As we are all in the cooking mood with the slow cooker thread, and post baby weight is often mentioned on here too...

Now I'm finally getting my life back(ha!), and bum into gear properly about regaining the pre-baby me (sort of!) I have given up carbs (hard) and am trying to stick to low fat meals, am doing really well on chicken, fish, tonnes of veggies, salads and fruit, but would love to hear from anyone who has any really good recipes for more unusual salads using pulses etc. or any other suggestions, or recommendations for good recipes - books or websites or iphone Apps please feel free to share.

Thanks,

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Molly

Pulses are carbs though?

I like a salad made with green lentils, spinach (
Cooked) with a garlic and yoghurt dressing



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2012:03:03:08:42:26 by Fuschia.

Do you have a slow cooker? If yes

Chicken thighs no skin, marinate in garlic, jerk chicken seasoning, thyme and worc sauce. Transfer to slow cooker along with an onion cut in half, lots of peppers, chicken stock, salt pepper, remainder of marinade, tomato purée and then cook on Hugh for 2-3 hours.. 10 mins before its ready squeeze in a little honey. I normally add cooked rice to it 30 mins before its ready but as you are going carb free you could easily do salad..

I also roast a whole chicken in the slow cooker. Get a 1.4kg Chook, I put butter under the skin of the breast, season and put something in to the cavity ie garlic or a clementine.. Put 4 balls of foil in the bottom of the slow cooker so the chicken isn't touching the bottom, put it on High for 1 hour then low for 8.. Literally falls off the bone and. O oil needed. Obv the butter is optional to make it even more low fat but I do it to make sure the breast part doesn't dry out..

Another - in a wok, chop snd slowly fry onion, garlic and a chilli, add canned tomstoes, add 500ml veggie stock, put green 150g lentils (I use the really small ones), kidney beans if you want put i dont and some tomato purée.. Towards the end you can then add some chopped peppers.. I normally have this will salad and tortilla wraps.. Ps add some more liquid if you need to at the end..

Hope that helps
X

X

Ps thighs on the bone not boneless

Thank you, all good.

F - good point, it's mostly 'white carbs' that I'm told are evil - rice, pasta, bread, potato etc. Some pulses inked moderation ok I hope.

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Molly

Strawbs, these sound great will try roasting my chicken this way tomorrow. I think breast down helps to keep it moist too.

Thank you.

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Molly

Molly, you are sticking to the low gi carbs then ...

I must admit, speaking as a veggy, low fat meals based around vegetables and pulses are not incredibly satisfying, somehow. Add a few nuts, little bit of cheese, helps a lot.

Kalyn's Kitchen. She knows a lot about the South Beach Diet and has lots and lots of low GI recipes on her site.

I 've got a few low fat or veggie recipes on my blog, but this one comes to mind: smoked trout salad with horseradish dressing;

[bighungryfamily.blogspot.com]

x

Agree Fuschia! I find it hard to find low fat options as a veggie. Eat fish though which helps.

Molly I made a salad from Jamie Oliver's 30 min book, grated beetroot, flat leaf parsley dressed on balsamic with a bit of crumbled feta on top, think you cam get low fat version of feta. Was yummy!

Did a roast chuck as advised - OMG it was amazing - fell apart getting it out of the slow cooker, really delicious!

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Molly

two salads i made last week that are a bit out of the ordinary:

smoked mackerel, beetroot, toasted pumpkin seeds, green lentils

feta, walnuts, spinach, roast butternut squash, coriander

i tend to overdose on eggs when low-carbing.

Molly I'm so pleased th chicken went well!! It's such a hit in my house I do it at least twice a week with boiled veg!

I like beetroot in salads at this time of year. Tonight we're having a warm beetroot, potato and mackerel salad with lots of parsley, capers and gherkins. I also often make a salad with beetroot and puy lentils (you can reduce the oil in the dressing in this recipe if you want to lower the fat content).

Probably more summery, but a salad of broad beans, artichokes and preserved lemon with some gentle spices is lovely.

Cannellini beans work really well with tuna (fresh or tinned), tomatoes, parsley, a little onion and a lemony dressing. I could eat that every day in the summer!

Chickpeas get thrown into most things in our house. They're good mixed with squash roasted with garlic and chilli and a little cooked bulgur wheat (I know you said no carbs, but does that mean absolultely no carbs? For pulses to become complete proteins you need to combine them with wholegrains). Or in a lighter salad with watercress and grapefruit. You can make fat free houmous at home if you have a food processor too.