What We’ve Been Up To

 Once again it was great to see everybody at our meeting earlier this week!  We welcomed two newcomers. For those of you new to keto, be sure to check out my favorite resources for getting started.

Holiday Treat Sampling
It always makes me happy when people like my cooking, so it was nice to hear the positive feedback on our samples.  The sugar cookie recipe is here.  I added a little almond flavoring and a tablespoon of unflavored gelatin.  The recipe calls for zylitol, but you can sub monkfruit and/or Swerve or your favorite alternative sweetener. (I avoid xylitol when I can given the risk to our fur babies.) These cookies turned out crispy and sturdy and they held up to a simple buttercream of a stick of butter, about 2/3rds cup of powdered Swerve, and a little vanilla and almond flavoring.  If the frosting is too thick to spread, you can warm it up a little so the butter softens or you can add a tsp or two of heavy cream or nut milk. I’m looking for keto-friendly food coloring to add to the frosting to jazz these up a bit for the holidays.

 

 

And the peanut butter cups turned out really well.  I’ve made several batches of these and will be making more for gifts. They are easy to make, but it does take some patience to go thru several steps.  I think they are well-worth the trouble.  The recipe is here.

 

 

 

 

Someone asked about the pumpkin bread mix from Jo-Jo’s Kitchen.  Jolene has a kickstarter campaign going now.  If she meets her goal, the mixes will be made and shipped.  In the meantime, if you’re looking for a keto pumpkin bread recipe, I like this one from WholesomeYum.  It’s very good.  Be sure to sift the nut flours to get the amounts accurate.  Sifting takes only a minute and it makes a big difference!

 

 

 

Keto and the Holidays
So that’s quite a bit of emphasis on sweet treats, isn’t it?  During the holidays, I want to make sure we know we have alternatives, that we don’t have to blow all our hard work because everybody else is eating the traditional carb-laden foods that make us feel bloated and sick and cause the scale to go up.

If you’re firmly committed to this ketogenic way of eating, getting through the holiday is pretty simple.  Good proteins, low carb vegetables, and plenty of butter and healthy fats.  If you’re someone who has had trouble staying on track, the holidays can be a challenging time and it may be well worth the effort to have some keto baking on hand that you can enjoy.

It is absolutely possible to stay on track, feel good about our accomplishments, and get to the New Year with a head start towards our goals.  It requires some effort, but it’s easier than feeling like crap.

My number one tip for staying on track?  Focus on the good foods you get to eat instead of what you “can’t have”. The truth is, we can have anything we want to eat.  It’s just that we also get the consequences when we eat crap and we get the rewards when we eat good food.  Here’s a picture of what I had for lunch today.  Bacon and a scrambled egg with whatever I could find in the fridge–in this case, spinach, mushrooms, onion, cream cheese, and parmasan cheese.  You too can do this!  I can’t wait to celebrate with you 🙂

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.  If you feel like you need more in-depth coaching, you can always check out the coaches at ketovangelistcoaching.com.  Their coaches are great and their prices are reasonable.

Our next local meetings are November 27th and December 11th at 6:30 pm at Unity.

Til next time,
Kynda

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