I hope you were able to join us for the live tonight! Suzanne from Keto Karma and I got busy in our kitchen making the most wonderful Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms (from her new cookbook pg. 164)- they were to die for, seriously. I met Suzanne a few years ago when she published her first ever cookbook Simply Keto – this cookbook quickly became a staple in our household, especially her Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe, I promise, your kids will love it ! Check out her site too for more recipes or her YouTube channel to see more of her journey. Steve got on the Keto train a few yearS ago – here are a few posts about keto!
COOKING TIPS FROM SUZANNE
Don’t forget to pre-heat the oven or soften your cream cheese
Quick fix to soften your cream cheese: you can put it on a plate, get it out of the wrapper and microwave it for 15 seconds
I love getting my daughter involved with age appropriate tasks, so she can help with taking the mushroom tops off
You’ll want to use a cooling rack because mushrooms get really soggy
Make sure you keep an eye on when they are broiling
Another great tip is that you can cook these actually in the air fryer – it’s awesome, you can even reheat them in your air fryer
What have you been up to?
We are taking it a day at a time, we will probably be in shelter in place for awhile and I have a whole new respect for teachers! I have my daughter Olivia and it’s been fun hanging out with her everyday! We spend a lot of time in the kitchen and Olivia helps me a ton – here is the knife I let her use – I love it because it really is fool proof.
What do you suggest for breakfast instead of eggs?
Normally what I do is actually eat leftover dinner, it might not always be breakfast food. Even if it’s sausage with a side salad.
How did you get into keto?
I started keto in 2015 because I had tried so many different way to get healthier – in a year I had lost 100 lbs. My goal in writing these book/curating these recipes is showing people that it doesn’t have to be hard, that cooking can be approachable. I really had everything that you could imagine in far as diets and nothing was working, and eventually I hit rock bottom and I wanted to give up. Then I found Keto and seriously the rest is history – it’s very manageable to stick to and it’s a maintainable lifestyle. You know people always say that they could never do it because they’ll miss bread, chips, etc. but honestly, your taste buds do change and you don’t crave them as much.
What about wine? Can you have wine?
Absolutely ! The main thing that you’ll want to avoid is a dessert wine, stay away from them if they’re too sweet.
If you can’t have dairy – what do you suggest?
More and more people are starting to go dairy free. You can use coconut milk and for a lot of recipes you can omit the cheese for sure. The nice thing is that you can really do what works for you.
How important do you think it is to track you ketones?
I think it comes down to your personal preferences, what issues are you dealing with? If you’re doing it to just lose weight, a lot of times you can just eat under 20g of net cards and you’ll quickly start noticing a difference. I didn’t monitor them the first 6 months but I was super interested and started learning more about keto. I didn’t do it at first because I didn’t want to complicate the process. It’s really interesting to see how what your eating affects your body going in and out of ketosis.
The gold standard is by checking your blood ketones through pricking your finger – Keto Coach is great! The urine strips are only good for the first two weeks, so you’ve got to make sure you make the switch. They are also working on improving the breath monitors as well.
What are two recipes from each of your books that are you favorite?
+ Tuscan Chicken (it’s to die for)
+ Chili (it’s amazing and the perfect comfy food)
+ Egg Roll in a Bowl (literally tastes like the inside of an egg roll)
+ Coffee Cake (so so good)
What are you up to right now? Got anything planned?
Right now I am working on another book, taking simple cooking to a whole new level. Recipes with 5 ingredients or so, I think during this time I really appreciate cooking quick and easy. We’re just at the beginning stages, so there’s not set date yet.
I’m feeling overwhelmed with starting?
Take it one step at a time. For me, I started doing only less than 50g of net carbs per day. There are also so many resources out there for you to look at and I have a ton of information in my book too. My goal is to make it super simple and not overwhelming.
I am starting keto and am curious if you take a supplement and if so which one?