Keto is kinda boring

(William P Pochis) #1

being from the south there is a ton of foods I miss, like tomatoe gravy and biscuits, homemade FF,ect but I have not broke off yet, I fight it daily and I am not the cook a lot you are, I got 5 days left for my 1st month and lost 14 pds.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

Sure. You’ll get over it if you hang in there. Eventually, you will realize that all that stuff you miss was not worth missing after all. Keto is not boring once you decide to check it out instead of lamenting the crap you left behind.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #3

It’s challenging for sure but you can still have many Southern dishes with a little alteration. I’m a huge fan of Southern cooking, especially Louisiana cuisines. I do a lot of blackened meats, Collards with bacon, gumbo, sausage gravy with KETO biscuits. They aren’t always perfect replications but still Southern flavors. You can eat tomatoes on KETO just not cup fills of tomato sauce. I like to make a batch of Creole sauce now and then. You can make fried chicken with pork rind breading too. Or there’s always BBQ and some fresh cole slaw and cauliflower potato salad. Hash with fried radishes (quite potato like). How about country ham and eggs with red eye gravy? Andouille Sausage? Crawfish or shrimp boil? You’ll get used to the foods without the normal dose of sugar in short time. Smothered pork chops, yum! You will have to learn to cook to be happy most likely. It’s not a skill people are born with, it’s practice and learning but it’s a basic life skill that many in the modern world never pick up. Good luck moving forward and congratulations on your progress so far. If you want it you can do it. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Kristen Ann) #4

My Dad has a keto southern cookbook that he raves about. My Mom (who can’t cook at all) has even been able to follow some of the recipes so it must have some pretty simple recipes. I can find out the name of it if you’re interested.

#5

Here are a few of my favorite dishes that are easy and a little Southern (I live in SW Virginia so I get it). You don’t have to be a chef to make any of them.

If you’re craving fried chicken - https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/keto-breaded-chicken-cutlets-5511768.amp

Does it taste like the fried chicken we grew up on? Hell no! But it’s delicious!

Deviled eggs - https://realhousemoms.com/mississippi-sin-deviled-eggs/

Roasted chicken leg quarters - https://cravingtasty.com/crispy-chicken-leg-quarters-recipe/

These were so good I left a comment. (I’ve left about six reviews on the internet in 20 years.)

And you can put this on anything and it’ll be delicious http://cookprimalgourmet.com/alabama-white-bbq-sauce-whole30

I hope this helps. I love to cook but have to have recipes as I’m not creative at all. If you can follow a recipe, you can cook too and have non-boring meals. :slightly_smiling_face:

#6

The book is called Southern Keto by Natasha Newton.

@bp52 depending on where you’re from, you may can get Milo’s tea. The yellow label is sweetened with Splenda, I don’t know if it gives you a headache or not. I enjoy it.

(charlie3) #7

I do the Chris Masterjohn robot diet, meaning the same 2 meals every day. A giant non startchy vegetable salad with my own elaborate olive oil dressing, then a meat and fish meal. Then chase both with large mugs of ice coffee with heavy cream and stevia. I do an hour walk prior to both those meals so a healthy appetite is typical. I enjoy those meals far more than what I used to eat. It probably helps that I’m getting at least 100% of the RDA’s for everything, no suppliments, and I’ve learned how to mke the food taste great (seasoning). Others besides me would suggest, focus on what you can eat instead of what you can’t.

(Susan) #8

I love this post, Charlie, you are so right!!

#9

Butter Bob is Southern, and you might enjoy his wonderful work:

(Rebecca ) #10

Imagine that a crazed murder has held you captive for years…slowly torturing you…then one day you break free and escape…think of those foods like that…and the Ketogenic way of eating as the way you broke free!!

(Murphy Kismet) #11

I’ve found that some people need to “mourn” that loss of comfort foods. Can’t turn to them anymore for instant comfort, they’re “dead”, or gone from that person’s life, so to speak.

But then there are ghosts of the past in terms of the Grocery Store where they see ghosts of the past calling out to them to join them on the Dark Side, cuz they’ve got cookies AND they share!

#12

I know nothing about Southern kitchen but I had my higher-carb times with higher-carb dishes and my diet is nothing like that now. Keto is anything but boring to me. True, I don’t use my old recipes or if I do, I need to be careful about amounts but as others wrote, it’s often easy to modify a recipe, making it less carbier and the result might be different but just as (sometimes even more) delicious. Your taste probably will change a bit anyway. And we can adapt to new diets to some extent. You can eat great food on keto and it matters me most as a hedonist. If I really want, I can eat some nostalgic carbier food (but not super carby. I hardly can eat potato dishes on low-carb let alone keto) in small amounts. Only a bigger amount of carbier or any decent amount of super carby food is out.
As time passes, it gets easier. Good recipes come, old habits go… I learned to enjoy my most important favs in really small amounts. Little tomato is way better than no tomato. But it doesn’t need to be super little, thankfully. Flour is usually easy to substitute. It will be different but that’s not a bad thing.

(William P Pochis) #13

this looks good thank you

#14

You’re welcome :slight_smile:

#15

Good day, Dude, My son and I do an excellent B&G type dish, I put my gravy over cauliflower rice as I’m keto, but he uses biscuits, and of course a side of Thick sliced pepper bacon, Mmmmm.
KETO B&G: use your preference of sausage brands, and seasonings are ‘suggested’ ammounts.

1 5 lbs Jimmy Dean (hot), cooked, Do Not drain
Pour in 2 cups heavy whipping cream
4 oz cream cheese, (add a bit more if desired)
2 Tbs dried parsley
1 tsp onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Once everything is combined simmer on med lo 20 min or until desired thickness
This makes enough dinner for 2 of us, with enough left over for my son in the morning, ( we do breakfast for dinner 1 or 2 times a week).
Hope you try it

(Bob M) #16

You could also try this one, by our own 2 keto dudes:

I think this is great. I have a fryer and use beef tallow. I heat (say, 130-140F, not too hot) the tallow in jars/cans in my sous vide to get it liquid, then add to the fryer. I let the tallow cool until I can put it through a fine filter and then put it back into the containers. For me, it only lasts about 4 fries or so, as it even with filtering it, it gets too much “crap” in it.

#17

I’ve printed that recipe a few weeks ago because it looks so good. I don’t have a deep fryer though so I’ll be pan frying in beef tallow whenever I try it. Hopefully it works out.

(Randy) #18

Keto is boring because it’s simple, real food. The underlying problem is that we have been taught, and continue to teach new generations that food is a reward, and food is love.

#19

Food can be a reward. Food can be easily be love.

We forgot that love doesn’t have to be a cake at your birthday…for me it is a standing rib roast :slight_smile:

Reward for me after being so healthy and on plan and loving it…some darn expensive King Crab legs…I require a lot of them to eat and lobster, omgosh the price on that, I need like 10 lobster tails to make me happy LOL

thing is you are so right that reward, love is SO associated with food and almost always the crap ones. I so get that.

Mindset change. Rewards and love is in real simple delish foods.

But of course what I wrote ain’t what is happening out there but I wish it would!

#20

Food is love. I make everything from scratch (including condiments) using real ingredients. I don’t buy packaged or canned stuff. I do it for myself and for the people that I love and care about. I did this pre-keto and I still do it. I didn’t come into keto with a host of health problems or because I’m obese and I refuse to eat the same two boring meals every day.

Southern cooking is a cultural thing and if you didn’t grow up in the south, you won’t understand it. We cook out of love and we cook with love. It’s ingrained in us and it’s not going away. We all just need to figure out how to do it in a more healthy manner.