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Carb Sub for the Non-Veg Lover?


BookJumper

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The problem:

 

I'm trying to shed some weight. I've already cut out all I can possibly think of that is intrinsically baaaad - cheese was the hardest, swiftly followed by biscuits, chocolate, and all other sweet fare. The only sugar I take is in the single cupt o morning coffee I'm allowing myself.

 

I've been told I can eat pasta for lunch, as my body will burn it during the afternoon, but not for dinner, as I'll just pile it on as fat during the night. When I looked for substututes all I could find was people telling me to julienne/mash the likes of zucchini or cauliflower; as I don't like veggies and loathe those in particular, I tried having just meat on its own but I'm dying of starvation here.

 

Help?

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I tried giving up gluten and dairy a year ago for health reasons, so I know how hard it is trying to find something you can eat. I know you said you're not a big fan of veggies but thought I would post this anyway in case you might give it a try. This is my favorite home made tomato soup. Its very hearty and healthy.

 

Thick Vegetable-Tomato Soup

2 onions, browned in oil

3 diced potatoes

1 cup celery

1 cup carrot

1 (12 ounce) can whole tomatoes in puree

8 ounces tomato paste

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen green bean

8 cups water

2 tablespoons sugar

*optional 1/4 cup millet (or rice if you are trying to get off the grains)

2 teaspoons salt

Dice vegetables.

Place in a stock pot with water and season.

Bring to a boil for 1 and a half hours. Enjoy!

 

If you serve up a bowl of this alongside a small piece of fish or chicken it makes for a wonderful meal.

 

Thai food is great too because the noodles are rice instead of wheat. Are you a fan of Asian food?

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I love Asian food as long as it's mild, and to be fair I do eat veggies - I have a particular soft spot for peppers, and adore onions for instance - it's just stuff that's actually green (i.e. zucchini) and/or related to cabbage (i.e. cauliflower) that I won't eat.

 

Thanks for the recipe hun :smile2: I'll adapt it 'cos I'm not allowed potatoes or rice at night either, also I don't like bits in my soup :) so I might have to blend it all - will a smoothie maker do or do I actually have to invest in a blender?

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I'm sure a smoothie maker will do just fine :smile2:

 

Soups are a great way to get the veggies and still feel full. Split pea is another great one, and don't forget chili!

 

Good luck, its really hard in the beginning but in the long run it will be so worth it. :)

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Thank you hun :D indeed it is hard, particularly as I've been raised on gloriously bad things such as cold cured meats, more cheese varieties than you could shake a stick at and coffee as a substitute for blood in the veins!!

 

On the bright side, I actually found me a soup website last night with recipes as glorious-sounding as creamy carrot and parsnip and tomato and apple... nom nom nom :D! Actually have tomatoes and apples in the house so that'll probably be my dinner tonight.

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Yes, you could use all manner of pulses for your carbs (I'm pretty sure they're counted as carbs). And using a smoothie machine is absolutely fine for whiszzing your soups smooth - it's what I use! Although, remember to "pulse" rather than keep it on whizz or you'll burn out the motor pretty quickly.

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Thanks for the tip, although being a novice (it's OH's smoothie maker, that's why I'm afraid of ruining it), what's 'pulse'?

 

Also, if pulses are considered carbs shouldn't I be avoiding those? This is all so confuzzling :D.

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"Pulsing" would be where you don't hold the button down for longer than a second or two at a time - you "pulse" it instead so that it's only going for a short time then off, a short time then off, etc, till it's smooth. If you blast it for any length of time then your motor will burn itself out a lot more quickly (which is what happened to mine and I ended up using Xander's puree machine instead - LOL!).

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Ok, it seems that our smoothie maker model (unlike its more evolved successor) is not in possession of a pulse mode, only different speeds :D! Will it work if I click it on and off many times in rapid succession, d'you think?

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Pulses do contain carbs but they are also high in protein and fibre both of which are very good for filling you up. I would imagine pulses in small amounts would probably be ok. How about a curry with meat, whatever vegetables you can bear with some chick peas or lentils to bulk it out a bit? If you make the curry sauce with vegetable oil instead of ghee, and then dry spices, and tineed tomatoes and yoghurt (yoghurt is also high in protein so should help to fill you up) then it would be fairly healthy.

 

As for fibre maybe you could try having a low carb dinner followed by a small bowl of high fibre cereal like weetabix or something. Yes it would have carbs but nowhere near as much as a serving of pasta.

 

They also say that a thick soup will keep you fuller for longer than if you ate the solids in the soup separately with a drink of the same volume of water that made up the soup (am I making sense lol) because of the way your body absorbs it. A thick soup, with some meat and pulses in it would probably be quite filling.

 

I personally think cutting out carbs is too difficult. If it was me I'd maybe halve the portion of pasta but switch to a wholewheat version.

 

Anyway - good luck :blush:

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How about stirfry? You could pick vegetables you like and meat, and use a healthier oil. On and make your own sauce to keep the salt low. I guess you wouldn't be able to have noodles or rice with it but you could make enough for it to be a meal without them.

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Soup last night was a mixed bag - edible for a first attempt, also nice n' smooth because I've found the pulse button on the smoothie maker, however the apples were rather old and fermented so it ended up tasting like not very good quality cider :lol: that said, you were right Andrea, it was more filling that exactly the same amount of veggies + water, how bizzarre.

 

Will create a shopping list from the soup website and go veggie shopping in the afternoon. Question: can I actually freeze vegetables like I freeze meat? I don't exactly want to go buy new ones every other day.

 

I agree cutting carbs for dinner out entirely is difficult, on the other hand my nan followed this diet to lose the weight she gained after an injury and it worked like a dream for her, so I'm doing my best to follow it as closely as I can.

 

I already make stirfrys a lot (used to be the house staple when noodles, pasta and rice were still allowed) but alas, the cost of enough meat and veg for them to be entirely filling is fairly prohibitive! Curry sounds good though...

 

Thanks for all your help guys :blush:!

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We quite often freeze chopped onions and peppers and put them straight in the freezer ready to tip into a pasta sauce or something at a later date.

For things like cabbage and broccoli (your favourites I'm sure :blush:) they say you need to blanch them in hot water first. I'm not exactly sure why; I have in the back of my mind something about preserving the colour (and hence possibly the nutrients).

 

I'm not sure about price comparisons but you could consider quorn or tofu as possible cheap substitutes for meat. Tofu would work well in a stir fry although it is rather bland. Are you allowed to eat eggs? Some hard boiled eggs in your curry could be another option, to either replace or eke (sp?) out the meat.

 

Re the soup, it's because if you drink the water alongside the solids, the liquid quickly drains out of your stomach, but if it is mixed up with the food then it can't drain away, so the liquid sits in your stomach alongside the solids.Larger volume = fuller feeling. A cunning yet simple diet-busting trick.

 

And good morning by the way :lol:

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Good morning to you too :lol:.

 

That's good news about the freezability of peppers & co. How long do they take to defrost, by the way?

 

I've tried tofu once and thought it inedible :lol: I might get me a few tons of Quorn chicken though, admittedly someone once made me a Quorn chicken curry and I couldn't taste the difference!

 

No one's said anything to me about eggs so I'm guessing a few a week should be alright :blush:.

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I'm not sure. An hour at room temperature might do. We freeze them in single portion containers ready chopped and just cook them straight from frozen, either fry or stir into a sauce. Not saying that's the best way to do it though!

 

Hehe I'm not a big fan of tofu either :blush:

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Tofu has a jelly like texture which I don't like. Quorn is lovely though. It can be a bit pricey so I always stock up when there are offers on.

 

As I think someone mentioned above, wholewheat pasta is a lot better for you that normal pasta and it tastes nice too.

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