Low-carb vegetarian diet does not mean "no-food" diet

As most of you know I was forced encouraged by my doctor to give up cut back on the number of carbohydrates that I eat per day. As a vegetarian this seemed like a daunting task. What was I supposed to eat? How would I get enough protein at every meal to ensure that I wasn't starving when my only high protein choices are soy and eggs?

After a couple of weeks of whining my creative cooking juices began to flow. Here are a few meals that I have prepared without grains, sugar, potatoes or any of those other bad white stuff. 

Fried green tomatoes on a bed of zucchini and yellow squash noodles drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction. It was yummy. JR loved the reduction so much that he wants it on everything. I think I'll try a port or Pinot Noir reduction next. I used almond flour to bread the tomatoes though soy flour would have worked well enough. I find I don't like to use soy flour all that often so almond flour works well.

Veggie eggs Benedict on a bed of veggie bacon sauteed spinach and grape tomatoes. This was a Saturday morning brunch thing. Very good. Really! How can you go wrong with homemade hollandaise sauce?

Portabella mushrooms stuffed pizza style. I was craving pizza one night. This satisfied. 

Cream of wild mushroom soup. Arrowroot my friends. Learn to embrace it. 

Cheese souffle stuffed mushroom caps. We had these on Wednesday night. They were awesome! I'm going to work on this recipe a bit before I share it. The taste was perfect but the presentation was a little wonky. I also want to work on the mushroom to souffle ratio.

All in all we've had some very wonderful food lately without all the carbs. Though the 'proof will be in the pudding' when I go into the doctor's to have my glucose levels checked again. I will tell you that I have lost 15 of those 20 ugly pounds that I gained since moving to Texas. That made me very happy. I also don't feel deprived of food. I'm getting more than enough protein and haven't succumbed to lethargy.

I think the one thing that I proved was that lowering your carbs will let you lose weight and that vegetarians can safely go on a low-carb diet. It may take a bit more ingenuity but it can be done. 

Love,
M