Just as we approached the holiday season, my husband made a unilateral decision (he did not check in with me) to go on the keto diet to shed a few pounds. I was horrified! Me…. the food lover whose life was filled with a kaleidoscope of textures and flavors was suddenly listening 24×7 to keto speak – high fat, low carb, not this vegetable, not that flour…..in other words enough to drive me mad! Our Costco runs ended with huge blocks of cheese and more eggs than I had ever seen in my grocery basket and our Amazon deliveries now included almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium husk and shiratake noodles. Oh and I was getting regular texts on how these ingredients could be magically converted into yummy meals in the keto universe. My world was getting torpedoed and I needed to bring back some sanity.
After being the supportive spouse for a bit, trying out new keto recipes, I came to a decision (a unilateral one). I would cook main stream meals and have a subset that was keto friendly rather than creating separate meals for all of us and taking away a source of constant joy in my life. A new normal is settling in, a stage where if coconut noodles or rice is made for dinner, my husband’s portion gets made with shiratake noodles/rice. Our favorite pesto pasta nights continue with one difference – his pasta is made with shiratake noodles. Our Indian food with rotis and veggies continues, his rotis now get made with almond flour and the vegetables are more keto friendly.
Over the next few posts, I’ll share the recipes for some of these dishes, but for now I wanted to put up a few pictures of some of these “keto” approved dishes that have enabled us to live a new level of family normal!
I’d love to hear your stories and recipes on how you might have integrated special diets into your mainstream family meals. And if you were able to do it with zero frustration, then I am even more in awe of you!
PS. If you are curious, yes the diet has worked beautifully for my husband!
a global affair 