Keto

Doing Keto Defined

This is the simple definition. Keto is an eating hack. By this, I mean it’s something you do to finesse weight loss. It’s not a program you sign up for or pay a subscription fee to. It’s not just another diet that somebody else thought up to take your money. It’s not something you suffer through in order to lose a few pounds that you have it on past experience will show up again later.

Keto is shorthand for choosing ketosis-encouraging food to eat and other food to avoid eating. It’s totally under your control and like I said, it’s an eating hack or body hack. You make choices and your body responds because it has to. No options.

We’ve lost a lot of pounds doing Keto over the past 5+ years and think we understand the mechanics of cooking and eating Keto pretty well. Here, I take a closer look at how eating Keto works to help you create your own approach to Keto.

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Dad’s Keto Chili

One way to make a long-term Keto diet go down easier is to Keto-ize your old favorite recipes. I mean, duh, right? Now that we are Keto veterans, in-it-to-win-it for the third time (!), I’m more interested than ever in making sure my old favs can still be enjoyed without guilty thoughts and can be modified for Keto and keep their greatness.

Dad’s Keto Chili

Chili has been a mainstay of DRB since the beginning. We started with a cookbook version, tweaked and tried variations over several years, tried our hand competing at a chili cookoff, and now are looking at Dad’s Chili with a fresh eye for its Keto potential. Lose the beer and hold the beans, and you’re most of the way there. Here’s the good news—there’s no need to sacrifice any flavor to make great Keto chili. Try out the recipe and see for yourself.

Note to Dads

This is a great family dish. There are ways the kids can help, or they can just enjoy the goodness and help you build your rep as a dad does wonders in the kitchen. There’s plenty of flavor and nutrition for non-Keto-istas, who can amp up their servings with tortilla chips or corn bread crumbled on top.

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Keto re-re-boot

a person catching a pack of keto bread on air

Yes, we are deep into a Keto diet for the third time. It’s working again, and we have new insights to share. Why did we stray? The pandemic and other priorities like bread-baking, dessert experiments, and new restaurant explorations got us off-track. Sound familiar?

But here we are back on Keto and doing very well, thank you. I’m already ten pounds into a thirty-pounds-by-Thanksgiving goal!

A lot has changed in Keto-land since our last campaign back in 2019. Mostly, there are many new Keto-friendly food products available at major and minor grocery stores and online. Many restaurants have Keto options or at least don’t look strangely at you when you explain you’re on a low-carb diet. We’ll review some of the best here.

We still really like DietDoctor.com for all the basic Keto scoop and a ton of recipes and meal plans. But there are many other sources for Keto recipes and ingredients. And on the food front, much is happening that Keto-istas will find interesting and useful.

We feel like Keto, under strict control, will be our lifestyle and not just another diet from here on.

Think we’re just kidding ourselves? Well, stick around through the Holidays and find out!

Cheers, Dad

Bread, glorious bread

A tough topic for a Keto fan. What do I do about bread made from wheat flour—with all those carbs? Bread in all its forms is so basic, so universal, so loved. And the bread we know best is made from wheat flour. High in carbs and protein. The must-have food for probably every culture throughout history. Leavened or unleavened. Flat or raised. Three ingredients or many. But if you eat the typical American diet, you’re eating way too many carbs and carrying way too much weight. Ketoistas are going to have to do without the bread we love or find a palatable substitute for wheat-flour bread. What to do? Let’s start here with some background and a global perspective. Here’s a bread primer from The New Yorker:

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Chaffles (aka Keto waffles)

Chaffles are double good. They’re a way for Keto dieters like me, who can’t get used to almond flour, to use it anyway. And, they let Ketoistas have something other than bacon and eggs for breakfast — Keto waffles no less.

I think I’ve always preferred the crispy outside and soft inside character of waffles to pancakes. But waffles need a special appliance. The Queen and I got two Sunbeam waffle makers for wedding presents, but a couple of down-sizes ago, we got rid of them. Enter the mini waffle maker and Keto. Sometimes you wish you could invent just the right product at just the right time to make your fortune. Before Keto, who ever heard of a mini waffle maker. Now they’re selling like—well, hotcakes.

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Bacon

Bacon—the almost perfect meat—if you eat pork, of course. Delicious and versatile. I’ve always loved bacon, but appreciate it much more now because 1) it’s a Keto staple and 2) I’ve finally discovered the best bacon to buy and the best way to cook it.

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Pumpkin custard

We’re always looking for Keto desserts. Well, we’re always looking for desserts, and when you’re on Keto—you get it.

Make this to welcome fall into your kitchen; I normally only buy pumpkin between October and December. How about you?

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The versatile frittata

As you get the hang of home cooking, you get better, or not, at improvisation—making up new recipes or adapting old ones, to your current pantry or today’s whim. I suspect that my grandmother’s claims that she couldn’t pass along her greatest recipes was more about not remembering exactly how to make that Irish stew or knowing that she never made it the same way twice. Lesson learned.

For some, or until you reach home cooking nirvana, executing a precise step-by-step routine is all you care about. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But joy and bliss await when you can cook on the fly—unless you really screw it up. 😉

I really love frittatas because like my chili or soups and stew and casseroles, they are ready, willing, and able to be modified, amplified, adapted, or short-changed as your ingredient supply changes.

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Italian breakfast casserole

Breakfast casseroles can be really healthy and satisfying. Always a crowd pleaser, like if you’re having a morning-time birthday party or a day-after-the wedding family hangers-on brunch until it’s time for the relatives to get on their way home. The versions with bread are great, but this one and its variants taste just as good and are lower-carb.

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Keto reboot

Lose 50; gain 15; lose 20; g-o-o-o-a-l!

For me personally, the very best thing about Keto has been acquiring the knowledge and skill to actually manage my weight. Here’s what I mean.

For 30 years or so, since I started being concerned about my weight, I tried this diet and that diet with varying results. Lose 30; gain it back; lose 20; gain it back…etc. Sound familiar? I realize now that the main reason I gained it back was that the diet got boring, or most often, it left me too hungry, too many times. I slipped into the “oh, what can be wrong with just one donut” loop. One donut once a month became two donuts twice a week, then “Oops, how did I manage to gain back all that weight?”

On Keto, however, since fat is filling and Keto recipes are everywhere involving just about everything, except sugar and grains, I don’t suffer the same sense of loss that other diets inevitably bring on. Just one guy’s experience.

But back to management. What I mean is that for the first time, Keto gives me a sense of being in control and under control. Have a carby weekend? Back to Keto on Monday and back to my pre-carby weight. Without the sense of suffering.

Now, over time, bad habits die hard. So, I did gain back 15 pounds over a year, compromising my Keto-ness too often. But now we’re all-in again and enjoying some Keto recipes we haven’t tried before. Down a pound-and-a -half in three days! Watch this space.

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