Don't Fear the Party

Candy Crush!

I have now survived 2 birthday parties, one grownup party and picking up Krispy Kreme Doughnuts without the urge to cheat!

I started my keto diet on Halloween, not the smartest move. I took great pride is saying NO to all that candy dancing around my house. No, little Tootsie Roll. Not giving you a break, Kit Kat. Self-righteous, much? Yes, okay. It was so easy! Right! Until the keto flu kicked my ass.

Then over that. Ha ha! Keto easy! Keto good! But now, I was staring right into the face of Thanksgiving! The one holiday my family takes seriously. We pride ourselves on the number of desserts we have. We serve a salad that is jello and whipped cream. I had to plan an entire meal Just. For. Me! No one I'm related to is down with my weird diet, even if it's working. Every person suggested I just cheat.

Permission to damage yourself.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Overcooked?

Thanksgiving was a challenge for me. I'd only been a few weeks keto and I was terrified that if I slipped up, I'd be rolling in a dirty gutter. I wanted so many things that just weren't going to work for me. I'm still trying to keto-fy some of my favorite recipes. Maybe one day I will get there, but if I don't I can live without them. Living low carb doesn't have to be depriving or limiting. You just have to have the courage to say no to the bad choices and be willing to work hard to make good ones.

My Top 4 Keto Survival Tips

This summer a doctor who couldn't diagnose what was causing my erratic weight gain, fatigue episodes, and hives suggested I try a ketogenic diet. I had no idea what he was talking about. He took out a prescription pad wrote down: ketogenic diet, 70% fat- 25% protein- 5% carbs. My jaw may have hit the floor, when he emphasised over 100 grams of fat. He said it had great results with autoimmune disorders and weight loss. Then he told me it was impossible to follow. Good luck and have a nice day.

Um, Donuts

Doughnuts. In my previous world, doughnuts meant and only meant Krispy Kreme. Donuts are everything else. You are never going to find a low carb/keto/healthified Krispy Kreme replacement. Don't tell me you do or can- just don't! Don't waste your time. That yeasty, airy, diabetic coma inducing goodness is not remakeable. I can be okay with that. I can! The hot-ready-now sign is nothing to me! Nothing!

My one perfect donut!

Just before Thanksgiving, while cruising The Google when I should have been sleeping, I found a donut recipe I had to try. Combine my desire for pumpkin, which I wasn't sure if I could still eat while following a ketogenic diet, and my desire for doughnuts and you get Pumpkin Cardamom Donuts Holes from Ruled.Me. It was near midnight. I ran downstairs and had cracked the eggs before I realized I didn't have any pumpkin. Driving to the store crossed my mind, when I spied a lone sweet potato on the counter. I don't didn't like sweet potatoes. Get off sugar for a few weeks and sweet potato tastes like candy.

Pots de Crème! Fancy

Pots de Crème... fancy. But don't be scared away. It's custard. For me it's just a dish to use up egg yolks. I have no idea what I made that just used egg whites. My brain apparently didn't file that information away or else someone used my kitchen without telling me.

No matter. One of the first keto blogs I found was ruled.me. I love all the info I found there and the recipes are amazing. The recipes have nutrition data broken down by ingredient, which is super insightful.

Been Awhile; Corn Dogs for Supper

Promised my dad before he died that I'd lose this weight that has been plaguing me the past 2 years. Nothing has worked, finally a doctor said it was a stress (and age- I'm ignoring that, 29 forever!) response. This doctor told me it wasn't in my head and I should really give a ketogenic diet a try. It's helped others lose weight and rebalance hormones. He then proceeded to tell me it was horribly hard to follow.

Thanks for the encouragement, Doc.

He was almost right. Eating a ketogenic lifestyle is hard, IF you don't have google. I've been making recipes left and right. Had some successes and some failures. A friend suggested I chronicle my adventures in "new fangled" cooking. Especially my failures (there aren't that many) and what non-keto eaters like and loathe. They mostly loathe anything I make- on principle!

Last night I made CORN DOGS! From the wonderful blog of Maria at Keto Adapted. I've learned a lot from her site in the last week and wish I'd found her years ago.

Sticking to the pan and do these look a bit inappropriate?

The recipe was fairly simple and quick. I doubled the recipe, used 6 hot dogs, paprika for spice, and added 1/2 tbsp of Swerve to the batter. I like the sweet taste of corn dog batter. The batter filled my entire mini muffin pan so I had 6 servings instead of the expected 4. I'm not sure how I'd get this batter to really stick to a whole hot dog to fry, besides the mini muffin style is cute for kids. It crossed my mind to pull out the deep fat fryer to finish these off, however the corn dogs stuck to the pan terribly. I greased that pan a lot after reading the comments and it still didn't work. I think a silicone pan would have worked and perhaps dusting the pan before adding the batter would help.

No worries, it still came out okay and it went over well with my nephews and my mom. They'd have liked it better if I'd left the cauliflower off the plate. I found the taste satisfying, the texture acceptable. This is something I will make again. The nutritional profile works for me too. (per myfitnesspal.com recipe calculator)

Yucky cauliflower and yummy mustard and chipotle mayo 

Nutrition Facts
Servings 6.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 248
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 18 g	28 %
Saturated Fat 7 g	37 %
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 154 mg	51 %
Sodium 591 mg	25 %
Potassium 77 mg	2 %
Total Carbohydrate 8 g	3 %
Dietary Fiber 5 g	19 %
Sugars 1 g
Protein 13 g	26 %
Vitamin A	8 %
Vitamin C	1 %
Calcium	1 %
Iron	12 %