Keto Pound Cakes

OK, sorry, I'm stealing this one from someone else.  It's been a hectic week on the farm, and it'll pretty much stay that way through the rest of the summer, but I will try to keep up with posting recipes as much as possible.  I have not made these yet, but I'm going to as soon as I can - they sound lovely, and would be nice and portable for taking to work.

 

KETO POUND CAKE

 

makes 4 in personal cake tins

3/4c butter softened

4 oz cream cheese softened

12-16 pkts of stevia or aspartame

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond

3 eggs

1 c coconut flour 

1. preheat oven to 325

2. grease your tins

3. mix your butter, cream cheese, sugar sub., vanilla, and almond extract with a hand mixer until creamed together

4. Add one egg at a time alternating egg and flour until both are in the batter. Add flour slowly as it can make the batter thick, use less flour if necessary, if you've already put it all in and it's too thick, add almond milk until cream cheese consistency- this will never be a liquid batter. 

5. Place in tins to top, this will not be a rising batter. 

6. Bake for 45 mins, but check after 30, your top will be golden, a toothpick will come out clean, and on touch, the cake will spring back.

7. Let cool and enjoy, come up with a topping for it, or just add raspberries and whipped cream!

 

Here's the webiste I found this on:  http://thestateofketo.blogspot.com/2012/07/keto-pound-cake.html

Low Carb Chicken Alfredo

I used to make this starting with a basic roux, or white sauce: melted butter mixed with flour, then thinned with milk to make a cream sauce base that can pretty much be flavored however you like.  Well, the flour is pure carbs, so I had to come up with an alternative.

Thankfully, the world has cream cheese.  Cream cheese fixes everything.


Chicken Al-Keto
2 large chicken breasts
1 head of broccoli (or frozen broccoli florets)
1 8oz box of cream cheese
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large saucepan.  Slice the chicken breasts into strips; they cook faster that way.  You can sprinkle a bit of each of the above seasonings on the chicken for extra flavor.  Once they're mostly cooked, remove from the pan to a bowl but leave the drippings in the pan.

Over low heat, melt the cream cheese into the drippings.  Add in the milk slowly until the mixture thickens.  Add in parmesan cheese and seasonings; once the sauce is smoothly combined, stir in the chicken and keep warm over low heat.

In separate pot, steam broccoli, or microwave the frozen florets per package directions.  Serve with the chicken and sauce.

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This is a good one to serve with others who aren't doing keto; all you gotta do is prepare some fettucini on the side and you have a "normal" meal.  Me, I like to stick to the good stuff and skip the pasta.  The sauce was always my favorite part anyway.

Keto Waffles:An Update

Alright, so I finally got around to making the keto waffles.  Of all the keto recipes I've tried so far, this is the only one I probably won't make again.  It's not that it isn't successful: the batter did fry up into nice waffle shapes.  But they're also extremely light (ie, mostly air), crumble easily, and have very little flavor.  Over all, not as satisfying or as simple as the keto pancakes, and I just don't see going to the extra effort for less satiety.

On another note: I bought some low-carb jellys at the store the other day to try them out.  I've read rave reviews from other ketoans, particularly about the Polanor low sugar fruit spreads, so I thought I'd try them.  They're surprisingly bland; almost no sweetness to them at all despite the Splenda, and even the fruit flavor was lacking to me.  In short, from now on I'll skip the pricey jarred stuff and opt for some fresh fruit on my pancakes instead if I need something sweet.  Fewer chemicals and better flavor.  After all, as much as I'm focused on watching my carbs, fruits DO have good nutrients and are a very acceptable cheat in my book. 

So there you go, I saved you the time and expense of buying whey protein and low-sugar jams.  You're welcome, and I will get another tried-and-true recipe up in the next couple of days.

Keto on!

This is why I do keto...

OK, I'm not 80lbs overweight.  I'm not in my 60's, and I haven't battled diabetes for decades.  I'm doing keto because I never want to end up in that situation.  Diabetes runs in my family, and it's all weight related.  I am a dialysis nurse; most of my patients are diabetics, and most of them are in those dialysis chairs three times a week with an impossible diet and pill regimen because of diabetes.  I don't want to live that way, ever.  Not if I can do something to prevent it.

Stories like this inspire me so much: 

 http://www.awlr.org/1/post/2012/07/completely-off-insulin-within-3-months.html

Beef Stroganoff

As promised!  I invented this recipe several years back as well, in response to my craving for the Hamburger Helper version.  I've learned this fact about cooking from scratch: with a little effort, one can usually recreate just about anything made by machine.  It may not taste precisely the same (they use commercial ingredients I'll never get my hands on), but the good news is that with rare exceptions they always taste much BETTER.  This recipe was one of my first copycats, and it spurred me on to copying many other common storebought foods.  I'll be sharing them here as time goes by.

I used to eat this over homemade noodles, but since pasta is no longer on my menu I often just eat a big bowl of the sauce.  Why not?  It's the best part of the meal anyway!  If that doesn't sound satisfying to you, you can prepare some chopped cauliflower as in the mock-aroni recipe, or you could combine it with spelt pasta.  While not really "low carb," it is much higher in fiber than regular pasta, resulting in far fewer net carbs; is wonderfully filling; and I believe is gluten free as well.



Beef Stroganoff

1 to 2 lbs beef tips (I like mine meaty!)
1 1/2 cups sour cream
4 oz cream cheese
2 beef bullion cubes
2 tbsp butter or ghee
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp italian seasonings
1 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, brown the beef tips in ghee or butter over medium heat.  When the beef is mostly cooked, stir in the sour cream and cream cheese; reduce heat to low and warm until the cream cheese is melted smoothly into the sour cream.  Add remaining seasonings and gently simmer a few minutes to let the flavors combine.  You may need to crush up the boullion cubes to get them to dissolve completely.




That's it!  It's a quick and hearty dinner, and kind on the carb budget.  Hope you enjoy!
 

Cheeseburger "Mock"-aroni

I invented this recipe years ago, when I was still eating pasta.  I love Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper, but as the boxes got smaller and smaller I decided to try my hand at making it from scratch.  The end results were quite satisfactory in my household, and became a regular item on the menu.  At least, until I started eating keto and had to set aside my beloved pasta dishes.

Then a few weeks ago I saw a recipe for a mock macaroni and cheese using cauliflower instead of noodles.  Eureka!  I tried it tonight, and it was scrumptious; more al dente than pasta, and more filling too.  I hope you like it as much as I do!




Cheeseburger Mock-a-Roni
1 lb ground beef
1 head cauliflower
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp yellow mustard
1 tsp ketchup
1/2 tsp pickle juice or relish, if desired
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Dash paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

In a small pot, bring 1 qt water to boil.  Chop the cauliflower into small florets; boil 5 minutes; drain and set aside.

While the cauliflower is boiling, brown the ground beef in a large saucepan.  Drain and set aside.

In the same saucepan, melt the cream cheese into the sour cream over very low heat.  Add the cheddar cheese and raise heat slightly, stirring till all is melted smoothly together.  Add seasonings.  Mix in the ground beef and cauliflower.

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If you have family members who simply won't eat cauliflower, you can prepare 1 1/2 cups elbow noodles instead.  But you eat the cauliflower; it's good for you, and your waistline will thank you for it.  I couldn't stop eating it myself; it took everything I had to save some for lunch tomorrow.  In fact, I wish I'd taken a picture; I'll add one the next time I make this.

Keto Sliders

I've never quite understood the point of a "slider."  You take a perfectly good burger, miniaturize it, and sell them as something special.  Personally, I don't want my bite-size determined by anyone else.  Most chefs have no idea how big my mouth is.

However, when it comes to following a keto-friendly diet, the slider is a handy invention.  Why?  Because I have not yet found a lettuce leaf that will contain a Big Mac.  They always tear first.

So instead, I save the hardier inner leaves of your typical iceberg lettuce and pair them with my always-smaller-than-intended-because-I-forget-meat-shrinks hamburger patties, top with my favorite condiments, and voila!  A meal fit for a very lean king.

KETO SLIDERS
1lb ground beef
1 head iceberg lettuce
Sliced cheese
Ketcup
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Pickles/Onions/Relish/Whatever else you like on your burger

Form meat into patties.  Make them BIGGER than you think you should; I always do this, and they still end up too small.  But that's OK, because you want "too small."  Cook on grill or stovetop till done.  I season mine with salt and pepper.

Pull apart the lettuce leaves carefully.  The outer leaves are much larger, but they tend to tear.  The middle ones are better, but they tend to stick stubbornly to the others.  The inner leaves just before you get to the yellowish core should be just right.  Toss the rest of the leaves into a plastic bag and save in the fridge for your next salad.

Place the cooked meat patties onto/into the lettuce leaves and top with your favorite toppings.  Go easy on onions and tomato, as they are higher in carbs.  I usually use a dab of homemade ketchup; it's not low carb, but it's HFCS free and I just gotta have a little ketchup on my burgers.


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Please forgive the poor lighting in the picture, we are in the area hit by the derecho last week and still have no power.  Thankfully our generator is holding up, but we are trying to conserve on how many lights/appliances we use.  Keep those still in the dark (and without water!) in your pre-prandial prayers!

Keto Waffles

Here's another selfish post.  I really want to make these, so if I post the recipe here I can find it easily.  This is borrowed from another blog which has many other tasty, low-carb recipes: check it out, when you have time!  We're still having power problems due to the super derecho that blew through our area this past weekend, so I'm not posting as often as I would like.  Hopefully everything will be back to normal by the end of the week.

http://mariahealth.blogspot.com/2012/07/new-protein-waffle.html


"HEALTHIFIED" PROTEIN WAFFLES
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 cup JAY ROBB vanilla egg white or whey protein
1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 TBS aluminum free baking powder
1 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
4 eggs
4 TBS butter or coconut oil, melted

Preheat waffle iorn to high. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl. Slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry. Let sit for 5 minutes. Bake according to your waffle iron directions (I spray my waffle iron with THIS Coconut oil spray). Enjoy! Serve with Nature's Hollow Xylitol syrup. Makes 10 waffles.

NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per waffle)
Traditional Waffle = 223 calories, 8.5g fat, 5g protein, 27 carbs, 0.7g fiber (26.3 effective
"Healthified" Waffle = 144 calories, 8g fat, 12.2g protein, 4g carbs, 2.1g fiber (1.9 effective)