Keto at the Texas State Fair🤠🇨🇱

Shared by DeniseM

Can keto be done in the land of everything battered and fried? 🤷‍♀️ The answer is a resounding yes! I had the most beautiful day at the fair, with my son. We were on two separate missions, besides just enjoying the day. My son wanted to try every fried and ooey gooey thing and I wanted to find some good things to eat, but still stay healthy and on track! The other thing to take into account was the cost of all this delectable food! 😳 Oh my heavens the cost of EVERYTHING was a little mind-blowing! 🤯 I’ll give you the prices on some of the things, just an admission ticket at the gate is $24, but plan and you can get online discounts and I think there are days when 5 cans of food plus $5 will get you into the fair. Parking was $20! 😱

It was a beautiful fall day, so nice and cool and crisp in the morning. This was also Texas/OU weekend. Electricity was in the air! 😃 One of the most intense college football rivalries, where the Oklahoma fans make the trek, across the Red River, and the Texas fans drive up from Austin and meet in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl. So it was a sea of Orange and Red all day, but everyone seemed in very good spirits and behavior, but it can get very rowdy sometimes. 😱

So here is just a small sample of my day at the fair. Do you think I stayed on track? You’ll have to wait and see. 😃

We started out meeting my son’s law firm for a group photo at Big Tex. Big Tex presides over and greets all the fair-goers and is the ultimate icon representing the fair. Big Tex was looking very dapper in his western shirt, hat, jeans, and boots. He seemed to have recovered from going completely up in flames about ten years ago due to an electrical fire! Oh no!😱 He says howdy to everyone in a very booming, but friendly voice.🤠

That’s Christopher standing between Big Tex’s boots in the photo above and here we are with a selfie with the big guy. 😊 Taking a photo with Big Tex is right up there with Texas bluebonnet photos!

We did good and delayed the food palooza. We first checked out the swine barn! Very keto don’t you think? It was early, the swine were still getting their beauty sleep. 🐖

Next onto the horses! We saw all the not-so-famous horses first and then we saw the very famous Budweiser Clydesdales who were signing autographs! 😃 They are so majestic and so beautiful!

Here Christopher is with “Bryce“ THE champion steer of the 2023 Texas State Fair. He was asleep too, I hope he wasn’t dreaming about what his fate was going to be! He set a record and sold for $160,000 at auction!😲

Here’s Bryce’s handsome smiling face! 😊

OK enough with the livestock! It’s on to the fair food! 👍🏼 I’m not going to put you through and talk about all that Christopher chose to eat. Let’s just say there wasn’t a healthy thing in the bunch!😢 BUT there actually were quite a few healthy options for me. There were the usual hamburgers to choose from that you can have bunless or lettuce wrapped. I didn’t try everything, but this is just a low-carb/keto guide of what you can find at the fair and still stay on track. It is possible to find good things to eat and not feel deprived while you are surrounded by every bad carb on the face of the Earth! 😳

I only tried one thing to eat. I did my research beforehand and saw these Pork Rind Nachos and decided that was going to be my fair food of choice. I also wanted to get a sausage on a stick, but somehow didn’t manage it. I also passed by some Pork Belly pizza (more swine! 🐖) and thought I could scrape the toppings off the crust, but $24 bought a very small pizza! The pork rind nachos were good. They got a bit soggy, so if you go possibly ask for the taco meat, fajita meat, queso, and toppings on one side and the pork rinds on the other side and just dip them in everything.

There were some great BBQ things to try, brisket and different sausages. Steak and chicken kabobs, steak bowls, gyro meat (although that sometimes has filler), sausage on a stick, meat and cheese platter at the Wine Garden, quail breast, grilled chicken salads in the Tower building, and you can get great turkey legs very easily all over the fair! 🦃

A few different flavors of sausage on a stick.

When I passed this sign, it caught my eye because it said Charcuterie Board! I thought Oooo that sounds good and would be a great keto option, then I looked closer and it was deep fried! Ha! I don’t think there is anything that can’t be deep-fried at the Texas State Fair! 😂

I thought this Big Tex cup was cute. I don’t know about $10 worth of cute or not. Christopher bought it, but there are Refill Stations along the way and you can get it refilled for $4! I first thought the refill stations were free (there was no one standing by them), and thought “Isn’t that so nice and thoughtful!” Wrong!😄 How in the world could I EVER have thought that?🤷‍♀️

Keeping keto firmly in mind, we checked out the huge butter sculpture that is always at the fair. I remember seeing this every year and just trying to imagine how difficult it must be to sculpt butter! Probably very cold too! This sculpture is 1200 pounds of butter! 🥶

We also went to a magic show. Magician Scott, and his assistant Anna, did a great job. I wasn’t that impressed with all the other shows offered during the day though. Oh, we did go to the pig races, which is very funny, and saw all of the bright shiny new cars. But there is a rodeo in the evening that I would have liked to have gone to, music concerts, and a light show parade at night.

We checked out all the shopping buildings too! I didn’t buy anything though. I’m all good on Ginsu knives and Vita-Mix blenders. If only they had a Dash Mini Waffle Maker booth, that would have gotten me. 🧇😃

I think that’s about it. Everyone was very friendly and fun to talk to. The fair had just started. The fair workers weren’t testy yet! Ha! 😃

These are some parting shots of this beautiful day at our country’s largest state fair.🤠🇨🇱

A very nice dumpster shot!😃 (I was going for the umbrellas!)

Dinosaurs in the lagoon. You can rent a swan paddle boat and take a ride around too. 🦖🦢

The Fun House! 🤡

Scary Haunted House!☠️👻

Lots and lots and lots of food! Very expensive food! 😱 Everything is paid for with a ticket system. The last time I went to the fair, tickets were 50 cents, now they are a dollar! I think the tickets just make people not realize they just paid $25 for a hamburger! The tickets are tickets and not real! Ha! 💵

And to my precious son, Christopher, who took a day off to spend this time at the fair with me. I love you so much and it was the most fun I have had in a long time! 🩷

Wishing you good health and happiness and I hope you can make it to the fair and know you can stay on track, but still have a great time! 🩷

Denise