October 10 and 11 are Big Deal days on Amazon Prime. I’m crossing my fingers that a few of the items I’ve had on my save for later cart are marked down then!! What am I keeping my eyes on? Let me show and tell you!
I’ve wanted weights like these for a while. They would be great to have at home on the days I can’t make it to the gym.
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As soon as it was evident that I’d lost weight, people began asking how I did it. Truthfully, my weight fluctuates as much to ten pounds up and down so it took a while for people to start questioning how I’d done it, but I was glad to tell them once they asked. Most people had heard of keto but didn’t know anything about it. Some people thought I was asking for a heart attack with all that fat. Some questioned how my cholesterol levels must look (assuming they must be awful). After a few weeks and months, more and more people started asking me more about the diet. They wanted to know what I ate in a day. Did I count calories, carbohydrates, fiber, etc? I was happy to tell them, but I also wanted to arm them with knowledge. I wanted them to decide for themselves based on research if this diet was one that they could believe in and actually stick to. I realize that on any particular subject there will be multiple sides with varying opinions, but I want to always make sure I don’t make decisions based on trends or fads.
I am going to link several studies. If you are interested in learning more about a ketogenic diet, these studies will help you learn more and see what research shows. I hope they will be helpful and that you will be inspired to do more research on your own. Also, Mark Sisson has a great website and podcast about primal eating and the ketogenic diet.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2716748/
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-08-keto-diet-gains-popularity-scientists.html
Whenever I read articles or “studies” which claim that the keto diet is all meat and no vegetables, I get irritated. Mostly, because I don’t know anyone who eats like that. I am extremely sensitive to protein so I eat meat (fish, chicken, turkey, or uncured pork) once or twice a week at most. Most days my diet mostly consists of several salads, cheese, eggs, and avocados. I also eat broccoli, green beans, and berries. If the fiber grams are subtracted from the total carbohydrate counts, my carb count still comes in below 50 grams daily.
I always recommend that if you are planning on starting a new diet or exercise program that you talk to your medical doctor first. I am closely followed by my own doctor. My bloodwork is also done every six months. I am very happy to report that my numbers are excellent.
One last thing, I went off the diet for a week while in Disney World (we had the dining plan). I felt horrible! I went to bed with a massive stomachache for the first two nights. I could hardly wait to get back home and back on the diet. The experience solidified the fact that this diet is the one that works well for me and that leaves me feeling the best overall.
I would love to hear your comments or questions.
On our drive to Hilton Head, I pack snacks for every person. The kids get things like Chex Mix, Fruit by the Foot, chips, Zone bars, peanut butter or cheese crackers, and basically things that are full of carbs. I don’t eat any of those things so I need to figure out what I might want to munch on for the trip. This time around, I packed jars of sugar free pickles, Keto Bars, almonds, and cheese bars. Keto and low carb snacks are much easier to find now, but consideration for how they travel and how your body responds to them must be given. If you’re on a low carb or Keto diet it is still possible to stay in ketosis while on vacation, but it does take a little more planning.
Many kitchen appliances are a waste of money. An air fryer is not. We bought one for Christmas, and I use it every day! I use it to “fry” French fries or heat up leftovers. I make avocado fries with it at least three times a week. I have made the best keto fried chicken of my life! Almost daily, I take a low carb tortilla and spray it with olive oil, sprinkle a little bit of sea salt on top and put it in the air fryer for about 3 minutes. It makes a beautiful tortilla bowl. I break it apart and use it as chips to eat my guacamole or cheese.
The air fryer is easy to clean too. All that it takes is letting it cool, using hot water and Dawn, wipe out, rinse, and you are done. We have the Phillips XL. I can’t imagine that anything smaller would be good enough for a family. It’s not huge, but it does take up about as much space as a Kitchen Aid mixer.
Photo Credit: Phillips
I hope to share a few recipes soon! If this is a purchase you’ve been considering I say go for it!
The other day, I was recollecting my diet in college. I can’t believe I survived eating the way I did. I was a vegetarian and most certainly the unhealthiest vegetarian ever. I would go to Burger King and order a Whopper with no meat. I ate monster size fat free muffins from the coffee shop on campus. Looking back, my diet was full of empty calories, huge amounts of carbohydrates, and completely lacking nutrients. Even with all the negative aspects of that college diet there were foods I thoroughly enjoyed and still look back at fondly. One of those was the breadsticks from Pizza Hut. I decided that I would like to re-create something that was similar and keto. I’ve made these twice and tweaked the recipe to make them better. Here’s how I did it.
This is a picture of my first attempt. My camera is not currently working for me to take a picture of the new recipe.
Loved In The South’s Keto Spicy Breadsticks
Recipe:
2 T. Melted butter
4 cups of melted cheese
1 1/2 cup mayo
2 beaten eggs
2 T. Jalapeños
2 T. Hot seasoning
2 to 3 cups of almond flour ( slowly add until it’s like a dough and not a batter)
1 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
Preheat oven to 350. Melt the butter in a bowl. Add mayo, beaten egg, almond flour, baking powder, salt, and seasoning. Stir. Add melted cheese. Incorporate with a bread hook in a mixing bowl or knead on an almond floured surface until well incorporated. Place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Press out until long and flat. Bake until lightly brown. Cut with a pizza cutter. Enjoy as breadsticks or a base for a pizza. The possibilities are endless.
These little treats were pretty easy to throw together. It took me as long to make the batter as it took my oven to preheat. I put some jam the middle of a couple of them just to make them more appealing to the children. One of the girls made herself a strawberry shortcake as a snack with the cupcake/muffin. These are very versatile. They could be frosted, filled with a variety of things, used as any kind of shortcake, or the base of almost any kind of muffin you might want.
Low Carb Cupcake/ Muffin Recipe
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil (melted)
2 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
3/4 cup Torani sugar-free brown sugar cinnamon syrup
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tablespoon cake batter extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add melted oil and syrup. Stir. Add dry ingredients. Finally, add the extract. Put into lined muffin tin. Bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned and baked through.
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a recipe so I wanted to do that today.
My husband and I were looking for a treat, so I decided to whip up a batch of cookies.
Chocolate Caramel Cookies
1 stick of softened butter
2 cups almond flour
1 1/2 cup stevia
1/4 cup salted almonds (chopped)
1 bar of unsweetened chocolate (chopped)
1 Tablespoon of caramel extract
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking soda
Mix all the ingredients together. Place in small spoonfuls on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees until lightly browned (it took mine 7-8 minutes).
Enjoy!!
Punctuality is a trait that many people lack, especially in my family. I have major issues with time. It drives me to near insanity to be late and almost equally crazy when people are more than just fashionably late. One thing that exacerbates the situation is hunger. For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to try to alleviate at least part of the irritation by making a cheese dip for those who were on time and were hanging around for everyone else show up. Everyone in my family loves cheese and almost everyone likes a dip of some kind. This was easy to throw together. My family has already requested it again.
Cheese Dip (Keto, Low Carb)
1 block of cream cheese (I used the jalapeno kind)
1 small can of diced jalapenos (juice and all)
2 small blocks of hot pepper cheese (shredded)
1 small block of cheddar cheese (shredded)
Mix all the ingredients together. Put into a baking dish and sprinkle about 1 cup of shredded cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly and hot in the center (it took about 20-25 minutes).
I served this with Stacy’s Jalapeno Pita Chips. It can be eaten with veggies and any meat as well to keep it low carb or keto.
Enjoy!
My girls love all things pasta. Since my husband and I don’t eat pasta, I usually just leave it out of our dishes and serve it on the side. It’s a little more difficult to do with lasagna, but I still do.
Here’s how I do it:
2 lbs. sausage (any kind you like), cooked and drained
1 large container (usually 16 oz.) ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella
2 cups parmesan cheese
1 package of provolone cheese slices
2 jars of Rao’s spaghetti sauce (many other sauces have LOTS of sugar. You must read the labels)
Mix the meat with the spaghetti sauce. In a lasagna pan, layer a meat layer then a ricotta/parmesan layer, then slices of provolone. Continue layering. On the last layer, put the mozzarella cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly.
(The provolone is a little thicker and doesn’t melt away like the shredded cheeses.)
Enjoy.
I love lemons and blueberries together. For our annual Mother’s Day brunch I decided to bring a low carb lemon-blueberry treat since I knew there would be lots of foods there I shouldn’t eat. I was a little worried about bringing a new recipe without trying it out first, but I was very pleased with the result.
Next time I make it, I will make it a couple of days in advance because it actually gets moister the longer it sits.
Low Carb Lemon Blueberry Bread
4 cups of almond flour
1 1/2 cups of Splenda (or sweetener of your choice)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
zest of one lemon
1 tsp. lemon extract
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup blueberries
6 eggs
1 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tsp. meringue powder
Put all the ingredients into the mixing bowl except for the blueberries. Mix it all until thoroughly mixed. Then gently fold the blueberries into the batter. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until a knife pierced through the middle comes out clean. Let cool and remove from the pan. Slice and enjoy!
lovedinthesouth.com 