It’s that time again … time to set myself up for a good week of Keto Living by planning ahead and shopping conscientiously. It feels like I do this all the time! Now that I’m doing Keto, I’m cooking at home more than ever. So, time to plan out some menus. As always, I’m turning to my new favorite cookbook, Simply Keto.
Shopping my freezer
I’ve got so much meat from my last Butcher Box delivery that I need to use up. More filet mignons mean I’m making Filet Mignon with Gorgonzola Sauce! Other dishes I’m going to re-make this week:
Keto Crackers
Twice-Baked Cauliflower Casserole (it’s the faux potato dish I love so much)
Sometimes, you just have an itch that fat or protein won’t scratch. Another fat bomb won’t do. And eating yet another devilled egg doesn’t appeal either. Sometimes, you just want a cracker. To the rescue – once again, my new Bible of Keto cooking, Suzanne Ryan’s “Simply Keto” cookbook. (Seriously – go buy this book!) I found her Keto crackers recipe – and it offers two ways of making these wonderful snacks. I choose the cheese cracker option. They don’t even need dip. They’re delicious all by themselves. See below for my photo essay of my first attempt to make these crackers.
The ingredients
Garlic powder, almond flour, cheddar cheese, salt. Oh, and you’ll add an egg yolk.
My lack of prep forced me to use the wrong type of paper. You need parchment paper!
As you can see, no parchment paper meant using Pam. And my squares don’t look anything like the book!
But the crackers turned out beautifully – only six minutes in the oven.
Ah, the cauliflower. As writer Rod Dreher once said, it’s the “Sansabelt slacks of vegetables” fit only to scoop up dips. But to someone following the Ketogenetic way of eating, the cauliflower is a lifesaver. With just a little prep, you can fool yourself into thinking you’re eating mashed potatoes! Let me show you how my attempt at making Faux Mashed Potatoes – from Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto cookbook, turned out. Spoiler: It was delicious.
Measure out your “mash” ingredients (beside cauliflower)
Three cheeses: cream, parmesan, and cheddar.
Time to cook!
Like boiling potatoesFry up the baconThey mash so nicely
I love devilled eggs for many reasons: 1) they’re delicious 2) I’m a Southern lady and I’ve grown up on these and 3) they’re Keto-friendly! Staying with the ketogenic diet after the first flush of enthusiasm is hard. In my search for snacks I could eat without fear (oh, how I miss popcorn and chips) I found that devilled eggs were a good bet. (And pork rinds, but that’s another story.)
Everyone loves it when you bring devilled eggs to a party. They’re one of the first things to disappear, and you never have to worry about carrying home any leftovers. At one of the Christmas parties last season, I took “Secret Ingredient Stuffed Eggs” from the Taste of Home website. They were delicious, if not exactly keto-friendly; the secret ingredient was mango chutney, along with pecans and goat cheese.
I had to get a picture before they were all gone at the party. The eggs went fast.
Eggs everywhere
When I was looking for more devilled egg recipes (you can never have enough) I found entire blog posts related to the history of devilled eggs. Turns out scholars trace them all the way back to the Romans. While I was out looking, I found other bloggers who were coming up with their own wonderful recipes. I can’t wait to try Bandriachuk’s Devilled Eggs (Harissa Option) from the site “A Runny Egg on Top.” Love that name!
Stuffed eggs are associated so closely with death that any time you see the lady of the house getting down the egg plate, you might well ask, “Who died?”
-Being Dead is No Excuse, page 77.
I tried the author’s Sweet Stuffed Eggs (page 81) with the secret ingredient of Durkee’s Famous Sauce. Yum! Another time I was making just ye old standard stuffed eggs with mayo and Dijion mustard. I found out at the last minute I was completely out of paprika for that time-honored topping. But – I had a bottle of Tajin in the cupboard – and soon I had wonderful spicy eggs!
I went light on the Tajin the first time – next time I’ll add a little more.
Fish are good for you, right? And seafood – why, that’s practically perfect! Brain food. Good for you! Protein, fats, low-carb – what’s not to like?
That’s when my Atkins Food Tracker almost gave me a heart attack today. I was merely dining on shrimp I sauteed in garlic and butter, with lots of seasonings and lemon when I realized I needed to add it to the tracker. I looked up Sauteed Shrimp – and found that there was no such item. I then looked at “Cooked Shrimp” and thought – well, that’s basic enough. Turns out that generic listing contained 14.77 net carbs for 5 oz! (About 12 shrimp.) I about fell off my kitchen stool. How on earth were those people cooking shrimp – in a casserole laden with crackers and noodles? Then I decided to look at Shrimp Scampi. Ah – only 1.59 carbs for the 12. Whew. That leaves me plenty of room for my supper out tonight.
Please note – Butcher Box is not a sponsor. (Although I’m open to it!) Instead, I’m reviewing the shipment I received today because I am just that happy with the service. And it makes Keto living so much easier.
This afternoon I arrived home to find that this month’s Butcher Box meat delivery box was on the front porch, ready for me to load to my freezer. I quickly whisked it indoors and started taking the pictures I’m sharing with you during the unboxing. I used to worry about whether the meat will stay frozen. It can sit outside on my porch several hours between delivery and my arrival home. I needn’t have worried; these guys know what they’re doing with the amount of dry ice they put in the boxes. Even though the dry ice had evaporated, all my meat was still frozen and looked good.
Here’s what the package looked like, both inside and outside.
Here’s what I got in my custom box:
Two Filet Mignons
Two packages of Stew Meat
Two packages of ground beef
Two Flank Steaks
Two packages of Sirloin Tips
Two Ribeye steaks
A special add-on: Pork and Sausage Meatballs
After I’d been taking pictures for a little bit, I realized I didn’t have any of how good the meat looked! Behold:
Two Butcher Box Ribeyes
Can’t wait to share with you some of the finished dishes. Here’s to a month of good Keto meals!
Keto cooking (or any cooking) for one leaves LOTS of leftovers. I just finished my Keto chili (awesome) today at lunch. And I polished off the last of the chicken I made for recipes last night. Everything I’ve been “keto-izing” has been filling. Only one dish was a miss (a cheddar-beef soup. Too watery.) So now that I’m out of ready-made meals and leftovers, I’ve got meat and shrimp thawing in the refrigerator, ready for new recipes.
It’s time again: time to plan out the menu so I can get the grocery shopping done this weekend. And today I went back to Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto cookbook to find a few more incredible recipes. This week I’m trying new entrees, a breakfast dish, and two wonderful snacks. Some of the recipes are available for free on Suzanne’s website, Simply Keto.
I love how Keto keeps you full and satisfied, but my sweet tooth is the one thing that can cause me to fall off my Keto plan. This past weekend I knew I’d have more time to cook, and I also knew I’d be hungry for dessert. Good thing that Suzanne Ryan’s cookbook Simply Keto has a good dessert section in it. This weekend I chose to make Chia Seed Pudding, Chocolate Chip Mug Cakes and Keto Hot Chocolate.
Chia Seed Pudding
This one didn’t look like much in my dessert dishes, but it tasted spectacular. The key is preparing it the day before; you have to let the chia seeds soak in the almond milk and Swerve (sugar substitute) overnight. When you pull the container out of the frig, the plump chia seeds have settled to the bottom. I put the mix in my Nutribullet jar, so after a quick stir 30-seconds in the Nutribullet made this a creamy, thick pudding. The recipe made two servings, so I have one left in the fridge.
It matches the granite countertop! Not a look you want, but it tasted delicious.
Making homemade mug cake
I love how easy this cake is to make. I pictured most of the steps below. I forgot to take a picture of adding the Lily’s Baking Chocolate Chips because I was hungry and ready to get this in the microwave then in my mouth.
Dry ingredientsAnd all stirred up!
Just add butter, avocado oil and an egg, then the chocolate chips (not pictured!) and microwave for one minute
Finished Cooking! The mug was so big it makes the cake look small.
Lovely
Delicious hot cocoa
This was the perfect comfort food for a cold, rainy winter night. Definitely my favorite of the three!
Started by stirring the Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa into the almond milk.
This is the result on the stove – doesn’t it look wonderful!
I added a little whipped cream to the top. Delicious!
The dishes I made this week gave me a LOT of leftovers. I’ve still got Keto Chili, Egg, Bacon, Broccoli and Cheese Muffins, Baked Chicken, homemade Caesar Dressing, and even Roast Beef. The Keto Chili is even better two days later. So today – I didn’t make anything new; I just enjoyed leftover Keto Chili. So, no new pictures today: look for a new dish review tomorrow!
Today I had the luxury of working at home, and enough time to make a delicious lunch and dinner. Lunch was lovely – another Chicken Caesar salad with homemade Caesar dressing. I chopped everything up so I could easily gobble it up. Dinner was a little more “done” – I made a homemade Alfredo sauce to go over my cooked chicken. (I didn’t have any basil, so the Creamy Pesto Sauce was a non-starter.) Let me take you through the steps, to the finished process. Oh, and it goes without saying that this wonderful recipe for Alfredo Sauce came from the indispensable cookbook, Simply Keto. (It’s my new cooking bible!)
First – the cast of characters for this lovely dish. Doesn’t everyone partition their butter by tablespoon? Next to that, cream cheese, half and half, garlic, parmesan, oregano and All ‘Round Good Grinder Blend.
First step, after chopping garlic: brown the garlic briefly in melted butter.
Next, take the cubes of cream cheese and melt that in the butter/garlic mixture.
After you’ve constantly stirred and stirred, the cream cheese starts to break down.
Next, add creamy half and half. It’s hard to take a picture of that while you’re doing it. So, please make do with this shot of what the sauce looks like as you add the freshly grated parmesan.
Finally the seasoning: add oregano and salt and pepper – or Good Grinder Blend, like me!
The delicious final dish. (My attempts at plate artistry need work.)
Verdict: a winner
This Keto-friendly sauce made my chicken the perfect comfort food for a cold winter night. I may need lessons in plate artistry, but the sauce was creamy, buttery, cheesy, and oh-so-comforting. And what you see on the plate is 1/4 cup – the recommended serving! I have so much sauce left over in the fridge. I can’t wait to try it on zoodles, broccoli, and as the base for a creamy pesto sauce! This was a 10. I heartily recommend it to you.
Notes from Aunt Gem 