World Carnivore Month Recipes

For the month of January my weight loss coach, Dr. Wade Baskin, challenged our group to participate in World Carnivore Month. Dr. Wade's challenge combines fasts of 48 hours to 5 days with the carnivore diet, but the original challenge, now in its third year, is just to follow a carnivore diet for one month. You can find out more about World Carnivore Month by visiting meatrx.com. If you've been reading my blog for a while you know every few years I have done a month of Dr. Atkins' allergy protocol to treat flare ups of my severe allergies. This is almost the same thing, only a little more strict. Eating a carnivore diet is a great way to eliminate foods to see if any of them are causing health problems you might not realize are diet-related. The purest form of the diet consists of meat only, maybe seasoned with salt, as our ancestors might have eaten. I am following the least strict form of the diet: allowing any animal-based food, including dairy. I also started 5 days late because of our schedule. Still, I am already starting to get some pushback from my youngest child. So this weekend I created some recipes to please all the family palates. I have been helped along immensely by my Christmas present, the Ninja Foodi. I have the original Foodi, which combines a pressure cooker, air fryer, steamer, and slow cooker. Last night I created a carnivore version of our family favorite schnitzel served with a low-carb version of beer cheese. Beer cheese can't be made carnivore or even keto because by definition it has to contain beer! If you want a pure carnivore meal then you will need to use a carnivore cheese sauce recipe or leave off the cheese sauce all together. This got rave reviews; my daughter says it's her favorite meal since we started keto two years ago!

Carnivore Air Fried Pork Schnitzel
Serves 6

6 boneless pork chops, 4 ounces each
1 cup pork panko
Garlic powder, salt, black pepper, and paprika to taste
1 egg, beaten
Beer Cheese, 1 recipe (below)

Mix the pork panko with the seasonings to taste. You can use salt only if you want to adhere to the strict carnivore diet. If you can't find pork panko you can make your own by grinding up plain pork rinds in a food processor until they are the texture of bread crumbs. Dip the pork chops in the the egg one at a time. Then dip each side in the panko mixture. Turn the Ninja air fryer function to the high setting of 390 degrees. Preheat for four minutes. Place the pork chops in the air fryer basket three at a time so they do not overlap. Fry for 8-10 minutes, turning over after 5 minutes. Keep the first batch of chops warm in the oven while you cook the second batch. Serve plain or topped with Beer Cheese.

Low Carb Beer Cheese

3 TBSP salted butter
3 TBSP coconut flour
1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 can or bottle of beer (12 ounces)
1 TBSP heavy whipping cream
1 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Melt the butter in a two-quart saucepan. Mix in the flour and seasonings to form a thick paste. Add the beer and cream all at once, whisking until smooth. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly, then turn heat to low. Whisk in xanthan gum until smooth and simmer, whisking constantly, until thickened and bubbly, about 10 minutes. Add cheese and stir until melted. Serve over schnitzel.

Carnivore White Lasagna
Serves 10

2 pounds nitrate-free, sugar-free pork sausage, cooked and drained (we prefer Neese's)
18 slices nitrate-free, sugar-free ham lunch meat
4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 recipe alfredo sauce (below)
1 recipe cheese filling (below)

Alfredo Sauce
3/4 cup salted butter
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Dash nutmeg (optional)

Cheese Filling
1-32 ounce container whole milk ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook and drain the sausage and set aside. Prepare the alfredo sauce by melting the butter. Mix in the cream and pepper and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened. Add the Parmesan cheese and parsley and nutmeg if desired and stir until cheese melts. Add the sausage and mix thoroughly. Set aside. Prepare the cheese filling by beating the eggs. Add all remaining ingredients and stir until well-mixed. Set aside. Grease a large 16 inch roaster pan. Spread 1/2 of the alfredo meat sauce mixture evenly in the bottom of the pan. Top with 9 ham slices as you would normally use lasagna noodles. Spread the cheese filling over the ham slices. Top with 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layers, ending with the mozzarella. Bake at 350 degrees until the mozzarella is golden and bubbly. Remove from the oven and let sit to cool for 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

We were too eager to eat and didn't allow the lasagna to cool before slicing it, which is why my slice looks so runny in the photo! If you are patient enough to allow it to cool a little it will hold its layers nicely. I think I might like this even better than regular lasagna, although that might be because I love Alfredo sauce so much I could eat it by the bowl with a spoon! It's important to make sure your sausage doesn't contain any grains as fillers. We prefer a local brand, Neese's. Most carnivore dieters would probably not use parsley but I consider it an herb, not a vegetable. It's wonderful to help digestion, especially when you're eating fat and protein heavy meals like this. Besides that, I have parsley growing all over my yard and I want to use it! If you wanted the essence of parsley and nutmeg without the actual herbs and spices you could consider using the Young Living Vitality oils for flavor. These essential oils are perfectly safe to eat. They are very concentrated, so Young Living recommends dipping a toothpick in the bottle and stirring that into the food so you don't get over-powering flavor. I love the idea of replacing my cumbersome cupboard of spice jars with the tiny Young Living bottles! They never get stale and they take up so much less space. You can purchase Young Living Vitality oils from the link on the Home page.

If you're trying to follow a Keto diet or participating in World Carnivore Month, I hope these recipes help you add some variety to your meals. I know it's a lot easier for me to stay on plan when I'm not having to listen to whining! In my case, whining tends to lead to wine-ing, definitely not allowed during carnivore! I'm a bit worried about avoiding wine when my husband is out of town later this month. When I have to single-parent I find it hard to fast and I crave wine before bed to help me relax and fall asleep. Knowing this would be a challenge, I chose Dr. Wade's easiest plan: just two 48 hour fasts a week with one carnivore meal in between and one carnivore meal each day on the weekends. Before the holidays I found myself falling into a pattern of what Dr. Wade calls, "yo-yo fasting", or stuffing myself with everything I could eat before embarking on long fasts. I'm trying to get back to the point I can fast without feeling the need to binge afterward. I only have about 20 more pounds to lose to meet my next goal and I lost 6 the first week of the carnivore challenge, so it's possible I could meet my goal by February if I stay on track!