Keto for Carb Lovers

So I'm going to make this as thorough as possible and I have some disclaimers:1. This review is being written after just one week-ish of following the 21 day kickstart plan.2. I'm an only parent whose full time job is teaching public elementary school. (You'll see why that matters later.)3. I consider myself to possess at least an average amount of common sense. (You'll see why that matters later.)4. This book is probably more for keto-newbies like me.With all that in mind, I have thoughts.PROS:1. The food - DE.LISH.SHUSH! (delicious). Almost everything is made fresh, from scratch. There is minimal use of pre-packaged products.This book delivers what the title promises. Normally, I could literally live off just carbs (until I die of diabetes) and the first week's recipes really took my mind off my biggest vice - pastries and desserts.2. The physical aspects of the book - The spiral binding make it very easy to thumb through and stay on the current page without closing in on itself. It's pretty well organized and very aesthetically pleasing. Each day takes up one page. Love the weekly grocery lists for the 21 day plan.3. The introduction information - It's just a couple of pages, but this section is extremely helpful regarding mentally preparing for your approach to this plan. If you're new to the Keto diet style in general, DON'T SKIP IT!4. The pictures - A lot of people have complained that there aren't pictures for every single recipe or not enough in general. I'm a lady of a certain age, so I remember working out of my grandmother's recipe books that featured almost no pictures. There was a much higher overhead cost back then. All that to say the lack of pictures doesn't bother me.5. The price - Some people have also complained about the price and how you can get the same recipes for free online. Well, you can, but you'd have to do a lot of searching and organizing to get the same effect for the 21 day plan. I'm a visual and tactile person, so the physical book makes it well worth the price for me. Plus I can write in any notes.CONS:1. Unrealistic demands on time for SOME people. This is my biggest complaint about this book or honestly any plan that doesn't include McDonald's. ;) But seriously, y'all. There is a recipe for a day three "snack" that is listed with a 40 minute prep time. Now, most people are going to start a new diet plan on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. That puts day three on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. As I mentioned before, I'm an only parent and a teacher. I figured something like this might happen, so I planned on starting the plan right after school was out for the year. Good thing I did. I don't know where y'all work, but I'm pretty sure I can't just fry up some 40 minute mozzarella sticks during my conference with a first grader's parent. I really want to know what percentage of people the writes think have that kind of time for a snack. I am very disappointed in this aspect of this cookbook, but I'll address that in the modifications section.2. Prep time runs a close second on my complaint list, although it could be umbrellaed under CON 1 . Listed meal prep for the first week goes something like this: chop 2 cups of lettuce, portion out 10 blackberries, 10 olives, and 10 macadamia nuts. They kinda bury the lead when I get to day four which calls for a seamed and grated/pureed, mashed, etc. head of cauliflower that I will need for the next two day. Properly stored cooked cauliflower will last a minimum of 3 days in the fridge. That means I can cook it, prep it, portion it and freeze it on my meal prep day. C'mmon Delish, smarter, not harder. To be fair, most of the recipes are quite simple and easy to follow. I just don't think a great amount of forethought went into the meal prep sections.3. Portions are a little inconsistent. The recipe for those darn mozzarella sticks says serves 4, but there are 6 sticks, and you're supposed to have some left over for the next day. This is where my common sense fails me.( PS- I'm not a math teacher.) After making anything for the first time, I writhe down my portion modifications in the book.4. Clean layout can be a little too simplified. In order to keep "Day1" all on one page, some recipes are referenced to another page in its correlating course type section of the book. It's a little cumbersome and might truly bother someone else, but I'd rather see my whole day at a glance. So it's not a big deal on my CON list.5. No end-of-book index. A lot of people also complained about this, and it did bother me a bit until I realized that there is an index for, at the beginning of, each course. I can work with that.6. Small typos that force you to use common sense. For example, one recipe calls for you to garnish with 3 pickles. Well the shopping list calls for a 48 oz jar of pickles, so three pickles for one serving of sandwich is possible, but it's more likely they meant three slices or three ounces of pickles, which to a more discerning chef is a big difference. I really like pickles, so I went with ounces.Modifications( a form of common sense)1. Allergies and food sensitivities. I'm allergic to macadamia nuts, so I substitute almonds. I have a sensitivity to romaine lettuce. Sometimes I eat it and deal, other times I use bibb instead. Don't be afraid to modify within reason.2. Your do-not-eat list. Fried okra is at the top of mine. I'm not gonna eat it for anything. Onions I really don't care for, so when the shopping list called for two, I bought one, and used about 1/4 of that. And that was enough for me to get the flavor. And the recipe police haven't come for me yet. Don't be afraid to modify within reason.3. Sugar substitutes. Hmmmm. I'm not a fan of sugar substitutes in general, so I can live life without another grain of stevia. It's listed in at least two different forms in various recipes, and I can taste it quite distinctly every time I put it in anything. But there is this newfangled Swerve brand out there that tastes closer to processed cane sugar than anything else on the market, at least to me. The shopping list called for confectioner's, but I'm also going to get the granulated to substitute for stevia. It's rather expensive, but worth it not to get diabetes.4. Not feeling a particular meal, or time wont allow you to stay on track? Let's face it keto is very hard to commit to and most people break at some point. I try my best to at least cheat from the book and not Krispy Kreme. I try to avoid this at all costs but sometimes my day is just going to be too packed to cook three turn-on-your-oven-and-your-stove meals. If we spend the day at the local theme park, made from scratch lunch is not happening. But be careful, it could throw off your next day if it calls for leftovers. Then you have to substitute another meal...5. Modifying portions. Some times the ingredient amounts don't add up to what you have on hand or portions don't add up to how many people you're cooking for. When this happens, I just take any extra to my fiance or give my son seconds. But be careful with this, because you need to look ahead up to three day (even across weeks, like week 1, day 6 to week 2, day 1) to see if you will need the leftovers in the future.I guess I should say I'm not a doctor, dietician or nutritionist. Take my advice with a grain of salt. Which the writes highly recommend, BTW. All in all my CONS belie the fact that I really like the book. They're really more of obstacles to work around rather than dealbreakers. My fiance has said these are some of the best recipes hes tasted. Full disclosure- he's not that picky. My son, on the other hand is very picky. Now he is trying and eating more home cooked meals than ever before, as opposed to MRE snacking all day. I highly recommend this plan and the book. It could maybe just use some more user-friendly editing. I will definitely keep using this book to try other recipes after I complete the 21 day plan.

We aren't new to keto, we've been on it for over a year due to health reasons, so I'm always looking for inspiration and new recipes. I just don't like the same old food all the time. A few months ago, I bought the Delish keto recipe magazine and absolutely loved most of the recipes. So when I saw this spiral-bound book, I really wanted it. There is some overlap with the magazine, but there are a lot of other/new recipes as well. And yes, as some folks have mentioned, most of the recipes are online for free, but I wanted them in printed form.So far, every recipe we've tried so far has been terrific. I've been annotating the recipes with anything we added/changed to the recipe as well as our opinion so that if we run across a recipe we don't like (hasn't happened yet) then I'll know not to make it again.I did want to mention for people new to keto and who may not really care for mashed cauliflower or cauliflower rice: if you make it yourself from a fresh head of cauliflower, it actually makes a huge difference. We've only used frozen cauliflower (mashed or riced) before and never really liked it, but when I made the beef stroganoff recipe out of this book, I went ahead and used a fresh cauliflower (I microwaved it instead of following the directions) and mashed it in the food processor and what a difference! We actually liked it with the stroganoff. Now, I would never claim that it tastes like real mashed potatoes because it doesn't, but at least it didn't have so much of that cauliflower funk taste that we'd experienced before when we used frozen cauliflower products.So anyway, the recipe book is a winner. I would have given it 5 stars except for the following: two of the pages hadn't been cut apart--I had to carefully cut them apart; and several pages were misprinted/overlaid with print from the recipe(s) on the back side of the page. Fortunately, they were recipes that didn't really appeal to me that much anyway, and if I do want to make them and can't make out the recipe, then I can always go online and get the recipe, print it, and stick it in the book, so it's not the end of the world. There is just a little problem with their quality control on the printing.Some folks have complained about the sparse photos, but I really don't mind that at all. I'd rather have more recipes (like there are in the book) than a bunch of pretty pictures. There are sufficient photos to make the book attractive and give me an idea about the dishes, so I'm good with it.Lastly, despite having been on keto for a while, I actually found the menus and shopping lists to be extremely helpful. Some days, I'm just tired of trying to come up with menus and subsequent shopping lists so I can just turn to that section and get ideas. I generally try to make up the menus for the week before I go shopping so that I get what I need for that week, so it's really, really helpful to have those suggestions. It's also helpful as a reminder that we actually have more meals than just dinner and that I need to look at the overall day.The spiral binding is fantastic as the book lies flat on my kitchen counter for easy reference and note making. I wish all my cookbooks were spiral bound. And--this is a buge point for me--except for the misprinted pages, the printing is dark and large and easy to read! I love that they used a decent font and large, dark letters as I can easily read the pages even without my reading glasses.

I received my cookbook today and I love it for the simple fact it has a picture on each page with the recipe. I 100% love it thank you!

I am not keto but lower carb food. I have tried many cookbooks but I never truly enjoyed the food. This book is pricey but those magazines in the grocery stores labeled "keto" for $13.99 - and filled with soooo many advertisements. I've had this book for 3 days & I've eaten mostly all that you see in the picks plus protein and I feel really good & still maintained my weight!!! I'm going to test every recipe. I used keto granola in place of flaxmeal & pecans (I was out) - so good with coconut whip cream. The cauliflower Mac & cheese - is half gone. I cut the recipe in half. There are veggies too! No complaints, if there are some errors here & there, I don't care.

We started on keto about 21 days ago. But needed more recipes. I got this cookbook today, I couldn’t wait to try one of the recipes. Husband and I picked the jalapeño popper chicken casserole. It was easy to make. I haven’t seen a recipe in this book that I can’t make. We are excited to pick a new one a couple times a week. You just can’t go wrong with this book on your keto journey. It may be pricey, but definitely worth it. I would highly recommend it.

I have had this book for 2 weeks and have loved everything in it so far. I have not missed bread as much with this book as I did with other keto cookbooks.

Cookbook looks good. Nice pictures. Easy to follow but no nutritional information - I wish they would have included that. In this day and age, it seems like a real miss.