Atkins and Paleo Challenge Box Set (10 in 1): Over 400 Atkins and Paleo Recipes With Pressure, Slow Cooker and Cast Iron for Busy People (Atkins Diet & Paleo Recipes) (28 page)

In this chapter, you will learn:

• What foods are recommended in each phase of the diet
  
• What foods you should completely eliminate from your menu
  

As promised before, this chapter will deal with the list of foods that will make your entire menu while keeping this diet and will give you an idea about the list of ingredients that will be necessary for preparing the recipes from the second part of the book. And because the first phase of this diet is the most restrictive one, we will focus mostly on the foods that are allowed during this period. Then, you will see how to gradually incorporate new foods starting with the second phase.

But first, le
t’
s set things straight from the beginning and find out which foods should always be avoided.

• White foods
  : sugar, flour, bread, potatoes, rice
  
• Whole Grains
  : rice, barley, oats (especially in the initial phases)
  
• Any foods and beverages that are rich in sugars (in fact, no kind of excesses are allowed).
  

If the list of foods that must be avoided is simple and pretty clear, things get a bit complicated when we start discussing the foods that should be eaten in each phase of this diet. But let’s see what ingredients will be mainly used for the first phase recipes.

• Fish and shellfish
  – all types are acceptable, but you should remember that oysters and mussels have larger amounts of carbs; for this reason, you need to eat them in limited quantities (no more than 4 oz.  daily)
  
• Fowl
  – anything from chicken, duck, goose to ostrich, quail or pheasant
  
• Meat
  – beef, lamb, veal, venison, pork, bacon and ham (the last ones need a little more precaution because they are more likely to contain sugars and added nitrates)
  
• Fats and Oils
  – as long as they are natural, oil, butter and mayonnaise have no reason to be avoided. However, there should be no quantity exaggerations (no more than 1 tbsp. per serving). Also, the oils should not be prepared in extremely hot temperatures.
  
• Eggs
  – prepared in any form you like
  
• Cheese
  – most types of cheese are allowed even in the first phase, but you should not eat more than 4 oz. per day (which would mean about 4 grams of carbs)
  
• Vegetables
  – alfalfa sprouts, artichoke, arugula, avocado, bok choy, broccoli, chicory greens, turnip greens, olives, celery, collard greens, spinach, lettuce, onion, radishes, endive, kale, turnip, tomato, mushrooms, bell pepper, beet greens, zucchini, eggplant, asparagus, squash, green beans, cabbage, okra, pumpkin, snow peas and the variations. It’s important to avoid accumulating too much carbohydrate content (no more than 15 net grams per day). Thus, although they are healthy, they need to be eaten in moderate quantities.
  
• Spices
  – garlic and black pepper are said to be richer in carbs (although not enough to cause problems). As long as they do
  n’
  t have any sugar, they can be added with no worries.
  
• Beverages
  – water (in any form and as much as possible – minimum 8 full glasses per day), unsweetened herb tea, coffee (no more than a maximum of two cups per day), soy and almond milk, diet sodas.
  
• Artificial sweeteners
  – stevia, sucralose, and saccharine.
  

As you can see, what matters is not necessarily to eat less, but to eat wisely: to avoid sugars and starchy foods and to replace them with healthy alternatives. As you move to the second phase, you can start to incorporate more foods or, to put it correctly, more carbs (5/10 grams weekly until the maintenance phase).  Thus, it would be foolish to give you a new list for each phase of the diet. What is really important instead is that you need to memorize the order in which you can introduce new foods.

• Nuts and Seeds – and their butter
  
• Berries
  
• Whole milk and yogurt
  
• Legumes
  
• (Other) Fruits – and their juices
  
• Starchy Vegetables
  
• Whole grains
  

As you can see, you will gradually return to a normal eating program. However, it is important to remember that everything that you eat should be natural and prepared with the greatest care. You should introduce a new category of foods only when you have maintained your weight for a couple of weeks and you should immediately exclude them again if you observe that your body does not accept them (if you gain weight again).

The most important thing is to maintain a balance and cook the ingredients in such a way as to keep their nutritional value intact. The best way to do that is by using a slow cooker. So, turn the page to discover the advantages of using this popular kitchen tool.

In this chapter, you will learn:

• Why should you use the slow cooker for your Atkins-friendly meals
  
• How to get the most benefit out of this kitchen tool
  

Everyone who has had weight problems knows that finding a diet that is healthy, effective, delicious and –most important – does not feel like a diet seems impossible. But this is not true. One just needs to discover the right tools and ingredients which, correctly used and combined, can create really amazing dishes. Thus, we have reached the central idea of this book: using a slow cooker for most of your Atkins recipes.

Being a low-carb diet and excluding so many foods that are the key ingredients in some of the most popular recipes in the whole world, Atkins Diet is often perceived as being too restrictive and as not leaving you any varieties to choose from. But this book will certainly contradict this idea. With the help of such a simple and often under-appreciated tool like the slow cooker, you will be able to prepare all the 36 incredibly tasty recipes that will be presented in the following chapters.

There are numerous advantages to using a slow cooker in your kitchen. While the fact that it helps you save time, money and energy (less cleaning is required) is extremely important and can easily convince you, here we will focus mostly on the benefits that this pot will bring to your health.

1. Your meals will preserve the entire nutritional value of the ingredients.
   This is by far the greatest advantage of slow cooking; because you will mostly use the low heat, the nutrients in the ingredients won’t be damaged in any form, like it usually happens when you fry or boil your food. Thus, the vegetable or meat that you eat will really bring you the nutrients that you are looking for.
   
2. It will be easier to keep a realistic account of the number of calories ingested.
   In strict connection with the previous point, the slow cooker will also help you count the exact number of calories, carbs, fats and so on that you ingested. This is possible because the general nutritional value of the ingredients was not affected.
   
3. The food cooked on low heat is incredibly delicious.
   In the same way, the food cooked in the slow cooker will be much more delicious than the one cooked in the oven or on the stove. Because the ingredients stay together on low heat for such a long time (hours in most cases), the individual flavors of each of them blend perfectly resulting in that common taste that you were expecting when you first chose the recipe.
   
4. It requires less oil.
   The slow cooker is different than most of the other kitchen pots and pans. If the content has enough moisture, you could even skip adding any oil at all. In the case of our diet, a tablespoon of vegetable or olive oil should be more than perfect for most recipes. Furthermore, because the heat wo
   n’
   t be too high, the oil will remain healthy.
   
5. Slow cooking keeps the flavors and freshness of all the ingredients.
   As previously mentioned, this method of cooking is not only time and money efficient, but it also has an additional advantage: it makes the meals so flavorsome that it can convince every member of your family to try the new recipes. Even more than that, the meals prepared in this way are more likely to remain fresh for longer periods.
   

Of course, these advantages are here only to give you an idea ofhow useful this tool is, but only by trying it for yourself will you realize the real benefits of a correctly used slow cooker. So do
n’
t waste any more time. Le
t’
s start cooking Atkins!

In this chapter, you will learn:

• How to prepare recipes that can be consumed in the first phase of the diet
  

Lazy Chicken

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (no skin or bones),
  
• 2 garlic cloves,
  
• 1 small onion,
  
• 2 bell peppers,
  
• 2 tbsp. butter,
  
• 4 tbsp. salsa,
  
• less than 1 tbsp. cumin and oregano
  

Let’s Cook:

1. In a skillet, melt the butter and cook the chicken pieces for about 5 min or until they start to get brownish.
   
2. Slice the vegetables and sauté all of them in the same skillet – after removing the chicken.
   
3. Put all the ingredients in a slow cooker, stir and close the lid. Cook on low heat for about 5 hours.