Low-Carb Holiday Shopping Guide Episode One: Low-Carb Cookbooks

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, Festivus, or just the simple fact that pretty soon the days will start getting longer, chances are you’ll be gift-shopping soon.

And since low carbers tend to know other low carbers – even to have converted a few – and paleo folks tend to know other paleo folks, ditto – we thought we’d offer some suggestions for great gifts for the sugar-and-grain averse on your list. We’ve brainstormed quite a lot of ideas, so we’ll be running a couple of articles a week throughout the holiday season. I hope I won’t sound too self-serving if I start with cookbooks. It’s what I know best, after all.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com. If you click an affiliate link and buy the product, you help support this site because we’ll get a percentage of that sale without costing you anything extra. Please remember CarbSmart.com is a free resource to help you make smart decisions about your low carb lifestyle. Read our Disclosure Policy.

Dana Carpender Low-Carb Cookbooks

If you have a new low carber on your list, I can honestly recommend my cookbook 1001 Low-Carb Recipes. It’s a compilation of recipes from all my previous books, and has, as the title suggests, an encyclopedic collection. I wish my publisher had consulted me before compiling it, because there are a few recipes in there that call for ingredients that are no longer on the market. But most of them are as current today as when I wrote them, and there’s something for everyone’s tastes, cooking abilities, and time limits.

Speaking of time limits, it was for the time-strapped low carber that I wrote 300 15 Minute Low Carb Recipes and 300 Low Carb Slow Cooker Recipes. The 15 minute book is also great for the low carber who simply hates to cook; it includes plenty of wonderful recipes that call for minimal cooking.  The two together would make a nice gift (says the girl who’ll get the royalties.) Or consider giving 300 Low Carb Slow Cooker Recipes along with a Crock Pot SCR450-PT 4-1/2-Quart Slow Cooker, especially to the young low carber, just starting a household. That link goes to a 4 1/2 quart round CrockPot(tm) – I prefer round to oval, because you can fit casseroles and cake pans down into them, expanding their possibilities. You might give 300 15 Minute Low Carb Recipes along with an electric contact grill – if you do, give one with grill plates that pop out. Makes all the difference for cleanup.  (That link is to the one I happen to have, but scale the grill to the family.)

Other Awesome Low-Carb Cookbooks

Enough of the shameless self-promotion. I heartily recommend any cookbook by my friend George Stella. I’m a good home cook, but George is a professional chef. George Stella’s Livin’ Low Carb: Family Recipes Stella Style is a great place to start, but all of George’s books are wonderful.

The Low Carbing Among Friends series offers very low carb recipes from a variety of the best low carb cookbook authors.  Not only are all the recipes genuinely low carb, they’re also sugar, wheat, and gluten free.  Give one as a much-appreciated stocking stuffer, or all three as a terrific under-the-tree gift.

It’s not specifically low-carb, and a few substitutions may be needed, but The Complete Meat Cookbook is terrific. It not only has wonderful recipes, but is a thorough guide to cuts of meat, and which cooking methods bring out the best in them.  Highly recommended.

A Favorite Low-Carb Tool

I can fit a Bundt pan in my big round CrockPot(tm).  It hangs perfectly from the rim, and allows the lid to fit snugly. This lets me bake cakes in my slow cooker.  If you’re shopping at the local housewares store, grab a bundt pan and try it for size in the big round slow cookers, to see if you can do this trick.

What are some of your ideas for the perfect low carb holiday gift? Let us know in the comments below.