Things to Have on Hand when you are Keto

It doesn’t have to be a special occasion. EVERYONE needs to keep a supply of non-perishable food and certain other items in their home. These things are useful if money is short one month, or if you get an ‘ordinary’ flu and don’t want to share your germs, or if you are just staying home for a bit to get things done. 

But it does us Ketonians no good to buy a batch of ramen noodles or frozen pizza-like substance that we can’t use anyway. Eating these things in an ‘emergency’ will just make you feel sick and non-energetic and who wants that?

We need to have the food we CAN eat available. If we have become good at eating ‘real food’ which is usually quite perishable, we need to learn about other kinds of things to have on hand in the home.

1. CANNED TUNA/SALMON - Fish is healthy food, and you can have it even during Lent. My favorite canned tuna is the kind canned in olive oil which I can’t get since I can no longer drive to a local Walmart, so I buy cheap packed-in-water tuna, drain it well, and add a bit of EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil.)

2. SALAD SPROUTING SEEDS - If you can’t get fresh salad veggies for a bit, sprouting seeds— alfalfa, clover or a salad mix— will let you make salad greens in your home from seed that lasts for a long time. I use 2 tsp. of seed for one tray of a Victorio sprouter, and start a new tray each day.  These seeds take seven days to sprout, so you will need two Victorio sprouter sets for each person in your family that eats 2 daily sprout salads.

3. BULLETPROOF COFFEE/TEA SUPPLIES - A supply of instant coffee, regular coffee or teabags will provide you with hot drinks for a while. To make it bulletproof, you will need butter, home-made ghee, coconut oil, MCT oil, or EVOO. You might also add a touch of heavy whipping cream or coconut milk if you have it. Be sure and have decaf coffee in the house if caffeine bothers you or you want coffee later in the day.

4. FROZEN MEATS — Yes, if your electricity is prone to go out from time to time you may end up with spoiled meat. But in other circumstances you can preserve meat from family packs or whole sides of beef or venison or whatever you can get in quantity. If you live alone, be sure and freeze your meat in smaller portions. You probably don’t eat 8 pork chops in one meal. Remember that even if you are observing Lent you can eat meat on Sundays.

5. EGGS — It’s good to have eggs on hand. They are a quick low-carb meal and they are a ‘free food’ on Atkins, even on Atkins Induction. I used to make deviled eggs a lot, but now I am more likely to just hard-boil some eggs, slice them in half, and sprinkle on some Vege-Sal or Salt-Free Spike. 

6. CHEESE — Good to put on eggs in a scramble or omelet. Cheese doesn’t last forever in your refrigerator, so use it up fast. Pre-shredded cheese has something in it that makes it last quite a while before going moldy, but some premium brands don’t add this. So— trust me— CHECK your shredded cheese for mold before sprinkling on an omelet! Just slices of cheese can also be nice, by themselves or in a roll-up with sliced ham or beef.

7. BONE BROTH —- Learn to make your own bone broth— save bones from chicken you eat and the bone broth is free. If you are going to fast for a while, bone broth is allowed during fasting according to Dr. Jason Fung. I freeze my excess bone broth in the big freezer. Thaw out frozen bone broth overnight in your refrigerator.

8. MUNG BEANS & LENTILS FOR SPROUTING — You can make your own mung bean or lentil sprouts at home in your Victorio sprouter or a canning jar. I use 1/8 cup of mung beans to sprout about 1 cup of sprouts, which is one serving. You can steam or boil sprouts, eat with a low-carb cheese sauce for ‘mac & cheese’ or with a low-carb tomato sauce for ‘spaghetti.’  It takes about 4 days to sprout mung beans or lentils. Lentil sprouts have a higher carb content than mung bean sprouts. 100 grams of mung bean sprouts (3 cups) are 5.93 g carbs, 100 grams of pea sprouts (2 cups) are 28.26 grams of carbs and 100 grams of lentil sprouts are 22.14 g carbs. So it’s better to mix in smaller amounts of lentil and pea sprouts with mung beans. I have read a carb count for pea shoots which is a lot less carbs than pea sprouts, so if you want a low-carb sprouted pea soup you might want to use shoots instead, and mix in some mung bean sprouts.  The great thing about lentils, though, is that I have successfully sprouted grocery-store lentils that were around 10 years old. By contrast, broccoli seed that is only a little old sprouts less well. 

I hope I have given you a few ideas of what to buy when you stock up on staple supplies. Do you have any good ideas? Please share them!

Nissa Annakindt