[Mike Nolan]

Small appliance repairs shops are a vanishing breed, I think the last one in Lincoln closed recently when the owner retired.

They actually make mixer attachments for a power drill, but I've never heard how well they work. They don't have two blades so they might not create as much whipping or mixing action.

I don't even know the last time we used our hand mixer, I've got a manual mixer that I use for things like custard and popovers.

[Mike Nolan]

We're having steak, mushrooms and salad.

[Mike Nolan]

One of the keto books I looked at has to be the worst organized cookbook I've ever seen.

The top of the page has the title of the book, but none of the recipes have titles on them, though I think they're all just one page long. I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to find a recipe in it.

[Mike Nolan]

As I recall I tested about two of the recipes in that book, but then I had work projects that kept me from doing any more of them. The ones I tried were also kind of a mixed bag.

I've got Splenda, and while I use it in tea I really haven't liked any of the baking we've done with it. As for monkfruit/erythritol (corrected), the erythritol makes things taste 'cool' and we didn't like anything I made with it. I'm not sure pure monkfruit would be an improvement, it is said to have some aftertaste.

I haven't done enough with the allulose to know if I like it or not, the custard I made using it was OK, could have been a little sweeter but I'm not getting any odd aftertastes.

I think my coconut flour is long past its 'best buy' date, I may get some more if I keep experimenting with baking.

For now I'm concentrating on the savory end of things, where I don't have to play around with artificial sweeteners.

[Mike Nolan]

I spent about 15 minutes browsing the keto books at Barnes & Noble yesterday, but so far I haven't bought any. Yeah, there are a lot of keto-friendly recipes on the net, but I'm also interested in adapting the recipes I've already been making to be more keto-friendly. I've also been looking at the recipes in Peter Reinhart's gluten-free sugar-free baking book.

[Mike Nolan]

The interesting thing about the keto diet is that butter and cream don't really matter, the goal is to have most of your calories coming from fats and few from carbohydrates.

I'll be interested to see what my cholesterol levels are in two weeks when I have followup labs scheduled. But there's a fair amount of research that says dietary cholesterol has almost no impact on blood cholesterol levels, at least for most people.

[Mike Nolan]

We had vegetable beef soup with a salad.

One of the challenges with a keto diet will be coming up with enough different dishes to keep meals interesting, both from the perspective of cooking and eating them. Years ago we bought a lot of NY strip steak through the Nebraska Public TV auction and put most of it in the freezer. That summer it was, "What, steak again!" more than once. 🙂

Without much starch, including things like wheat, rice and potatoes, that'll be challenging. I've looked at some of the keto cookbooks online, so far I haven't seen one that really impressed me. I may have to visit the bookstore to browse a few of the ones on the shelf.

I need to try some cauliflower rice, to see how it would work with a stir-fry.

[Mike Nolan]

You could use them in tacos, on a salad, in a pork-noodle casserole, or like pulled pork on bread. The barbecue flavor will perk up the dish.

Or maybe kind of a cassoulet or faux Feijoada with beans?

People make tuna salad or chicken salad all the time, why not pork salad?

[Mike Nolan]

I made cream of celery and leek soup for supper tonight. I kept the recipe fairly simple, next time I think I'd add some carrots. I didn't use any spices, though thyme, bay leaf, chives, parsley and sage show up in a lot of recipes, as does bacon and parmesan cheese, so there's lots of room for experimentation. One recipe suggests topping it with roasted hazelnut bits.

[Mike Nolan]

I'll try that if I make another recipe that uses flaxseed meal. I'll be curious to see how the KAF keto flour works and tastes.

I bought a loaf of Dave's killer seed bread, fairly small loaf and sliced thin, so it is only 13 carbs/slice, which means we could probably have one slice a day and not carb out. Our goal is to always be under 100 carbs but preferably around 50/day, some keto diet sources recommend 25-30 carbs/day, but that's pretty extreme and they tend to be health fanatics.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife's comment on the latest keto bread is that she isn't sure if it was better than having no bread at all, not exactly a ringing endorsement. It feels a bit rough in the throat, maybe that's from having ground flaxseed in it?

Right now I'd say this is probably not a recipe I'd make again, so the search continues.

[Mike Nolan]

I see it as a challenge, how can I make an edible bread that is still keto-friendly.

My weight is down about 5 pounds in two weeks, so the keto diet is working for me, and my wife's blood sugar numbers have been really good, especially no overnight spikes, so it's working for her that way, and her weight is down some.

[Mike Nolan]

Haven't tried it yet,but it's a bit crumbly, a big corner of it broke off as I was handling it. But given that it didn't have any gluten or a gum (like xanthan) for structure, that may not be surprising. I will try slicing it at lunchtime.

I've ordered a bag of King Arthur's new keto flour, we'll see how it works, but it's really expensive.

[Mike Nolan]

The custards taste like custard, though they could probably have used a little more allulose. (Allulose is about 75% as sweet as sucrose.) Diane thinks more vanilla would help.

They did dome a bit in the middle, something I've never seen custard do before, but they collapsed as they cooled.

[Mike Nolan]

The keto friendly bread that I made 6 days ago was gone, so I'm trying another keto-friendly recipe tonight. This one uses 4 whole eggs and some ground flaxseed. It's in the oven, but it says not to slice it until it's cool, so I probably won't taste it until morning.

This recipe recommends keeping it in the refrigerator or slicing and freezing it. The other one didn't.

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