Banana bread is one of those things that I wasn't sure I would ever have again. I was never much of a fruit eater before keto, but I LOVED banana bread. Waide's been introducing more fruit into his diet and since we had bananas in the house, I decided to try make some. I wasn't expecting much but this was one of the best "first try" recipes that I've ever done. I love keto baking!

Lets preface this with: I don't usually tell my life story before recipes, I don't believe you guys want to hear about why I decided to make this specific meal for whoever I made it for and how they all went nuts about it and why it's connected to my childhood in some way. You're here for the food. That's okay, so am I.

That being said, this recipe holds a very special significance for me. My grandmother taught me a lot about baking and cooking. She was one awesome lady. Everyone loved her, you couldn't help it. She would invite you for lunch, teach you how to do something creative, feed you a roast of some kind and then give you a slice of pie. Her pies were famous. If you had the chance to have a mulberry or rhubarb pie at Aunty Rose's house; you did not turn that down. Those things were amazing. When I started keto I had to reconcile that there were a few things in my life that I would never eat again. My grandmother's pies, fruit mince pies and Christmas pudding. I was okay with all of this. I focused on what I could eat: cheese. My mother is a little more stubborn than I am. She decided that there was no way she was going to let this go. 

A few months ago she asked me for help coming up with a pie crust recipe. So we looked at Rosie's original recipe and figured out how to convert the carbs to well, not carbs. We had to try it a few times but when we finally got it to work... I almost couldn't believe this thing was real. We had made a pie crust that rivalled the real thing.

I know that sounds almost too good to be true but this crust browns nicely, it's flakey, it keeps its shape, the coconut flavour isn't strong at all and the best part: you can use it in savoury pies as well (with a bit of adjustment). My next mission - using it to make mince pies!

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

This is one of my favourite (and easiest) ways to do chicken for dinner. I came up with this while I was on holiday visiting family, I needed something that wouldn’t take too long to cook and would feed keto and non-keto people. Roast chicken is a staple in my house - it's a very flexible dish. I use this a lot with just Waide and I eating at home, but it's also really simple to upgrade for a dinner with friends/family.

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. 

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.