Low Carb Diet Food

Having low carb snacks on hand is essential for dealing with the times when you get major cravings for salty high carb snacks.  Some people have the will power to refrain from snacking between meals but I’m definitely not one of them. 

Devouring a big bag of corn chips (or whatever your snack of choice is) can wipe out a week’s worth of strict low carb dieting in a few seconds – it’s happened to me numerous times, so one way to help prevent this from happening to you is to always have something low carb on hand for when the cravings hit you – and we all know that they will.

Believe it or not celery is one of the best low carb snacks around. It’s very healthy and contributes almost nothing to your carb count. It has also been described as a negative calorie food – i.e. you actually burn calories by consuming it – but I think this is a myth. Still it’s great for all dieters whether low carb or simply low calorie, but by itself it might seem flavorless and unappetizing so here are 5 ways to dress up celery and help you forget that what you’re eating is 95% water

Celery With Cream Cheese Dip

At its most basic level, to make this snack, simply chop up stalks of celery into thirds and spread cream cheese onto each piece. To be a bit more creative you can mix things into the cream cheese before spreading, such as chopped bacon, chopped olives or chives (all 3 of which are low carb diet food).

Celery With Nut Butter

Peanut butter or almond butter are both good choices. To make low carb snacks from them simply spread the nut butter onto raw pieces of celery stalk. Almond butter is generally considered to be healthier than peanut butter because it tends to have less additives, but also has double peanut butter’s cost. Store bought peanut butter can contain added sugar or salt. If possible pick an organic peanut butter that contains no added sugar (a must) or added salt (recommended). Almond butter is the more nutritious of the two butters.

Celery With Tuna Salad

Use celery sticks as a vehicle for scooping and eating the tuna salad. Most people dice celery and add it to a tuna salad – this is simply a different way to eat the same food. You can find a great recipe for low carb tuna salad here. The celery is diced and mixed into the salad in this recipe – it really doesn’t matter which option you choose; both are great low carb snacks.

Celery With Guacamole

Avoid the temptation to rip open that packet of nacho cheese corn chips (or whatever it is you like to dip into guacamole) and opt for celery sticks instead. Try out this recipe for great low carb guacamole.

Celery With Humus

Last on our list of great accompaniments to celery is hummus. Hummus in case you don’t know is a dip of middle eastern origin containing Chick Peas, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and tahini (crushed sesame seeds). Usually you eat it with bread, but it tastes just as good on the end of a crunchy celery stalk. Here’s a hummus recipe if you want to try to make it yourself.

I’m sure you can think of plenty of other ways of turning celery stalks into tasty low carb snacks. The important thing is to have the chopped up stalks handy at all times (i.e. by keeping them in a bag in the refrigerator) so that no matter what dipping substance you have on hand, you will have a low carb way of enjoying it.

Coming up with new ideas for low carb snacks can be difficult. Sure we could just give up snacking altogether (we are dieting after all) but If you’re like me, snacking is an integral part of your daily activities and if a diet doesn’t allow me to snack between meals then I’m not going to be able to sustain it for very long. 

So in the case of a low carb diet, we need low carb diet food we can snack on, which is where a lot of us run into trouble. What can we eat? We’re not allowed biscuits, chocolate, crackers, potato chips, toast… what snack foods don’t have carbs in them? Actually a surprisingly large range if you’re prepared to go to a tiny bit of effort to prepare something yourself. Sure, its easier to rip open a packed of chips or biscuits, but if you don’t mind using up a few additional brain cells and burning a few extra calories (and why would you if you’re on a diet?), you can make your own tasty – and much healthier – low carb snacks. Here are 5 low carb snacks that I enjoy.

Cheese

Cheese can be enjoyed in several ways. You can of course just snack on cheese cubes or cheese slices straight from the packet, which is no less convenient than snacking on potato chips and provides you with that salty savory flavor that chips help to satisfy. If its the crunchy texture of potato chips you’re craving however, simply grate cheese onto a plate and cook it in the microwave; it will melt and then become crispy like a potato chip. Feta is my favorite type of cheese and always add it to salads – salads make great snacks but can be a bit bland so feta can add some much needed flavor.

Celery

I chop up a few celery stalks into sticks about the length of my finger and keep them in plastic zip lock bags in the refrigerator. They’re one of the low carb snacks I try to have on hand at all times. They are a great low carb diet food substitute for chips and crackers when you need something to eat with humus or some other kind of low carb  cream cheese. I also love celery sticks with crunchy low carb peanut butter.

Hard Boiled Eggs

How hard is it to boil and egg? Mr Breakfast can tell you the answer to that but believe me its pretty easy. After boiling and peeling your eggs you can just keep them in a container in the refrigerator. I find hard boiled eggs to be very filling and i like to eat them with a plate of salt for dipping. 

Pepperoni

You probably already eat pepperoni as part of your low carb diet. But did you know that like cheese, you can microwave pepperoni slices to make pepperoni chips? Just cut them into thin slices and zap them in the microwave till crispy. You want to make sure when dealing with preserved meats like pepperoni that they haven’t had any sugars added to them – i.e. check the carb count to make sure what you’re eating is really low carb. 

Sugar-free Jell-O

I wanted to make sure I included something for those of us with a sweet tooth. Sugar-free Jell-O comes in a variety of flavors and is easy to prepare. It can also be upgraded by adding low carb fruit like berries, or whipped cream mixed with a little bit of vanilla essence. 

More ideas for low carb snacks to come in future posts.