Recipe roundup

Here are a few recipes I have tried recently that I haven't had time to fully fledge out in their own post.

Keto BS+ACVinegar "Cornbread"

This was so good!  It was a crumblier bread, and the almond meal gave it a texture I really liked.  But then again, I'm an extra chunky PB kind of girl.  At first, it had a very strong BS taste straight out of the oven (which didn't stop me from eating), which completely mellowed out after it sweat over night.  A bit of butter on it made it that much more amazing.  I also used my Kitchen Aid mixer instead of a food processor, which might have influenced the texture and lack of BS/V reaction.

Low Carb Creamcheese "Bread"

Another good try.  It took a good hour to bake, though.  The toothpick had come out clean, so I went to flip the pan and the top flopped out.  It had the consistency of a very nice custard, but not solid.  Once I got sick of waiting for it to harden up even more (1:15?), it was worth the wait.  Dan loved this one, but I preferred the "cornbread".  Next time, I'm going to try and blend it more so that the meal is finer.

Real Sugar Bacon Toffee

I'd made this recipe before (completely not keto!), but hadn't gotten it to completely caramelize and harden.  This time, I finally found a candy thermometer!  I mixed in a couple of red pepper flakes, poured into my gingerbread man silicone mold, and topped off with chocolate and almond slivers, in an English Toffee vain.  Many people loved the chocolate on it, but I preferred the pure toffee.  And the kick of the pepper flakes was really nice with the caramel and bacon.

Jello and Protein Powder "Cake"

Yeah, this wasn't all that good.  All you do is mix the protein powder, baking powder, cocoa powder and sweetener and cook in the microwave, then crumble it up and set with sf jello.  Dan absolutely hated it!  I was meh about it.  I still couldn't bring myself to stop eating it, though.  

I eventually want to find some kind of Keto Mug Brownie recipe, since my attempt last week with protein powder, almond meal and egg came out not too different to the jello cake.

Here are some more recipes I'll hopefully try out soon:

LC GF PB and Bacon Bars

LC Cranberry Walnut Cookies

LC Butter Cookies

LC Almond Pancakes
Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

Bacon Caramels (for people that can eat sugar)

[recipe] ALL Of The Awesome SF/keto Nutella-ish Spread

This is calorically dense, and absolutely fantastic! I started wanting to make Nutella, and then went off the deep end. Perfect to have ready for when you get home from the gym and are about to keel over. Should keep you in ketosis, even if you do eat a whole bunch, since it is significantly high in fat.

2 oz bakers chocolate

1 oz heavy cream

1/4 c all natural peanut butter

1/2 c almond meal

1 c macadamia nuts

1/4 c hemp meal

1/2 c splenda

1 c full fat ricotta

Melt the chocolate with the cream in a hot water bath.

Blend all of the nuts and hemp together until creamy.

Incorporate the chocolate and splenda, keep on making creamy.

Add ricotta and keep blending/scraping/folding until nice and smooth.

Adjust splenda and cream or ricotta until desired taste.

Makes about a quart = 64 tbsp

chocolate: 280 cals, 30g fat, 18g carbs, 10g fiber, 8g protein

cream: 97 cals, 10g fat, 1g carb, 1g protein

peanut butter: 700 cals, 56g fat, 20g carbs, 8g fiber, 8g sugar, 36g protein

almond meal: 320 cals, 28g fat, 12g carbs, 6g fiber, 2g sugar, 12g protein

macadamia nuts: 948 cals, 100g fat, 18g carbs, 11g fiber, 5g sugar, 10g protein

hemp meal: 648 cals, 52g fat, 8g carb, 4g fiber, 40g protein

splenda: 48 cals, 12g carbs (estimated)

ricotta: 480 cals, 36g fat, 12g carb, 8g sugar, 28g protein.

Total: 3521 cals, 312g fat, 101g carb, 39g fiber, 23g sugar, 135g protein

TBSP: 55 cals, 5g fat, 1.5g carb, 0.6g fiber, 0.4g sugar, 2.1g protein

[recipe] SF Chocolate Avocado Paste Balls

Last month, when I was reading I breathe... I'm hungry, I ran into this very awkward yet interesting recipe. It takes your standard bourbon truffle and substitutes avocado to make it creamy. So I got three avocados and stuck them in my 5 dozen egg carton to ripen for a couple of weeks (still not enough -_-) and got to mixing everything (except the nuts) until creamy, then folding in the pecans.

2 ripe avocados

2 T coconut oil

1/2 C premium cocoa powder

1 T Splenda

2 T SF chocolate syrup

2 T heavy whipping cream

1/2 t vanilla extract

1/2 t almond extract

1/2 C chopped pecans

It is very important that the avocados really are as ripe as possible, without starting to rot. Judging by the ingredients she uses, I'm guessing the writer of the other blog lives in a warmer climate, prone to all the good produce I miss.

Unfortunately, mine still were a bit green, highly influencing the taste. I tried to counteract this by increasing the Splenda to 1 T and adding vanilla and almond extracts.

Another substitution, which I doubt worked, was SF chocolate syrup (Walmart brand Hershey's knockoff) instead of SF chocolate flavored syrup (Torani). I bought one that was caramel flavored last month that I really didn't like, so I didn't feel like filling my pantry with yet another subpar bottle just to use two tablespoons. This might not have been an ideal substitution, either, as it was quite bitter.

Next time, I want to try eliminating the syrup and adding some more cream, Splenda and extract to compensate. And riper avocados :/

Also, I went the lazy route and just left it in the mixer bowl to be eaten with a spoon ^_^

Makes 12 portions, each with:

111 cals, 10 g fat, 4.5 g carbs (3 g fiber), 1.5 g protein

[recipe] Cauli-pizza Mash

Last night I made the yummiest healthy thing by accident! I took a head of cauliflower (5 cups?), boiled it a bit, then tossed it in the food processor with:

- 1/2 C ricotta

- 2 t California Sun Dry Julienne Cut Tomatoes with herbs

- 1 oz grated parmesan cheese

- 1 oz pepperoni

That's it! The tomatoes I used, though, were packed in oil with some herbs, making it taste exactly like pizza. Stupidly yummy.

Nutritional facts for the whole thing:

Ricotta - 216 cals, 16 g fat, 4 g carb, 14 g protein

Tomatoes - 30 cals, 3 g fat, 3 g carb, <1 g protein

Parmesan - 120 cals, 9 g fat, 6 g carb, 12 g protein

Pepperoni - 138 cals, 12 g fat, 6 g protein

Cauliflower - 140 cals, 30 g carb, 10 g protein

TOTAL - 644 cals, 40 g fat, 43 g carb (only 10 g being fiber), 42 g protein

[recipe] Low-carb Chocolate Crepe Cake

This is the second recipe I take from I Breathe... I'm Hungry, originally intended as a low carb red velvet cake. Yes, presentation is nice and all, but sometimes you just want to eat your damned cake! So instead of assembling the layers, we just plated them with a dollop of the cream and devoured.

CREPES

6 oz cream cheese (1/3 less fat)

5 eggs

1/4 cup Sugar Free Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

2 TBSP cocoa powder

1 tsp Splenda

1/2 tsp red food coloring (not used)

Blend well and pour onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes or until dry. Let cool.

CREAM

2 oz cream cheese

10 oz heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla

1 TBSP Splenda

Whip 8 oz of the heavy cream until stiff peaks form, incorporating the splenda and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the cream cheese and remaining cream until smooth, and fold into whipped cream.

Once the crepes are baked, cut into 12 squares (or use a large cup and cut out circles). If you plan on making a cake, alternate crepes with about a TBSP of the cream and make all pretty. If you need your chocolate fix before you stab someone, place a square on your plate with a dollop of cream and eat!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:

Cream Cheese: 560 cals, 16g carb, 48g fat, 16g protein, 16g sugar

Eggs: 350 cals, 25g fat, 30g protein

Hershey's Syrup: 30 cals, 10g carb

Cocoa powder: 25 cals, 6g carb, 1g fat, 2g protein

Cream: 1000 cals, 100g fat

Total Calories: 1965 (328 each)

Carbs: 32g (5g)

Fat: 174g (29g)

Protein: 48g (8g)

Sugar: 16g (3g)

When presenting in not-cake form, it is much easier to cut out a whole bunch of the cream.

CREPES ONLY

Calories: 825 (138)

Carbs: 28g (5g)

Fat: 57g (10g)

Protein: 44g (7g)

Sugar: 12g (2g)

[recipe] Very low carb Buffalo Balls

Meat is good! Spicy meat is better! Spicy meat in convenient balls is best!

I found a wonderful blog called I Breathe... I'm Hungry with several good keto recipes, one of them for Buffalo Balls. This is a very simple concept: you make turkey meatballs and cover them in buffalo sauce, and they are awesome! Her sauce is just butter and Frank's, so of course Dan had to improve on it.

MEATBALLS

1 lb ground turkey

2 oz cream cheese, softened (1/3 less fat)

2 eggs

2 TBSP finely minced celery

3 TBSP crumbled cheese (blue is requested, but I used parmesan)

1/2 tsp black pepper

Mix together, ball up, and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes (15 if you are paranoid with poultry like me). Makes two dozen.

SAUCE

3 oz super sharp cheddar, finely sliced

6 oz cream cheese

1 TBSP butter

3 TBSP minced garlic

1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot

Dip balls or spoon sauce on top, and bake for another 10 minutes.

If you are using the original Frank's + butter sauce, she recommends dipping the balls and letting the sauce caramelize on top. But since this version has so much cheese, it was more like a nice and thick frosting.

NUTRITIONAL INFO

Turkey: 776 cal, 43g fat, 90g protein

Cream Cheese: 448 cal, 32g fat, 16g sugar, 16g protein

Cheddar: 339 cal, 27g fat, 21g protein

Parmesan: 66 cal, 3g fat, 6g protein

Eggs: 140 cal, 10g fat, 2g sugar, 12g protein

Butter: 100 cal, 11g fat

Garlic: 40 cal, 9g carb, 0g sugar, 3g protein

Frank's: salt!

Total: 1909 calories (80 each ball)

126 g fat (5.25 g each)

148 g protein (6.17 g each)

21 g absorbable carbs (0.875 g each)

I probably shouldn't have eaten eight in one breath.

Pennsic XL

This year was a blast! I was very insecure to sign up, since prereg was around when I was at my most depressed, but I'm very glad I managed to suck it up and jump head first anyway.

Due to Otakon being just a week before, I didn't have time to get into the groove until very late. I was very lucky to find dabasque on Odd Ducks and have her walk me through so many details of basque clothing! Unfortunately, I had trouble translating it to real life. I spent monday crying in my room because I couldn't manage to make a pattern from scratch and get it to work for me by myself. Luckily, my friend Nicole helped me on wednesday and we got a really good mock up. Thursday was spent making the dress out of the mockup, and I'm very happy with how it turned out, except that I left too much allowance for the seams that I didn't take up, and the bodice ended up being an inch or two too big. Meh, it still worked!

Friday I went home early from work and packed and finished things up, before going to game at Nicole's. I finally finished my Tilting TARDIS shawl, which took me a whole week to bind off -_-;; and then woke up at 6:30 am to make up two chemises and a pair of linen bloomers. OMG, dabasque was so right! I wore my biker shorts one day, which I wear on a regular basis under skirts, and felt completely swamped. Linen bloomers, though, were amazing!

Bad flash is bad.

I think I lucked out this year with classes. Rumor has it that they want to make Pennsic XLI Spanish themed, so I got to take six or seven classes about Spanish clothing of the 13c and 16c, along with Visigoth lettering. Someone suggested to that teacher (Doña Violante de Sant Sebastian) that she should teach a class on abbreviations next year, and I think she should also teach one on words of Moorish origin. dabasque, also known as Josefina del Torre, was going to teach a class on alpargatas, but had family health issues and had to cancel. I was very excited for that class, and I will definitely find a way to shake it out of her!

Things I purchased:
A Uniquely You memory foam dress form which I had been lusting over for three years. I am so excited to finally be able to make clothes without having to beg for people to pin me in.
Two period dress patterns and reeds to make a verduguera.


Two mead kits, again, which I better use this time!
A bowl and mug from Charlie, cephalogal's potter on retainer.
A custom ~morion helmet!!! I am so excited to finally get back into fighting! Well, once I get it in a few months.

I controlled myself and didn't buy a $240 carved wood chest, which was awesome and had a skeleton laying on the lid. But I just might next year... Along with a canvas tent.