FATboys | Gays in the Life

April 9, 2017

Brunch Fave: Sausage & Cornbread.

So can you tell bread was one of my favorite things before living a low-carb lifestyle? I’m telling you, I could turn anything into a sandwich. Sandwiches – no one in particular – were my favorite food and I’d have them often. That’s why so many of my last meal remixes have included keto bread. It must be a craving coming to test my will.

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Today, I put a twist on one of my favorite college brunch items: sausage and cornbread. The original recipe comes from an old friend and roommate. With a single box of Jiffy cornbread mix, baked over cooked, crumbled breakfast sausage, the epic breakfast dish is ready when golden brown.

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Instead of using the keto bread recipe to make biscuits or buns, I spread the uncooked dough over spicy crumbled sausage I’d prepared in the skillet. I doused the sausage with cayenne pepper, black pepper, and Italian seasoning as it sizzled in the heat, so this dish was going to have just the right amount of kick. If you can make it spicy? Make it spicy. Let the dish bake until golden brown and spread REAL butter over the top before letting it rest. After about ten minutes, cut and serve with sugar-free syrup.

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This looks like a heavy meal, right? I was pleasantly surprised at how light the meal was; the complete opposite feeling of the one you have after eating the original recipe. I had two pieces in the beginning and felt completely satisfied – not too full – after I’d finished them. We love to make this and bake the mixture in cupcake baking sheets. You get the perfect single serving if you make it this way. Side item? Scrambled eggs and spinach cooked in bacon fat.

Yum. Absolutely, yum.

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March 11, 2017

It’s Snacktime in the FATboys Kitchen…

I’m having a low-carb, deconstructed chicken sandwich this afternoon. I was inspired to come up with something new because S is having low-carb biscuits and gravy. While I do love the biscuits and gravy recipe we use, it’s heavy on the dairy side of life, and I need to stay away from that to keep feeling light and healthy.

My body doesn’t tolerate dairy very well and since cutting it out of my diet over a year ago, I feel so much better on a daily basis. If I do have some dairy? I have some kombucha and get back on my mostly-dairy-free train.

To start, I fried a few chicken thighs in beef tallow using our home deep fryer. S had already made the keto bread so this was ready to go by the time my chicken was finished and ready for seasoning.

Next? We slice the bread in half and add some homemade spicy keto sauce on each side. Continue on to debone each thigh and chop, together, with spinach. Add your preferred seasoning – I used a mixture of cayenne, lime juice, and a pinch of garlic salt – and place the chicken spinach mixture on top of the keto-sauced bread.

At the top of this idea, I thought I would be able to mix the spinach and chicken, and make a sandwich with no issues. The mixture turned out to be a tad too unruly to rest calmly between the keto bread slices, so this is how the deconstructed version of this snack came to mind.

How was it? Absolutely DELISH. I enjoyed it with a crispy tequila water on the side.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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February 7, 2017

Fast and Low Carbs

At least once or twice a week, we find ourselves at Hardee’s for a quick and easy low-carb dinner.

“Can we get two double bacon thick burgers, made low-carb, no onions or tomatoes… A single bacon thick burger, made low-carb, no onions or tomatoes… and a charbroiled chicken club, also made low-carb.”

I’m not sure what S has against veggies, but hey, I leave them on if I’m rolling solo.

The staff is always so pleasant and has our order mememorized. There’s one high-school-aged team member who always hooks us up with a %10 discount – on top of the already great customer service. It’s the little things and this team has learned us.

“The cook always gets so stressed when you guys show up.” Hilarious.

We love coming to Hardee’s, but honestly, we need to slow down on the fast food game. If you find yourself wanting a fast and decent low-carb meal, try your local Hardee’s.

(Shouts to Carl’s Jr. up North!)

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January 9, 2017

Oh We’ve Got Buns, Hun. Keto Buns.

January kicks off some fun and new content for the blog. We’re hoping to make cooking videos a regular thing in the FATboys section of Gays in the life. People often think we have boring food lives as regular low-carbers, but with video like these, we hope to show that we’re anything but dull when it comes to our food.

We followed Maria Emmerich’s recipe from her latest book The 30 Day Ketogenic Cleanse. We used the buns to make her sloppy ottos recipe – ground pork cooked with onions, topped with homemade keto thousand island dressing and sauerkraut – which turned out SO amazing. I want more.

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I like to use keto bread in bun or loaf form for sandwiches… ESPECIALLY a good breakfast sandwich. The keto bread recipe in Maria’s latest book is dairy-free. Not everyone can tolerate dairy the same so this is a huge bonus for me. A little over a year ago, I cut way back on dairy and experienced great results. My weight-loss stall was broken and I could tell my insides were happy with me (TMI? lol)

Don’t be afraid to have fun with whatever lifestyle you live in the kitchen. A true diet shouldn’t feel like a diet. You have to live, people. Catch us under FATboys for more keto and low-carb gems.

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January 2, 2017

Snap, Crackle, Pop!

I have a feeling we won’t be ordering so many wings now…

We’ve only had this bad boy for about a week, and it’s changed our kitchen game already. For the past (coming up on) three years, S and I have produced our low-carb creations via the stovetop, oven, our grill or crock-pots. This home deep fryer by DeLonghi doesn’t take up much space on the counter and has yielded some extremely tasty keto snacks for us.

Staying as true to ketogenic and low-carb form as possible, the only oil that will be used in our fryer is beef tallow – a form of pure animal fat.

Eating real food is the key, regardless of your lifestyle, so this single ingredient, healthy fat will do well with the heat of the fryer. Some oils – if cooked at too high a temperature – become bad for you.

We baked some bacon-wrapped smokies with the family over Christmas , so we immediately knew we had to try frying those…

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And check out these wings!

We’ve been ordering so many wings, but now that our schedules are getting back to normal, we’ll have the time and energy to cook regularly again.

How exciting! New toys in the kitchen means remixed recipes and more fun and creativity to keep things interesting as a pair of low-carbers.

Stay tuned,

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December 10, 2016

This Evening’s Cocktail of Choice…

Tequila, LaCroix sparkling water, lemons and limes stirred.

It’s low-carb and yields a healthy buzz. Not for faint palates, this drink punches your tastebuds in the face. Yum.

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November 5, 2016

Back on Track

It’s Saturday! And I’ve managed to successfully stick to my set fasting windows. This was the reset I needed. The beer last weekend was delicious, but my body KNOWS when intruders – carbs – are strolling through my system.

Outside of sticking to fasting windows, ranging from 16-37 hours this week, I’m patting myself on the back for making every planned workout. As of late, I’m unable to pop right up and be gym ready in the morning. Lifting weights before work was convenient because I like to go STRAIGHT home after work. I’ve never been a fan of errands or veering too far off any scheduled plan; and yes, a scheduled plan includes my drive home (haha).

This week I decided to step outside of my stubborn-overly-scheduled mindset and just wing it. If I wasn’t hungry, I didn’t eat. This is largely due to keeping my healthy fat intake at 75% and my protein and carbs at good ketogenic levels. I had two, half-hour lifting sessions this week, and did yoga for 25 minutes two mornings. Every workout was focused, calm, and productive. I say calm because my body felt rested; even in the act of ripping my muscles apart and working on inversion poses.

How much a sweat comes out of a workout has never been a marker of success for me. With that being said, however, I’d never sweat so much during a workout. TMI, sorry, but I’m not sure what that could mean. Maybe it means nothing. I’ve never been a heavy sweater in the gym, but could working out in a fasting state be serving as some form of detoxification for me? The day after each lifting or yoga session, I felt as though I’d worked out, but the recovery period was much faster.

This morning we made these amazing breakfast sandwiches. Almond flour biscuits, egg, ham, extra sharp cheddar, jalapeno, and a bit of mayo.

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They were so bomb. It’s been ages since I had a breakfast sandwich and we were both too excited to eat them. S and I are looking into local butchers so we can level-up on healthy fats, our cooking, and culinary creativity. Whatever you eat, you’ve gotta have fun with it. Can you imagine this sandwich with some freshly sliced, thick-cut bacon? My weekend has been made already 🙂

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October 31, 2016

Alternate-Day Fasting Journal: Day 1

Fasting for any period has always been difficult for me. I believe the main cause of my up-and-down scenario in the world of fasting is the inability to get out of my own head. Before S and I became extremely busy – and exhausted – I was doing exceptionally well sticking to a regular intermittent fasting schedule. By eating between the hours of noon and 8PM, I was able to break my fasting period around lunchtime at work, but was also able to make sure I wasn’t eating too late in the evening.

In the past, I could successfully fast – only consuming green tea, coffee, and/or water – I could last two and a half days. Fasting for long periods does not work well for me and that’s okay. You’ll notice at one point I began a fat-fasting journal, but never got past the first entry here on the blog. At least on a fat-fast you could eat, but it became really difficult to do that type of fasting once I cut dairy from my diet. After two years of exploring the ketogenic lifestyle – almost three full years low-carb – I feel I can openly move forward with this fasting experiment.

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Today went surprisingly well for coming off a weekend where I consumed more carbs than I’d like to admit. Thanks to the low-carb, keto pumpkin cheesecake we made last night, I didn’t wake up hungry. Skipping yoga this morning, I went right into work where I made it through the day with no temptation or fear of collapsing under hunger’s heavy pressure. There were a couple moments of mild stomach cramps, but drinking plenty of water calmed that symptom. Immediately after work I hit the weights and had a productive lifting session. Lifting after not eating for about nineteen hours was an interesting experience; but more on that later.

It’s been just over twenty-three hours since my last meal. There were no headaches, I feel strong, my mind has been pinging and alert all day, and I don’t plan on eating until tomorrow morning. All it took, so far, was keeping a clear head; even smelling all the food in and around the breakroom at work today didn’t phase me. Focus is it. Focus is what’s been missing from my past attempts at exploring fasting. I’ll most likely break my fast with some eggs scrambled in coconut oil and spinach. Did you know the term “breakfast” comes from one breaking their fasting period? Breakfast doesn’t have to be in the morning, but I’m sure mine will come before lunch tomorrow.

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September 15, 2016

Savory, Sweet Truth

“CHAI TEA MUFFINS WITH CINNAMON GLAZE” by You Thyme, fellow WordPress blogger, spoke to me as a person that doesn’t follow the standard American diet. You Thyme talks about feeling shame for indulging in foods that aren’t actually terrible for you and the struggle of adjusting to a paleo lifestyle.

S and I have been low-carbers for coming up on three years and we have both had tempting moments and slip-ups here and there. It’s completely normal and human. When you restrict yourself so greatly, to the point you can’t stop at the tiniest taste of whatver… You’re already too far down a tough path.

We enjoy beers when we’re with our brew buddies, which isn’t often, and who can’t resist a bomb margarita in the summer?! We never feel like we’re on a diet and beer has really been the only thing we miss. We LOVE a good brew. I appreciated You Thyme’s honesty in this post and I’m excited to try the recipe!

You can be healthy AND enjoy life.

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August 31, 2016

Maybe after the new Harry Potter…

He may be annoying AF at times, but we’ll keep him😄

I still need to read The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz. I hear it’s some good low-carb, ketogenic reading.

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Category: FATboys