Dana Carpender - 15 Minute Low-Carb Recipes: Instant Recipes for Dinners, Desserts, and More!

In memory of the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins, 19302003.

Because of his fearless tenacity, millions of us live better lives today.

If I can see far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.

Sir Isaac Newton

Introduction

Ive known for a long time that, where cooking is concerned, I have a big edge over most of my readers. After all, I work at home. I can put something in the oven an hour or two before dinner, and be here to tend to it if needed. I can simmer a pot of soup all afternoon. Im here.

Furthermore, at this writing I have no childrenonly an exceedingly good-tempered and undemanding husband. In short, I never dash in the door at 6:15 p.m., after a long day at the office (and add a few errands on the way home into the bargain), to find people clamoring for me to get dinner on the table as soon as possible, and 5 minutes ago would be nice.

I also never slog home after a 12-hour day, so tired and hungry that the very idea of having to spend an hour getting dinner on the table is enough to send me through the local fast-food drive-in, even without a family to feed.

These are precisely the situations that this book is meant to help you cope withall while keeping you on your low-carbohydrate diet and making your family happy.

I mean exactly what I saythat from start to finish, these recipes take 15 minutes or less. I know this for certain because I set the stove timer when I started making them!

Now, it is entirely possible to make these dishes take a little bit longer. For instance, thawing times for frozen foods are not included, so if you havent thought to take something out of the freezer in the morning, youll just have to tack on however long it takes your microwave to thaw your food. (This would be a good time to sit down and have a glass of dry wine or a light beer, and maybe put out a tray of veggies and ranch dressing for the troops.) For that matter, more than once Ive run two or three minutes over my time limit because I couldnt find the darned Worcestershire sauce or whatever. I take no responsibility for kitchen disorganization, and trust me, I know all about kitchen disorganization. However, once you have your ingredients located, the 15-minute count holds for these recipes, prep time included.

This, of course, rules out a fair number of dishes. Youll find no roasts in this book, no meat loavesindeed, nothing that is cooked in an oven, because even if a dish requires less than 15 minutes in your oven, the preheating time is an obstacle. While there are wonderful soups, there are none of the traditional long-simmered variety. Indeed, youll find that a few methods of cooking are used over and over, simply because they are speedysauting, stir-frying, grilling, broiling, and microwaving.

Youll find that these recipes generally call for foods, especially meat and poultry, to be thinly cut, sliced, shredded, ground, or cubed. Theres no mystery why: The smaller the pieces, the faster the cooking time! Thinly cut pork chopsabout inch (5 mm) thickwill cook within our time limit. Inch-thick (2 cm) pork chops, however, will not, no matter how juicy and delicious they may be. So if youre in doubt as you cut, chop, or slice your foods up, think smaller is better.

Youll also find that these recipes call for you to multitask. Quite often Ill tell you to start one component of the dish cooking, then use that cooking time to cut up or measure and mix other ingredients. Its not hard, reallyits just making the best use of your time. Always give the directions a quick read before you go prepping everything in the ingredients list; you might find that theres a perfect time for chopping up veggies and the like without adding a second to your overall preparation and cooking time.

In the vast majority of the dishes in this book, the biggest source of carbohydrates is vegetables. I trust we can agree that this is the healthiest possible source of carbohydrates, no? Vegetables, however, are more than thatthey are the most flavorful source of carbohydrates in our diet, and by cooking our very low-carb proteins with a variety of vegetables, we can create a widely varied, delicious, exciting low-carb cuisine. However, this will sometimes mean that your carbohydrate allowance for a given meal is completely used up by the vegetables in your soup or skillet supper. This, then, becomes a classic one-dish meal, and a beautiful thing it is.

No reason not to serve a carbohydrate food on the side, if your family will be bereft without it. However, I must say that many of the quickest, easiest carbohydrate side dishesinstant mashed potatoes, quick-cooking rice, whack-em-on-the-counter biscuits and rollsare just as processed and nutrient-depleted as they can be, and are also among the carbohydrates with the highest, most devastating blood sugar impact. Better to serve whole-wheat pita bread; corn or whole-wheat tortillas; one of the less damaging pastas (Jerusalem artichoke pasta, widely available at health food stores, has a relatively modest blood sugar impact and tastes like regular pasta); or potatoes youve cut into wedges, sprinkled with olive oil, and roasted in your toaster oven for about 15 minutes at 400F (200C/Gas Mark 6). If your family loves rice, well, brown rice is hugely superior to white rice, let alone Minute Rice, but its nobodys idea of a 15-minute food. However, it reheats beautifully in the microwave. You could make a good-size pot of it over the weekend, stash it in the refrigerator, and use it later in the week. When you need it, just spoon out however much your family will need for the meal at hand, put it in a covered microwaveable container with a tablespoon or so of water, and nuke it on 70 percent power for a few minutes.

Anyway, the point is that if your family simply insists on a concentrated carbohydrate, serve it on the side. And because you love them, make it one of the less processed, less damaging carbohydrates.

Ive gotten a couple of queries from folks who bought 500 Low-Carb Recipes and want to know how big a serving size is, so I thought Id better address the matter.

To be quite honest, folks, theres no great technical determination going on here. For the most part, a serving is based on what I think would make a reasonable portion, depending on the carbohydrate count, how rich the dish is, and, for main dishes, the protein count. You just divide the dish up into however many portions the recipe says, and you can figure the carb counts on the recipes are accurate. In some cases Ive given you a range3 or 4 servings, or whatever. In those cases, Ive told you how many servings the carb counts are based on, and you can do a little quick mental estimating if, say, youre serving 4 people when Ive given the count for 3.

Of course, this serving thing is flukey. People are different sizes and have different appetites. For all I know, you have three children under 5 who might reasonably split one adult-size portion. On the other hand, you might have one 17-year-old boy whos shot up from 5'5" to 6'3" in the past year, and what looks like 4 servings to me will be a quick snack for him. Youll just have to eyeball what fraction of the whole dish youre eating, and go from there.

Ive had a few people tell me theyd rather have specific serving sizeslike 1 cup or the like. I see a few problems with this. First of all, it sure wont work with things like steak or chopsId have to use weights, instead, and then all my readers would have to run out and buy scales. Secondly, my recipes generally call for things like, head cauliflower or 2 stalks celery. These things vary in size a bit, and as a result yield will fluctuate a bit, too. Also, if one of my recipes calls for 1 pounds (750 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts and your package is labeled 1.65 pounds (700g), I dont expect you to whack off the difference to get the portions exact.