Earlier this week, I posted a slight rant about the cost of different flours used in low carb baking recipes. Bound and determined to find a healthy way to make pancakes rather than just giving up, I checked the baking aisle at another local grocery store this week. I was thrilled when I found a 16 oz bag of Bob's Red Mill Low-Carb Baking Mix. The baking mix can be used cup for cup just like you would use regular flour, and it cost $5.50 rather than $13.00 for a bag, which is what I would have paid for almond flour. I haven't actually made pancakes yet with the baking mix, but there is a recipe right on the bag for pancakes that I am going to try.
There are a couple of other products I have been able to switch out to cut back on normal carb intake. I started using almond milk in my cereal in the morning. It is a little more expensive than normal milk, but I really don't notice a difference when I have it with cereal. We still keep a 1/2 gallon of milk on hand each week because sometimes there is just nothing better than a good glass of milk. The brand of almond milk I have been using the last couple of weeks is Blue Diamond Almond Breeze, which costs a little less than the Silk brand. Be sure to get the unsweetened almond milk which comes in either vanilla or original. If you don't get the unsweetened, you really aren't saving on carbs much. Each serving has less than 1 gram of carbs, which in my book is nothing. Anything that has less than 1 gram of carbs gets counted as zero for me. The regular almond milk has about 8 grams of carbs per serving versus 1% milk, which has 12 grams of carbs per serving. If given the choice between regular almond milk and cows milk, I would pick cows milk hands down each time. It is cheaper, better tasting to drink by the glass, and only four more carbs per serving than almond milk. So remember, unsweetened almond milk = no carbs in Natalie's book. I should mention that I have also used the unsweetened almond milk in several recipes, including soups, that call for milk and find it to work great as a substitute.
My other go-to food on my low carb adventure has been Kellogs Special K Protein Cereal. When I first saw it, I was pretty convinced it was likely going to taste like cardboard, but I was pleasantly surprised. It has a light cinnamon taste to it, and actually tastes really good. Are there times when all I want is a big bowl of Lucky Charms? Yes, but I'm trying to stick to my plan. You might wonder how I am counting this as a good low carb breakfast option when I tell you it has 19 grams of carbs. It does have 3 grams of fiber, so you can subtract that from the total carb count for 16 grams of net carbs. Using the almond milk mentioned above adds nothing to the total carb count for breakfast. In addition, the cereal has 10 grams of protein, and we all know protein is a good thing! I like to compare cereals when I'm at the store, so here are a few I have compared: Lucky Charms have 22 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 2 grams of protein. Multi-Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios have 23 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 2 grabs of protein. You might be asking, what about something healthy? Ok, let's look at Kashi 7 Whole Grain Flakes Cereal, which has 41 grams of carbs, 6 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein. Even taking out the fiber, there are still 35 grams of net carbs in the cereal. I would also like to mention there are also 170 calories in a serving versus the 110 in the Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios, 110 calories in Lucky Charms, and 120 calories in Kellogs Special K Protein Cereal.
Some of you might be asking, "why not just make an egg for breakfast, those are really healthy?" There are a couple of reasons for not making eggs in the morning. The first reason is, I don't like eggs all that much unless they are loaded with cheese and normally coated in ketchup. The other reason being I simply don't have time for eggs in the morning. I am generally running late in the morning, and the last thing I want to do is cook.
So, there are a few of my go to items for my ongoing low carb diet. My one other go to item is cheese, of any kind. I thank the food gods that cheese is low carb. If I had to go without my taters, bread and pasta and add no cheese on top of that, heads would roll. I'm finding a pretty good rule of thumb for my low carb adventure is if it is diabetic friendly, it is also probably low carb friendly.
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