Welcome to Healthy Recipes Blog! I'm Vered DeLeeuw. I started a low-carb, whole-food diet in 2011. I've been creating, cooking, and eating real food, low-carb recipes for over a decade.
To me, this is not a temporary diet that you can't wait to get off of. It's my way of life, and it's made sustainable and pleasurable by cooking delicious and easy recipes so that I never ever feel deprived or feel the need to "cheat."
My Education
I was an attorney. I earned an LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree from Tel Aviv University. But I quickly realized that my passion was food and nutrition rather than the law.
In recent years, I completed a 6-month program and earned a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from Cornell University.
I also completed the "Evidence-based Optimal Nutrition: The Quest for Proof" course and received a Certificate of Completion from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Media Mentions of My Work
My work has been mentioned in several major media outlets, including:
- Go Banking Rates, Eight Best Trader Joe's Buys
- Country Living, 40 Best Green Bean Casseroles
- WikiHow, How to Cook Turkey Drumsticks
- Healthline, Low-Carb Bread Recipes
- Shape, Keto Dinner Ideas
- Martha Stewart Living, Rules for Making a Casserole
- Everyday Health, Seafood Recipes to Make at Home
- Parade, Thanksgiving Leftovers
Learning From My Grandmothers
My name reflects the two very different cultures I come from. "Vered" (pronounced veh-red, emphasis on the first syllable) means "Rose" in Hebrew. "DeLeeuw" (pronounced deh-ley-ooh, emphasis on the middle syllable) means "The Lion" in Dutch. Growing up in Jerusalem and frequently visiting Holland, I was greatly influenced by my two very different grandmothers.
Grandma Chava ("Eve" in Hebrew) cooked authentic Israeli and Jewish dishes. Her food was well-seasoned and flavorful. Dishes like these spicy meatballs are inspired by her amazing style of cooking.
Grandma Miep (her name is the Dutch equivalent of "Mary") was a dignified, coiffed, and dainty European lady. Her cooking was a bit bland, but she more than made up for it with her wonderfully buttery baked goods. This keto pound cake recipe is inspired by her baking.
Moving to the United States
I moved to the U.S. with my husband, who works in high-tech, in 1999, at the age of 28 (let me save you the math... I'm 54 years old). We spent two wonderful decades raising two daughters in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The oldest, a Harvard graduate, works as a writing coach. Her sister will start medical school in the fall. She's the one I refer to throughout this blog, especially in older recipes, as "The Picky Eater." She's not so picky anymore! She's grown, expanded her horizons, and has become a foodie just like her parents. ❤️
Memphis, Tennessee
In January 2023, my husband accepted a role as the managing director of the Memphis hub of Alchemist, a Silicon Valley startup accelerator.
We both felt incredibly passionate about advancing high-tech in Memphis, so we packed up and moved here. We quickly fell in love with Memphis and its warm, inviting culture. We plan to stay here for the foreseeable future!
Why I Started Eating Low-Carb
I started this blog in 2011 after my husband was instructed by his physician to go on a low-carb diet. I had some issues, too, so I decided to join him.
I had to change my cooking pretty drastically. I focused on proteins (meat, seafood, eggs, and aged cheeses), fats, non-starchy vegetables, and low-sugar fruit, supplemented with the occasional keto dessert. We eliminated starches, grains, white sugar, seed oils, and ultra-processed foods.
This worked amazingly well for us. So, we've been eating a low-carb, whole-food diet for the past 14 years. It became my mission to develop delicious yet easy recipes and tweak old favorites to suit our new lifestyle. This keto birthday cake is a good example. When making it, I recreated my husband's favorite layer cake that his grandma used to make for him.
It's important for my husband and me to eat well. We are both foodies. As far as we're concerned, low-carb eating is not a fad or a passing trend. It's not a temporary diet. For us, it's a way of life that we've been living for the past 14 years and intend to continue. So we need to enjoy it!
Why I Started This Blog
When I started cooking low-carb recipes, I documented them in this blog to keep all my recipes organized. To this day, I still cook almost daily from my blog using my phone.
The blog didn't stay hidden for long. Gradually, I realized that people were finding my recipes and responding to them. I started receiving emails from grateful readers.
I quickly realized that my blog was helping people, showing them that the low-carb diet can work for them just like it worked for my husband and me. So, I taught myself everything I could about blogging to ensure as many people as possible would be able to find my recipes and benefit from them. Over the years, with a lot of hard work, I have turned this blog from a side hobby into my full-time job.
How to Use This Blog
If you'd like to browse for recipes and ideas, head over to the recipe index. You can also head over to the site's homepage. It features all the important recipe categories, and you can start browsing from there.
If you'd like to receive my weekly newsletter, you can subscribe here. It usually includes a featured recipe, and sometimes, I add tips and personal stories.
Here are the legal terms for using this website, and this is our privacy policy. Please read both before using my recipes. They contain important information and disclaimers.
If you need to reach me, please email HealthyRecipesBlog (at) gmail.com. I read all my emails and do my best to respond, although sometimes the volume of emails is so high that I can't respond to all of them. I apologize for that.
Another great way to connect with me is to leave a comment on one of my recipes or follow one of my social media profiles. I am most active on Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Thank you so much for visiting, and bon appétit!