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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Thirteen years ago I became quite intrigued with the idea of LOSING WEIGHT DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON. Even knowing the chances of finding success with this idea was highly slim I was nevertheless still intrigued.

Please note, When I refer to, “LOSING WEIGHT DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON” I am NOT referring to:

1) Avoiding family and friend get togethers,

2) Avoiding all other meals to splurge during just the one dinner,

3) Limiting my meals to five pounds of plain turkey and maybe a heaping tablespoon of mash potatoes or stuffing. (Not trying to be sarcastic–just being truthful),

4) Taking supplements or DIET pills of any kind.

*Here’s How I Found Success…

In the beginning, thirteen years ago, I simply began deciphering which foods I was going to eat for the holidays versus the foods I really needed to stay away from, like those scrumptious tasting butter rolls served at the beginning of dinner.

RESULTS: Weight loss didn’t take place the first year. But I didn’t gain weight either. What I really enjoyed was this preplanning approach especially the greater sense of feeling and being in control so I continued my efforts and after many years of enhancing this concept I created what’s known as the Replace, Eliminate, Limit(REL) Theory.

REL

*The REL Starts With REPLACING Foods. It Works Like This:

After making a mental note of the specific foods that may be available at the dinner table, start deciphering what foods to REPLACE and what foods to REPLACE them with.

Ask Yourself These Questions When Deciphering What Foods To Replace With What

~What foods can provide me with the same fullness yet
without all the carbs? (TIP: The more creative you can
be the better the results.)

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~What FOODS would I be willing to settle for?

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EXAMPLE:

~Would I be willing to REPLACE the potato salad (major carbs) with regular salad (low in carbs) –maybe I could put more croutons on my salad… more cheese…maybe even splurge with some good ole Ranch or honey french dressing on the top.

~Write a list of FOODS you would like to REPLACE:

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~After deciphering which foods to REPLACE, begin asking:

~Which foods should I ELIMINATE? Certainly there must be ONE food TO ELIMINATE, Just for control purposes, if
anything else.

~What Foods Would You Like to Potentially ELIMINATE?
Write them Down:

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~If you are new to the REL concept perhaps ELIMINATE just ONE of the heavy carb ladened foods: rolls, potatoes, rice, noodles, breaded foods, etc.

~What ONE Food would you like to ELIMINATE? Write it down:

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~If you are a die hard REL user and/or want an awesome challenge then ELIMINATE ALL desserts and replace with fruits. OR perhaps ELIMINATE just one or two types of desserts; pumpkin pie, fruit pies, chocolate cakes, nut pies (Pecan), etc. It’s your choice.

NOTE: You can make your own rules too. For instance you may want to ELIMINATE all fruit pies and instead limit your desserts to sugar free fruit pies. Its’ your choice.

~If you’re feeling challenged and want to consider
ELIMINATING more than one food item what would those food items be? Write them down:

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~And lastly, foods to LIMIT.

~When it comes to LIMITING foods simply acknowledge those foods that quickly fill you up more than others.

For Instance:

I am going to LIMIT the stuffing so I can enjoy more of Mom’s favorite Gooey Butter Cake?

Or, I could probably (just maybe) LIMIT the cream peas and fill up on some of the scrumptious salad.

Or I could choose to LIMIT both stuffing and sweet potatoes so I could have both versus splurging on just the one.

~Know what foods you want to LIMIT? Write them down.

~List of FOODS TO LIMIT:

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***Who know’s. I was once told I think too much. Maybe thats the reason why REL works so well;

Doing more thinking then eating—LOL

~CONCLUSION:

I find that when we walk into the holidays blindly or should I say without a plan we tend to find ourselves gaining weight. Even worse caught up on the sugar high.
This can be avoided and in many cases weight loss can be a reality DURING THE HOLIDAYS. So the first goal is to have an REL PLAN.

Use the REL theory if you like–it’s pretty fun actually. You may even find yourself looking at the dinner table thinking maybe I’ll REPLACE the green bean casserolle with the stuffing. No maybe I’ll ELIMINATE the potatoes all together and instead treat myself to a small LIMITED piece of the scrumptious hot pecan pie.

THE REL Theory has been taken from the highly popular book—The Medium Carb Diet.

QUESTION:

Have you ever thought as to wonder why the REL works so well?

ANSWER:

All to often, we only need a one second distraction to prevent us from acting on those last minute, “sound
good” ideas.

Sure EVERYTHING looks good on the dinner table but if we have a focus… a plan… we tend not to reach for just anything and/or everything NOR splurge on those foods that are surely to put the weight on.

I know there is a lot of information this time around– but I really want you to feel comfortable and complete this holiday season while managing your low carb regimen.

This REL thought process is generally all thats needed to prevent one from reaching out for all the fattening stuff.

RESULTS: REL has helped thousands of people succeed not just through the holiday seasons but every day of the year. Try just one of the ideas and I assure you’ll feel more in control and happier with self as you look at the up and coming New Year.

If you find this information valuable, please pass it on to a friend.

With www.cookingwithflavors.com, you’ll discover how easy it is to:

*Learn how to create flavorful low carb meals,

*Learn how to create low caloric, low fat, low carb meals,

*Learn how to use everyday ingredients versus wayward, hard to find ingredients,

*Learn how to read the new food labels,

*Learn secrets to losing weight on low carb diets,

*Learn about the new MEDIUM CARB DIET,

*Learn how to entertain low carb guests,

*Hone your low carb cooking skills,

*Set realistic eating and healthy weight loss goals.

About the Author:

Robyne Arrow, a successful 23 year veteran of the Low Carb lifestyle is the author of eight books including “Cooking Low Carb with Flavor” and the popular “Medium Carb Diet.” She has helped thousands of individuals overcome the many hurdles to low carb lifestyles.

Visit her site to find out how you can get a free subscription to her e-zine,”Move Over Mr. Cheat, Ms. Flavors Moving In…” at http://www.cookingwithflavors.com or mailto:ezine@cookingwithflavors.com