We moved into a new home last month (finally!), and my husband bought a new grill to celebrate the occasion. It's a mammoth thing, all stainless steel and shiny, and looks something like a not-so-miniature aircraft carrier. This is a "manly man's" grill, huge and professional-looking, containing all the bells and whistles. The problem is, my husband can't cook.

Low Carb Cooking 101 This evening’s dinner is in honor my move from Cincinnati, Ohio to Deltona, Florida. We are moved out of our interim duplex and into our new house – finally! Sometimes I didn’t think we’d ever get here. I still have a garage full of boxes to …

This is a quick meal to put together - assuming that you remember to thaw the chicken breasts. If you forget, go to Plan B and prepare something else. I've found that chicken breasts thawed in the microwave tend to come out tough and dry. Chicken breasts are expensive; it's not worth ruining them to stick to your original pan. Put them in the refrigerator to thaw and fix something else.

Low carbers and non-low carbers alike appreciate gifts of food, and you don't have to go to the mall to get them. For low carbers, a batch of muffins or a loaf of low carbohydrate bread are wonderful gifts. I'm sure that you have recipes for both. But if you want one gift that you can give to either low carbers or non-low carbers, check out the recipes below. They are appropriate for anyone.

Low Carb Cooking 101 I love soup, and I love shellfish. What better way to combine the two than in a hearty shellfish bisque? Serve it up with a tangy salad and some low carb muffins and you’ve got a meal fit for Neptune. It might even calm to Sea …

It's much easier to focus on the negative aspects of our lives than the positive ones. Do we remember the sunny smile the clerk at the grocery store flashed in our direction or do we remember that when we finally got all the groceries loaded in the trunk that the right rear tire was flat? Do we think about the fact that our husbands (or wives) dress in the dark so they won't wake us up, or do we obsess about the fact that they rattle the house with their snoring and keep us from getting to sleep in the first place? (Never mind the fact that we snore, too. From our own point of view, that's irrelevant.)

Now you're a low carber and those bygone non-Low-Carb lunches of yesteryear are out of the question. You're losing weight and feeling great on your Low-Carb Lifestyle, but you're still a bit stumped over what to have for lunch. I mean, really! How much tuna salad can a person eat without sprouting gills? What in the world do you put the meat between to construct a sandwich? What could possibly replace canned soup?

I promised my husband fish a few days ago, so tonight we're having Italian Fish Fillets. I find that it takes more fish than beef to fill me up and make me feel completely satisfied, so I always count on one half pound of fish per person. That doesn't mean that my family of four always polishes off two pounds of fish, but to my way of thinking it's better to have too much (and have leftovers for lunch the next day) than it is to have too little.

I'm a beef person; my husband is a fish person. Tonight I'm satisfying MY taste buds and serving Steak Diane. Sometime over the weekend I'll fix some salmon, his all-time favorite fish, just to be evenhanded. (Don't you just hate being fair and considering everybody's tastes? As far as I'm concerned, being "nice" is highly overrated. Why do I keep on doing it?!? Because I'm a patsy, that's why.)

The inspiration for tonight's menu comes from Susan M., someone I've known from various low carb lists and a CarbSmart Magazine reader. The Sizzling Steak Salad she suggested sounded so good that I asked her if I could use her idea for Low Carb Cooking 101. Thank goodness she said yes, because I really wanted to share it with all of you. Thanks, Susan!