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Sous Vide Cooking for a low Carb Lifestyle

February 11, 2018 by Michele Neylon 2 Comments

I mentioned recently that I’d acquired a sous vide precision cooker from Anova. I don’t use it every evening, but I have been using it quite a lot. When you’re on a low carb diet you end up eating a lot of meat, poultry and fish. And if you’re like me then you probably aren’t a maestro when it comes to cooking salmon properly without it disintegrating in the pan! Using the sous vide salmon fillets get cooked all the way through and practically melt in your mouth.

I’ve been enjoying using my Anova sous vide for the last few weeks and now I’ve realised how good the food is coming out of it I wanted to improve my setup a little.

One of the things that was bugging me was the “bath”. I had been using the largest saucepan I own. It took up a lot of space on the counter and since it’s metal it gets hot and of course I’m also paying to heat all that metal. That’s far from ideal.

Sous vide cooking has become quite popular so there are a lot of accessories available via Amazon and other marketplaces. Some of them are useful, while others really fall into the realm of “silly”. Getting a neater and better designed bath for my sous vide seemed like a good idea, as I can probably store the sous vide and its other accessories in the bath when it’s not in use for a few days. Pricing for them, however, varies a lot, with some places charging as much for a lid as they do for the bath. I’m sorry, but it’s just a lump of plastic with a hole cut in it, so paying crazy money for one just doesn’t sit right with me!

In the end I opted for a simple polycarbonate container with a lid:

You can get one via Amazon or directly from companies like Sous Vide Tools. I paid around €25 for mine including delivery.

The other issue I had was the bags for cooking the food in. You can use freezer bags or Ziploc style ones. The only thing is that they’re essentially single use. Another option would be to get a vacuum sealer machine of some kind. There’s plenty to choose from and you can use them for storing food as well as your sous vide. I might get one at some point, but it’s yet another gadget for my kitchen and I’m not sure I *really* need it.

So what did I do? For now I’ve opted for the Stasher re-usable silicone bags. They give a good seal and can be opened easily, unlike some of the freezer bags I’ve tried that you can close, but need to cut open. The material is quite thick and lends itself to being washed in the top shelf of my dishwasher. You can find out more about them over on their official site, though buying directly from there if you live in Europe will cost you an arm and a leg.

Who said being on a low carb diet had to be boring?

Cooking With a Sous Vide Helps Make Meat Much Better

January 25, 2018 by Michele Neylon 2 Comments

One of the things that some people wrongly assume is that dieting equates with boring food. If you’re watching what you eat then you will often end up restricting the range of things you can eat. I do it with my lunch in the staff canteen. Almost every single day I’ll have the same thing: grilled chicken with salad. Why? Because it’s simple and I don’t have to think about it.

But when I get home in the evening and if I’m not travelling over the weekend I like to cook. I don’t cook simply to feed myself, but because I enjoy experimenting with different foods. Sure, I don’t like complicated and messy recipes. If I want something very elaborate I’ll wait until I’m eating out or visiting someone who has more patience than I do. However I enjoy cooking and I like good food.

Enter the sous vide.

Up until a couple of years ago sous vide cooking was one of those things that you only heard gourmet chefs doing.

In the last few years, however, that has changed with companies now offering sous vide equipment for “normal” cooks at affordable prices.

Several of my friends have been doing sous vide cooking over the last couple of years, but it wasn’t something that I thought I’d have the patience to do. While grilling a steak might only take a few minutes when you move into the realm of sous vide cooking everything takes a lot longer. That’s not a bad thing, in fact it’s a very good thing.

Sous vide cooking relies on much lower temperatures than what you might be used to. So pork chops get cooked at 54 degrees centigrade for about an hour, rather than the usual 5 to 10 minutes in a much hotter pan (or grill). The end result with the lower temperature and longer cooking time is that the meat is cooked consistently throughout and is very tender. You just need to finish it off (if you want) to give it that kind of seared effect you’d be used to.

I picked up an Anova precision cooker.

Being the gadget nut that I am I opted for the model that has both wifi and bluetooth. (I got a discount code when I visited their stand at CES a couple of weeks ago!) While US users can also connect their Anova to Alexa and control it using their voice that isn’t an option if you’re in Europe, which is rather annoying. The gadget has a set of easy to use controls directly on it, but you can also manage most of it very easily from their mobile app where you can set temperature, timer and more while also searching for recipes.

The Anova is very easy to use. Simply clamp it to the side of a large saucepan or other pot and you’re good to go. With sous vide you’re cooking at quite low temperatures, which makes for some very interesting results.

I’ve experimented this week with pork chops, chicken breast and lamb chops. They all came out very tender and I was very impressed with the overall experience.

To cook any meat you’ll need to put it in some kind of bag that you can seal properly. While you can get bags that come with vacuum pumps you can also use zip lock style bags or even normal freezer bags. The key thing is to get as much air as possible out of the bag and make sure it’s got a good clean seal. Submerging the bag as you’re sealing it can help push the excess air out, just make sure that you don’t let any water get in.

To add flavour to the meat you can add seasoning to it before you put it in the bag.

I did tonight’s lamb in some olive oil with some herbs and a bit of hot sauce. The end result after about 2 hours was very tender and full of juicy flavour.

The only downside to cooking food using this method is that it won’t have any sear unless you finish the meat off with a pan or in the oven (depending on what you’re cooking). However you quickly get used to this and finishing off your meat with a quick sear isn’t time consuming.

The end result will be worth it!

Trying to Stay Low Carb on Long Flights is a Pain

January 14, 2018 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

Travelling when you’re on a diet of any kind can be a challenge. As I’ve mentioned in the past on the low carb diet I’ve been finding it relatively easy to navigate my eating options once I’m at my destination. I simply avoid carbs, which in some cases can limit my choices quite a bit, whereas in others it works out very well. Either way it’s usually perfectly fine and I rarely go hungry.

But what about the actual journey to and from the destination?

That can be a bit of a challenge.

Most airlines have food options that cater for a number of different dietary requirements including kosher, gluten free and vegetarian. None, to my knowledge, however offer a “low carb” meal option. So it’s really impossible to know what you’re going to end up with especially when you’re flying in economy. In business class you might have more options, depending on the airline.

With short flights even if they serve food you can easily skip the meal if it’s not low carb, which it won’t be most of the time. On a two or three hour flight skipping the food won’t have any tangible negative impact on you unless you were already hungry when you boarded the plane. But with long flights of 8 hours or longer you’re going to have to eat at some point.

Since I’ve been on this low carb diet I’ve had several long haul flights and sometimes the menu choices can prove challenging, as it’s often been a choice of carbs over other carbs, which leaves me either trying to eat the non-carb bits or not eating at all.

So what can you do?

I’m still working on my overall strategy for dealing with long flights, but so far I’ve been doing the following:

Eat well before boarding. Most international airports have “reasonable” food options where you can get a filling meal of some kind.
Pack snacks in your carry on bag(s). I’ve taken to carrying on a few low carb protein bars and some mixed nuts. Other options I could try would be things like beef jerky or cured meats.
Sleep.
Drink plenty of liquids. Staying hydrated on long flights is a good idea anyway.

I am seriously considering bringing some form of salad on my next few long haul flights, though I’m not sure what kind of salad would work best. Of course it’ll only be a viable option on the way out, as I’ll be leaving from home, whereas on the way back I won’t have had access to a kitchen since I’ll probably have been staying in a hotel of some kind.

Has anyone else on a low carb diet found sane ways to navigate long flights?

A Nice Milestone in my Weight Loss Journey

January 7, 2018 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

I’ve been tracking my weight using a wireless scales since 2012. So I’ve now got about 6 years’ worth of data. Even if you ignore the gaps when I wasn’t weighing myself that regularly it gives me a very good idea of how my weight has gone up and down over the past 6 years. Admittedly I was trying to “fix” myself when I got the wireless scales so, in theory, the trend should have been downwards since then. In reality, as I’ve mentioned, my attempts at various diets and lifestyle changes were far from successful. Plus my lifestyle as a whole wasn’t exactly conducive to weight loss or good health in general.

Why do I mention all this?

The other morning when I weighed myself not only did I notice a drop in weight (yay!), but I also realised that I’d hit a lower weight than I’ve ever hit in the 6 years that I’ve been tracking my body’s data.

It’s a nice little milestone to hit. But it’s “a” milestone. It’s not an end in itself.

However I was really happy to with my little personal achievement. Of course now I’m dreading the scales, as I fear the trend will have been reversed!

Eating Out: Low Carb Burger in Los Angeles

January 6, 2018 by Michele Neylon 1 Comment

Eating out when you’re on a diet can be a challenge. It’s one of the reasons why I find the low carb diet to be easier to follow than others that I’d tried in the past. I’m not going to pretend that I can control what I’m eating perfectly when I eat out, but when your main concern is avoiding carbs then it’s a lot easier than when you’re trying to get a balance of many other things.

One of the things I like about Los Angeles, where I’m currently spending a couple of days, is that it caters for pretty much any taste. I love burgers, but most places in Ireland and most of Europe insist on serving burgers in buns and serve them with a mound of fries.

In the US, however, you have chains like The Counter where you can easily choose burgers without buns.

I nearly always opt for their “build your own” burger menu, where you get to choose pretty much every single element that goes in to it. So you can make it as bland or as spicy as you want.

Yesterday evening after settling into my hotel I had a wonderful burger in The Counter in Downtown LA:

I opted for their bison meat with cheese and bacon to top it off, served with a garlic sauce on the side. Absolutely out of the world and very low carb overall.

Before I started this diet I’d have happily spent a couple of hours in The Counter working my way through their excellent selection of craft beers. Since beer is off the menu with this diet I had to opt for a glass of red wine instead. (Wine isn’t carb free, but it’s one of the only things I cheat with!)

Unfortunately I am yet to find a restaurant that clearly caters for low carb diners, though it’s hardly surprising. While the low carb diets are becoming more and more popular they’re still not as mainstream as others.

Being Forced to go Clothes Shopping is a Good Thing

January 2, 2018 by Michele Neylon 1 Comment

For the past few weeks I’ve been having issues with clothes. Not all clothes I guess, but with my trousers mostly. Trousers that used to fit me reasonably well no longer do. It’s not simply a matter of them being a little loose around the waste but more a case of them being held on with my belt.

On the positive side this means that the diet is working and that you can actually see the results ie. less of me. Yay.

The downside is that I have to go out and buy *some* clothes. There’s no point in me going out and getting a full wardrobe, as I’m planning on sticking with this diet and losing more weight, which will mean dropping a few more sizes in trousers and other things.

Clothes shopping when you’re a “larger” size is a pain in the neck, so even dropping a size or two in trousers will make life considerably easier. Of course the “goal” (I’ll admit to having one I guess) is to get my waist down to a much more reasonable size so that I’ll be able to buy trousers without having to be concerned about which ones they have in my size..

I’m not overly concerned with “casual” clothes for now. I’ve got plenty of t-shirts, jeans and other stuff that’ll “do” for now. What doesn’t fit well can be disguised to a point with a slightly tighter belt!

But what was causing me concern was “business casual”. I’ll be attending an event next week in the US where I’ll need to be acceptably turned out. I also need to be comfortable as I’ll be spending a lot of my time trekking around a very large conference centre. It’s hard to be either if you’re distracted by your trousers almost falling off! It’s pretty hard to focus on what you’re attending or to simply relax and enjoy an event when you’re almost at the verge of having a wardrobe malfunction!

So I picked up a couple of pairs of trousers, as well as a couple of shirts and a sport coat. I could have gone for a suit, but suits are way too formal for my liking most of the time.

Hopefully I’ll need to go clothes shopping again very soon!

And no, that photo at the top of this post isn’t of me, if it was I’d be a LOT happier!

Sticking to the Diet (Mostly) Over Christmas Worked

January 1, 2018 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

A couple of days ago I wrote about the challenges, both real and imagined, of sticking to a low carb diet over Christmas. It wasn’t easy, but I behaved myself most of the time. Yes I probably had a few glasses of wine too many and I might have consumed more carbs than normal, but overall I tried my best to stick to the plan.

The plan is simple. Avoid carbs.

This morning I weighed myself for the first time since before Christmas. I was expecting a weight gain of some kind.

No matter how hard you try to stick to a diet Christmas and hanging out with family invariably leads to eating more and I was pretty sure that I’d have put on a kilo or more. I was prepared for that. I wasn’t going to like it or be happy about it, but I was ready to deal with it.

So I was over the moon when the scales told me that I hadn’t put on weight over Christmas – in fact, according to MyFitnessPal, I’d lost a small bit!

Weight loss progress chart from MyFitnessPal

Having to avoid all the tasty treats over the past few days was a pain at times. I’ve got used to people munching away on carbs while I studiously avoid them, but Christmas was particularly hard, as I mentioned.

However that pain was definitely softened when I saw the results this morning. And today is New Year’s Day, so I had misbehaved a little last night with some chocolate (which of course was very high in cocoa solids!)

I’ve still got a long way to go, but the overall trend is in the right direction, so that keeps me motivated.

I know that I need to burn more calories ie. do exercise of some kind or I’ll find it much harder to keep the weight loss going.

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