What's gourmet about a mock danish? They take less than 5 minutes to prepare and use very basic ingredients; cream cheese, egg and Splenda plus whatever flavoring you happen to like (or none at all, if you prefer).
I also work full time and have two daughters in second grade plus a hungry husband, but I still find time to prepare a tasty meal every night (note I said tasty, not gourmet). It takes no longer to shop for many of these recipes than shopping for any other dish you would want to prepare homemade. Not that I'm cooking chicken thighs with bacon, cream and thyme every night, but on weekends when I have more time, it's a nice change of pace from plain meat.
OTOH, it's not a lot of extra work to add some water to the pan drippings to deglaze the pan, pour in a little heavy cream, add a few shakes of whatever herbs and spices tickle my fancy and simmer for a few minutes to make a sauce for whatever meat I've chosen to prepare for the evening while the vegetable finishes cooking.
There's nothing wrong with keeping your meals simple. There are many recipes in the recipe forum from people who are also probably very busy that are easy and quick to prepare and don't require any strange or fancy ingredients.
If time is in short supply, how about using your crockpot to ease the burden? I find it a great time-saver, especially during the busy school year and it's always nice to come home to the smell of meat cooking and know that most of your work for dinner is already done.

Well put, Lisa. I read smiley's post this morning... and all I could do was stare at it and say..."Whaaaat?". For sure there's a difference between "gourmet" and "tasty". I'm a lazy cook... but I do enjoy good food. Ha... that's what got me where I am today! I think it would be a great idea to start a thread with nothing but EXCELLENT tried-and-true recipes that are quick and easy to prepare.

Just last night for dinner I adlibbed and threw together an excellent "quiche" using leftover spaghetti-type sauce (browned hamburger with a bit of tomato sauce and spices), frozen broccoli, onions, eggs and cream. Dumped that into a sprayed pie plate... topped it with grated cheese.. and baked it for 35 mins. It was fabulous! I gave some to my neighbor who is also low carbing... and had the rest for lunch today. Quick, easy and pretty damn "gourmet". I think even Martha Stewart would have enjoyed it!

If a dish uses more than two dishes to prepare, I ain't makin' it more than one time! I'm going to start a Word file on my computer... and drop all my Tasty Easy Recipes into it. It's easy to try something once and then forget about it!

I agree a crockpot is very helpful but I am always concerned about leaving it on during the day when I am not home

Are there any web sites that have EASY low carb crockpot recipes that are kid friendly?

Carol..

There is a subforum in the recipes area here for quick meals and snacks. Recipes can be rated by the members of the board who have tried them (1 to 5 stars), so you can see at a glance which recipes are the best liked.
I love to cook and for me, that's how I show my love for my family. It's also had the nice effect of getting my daughters interested in how I do things in the kitchen and I get questions like "what did you do to make this meat taste so good?" and "can you show me how to do that?" already. Cooking doesn't have to take time away from your kids; get them involved! My plan is that by the time that they are 12 or 13, they will each take a turn making dinner for the family one night a week so they can practice what they are learning. I also plan to show them how to plan meals, shop for the ingredients and find the best bargains so that by the time they go off to college they know how to do more than boil macaroni.
I have a recipe file program on my computer and when I find a really good low carb recipe, I copy it and put it in my "low carb recipes file" for later reference; it gets fuller every week. I also have 4 low carb cookbooks that I get ideas from. Variety is the spice of life!

Smiley...

You can try doing a search on this website for crock pot recipes by using the search function at the top right side of the page, or you can try adapting your own recipes to be low carb by leaving out the high carb ingredients and substituting lower carb ones that you know your family will like. Mostly, I just use mine to roast inexpensive cuts of meat so that they are tender and juicy when they are done; meat, broth and seasonings keep it simple.
I know a lot of people are nervous about leaving an appliance running all day when they are not there, but statistically there are very few fires caused by crock pots unless they are misused or in poor working condition. They're designed to be safely left unattended. Many of the newer crock pots even have features that allow you to set them to turn off after a set number of hours or go from cook mode to keep warm mode after a certain number of hours.

I've found some good ones at lowcarbluxury.com.

Thanks for the website

It has wonderful recipes, and uses supplies that I just might have at home ( give or take a few)

I even noticed the Atkins crustless cheesecake

I did make that once

for 8 people with fresh fruit on top

All of them wanted the recipe and had no clue that it was part of my woe te he!!!

Smiley
ps: what is a whoosh??(fairy?)

I thought that this recipe (with all its variations) would be added to the Member's recipe area. I looked through desserts and snacks but didn't find it.

The server's very slow today so I'll admit I've lost my patience to search any more. But if anyone can tell me where it is so I don't have to print out 7 pages of threads, I'd really appreciate it.

Oops, found it under "breakfast".

http://www.lowcarb.ca/recipes/breakfast115.html

I am a newbie here. I've been browsing for about a week. I made the mock danish for breakfast this morning and OMIGOSH!!
That was delish!!! At first it scared me when I looked at it(LOL), but I put butter and cinnamon on it. YUMMY!!!
Most of the recipes here look really good!
thanks
lauri

Hi there, Lauri... and welcome to the forum! You've just happened to find the BEST low-carb support on the web!

I just had a mock danish for breakfast... and I agree... YUMMY! I didn't think about putting butter and cinnamon on it! What a great idea! Tomorrow.

You should think about starting a journal of your own so we can come visit you and see how you're doing. It's a great way to meet folks here. Best of luck to you on your low-carb journey!

Thank you for the welcome! I stole the butter/cinnamon idea from someone who had mentioned it under the "snacks" heading.
Everyone here seems really friendly and supportive
lauri

You think of the darndest things while lying awake in bed at 4:30 am. I decided to try adding almond flour (aka almond meal/ground almonds) to my mock danish to see if it would give me a firmer texture instead of an eggy texture.

I added 1 T to the recipe, fried it in a small pan (like a pancake), then topped it with butter and cinnamon. It crisped up very nicely. This is the best I've had so far.

I may try adding 2 T tomorrow to see what happens.

Wanda

I tried the mock danish for the first time this morning and I can't tell you how happy I was with the results. I was so sceptical at first, because I am not really good with recipes sometimes. But this was so simple, even I couldn't screw it up. I made mine with maple extract and topped it with cinnamon and Splenda.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, to whomever came up with that idea!!!

A different twist:

Add some christmas spice and a little extra pinch of cinammon....reminds me of christmas pudding!