The Keto Roll

Japanese food - usually thought of as a lean choice, but that craving for sushi flavors could not be squelched.

We've posted before about low-carb sushi.  Where I come from, the strong Mexican influence means sushi contains many non-traditional ingredients like avocado, cream cheese, and spicy mayo (actually my three favorite sushi ingredients - guess I am not into authentic sushi!).  Do those ingredients sound familiar?

A crab salad is used to boost the fat and proved to be the trickiest ingredient.  Beware of canned crab (added sugar) or crab sticks (full of carbs!).


Ingredients:


spicy crab salad:

114 g cooked blue crab
40 g musa olive oil mayo
5 g sesame oil
5 g cholula hot sauce

50 g avocado
50 g philadelphia cream cheese (or waitrose)
2 sheets nori
rice vinegar

10 g soy sauce (carrefour)
1 g wasabi


Start with your cooked blue crab.  I buy Ocean Isle Premium Claw Crab Meat from Morrison's which is pre-cooked and very convenient.  Any cooked crab will do, so use what works for you!

Add the mayo, sesame oil, and cholula hot sauce.  Cholula hot sauce is an authentic Mexican brand of hot sauce.  I was shocked and pleased to find it in a UK supermarket.  Also one of the few hot sauces with detailed nutritional information.

Weigh your avocado and cream cheese.  Divide them in half, along with your spicy crab salad, since you are making 2 rolls.

Take one sheet of nori.  Brush on rice vinegar to moisten the nori.  This will make it easier to seal and cut later.  Make sure you do not use seasoned rice vinegar, this has added sugar.  Rice vinegar is similar to wine vinegars, but slightly less acidic.  Since you are using a small amount of something very low-carb, I considered it negligible in the calculations.

Spread your crab salad along the length of the nori down the center.  Place half inch thick strips of avocado and cream cheese down the center also.

Roll up your sheet of nori, sealing with more brushed on vinegar if needed.  I do this without bamboo sushi rolling mats, so it can be done.  It's not particularly easy though!  Don't over work the roll.  It is very soft and moist from the crab salad and will tear easily.

Repeat with 2nd sheet of nori.

Slice into inch thick slices.

In a small dish, put 1 g wasabi and 10 g soy sauce.  My soy sauce has 3.2 g of carbs per 100g.  If yours is more carb-y, try watering it down with a little water - it may just be stronger.  Or you can also use less soy sauce.  The roll does not absorb much when dipped, and invariably there is some left behind in the dish - so don't stress!

fat:  63.1 g, protein:  26.8 g, carb:  3.1 g

ratio: 2.1:1

Strawberry and Goat's Cheese Spinach Salad

This salad is our go-to meal for eating out at a friend's house.  When someone invites us over to dinner, we offer to make them something at their place.  This salad works as a starter or main (after all, when we have it, it's our whole dinner!) and with a few tweaks, it is quite palatable to non-keto people as well.  'The acceptable face of keto' we call it.  Also, it is easy to put together in an unfamiliar kitchen with ingredients that are pretty easy to find.

Ingredients:

40 g baby spinach

25 g avocado

30 g strawberries

100 g Eroski goat's cheese

28 g olive oil

7 g red wine vinegar

2 drops stevia

Note on goat's cheese:  Make sure your goat's cheese is <0.1g per 100.  Besides Eroski's home brand, Capricorn goat's cheese (UK) is good (although you can't find the values on the outside of the package, trust me), and Trader Joe's (US) also carried some.

Cut the avocado, strawberries, and goat's cheese into thin slices and toss over your bed of baby spinach.

For the dressing, combine the olive oil, vinegar, and stevia and pour over your salad.  Adjust the olive oil as needed if you use a cheese with different values.

fat:  63.1 g, protein:  22.7 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  2.5:1

Variations:

Toasted pecans are another lovely addition to this salad, and allow you to cut out a bit more olive oil or cheese.  Make sure you adjust down your carbs elsewhere, such as by going down to 35 g of spinach.

Blue cheese also works well on this salad if you can't find an appropriate goat's cheese (like in south Texas).  It's too strong for my tastes, but Tristan likes it even better!  Alternatively, we've even used brie on this salad in a pinch, which is much milder.

Bacon!  I tried it on a strawberry salad in Austin and became a believer, so if you need a bit more protein in your diet, sprinkle some on.  Like the pecans, most bacon has carbs, so adjust your spinach (or other carb) down a bit to compensate.

Avocado Egg Salad Lettuce Wrap

Another great summery lunch!  Cool avocado and egg salad wrapped in a crisp iceberg lettuce leaf for a bit of crunch.

Ingredients:

175 g eggs (3 1/2 medium eggs)

50 g mayo (Musa olive oil)

35 g avocado

2 g yellow mustard

2 g lime juice

0.3 g paprika

30 g iceberg lettuce leaf

Hard boil eggs (boil for 6 minutes and immediately run under cool water) and peel.  Chop into bite size cubes.

Chop avocado into bite size cubes and combine with egg.

Mix in mayo, lime juice, mustard, and paprika until well incorporated.

If using freshly boiled eggs, chill for at least 30 minutes to get cold egg salad.

Wrap it all up in a large outer iceberg lettuce leaf and enjoy!

fat:  62.7 g, protein:  23.7 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  2.3:1

Note:  I recommend making this in a double batch, otherwise you're left with half a boiled egg!

Dining out: Rio Grande Valley style

I have mentioned in previous posts the concept of 'borrowing' protein from one meal so that I can have more flexibility for the next. Generally speaking it's not something which I should be doing often and never with more than 4-6g of protein. There are occasions however, such as when eating out, when this is the only way to go.

Two such dining-out events which would lure me into this breakfast of self-sacrifice are lunchtime trips to two of my favourite restaurants in McAllen: 'Taco Palenque' and 'Kumori'.

Unfortunately, and no doubt very much to the chagrin of the scientist lying beside me, I will be exposing the unscientific nature of my calculations when eating out in these places, and apologise in advance to those of you that thought me completely infallible.

Taco Palenque

Living in the Rio Grande Valley, there are no shortage of taco joints. They are as ubiquitous as you would expect for an area of the US which has an (unofficial) 95% Mexican population. The family are very clear however that none are better than Taco Palenque, and I was lucky to savour the full experience, tortilla and all, in November before I started my wacky diet. A distant memory though that may seem now.

Things are different nowadays obviously, but there are still plenty of elements to Mexican food which  allow me to put together a fairly balanced Tristan-approved meal. I tend to order a sizzling beef fajita  plate or a couple of beef, chicken or 'carnitas' (pork) tacos, which provide me with about 85g of meat and a side plate of guacamole (45g). Though I don't weigh them exactly, I am starting to get an eye for these things and put together a salad from the side bar, made up of lettuce (35g), green cabbage (25g), cilantro (10g) and a few slices of pickled jalapeño peppers (25g). I obviously eat these without the tortillas, beans or rice and drench the salad in olive oil (45g) to bring the meal up to scratch.

fat:  63 g, protein:  25.3 g, carb:  3.1 g

ratio:  2.2:1

Kumori

My visits to Kumori are probably the closest I come to a pure 'cheat meal', in that it is impossible to calculate the precise amounts of the ingredients in the various rice-less 'sushi' rolls on their menu. Yes, 'rice-less' and 'sushi' rolled into one, well rolled into three options actually at this pseudo-sushi restaurant in McAllen which panders to the (un)exotic tastes of Valley diners. 

The 'San Francisco' (pictured at right), 'Golden' and 'Paradise' rolls all contain cream cheese, avocado, spicy crab, salmon, 'fresh' shrimp and white fish in varying amounts, held together by soy paper or cucumber. With only limited amounts of these ingredients in each roll, I feel I cannot be far from the mark when it comes to protein and carb content, and since all three are served slathered with what must be high fat 'spicy mayo', I don't need to go crazy on the coconut oil when I get home. I will say that these rolls are about as far removed from actual sushi as it is humanly possible to produce, however if I close my eyes and dip them into a soy sauce and wasabi mix, I am transported, even if just momentarily, back to my sushi-eating days.

Realizing that there are undoubtedly carbs in home made mayo and the soy paper and also no real way of knowing what exactly Kumori is labelling as 'white fish' or 'spicy crab', I have lately been tempted away from the dark side and have ordered the 'fresh tuna salad', served with cucumber strips and green onion and drenched in sesame oil and ponzu sauce. This seems to banish the raw fish cravings with a more controlled list of ingredients, surely keeping me within the meal's prescribed carb and protein limit. I do, however, still need to supplement the meal with a tablespoon or two of coconut oil when I get home in a bid to hit the required fat levels but consider this just a small price to pay for a delicious raw tuna meal.

Texas Style Pimento Cheese

Apparently pimento cheese is a southern food, but to me, growing up in Texas, it was just food.  The family recipe, passed down from my Great Aunt Erma Lee, includes pickled jalapeños, which gives it a bit of a twist and tiny kick.  In this keto-version, I've left out the pimentos from which the name comes, and left in the pickled jalapeños which are quite low-carb. Tristan tells me that the Spanish word for pepper is 'pimiento' so I'd say it's still pimento cheese, even without the specific pimento/pimiento pepper from the name.

Pimento cheese is typically eaten with crackers or in a sandwich, so crackers, or rather 'flackers', are what I paired it with here.  The avocado just adds another yummy layer.

Ingredients:

25 g savory flackers

30 g avocado

Pimento Cheese:

56 g Boar's Head Canadian Cheddar

30 g Philadelphia cream cheese

30 g Hellman's mayo

7 g pickled jalapeño

3 g green onion

0.3 g garlic powder

Nothing too complicated here, just shred your cheese, chop up your green onion, and combine all your pimento cheese ingredients together in a bowl.

Divide the pimento cheese between your crackers and top with sliced pieces of avocado.  Enjoy!

fat:  66.1 g, protein:  22 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  2.6:1

Variations:  

I realize that store-bought flackers are probably not available to everyone.  Tristan and I found these Dr. In the Kitchen brand 'flackers' at Wheatsville Co-op in Austin, Texas and decided to give them a try.  If you can get them, I would recommend them.  They score major points for convenience, and they are also quite tasty.  They use whole flaxseeds and are raw, and hopefully I will get a chance to try to recreate them myself.  If you can't get flackers, you can make your own flax crackers as well.  

This recipe for pimento cheese can also use different cheeses.  If you choose a different cheddar, make sure it is 0 carb, and aim for as much fat as possible.  It is also really delicious with smoked gouda.  I will try to post a smoked gouda + homemade crackers variation sometime soonish.

Venison Steak Salad

I'm stealing a march on Samantha here, writing this from bed as she sleeps, her face nestled into her pillow beside me. Boris the Samoyed is also in the room, snoring away, or at least one of them is snoring away ... Though its the absolute definition of simplicity, I thought I would write a short post about a meal I prepared for myself yesterday.

Our good friends, twin brothers Eric and Chris own a ranch a couple of hours from McAllen giving them access to a seemingly endless selection of the freshest fish, vegetables and meat. Foods that that they had either caught, grown, killed or bartered for themselves and that they were kind enough to share with us over the weekend. 

Unfortunately my keeper did not allow me to get too close to the carbohydrate-heavy leeks or sweet onions, and I only got tastes of the free range chicken, or of the trout and fresh-caught tuna. However this was all immaterial as I had almost free reign of the venison steaks, and they were delicious. 

Venison is a relatively lean meat, so I needed to figure out how to eat it to get the correct fat content into my meal. The pictured meal shows 63g of venison meat, as I was saving some protein for my next meal, however a nicely sized 79g steak would do the trick for the requisite 24g protein.  Not being as creative as Samantha, I simply stuck to what I knew, employing all the now standard ingredients.

Ingredients:

79g venison steak

40g baby spinach

13 green onion

75g avocado

25g European butter

35g olive oil

5g vinegar

15 g heavy whipping cream (40%)

Pan fry the steak with the butter and the green onions. On this occasion the venison steak had already been cooked the night before on the barbecue, seasoned only with salt and a bit of pepper, so I cut the steak into strips and 'buttered it', placing the onions atop and microwaving on full power for about a minute. 

The spinach and the generous portion of avocado was dressed with the oil and vinegar mix, and the venison steak strips, together with the onions and melted butter were placed on top once they were done. 

Having some carbohydrate 'left over', I made myself a cup of decaffeinated coffee with the heavy whipping cream.

fat:  80.6 g, protein:  24.1 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  3:1

The twins were nice enough to give us about another kg of venison steak, so I can repeat this meal again, together with some venison mince (ground meat) which we will be using to make some burgers in the weeks to come. 

Mexican Chorizo and Avocado Scrambled Eggs

I mentioned having avocado at every meal right?  Yep.  The perfect way to mexi-fy breakfast, add Mexican chorizo and avocado.  Around these parts, this would all get wrapped in a flour tortilla to make a 'breakfast taco' and if your diet allows it, certainly give it a go, but it is equally delicious as a stand alone dish.

Ingredients:

55 g chorizo - we used HEB chorizo gringo

10 g 40% (heavy whipping) cream

120 g (about 2.5) eggs

30 g butter

50 g chopped avocado

Mexican chorizo is a spiced sausage.  Cook this first on medium heat in a frying pan squeezing it out of the casing and crumbling it in the pan as you cook.  It releases a lot of fat, so no need to add any to the frying pan.

Whip the next 3 ingredients together in a bowl.  Whip in the butter by melting it, then allowing it to cool so that it does not cook the eggs.  I find this helps incorporate as much fat into the eggs as they can take.

Once the chorizo has cooked, lower the heat and add the eggs scrambling with the chorizo.  You can throw the chopped avocado in the pan at the last minute or just top your scramble on the plate.

fat:  62.3 g, protein:  23.1 g, carb:  3 g

ratio: 2.4:1

Notes:  Chorizo can be very carb-y, so check the label of the brand you buy.  We found the HEB brand to be lowest of our options.  Also, this meal is quite greasy.  It is unclear to me if nutrition labels include the rendered fat in this case, so it may actually have more fat, but our attitude is the more fat the better anyway!  (It took me a couple of very greasy scrambled eggs for me to realize this about bacon.)

Avocado Chicken Salad

Spring in South Texas means the weather is already hot, so perfect weather to be eating lots of cold salads.  Couple that with the proximity to Mexico, and it would be a crime not to have avocado with every meal!  So we have.

Ingredients:

50 g diced celery

10 g chopped green onion

0.3 g garlic powder

100 g diced, grilled chicken breast

65 g Hellman's mayo

70 g chopped avocado

This is an easy one, just combine all ingredients together in a bowl! Cutting the chicken into small bites makes it easier to add the necessary amount of mayo and the celery gives it a nice crunch.

fat: 64.1 g, protein: 25.1 g, carb: 3.1 g

ratio: 2.3:1