My Keto Pantry

First, for you readers out there that are Keto experts, please keep in mind that my primary focus has been on DiDi’s modified Keto plan.  I’m not entirely sure how this lines up (or doesn’t) with the standard Keto diet, but the point for her is to get the lifetime of toxins and crap out of her body and put real, healthy food into it.  She can have some food that is not on the Keto diet and can’t have some foods that are.  First, she can have organic non-GMO oats and potatoes.  This helps a LOT because she doesn’t have any weight to lose (for her, going into Ketosis is a bad thing!)  ZERO percent of her diet can be low-fat anything, peanuts, soy, refined vegetable oils (canola, peanut or sunflower), alcohol or sugar alcohols (which includes pretty much all extracts, xylitol, maltitol, and sorbital), she’s also not supposed to have much dairy, and the list goes on from there.  She also needs ALL grass-fed beef/beef products, and ALL Non-GMO and Organic.  It does help that we get a 1/2 cow at a time from a known source.

My husband and I decided to join in on Keto with DiDi, but we decided NOT to go on the modified version because we DO have weight to lose.  We still generally stay away from everything on her 0% list.  If it’s not good for her, it’s probably not so great for us either.  We do allow ourselves more cheese, and our recipes don’t need to be Non-GMO and Organic (although we prefer it).  I even quit my creamer.  I had to step down through vanilla almond milk creamer, but now, I use straight cream, no sweeteners.  That’s a pretty proud adult moment for me, and for anyone who knows me, it’s HUGE!  Cooking in our house is interesting to say the least.  Additionally, my husband and I are not crazy enough about Keto to be checking urine, taking lots of supplements, counting the number of carbs we have in a day, etc.  We have essentially cut carbs out besides very little fruit and natural sugars.  The only sign we are in Ketosis is that we’ve been shedding weight fast and steadily, and really, we feel great!

With all this in mind, I set out to redesign my entire pantry.

My pantry is essentially a sliding-door closet with shelves.  The sliding doors gave me an idea, so, I took my pantry closet and recreated it; half Keto and half not-Keto.  The half you are looking at is a week (plus) long accomplishment and will continue to be a work in progress.  That was once full of flour, noodles, rice, and other typical pantry foods.  All things came out of both sides of that pantry, and when returned, all foods Didi could have were on the left, and all other foods on the right.  Admittedly, some of my favorites are still over on that other side, but much like staring at a closet full of cute clothes that you can’t fit, I really didn’t want to be opening my pantry to stare at a bunch of foods we can’t eat.  This meant no more label checking on the whole Keto side, several trips to the grocery store, and more Amazon orders than I’d like to admit. This also meant cleaning out the fridge, which always needs to be done anyways.

Since you’ve read this far, you’re probably doing Keto or thinking about it, so I won’t post the closet full of “cute clothes” on the other side… 😉  As for the non-Keto teens left in the home… they are plenty old enough to cook out of the other side of the pantry, and they can restock if they choose, but they are on notice that Keto will be taking over!  They get enough crap “food” while they are out and about in the world.  Hopefully they’ll learn some good eating habits from us in the meantime!