Dutch Hagelslag: Low-Calorie DIY Donut

The average sprinkle donut has 260 calories.

For a similar low-calorie alternative, replace that with Dutch Hagelslag. The recipe below contains only 120 calories!

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Spread butter on one slice of bread
  2. Top with sprinkles
  3. Eat

Compare

If you must have the shape be like a donut, you can use a large and small cookie cutter to turn the bread slice into a donut.

Pasta with Keto Bread: Quick, Low-Calorie Stomach Filler

I came across this sample food at Costco. It was Kirkland Organic Marinara from Tuscany dipped in ciabatta bread. It was surprisingly good, but the ciabatta bread was high in calories and not keto. So, here’s a keto version that is super quick to make and can fill you up in a jiffy.

Ingredients

  • Artisan Bakery Sonoma County Keto Bread (available at Costco)
  • Kirkland Organic Marinara from Tuscany

Instructions

  1. Heat up some of the marinara in a microwave
  2. Toast the bread slices to your desired toastiness
  3. Spoon the marinara onto the bread slices
  4. Eat

It’s like eating a healthy pizza without the high-calorie cheese. Four slices followed by a glass or two of water will make you feel satiated while only consuming less than 200 calories!

Keto, Low-Calorie Burger Recipe

Bun – 6 grams of carbs, 80 calories

A traditional burger bun like Artesano bakery bun contains 34 grams of net carbs and 190 calories. Replace that with an Orowheat Keto bun, which contains only 6 net carbs and 80 calories.

Beef Patty – 140 calories

A traditional beef patty like Costco’s Kirkland Signature Ground 1/3-lb (151 grams) Beef Patties contains 440 calories. Replace that with Smart ‘n Final’s First Street 96/4 (96% lean, 4% fat) 1/3-lb beef patties, which contain only 140 calories each.

Ketchup

Traditional ketchup like Heinz tomato ketchup contains 5 carbs and 20 calories per tablespoon. Replace that with Heinz tomato ketchup with no sugar added, which contains only 1 gram of carbs and 10 calories per tablespoon.

Cheese

A regular slice of cheddar cheese like Sargento’s cheddar cheese slices contains 80 calories. Replace that with something like Sargento’s reduced fat cheddar cheese slices, which contains only 60 calories per slice.

Or, go with slim-cut mozzarella cheese slices, which are only 35 calories per slice.

Or, just skip the cheese altogether.

Total Calories: 250

Set-It-and-Forget-It Cheeseburger Recipe

If you’re making a burger and your meat is not frozen, then you can stick a thermometer in your patty and let the thermometer beep when the meat is at your desired temperature. The problem with this is you may have to flip the burger one or more times and, if your patty is thin or not dense, it may be difficult getting the thermometer probe in the center and staying there. If your patty is frozen, like it is at many stores that sell packages of burger patties, then you can’t stick a thermometer in it.

Frozen burger patties may not taste the best, but they are still good. Since they’re frozen, they will last long as well. To simplify the cooking process, I use the T-fal Optigrill. It grills both sides and has a drip tray to catch all fatty juices.

Here’s how to cook a frozen beef patty in the simplest way possible.

  1. Press the power button to turn on the Optigrill
  2. Press the snowflake button because your patties are frozen
  3. Press the burger button since we’re making a burger. The Optigrill will heat up as indicated by the blue light. This takes about 5 minutes.
  1. When the Optigrill beeps, it’s done heating up. Open the lid and place your patties.
  2. The Optigrill will beep and change color every time the meat reaches a doneness level.

When the Optigrill has reached your desired doneness based on the color of the doneness cycle, remove your patties. In my experience, it takes about 7 minutes to get to medium-well.

For the buns, Artesano Bakery Buns are pretty good. Don’t toast these buns. They taste good as is at room temperature.

Fried Rice Made Using Automatic Pot Stirrer

One thing I really dislike when cooking is having to occasionally stir the food. This is the case with fried rice, soups, and stir-fried vegetables. Fortunately, the Koreans feel the same way. A company called LAMPCOOK with the slogan “Innovative Cooking” sells this (overpriced) automatic pot stirrer on Amazon for $155. I normally would spend that much on a pot, but like I said, I really dislike manually stirring food every so often for 10-20 minutes while cooking.

I’ve had the pot for a couple of weeks now and it actually works. But, you can’t put it over heat higher than medium. If you do, you’ll see discoloration at the center.

In this post, I’ll share my recipe for a super simple fried riced cauliflower dish. Riced cauliflower has far fewer calories than rice, and it’s a healthier option. For the flavor, I’ve found either one of the following fried rice packets to be the best.

  • Indofood Racik Bumbu Spesial Nasi Goreng
  • Bamboe Nasi Goreng

Ingredients

  • 1 lb of frozen riced cauliflower (available in packs of 5 at Costco)
  • One of the two spice packets above
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • Oil spray

Instructions

  1. Spray pot with oil
  2. Add water and riced cauliflower
  3. Remove the glass window, turn on the stirrer, and cook on medium
  4. Set a timer for 20 minutes and go do something useful
  5. After 20 minutes, the water should have evaporated. Remove the lid and stirrer arm attachment.
  6. Add the spice mix and stir with a heat-resistant and scratch-resistant silicone spatula.
  7. Optionally, mix in precooked meat, vegetables, eggs, etc.
  8. Transfer to a plate or bowl and enjoy

A Comparison of Chicken Spice Seasoning

There are many spice blends available for chicken. But, which one is the best? I tasted 7 different ones and scored each on a scale of 1 to 10. The winner goes to Target’s Good & Gather Chili Lime seasoning followed closely by Chef Merito Chicken seasoning and McCormick Perfect Pinch Rotisserie seasoning.

Spice SeasoningTaste (1-10)
Good and Gather Chili Lime7
Chef Merito Chicken6.5
McCormick Perfect Pinch Rotisserie6.5
Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning6.3
McCormick Perfect Pinch Cajun6
Old Bay Seasoning5
Lemon Pepper4.5
McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Chicken4
Tajin Clasico3
Chef Merito Chicken Marinade2
Sadaf Garam Masala0

Beef Barbacoa Recipe (Like at Chipotle)

One of the food options I like the most at Chipotle is their beef barbacoa. Chipotle doesn’t tell you their recipe, but they do tell you the ingredients. Here’s a beef barbacoa recipe that tastes almost as good as the one at Chipotle and is super easy to make.

This recipe involves using a slow cooker.

Ingredients

  • 3 lb Beef brisket or chuck roast (trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks. Remove most of the fat.)
  • 1 cup Beef broth (or chicken broth)
  • 2 medium Goya Foods Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce (including the sauce, about 4 tsp)
  • 5 cloves Garlic (minced)
  • 1 tbsp Dried oregano
  • 2 tsp Cumin
  • 1 tsp Sea salt
  • 1 tsp Black pepper
  • 2 whole Bay leaf
  • 1/2 tsp Ground cloves
  • 2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar (optional)
  • 2 tbsp Lime juice (optional)

Instructions

  1. Combine the broth, chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, garlic, apple cider vinegar, lime juice, dried oregano, cumin, sea salt, black pepper, and ground cloves in a blender (everything except the beef and bay leaves). Puree until smooth.
  2. Place the beef chunks in the slow cooker. Pour the pureed mixture from the blender on top. Add the (whole) bay leaves.
  3. Cook for 4-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low, until the beef is fall-apart tender.
  4. Remove the bay leaves. Shred the meat using two forks and stir into the juices. Cover and rest for 5-10 minutes to allow the beef to absorb even more flavor. Use a slotted spoon to serve.
Beef chuck short ribs at Costco – $15.99 / lb
Beef chuck steak boneless carne asada at Costco – $7.49 / lb
Beef barbacoa over riced cauliflower

Keto, Low-Calorie Fried Rice Using Riced Cauliflower

People may not realize this but traditional fried rice contains an enormous amount of calories from the rice. Fortunately, there’s a low-calorie alternative: cauliflower fried rice. It has only 10-20% as many calories as regular rice.

Where to buy

Trader Joes

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of riced cauliflower (~450 grams, 60 calories) (Costco sells a big bag of raw, frozen riced cauliflower)
  • 1 packet of fried rice seasoning. (I like Indofood Racik Bumbu Spesial Nasi Goreng seasoning paste)
  • Soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of water

Instructions

  • In a large pan or wok, add the oil and water.
  • When pan / wok is hot, put in the frozen riced cauliflower. Cook for 15 minutes.
  • Add the fried rice seasoning and mix.
  • If necessary, add some soy sauce to taste and mix.

When done, it should look more or less like this.

For added flavor and protein, add chicken meat and fried veggies like chopped carrots and onion.

If you want to add more flavor to your dish, consider adding

To cook, I prefer to use the LAMPCOOK automatic pot stirrer.

  1. Spray pot bottom and 1″ of the sides from the bottom with oil
  2. Add 1/4 cup of water to pot
  3. Add 1 packet of riced cauliflower
  4. Add 1 cup of frozen, pre-cooked fajitas (it’s a bit spicy)
  5. Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes while letting the automatic pot stirrer stir for y
  6. Optionally, fry a patty of steak strips on the side
  7. When the riced cauliflower is done, optionally add the steak strips or other protein
  8. Add a sachet of Indofood Racik Bumbu Spesial Nasi Goreng seasoning paste
  9. Mix thoroughly
  10. Eat

Pictured without protein

Beef Fried Rice Recipe

Ingredients

  • 400 grams of long grain rice (leftover from the day before or refrigerated for at least 2 hours)
  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 cup carrots, diced (can just chop pre-shredded carrots)
  • 3/4 cup red or yellow onion, coarsely chopped
  • 3/4 cup frozen peas
  • 2 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 4 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 cup meat (chicken or beef, optional)
  • ¼ cup green onions, chopped into small pieces
  • To taste MSG, salt, pepper (MSG is actually not bad for you)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions

Make an omelette. Beat the eggs (I like to use a handheld electric mixer). Using a small pat of butter, make an omelette (I use a large pan for this). Slice the omelette into squares and set aside.

Cook the meat. I used ground beef. When done, set aside.

Sauté veggies. Using butter, sauté the onions, carrots, peas and garlic until soft and cooked through. (I use a wok for this)

Stir fry rice. Turn the burner to high heat. Scooch the veggies over to one side of the pan, melt the remaining butter in the other half, and add the chilled rice, soy sauce, and oyster sauce (if using). Then stir to combine with the veggies and continue sautéing the rice, stirring every 15-20 seconds or so for 3 minutes, or until you notice the rice and veggies starting to brown slightly.

Remove pan from heat. Stir in the green onions, sesame oil, sliced omelette, and meat.

Taste and season. Give the rice a taste, and season with MSG and pepper, plus any extra soy sauce or sesame oil, if needed.

Mixing 3 eggs
Chop some shredded carrots
Make an omelette
Slice the omelette
Ground beef

To break up the rice, use a food masher utensil.

You can also just buy one of these spice packets to make things simple.

I’ll try to make fried rice using each of these spice packets and rate each one.

RatingNote
No spice packet. Recipe above.7/10
Bamboe Nasi Goreng7/10
Bamboe Nasi Goreng Pedas7/10Too spicy
Kokita Nasi Goreng Fried Rice
Indofood Racik Bumbu Spesial Nasi Goreng8/10
Kikkoman Fried Rice5/10
Indofood Racik Bumbu Nasi Goreng
Pamana Seasoning Mix
Noh Chinese Fried Rice
Munik Fried Rice3.5/10
Nagatanien Fried Rice Mix
Pronas Bumbu Nasi Goreng6/10

Keto, Low-Calorie Pasta

People may not realize this but traditional pasta like spaghetti contains an enormous amount of calories, both from the pasta itself and the sauce. Fortunately, there is a healthy, low-calorie alternative, albeit a bit more expensive. Below is a comparison of traditional to healthy pasta. First, we’ll start with healthy pasta which uses HealthyNoodles available at Costco.

tldr;

HealthyNoodles-based Pasta

This pasta comes precooked. Since one serving is a ridiculously small amount, let’s say we make 4 servings (452 grams, 120 calories).

For the sauce, we’ll make our own using tomato sauce from Target.

I find that one 18oz can is a good amount for the amount of pasta above. The sauce comes with some spices but we can add more like Italian seasoning, oregano, etc. There are many recipes online for making pasta sauces from tomato sauce. One can (427 grams) of this sauce has 105 calories.

Traditional Pasta

The calories listed on this package is for dry spaghetti. To compare with HealthyNoodles above, we want the calories for cooked spaghetti having a weight of 452 grams. According to Yazio, that amount is 714 calories.

Now, for the sauce, let’s go with Raos marinara, which is a very popular sauce available at Costco.

125 grams of this sauce has 90 calories. Therefore, 427 grams contains 307 calories.

Comparison

Now that we have our values, let’s compare the total calories from each type of pasta.

Traditional PastaHealthy Pasta
Noodles714120
Sauce427105
Total Calories1141225

Conclusion

For the amount specified above, Healthy pasta is 916 calories LESS than the calories in traditional pasta. That’s 80% less calories!