Frugal Low Carb, Any Ideas?

[amandacv86]

OH and I are planning on starting Low Carb again with his next paycheck. We were on it the whole month of January, lost about 20 lbs each, and I had my first period in 5 years which is awesome if you're TTC(and I finally got to use my handmade mama cloth!). With some of his family staying with us being difficult, we fell off the bandwagon, eating out too much and eating too many frozen meals. So now we've pretty much gained it all back, and I'm starting to really feel sluggish and uncomfortable. We have gotten used to eating at home again, though, and mostly from scratch.

What inspired me to start this post is seeing another thread today on how to cook from scratch. We like to spend about 100-150 every two weeks on groceries, and I know Low Carb is more expensive. I'm looking for ideas on how to stay low carb on a budget. Technically we could increase our budget by a little bit, but would prefer not to. Also, I'm OK with eating some prepackaged foods, but would prefer the bulk of our diet to be from scratch.

TIA!

[mel j]

I've been eating spaghetti squash in place of pasta - sometimes just like pasta with tomato sauce. Yum I actually like it better than pasta. I'm the only one who really eats it though.

Butternut squash fries in place of fries. Or sweet potato fries. I also like baked/roasted sweet potatoes whipped in the food processor. Not low carb but I do baked potato wedges too (healthier & tastier than fries IMO though.) Usually with olive oil and some salt.

Cut up a bunch of veggies and keep them in the fridge so they are easy to grab for a snack and make some healthy dips (I like homemade guacomole and hummus a lot.) I found this helpful while I was doing it. People are often more likely to grab for what is in reach when snacking. Try to keep the unhealthy stuff higher so it's harder to grab for

Raisins instead of chocolate chips or other sweet snacks. I found sunflower seeds tend to be cheaper than other nuts and they are easy to snack on too.

Meal planning... can be super helpful. Also trying a new recipe (maybe one per week). I find that fun and helpful anyway.

Banana "ice cream"... keep bananas in your freezer and whirl the frozen ones up in a food processor and you have "ice cream". I prefer it flavoured with other frozen fruit or maybe peanut butter or other nut/seed butters.

I also find things like almonds and avocados very filling and when I pay attention to my stomach telling me it's full they keep me full for awhile. One piece of fruit does not keep me full for long (like an apple on its own), but apple slices with peanut butter or almond butter also keep me full for awhile.

If you do dairy, plain Greek yogurt (very high in protein) with some honey maybe. We eat a lot of eggs too.

[Type1Mama]

I am Type 1 Diabetic, so I live life on the frugal low-carb diet. In season veggies are my best friend. Hubby gets a little sick of it, by we practically OD on seasonal summer produce, such as zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, lettuces, summer squash, and bell peppers. In the fall/winter we TONS of butternut and spaghetti squash, root veggies, onions, etc... Also, don't be afraid to spend $$ on meat, just make it meat that you can s-t-r-e-t-c-h to multiple meals. For example, buy a large roasting chicken, eat it plain/roasted (meal number 1), in tacos or whole wheat quesadillas (meal #2), in chicken veggie soup (meal #3) and then make and freeze stock with the bones so that you can use that in future soups/stews/sauces. Best of luck to you!!!

[Mack]

Also check out emeals. They have a low carb option! There awesome. It takes the questions out of menu planning and shopping. (I do get a referral bonus if you use my link.)

http://emeals.com/amember/go.php?r=255263&i=l0