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!

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

A lot of my recipes use pecan flour as the keto friendly flour replacement. I accidentally discovered this magical stuff last year when my friend started selling pecan oil. I was a bit sceptical at first because I was not previously a fan of pecans. Boy was I ever wrong. This flour bakes so well and, in my opinion, the flavour complements other flavours beautifully. It pairs really well with savoury flavours (meatballs etc.), spicy flavours (ginger, pumpkin spice etc.), and even chocolate.

It has roughly the same amount of carbs as almond flour but quite a lot less calories because it has half the fat. 

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.