help me find inexpensive low-carb solutions??
 

Hi everyone,
I'm a 20yr old college student with very little money and no time to prepare and cook meals. I used to live on $1 TV dinners for almost every meal! I like the low carb diet but cannot afford much meat and cant stand hamburgers at every meal. I still love Tv dinners but have only found Marie Callenders roasted chicken dinner to be low carb(14grams I think) and its too expensive for me.
If you have any suggestions for inexpensive low carb meals and snacks I would be eternally grateful. Or if you can suggest some easy to prepare meals that would be great as well.
Thanks and Boomshanka, Christine

Eggs are inexpensive and quick/easy to prepare. You can get good deals on lettuce and such if you keep your eyes open. Tuna is easy to tun into a quick tuna salad with a bit of mayo and seasoning. You might want to browse the recipe section for ideas.

..if possible make your own LC TV dinner. I Do.Look at the recipe section and freeze it in portion. You can get up to threemonths worth if you cook all in one week.

Buy food in bulk when possible.

Check ads for several grocery stores in your area to see what products, meat and produce is on sale.

See if there is a discount grocery in your area.

I also go to a U.S Foodservice outlet. I checked and there is a store located at :

300 Lawrence Drive

Livermore, CA 94550-0217 and others in SoCal.

not sure if it is a store like mine but can always check it out. The one I go to has 200 packets of Splenda for $3.59 or so, and they have 2 freezers, and a fridge case where they put marked down meat, veggies, ect. And a long shelf with discounted large cans/jars/ bags of veggies, fruits, ect.

If you have a reg. size fridge/freezer you can buy freezer ziplocks and pack up extra meat ect (push out extra air and it will last longer). Can cook and pack dinners the same way. Get some divided plates with lids or diposable divided plates and place in larger ziplocks...just freeze (stack up well) and micro when you want to eat them.

If you are in a dorm or don't have a large freezer, you can still do the above but not as many and they won't last more than a few days.

Fairly cheap , filling and quick snacks ect:

Canned tuna - can mix with mayo, celery ect and have with pork rinds or lettuce.

I use 4 oz cream cheese with 6 oz tuna and micro a few seconds to soften.

Eggs --can cook these multiple ways and with endless add-ins that it doesn't have to get boring.

Can add veggies like frozen broccoli, green /red peppers, onions (dried or fresh), mushrooms -canned, fresh or frozen, green beans (fresh/frozen), ect.

Add meats - hamburger, sausage, certain lunchmeats, chicken, pork ect.

Add in things like spices and garlic and you can change the flavor. Add in cheese, cream cheese or some sour cream.

Green or black olives -add flavor and salty flavor, water chestnuts, bean sprouts (canned/fresh) -add crunch and are "fillers".

Canned meat like corned beef and Spam --not often but once in a while -- fairly cheap and very quick.

Canned salmon -- when on sale

This fall when turkeys are on sale buy one or more and bake or do on a grill, strip it from the bones and package up, removing most of the air, and freeze, or make some into jerky.

I get most of my food at a discount grocery, the US foodservice store, W-M and my grocery store when they have sales. I get dried garlic slices at Big Lots, and sometimes can find other items there for LC'ing. I can do LC on about $20-40/month, but this is at MO prices not CA.

I also have a dehydrator (haven't used it for LC yet) and I have a food vacuum sealer that my sister got me for Christmas. I found a Salad Shooter at a yard sale a few weeks ago --great to do cucumbers ect.

Buy store brands when possible, clip coupons, look for sales, compare price by sizes --bigger is usually a better buy but not always.

Eggs, eggs, and more eggs. :) Peanut butter is usually pretty cheap too. :thup:

soup. i always make big batches of soup and heat them up for work the next day or stir fry type stuff. Tuna too. HTH