Low Carb (Ketogenic) Southern Plate Recipes – and my results so far!

Hey Friends!

I’ve had a lot of people ask about my weight loss, so today I’m sharing some of the low carb recipes I’ve  been using. There are many more low carb recipes on Southern Plate but these are some of my favorites.

~Scroll down past the recipes for a more detailed description of what I’ve been doing.~

On any of these, if you would like nutrition information you’ll need to plug the recipe into an online nutrition calculator such as this one. I don’t count exact nutrition information in how I eat so this isn’t something I’ve already done and I’m afraid time won’t permit me to do it for all of these recipes now.

The collection below is not a complete collection of all the low carb recipes on SouthernPlate. There are lots more low carb recipes on Southern Plate, these are just some of the ones I have made lately that come to mind.

To get any recipe featured below, please click on the *recipe title*.

Lemon Parmesan Chicken

Velvet Pork Chops

Grill Pan Chicken

Butter Roasted Chicken

Hamburger Steaks ( I go easier on the onions)

Beef Kabobs – use lower carb veggies such as bell peppers, mushrooms, etc

Fresh and Fast Chicken Teriyaki – look for the lowest carb teriyaki sauce and use Sharataki noodles instead of rice, easy on the carrots. Click here to learn all about Shirataki noodles.

Beef & Broccoli – Might want to just use half of the corn starch or leave it out all together as that is your main source of carbs in this. Definitely ditch the rice for Shirataki noodles or just more broccoli. Click here to learn all about Shirataki noodles.

Dutch Oven Smokehouse Chicken

Fork Tender Swiss Steak

No rice, Shirataki instead. Click here to learn all about Shirataki noodles.

Greek Chicken – sub low carb veggies for the potatoes

Chicken Lettuce Wraps – I omit the rice noodles

Sides:

I’m not gonna lie, we eat a LOT of green beans. I love all vegetables but my husband has a much more narrow view of them. However, he has branched out and will even eat cabbage and broccoli when I cook it just so, before he would have never touched them. You’ll either find a way or you’ll find an excuse. I guess he was ready to find  a way :).

Super Food Salad – for low carb I leave out the cherries and nuts and go a little lighter on the dressing.

Last Minute Green Beans

Broccoli with Cheese Sauce – The cheese sauce has corn starch but not much.

Fried Cabbage

Roasted Veggies – The trick here is to choose your veggies wisely. I’d go with brussels sprouts, broccoli, maybe tomatoes, asparagus, peppers, etc

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For Breakfast: We eat a lot of eggs, bacon, and ham. Oatmeal is out. Cream of Wheat and Grits are out. I love my oatmeal but as it turns out, I did not die without it. 🙂 You’ll find a way or you’ll find an excuse. Update 9/17: We quit eating pork a few months ago. This diet is still easy as can be to do, though. Substitutions are simple.

For lunch: I enjoy salads with lots of smoked ham and eggs, boiled eggs, cheese, low carb yogurt (Carbmaster from Kroger), or any type of meat I find myself in the mood to cook. I also keep a few Atkins frozen meals in the fridge because those are really good. IF I am going to buy a frozen dinner, I only buy Atkins because Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, and even Weight Watchers brands are crazy high on the carbs. In the beginning I planned/cooked my lunch more but once the hunger went away I’m just kinda blasé about it. I DID buy a salad chopper bowl and chopper thingie and I just love it. I get the flavor of everything in my salad in every bite.

For Treats: Atkins bars are great. I like the one that looks like a payday bar, their peanut butter cup (eye rolling back in your head good), pecan caramel turtles, and the caramel nut rolls. I also love sugar free jello with real whipped cream on top. *Aspartame police need not patrol here. If you sign up on the Atkins website they will let you download and print two coupons for buy one get one free. Be careful because you only get one chance to print those coupons so make sure your printer is ready and such. The only thing I don’t like is the brownies. As I’ve gotten further into this I eat far fewer treats because of the old sweet tooth thing. I went from one a day to a couple a month.

Condiments: Mayonnaise (get the kind without sugar, like Blue Plate), Butter, Mustard, Heavy Cream, etc. Avoid “light” and look for full fat, those usually have lower carbs. Watch video I linked to above for a better explanation of this.

What I’ve Been Doing

I have received a lot of questions about exactly what I’m doing so I’ll try to give you the short version: Less than 20 net carbs per day. I am eating mostly meat, low carb veggies, and full fat dairy (heavy cream in my coffee, real butter, sharp cheddar cheese, etc).

I don’t eat: sugar, bread, pasta, rice, or fruit (for the most part). I do splurge and have fruit or berries from time to time. I was surprised to find that a single apple can contain a day’s worth of carbs so the aren’t my ideal fruit right now but I have decided to start having one a week.

It is important to note: that healthy fats are important on this diet. My only struggle is eating enough fat. Atkins.com tells you how much you need each day and all that.

Every now and then, when I want to see how I’m doing, I’ll use the Atkins app to track my eating for the day.

Why am I eating like this? Well for starters, it works for me. It is also easy because since I’ve started eating like this (and y’all, I can’t believe I’m saying this) I don’t crave anything and don’t feel hunger. Yeah, I know, sounds too crazy to believe but it’s true.

How does this diet work? First of all, see disclaimer at the bottom of this post. That is important and will help keep us both sane. 🙂  Secondly, here is the theory: Our bodies were designed to run on two types of fuel: Fat or Carbohydrates. Now in the old days, we gardened and hunted in the summer and pretty much carbbed up, maybe even gaining a little fat in our stores. This is the time where food (meat, veggies, grains) is fresh and plentiful so we ran on carbs, which was ideal because this is a fuel source that has to be replenished every few hours. During the winter, we switched to preserved meat and such, fresh food wasn’t as readily available, and our bodies switched to running on fat as fuel. Now the problem is that our current lifestyle is all carb all the time, and we never have that season of winter where we go back to fuel ourselves on fat stores. And so it begins 🙂 So the premise is that this way of eating puts your body in a state of burning fat as fuel.

Here is what has happened with me since eating like this:

1. 1. I still eat “normal” food, just modifications of it. What I mean is, there are all sorts of recipes you eat now that work just fine, just leave off the pasta, dinner rolls, etc.
   2. I don’t get cravings (for anything). As in, I can actually wake up and go all day without eating if I wanted and feel just fine. If you had of told me I would type a sentence like that a year ago I would have told you that you were crazy.
   3. My sweet tooth has disappeared. I am actually having a hard time with anything sweet because it tastes waaaaay too sweet. I prefer unsweet iced tea, barely sweeten my coffee, and have gone from drinking far too many diet dr peppers in a day to barely being able to drink one or two per week – and I can’t seem to finish those.
   4. I don’t crash or get tired in the afternoons. My fuel source is constant, with no blood sugar spikes or dips.
   5. I’ve lost 25 pounds so far. Yeah, that came off in the first five weeks.

This is my husband’s shirt after three weeks:

Am I saying this will happen with you? Nope. I feel like there is a good chance of it but I’m just relaying my personal experience because so many people have asked me to.

Am I an expert on this diet? Absolutely not. I am just beginning this journey and have a long way to go.

How do you cook like you do and stay on this? It’s easy. I cook a lot of good country food like I enjoy, I eat what is on plan for me, I enjoy feeding everyone else the rest. I know, though, that if I choose to have a bite of cake I won’t keel over immediately and die and life will go on. I’m just not making that choice right now. 🙂 Eventually, I will be eating far more foods and more carbs than I am right now.

What are “Net Carbs”? Not everyone who eats low carb counts net carbs, some of them count total carbs but I do not. Why? Because this is my diet and I do it that way :). To calculate net carbs, look on the back of a package and under the carb count there may be “dietary fiber” and “sugar alcohols”. I subtract those numbers from total carbs to get the net amount. Note: Do not subtract “sugars”, only sugar alcohols.

In Closing, Please Research: The internet is filled with folks who think they have a medical degree from reading one book, going to a medical website, or reading a blog. I do not have a medical degree and this is not medical advice. I encourage you to not blanketly trust any one source (including me), but rather, to do your own research. Having said that, I do feel that this video is a good place to start and Atkins.com is a great place to go next. I also just bought (this morning) the book written by the doctor in the video. I won’t have it until Friday but you can see information about that here.

SEE MY LATEST LOW CARB RECIPES BY CLICKING HERE

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Disclaimer: Hey y’all, first of all, this disclaimer does not apply to 99% of my audience. I am only writing this post because I had so many people on Facebook, Instagram, and email asking me to. I have only lost 25 pounds and have much more to go. I am not saying I am an expert, but merely someone sharing information that was requested of me in hopes of being helpful. I am not a doctor and chances are most people who read this are not either. The opinions and thoughts contained in this post are not medical advice, nor are they an invitation for others to offer medical advice. I am presenting my viewpoint on my blog and should your opinion be hostile towards mine in any way I invite you to share your opinion on your own blog, where I don’t pay the light bill. The end. 🙂