I have been invited over to dinner tonight at another couple's house. They are aware that I eat lowcarb. My BF told me that we are having chicken kiev and salad and that they are preparing mine without breading. I have a huge fear that although they are going out of their way to be accommodating to me, that there will be illegal ingredients in many things I am offered tonight. I have no problem doing low-carb in restaurants where everyone does their own thing. My question is really about how to best handle these kinds of situations where you know you won't be able to participate in eating most of the things offered to you. How do you handle this tactfully? I would feel really bad not eating the chicken, especially since she is making my special, but I also don't want to eat it if it is going to sabotage my diet. See my dilemma? Anyone have any advice on what to do in these lose-lose situations??? Thanks!

HI! Good Luck to You! I don't think that you have much to worry about. Eat the chicken they make for you. Even if there is minor ingredients in the chicken, you are so close to goal that it is not going to hurt you. And, you are not going to offend on one either. The salad should not hurt you either. Vegetables, I can not see hurting anyone!
You can eat what you feel safe with, and tell them that since you began your plan that you feel fuller, quicker also. This, in most cases is not lying! So, I could not see anyone getting offended with you!
I believe that you will be fine, so go have fun and don't worry!
Drink plenty of water before hand, this will ensure that you do not overeat also!
Good Luck
Brenda

Chicken Kiev and salad sound really good. Without the breading it should be fine. I know what you mean tho. I went to a wedding, and all I could eat was salad. I always eat a little before I go, and pack nuts in my purse so I don't get too hungry. I haven't tried to fill up on nuts while sitting around the dining table with friends yet-That would be a delicate situation . My experience is that they don't get insulted if I pass on some things and eat what I can. If you don't make a fuss, just enjoy their company, they will be relaxed about it too.--Gail

I try and have salad at restaurants, since I am the laziest cook EVER and I don't like making my own salad.

So it's almost like a TREAT!

I also love restaurant lamb. Mmm lamb. It's hard for them to screw THAT up.

Sorry I didn't originally address your second statement in my original post (hence this edit . . . )

About other people offering you food. That is a tricky one. I have (unintentionally) hurt people's feelings in the past from passing up high carb options. Tonight, for instance, is my bday party and I know my grandma made me a cake. There will be enough people in my house that it won't be obvious I'm not eating the cake. I will probably have a few bites and then go "help in the kitchen" or something similar. Walk around, talk . . . etc.

Happy Birthday Ivanna

Thank you.

Thanks for the support and suggestions. I feel foolish after writing about this "problem" b/c it seems like a completely dumb reason to be worked up. You are right. They ARE trying to make accommodations for me, and if it isn't perfect, it also isn't going to kill me. There should be something to tide me over, and I just need to accept the fact that I am not always going to have control over what I eat. This is a big issue for me, and one I like to keep private. That's why I get so stressed out about things like tonight. I am just going to relax and do the best I can, and enjoy myself.

Hi
If you don't eat there frequently I would just eat the illegal things and be more strict with yourself the following days. When I go to a resturaunt I'll allow myself to over eat with everyone else, eat sugar and all manners of junk... but then the next day/days I restrict.

If you are going to be eating there frequently, then I would just take a serving of naughty things, but only pick at it and eat my fill of salad and meats. If questioned why you aren't eating it, you can politely explain that while very delicious, your "metabolically allergic" to such foods ;D.

So how did things go on Sat, WendyOh? Did the chicken look mostly legal?

I know what you mean about this type of situation. It's very difficult! Usually I will just decline something politely, but sometimes that is not an option.

I visited my stepmother this weekend for her birthday. She is very sensitive about my low carb diet, but she also has definitely ideas about what is low carb, and often her idea is not the same as mine.

She made a special dinner for us - red hot dogs (a Maine specialty!) which I love, but they have 2 grams of carbs each.

AND she made mock macaroni and cheese. She spent a lot of time testing out different versions of it before I came to visit, so I really couldn't decline to try it.

Turns out it was several cups of regular milk (eek!) and 3 tablespoons of white flour (eek!), plus cheddar cheese, yellow wax beans, and bacon. It was absolutely delicious and really sweet of her to make it. Really did taste like homemade mac and cheese, too! Kinda scary, though.

Luckily, when I got back to Vermont today, I weighed exactly the same as I did last Friday, so no harm done...

Thanks for thinking of me! Things did go really well. She left the chicken completely plain and kept apologizing b/c she said she didn't know what to do with it and felt it was too boring (which is just the way I like it). I got there just in time that she was making the salad and about to add sugar to the dressing. I asked her if she could set some aside for me without sugar, so that was fine. The biggest thing that I didn't like was that the oil she put in the dressing was some cheapo vegetable oil that is full of transfats. But once isn't going to kill me so I kept my mouth shut. There was also green beans, completely legal, as well as a glass of chardonnay which I brought.

For dessert, we ended up brining an angel food cake, which I didn't eat. But I also sliced some fresh strawberries and made two batches of whipped cream, one LC, the other with sugar. So I was able to partake in some berries and cream, and was quite happy. I wish I didn't have to go through so much trouble, but the evening was a success (and everyone raved about the wine and whipped cream), so these are steps I must go through if I am going to stay on track.

P.S. That macaroni sounds wonderful. Glad to hear you didn't gain!

That doesn't sound bad at all considering you are maintaining. I drink milk all the time, and 3 tbsp of flour for a whole dish is nothing .

Sounds like an indulgent, although LC meal to me
PS do you have the recipe for that mac and cheese?

Recipe for the mac and cheese!

My stepmother is one of those people who just "wing it" in the kitchen; she doesn't measure anything. But this is what she told me:

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan.

Add a "few cups" of whole milk and 3 Tbs of flour, and stir until it thickens. (Basically a roux or white sauce). I am thinking about trying to make this with carb countdown whole milk, rather than regular whole milk. I wonder how that would work?

Anyway, once it's thickened up a bit, add about 8 ounces of extra sharp shredded cheddar and stir until the cheddar melts.

This will be baked in a glass casserole dish. Before you put it all together, open a couple boxes of frozen yellow wax beans, drain them well, and place them in the glass dish by themselves. Heat them in the oven for a little while - the secret is to dry the beans out a bit, so they aren't too watery. At the same time, precook some bacon slices - not enough to make them done and crispy, but get them partially cooked and drain the grease off.

Now mix the yellow beans into the cheese sauce and pour it into the casserole dish. Put the bacon strips on top and bake the whole thing in the oven til it looks bubbly delicious (and it will be...!) The hot dogs were just the right accompaniment.

Thank you very much!
I wonder if the following substitutions would work...

1) skim milk for whole (calorie issue for me )
2) small amounts of arrowroot for the 3 tbsp white flour
3) reduced fat cheese for whole (calories again)
4) replacing dreamfield pasta penne or elbows for some of the beans might be a good way to elminate the whole water problem and perhaps reduce carbs (but unfortunately at an expense of decreased healthfulness of the food)
5) I'd probably also leave out the bacon too (calories again).

I'll try it though

I have my doubts about making a white sauce with skim milk. I don't think it would thicken. 2% milk would work though, and lower fat cheese should work ok, too.

I want to find a substitute for the flour as well! I might try just half the flour, or a bit of instant tapioca. Never cooked with arrowroot before.

I've never tried low carb pasta, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work. But a half cup of yellow beans has 2.9 net carbs, compared to (I think) 5.0 for dreamfield's pasta. And the beans really worked well! Looked like macaroni and behaved like it, too!

Rather than leaving out the bacon, you might just try not using too much. This recipe makes a whole big casserole, maybe 9 servings. Three strips of bacon has about 110 calories. If you chop the bacon up, you'd be eating maybe 1/3 of a piece of bacon in a serving, which is about 15 calories. Makes a big difference in the flavor.

It's a blah rainy day here today. Now I want some hot comfort food!

Hi
Thanks for the tips. I probably wouldn't use fat free milk (I call all reduced fat milks skim even though skim means fat free) but 1 or 2%.
I didn't realize the beans were so low carb.
I have a box of dreamfields elbows I haven't used anyway so I might try a dilution method if for no other reason than to try the elbows .
I haven't bought bacon in so long, also... I rarely use it so the problem is it tends to get smelly and go bad . Maybe I could try deli ham instead? Salty pork is salty pork and I think a leaner meat would compliment the fatty-cheesy-creamyness of the mac 'n cheese .