The title might seem strange but this stuff is addictive. I was a having a case of the empty fridges and shimeji mushrooms and an eggplant were the only things left. And I will never look back - I could eat this forever. The mushrooms have a really rich, nutty flavour. Personally I think these mushrooms would work brilliantly with seafood because their umami flavour is almost "fishy". The mixture of these mushrooms and eggplant is probably my favourite vegetable combo. 

Meal Suggestions: 

• pork chops and keto crack
• steak and keto crack
• shimeji mushrooms in Thai soup
• keto crack served over a bunless burger
• keto crack and pork belly 
• shimeji mushrooms in a stir fry
• meatball casserole with shimeji mushrooms 
• Pecan flour fried chicken pieces with keto crack

I am obsessed with Thai flavours at the moment and this soup ticks all the right Thai food boxes. I got dried lemongrass leaves from my mom so I have been adding it to all my food lately. This soup is a variation of my traditional chicken soup, so, if you don't like Thai food, you can easily substitute the flavours with others flavours like more traditional herbs, basil, rosemary etc.

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken pieces (thighs/breasts) - remove the skin and set aside for other recipes
• chicken stock (1 bullion cube and boiling water is fine, but I often use frozen stock from other meals)
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 garlic cloves
• thyme
• chilli flakes
• lemongrass
• 3 slices of fresh ginger (or 1 tsp. of ginger powder)
• mushrooms (I used a mixture of white button mushrooms and shimeji)
• bok choy
• 2 eggs
• cilantro (optional)
• Thai spices (I use a premix called Thai 7 spice - sugar/starch filler free)
• salt & pepper

It's still winter here and before keto, stew was always one of my favourite comfort foods. Admittedly, removing potatoes from stew, makes it much less "stewy" so we've just renamed it to "Stewp". Because, even if you have to eat it with a spoon, stew is still an easy and comforting meal.

I usually make mine in my crock pot (slow cooker), so by the end of the cook, the meat has pretty much melted into the rest of the dish. My standard vegetables in stews are: mushrooms, green beans, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, pattypan squash, baby gem squash, cabbage,  and sometimes even bok choy. Usually not all at once, but if you experiment with a mix of these you might find something you like and that fits your macros. If you don't add too much liquid to the dish at the start and cook it for long enough, you can sometimes get a thick "real stew" consistency. Especially if you add vegetables that dissolve when cooked for long enough, like tomatoes. I usually replace the rice with gem squash, fried cabbage or fried cauliflower.

Pork belly is one of my favourite cuts of meat. We eat this more often than steak. And if you watch Masterchef, you will probably have noticed that it's growing in popularity. We are fairly lucky in South Africa because pork belly is available easily and relatively cheaply. I usually buy 3kg (6.6 lb) cuts, so they take a while to cook and because they are so big, they are often weirdly shaped. Sometimes they have bone, sometimes cartilage. When I buy the fancy looking, nicely cut ones, they are usually around 800g (1.7 lb) and cook a lot faster.

Before I started keto I had never even heard of pork belly. It has slowly become a staple in our house because, if done right, it can be breakfast, lunch and dinner for a few days. It freezes really well and is super versatile.

There are thousands of ways to cook pork belly, this is simply the way I prefer. It's a very easy recipe but one of my most impressive meals. People keep thanking me for going out of my way to make such fancy food for them. Just be aware that pork belly is quite high in calories, 520 calories per 100g (0.2 lb).

Pork belly meal ideas:

1. Sliced pork belly with steamed/roasted veg
2. Pulled pork on pumpkin puree/cauliflower mash
3. Pork belly and crackling served on sautéed spinach with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce
4. Pork belly with asparagus and fried egg
5. Pulled pork in a creamy alfredo-type sauce served with zucchini noodles
6. Pulled pork served with melted cheese and olives/nuts/cucumber (snack type foods)
7. Crispy fried pork belly strips in duck fat (I am dying to try this but I need a sharp knife first)
8. Shredded pork belly with stir fried vegetables

The first time Waide tried this he immediately said "this is the crust recipe you use from now on!".

This was a random invention based on what I had in my fridge and honestly, the best cheesecake I've ever eaten! But I'm biased, so try it for yourself! When you see the ingredients you are probably going to think "holy calories!" But this recipe divided easily into ten servings, it works out to 4.8g of carbs per serving and 380 calories. Easy to fit into your macros for a special occasion, or you know, a Monday. 

After two years of doing keto, I STILL don't feel qualified to really answer this question. I am constantly learning new things every day. So I've crowd-sourced this post. Thank you to everyone who helped me!

Firstly, the best place I can recommend is Reddit. If you have never used Reddit before, it's an online forum dedicated to thousands of different subjects. The keto subreddit is a great source of information for people starting out. Go read the FAQ and if you have any questions you can search the sub, because chances are, your question has been asked before. Ketoscience is a great place to go if you want to get to the scientific stuff regarding low carb and ketosis. 

I posted about starting my personal keto journey here and here. Go give it a read. I talk about some of the things that helped me when I started as well as how keto has improved my health. 

I am not good at change. I have had a lot of change happen to me in a very short time span in this last year. The glamour of weight loss is starting to wear off and I am left a little broken. Suddenly finding yourself with the body that you dreamed of (not really, but close enough - I had more realistic expectations) leaves you with a very strong "what now" feeling and that is when you suddenly figure out that weight loss does not solve all your problems.

I stood in front of the mirror this morning staring at this body that I feel like an imposter in. I feel like a fraud. One day I will wake up and the owner of this body will want it back and I will go back to the old me, the real me. The me my brain thinks I deserve. The invisible me. That little voice in your head, the one who likes to voice your self-doubts, doesn't like me at all. She never has. I am not friends with the nasty self-hating voice in my head. She has been working on trying to ruin my life since I was old enough to understand her. And today I find myself wondering why I give her so much power.

Creamed spinach is another keto staple in my kitchen. These days, I'm very hesitant to order this at a restaurant because most places use flour as a thickener. Luckily, it's a very easy dish to do at home, as it takes less than 10 minutes to put together. I have experimented with different flavours in this based on what I am cooking. Meat drippings are a great addition to creamed spinach.

Hollandaise sauce is pretty much a keto staple for me. I used to only have it when I went out for brunch but when I started keto, I taught myself how to make it correctly. In the beginning when I asked Waide if he wanted Eggs Benedict he would always say no thank you because he hated the taste of hollandaise. After a few months of this he eventually consented to try it. "Oh, this is what hollandaise is supposed to taste like?" I don't blame him, restaurant hollandaise can taste really bad if they do it wrong - or buy packaged stuff.

Don't be too scared of messing this up... I curdled the sauce about 3 times before I finally got it right. It took me a little while to figure out that the secret is LOW HEAT. If you don't own stainless steel mixing bowls, I recommend you fix that and go buy some. They are easy to use and a great way to make DIY double boilers. I use these bowls for my sauce because it makes it easy to check the heat underneath. The ideal for hollandaise is when your water (not touching the bowl!) continues to steam without boiling.

Bulletproof coffee; some people swear by this stuff, some people hate it, some people will get really angry when you tell them you drink it (cos you know, arteries and stuff) but it's definitely becoming well known. And if you don't know what it is yet - it's when you add butter and/or MCT oil to your coffee. I'm kind of lukewarm about this stuff, I definitely don't think it is as vital to keto as many sites lead you to believe. I'm not a fan of drinking my calories, and boy does this have calories. Sometimes I just feel like having one, maybe every two months or so, so I came up with a recipe that works for me. This is not the original BulletProofCoffee(TM) or whatever, but it's an approximation. Everyone has their own version of how to make this, this is the one I like.