If you are committed to the low carb way of eating, but also craving some of your old comfort foods you may still be able to satisfy those cravings with a little bit of creative substitution. Some of the foods that you used to know and love, have a low carb alternative available – the taste might be a little bit different but you will soon get used to that and be well on your way to happier and healthier eating!
Heres some tips you can use to make your low carb cooking easier and tastier:
1. Make low carb bread crumbs for breaded foods. Foods like chicken Parmesan and stuffed peppers need to have a bread crumbs to have that full taste. While you may be able to buy low carb bread crumbs, you can also make them by using low carb bread. Simply toast the low carb bread in the oven on a cookie sheet. Once it is hard, grind it up in the food processor or blender.
2. Use soy flour or bake mix. When you need to use flour for baking or coating breaded foods, substitute soy flour or a bake mix like Atkins bake mix. You can convert your favorite recipes that use white flour to use these.
3. Use low carb chocolate bars for cookies and muffins. Now that youve converted your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe using soy flour, you dont want to put in those high carb chocolate chips. Chop up a low carb chocolate bar into small pieces and use that instead.
4. Use Splenda instead of sugar. Recipes that call for sugar can be modified to use Splenda instead. It is much lighter so you will have to expiriment with it and it may not work for everything but if does bake up nice for the most part.
5. Make great smoothies with low carb yogurt. Ok, well its not technically cooking, but if you love smoothies you can make them with low carb yogurt and fruit. Just make sure you use fruit that is low in carbs and the whole fruit not the juice as the fiber will help keep down the net carbs. Check my site below for a list of low carb fruits. Add a dash of vanilla or flavored syrup to the smoothie for added flavor.
6. For a great low carb pasta substitute use spaghetti squash. We all know that low carb pasta tastes horrible so why not try a food that is low in carbs and natural too. Cut the squash in half and bake at 400 degrees F for about 40 minutes. The squash will scrape out in strings and gives the texture and feeling of spaghetti. Trust me, it taste a lot better than the low carb pasta and has about 7 grams carbs per 1 cup serving.
About the Author
Lee Dobbins is owner and editor of Low Carb Resource a site which features articles on low carb and low glycemic index eating and where you can find a collection of low carb recipes
Written By: Lee Dobbins
