Switching to the Keto Side: Part 2

Now we can focus back on my little series about this Ketogenic Diet that Brandon and I have been on for a few months now. Through time it has become easier and easier to do. Considering the way our bodies have reacted, we are so glad we stumbled upon this type of eating and the science behind it! Before, Brandon would always complain of being tired all the time. I always thought he wasn't getting enough sleep or exercise. I never would have thought that the fine food that I was cooking could make someone tired all the time. We ate lots of fruits, veggies, meats, whole grains,  and all the other stuff that we have been taught that is "healthy". Fast forward to now, Brandon never complains of being tired now, unless he eats something with a lot of carbs in it or just natural lack of sleep. He says he just feels better all around also. We abstain from foods with gluten in it (i.e. wheat, barley, & rye products) as well as whole grains and sugar (cause they're full of carbs!!). As for me, my migraines have reduce by a lot! They haven't disappeared altogether yet, but I'm wondering if maybe over time they will.

So you may ask, what is a Ketogenic Diet (KD)?

I'll give you an official definition of a KD from book I have read The Ketogenic Diet: A complete guide for the dieter and practitioner. In it Lyle McDonald states that a KD is "any diet that causes ketone bodies to be produced by the liver, shifting the body's metabolism away from glucose and towards fat utilization" (McDonald, 1998). However, there are several different "types". There's the Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD), Targeted KD, and Cyclical KD. They will be explained in further detail later.
 
With that said (or typed ;), let me briefly explain to those of y'all that may not know what it going on in your body when you eat or when you are hungry and haven't eaten. On a "normal" diet, when you ingest food it raises your blood glucose levels. That is the signal to the pancreas to release insulin. That insulin goes and finds the blood glucose particles and puts them into cells to be used for energy. Those cells, full of glucose, then get stored in the liver and in your muscles as glycogen. Any extra glucose that can't fit into your liver or muscles then gets stored as fat (ugh). So it's been a while since you've eaten, you're getting hungry, and your blood glucose levels are declining. That sends another signal to your pancreas to emit glucagon. The glucagon's job is stimulate the liver to break the stored glycogen back into glucose and then release it back into the bloodstream. Thus, your blood glucose proceeds to rise, and you have fuel yet again.

My degree is in Exercise Science so I took a couple nutrition classes with a bunch of other classes about health and exercise. Through that, it got stuck in my head that you need carbohydrates because they are your body's main source of energy. After playing soccer ever since I was five and through college, they always harped on carb loading nights before game day. Turns out, I was wrong - about part of it. In fact, our bodies have no requirement for carbohydrates, if we never ate anymore carbohydrates ever again we would be totally okay. As Dr. Tim Noakes said, "there are no carbohydrate deficiency diseases" (Moore, 2014). Our bodies do readily absorb carbs for energy, it is our body's first choice, but it can also use fat as an energy source. Whether it comes from dietary fat or our body's stores, it doesn't matter. The awesome thing about using fat for energy is that we don't have all these spikes and drastic drops in blood glucose that we normal do when the majority of our diet comes from carbs. So if you withheld carbohydrates, your stores of them (glycogen) would empty out. The body has to run on something so it will turn to alternative fueling: free fatty acids (FFA) and ketones. The lack of carbs will decrease your insulin levels and increase your glucagon levels. Once the glucagon has no more glycogen to break down into glucose it will turn to your fat stores for fuel and begin to break them down. When fat is broken down it turns into the FFA, and the ketones are a byproduct of the FFA breaking down incompletely, which all results in ketosis. In order for your carbohydrate stores to deplete, you must ingest 100 grams or fewer of carbs per day. And let me tell you, that's not much at all. You would be amazed how much carbs are in everything!

Think of this form of nutrition from a weight loss point of view. You've got excess fat that you want to lose, but you eat a diet high in carbs. Your body is only going to use carbs for energy because you feed yourself so many, it has no need to use the fat stores you have accumulated (for energy). So, if you lessen your carb intake (to 100 g or less) then your body will run out of energy from that source and then will have to turn to fat to burn instead! Now, you can't eat an excess of calories and expect to lose weight on this kind of diet (or any diet for that matter). There's the law of thermodynamics you have to remember (energy coming in must be less than the energy being expended if you want to lose weight).

I'll let y'all chew on that information for a while and end this post with an absolutely delicious recipe!! It's one of Brandon's all-time favs!

Zucchini Lasagna

Serves: 8

1.5 lb beef
3 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 t dried basil
3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8" thick
15 oz part-skim or regular ricotta
16 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, shredded
1 large egg

 

In a medium sauce pan, brown meat and season with salt. When cooked, drain fat. Put the meat in a bowl off to the side. 

 

Add olive oil to the pan and sauté garlic and onions about 2 minutes. Return the meat to the pan, add tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper.

  Simmer on low for at least 30-40 minutes, covered. Do not add extra water, the sauce should be thick.

 

Meanwhile, slice zucchini into 1/8" thick slices, add lightly salt and set aside or 10 minutes. Zucchini has a lot of water when cooked, salting it takes out a lot of moisture. After 10 minutes, blot excess moisture with a paper towel. 

On a gas grill or grill pan or a regular skillet, grill zucchini on each side, until cooked, about 1-2 minutes per side. Place on paper towels to soak any excess moisture.
Preheat oven to 375° F.

  

In a medium bowl, mix ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and egg. Stir well.

 In a 9x12 casserole spread some sauce on the bottom and layer the zucchini to cover.

  Then place some of the ricotta cheese mixture,

 

Then top with the mozzarella cheese and repeat the process until all your ingredients are used up. I generally just make two thick layers.

  Top with sauce and mozzarella and cover with foil.
Bake 45 minutes covered at 375° F, then uncovered 15 minutes.

  Let stand about 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

Zucchini Lasagna -serves 8
1.5 lb beef
3 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 t dried basil
3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8" thick
15 oz part-skim or regular ricotta
16 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, shredded
1 large egg

In a medium sauce pan, brown meat and season with salt. When cooked, drain fat. Put the meat in a bowl off to the side. Add olive oil to the pan and sauté garlic and onions about 2 minutes. Return the meat to the pan, add tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Simmer on low for at least 30-40 minutes, covered. Do not add extra water, the sauce should be thick.
Meanwhile, slice zucchini into 1/8" thick slices, add lightly salt and set aside or 10 minutes. Zucchini has a lot of water when cooked, salting it takes out a lot of moisture. After 10 minutes, blot excess moisture with a paper towel. On a gas grill or grill pan, grill zucchini on each side, until cooked, about 1-2 minutes per side. Place on paper towels to soak any excess moisture.
Preheat oven to 375°.
In a medium bowl mix ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and egg. Stir well.
In a 9x12 casserole spread some sauce on the bottom and layer the zucchini to cover. Then place some of the ricotta cheese mixture, then top with the mozzarella cheese and repeat the process until all your ingredients are used up. Top with sauce and mozzarella and cover with foil.
Bake 45 minutes covered at 375°, then uncovered 15 minutes. Let stand about 5 - 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition: (part-skim) 573.9 calories, 41.6 g fat, 15.7 g carbohydrates, 36.93 g protein
           (regular) 600 calories, 45.4 g fat, 13.93 g carbohydrates, 36.93 g protein

p.s. While I didn't create this recipe, I can't remember where I found it so I can't give credit where credit is due. Sorry!

Sources:
McDonald, Lyle. (1998). The ketogenic diet: A complete guide for the dieter and practictioner. Austin: Morris.
Moore, J. (Producer). (2014, November 12). Professor Tim Noakes: August 2014 Low-Carb Down Under Seminar Series [Episode 894]. The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show.

Switching to the Keto Side: Part 1

So this past fall Brandon and I had been listening to a podcast on our way home from Tennessee. Since we love health, food, and exercise, we had been listening to "Fat Burning Man". In one of the podcasts, the host, Abel James' guest speaker, Dr. David Perlmutter, is a board certified neurologist who practices in Naples, Florida. During this podcast, we became introduced to the Ketogenic Diet. Some of you may know it similarly as the modified Atkins Diet or Low Carb, High Fat diet. Dr. Perlmutter has an interesting view of how grains that we eat affect our brain. He's even written a book and cookbook on it! His book is called Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs and Sugar – Your Brain’s Silent Killers, and the cookbook is The Grain Brain Cookbook. Before you dismiss this notion of the Ketogenic Diet just because of negative things you may have heard about Atkins, keep in mind that it is not the exact same thing, just very similar.

The basics of this diet is that you eat low carbs, less than 100 grams a day, high fat, and moderate protein. It similar to paleo, because it eliminates some things like sugar and flour. But no worries! Even without things like that in your diet your food will be delicious! Trust me. In the coming weeks I'll explain more specifically about this type of diet, it's application involving exercise, and several other topics that answer questions I have had regarding this diet, but discovered through a lot of research (from peer-reviewed journals, of course ;).

The premise is that your body gets its preferred energy source from carbohydrates, which turn into glucose in the bloodstream; more on that later. Since your body is getting all of its energy from carbs then there's no reason for it to use fat to burn as fuel as well. But when we subtract the majority of the carbs from our diet (our body still needs some carbs/glucose, because our brains requires glucose to run. Again, more on that later) then our body has to turn towards fat to burn.

From the research that Brandon and I have done on it, we decided we'd give it a try. We have body fat percentages we want to get down to, and this is an option to try. Not to mention, through the research we have done, we've come to discover that a lot of research is pointing towards grains being a cause of migraines. Since I have the unfortunate privilege of getting them, it added to our motivation.

So I, of course, have recipe to share with y'all! It is "ketofied" (as I like to call it), but it's just a regular recipe that my mother-in-law makes during holidays and we love it! And you're going to love  how simple it is to make!



7 Layer Salad
Serves:12

1 head of romaine lettuce, clean and shredded
10 oz frozen peas, thawed 2 T. minced onion



4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced. If you're OCD I wouldn't look too intently at the rows of the eggs, it might drive you a little crazy! I was one short of making it all equal. I just try not to think about it.



1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled. I just cooked these in my cast iron pan, but you can also bake them. It goes a lot quicker for sure. If you choose the baking route, preheat your oven to 400 degrees (F) and cook your bacon about 15 to 18 minutes.



Layer in that order in a 9x13 pan. Then make the dressing

Dressing
2 c mayo
2 T. sugar

Make sure to mix well and dissolve the sugar. Layer the dressing on top of bacon layer.



8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.
Chill 4-8 hours before serving.



I promise you this recipe won't fail you! It's certainly a favorite of my husband and me. If you look at the nutrition at the bottom you'll see it has tons more fat than carbs, so i'ts a great keto meal. You might could make it a lower fat dish, but I have tried -- I have no need to! Oh and you might have realized that this recipe has sugar and I said that we didn't do sugar. Well, the amount in this recipe wasn't going to make a difference, but next time I'll probably try it with Splenda. Feast and enjoy!

 7 Layer Salad
Serves:12

1 head of romaine lettuce, clean and shredded
10 oz frozen peas, thawed 2 T. minced onion
4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled

Layer in that order in a 9x13 pan. Then make the dressing

Dressing
2 c mayo
2 T. sugar

Make sure to mix well and dissolve the sugar. Layer the dressing on top of bacon layer.

8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Chill 4-8 hours before serving.

Nutrition (1 serving): 549 calories, 50 g fat, 7 g carbohydrates, 19 g protein

Simply Southern

So the other week, like a month ago, I was in a crunch for groceries and I didn't want to spend anymore money on my groceries. I decided to see what I had in my pantry and freezer. You see, I'm the type of wife and cook that makes weekly (usually) groceries lists and they're based off of what menu I have planned for the following week! This way I don't go out and buy a lot of random junk that I don't need to be eating or that I don't need for what I'm cooking. Fortunately, yet sometimes unfortunately, when we're at the end of a week's menu and I haven't gone grocery shopping our pantry and fridge start looking pretty bare. But I like it that way! Keeps me from overspending and buying food that may spoil before we eat it.

Brandon and I are very much of "clean eating", if you want to call it that. I don't buy boxed suppers or frozen dinners. I just don't want all that processed junk going in our systems. It's just straight up not good for you! Plus, I love cooking :). I pretty much have to go grocery shopping weekly otherwise the veggies and fresh food I end up buying a week and a half ago are spoiled or spoiling by the time I plan on cooking/eating them! (I learned that one the hard way. For a little while I tried planning a menu for two weeks at a time. Well, I got pretty frustrated when I got to week two and my asparagus and other things were no good.)

Sorry, I got a little side tracked there. Anyways! I am going to share a SUPER DUPER easy and quick supper idea with y'all! Brandon and I love love love cornbread. However, Brandon is quite picky when it comes to cornbread (and I thought I  was picky about it!), but I finally found this recipe on allrecipes.com (I think). I had this memory the other day of when I was younger and we'd have pinto beans and cornbread for supper and I loved it! Truthfully, pinto beans by themselves don't have a lot of flavor by themselves. I was inspired by this memory to make pinto beans, cornbread, and roasted broccoli (gotta have that veggie!). I was shocked when Brandon told me he had never heard of pinto beans and cornbread. I guess that's what I get for marrying a yankee ;).

Here's my yummylishous Cornbread recipe:
 Prep: 10 min. Cook: 20 min.
8 servings.

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. yellow cornmeal
2/3 c. white sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 c. milk
1/3 c canola oil

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F. Mix the dry ingredients first and then the wet. Lightly grease your 9 in. round pan (I don't recommend using a 8x8 or 9x9 glass with this time and heat). Once all the ingredients are well combined pour the batter into your greased pan and slide it in your preheated oven! Cook for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, mine usually just needs 20 min. And enjoy this sweet, moist cornbread!

Nutrition (1 slice):  275.1 calories, 10.7 g fat, 41.8 g carbohydrates, 4.7 g protein

Roasted Broccoli:
Prep:~3 min. Cook: 10 min.

Broccoli
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Garlic powder (optional)

I don't give you exact amounts because it really depends on how much broccoli you feel like eating. So first, preheat the oven to 450-- mine seems to take forever to preheat! Then spread out your broccoli on a cookie sheet, its okay if it's frozen. Then you want to spritz or pour olive oil on your broccoli. I got an oil mister at TJ Maxx for like $7 and it is awesome! (I have a tendency to put too much oil on things and then the food doesn't turn out right). You don't want the broccoli sitting in oil, just enough to lightly cover. Then do the seasonings to taste and pop those suckers in the oven!

Nutrition (1/2 cup): 27.4  calories, 0.3 g fat, 5.6 g carbohydrates, 1.9 g protein

Pinto Beans:

This one is super easy! Like I said earlier, I don't buy canned beans. If you do, then just heat them up and add salt and pepper as you wish. But if you cooked up your beans like I did here, then just take a baggie out of the freezer earlier in the day and let it thaw. Once thawed, throw in the pot and warm it up. Easy peasy! Oh and you'll want to add some salt and pepper to that also. Hint: the pinto beans taste pretty good on top of the cornbread.

Nutrition (1/2 cup): 120 calories, 0.5 g fat, 22 g carbohydrates, 8 g protein
 

So depending on what you're trying to get out of your diet, if you're doing high carb/low fat or high fat/low carb, will decide as to whether this is right for your lifestyle choices!

Yummy Yummy in My Tummy

I don't know about y'all but I have been sooooo busy lately! But I'm not really complaining, this really is an awesome time of year! I love the holidays for so many reasons: extra excuses to see family, and perhaps some that you don't see very often, you get to eat so much incredible food, and you get time off work or school, and we get brought back to the reason of who we live this crazy life for: Jesus!! We went up to see my family in Tennessee for Thanksgiving and then we'll be going back up this weekend for my sweet friend Emily's wedding and  Jeff and Leslie (I told y'all about them a few weeks ago) will be flying in!!! The following weekend, so the one before Christmas, we'll be driving the 10 hours to Brandon's family up in Missouri. The day after Christmas, we'll drive back home and get to have Christmas with my side of the family! Whew. And then a week later we leave for a cruise ;)

I have a recipe for you that is so incredibly yummy, it's like eating dessert for a side dish! This is your true southern Sweet Potato Casserole recipe. It's family fav, and when I took it to a gathering with a bunch of friends I didn't get to take any home! (So sad.) Now even though there are sweet potatoes in this thing, that does not mean it is healthy! But it is oh so good. And that's what matters, right? ;)

Here's the list of ingredients for sweet potato mixture:
3 cups sweet potatoes
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk 1 stick of butter
2 tsp. vanilla

 (Yes, feel free to admire our lovely wallpaper).

My family usually gets the can of yams, so the sweet potatoes are sitting in a sweet syrup. But for next time I'm considering using fresh sweet potatoes and cooking them up (to soften). When I do that I'll have to play around with how much more sugar I need to add to the overall recipe.

So first! You put all the (above) ingredients in your mixer and mix it up good! While it's mixing, using a stick of butter to butter up your 9 x 13 in pan. Also, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

 

Once your mixture is thoroughly mixed, don't worry if you see small chunks of butter- that's normal, put it in your pan and stick that sucker in the oven! For only 10 minutes.

Next! While it's baking, it's time to make the topping.

Topping ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 stick soften butter
1 cup of chopped nuts (we choose pecans)

Mix all of the ingredients except the nuts. Once all the ingredients are mixed, I suggest acting like its a pastry and using two knives to cut everything up, then you can put the nuts in.

As soon as your initial 10 minutes of baking are up, bring out the sweet potato mixture and crumble the topping on it. Then stick the pan back into the oven for an addition 20-25 minutes. You want to see that everything had pretty much solidified and the topping wont look as crumbly anymore. More like a dessert type of crust. Yum, yum.

(And as you can see, I kinda forgot to take a picture before we started digging in. Whoops!)

Now let your taste buds feast!

Cookin' Up Those Dried Beans Easy

Brandon and I aim to eat as healthy as we can (however, we allow indulging from time to time, of course!), but we are always learning new things to cook and ways to make meals better for us. I make it a goal to not use canned or packaged foods. And I never buy prepackaged or frozen meals-- have you seen the sodium in those things?? Not to mention all the preservatives that nobody can pronounce? I began buying dried beans a few months ago. You see, even if you're buying veggies canned, they still add sodium and preservatives and all that extra junk that your body straight up doesn't need. So. I'm going the more natural, and cheaper, route. Whenever I have recipe calling for black beans (or whatever kind) and I'm out, I go buy a 2 lb bag of dried. Then overnight or during the day I'll dump the entire bag into my awesome crock pot and add about three times as much water as there are beans. All I do next is turn the knob on low and leave it there til I get up in the morning or it's been about 8 hours. Now, I do recommend you stir it a couple of times to make sure the beans on top aren't getting left out and are getting to soak up some water.

Once they're all cooked up, I turn it off and leave the crock pot sitting until the beans have cooled off. My next step is to bag them in quart size ziploc baggies to go in the freezer. I probably ought to measure the amount of beans I put in each bag, but I just haven't made the time for it when I'm baggin' them up. I once read (I can't take the credit), that two pounds of dried beans will equal to about 7 or 8 regular cans of beans. And it's all for 3 or 4 dollars!!

 As you can see, these are already frozen. I did those up about a week ago. And since I'm all about nutrition, here's some info about various types of beans! This is all for cooked/boiled beans.

Black Beans:                                      Pinto Beans:
Per 1 cup                                            Per 1/2 cup
Calories                         240               Calories                  120
Total fat                         0.6 g              Total fat                  0.5 g
Saturated fat                 0.2 g               Saturated fat          0.5 g
Polyunsat. fat               0.3 g               Cholesterol             0 mg
Monounsat. fat             0.1 g               Sodium                    0 mg
Cholesterol                   0 g                  Total Carbs             22 g
Sodium                         6 mg                Dietary fiber           8 g
Potassium                    801 mg            Sugar                       0 g
Total carbohydrates    45 g                  Protein                    8 g 
Dietary fiber               15 g
Sugar                          0.6 g
Protein                        15 g

Black eyed peas:
Per 1/2 cup
Calories                     99
Total fat                      0.45 g
Saturated fat              0 g
Cholesterol                0 mg
Sodium                       0 mg
Total carbohydrates   18 g
Dietary fiber              6 g
Sugars                        3 g
Protein                       7 g

There's a few for you! Can't you see how beastly beans are for you? Eat some beans!! And, you know, I seem to remember that they always seem to have a rhyme that goes along with them.... ;)

Until next time! :)

Healthy Snack and Full of Protein!

You know those times when you're sitting in front of the t.v. or studying/doing homework and you're just feeling "snacky"? Yeah I know how those go. Or the instances where you are super hungry but its too early for supper and you already had lunch, but there's nothing really to eat for a snack (nothing healthy, that is)? No fear! I've gotcha taken care of :)

So. Who doesn't like trail mix? If you don't, you're nuts ;) (pardon my nuttiness, I do enjoy corny jokes-- most of which I create myself :) For those of us that do enjoy indulging in trail mixes from time to time all know that they to be full of crap that we don't need to be putting in our bodies. Not to mention those big bags make it ever so tempting to just sit there and eat 5 people's worth of it. But what to do when you're hungry, but it's not a meal time? Sometimes we go for those cookies....or chips....or that yummy mint chocolate chip ice cream... mmm. Plus! sometimes it's hard to find those snacks with enough protein and not too much sodium (which is a slightly controversial subject) and not too much fat-- at least of the wrong kind-- or too much sugar! It's definitely important to be filling yourself with enough protein, that is what is going to help you stay full longer-- not to mention help those quad muscles you've been working on at the gym repair themselves.

Brandon (my husband) and I have been trying to figure out ways to get more protein in our bodies when we've been working them ruthlessly at the gym. Plus, when you're working out hard, you're going to get hungry more. Also, the past couple of months we've been coaching a U10 girls soccer team which occurs in the early evening. Afterwards, we usually head to the gym (unless somebody is feeling too tired ;), but it's supper time and we're hungry. It's not ideal to go and work out if you're hungry; then you're tired and cranky and just have trouble giving it your all. Fortunately, my homemade trail mix has been wonderful to tide us over in moments like those! Anyways, enough of my babbling. I'll tell you what all I put in and how much!

1/8 c. Oven Roasted Dark Chocolate Almonds
1/8 c. Whole Natural Almonds
1/8 c. Honey Roasted Peanuts
1/8 c. Dry Roasted Peanuts
1/6 c. Raisins
1 Tbs. Milk Chocolate chips

Now I will tell you that I eye-balled those measurements. I put them in the small ziploc snack baggies so keep us from eating more than we should ;)

Here's the nutrition! Keep in mind that 450 calories is about a meals-worth. So don't eat the whole baggie if you don't need it! Split it with someone or between your morning and afternoon snacks!
                          
Calories -- 450                                                                                                      
Total fat -- 32 g                                                     
Saturated Fat -- 6 g                                             
Potassium -- 530 mg                                           
Sodium -- 145 mg                                                
Cholesterol -- 2.5 mg                                  
Total Carbs -- 34 g
Dietary fiber -- 6 g
Sugar -- 21.5 g
Protein -- 13 g

P.s. cashews would make a good substitute as well!