Breads

Pizza

There are some brands out there that sell cauliflower and cheese based pizzas. There’s a brand called KeDough pizza that’s pretty low carb, and there are plenty of recipes out there if you want to make your own. If you go to a specialty grocery store you may find some that are pre-made, but they usually have too many carbs. Since low-carb is becoming more trendy, you’ll see places like 800 degrees sell cauliflower crust pizzas, but don’t be fooled. If you look up the nutritional value for these cauliflower crust pizzas they’re still like 80g.

Flax Seed Crackers

It’s pretty good and flavorful, you can dip it in some guac, almond butter, peanut butter (eh less recommended because it’s bad cholesterol) or cream cheese. Good alternative to crackers.

Paleo Granola

There is such a thing as keto-friendly granola! You can search on Amazon for “paleo granola” as it’s essentially the same thing. My favorite brand is from Paleo Passion Foods and I actually like it better than the real deal. I tried the Choco-nuts flavor, it has a chocolately coconut flavor with just enough crunch. I love to have it on top of my Chobani Plain Yogurt, with some added chia seeds and fresh berries 😄

Bread

There IS such a thing as “keto bread” which I was desperate enough to try. The breads are a huge hit or miss. Sometimes they are pretty good, other times they are darn awful. Bad can be like stale texture and terrible aftertaste. I’ve tried Barely Bread and the squares are really small. The taste isnt interesting so I wouldn’t recommend. So far the best breads I’ve gotten were from Low Carb U online.

Bagel

I also got the bagels from Low Carb U and they were tasty! Not as soft in texture as regular bagels, but the taste was almost the same if you add cream cheese. Because it’s not as soft you can’t toast it too long or it’ll just dry up. But overall I would recommend.

Cereal

The best cereal I’ve had is probably StaySteady’s Maple Pecan Cereal. It tastes and feels really close to normal frosted flakes. I’ve tried Catalina Crunch for cereals and I wasn’t impressed. There are some other competitors in the market for low carb cereals now.

Pasta

I tried Lo Carb U’s pasta and it takes a while to boil because it’s pretty tough. However after boiling for even 20 minutes the pasta itself is very hard. You can mask the grainyness with your choice of pesto, marina sauce (get Rao’s), or cream sauce as long as you check the labels carefully. I would say it was pretty good the first few times around, but afterwards the hardness of the pasta got to me. I would definitely recommend the konjac noodles to make pho noodle soup instead.

Fruits and Veggies

Cauliflower Rice

Ok I’ve eaten so much cauliflower rice from meal delivery companies that I’m very sick of this. But it’s one of those things I can’t leave out of this guide or people won’t think it’s legit. You can buy pre-cut cauliflower rice at Trader Joes now. Cauliflower mashed potato actually tastes very convincing though when you mix it with cheese and bacon bits!

Berries

I love fruits so thank god there’s something I can get. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are the keto-approved fruits because their carb content is some of the lowest compared to others. Be aware that you can’t eat these like crazy still, just take them in small amounts when you need a sugar kick. Blackberries are the safest out of all of the berries.

Avocado

You should be eating plenty of these. This is a great source of the healthy fats you need, plus all those other benefits that healthy people rave about. I like to put olive oil in the middle, dashes of salt, pepper, and a little bit of soy sauce. Most importantly it’s a good source of magnesium which is what a lot of keto people take supplements for. Ugghh yess that soy sauce brings out the flavor in a completely new way.

You can also make some home-made guac by mashing up avocado, white onion, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Yumm.

Konjac Noodles

This is likely unfamiliar to you unless you’re Asian. It comes in a couple of forms and colors, like a clear white or speckled black and white. Sometimes it comes in a thick block, other times they cut it into a noodle form. THIS is your master alternative to noodles. It has 0 carbs, and is a great source of nutrition, and tastes great. This “noodle” is found in hot pot, Oden, or street Taiwanese foods. You can find this in Asian grocery stores. I love it because it’s super cheap and fast to make. The konjac is usually already ready as is, but you should boil it because it does have a fishy smell to it if you don’t boil it. Mix in some udon soup base, add in some shabu shabu meat, vegetables of your choice, and wala now you have pho noodles. It’s also great to just leave in your fridge because they store for quite some time and you can always whip up the noodles quickly with the flavoring packets.

Dairy and Meats

Cream Cheese

Cheeses are approved because it’s also just fat and protein. I’m specifically mentioning cream cheese because it’s one of those things where you could get creative and eat with something, like celery sticks. Good dipping alternative. 0 carbs. Go crazy.

String Cheese

Same reasons as above, just also easy to grab and snack on.

Cheddar/Parmesan Crisps

These are your alternatives to cheez-its basically. The one that I like is from Sonoma Creamery, which you can get on Amazon. There’s a ton of random brands you can find, but it’s basically fried cheddar so the texture is like cheez-its. Eat sparsely, it’s about 1g of carbs per square but each square is pretty satisfying. There are some out there that have 0g carbs.

Chawanmushi (Steamed Egg)

The name might be unfamiliar but it’s the steamed egg that you get in some Japanese restaurants in a little cup. It’s really easy to make, you just whisk two eggs together, add a little bit of salt, soy sauce, and sesame oil, 50ml of water, and just steam it. If you don’t have steaming tools you can steam the bowl of contents in a pot of a small layer of boiling water. Use something to raise the bowl above the water, and cover the pot.

Pork Rinds

Aight if you’ve never heard of pork rinds before you’re going to be so happy. THIS is your alternative to potato chips. They are basically fried pig skin, which sounds weird, but it tastes great. They have 0 carbs and are mostly fat and protein, so you can just go crazy and eat these forever. You’re welcome. They can be found in most grocery stores, you just gotta look carefully.

Beef Jerky

This is a great option for casual snacking because it’s so easy to get and to store. It’s mostly protein and it packs a lot of flavor when you just need some taste in your mouth. Be wary of the brand that you buy though, some of them pack a lot of sugar in them so just get the one with the least carbs.

Desserts and Snacks

Peanut Butter

Thank lord Jesus we can have peanut butter. It’s high in fats which makes it a great addition if you need some extra flavor to your boring omelet or chicken salad. I like to have grab a spoon and take a scoop from the tub and eat it as a treat. The reason for that is it’s 4g of net carbs for two teaspoons, which is kind of costly for a snack. So yeah you can have a spoon of it when you feel like you deserve a treat. Good dipping alternative. Eat it with your keto bread and keto jam.

Raspberry Jam

I’ve tried Smucker’s Sugar Free Strawberry Jam and it’s not bad! However there is one that is even better that they sell at my grocery store. I recommend Nature’s Hollow’s Raspberry Jam. It’s sweetened with xylitol which is very safe and keto friendly. I’m so happy there is such a thing as keto jam because now I can make myself PB+Js, or top it on my keto cheesecake.

Plain Greek Yogurt

I like to go for Chobani’s Whole Milk Plain Greek Yogurt, the Whole Milk line is new and it’s great for keto because it’s higher in fat content compared to their other lines. I also only take this a maximum of a few spoons at a time, if I’m feeling naughty or need that extra kick in my meal I’ll get a little bit. There are lots of great fats in it but it costs 9g of carbs per cup, so you know, assess how many carbs you had that day and take your pick. By the way yeah you definitely can’t go for the fruity sweetened ones, there’s too much sugar content, it’s gotta be the plain greek one.

Keto Cheesecake

That’s right, cheesecake. This cheesecake is better than the real deal, I’m telling you I don’t even bake, but there was no way around it so I followed this amazing recipe and it tastes so freaking good. Right? Like some things you just can’t buy so you gotta tough it out and just make it. It’s good. I’m saying like, cheesecake factory good. Yeah no for real. It’s 5g of carbs per serving and is a great fat bomb. 10/10 recommend. The crust is almond flour and the rest is cream cheese.

Chocolate Mug Cake

I died when I learned there was such a thing as “Mug Cake.” I’m a pretty busy person, ain’t nobody got time to cook desserts all day. But for this you can literally prepare all the ingredients at your office, throw them in a mug, and microwave it for one minute. Then you get this delicious chocolately, keto approved lava cake. Check out this recipe.

75% Dark Chocolate Bar

Hey man, nobody said you couldn’t have chocolate. Just check the brand and try to find one that has the lowest net carbs. If you go to bougier grogery stores, there’s a lot of chocolate brands now that are low carb. The important thing is to see what they sweeten it with. If it’s a sugar alcohol you’re good, you can remove that from the total carb count.

Keto Brownies

I was craving brownies so badly, I was like man I gotta try this recipe. It came out pretty well I would say — the great thing is it’s a fat bomb, it’s only 3g of net carbs per serving, the only downside is you gotta bake it yourself.

Keto Cookies

This recipe is super easy to follow with easy ingredients and tastes great. It has that soft chewy feeling when you bite into it. The recipe doesn’t say to bake it, but if you want an extra crisp you can make them slightly flat, slap them into the oven for 15–30 minutes on 350F, and let them cool before consuming. Nowadays there’s a lot of competitors that sell their own keto cookie. I’ve tried maybe 3 different ones and they have all been disappointing. I recommend just making your own or if you’re lucky enough to find them freshly in a store.

Ice Cream

Thank lord jesus for keto ice cream!!! It took me a long time to find a good keto ice cream. I’ve tried several, and the texture just was ruining it for me. My favorite of them all is Rebel, who has pints of ice cream that totals 100 calories, and 2–4g of carb — yes for the entire pint. You can find them at Whole Foods. They have a lot of different flavors like vanilla bean, chocolate, cookie dough, the list goes on. Enlightened is also another great option if you can’t find Rebel. I tried Vanilla from Killer Creamery and the flavor was good but the texture was too flaky. Don’t do Halo Top because even though it’s low calorie, it’s very high in sugar. Wink is very icy and doesn’t taste that good.

Alternative to Milk Tea Boba

Boba is my religion. I had to do a lot of research but you can make something that’s darn close to good milk tea. Seep 3–5 bags of black tea in two cups of hot water, and make it really dark. Slowly add heavy cream until the taste is to your liking. Heavy cream has lots of fat and less carbs than milk because it’s the liquid form of butter. A cup of heavy cream is about 7g of sugar, so if you do half that’s a really low carb drink. I think the hardest part of making it good, is getting high quality black tea that doesn’t taste like ass when you seep it really dark, and getting full fat heavy cream. Unfortunately there’s no good replacement for tapioca, but you can do grass jelly if you like that, or a little bit of aloe vera. Here’s also a list of nutritional facts for all the boba toppings to show that you can only really do grass jelly. If you want to sweeten it a bit, add a few drops of liquid stevia. By the way if you’re wondering if you can use almond milk or coconut milk instead of heavy cream, the answer is no. I’ve tried, It’s too watery and tastes like ass.

If you’re at a boba shop, you too can partake! Get the black tea with salty whipping cream (the cream sits on top of the drink), with grass/herbal jelly, and no sugar. I personally ask for less cream because I think the salty part is kind of weird and the cream already has the salt. I’ve tried this at Kungfu Tea and it was super successful, and another time at Coco and it was just okay.

Bulletproof Coffee

I’m not much of a coffee drinker but this is definitely the keto-approved coffee. You can make it yourself, but it requires a lot of special ingredients like Bulletproof’s Brain Octane Oil, ghee/butter, and grinding your own coffee beans. They have their own brick and mortar store, which also sells keto approved snacks (tried their pumpkin spice muffin and blueberry lemon cake, so good!). Anyway, the keto part is that this coffee is ~70% fat, and that Brain Octane Oil is the main thing that promises higher cognitive functionality by acting as a nootropic. Does it taste good? It’s pretty good. As a NON coffee drinker, I said it tastes like Blue Bottle’s New Orleans, without the sugar part. My coffee drinker friends say I’m whack and that it was equivalent to saying “pink looks the same as red” when it’s completely different.

Pancake, Waffles, and “Nutella”

These guys at Nekstella got your back. You’re all set. Being the crazy person that I am, I tried almost everything. The pancake and waffle mix are super easy, you just add a little bit of water to the mixture and you’ll get a good, thick, consistent batter. I would say the flavor is slightly more on the eggy side. However $7.95 feels rather expensive for the amount that you get (you can buy it off Amazon to save shipping costs, the shipping from their store is pretty expensive). Since it’s so easy to make, I recommend making your own using almond or coconut flour, and to follow a recipe online. I also tried the Sugar Free Chocolate Hazelnut Spread and the Sugar Free Chocolate Hazelnut Syrup. Both are good; the spread mimics the consistency of Nutella and tastes slightly darker than the syrup. Does it taste like Nutella? Ish. You can tell it’s a copy. They both would definitely fail a blind test with the real deal. Their sweetener is Monk Fruit, which has that lingering bitter taste like Stevia does.

Maple Syrup

Walden Farms Sugar Free Pancake Syrup. Tastes like the real deal. If I were to nitpick, I wish it was slightly thicker in its texture, but other than that this syrup is great. However, the huge disclaimer is that they use sucralose to sweeten their product, which is a huge nono in keto because it still raises your blood glucose levels. I would only get this if you are craving maple syrup really hard and you promise to only have a little bit each time.

Way too lazy? Try Keto Krate

I gotta try everything when it comes to food so I tried Keto Krate. It’s a delivery service where they ship you a box of keto-approved snacks from various companies. Some of them were pretty interesting that I got, like flax seed crackers, and a sample of coconut butter. They also sent me the waffle mix from Nekstella which is how I heard about it. There’s a lot of snacks to go through in the box, so I would say value wise it’s fair since keto snacks are rare and sometimes more expensive. If you want to try Keto Krate, use my referral link. You don’t personally get anything out of it but it helps me search the world for the best keto snacks, and hey, I did tell you about it right?

I used to be an adventurer like you

Until I took an arrow to the knee.

I’m on the keto diet as a lifestyle, you can read more about why and how I’ve decided to do that in my story. Since I love eating so much, it’s my destiny to search the world for the best foods that are still keto-friendly. To keep things easy for myself, I buy meals from food delivery services, and in this article, I write about the 10 that I tried. Follow me in my journey! And if you have any suggestions on foods, post below!