Keto

The Best Keto Friendly Curry

Curry, it’s one of the most delicious dishes on the planet, but don’t think just because you are rocking a low carb diet that you can’t eat it. In fact with its combination of meat, vegetables, and a creamy sauce you can make a delicious low carb curry for you and the family with minimal effort. Just read the post below to find out how.

Equipment needed

First off, before we get into what ingredients you will need to create this curry you need to check you have all the right equipment.

Don’t worry though, as you don’t need masses of specialized stuff. In fact chopping boards, a sharp knife, and something like one of these cast iron casserole dishes will do. The latter being the best way to slow cook the curry and get a delicious rich flavour.

Ingredients

Next, you need to think about the ingredient you will include in your curry. Obviously, meat is a good starting point as this is low in carbs and full of tasty and filling protein. Most folks go for chicken, but beef and lamb also work well, and if you are looking to push the boat out using some king prawns works well too.


Image source

Curry powder is an essential ingredient for this dish.

For the sauce, you can use plenty of veg including onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Of course, most ketoers limit the amount of onion and tomatoes they use but remember as long as you don’t go overboard, the net carbs in both is fairly minimal and well worth spending on a delicious evening meal.

Red and green paper also make an excellent choice to include in your curry and are similarly low in net carbs. You’ll also need cream or cream substitute, and some good old fashioned curry powder and ghee to get things going.

Recipe

Start with heating the spices, herbs, and curry powder in the ghee, so they brown. Then add the meat once it’s been cut into chunks.

Once that has browned add the veg and a little water and leave to simmer on the stove top for around 10 minutes. After that, it’s time to add the cream stir and then place the dish with the lid on in a low oven. Leave to slow cook for an hour or more, and at the end, you will have created a delicious family dish.

Serve with

The best thing about serving up this delicious version of curry is that you get to eat wit with some pretty impressive side dishes as well. Of course, you’ll have to eschew the samosas and poppadoms, but in their place why not treat yourself to some seriously low carb cauliflower rice? You can even by this read made and frozen from the supermarket now, so all you need to do is bung it in the microwave for a few moments.

Alternatively making yummy spinach paneer is also totally keto friendly and delicious too, so go ahead and treat yourself and your family to a delicious low carb curry night!

 

Cooking and Recipes · Keto

3 Keto Baking Recipes the Family Will Love

Keto Chocolate Cookies
Keto Chocolate Cookies

The key to the keto diet is to get as close to eliminating all carbs as possible. As such, traditional pastas, breads, and baked goods are a no-no. That doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy a sandwich or even indulge in some cookies, but you will need a modified version of these staples. Try out a few new recipes and you will learn which ingredients need to be swapped. No matter what recipes you use, baking will remain enjoyable for you and your loved ones. Check out these three keto baking recipes that will teach you that eating a keto friendly diet doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to delicious baked goods.

Keto Chocolate Chip Lover’s Moist Cookies

The key to a good chocolate chip cookie is combining the perfect amount of chocolate chips with a rich and decadent dough. In order to make this cookie keto diet approved, you have to substitute regular flour for something else. You can use ground flaxseeds, coconut or almond flour, or even psyllium husk. You can’t use regular sugar either so you will have to get a sugar substitute like stevia, monk fruit sweetener or erythritol. Some of these items can be picked up at the grocery store but other items may need to be purchased at a health food store or ordered off the web. The good news is that the baking process is fast and simple, so you will be able to enjoy your Keto Chocolate Chip Lover’s Moist Cookies in just minutes.

To make these cookies you will need the following; 1 cup of standard flour substitute, 1/3 cup butter, ½ cup of sugar substitute, ½ cup sugar free chocolate chips, 1 egg, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, and a sprinkle of salt. First, mix up all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. The butter should then be heated on the stove or in a microwave until it is melted. Next, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

After the butter has melted, you want to add in the egg and vanilla extract to it. After it is well blended, pour it over the dry ingredients and mix gently. Use a tablespoon to make evenly sized dough balls, then flatten them as you place each one on a cookie sheet. Your cookies will need to bake for 10 to 12 minutes before they are golden brown and moist.

Low Carb Sandwich Bread

Bread can be a major point of contention for those trying to eat a low carb diet of any kind. There are plenty of pre-packaged varieties, but there is nothing like making something delicious from scratch. You might want to make a keto friendly specialty bread like challah that contains cheese and tomatoes so you can make it a meal. Make modifications to existing recipes so that you can enjoy biscuits, flatbreads, and even dinner rolls while on the keto diet plan.

Try KetoLogic’s recipe for keto bread and you will have a recipe that can be used to make bread at any time. This recipe is great for beginners as there aren’t many steps, but the end result is still a flavorful delight. Whip up a batch, slice up the entire loaf, and you will be able to reach for a piece of bread whenever you want – without feeling guilty.

Creamy Keto Sugar Free Cheesecake

If you ever get in the mood for a really decadent dessert while on the keto diet, then you have to try out this next recipe. The really great thing about cheesecake is that it is easy to make because there are not many ingredients in it. You will need to make the crust first, then the filling, but each step is super-fast to execute. Next up, a sugar free keto friendly cheesecake to die for.

Measure approximately 2 cups of flour substitute, ½ cup of melted butter, 4 teaspoons of sugar substitute, and a teaspoon of almond extract, then blend well to make your cheesecake crust. Roll out the dough and then carefully place it on the inside of a pie shell. Press down firmly so that the crust falls into the corners.

To make the filling for your keto-friendly cheesecake you will need; 3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese (softened), 2 eggs, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. All you have to do is blend all of these ingredients well and then spoon the mixture into the pie shell. Smooth the top of the cheesecake, then bake for approximately 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

It can take effort to find the right ingredients needed to make these delicious keto-friendly recipes, but once you taste them you will be more than happy to put in the work. Enjoy keto bread so that you can make scrumptious sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, and even a slice of cheesecake while still eating smart. These recipes can be addicting so try to enjoy them in moderation.

Keto

Why I’m Back on Keto

Back in January 2017, I decided that I needed to take my health a lot more seriously, and I started dieting and exercising in an effort to lose at least 4 stone. Given the fact that I’m a type 2 diabetic, I decided after a lot of research and advice from Husband that a low-carb, or ketogenic, diet would be best for me and I started cutting down drastically on the amount of carbs I was eating. I also started a program of weight lifting and the weight started falling off of me. I noticed a change in my shape in just a few months and I was really enjoying lofting heavier weights each time I went to the gym. For more information on the ketogenic diet, see this.

However, halfway through the year, a few things happened – my birthday was in June and then midway through July I went through some pretty bad stress, and the whole thing knocked me totally off the wagon. I’m an emotional binge-eater and when my willpower reserves are low, it only takes the slightest thing to make me revert to negative behaviours. Husband tried to gently warn me when I was at the beginning of the slide, but it didn’t sink in and 18 months after starting, I’m now back to the weight I was when I started.

Why I'm Back on Keto

We had some friends over a couple of weeks ago to watch the football and they asked how I was going with the gym and diet, and I had to admit that I’d let it all go, but while I was talking to them, I realised how much I’d missed it all. Overeating actually gets really boring after a while and I’d been enjoying lifting weights while I was doing it, so I made a decision. I needed to get back to it.

This time, however, it’s a little trickier. I’ve started eating keto again and I’m definitely felling better for being on a low-carb eating plan but the gym side of it hasn’t fallen into place yet. Maureen can only really be left alone for an hour at a time, and the gym is a 20 minute drive from home, which means I’d have 20 minutes to workout, unless someone is at home to puppy-sit.

However, from next week, Burrito Baby is going to be going to a childminder for one day a week, which means that as well as being able to get some work done without an endless stream of Sam and Cat playing on Netflix int he background, I’ll also have a bit more time to exercise. Husband got my bike out of the shed recently and bought me a new chain, so this weekend we’ll be fixing it up so that I can at least start doing some cardio a few times a week. I’m excited to get back into it, as not only is my physical health better when I exercise, but my my mental health seems improved too.

Have you ever tried a ketogenic diet? I’d love to hear about it, so please leave me a comment below.

Baking

Teaching Kids to Bake WITHOUT Making Cakes!

bake with kids - cauliflower cheeseAs you’ll know if you read this blog (or The Keto Life) regularly, 2017 has been a year of lifestyle changes in our house, not just for Husband and I but for the girls, too. The summer was a bit of a lapse for us all, as we ate and drank what we wanted (which included a few too many Krispy Kreme doughnuts!) but now that school has started again we’re all trying to get back to a healthier lifestyle. The problem with this is that the girls and I absolutely love to bake together and we don’t want to give up just because we’re not eating cake, so we’ve been trying to cook together but deviate from the usual biscuit and cake offerings!

One of our favourite things to make (and eat!) is our own low carb take on cauliflower cheese, which is really easy to make, tastes incredible and is simple enough for the girls to get involved with. www.worktop-express.co.uk have asked us to share our recipe with you:

Keto Cauliflower Cheese (vegetarian, gluten free)
Recipe Type: Keto
Cuisine: Baking
Author: Jayne Crammond
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 5
A flourless caulflower cheese, perfect for a low carb, high fat diet.
Ingredients
  • A head of cauliflower
  • 200ml double cream
  • 100g cream cheese
  • 250g mature cheddar cheese
  • 2 tsps garlic powder
  • 20g grated parmesan
Instructions
  1. Cut the cauliflower into florets and par-boil for 10-15 minutes, until it just starts to go soft (there is nothing worse then HARD cauliflower in cauli cheese, if you ask me!)
  2. In a separate bowl, place the double cream, cream cheese, 200g of the cheddar (keeping some back for sprinking on top before baking) and garlic powder and microwave on high for 1 minute, or until melted together. Stir to combine fully.
  3. Drain the cauliflower and allow to cool for a minute (this will allow more moisture to evaporate away and stop you from ending up with a watery sauce at the end)
  4. Place the cauliflower in an even layer in a 9″x9″ Pyrex dish and pour the cheese mixture over evenly
  5. Sprinkle the remaining cheddar and the parmesan over the top
  6. Bake at 180° for 25 minutes and the finish under a hot grill for a minute or two to get a really browned-off finish
Serving size: 1/5 Calories: 432 Fat: 38.2g Saturated fat: 24g Carbohydrates: 5.8g Sugar: 2.5g Sodium: 58mg Fiber: 1.5g Protein: 16.7

This cauliflower cheese contains just 5.8g of carbs and is the perfect accompaniment to any meal, especially if you’re trying to avoid carbs. It feels like a rich, cheesy treat which won’t derail a low-carb diet and making it with the kids is really fun, especially if you’ve got kids of different ages – one can chop cauliflower and one can mix ingredients so they both feel involved and get to do things at their own level.

Do you bake with your kids? Have you got any fab healthy baking recipes to share? I’d love to see them.