What’s a ketogenic diet? Click here to read last week’s introduction to today’s most popular and most effective diet…
What’s for dinner at the Good Food Fighter’s house?
Until about a year ago, there were grains on the dinner table. Usually brown rice, sometimes a version of gluten-free noodles (rice, potato, soy), sometimes even real pasta, and rarely, bread. Also white potatoes. But not anymore. It’s not just that mommy went keto, it’s that I don’t believe that grains are particularly healthy. Plus, with the exception of quinoa—which is a complete protein—grains are generally not nutrient dense. And modern grains contain less nutrients than their ancestors. I prefer nutrient dense food, so I swapped out the grains on the dinner plate for a second vegetable. Now there’s usually:
- a protein like wild salmon, lamb, pastured chicken, eggs, or beans/lentils.
- salad. It changes all the times. There are so many good greens to choose from and an endless variety of extras to add. Start with a few lettuces and vary them (spring mix, arugula, watercress, mustard greens, kale). Add sprouts, which are lights years more potent than the mature plant (e.g. broccoli sprouts, pea sprouts, sunflower sprouts). They contain up to 100 times more enzymes, and these allow your body to extract more vitamins and minerals than almost all other produce. Chop up red or orange peppers, celery, jicama, fennel root and beets in addition to the mainstays of cucumbers and tomatoes. If you like spicy, add chives, green onions, or purple onions. If you can take it, add fresh garlic. Sprinkle in some goji berries, wheat berries, or cranberries. And top with hemp hearts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or raw nuts. This is a deluxe power salad! Be sure to choose a dressing made from extra virgin olive or avocado oil. Never use soybean, canola, corn, or sunflower oil. These are all poor quality, health-sapping industrial seed oils.
- roasted, steamed, or stir-fried veggies, like mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, or asparagus. If I steam them, I usually toss into a sauce pan with grass-fed melted butter (or chicken fat) before serving. If I roast or sauté then I add garlic and onions.
- if there’s a starch, it’s usually sweet potatoes. If you’re keto, you won’t be eating these (because of the high sugar content), but they are great for the rest of the family!
Last night’s dinner:
- salmon with seasoning: marinate in a mixture of half mustard, half coconut aminos (like soy sauce but healthier) and fresh garlic cloves. Or drizzle with olive/avocado oil and sprinkle with chopped garlic and your favorite herbs, like dill, rosemary, oregano.
- sweet potato: easy peasy: bake in over for 1.5 hours until skin is crispy and insides are mushy and potatoes are starting to caramelize.
- salad: This version is spring mix, arugula from the garden, Persian cucumbers (the mini ones), jicama, carrots, celery, heirloom tomatoes, avocado, sprinkled with sprouted salted pumpkin seeds and hemp hearts.
Tonight’s Dinner
- pastured chicken with dry rub (garlic, salt, paprika). Baked for an hour on 400˚. So easy I almost feel like a fraud. But when the meat is this fresh (was delivered to my house yesterday by my local distributor who picked it up from the farm the day before) then it is rich and flavorful and hardly needs any garnish.
- stir-fried mushrooms: chop Bella mushrooms, white onion, garlic cloves, fennel root, and minced ginger. I used avocado oil but it will be more tasty tomorrow when I pour the leftover chicken fat on the leftovers.
- salad: This version is spring mix, arugula from the garden, pea sprouts, green cabbage, heirloom tomatoes, sprinkled with raw pecans.
What happens at the Good Food Fighter’s home when the superhero needs to disappear on a mission?
I found this note behind the toaster oven when I returned home from a nutritional training in Israel. It is written by my 11-year-old son to my 2-year-old husband. Kidding about the husband, but he really does have the self-discipline of a 2-year old, which is why I call him “Donut Boy”. He is always looking for his next fix of sugar and gluten and then he feels like crap. And when my son eats tacos and spaghetti and pizza and ice cream (which only happens in mommy’s absence), he feels like crap, too. Good thing my son finally laid down some ground rules—made mommy proud, LOL. Interestingly, my husband is a scientist and a big Good Food Fighter fan, believes in everything that I’m doing, and checks all the technical information in my posts for accuracy.
Ramiya’s Rockin’ Keto Recipes
My creative and determined friend, Ramiya, is always discovering and experimenting with new healthy food products and keto versions of traditional recipes. She tests them on her 10-year old vegetarian athlete daughter. These get a gold star:
Golden Cauliflower Soup/Dip
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
I grew up on carb-heavy South Indian food. Now I’m going low-carb and embracing healthy fats. This yummy two-in-one recipe can be enjoyed as a filling soup or a creamy dip.
Ingredients
- Cauliflower florets – 1 cup
- Cashews/macadamia/pine nuts- 1/2 cup
- Turmeric – 2 tbsp
- Chopped Onion- 1/2 cup
- Chopped Garlic – 2 tbsp
- Butter- 2 tbsp
- Water/broth – approx 1 cup (less if making the dip)
- Salt to taste
- Cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- Sauté onion, garlic, cauliflower, and nuts in the butter
- Add turmeric, salt and water/broth and simmer for about 10-15 mins
- Blend
- Transfer to a bowl and garnish with cilantro
- Enjoy!
Lazy keto fried rice
Description
It’s a challenge for vegetarians to live a low-carb life. But it can be done! This super simple recipe requires only 15 minutes to prepare and is delicious every single time.
Ingredients
- Cauliflower rice – 1 cup
- Butternut squash Pasta – 1 cup
- Chopped Onion- 1/2 cup
- Chopped Garlic – 2 tbsp
- Thai Chilies – 2
- Unsweetened Coconut flakes – 1/2 cup
- Turmeric – 2 tbsp
- Butter- 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
- Cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- Sauté chilies, onion, & garlic with turmeric and salt in the butter
- Add the cauliflower rice and squash pasta
- Sprinkle some water and cook covered for ~5 mins.
- Add the coconut flakes and sauté for 5 mins.
- Transfer to a bowl and garnish with cilantro
- Enjoy!
Srilankan Egg Curry
Description
I often crave Indian spices and flavors that are typically in high-carb dishes. To satisfy my cravings I invent healthier versions of these recipes using staples that I have at home. This tried and tested curry pairs so well with cauliflower rice that you can almost fool your body into thinking you’re eating carbs 🙂
Ingredients
- Eggs – 4
- Coconut milk – I can
- Cilantro – half cup
- Thai chilies- 3
- Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
- Cumin seeds – 1/2 tbsp
- Coconut oil – 1 tbsp
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Hard boil the eggs
- Blend the chilies, turmeric, cumin and cilantro to a coarse paste
- In a pan, sauté the paste with the coconut oil.
- When the raw smell is gone, dunk the can of coconut milk in it and add salt.
- Cut the hard boiled eggs in to halves
- When the coconut milk mixture starts boiling, drop the eggs into it.
- Simmer and let the eggs cook in the curry for about 10 mins.
- The egg curry is now ready! Serve with cauliflower rice and enjoy!
More keto recipes
Salads
There are seven great salads here including this Salmon Kale Superfood Salad by Wholesome Yum.
Soups
- Try this Cream of Celery Soup by Simply Recipes.
- Here’s a quick way to make Keto Bone Broth, by I Breathe I’m Hungry.
- And for you carnivores here’s a Beef Stroganoff Soup, by Martina Slajerova. Make sure it’s grass fed!
What does the Good Food Fighter eat for dessert?
Three scrumptious treats:
1) Alter Eco 90% cocoa bar (Ingredients: organic cacao beans, organic cocoa butter, organic raw cane sugar, organic vanilla beans, 22g fat, 3g sugar). I know–90% seems really high. But if done right—and it is here—the taste is smooth and not overly bitter. Try it! Equal Exchange, Endangered Species and 88 Acres all offer an 88% bar and they’re all good. You’ll get used to a richer, deeper taste. Make sure the ingredients are simple and pure and that the vanilla is real. Who likes cow dung?
2) Eating Evolved Keto Cups (Ingredients: organic coconut butter, organic cocoa, organic cocoa butter, MCT oil, organic monk fruit extract, 13g fat, 1g sugar). My son saw me gnawing on one and, thinking that it looked an awful lot like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, asked, “Hey, can I have a taste??” I offered to put one in his lunchbox and he was delighted. After school I asked if he like it and he said, “It tasted like dirt”. LOL. But if your taste buds are no longer enslaved to sugar, it tastes VERY sweet!
3) Mammoth Creameries Keto Ice Cream (Ingredients: heavy whipping cream, grass fed butter, pastured egg yolks, pink himalayan salt,vanilla extract, vanilla bean, birch xylitol, 32g fat, 0g sugar). This is so rich and decadent—how could it not be with those ingredients? Yet it’s not too sweet. Note that xylitol can cause stomach upset in some people, so try a small amount first.
There are tons of keto dessert recipes online. Ready to indulge in some wholesome Peppermint Patties? Try it, but go easy. Part of the magic of the keto diet is that it liberates you of sugar cravings; if you keep eating alternative sugars—even the healthier kinds—your taste buds will still be prisoners to this addiction.
Good news for bread lovers:
Seems like a contradiction but there is such a thing as keto bread! Here in Austin you can find it at Peoples Pharmacy. It’s not cheap, but real food never is. Here’s an idea: eat less bread, and when you do, make it this one. Or something similar, like this Coconut Flour Zucchini Bread.
Mind you, I don’t go beserk. Just small quantities. You really don’t want to ignite your sweet tooth, so don’t gorge on things made of stevia, birch xylitol, and monk fruit powder. Try to eliminate sweet things. Eat fat.
Your feedback is always welcome: how is keto working for you? Did you like any recipes? Find some new good ones? I’d love to hear from you!!
Resources
Online information
Perfect Keto
Keto calculator: Calculate the percentages of nutrients that you need.
Dairy on Keto
This article helps you understand what types of dairy are acceptable on the keto diet.
Keto Mistakes
The difference between “clean” and “dirty” keto.
Charlie’s Foundation
Explains applications of the Ketogenic Diet for cancer, autism, ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, type-2 diabetes, and traumatic brain injury
Books
The Keto Reset Diet, by Mark Sisson
I met Mark Sisson at Paleo Fx last year. This is a nutritional-lifestyle-educational conference. Mark has the fastest growing food label in the country: Primal Kitchen. I use lots of his products. This book will help you “reboot your metabolism in 21 days and burn fat forever”.
Keto-tarian, by Dr. Will Cole
A plant-base program that welcomes vegetarians and vegans to the table. Includes recipes and meal plans.
The Keto Diet, by Leanne Vogel
A delicious collection of recipes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, sweet and savory snacks, drinks, and extra-fatty sauces.
Keto Essentials, by Vanessa Spina
A step-by-step guide to understanding and following a keto lifestyle. Includes more than 100 simple keto recipes and a seven day meal plan.
The Hormone Fix, by Dr. Anna Cabeca
For women approaching or in menopause, a revolutionary diet and holistic lifestyle program for easier weight loss, better sleep, diminished hot flashes, a clearer head, and a rejuvenated sex drive.
Videos
Why We Get Fat, by Gary Taubes
The Oiling of America, by Sally Fallon-Morrell
Recipes
Peace, Love, and LowCarb, by Kyndra D. Holley
Three cookbooks including 30-minute dishes and cocktails.
The Big Man’s World, by Arman Liew
All about desserts! If you are serious about keto, I don’t recommend gorging yourself in sugar substitutes. But if you’re gonna eat sweets, eat these!!
All Day I Dream About Food, by Carolyn Ketchum
A serious meat and sugar fiend, Carolyn will steer you towards the healthiest versions of both.
I Breathe I’m Hungry, by Melissa Sevigny
Creative and exciting dishes for those sick of steak and eggs. Check out the keto stuffed cabbage and curried chicken…
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