John, that's funny, Ashley used to call the Cooking Forum my "imaginary friends", then she met Jessica and started calling them "axe murderers", LOL. She also made some vague allegations about who/what we might actually be cooking. (grin)

Low carb. (sigh) I've been spectacularly unsuccessful with cauliflower in the place of rice. Cauliflower is not rice nor mashed potatoes, zoodles are not noodles, shirataki is not pasta, lettuce leaves are not sandwiches. I've pretty much given up trying to find substitutes and just replaced them with other, more "acceptable" foods.

I get a weekly email from Cooking Light and what did it contain? "Right Rice". Yes, you called it, a fake rice substitute. I've never seen it and don't know how it is, but it's marketed as a lower carb/higher protein rice substitute, maybe it's not abysmal. Maybe.

https://www.cookinglight.com/news/right-rice-review?did=442503-20191009&utm_campaign=ckl-daily_newsletter&utm_source=cookinglight.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=100919&cid=442503&mid=25285364976

I'll be watching, hoping someone else here has that silver bullet that defeats carb cravings.

Annie

I have had better luck with Trader Joe's Organic Riced Cauliflower (frozen) than making my own. It seems milder tasting, less watery, more tender, etc. Give it a try if you haven't. Not rice for sure, but I find it a passable substitute.

Well....quinoa is lower in carbs than rice.....but still has lots of carbs....but they are complex and it's higher in fiber and protein which may make you satisfied with less of it.

I did two weeks of ultra low carb for a different purpose, did end up burning fat, and really screwed up my digestion. The fact is that it's unhealthy!

May I suggest that the best way to get low carb rice is to make rice and just take a quarter of your usual portion? In the great history of diets, a truism has risen to the surface: Denying yourself here leads to bad behaviour there. Whereas, you can adjust your attitude and expectations and be grateful for the quarter cup of rice as a "treat" and feel blessed to have that small portion rather than denied while eating stinky wet cauliflower.

The other alternative is to just eat stuff that doesn't expect to have rice mopping it up.

Beware cheese!!

Good luck!

Riced, roasted, dehydrated cauliflower

Cooking in chicken stock

Closeup after cooking

Sorry, poor phone snaps. I will make some more this weekend -with less seasoning - and take better photos.

I would try farro or hull less barley*. That's what I use in place of rice, though I don't know about replacement in rice pudding. But I use them for stir fries, "rice" and beans, etc.

* You don't want pearled barley since it is more processed--the more processed a grain is, the more carbs. You want the full grain, all the fiber. They are still technically carbs, but because they don't spike your insulin, they don't put on the weight the same way.

I never found anything and I lost 50 pounds. I hate cauliflower but a small amounts of organic, California grown brown rice was and still is ok for me. Just heap it with tons of vegetables and more tons of very lean protein. For me, that was boneless skinless grilled chicken breast with no oil, grilled or broiled asparagus with 1 tablespoon Parmesan. Various herb seasonings.

I often eat 2 chicken breasts and at least a half pound of asparagus over 1/2 cup rice. I topped all this with several pomegranate seed spoonfuls. And or, my mango salad: coarsely diced mango, lime juice, rough chopped red onion, cilantro , sea salt.

It is a lot of food.

I eat this every day with slight variations except for when I eat out with friends, maybe twice a week.

(I practice intermittent fasting which is far easier than any diet I've tried--including low-carb and keto. And it has a host of other benefits for me, too.)

But to answer your question, I've never had much luck with pretend foods. The bean noodles and gluten free foods just don't do it for me. I'd rather not eat them at all.

For rice, I usually make quinoa, as noted above. Farro is also on rotation, but more for salads as well as breakfast (I serve it like oatmeal with assorted toppings). If I really need to make rice, I do the wild blend.

Your photos look interesting. How did you like it? It looks more like a dry stuffing texture than rice, though.

I think I would first switch to measured portions of more complex carbs - millet, quinoa and other whole grains make a pretty good potato/noodle/rice-like base for other foods and are incredibly nutritious.

Eat real rice. You'll just make yourself sad eating c#@* and a keto, faddy diet isnt really healthy in the long term.....just eat less of the not so good stuff, and more of the good stuff. Life is too short not to enjoy your food.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cooling-resistant-starch#section5

Switch to brown rice, and cook it with a bit of coconut oil. Refrigerate and reheat. The starches get converted to resistant starch, which the body handles like fiber. That reduces the available carbs and calories.

Quinoa hands down. There are several color variations too. Yes still has SOME carbs but the lowest of all the grain-like things I think. It's a seed. Could try some other seeds like cracked sunflower, but again, some carbs. TVP is granular but rubbery. Perhaps cracked soy nuts. I used to eat soy grits, they are good. But again, some carbs. No where near the profile of rice though.

Yikes, I've been too busy to participate in my own thread!

I made another batch of cauliflower rice. No tumeric, less garlic and salt, for a more neutral taste. Roasted it but did not dehydrate. Then I used it in a stir-fry and it was not bad. Again, not really like rice - more like quinoa. But cauliflower is about 4% carb while quinoa is about 21% carb.

I'm going to try the way of cooking rice to increase the non digestible starch content.

Also, DD made these pancakes today. They were great. They were also low (nearly zero) carb. 1 egg, 1 oz cream cheese, blender, then cook like a standard pancake!

1 banana and two eggs blenderized ... cook like a pancake

yes, I know bananas have carbs ... but they are healthy

I would want maple syrup on those pancakes.....and butter!

I ate them with peanut butter and avocado. DD was appalled and called me a sociopath which is not true.

I'm guessing you want to lose weight? You need to bin the peanut butter and avocados before the rice! Chock full of calories.

Carbs in themselves aren't a big problem. It's the helping size and what you put on it that is more the problem.

Soy grits! I'm tellin' ya . . .

Whatever you decide, just be careful to add carbs back into your diet GRADUALLY! I went semi low carb for about 1 1/2 years. We happened to go to an Italian restaurant and I got the worst stomach cramps! (pasta, bread, beans) Oh, I didn't loose much weight.

Niece lost a ton of weight doing low carb, then ended up in the bathroom throwing up on her wedding day from eating the wedding meal and wedding cake!

Don't give up rice. Just eat less of it.

No soy or quinoa for me. Quinoa treats me almost as badly as gluten, so I skip them. I deal with the cauliflower rice and second the suggestion of TJ's version- fresh or frozen. Zoodles are ok-- DH won't eat them, but he loves pasta. Have you tried sweet potato noodles?

Have you tried bean noodles? I haven't checked into the nutrition of them, but that's what I put in my chicken soup when I have a cold, like I do now.

For pancakes, try okonomiyaki, which is mostly cabbage, although it doesn't taste like cabbage. Also, eat kimchi as a snack - one of my favorites, and my nutritionist said I could eat as much of it as I wanted. I recently bought some dried cabbage, and rehydrates quite well in soups.