Lo Carb foods: the god, the bad and the vile

[BigO]

A number of us are doing the lo carb thing. I started this thread to highlight which foods are good and those that suck donkey butt.

Ice Cream: Enlightened and Rebel brands are great. The mint chip ice cream sandwiches are a real treat (@$3 apiece) Halo Top is freaking awful, unless you like to chew your ice cream. IMO, that's kind of a point to not eat ice cream in the first place. The mouth feel is awful and the flavor makes it even worse. How you can screw up vanilla ice cream is beyond my imagination, but these guys will drive you to giving up ice cream altogether. Heavy cream, evaporated milk, sugar substitute and whatever flavor you want. What's so damned hard about that? I like sorbet, but what the hell good is vanilla sorbet as opposed to vanilla ice cream?

Dipping/Marinade/BBQ sauces: G Hughes and Ray's (as in Sweet Baby Rays) are good. Heritage Farms sucks in just about every category except their honey-mustard salad dressing. Bag of coleslaw, slivered red onion and a bottle of the sauce is a great side dish as long as it doesn't have much carrot in it.

Salad dressings: Skinny Gurl makes both a great raspberry and balsamic vinaigrette. When it comes to balsamic vinaigrette, I prefer to make my own with all of the vinegars and oils I have (latest buy, macadamia nut oil. haven't tried it yet). If I'm feeling lazy, these two are excellent. Especially warmed over a fresh spinach salad. I eat salad greens by the bag, not the bowl. Blue cheese, tomato, dried cranberries, chopped hard boiled eggs, a little slivered onion, dressed and then a handful of Parm Crisps is my favorite.

Crackers: the best, by far, is the Sonoma Creamery Pepper Jack crisps available at Costco. I eat them with tuna, egg or chicken salads. 5g carb from six crisps, but satisfies the cracker crunch you want with those salads.They are quite salty, though.

Bread/buns: Dieter's Dream Keto brand (they make other diet breads, but the Keto is zero carbs per slice...feel free to sandwich again). Zero carbs per slice/bun and it tastes like white bread despite it being high fiber. Eggs for breakfast are great, but now I can sop up the yolks with a toasted slice like I would with wheat toast off-diet.

Jerky: Tillamook sugar free. Their zero sugar sausage snacks have an awful texture, but their jerky is quite good, especially with hot sauce. I usually make my own in the dehydrator, as it's $6 for a tiny bag worth. G Hughes' teriyaki marinade is very good for the task. Round eye roast is the easiest to remove the fat and is often found in the "rotten meat bin" (as a friend of mine called it). In some cases, if you know your butcher(s), they'll trim the fat cap off, slice it for jerky for you and charge you the reduced weight minus the trimming weight. I like a bit of Lea and Perrins in my marinade, but that adds carbs too.

Frozen pizza: Caulipower. The rest of them suck. Choose your toppings, or buy two crusts in the package and make your own. As much as I love BBQ, a crust with choice of BBQ sauce, leftover grilled chicken or pulled pork, a smattering of red onion and some shredded jack cheese makes an awesome BBQ pizza for fewer than 6g carbs if you eat the whole damned thing.

Hot sauce: Rooster brand Sri Racha. There is no substitute and 0 carbs. Use plentifully. Goes with just about anything, including the aforementioned pizza(s).

Sweet pickle relish: Mt. Olive makes a good one, but the Kroger brand is much cheaper. Tuna and egg salad aren't complete without a spoonful or more. My sauce for tuna, egg, macaroni, and potato salads is pretty much the same. A blurt of stone ground mustard (I prefer Zatarain's Creole mustard), equal proportions of Duke's mayo and Miracle whip, a dab of sweet pickle relish and salt and pepper is all I do. Diced shallots and plenty of hard boiled egg are non-negotiable, no matter what kind of salad you are making. And for the love of everything that is holy, do not put celery, celery seed, green onion or anything else in it.

Feel free to add your own.

And, BTW, the title should read Good instead of God.

[BigO]

I've lost 10 lbs in the last month and I look forward to losing until I hit 230 or so. I started at 305 post-pandemic weight. Seventy-five pounds looks like a lot into breaking it into daily meals.

My cheat day is coming up in a couple of weeks on my birthday and it's going to be either an all-you-care-to-eat Chinese buffet or all the Pad Thai I can hold.

[SLR]

Originally Posted by BigO

I've lost 10 lbs in the last month and I look forward to losing until I hit 230 or so. I started at 305 post-pandemic weight. Seventy-five pounds looks like a lot into breaking it into daily meals.

My cheat day is coming up in a couple of weeks on my birthday and it's going to be either an all-you-care-to-eat Chinese buffet or all the Pad Thai I can hold.

Awesome


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[BigJohn]

Congrats!

Sams club has a cauliflower pizza (cheese) that I put extra toppings on and it really becomes quite delicious.

[jeepdad]

Congrats Brother! I need to return to the low card thing.

[CSMAnderson]

So, any more updates? Keep up the good dieting.

[BigO]

Regardless of the flavor, Halo Top keto ice creams all suck. Rebel is better, but the chocolate and mint chip ice creams and the mint chip sandwiches are the good ones Ive tried. The butter pecan is not.

Lewis' Healthy Life makes a Keto sandwich loaf with less than a net carb per slice and a hambuger bun that's 1 net carb each. I've been eating a lot of egg salad. Last weigh in was 288, nearly 20 pounds, although you can't really tell to look at me.

Smoked sausage with a sugar free dip is a snack, as is flavored almonds of hot fried pork skins. Meals are part of the entree I make for the family, just no sweet veg or starch. I managed to make it through Thanksgiving by grilling up a huge steak and that was most of my meal.

The struggle is going to be when we start to get homemade cookies. I am helpless in my will power when it comes to cookies. I'm going to make the girls hide them from me.

Skinny Gurl has a good poppy seed dressing. Found a lo carb coleslaw dressing that I'm working to perfect. That's about it right now.