Category Archives: Breads

Breads, Recipes

Simple Eggless Flax Flat Bread

This is a quick and simple flax flat bread that goes well with eggs or cheese or just buttered for a snack. You can make this with just flax meal, but I prefer it with another flour as the main ingredient.

1/2 cup Carbquick or other low carb flour ( LC Foods, or almond flour)
1/4 cup Flax Seed Meal
3 tablespoons Olive Oil
1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper, ground
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 cup Water or more as needed to make a smooth batter

Preheat oven to 360 degrees (F). Spray an 8×8 pan with cooking spray. Mix all ingredient in a bowl, adding enough water to make a spreadable batter. Spoon into the pan and spread to smooth and even with the back of the spoon.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Cut into four pieces.

Nutrition Info: Calories 158.9  Net Carbs .9 g  Protein 3.8 g

Tip: Not all ingredients are created equal. Check the Carbohydrates and fiber in the flours. The CarbQuick and almond flour are 2 net carbs (Carbs minus fiber) per 1/3 cup. Bob’s Red Mill flax meal is 0 net carbs as the fiber cancels out the carbs.

Originally POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 2/18/2013 12:01 PM

Breads, Breakfast & Brunch, Recipes

New Year Starts With A Favorite Breakfast

We are a few days into the New Year — Happy 2013! Let’s hope that it is a really great year for everyone and you enjoy good health, happiness and a bit of prosperity in the next 12 months. I am certainly hoping to have that continue for me.

A tradition for some of us from the south is to have Biscuits and Sausage Gravy for the first breakfast, but it doesn’t exactly scream low carb!  But it can be. This is a recipe that is adapted with just a few changes from the chef for Tova foods, the company that makes CarbQuick. It uses CarbQuick, but it can be made with other low carb flours. You may need to add egg to get the biscuit to rise if you use a flour like almond flour or coconut flour. Ideally, you could mix one of those with another low carb flour, such as Bob’s Red Mill baking mix, to balance it out. Of course, any changes you make in the recipe may change the carb and calorie count for this.

Sausage Gravy with Biscuits

Biscuits:
1 cup Carbquick or other low carb flour
1 tablespoons *Shortening
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 tablespoon Heavy Whipping Cream

Gravy:
1/2 pound Pork Sausage
2 tablespoons Carbquick or other low carb flour (you can also use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, will change the carb count a little)
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/4 cup Coconut Milk (or unsweetened Almond milk)
1/4 cup Water
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
Salt to your preference (I use a dash since I don’t like things too salty)
1/2 teaspoon Poultry Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce (optional)

Biscuits:

Preheat oven to 365 degrees F.

Mix flour and baking powder together and add a dash of salt. Cut shortening into flour until it is mixed into pea-sized clumps. Add whipping cream and a little water to make a thick dough that barely clings together.

Divide dough into quarters and shape into rounds, patting the tops down. Use just a little extra flour if the dough is too sticky to handle. Placed on a greased pan and bake for 6 to 8 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown.

Gravy:

In large skillet, over medium-high heat, cook and crumble sausage to lightly brown. Pour off fat from pan.

Sprinkle flour over sausage in skillet, stir to blend, add cream, milk. Worcestershire sauce and water to pan all at once.

Cook, stirring constantly over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. This may take up to 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve over hot baked biscuits. 1 biscuit and 1/4 of gravy is one serving.

Nutrition info: Calories: 458.6 Net Carbs: 3.8 g Protein: 12.4 g
POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 1/5/2013 1:44 PM

Breads, Recipes

Easy Low Carb Stuffing Bread

Thanksgiving a year ago, I tried a bread mix from LC Foods for my stuffing. It was good, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for in the flavor. So this year, I decided to try a variation based on one posted by Laura Dolson on About.com. I changed a few things and spread it out to bake and was thrilled with the result. Poultry seasoning in the batter added a great flavor. It would be fantastic as croutons or crumbled on top of a casserole in addition to making a delicious stuffing.

Easy Low-Carb Stuffing Bread

1 cup CarbQuick
1/2 cup Almond Meal
1/2 cup LC Flour (LC Flour or other low carb flour)
1/2 cup Flax Meal
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Poultry Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted Butter
3 Eggs
1/3 cup Water
1/4 cup Buttermilk
2 teaspoons Sugar Substitute

Heat oven to 350 F.

Spray a jelly roll pan or use a silicone mat and spray that or use a rectangular baking stone with a light coating of baking spray.

Mix dry ingredient together. Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix well with a spoon or a whisk. The batter will be thick. If it is too thick to spread, add a little water.

Spread over the pan or stone so that you have a flat rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. It may not completely fill the pan. Use the back of a large spoon to smooth and shape the batter. Wet the spoon back to help smooth it.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until top is lightly browned or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. This time may vary with ovens, so add an additional 5 minutes if it is browned how you would like it.

To use in a dressing, cut the bread into 1/2 cubes. When completely cool, spread the cubes out on a baking pan and put them in a 300 degree oven to dry more and toast a little around the edges. Remove and store in a paper bag until ready to use.

Nutrition Info (just bread) makes about 12-1/2 cup servings when used for stuffing:
Calories: 120 Net Carbs: 5.2 g Protein: 6.9 g


Stuffing bread with broth added and sauteed vegetables about to be mixed in. (I used onions, celery, small sweet peppers and baby spinach. This will work with any ingredients you prefer.)

POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 11/30/2012 9:12 PM

Breads, Recipes

Peanut Butter & Jam Surprise Muffin

Here’s an adapted to low carb muffin recipe that I probably saw originally some years ago although I don’t recall where. It’s certainly not a new concept, but the approach may be a little different and I didn’t follow any other recipe in creating it.

I used LC Foods strawberry jam in my recipe, but when I figured the nutrition, I used Smucker’s Sugar Free Jam, which you car purchase at almost any grocery store. Of course, you can substitute your favorite flavor sugar free jam in the recipe.

1/4 cup Peanut Flour or Almond Flour
1/4 cup Whey Protein Powder or 2 tablespoons Coconut Flour
1/2 cup Carbquick
2 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Cinnamon, ground
1/4 cup Coconut Oil
1 tsp Vanilla Extract (omit if using vanilla whey powder)
1/2 tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 cup JIF creamy Peanut Butter
3 tbsp LC Strawberry Jam or low carb jam of your choice

Preheat oven to 360 degrees F. Prepare six muffin cups with baking spray.

Mix peanut flour, Carbquick and protein powder together with baking powder, and cinnamon. Beat eggs, whipping cream and vanilla extract together, then stir in coconut (or peanut) oil and mix into flours. Combine until moist, but don’t over mix. If the mixture is too dry, add a little water until it is a droppable consistency.

Using 1/2 of the batter, fill each muffin cup about 1/3 full. Spoon a half teaspoon of peanut butter (see photo) into the middle of each muffin and top with a teaspoon of strawberry jam. Divide the remainder of the batter equally over the top of the filling mixture.


About 1/2 teaspoon of peanut butter.
  

Drop peanut butter on top of muffin batter… then add jam and spoon more batter on top.

Bake for about 20 minutes until the muffin is golden brown. Cool and serve. Makes 6 muffins.

Nutrition Information:
Per muffin (made with Smucker’s Jam):
Calories 147, Net Carbs: 5.2 g, Protein: 7 g

Originally POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 11/18/2012 1:21 PM

Breads, Main Dish, Recipes

Rene’s Sausage, Pepperoni and Bacon Pizza


I am away from home this week — house sitting for my friends in Las Vegas, so this presents a bit of a challenge in my cooking plans. First test of the month – I’m facing another one later as I jet off to Arizona for a week with my bro and sis-in-law. “What challenge?” you might ask. “Finding some of those special ingredients that I order at home,” I reply with blinking eyes.

And here I am on a Wednesday craving pizza and I’m without either CarbQuick or Atkins flour, let alone any other low carb baking mix. But the Wal-Mart does carry Bob’s Red Mill Flax seed meal and almond flour. I like Bob’s almond flour because it’s a nice, smooth mill and is lighter, although higher in net carbs than Now’s almond flour. So, the thing to do here is to substitute the Carbquick in my recipe with the Flax meal and use the almond flour for Flax meal in the original recipe. The crust is an adaptation of two other recipes, but with my own twist on it. The bonus with this is that it’s also gluten free. The toppings are a mix of meat and veggies that blend well and really make a great meal. I must add that this is delicious! No, it doesn’t taste like a yeast wheat flour pizza crust, but it’s pretty darn good anyway.

If you’re counting calories, it’s pretty high at 559 a serving, so plan for it.

 

Flax-Almond Pizza Crust

3/4 cup Flax Meal
1/4 cup Almond Flour
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 Egg
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tblsp Olive Oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup Water

Topping

1 or 2 slices of Thick-cut Bacon, fried crisp
2 links Bratwurst Sausage or Italian Sausage
1/2 cup Broccoli pieces, fresh or frozen and cooked
1/4 cup Red Onion, sliced thinly
1/4 cup Mushroom slices
2 small Sweet Peppers or 1/2 cup Bell Peppers, sliced
Pepperoni slices
1 tablespoon minced Garlic (optional)
1 cup Mozzarella or pizza cheese mix
1 cup Pasta Sauce (homemade or bottled)
Check for the lowest carb available. I have found a couple with the net carb of 5 g for 1/2 cup

Start with the pizza crust. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Mix flours and Parmesan cheese together with the baking powder, Italian seasoning and salt. Make a well in the middle and add olive oil and egg. Add 1/4 cup water and mix well. Add additional water as needed to make dough moist and pliable, but not runny. Let sit for about 5 minutes for meal to absorb the liquid.

Prepare pan by spraying or oiling a 12″ pizza round or a 9 x 11 inch rectangular pan or 10″ square pan. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the pan, press on top of the oil, then spray or oil the top of the parchment. If you use a silicone mat, just put it in the pan and spray it with cooking spray.


Parchment paper sticks to the pan if it has been oiled or sprayed with cooking spray.

If you use a stone, oil the stone, but you don’t need a mat or parchment although it makes it easier to get the pizza off. Use a spoon to put large spoonfuls of the dough on the pan in evenly spaced mounds. Wet your hands and pat the dough to as even a crust as you can get that fills the pan. It should be a little less than 1/4 inch thick.

Bake in the oven for 15 to 18 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from the oven.

While the pizza crust is baking, prepare your topping. Remove sausages from casing and fry in a pan until browned, but not cooked all the way through. Remove to paper towel to drain. Stir fry the vegetables until just tender.

When the crust comes out of the oven, assemble the pizza. Spread 1 cup of the pasta sauce over the crust, spreading it all the way to the edges. Spread the sausage and crumbled bacon, distributing as evenly as possible. Top the meat mixture with slices of pepperoni, about twelve to sixteen slices depending on the cut. Spread vegetables over the top of that and top with mozzarella cheese. Put back in the oven for about 10 minutes to finish cooking the sausage and melt the cheese. Check on the pizza at 5 minutes, then again at 10 minutes to see that it’s done the way you prefer and not overdone.

Cut into four slices and serve with a salad.


The recipe is flexible… don’t like mushrooms? Leave them off! Broccoli doesn’t thrill? Substitute something else or just omit. That’s the fun of pizza — it can be personalized easily.

Crust only information: Carbs for 1 slice of original crust: 1.9 g calories 178.6, protein 11.3 g
Carbs for Flax-Almond crust (gluten free) – 1.5 g calories 212.4 protein 11.6

Pizza with toppings above:
Original Crust: Total Carbs for 1 slice of pizza: 8.6 g, calories 525 protein 28.9
Flax-Almond Crust: 8.2 g, calories 559, protein 29.2

Originally POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 10/11/2012 1:10 AM