Good Atkin's Friendly Snack Food/Appetizers

Cafe Society
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I see a lot of food threads in this forum, so I’m hoping this is the right place for it. If not, mods, please move with my grovelling apologies.

Anyway, the roommate and I just started having a poker night with a couple of friends who are on the Atkin’s diet. The first week I totally forgot and served chips and pita bread and all kinds of bad foods. They were very nice and joked about breaking their diets but I felt awful - I know how hard it is to stay on a diet and weekly tempation is never a good thing. This week was their turn and they had a good mix of Atkin’s friendly and carbo loaded foods for us.

Friday is my turn again and I am turning to you for ideas on snacks to feed them that will be better to their diet. I will go out and try to find a book but I’m hoping the teeming millions can give some good ideas for free :slight_smile:

Easy or complicated I want them all, I love to cook and create. Thanks in advance for any help.

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I would love to see some good atkins snack ideas too, that use pronouncable ingredients and are likely to be available at local supermarkets.

So far I’ve found that cooked (cold) chicken legs are good with almost no carbs in them. That qualifies as a ‘simple’ snack.

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Cheese.
Lots of different kinds of cheese.

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Errr…I have some idea of the Atkin’s diet…at least why they don’t want to eat chips…

But how, er, obsevant are they? I mean, I was thinking smoked salmon…are they alowed crackers with that?

How 'bout rumaki?

Or if waterchestnuts are too much charbohydrate, bacon wrapped scallopes. In which case, I will be crashing your party, I love those :smiley: .

Escargo?

Sashimi?

Cocktail weinies?

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My husband is doing the low carb thing, and he is under the impression that he’s allowed to have rye bread. I can’t say whether or not this is true, but if so, you can whip up some pretty nice sandwiches on rye with mustard.

Get or make a deli/cold cut platter. Lots of meats and cheeses come in lower fat versions, and some actually taste pretty good. Set out various condiments and breads, and let everyone make their own sandwiches.

Some fruits and veggies are considered Atkins friendly. However, the eaters do have to watch their portions with some of the fruits and veggies. My husband LOVES celery stuffed with cream cheese, for instance. There are some low-carb dips out there, too.

Think about what THEY served…this will probably give you a clue.

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They had a cheese, salami and cracker tray, which was yummy and I’m definetly going to steal. There was also some low carb chips, which wasn’t too bad. But mainly they had regular snacks for us, which I noticed they didn’t eat very much of. I had thought of the cold cut platter with yummy dips or something. I was just hoping there were other things I could try. I had the idea that there were quite a few Atkin’s followers on the boards that could help me.

I don’t know how closely they adhere to the diet, but they’ve both lost a lot of weight on it and as someone who’s been derailed from diets because of too much temptation I want to try to give them as many diet-friendly options as possible. It certainly wouldn’t hurt the roommate and I to eat less carbs either.

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Deviled eggs are great – pretty much zero carbs.

Shrimp and cocktail sauce (but check the sauce, some have tons of sugar.)

As a slight variation on the cheese/cold cuts: Mini-Kebabs!

Stack up many layers of whatever coldcuts and cheeses you like, varying the layers to give a pretty arrangement of colors. For example, several slices of ham, then a thickish slice of yellow cheddar, then some slices of salami, then some provolone, then some olive loaf… Whatever you like. You could also include a few layers of some of the relatively low-carb veggies: think mainly salad stuff. (green or red bell peppers, vidalia onions, carrot ‘curls’, radish slices, cucumber slices, mushrooms.) These you’ll have to slice to an appropriate thickness and ‘piece together’ to cover the surface of the cold cuts. For ease, end up with a layer of cold cuts that covers the stack neatly rather than veggies.

The idea is to end up with a tidy stack the size of a slice of (whatever you started with) and about 2 inches thick.

Now stick array of toothpicks into the pile, in about a 1" by 1" grid – push the toothpicks all the way in, so they touch the plate/cutting board. Next use a sharp knife and cut the mass into 1" squares, cutting so that the toothpicks are now in the center of each square. These mini-kebabs can now be moved to a serving plate, pushing the toothpick in a bit further as you do, so it shows on both ends of the food-stack.

These can be eaten alone, or provide a couple kinds of dipping sauce – like a honey mustard and Gringo’s Delight (salsa and miracle whip, roughly 50/50.)

BTW, adapt the dimensions of your original layer to suit how many kebabs you want. A 4"X6" rectangle yields 24, for example.

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Here’s an index of some really good recipes and ideas: http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/lowcarb-snacks.html

I’m very fond of Buffalo Wings, served with blue cheese dressing, along with celery sticks on the side.

A crudite platter is always appropriate, using lower-carb vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower florets, celery sticks, asparagus spears, and instead of carrots (they’re pretty high in natural sugars) slice up an orange or red bell pepper for color.

If you can get your hands on low-carb tortillas, you can make very easy wraps–fill them with cream cheese with fresh chives & smoked salmon; turkey & swiss cheese with a pesto mayonnaise… the possibilities are endless there.

Sausage-stuffed mushrooms are a good way to go, too.

StarvingButStrong: You have some good ideas (especially with the kebabs), but things like honey mustard and Miracle Whip are basically verboten–they’re loaded with sugar, which people on Atkins (technically) avoid like the plague. Better dips to use are things like Ranch Dressing or Dijon Mustard & (real) Mayo mixed together.

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Pork rinds.

Don’t laugh. They crunch and they’re not disgustingly-flavored. Get the BBQ and you forget they’re fried pork skin. Use low-carb dip (sour cream and low-carb onion soup) and you don’t care that they’re fried pork skin.

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And when you get desperate for fried chicken, you can use them as a breading. :eek:

Don’t ask.

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From the official Atkins webiste:

Snack recipes

Appetizer recipes

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My store sells an Atkins brand ketchup that I like because the flavor reminds me of the homemade ketchup my mom made when I was a kid. Mix it with horseradish, an you have cocktail sauce.

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selected nuts are also reasonably good, crunchy snacks.

best selections: walnuts, pecans, pistachios, almonds, MAYBE peanuts and sunflower seeds

avoid: cashews, anything sugar-coated or otherwise sweetened

beef jerky can sometimes be good, but you usually need to check the nutrition label for overall carb content (total carb grams minus fiber grams = NET carb grams, which is what everyone considers as the bottom line). and pork rinds really are a great snack (especially with a carb-friendly dip).

lettuce wraps are another alternative. instead of using tortilla or other bread-based wrapper, just use a lettuce leaf.

and yes, avoid Miracle Whip (sigh), or any sauces or dips with a lot of sweetening added to them (although regular mayonnaise is good, and regular sour cream isn’t too bad). the majority of Ranch and Caesar dressings are normally low-carb, and reduced-carb versions are creeping onto the shelves more and more every day. (i actually found a reduced-carb French dressing the other day.) WARNING! reduced-FAT versions are usually much higher in carb content, because more sugar is added to make up for the taste loss caused by removing the flavor-conveying fats.

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A big bowl of nacho cheese dip with sliced summer sausage and pork rinds for dipping.

Take a slice of beef lunchmeat, spread cream cheese on it, and wrap it around a dill pickle spear. Cut into pieces, if you like.

Batter-dipped, fried butter pats.

That last one was a joke. :rolleyes:

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For something sweet, a sugar-free cheesecake topped with real whipped topping (both should use Splenda for sweetener).

CostCo sells these great pre-cooked bags of chicken wings in different flavors. The hot & spicy and tequila lime wings are my favorite. Just heat in the oven until crispy.

I’m having a movie party this Saturday, and since my husband and I are on a low carb diet, we’re planning to cook wings, have fresh veggies and Ranch dip, and either bacon-stuffed mushrooms (using soy crumbs) or devilled eggs. This along with the cookies and popcorn for everyone else, and probably a CarbSense brownie mix. Should be plenty of food.