Lately I’ve been trying to come up with new dishes using turkey meat because it is a healthier route than your good old ground beef. And I came up with a few different stuffed turkey meatloaf recipes that are to die for. Using only a few ingredients and your basic seasonings, this dish was not only delicious, but juicy, and a lil messy (to be honest…see pic after it was cut) but packed a punch with all that savory flavor. The good thing about a stuffed meatloaf is that it really is up to your discretion on what you want to stuff it with. From other meats to cheeses to veggies, honestly, the variety is endless. So here is one of my recipes that I am sharing with you but again you can add your own twist to it and I am sure it will come out just as yummy! If you do use my recipe, let me know how it came out with a comment below!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pkg. of ground turkey meat…I usually get the Costco Butterball ground turkey meat, 93% fat free and use 3/4 of one package which equals to 1.7 lbs.
1/2 cup to a cup of crumbled feta cheese depending on how cheesy you want it
1 1/2 cups of spinach cooked
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1/2 tsp of onion powder
3/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of ground pepper
3/4 tsp of paprika
1/2 tsp of oregano
3 dashes of tabasco sauce—if you would like it a little hotter, just add a couple more dashes
3/4 cup of marinara sauce—I use homemade but store bought tomato sauce works just as fine
Ok, you got all your ingredients, now time to prep and cook.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine the turkey meat, onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, oregano and tabasco and mix well until you ‘marry’ the ingredients together. Spray (I use Pam or you can use EVOO) a bread loaf pan ensuring that all sides are covered so the turkey doesn’t stick.
Then press 1/2 the mixture into the pan, creating a little divet in the middle for your stuffers. Add the cooked spinach and feta cheese and then put the rest of the mixture on top. Make sure you ‘seal’ the sides so cheese doesn’t come out of the pocket and burn on the pan.
Once mixture is on top, add the tomato sauce and put in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Take it out of the oven, cut into desired slice, spoon some of that sauce from the bottom of the pan for some extra flavor, add your favorite roasted veggies to it and you got yourself a fabulous fulfilling dinner!
Normally when I am craving something sweet, I tend to want to grab the most sugary thing I can see like cookies and ice cream, but being on Keto has shown me that I can enjoy those sweet treats without all the carbs and refined sugar. And nothing like a good fruit smoothie to satisfy those cravings. Try this quick and easy recipe that will sure to make your heart happy and your belly full. Try it out and let me know what you think with a comment below!
The ‘Very Dairy Berry’
1 oz. raspberries
1 oz. strawberries
1 oz. blueberries
1 cup milk–you can even substitute for almond, cashew or coconut milk but be careful of the carb intake
1 full juiced lime
dollop of redi whip whip cream—again you can even substitute coconut milk whip cream also made by redi whip—came across this and the intake for carbs & fat is keto friendly
And there you have it! A simple and easy snack that can me made in the matter of minutes and will leave you satisfied for hours. That’s what I’m talking about!
It’s My Party & I’ll KETO it My Way…..continued from last post
~This is in continuation to my last post in the diaries ‘That Keto Glow’~
Ok, so I gave you the recipe on how to make Keto sugar free homemade sprinkles for ice cream, cakes, cupcakes or desserts. Now, I will tell you how I made Keto cupcakes as well as a Keto buttercream frosting for my hubby’s birthday that we celebrated last month…so easy & yummy!
For the cupcakes:
4 eggs
1/2 cup of Erythritol–Monk Fruit or erythritol or xylitol
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 tablespoon Coconut Oil melted or you can use avocado or flaxseed or almond oil too
2 cups Almond Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
Instructions:
I made cupcakes for this recipe but you can also do it as a cake. For cupcakes, I used several cupcake pans and made about 18 cupcakes in total. If you use one cupcake pan that golds 6 then you will obviously have extra batter left over for another day. I was using this for a birthday get together and needed to use all the batter. These instructions are for one time use.
- Preheat oven to (160C) 325F. Grease several cupcake pans with either butter or oil or you can use cupcake holders like I did since I was giving them out to people. Set the cupcake pans aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs with sugar free sweetener, oil and vanilla. I used Monk Fruit sweetener and avocado oil. It should not take more than 30 seconds to a minute to whisk those together.
- Whisk in almond flour and baking powder and whisk until evenly combined.
- Pour & distribute evenly, the vanilla batter, into the prepared cupcake pans.
- Bake the cupcakes for about 20-25 minutes or until the center of the cupcake, upon checking with a toothpick or fork, comes out clean with no crumbs on it.
- Let the cupcakes cool for about an hour or two.
- Set aside and start on the frosting!
Side note: these are gluten free cupcakes and will not rise much so be aware when baking.
The buttercream frosting: 
1 cup Butter soft, out of the fridge for 4 hours (5.3 oz)
3 cups Sugar-free powdered sweetener-Monk fruit or erythritol or xylitol—make sure it is POWDERED
1 teaspoon Vanilla essence…..I used Vanilla extract because I couldn’t find any essence at my local supermarket…Make note: Vanilla essence is less concentrated that Vanilla Extract…..1 teaspoon of extract = 1.5 teaspoons of essence
2-3 tablespoon Coconut Cream or heavy cream…I couldn’t find any coconut cream either so I used heavy cream
Instructions:
- Add the soft butter and vanilla in a stand mixer. I actually used a hand mixer and it worked just as well. Mix on high speed until it forms a smooth, fluffy butter.
- Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the sugar free powdered sweetener, half a cup at a time. When all the sugar free sweetener has been added, mix on medium speed for 2 minutes until it forms a fluffy cream.
- Add cream…I used heavy cream… and keep whisking for 1 minute to incorporate all ingredients mixing together.
- Spread the frosting onto each cupcake accordingly (after cooling for about an hour or two is finished).
- After you evenly distributed frosting onto each cupcake, replace cupcakes from pan to plate and set the plate aside in the fridge for at least two hours so the frosting sets.
Since this is a buttercream frosting, let cupcakes sit at room temperature for at least 20-25 minutes before serving. Enjoy this sweet treat for any party or occasion!
It’s My Party & I’ll KETO it My Way……
If anyone knows me, they know I looovvveeee my sweets….And being a gal on KETO, you have to get creative with different ingredients to try to mirror your favorite treats. When celebrating birthdays, I crave the basic cupcake or cake to enjoy, and since my hubby’s birthday was last month and my birthday is coming up (wink, wink), it was only right that I share with you the KETO cupcake recipe I made for him (yes, we are a KETO couple).
Homemade icing, homemade sugar free sprinkles and homemade frosting. Yup, I did that, so we could both enjoy his birthday without the guilt of eating something ‘off track’.
First, I made the sprinkles……I made a small batch since I was making cupcakes instead of a cake:
3/4 Cup Confectioners Swerve
1 Large Egg White, pasteurized
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Lemon Juice
Food Coloring Of Your Choice
1. Mix all the ingredients in a medium size bowl. Decide how many different colored sprinkles you would like and scoop out that amount into its own smaller bowl. For instance, I wanted three different colored sprinkles: red, green, & yellow, so I scooped one batch of mixture three times into three different smaller bowls.
2. Working with one color at a time, mix in your choice of food coloring. Transfer the colored mixture to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Choose the tip based on how thick or thin you want your sprinkles to be. No pastry bags? Use a zip-lock bag and cut the tip off of one corner. I used this zip-lock method since I didn’t have a baker’s piping bag.
3. After transferring each colored mixture into its own makeshift piping bag, I then laid a couple of sheets of parchment paper to a flat sheet, in this case, I actually used several cookie sheets for easier placement & piped out lines of each colored mixture out to let them dry overnight.
4. The next morning, I broke up each piping line to sprinkle size and put them in a mason jar until I was ready to use them for my cupcake topping.
There you have it! Sugar free Homemade Keto Sprinkles! Very simple with just a few ingredients!
Side note: Don’t worry about the sizing or the way they look….people will get that they are sprinkles by the taste too!
so yummy!
One of the ‘good fats’ allowed with Keto is AVOCADOS and let me tell you, I looovvvveee me some avocado. Not only does it help with your Macros for that fat intake, but it is extremely beneficial to your health because it contains a bunch of vitamins, dietary fiber, potassium, can even lower cholesterol and has nutritional factors for your skin and digestive tract. No wonder it is considered a superfood and a must in the Keto lifestyle. Like I’ve mentioned before in the Keto Mantra, (under my post ‘In the Know with Keto’) I eat one avocado a day….1/2 for two meals. And yesterday, my husband made guacamole which contained everything we can eat…onions, tomatoes, cilantro, etc., so it was only right that I ate some for lunch. For protein, I ‘cooked’ a Beyond Burger (not homemade), a plant based (meatless) burger, that gives you the protein you need for your allowed daily meal intake. It was about four oz. I added a piece of pepper jack cheese cuz I was feeling a lil spicy yesterday so it just matched my mood lol. I then added a scoop of my hubby’s guac on top and then for a little more fat and protein, I added three pieces of extra crispy bacon….(yes that’s how I like my bacon…don’t judge me….the crispier the better IMO) and voilà. Lunch is served!!
Ever since starting Keto, I overall feel better physically & mentally. It is true what they say, you are what you eat. Being someone who grew up in an Italian household with family businesses with a couple of restaurants and bakeries, ‘bad’ carbs was a given on the table everyday such as pasta, homemade sweets, croissants, cakes, parmigianas, we had it all. Beyond delicious but no boundaries or guilt with intake.
With Keto, I have learned to be in control of what I am eating which then controls what I am feeling. For example, when I would eat a lot of ‘bad’ carbs, I would feel tired, lethargic, bloated, short tempered & overall blah. Now, I find myself having more energy, being more active, sleeping better, more focused and feeling more ‘alive’, if that makes sense. So, since my husband and I have had such great success with this lifestyle change, I wanted to share it with all of you in case you were thinking of trying out Keto!
The Keto Mantra:
First off, I use an app on my phone called My Fitness Pal (a godsend IMO) by Under Armour which helps me plug in my food by meals/snacks and keeps me on track for my daily intake (with calories), water and exercise. It is a free app….don’t pay for anything…unless you want to, but I don’t think it is necessary. FitnessPal will offer you to go premium for like $70 bucks annually but, personally, I don’t think you need that, unless again, you feel like you could benefit more with the premium package. My husband and I have been doing Keto for seven months now and we use the plain old app, without paying for premium, so you can get by without it. The numbers we plug in for the Keto guidelines are Carbs-10%, Fats-70% and Protein-20% (MACROS). You can add these percentages when you set up your profile.
The good thing about the Fitness Pal app is that it will tell you when sodium/carbs/saturated fat levels are getting close to your allowed daily amount so that you can see what you are working with for the rest of your daily food intake.
I’ll break it down into food groups:
*Meats/Fish
ALL Meats with skin on–eg: chicken thighs with the skin etc.
ALL Fish–Salmon and Mackerel are HIGH in good fat & protein that will help you out with your Macros fat/protein percentage.
*Fruits
ONLY berries—strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, goji berries etc.
*Vegetables
ALL green veggies—THE GREENER THE BETTER
Avocado is a KETO essential—I usually eat a whole avocado each day (1 half for any two meals…breakfast, lunch or dinner)
NO veggies grown underground–eg: potatoes, carrots, beets etc.
*Dairy
ALL dairy is ok in moderation…I also like using Almond or Coconut Milk for baking or just to have a glass of it
*Nuts
(the best nutritionally in order):
1) Almonds
2) Walnuts
3) Pecans
4) Cashews
*Oils
Coconut (either solid or liquid form–be careful–measurements are different for each one…if in solid form, you have to melt it done to equal liquid form ratio) and avocado oil are awesome to cook with. And of course, you can’t go wrong with good ole’ EVOO!
And my all time favorites but ……
Be very careful with your sodium intake. For eg: I love dry salami (again, I’m Italian and we love that s***) but it is very high in sodium—its ok to have but in moderation.
If you have a sweet tooth like I do….(I mean I grew up in a bakery, what did you expect? lol):
Fat Bombs—these are keto friendly and you can find recipes anywhere….some are easier to make and others are a little more complex but they are yummy and totally satisfy that sweet craving!
Almond Keto Bites—ahhhhhhh—the sweet Keto gods have answered my prayers—you can get these @ Costco…there is 4 pieces to a serving and they taste like cake…no really, they do. My all time fav snack.
Dark Chocolate is ok in moderation—70% cacao or higher is good like Lily’s brand that you can find at your local grocery store. 
If you like to have a drink, let’s say for holidays or parties etc, you can drink clear alcohol so yayyyyy to Tito’s Vodka….and a glass a wine in moderation is ok too as long as you plug the alcohol in to see how many calories you can work with. Again, I don’t advise doing this everyday but once in a while is ok.
Walking and exercise is key also to seeing the best results with Keto. Even if it is just around the block for fifteen minutes a day, that will help!
Hope you liked what I shared with you! Any questions, advice, pep talk you need, I am here to help you!! Here’s to that Keto Flow & Glow!! You got this!💪
