Hey there, Figuring It Out readers! My name is Helen, and I’m friends with Amy, Chuck, and Gabriel. I’m also a blogger and photographer, so when Amy texted me one evening in January, and asked if I would bring my camera to her house to photograph some Keto Cooking and then guest blog about it, I was more than willing!

One morning, last fall, a group of us were chatting about Amy (yes, Amy – we talk about you!) while waiting for our mom’s group meeting to start. We were discussing the enormous amount of work Amy does to cook meals and snacks for Gabriel, and wondering aloud how we could help her more. Half joking, we talked about setting up an assembly line some time, to help her knock out a bunch of meals all at once. Right away we thought “hey, that’s actually a pretty good idea!”, so plans were made and Keto Cooking Nights were started.

Once a month, 4-6 friends will gather in Amy’s kitchen, and under her guidance, prep and cook as much food for Gabriel as possible. It’s a fascinating experience, that a lot of the Type-A, perfectionists especially seem to enjoy.

Foods all have to be carefully measured, weighed (down to the gram!), and cooked.

Ingredients are divided into small cups, in preparation for the actual recipe assembly. The mass quantities of cups of ingredients, reminded us all of what you see on cooking shows!

Some of the food combos look a little, uh, interesting to start. These pizzas come to mind… Low and behold, they look like mini pizzas by the time they come out of the oven!

While we’ve all admired Amy and her strength from afar, it was even more awe inspiring to be in her kitchen with her, to watch her handle a small seizure while we were there, and to watch her give Gabriel a dose of his medicines and various supplements. She handles everything with such beautiful grace and calmness; she definitely inspires us all!

If you’re reading this because you have a child on a diet like this, and people ask how they can help you, tell them a Keto Cooking Night would be helpful! And if you know someone who is living this, offer a Keto Cooking Night to them. Friends always make things more fun!

These 4 amazing women took time away from their families to help me making brownies and pizzas for G 🙂 They came just in time too because after several weeks of minimal seizures, G has had 10 in less then 24 hours. It is such a relief to know I have enough food to feed him for a few days if I don’t have time to cook.

I wish I had remember to get the camera out earlier to take pictures of all the food they helped me make.  I am holding the remaining pre measured ingredients and they are each holding on of our precious 0.1 gram scales 🙂

I had throw away 3 scales last week because they quit working. W hen I ordered new ones I tried several different kinds. (Another little science experiment…which scale will last the longest!)

I was so excited when my friend emailed and said she would like to organize a cooking night.  Then the stress of trying to figure out keto cooking with a group set in. I’ve been able to teach several people one on one but this was the first time I would be teaching a group. I didn’t want to make anyone feel stressed out but I wanted to be sure to teach well, so we would have as few mistakes as possible.  One of the most annoying things to me about keto cooking is that if you make a mistake, you have to throw it out and start over.

I premade a big batch of brownies. Then taught the ladies how to prepare each portion. Weigh 17 grams brownie, then add 2.5 grams coconut oil, microwave for 10 seconds, let cool and package for fridge.

Chuck helped me measure out most of ingredients to make 20 pizzas.  Then the ladies and I assembled them. While one group created crusts, another group worked on dishes, so we could get the next round of crusts going.

By the end of the evening we had 17 pizzas ( I didn’t want to take the time to whip more egg whites and do more dishes to hit 20), 15 (I think) brownies and tons of premeasured macadamia nuts, parmesan cheese and chocolate for me to use in future cooking.  Aside from helping with the food, these ladies brought grown up snacks and drinks, paper goods, and great joy to my soul!

Gabriel was fascinated with the whole shebang. He wanted to be with us so badly…he would run in from the living room where he was playing with grandma,about every 20 minutes.  He would kind of watch and look around at all of us…have me hold him then leave.  So cute 🙂  I am going to think about ways he could “help” in the future.

Here he is getting ready to eat one of the pizza’s we made that night. 🙂

Before would take a bite, he pushed the plate over and said “take a picture of the pizza” 🙂 HA! I cracked up….he is so used to me snapping pictures of every new food he tries, he waited to eat his favorite because he thought I would want a shot of just the pizza.

Then he chowed down.