Low-Carb, So Simple!

5-Ingredient Creamy Garam Masala Chicken

September 27, 2026 By elviira Leave a Comment

This week, I needed a dinner that could practically cook itself. I had just launched six organic seasonings in my Finnish Ellin keittiö clean keto and carnivore online store, and between getting everything ready, I had very little time left for this week’s blog recipe. Fortunately, a busy week is an excellent excuse to make creamy chicken.

I often make a simple creamy chicken dish for my son with curry powder. Since I had six new seasonings sitting in my kitchen, I thought I might as well put one to work. I chose garam masala because it’s less familiar to me than the others. All I had to do was swap it for the curry powder in my usual recipe — no complicated experiments required, thank goodness.

The result is this 5-Ingredient Creamy Garam Masala Chicken: tender chicken in a rich, warmly spiced sauce, made in one skillet. It’s quick enough for a week like mine, but good enough that nobody at the table needs to know how little effort it took.

And don’t worry if you can’t get my organic garam masala. Other brands are available around the world. Blends vary quite a bit, though — some are mild, while others bring enough heat to wake up the whole kitchen. Check the ingredients for anything you’d rather avoid, and adjust the amount to suit your taste. And choose a brand without added salt. It’s always better to salt the food to your taste.
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32 Best Keto Pumpkin and Pumpkin Spice Recipes — From Lattes to Pies

September 20, 2026 By elviira Leave a Comment

I have mentioned many times that pumpkin pie spice is my all-time favorite seasoning. At this point, I hardly need to repeat myself — the impressive number of pumpkin spice recipes on this blog provides more than enough evidence.

Pumpkin pie spice has found its way into my pancakes, waffles, cookies, cakes, pies, drinks, truffles, panna cotta, and even an egg soufflé omelet. If a food stays still long enough, I will apparently season it with Ceylon cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

My enthusiasm does not end with recipes, either. I developed my own homemade pumpkin pie spice blend, and I also sell my organic blend in my Finnish clean keto online store. I carefully mix and pack it myself, so pumpkin pie spice is not merely a favorite seasoning around here — it is practically a staff member.

During my keto years, I also used plenty of pumpkin. It adds moisture, color, gentle sweetness, and unmistakable fall character to everything from low-carb pumpkin pie to creamy pumpkin soup.

Now that I follow a carnivore diet, I no longer eat pumpkin myself. However, I still occasionally use seasonings, so my beloved pumpkin pie spice continues to make welcome appearances. After all, pumpkin pie spice contains no pumpkin — a wonderfully convenient detail for a pumpkin-free pumpkin spice fan.

I also love developing keto pumpkin recipes for others. Creating them lets me play with new flavor combinations, while my willing taste testers get to handle the eating part. Everyone wins.

Below, you’ll find 32 of my best keto pumpkin and pumpkin spice recipes, including ketovore treats, low-carb breakfasts, sugar-free desserts, warming drinks, pumpkin basics, and savory dishes. That should be enough pumpkin and pumpkin spice to keep even the most enthusiastic fall baker busy.
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Keto Pumpkin Spice Panna Cotta

September 13, 2026 By elviira Leave a Comment

Pumpkin pie spice is my absolute all-time favorite seasoning. Anyone who has browsed this blog for more than five minutes has probably noticed. I use it in all sorts of recipes, I have my own homemade pumpkin pie spice blend, and I even sell an organic version in my Finnish clean keto and carnivore store. I mix and pack every batch myself, so yes, I take my pumpkin pie spice duties very seriously.

With that amount of pumpkin pie spice in my life, posting more recipes for it is only sensible. I have plenty of ideas, and keeping them all to myself would be terribly selfish.

This time, I added my beloved spice blend to panna cotta. The result is a rich, smooth, gently spiced dessert that requires very little work and no pumpkin whatsoever. It is also suitable for ketovores and for those carnivores who occasionally include sweeteners and seasonings in their diet. It’s a lovely option when you want to finish your meal with something creamy and sweet while keeping carbs low.

And what better time for pumpkin spice than fall, my favorite season? Finland becomes wonderfully colorful as the leaves turn yellow, orange, and red. Even on the darkest, rainiest, cloudiest day, the bright yellow trees manage to make everything look almost sunny. Finnish autumn may arrive carrying an umbrella, but at least it dresses cheerfully.
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Carnivore Mac ‘n’ Cheese

September 6, 2026 By elviira 2 Comments

Mac ’n’ cheese has survived all sorts of substitutions over the years, so I think it can handle one more. This time, there is no macaroni, no veggies, or anything else from the plant kingdom. In this recipe, the job of the “mac” goes to pork rinds, and they take their new responsibility surprisingly well.

This recipe is the carnivore version of my famous Quick and Easy 5-Ingredient Cauli ’n’ Cheese, one of those old recipes that has remained popular for a good reason. That 12-year-old recipe of mine replaces macaroni with cauliflower and covers it with a rich Cheddar sauce. For this version, I sent the cauliflower on vacation and put the pork rinds to work.

Of course, dry pork rinds straight from the bag would be far too crunchy for the task. Soaking them in warm bone broth for a couple of minutes softens them slightly and gives them a tender, pleasantly chewy texture before they meet the cheese sauce. They don’t impersonate macaroni perfectly — which, in this case, is only a positive thing.

The sauce stays wonderfully simple as well as heavenly smooth and velvety: heavy cream, an egg, and plenty of shredded Cheddar. The pork rinds, broth, and cheese already contain salt, so there is usually no need to add any. Five ingredients go in, and a very rich, cheesy carnivore meal comes out. Not bad for a saucepan and a few minutes of stirring.

There is just one important rule: eat it right away. The pork rinds continue soaking up the sauce as the dish sits and will eventually become soggy. Fortunately, a bowl of hot pork rinds smothered in a scrumptious Cheddar sauce rarely has to wait long for volunteers.
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3-Ingredient Keto Taco and Cheddar Pulled Chicken Stew

August 30, 2026 By elviira Leave a Comment

Some dinners demand chopping, sautéing, layering, garnishing, and washing every pan you own. This isn’t one of them.

This recipe comes from my Finnish keto book, Koko perheen järkevä ruokavalio (A Sensible Diet for the Whole Family), where it goes by the name Kolmen ainesosan nyhtökana-tacopata. That translates roughly to “3-Ingredient Pulled Chicken Taco Stew” — although I added Cheddar to the English title because cheese deserves proper credit for its work.

The recipe really does need only three ingredients: chicken thighs, taco sauce, and Cheddar. Put the chicken and sauce in a saucepan, let them simmer until the chicken surrenders, then stir in the cheese. Congratulations: you have cooked dinner while doing almost nothing.

The result is tender, cheesy, pleasantly spicy, and wonderfully filling. Eat it straight from a bowl, pile it onto your favorite keto accompaniments, or stand by the stove sampling it repeatedly for “quality control.” I recommend a spoon for that last option.
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Ketovore Pumpkin Spice Oven Pancake — Finnish Style

August 23, 2026 By elviira Leave a Comment

This Ketovore Pumpkin Spice Oven Pancake is soft, fluffy, and pleasantly rich, with warm autumn spices in every bite. It is baked on a sheet pan, cut into generous slices, and served with plenty of butter or whipped cream. In other words, it is Finnish pannukakku dressed for autumn, but without the flour, milk, or sugar of the traditional version.

The recipe combines ideas from my Carnivore Finnish Oven Pancake and Carnivore Cake Roll. Whipped egg whites make the pancake light and airy, while cream cheese and egg yolks give it richness. A little gelatin helps the pancake hold together and keeps the texture pleasantly sturdy rather than fragile.

And then there is the pumpkin pie spice, my all-time favorite seasoning. Pumpkin pie spice is not really a thing here in Finland, but I fell in love with it as soon as I was introduced to it over a decade ago — and I even have my own recipe here. Since then, I have used it whenever I have had even the slightest excuse. I love it so much that I created my own organic blend, which I sell in my Finnish clean keto online store, Ellin keittiö.

This pancake is one more excellent excuse to use it. The spice turns a simple egg and cream cheese batter into a cozy autumn treat, while powdered erythritol adds just enough sweetness. Serve the pancake warm, add an ample amount of butter or whipped cream, and enjoy.
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Carnivore Fluffy Baked Eggs aka “Egg Mountain”

August 16, 2026 By elviira Leave a Comment

While digging through my mom’s old cookbook from 1966 — the same one that sent me down the homemade cheese rabbit hole last week — I found a recipe with the wonderfully dramatic name Munavuori. In English: “Egg Mountain.”

Naturally, I had to make it immediately. Any recipe confident enough to call itself a mountain deserves that much.

It turns out to be a gloriously simple thing. You whip the egg whites into stiff peaks, fold in a spoonful of sour cream, pile the whole cloud into a baking dish, and nestle the whole yolks into little hollows on top. Fifteen minutes in the oven and you get something that looks far more impressive than the effort it required. The whites bake up soft and airy, the yolks stay rich and just-set, and the entire dish is naturally carnivore without anyone having to modify a single thing.

That last part still amuses me. A Finnish home cook in 1966 wasn’t thinking about carnivore diets — she was just making breakfast with what she had. Sometimes the old recipes get there on their own.

I made a couple of small adjustments to the original, which called for eight eggs and one to two tablespoons of “thick cream.” I’m still not entirely sure what thick cream meant in 1966, so I went with full-fat sour cream and scaled down to six eggs. Worked beautifully. I’ve included a photo of the original page below, in case you’d like to see where this all started.
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Traditional Homemade Finnish Cheese “Munajuusto”

August 9, 2026 By elviira 4 Comments

When people think of Finnish food, cheese usually isn’t the first thing that comes to mind — we’re usually far more famous for our saunas, rye bread, and endless cups of coffee. But Finland actually has a surprisingly long and rich history of making cheeses at home, well before grocery store dairy aisles were a thing.

Among all of our traditional recipes, munajuusto — literally “egg cheese”— is almost certainly the most popular homemade cheese in the entire country. If you ask a local, they’ll tell you it belongs to the Häme region in southern Finland, where it’s practically a point of regional pride. But in reality, you’ll find versions of this mild, golden cheese served on holiday tables and family gatherings from one end of Finland to the other.

The magic of munajuusto is that you don’t need any special equipment or hard-to-find cultures to make it. You just need milk, eggs, buttermilk, and a little patience while physics does the heavy lifting. The result is a soft, sliceable cheese with a gentle, slightly tangy flavor that tastes incredible fresh — or baked in the oven until the top gets those lovely browned spots.

As usual, I’ve put together some tips for variations at the end of the post if you want to experiment with different flavors or herbs. But let’s start with the classic recipe first!
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Instant Sugar-Free Lebanese Iced “White Coffee”

August 2, 2026 By elviira 4 Comments

The first time I heard about Lebanese white coffee from my dear Canadian reader, Gladys, I assumed it was coffee with a lot of milk. Wrong on both counts — there’s no milk in it, and there’s no coffee either. It’s hot water with a splash of orange blossom water, sometimes sweetened with sugar or honey, and it’s what Lebanese families traditionally sip after a big meal. Caffeine-free, floral in the loveliest way, and basically the most elegant glass of water you’ll ever drink.

The concept charmed me immediately, but the traditional version wasn’t going to work in my kitchen. Sugar and honey have been off my menu for about two decades, and honestly, I wanted something cold — the kind of thing you reach for when it’s warm outside and plain water feels a bit boring.

So, I built my own version, and it turned out even easier than the original. The traditional method involves boiling water and stirring until the sugar dissolves, which means you’re then waiting around for your drink to cool if you wanted it refreshing. Mine skips all of that. Ice-cold water, a few teaspoons of orange blossom water, a squeeze of liquid stevia, one quick stir, and it’s ready. No heating, no dissolving, no waiting, no sugar.

It takes about thirty seconds and tastes like something you’d be handed on a shady terrace somewhere near the Mediterranean. Three ingredients, one glass, and suddenly your afternoon feels a little more special.
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Keto Lemonade Magic Shell

July 26, 2026 By elviira Leave a Comment

If someone had told me a few years ago that I’d be pouring melted cocoa butter over ice cream and calling it “magic,” I probably would have raised an eyebrow. Turns out, that eyebrow should have stayed down, because this stuff is genuinely delicious.

The idea started with a craving for something bright, summery, and keto-friendly to go on top of my homemade carnivore ice cream. Sugar-free white chocolate and lemon kept popping into my head — a match made in dessert heaven, if you ask me.

But here’s the thing about keto white chocolate: it’s a bit of a unicorn. Good luck finding it in stores, and even if you do, one glance at the ingredient list usually sends you running (mystery fillers, questionable sweeteners, you name it). On top of that, most white chocolate is loaded with milk solids, which means the carb count creeps up faster than you’d like. Not exactly ideal.

So I thought — why not build my own? Cocoa butter is basically the soul of white chocolate anyway, and once you skip the milk and add a splash of lemon, you’re in completely new territory. A few kitchen experiments later, this Keto Lemonade Magic Shell was born: dairy-free, low-carb, and just as tangy-sweet as a cold glass of lemonade on a warm afternoon.

It pours like a dream, hardens in seconds, and cracks open with that fun little snap that makes any dessert feel a bit fancier. Four ingredients, one bowl, one microwave — and suddenly your plain scoop of ice cream is dressed up like it’s going somewhere special — to your mouth, that is.
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