MY PRIMARY SUPPLIERS:
Low-carb ingredients can be somewhat difficult to find in brick-and-mortar stores. Health food stores carry (or are often willing to order) your low-carb baking needs. But without one locally, I have to order most of my low-carb ingredients on-line. I start by looking first at Netrition.com (flat-rate $4.95 shipping, so I wait until I have a big order for best savings there) and then move on to other sources when they don’t carry a product I need. The following are my primary suppliers:
Netrition:
http://www.netrition.com/low_carb_products_page.html
Honeyvillegrains:
http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/flours.aspx#.UUISVoba7jU
Google: Search the web for the product name and buy direct from the maker
Health Food Stores in many cities nationwide
Whole Foods, Natural Grocers, or Trader Joe’s carry many low-carb cooking ingredients
SPECIFIC ITEM SOURCE RECOMMENDATIONS (in the U.S.):
Oat fiber— (96% fiber) I order 1# bag from Netrition; 4# bag from Honeyvillgrain.com
Oat flour—Bob Red Mills is at some groceries. Or grind rolled oats into flour in a food processor.
Oat bran—available at Walmart and many grocers (not to be mistaken for oat fiber. Oat bran is much higher in carbs than oat fiber! I therefore rarely call for it in my recipes.)
Almond flour or Hazelnut Flour—Netrition or Honeyvillegrain.com
Corn Bran—I haven’t found this anywhere but Honeyvillegrain.com
Carbquick Bake Mix—formerly from Netrition (I no longer use. Contains wheat and soy)
Carbalose Flour—formerly from Netrition (I no longer use. Contains wheat and soy)
Lupin Flour—I order from Lopino.com or Netrition
Flax Meal—-Walmart carries ground golden flax in the cereal area, dark flax in the flour area
Glucomannan Powder (Konjac Powder)—available at Netrition.com
Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum—Netrition.com, Walmart supplements area or health food stores
Polydextrose—available at Netrition.com or Honeyvillegrain.com
Isomalt—available at Netrition.com
Erythritol—available at Netrition or Honeyvillegrain. I grind granular into powdered myself.
Superior Products Flavorings—
http://www.selectflavors.com/individual-flavors/
Coconut Cream—I use the UNsweetened variety (do not confuse with Creme of Coconut used in bar drinks, which is loaded with sugar!). I buy it at my local Natural Grocers or order on-line at best source.
Spices—I order on-line from Penzey’s, or buy from their stores direct if you have one near you
DaVinci Sugar Free Syrups:
http://www.davincigourmet.com/products/sugar_free_flavored_syrups/
Torani Sugar Free Syrups:
http://www.torani.com/#/
Extra Virgin Coconut Oil-–I order from Tropical Traditions, Vitacost or Wilderness Family Naturals on-line
Red Palm Oil—I order from Tropical Traditions or Wilderness Family Naturals on-line
Peggy,
this resource has been great…thanks
Also I would like to know where do you think would be a good place to order extracts ? I want flavors that I can not find in the stores & I would like to know that they are good quality. I remember you mentioned a site that you were going to try for citrus flavors ,which I forgot to write down so I don’t have it now – would you mind repeating it?
I am doing alot of baking for the holidays & would like to start trying out new flavors /extracts…there are so many !
Thanks for all you help……
You can’t beat the Boyajian mini box of orange, lemon and lime oils. Just a few drops is like 1 tsp. of most others and the set will last you a very long time. Outstanding flavor: http://www.boyajianinc.com/citrus.html#minicitrus I haven’t tried their other flavorings but plan to in future as needed.
To be quite honest, I don’t use many flavorings and try to stick to the real thing when I can. I’ve even stopped using the Torani and DaVinci syrups, as I’m avoiding sucralose now, too. Sometimes I use a little maple extract when I need a brown sugar taste; sometimes a little almond extract in cherry and peach desserts. I’ve just been using up my existing supply of McCormick and Superior Products flavorings until they are all gone. I have tried the coconutti, almond and fresh corn from these people and can vouch those 3 are good: http://www.selectflavors.com/individual-flavors/
Another option I plan to pursue is these people. http://www.naturesflavors.com/index.php/flavors-organic-flavors.html I hear their flavorings are all natural without alcohol and additives. I’ve hear good things about their flavors, but they are indeed pricey.
I’ve heard lots of folks on LC forums rant about how good LorAnn flavorings are, but I ordered 6 2 years ago and threw 5 of the 6 out! I thought they were perfectly horrid. Maybe I just ordered the wrong flavors, but I won’t waste my money there again.
Hi Peggy
Thanks for the help –I’m going to look a few up now. I don’t use alot either but there are some flavors that I would like to use for the holidays –caramel..maple..coconut…butterscotch…just odd ball stuff that I’m trying out and homemade licorice. I came so very close to buying the LorAnn myself but thought I’d better ask around first..glad I did.
I’ll let you know when I finally do test out some of these others…….
Thanks again
Those are great ideas!! I love your recipes and I look forward to more with the “oat fiber”(?) Thank you so much!!
Peggy,
Thanks for all you do to keep me low carb. However, I will be on Phase 1 for months to come. Is there a way to just go thru recipes that are only for phase 1?
Thanks again!
Cathy
Cathy, I’m so glad you like my recipes! I’m sorry, but my site’s search feature isn’t capable of sorting and listing the recipes that way, only by recipe category shown on the right. But once you browse a category and pull one up, the narrative of each recipe clearly states if it is OK for Induction or not, or what to change/leave out to make it OK for Induction in some cases. EDIT (to add 1 additional thought): you can do a search but I don’t word myself the same way all the time. I sometimes say a recipe “is Induction friendly”, sometimes I word it “is OK for Induction”, and sometimes I say it “is suitable for Induction. So you’d have to search several different ways. One of these days, I need to create a category called Induction Recipes in the sidebar and go back and tag all 600 recipes so they will be easily grouped there for you. I didn’t think to do it that way 4 years ago when I set up the blog, but I DO plan to do it eventually. Takes a long time to go back in and tag that many recipes again.
What I did when I started Atkins 2+ years ago was I literally studied the Acceptable Foods List a few minutes every night for about a week or so, just like you would for a test in school, until I became so familiar with the veggies on it and few other items on it, I knew in a quick glance if a recipe was OK or not for Induction. Knowledge is POWER! There’s the teacher in me coming out again. Hope you don’t mind my suggestion. Another advantage to getting that familiar with the list of Acceptable Foods is when you’re in a restaurant, you aren’t going to want to keep pulling that list out to see if what you are about to eat/order is OK or not. Too embarrassing. And when eating at someone’s house, you’ll want to know without a list at the table. Again, too embarrassing.
Hope these tips helps you continue your Atkins journey with greater ease. And best of luck to you with your weight loss efforts!
Hi there– recently found your blog and all the recipes look wonderful. Netrition is out of stock on oat fiber. Do you have any suggestions on substitutes, or another place to buy it?
Thanks a bunch!!
Welcome, Beth! Check out Honeyvillegrains.com. They sell it but in a 4# bag. I buy it from them and just store my surplus in my chest freezer.
Peggy,
I’m really enjoying all the recipes on your site! They are helping me maintain a low carb lifestyle with a good amount of variety. I do have a question about liquid sweetner. I can’t get it where I live and am wondering if I can just use powdered? Thanks again and I’m looking forward to eating my way through your site!
Oh sure, Jill, you can use powdered/granular sweeteners. I have added some conversion charts on my INFO/CONVERSION page that may help you convert, but bear in mind, the dry sweeteners usually have 1 carb per serving you’d have to add to the nutritional stats. I only started using the liquid recently myself (to save carbs)
Glad you enjoy the recipes and DO have fun eating your way through the site!