The New Atkins Made Easy (29 page)

MAKE IT EASY

There are countless inexpensive low-carb options, and the first step to keeping a lid on costs is to plan your meals and recipes for the week.
Having meal makings at hand prevents you from having to make last-minute runs to the supermarket, hitting the drive-through, or ordering takeout for dinner. Here are more ways to start saving:

• 
Choose cheaper cuts.
There's no need to eat pricey beef tenderloin. Sirloin and chuck contain more fat, making them flavorful, tender, juicy, and well suited to slow-cooking dishes such as stews, soups, and roasts. Lamb shanks, ham steaks, rib and shoulder pork chops, and pork, chicken, or turkey sausages are other budget-friendly choices. Buy meat in bulk when certain cuts are on sale and freeze in single or family-size portions.

• 
Pass on chicken parts.
Whole chickens are almost always less expensive per pound than packaged parts. Cut them up or roast a whole bird for several meals over the course of a week.

• 
Go fish.
Don't assume that salmon, flounder, shrimp, and scallops are the only way to go. Bluefish, catfish, tilapia, sardines, mackerel, and mussels are less pricey options.

• 
Think beyond fish, poultry, and meat.
Eggs, legumes, and tofu and other soy foods can stand in for the usual protein sources. Ground turkey is another economical choice. Vegetarian protein crumbles or sausage can substitute for ground beef in chili and other recipes.

• 
Bag the bag.
Washed, chopped, and bagged salad greens are a time saver but are always more expensive than head lettuce or other greens.

• 
Shop in bulk.
If you don't already belong to a warehouse club, consider joining. Some supermarkets also now have bulk food sections where you can save on nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains.

• 
Cheaper by the gallon.
Instead of purchasing bottled or canned soft drinks, make big batches of low-carb lemonade, iced tea, and coffee drinks, using an acceptable sweetener. Or flavor
water with a squeeze of lemon or lime or a few springs of mint. You'll be helping the planet while pinching pennies.

One way to save both time and dollars is to double or even triple recipes and freeze some, perhaps in individual portions for future meals. Or let a dish such as our Deep-Dish Sausage and Cauliflower Pizza (
page 258
) or Cheesy Chicken and Green Bean Skillet (
page 259
) do double duty as lunch the following day. Stews and slow-cooker dishes such as Crockpot Pork and Salsa Verde (
page 262
) are great candidates for doubling the recipe, as are soups such as Salmon Mushroom Chowder (
page 283
) and No-Bean Chicken Chili (
page 279
). You can also “remodel” leftover vegetables, for example, by adding broth and some leftover chicken or meat to make a hearty soup suitable for lunch on its own.

Experienced cooks know that for all its impressive presentation, making a roast beef, pork loin, chicken, or leg of lamb is easy to do—set the timer and forget about it. That weekend dish then pays dividends for the rest of the week. It's a time-honored way to get several meals out of one purchase and make the most of leftovers. A large roast chicken, for instance, could provide chicken salad for lunch the next day, chicken curry the following evening, and stir-fry with Asian veggies later in the week. If you're feeling industrious, you can even use the carcass to make chicken broth. Pretty good for an investment of about $12! The leftovers from beef, pork, and lamb roasts provide just as many opportunities for creativity. Once you open your mind to the possibilities, you'll learn to love leftovers.

You don't need a wok to put together a tasty one-dish meal—a skillet will do the job. Technically, stir-frying takes place at a higher temperature than sautéing, but both techniques require cutting food up into small pieces and frequent turning and stirring to hasten the cooking process. Cutting up ingredients requires the most time, but you can take a shortcut by purchasing fresh vegetables already cut up. Most supermarkets offer them, or pick them up at a salad bar. Or use frozen veggies. Nor are Asian seasonings a must; try stir-fries that draw from other cuisines as well. A few possibilities:

• Asian Beef Stir-Fry (
page 260
)

• Cheesy Chicken and Green Bean Skillet (
page 259
)

From
atkins.com
:

• Spicy Orange Stir-Fry

• Beef, Scallions, and Red Bell Pepper Sauté

• Sautéed Scallops with Spinach Cream

• Snow Pea and Water Chestnut Stir-Fry
^II

• Stir-Fried Shrimp with Ginger and Mushrooms

You'll find that it's easy to modify the recipes in this book by swapping out one ingredient for another. So if a recipe calls for pork tenderloin, the same amount of chicken breast or sirloin can usually make a fine substitute. Likewise, if a recipe calls for asparagus and they're not in season or too expensive, green beans or broccoli can stand in.

It may seem counterintuitive, but a slow cooker, aka crockpot, may be just what you need to get meals on the table
fast
. If you work outside the home or are ferrying your kids here, there, and everywhere, it almost allows you to be in two places at once. Slow cooking intensifies flavors and tenderizes meats, also making it ideal for cheaper cuts. In addition to delicious soups and stews, recipes for casseroles, curries, and roasts are easily adapted to the slow cooker. Here's a week's worth of easy recipes that lend themselves to this way of cooking.

• Crockpot Pork and Salsa Verde (
page 262
)

• No-Bean Chicken Chili (
page 279
)

• Salmon Mushroom Chowder (
page 283
)

• Taco Soup (
page 280
)

At
atkins.com
:

• Corned Beef and Cabbage

• Cranberry-Ginger Pork Roast

• Ropa Vieja

Are you in a rut of serving the same five or six dishes week after week: “If it's Wednesday, it must be pork chops”? It's understandable
that saving time is high on your list of priorities, but that needn't mean mealtime monotony. Easy-to-make sauces, marinades, and dressings can spice up plain fish, chicken, or meat dishes. Find several sauces you like and use them on a variety of protein choices. Add a vegetable and perhaps a side salad, and dinner can be on the table in minutes. Use the five sauces in the recipe section on a variety of protein sources and add a phase-appropriate vegetable or salad to each combo, and you won't have to repeat yourself for months. Plus you'll find almost two hundred more sauce-and-entrée combos in the Atkins recipe database.

Foods such as mashed potatoes, fajitas, beef stroganoff, and french fries seem to be an integral part of our DNA! These classics are sky high in carbs and we know we shouldn't eat them—or at least only on special occasions—but they're darn near irresistible. Fortunately, there are ways to fool your taste buds with persuasive substitutes. Compare the comparable servings of a low-carb alternative to the classic dish to make your decision easy:

*
  Recipe included in this book.

You can, of course, order Atkins Advantage bars and shakes, Day Break bars, Endulge treats, and Atkins Cuisine All Purpose Baking Mix and Penne Pasta at
atkins.com
, as well as find them in retail outlets. The following companies manufacture or sell other Atkins-friendly foods you may want to explore. Some are available at supermarkets and discount clubs; others may need to be ordered online. Many sites have a store locator feature. This is hardly a complete list, but it should give you an idea of the range of low-carb products available.

• Asher's sugar-free candy, including toffee, caramel, and chocolate;
ashers.com

• Better Bowls sugar-free gelatin and pudding mixes;
betterbowls.com

• Big Train low-carb hot cocoa and other beverage mixes and cookie mixes;
bigtrain.com

• Bob's Red Mill low-carb bread mix and almond, coconut, flaxseed, and hazelnut flour or meal;
bobsredmill.com

• CarLO CARBiano low-carb pizza crusts, frozen pizzas, almond and flaxseed flour or meal, and breading mixes;
carlocarbiano.com

• Cheesecake Factory no-sugar-added cheesecake;
thecheesecakefactory.com

• Country Cupboard no-sugar-added fruit preserves, apple butter, and flavored syrup;
countrycupboardinc.com

• DaVinci Gourmet sugar-free syrups and sauces;
davincigourmet.com

• Dixie Diners' Club low-carb and sugar-free products, including cake, muffin, cookie, and bread mixes, nut flours or meals, breakfast cereals, and Thick It Up gravy thickener;
dixiediner.com