Bear in mind that I had been eating a low-carb diet for three or four years before I even realised I had blood-sugar problems, which makes about 5 years in all, so I didn't get there all at once and I probably eat some things you will think are weird<g>. Don't be put off. You don't have to do the weird bit! It just seems normal to me now - I've read the cookbooks etc and get some specialty low carb stuff on the internet. I've got used to cooking things one way for my children and another way for my husband and me. (We are both what the doctor calls pre-diabetic or borderline type 2 - if we didn't eat this way I'm pretty sure we'd both be crossing the border and heading for the hills<g>.)
So today was:
Breakfast: my husband usually cooks himself bacon and egg, but I'm not often in a bacon and egg mood when I first get up. Today I had a slice of swiss cheese and a slice of ham rolled up together because I was in a hurry. Yesterday I had scrambled egg with tomato on a piece of toast made with special low carb bread. Another day this week I had greek yoghurt with blueberries. Quite often I have a protein shake which is made with some powder from the internet or health food shop mixed with soya milk. (You can't taste that it is soya in the shake, and it has lower carbs than real milk. I wouldn't use soya milk in tea.)
Lunches this week have been things like: chicken casserole left over from the night before; Ham open sandwich on one slice of low carb bread; cold chicken with salad; omelette - cheese or mushroom or even my favourite 'I just want something sweet' treat which sounds weird but is so nice - make a thin 'egg pancake' by beating two eggs and frying them like a big pancake in a large non-stick frying pan, then squirt whipped cream (the no-sugar sort) on it and top with low-carb maple syrup (which you can get from the internet). Sometimes if I'm working I take a protein shake with me - they are quite filling and avoid the temptation to grab a sandwich. Or if I'm in town I might get a salad in a cafe if I can afford it.
Dinners have been; chicken casserole (same for whole family); Cheeseburgers (kids with oven chips and buns, me with veggies); bolognese - kids with spaghetti, me with green beans - another thing which sounds odd but works fine; chicken or prawn stir fry - they have noodles with it, I have extra bean sprouts and a bit more chicken. If I make them macaroni cheese, I often make me & Tim a cauliflower cheese, with the sauce made with cream instead of flour and milk. Things like roasts and stews and steak and chops are fine; they have potatoes and I just have extra veg. Curry and chilli I serve with rice for the kids and 'cauliflower rice' for us. You put cauliflower through the food processor or grater until it is the size of rice and then steam or microwave it and it makes a really good rice substitute.
It all sounds a bit carnivorous, I know, but I do also cook quite a lot of fish though not this week and I also like stir-fry tofu if it's just me but no-one else will eat it. Tinned salmon or tuna is very handy in a hurry. I recently got a book by Rose Elliot called 'the low carb vegetarian diet' which has some good non-meat ideas in it, but my husband is a bit suspicious of anything too green<g>.
I did subscribe to a menu service for a while which was quite good because it got me thinking of things I wouldn't have thought of otherwise - after cooking for a family for years I got a bit lacking in inspiration and too focused on what people didn't like and having to be low carb as well just made my mind go blank. She sends you a set of six recipes every week plus lunch and breakfast suggestions. Some of the suggested menus were a bit American but there was generally at least 3 or 4 out of the six suggested meals which we liked, and some have become major favourites - garlic lime chicken, for example.
Hope this helps.
