Joy Bauer Shares Lower-Carb Comfort Food Makeovers on TODAY

Bell pepper pizza: the cleanest keto swap

Joy Bauer’s bell pepper pizza is the rare TV-friendly comfort food trick that actually makes sense for keto with very little drama. Instead of leaning on a flour crust, the recipe uses halved bell peppers as the base, then loads them up with savory toppings, melted cheese, red onion, and cherry tomatoes before baking them until tender. TODAY calls it a “veggie-forward pizza” that delivers all the cheesy goodness in a “naturally lower-carb way,” and that is exactly why it works.

From a keto standpoint, this is the most straightforward win in the whole segment. The crust is the carb problem in pizza, and Bauer simply removes it without stripping away the thing people want most, which is the hot, cheesy, salty payoff. If you want to keep it closer to strict keto, the smart move is to treat the peppers as the frame and go easy on the higher-carb accents like onions and tomatoes, which are fine in moderation but still add up. The comfort-food appeal stays intact because the dish still eats like pizza, not like a sad vegetable plate.

This is also the easiest of the three to turn into lunch without making it feel like diet food. A couple of pepper halves can stand in for a slice-and-sit-down meal, and the baked peppers bring enough structure to feel satisfying on a plate. If you are feeding mixed eaters, this is the kind of recipe that lets everyone stay in the same lane: the carb-conscious eater gets the pepper base, while the rest of the table just sees pizza that happens to be smarter. That is the kind of swap that actually survives real life.

Thai peanut chicken salad lettuce wraps: flexible, but only keto if you keep it in the lettuce

The chopped chicken salad wraps are the middle ground in Bauer’s trio, and they are where the keto reality check matters most. The filling is built from finely chopped chicken and crisp vegetables tossed in a creamy peanut dressing, then served in lettuce cups. TODAY also notes that the same filling can be served on whole-grain bread or rolled into a wrap, which makes the recipe versatile, but that flexibility is exactly where keto readers need to stay alert.

In lettuce cups, this is a strong lower-carb lunch. The crunch, creaminess, and Thai-inspired flavors line up well with what people want from a satisfying midday meal, and the lettuce wrapper keeps the carb load much lower than bread or a standard flour wrap. The catch is the dressing and the veggie mix. Peanut-based sauces can be friendly to low-carb eating, but they can also get sugar-heavy fast, so this is the recipe where portion control and ingredient discipline matter more than the headline swap.

The good news is that the structure already does most of the work for you. If you keep the filling in lettuce and skip the bread option, you are squarely in keto territory, especially for lunch. If you serve it as a salad bowl instead of a wrap, it still holds onto the creamy-crunchy feel without needing to pretend it is something it is not. Bauer’s version is practical because it acknowledges that not every plate has to be locked into one diet identity, but the keto move is obvious: keep the lettuce, respect the dressing, and leave the whole-grain bread for someone else.

Eggs Benedict with yellow pepper hollandaise: brunch-friendly, but the sauce is the real keto move

The eggs Benedict makeover is the most interesting dish in the group because it shows where “lower-carb” and “keto” overlap, and where they start to split apart. Bauer’s recipe page says the hollandaise is made with roasted yellow bell pepper and skips the traditional yolks and butter altogether. TODAY says the sauce is lighter than the traditional version and still gives you the runny-yolk moment people expect from eggs Benedict, served over poached or soft-boiled eggs. Her recipe page also lists it at 2 servings, with 5 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of cook time, which makes it unusually manageable for a brunch dish.

For keto readers, the sauce is the part that genuinely works. Swapping in yellow pepper for the usual butter-and-yolk-heavy hollandaise keeps the brunch feeling alive while leaning on a vegetable-based base instead of a classic rich sauce. That fits the American Diabetes Association’s reminder that healthy eating does not have to be complicated and that “a few simple swaps can make a big difference.” It also lines up with the ADA’s broader note that a low-carb pattern can be built around non-starchy vegetables and lean proteins.

The one catch is that eggs Benedict usually lives or dies by what sits underneath the eggs, and this is where keto readers need to stay sharp. If you build it in a classic Benedict style, the muffin is the carb problem. Bauer’s lighter sauce, on its own, is the useful part for keto and general low-carb eating; the full brunch plate only stays truly keto if you keep the base clean and let the eggs and sauce do the heavy lifting. That is why this recipe works best as a weekend brunch or lunch idea when you want something indulgent-looking without blowing up the rest of the day. Bauer’s segment gets the bigger point right: lower-carb cooking does not have to feel punishing, and the best swaps are the ones that keep the comfort-food mood intact while quietly cutting the starch.