Keto Ramblings

Check out this fascinating video with visual educator, Orit Kruglanski.  If you'd like to improve your eyesight, and maybe even ditch your glasses, she offers a few freebies and exercises on her website:  https://oritojos.com/eng/

Another meatloaf creation!  This time I went Southwest style.  My mom gave me an Anaheim Pepper, and I had to put it to good use 😁 Combine the following ingredients in a bowl: 1/2 onion, diced 1 Anaheim Pepper, diced 1/2 can diced tomatoes  1/2 cup zucchini, grated 1/2 cup Crimini mushrooms, finely chopped  2 t. minced garlic 2 t. chili powder 1/2 t. pepper 1 t. salt 2 t. liquid aminos (or Worcestershire sauce) 1 egg 1/2 c. pork rinds (smashed to crumbs), or breadcrumbs Next, add ground beef and combine gently to incorporate. 1 lb. ground beef Spoon the meat mixture into muffin tins.  Fill each cup, but do not pack down.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 155 degrees.  I added some grated cheese about 5 minutes before it was done so the cheese could brown a bit on top. Let stand for 5 minutes before removing meatloaves from the pan.  I served my meatloaves with salad, extra grated cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and...

I've gotten on a kick lately for making meatballs and meatloaf, but trying to do something a little creative with it.  Today on the menu is mini pesto meatloaf baked in muffin tins.  I'm cooking for one, and I like being able to freeze leftovers for later.  These little meatloaves are perfectly portioned for meal planning and freezing.  Two meatloaf muffins are a serving size, although for me that was probably more meat than I needed for one meal.   Here are the ingredients: 1.5 llbs ground beef 2 eggs 1 t. salt 2 T. Italian Seasoning 1 T. minced, dried onion  1 t. minced garlic 1 C. pork rinds, smashed 1 C. zucchini, grated I'm a big fan of using what you have on hand.  So if you don't have the Italian Seasoning blend, throw in some parsley, rosemary, basil, oregano, and/or thyme.  If you have fresh onion, use that - if not, use the dried like I did.  You can use fresh or bottled garlic, or use powdered.  If you don't have pork rin...

One of the things I've been looking at lately is my food budget!  As you've probably noticed, the United States (and the world) is experiencing a lot of rising costs this year.  The consumer price index went up 7.5% in 2021, and is up 9.8% so far in 2022.  This means that many of us are dealing with the difficulties of getting less for our money, both at the grocery store and at the gas pump! So I've started taking a closer look at what I'm spending on food.  A few years ago I could easily spend $300 or less per month on groceries.  Last month I had spent that much halfway through the month.  I've been replacing breakfast and lunch with protein shakes for convenience but I've started wondering whether this is costing me more than they're worth.  Since I've also reached my weight loss goal, I'm considering how I can add more calories back into my diet and having real meals might just do the trick. I typically have my morning coffee with a pre-made box...

Frank's Red Hot sauce is amazing!  I've never been a 'hot wings' kind of person, so maybe that's how I've gotten this far in life without realizing how much I love this stuff.  I'm officially obsessed!   I've been trying out new recipes lately for meatloaf and meatballs... goes along well with my keto diet, and they're easy to portion and freeze for meal planning.  I've done the Southwest Mini-Meatloaves, and Pesto Meatloaves.  Yesterday I made Buffalo Chicken Meatballs (pictured above), and today I had to make more sauce so I could put it over some leftover meatloaf (pictured on the right).  I may have ended up just eating a few spoonfuls of sauce after dinner 👀. And now I'm looking up what else I can make with the hot sauce!   I'm still planning to make some changes to the recipe for next time, but here's what I did... Chicken Meatballs 1 lb ground chicken 2 slices of (keto friendly) bread, pulsed in food processor into crumbs 1 T....

I've been craving a grilled cheese the past week, so today I decided to go for it!   1 Head of Cauliflower 1/4th of a yellow onion Preheat oven to 425 F.  Grate these first two ingredients in a food processor or box grater, and put into a microwave-safe bowl.   Microwave a total of 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to make sure it cooks evenly.  It should be soft and tender, but drying out by the end of the 15 minutes. 1 Egg 2/3 cup Parmesan Cheese 1 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning Combine these ingredients into the cooked cauliflower to form the dough.   On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, use a 1/2 cup measure to scoop the cauliflower dough out.  Pat each scoop into 1/2 inch thick pieces of "bread".   Bake at 425 until golden brown - about 15-17 minutes then let cool for 5 minutes.   Loosen the bread from the parchment paper using a spatula.  Top a slice of bread with ham and cheese, then set a second piece of ...

Fear gets to the best of us, whether it is fear of failure, fear of success or even fear of fear. All of us have experienced fear at some point in our lives and it can be a real stumbling block that holds us back from being truly successful. Fear can’t hold you back forever, if you don’t let it. There are several ways to overcome fear, here are my top 9: 1. SEPARATE REALITY FROM PERCEPTION Ask yourself what is really going on, locate the facts and place them over your feelings. 2. IDENTIFY THE TRIGGER Figure out what it is in a situation that triggers you. Learning to identify it will help you learn to combat it. 3. KNOW WHERE FEAR LIVES IN YOUR BODY A lot of times, fear takes over physically. It affects different people different ways. Identify if/how it affects your physical body and do the work to take care of your body. Ex: if you hold stress in your back, you can learn stretches, foam rolling, etc. to avoid the pain. 4. PRACTICE GRATITUDE Everyday, list out 1-3 things you are than...

Curious to know what my full day on Keto looks like?  Here it is! Breakfast: To start my day, I have three cups of decaf coffee , using a full Atkins protein shake divided between them as the creamer/flavoring.  I'm visiting at a friend's house, so I'm using single-pod coffee from Double Donut Shop .  Since I drink decaf it's usually easier to find fancy ones online.  At home I just drink the store-brand coffee grounds.  Then I added an Atkin's Caramel flavor shake - delicious!  I've included links to Amazon.  Buying the Atkin's in bulk on Amazon is cheaper than buying at my local Walmart, but compare prices and see what works best for you! Also in the morning, I take a few supplements including collagen , biotin, and a DHT blocker .  Today I'm having these with a glass of Califina Magic which is green-apple flavored, and delicious - however, they've discontinued this product so when I use up my supply I'll have to find a new supergreens drink!...

I recently published this whimsical book called: A Dog a Day Keeps the Blues Away, which is filled with motivational personal affirmations.   We could all use a little cheering up from time to time, and who better to remind us how amazing we are than our favorite furry friends. Man (and Woman)'s best friend... Our dogs! Positive affirmations are little reminders to help brighten your day and improve your mindset. Our thoughts have a significant impact on our overall success and happiness.   This book of daily affirmations provide a little boost of confidence. You can think of them as messages from your favorite furry pup, who loves you more than you can imagine! A Dog a Day is free with your Kindle Unlimited membership, or just $2.99 without!  Check it out on Amazon:

Recipe This has been one of my favorite keto meals lately.  I even made it while visiting my parents and they enjoyed it as well.  This recipe is easy to adjust based on what you have on hand, so feel free to get creative! The recipe makes 6 servings, so I typically serve up one helping for dinner, then divide the rest into meal-prep containers and freeze them for later.  Printable Recipe Instructions The main ingredient is ground turkey... or you can use ground beef, or pork!  Use what you have on hand, or whatever is on sale this week.  Today I'm using a frozen roll of ground turkey, but the previous times I've made this recipe I used ground beef.  If your meat is frozen, be sure to thaw completely and then dump it into a medium size mixing bowl. Next you'll add about 1/2 cup of ground up pork rinds (optional).  I threw some into a bag and smashed them by hand.  This batch had a few extra-hard pieces so I used the back of a spoon to crush those ...

 Keto Recipes Ok, it's been a few weeks since I've done a recipe grab & meal planning day... So let's check out a few new recipes.  It's still crazy hot here in Southern Utah, so even though some of the soups and stews caught my eye, I couldn't imagine actually eating them!  So I'm focusing on salads this week.  I love having a salad-meal.  Add meat or other proteins, and salads are very filling!  Here are a few of my staples: The BLT Salad Just like it sounds, you're making this salad like a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, just without the bread!  Choose your favorite salad greens, and top it with: Bacon, of course!  Cook up as much bacon as you like, and crumble it over your greens. Tomato - chop it up and stir it in. Avocado - a great keto staple, and it goes great with a BLT.   Aioli - I have a chipotle aioli in the fridge which I think goes great on my BLT salad, but feel free to use any type of low-carb dressing or sauce t...

Keep it Simple I've mentioned before that I like to keep things pretty simple.  Way back as a young adult, I really enjoyed cooking, and often hosted dinner parties.  But life got in the way and over the years I ended up hardly ever cooking at all!  Keto got me interested in cooking and finding new recipes again, but I do still like convenience foods from time to time! Meal Delivery: Factor75 Before Keto, I tried lots of food kit delivery services and Hello Fresh was my favorite.  With Keto, I ended up trying Factor75 .  It has it's pros and cons, but overall I was happy with the meals I got.  Having ready-to-heat meals sure made staying keto easy!   So on the downside, Factor is pretty expensive, and not something I can sustain over time.  Six meals per week is $87.  I started up on a new-subscriber promotion, and kept it going for a few more deliveries, but ultimately I can cook for much less than that, so it didn't make sense for me....

Nutritional Hair Loss Okay, so I've been struggling with hair loss for... maybe a decade?  I'm about to turn 44, and I'm a woman.  So this has been a little nagging concern for a while, but after my most recent weight loss I noticed that my hair is really getting thin on top!  If I'm honest, I'm starting to panic just a little.  A couple years ago it got to the point that I had to get a special drain cover for my shower because it was getting clogged with hair every few days and I figured buying out Walmart of all their Drain-o probably wasn't a good idea.   In my younger days, I had ridiculously thick hair.  It was crazy.  So even with significant hair loss for an extended period of time, it really isn't noticeable to anyone other than me - yet.  At this point, however, I'd estimate I have about 1/4 the amount of hair I did in high school.  Definitely a huge change, and more than a little concerning.   In general, I'm aware t...

Keto When I started getting into the keto diet, I quickly learned that people were doing this crazy thing called intermittent fasting.  It took me a while to come around to the idea, but recently I've started doing a lot more fasting! I'm finding that it's helping me be more aware of why I'm eating (usually boredom), and scale back the sheer volume of food I'm consuming.  So why is fasting so popular among keto-ers?   When we're eating keto, our bodies go into a state of ketosis... Turns out the benefits of fasting are generally due to this same state of ketosis, although it's induced by restriction of food rather than choice of food.  So intermittent fasting can be seen as an extension of a keto diet in some ways.   In my experience, being on the keto diet reduces my hunger / cravings, so it makes sense that fasting would be easier if my body were already keto adapted.  While fasting in general doesn't specify which foods you can eat during your ...

Your Purpose  Determining what our purpose is in life can be one of the hardest questions that we as humans must try to answer. I can remember going through high school, where it seemed like absolutely everyone else knew exactly what they wanted to do when they grew up... and there I was feeling completely aimless!  It took me years (and a very wandering path) to create the life I'm so happy with today! In this quick article we will be going through a step by step process, exploring your feelings and options, and by the end, you should have a fairly solid tool you can immediately employ in your life, to help give it a meaningful direction and find more joy!  If you're looking for something more in-depth, check out Finding Meaning on Amazon. There are three steps to the process of discovering the purpose of your life: Understanding the principle of choice Creating your “underlying principle” Aligning your life with this underlying principle Understanding The Principle of ...