Keto snacks and substitutes and goodies that you can buy
Keeping up with keto can for sure be a struggle when you miss your favorite comfort food like a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After living a ketogenic lifestyle, I learned that you can pretty much buy anything keto, you just have to be willing to spend more. Keto alternatives generally mean replacing sugar with a keto-friendly sweetener such as erythritol, allulose, stevia, or xylitol, and replacing flour with almond flour. Even though these are meant to be keto or for people who are doing a low carbohydrate diet, the reality is that sugar is a terrible toxin that is bad for everyone. I would encourage everyone to use these substitutes when you can because there is absolutely nothing good about sugar for your body. Having said that, a true keto lifestyle would frown on processed foods or anything artificial. So don’t go crazy, and still try to limit your intake on these substitutes.
Ketchup
I bet you were sad when you realized that ketchup was all sugar. There are versions out there that are good in flavor. One of them, from the makers of Heinz themselves, and another by G Hughes which also make keto BBQ sauce and hickory sauce. The thing about both of these is they both are sweetened with sucralose, which still keto but is less favored as a sweetener because they raise insulin levels. Just don’t go crazy when you have some.
Heinz Tomato Ketchup, No Sugar Added
If you’re a huge ketchup fan and also care a lot about ingredients, there is another brand that I haven’t tried that uses the good sweeteners: allulose, monkfruit, and stevia.
Maple syrup
There are a lot of competitors for maple syrup now, and each taste a bit different. I like ChocZero’s Sugar Free Maple Syrup for their thick consistency, but the flavor is just a tad mild. Maple Syrup All-u-lose is my other favorite. The flavor is perfect, but the thickness is a bit watery. So you just have to try both and see which you like.
Pancake mix
My favorite pancake mix is Birch Blenders Keto mix and I like to alternate with their chocolate chip pancake mix depending on my mood. A close second is Lakanto Low Carb Pancake Mix. Between the two, I think Lakanto does a much better job at being fluffy and it rises higher, but they do ask you to add an egg when you mix ingredients together. In terms of flavor they are both the same, but I prefer Birch Blenders because I am lazy and all you need to do is add water.
Nutella
I tried Nutilight No Sugar Hazelnut Spread and ChocZero’s Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup. Both are good; the hazelnut spread mimics the consistency of Nutella and tastes slightly darker than the syrup. Does it taste like Nutella? Pretty close. You can tell it’s a copy. But I’d rather have it than not. Between the two I think the spread better. More recently I got Pyure’s Organic Hazelnut Spread and the flavor is on point. It’s a bit more watery compared to Nutilight and there is just the finest touch of a stevia aftertaste, but I would still recommend it.
Pork rinds
Aight if you’ve never heard of pork rinds before you’re going to be so happy. THIS is your alternative to potato chips. They are basically fried pig skin, which sounds weird, but it tastes great. They have 0 carbs and are mostly fat and protein, so you can just go crazy and eat these forever. You’re welcome. They can be found in most grocery stores, you just gotta look carefully. If you’re looking at Amazon, you can try 4505’s pork rinds that I recommend!
Ice Cream
Thank lord jesus for keto ice cream!!! It took me a long time to find a good keto ice cream. My favorite of them all is Enlightened’s Keto Collection, who has pints of ice cream that totals 1g of carb per serving. Note that they have a regular collection, and a keto collection that is in the same packaging but instead it will say 1g at the front. They have a lot of different flavors like chocolate, fudge peanut butter, mint chocolate chip, the list goes on. I’ve had almost every flavor of Rebel, and I thought it was the best, until I had Enlightened. But nonetheless Rebel is also another great option if you can’t find Enlightened. I tried Vanilla from Killer Creamery and the flavor was good but the texture was too flaky. Don’t do Halo Top because even though it’s low calorie, it’s very high in sugar. Wink is very icy and doesn’t taste that good.
Enlightened Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bars
Enlightened Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Bars
I think the pints have a better flavor
Enlightened Mint Chocolate Chip Pint
Enlightened Chocolate Peanut Butter Pint
Highkey Snacks
Highkey is a company that makes a bunch of keto products. After trying their starting kit which has some of everything, such as cereals, baking mixes, hot cereal, and snack cookies, I can only recommend baking mixes and the snack cookies. The Keto Brownie Mix by HighKey is super simple, you just add water and egg together and bake. They also have Blondie Brownie Mix!
All of the cookies are great. They’re small bite sizes and are flavorful.
HighKey Low Carb Chocolate Chip Cookies
HighKey Low Carb Snickerdoodle Cookies
HighKey Low Carb Chocolate Brownie Cookies
Flax seed crackers
These are a great alternative to chips or when you’re looking for a vessel for dips. They’re also very fibrous and a healthy snack on their own.
Doctor In The Kitchen Flackers Gluten Free
Julian Bakery Primal Thin Crackers
Flackers Toasted Seed Crisps, Black Sesame Seed and Black Pepper
Granola
There is such a thing as keto-friendly granola! I love to have them on top of some waffles or Chobani Plain Yogurt, with some added chia seeds and fresh berries 😄
Below are some of my favorite brands that are all 4g net carbs per serving. I like Ellen Lark for a harder, crunchier texture, and Paleonola for the softer granola.
Ellen Lark Farm Organic Granola
Parmesan Crisps
These are your alternatives to cheez-its basically. The one that I like is from Sonoma Creamery, which you can get on Amazon. There’s a ton of random brands you can find, but it’s basically fried cheddar so the texture is like cheez-its. Eat sparsely, it’s about 1g of carbs per square but each square is pretty satisfying. There are some out there that have 0g carbs.
Strawberry Jam
I’ve tried Smucker’s Sugar Free Strawberry Jam and it’s not bad! It’s not very “keto” since the sweeteners used are ones that increase your insulin levels. However there is one that is even better that they sell at my grocery store. I recommend Nature’s Hollow’s Raspberry Jam. It’s sweetened with xylitol which is very safe and keto-friendly. I’m so happy there is such a thing as keto jam because now I can make myself PB+Js, or top it on my keto cheesecake.
Peanut Butter
So peanut butter is technically already keto (well of course check the nutrition label some brands add sugar), but some are more keto than others. I recommend getting a brand that uses less palm oil, and more actual peanuts in their ingredients list. Laura Scudder’s is a good choice for peanut butter.
Franz 0 Carb Keto Bread
Keto bread has been tough to nail down. I’ve tried to make it myself, and I’ve bought over 10 different brands. They all have the same variance of problems. The taste, smell, texture, size, and density are not quite right. Most of them are bad enough that I just would rather not, and end up not finishing the bag of bread which of course was very expensive. Franz 0 Carb Keto Bread is the best of them all, and hits it in terms of size and taste. Do beware that the ingredients aren’t very friendly, but in terms of nutritional value the fiber cancels out the carbs. It’s not something you can find in stores normally so I’d get it on Amazon. Now that you have your bread, you can make pb+j, or a nice helping of grilled cheese.
Mission Low Carb Tortillas
Jesus these are so good I couldn’t believe I went on so long without knowing about these tortillas. They taste like the real deal, and I’ve used it to make quesadillas. At just 4g net carbs per shell, you can’t even tell the difference in taste or texture. I even bring them to the local taco trucks and ask them to make their stuff with my tortillas. Another trick is you can cut them up into triangles, air fry them, and wala you have keto tortilla chips! They also have a smaller whole wheat taco size that’s only 2g net carbs per.
Mission Foods Carb Balance Tortillas
Mission Foods Carb Balance Whole Wheat Soft Taco
Goslings Diet Ginger Beer
When I partake in drinking activities it’s tough to just swallow vodka by itself. My favorite drink is a Moscow Mule so I really wanted to find a keto ginger beer. I went through several brands and the best tasting one was Goslings Diet Ginger beer. The sweetener here is sucralose which isn’t great for insulin, so I only have it as a treat. Other brands like Zevia had a strong stevia aftertaste and I couldn’t even finish the can.
Chocolate
Normally if you get super dark chocolate it’s low enough carb that it’s not really a problem. There’s a lot of competitors for keto chocolate though since it’s not too hard to make. My favorite actually keto chocolate is called The Good Chocolate, and my favorite flavor is ginger!
Pasta and Tomato Sauce
For pasta I highly recommend Gnooda, from the author of Gnom Gnom keto recipes. The shape is pretty unique and tastes very similar to pasta. The noodle size is also PERFECT for mac and cheese! You cook it the same as regular pasta, you just boil the noodles for a few minutes. Then just top it off with some low carb sauce like Rao’s Homemade Marina Sauce and some cheese, and there you go! Keto pasta!
There’s a lot of alternatives
As the world is recognizing that keto is becoming a lifestyle, I’m seeing more and more companies try to make keto foods. I’m really excited to see what else companies can come out with so that snacks don’t need to be so harmful to our body. If you enjoyed reading and want to try any snacks I mentioned, I’d appreciate if you used the links in this article to make any purchases as a token of thanks. And please, follow me for more on my journey through a ketogenic lifestyle!
