Low Carbohydrate Diets have helped a lot of people to lose weight. The purpose of this article is not to inspire you to low carb. Only your doctor can tell you if it's right for you. What you will learn are some fantastic ideas to cook and prepare great low carb meals fast. One of the neat things about a low carbohydrate diet is that it is so simple. Meal preparation can be done quickly because it is not complex. The more complex the recipe, usually the more carbohydrates it has because it would involve sauces, etc. Grilled Meats The basics of a low carb diet are proteins and vegetables. So in it's most simple form, that can mean a nice grilled steak with a salad. That can be done in 10 to 20 minutes (and by the way, it's delicious). So the first thing you need to do is keep a selection of meats on hand, beef steaks, pork chops, chicken, fish; anything that can be grilled and some salad fixings. Quick Salads Salads can be the most enjoyable part of the meal. There is no end to the variety of salads. To do quick low carb cooking, you should have a few items on hand to help you prepare your salads. First, stock up with different kinds of lettuce. Many people just buy iceberg lettuce and build from there. Actually, iceberg lettuce doesn't have the nutritional value that other lettuces do, nor the flavor. Experiment with different types of lettuce as a base for your salad. Mix several different kinds, as well as tossing in some spinach, turnip greens or any low carb greens. You can tear the lettuce up as you need it, or you can tear it up all at once and store it. I suggest tearing because it's not a good idea to use a steel knife on lettuce. It will make it turn brown. They do make plastic knives for this purpose. You don't want just lettuce in your salad. While this provides fiber, just eating plain lettuce will get tiring after awhile. So you will want to stock up on some great fresh vegetables that go well in your salad. The best thing to do, is to gather these vegetables, clean them and have them ready to go when you need them. You will want to trim them, even chop or dice them so they are ready to hit the salad and store them in a plastic bag or container in the refrigerator. Then, you can just pull them out when you are building your salad and toss a handful into the salad. Some good ideas for low carb salad vegetables would include celery, green onions, radishes, green bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, small amounts of carrot or tomato and bean sprouts (gives a nice crunchy feel). One way to do this is to prepare all the vegetables you may want for your salad and store them in one container. That way you can reach in and grab a handful whenever you need them. This works well, but you make sure you leave plenty of room in the container to shake the vegetables up and make sure they are mixed well. Another option is to store each veggie in a separate plastic bag (you could still keep them all in one plastic bowl) and then you can have different vegetables on your salad every night. One more quick idea about adding vegetables to your salad: Use frozen veggies. Frozen vegetables retain a lot of the nutritional value. You could take a mixture of low carb frozen veggies and put them in a bowl of hot tap water. Once they thaw and lose their chill, put them on top of your lettuce, add a good low carb dressing and you have a nice salad to go with your chops or steak. Mmmm. I think I've talked myself into cooking a quick low carb meal. |
