Keto Komforts

On the Ketogenic diet most of us obsessively check the labels on all sorts of food Hidden sugars are everywhere  Sometimes it is nice to have a sweet treat and so understanding keto approved sweeteners is important to stay in ketosis. (although there is a growing school of thought that it is really best to try and stay away from sweet tasting things but thats a debate for another day) and being able to bake your own sweet treats or sweeten up a hot drink without spiking blood sugar or having nasty aftertastes from horrible chemical sweeteners is a dream. Stevia seems to check so many boxes. its GI score is 0 which means zero impact on the blood sugar and its natural So doing some baking over Christmas as well as using the xylotol (GI of 12) in the Lizza starter kit (see the last blog post for some of the treats we made out of that) I thought mixing in some of this Stevia from Morrisons would be a great idea - it would even lower the overall impact on blood sugar...

One problem so many 'diets' have is you have to cheat on special days, or really deprive yourself. So it was a fun challenge to see if it was possible to have a traditional Christmas 3 course dinner and keep it Keto (although we didnt count macros on the day so we were likely a little high this was still a low carb Keto Christmas dinner) Traditionally we used to have for Christmas dinner something yummy as a starter, it used to be a prawn cocktail (which is easy to make Keto, you can do a fantastic Mary Rose sauce with mayonnaise, tomato puree and some spices) but in recent years we have move more to something like pate. Then the main course would be turkey and all the trimmings, which with us was homemade stuffing, sprouts (I love sprouts) mashed turnips and gravy, and then pudding was some yummy handmade treat, usually many hours after the meal. But the last couple of years we have Ketoed this dinner Pate is really easy to make and keto on its own. A little onion and...

It is the time of the year where soups are very welcome and there is something comforting and cozy to having a fresh pot bubbling on the stove. In the Keto community 'Bone Broth' is all the rage. My Gran would be laughing so hard at this idea, in her day this was nothing special this was just how everyone made stock.  Using up leftover bones and veg to boil down and make a nutritious stock base for any number of soups and stews was a normal way of life.  But we have heard there are so many health benefits now so it is very worth doing.   Usually I would recommend using leftovers from something you have already cooked but always with an eye for a bargain I found a ready cooked chicken portion in my supermarket for a reduced price. This means I miss out on all the yummy juices from roasting but who am I to walk away from a bargain.  I ate the legs for my dinner one night and then popped the breast and all the leftover bones into a pot of water to bo...