Food gift for someone on Atkins diet?

[limabean]

My DH's coworker has generously offered to help us with a home repair project, and I'd like to give him something small as a way of saying thank you. Normally I'd bake something yummy as a thank-you gift, but he's on the Atkins diet, so that rules out pretty much anything I can think of. I'm guessing there are Atkins-specific baked goods recipes out there, but I don't know how good they'd taste.

Do you guys have any suggestions for a food-based gift that would work for him? I thought of doing a non-food gift, like a gift card or something, but he really is just doing this to be nice, and giving something with a monetary value like that would somehow cheapen his gesture, IMO, so I really want to stick with a very simple, homemade token of appreciation. I guess I could make something else, but somehow an embroidered hanky doesn't really feel right either.

[KristyDi]

Originally Posted by limabean

My DH's coworker has generously offered to help us with a home repair project, and I'd like to give him something small as a way of saying thank you. Normally I'd bake something yummy as a thank-you gift, but he's on the Atkins diet, so that rules out pretty much anything I can think of. I'm guessing there are Atkins-specific baked goods recipes out there, but I don't know how good they'd taste.

Do you guys have any suggestions for a food-based gift that would work for him? I thought of doing a non-food gift, like a gift card or something, but he really is just doing this to be nice, and giving something with a monetary value like that would somehow cheapen his gesture, IMO, so I really want to stick with a very simple, homemade token of appreciation. I guess I could make something else, but somehow an embroidered hanky doesn't really feel right either.

Can you eat nuts on Atkins? Maybe Roasted Cashews?

[cristeen]

Anything involving meat, non-starchy veggies, nuts, eggs, cheese or berries.

Homemade pickles (vinegar or salt pack - no sugar), spiced nut mix, coffees, teas, cheeses, etc...

THere are plenty of great LC baking recipes out there that you can make, but they virtually all require specialty ingredients - the easiest specialty ingredient to find is Splenda, and if he eats that, then a crustless cheesecake is nice and simple - use your favorite recipe and it's a straight substitution. Or along the same line, a crustless quiche doesn't require anything special (use heavy cream instead of milk).

Depending on how much you want to spend - I can find Nut Thins (diamond brand nut crackers) at my HFS, and those paired with a couple nice cheeses could be good.

[tinybutterfly]

Some nice cheese and nuts would work.

[limabean]

Thanks for the ideas -- I thought of cheese/nuts/sausage/etc., but that's more just putting together a gift basket full of purchased stuff, rather than making something. Which would be nice too, I guess...for some reason I'm hung up on the homemade part -- it just seems more simple and "Oh hey thanks, and by the way I made an extra loaf of banana bread, here ya go" rather than going out and buying something. I guess I could give the SF cheesecake a try.

[blessedwithboys]

long time atkins eater here!

SF cheesecake and quiche are awesome ideas.

how about chocolate covered macadamia nuts? you can buy sugar free mini candy bars and melt them into heavy cream to make a ganache and the roll the nuts in it and put them on wax paper to harden up.

you could even dip berries, if he is that liberal in his stage of the diet

[berry987]

Dry wines and hard alcohol are allowed in moderation past phase 1, so if you know if he's a drinker, you could get him a bottle of something.

[blessedwithboys]

popped back in while watching Iron Chef to suggest "crackers" made from nothing but cheese. per Alton, try parm.

[Zenzero]

I made these the other day but instead of the agave I just put in 3 very ripe mashed bananas (and I used butter instead of the grapeseed oil and left out the orange zest).

They weren't super sweet obviously, but the bananas gave enough sweetness that even my DH who has a pretty sweet tooth thought they were great!

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by Zenzero

I made these the other day but instead of the agave I just put in 3 very ripe mashed bananas (and I used butter instead of the grapeseed oil and left out the orange zest).

For someone doing Atkins though, even a single banana has too many carbs. But this recipe brings you back to the specialty ingredients needed for baking LC (almond flour).

[Zenzero]

Originally Posted by cristeen

For someone doing Atkins though, even a single banana has too many carbs. But this recipe brings you back to the specialty ingredients needed for baking LC (almond flour).

Ok, fair enough...it was just an idea since the OP said she would prefer to bake something than make something more unusual or buy anything and the basic recipe could be adapted to something more Atkins friendly...cheese and herb or zucchini/berries and yoghurt for example?

Also I wouldn't say almond meal was very 'speciality'...you can buy it in any supermarket here...but I suppose it might be different over there!

[notneb]

Do you have a dehydrator? Homemade beef jerky might be a good gift...

[kyndmamaof4]

I second the jerky! ALso you could use an oven on a very low temp, if you don't have a dehydrator...that is an Alton Brown recipe too

[lilyka]

Jerky is a great idea!!!

another option is to get some nuts and roast them in some fun herbs. I had tuscan herbed mixed nuts the other day. So good.