Low Carb Treats

Here’s a tasty low carb and homemade sweet treat: 12395758796JDgVV

Take a pot of full fat soft cheese and set it aside to warm up a little for half an hour. In the meantime take one dried fig and five or six blueberries and chop them up into very small bits. Add two or three chopped walnuts and mix both the fruit and the nuts into the soft cheese. Cover and return to the cooler for 24 hours.

Now for the treat: Take half a spoonful of the fruity cheesy mixture and sandwich it between two pecan nuts.

So if you’re using 100 grams of pecans, a small pack of cream cheese, one fig, five blueberries and 14 or 15 walnut halves, the whole lot comes to 27 grams of carbs and those of you who would like to follow net carbs will come with an even smaller number so it really is a guilt free treat.

This is a response I made on a forum post about low carb diet

Counting Carbs in Vegetable Broth

As with many commercially made products you don’t really know what’s in there.

Personally I always prefer home made for things like broth and soups and so on simply because you know exactly what’s got into them and you can account for every part of the nutritional equation plus of course if you’re like me and prefer organic you can make sure that the ingredients that you use are good and wholesome as opposed to something that has come out in the back end of the factory.

I know which I prefer.

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Cheers,

Mark

Here is the link of the foum post where I made this comment about low carb diet

 

 

Pub drinks for LCHF? (UK)

 

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image4714405Being with friends is probably one of the most difficult situations we low carbers face and the pressure to conform with what others do is always lurking in the shadows but there’s not a lot that will persuade you to ruin all the hard work that you’ve done.

I always find the best approach when in situations like that is to look the person in the eye and say “I’ve made a decision that my long term  health both for me and  those  that I love is far more important than maybe a short term enjoyment.  No I just don’t drink that sort of stuff anymore”- soda or whatever it is you fancy.

The most powerful way of dealing with this though is to actually be the first one to buy around the drinks. That way you set the pattern right from the get go and as you are the one who bought it and paid for it no one can really try and twist your arm that you should be drinking something else and of course once the pattern is set you’ll probably get comments like “Oh and I suppose it’s another soda for you?” or whatever else their drinking.

The key in any situation like this is to always take control and remain in control. Whilst you may be open for  some public mickey taking you may well find as I have in the past that many of your friends will come up to you and maybe clumsily congratulate you for doing what you’re doing often finishing with something like “I wish I had your will power”.

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is a copy of another comment I made on a forum post about low carb diet 

Oat & Wheat Fiber Substitute for flour?

wheat and oatsI take the other approach when it comes to trying to find baked goods with low carb ingredients and that is simply have very little of something that I fancy so that it doesn’t go above my carb count for the day.

For instance this morning I had a slice of toast with the emphasis being on “a” as in one and obviously the rest of the day was tailored to make sure that my carb allowance didn’t go above my daily threshold.

This isn’t something I do very often as it’s not a habit that I want to get back into but it is certainly a lot easier than faffing around with things that never really taste the same.

Cheers,

Mark

P.S.

This post comes with a temptation health warning.

This is a comment I recently did on a forum post about low carb recipe

Trader Joe’s Grass Fed Beef

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Grass fed beef can seem to be a bit tougher simply because these animals take longer to get to their butchered weight and as you have discovered they don’t carry as much fat.

As the others have suggested cooking slowly and with extra fat is probably one of the simplest ways of ensuring that the meat is tender when you eat it.

If you like your meat underdone then steaks can also be cooked in the European way flash fried very quickly either side. It’s only when you cook the meat right through that you will find it starts to get tough as a general rule.

Tenderizing the meat using a marinade is also something you can do. A very simple marinade is to mix together a cup of vinegar, a cup of water and 3 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda and just let the meat marinate in that for at least an hour before cooking as gently as possible.

Lastly a tenderization or tenderizing hammer will work wonders as it will tend to break down the longer fibers in  grass fed beef or any grass fed meat come to that and allow you to enjoy your food without having to cut it with a chainsaw.

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is the copy of the comment I made on a forum post about grass fed beef

Question on creamy soups

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Living in Europe and particularly in Northern France where cream is a component of so many dishes, I might be out to offer a little bit of insight and experience.

When adding cream to any dish, take the dish off the heat and allow it to cool for a minute or so before you add the cream. Add the cream all in one so that it further cools the dish and then gently bring the pan back to heat stirring continuously. At the first sign of curdling take it off the heat continuing to stir, turn the heat down and try again.

If you’re going to freeze the dish then don’t add the cream. Cook it right away through just to the point where you add the cream and then set it aside for freezing. When you want to use it thaw it out thoroughly, bring it up to heat and then add the cream in the same manner that you would as if the dish were fresh. It really is that simple.

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is a copy of the comment I made on forum post about cream