Weeks 1-4 Carnivore/Ketovore Diet Results.

Go to week 5 Carnivore/Ketovore Diet Results.

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Week 4 Ketovore Diet Results: Week of April 6, 2024

Week 4 Ketovore Diet Weight Loss Results:

• Weight loss: -7 lbs total (-1 lbs week 4, +1 lbs week 3, -4 lbs week 2; -3 lbs week 1)
• Waist: -2 inch total (-0 inches week 4, -0.5 inches week 3, -0.5 inches week 2; -1 inch week 1)
• 1515 average calories per day.
• 95 average protein per day.
• 117 average fat per day.
• 19 average carbs per day (high 31, low 7).
• I ate more fat on purpose this week but this is not serving me. I will be upping protein, lowering fat, and upping electrolytes (salt, potassium, magnesium).
• 2 meals a day plus high calorie coffee (150-200 calorie coffee with collagen and heavy cream).
• In week 4 I did feel hungry several times. This is probably because I ate more fat and less protein. I intentionally increased calories for week 4, but felt no better or worse.
• Nighttime sleep was still very good, about 8-9 hours, but I felt like I needed a nap on several days.
• I only exercised twice this week, on the rebounder 30 minutes each session, so I obviously did not have a high amount of energy. I started jumproping, but I am terrible at it and have the bruises to prove it. I get winded after only 50 jumps. I still don’t have the energy level I expected after a month on this carnivore diet.

Week 4 Ketovore Diet Macros:

Carbs/Fat/Protein (percentages):

My Fitness Pal “Goal” is set to 5%/75%/20%

1. 5/77/18
2. 4/76/20
3. 11/57/32
4. 4/65/31
5. 2/73/25
6. 6/68/26
7. 5/67/28

These macros are not working. I’m going to go to a much lower fat level and keep about the same protein level. I expect my actual calorie needs are only around 1,200. I do believe the 2,000 calorie estimate set by the US government is far overstated. People are so fat now, and they likely eat closer to 5,000 calories a day, so a recommendation of 2,000 might allow for weight loss for those who are not yet obese, but when we had real food in the 1950s perhaps women really could eat 2,000 calories a day and maintain a lean weight—plus those women likely walked upwards of 10 miles a day and weren’t hunched over phones/computers for 12 hours a day.

Week 4 Ketovore Meal Ideas:

Ketovore Breakfast: I added 2 Tbsp of collagen and upped my heavy cream to 3 Tbsp. I am not feeling like I need caffeine in the morning, I’m practically drinking two cups of coffee so I can add the collagen and heavy cream.

My daily coffee: 2 cups of coffee, 2 Tbsp Great Lakes Collagen Peptides (45 calories, 12 grams protein), and 3 Tbsp heavy cream (150 calories).

My electrolyte drink:

• 2 tsp Calm magnesium citrate (The orange flavor is the best; the cherry flavor is awful.)
• 1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt (I get mine at Winco for about $1/lb in the bulk bins but if you don’t have a Winco: Himalayan Pink Salt on Amazon)
• 1/4 tsp potassium chloride. I use NuSalt, which is about $1.50 at Winco. (Here’s a 3 pack on Amazon: NuSalt potassium chloride.)
• I stir it up in water and let it sit until it looks clear, about 10 minutes.

Ketovore Lunches:

• I ate far too much dairy this week to up my fat intake. I also actually ate a tablespoon of butter dipped in salt one day because my fat—according to my prescribed macros—was too low after dinner. That is super gross and I do not recommend. I can cool a half stick of butter if it is slathered on sourdough, or whipped butter on saltines, no problem, but straight butter is disgusting. I’m not chasing macros anymore; I’ll check in daily after I eat to see if I felt satisfied and adjust the macros according to my satiety, not add stupid calories to hit my macros.

Ketovore Dinners:

• We ate a lot of the petite sirloin steaks this week that were on sale at Fry’s, but they were pretty lean and therefore chewy, so I ended up slicing the cooked steaks in my food processor (this is the new version of the cheap food processor I’ve used forever).
• Carnitas was very satisfying because it is so tender, after many days of very chewy beef.
• I had everyone eat up all the leftovers I had frozen from the previous week. I only keep meat for three days, cooking day being included in the three days, after working in California restaurants for so long. If we don’t eat some meat within that time and I neglect to freeze it, I rinse the seasoning off and feed it to our dog so we don’t waste it.

Family Ketovore/Carnivore Meal Prep Week 4:

• Carnitas. I cooked 12 lbs of pork shoulder for carnitas. Pork shoulder yields half the weight in cooked meat, so we ate 6 lbs of carnitas.
• I cooked 5 lbs of bacon for the week.
• I grilled about 4 lbs of petite sirloin steaks, along with
• 8 lbs of 1/4 lb burgers, along with
• Fake-smoking the carnitas on the grill, to maximize use of the charcoal.

Family Ketovore Grocery Budget for Recipes Week 4: 

• $3.97 per lb petite sirloin steaks, boneless (Fry’s sale).
• $3 per 12 oz ($4 per lb) bacon, Bar S brand at Winco. This is the best super cheap bacon.
• $9.15 per lb pastured, completely grass-fed ground beef from our local farm.
• $5.68 per lb for allegedly organic and grass-fed beef from Winco.
• $2.29 per lb for pork shoulder. This is a high price, and is typically between $0.98 and $1.69 per lb. I bought it at the high price since I needed the pork shoulder that day to make food for a friend, and I bought enough to feed our family as well.

Week 3 Ketovore Diet Results:

Week 3 Ketovore Diet Weight Loss Results:

• Weight loss: -6 lbs total (+1 lbs week 3, -4 lbs week 2; -3 lbs week 1)
• Waist: -2 inch total (-0.5 inches week 3, -0.5 inches week 2; -1 inch week 1)
• 1461 average calories per day.
• 90 average protein per day.
• 113 average fat per day.
• 19 average carbs per day (high 31, low 7).
• I ate more fat on purpose this week because my energy felt very low during weeks 1 and 2.
• I ate only two meals a day without planning to, but my morning coffee should be considered as breakfast. This was the same from Weeks 1 and 2. I ate breakfast/brunch around 10am and dinner around 5pm.
• I still never felt hungry during Week 3.
• I’ve been sleeping between 9 and 10 hours each night, but every few nights, I wake up after 6 hours of sleep and force myself to sleep another few hours. I am sleeping very hard, which is unusual; I usually wake up at the slightest noise, but for the last two weeks, I have slept like the dead.
• I’ve not had any hip pain when sleeping (which I experienced in weeks 1 and 2).
• I added extra fat in Week 3, and that helped a lot with my energy level. I only exercised twice this week, on the rebounder 30 minutes each session, so I obviously did not have a high amount of energy. The extra fat does help with a feeling of energy, but it is still not what I would consider a normal level—”normal” would mean that I would want to exercise every day.

Week 3 Ketovore Diet Macros:

Carbs/Fat/Protein (percentages):

My Fitness Pal “Goal” is set to 5%/75%/20%

1. 10/65/33
2. 6/63/31
3. 4/68/28
4. 3/63/34
5. 2/72/26
6. 5/73/22
7. 5/73/22

My energy is not normal, but not as low as it was in weeks 1 and 2. The extra fat (or maybe extra calories?) seems to be helping with energy, and I don’t have that sluggish feeling walking upstairs, but I definitely don’t feel normal yet.

Week 3 Ketovore Meal Ideas:

Ketovore Breakfast: I continued to drink 145 calories in coffee each morning:

My daily coffee: 2 cups of coffee, 2 scoops Great Lakes Collagen Peptides (45 calories, 12 grams protein), and 2 Tbsp heavy cream (100 calories).

My electrolyte drink:

• 2 tsp Calm magnesium citrate (The orange flavor is the best; the cherry flavor is awful.)
• 1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt (I get mine at Winco for about $1/lb in the bulk bins but if you don’t have a Winco: Himalayan Pink Salt on Amazon)
• 1/4 tsp potassium chloride. I use NuSalt, which is about $1.50 at Winco. (Here’s a 3 pack on Amazon: NuSalt potassium chloride.)
• I stir it up in water and let it sit until it looks clear, about 10 minutes.

Ketovore Lunches:

• This week, I just ate whatever my family did not finish from the previous night or two. Everyone is getting pretty bored with the limited menu. I’m also bored with it, but I don’t want to waste food so I eat anything that fits the Carnivore/Ketovore rules.

Ketovore Dinners:

• Meat, Meat, and Meat. Same as Week 2, and Easter leftovers (see below).

Family Ketovore/Carnivore Meal Prep Week 3:

The trick this week was how to create a Carnivore/Ketovore Easter dinner menu. I asked everyone in the family if they wanted to take a break from the Carnivore diet for Easter, but no one did. My make-ahead Easter Carnivore/Ketovore dinner:

• Ham (slice ham 1-3 days ahead; gently reheat on Easter).
• Bacon-wrapped, cream cheese-stuffed jalapenos (prep 1-3 days ahead; roast at 425 degrees for 30 minutes on Easter).
• Shrimp cocktail (prep 1 day ahead by boiling Argentinian shrimp and chilling; make cocktail sauce up to a week ahead).
• Deviled eggs (prep 1-2 days ahead: puree hard-boiled egg yolks with heavy cream, mustard, horseradish, and habaneros.)
• Stuffed mushrooms (prep 1-4 days ahead: sausage and/or cheese filling. On serving day, roast at 425 degrees for 30 minutes – same time as bacon jalapenos).

Family Ketovore Grocery Budget for Recipes Week 3: 

• Ribeye beef roast ribs $5.47 per lb (on sale at Fry’s). 5 bones = 1 lb, 7 oz usable meat. I made these beef ribs Texas style with just salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
• New York steaks, bone in, $5.97 per lb (on sale at Safeway). Effective price $7.64 per lb after removing the bones and excess fat.
• Ribeye steaks, bone in, $5.97 per lb (on sale at Safeway). Effective price is higher for the ribeyes than the New York steaks, estimated at $10 per lb, because there was a lot of waste from excess fat after cooking that nobody could eat).
• Pastured eggs from verified farm: $7.66 per dozen.
• Ham: Frick’s bone-in ham butt, $2.19/lb purchased in December.
• Argentinian pink shrimp, $12 per lb from Fry’s. No shells, no veins, no tails=100% usable shrimp. This makes the Fry’s pink shrimp a better value than Winco’s pink shrimp at $10 per lb, which is deveined but has shells and tails on.

Week 2 Ketovore Diet Results:

Week 2 Ketovore Diet Weight Loss Results:

• Weight loss: -7 lbs total (-4 lbs week 2; -3 lbs week 1)
• Waist: -1.5 inch total (-0.5 inches week 2; -1 inch week 1)
• 1068 average calories per day. That seems far too low. Will aim for 1600 calories/day for Week 3.
• 81 average protein per day.
• 75 average fat per day. This is probably too low, so for Week 3 I’ll be upping fat intake.
• 18 average carbs per day (high 26, low 10). Most carbs were from Daisy full fat cottage cheese (5 g carbs per half cup).
• I ate more intuitively this week, only eating when hungry, and stopping eating when full. Unfortunately, this led to under-eating.
• Ate only two meals a day without planning to. This was the same from Week 1. I ate breakfast/brunch around 10am and dinner around 5pm.
• I still never felt hungry during Week 2.
• I didn’t practice Intermittent Fasting, because I had my 150-calorie coffee each morning around 7:00 a.m. (see below).
• My sleep was great for most of the week, but on days 6 and 7, I woke up to my husband breathing (not snoring), so I hit the couch from 1 am until 7 am.
• The hip pain I experienced when I tried to go to sleep at night (that started at the end of Week 1), subsided by day 2 of Week 2.
• I wasn’t sleepy but my body felt tired all day, continuing into Week 2. I only used the rebounder for 30 minutes, two times. (I have this inexpensive rebounder), I felt sluggish even just walking up the stairs. It’s probably because I wasn’t eating enough. I’m going to eat more fat this week which should help increase calories without having to eat too much extra volume of food.

Week 2 Ketovore Diet Macros:

Carbs/Fat/Protein (percentages):

My Fitness Pal “Goal” is set to 10%/60%/30%

1. 7/60/33
2. 8/54/38
3. 10/60/30
4. 8-65-27
5. 5/70/25
6. 6-69-25
7. 10/52/41

Since my energy is so low, I’m going to change my focus from eating enough protein to eating enough fat. Hopefully that will help. I’ll also be doubling my electrolyte drink every day, to take first thing in the morning and before bed, to see if that helps as well (my cheap electrolyte drink recipe is below).

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Week 2 Ketovore Meal Ideas:

Ketovore Breakfast: I continued to drink 145 calories in coffee each morning:

My daily coffee: 2 cups of coffee, 2 scoops Great Lakes Collagen Peptides (45 calories, 12 grams protein), and 2 Tbsp heavy cream (100 calories).

My electrolyte drink:

• 2 tsp Calm magnesium citrate (The orange flavor is the best; the cherry flavor is awful.)
• 1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt (I get mine at Winco for about $1/lb in the bulk bins but if you don’t have a Winco: Himalayan Pink Salt on Amazon)
• 1/4 tsp potassium chloride. I use NuSalt, which is about $1.50 at Winco. (Here’s a 3 pack on Amazon: NuSalt potassium chloride.)
• I stir it up in water and let it sit until it looks clear, about 10 minutes.

Ketovore Lunches:

• Week 2 lunches were similar to Week 1, but I mixed up a really good Ketovore Chopped Salad recipe using up leftover Easter ham. Recipe here: Ketovore Chopped Salad. Even though the only items in the salad that are fresh produce are lettuce and red onion, this tasted really fresh.
• Scrambled eggs in butter, with bacon or sausage, cheese, and a bit of diced onion.
• Cottage cheese (Daisy cottage cheese is just milk, cream, and salt) with fresh dill and fresh parsley mixed in, with cucumber and carrots as dippers.
• Steak salad: leftover steak sliced and briefly fried, over red leaf lettuce or arugula, red onion, cucumber, dry blue cheese, and homemade vinaigrette; sometimes also with avocado.
• Shredded chicken with butter. Chicken is starting to taste gross to me (honestly, I really only like fried chicken anyway), and because of the poor quality of the chicken I’ve bought lately, whether allegedly organic chicken from Costco, or allegedly antibiotic-free chicken from Foster Farms or Bare Chicken, I’m going to limit my family’s chicken consumption to the company we buy from that I know is truly pastured chicken.

Ketovore Dinners:

• Burgers: Holy cow, frying up 5 lbs of burgers in a cast iron pan makes a huge mess in the kitchen, down to the greasy floor, and makes the house stink like fried meat for days. Same with steaks. I’m going to grill as much as possible outside. This means I have to include the price or charcoal and propane (charcoal grill, or propane grill) for each meal. I haven’t worked it out totally, but I measured that a full charcoal chimney holds 2 pounds, 11 oz. (This is my charcoal chimney.) So if I get Kingsford charcoal for $10 for 16 lbs (a typical, non-sale price), that’s 63 cents per pound. or 4 cents per ounce. So a single round of grilling that keeps its heat for around 40 minutes costs $1.68. One 16 lb bag of charcoal fills a standard size charcoal chimney 6 times.  This extra cost makes it important to grill food for multiple meals during the same grilling session to minimize the extra cost of the charcoal. I also “smoke” items once the grill starts cooling down, like beef back ribs, or pork butt for carnitas, to maximize the use of the charcoal briquettes. I don’t have a smoker, but I’ve found that when I put pork, beef, etc. wrapped in foil inside the grill once it cools to around 300 degrees, that it does give a smoky flavor to the meat, and I’ve even achieved a pink smoky interior several times that mimics a true smoked meat.
• Carnivore Pizza. This pizza by Low Carb Love (YouTube video) was a hit for my husband—he said it was the best pizza, and he loves normal pizza. I thought it was better than expected, but I definitely prefer Round Table pizza. You California people know what I’m talking about. No pizza brand in Arizona beats this low carb pizza, that’s for sure. One issue is that since the low carb pizza crust requires cheese (it’s just eggs and cheese), I can’t make it for my daughter who hates cheese, so when I make this, I have to have something else on hand for her to eat.
• Carne Asada. I made this recipe exactly as I always do, except sadly without homemade tortillas. Do not believe crappy, gringo asada recipes you find online if there is a recipe with lots of ingredients: California style carne asada is supposed to taste like meat, not like salsa. Marinate the beef in only salt, pepper, and garlic powder. That’s it. Grill it, chop it or slice it, and squeeze lime over it.
• Carnivore Stew: This was a fail, to my surprise, because I thought it tasted pretty good. I made a normal stew, only leaving out potatoes. I used beef stew meat, onion, mushrooms, garlic cloves. The stew was thin, so I pureed the broth, onions, garlic, and mushrooms in the blender after braising to try to thicken the stew. (This is my new blender, made in Mexico, review coming soon! So far, so good.) My husband said it tasted sad without potatoes, so be aware this might not be the best substitute for a “meat and potatoes” meal on the Carnivore diet.
• Carnivore Chili: I used this chili to make a “chili size”, which is a California diner recipe that is usually a toasted bun topped with a burger patty, smothered in chili, onions, and cheese. It was very good even without a bun. To make Carnivore chili (low carb): Add to cooked ground beef: paprika, cayenne, cumin, garlic powder, salt, and pepper (or just use chili powder and salt. I never buy chili powder because I always add to it anyway so it’s not a timesaver). Cook with a little extra water (or beef bone broth). I made 2 quarts of chili with 2 lbs of ground beef, per 5 oz serving 2.9 grams of carbs (from the spices).
• Carnivore Quiche: I’m going to make this slightly differently than I did this first attempt, and I will post the recipe when it’s perfect, but all you need to do is make quiche with (by weight) 1 part egg to 2 parts heavy cream, but sadly without delicious crust. I thought it tasted awful when I sampled it right out of the oven (it tasted like a frittata), and again after cooling for one hour (it tasted like a sort of good frittata, still not like a quiche). BUT when I ate the carnivore quiche after 2 hours, it did taste exactly like normal quiche—but, again, and very sadly, without crust, which is the entire point of quiche. This is a solid recipe for Carnivore breakfast that is not just nasty scrambled eggs again.
• Carnivore Chicken Tacos: Cooking 1 oz of cheddar cheese on parchment paper in the microwave for 45 seconds, then patting off the oil, makes a 30% acceptable tortilla. Shredded chicken, avocado salsa, super-hot hot sauce, and a couple squeezes of lime, is maybe a 50% acceptable substitute for a good chicken taco with a homemade corn or flour tortilla. We love Melinda’s hot sauce when I can’t make my own, but it is pricey now! I used to get it for under a dollar at Winco. It’s $5.50 at Safeway, and usually a little cheaper than that on Amazon: Melinda’s hot sauce.

Family Ketovore/Carnivore Meal Prep Week 2:

Week 2 was similar to Week 1: I spent a lot less time cooking this week than normal, because we usually eat a larger variety of foods, and a lot of Mexican food, on which dishes I spend a lot of time chopping veggies and making sauces. This week, all I did for my weekly family meal prep:

• Cooked 5 lbs of burgers inside, in a cast iron skillet. Bad idea. Very messy, took forever.
• Cooked 4 lbs of chicken breast with a stick of butter and a cup of water, 4 tsp salt, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp white pepper, in the Instant Pot for 2 hours. I don’t think you can cook shredded chicken breast that tastes tender in less time.
• Cooked 4 lbs of New York steak. I removed the bone from each steak, then cooked the steaks in a cast iron skillet for 4 minutes per side. (I have this Lodge cast iron skillet.)
• Cooked 5 lbs of Ribeye steak. Removed bones, cooked in a cast iron skillet. I remove the bones before cooking because our dog eats raw food, so he eats the raw bones which would otherwise go to waste after cooking.
• Made a dozen hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot. I have the old version of this 6 qt Instant Pot.
• Cooked 2 lbs ground beef for Carnivore chili (basic recipe above).
• Shredded more than 5 lbs of cheese in 2 minutes in my cheap food processor. (This is the new version of the food processor I’ve used forever.) Shred your own cheese to avoid the mold-inhibitor chemicals, starches, etc. It is super quick to slice a block of cheese into pieces that fit into the food processor, then bag it for fridge or freezer. Block cheese and shredded cheese cost the same by weight, so price is definitely not an issue, but when you shred your own block cheese you can avoid unnecessary additives.

Family Ketovore Grocery Budget for Recipes Week 2: 

• Ribeye beef roast $5.47 per lb (on sale at Fry’s).
• New York steaks, bone in, $5.97 per lb (on sale at Safeway). Effective price $7.64 per lb after removing the bones and excess fat.
• Ribeye steaks, bone in, $5.97 per lb (on sale at Safeway). Effective price is higher for the ribeyes than the New York steaks, estimated at $10 per lb, because there was a lot of waste from excess fat after cooking that nobody could eat).
• “Organic” eggs $4/doz (on sale at Fry’s). I don’t actually trust labels like “organic”, “pastured”, or “cage free” on grocery store eggs.
• Produce: I didn’t buy any produce this week, which felt very weird. Garden produce: red leaf lettuce, arugula, basil, dill, parsley, cilantro.
• Butter $2.19/lb at Fry’s on sale, but they only had unsalted left, so I only bought 4.

Week 1 Ketovore Diet Results:

I’m a 48-year-old mom, normal looking weight to others but overweight for me, and “skinny fat”. I’m eating a “Ketovore” diet for 90 days, going from a medium-carb, meat-heavy diet with very little processed snacks, sugar, or fast food/restaurant food. Therefore, I expect to experience less drastic changes in weight, physical/mental health, and digestion than do obese people who experience rapid and drastic results due to the huge diet and lifestyle changeover from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to a Carnivore/Ketovore diet. My husband is eating a Carnivore diet, and my 17- and 20-year old are eating the Ketovore/Carnivore meals I make, plus some breads, sweets, starches, and extra fruit and vegetables as they desire.

2020 broke my cortisol regulation, so I’ve been working on repairing my cortisol activity for about a year, but my weight still hasn’t gone down to normal. For two years, I’ve done several bouts of 8-12 weeks of exercise, which did well for toning but not for weight loss. I’m hoping that following a Ketovore diet for 90 days will help convince my body to drop the annoying extra weight so I feel comfortable in my clothes again.

Week 1 Ketovore Diet Weight Loss Results:

• Weight loss: -3 lbs
• Waist: -1 inch
• 1442 average calories per day
• 116 average protein per day
• 100 average fat per day
• 22 average carbs per day (high 32, low 7)
• Overall felt too full aiming for protein of 100 grams per day.
• Ate only two meals a day without planning to—I was not hungry for breakfast at all.
• I felt hungry exactly one time the entire week; the protein kept me very full.
• I didn’t practice Intermittent Fasting, because I had my 150-calorie coffee each morning around 7:00 a.m (see below). I ate brunch/lunch around 11:00 a.m., and dinner around 6:00 p.m. On a couple days I noticed my calories were very low, so I ate a couple hundred more calories around 8:00 p.m. I won’t do that again unless I’m actually hungry; it seems silly to eat just because of the numbers on the calorie tracking app.
• I slept much better and slept 10 hours a couple of nights during the week. This might be due to my new diet, but more likely is due to my husband snoring a lot less within four days of his starting a Carnivore diet.
• On day 6, I had a lot of aching pain in my hips when I went to bed. It was bad enough that I took ibuprofen for several nights so I could sleep. This hip pain might have been due to “oxylate dumping”, but I was consistently taking electrolytes, so I’m not sure.
• I wasn’t sleepy but my body felt tired all day starting around Day 3 of Week 1. I had planned to exercise daily, but only exercised on two days. I jogged on my mini trampoline for 30 minutes twice (I have this inexpensive rebounder), and did strenuous yard work for 30 minutes twice, so I had only two hours of purposeful exercise.

Week 1 Ketovore Diet Macros:

Carbs/Fat/Protein:

Goal is 10/60/30

1. 8/59/33
2. 5/54/41
3. 7/71/22
4. 8/59/33
5. 3/57/40
6. 4/66/30
7. 7/64/29

 

Week 1 Ketovore Meal Ideas:

Ketovore Breakfast: I wasn’t hungry for breakfast (even on Day 1, strangely) but I did drink 145 calories in coffee each morning:

My daily coffee: 2 cups of coffee, 2 scoops Great Lakes Collagen Peptides (45 calories, 12 grams protein), and 2 Tbsp heavy cream (100 calories).

My electrolyte drink:

• 2 tsp Calm magnesium citrate (The orange flavor is the best; the cherry flavor is awful.)
• 1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt (I get mine at Winco for about $1/lb in the bulk bins but if you don’t have a Winco: Himalayan Pink Salt on Amazon)
• 1/4 tsp potassium chloride. I use NuSalt, which is about $1.50 at Winco. (Here’s a 3 pack on Amazon: NuSalt potassium chloride.)
• I stir it up in water and let it sit until it looks clear, about 10 minutes.

Ketovore Lunches:

• Scrambled eggs in butter, with bacon or sausage, cheese, and a bit of diced onion.
• Cottage cheese (Daisy cottage cheese is just milk, cream, and salt) with fresh dill and fresh parsley mixed in, with cucumber and carrots as dippers.
• Steak salad: leftover steak sliced and briefly fried, over red leaf lettuce or arugula, red onion, cucumber, dry blue cheese, and homemade vinaigrette; sometimes also with avocado.
• Pepperoni and cheddar cheese stacked like cheese and crackers, but without crackers.

Ketovore Dinners:

• Beef “petite sirloin” steak from Fry’s was on sale for $4/lb so we ate a lot of that on Week 1. It was ok but hit and miss with the cuts; some had too much fat. I pan-fried the steaks in butter and/or bacon grease in a cast iron skillet (I have this Lodge cast iron skillet) because the weather was too wet and windy to use the grill. As a condiment for the steaks, I used Silver Spring horseradish (the best horseradish that is actually hot), peppercorn cream sauce (just cream and extra cracked pepper added to the pan drippings after frying the steaks), or butter.
• Chicken tenders, sauteed in bacon grease. I made the mistake of buying Foster Farms chicken breast and Foster Farms chicken tenders because they were on sale at Fry’s and Foster Farms chicken is allegedly antibiotic free. I don’t know what Foster Farms does to its poor chickens but the chicken tenders were chewy and hard—it took longer to chew a piece of the Foster Farms chicken than it did to chew the tough sirloin steak.
• Shredded chicken, cooked in the Instant Pot. If you have to buy factory farm chicken, this is the best way to cook it so it ends up tender. You can do this in the Instant Pot, or in a covered pot on the stove. For each one pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, add half a cup of water, 2 Tbsp butter, and 1 Tbsp concentrated chicken stock*. Cook on high pressure in the Instant Pot for two hours. (It doesn’t matter if you use manual or natural pressure release.) Add salt, garlic powder, white pepper (or whatever seasonings you like) to taste. Stir to shred the chicken. This makes moist chicken breast that is even moist after reheating—even junky Foster Farms chicken. If you use skin-on, bone-in chicken breast, you can omit the butter and the concentrated chicken stock.
  • I reduce my homemade stocks down into tiny 1×1-inch squares so I can freeze a lot. One square plus one cup of water reconsitutes it. If you have liquid stock, use that in place of the water.
  • For chicken breast cooked on the stove, cook for two hours on low and keep covered; add water as needed.
  • I use the old 6 quart Instant Pot LUX. Check current price for 6 qt Instant Pot Duo on Amazon.
• Artichoke cream cheese dip with cucumbers, celery, and/or carrots to dip. I ate this one night when I ate lunch too late and really wasn’t hungry for dinner.
  • Artichoke Cream Cheese Dip recipe: 8 oz Tillamook cream cheese (just cream, milk, and salt; Tillamook tastes so much better than Philadelphia Cream Cheese since Philly added all the gums and nasty ingredients several years ago), 8 oz chopped artichoke hearts (1 can drained equals 8 oz), 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 oz shredded parmesan cheese, 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste.
• Meatballs: Ground beef, onion and fresh basil pureed in food processor (this is the new version of my cheap food processor), eggs, and salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, crushed red pepper. I stuffed some meatballs with mozzarella cubes—do not attempt. I watched five different youtube videos of people successfully making mozzarella stuffed meatballs because I had a feeling they would explode, and I now believe those final product shots on the youtube videos were faked. The mozzarella oozed out of most of the meatballs and made a huge puddle of grease in the pan, so when I pulled the meatballs out of the oven the grease spilled into the oven and I got to clean the oven the next day. If you want mozzarella meatballs, just top the meatballs with mozzarella after cooking. Meatballs condiments: Frank’s Red Hot sauce and dry blue cheese.
  • 1 gallon of Frank’s Red Hot sauce on Amazon For reference, at Walmart, the big 23 oz bottle of Frank’s is 26 cents per ounce, and the normal 12 oz bottle of Frank’s is 30 cents per ounce.

Family Ketovore/Carnivore Meal Prep Week 1:

I spent a lot less time cooking this week than normal, because we usually eat a larger variety of foods, and a lot of Mexican food, on which dishes I spend a lot of time chopping veggies and making sauces. This week, all I did for my weekly family meal prep:

• Baked 8 packages of bacon in the oven (save bacon grease for Carnivore/Ketovore cooking).
• Cooked 5 packages of breakfast sausage in cast iron skillet. (Sausage does not turn out as well as bacon when baked in the oven.) I used Fry’s (Kroger) Simple Truth sausage, so I had to add sausage grease to cook it, because the Simple Truth sausage is very lean.
• Made a dozen hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot (2 minutes pressure, 2 minutes wait, put into ice bath).
• Cooked double to triple batches of one meat once each night, then everyone reheated whichever meat they wanted at dinner time throughout the week:
  • meatballs
  • sirloin steaks
  • chicken tenders
  • shredded chicken
  • I freeze meats within three days of cooking. Day 1 is the day I cook it. The exception is bacon, which is already cured so I leave it in the fridge for a week if it lasts that long.
• Harvested and prepped red leaf lettuce, arugula, cilantro, dill, parsley, and basil from my little garden. Washing and drying fresh garden produce takes forever, but my homegrown lettuce and arugula last more than a week in the fridge.

Family Ketovore Grocery Budget for Recipes Week 1:

• Beef petite sirloin steaks: $3.97/lb at Fry’s (sale price)
• Foster Farms chicken (will not buy again) $3.50/lb at Fry’s (sale price, BOGO $6.99/lb)
• Grass fed ground beef from confirmed pasture raised farm: $9.15/lb
• Pastured eggs from confirmed pasture raised farm: $7.66/lb
• Produce: I only bought a few items for the kids and myself: English cucumbers ($1.25 Fry’s), red bell peppers ($1 Winco), organic carrots ($0.98 for 1 lb Winco). Garden produce: red leaf lettuce, arugula, basil, dill, parsley, cilantro.
• Butter $2.99/lb at Fry’s (sale price). Winco butter has been $3.68/lb for several months so sadly, $3/lb for butter is “cheap”.
• Tillamook cream cheese: $1.99 at Fry’s (sale price). Winco cream cheese is back up to $1.68, so this was a small price upgrade for a much better product.
• Silver Spring horseradish $2.49. My family used a whole bottle this week.
• Dry blue cheese $5.98/lb Winco. That’s the equivalent of getting a 4 oz container at a normal grocery store for $1.50.
• Daisy sour cream and Daisy cottage cheese: $2.98 at Winco for 24 oz. It’s a routine low price at Winco and I stock up at this price.
• Cheddar and mozzarella cheese $3/lb Fry’s (sale price). Winco’s cheese price is now $3.68/lb and a normal grocery store usually has a better sale price.
• Bacon $2.98/12 oz Bar-S brand (Winco; typical price)
• Breakfast sausage: $3.50/12 oz Simple Truth at Fry’s (sale price).
• Canned artichokes $2.50 at Winco.

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