My husband wants to lose ~ 10lb in 2 weeks. He's decided to go low-carb, where "low" is pretty undefined. He tends to interpret it as: No sugar (or sugar substitutes), no starches/beans, lower carb veggies and the occasional berries if he's got a craving for sweets.

We have a freezer full of delicious grass-fed meat from our CSA, but as chief cook and bottle washer, I'm feeling woefully uninspired today. Slab of meat is easy, but what do I do with ground beef and ground lamb?

Ideas, please?

(And on the 10lb in 2 weeks? We both know it'll mostly be water weight, and that's just fine. We're going on vacation, and we learned yesterday that he's close to the weight limit for the ropes course our DD wants to go on. Right now he'd just like to be comfortably under the limit.)

Taco Salad.

I would be careful of taco salad and make sure you don't use the ready to make spices... some have MSG and starches and can add 20+ carbs if you use the whole packet.

Try the Big Mac in a Bowl. I'm not into ground beef but I know other people on Low carb diets that LOVE IT


* 1/2 pound raw ground beef, about 5 1/2 ounces cooked weight or 153 grams cooked *
* Salt and pepper, to taste
* 1 teaspoon minced dry onions
* 46 grams dill pickle slices or 2 dill spears, chopped, about 1 5/8 ounces
* 2 tablespoons Walden Farms Thousand Island Dressing
* 1 1/2 ounces iceberg lettuce, shredded

Brown the ground beef, drain off any fat, season with salt and pepper.. Meanwhile, soak the dry onions in a little water to rehydrate them. Put the meat in a large salad bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Toss and eat at once.

I'm sure you can use regular onions and dressing if it is carb friendly... This came from the Ideal Protein Diet forum and it is much more strict than just low carb
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With the lamb (or a combination of lamb) you can season with oregano, garlic, and mint (or a mixed greek seasoning) to give the meat a gyro-like flavor. Then use it with low-carb tortillas (store-bought or homemade, there are a lot of recipes online. I want to try the coconut flour tortillas I keep seeing when I do the searches myself) with shredded lettuce, tomato, and onion.

Or use it to top a salad of lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, feta cheese, black olives and a homemade or store-bought low-carb greek vinaigrette dressing (also tons of recipes online)


You can also use traditional groundmeat recipes with low-carb substitutes for the carbs. Making a hamburger-helper style rice-based skillet casserole, but using cauli-rice instead of rice. Spaghetti or lasagna with french style green beans, or thinly sliced zucchini or eggplant (or any veggie you like) in place of the noodles.

Spaghetti sauce, sloppy joe meat, chop suey, ground meat stews, goulash... any ground meat recipe that's made with pasta, rice, or potatoes can be made without those ingredients and then poured over veggies, cauli-rice, or mashed cauliflower as substitutes for the higher carb ingredients.

I found a couple ground-beef cookbooks on a garage sale, and at first I thought "I won't be able to use most of these," instead I've found that I can use most of them, just substituting ingredients for the starchy ones.

Most of the sandwhich filling recipes I just pour over mashed cauliflower. I do add a little instant potato flakes ot my mashed cauliflower. Not much, just one serving of potatoes (per the box) for every 10 servings of cauliflower (one large head). It only adds about 10 calories (2 to 3 grams of carbs) per serving, but it gives the mashed cauliflower a flavor and texture that is more potato-like (and it helps hold the mix together - prevents it from seperating, the water leaking from the mash in the fridge).

Radishes, kohlrabi, turnip, and other veggies that cook solid and mild-tasting can be used in place of potatoes in stews and other dishes.

Since I had lamb thawed last night, I made some excellent lamb gyro. Served with a vegetable plate (cucucumber, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes), dips (hummus/tahini/tzatziki), feta cheese and some greek-marinated olives.

It was delicious and satisfying. Although I ate some carrots and grapes to help round out my body's need for carbs, I think he came in under 15 grams, and took the leftovers for today's lunch.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Juicy Lucy's - cheese inside a minced patty
A boiled (peeled, lol) egg covered in minced meat and fried
Stuffed peppers, just use small ones and stuff with a well seasoned minced meat - baked
cabbage rolls (no fillers like rice)
minced meat pizza- just press meat into a pan, bake, add toppings and cheese and bake again
chili (no beans)
meatballs always can be made a thousand ways
simple patty smothered in sauteed mushrooms

sausages - homemade. Worth investing in a hand crank mincer with a sausage casing filling tube. The variety of sausages are practically endless.

This is one of my favorites - you'll probably enjoy it if you like Asian food!

http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/spicy_p...f_skillet.html