When food becomes a focal point of a holiday, it can become a challenge for parents with children on the ketogenic diet. The springtime holidays of Passover and Easter are no different. Although the modified Atkins diet is gaining in popularity and even working as a companion to the ketogenic diet, dietary restrictions remain for many people with epilepsy, making a holiday feast that all can partake of and enjoy a challenge.
Passover is sometimes called the "Feast of the Unleavened Bread." During Passover, the characteristic flat, unleavened "bread" known as matzah is eaten as a reminder that the Israelites ate "hurriedly-baked bread" when hastily preparing to depart from Egypt.
Easter is celebrated by Christians in commemoration of the Resurrection and is welcomed as a time of rebirth. Many Easter meals consist of specially baked breads and pies, often featuring eggs in particular. Spring lamb is another well known offering of an Easter feast.
Preparing family-style meals when trying to keep to the strict guidelines of the ketogenic diet can make the already daunting task of holiday cooking even more challenging. Can delicious meals, so looked forward to during holiday times, be prepared within the guidelines of the ketogenic diet that all those gathered at the table can enjoy?
Beth Zupec-Kania, RD, CD, with The Charlie Foundation, once again speaks with us about the diet and her kitchen-tested recipes. We encourage you to try Beth's tempting recipes, which are included at the end of the article.
Beth reminds us that for a person with epilepsy on the ketogenic diet, it is critical that all foods be carefully prepared and weighed on a gram scale. Children on the diet need everything measured out precisely. The diet must be managed and adjusted for each individual patient. Carbohydrate-rich foods such as bread, pasta, rice, crackers, candy and sweets are eliminated from the diet because these foods can upset the metabolic balance that the diet creates. Consistency is very important, and recipes used must fulfill the needs of the specific child.
For nearly 15 years, Beth has been helping patients and their families learn to prepare the precise meals and recipes that make the diet work. When she first began, she would prepare recipes on her own and then ask others to test the recipe. Some recipes, such as soups, breads without flour, and cheesecake, are more work intensive than others and require more tinkering. A lot of work and careful planning is involved to bring a seemingly tasty idea to a well thought out recipe that any cook might follow yielding consistent results.
Over the years, Beth has assembled a group of parents (currently six families) who work in a test kitchen trying recipes. Recipes are prepared, tasted, adjusted, and sent back to the drawing board, all in an effort to produce something edible and good that still conforms to the restrictions of the ketogenic diet. Some of the recipes they work on were popular in the past, and have gotten a new spin - such as her coconut cookies. Beth listens for feedback about recipes. What was a winner with the kids? Would you make it again? If not, what is the issue? What needs to be changed? Will the child eat it again a second time? Sometimes, substitutions can be made to accommodate a particular family's tastes, as with the lasagna recipe that Beth offers below - the eggplant may be omitted and replaced by another vegetable.
For those of you sitting down to a Passover or Easter table, we hope that the recipes that Beth offers below will please everyone at your holiday celebration.
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Serves 6 - Approximately 9 grams of carbohydrate per serving. This delicious combination tastes like noodles.
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Serves 6 - Approximately 12 grams of carbohydrate per serving.
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Yield - 24 cookies. Approximately 3 grams carbohydrate per cookie.
Enjoy! Enjoy!