Fluffy Chix Cook’s Low Carb Keto Recipe FAQs
Welcome to Fluffy Chix Cook’s Low Carb Keto Recipe FAQs! We’re glad you’re here and hope you will stick around and comment often to leave your thoughts and suggestions. Before we begin, you should familiarize yourself with the Fluffy Chix Cook Disclaimer (click on the link). These recipes represent a glimpse into how Fluffy Chix love to eat and what kinds of low carb keto recipes make our feathers fluff in excitement. Most of our recipes will be gluten free, or offer gluten free substitution suggestions. Some will be grain free (we do like to use Oat Fiber in a few recipes to improve texture). Some recipes will be sugar free or no-sugar-added, but all recipes will be diabetic friendly. Many recipes fit into a Paleo and Primal lifestyle. Many will be Atkin’s Induction or Westman’s No Sugar No Starch – Page 4 friendly. Other’s will include lower carb items encountered as you advance up the Atkins OWL (On-going Weight Loss) ladder and approach or achieve maintenance.
JUST THE FLUFFY CHIX LOW CARB KETO RECIPE FAQs
We’re still trying to figure out the best way to organize recipes,
so please bear with us as Fluffy Chix Cook evolves.
1. I only have table salt in our house. How do we convert the kosher or sea salt measurements into table salt measurements in Fluffy Chix Cook recipes?
All of our recipes/meal plans use either kosher salt or coarse grain, pink sea salt (Himalayan sea salt). The sodium content in these salts are less than those found in processed, finely ground, table salt. We estimate table salt is roughly one-third stronger. To substitute table salt for the salt used in our recipes, start by cutting the salt quantity in half or simply season to taste: salt a little bit, taste, adjust.
2. I only have pre-ground pepper at home. Is there a way to convert the amounts of freshly ground black pepper to pre-ground pepper in Fluffy Chix Cook recipes?
The pepper used in our recipes comes from freshly ground, tellecherry peppercorns. There are many different varieties of peppercorns. Some will interchange and others won’t (i.e. green peppercorns in brine, pink peppercorns, or Szechuan peppercorns do not readily interchange with black peppercorns . Fresh ground black pepper tastes so much better than pre-ground out of a can. Fresh ground has more punch and flavor, more phenolic and aromatic compounds, more heat, more pepper oil. But if you don’t have the pocketbook or stamina to use fresh ground black pepper, sub out 1:1 with pre-ground. If a recipe calls for coarse grind and you only have regular, cut the quantity roughly in half. Pepper a little, taste, adjust.
3. Do I have to use a scale, measuring spoons or measuring cups in Fluffy Chix Cook recipes?
The herbs and spice quantities in Fluffy Chix Cook’s recipes are just a general guideline or tool. Rarely is any recipe (baking recipes may have an exemption to this rule) so precise that (+/-) a quarter or half teaspoon will ruin the recipe. If you don’t have a particular herb or spice, sub another one or omit it. If you don’t like a particular herb or spice, tump it and forget about it! Fluffy Chix Cook recipes are flexible.
Here’s a little secret…when we make our recipes, we just wing it. We tump a bit of the herbs and spices into our palms and say, “Meh, I think that’s gonna do it.” Then we taste. And adjust. It’s an intuitive cooking concept that develops with experience and trusting yourself. And Fluffy Chix Cook wants to free you from the tyranny of the measuring spoon! Our other secret is, just like Fluffy Chix Cook fluffy grandmamas, we use a teaspoon and tablespoon from the flatware (eating utensils) drawer to measure most herbs and spices in our recipes. And a “pinch” is about 1/8-1/4 teaspoon, so don’t stress, just pick up a bit between your thumb and pointy finger and call it a day. Taste and…you guessed it. Adjust. T/A (Taste and Adjust).
As for measuring cups: some ingredients lend themselves to a measuring cup (i.e. cream, coconut milk, almond milk) and others don’t (i.e. lettuce, spinach, greens, broccoli). If it’s THAT necessary for us to track carbs so closely, then in these situations we prefer scales and weights. You can find cheap scales at your local thrift store and garage sales, or buy one in our amazon store, coming soon!
4. How do we convert fresh herbs to dried in Fluffy Chix Cook recipes?
Fluffy Chix Cook owns four pots of herbs and keeps them out on their patio: basil (any variety of green basil), thyme (any variety), oregano, tarragon, rosemary. We also have mint growing wildly in our backyard, courtesy of the previous owner. It makes fiscal sense for us to prance out to the fresh herbs, snip a few and flit back into the kitchen to make a recipe. Growing fresh herbs is so easy and saves big bucks during a year. But we understand if you don’t have fresh herbs and have no way to grow them. Simply convert the Fluffy Chix Cook recipe when necessary. Most fresh herbs use twice as much by measurement as their dried counterpart. So if a recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme and you want to use fresh, use 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme (leaves only)-same thing goes for oregano. If a recipe calls for 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, then I would personally cut back to 1 teaspoon of dried and T/A, because rosemary is a strong herb! You can always add more, but it’s hard to get rosemary flavor toned down.
5. What does B/T mean in Fluffy Chix Cook recipes?
Fluffy Chix Cook utilizes a restaurant/professional kitchen method of food rotation. B/T (Bag and Tag) is a term used to describe our method. Anything that gets opened in the Fluffy Chix Kitchen gets a B/T on it. That’s right. Any pantry item, any cooking liquor, any refrigerated or frozen ingredient, any recipe, individual serving, etc. They all get B/T. Why do we B/T? Because Bag & Tag lets you see at a glance when something was opened, how many servings it contains and what it is. No more playing freezer roulette with the Bolognese and the Marinara! No more mystery foil swans floating in the fridge. It takes the guesswork out of Lucky Leftovers and reduces (dare we say eliminates) food loss (aka spoiled food). It’s important because less food waste = thrifty chix = more cash at the end of the month. Score! Here’s what a B/T consists of at Fluffy Chix Cook:
DATE: Opened | Refrigerated | Frozen
NAME: Ingredient | Recipe
SERVING SIZE: How many servings in the item. (i.e. 2 servings | 2 cups, or 1 serving | 6oz)
6. How do I make substitutions in Fluffy Chix Cook recipes?
Substitutions in Fluffy Chix Low Carb Keto Recipes and Meal Plans are usually pretty easy (except in some baked goods), because they tend to be YOI (You Own It)-style recipes. No recipe is so rigid that it can’t accommodate a substitution from your pantry, based on a personal taste preference or need for economy. Morph them, swap things out, use different spices, change the cheese, change the protein, use it in a casserole. YOI. The End.
7. Your pantry is crazy! Do I have to buy ALL these ingredients in the Fluffy Chix Cook pantry?
We warn you now, Susie T. is reigning Condiment Queen, Miss Congenialty and an unapologetic food blogger at Fluffy Chix Cook. Her pantry items are extensive and wholly unnecessary for the average home cook. Susie T. and FCC built the pantry over time and will try to keep costs contained in the recipes and meal plans. Above all…don’t freak out when reading their pantry list! Shhhh, have a glass of wine first and sit down.
Having a hearty pantry with foods in reserve (i.e. frozen or refrigerated such as an extra dozen eggs, a couple pounds of 80/20, a pound of bacon, breakfast sausage, butter) allows flexibility and sustainability and reduces the potential for cheating and/or giving into the wayward delivery guy who’s hankering to tamper with you. But pantries cost money. An easy way to grow your pantry over time is to buy 1-2 extra items each week and store them away.
8. If Fluffy Chix Cook believes so highly in a real food, low carb ketogenic lifestyle, why do you use food products?
You will immediately notice, Fluffy Chix Cook is not a hoity-toity-cook-everything-from-scratch-foodie-focused-recipe-and-meal-plan site. You’ll also notice repeats or “extras.” Cuz, gah! We want a freakin’ EASY BUTTON when living our life. There’s no always time to cook a full meal from scratch. Every. Single. Day. 3 Meals per Day. 365 Days per Year! We don’t want to stand in front of the icebox (Texan for refrigerator), nor slave endlessly for “masterpiece theatah” aka the nightly meal.
And let’s be frank, okay? Leftovers happen, people! And that can of salmon will not split itself into a convenient, “single serving!”
(But if you want to make Fluffy Chix Cook’s Salmon Salad and hate leftovers, you can scale the recipe by using a single serving pouch of salmon—you just won’t get all the lovely calcium and minerals from the crushed up salmon bones found in canned, wild caught, pink salmon—available from your local grocer, since your granny was a child, or conveniently available online from our trusted partner amazon.com)
Fluffy Chix are not purists. We tend more towards the hedonistic side of low carb ketogenic lifestyles. Not everyone can afford grass fed, antibiotic free, hormone free, pesticide free food. Fluffy Chix Cook readers are a mixed bag. And the most common thread in our group is that we are all looking for easy. We want an Easy button! And products help with the easy. We’re all on a separate place on the path along the low carb ketogenic lifestyle continuum. You start out crazy and overwhelmed, not knowing what to eat or how you can even possibly give up all your lovely breads, grains, cereals, pastas, rice, potatoes, chips, sodas, and sugar! So eating a low carb product with fewer “bad ingredients” is better than throwing up your hands, walking away and resuming your hanky-panky with that old SAD (Standard American Diet). Products form the bridge that leads to Easy. They are a stepping stone.
After a few weeks, months (or years), you become an old hand at this low carb keto thing. You may start noting how much better you feel eating a low carb keto diet and begin questioning if you can refine your diet to feel even better. At that point, you probably begin to make subtle changes. Maybe you make compromises. Perhaps you decide to trade 20 minutes a week to make that homemade mayonnaise in return for ditching the jar of Hellmann’s or Duke’s mayonnaise that contain trans fats and partially hydrogenated oils and preservatives. You could be ready at that point to spend 20 minutes making low carb ketchup and break-up with reduced sugar bottled ketchup. Heck, maybe you embrace Fluffy Chix Cook’s prolific selection of homemade salad dressings and decide that bottled dressings aren’t for you any longer.
We just want to be sure we don’t sit in judgment or alienate anyone here at Fluffy Chix Cook. So we will continue to cook recipes using strategic products and will try to give homemade alternatives, too.
9. Why do you weigh and measure everything in Fluffy Chix Cook Low Carb Keto Recipes and Meal Plans?
In a low carb keto diet, most low carb doctors agree it’s unnecessary to count anything other than carb levels. But Fluffy Chix Cook recipes contain the full nutritional panel, when possible. We do this because it allows people to make informed choices. And Fluffy Chix get visitors from people on many different diet or lifestyle programs. Some people count all macronutrients. Some only count whole carbs, others subtract fiber to arrive at Effective Carbs aka Net Carbs. Some watch calories or slightly reduce fats, or conversely, up fat content to reach an “optimal ketogenic zone.” Some eat an alternate day intermittent fasting diet with calorie restriction. So Fluffy Chix Cook weighs, and measures everything when writing recipes and meal plans to make them versatile and useful to many. But we don’t necessarily expect you to do that, nor are our recipes so precise (see #3) that it’s necessary. And remember, all the recipes and meal plans on the Fluffy Chix Cook site are for grins and giggles only and are not meant to give dietary advice.
10. If LCHF keto dieting is so cool, why is Fluffy Chix Egg Fasting and what is an Egg Fast?
Egg Fasting is a form of a modified fat fast. Dr. Atkins first coined the term fat fast in THE ATKINS DIET REVOLUTION (’72) referencing a set of dietary restrictions limiting macronutrients and calories to a specific daily goal with the purpose of breaking a stall. The Atkins Fat Fast was actually a tweak of the Keckwick Fast. Stalls were defined as 4 weeks with no movement on the scale or with a measuring tape. The fat fast was limited to a 3-5 day window, then people resumed a normal Atkins ’72 low carb diet. The Egg Fast became a tweak of the fat fast. At first, the Egg Fast was combined with meats to produce a meat and egg fast. Over time, further tweaks transpired to include meat-only and egg-only fasts and hence, the Egg Fast was born. There are many versions of the Egg Fast and Fluffy Chix Cook distilled their Egg Fast Rules from from two other sources: Mellissa Sevigny and Jimmy Moore.
11. We think Fluffy Chix Cook’s recipes and meal plans are the low carb keto bomb, baby!!! Can we share Fluffy Chix Cook’s Low Carb Keto Recipes and Meal Plans with our family, friends and on our social media sites?
Sure! Feel free to share the links to the Fluffy Chix Cook’s Low Carb Keto Recipes and Meal Plans on all your social media sites and tell all your friends, how inspiring and entertaining this journey has been with Fluffy Chix Cook. Encourage them to join the site and also to sign up to receive Fluffy Chix Cook emails and newsletters as they become available. But, please be sure to link back to Fluffy Chix Cook’s original post where the recipe or meal plan lives, and give credit to the recipe or meal source (i.e. Fluffy Chix Cook) in accordance with copyright laws.
If you happen to purchase and download a future cookbook or meal plan workbook from Fluffy Chix Cook, then we would kindly ask you not to share the actual work. Please refer your friends and family (social network) to the purchase link.
Thank you for your questions and consideration!
Fluffy Chix Cook
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