Ginger Pork Meatballs

I'm a bit obsessed with pork at the moment, cooking it at every opportunity. Pork belly, pork dumplings, pork chops and tonight I made pork meatballs. They were incredible. I served them on a bed of fried cabbage and boiled green beans with melted butter.

Meal ideas:

  • Fried cabbage and meatballs
  • Meatball casserole with sour cream, broccoli and grated cheese
  • Meatballs and roast veg
  • Zughetti and meatballs with a tomato based sauce
  • Cauliflower egg fried rice and pork meatballs
  • Meatballs and sauerkraut

How To: Cooking with Eggplant

Eggplant is one of my favourite vegetables. If you were to ask my mother, she would tell you how weird that is. Until I started keto, I point blank refused to eat this stuff even though my mom knows how to cook eggplant really well. I just really did not like the taste. Because of this, I am pretty sure that keto changes your taste buds. I've even started eating chicken livers.

Eggplant is a non-starchy vegetable that is high in Potassium (and many other things), perfect for keto. It also only contains 3g of carbs per 100g.

Meal ideas:

Shimeji Mushrooms aka Keto Crack

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

Butter Roast Chicken

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.

Thai-Style Chicken Soup

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

Beef Stew

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.