If you’re not familiar with Keto, then don’t worry…Today’s post is from Louise Hendon. She’s the co-founder of The Keto Summit, a site dedicated to providing you with practical advice, recipes, and tips for starting Keto. She’s also the author of The Essential Keto Cookbook and creator of the 3-2-1 Keto Meal Plans Program. So if you’re interested in getting started on Keto, please check those resources out.
Keto has gotten so popular over this past year (2017) that you’ve probably read about it somewhere…
But in case it’s new to you, let me start by explaining what Keto is.
Keto is a diet/lifestyle that integrates low carb with whole foods and healthy fats. It’s a diet that’s been around for almost a century. It was originally designed as a treatment for epilepsy (and it’s still used today for that purpose).
However, in modern times, people found that Keto also worked amazingly well for helping people stabilize their blood sugar levels, lose weight, gain energy, clear mental fog, and more. There’s even research being done into using Keto as an adjuvant cancer therapy.
And it’s those amazing benefits that has people so excited about this diet.
What do you eat on Keto?
The first thing most people want to know when they hear about a new diet is…what do you eat?
On Keto, you eat a lot of whole foods…things like:
• Fatty meats
• Fish and other seafood
• Leafy green vegetables
• Some berries, nuts, seeds
• Healthy fats
Because most fast food joints and restaurants don’t cater to people on Keto yet, right now most people starting Keto have to do a fair amount of cooking. Of course, cooking from scratch helps to make this diet even healthier for you!
How to start Keto?
It’s actually pretty easy to get started on a Keto diet.
For most people, it just sounds confusing at first because there’s a lot of different viewpoints on Keto out there – for example, some people add dairy to Keto recipes whereas other people (like us over at The Keto Summit) suggest you try to avoid all dairy except for ghee.
So, if you’re interested in getting started, then just try to focus on these 3 steps at first:
1. Cut down your net carb intake per day to under 25 g.
2. Eat lots of green leafy vegetables.
3. Add in more healthy fats like coconut oil, ghee, and olive oil.
And if you want to know more about Keto then, you can check out our post on getting started here.
Keto Recipes
Lauren already has a ton of Keto recipes on her site…recipes like Instant Pot Pulled Pork and Baked Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties.
But if you’re looking for more Keto recipes, then please check out The Essential Keto Cookbook the 3-2-1 Keto Meal Plans Program.
And to give you a taste of the types of recipes that would be considered Keto, here’s a delicious no-potato Keto cottage pie recipe.
- 1.5 head of cauliflower (600 g), broken into florets
- 3 Tablespoons of ghee (45 ml), melted
- ¼ cup of coconut oil (60 ml), to cook the ground beef with
- 1 medium onion (110 g), finely chopped
- 1.5 lbs of ground beef (675 g)
- 2 carrots (100 g), finely chopped
- 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 Tablespoons of fresh parsley (4 g), finely chopped
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup crushed nuts and seeds, for topping
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).
- Boil the cauliflower florets until they’re soft. Drain well.
- Place the florets along with the ghee into a food processor or blender to make the mash (make sure it’s creamy and not watery). Add salt to taste.
- Cook the ground beef in a large skillet in the coconut oil. Add in the onions, carrots, celery, parsley, and minced garlic. Cook until the beef is browned. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Pour the cooked beef mixture into a large baking dish (9-inch x 9-inch (23cm x 23cm) or a large oval dish).
- Scoop the cauliflower mash on top and smooth it out.
- Bake for 30 minutes.