“This isn't about eating trash. It's about nourishing your body with exactly what it needs, and that includes your taste buds too,” Elizabeth Cunningham writes at the beginning of her book, Keto Diet Cookbook for Beginners: 550 Recipes for Busy People on Keto Diet.
~ What ~
This one-hundred-and-fifty-seven-page paperback targets those interested in making meals using the popular keto diet. After an introduction, explanation with tips of the diet, and the top ten keto recipes, the book is divided into nine sections, followed by a 14-day meal plan, topical index, and recipe index.
Containing five-hundred-and-fifty recipes, the nine sections are Smoothies/Breakfasts, Poultry, Pork/Beef/Lamb, Seafood/Fish, Meatless Meals, Soups/Stew/Salads, Side Dishes/Snack, Brunch/Dinner, and Desserts/Drinks. Without any photographs, each recipe has a title with preparation time, serving size, and nutritional facts of keto calories, fat grams, net carbs, and protein. Ingredients are listed in used order, and directions are in paragraph format.
~ Why ~
With the keto diet focusing on high fat and low carbohydrates, this book hones in on not using processed sugars. I appreciate the many recipes and their variations that offer a beginner to the diet plenty of meal choices. The beginning of the book has a lot of helpful information of what not and what to eat to maintain the diet.
Some of the interesting recipes that caught my eye are Italian Sausage Stacks, Coconut Flour Bagels, Poulet en Papillote, Turkey Enchilada Bowl, Pork Osso Bucco, Warm Rump Steak Salad, Salmon Panzanella, Coconut Cury Mussels, Walnut Tofu Saute, Cheesy Cauliflower Falafel, Power Green Soup, Green Mackerel Salad, Taco Lettuce Rolls, Spiced Gruyere Crisps, Egg in a Mug, Gingery Tuna Mousse, Blueberry Ice Pops, and Berry Merry.
~ Why Not ~
Those who do not think a high-fat diet will help them lose weight or do not want to have their body experience ketosis, which could be dangerous for some people, may avoid this book. Others may not have some of the specialty ingredients such as Swerve sugar, almond flour, xanthan gum, erythritol, or seeded lychee pulp. There does not seem to be a pattern to how the recipes are displayed in some of the sections (example: drinks and food items are randomly mixed together).
~ Wish ~
Since I tend to eat a varied diet that is limited in carbs and salt intake, I did not learn anything new about the keto diet, yet I appreciated the abundance of recipes. Being a visual person, I wish there were colored photographs of all completed dishes.
~ Want ~
If you want are a beginner to the keto diet and do not know what to make for meals throughout the day, this is a nice starter cookbook that has plenty of tasty options.
Thanks to the author for this complimentary book that I am under no obligation to review.
