Decent LC food here at last!

[Kathy Cull]

At last dunnes and tesco have introduced the carb options range......delicious pasta, tika sauce......mushroom sauce.....soups to die for.

Go out, buy and enjoy! It makes life so much easier on LC.

[greannmhar]

The carb options range, especially the pasta, is far too high in carbs for me, I'm afraid. At 26 carbs, that's more than a full day's allowance for the pasta alone, never mind the sauce! Dreamfields has only 5 per serving.
The tomato soup was quite nice, but at almost 14 carbs it's still too high for regular consumption. It's better to make your own from a tin of tomatoes (about 4 carbs) - and home-made mushroom soup is MUCH lower than CO (about 3 carbs for a big bowl). The CO tomato sauce, however, IS good.
I think it's a pity that the manufacturers didn't put more effort into getting the carbs lower - wherever did they do their research? The worst of it is that retailers are going to think there's no LC demand when we don't buy the stuff and not that the products themselves are wrong.
Babs

[Gagalina]

ohh, that sounds cool!! I'll have a look tomorrow night, but if they are as high in carbs as Babs is saying, I dont think I'll get them. I prefer to cook stuff myself anyway, but on days where you just dont want to, they might be handy...

Gagalina

[R0B]

Hi Babs...
I've always loved meat with red sauce. I'm finding it very hard to get back on the low-carb way because of a serious carb addiction. I could never use the normal tomato sauce because it's way too high in carbs. If you could let me in on your tomato sauce recipie it would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Rob.

[greannmhar]

Rob, it's tomato SOUP I make, which might be a bit weak for sauce, depending on what you want it for. If you still want the recipe (so simple it's hardly worth calling a recipe!), let me know and I'll drag it out and type it up.
Babs

[davidm20]

Hi Babs,
Just wondering if you get the chance could you post the recipes for both the soups. They would be nice for a change.
I could have missed something but is CO Tomato Sauce tomato ketchup or is it for pasta. I didn't see ketchup in Tesco when I was there I be really interested in getting it as it is something I really miss.

Thanks
David

[greannmhar]

Hi David/Rob,
My soups are a bit of the 'throw it all in and hope' variety, but I have tried to quantify them here. Adjust for yourself, where required.

Tomato Soup

Carbs = Approx 4 per serving, serves 4

400g tinned chopped tomatos (Heinz has 2.9 per 100g)
3 Tbsp of sun dried tomato puree
100ml Cream
100 mls water
4 crushed Splenda (or to taste)
1 teasp dried Basil
Black pepper/salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together except the cream and simmer for a couple of minutes. Mash or liquidise the result, add the cream and heat until required temperature.

Mushroom Soup
Depending on how hungry I am, I fry up some chopped mushrooms with some finely chopped onion. Then I add some chicken bouillon (liquid variety or home made, about 1 t). I then use about half cream, half water and some salt and pepper. Finally, liquidise the lot if you want it smooth, or just eat as is. This all seems vague, sorry, and the carb count varies (probably less than 3 per serving) with the amounts you use, but it's not very much and it tastes wonderful.
I make leek soup in a similar ad hoc fashion - it's delicious, too.
The CO ketchup is very nice - you can add a bit to your tomato soup at the end if you feel it's not tomatoey enough.
Babs

[davidm20]

Thanks Babs, will try that out