these meats are also contain large amounts of fat. To get the best out of your diet, choose easy, low-carb recipes that call for lean meat, poultry or seafood. Even lean cuts of pork are better for you than meats like bacon and beef.

Breads are another area of interest in a low-carb diet. People are often surprised to learn that cutting breads out of their diet entirely is unnecessary. With an assault on carbohydrates in their diets, many people see breads as off limits. Books have even been written discussing how to live without bread.

Breads themselves are not bad, but some can certainly not low in carbohydrates. Many easy, low-carb recipes are available that allow you to enjoy sandwiches, burgers, toast or muffins. These recipes use a slightly different list of ingredients, but they yield healthy, tasty breads. Also, breads contain fiber, which is important to include in your diet.

Many recipes targeting a low-carb audience will specify nutritional information for the food, especially carbohydrate, protein and fiber content. This information is provided for a reason: as you probably know, foods low in carbohydrates and high in protein are central to the Atkins and other low-carb diets. Fiber is also a big part of the equation; simply put, you can have more carbs in your diet if they are in the form of fiber. Also, foods high in fiber are generally full of “good carbs,” the type of carbohydrates you don’t need to eliminate from your diet.

This brings up another good point: you don’t need to completely eliminate carbohydrates from your diet. Keeping some carbs in your diet is healthy and does not negatively affect your diet. Most low-carb recipes have at least some carbs. Instead of cutting out all carbohydrates, you should focus on minimizing or eliminating “empty carbs,” carbohydrates that come from foods with little or no nutritional value. Soft drinks and candy bard have empty carbs; fruits and vegetables, for example, have good carbs.

An important part of a low-carb diet is variety. You’re trying to limit carbohydrates, but that doesn’t mean you should eat eggs every day and avoid bread like the plague. Abide the guidelines for a healthy, low-carb diet: limit but don’t eliminate carbs, get plenty of fiber, make sure your protein-rich meats are not too full of fat.

Again, to easily sustain a healthy, low-carb lifestyle you should eat foods you enjoy. Low-carb foods should not be a burden. The list of diet-friendly choices has enough variety to make even the pickiest eaters happy. You have plenty of delicious, easy, low-carb recipes to choose from.

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Everyone’s been talking about low carb diets. While most people tend to associate it with South Beach or Atkins, there are actually quite a few books that center on the principle of cutting out the carbs: Sugar Busters, Protein Power, The Zone Diet, Carbohydrates Addict Diet. They differ on how strict they are about carbohydrate intakewhat you can eat, and not eat, or how much you are later allowed to eat in the later phases of the dietbut as a whole, they agree on one thing: carbs are bad.

The Carbohydrate Principle

Which makes you wonder: what’s so bad about carbs? The belief is that when you control carbohydrates, you lower your body’s
production of insulin. Insulin gives your body the “quick fix” of energy (which is why, after eating carbs, you get the famous sugar rush). But without carbs, your body’s forced to use your body’s fat and protein stores.

Low carb diets can lead to rapid weight loss, but nutritionists are debating whether or not it should be continued in a long term. This is because you force your body to burn muscle, and muscle can be a dieter’s best friend because it burns calories even when you’re at rest. However, some diets allow restricted carbs in later phaseswhich would lower the rate of your weight loss, but is healthier for you in the long run.

What are the benefits of low carb diets?

* You feel (and weigh!) lighter. Low carb diets remove many high-calorie, low-nutrition foods such as pastries and pasta. It also forces the body to burn fat stores (i.e., the bulge around your hips). The foods that are typically included, mainly protein, low-fat dairy, and fiber, also tend to reduce water retention.

* You feel less hungry and more energetic. The body digests carbs and uses very quickly, leading to quick bursts of energy but also frequent hunger pangs and the infamous “sugar rush-sugar crash” cycle When you replace carbs with fiber and protein, which takes longer to process, you’ll feel full longer and have more stable energy levels. That is also linked to less mood swings and higher concentration.

* Better blood pressure and cholesterol. Low carb diets usually remove saturated fats, and refined or processed food, and shift to what is called “whole food groups” (low fat dairy, protein, fiber) which help control blood pressure and cholesterol. The significant reduction of sugary foodwhich typically contain lots of calories, no nutritional contentalso helps control obesity, which is a big factor in heart attacks.

What foods are low carb?

Low carb diets sound good, but be prepared: low carb diets will take out what many consider as staples in all meals: bread, pasta, and rice. In fact, low carb diets will remove anything made of flour, starchy vegetables like corn and potatoes, and foods that contain sugar (this includes several fruits), and cereals that aren’t specifically labeled as “low carb”. However, you will be allowed to take meat and eggs, low sugar fruits like strawberries, and high-protein but low-fat alternatives like soybeans. Some low carb diets allow dairy.

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