Author Topic: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?  (Read 5054 times)

spookytaffy

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Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« on: January 17, 2017, 09:07:08 AM »
Hi All
I LOVE rice, beans, pasta, etc., but now because of a medical issue, I cannot eat any of those! I have to eat Low Carb/High Fat which means I eat a LOT of meat and cheese and some veggies.  Anyone have any good ideas on how to be mustachian while under doc orders?  This is a lifetime change in diet, not a temporary thing.  I do eat a lot of chicken already.  I look for cheaper cuts of meat and buy cheese in blocks and shred it myself. 

Here are most of the things I CANNOT eat:
rice, beans, pasta, potatoes, carrots, (basically any root veggie), breads (no grains of any kind).  No sugars but can have tiny amounts of honey. 

Ideas?

marielle

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2017, 09:18:43 AM »
Are you restricted from all beans? What about other types of legumes or lentils?

Quinoa, buckwheat (technically a seed and not a grain so you should be okay), other types of seeds like almonds, nuts in bulk, avocado for good fats (I try to buy $1/ea or cheaper).   

ketchup

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2017, 09:32:24 AM »
Find a grocery store nearby that usually has a different cut or two of meat on super-sale each week, and base your meaty meals around that during each week (or stock up if you have a chest freezer).

You already say you eat a lot of chicken.  Skin-on bone-in thighs are $0.99/lb at the Aldi by me, and are flippin' delicious and super easy to cook.

Frozen seafood can sometimes be very cheap.

Eggs, of course.

If you're eating LCHF you need to figure out your cheapest healthy fat sources per calorie.  Coconut oil and olive oil (bought in large packages) dominate in that department, or lard and beef tallow if you can find them cheap (depending on where you are in IL I can hook you up with a *very* cheap source for tallow and lard, and all grass-fed etc.). 

Cream is very economical per calorie if you can tolerate that much dairy.

Coconut milk from Trader Joe's is only $1.69/can and has no bullshit in it.

Figure out the cheapest vegetables you like, can eat, and can eat a lot of.  I assume cabbage and onions are on the menu?  They are some of the cheapest and healthiest vegetables.  Braised cabbage is amazing.  Onions are great on everything.  The more non-starchy vegetables you eat, the more oil you can eat with them, and the less meat you need.  Veggies + oil are almost always cheaper than meat.

Find fatty salad and salad dressing recipes you like.  DIY salad dressing is super simple and way better AND cheaper than store bought stuff.  Avocado is awesome on salad if you can find them cheap.  Stores usually have the less-sexy greens (meaning not-pre-washed-etc) for very cheap.

HipGnosis

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2017, 10:28:36 AM »
I am on a low carb diet (but not 'no' carb).
Thanks to Atkins (and a few others), the internet is chock full of low carb websites and blogs that have zillions of recipes.
There are hundreds of ingredient substitutions for low carbing;
Almond and coconut flour, flax meal, spaghetti squash, riced cauliflower, low carb tortilia wraps.
And some interesting and good recipes; like pumpkin, egg and creamcheese bake that can be made as a hot breakfast, side dish or desert.  Squash and sausage stew.  I made pizza this weekend w/ almond flour dough.  And coconut flour english muffin.
I've seen recipes for cinnamon buns made with protein powder, but haven't tried yet because I can only find the powder in BIG tubs.
My go-to vegs are tomatoes, green beans, pumpkin and mushrooms.  I have a lot of recipes for green beans, but tomatoes go with more things for more variety.
I buy most of my meat on sale or in 'family' packs (3-5 lbs) and work my meals around those.  I made a pork loin roast sunday evening.
I use sugar free pudding and cool whip (usually store brand) for frosting and deserts

JoJo

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2017, 12:26:14 PM »
Someone already mentioned Eggs.

I eat eggs almost every day.  Ways not to get sick of them:
* Hard boiled eggs - try with different sauces.  my favorite is mustard.
* Microwave scramble.  3 eggs, put in a little water & scramble.  Microwave for 2 minutes (stir at 1min & 1:30).  Sometimes I put a slice of cheese for the last 15 seconds.  You can also stir in stuff before microwaving: sausage, pre cooked bacon, onion, green pepper.  Adding stuff increases the microwave time.
* Omelets

HipGnosis

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2017, 12:58:16 PM »
Someone already mentioned Eggs.

I eat eggs almost every day.  Ways not to get sick of them:
* Hard boiled eggs - try with different sauces.  my favorite is mustard.
* Microwave scramble.  3 eggs, put in a little water & scramble.  Microwave for 2 minutes (stir at 1min & 1:30).  Sometimes I put a slice of cheese for the last 15 seconds.  You can also stir in stuff before microwaving: sausage, pre cooked bacon, onion, green pepper.  Adding stuff increases the microwave time.
* Omelets
Egg salad
And huevos rancheros and eggs in hell (SHAKSHUKA)

Pro-tip: unless you're making deviled or easter eggs, you can 'hard boil' eggs in a toaster oven;  crack into bowl or ramekin, add a teaspoon of water.  No peeling!

spookytaffy

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2017, 01:06:25 PM »
Thanks everyone!  Most of these things I am already doing but I did get a few tips!  I WISH I could eat true mustachian with beans, etc., but if I do I probably wouldn't be around long enough to FIRE!

swick

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2017, 01:39:56 PM »
Welcome to the forums :)

There are quite a few of us eating low/no carb for a variety of reasons, and it can be discouraging when you look at other people's grocery spending. Add to the fact that we are in Canada, and we're lucky if chicken goes on sale for 3.99/lb.

The problem really needs to be broken down in to two parts:

1. Identifying your staples. Figuring out what you actually like and will use. Create a bunch of recipes that can be made with staples you always have on hand Ex. Homemade Mayo with eggs and healthy fat source. 

If you haven't explored the world of Fat bombs, now is a great time!http://ketodietapp.com/Blog/post/2015/03/24/60-amazing-fat-bomb-recipes

2. Once you have identified your staples, do the leg work to find the CHEAPEST SOURCE. This might be talking directly to a local farmer and buying all their extra fat. It might be getting staples like Avocado oil from Costco. It might be discovering that whole duck is on sale and sticking in it a crockpot, having a good meal, then cooking up the skin and bones to make duck stock AND get a cup or so of duck fat (that usually sells alone for the price of the whole bird) Or checking out ethnic stores and liquidators. One of my friends in Washington has an awesome liquidation store where she gets all her organic veggies for extremely cheap. This helps a bunch!

You'll probably never get your costs down to the levels of relying on Starch and fillers for a couple of meals a day, but you will in the long run save money on healthcare.

NV Teacher

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2017, 05:20:52 PM »
Check around your area and see if anyone knows of farmers/ranchers that sell directly to the public.  We buy a half a beef every year.  We paid less than $3 a pound last year and that was for everything, raising the steer, slaughtering, and cut/wrap.  We talked to the butcher and told him what specific cuts we wanted.  It's wonderful meat and so much less expensive than what we could be at the store.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2017, 05:27:26 PM »
Certain things are true of ANY grocery spending:

-eat your veggies in season. What you can, eat frozen: same nutrients as fresh and usually cheaper, and less likely to spoil. This is great for stirfry and the like.
-PRICE BOOK. You need to know what a good price is, so you can stock up when you find it
-Check your grocery circulars
-I aim for below $2.00/lb for veggies. Many people aim for lower. Find out good substitutions: broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts are the same plant, and usually taste similar with the same recipes, but I can get cabbage for $0.69/lb, while I can't get fresh brussel sprouts for less than $2.25/lb generally.
-If you care about meat sourcing (ie, do organic//grass fed, etc rather than CAFO meat), then buying in bulk from the farmer is virtually always cheaper. If you don't, a chest freezer and sale stock ups are usually cheapest. This gets back to the price book. Turkey after thanksgiving is $0.40/lb? Buy as many as you can fit in your freezer. Etc.

Sailor Sam

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2017, 05:49:03 PM »
I tend to eat LCHF, and can't eat dairy. One thing I've found really helpful is learning how to cook dishes in the Thai, Chinese, and Japanese flavour palates. It's a little counter intuitive, since these cuisines rely heavily on rice. But I've found they use rice as a side, and not in the main dish. I just eat more main dish, and no rice.

If you go this route, its worth learning how to cook with authentic ingredients, not americanized ingredients. Pad Thai sauce should not have ketchup in it! You'll need an asian grocery store. The upside, asian stores tend to be cheaper. I know the $4 whole chicken I bought last week didn't have a good life, but holy cow, it's $1/pound!

horsepoor

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2017, 06:55:02 PM »
Theres an MMM post for that!

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/04/18/the-amazing-waist-slimming-wallet-fattening-nutrient/

Accustom yourself to adding lots of fats when cooking, dressing salads and so on.  Homemade mayo is easy and can add lots of calories and serve as a salad dressing base.  Eat the chicken skin, full fat coconut milk, save bacon grease and cook with it, drizzle lots of oil on your veggies before roasting, etc. 

Buy good oils in bulk if you can store them.  I got lots of nice coconut oil from Bulk Apothecary quite inexpensively, and stock up on olive oil whenever I catch a good sale.

AMandM

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2017, 07:37:00 PM »
See whether Zayconfresh.com delivers to your area. Good deals on meat especially, if you can deal with advance planning (several weeks) and bulk orders (e.g. 40# of ground beef).  I'm not sure, but I think the meat is all conventionally raised if that matters to you.

spookytaffy

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #13 on: January 18, 2017, 09:59:05 AM »
Thanks for the continued ideas.  I forgot to mention I DO eat a ton of eggs and bacon!  As for zaycon, I did check and they do not deliver around here.  I'm pretty much in BFE (town of 2200) with no major metro areas within 2 hours of here.  And yes, AMandM, how animals are raised and treated is at the top of my list! Wish I could figure out how to be vegan and do this!  Also wish I could go into animal rights/ rescue and still manage to retire at all, let alone FIRE! 

brian313313

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2017, 06:09:49 AM »
I'm in the same situation almost as far as the diet that I need. Food is our largest expense. Some of the prices here are enviable. I live in an HCOL area and our prices are about double what some of the quotes are here. I just scored a "deal" on chicken legs at $1.69/lb. These would normally be $1.99/lb. I have tried the food exchanges but they always have so much in the packages we wouldn't use that it's not worth it. There are only a few around here. I also looked into buying package deals, like 1/4 cow, but that's expensive too and we'd also have to buy a freezer.

pk_aeryn

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Re: Mustachian Menu for Special Diet?
« Reply #15 on: January 21, 2017, 02:36:15 PM »
I eat this way too and realistically, there are only three ways to make a significant dent i the budget:

Bulk meat:  buying meat on grocery store "we gotta get rid of this sale" buy out their whole stick and chest freezer it. Like you said, the cheaper cuts and preparing them in crock pots and braising. Whole chickens you can make soup from after the meat is gone. Meat stuck on the bones that falls off in the stock adds up.

Don't buy anything processed or that comes in bags, even if low carb.  (Maybe some frozen veg excepted). Little individual splenda yogurts or jello cups are low carb but $$$. Bottled sugar free teas are $$$. Salad dressings must be homemade, for health and $$$. Literally only buying spices, cheap (but do research to make sure it's real) olive oil, sale braising meat and seasonal/sale veg is the biggest way to see a difference. 

Almost never eat out. Any healthy low carb meal in a restaurant is $$$ unless you just get a salad every time.  Even then it can be a lot.

I suspect you are doing this already, sorry if it's not a help!

 

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