Monthly Archives: March 2015

Recipes

Tasty Low Carb Hazelnut Chocolate Energy Bite

Inspired by a recipe from Stevia, this quick-to-make energy bite is a tasty fat bomb.  I made a few adjustments to make it  a little sweeter and not as grainy-tasting.    Most of the ingredients are easy to find at your grocery store.  If you can’t find hazelnut flour, then use hazelnuts and grind them in your food processor until they are the consistency of flour.

Chocolate Hazelnut Quick Bites

Filling:
1 cup Hazelnut Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 cup Golden Flax Meal
1/2 teaspoon Cardamom
1/2 cup Butter
1 teaspoons Sugar Free Hazelnut Syrup
1 tablespoon Sugar Substitute

Chocolate Coating:
8 tablespoons Coconut Oil
1/4 cup unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 to 1/3 cup Sugar Substitute

Mix the flour, flax meal, 1 tablespoon sugar substitute and salt together in a food processor, then add the butter and hazelnut syrup, pulsing until they are well blended.   Scoop up about one tablespoon of the dough and roll into a ball about 1 inch in diameter.  Set on a wax paper covered plate.  Repeat until all the dough has been made into balls.  You should have one dozen.  Put the balls into the refrigerator to chill until they are hard.    Allow 45 minutes to an hour.

To coat, mix the cocoa powder and 1/4 cup sugar substitute in a bowl and add the coconut oil. Stir until completely mixed and syrupy. If it is too thick, add a little more coconut oil.  Taste it!  If it is too bitter for you, then add additional sugar.

Prepare a plate with parchment paper or waxed paper. Remove a few balls at a time from the refrigerator and drop one at a time into the chocolate coating mix. Roll the ball around with a fork, then slide the fork under it to lift it from the chocolate and place onto the plate. Repeat with each of the balls until they are all done. Return to the refrigerator to harden the coating. Store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Makes 12 Balls

Nutrition Info per candy:
Calories: 170 Fat: 17.5 g Net Carbs: 1.3 g Protein: 2.5 g

Product Review

Dixie Carb Counters All Natural White Bread Mix

Product Review:

I admit that I have a fondness for Dixie Carb Counters products and that’s because they taste good.  This is the first time I’ve tried their white bread mix as I usually prefer the wheat bread, but now and then it’s nice to have white bread in the house.  Besides, PK prefers it when making peanut butter toast.

This bread mix is billed as “One Step Homemade All Natural White Bread” and it is that.  It couldn’t be simpler.  Put the mix in a bowl, add egg and/or egg whites and butter. Then mix it together for about a minute.  The instructions say to use a whisk, which I tried, but find unsatisfactory as too much of the dough accumulates in the inner wires of the whisk and it’s just thick enough that it doesn’t want to release easily.  So I just used a big spoon and stirred really well, getting to the mix on the bottom of the bowl.

Put the mix in a greased (or cooking sprayed) bread pan and cook in a 325 degree oven for 50 minutes.  What could be easier?  And the result is a beautifully browned load of white bread that makes 24 thin slices at 2 net carbs each.

The flavor is great!  The ¾ cup of melted butter added to the mix insures that it will have a buttery delicious taste.  It holds up well when cut and stands up to the additional butter or peanut butter that you spread across it.

For breakfast today, I made French toast using two slices and I had a little trouble with a little-too-thin piece of bread absorbing the egg mixture and holding together, but it only broke into two pieces when I started to lift it from the soaking pan.  It did not alter the taste of the French toast in any way, so it was still a win.

This bread would also make excellent bread crumbs for making anything that requires them.  You could add additional ingredients, such as sugar substitute, cinnamon and chopped fruit (watch the carbs on that) to make a very tasty fruit bread.  One of the things I want to try with the next loaf that I make is adding yeast to it since this isn’t really a yeast bread, even though it has yeast flakes in it.

My silicone bread pan is slightly larger than the 9”x5” pan suggested in the instructions so the loaf is slightly flatter than the one pictured on the package, so I think it would be a regular-sized loaf in a normal bread pan.

The mix can be purchased from Dixie Diner or through Netrition. Other places may carry it.  The mix sells for $9.99 at Dixie Diner or for $7.79 at Netrition.  Both have shipping offers.

Disclaimer:  I have not received any promotional items to review and no one from any of the companies whose products I review have asked me to do so. I have purchased the product and am giving my honest opinion about it. Should any company send me a product to try, I will state it up front and will still give my honest opinion.

Recipes, Vegetables & Salads, Vegetarian

Recreating a Restaurant Vegetable – Broccoli with Mornay Sauce

At the beginning of March, my roomie and I went to San Jose to see Celtic Thunder and decided to eat at a restaurant near the theater.  While the cuisine was a little pricier than we had expected, it was fantastic.  One of the dishes we ordered was Broccoli with Mornay Sauce that was just wonderful  So, I decided to recreate this with a low carb Mornay.    Couple this with my joy in finally getting a whole case of kohlrabi that I ordered from my grocery store because no one in Reno has gotten in kohlrabi in over 8 months.  I was in withdrawal!  It’s like taking away my potatoes, only worse, because it’s my substitute for potatoes.  So, my version of the broccoli dish is now Broccoli and Kohlrabi with Mornay Sauce.  You can make it without the kohlrabi by increasing the broccoli, but give it a try with the “cousin” root vegetable.  It is really good.

Broccoli & Kohlrabi with Mornay Sauce

1 cup Broccoli, cut into pieces
1 cup Kohlrabi, 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup Leeks, sliced
4 cloves Garlic, sliced
2 slices Bacon, fried (optional)
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1 tablespoon Butter
1 1/2 tablespoon Low Carb Flour
1/2 cup Water
Pinch Pepper
1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 oz. Cream Cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Prepare sauce: In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to form a paste. Remove from heat and stir in cream, water, pepper and nutmeg. Return to heat and stir until the sauce begins to thicken. Add cream cheese and Parmesan cheese and stir until it is melted in. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F.)

Steam broccoli, kohlrabi and leeks in a bowl in the microwave or in a steamer until just tender, about 3 to 4 minutes in the microwave. In an oven safe skillet, add a little butter and the chopped garlic and cook until just fragrant. Add the vegetables and cook a couple of minutes, then add the sauce and mix together until completely coated. Break the bacon into pieces and sprinkle over the top of the vegetables, then sprinkle a little more Parmesan cheese on top.

Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the top is just starting to brown. Remove, let cool for a few minutes, then serve.

Makes 4 servings

Nutrition Info per serving:
Calories: 235.3 Fat: 20.5 g Net Carbs: 5.3 g Protein: 6.6 g

Note:  For vegetarian, omit the Bacon.

 

A to Z Challenge 2015

A to Z 2015 April Challenge Theme Reveal

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Today is the theme reveal for Skinny Girl Bistro for the 2015 A to Z Blog Challenge.  For those who don’t know anything about this madness, the idea is to blog every day except Sunday through the month of April on a theme.  The blog entries have to be at least 500 words, so they may be short but the challenge for me is to make them interesting and informative.  So what is my theme?  Well, of course, it’s food!  Specifically, I am going to attempt to discuss a food each day of the challenge that begins with the challenge letter.  I hope to introduce you to some vegetables and possibly fruits that you may not have eaten before and also give you a little bit of background about the food and why it is beneficial to your life style.

This may include a few simple recipes or ways to prepare the food, so it will be fun and an exploration for all of us.   Please come along on this trip and while you’re at it, explore some of the other blogs that are on the A to Z challenge.  They are covering many topics and are sure to be interesting.  So, the first actual blog for the challenge will be on April 1st and will run through Saturday, skip Sunday, then back again on Monday through Saturday of the month.

All of my blog posts on this challenge will have the colorful button below so you’ll know it ‘s part of the A to Z Challenge.  This is going to be so much fun!

Main Dish, Recipes, Seafood

Lawyer Up with Wonderful Lobster

T’is that time of the year again when I look at all my Irish-type recipes and try to figure out the St. Patrick’s Day dinner and dessert.  I have many Irish recipes in my house and quite a few Irish-American ones as well.  The corned beef we eat in America is not popular in Ireland and my Irish friends tell me that it doesn’t taste the same either.  But for those of us who’ve had it nearly every St. Patrick’s Day of their lives, it is the dish of the day.

But why not break out with something different?  This dish called “Dublin Lawyer” is a very good example of an Irish alternative.  This is an old Dublin dish with a colorful name that I haven’t been able to find the origin.  Possibly, given that it’s a lobster dish with whiskey in it, it was a favorite of the lawyers, who may have been the only ones who could afford it. It’s similar to Lobster Thermidor with whiskey substituting for the white wine or sherry in the latter.  I made very few changes to this recipe as it is just naturally low carb’d.

Dublin Lawyer

As prepared by Rene Averett

2 Lobster Tails (6 to 8 oz. each), cooked
2 tablespoons Butter
1/4 cup Irish Whiskey (Jameson’s or Paddy’s)
1/4 cup Heavy Cream
1/4 cup sliced Mushrooms (optional)
2 tablespoons Leeks, chopped (whites)
2 tablespoons Low Carb Bread Crumbs*
1 Egg Yolk
Salt
Cayenne pepper

Preheat broiler to 485 degrees (if you can control it) or heat a toaster oven set to Broil.

Remove the lobster meat from the tails.  Clean the shells and set aside.  Cut the lobster meat into bite-sized pieces and set aside.

Trim the leeks and cut them finely, using a combination of white and a little of the green part near the white.  Heat the butter in a pan and sauté’ the leeks and mushrooms until the leeks are tender. Add the cream, salt and cayenne pepper and bring to a boil. Remove pan from the heat and stir in the whiskey. Return to the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes,

Pu the egg yolk in a cup and beat with a whisk.  Spoon 2 tablespoons of sauce into the egg and whisk together, then add another 2 tablespoons.  Add the egg and sauce mixture to the pan and whisk it in gently.  Heat on simmer for a few more minutes and it will begin to thicken.  Add the lobster to the sauce and let it simmer another 3 minutes.

When you have the rest of your dinner almost prepared, put the lobster into the cleaned shells or into individual serving dishes.   Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top and spray lightly with butter spray or olive oil. Put the tails into a small baking dish or individual dishes.  Cook under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes until lightly browned.

Serve immediately.  Serves 2.

Nutrition Info per lobster tail
Calories: 316 Fat: 25 g Net Carbs: 1.8 g Protein: 4.2 g

* I always have low carb bread crumbs on hand.  They can be from any quick low carb bread, such as the Wheat Germ and Flax Bread Rounds or the Irish Soda Bread, linked below.  If you don’t have them, look for the lowest bread crumb at your grocery store and add that carb count to the amount above.

For more St. Patrick’s Day options, here are more recipes from Skinny Girl Bistro to round out your celebration.

Use up the leftover corned beef in one of these dishes:
Corned Beef Hash
Corned Beef Quesadillas

Make side dishes for your Irish meal:
Irish Style Celery and Kohlrabi
Irish Soda Bread
Smashed Turnips and Leeks

Top your dinner off with a sweet or a drink:
Slim Irish Cream Cheesecake
O’Kelly’s Slim Irish Cream
Irish Apple Cake