Frugalade F2, A Keto Electrolyte Sports Drink

The summer of 2018 is fast approaching, and it is hard to believe that I first posted this recipe six years ago and I still use it on a regular basis. Since I originally posted this recipe, many things have changed in my life including the fact that I have been on a ketogenic diet now for almost two years so it was time to update this article once again. Summer is rapidly approaching and many of you who are on a low-carb, ketogenic or paleo diet will be out in the heat working, playing, sweating and consuming commercial low-carb sports drinks like Gatorade G2 © and Powerade Zero ©. There is however a better alternative to these high priced commercial sports drinks. Don't misunderstand me, I am not advocating that you stop using electrolyte replacement drinks, rather I am in favor of reducing their impact on both your waistline and your wallet.

Depending on where you live, low calorie sports drinks such as Gatorade G2 © and Powerade Zero © can cost anywhere from $1.00 - $2.00 for a 20 ounce bottle. What would you say if I told you that you could make one gallon of your own electrolyte replacement drink for less than 30 cents? And that this sports drink contains almost the exact same electrolytes as it's commercial counterparts? That's an amazing 5 to 8 cents per 20 ounce serving or a 95% savings over commercially made electrolyte replacement drinks! Impossible, you say, not at all. So let's get started!

Frugalade F2 (Zero Calorie)

4 quarts of water (128 ounces)

2 packages store brand or Kool-Aid powdered fruit punch

½ teaspoon liquid sucralose (sweetness equivalent to 1 cup sugar)

¾ teaspoon Morton kosher salt (1440mg sodium)

1/4 teaspoon Morton Lite salt (290mg sodium, 350mg potassium)

Total Recipe

Calories – 0, 0 grams fat, 0 grams protein, 0 grams carbohydrates

Electrolytes: sodium 1440mg, potassium 350mg

Per Serving (20 ounces)

Calories – 0, 0 grams fat, 0 grams protein, 0 grams carbohydrates

Electrolytes: sodium 270mg, potassium 55mg

Heat a pint of water (2 cups) in the microwave, in your 'hot shot' or in a small pan on the stove just until it boils, then add the salts and remove the pan from the heat. Stir until the salt is completely dissolved. Add the powdered fruit punch or your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid to your one gallon water pitcher then pour in the water with the dissolved salts and then top off your container with water to make one gallon and refrigerate. Once cold, use it as you would any sports drink.

Chef's Note: I pour all of my dry ingredients into a 1 gallon Gatorade container, I use a small Sunbeam 'hot shot' hot water dispenser to heat up 2 cups of water then add the hot water to the gallon container, swirl it all around until it is mixed, then top it off with tap water, put the lid on it and throw it in the fridge. Takes me less than 5 minutes to make.

The Comparison

So lets look at how our homemade Frugalade F2, stacks up against the competition when it comes to actual electrolyte replacement.

Frugalade F2 (20 ounces)

Calories – 0, 0 grams fat, 0 grams protein, 0 grams carbohydrates

Electrolytes: sodium 270mg, potassium 55mg

Gatorade G2 © (20 ounces)

Calories – 0, 0 grams fat, 0 grams protein, 0 grams carbohydrates

Electrolytes: sodium 270mg, potassium 75mg

Powerade Zero © (20 ounces)

Calories – 0, 0 grams fat, 0 grams protein, 1 grams carbohydrates

Electrolytes: sodium 250mg, potassium 57mg

As you can see, all of these electrolyte drinks are zero calorie or have less than 1 calorie per 20 ounces. The Frugalade F2 Formula has the same amount of sodium as the Gatorade G2 ©, and has 20mg more sodium than the Powerade Zero © per 20 ounces. As for the potassium, the Fruglade F2 has 20mg less potassium than the Gatorade G2 ©, but only 2mg potassium less than the Powerade Zero ©. So when it comes to electrolyte replacement, the Frugalade F2 is comparable in every way to commercial electrolyte replacement sports drink, with the exception of the impact it has on your wallet.

It only costs you 29 cents to make one gallon or six 20 ounce servings of Frugalade F2 which is about $0.05 per 20 ounce fluid oz serving. A one gallon bottle of Gatorade G2 © for example, is about $5.00 at my local supermarket, BTW that's 17 times more expensive than homemade.

Conclusion

Six years later, I still use and enjoy my Frugalade F2 Formula. I have even streamlined the making process and have changed the instructions to include those changes. I have abandoned the ½ gallon recipe and make my frugalade in one gallon batches as I obtained a couple of old 1 gallon Gatorade container's from my mother-in-law. However, If you want to see the original ½ gallon recipe check out my original article 'Make Your Own Sports Drink' on my blog.

As for the taste, side by side I could not taste any difference between the two. I am not saying that Frugalade F2 is delicious, simply that it tastes just like Gatorade G2 © and that was my primary goal. If you want a wider variety of flavors, you may need to use Koolaid © brand of drink mixes. My local supermarket only has three flavors in the store brand: fruit punch, grape, and lemonade. This will increase the cost a little, as Koolaid © in my area sells for about 25 cents as opposed to the store brand of 12 cents per package.

If you have read any of my keto articles then you know we use a liquid form of sucralose to sweeten all of our recipes, and nothing has changed with this recipe. You can however, make your own Gatorade G2 © clone, by using Splenda, or any other keto friendly sweetener that you prefer. So what if you are new to keto and you do not have liquid sucralose or one of those other keto sweeteners? Well, you can make your own Gatorade G2 © clone, by using Splenda, or any other keto friendly sweetener. Before we started using liquid sucralose, we used the Walmart version of Splenda labeled as 'Great Value No Calorie Sweetener'. If you use Splenda, the amount of sweetener used will vary per your personal preference, but for one gallon recipe I would suggest ¾ to 1 cup of Splenda.

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Keto Blackberry Vinaigrette

 Salads are a staple in my keto eating plan. And they are a great portable food for you to take to work so that you can get the necessary vitamins and minerals you need from green leafy vegetables. Yes, the veggies may contain a few carbs, but this is where the majority of your carbs should come from anyway. The problem for most keto eaters is not the salad, rather it is the dressing. While there are many commercial salad dressing that only contain 2 – 4 carbohydrates per tablespoon, these extra carbs can add up really fast. One of the best types of salad dressings are oil and vinegar dressings known as vinaigrette’s. Generally, vinaigrette’s contain little or no carbohydrates, and the have the added benefit of being high in healthy fats which makes you feel sated thereby making you feel fuller and less hungry. Having said that, even commercially prepared vinaigrette dressings are less desirable than homemade, simply because you have no control over the ingredients.

Vinaigrette’s are a combination of oil, vinegar, herbs and spices that are mixed together to form a temporary emulsion. Because the emulsion is temporary, and the oil and vinegar will separate, the easiest solution is to place the vinaigrette in a bottle or container that can be shaken each time before use to mix the oil and vinegar together again.

If you have read any of my other articles, then you know we live on a small farm and grow most of our our own vegetables (whenever possible), blackberries, and raise chickens and rabbits among other things. So when it came to making my own vinaigrette style salad dressing, using blackberries was an obvious choice. Blackberries, raspberries and even blueberries make delicious vinaigrette dressings, and they are really simple to make. This quick, and easy homemade blackberry vinaigrette contains only 0.46 grams per tablespoon, that's 4 to 8 times less carbs than many commercially made salad dressings. So let's get started.

Blackberry Vinaigrette

¼ cup blackberry juice/pulp

¼ cup apple cider vinegar with the Mother

½ cup olive or canola oil

2 drops of liquid sucralose or two teaspoons of sugar substitute (optional)

Total Recipe

Calories – 742, 112 grams fat, 2 grams protein, 7.4 grams carbohydrates

Per Tablespoon

Calories – 46, 7 grams fat, 0.125 grams protein, 0.46 grams carbohydrates

Combine all ingredients together in a wide mouth pint canning jar or small bowel and mix with a wire whisk or use an immersion blender. Taste the dressing for sweetness and adjust to suit your personal needs as blackberries are quite tart. That's it, this dressing is that simple.

Processing Your Own Fruit

Whether you grow your own berries or find them on sale at your local supermarket, making your own puree is quite simple. To make our own blackberry puree simply add 4 – 8 cups fresh blackberries to a small to medium sized pan with about ¼ cup water and bring them to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes or until the fruit is nice and soft. Then take an immersion blender and puree the contents and they are nice and liquified. If you need to add a small amount of additional water do so, it will not hurt the final outcome of the puree.

Once you have processed the berries and you have nice puree, it is now time to strain the berries to remove all of the seeds. Place a fine strainer over a medium sized bowl and in small batches pour the puree into the strainer and press the solids with a spoon to extract all the juice. Continues this process until you have strained all the fruit. What you are left with is an unsweetened blackberry juice that can now be used to make your vinaigrette.

Take the extra juice and pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen remove the blackberry ice cubes and store them in a plastic freezer bag and you are ready to make another batch. BTW, most ice cube trays, or at least the ones we have hold just about two tablespoons of liquid.

Conclusion

As you can see this recipe is easy-peasey! So if you have fresh berries in your garden, or know where they grow wild, or you just happen to find them on sale of your local farmer's market or grocery store, then check out this recipe. Not only id this recipe low carb, it is a good source of healthy fats, and powerful anti-oxidants. The best reason to make it of course is that it tastes great and it has no preservatives As always, if you have found this article informative and enjoyable please share it with your friends on social media. Don't forget to check out of Facebook page CulinaryyoU or add us to your circle on Google+, or check our recipes on Pinterest. 

Keto Jalapeno Poppers

Every party or get together needs a good keto finger food. One of my go too snacks are my keto jalapeno poppers. Now these finger foods are not carbohydrate free (1.25 grams per popper) because jalapenos and cream cheese do have a small amount of carbohydrates, so eat them in moderation. I say eat them in moderation, heck even if you pigged out an ate the whole batch, there is only 17.6 grams of carbohydrates, but I digress.

I keep this recipe fairly basic, but you could add any additional herbs or flavorings to your popper filling, just keep in mind that it may change the amount of carbohydrate slightly. I like to make this recipe ahead of time and place them in a one gallon zip lock freezer bag so that I have them ready whenever the occasion arises.

Just in case you are wondering, the TGI Fridays brand of breaded jalapeno cheese poppers that you find at your local supermarket are about 6.3 grams of carbohydrates. So you could eat almost four of these delicious bacon wrapped poppers for each of the breaded TGI Friday's poppers, and you get the added bonus of healthy fat as opposed to the transfats of the Friday's brand. So let's get to the recipe!

The Filling

14 slices bacon, thin

7 large jalapeno's, de-veined and seeded

4 ounces cream cheese

4 ounces cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

Complete Recipe

Calories – 1353, 107.7 grams of fat, 48.9 grams of protein, 17.6 grams of carbohydrates

Per Popper (½ of a jalapeno)

Calories – 96.6, 7.7 grams of fat, 3.49 grams of protein, 1.25 grams of carbohydrates

Take one 4 ounce package of cream cheese out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. Once the cream cheese is softened, then in a small bowl add the cream cheese, cheddar cheese and minced garlic and stir until it is mixed completely. Even though the cream cheese is softened, the filling is still pretty stiff, don't worry, this is normal. Set the bowl to the side and start on prepping your jalapeno's.

Slice the jalapeno's in half and remove the seeds and most of the veins (this is where the heat is) and set them on your baking sheet. You can leave the stems on if you wish, but I remove them. If the jalapeno's will not sit flat on the baking sheet and you are a little anal retentive, you can slice a thin piece off the bottom of the pepper so it will not roll from side to side, but I do not do this either.

Once all of your jalapenos are ready, then take a spoon or stiff spatula and fill each half with your cream cheese mixture. When all of the jalapeno's are stuffed, take one slice of your thin bacon and completely wrap each jalapeno half. You may or may not need to secure the bacon with tooth picks. Just remember if you do use tooth picks, please let everyone know before they eat the poppers just in case they cannot see them sticking out of the poppers.

To cook, place your poppers on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 – 18 minutes at 425 degrees, or until the peppers are tender and the cheese is brown at the edges and bubbly. Remove from the over and allow the to cool for a few minutes because melted cheese is like molten lava, and no one deserves a burned mouth!


Conclusion

So there you have it guys, my quick and easy jalapeno pepper recipe. I hope you and your family enjoy them as much as mine do. Even my wife who loathes any food that has any heat loves these. Why? Because all of the heat in the pepper is contained in the seeds and the veins of the fruit. By eliminating both of these you get the mild flavor of the pepper with the cream and cheddar cheese and bacon. And let's face it, everything cooked with bacon is better right? So give these keto poppers a try, I sure that you and your family will lover them as much as mine does. As always, if you have found this article informative and enjoyable please share it with your friends on social media. Don't forget to check out of Facebook page CulinaryyoU or add us to your circle on Google+, or check our recipes on Pinterest.