Perfect Keto kitchen – Hygiene means health in Greek

Perfect Keto kitchen, does this exist? I mean perfectly clean at any time of the day, right?. Except if you suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder and all day long you clean right after you prepare meals. However, not having your kitchen in order could be dangerous. From infections to food poisoning and sudden accidents. If you leave a knife on a wrong place, you or someone else could get seriously injured.  And then we have splashes of greasy broth on your freshly painted kitchen wall or brand new tablecloth. Let’s be honest, even preparing a cup of tea can be messy, 😀 sometimes. But in particular, on Keto, we use much more fatty ingredients and all our delicious sauces, stews, soups, roasts or even salads leave a greasy mess all over the place.

Who were Asclepius and Hygiea?

Asclepius was the ancient Greek god of healing arts and son of Apollo. He had numerous sanctuaries across Greece; the most famous is located in Epidaurus. The legend says he had four daughters: Hygeia, Aceso, Aglaea, Panacea. You can guess which one became the most popular! Hygea, of course, became the symbol of nursing and caring for the patients. Her name in Greek literally means health! When you greet someone in Greek, and you say “Geia sou”, you are actually wishing them good health, and mentioning Hygeas name!

Making everything at home

Here at Greek Goes Keto, we are promoting the cleanest Keto approach to dieting! This means making everything from scratch, at home. This also means many more hours in the kitchen. Now, some of Ketonians cook only once per week and then they prepare all their meals in advance. However, there are those of us who cook and bake almost every day! For this reason, I decided to write a small guide for all the Ketonians who want to organise their kitchen time and space better. I will also cover the economic part of the story, because spending electricity, water and using cleaning products can be quite expensive. Since the ancient Greeks said that hygiene is half of health, let’s give it a bit more attention.

Your kitchen is a sanctuary

Our home and environment have a great influence on our health. The influence of geographic, seasonal, climate and environmental circumstances can vary, but home hygiene is vital. Imagine now, the place where you prepare all your meals. It should be the cleanest of them all! But it can get tiring and exhausting. Especially if you work and have children.

However, organising our day, planning things and changing some bad habits can give us a totally new perspective. Even more, it can inspire us to be creative in the kitchen! When the workspace is clean, all we want is bake, cook and experiment. This is why it’s good to find the time to clean, preferably, right after we finish cooking. It’s not only about poisoning, (which is extremely dangerous if you don’t clean all your kitchen surfaces properly) but washing your dishes immediately after cooking or after eating is the best habit you can develop. It also works as a disciplined practice. Nothing is more important than your family health!

Organising the things in the refrigerator

I’ve seen many nice and neat kitchens, but when the fridge was opened – a monster would appear! 😮 It’s extremely important to keep it clean and have some cosmos instead of chaos. There are parts of the refrigerator which vary in temperature and it’s crucial to know which are those. Every fridge is different, but you’ll get to know its darkest secrets. If you feel that vegetables are getting spoiled too soon, chances are the temperature is not low enough in that part. On the other side, if your refrigerator comes with a freezer, in many cases it might freeze some food in the part which is right next to the freezer. This is the ideal spot for meat that you want to keep for tomorrow.

It would be ideal to keep all the food in containers made of glass, ceramic or wood. However, those tend to be expensive. You can always utilise your plates and ceramic bowls and improvise by using flat plates as lids. Furthermore, always have a small container full of baking soda somewhere in the refrigerator. It can work miracles when it comes to odour removal. Additionally, at least once per week clean your fridge with a solution of vinegar, baking soda and warm water. Cheap but extremely efficient.

The horror in the sink

I know that many modern households in the USA have the waste disposal unit which is convenient. However, this is not a standard in Europe or other countries. The best thing you can do here is get rid of all the food remains from plates before placing them in the sink. If you will be washing them in a dishwasher, on Keto, you have to rinse your plates with hot or warm water first. No matter how good is your dishwasher, or how powerful is the tablet, keto cooking can leave stains and give you troubles in maintaining your favourite dishes and pots. Here’s another tip, if you have been roasting fatty meat in a baking pan, use 1 cup of vinegar and some hot water and leave it for an hour in the oven. You don’t have to have your oven turned on, the heat remained from your baking will be sufficient. After that, washing both with hands and in the dishwasher will be much more efficient!

Purchasing the right products

Whenever I can, I am using natural products for cleaning. If I have to scratch something, salt and lemon juice are my friends. For maintaining the sink, a combination of vinegar and baking soda is always handy. But, we cannot rely on those all the time. Naturally, as we are on Keto, we are searching for better detergents and kitchen cleaning products.

But let’s ask ourselves, do we always have our health in mind?

When it comes to contemporary industry, detergents are the worst thing that contributes to Earth pollution and environmental issues. How can a good Ketonian choose here? Naturally, there are those ammoniac free and other toxins free products. If you can find a product that’s Eco-friendly, yet cleans and sanitises your kitchen properly, you are lucky! We need to read the labels here with the same attention as we do with our food. The best products are chemical-free, free of synthetic ingredients, and don’t contain detergent, preservatives, or foaming agents. Now, not each of them can help with Keto kitchen cleaning. This is why you can just reduce the amount of top-quality detergent you usually use and make a lot of change here! Simply dilute it with warm water, add some citric acid and it will work miracles.

Air freshener with herbs and spices

Do you know how much we love spices and herbs? They go everywhere. When we use herbs, the leftovers often end up in a small jar where I collect them and then just boil them with water. When this infusion cools down, I strain it, add a tablespoon of citric acid to make my perfect cleaning and refreshing solution. Sometimes I also add Tsipouro if I really want to sanitise the surfaces. (You can spray this on all surfaces including the kitchen floor. Pet-friendly, baby-friendly and totally safe! My secret combination includes lavender, peppermint and lemon zest. Now, the citric acid will give it antimicrobial properties and it will also degrease the dirty surfaces. The aroma is incomparable! You can, of course, add some essential oils.

Economy, a Greek word that respects the home

Economy comes from ancient Greek words οίκος – “household” and νέμoμαι – “manage”. This only means that everything can and should be seen through the home perspective. As you want your home clean and healthy, the same thing you want for your planet. Since making everything at home includes much more electricity consumption, the best tip I can give you here is to invest in top quality kitchen equipment. This doesn’t have to be at once, but over time, A+++ class kitchen appliance will make a huge difference in your electricity bill and efficiency.

The more pluses you have, the less you spend. It’s convenient and they usually work much better! Small devices, such as bread maker or ice-cream makers really worth their money. In many countries, there are Electricity “happy-hours. Where we live that’s from 13h till 16h during the day and at night from 23 till early morning… That’s the time to make bone broth, keto bread or some meet roast that requires several hours of baking. That’s also the perfect time to utilise dishwasher, laundry machine or dehydrator.

I couldn’t make it short, Keto kitchen is my life

I wanted to write this article for a long time now. It’s really difficult to have your kitchen clean on Keto. And if you happen to be working, things get even heavier. However, we really have to understand the importance of making everything from scratch at home. The food industry doesn’t give us another option if we want to stay healthy. Think of it this way, would you rather clean your kitchen every day, after a delicious Keto meal with friends or family, or would you visit the doctor’s office, pharmacy and the bloodwork laboratory almost every month? 😉

Life is beautiful when we include some old-fashioned ways of living. Ask any grandmother, she’ll have great tips for maintaining the kitchen and making things easier. Somehow, I believe we have to learn a lot from the ancient tradition, regardless of our cultural background and modern society trends.