New to the group, not to keto eating.

XavierNusum

Hello keto friends!

My backstory is in my bio, which I keep open, so I won't bore you too much with the details. The reason I'm here is that my most successful time with weight, and more importantly, fat management/loss was when I followed a moderately strict keto diet. It was the only time I was sub 200lbs in my adult life. I strayed from keto after a surgery couched me for 4 months and a subsequent job change put me home more often. Great for my family and me, but it made it more difficult to stay keto. When on the road I'm only responsible for me and no one is cooking multiple meals for the different people in the house.

Well that excuse is a load of bull and I'm ready to let it go and go back to what works for me. I'm pretty naturally low carb as I don't care for pasta, rice or more popular starches. My biggest hurdles are the "junk-food carbs" and the convenience of bread.

I am here for recipe, meal prep and overall support from like minded folks. I'm worse than the typical guy as in I am pretty clueless in the kitchen, but I'm slowly learning. My goal is to build a base of options that I can prepare for myself taking the additional burden off of my wife, who mind you, would change her shopping and cooking habits today if I asked. I just don't want her to have to when I'm completely capable and she doesn't need any extra work seeing our 18mo twin girls keep up busy and sleep deprived! Thanks for reading my extra long short story.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season!

Omar

KnitOrMiss

Omar, greetings, welcome, and good luck!

Kudos to you for not expecting others to carry more than their share. I'm sure others will kick in soon with suggestions for you!

XavierNusum

Thanks for the welcome!!

bametels

@XavierNusum

Happy holidays to you too, and welcome!

My suggestion would be to try to find keto meals that you can all eat together and/or ones where your wife and daughters can simply add some additional carb foods if desired. If I knew then, what I know now, I would have promoted LCHF eating (if not Keto) for our whole family. Scientific evidence is demonstrating the serious health consequences of high carbohydrate diets, so teaching your daughters to stay away from high carb foods when they are young could keep them healthier their entire lives.

There is a recipe thread but it has not been too active as of late. The longer I've stayed on this WOE the less I seem to worry about cooking using Keto recipes. Sticking to basics - meat, fish, low carb veggies, and fats (including lower carb nuts, high fat dairy, coconut oil, butter, etc.) has worked for me. Plus, on occasion, small amounts of lower carb fruits (for example, berries and cantaloupe) and very dark chocolate. I tend to do more to excite my tastebuds by using various spice blends. Yesterday, I made turkey and used Ethiopian berbere seasoning on half and a spicy Indian curry seasoning on the other half. I've also learned to stay away from complicated recipes that substitute for higher carb foods in part to save time and avoid buying all kinds of unusual ingredients but mostly because I tend to overeat such foods, especially if they are desserts.

Good luck as you get back to eating Keto. Looking forward to seeing you on the discussion board.

pwrfl1

I try to keep it simple with my menus. Meat, veggies cooked in a healthy fat. Cheese , heavy whipping cream in moderation.... Tonight's menu was thin cut pork chops cooked in butter, green beans, and keto jalapeño poppers.

XavierNusum

@bametels
Thank you for such a thoughtful response! My wife and I actually read it together.

XavierNusum

@pwrfl1

I need deets on keto jalapeno poppers!!!

pwrfl1

XavierNusum wrote: »

@pwrfl1

I need deets on keto jalapeno poppers!!!

.
I halve and take out the seeds of the jalapeños .
Mix together cream cheese, shredded cheese, seasoned with garlic, onion salt and chives....( could be any of your favorite seasonings )
spoon into jalapeños.
Wrap bacon around filled popper
Bake until bacon is cooked....

I cooked them at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes....

Last night I cooked up 12 halves. And used approximately a
2-3 inch thick slice of cream cheese off the block.
1/4c shredded cheese
Seasoned to taste
And I cut the bacon strip in half and wrapped each popper with the half.

I'm sure you can google a more formal recipe. I know I found this on Pinterest. I just eye ball the amounts now, bc we have this recipe a lot in my household. It's a fast and really satisfying way to get in some good fats !!

Let me know how it goes !!

bametels

pwrfl1 wrote: »

XavierNusum wrote: »

@pwrfl1

I need deets on keto jalapeno poppers!!!

.
I halve and take out the seeds of the jalapeños .
Mix together cream cheese, shredded cheese, seasoned with garlic, onion salt and chives....( could be any of your favorite seasonings )
spoon into jalapeños.
Wrap bacon around filled popper
Bake until bacon is cooked....

I cooked them at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes....

Last night I cooked up 12 halves. And used approximately a
2-3 inch thick slice of cream cheese off the block.
1/4c shredded cheese
Seasoned to taste
And I cut the bacon strip in half and wrapped each popper with the half.

I'm sure you can google a more formal recipe. I know I found this on Pinterest. I just eye ball the amounts now, bc we have this recipe a lot in my household. It's a fast and really satisfying way to get in some good fats !!

Let me know how it goes !!

Thanks for sharing! I've got some poblano peppers and I'm sure that I can do the same with them. Sounds like a good hors d'oeuvre for New Year's Eve.

pwrfl1

Yes! It would be perfect for NY Eve ! I also use the same cream cheese mix with bits of bacon mixed in on cucumber slic, cut thick....for another appetizer idea...

XavierNusum

@pwrfl1 Thank you so much for sharing!!! This sounds like an awesome snack for when you want something that "seems" bad!

KnitOrMiss

I like adding ground sausage to mine with the cream cheese. My guy doesn't like it, so I usually make a large batch, half with sausage, half without.

XavierNusum

@pwrfl1 @knitOrmiss

Made some poppers last night, delicious!! thanks again for the idea. I didn't even think of those as an option!

KnitOrMiss

@XavierNusum - Isn't it great, all the "evil" foods we were supposed to avoid before are great on this plan?

kimberwolf71

I am impressed that you had better success at sticking to plan while on the road - I am quite the opposite! Food prep and meal planning is key for me to be remotely close to on plan, otherwise I rely on sheer willpower alone and that equals fail. I also love eat a variety of foods. I can't repetitively eat the same meal(s)... but I can manage to eat the same ingredients (if that makes sense).

I fully agree with everything @bametels said. No one should be a short order cook in their own home and that is awesome that you recognize that, but low carb is such an excellent choice for health for everyone! It sounds like your children are young, much easier to implement than when your 14 year old is addicted to pasta!! (oops)

Part of my renewed efforts to be successful is also to focus on keeping it simple. Rather than stressing over fancy keto meals (which aren't a great addition to my families plate if they are also loading up on carbs)... meat and veggies, sauces.... My diary is open to my friends... I try to batch cook on Sunday(s).... so the rest of the week is typically variations of the same food(s).

kimberwolf71

Some quick family friendly batch food ideas: slow cooker pork carnita: you make a carnita bowl loaded with the meat, cheese, sour cream, avocado etc... the family wraps theirs in tortilla shells. Ditto for taco meat (I usually make a taco salad or a mexican omelette).

"Heavy on the meat" marinara sauce (if you can afford the carbs from tomato). I put mine on top of spaghetti squash or julienned zucchini... sometimes my family does too, sometimes they want real pasta.

Quick curries using canned coconut milk, curry paste, meat of choice. I usually put mine on top of steamed cauliflower. Everyone else prefers rice, but eats the cauliflower as their vegetable

XavierNusum

Thanks for the great ideas! I can definitely see me incorporating some of these into my kitchen!

DietPrada

I'm Keto, my partner is not. He gets home before me during the week, therefore he cooks. We always have meat and vege (any variation of mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans etc). He is happy to eat this way. He does his own thing for lunch and he snacks in the evening (doritos or some other such crap). When the kids were at home we would eat the same way, and I would put in some oven fries or make some mash or something for them. It's never been an issue, and we've never had to make multiple meals. When I cook I make green curry prawns with zoodles, or some kind of meat wrapped in bacon or something.

For lunches I generally take something simple - I pack 5 containers on Sunday to take for the week. This week is baked chicken breast, camembert and a few olives. Last week it was hot smoked salmon and avocado slices. Breakfast I have a coffee with cream and butter. I've been doing it 4 years and it's never been difficult.

My diet is fairly simple and routine, but that's why it works. It's not a struggle, I don't have to plan or stress. KISS

bametels

kimberwolf71 wrote: »

Quick curries using canned coconut milk, curry paste, meat of choice. I usually put mine on top of steamed cauliflower. Everyone else prefers rice, but eats the cauliflower as their vegetable

I love curry and cauliflower, too! I particularly enjoy roasted curry cauliflower - just mix your favorite curry powder in some high fat yogurt, spread it on a whole cauliflower and bake. Yum!