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| Alternative Whopper! |
Sticking to a Ketogenic food plan means I cook different now. I eliminate most of the carbs or obvious harmful ingredients from my old recipes. Most keto recipes I come across will almost always use cauliflower in place of rice or potatoes. I have done that, but don't always find it that tasteful. At least to me. I like cauliflower and include it in my plan. I just do not like to use it to replace the rice in a casserole. Mostly I just skip the rice and add more of the other ingredients.
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| Halupki unstuffed! No rice! |
For instance when I make halupki, the Slovak stuffed cabbage I grew up with, I now make it unstuffed. Using more chopped cabbage. More ground beef and other ingredients. Then add in other vegetables depending on what vegetables I have on hand or looked good at the store that day. It has become a dump & go recipe for the Instant Pot. Much faster and no longer an all day preparation.
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| Broccoli in a cheese sauce |
I do this with other recipes as well. A stir fry is one of my favorite meals. I do not put it over rice either. Eating rice gives me an uncomfortable feeling for the next two days. That makes it easier to eliminate it from my food plan. Basically you can make a stir fry with a variety of vegetables and no meat if you choose. I always use meat in it but the meat is not the center of the dish. It is the vegetables and whatever types of seasonings I use. Each time I make it, I try to make it a little different.
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| A rice replacement I found! |
A casserole is a dish I love to make. I have always used those very thin egg noodles in many of the recipes. It has been a struggle to not add at least some. Again though, replace the pasta in any recipe with more vegetables, a little less liquid and season it well. There are many new low carb alternative noodles or rice in the stores now. I choose not to buy most special ingredients and find my own ways of replacing them. I tried some but did not find any I was crazy about.
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| Pork Rind Crumbs replaces bread crumbs. |
It is difficult to make my favorite Italian dishes without the pasta. Lasagna I now make with zucchini and I love it just as much. Spaghetti and meatballs has become a homemade sauce over a bed of spaghetti squash or French cut green beans. Meatballs made with pork rinds replacing the breadcrumbs. Sometimes I skip the meatballs and use sausage with onions, peppers, celery and mushrooms cooked in the sauce. Delicious!
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| I miss my own homegrown carrots! |
Making a stew or soup is simple. It can be low carb as long as you skip the potatoes and carrots. Carrots is one of my favorite vegetables and I still use some from time to time. A soup or stew really needs that flavor so sometimes I add dehydrated diced carrots instead of fresh. I limit how much I use though. They are hard for me to resist. Chili is another good dish to make but just be sure to skip the beans. Sorry. They are high carb regardless of how healthy they are.
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| Cheese Omelet & Bacon |
Something I like to do is to use an omelet to make a variety of good meals. Like adding tuna salad topped with cheese inside the omelet for a tuna melt. Try adding some chopped roast beef, onions, peppers and cheese for a cheese steak omelet. Taco ingredients in an omelet spices it up a bit. You get the idea. There are so many combinations you can make. One of my favorite omelets at a local restaurant is a Greek one using Greek cheese and other Greek ingredients.
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| Eggs are my #1 Essential Low Carb Food |
There are tons of YouTube videos on low carb recipes. Though now I can change just about any recipe to fit my low carb count. Even if I have gone off my low carb food plan, I still basically cook that way most of the time. It is not hard to do. Giving up bread and other grains has made a difference in the way I feel. It is the sugar that is a struggle. Like in ice cream or my favorite cookies. I must keep trying to beat that struggle and persevere.
is the main substitute I use for wheat flours or breadcrumbs. The almond taste is excellent and in my opinion, way better than any flour or other grains. I have tried some other brands, but always come back to Bob's. Even if it costs more, it is always very fresh tasting. You can buy it in bulk packages and freeze the other ones until you need them. I like to bread my chicken with both the almond meal and the coconut flour. Then I drizzle coconut oil on top, so it has that slightly coconut taste to the chicken. It makes it different and one of our low carb favorites.
and almond meal and oven fry them for another tasty snack.
, "classic French cream reduction." That is using cream with the meat stock and some butter and reducing it to the thickness you want. A lot more taste than cornstarch or flour!