What products do I need?

"Grant Baxter" wrote in message
...
First post.

Just started a week ago, and can see that this can be a very expensive
diet to be on.


Actually, since i now eat out less, and eat less at each meal, i find my
food bills are less than when i started.
Then again, i do not cook from scratch. if i want sweets, i make a planned
cheat day, then do extra running at the gym the day after, this allows the
excess junk to get worked out of my system faster.

I admire anyone who ventures to try all these new experimental recipies,
because it can cost more to get the specialized ingredients, but in general,
buying fresh things (eggs, meat, fish, cheese) should cost more than buying
more and more of the "cheaper" things on the shelf.

Rest snipped, because I have nothing to add as i dont bake lc.

Grant Baxter wrote:

Soy Flour
Vital Wheat Gluten
Protein Powder
Wheat Protein Isolate

Before you order, pick a few recipes you'd like to try and then order
what those recipes call for. Otherwise you could end up with a pantry
full of ingredients you'll never use. I would also try to find a local
retailer that sells those things. Sometimes you can find them at you
local health food stores or in the specialty food section of higher
quality supermarkets.


--
Jim Marnott
231/194/194 (Hit goal on 22 Nov '03 -- exactly 6 months later)
Atkins since 22 May '03
Gym since 1 sept '03

In article ,
says...
First post.

Hi Grant, welcome to the group!

Just started a week ago, and can see that this can be a very expensive
diet to be on.

I think the initial startup in getting staples and possibly kitchen gadgets can
be a little daunting, but once you are set up, you'll probably find that you
spend LESS on food than before. If, however, you choose to indulge in a lot of
low-carb specialty foods such as bars, bake mixes, etc., you may find it to be
more expensive, as they are often OUTRAGEOUSLY overpriced. Stick to the basics
and it will be much less. I've found that I'm much choosier about what I eat now
since I account for EVERYTHING. You gain an appreciation for what you put in
your mouth and don't want to waste precious carbs (or calories) on something
that's only "just okay". When I'm shopping, I tend to stay on the outer aisles
not because that's what people here recommend, but because I pause at the end of
each aisle, realize it contains nothing I want or need, and keep moving.
Shopping is MUCH quicker nowadays and I usually zoom in on exactly what I
want/need like a heat-guided missile :-)

I would like to try and make lo carb things from scratch (cookies,
cakes, bread, noodles, etc.)

So far, I have noticed four things coming up regularly as ingredients
at the various lo carb recipe sites. I'd like to order what I need to
start, so could someone enlighten me which (if any) of these products
would do me the most good (defined as: used in the majority of
recipes). If it's not one of the following, let me know what I should
be ordering.

Soy Flour
Vital Wheat Gluten
Protein Powder
Wheat Protein Isolate

I haven't done a lot of experimenting with these items. I HAVE used protein
powder to some extent but it seems to make things much drier than I'd like (and I
like CRUNCHY, so that's saying something). Instead, I use almond or hazelnut
flour, and only replacing a small portion of them with protein powder. I DID buy
some vital wheat gluten a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't tried it yet.

It's a little soon for you to be adding these things back into your diet, though,
especially since you are still in the phase of breaking away from "bad" carbs.
Even after induction, you'll need to be careful as to what you add back to your
menu until you get a good handle on how your body reacts to the extra carbs and
what KIND of carbs you ingest. In the meantime, you can make your own sugar-free
jello using unsweetened kool-aid, splenda and gelatine, or one of the many
desserts posted using a combination of cream cheese, Splenda, vanilla & other
flavorings.

--
Saffire
205/176/125
Atkins since 6/14/03
Progress photo: http://photos.yahoo.com/saffire333

Grant,

Soy flour isn't for everyone. I don't like the taste or texture.

I haven't used the protein isolate in 4 years of low carb home cooking.

The protein powder is very nice for making pancakes and breads, but I have
low carbed for months without it too.

All you really need is eggs, cheese, meat, fish, chicken, salad, green
veggies, berries, bran crackers, olives, sausages, cocoa powder, olive oil,
butter, and, if you can find it, the Hood Carb Countdown milk.

Low carbing doesn't have to be expensive. I have yet to find a single
expensive "low carb" product that I couldn't live without.

-- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/...0Diagnosed.htm



"Grant Baxter" wrote in message
...
First post.

Just started a week ago, and can see that this can be a very expensive
diet to be on.

I would like to try and make lo carb things from scratch (cookies,
cakes, bread, noodles, etc.)

So far, I have noticed four things coming up regularly as ingredients
at the various lo carb recipe sites. I'd like to order what I need to
start, so could someone enlighten me which (if any) of these products
would do me the most good (defined as: used in the majority of
recipes). If it's not one of the following, let me know what I should
be ordering.

Soy Flour
Vital Wheat Gluten
Protein Powder
Wheat Protein Isolate

TIA,

grant

Grant Baxter writes:

If it's not one of the following, let me know what I should
be ordering

Grant, you don't *need* any of those products. Many of us have had great
success by simply eating "real foods" such as those listed in the books/web
sites.
"Fake" bread and sweets products are usually terribly disappointing as far as
results go anyway, and cost, as you've seen, prohibitive amounts.
Once your cravings for the "white stuff" is vanquished, you'll be far less
anxious to make those pricy packaged items. Why not give it a chance?

Connie
************************************************** ***
My mind is like a steel...um, whatchamacallit.

Jim Marnott wrote:

Grant Baxter wrote:

Soy Flour
Vital Wheat Gluten
Protein Powder
Wheat Protein Isolate

Before you order, pick a few recipes you'd like to try and then order
what those recipes call for. Otherwise you could end up with a pantry
full of ingredients you'll never use. I would also try to find a local
retailer that sells those things. Sometimes you can find them at you
local health food stores or in the specialty food section of higher
quality supermarkets.

Yes, I can get all but the WPI locally. Good advice.

--
Jean B.

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 23:18:06 GMT, Grant Baxter
wrote:

First post.

Just started a week ago, and can see that this can be a very expensive
diet to be on.


It can be, but it certainly doesn't have to be. I often spend unnecessary
amounts of money on LC products just to check them out, but they aren't
really needed at all. It can be just the opposite, in fact: today, for
instance, I cooked some chicken in the crock pot, stored individual meals
of the chicken plus some broccoli in tupperware containers, and made soup
out of the leftover bits and bones. The chicken was on sale (four rather
large leg quarters for $1.31), as was the broccoli (99 cents for a big
bunch). I used a stalk of celery, a carrot, and a fragment of onion from
the fridge when making the soup, so I ended up using about $2.60 worth of
food to make six satisfying meals.

Em

Beef has been ****ing me off as it hasn't had a *good* sale at any of
my local shops in a year now. Even cheap hamburger never gets below
$1.50/lb and chuck rarely gets below $2.50... and just a year ago, I
could get either on sale for $.99/lb. So... we eat less beef than we
used to.

But a lot of meat can be gotten cheap. A month ago, I bought two
whole pork tenderloins for $.89/lb - cut to order (I did ribs, chops
and roasts). This is just a ton of meat!

The same place occassionally has chicken leg quarters for $.25/lb - my
family laughs at me when I bring home 40 lbs.

I still have a bunch of ham slices from two whole hams I bought for
$.59/lb - had them cut the majority of it into thick slices I can fry
in a couple minutes and used the end pieces as roasts (cooked one with
Thanksgiving and one with Christmas, so still have two roasts left
besides a pile of slices).

I also have 4 whole turkeys in the freezer from Thanksgiving sales.

I get a cheap breakfast sausage - $.69/lb. and I buy bulk Italian
sausage when it's on sale less than $1/lb too.

Meat is really not that expensive in comparison to other things... I
saw a tiny head of raddicchio, couldn't be more than half a pound, for
$3 the other day! should've started some of that in the cold frames
last fall, next year I definetly will!

My overall shopping goal is to never buy anything unless it's on
sale... not that I reach this goal, but it's what I aim for. So I
stock up when things are cheap.

Course, I also have almost 100 lbs of hard wheat, soft wheat and oats
here - but then the rest of the family isn't on low-carb. I'm cheap
about *all* groceries, not just low-carb stuff.

Cooking from scratch saves more money than any diet.

Eggs are cheap here as we have chickens and feed them mostly on scraps
and free-ranging. I buy $10 worth of grain for them about every 4
months or so. We built their coop out of scraps so only paid around
$20 or so for wire. I get a few dozen each week now and winter is
their low-production period. I have trouble using the eggs up, but
don't really have enough to sell...

I'm getting ready to start the rabbit hutch this week, plan to start
raising them for meat in spring. I'm expanding our garden so I can
feed them largely from that plus some alfalfa/clover hay.

I started mache in the cold frames to have through winter, but guess I
started it too late, so am still having to buy salad greens this year.
Hopefully, that will work better next year if I get it started a bit
earlier.

I'm going to have to agree with many of the feelings of some of the other
people in this thread.

Why not just try and give up the high carb foods before you start trying
trick yourself into thinking that these low carb versions actually
taste/feel like their high carb counterparts? All those recipes are just
ways of attempting to have things that you can't have. Give yourself some
time away from the carbs. If you start eating low carb bread, low carb
candy, etc. with the tastes/textures of their high carb counterparts fresh
in your mind, you're most likely going to hate it and find yourself craving
the olds stuff more. If you give yourself some time off from those things,
your body/tastebuds/etc. will appreciate the 'replacements' much more
because the comparison from the high carb to low carb won't be easy to make
and the new stuff won't seem to taste so different.

All in all, I would suggest just hanging in there and getting through a
month or two of 'standard' low carb eating, before attempting some
replacements.

Embrace your low-carbness and you will be happy!

-Dough

"Grant Baxter" wrote in message
...
First post.

Just started a week ago, and can see that this can be a very expensive
diet to be on.

I would like to try and make lo carb things from scratch (cookies,
cakes, bread, noodles, etc.)

So far, I have noticed four things coming up regularly as ingredients
at the various lo carb recipe sites. I'd like to order what I need to
start, so could someone enlighten me which (if any) of these products
would do me the most good (defined as: used in the majority of
recipes). If it's not one of the following, let me know what I should
be ordering.

Soy Flour
Vital Wheat Gluten
Protein Powder
Wheat Protein Isolate

TIA,

grant