Tag: keto

Keto blueberry crumble bars

Keto Blueberry Crumble Bars

  • Servings: 12-16
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Tasty, ooey, gooey blueberry crumble bars


Ingredients

  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1/4 cup Swerve (confectioners)
  • 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
    • Crust – Crumble
  • 1-1/2 cups almond flour
  • 3/4 cup shredded coconut
  • 1/2 cup Swerve granular
  • 2 tablespoons coconut flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 6 tablespoons butter (melted)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

  1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries and water.
  2. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer 10 minutes, until the berries can be easily mashed. Mash them up a bit.
  3. Whisk in the sweetener, and then sprinkle the surface with xanthan gum and whisk vigorously to combine. Let cool.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  5. In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut, sweetener, coconut flour and salt.
  6. Stir in the melted butter and the vanilla extract until the dough begins to clump together. Press half of the mixture firmly into the bottom of the pan. Bake 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool 10 minutes.
  7. Spread the crust with the blueberry filling and sprinkle with the remaining crust mixture. Press the top crust into the filling lightly to adhere.
  8. Bake another 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and bubbly. Let cool completely before cutting and serving. Store in the refrigerator.

If you decide to use frozen berries for this recipe, you may need to increase the cooking time on the filling.

low-carb-keto-lifestyleLeave a comment

tuna and cheese oven bake

Tuna and Cheese Oven Bake

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Easy, Cheesey Tuna Bake


Ingredients

  • 16 oz tuna (tinned in olive oil)
  • 5 oz celery (finely chopped)
  • 4 oz parmesan cheese (grated)
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 green bell pepper (diced)
  • 1 onion (diced)
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon chili flakes

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven at 200 degrees
  2. In a large frying pan, fry the celery, pepper and onion until soft.
  3. In a bowl, mix together tuna, mayonnaise, parmesan and chili flakes until well combined
  4. Stir inthe cooked vegetables; pour mixture into an ovenproof dish
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe Courtesy of the Diet Doctor

low-carb-keto-lifestyleLeave a comment

Are you too hard on yourself?

As we’ve gone through the last couple of weeks in our new state of “Shelter At Home”, have you been beating up on yourself because you aren’t sticking to your “lifestyle”?

I say don’t be too hard on yourself! We all have special challenges that we’ve been up against during this time. Challenges that we’ve never even thought of before. Home schooling children for the first time in our lives, working from home instead of at our office, dealing with kids that are home all the time, dealing with the hubby that is home all the time!!!!

So take my advice and do the best that you can with your meal prep and plan. I can say that I have done my meal prep, but when the stress has gone up, I’ve eaten pretty much whatever I wanted to. And I’m not beating myself up over it.

We may end up with a new normal after all this is over. So what is your new normal going to be? Let’s just take a few minutes and be grateful for the things we still have – Our ability to smile, our ability to say “thank you” to people who are on the front lines, thanking the truck drivers for risking their lives to make deliveries so we have food to eat.

I challenge you to sit down for 15 minutes in a quiet place and ask yourself what you can do to help out! It may only be to share your food with a family next door who has very little, or maybe it is making masks for the healthcare workers and your friends and family, or maybe it is just giving away a smile so someone else can feel hope.

Please do something for someone else today!!!! And stop beating yourself up for cheating on your lifestyle.

low-carb-keto-lifestyleLeave a comment

gluten free and keto pecan sticky buns

Gluten Free & Keto Pecan Sticky Buns

  • Servings: 9
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Fluffy, gooey, and ultra sticky and nothing short of dreamy!


Ingredients

    For the caramel-pecan topping
  • 1-1/2 cups pecans roughly chopped
  • 1 batch 15-minute keto caramel (see below)
    • For the gluten free & keto rolls
  • 1/4 cup sour cream or coconut cream + 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons water lukewarm between 105-110F
  • 1 tablespoon inulin or maple syrup, honey to fee the yeast
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • pinch ground ginger optional (to help proof the yeast)
  • 2 1/4 cups almond flour
  • 6 tablespoons golden flaxseed meal or 5 tablespoons psyllium husk, finely ground
  • 5 tablespoons whey protein isolate
  • 4-6 tablespoons erytritol or allulose, to taste
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons xanthan gum
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3 eggs room temperature
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted grass-fed butter or ghee/coconut oil, melted and cooled
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
    • For the cinnamon filling
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted grass-fed butter softened
  • 4-6 tablespoons erythritol or allulose, to taste
  • 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
    • For the Caramel
  • 1/4 cup grass-fed butter salted or unsalted
  • 1/4-1/2 cup alluose or xylitol
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1/4-3/4 teaspoon kosher salt to taste
  • 1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses optional

Directions

    For the Caramel
  1. Add butter to a small saucepan over medium/ow heat and simmer, stirring every so often, until fully browned (about 5 minutes). Add in the sweetener, heavy cream and salt stirring until fully combined. Add in the molasses and stir briefly until just combined.
  2. Simmer over very low heat for 15 minutes (don’t stir at all), taste for seasoning and pour into a glass container of choice. Your caramel should be sticky and thick, but still totally pourable. use warm or allow to cool completely, and can be refrigerated for up to a week.
    3. For the caramel-pecan topping
  3. Line with parchment paper the bottom of a 9×9 pan. Set aside. Prepare a work station for rolling up your buns by placing a 9×9 piece of cling film on the counter. Leave handy a small bowl with water (to wet your fingers) and a touch of oil to spread the dough (avocado works great here).
  4. Scatter pecans onto prepared pan. Pour caramel sauce on top of pecans. Set aside while you make the rolls.
    5. For the sticky buns.
  5. Mix sour cream, water and inulin (maple syrup) to feed the yeast in a small bowl. Heat up over a water bath to 105-110F. And if you don’t have a thermometer it should only feel lightly warm to touch.
  6. Add yeast and a dash of ginger to a large bowl. Pour lightly warm sour cream mixture over yeast, cover bowl with a kitchen towel and allow to rest for 7 minutes. The mixture should be bubbly, if it isn’t start again (too cold water won’t activate the yeast and too hot will kill it.)
  7. Mix your flours while the yeast is proofing. Add almond flour, flaxseed meal, whey protein powder, sweetener, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt to a medium bowl and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Set aside.
  8. Once your yeast is proofed, add int he eggs, lightly cooled melted butter (you don’t want to scramble the eggs or kill the yeast!) and vinegar. Mix with an electric mixer for a minute or so until fully mixed. Add the flour mixture in one go, mixing quickly until thoroughly incorporated. The dough will become very sticky, so you want to work quickly to get it mixed properly. use a wet spatula to gather the dough into a ball.
  9. Divide the dough in 3 so you work in batches, important if you’ve never worked with this dough (you can roll it all in one go after you get some practice!) Lightly oil the piece of cling film and place the dough on top, spreading it with your wet fingertips onto a roughly 7.5×9 ” rectangle. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar to taste, leaving a 1 inch at the top untouched. using the cling film as an aid, roll the dough as tightly as you can and sealing the edge with your wet fingertips. Carefully we the blade of a sharp knife and cut into three if you divided the dough in thirds. Turn the rolls and lightly press them down with your palm.
  10. Transfer the rolls to prepared pan with caramel-pecan topping. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm draft-free space for 50-60 minutes until the dough has almost doubled in size. How long it takes depends on your altitude, temperature and humidity – so keep an eye out for it every 15 minutes or so.
  11. Preheat oven to 400F while the dough is proofing
  12. Place the pan on top of a baking tray and transfer gently into the oven. Bake for 22-30 minutes until deep golden, covering with a loose foil dome as soon as they begin to brown. Just be sure that the foil isn’t resting directly on them. You can do less baking time for gooey-er rolls and longer for more bready ones.
  13. Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes and invert onto a serving plate (and ENJOY!)
Recipe Courtesy of Gnom-gnom.com

low-carb-keto-lifestyleLeave a comment

You are a gift to the world!

“No one else touches lives the same beautiful way you do. No one meets challenges with your extraordinary blend of talents, traits and problem-solving powers. No one can work your brand of magic. And no one is more special than irreplaceable, celebrate-able you.” Exerpt taken from Women’s World Magazine.

Are you still working? Or are you one of the millions that are laid off now with no job! Are the walls closing in on you? Are you fighting with the ones you love because you’re all together too much?

This poem above hit home with me. I am one of the lucky ones having not been laid off work, but I can say that sometimes the walls are closing in on me as well. I’ve been trying to get outside as much as possible on my days off. Weather has been beautiful and I’m an outdoor kind of girl.

Read the poem above over and over again until you believe what it is saying. Now more than ever you have to realize your worth because life as you knew it has changed. Even for us that are still working life has changed.

Celebrate the little things in life, a cup of coffee in the morning, sunshine in the sky, spring has come around, your kids are healthy or your aged parents are healthy!

Did you know that if you just smile to one person and look at them, they can only smile in return —- so give a smile away today. Make some cookies and share with the neighbors or take them to work and feed your fellow workers.

Enjoy this time for tomorrow will come and all will be different again. We will get back to being so busy we don’t have time to turn around. Learn to love the little things again and make your children smile! They grow up too fast and they leave home and start homes of their own. So learn to love yourself first, then everyone else receives the blessings of your love and care.

low-carb-keto-lifestyleLeave a comment

Crazy keto dough (for everything)

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Think of this as your crazy keto dough good for anything from pizza, hot pockets, tortillas, pasties... and so much more!!!


Ingredients

  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 3 tablespoons coconut flour
  • 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt depending on whether sweet or savory
  • 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 3 teaspoons water as needed

Directions

  1. Add almond flour, coconut flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt to food processor. Pulse until thoroughly combined. Note: you can alternatively whisk everything ina large bowl and use a hand or stand mixer for the following steps.
  2. Pour in apple cider vinegar with the food processor running. Once it has distributed evenly, pour in the egg. Followed by the water. Stop the food processor once the dough forms into a ball. The dough will be sticky to touch.
  3. Wrap dough in cling film and knead it through the plastic for a minute or two. Think of it a bit like a stress ball. allow dough to rest for 10 minutes ( and up to 3-4 days in the fridge).
    4. If cooking on the stove top (tortillas, naan)
  4. Heat up a skillet (preferably) or a pan over medium heat. You can test the heat by sprinkling a few water droplets, if the drops evaporate immediately your pan is too hot. The droplets should ‘run’ through the skillet.
  5. Transfer to skillet and cook over medium heat for just 3-4 seconds (very important). Flip it over immediately (using a think spatula or knife), and continue to cook until just lightly golden on each side though with the traditional charred marks), 30 to 40 seconds. The key is not to overcook them, as they will no longer be pliable or puff up.
    6. If baking (pizza, cinnamon rolls)
  6. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking tray with a baking mat or parchment paper. If making pizza, you’ll want to blind bake the crust without toppings until lightly golden (10-13 minutes). Add the toppings and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.
    7. If frying (pasta, ravioli)
  7. Heat up butter or oil in a skillet or pan over low heat. Cook pasta until it just begins to get some color, I found this gave the most ‘al dente’ texture (soft but with a bite). Feel free to make a test with one piece.
Recipe Courtesy of gnom-gnom.com

low-carb-keto-lifestyleLeave a comment