Ted here. This post is about the very simplest keto meals. Especially from the perspective of the secondary cook.<\/p>\n
Christy is a food wizard. She gets food. She can create new things from basic components. She can produce batches of treats for Nora that we can use over the week. That is not an area of significant competence for me, but I can certainly make simple keto meals for Nora. So what do we do when energy and time are low, more complex treats are not available, and Nora needs to eat? Here is our most basic template for an easy lunch (or dinner).<\/p>\n
Base:<\/span> Carbs:<\/span> Protein:<\/span> Fat:<\/span> Fiber:<\/span> Variety:<\/span> A typical, very simple lunch:<\/span> At the bare minimum, if I have avocado, cheddar cheese, raspberries, and cream, I can cobble together the most basic tasty meal that satisfies all the constraints. Add some sliced meat, other berries, apples, peppers, carrots, cream cheese, macadamia nuts, kalamata olives, and Flackers, and we can switch things up enough to keep the simple meals interesting from day to day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ted here. This post is about the very simplest keto meals. Especially from the perspective of the secondary cook. Christy is a food wizard. She gets food. She can create new things from basic components. She can produce batches of … Continue reading
\nStart with a base of avocado<\/b>. Avocados are stellar. They are at about a 3.5:1 ratio on their own, plus they are fibrous. They can be simply diced, or spread as butter. We’ll generally start with 20 to 30 grams of avocado for a meal. Macadamia nuts<\/b> (see more on them below) can also serve the role of a meal base. Both avocados and macadamia nuts work well to start the meal calculation because they are both high ratio, and give you a solid start on all four of the major constraints: carbs, protein, fat, and fiber.<\/p>\n
\nThe major sweet parts of the lunch come from apple<\/b>, red pepper<\/b>, carrots<\/strong> or berries (e.g., blueberries<\/b>, strawberries<\/b>, and raspberries<\/b>). Peppers and raspberries get priority because of their high fiber and low carb content (relatively). Apples, blueberries, strawberries, and carrots pack much more of a carb punch, so those are added if the other major constraints are met and there is still a bit of carb to give. Generally there will be 5 to 30 grams of total fruit, depending on the mix.<\/p>\n
\nCheddar cheese<\/b> is the primary protein base. Nora likes it, it is easy to cut and weigh, and it has a good amount of fat too.\u00a0 It is versatile too in that it can be served sliced, cubed, shredded, melted, or melted and reformed.\u00a0 Something like 10 grams to 20 grams is typical. Sliced turkey<\/b> and ham<\/b> are also popular. Ham is nice because it has some fat. Sometimes we’ll put cream cheese and butter on the sliced meat and roll it up to get more fat in there.<\/p>\n
\nCream<\/b> is our primary fat, either mixed with water and a few drops of vanilla flavoring to make “milk,” or steamed in our espresso machine with a pinch of cocoa powder. The amount of cream will be between 10 and 40 grams, depending on what else is in the meal. We’ll might also look for opportunities to put butter on or in things. The other two big fat delivery mechanisms are macadamia nuts<\/b> and kalamata olives<\/b>. Those are especially nice if I want to avoid liquids (i.e., cream) in the meal, for example, with a packed lunch. Macadamia nuts do have some carbs, so it will use up some of that allotment, but their high fat and high fiber content provide a significant tradeoff for that. Kalamata olives are one of very few foods that have both fat and carbs, but no protein, so they make a natural keto complement to meat and cheddar. However, they have no fiber.<\/p>\n
\nThe fourth constraint. Generally I check for fiber when I am satisfied with the amount of carbs and the ratio of the meal. If the fiber content is too low — we shoot for about 11 grams of fiber for Nora over the day — then I’ll circle back and see if I can trade something out for more raspberries, macadamia nuts, or Flackers<\/a><\/strong>. Flaxmeal is another option, and can be mixed in with any butter in the meal.<\/p>\n
\nLastly, we’ll check to see if there is a reasonable variety of textures and tastes. Meaning, is there something creamy and something crunchy? Is there something sweet and something salty?<\/p>\n
\n8 g apple
\n15 g avocado
\n15 g cheddar cheese
\n8 g Flacker with 8 g butter
\n15 g macadamia nuts
\n13 g cream with water and vanilla flavoring to make “milk”
\n—————————
\n3.52:1 ratio
\n2.5 g carbs
\n6.9 g protein
\n33.1 g fat
\n4.4 g fiber
\n336 calories<\/p>\n