Experimenting with Keto friendly food
Before starting keto, I made a very tasty chicken pie that we had for tea on a regular basis. We’ve missed it since starting keto, and so I was excited when I came across this recipe. The pies looked so good in the photos!
Once again my attempt turned out to be a disaster. [Read more…]
This recipe, which we found here, was the first time we had tried cooking with coconut flour.
We found the end result reasonably dry [Read more…]
We love the Butter Chicken mix from Asian Home Gourmet. We used to eat it regularly, with plenty of sticky white rice, before we started keto. Fortunately it’s reasonably keto-friendly, so we’ve simply dropped the rice and included some baby spinach to add a little bulk. It’s also quick and easy to make (all in one pot) for those nights when you’re in a rush. [Read more…]
We tried this idea, which uses an almond bun as a base, one night after craving some apricot pie. Although it doesn’t come close to a freshly baked apricot pie with pastry and filling, it is still very enjoyable. The jam has a great tang to it, and the almond bun soaks up the cream nicely. [Read more…]
This is one of Linda’s Low Carb Recipes from here. It’s quick and easy to make, particularly because it uses pre-cut coleslaw mix. It’s also quite tasty, although we do prefer our favourite bacon cabbage.
Note that I used worcestershire sauce in mine [Read more…]
We followed Caveman Keto’s recipe for eggs benedict. As we don’t have bacon weaving tools we simply grilled our bacon instead. We also missed off the hollandaise sauce as it turned out to be a bit of disaster as you can see here. [Read more…]
This recipe looks amazing in the photos on Sin or Slim. There are also several positive comments there, so I’m not quite sure what went wrong with mine.
It may have been my poor culinary skills again, or perhaps it was the whey powder I used. Whatever it was, mine turned out to be a great big sticky mess. [Read more…]
We came across this recipe in this reddit post. We’ve tweaked it just a little bit, including replacing the garlic powder with a bit of chili powder to spice it up.
It’s quick, easy, and very tasty. We have it for dinner every couple of weeks [Read more…]
The recipe for these tarts comes from Mellissa at I Breathe I’m Hungry (original recipe here). I’ve made a few small changes to her recipe – primarily just increasing the volume of cheese and bacon toppings – but you might prefer to scale these back depending on your tastes.
If you’re not keen on cauliflower [Read more…]
This is a keto-friendly version of a casserole that we’ve had in my family for years. It’s not quite as good as the original recipe, but is still very tasty and filling.
I cooked it in my slow cooker, but you could easily cook it in an oven (reducing the time accordingly) if you don’t have a slow cooker. Because I cut the meat into bite sized pieces, and because my slow cooker is quite hot [Read more…]
This mix of salty bacon with sweet whipped cream is simply delicious! It has helped satisfy many cravings for us, and you definitely feel like you are treating yourself when you have it (even though it’s all good from a keto point of view). Don’t believe me…go on and try it! [Read more…]
We created this recipe through trial and error when we were looking for something quick, easy, and tasty to make with mince.
Although we would like to use more taco seasoning (we love taco seasoning), we limit the amount to keep the carbs down and use tabasco sauce to add to the flavour. We also use a significant amount of cheese [Read more…]
This recipe is another one from Mellissa at I Breathe I’m Hungry (original recipe here).
The recipe is quite fiddly to make – the mixture is very sticky and hard to roll out thinly – but the crackers are worth the effort. If you can make them thin enough, the crackers are crispy (just like the real thing) [Read more…]
This is another excellent recipe that we found on Linda’s Low Carb Recipes. It’s quite hot in flavour, but the cheese keeps it from being too much (you can also serve it with sour cream if you want to). It’s simple to make and it is definitely one of our favourites. It also looks really good – like something you might be served in a restaurant. [Read more…]
This shake was an experiment. Although it was pleasant enough, I have only made it the once so it’s probably fair to say it wasn’t a huge success. However, I feel like it could be really good with a bit of fine tuning. In terms of whey powder, I used Reactive Pure New Zealand brand, which has no flavour added, no sweeteners, and no carbohydrates. [Read more…]
The idea for these strips came from this reddit post – no full recipe was provided with the post so I developed the detail below myself.
The original idea calls for golden flaxseed, but as I couldn’t find any of this [Read more…]
This pancake recipe comes from Mellissa at I Breathe I’m Hungry (original recipe here). We changed the sweetener to a liquid one, and we added strawberries and whipped cream for serving.
We were pleasantly surprised at how great these taste – they are ideal for a leisurely weekend brunch. They’re also very easy to make [Read more…]
My partner is not fond of vegetables, so we often add things to them to help hide the flavour. This recipe uses grated cheese, which makes the spinach more palatable for him. [Read more…]
These muffins are from Caveman Keto here. We left out the broccoli from his recipe (one of us doesn’t like it) but I think including this or a substitute would improve both the taste and texture of the muffins. We also chose to crumble the bacon into the muffins rather than use the whole pieces as a wrap (both options are mentioned in the original recipe). [Read more…]
These diet drinks are sweetened with Splenda, and come in four flavours (in a variety pack of 12). We love both the orange and lemon flavours, and while we’re not as keen on the other two (golden pash and tropical punch) they are certainly drinkable. We’ve found the drinks really good for satisfying any cravings for soft drinks…particularly when you drink them ice cold out of the fridge. [Read more…]
This is another one of my experiments with different mousse-type desserts. Again, this one was simple to make and we both thought the taste was quite nice. Note that the amount of cocoa used is on the low side (I don’t like the bitter taste of dark chocolate) so you might want to adjust the amount of cocoa to suit your own taste. [Read more…]
I came across these delicious looking photos of a meal in a reddit post several months ago. As there was no recipe posted with the photos, I thought that there were enough step-by-step photos for me to be able to try to build a recipe myself. Despite my limited culinary skills. I don’t know what I was thinking. [Read more…]
I haven’t quite been able to master this so that the end result looks as good as it tastes. The crumb mixture doesn’t tend to stick as well as it should, and the camembert will often stick to the base of the pan. I’ve tried a few different tweaks to try and improve this but nothing has worked to date.
However, as long as you can get past the look (which is a bit messy and squashed) [Read more…]
We are so pleased we found this recipe for chicken nuggets.
Although it’s a bit fiddly and messy to make, it really is worth it. In fact it’s one of our favourite meals. [Read more…]
I decided to try cooking this on a whim one night.
Unfortunately I had forgotten about the problems I’d had with using frozen fish fillets when I made Pork Rind Battered Fish. This time the result was even worse – the fish turned out to be a soggy mess and it was basically inedible. [Read more…]
We had a craving for sweet and sour chicken one night, and found this recipe at Linda’s Low Carb Recipes. We substituted a few things (chicken for pork, pineapple pieces for pineapple syrup etc) and we could not be more happy with how it turned out. IT WAS SIMPLY DELICIOUS!! It is a recipe I will continue using regardless of whether I am following a keto diet. [Read more…]
I made these cheesecake bites using a slightly modified version of the recipe here.
In the original recipe the balls are rolled in shredded coconut, which I left off because I’m not a big fan of coconut. This meant the bites were a bit stickier than they would otherwise have been [Read more…]
What can we say – delicious AND keto-friendly. These are great for when you don’t feel like cooking, and want something easy and tasty. Yum! [Read more…]
We really enjoy eggs benedict, so I was pleased when I found a nice looking recipe for hollandaise sauce here. I was a little nervous about trying to make the sauce given my rudimentary culinary skills. My nervousness turned out to be well founded – my sauce was not a full scale disaster but it was certainly getting there. [Read more…]
I just recently came across this recipe. Although I didn’t hold out a lot of hope for it (since I haven’t had a lot of success in cooking with ground flaxseed), I decided to try making it because of the great comments people made about it on the site. And I am so pleased I did.
We love this bread! The original recipe refers to the bread as a “focaccia” style, and notes that the texture is rough [Read more…]
I absolutely love this cauliflower bake recipe, which I found here. It’s easy to make and it’s so versatile – you can have it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and as a meal on its own or as a side dish. I’m lukewarm on cauliflower by itself (I eat it because I know it’s good for me), but this recipe elevates the cauliflower to something that I want to eat regularly. [Read more…]
This is a simple, tasty omelette that can be prepared in under ten minutes. You can add additional vegetables if desired (although you may need to partially cook them first depending on what you choose to add). [Read more…]
This is another one of my experiments with different mousse-type desserts. Again, this one was simple to make and the taste was quite nice. Note that the amount of cocoa used is on the low side (I don’t like the bitter taste of dark chocolate) so you might want to adjust the amount of cocoa to suit your own taste. [Read more…]
As Splenda is our sweetener of choice, we were happy to discover that the sugar-free version of V is sweetened with this. Having been drinking it for a while now, it tastes just like the usual V to me – delicious! [Read more…]
We felt like biscuits the other weekend, and found a recipe for these butter cookies here at Linda’s Low Carb Menus and Recipes. The picture of them looked so good, and ours looked great when they came out of the oven too. They also smelled great.
Maybe it was because they looked and smelled so good that the taste was a bit of a disappointment. [Read more…]
This is a simple slow-cooker roast beef with a plain gravy. The taste of the gravy will be strongly influenced by the beef stock you use – I used Campbell’s liquid stock and we both thought it was a reasonably good substitute for regular carby gravy. [Read more…]
This week we really felt like pizza, and realised that we could have takeaway pizza and just not eat the base.
We ordered from Dominos, and chose their low carb base. We didn’t end up eating the base (it looked very unappetising) but it was a good choice of base for getting the topping off easily. We went with pepperoni, cheese, and tomatoes for our toppings (we created our own pizza) and it was delicious! [Read more…]
This is another recipe that I tried from Mellissa at I Breathe I’m Hungry (original recipe here). Her photos look so good that I couldn’t wait to make it. As soon as I managed to find some sugar-free syrups I gave it a go.
Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit of a disaster. [Read more…]
We found this recipe for pulled pork here. It’s easy to make, and the meat is very tender and tasty. It’s so good that we eat the whole lot on its own when we make it! [Read more…]
This is a simple and tasty alternative to a soft drink, and is very refreshing on a hot day. The lemon squash is sweetened with Splenda. [Read more…]
I adapted this recipe from a non-keto recipe I found on the internet. It tasted quite good, without being anything special. We’ll probably have it again, but I think there’s probably room for improvement [Read more…]
We are very fond of pikelets (a Kiwi favourite), so I was really pleased to come across this low carb version here.
However, they turned out to be quite a disappointment – ours were very dry, and the flavour was a little unpleasant. [Read more…]
This is a brilliant dish that we found here at Linda’s Low Carb Recipes. It’s very easy to make, and has a lovely flavour that gets better and better the further through the dish you get. It strikes the perfect balance between heat and creaminess and really has to be tried to get how good it is. We would eat this every night if we weren’t so worried that doing so might make us sick of it! [Read more…]
Although each serving of these vegetables has 9 net carbs, they’re all from a good source. The variety of colours and textures give the dish both a good look and a good taste, and the olive oil and sea salt keep things simple with a Mediterranean feel. [Read more…]
These, like cheesies, are a great keto snack – quick, easy, and really tasty. You can use whatever pepperoni you like (adjusting the nutritional info accordingly), and you can eat them plain or with a dip. [Read more…]
Whitebait is a Kiwi favourite, and it’s also very keto-friendly if you make the fritters without any flour (like the recipe below). So very good! [Read more…]
This is based on this recipe that we found on reddit. It is very simple to make, easy to clean up after (since it is all made in one pan), and very yummy. It makes a great dish for weekend brunch. [Read more…]
This is another recipe from Linda’s Low Carb Menus here. It was reasonably easy to make, and was quite tasty (although could perhaps have done with a bit more cheese if you like your cheese). The recipe does a good job of making broccoli more palatable for those who don’t like it on its own. [Read more…]
I adapted this recipe from a non-keto recipe I found on the internet, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. The rissoles are very tasty, and are particularly nice with plenty of tomato ketchup. [Read more…]
I have always had a sweet tooth, and although I haven’t struggled with keto as much as I thought I would, I do still crave something sweet at times (particularly at night-time). This no-bake cheesecake was one of my favourite desserts before keto and I was (literally!) thrilled to find out that the keto-friendly version below was virtually as good.
The keto-friendly version has only a few differences from the original version [Read more…]
This is a staple in our house – in fact we have it so often that you think we would have gotten sick of it by now (we haven’t!). It is simple to make, and tastes great. The bacon, onion, and butter all add to the flavour and make this something that we bet you will want time and time again.
Occasionally we add diced chicken and some chili to the recipe to make a quick and easy one-pan meal. [Read more…]
We have seen a number of low-carb pizza recipes since we started keto, and we got lucky with the first one that we tried.
The recipe comes from here and we were both amazed at how good it is. I would go so far as to say that the crust is one of my favourite pizza crusts (probably because I love cheese), and it tastes as good as most takeaway pizzas [Read more…]
This recipe, which we found here, is a staple in our house. It both looks and tastes like it should be harder to make than it is…so it would be great for serving at a dinner party!
Although the original recipe calls for toothpicks to hold the bacon together, I had some problems [Read more…]
This is a very simple yet very tasty dessert. By keeping the raspberry serving small you can enjoy some fruit without taking too much of a carb hit. [Read more…]
We adapted these bacon and egg muffins from this recipe from Sin or Slim. We changed a few ingredients (we used spinach instead of tomato, cheddar cheese instead of parmesan, and more bacon instead of ham), and we also quadrupled the recipe so that we could eat the muffins over several days. Everything worked out despite the changes, which should mean that you can make your own changes to suit your tastes. [Read more…]
This recipe is based on Caveman Keto’s recipe here, with a few small tweaks to quantities and spices.
I never would have thought of cooking chili in the slow cooker, but it really does work so well (the idea is genius!). The long cooking time seems to aid the flavour and makes the mince really tender. We absolutely love this chili! [Read more…]
We found this recipe at Sin or Slim and think it is the best flavoured protein shake we have tried so far.
As well as helping the shake taste great, we’ve read that cinnamon supposedly provides some serious health benefits (making this shake a win-win). The shake is [Read more…]
We’ve been looking for substitute bread recipes since we started keto, and have tried a few different ones with varying levels of success. We found this recipe for almond buns here on Caveman Keto’s site, where he has posted the results of the different faux bread recipes he has been trialling.
The recipe was really easy to make and tastes great. [Read more…]
We have missed burgers since starting keto, so we decided to make our own. These turned out really well – delicious actually! They are not as firm as ordinary burgers (due to the oopsie rolls being softer than ordinary burger buns), which means they can be a little messy to eat. They’re also fiddly and time consuming to make. But the taste and enjoyment more than makes up for both the mess and the fuss. [Read more…]
This salad is easy to make and can be prepared ahead of time. The spinach base makes a nice change from lettuce, and the generous serving of bacon gives it a decadent feel! It is good enough to eat plain, or you can add a dressing of your choice. [Read more…]
Jok’n’Al, which is a Kiwi brand, make some great low carb products including jams. The jams are sweetened with Splenda, and come in a few different flavours. Our favourites are raspberry and apricot, both of which are sweet but tangy at the same time.
They’re great for putting on things such as almond buns and oopsie rolls [Read more…]
When I finally managed to locate some pork rinds, I decided to try this recipe from Linda’s Low Carb Menus.
I wouldn’t say it was a total disaster, but it was getting there. There were two main things wrong with it – first I used frozen fish fillets, which created a lot of liquid during cooking and meant I didn’t get a nice “crunch” on the topping; and secondly I wasn’t able to crush [Read more…]
When we first started keto we couldn’t wait to try this bread as we had read so many comments about how great it was. We saw lots of different recipes, but ended up going with this one.
The bread turned out to be a great disappointment – neither of us liked it. I would go so far as to say [Read more…]
We have subway salads quite often (for those nights when we’re short on time or can’t be bothered cooking). We use a BMT as the base, and usually have double cheese, double meat, double bacon, and the usual choice of salads. We usually leave off the dressing and add something at home (keto-friendly mayonnaise like Best Foods or Kewpie). [Read more…]
Since we discovered sugar free syrups from Da Vinci and Torani, we have used them in our nightly coffees with cream (we prefer our coffee sweet and creamy). Our favourite coffee flavours are probably Torani salted caramel and Torani chocolate. We find ourselves looking forward to these coffees every night! Sometimes we add a dash (or even a splash) of whisky for a bit of a kick. [Read more…]
We like this shredded beef recipe for the slow-cooker that we found here. It’s simple to make, and the flavour was good enough to eat on its own. We also used this shredded beef in our shredded beef burgers and it was perfect! [Read more…]
I seem to have ongoing problems cooking asparagus – it’s either too hard or too soft, particularly when I try to steam or boil it. Having given up on those methods, I tried roasting it and was very happy with the outcome. My partner didn’t like it so much (he wasn’t a fan of the crunchy tips) so it probably won’t be to everyone’s taste. [Read more…]
It was an exciting day when we discovered the sugar-free syrups made by Da Vinci and Torani! The syrups are sweetened with Splenda, and we use them frequently in desserts and in our coffees. We’ve tried a number of different flavours (although we’ve barely scratched the surface of what is available) and like most of them, but our favourites are probably Torani salted caramel and Torani chocolate. [Read more…]
This is a quick and easy staple for us on keto (although we try not to have it too often to make sure we don’t get sick of it). Everyone probably has their own method for cooking both the eggs and the bacon, but this is how I do it. [Read more…]
These rolls are quick to make, tasty, and have good ratios for people on keto. I often take them for lunch, or have them as a snack if I’m hungry in between meals. [Read more…]
I’ve been experimenting with some different mousse-type desserts to try and satisfy my sweet cravings at night. This one was simple to make and we both thought the taste was quite nice. [Read more…]
This recipe is another one from Linda’s Low Carb Menus here. It turned out really well and is very tasty. The sauce is quite rich so you don’t need to have much of it (and you probably don’t want to have it too often). [Read more…]
We use the recipe that we found here for our oopsie rolls.
The first time I made them I didn’t get them quite right – I don’t think I used enough cream of tartar and I overmixed the egg whites at the final stage. The mixture ended up very runny and the rolls were flat when they came out of the oven. [Read more…]
This red curry was very quick and easy to make, and had a lovely authentic flavour. The curry paste I used (Valcom brand) was also very good carb-wise – particularly compared to most of the other brands I looked at. I used broccoli and spinach for the vegetables, but you can swap these out for others if you prefer. [Read more…]
We read about cheese crisps in a number of places when we started keto, and initially we were dubious about whether these would turn out the way the photos captured them – solid and crunchy. We were so happy the first time we made them and confirmed that the photos we had seen were accurate!
These really are something special for cheese-lovers, and they are so quick and easy to make. Yum yum yum! [Read more…]
I cook this in my slow-cooker to ensure that the meat is fall-apart tender, but you could easily cook it on the stove if you prefer. The korma is mild and yummy, and the spinach is barely noticeable (adding it helps get some greens into the meal without detracting from the flavour). [Read more…]
I tried making this curry when we were looking for a fast and easy dinner that is also tasty. I have to admit to being quite surprised that it turned out so well. It ticks all the boxes I was looking for, and we have this for dinner on a regular basis.
Although there are approximately 13 net carbs per serving, it is still possible [Read more…]
We both love creme brulee, and so we had to try this recipe when we came across it here.
It wasn’t as good as ordinary creme brulee, but we thought it was a reasonable substitute. Ours turned out a bit on the runny side (they didn’t set properly [Read more…]
It’s fair to say that I was obsessed with trying this slow-cooker recipe from the moment I saw it! It was very easy to make, and I quite enjoyed the first few spoonfuls. However, both of us ended up feeling quite sick from it towards the end of the meal. [Read more…]
We tried this recipe within a couple of days of seeing it on reddit. I had very high hopes, but was disappointed with the way mine turned out.
The taste of the muffin wasn’t very pleasant, and we could only manage a couple of mouthfuls each. [Read more…]
Being Kiwis, we love our tomato sauce and this is one of the things that we really missed when we first started following a keto diet. We eventually discovered that Jok’n’Al (who make other low carb products including jams) make a tomato ketchup that is low in carbs and really tasty. [Read more…]
