Tag: lchf

Mini Quiches

Jamal MillerLeave a comment

Good morning! What’s for brunch today? Mini quiches.

 

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Ingredients:

  • 4 oz of ground sausage
  • 2 oz of cream cheese
  • 1 tbsp of animal fat (or coconut oil)
  • 8 eggs
  • 1/3 cup of chopped red onion
  • 1/2 cup of spinach
  • 1 tsp of black pepper
  • 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
  • A few shakes of salt
  • Shredded Colby-jack cheese

Supplies:

  • 1 large mixing bowl
  • Medium-large skillet
  • Spatula
  • The appropriate measuring cups and spoons
  • 1 standard sized muffin pan (makes 12 quiches)
  • Coconut oil non-stick cooking spray

 

I love making these bad boys. They’re so easy and get tastier each time we make them. To start, begin to brown the sausage in stove-top skillet set to medium heat. As you chop and brown the sausage, add your animal fat to keep our next ingredients from sticking to our non-stick pan.

You’re probably thinking, why do we need to add an ingredient that helps ingredients sticking to a non-stick skillet? We all know our non-stick skillets and pans lose their power as we use them. Adding animal fat helps in this department AND add to the flavor.

After you’ve added your animal fat, throw in the chopped red onion, spinach, and cream cheese. Keep an eye on your cream cheese. As it heats up it’ll soften, allowing you to mixing it up with all the other ingredients in the skillet.Mix up your eight eggs in the large mixing bowl and add your seasonings. You’ll need to spray your muffin tin with a non-stick cooking spray. I prefer Spectrum’s Coconut Oil Spray.

Fill each muffin space on the pan with just enough egg to cover the bottom. Spoon your sausage, cream cheese, spinach and onion mixture into your muffin pan and be sure to leave room for more egg. Each muffin space should only be about half full at this point. Go ahead and add more egg to each muffin space to submerge the sausage mixture. Sprinkle a dash of Colby-jack cheese on each space. Time to bake!

Your oven should be preheated to 400 degrees. I wish I had an amount of time to share with you here, but I don’t. Channel your inner Aunty, Grandma, or Mom and bake until golden brown.

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Serve warm and enjoy!

Note: Don’t be afraid to have fun with this recipe. I once made these with mushrooms, jalapeños, and ham. I believe I sprinkled sharp cheddar on those though. I suggest serving these with your favorite hot sauce on the side as well.

 

 

 

It’s Snacktime in the FATboys Kitchen…

Jamal MillerLeave a comment

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.

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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.

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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!

 

Alternate-Day Fasting Journal: Day 1

Jamal MillerLeave a comment

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.

And Don’t Forget the Hot Sauce…

Jamal MillerLeave a comment

Pork shoulders fried in bacon grease has become one of our favorite ketogenic meals. Not only is it easy and quick to cook, it’s delicious and filling. I couldn’t wait to tear into this glorious piece of meat after snapping this photo. Paired with spinach (tossed in spicy guacamole), this keto treat will keep me full until lunchtime tomorrow.

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3 Reasons Why I Dig A Smith Machine

Jamal MillerLeave a comment

 


1. I don’t need a spotter. When it comes to lifting weights, I’m fairly antisocial. I workout just before work, and am the king of keeping a schedule. I don’t have time to switch out between sets and chat leisurely during this time.

2. Focus and awareness. Because smith machines only allow vertical motion, I’m forced to pay extra attention to my form while lifting. It’s extremely easy to sacrifice your form on a smith machine because of the built in spotting design. Just because the bar is supported by a giant metal frame, does not mean you get to let your core slack off, or your feet chill wherever you’d like. Bend those legs, get that butt down, and let the bar touch your chest before you push that weight back up. Stay challenged.

3. Variety. Three out of my five lifting days, I follow a stronglifts routine. Lucky for me I get into the gym early enough to hog the smith machine – knocking out the first few lifting sequences in peace and undisturbed. I always start with squats (because they suck), then bench, and finish with some barbell rows; this takes me about thirty minutes. If I can sweat my ass off without having to move very far, I’m all in.

Fat Fast Journal – Day 1

Jamal MillerLeave a comment

After a not so ketogenic weekend, I’ve decided to kickoff my week with a fat fast. A fat fast is a good way to jumpstart weight loss and cleanse the keto body after a few carb-loaded indulgences. So what does a fat fast consist of?

1. Keeping your daily caloric intake at a maximum of 1000

2. Making sure 90% of those calories are from healthy fats (moderate protein, little to no carbs)

3. Minimal exercise

Fasting is not for everyone, and this needs to be understood. I only do this fast because I CAN eat, and I feel completely reset after a few short days on the schedule. I break my calories down into 200 calorie servings. This makes it easy to keep track and adjust my plan of attack. Only 1000 calories sound scary, right? Well it’s quite easy when 90% of your calories are coming from healthy fats. A few things I snack on during this fast are macadamia nuts, bacon, coconut oil, and other organic meat snacks. I’m dairy-free, so I’ve taken cream cheese off my list of fat fast snacks.

I made a conscious decision to not workout this morning. I don’t fast regularly, so I like to play it safe and not over exert myself with my normal morning stronglift routine. The current time is 1:47PM EST. All I’ve had to eat was a serving of macadamia nuts, a couple cups of black coffee, about 50 ounces of water, and an organic beef stick from the local market. I’m feeling alright so far. I kind of have a headache, but I’m not feeling hungry. As far as the internal “you’ve got to eat something” alarms go, I’m feeling okay! This comes from using fat as a fuel source. When you’re full of healthy fat, those EAT NOW sensors are far from active.

I want you all to keep in mind that I’ve had practice with the fat fast. I mentioned above that I only do this fast because I can eat. I highly recommend starting small with any kind of fast, and incorporating it into your regular nutrition and fitness routines. I’ll probably do yoga later, only because I know what my body can handle. When I’m fat fasting, I don’t like to put my body in a position that will yield to failure. I avoid this by not working out as heavy as I would during a normal day of eating keto and NOT counting calories. Everyone’s body is different, and everyone should listen to the signals their body sends. Be smart! Be healthy! I’ll be in touch with more fat fast entries to let you know how the rest of the week is going.