For many of us, eating healthy means working on cutting out processed foods and sugary sweets. Unfortunately, those can be the most delicious! While working to reduce what you’re eating for processed carbs and sweets is important, a complementary approach is to also find substitutes for some of your favorites instead of cutting those favorite foods out completely.
Here are five great low-carb substitutes for some of our favorite foods:
Fake Out Cauliflower Pizza
If you’re one of the many people who love pizza, thinking about how to manage carbs while keeping this favorite is important. There’s a few different ways to hack pizza with fewer carbs. One is a “meatza pizza” where there is a sausage base instead of dough. Another, which maintains a bit lighter of a feel and taste, is to use a cauliflower crust. You use riced cauliflower (crumble it up in the food processor, and press out all of the liquid), egg & cheese to form the crust. Some grocery stores even carry riced cauliflower both in the fresh and frozen sections. What a great time hack if you don’t want to rice the cauliflower yourself!
Cocoa Almonds
Zoodles / Veggie Noodles
If you haven’t tried veggie noodles yet, what are you waiting for?! They’re delicious, and a way to get more veggies into your diet by being the base of the meal. You just need to press the liquid out (if you can), or let them “sweat it out” by salting the zoodles and letting them rest for about twenty minutes. You can also purchase zoodles from many grocery stores these days, or order them online. Similarly, you could use spaghetti squash as a noodle replacement, however it takes a bit more time to cook than just preparing your zucchini noodles.
Travel Must Haves: Jerky and Moon Cheese
On travel days, you might turn to chips or crackers at the airport convenience store to keep you going.
These are just a few ideas for substituting your typical foods with lower carb alternatives.
Lauren’s first run was around the block in a pair of grungy Vans when she was in middle school. Following that she’s had fits & spurts of running, until a few years ago when she started chronicling her running experiences and training at LaurenRuns. Since then she’s gone on to run 5 marathons and numerous triathlons, including two Ironman triathlons. She likes Swedish Fish, red wine, healthy eating and trying new foods. Follow her blog at www.laurenruns.com, on Twitter at @runlaurenrun and Instagram at @laurenruns, and Facebook at Lauren Runs Chicago.
Main Photo Credit: lgabriela/shutterstock.com; Second Photo Credit: mnimage/shutterstock.com; Third Photo Credit: Brent Hofacker/shutterstock.com
