With more newcomers to the keto lifestyle, we often get asked for ideas on what to eat. More specifically, we get asked what to eat when you’re busy and pulled in a million directions all day long with work, school, kids, cleaning, and pets. We find a lot of our keto friends want simple and easy yet very flavorful and satisfying low-carb recipes. Fortunately, that’s exactly what Jen Fisch’s The Easy 5 Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook ($11.99; Rockridge Press) provides. It’s a keto high-fat diet cookbook for those that want to keep meal prep simple, avoid carbohydrates, and enjoy keto comfort foods, and we highly recommend it.
About the Author
Author Jen Fisch is a blogger, foodie, best-selling author, and a lover of the keto diet. She became interested in the ketogenic lifestyle after struggling with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Finding the best way to manage it was a combination of the right doctors, medications, and keto dieting.
What’s Inside
This keto diet cookbook is filled with great, nutrient-dense, ultrasimple keto-friendly recipes made with real whole foods available at your local grocer, which is our favorite way to eat. Chapters are straightforward: smoothies & breakfasts, hearty soups & salads, side dishes & snacks, fish & poultry entrees, pork & beef entrees, desserts & sweet treats, and finally sauces & dressings. There is literally something for everyone, and all the ketogenic recipes can be made relatively quickly by even a novice home cook.
Bonus: all the delicious recipes display accurate calories and macro breakdowns (fats / carbs / protein / fiber), which is very useful to anyone starting the ketogenic diet who wants to track macros on their diet plan but doesn’t want to calculate the nutritional information. There are also plenty of veggies in the recipes.
What You’ll Learn
Aside from a number of go-to easy recipes for everyday eating plans, you’ll get a straightforward list of foods to avoid. If you are new to the high-fat low-carb diet, this is very helpful, especially when making grocery lists.
Also, the author lists some of her favorite keto products (such as Fat Snax Cookies), so you’ll get ideas for quick snacks you can grab out of the pantry without having to cook.
Room for Improvement
While we definitely recommend this book, we want to set expectations. You should know that while the recipes are simple and often require just a few everyday ingredients (e.g. the Pancake Cake is made with butter, eggs, cream cheese, liquid stevia, baking powder, and coconut flour), many recipes require more than five ingredients. Fortunately, some of those extra ingredients are spices you may already have in your cupboard. Regardless, the ingredients list is pretty minimal compared to other keto cookbooks.
Those following a strict ketogenic diet (20 to 30 grams of net carbs per day with no flours, starches, or pre-packaged foods) will be disappointed to find some of the recipes call for items like low-carb tortillas, which can contain questionable ingredients that can kick some out of ketosis or spike blood glucose. Luckily, these recipes are few!
We weren’t really fans of the amount of high-calorie meals. We would prefer a better range of low, medium, and high-calorie options to make meal planning easier. If you’re looking to lose weight and are tracking calories, eating three meals a day from this book can easily accumulate more than 1800 calories, 200 grams of fat, and 100 grams of protein. While this may work well for some people using this book, you may find yourself limited to two meals a day due to the high amount of calories in a single serving.
Finally, a few of the easy keto recipes are a bit bland, but they’re easily made delectable by adding some additional seasonings.
It’s also important to note that this is more squarely a cookbook than one of the keto diet books that explain in detail about fat-burning and keto meal planning. While you’re still likely to burn fat while cooking and eating keto with these recipes, you won’t learn a lot about the science behind it.
The Final Word
Overall we give Jen Fisch’s The Easy 5 Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook ($11.99, paperback and available on Amazon) a keto thumbs up. It’s great for busy people who want to keep keto cooking simple and enjoy the health benefits and wellness of a keto diet. It allows you to simplify everything from one-day to five-day meal plans, and it has healthy recipes that don’t require long shopping lists for the grocery store but are sure to become family favorites. And, of course, the high-fat recipes promote a practical approach to keto weight loss and your health.
Still, always consult a nutritionist before starting a new diet.
