Spices and Veggies?

[trappedinhere]

Hi everyone!

Okay I'm a bit perplexed on a couple of things. I like most of the vegetables on the list in the book and I know we're allowed 3 cups. My favorites are bell peppers, broccoli and spinach, every now and then I pretend to like the Romaine lettuce. I recently bought a food scale that measures in grams and ounces and according to my calculations 1 cup=228.6 grams and I tried to measure the romaine lettuce and there's no way I'm getting 228 grams out of that! I'm not sure how I should be measuring my cup counts with the veggies. Also I love the red, green, and yellow bell pepper, is it safe for me to assume that I must weigh the peppers before I cook them? Does it change the carb count when I roast them with my chicken and they carmelize. Now my next issue is seasonings. I was shocked to see that garlic and onion powder carry carbs on fitday.com. Last night I scoured the pantry and I noticed all these seasonings with some type of sugar. What kind of meat seasonings should I buy. I need my food to be flavorful or I will get tired of the WOE really fast. I've tried not to use any thing with too much salt, but what alternatives to have to seasonings like sazon or seasoning salts? I'm so sorry for the lengthy message, I'm just a little confused. Please help!

[not2late]

Re: Spices and Veggies?

Hi everyone!

Okay I'm a bit perplexed on a couple of things. I like most of the vegetables on the list in the book and I know we're allowed 3 cups. My favorites are bell peppers, broccoli and spinach, every now and then I pretend to like the Romaine lettuce. I recently bought a food scale that measures in grams and ounces and according to my calculations 1 cup=228.6 grams and I tried to measure the romaine lettuce and there's no way I'm getting 228 grams out of that! I'm not sure how I should be measuring my cup counts with the veggies. Also I love the red, green, and yellow bell pepper, is it safe for me to assume that I must weigh the peppers before I cook them? Does it change the carb count when I roast them with my chicken and they carmelize. Now my next issue is seasonings. I was shocked to see that garlic and onion powder carry carbs on fitday.com. Last night I scoured the pantry and I noticed all these seasonings with some type of sugar. What kind of meat seasonings should I buy. I need my food to be flavorful or I will get tired of the WOE really fast. I've tried not to use any thing with too much salt, but what alternatives to have to seasonings like sazon or seasoning salts? I'm so sorry for the lengthy message, I'm just a little confused. Please help!

This will be a long explanation, so bear with me....

In the US, food and drink is generally measured by volume. So, we typically measure these things by "cups" or "spoons". Professional cooks measure ingredients by weight (typically grams, sometimes ounces).

Water is the one of the 3 ingredients whose volume measure is the same as its weight measure. That is 1 cup of water is 8 fluid ounces and it is also weighs about 8 ounces.

Other foods do not follow this pattern. For example, 1 cup of flour weighs 5 ounces.

If you want to weigh your foods rather than use the cup measurements, that's fine. BUT you should look up the weight-cup equivalents at the USDA Web site
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

[not2late]

Re: Spices and Veggies?

Just alittle more info

1 cup = 8 fluid ounces

1 ounce (dry weight) = 28 grams

So there is a big difference between fluid ounces/cups and dry weight ounces or grams.

In regards to the herbs and spices, this is what the Induction Acceptable Foods list says:

Spices
All spices to taste, but make sure none contain added sugar.

Herbs
basil
garlic
rosemary
cayenne pepper
ginger
sage
cilantro
oregano
tarragon
dill
pepper
thyme

[trappedinhere]

Re: Spices and Veggies?

OMG Thank you so much for this site!!! Okay so according to the site 1 cup of shredded romaine lettuce is equal to 47 grams. Thank you so much, I'm so excited!!

[not2late]

Re: Spices and Veggies?

This thread might be helpful too.

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ad.php?t=39132

[not2late]

Re: Spices and Veggies?

Also I love the red, green, and yellow bell pepper, is it safe for me to assume that I must weigh the peppers before I cook them? Does it change the carb count when I roast them with my chicken and they carmelize. Now my next issue is seasonings. I was shocked to see that garlic and onion powder carry carbs on fitday.com.

Caramelizing a veggie won't change the carb count unless you add sugar to them to 'help' the caramelization process (believe it or not, some recipes ask you to do this!)

All vegetables that "cook down significantly" have to be measured before cooking.

Garlic and onion powder (and all herbs and spices for that matter) contain carbs.

According to The Food Lover's Tiptionary,
1 pound of fresh onions = 4 'medium' onions.
1 medium onion = 3/4 to 1 cup chopped or 1 tablespoon onion powder.

1 medium clove of garlic = 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic or 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder.

But don't let the prospect of herb and spice carbs deter you from using them. Generally, herbs and spices are used in small amounts---for example, 1 teaspoon dry oregano for a recipe that serves 6 people. So the amount of carbs the herbs and spices contribute per serving is relatively small to non-existent. However, if the recipe uses a large amount of herbs and spices per serving then you definitely want to count those carbs as thoroughly as if you were were counting veggie and egg carbs.

[trappedinhere]

Re: Spices and Veggies?

Wow! thank you! I'm writing everything down as a quick reference