My typical keto meals as an Asian in Australia…

My keto meals at home are usually fairly simple.

Generally the keto meals are a combination of greens and protein that includes fat… Dinners and lunches at home tend to be something I can whip up pretty quickly on the stove.  And maybe with the help of an air fryer.

Greens – Bok Choy or some other Asian greens – I usually eat the equivalent of one to two bunches of greens in a meal.  A bunch is 3-4 plants of bok choy.  Other greens I love are spinach (English Spinach), gai lan or Chinese Broccoli, A Choy or celtuce, ong choy or morning glory and tong ho.

Protein – Pork or beef or chicken or lamb or salmon or tofu.  Yes I love tofu so often add tofu to the meal even though there is already enough protein.  My protein is usually stir fried, fried, steamed or braised.  Or air fryered (is that a word?).

Fat… this comes from cooking the veges and whatever comes with the protein.  I also am happy to ‘reuse’ rendered fat.  This could be off something I cooked.  When it cools the fat creates a layer which I can scrape off to use or I pour it off when it’s still liquid and store it in a covered bowl.  The fats I don’t keep are fish oil (from salmon), beef and lamb.  But if it’s pork fat or duck fat or even chicken fat I either use it for another day or just do my stir fry veges in the left over fat in the pot.  Keeping it simple!  I remember my mum use to cut off the fat from chicken (or have us do it!) and then freeze it.  When there was enough she would fry it up in a wok to render all the fat and we’d eat all the crispy bits of fat!  They were like mini crouton type things.

The protein is usually a fatty cut of meat as I like dark meat (ie the thigh of a chicken), pork, lamb or salmon is fairly fatty.  If it’s beef I do like the fattier cuts too and will happily devour beef brisket with the fat!

Yeah likely my keto meals macros are off.  The classic macros for a ketogenic diet are:

• 5-10% calories from carbohydrates
• 70% calories from fat
• 20 – 25% calories from protein

From what I understand that’s per keto meal, not through the day.  (At least the fat and protein side of things).  Carbs are meant to be better in the evening.  Speaking of evenings…

It’s good that fat is part of the diet as I often ‘use’ it for dinner’s “dessert”.  I love ice cream.  Vegan or non vegan ice cream.  Or coconut yoghurt.  Or just some cream from a pressurised can.  I’m trying to wean myself off too many ‘cake’ type treats as it’s not needed.  I also like making my keto hazelnut chocolate chunks.

Being Asian I’m also lactose intolerant (not all Asians are lactose intolerant but a lot of us are).  I never really loved cheese (Cheese is not very Asian) but I do love cream and ice cream.  And I have cups of tea or coffee with pure cream (or just black).  The good thing about keto stuff is that the lactose is usually barely even there!

Snacks – nuts

I also am probably a bit addicted to nuts.  It’s my go to snack when doing keto and I think is probably too much of a trigger food (as in hard for me to stop)!  I have to investigate this further and see how this affects me.  My favourites are macadamia nuts, peanuts (yep not a nut!), almonds, pecans and walnuts… thank goodness cashews and pistachios haven’t really been a thing for me as they aren’t keto friendly!

Non Asian food and breakfast

Being in Sydney I also eat a lot of non Asian food although my go to is always Asian.  Breakfast is obviously less Asian (otherwise it would likely be rice based 🙂 ) and more Western when I do eat it and am not doing any intermittent fasting.  This is so easy to do at home or in Sydney cafes with any combination of eggs, bacon, mushrooms, spinach/kale, halloumi, sausages, chorizo, smoked salmon and avocado.  I also have access to low carb bread if I get the hunkering for it and I have purchased but still not used keto pancake mix!  (It was never a thing for me pre-keto so definitely not missing out there).

Most of the time it’s just a cup of black coffee or just water.

Intermittent Fasting

Yep I do time restricted eating or intermittent fasting.  Basically by having my first meal as lunch most days.  I’m not hungry usually and even that first meal is usually if someone suggests lunch at work or I actually feel hungry (or stressed or just want to go for a walk!).  I’ve also done OMAD often (One Meal a Day) or 24 hour fasting when I basically just have dinner.  I’ve also done a 40 hour fast often where I have dinner, skip meals the next day and then have my first “break fast” as lunch on the second day.

3 day fast

I’ve done 1 x 3 day fast or 72 hour fast if you want to count it that way.  I did that as eat last meal as Sunday dinner and then fast till Wednesday dinner.  That was surprisingly easy.  I basically had either coffee (black) and water and didn’t even have any supplements or my usual apple cider vinegar.