I love pizza. Always have, probably always will. When I found out there was such a thing as keto pizza, I was the happiest diabetic ever. Skillet pizza, fathead pizza, cauliflower pizza, chicken crust pizza, meatza, so many variations. However, they all involve quite a lot of prep time. I wanted something that killed the craving and didn't take 3 hours of "is the dough supposed to look like this??"

Pizza bowls are easy to do, this took me 20 minutes to put together. If you prep it the night before it would make an epic lunch at work - all you need is a microwave. Whatever your pizza preference is, if you like anchovies on your pizza, asparagus, artichokes, spinach, avocado, bacon... it all works.

Suggestions for toppings:

• Artichoke hearts
• Spinach
• Asparagus
• Avocado
• Chicken
• Bacon
• Salami
• Ham
• Biltong
• Blue cheese
• Pepperoni
• Chorizo
• Onions
• Bell peppers
• Ground beef/lamb/pork
• Cherry tomatoes
• Chilli
• Rocket/Arugula
• Grilled eggplant

Do you miss potato chips and all the other crispy, delicious, carb-filled things? I do. I don't actually miss those things, but sometimes I would kill for crunchy food. Crispy, crunchy deliciousness to eat with sour cream dip, guacamole, or chicken liver pâté.

Pork crackling is an appropriately crunchy snack, but it's not everyone's cup of tea, and not always easy to source or make. Bacon is usually a staple in keto houses and chicken skins are relatively easy to get hold of. Each time I make chicken soup, I remove the skins before using the chicken. They can both be turned into crunchy bite sized chips. 

You will need:

• bacon, the fattier the better
• chicken skin
• 2 baking trays, preferably one large one and one smaller one
• baking paper
• a heavy oven safe pot
• kitchen scissors
• salt, pepper & any other spice of choice

People often ask me for keto snack ideas or ideas for appetizers and this is one of my favourites. It's easy to do and even if you aren't a fan of chilli, these are perfect. I made these last year for Christmas dinner and it was fantastic, everyone loved them. 

Keto quiche, known in my house as Everything Quiche because it literally depends on what you have in your fridge, then you just put everything in. This is a super easy to make and easy to tweak recipe. I usually make these in single portions for lunches, and then accidental_keto_husband eats them before I get a chance. You could also put this in a larger pie dish (to eat immediately or freeze) and I'm 100% sure these would even work in muffin sizes. There are so many possibilities for this recipe. If you do it in a way I haven't thought of, new way to serve it or adding another ingredient that is amazing, please let me know in the comments! 

There are a few dishes that I consider keto staples and I will be doing a "keto basics" series with recipes and techniques for these. This is the first one in that series.