Chapter 14

Outsmarting Cravings with Low-Carb Snacks and Dips

In This Chapter

Snacking your way to a healthy lifestyle

Putting nuts and veggies on the top of your snack list

Dreaming up delicious low-carb dips

Recipes in This Chapter

Spiced Pecans

Nutty Popcorn

Maple-Cinnamon Almond Snack

Celery Stick Tuna Delight

Veggie Wedgie Crisps

Three-Cheese Roasted Garlic Dip

Broccolomole Dip

Ricotta Dip for Fruits

S core another point for the low-carb lifestyle. Taking a low-carb approach to life not only means you can snack but that you’re actually encouraged to snack. If you’re a veteran of the diet wars and are familiar with their many taboos against snacking, this news is likely as shocking as it is exciting.

Not just any snack will do, however. And that’s where this chapter comes in. In it, I stress that the question isn’t to snack or not to snack but how and when to snack. Snacking unwisely with your low-carb lifestyle can be a disaster, while snacking wisely can actually help you burn calories, helping you lose or maintain your weight.

Snacking Smart

One of the low-carb lifestyle mantras is don’t get too hungry — eat something. One of the secrets of low-carb success is to keep your gylcemic index (GI) level even and prevent spikes in blood sugar levels. Spikes in your blood sugar level compare to sugar highs when you get that surge of energy — but then those sugar levels dip, and so does your energy. The GI is a system that rates and measures how quickly food raises your blood sugar level. Snacking keeps those blood sugar peaks and valleys evened out, which evens out your flow of energy, making you more alert and energized. (To find out more about the glycemic index, see Chapter 2.)

While snacking is keeping your GI level even, it’s doing double duty and feeding your metabolic fire to keep it burning those calories and fat. Woo hoo! Just as you throw another log on the fire to keep that campfire burning, you need to feed your internal furnace, known as your metabolism, to stoke your metabolic burn. Your furnace (or metabolism) turns your food into fuel for your body while it’s burning up calories and fat.

Give your metabolism a little boost and some encouragement to keep its burn going. Eat a healthy snack when you have a snack attack, or eat one before the craving hits. Regular snacking is a desirable and rewarding part of the low-carb lifestyle.

Snacking more is better

Bodies are quirky rascals and sometimes they have a mind of their own! Research has proven that eating less to lose weight confuses your body. Your body says, “Hey, when are you going to feed me again?” It then decides that it had better store some sugar and fat just in case you don’t feed it for a while. So opting for starvation diets or cutting way back on food intake simply doesn’t work. When you get your body accustomed to eating healthy low-carb meals and snacking smartly in between, your body begins to relax, and your more apt burn those calories and fat up right away. Because you’ve become consistent in smart snacking, your body knows that more food is on the way. The weird thing is that you can eat more smart snacks along with your smart carb meals and lose more weight. (Check out Chapter 2 for more information on eating more frequently to lose weight.) The big jackpot comes when you fold in some exercise like walking (see Chapter 5), and your chances of maintaining your healthy weight go way up in your favor.

Snacking better is great

Eating healthy snacks helps you to maintain your weight instead of causing you to stall your weight loss or, worse yet, pack on pounds. Choosing smart snacks is thinking about fiber and protein foods that are a good double-edged sword. Fiber and protein fill you up, giving you a satisfied feeling, and the fiber gives you tons of nutrients and doesn’t budge the scales upward. (Find out more about fiber and protein in Chapter 2.)

I’m an advocate of snacks of fresh veggies and fruits, cheeses, and nuts, with the keyword being fresh. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t some prepared foods out there that are low-carb snack acceptable. One of my favorite store-bought snacks is sugar-free freezer pops. Prepackaged nuts are another good snack idea. Yes, I know what you want me talk about — all of the cookies and candies and bars that are labeled low-carb with low, low carb counts plastered on the front of the package. Am I going to tell you that I never eat a low-carb chocolate chip cookie or a low-carb bar? Nope, not this lady — you may come to one of my book signings, and I’ll be busted! I just want to caution you that a lot of the prepacked low-carb snack material that’s out there isn’t healthy for you and has been known to create some major weight stalls. They’re no different than the every day All-American super snacks of potato chips, cheese curls, cookies, candy, kettle corn, and soda. The United States is an obese nation because of some of these foods. So if you load up on the low-carb prepared snacks, you’re just trading one bad habit for another. Be good to your body and eat with smart low-carb thinking in mind, which translates into moderation.

A secret to snacking is to eat your snack slowly and pace yourself — don’t gobble. Eating slowly helps satisfy your hunger or your craving much better, and taking your time gives you an opportunity to enjoy a little break from the simple everyday stresses of life. Stop, have a snack, take a deep breath, and maybe even go for a 5-minute walk.

Managing snacking is key

In low-carb snack management, the key is to try to plan your snacks for the entire day either the night before or at least before you head out the door to go to work, run errands, or whatever it is you’re off to do. Part of the success of the low-carb lifestyle is to be just a tiny bit ahead of the game. Think of yourself as the manager of your healthy lifestyle, and your job is to outwit your appetite. This way of thinking becomes somewhat of a game, and you do like to win, don’t you?

I usually carry some raw almonds with me wherever I go. Baby carrots are another frequent companion of mine. Don’t let your appetite or cravings pop up and catch you off guard with nothing healthy in the fridge, the cupboard, the car, your workplace, or even your purse. It’ll help you stay away from those nasty vending machines and drive-thrus. Always have something low-carb healthy available to pop in your mouth to make your tummy happy. A happy tummy becomes a healthy weight-controlled body. (Find out more about planning foods and meals in Chapter 20.)

Just how easy — and tasty — can it be to assemble low-carb snacks? I want you to get a feeling for the vastness of the great food combinations just waiting to be discovered. If you play your cards right, you’ll never get bored with food in your low-carb life. Just keep on smart snacking! Check out the following list to get started snacking now.

1/4 cup cottage cheese and 3 or 4 almonds

1/4 cup of your choice of fresh or frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or green grapes

1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1/2 packet Splenda, and 1 teaspoon toasted almonds

1/2 cup blackberries and 1 stick string cheese

A cup of bouillon

4 slices very thin deli turkey breast and half an apple (cut in slices)

4 slices very thin deli turkey or ham spread with cream cheese and sprinkled with fresh chives, rolled up

Up to 10 green or black olives

Stalk of celery filled with natural peanut butter, cream cheese, or homemade nut butter

An ounce of hard cheese wrapped in an ounce of hard salami

Low-carb tortillas with all kinds of easy fillings, such as mayonnaise, half an avocado (chopped fine), and salt and pepper to taste (see the suggestion in the Ricotta Dip for Fruits recipe later in the chapter)

Hard-cooked eggs with salt and pepper

If you want to make a special snack that’s a bit out of the ordinary, try toast cups. Trim the crusts from sliced, low-carb whole-wheat bread, brush the bread with butter, press into muffin tins, and toast until golden at 350 degrees. Fill with tuna salad, chicken salad, or another favorite of your low-carb recipes.

Surviving the Munchies with Low-Carb Treats

The keys to successful healthy snacking with your low-carb lifestyle are to not get ravenous and to always have something healthy with you to munch on at all times. Your pre-planning will pay off in the long term.

One way to improve your odds of healthy snacking is to use lots of resealable plastic bags. For example, when you come home from shopping with your big bag of nuts, you can measure them out in individual bags to take with you, thus reducing the temptation to eat more than you need by dipping into the big bag. You can do the same thing with your fresh veggies. When I come in with a big bag of baby carrots, I throw them in a colander, give them a quick swish (even though the package tells me they’re prewashed), and put them in individual snack bags. If I’m out the door on errands or a shopping spree, I don’t have to stop and fill a bag with fresh snacks — I just grab one and go.

Going nuts

Well, nuts! Yes, nuts are a great answer to low-carb snacking. For starters, they’re portable: They’re easy to tote, they’re not messy, and you can eat them literally anywhere. When you get that little twinge of hunger, eat a few nuts. You’ll be amazed when your hunger magically disappears. Here’s a bit of nutty health news to urge you to make nuts part of your snacking routine:

Recent studies have shown that consuming 1 to 2 ounces of nuts a day can actually help you lose weight and even help you to keep it off. Although some nuts are higher in carbs than others, no nut is a bad low-carb choice. It appears that nuts may very well keep that metabolic burn going, so burn, baby, burn.

Even though nuts are high in fat, they contain 90 percent heart-healthy fats — unsaturated fats that don’t have an impact on raising your cholesterol. These little rascals can help reduce your risk of heart attack while you soothe your cravings.

Nuts are also a great source of fiber and protein. Both fiber and protein are great components for high nutrient low-carb foods and snacks. They fill you up and not out.

Even better, nuts are versatile. In addition to eating them as a snack, you can use them in place of croutons on your salad and even use them to give extra crunch to your favorite veggie recipes.

But what about the carbs, you ask? Consider the following breakdown for 1/4 cup of each kind of nuts. I subtracted the fiber counts for you, so these are net carb counts. (Find more on net carbs in Chapter 2.) I only caution you to be aware of calorie counts in nuts such as cashews because the calorie counts run pretty high. I’m not saying don’t eat cashews. Just be aware that calories count too in an overall healthy low-carb lifestyle. Here are the net carb counts for 1/4 cup nuts (check out Figure 14-1 to see what these guys look like):

Almonds: 2.8 net grams

Brazil nuts: 2.6 net grams

Cashews: 2.8 net grams

Hazelnuts: 2.4 net grams

Macadamia nuts: 1.8 net grams

Peanuts: 3.6 net grams

Pecans: 1.2 net grams

Pistachios: 6.2 net grams

Walnuts: 2.2 net grams

Here’s an idea for a quick treat: Roast some raw almonds. Lightly coat a shallow, nonstick baking pan with some light olive oil and toss them. Sprinkle them with an herb or spice of your choice, like a little curry powder, chili powder, or even some dried basil to liven things up. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 to12 minutes until slightly darkened. Watch ’em so they don’t burn. Enjoy them warm!

Figure 14-1: Go nuts!

Spiced Pecans

These are sure to please and are guaranteed to wake up your taste buds in addition to satisfying that annoying hunger pang. These are best served warm. You can store them in an airtight container for a day or so but no longer than that.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Yield: 8 1/4-cup servings

1/2 stick butter

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon finely minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

2 cups large whole pecans

Salt (optional)

1 Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter and combine it with the Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and hot pepper sauce in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, pour the butter mixture over the nuts and toss until coated.

2 Place nuts on a jellyroll pan and toast for about 20 minutes or until browned. Shake the pan occasionally to be sure the nuts are toasting evenly.

3 Drain on paper towels before serving. Do a taste test and add salt, if desired. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Per serving: Calories 245 (From Fat 225); Fat 25g (Saturated 5g); Cholesterol 15mg; Sodium 30mg; Carbohydrate 4g; Dietary Fiber 2g (Net Carbohydrate 2g); Protein 3g.

Why not water?

Have you ever thought of water as a snack? Did you know that by the time your brain tells you that you’re thirsty, your body is already beginning to be dehydrated? I’m talking about lack of hydration — not lost-in-the-desert dehydrated. Keeping your body well hydrated and your low-carb lifestyle in tow is even more achievable if you drink plenty of water.

If you have a craving mid-morning, grab that water bottle and gulp down some of the clear, revitalizing stuff, and then have your low-carb snack. Drinking water will soon become a habit for you, and you’ll be amazed what it does to the scales. Guess you’d better “just add water” to the snack list.

Nutty Popcorn

Popcorn is a bit of a strange bird. Some folks can eat it and not gain an ounce, and some people (like me) gain a pound just looking at the stuff. So pay attention for bloating and watch the scale after you eat this stuff even though this recipe has a measly 5 net grams of carbs. Whatever your personal experience, it sure is acceptable for a special treat. The popcorn in this recipe is especially satisfying and especially crunchy with the addition of nuts. I’m sure that after just reading the recipe, you’re going to think of all kinds of variations of this basic low-carb munchie. You can save dollars if you air-pop your own popcorn. It’s so easy, and it isn’t even messy, so give it a whirl. The upside is the freshest of fresh popcorn without preservatives. This fun treat is featured in the color section of the book.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Yield: 9 servings (1 cup each)

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 cups popped popcorn

1 cup pecan pieces

1 In a small skillet, melt the butter until it bubbles, being careful not to let it brown or burn. Add the curry powder and salt and stir.

2 With popcorn in a large bowl, add the nuts and drizzle the butter mixture over the popcorn and pecan pieces. Toss until well coated.

Variation: For seasoned popcorn of a different flavor, try substituting the curry powder and the nuts with 2 teaspoons of freshly chopped chives, 2 teaspoons of fresh dill weed, 2 teaspoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and 1 teaspoon of celery salt.

Per serving: Calories 133 (From Fat 103); Fat 12g (Saturated 2g); Cholesterol 7mg; Sodium 130mg; Carbohydrate 7g; Dietary Fiber 2g (Net Carbohydrate 5g); Protein 2g.

Maple-Cinnamon Almond Snack

This snack is quick to fix and is pleasing to your sweet tooth. When you have a sweet craving, grab a few of these tasty nuts for a special treat that’s almost like a low-carb candy. Indulge in this snack, because the carb counts are on your side. A word of warning, though: Don’t eat all the nuts in one sitting just because this recipe is labeled low-carb and sugar free. If you want to have a stash of these almonds, simply double the recipe.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Baking time: 12 minutes

Yield: 4 1/4-cup servings

1 cup raw almonds

3 tablespoons sugar-free maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2 In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the almonds, syrup, and cinnamon until the almonds are well coated.

3 Line a shallow pan with parchment paper. Bake the almonds in the pan for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring a couple times. The glaze will dry on the nuts during baking.

4 Let the almonds cool and break apart, if necessary. (If there’s high humidity, they may be a bit sticky, but if it’s very dry day, they’ll be almost perfect.) Store in an airtight container at room temperature if they make it that far!

Per serving: Calories 217 (From Fat 165); Fat 18g (Saturated 1g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 28mg; Carbohydrate 10g; Dietary Fiber 4g (Net Carbohydrate 6g); Protein 8g.

Vegging out

It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced: When you eat more green stuff, you crave more green stuff. I know that sounds bizarre, and if you’ve never experienced it, you’re probably shaking your head in disbelief. But it’s true. If you get in the habit of snacking on broccoli and green leafy stuff, your cravings will shift to actually wanting some fresh veggies for a snack. Try it, and you’ll be amazed. This shift in cravings won’t happen overnight, but stick with it, and you’ll be longing for veggies in no time. I double dare you to try it.

Celery Stick Tuna Delight

The results here are delightful to look at and munch into. The combination of ingredients is so colorful that you’ll want to party on with your low-carb lifestyle and enjoy the low carb count in this festive treat. If you want to tote this snack along with you, just carry the celery in a resealable plastic bag and the tuna combo in a little plastic container, and put everything together when you’re ready to munch. This recipe calls for shredded cabbage, carrots, and zucchini. Make sure you shred them very fine. I have a little 2 1/2 cup mini food processor that I use to shred them into shape.

Preparation time: 12 minutes

Yield: 12 servings

3-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature

1 tablespoon plain yogurt

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt with parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

3-ounce pouch albacore tuna

1/2 cup finely shredded red cabbage

1/2 cup finely shredded carrot

1/4 cup finely shredded zucchini, unpeeled

12 celery sticks (4 inches long)

1 In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, yogurt, basil, garlic salt, salt, and pepper, mixing until well blended.

2 In a second small bowl, toss the tuna, cabbage, carrot, and zucchini until well combined.

3 Stir the cream cheese mixture into the tuna mixture.

4 Heap the tuna mixture into and onto the celery sticks — there’s a bunch of filling here. You can serve immediately or refrigerate the prepared sticks for about a half hour so the mixture chills and is even crunchier with the crispy celery combination. If you prefer, store the tuna mixture separately and heap it into the celery when you’re ready to serve and snack.

Per serving: Calories 43 (From Fat 25); Fat 3g (Saturated 2g); Cholesterol 11mg; Sodium 164mg; Carbohydrate 2g; Dietary Fiber 1g (Net Carbohydrate 1g); Protein 3g.

Veggie Wedgie Crisps

This snack is great hot, but I love it cold as well. You can take wedgies along as leftovers for a snack at work. Or you can prepare everything in advance and keep them in the fridge until you crave a snack at home. Just pop them in the oven. Veggie Wedgie Crisps are like a mini snack pizza (only better)!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 to 18 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

1 cup small fresh broccoli florets

1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder with parsley flakes

2 8-inch low-carb whole-wheat tortillas

1/2 cup fresh chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup thin strips red, yellow, and green bell pepper

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2 Trim off the bottoms of broccoli florets. Cut the florets into quarters and place them in a mini food processor. Chop the broccoli until it reaches a very fine consistency — like broccoli sand! You should have about 1/2 cup of broccoli at this point.

3 In a small bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, basil, and garlic powder, mixing well with a fork. Spread the mixture evenly on both tortillas. Place the tortillas on a heavy cookie sheet.

4 Sprinkle the broccoli on top of the cream cheese mixture, spreading it evenly. Add the mushrooms and strips of pepper on top of the tortillas. Bake for 10 minutes.

5 Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees and remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Divide the cheese evenly, sprinkling on both tortillas.

6 Return the tortillas to the oven for another 5 minutes. The cheese should be oozing and melted. Cut the tortilla into wedges and serve immediately.

Variation: Add fresh sliced Roma tomatoes on top after removing the tortillas from the oven, drizzle them with a little olive oil, and sprinkle on some freshly chopped basil. Talk about waking up your taste buds!

Per serving: Calories 301 (From Fat 208); Fat 23g (Saturated 13g); Cholesterol 69mg; Sodium 421mg; Carbohydrate 18g; Dietary Fiber 10g (Net Carbohydrate 8g); Protein 16g.

Skinny Dipping

The possible combinations of low-carb dips are limited only by your wildest culinary notions. You can take a base of yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, or cream cheese and mix it with a variety of soft cheeses, herbs, and spices in dips that could fill an entire cookbook. You can choose fruit dips, veggie dips, hot dips, or cold dips — dips for parties or dips for snacking. Dips are for more than potato chips! Dippin’ fresh fruits and veggies is so much better.

Quick slim dippin’

You don’t need a recipe with a list of 12 ingredients and a lengthy preparation time for the end result to taste really good. Slim ingredients can make mighty tasty stuff. Try some of the following quick combinations, and feel free to experiment using these base ingredients:

Yogurt

• With grated horseradish and fresh chopped Italian parsley

• With finely chopped cucumber and a little dill

• With a little fresh orange juice, some lemon zest, and a packet of Splenda sugar substitute (this dip can also be made with sour cream rather than yogurt)

Sour cream

• With dill weed and chopped garlic

• With fresh, crisp bacon crumbles

• With apricot sugar-free preserves

Cottage cheese

• With leftover sauces, seasoned to taste

• With a spot of Dijon mustard and some minced fresh chives

Cream cheese

• With a splash of whipped cream to thin just a tad and some chopped pecans

• With finely chopped fresh green onions chopped fine

My favorite accompaniments for these concoctions are — you guessed it, veggies. Celery, carrot sticks, zucchini sticks, cucumbers, blanched asparagus, cauliflower, radishes, snow peas, yellow squash, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and broccoflower all work great.

Three-Cheese Roasted Garlic Dip

This dip is just awesome with fresh veggies. Feel free to substitute any of your favorite cheeses for one or all of the ones I list here. No matter what you substitute, you just can’t go wrong with this recipe. See the color section of the book for a serving suggestion.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Refrigeration time: 4 hours

Yield: 20 servings

2 medium heads of garlic

3 1/2 ounces goat cheese

2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature

2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese

1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut off the tops of the garlic heads, exposing the tops of the cloves. Place the garlic in a small baking pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until garlic is very tender.

2 Remove the garlic from the pan and cool completely. Squeeze the garlic into a small bowl and then mash with a fork.

3 Combine the goat cheese and cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl and beat until smooth. (You can also use a food processor for this step.) Stir in the blue cheese, garlic, and thyme.

4 Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight to let the flavors mingle.

5 Serve the cheese dip with crispy fresh vegetables. This dip is especially nice served with red and yellow bell pepper strips, cucumber slices, zucchini, and broccoli.

Per serving: Calories 105 (From Fat 87); Fat 10g (Saturated 6g); Cholesterol 30mg; Sodium 105mg; Carbohydrate 2g; Dietary Fiber 0g (Net Carbohydrate 2g); Protein 3g.

I love to make this for a quick sweet snack when a craving hits me and just won’t give up. If you close your eyes, you’ll think you’re eating cheesecake! Take 1/2 of an 8-ounce package of cream cheese. Add 1 packet of Splenda and a couple drops of pure vanilla extract. Take a fork and stir it all up (it’ll be hard at first). If you want to really jazz it up, add a tad of sugar-free preserves. It’s a great quick sweet-tooth fix.

Broccolomole Dip

Spell check had a really tough time as I was writing this one, but you’re going to love this recipe regardless of its crazy name. This dip is a sister in looks to guacamole, but its color is a little brighter green. Broccoli is the ultimate veggie and has a rave rating in the low-carb lifestyle. So whip up this skinny recipe and dip in with fresh veggies, or treat yourself to some low-carb tortilla chips. This dip is featured in the color section of the book.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Refrigeration time: 3 to 4 hours

Yield: 8 servings

2 cups precut fresh broccoli

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon minced onion

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

3 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon chili powder (more to taste)

1 Cook the fresh broccoli to crisp-tender in your steamer basket. Run cold water over it and place the broccoli in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.

2 Combine the broccoli, sour cream, onion, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and chili powder in your food processor and blend until smooth.

3 Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

4 Serve with fresh, crisp veggies.

Per serving: Calories 35 (From Fat 27); Fat 3g (Saturated 1g); Cholesterol 4mg; Sodium 19mg; Carbohydrate 2g; Dietary Fiber 1g (Net Carbohydrate 1g); Protein 1g.

Here’s another quick dip: Combine and beat until smooth 12 ounces cottage cheese, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt, and a dash of freshly ground black pepper. Dip in with any of your favorite veggies.

For a very cool presentation, serve your homemade dips in a hollow green or red pepper or in a couple red cabbage leaves. If you’re having guests, you can make individual dishes out of large red cabbage leaves, serving raw vegetables in one and dip in the other. Experiment and come up with your own creative serving dish.

Fruity choices

Fruits have been controversial in some low-carb lifestyles. Living low-carb for life is all about balance and not depriving yourself of foods that are proven to be good for you, such as fruit. However, some fruits are loaded with carbs, so you can be selective in choosing fruits that work for you. You can choose what fruits to eat according to what fits the healthy low-carb lifestyle that works for you. If you’re eating fruit every day and the scale starts creeping up, then cut back to every other day or maybe three times a week. If you’re highly sugar sensitive, then the natural sugar will have a bit of an effect on you, and it could come about in weight gain. I encourage you, however, for the ultimate healthy low-carb lifestyle to eat fruit! Here are some raw fruits that are lower in carbs than others and are thus lower on the glycemic index (refer to Chapter 2 for an explanation of how the GI fits into your low-carb lifestyle).

Apples

Apricots

Blackberries

Blueberries

Cantaloupe

Cherries

Figs

Grapes

Honeydew

Nectarines

Oranges

Peaches

Pears

Plums

Raspberries

Rhubarb

Strawberries

Tangerines

Ricotta Dip for Fruits

This dip is so delicious that it may be difficult to keep yourself from sitting by the bowl and eating the whole thing, but please restrain yourself. Be a dainty dipper and eat just the right amount. Make sure that it’s well chilled before you serve it (if you can keep your fingers out of it). You can even prepare it the night before and take it with you to work to snack on during the day. Expect some rave reviews on this recipe if you serve it to guests — but you may not want to share! Heartier fruits like apples, pears, nectarines, and pineapple work well with this.

Preparation time: 8 minutes

Refrigeration time: 1 hour

Yield: 1 3/4 cups (14 servings of 2 tablespoons each)

15 ounces ricotta cheese

2 packets Splenda sugar substitute

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 Combine the ricotta, Splenda, vanilla extract, orange peel, and cinnamon in your food processor and puree until very smooth.

2 Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover tightly, and refrigerate until serving or snacking time.

Variation: You can also spread this dip on a low-carb tortilla. Sprinkle some red raspberries or strawberries in the middle of the tortilla, roll it up, and you have a great snack. Use any fruit you want to enhance this low-carb tortilla snack.

Per serving: Calories 54 (From Fat 36); Fat 4g (Saturated 3g); Cholesterol 16mg; Sodium 26mg; Carbohydrate 1g; Dietary Fiber 0g (Net Carbohydrate 1g); Protein 3g.