New to cooking. Need help:)

FTMOfficial
FTMOfficial Posts: 1 Member
Hi, to present myself.

I am Tony, and I want to lose weight.

I am a student with a low-income at the moment(this month only).

And I don't have room for much

For this month all I have is:
- eggs
- bread
- potatoes
- tomatoes
- peppers
- cheese
- chicken breasts
- butter
- pickles
- goat cheese
- rice
- spaghetti
- lettuce

My question now is...

I didn't found many simple recepies online... Is anyone of you willing to tell here some great low carbs recepies?

Thank's :smiley:

Answers

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,222 Member
    I have to ask in your specific case: Do you need to be low carb because you are diabetic or have been diagnosed with insulin resistance?

    Low carb eating is a reasonable choice, and helps some people better manage their appetite: All good and useful stuff.

    But you've told us you have limited money this month, and you already have a list of foods you have access to that includes foods that are typically relatively high in carbs: spaghetti, potatoes, bread, rice. Many people use those foods to fill out their eating in an affordable way, and some people do find those foods filling.

    If you drop out or limit those foods, you're going to be making most of your meals of chicken, eggs, cheese, goat cheese, and veggies. That's not a bad thing, if you have enough of those foods to fill you up and give you reasonable nutrition. Realistically, if you're healthy and it's only for a month, you can sacrifice a bit on the "reasonable nutrition" side to squeak through the month, without huge health risk.

    If you don't have a major health reason to limit carbs, I'd suggest considering holding off on that goal for this tight month, and working on it later. If one of your goals is weight loss, carbs don't directly interfere with that. (They may complicate things if you're one of the people whose appetite increases when eating more carbs.)

    I could suggest some simple things you could make from that list, but most of the meals would be carb-centric: Spaghetti mixed with goat cheese and/or tomatoes, chicken salad or egg salad sandwiches, chicken/rice/tomato soup, etc.

  • loulee997
    loulee997 Posts: 273 Member
    edited November 2023
    Hi, to present myself.

    I am Tony, and I want to lose weight.

    I am a student with a low-income at the moment(this month only).

    And I don't have room for much

    For this month all I have is:
    - eggs
    - bread
    - potatoes
    - tomatoes
    - peppers
    - cheese
    - chicken breasts
    - butter
    - pickles
    - goat cheese
    - rice
    - spaghetti
    - lettuce

    My question now is...

    I didn't found many simple recepies online... Is anyone of you willing to tell here some great low carbs recepies?

    Thank's :smiley:

    Hey Tony! Low carb may be a little harder---just because bread, rice, spaghetti, and potatoes are very carb-heavy.

    But you do have options here for calorie-friendly meals. Are you using a stove, air fryer, or grill? Do you have an instant pot or crock pot? Crock pots are so easy. Your cooking appliances give you different options. I am going to assume you just have a regular stove.

    RECIPES:

    STUFFED POTATOES

    INGREDIENTS
    • 1 baked potato, fully cooked and slightly cooled. Poke holes in a potato with a fork. Bake for 45 minutes. You can prebake several potatoes for easy use later in the week.
    • melted 1/2 teaspoon of butter
    • kosher salt and black pepper
    • 1/8 cup shredded cheese (your choice)
    • egg
    • *If you have any leftover chicken pieces, add them too.

    DIRECTIONS
    • Preheat your Oven to 350
    • Slice the top off your cooked potato
    • Scoop out the middle
    • Brush the inside with a little butter, salt, pepper, cayenne, etc... (if you like em a little spicy)
    • Start layering your toppings starting with the Cheese
    • Add whatever else you like, Peppers, Shredded Chicken, Bacon Bits, Ham, etc...
    • Crack an egg on top, then MORE CHEESE :)

    Bake on a baking sheet for 20 minutes.

    Without chicken:
    Calories 301
    % Daily Value*
    Total Fat 11.2g 14%
    Saturated Fat 5.6g 28%
    Cholesterol 184mg 61%
    Sodium 176mg 8%
    Total Carbohydrate 37.7g 14%
    Dietary Fiber 4.7g 17%
    Total Sugars 2.1g
    Protein 13.4g


    SPICY FRIED EGG
    • 1 egg
    • dash of Pepper
    • dash of Seasoned Salt
    • dash of hot sauce
    • grated cheese

    Spray cooking spray on a frying pan. Turn heat on high, when water will sizzle on it, break egg carefully over it. sprinkle a gratuitous amount of cheese on the top while the bottom cooks, add pepper & seasoning salt, and hot sauce. Should cook quickly, carefully (but in one swift, fluid motion) flip the egg and thoroughly cook until center is no longer liquid. ALWAYS season your egg after it is mostly cooked. You can't taste it if you add it earlier.

    Serving size is 2 eggs. You can a toast. Some people put a squirt of ketchup on top but you may not like that.

    Servings: 1 (2 Eggs)
    Amount per serving
    Calories 183
    Total Fat 13.5g 17%
    Saturated Fat 5.7g 29%
    Cholesterol 342mg 114%
    Sodium 398mg 17%
    Total Carbohydrate 0.9g 0%
    Dietary Fiber 0g 0%
    Total Sugars 0.8g
    Protein 14.6g


    GRILLED CHEESE ROLL

    INGREDIENTS
    Bread
    Cheese
    Butter

    DIRECTIONS
    1 - Cut the Crust off the Bread
    2 - Flatten Bread with a rolling pin then top with a slice of cheese. No rolling pin? Just use a drinking glass or a 2-liter bottle.
    3 - Roll the cheese up in the bread then cook in a pan with melted butter over medium heat, until cheese is melted

    * You can add peppers if you want.

    Cabinet Spaghetti

    I tried to reduce the recipe for 1 person so you don't have to use up all of your ingredients. I tried to make it as 1 meal for 1 person. You may have to tweak the amounts.

    SCRATCH SAUCE
    Since you don't have any onions, we're going to substitute peppers.
    1/4 cup of water
    2 to 3 Tomatoes
    1/4 cup of chopped peppers.
    1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
    Salt
    Pepper
    Olive oil spray or butter.
    Left over cooked chicken.

    Chop peppers. Brown in pan. Use whatever oil or oil spray you have. If you don't have any oil spray, use the least amount of butter you can. Once peppers are mostly cooked, crush the tomatoes and add them. Add in salt, pepper, garlic powder. Add left over chicken (about an ounce). If you have oregano, add that too. Bring to boil. Add water. Reduce heat to simmer. Stir and keep on simmer for 30 minutes. It's will be an okay sauce.

    NOODLES
    • Add a few inches of water to a deep pot.
    • Add a pinch salt.
    • Bring to boil.
    • Drop in 1/4 box of Spag noodles
    • Cook to al-dente. It should be flexible.

    PUT TOGETHER:
    ***Optional: Cheese
    Fork pasta into plate, pour over sauce. If you like, grate a little cheese on top.
    Cabinet spaghetti is making what ever in your cabinet work with spaghetti. Not perfect, but edible.










  • loulee997
    loulee997 Posts: 273 Member
    If you add some dairy next time, you could make stewed potatoes pretty easily. It's pepper, salt, potatoes, butter, milk.

  • loulee997
    loulee997 Posts: 273 Member
    VERY BASIC CHICKEN AND RICE

    • 2 cups water

    • 1/4 teaspoon salt

    • 1 cup white rice

    ***If you have any chicken broth, beef broth, or bouillon cube --you can add extra flavor buy swapping the water for broth or adding the B cube to the water.

    Add salt to water. Bring to boil. Add in rice.
    Turn down heat.
    Cover pot.
    Simmer 18 to 20 minutes. Leave the lid on until done. Peeking too much lets the heat out.
    ***if you can borrow a rice cooker--it is so much easier.

    Let rice sit for five minutes before serving. If you can't add broth, then you can add a touch of melted butter to add flavor.


    Chicken.

    Add 1 TBSP of butter or olive oil to frying pan.
    Mix up your seasoning. Salt, Pepper.
    **If you have garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, or all-purpose steak seasoning---you can use it to boost your flavor. If not, just use salt and pepper.

    Rub raw unfrozen chicken breasts with seasoning mix on both sides.
    Heat skillet to medium-low.
    Add oil or butter. 1 TSBP of 1 or other.
    Once skillet is hot, cook chicken breast for 8 minutes (5 for very thin ones). Do not flip until time is up. Flip after the 8 minutes is up. Cook other side until browned. It depends on the thickness of the breast. If you aren't sure, you can use a meat thermometer (temp 165 degrees). I'm low tech. I just cut the dang chicken breast in half to make sure there is no pink. I'd guess approximately 3 to 5 minutes on side 2. If it is thicker, it may take longer.

    If you want it tastier, use the butter instead of the oil.
    Let it rest five minutes once cooked.

    Cut it into thick strips.
    Serve over rice.

    Basic--very basic--chicken and rice.
    If you have other seasoning mixes, you can up the flavor.








  • jaelia
    jaelia Posts: 10 Member
    I use a website called supercook.com. you tell it all the ingredients you have and it gives you recipes you can make with those.

    It's very helpful when I'm too tired to think of what to cook or want to make something different.