Getting Meals on the Table Can be a Daunting Task
Especially when you are doing keto solo with a family to feed. When Creating meals that meet the varied needs of everyone at the dinner table may require you to be a short order cook. Throwing varied dietary protocols on top of dueling food preferences can add to feeling overwhelmed by the task. Let’s face it, everyone is busy and the last thing anyone wants is to take on making three different versions of the same dinner to keep everyone satisfied.
You want to be keto, but being a reasonable human you don’t want to overload yourself with this scenario of having to make yourself food which needs to be structured differently than those who aren’t fat adapted at your table. What is the happy medium here? How can you make a keto compliant meal for yourself, and have it also comply with the rest of your household? You can make it a complicated process, or you can make it an easy one.
Here’s How to Complicate Things:
Make two totally separate menus to get dinner on the table, one keto (presumably from a keto cookbook or online recipe you saw) and the other a standard meal in your home. Or, make it easier on yourself by building the meal with staple items that are good for everyone, regardless of who’s following what protocol. Start by selecting a protein that will be well received, regardless of whether it falls on the keto friendly list or not. Simply adding fat to your portion of a lean protein, such as chicken breast or shrimp, magically makes it keto. If the rest of the household is not keto, they don’t necessarily need to be consuming the fattiest cuts of meat for every single meal, especially if they’re still consuming moderate or higher levels of carbohydrates. Be aware of the nutritional composition your selected protein has, and if it’s high protein and low fat, just know you’ll need to add more fat to your serving.
What falls next onto everyone’s plate will low carb vegetables. Whether it’s well received or not, everyone is getting vegetables, and odds are this is not a new set of struggles when making dinner. The only difference here is selecting lower carb vegetables, rather than higher carb vegetables such as corn, carrots, and sweet peas. Broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, spinach and the like are staple vegetables for dinner, as they’re good for everyone.
Now the dreaded carbs. This portion of the meal depends upon the rest of the household, and how they’re choosing to support you on your keto journey. If you’re the only not eating rice, potatoes or pasta – it’s going to be ok. Focus on what you can have like extra satiating fat on your plate instead. If everyone is on board for swapping cauliflower rice for brown rice in support of your keto journey, then that’s a simple fix to the carb conundrum going forward.
The Final and Most Important Element in Your Keto Dinner is Adding Fat
Above I mentioned adding fat to your plate when you have low-fat proteins for dinner. This is going to be the main difference between your doing keto solo meal and everyone else’s. The most simplistic way to make your meal keto is by drizzling it with a healthy fat such as avocado oil, and or serving it with a sauce like aioli or Alton Brown’s Guacamole. Add fat to only your pate, to attain a keto ratio. This is how you’re able to prepare everyone’s dinner together while staying sane and within a reasonable timeframe. You get sauce or extra fat. It’s that simple. If the protein you selected was really lean, well, you get extra sauce or oil to elevate your fat intake.
Is it really that simple? It can be, and here’s an example: Let’s say grilled chicken breasts go over well, so you choose chicken as your protein. Then you decide upon low carb broccoli and brussel sprouts for your vegetables. Then, the carb eaters want potatoes, so you’ll make those as well. You wrap the quartered potatoes in a little foil pack and throw them on the grill first, and then about twenty minutes in, the chicken goes on, and for the last 10 you toss the vegetables in a grill pan and finish everything up together, like a boss. You dish out chicken, potatoes, and vegetables for everyone else, and you get chicken, but you toss your vegetables in a tablespoon olive oil before putting them on your plate, and then give yourself a dollop of guacamole. For the most part, you really did not have to do anything differently!
Being the only keto eater in your household doesn’t have to add to dinner complications. Keep it simple. Make dinner as per usual only skip your serving of carbs and throw a serving or two of healthy fat on your plate instead.
Kristi
The Good Fat Bar Baker
P.S. I am the baker for the Good Fat Bars! I make them by hand at my shop in Michigan. I hope you enjoy them! Have you tried our newest bar? Dark Chocolate Peanut
