Thanks for your advice. I do love salads, the only problem is I really love my ranch dressing too lol and do not like the low fat or fat free. Grew up in Texas, with my sweet tea which I absolutely love, tried the unsweet... It's bearable I guess. Now we try to mostly drink the crystal light drinks.
Oreo cookies really get me too, I would always have some with a glass of milk for a snack. I really miss those lol
I am big on flavor, really don't like the bland foods. When I was having the meat and beans, I would basically have steak and pinto beans. Sometimes added Rotel to the beans. But it got old pretty quick, while my family was eating all the "good"stuff. Then we decided to try everyone eating there same, since we could all be healthier. Doesn't go over real well with all the kids hahaha
But at this point, we are kinda strapped for money and gotta go super cheap. Seems like the super cheap stuff is all the "bad" stuff. Ugh. We just hate grocery shopping anymore... We look up diabetic recipes and they put all kinds of stuff in there, and we'll be like "what the heck is that?" They use a lot of cauliflower, which I can't stand... How can you trade mashed potatoes for cauliflower?
Lately I've been working on smaller portions, no matter what it is. I'm not sure if it's that or my stress, but I've lost some weight. I guess that's good.
I really need to figure out this eating thing though, my son is headed in a bad bad direction. We think he may have an eating disorder, he's bigger than any of us have ever been... And if he's not diabetic already, I'm sure he's probably prediabetic. We have to learn how to put only good foods in the house, since he will eat and eat and eat when we are not home or sleeping. We have finally gotten him to start going on walks with us every evening after dinner, so that's a good start.
Going to be checking on some LCHF recipes today. I really appreciate everyone's advice on here, I don't know why I didn't do this sooner! Lol
Hi again!
Steak and pinto beans.... The steak's fine, the beans are 65% carbs, so they weren't the best choice to begin with, besides bland and boring. I'm a bit of a foodie, but I can't cook. At all.
So I keep it simple in the kitchen. And while I really am no good at complex recipes, I do have a rather large amount of herbs and spices. No meal will ever be bland here.
(I'm allergic to cayenne pepper myself, but that would spice things up plenty, no?). As for how cauliflower can replace mash... Big chunks taste like cauliflower. If it's riced cauliflower (and you can just do that yourself, a whole cauliflower is cheaper than the pre-riced stuff), it'll take on whatever you flavor it with. *REAL* butter and nutmeg for instance. I have it a few times a week, often with curcuma, garlic, curry powder, pepper and salt, plus whatever gravy came off of the meat we're having,
and bacon and cheese. Same thing with broccoli rice, bacon, cheese, pepper, salt, garlic and italian herbs. Very filling and tastes quite good. Meals don't have to be expensive or bland if you make 'em from scratch. (And there's 4 grams of carbs in a serving of Heinz Ranch... Which isn't too bad. Or you could halve it and mayo the rest.). In the US you put a lot of sugar/maple syrup on bacon, but if you can get it without those additives, it could/should be a daily staple. Bacon and eggs in the morning, pork scratchings as a snack for your kid, maybe some more in the evening with cauliflower (By the way, celeriac seems to be a good spud-replacer, but I never tried it that way myself.) . Sweet tea without sugar, well... You could add artificial sweeteners, but I went that route and over-did it, meaning I destroyed my gut a year ago and I'm still healing. So careful with those. I used to absolutely detest sugarless tea, but I have it all day long now. Thought it was the most disgusting, bitter thing in the world, but it just took some getting used to. Now I can't do without it.
What you're doing now is called "portion control". It works, up to a certain point.... But if you go hungry all the time, and bloodsugars are still not what you want them to be, it really is worth it to check out recipes online. I mean, yeah, a lot of them call for expensive ingredients like erythritol (worth its weight in gold and has a horrible aftertaste, unless you bake with it), coconut or almond flour, psyllium husk and whatnot... But that stuff's usually used to replace something you can't eat without a spike. If you just stick with foods that wouldn't spike you to begin with, working within a budget is a lot easier. So go with real foods. Cheese, above-ground veggies (but no legumes/pulses!), meat, fish, poultry, eggs, mayo, olives, just about every herb or spice you can think of, butter, full fat greek yoghurt, berries, nuts (not peanuts!). Meat with fat in is cheaper, (chicken with the skin on too) but it's also better on a low carb regime, plus it tastes better than the lean stuff. And when you're out and about, there's no problem asking for a bunless burger (Five Guys is awesome! But McD's caters to the bunless crowd too. And BK. You can add extra bacon and greens). Subway'll do any sub as a salad. I always double up on the meat, add bacon and guac, add sour cream... Yum! When I'm at a restaurant I'll ask for a salad but tell them to hold the bread. Some toss corn in or croutons, which is problematic, but I either eat around them or my husband steals from my plate.
When ordering meat, fish or poultry I ask them to keep the spuds/fries and replace with veggies or salad, and they always do, because they'd rather change the menu than throw out perfectly good food. (And the places I frequent know by now that I tip well for their trouble. And I always ask if it's okay if I'm going to be a difficult customer, with my most charming smile. Usually works. Mostly because me being charming looks ridiculous.) Or I'll go for eggs (sunny side up, omelettes with salmon and spinach, whatever), and that works just fine too. You've got options. Your family has options. So before you put everyone on a regime that's not just bland but will eventually cause scurvy, (well, not quite, but y'all would be missing nutrients at some point if you always eat the exact same thing), check out what you can eat without causing spikes...
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/recipes/low-carb-budget will help too.
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@HSSS said, throw some stuff out there that you think you have to do without. We might have some solutions. (There's such a thing called fathead pizza, but it's too much work for me... I just make an omelette base and toss the toppings on.
Cheaper than Pizza Hut!).
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Jo