All 30 years of my life, my fluctuating weight has been a source of angst and overall uneasiness for me. Even as a child, I’d dread physicals and checkups, knowing that I’d hear the same refrain: “You need to lose weight.” In my preteens I’d already been on SlimFast (didn’t work out so well), and in my late teens, I successfully lost 50 pounds, due to spending my whole summer with my vegan mother. Still, maintaining that weight loss proved to be a challenge as the worries of being a grown-up weighed on me. I later deserted my lifestyle changes and began to lean heavily on my emotional drug -- food. The weight gain didn’t hesitate to follow.
Postpartum, managing my weight became a horse of a different color. Before, I always knew that I could shed a few pounds with diet change and working out. But now, after pregnancy and a C-section, I had to be more sedentary than I’d ever been. If not, my incision wouldn’t heal. I’d lost a good amount of weight after birth, but it didn’t last long. I could barely move. Even now, I know my body isn’t the same as it once was. Because of this, I couldn’t rely as heavily on working out to get my body in the shape I’d like it to be in.
“Abs are made in the kitchen.” “Weight loss is 75 percent diet, 25 percent exercise.” I’m sure everyone’s heard these quotes before. This gives rise to the many popular diets that claim to help people lose tens of pounds in a matter of weeks. Even without the exercise, the diets themselves appear to help quickly burn fat. All over YouTube, my favorite influencers’ bodies are melting rapidly and they all attribute it to one diet: the ketogenic diet. It seems to be a new and improved version of low-carb diets, like the Atkins diet. For moms who are interested, or already practicing the keto diet, here are some yummy recipes that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less.
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I think it’s safe to say that pancakes are everyone’s guilty pleasure (besides waffles). They’re super yummy, but after eating them we’re almost always full and almost always feeling guilty. Not with these keto-friendly “macro” cakes. They’re super thin, resembling crepes, and are low in sugar and carbs!
Get the recipe here.
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Just looking at this sandwich, I feel full. It looks so hearty, which is a good thing because the morning is the best time to eat something filling. We usually choose something super unhealthy, like a croissant or a bagel, with a bunch of cheese and bacon, but this alternative is healthier, and just as filling.
Get the recipe here.
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Salmon and avocados are two naturally fatty foods, but they contain the good type of fat that our body needs. Because a body in a ketosis state is fueled by fat exclusively, a meal like this is an essential for a mom on the keto diet.
Get the recipe here.
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This cashew chicken dish reminds me of some of my favorite meals from the Chinese take-out I used to eat growing up. But those meals were fattening and fried and poured over rice. This version subtracts the rice and adds a couple of our favorite veggies in the mix.
Get the recipe here.
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There are so many condiments and sauces that we can't eat when we're on diets. Ketchup is high on that list because it's usually full of sugar. What a great idea it was to come up with this no-sugar alternative as a guilt-free pleasure for dieters.
Get the recipe here.
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Part of the idea behind the keto diet is to include plenty of healthy fats while cutting back on carbs. That's why so many recipes feature avocados. This recipe gives you all the taste of a chicken club sandwich but -- say it with me -- minus the bread.
Get the recipe here.
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I love the idea of this meal! On an especially lonely, or quiet night, the craving to order some breadsticks or pizza can be quite strong. This meal is that, minus the guilt. The crust is made out of a vegetable, for crying out loud (feels weird even saying it).
Get the recipe here. -
I’ve seen people eat their sandwiches or burgers without the bread or with a lettuce wrap, and I always wished I could have that desire or craving. But after getting used to not eating bread for a while, I could see how the idea of this could be appetizing. The avocado (the A at the end of BLT) probably adds a measure of weight to this dish to give the filling sensation the bread might have.
Get the recipe here.
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Growing up, I didn’t eat a lot of meat, especially red meat. Because my mom was vegetarian -- and later vegan -- most of my life, I stuck to poultry and seafood. A few years, and a few visits to Fogo de Chao later, the concept of making Brazilian-style steak in my own home sounds pretty appetizing.
Get the recipe here.
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A big part of the keto diet and promoting ketosis of the body is consuming fat bombs. One of the benefits is that they supposedly keep you full longer and give you a sense of satisfaction. Pinterest and Google searches provide many, many fat bomb recipes. This one is supposed to echo the taste of crab Rangoon.
Get the recipe here. -
Good old lasagna! (Writing this makes me feel extremely greedy, by the way. Have I ever even talked or written this much about food?) Lasagna is that comfort food that feels so good going down, but so terrible a slice or two later. I wonder if this low-carb version offers the same taste minus the bloating. The title says its "just like the real thing." Somebody will have to report back and let us know.
Get the recipe here.
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This dish seems like it will be extremely light and refreshing. The salsa is a great tropical touch. I'm starting to like the idea of using lettuce in place of bread. It's a great way to work in the vegetables while still getting flavor from the meat or seafood.
Get the recipe here.
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This recipe replaces the tortilla chips usually used in nachos with pork rinds. It’s funny because I’d never think that pork rinds were healthy, but in a keto world, fat rules. One of my fondest childhood memories is sitting in my grandmother’s living room while she would do Bible study and crunch on pork rinds. They were her favorite. Another fond memory is the nachos phase I went through for years where I'd always order nachos when I went out. I'm tempted.
Get the recipe here.
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The vegetable we used to make the crust of our breadsticks earlier returns for a second time. It’s the humble cauliflower -- broccoli’s cousin. Anyway, this recipe uses cauliflower as a rice substitute. I’d definitely like to try this and see if it actually tastes like rice. If it does, I'm going to trick my rice-obsessed husband into eating it.
Get the recipe here.
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Who doesn’t love fried chicken? Whoever that person is, I don’t trust him. Whether people love KFC or Popeyes chicken is always up for debate, but this version of KFC should be able to please both sides of the argument. Not only that, the breading is low-carb because it's made from almond flour, whey protein, and a lot of seasoning. Everybody wins.
Get the recipe here.
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At my local Wegman’s, I’ve seen prepackaged zucchini noodles and said to myself, “Those can’t possibly compare to my angel hair or spaghetti noodles.” But, with sufficient seasoning and shrimp, I could see the taste factor being elevated. And I guess one could always imagine they were eating spaghetti while eating these pasta-shaped veggies.
Get the recipe here.
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¡Ay, Dios mío! Mexican food without breaking my diet? These beef enchiladas really look like they might be tasty. I’m still not used to the idea of eating foods with cheese in them and over them while you're trying to lose weight, but I’m getting it. This ketogenic diet reminds me a lot of Atkins.
Get the recipe here.
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Mac and cheese is another guilty pleasure dish that I put in the same category with lasagna. It tastes so good, but instantly feels so bad. It's essential during that time of the month. Cauliflower and cheese, although it doesn't have the same ring as "mac and cheese," definitely might be our new "cheat meal" without actually cheating!
Get the recipe here.
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We couldn't go through all that food and not have any dessert. Granted, the idea of dessert seems to go counter to the whole concept of the keto diet, where we are trying to basically starve the body of any glucose or sugar. Imagine my surprise when, not only seeing the words "keto" and "low carb" in this recipe's title, but also seeing that it was actually sugar-free. The list of ingredients is pretty interesting -- but, hey -- if we can have something sweet and still lose weight, I'd say its worth a try.
Get the recipe here.
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Sometimes a sweet tooth starts getting so cranky that a small bite of sugar-free "cookie dough" isn't enough to appease it. Here's where having the recipe for an entire sugar-free cheesecake (that miraculously, takes only 10 minutes to prepare), comes in handy.
Get the recipe here.
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Add this graphic to your Pinterest boards for keto recipes that take only 30 mins
