Cooking on the DL

“Who is this girl and why does she need her own website?”

Ya’ll! The name’s Delanie (DL) and I am just your average every day foodie that has never skipped a meal a day in her life. My love for food traces back from the day I was born and has grown deeper over the years BUT my passion for cooking started back in High School, when I decided to quit my club soccer team and my competitive cheer squad (polar opposites- I know). My mom told me that I would need to start watching what I ate because I used to chow down on chili cheese nachos and then go to cheer practice, but now I wouldn’t be as active. I thought she was crazy, I was such a cute and small 16 year-old, jealous much, mom?

With all that new found extra time, I would come home from school and watch the Food Network instead of perform any type of physical activity. I would binge watch 30-Minute Meals with Rachel Ray, Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis, Semi-Home Made Meals with Sandra Lee and on occasion Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten and whatever Paula Dean was cooking. I grew obsessed with all of these women and started cooking their recipes at home and then that’s when I went up a jean size (or two) and all of a sudden I had boobs….. So I guess my mom was right, big surprise there.

I knew that my love for food and cooking wasn’t going to go anywhere, so then I started to tweak the recipes (DL them) and make them healthier for me (less butter than Paula Dean was using) and I would even watch the shows on the treadmill (torture). Extra time meant I could work and I got my first job in a bakery, which was inside of an Italian restaurant and that’s where I learned so many of my little tricks and why cream cheese frosting and lemon bars are the greatest desserts in the world. Those were another source of the extra pounds, obviously!

The years have gone by and I have fluctuated with working out and eating healthy-ish. The only thing that ever helped me lose weight was practically starving myself, doing the old 1,200 calorie diet with low fat, moderate to high protein and even higher carbs, hating my life, still feeling hungry and then falling off the wagon and eating ramen with extra noodles, Pinkberry and a fully-loaded Chipotle burrito all in one day. I even started working out at Orange Theory Fitness 2.5 years ago, where I would go anywhere from 0 to 4 times a week, but then come home and eat what I thought was healthy, as in baked sweet potatoes, chicken or ground turkey and oven roasted broccoli…. but I wasn’t losing weight and the scale was actually at the highest number I have ever seen.

On New Years Eve 2018 (new year, new me girl!). I decided to not drink any alcohol and be the DD for the night because we were going to drive up to Tahoe the very next morning for 5 days. This really made me happy, to have a clear mind and start the new year on a vacation. I enjoyed those days and told myself that I really wanted to stick to something when I got back home, for the year and really for the rest of my life. I did all the research I possibly could on the Ketogenic Diet (“keto”) in these days and I got ready for the first week of my new diet life. I was to eat high fat 65% to 70%, moderate protein at 25% and little to no carbs at 5% of my entire macro-nutrient intake (aka 20 net carbs). I looked up highly followed keto-ers on Instagram and followed them as well as watched YouTube videos and researched keto recipes on Pinterest.

It’s scary at first, thinking – “Really, I have to eat that much fat?” My first keto meal consisted of cheddar cheese and prosciutto. I wasn’t mad, just confused how this was going to help me lose weight. I worked out at Orange Theory like normal that week, feeling a little bit off because I had shocked my body and I had barely eaten any carbs all week. But then I looked at the scale….. I lost 5 pounds that week!! Wow, this is working, I am going to keep at it. I drank a ton of water, added salt to my foods and even added in more calories from fat to make sure I wouldn’t feel “off” working out. This all worked for me.

It’s been almost 9 weeks now and I am down 12 pounds. I track all of my macros on the app MyFitnessPal and I stay within a 400-600 caloric deficit daily. On days I work out I burn up to 2,300 calories (I get to eat more!) and non workout days I burn 1,600 to 1,700, but I will NEVER eat less than 1,200 calories, NEVER. I cook 80% of my meals and eat only keto, with the exception of a few bites of cookies and cream ice cream last weekend. I even went on 3 vacations during this time and stayed as keto as possible (my friends hated that — too bad, your girl is on a mission). That could be the reason why weeks 4 through 6 I weighed the same amount, but I kept going and am going to keep at it until I hit my goal. Once I hit it, I will probably incorporate days where I can eat more carbs, but we can talk about that when I get there.

I have been sharing my journey on Instagram with all of my meals and I have received a lot of questions about my recipes and what I am cooking, so this is why this girl has her own website now. I am going to have all my recipes here for everyone to enjoy. I will post updates as well and anything else I get requests on (fingers crossed that you guys like this). I am also here to answer any questions you have about starting/being keto, grocery shopping, ingredients, meals and recipes, cooking and even working out. This has been a really fun time in my life where I get to be creative, full and healthy and I hope others can feel this way too.

All my recipes have some sort of DL spin to them whether I came up with them completely on my own, if it was a Pinterest recipe and now has a DL twist or if it’s inspired by the Food Network and turned into DL/keto. I am no professional, which is why this is Cooking on the DL (down-low), but these are my EASY and successful recipes that I have made, eaten and enjoyed over the last few weeks. My boyfriend has been lucky enough to enjoy them as well. I will list all the ingredients, how much you need of everything, directions, side notes and even tips and tricks. First few recipes are up, please let me know what you think 🙂

Enjoy!