It’s true that keto means a lot of cooking, but does that mean more dirty dishes? Today is #NoDirtyDishes day and it’s a topic near and dear to my heart.
When Bill and I moved back to Nova Scotia from Ontario, we lived in the same house as my parents. They had an in-law suite where my grandmother had lived. It was a beautiful, old farmhouse. It had a great view of the Annapolis River and it was a peaceful place. But the water pressure could not support a dishwasher. For the first time in my adult life, I was left without a dishwasher. Now, please understand, Bill is the cook in our family. He is an amazing cook, which is great. But with him cooking, that left me to clean up. That meant washing dishes. Every…single…day. I hate washing dishes.
We lived there for about 10 years and then decided to move so I would be closer to my work. We started looking for a house. The real estate agent asked what we wanted. My answer was simple; a dishwasher. She laughed, and said, “Of course, but what else?” I told her, “You don’t understand. I’ve been without a dishwasher for 10 years. I need either a kitchen with a dishwasher or a house that can run a dishwasher.” I was very serious. The house we bought had a dishwasher installed. About 5 years later, the dishwasher broke. We went to Home Depot and bought another one that day.
The Struggle with Dirty Dishes
So, I understand the struggle with dirty dishes. But when we started keto, we realized that it meant we couldn’t just stop and get fast food every night. We had to cook at home in order to be sure we were not overindulging in carbs and we got into ketosis. Like I mentioned, Bill is a great cook. He also uses a lot of dishes when he cooks. Even with the dishwasher, it takes some time to do the clean up, especially when he uses numerous pots that may or may not be dishwasher safe.
There are a couple of tricks we use to cut down on the cleanup after dinner. One is that we use an airfryer. Not only does it cook meat in a fraction of the time and hold the flavour, it can be put in the dishwasher and everything can usually go into the one pot. We use this for ribs, wings, chicken and pork. It’s a wonderful piece of equipment that helps cut down on the amount of dirty dishes.
BBQ season is my absolute favourite time of year! We have sugar-free BBQ sauce that tastes amazing and we BBQ hamburgers, hotdogs (we found some that only have 1 carb in each), steak, and pork chops. We also chop up some cauliflower, mushrooms and occasionally an onion, put a bunch of butter on top and wrap them in tinfoil. Stick them on the BBQ and they are filled with incredible flavour. Best of all? No pots!
Proper Keto Cooking and Prepping Helps
When we do cook on the stove, we make sure to have four portions of food. All of our meats in the freezer are portioned out so when we thaw them out, we have enough for four meals. We have them for dinner that night and then take them for lunch the next day. So, yes, we use pots and dishes, but we also have enough so we don’t have to make more dirty dishes until dinner the next night. Let me tell you, it makes me excited for lunch in a way that sandwiches never did! When I’m getting hungry and I think about the meal I have in my cooler bag, I can’t wait for lunch.
We also make sure our breakfasts are ready to go in the morning. I usually have bacon and a cheesy biscuit. No pots or pans in the morning. Just put breakfast on a plate, and heat it up in the microwave. Easy, peasy.
If you want to go the extra mile to celebrate No Dirty Dishes Day, feel free to go out to eat. While it’s not something we can do (or afford to do) every day, once in a while is nice. Really, any excuse will do!
Wendy
