Recipe #15: Paleo/ Low Carb Brownies

Who doesn't like brownies?  

Lately, my husband renewed his efforts to live the low carb lifestyle after dabbling with intermittent fasting combined with a more conventional American diet.  Although his waistline stayed the course, his lipid profile went totally off course.  So, now I'm making new efforts to add variety to the family nutrition program, and, hopefully, get the kids a bit more on board this time around.

Hence, BROWNIES!  Taste & texture are really key.  Using this inspiration recipe: 

http://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2012/08/peanut-butter-swirl-brownies-low-carb-and-gluten-free.html

I concocted my own tasty, chocolatey goodness.  The only thing that could make them better is some walnuts or no sugar added chocolate chunks!

For the requisite dark chocolate, I used a combination of Ghirardelli 100% cacao unsweetened baking chocolate (4 oz) & Simply Balanced (Target brand) 85% cacao dark chocolate (3 oz).  

And instead of erythritol or an artificial sweetener, I used a combination of date sugar (which is simply ground dates!!! totally paleo-compliant) & monk fruit.  Date sugar is a particularly good choice because it's got fiber, vitamins, minerals, & antioxidants, in addition to a more complex flavor that works well with chocolate.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter (LOW CARB) or coconut oil (PALEO)
• 7 oz very dark chocolate (85 to 90% cacao)
• 1/2 cup date sugar
• 4 packets of monk fruit sweetener
• 5 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 1/2 tsp non-aluminum baking powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 deg F and butter an 8x8 inch baking pan.
2. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate while stirring until smooth.
3. Add the date sugar & monk fruit sweetener and stir until well combined.
4. Let cool 10 minutes.
5. Whisk the eggs & vanilla in a separate bowl.  Then temper (add a little bit with continual mixing) the eggs with the cooled chocolate mixture until all the chocolate is mixed into the eggs.
6. In another bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together to break up lumps.  Then stir the dry ingredients into the chocolate & egg mixture until the batter is smooth.
7. Spread batter in prepared baking pan. 
8. Bake 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
9. Cool, then cut into squares.  ENJOY! :-)

Recipe #14: Banana Pancakes

Banana Pancakes - before & after

Sometimes, a girl's just gotta have pancakes with lots of syrup!  There are some awesome low carb pancake recipes out there.  This is my version.  I wrote it for my friend who gave me a giant bunch of bananas left over from fresh fruit Friday at school.  :-)  

The addition of ground flaxseed gives these pancakes an omega-3 fatty acid punch which has a myriad of health benefits.  And if you use omega-3 enriched eggs, even better!  Unlike omega-6 fatty acids, which are so easy to come by in the typical American diet, omega-3s are sometimes neglected, especially if one does not like seafood or cannot eat walnuts.  These fatty acids are termed 'essential' because our bodies cannot manufacture them; they must be absorbed from our diet.  Omega-3s reduce inflammation, benefit heart health as well as joint health, and even contribute to proper blood clotting and brain function.  http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/omega-3/  So, eat up!

2 frozen bananas, defrosted
3 jumbo eggs or 4 large eggs
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
dash of cinnamon

Squeeze out the banana from its skin into a large bowl, being careful to get the 'tail' out, which is hard & unappetizing.  :-P  The bananas are so mushy at this point that you don't have to do any work of mashing them.  They slip right out of the skin, and you only have to use your whisk to break them up while mixing in all the remaining ingredients.  It's that easy.  Cook the batter as you would normal pancakes.  I use a cast iron skillet with olive oil. Instead of forming bubbles when the pancakes are ready to flip, this pancake will get slightly dry and browned at the edges.  Makes ~8 pancakes.  Enjoy with your favorite low carb syrup or with a dusting of xylitol powder.  I like to use a touch of agave nectar.

Inspiration recipe: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/06/20/ec/0620ec30a89e904eae2ce55ac080ab25.jpg

Recipe #13: Cranberry Cherry Almond Muffins

Cranberry Cherry Almond Muffins - before & after

It's been a while since my last posting.  In the interim, we went through an unrelated cancer surgery & treatment with my mom and a series of shoulder surgeries & treatments for my husband...three deaths in the family, one of which was related to diabetes.  Then a friend's news of health challenges.  All this together woke me up again.  Or rather, it all restoked the fire of looking after my own health.

I'll get back on the wagon with this recipe for cranberry cherry almond muffins.  Cranberries are well known anecdotally to benefit your bladder & kidneys.  Additionally, they have a two-fold benefit in fighting cancer.  Cranberries have been shown to decrease DNA damage to start with, which is the defect that can lead to the formation of cancer cells of all types.  Then once cancer is started, substances in cranberries can help decrease cancer proliferation while supporting healthy cell function.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nalini-chilkov/cranberries-health_b_2308526.html   Cherries similarly fight cancer cell proliferation while decreasing inflammation and supporting healthy cell function.  http://www.aicr.org/foods-that-fight-cancer/tab-content/cherries-research.html

Readers of my blog may notice that this recipe includes coconut sugar rather than an artificial sweetener.  I've been personally moving away from artificial non-caloric sweeteners and trying out natural alternatives that are either no calorie or low glycemic.  You could very easily, though, sub in Splenda for the coconut sugar and reduce the stevia & monkfruit packets to 3 each.

Don't have cranberries or cherries?  Toss in a cup of frozen blueberries!   These tiny, brightly colored fruits are now famous for their many health benefits.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23387969

Dry:

2   cups almond flour

¼ cup ground flaxseed

1/3 cup coconut sugar

4 packets monkfruit

4 packets stevia

2 tsp baking powder

Wet:

1/3  cup water

1/4 cup dried chopped cranberries reconstituted in the water

2/3 cup chopped frozen cherries

3 jumbo eggs or 4 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

1 stick salted butter melted and cooled slightly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 1-12 muffin pan with paper liners or grease an 8"x8" square pan with butter. 

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients.  Use a spoon to pulverize any baking powder clumps.  Add the wet ingredients save for the butter.  Mix until combined.  Then drizzle the melted butter into the batter while stirring to prevent the hot butter from cooking the raw eggs.

Pour batter into the muffin tin/pan.  Bake for 16 minutes until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 15-20 minutes.  Have them as is or serve with more butter or Melt organic buttery spread if you like!  :-D

Recipe #12 - Holiday Cookies

Holiday Cookies - Before & After

My friend was in a quandry.  She started a low carb nutrition regimen right as the holidays began.  A smart move, in my opinion, to avoid holiday waist inflation!  ;-)  But her usual holiday MO was to make copious quantities of baked goods to give away.  And in the process, much cookie dough was also consumed.  What to do?  This one is for you, friend!


Ingredients for the cookie base (vanilla shortbread)

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1/2 cup Splenda
• 7 packets stevia powder
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) room temperature salted butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For almond cookies:  add 2 teaspoons almond extract

For pecan sandies: add 3/4 cup chopped pecans & roll dough balls in powdered xylitol (Ideal Confectionary Sweetener) before baking & do not press cookies

For chocolate cookies:  add 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

For snickerdoodles:  add 1 teaspoon almond extract + 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For chocolate chip cookies:  add 3/4 cup sugar-free chocolate chips or 3/4 cup raw cocao nibs

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners (makes ~20 cookies).  Combine all ingredients using a fork. Form dough into balls using two teaspoons (form 'quenelles' for you chef wannabes). Bake for 7 minutes. Press the dough balls down lightly with the back of a spoon to fill the bottom of the muffin cup (makes a nice round cookie).  Continue baking for another 17 minutes or until just browned on the edges.

Inspiration recipe: http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/recipes/recipe-cookie02.html

Recipe #11 - Spaghetti Squash



Spaghetti Squash - before & after


I have my dear college roommate from junior & senior years to thank for this recipe.  She introduced me to this unusual vegetable.  It looks like any old squash on the outside but cooks up into a crispy noodle facsimile which you pull out from the shell.  Amazing!  I typically serve it with bolognese sauce, but spaghetti squash noodles would work with almost any sauce, even including a chow mein/ lo mein preparation.  The recipe to prepare the noodles is this simple:

1) wash the outside of the squash
2) slice the squash in half across the shorter diameter
3) use a spoon to scrape out the seeds & stringy gunk from the middle
4) place the squash cut side down in a microwave-safe dish, then fill the dish with water 1 cm deep (that's 1/4 of an inch, y'all)
5) microwave 4-7 minutes (depending on size of the squash) on full power
6) carefully remove the squash from the dish (it's so cool - the water gets 'sucked up' into the squash cavity while cooking, & the dish will look dry when you take it out; but when you pick the squash up, the hot water gushes back out of the squash into the pan)
7) use a fork to scrape out the spaghetti squash strands, fluffing any chunks to separate the 'noodles'

Carb-Face & Gout

Carb-face: before carbs & after!!!

It happened to me!  I can still hardly believe it!  I got a raging case of carb-face on Thanksgiving day after waking up from my post carbalicious luncheon nap.  The corner of my left eye swelled up like a tiny water balloon because I had been lying on my left side, which ironically is supposed to be better for circulation & blood return to the heart - a habit I picked up during my pregnancies (see links below for more info on SOS - sleeping on side).  Evidently, my face inflated due to post-carb binging water retention, which then pooled into the dependent  (ie hanging down) portion of my face during my snooze!  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/the-benefits-of-left-side-sleeping/  http://www.babyzone.com/askanexpert/sleeping-positions-pregnancy


What is carb-face?  It is the bane of all Hollywood starlets as well as many regular folk.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1168651/Could-Hollywoods-beauty-gurus-turn-Anna-Richardson-starlet-just-weeks.html  Carb-face is a catchy way to describe bloating that shows up, especially in the face, after consuming a large amount of simple carbohydrates (sugar, white rice, pie, cornbread stuffing, etc!!!).  Some doubt that it is real but now I am a believer!

Why does carb-face happen?  We expect bloating after having a lot of salty foods or sports drinks but not so much with sugary or starchy foods.  In a nutshell, insulin acts on the kidneys to retain sodium while dumping potassium.  This link to a research abstract describes this in technical lingo: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2676669

In fact, the following review article abstract explains something that I had also observed during my low carb sojourn: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9377725  The effect of insulin on the kidneys is such that uric acid is not cleared as effectively from the blood. http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/268/1/E1.abstract  Increased uric acid concentrations can lead to gout (joint pain due to uric acid crystal formation in the synovial fluid). http://arthritis.about.com/od/gout/a/gettoknowgout_2.htm   I used to suffer with joint pain in my hands, which weakened my grip & things constantly slipped out of my hands, and in my bunions, which felt like an icepick stabbing into my feet.  When I went low carb, absolutely unexpectedly, my chronic joint pain disappeared.  I had been to the point of consulting my doctor who then referred me to a rheumatologist.  But before I made the appointment with the specialist, I noted the disappearance of the pain.  It does come back after cheating with high carb treats but it resolves again when I eat clean.  This link is to a blog by a DO (osteopathic doctor; they go through a slightly different medical school program than MDs but go through the same internship & residency programs to practice medicine & gain specializations) who explains the phenomenon in a more understandable way than the more technical papers & abstracts: http://www.nemechekconsultativemedicine.com/?page_id=1364

This uric acid retention also tends to promote kidney stone formation: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/539022  Kidney stones are supposed to be exquisitely painful, something I hope never to experience myself!

Some may think that one is vanity driven to be concerned about carb-face.  But carb-face may be a surface indication of more insidious, health-damaging processes occurring inside your body - arthritis & joint disfigurement and kidney stone formation.  It's not vanity to want to protect your mobility and renal function!  Check out the Lance Armstrong Foundation website for info on how to beat carb-face: http://www.livestrong.com/article/251123-how-to-burn-facial-fat/

Recipe #10 - Cheesecake



Cheesecake - before & after

The holidays are upon us, so this is the perfect time to share a dessert recipe to get you through the minefield of sweets that will stretch through Valentine's Day!!!  This cheesecake is not just a nice dessert/ teatime snack; I often have a slice for breakfast when I'm too rushed to whip up eggs.  I eat it plain or with some fresh berries or with a dollop of sugar-free preserves.  It's a fairly simple recipe aside from the laborious mixing & the long baking time.  I've included a variation for CHOCOLATE flavor, too!

Ingredients:

Crust:

·         1 ½ cups almond meal

·         1 heaping Tablespoon wheat bran

·         1 heaping Tablespoon ground flaxseed

·         3 Tablespoons butter

·         2 Tablespoons Splenda

Filling:

·         3 packages (1 ½ lbs) full fat cream cheese (room temperature)

·         4 eggs (room temperature)

·         2 Tablespoons vanilla

·         1 teaspoon almond extract

·         1 ½ teaspoons ( ½ Tablespoon) lemon juice

·         1 1/3 cups Splenda (or 3/4 cup Splenda + 7 packets stevia)

·         1/4 cup full fat sour cream

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Melt the butter in a 8"x8" baking dish.  Add the remaining crust ingredients & mix to evenly disperse the melted butter.  Then smooth out the crumbly mixture over the bottom & lower sides of the dish to form the crust.  Bake for ~7 minutes, until the crust is golden NOT brown.

While the crust is baking, mix all the ingredients for the filling, save for the cream cheese, in a large mixing bowl until well-combined.  I use a whisk for a little biceps workout!  But you wimps (lucky dogs!!!) with stand mixers can use those instead.  ;-)  Next, whip in the cream cheese, one packet at a time, so that the final cheesecake will be airy & smooth rather than dense & lumpy.  ROOM TEMPERATURE cream cheese & eggs are key here!  Top the baked crust with the filling mixture then return to the oven.  Immediately lower the oven temperature to 250F.  Then bake for 1 hour or more until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  My cheesecake always cracks, which I hear is a no-no.  But I don't mind - it doesn't affect the flavor.  Chill then enjoy!

For chocolate cheesecake:

Crust: Use ground hazelnuts instead of almond flour + 2 Tablespoons cocoa

Filling: use 1 Tablespoon cocoa + almond extract + vanilla – lemon juice

Inspiration recipe: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/desserts/r/lcarbcheesecake.htm