Bulgarian Kjufteta meatballs

I got this recipe from the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat yesterday (Aug 11th, 2011). I made them yesterday and my husband totally freaked out - he said they were the best meatballs he'd had in his life (better than the ones his Mom makes!). So by popular demand, here's the recipe:

500 g of ground beef (the fatty kind, or a mixture of beef and pork)
half an onion (I left this out completely since my husband cannot stand onion)
1 egg
1 teaspoonful of fresh oregano, chopped up (I used a bit more)
1 teaspoonful of fresh parsley, chopped up (I used a bit more)
salt (preferably sea salt, ground in a mill)
black pepper (whole peppers, ground in a mill)
oil for frying (the original recipe calls for rapeseed oil)

• Peel and chop up the onion
• Mix together all the ingredients (note: take the meat out of the fridge at least half and hour before cooking it)
• make meatballs out of the mixture
• fry in oil in a pan or cook in the oven at 225 C (437 F) for 10-15 minutes (I kept them in for the whole 15 minutes)
• serve with a salad (if not on a low-carb diet, serve also potatoes)
• Enjoy!

Vegan low GI ratatouille

I found another vegan low GI recipe.

http://www.the-gi-diet.org/recipes/vegetable_ratatouille/

Ratatouille is a traditional French dish, often served as a side dish with meat, but in this recipe it's served with pasta. I will cook this some day, but I'll have it the traditional way with meat (I don't eat pasta currently).

Low-carb drink, option 1

Pictured is my fave low-carb (or rather no-carb) drink: San Pellegrino sparkling water. Any water is an excellent choice and you should drink at least 1,5 litres per day. In very hot weather, you should drink double that amount.

However, make sure you get enought salt, since a low-carb diet flushes out salts from your body in the beginning, and it is this lack of salt that can cause a feeling of light-headedness in the beginning stages.

Michel de Montignac - low GI internet store

I recently discovered this wonderful internet store from French diet guru, Michel de Montignac:

http://www.montignac-shop.com/index.php?lang=1

He sells e.g. chocolate with a GI of zero!! And spaghetti with a GI of 10!! I will be buying some for sure.

Pictured is the chocolate I am currently using. I don't know what GI it has, but it only has 19 g of carbs per 100 g.

Low GI vegan chocolate chili

A vegan friend asked me how she could eat low-carb. Not an easy question, but I will be on the look out for such recipes and ideas. Here is one I came accross that looks delicious (I have not yet tried it):

http://www.the-gi-diet.org/recipes/vegetarian_chocolate_chili/

Glycemic Index (GI)

I have referred to the glycemic index and to "low GI" foods several times in this blog. A few words about that concept. Glycemic index is a way of rating the speed of absorption of carbohydrates. So, e.g. pizza has a glycemic index of 80 (high, see below) and peanuts have a GI of 13 (low). This means that pizza raises your insulin levels much more than peanuts do - and high insulin levels are what makes us gain weight (or hold onto fat).

Insulin is a hormone. When our insulin levels are high, we accumulate fat in our body. When our insulin level is low, we liberate fat from our existing fat tissue and burn it for fuel - this is what low-carb dieting is based on, because only carbs elevate our levels of insulin. The GI of e.g. meat or cheese is zero, meaning that it does not elevate our insulin level at all (pictured is one of my fave snacks: Mini BabyBels - yummy!)

The worst carbs (from a dieters point of view) are: beer, fruit juices (even natural, unsweetened ones), sodas with sugar in them (diet sodas are much better and ones without caffeine are even better, since caffeine also raises insulin levels). And obviously white sugar is also one of the worst offenders. Whenever you can, you should try to eliminate it completely. You can replace it with a sugar substitute when necessary.

So this is really how we gain weight: carbohydrates -> elevate insulin levels -> make us gain weight

So if we eliminate carbs, we will lose weight (or not gain any, if we are already at our ideal weight). However, most people may not want to eliminate carbs altogether and that's where the GI comes into play. It rates carbs on how "good" they are, meaning how much they raise our level of insulin.

High GI - 70 or more
Medium GI - 56 to 69
Low GI - 55 or less

There are many websites that provide a GI database, i.e. that list the GI of thousands of foods. Here is one example:
http://www.glycemicindex.com/

I found interesting facts there:

- the GI of "rich" (I am assumign this means full fat) ice-cream is 38, meaning it's low!!
- the GI of an apple is 40 - so an apple is as fattening as ice-cream! (obviously an apple is a healthier choice - my point is mainly that if you must indulge in something "naughty", try to make it low GI in any case).
- the GI of a pineapple is 59, so pretty high
- white rice (the Japanese kind) has a GI of 86 (i.e. it's more fattening than pizza)
- Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread has a GI of only 30 (I think I'll buy some!)
- peanut M&Ms have a GI of 33 (yum!)
- bread with peanut butter has a GI of 51-67 (too high for me, won't be eating any)
- peanuts have a GI of 7 to 23, so quite low - it's OK to eat e.g. salted peanuts as a snack
- mixed nuts & raisins: GI 21
- foods containing little or no carbs are not listed, since their GI is zero. Such foods include: all meat (check in the case of processed meats!), all fish and seafood, avocado, wine (!!), spirits, most vegetables (the best ones being leafy green vegetables). Some good options: butter, mayonnaise, cream (the full-fat kind), bacon, all oils, coconut, all nuts, peanut butter (but note that you should not have bread with it....).

One more thing to note (which is new info for me) is that now there is a new concept in addition to GI, referred to as GL - glycemic load. It takes into account also the typical quantity of the food item consumed.

Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
"The usefulness of glycemic load is based on the idea that a high glycemic index food consumed in small quantities would give the same effect as larger quantities of a low glycemic index food on blood sugar. Glycemic Load is the product of the Glycemic Index and the grams of available carbohydrate (GL = GI × available Carb grams). For example, white rice has a somewhat high GI, so eating 50g of white rice at one sitting would give a particular glucose curve in the blood, while 25g would give the same curve but half the height. Since the peak height is probably the most important parameter for diabetes control, multiplying the amount of carbohydrates in a food serving by the glycemic index gives an idea of how much effect an actual portion of food has on blood sugar level."

So if I understand correctly, the important figure we should be looking at is the GL. But of course looking at the absolute GI is OK also - just make sure that you keep quantities of high GI foods low!

Low-carb snack, option 2

Another nice low-carb snack option: lettuce, cucumber, red onion, fresh basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and black pepper.

Low-carb dessert, option 2

What could be more delicious than fresh raspberries? Just don't add any sugar, or if you must, add a sugar substitute. Do keep your consumption of fruit fairly low, since they are high in carbs. However, berries are the best kind of fruit to have.

Low-carb hamburgers

I really love to eat fast food sometimes and I was really getting a craving for hamburgers. So I tried to figure out how to make low-carb burgers. Well, it's as easy as not having a bun - just have all rest of the ingredients. I made the patties with ground beef only (nothing added to it), cooked in butter, with salt and pepper added. On top, I put mayonnaise (not the low fat kind, I used Hellman's regular mayo, which only has 2g of carbs per 100 g), mustard (try to find the kind that has no sugar - I didn't but I just used very little of it), and ketchup. Strictly speaking, ketchup is not allowed because it's got lots of sugar and tons of carbs. But I have used it a couple of times anyway. I do also have a recipe for home made ketchup, which I'll look into. I could perhaps make a sugar-free ketchup myself.

Then put some cheese on the burger if you wish, a slice of tomato, some pickle (the sugar free kind), and some lettuce and onion. If you want, you can even wrap the whole thing in a big leaf of lettuce. Yummy - and it almost tastes like the real thing! I had it with Coke zero. If you can find decaf Coke, it's even better. Caffeine elevates your insulin levels, so it's fattening. So try to keep your caffeine intake to a minimum (also tea and chocolate have some caffeine). 

Low-carb dessert, option 1

Here's a low-carb dessert option: vanilla ice-cream (the full fat kind, not anything low fat, etc), fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries and a generous sprinkling of crushed almonds. Strictly speaking, ice-cream is not allowed because it has sugar, but I've had some a couple of times per week and have still lost weight. Everybody is different and you just need to see if ice-cream is a good option for you or not. If it stops you losing weight (or makes you gain), then don't have any. Or, you could make it yourself! Cream is allowed, so you just need to replace the sugar with a substitute and you're good to go. I have an ice-cream maker and I'll try to figure out how to make low-carb ice-cream and I'll be sharing the recipe here once I figure it out.

By the way, berries are the best fruit to have on a low-carb diet. I think it's because their are slightly sour so that means they have a low GI. And all nuts (including almonds) are very low in carbs so excellent snack or dessert food on a low-carb diet. However, they still do have carbs, so if you are not losing weight, try cutting them out as well. As I wrote earlier, everyone is different and can support different amounts of carbs.

Low-carb moussaka

One of my absolutely fave dishes is lasagne. But since I am currently on a low-carb diet, I cannot have any. I am not using any grains currently. The funny thing is, I don't actually miss them that much. Sometimes I'd really like to have some bread, of course and I do miss pasta. Other than that, I have not missed it at all. But back to the topic at hand: since I cannot have lasagne, I tried to think of a low-carb option and moussaka came immediately to mind. It is a traditional Greek dish, often made with egg plant, zucchini and potatoes. I made a low-carb version, so obviously I did not use any potatoes.

Our local super-market did not have any egg plant, but I found a huge, yellow zucchini to use instead. Remove the ends and peel it slightly, see photo below.

Slice it up, add salt to the slices and put them in a sieve/colander and leave for a while. This will remove some of the extra liquid. I think this is probably more important to do for egg plant but I did it for the zucchini in this case also.

The traditional moussaka recipe calls for the slices to be breaded, but I simply skipped this part.

Meanwhile, fry up some onions, garlic and ground beef in a pan/skillet, add crushed tomatoes and spices: salt (I always use sea salt), black pepper (freshly ground, from the mill), a bit of red wine (about 1 DL), one teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (pimento). You can add fresh parsley, but I did not have any so I didn't. I did not even have dried parsley, so I simply left it out (cooking is not an exact science).

The recipe may call for flour, bread crumbs or other grain products - simply leave them out. And the same goes for sugar as well. If you must, use a sugar substitute. However, I just left it out.

Spread the zucchini slices evenly on the bottom a lasagne dish and spread some of the ground beef and tomato mixture on top (see photo below).

Repeat with the rest of the slices and add the rest of the ground beef mixture. Then shred a lot of cheese on top and add big gobs of butter (see photo below). Note that I do not use bechamel sauce at all. I have never liked it, I simply find the consistency of it revolting. I have always made lasagne this same way as well - just with tons of shredded cheese instead. I used both edam and parmesan cheese but you can use pretty much any cheese you like. The real Greek cheese would be Kefalotyri but it may be hard to find.

Cook at 175 C (350 F) for 45 minutes.

There are many, many recipes on-line and I usually make an adapted version of several of them. This is one I looked at:
http://greekfood.about.com/od/eggplant/r/moussaka.htm

Serve with red wine (if you wish) and enjoy! You can add a nice green salad also if you wish.

Low-carb breakfast, option 2

Here's another low-carb (carbohydrate) breakfast option: eggs over easy with bacon, diet orange soda and a nice fresh salad.

Note that you should never, ever drink orange juice on a low-carb diet - not even the freshly squeezed kind. If you must have orange, eat the whole fruit. The fibre in the fruit makes it lower GI (glycemic index) than if you drink the juice. This means that it is digested more slowly, thus raising your insulin levels less, and it is therefore less fattening. If I feel like having OJ with my breakfast, I'll have diet orange soda instead. It's not very healthy (because of all the additives and artificial ingredients), but it is very low carb and very low GI.

See my previous post for how to cook bacon. Eggs over easy is just eggs sunny side up, but then flipped and cooked a bit more. You can google on the different ways to cook eggs, so I won't go into that there.

The salad contains cucumber, red onion, fresh basil, fresh parsley, parmigiano reggiano cheese, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and freshly ground black pepper (i.e. from the mill).

Low-carb snack, option 1

One of the difficult things for me is what to snack on? Normally (i.e. before starting a low-carb diet), if I am just a little bit hungry, I'll have a sandwhich, or a pot of yoghurt, or both. But on a low-carb diet, those are of course off limits. Did you know that an ordinary little pot of yoghurt contains the equivalent of 7 or 8 cubes of sugar? I was horrified when I read that and I'll never touch yoghurt again (unless it's the natural kind with nothing added).

Anyway, here is one snack option: a salad with cucumber, red onion, two kinds of cheese (parmigiano reggiano and Oltermanni - a Finnish cheese similar to Edam), a pickle (make sure that you buy the kind with no sugar added!), and some mild Greek chili peppers. You can add extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil and vinegar (I usually use balsamic, but red wine vinegar and white wine vinegar are also delicious). Both help the food to be digested more slowly, meaning that they lower the GI (glycemic index) since fats and anything acidic helps food to be digested more slowly. So it raises your insulin levels less, meaning it's less fattening.

Why we get fat

While surfing on-line, I found a site that recommended the book "Why we get fat and what to do about it". The site said that it is one of the best diet books around, so I immediately ordered the free sample on my Kindle, read it, bought the Kindle version and read it in two days. It is not an easy read because it's quite technical, but it really does explain why a low-carb diet is the only way to lose weight and also why it is also the healthiest possible diet. The healthiness of it was new info for me.

The basic argument is that what makes us gain weight has nothing to do with how many calories we consume. Instead, it is a high level of insulin that makes us gain weight (fat). And what raises our level of insulin? You guessed it: carbs! And the higher the GI of those carbs, the more they raise our level of insulin. So to lose as much weight as possible as quickly as possible, it is perfectly safe to cut out carbs completely for a while, or even for as long as it takes. It is not easy, but it does work.

What foods have zero carbs? All meats, including fowl, fish and seafood. This means when they are in their natural state. So with processed meats you do have to be careful and check the carb content, since e.g. some sausages are made by adding e.g. flour. Eggs have zero carbs. Hard, aged cheeses have zero carbs. Processed cheese and the kind you spread may have carbs, so do check the label. Oil has zero carbs. Butter has less than one gram of carbs per 100 g, so a very minimal amount. So these are all ingredients that you can use in unlimited quantities and still lose weight.

How is this possible? The mechanism is explained in great detail in the book and, as I said, it is very technical. However, I will try to explain at least a little bit. There have been numerous studies of people (in e.g. Africa, South America), who are extremely poor. The children's growth has been stunted because of malnutrition. And yet the mothers are fat!! How is that possible? It is because they can only afford to eat carbs, since they are the cheapest food option. They can't afford to eat meat. So these mothers are over-weight and under-nourished.

Studies have also been done in the 1960s of indigenous peoples who lived on only meat, fowl and fish. They were extremely fit, healthy and thin and did not have any vitamin or other deficiencies. So humans in fact can live - and thrive - on meat alone. It containts all the essential minerals, amino acids and fatty acids and nearly all the vitamins we need. The only exception is vitamin C, but studies have shown that eating carbs means our body needs more vitamin C, and not eating carbs means that we need less vitamin C. So throw in a few berries (or cabbage) and you're good to go.

What is even more dramatic is when the book compares the health of indigenous peoples who eat little or no carbs to those who eat lots of carbs. The people who eat no carbs do not suffer from e.g. obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer is nearly unknown, as is asthma. So it would seem that these diseases are caused by eating carbs. When a Japanese person eating a traditional Japanese diet (fairly low carb and high fat & protein) moves to the US and starts to eat a high-carb American diet, he/she will develop all the same health issues as Americans. And there are many, many studies that give the same result. The evidence is fully conclusive: high-carb is bad for you, low-carb is good for you. And it also of course matters what kind of carbs you eat, so the lower the GI the better. Green, leafy vegetables are low GI and sugar is high GI. So all carbs are not created equal.

Seriously, read the book: it may well save your life. Or at least make you very healthy, thin and very beautiful. Carbs even cause premature aging of the skin!

The photo is showing a dinner or lunch option: steak (with just salt and pepper, cooked in butter), a glass of red wine and a caprese or tomato and mozzarella salad. It contains basil leaves, ground black pepper and extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil.

Low-carb breakfast, option 1

I've been on a low-carb diet for about three weeks now and the pounds just keep dropping off. I've been publishing photos of what I've been eating in Facebook, but friends have commented that they'd like the recipes as well. So I finally decided to start this blog on low-carb delights: the things I cook myself (including recipes) and also pictures of what I eat outside the home. Also some info on how I shop and some general info on low-carb diets, on GI and on nutrition in general.

So, here's my first breakfast option: bacon, scrambled eggs and Greek salad.

I cooked the bacon in the oven. I put the bacon into the cold oven, on the grids (so that the extra fat drips off). To save yourself on cleaning the oven, you can put a baking sheet underneath and line the baking sheet with aluminum foil or waxed paper, which you can then just throw away. Turn the oven on to 200 Celsius (400 F) and leave for 10 to 20 minutes. Typically it's been about 15 minutes. Do keep checking it, because it dries out too much very easily. It's a question of trial and error, you'll soon have it perfected.

There are many instructions on-line on how to cook scrambled eggs, so I won't go into the details other than to say that I cook them in butter and only add sea salt. You can just as well cook them in oil too. Do try to use cold-pressed oil whenever possible.

Greek salad has tomato, cucumber, a couple of olives (not too many), red onion, feta cheese, extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil, balsamic vinegar and black pepper. Do not use any low-fat varieties of cheese, because that's defeating the purpose. The whole point of low-carb eating is that fat is not fattening.

To put it simply, the slower food is digested, the less fattening it is. So, for example, sugar is digested very quickly, gives a sudden rush of energy and energy levels then drop. But, for examle, a piece of cheese is digested more slowly (because of the fat content) and is therefore less fattening - even if the sugar and the cheese have the same amount of calories. This is what a low "GI" (glycemic index) diet is based on. So don't use low fat versions of feta cheese: they only have more carbs.

Things that help food to be digested more slowly are: fat, anything acidic and fibre. So bread with butter is actually better than bread without it! And bread with lots of fibre is better than bread without much fibre.

Note: if you are using margarine, be very, very sure that it does not contains trans-fatty acids!! They are extremely bad for your health. Most margarines do contain those since they are created when vegetable oils (that are at a liquid state at room temperature) are heated and turn to solid. That process is what makes them harmful. But more on that in later posts.

Oh, almost forgot: that is not orange juice in the photo but diet orange soda. It is not a very healthy option (because of all the additives, etc.) but it is a low-carb and low GI option. Fruit juices are among the most fattening things you can consume, because they give nearly instant energy (the same goes for beer and sodas with sugar in them). Other good low-carb beverage choices are: water (still or sparkling), tea or coffee (without any milk, use full-fat cream if you must and absolutely no sugar - use artificial sweetner if needed). By the way, do try to find organically grown coffee: if it is not grown organically, it means that tons of chemicals are used to grow it and the workers on the farms are also often exposed to those harmful chemicals (as are you by drinking it).

I hope you enjoy this low-carb breakfast option.