February | 2018 | Fighting Fibro with Fire

As promised, here’s the rest of my latest food adventure 🙂

Dinners are usually made in large batches to be eaten throughout the week, which means they aren’t usually very photogenic. On the weekends, the husband and I usually cook together and enjoy making slightly more complicated meals. Here are a few of our favorites.

First up, PIZZA. I will tell you right now, that if I couldn’t have pizza on this way of eating, I wouldn’t have made it this far. This girl needs pizza. We’ve tried a few different recipes, but we keep coming back to cauliflower crust, (super simple and very quick to throw together).

Our other favorite is Fat Head pizza, which is slightly more complicated than the cauliflower, but almost identical to “real” pizza. For some reason, I don’t have any pictures!!

My husband is a pot roast fanatic, so of course we had to find a way to make that keto friendly. The only thing he misses is the mashed potatoes, but I thought the cauliflower cakes and roasted radishes we made were an excellent substitute. As you can see, there’s no shortage of veggies on this plate!

Here, we have some oven roasted ribs with coleslaw and cheesy cauliflower. It’s not quite mac and cheese, but it is darn good.

This sesame chicken is one of my favorite meals EVER. I don’t even miss the rice with this dish. (I do swap out the soy sauce for coconut aminos, since our version of keto is soy free). I like to use a bag of Asian Chopped salad or a broccoli teriyaki salad, (without the included dressing or toppings), instead of just broccoli, it really adds to the texture of the meal.

This meal is also excellent as leftovers, so it’s great for meal prepping, (win!).

One of our other favorite meals so far has been this shrimp alfredo with bacon wrapped scallops.

Who’s ready for dessert?

We try not to make desserts too often, but sometimes you just need a little something sweet. I’m still looking for my perfect non-sugar sweetener, but so far, my husband has been happiest with Swerve. When I use it in baked items, I find that it has an odd after taste, but that seems to be just me. We’ve made several cheesecakes, all with Swerve, but I’m going to try one with allulose soon!

This was the cake I made for our anniversary back in November. Overall, I was very happy with it, but again, I got a weird after taste from the erythritol. To be honest, this cake was so good that I barely minded the after taste. Chocolate covers many sins, apparently.

Life on Keto

When I last posted, I was so full of hope that I’d be thin and svelte in no time flat. Sadly, that has not happened. We’re about halfway through our fifth month on this way of eating and I’m down just 17 pounds. However, I am down 2 jeans sizes (from a 14 to a 10!!!!), which is amazing and I can’t get over how awesome I feel overall. I’m actually sleeping through the night most nights, (epic freaking win!), and I even wake up feeling mostly refreshed. Considering that previously, I was lucky to wake up feeling even slightly refreshed, I’m counting this as a major success. I also haven’t had any major flare ups since we made this lifestyle change. This isn’t to say that I’m totally pain free, but my pain on average is way down and my trigger points haven’t made any appearances in MONTHS.

Another major success I’ve encountered is that the cravings I used to have for horrible food, (chocolate/sugar/all the carbohydrates), have basically disappeared. I still want chocolate, but my cravings are now for Lily bars, which have no added sugar; they’re sweetened with stevia and erythritol. I also get random cravings for bacon, but since that is 100% keto friendly, I am ok with this.

What am I eating to make me feel so awesome? I’ll show you, but before I do, I’d like to explain my approach to keto. Chances are, if you’ve ever heard anything about a ketogenic diet, it was explained in a way that makes it sound like a fat free for all. It is high fat, this much is true, but I’m not eating sticks of butter or pounds of bacon every day. I like to call our approach the “neurotic clean keto”. We don’t eat any grains, legumes, (except the occasional peanut), or added sugars at all, which means very little of what we eat is premade or processed. I am constantly reading ingredient labels for hidden evils. The whole point of the ketogenic way of eating is to keep carbs extremely low, 20g per day or less. The carbs that we do eat come exclusively from vegetables, (mostly green, with the odd carrot), dairy, nuts and seeds.

Most days, I’m at 10-15g of net carbohydrates. I choose to count net carbs, (total carbs – fiber = net), rather than total carbs so that I have more room for vegetables and avocados! I have found that this approach helps keep me “regular” and keeps me full so I don’t gorge on fat or go too far over my calorie budget. I know that a lot of people only worry about their macros, (fat, protein, and carbohydrates), but if I don’t count my calories, I will over eat. This helps me stay accountable!

Enough explanations, on to the food!! Breakfasts are usually simple affairs with some combination of bacon and eggs, with the occasional veggie add in. This first picture is a simple salad of cabbage, celery, kale and a teensy bit of shredded carrot, that I pan seared just until the veggies started to wilt with over easy eggs and bacon.

Next, is a bacon, egg, and cheese “sandwich” using two over-hard eggs as the bread. Quick, easy, and tasty!

We don’t always do fancy breakfasts, most days it’s just a couple of eggs and some bacon. Some days we get extra fancy and make waffles or bagels with almond flour! Sadly, I don’t have a picture of the waffles, but I’ll take one next time we make them!

Oh, and don’t forget the coffee! There is ALWAYS coffee with a splash of heavy cream. Mmm.

I’ve fallen out of the habit of eating lunch, mostly because I’m just not hungry. When I did eat lunch, it was super simple: some salami and cheese most days. Maybe some salted almonds and a cheese stick or guacamole and celery. These days, I’m happy with a ginger-vinegar tonic. (Sounds gross, I know, but I swear it’s delicious!!). It keeps me full for several hours and is a great way to sneak in some extra electrolytes.

I’m out of time for today, but I’ll cover dinners, (and desserts!), soon!!