August 2017 – Low Carb Fanatic

Flourless Banting Chocolate Cake

August 15, 2017August 1, 2017Leave a comment

During our Staycation last year, we had a particularly good lunch at Union 8 Cafe on the Sth Circular Road and I treated myself to a rather indulgent slice of Flourless Chocolate Cake – Not wholly Banting friendly, I know, but it gave me the inspiration to come up with a fully Low Carb version!

Here is my Banting take on a Rich Dark Chocolate Cake recipe I found in an old Rachel Allen cookbook. This was very easy to adapt and I’m happy to say that the first test came out beautifully.

One of the tricky things with adapting recipes for baked goods is that baking is chemistry, it’s a more exact form of cooking, and less forgiving when you tinker with the fundamentals. The trick here was getting the sugar replacement right. I went with a xylitol/stevia mix in a ratio of 2:1. I also used a mixture of cocoa solid strengths in the Chocolate that I used. For this test it was a combination of 90% and 70%, again in a 2:1 ratio.

Ingredients:

Melted butter to grease the tin

Chocolate 150g

Butter 125g

Xylitol 100g

Stevia 50g

Eggs 3 (lightly beaten)

Ground Almonds 55g

Fresh Raspberries handful (optional)

Preheat oven to 160℃. Butter the sides of a 20cm spring form cake tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper. Place the chocolate, butter, and xylitol/stevia in a bowl over a saucepan if simmering water.

Once melted, stir in the beaten eggs and fold in the ground almonds. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and gently press the raspberries into the cake mix if using.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until the centre is just set.

Allow to cool in the tin.

I should add…it tasted really, really good!

Super Simple Salad Dressing

August 8, 2017August 1, 2017Leave a comment

One of the key lifestyle change that I made when I switched to LCHF eating was to start making my own lunches and bringing them to the office with me. Once I have made sure to stock up in the market at the weekend, and done my Sunday food prep, it just takes a couple of minutes to pull it together in the mornings.

One of the critical ingredients to have on hand is a nice homemade dressing to mix in with salad combos like avocado and cucumber – a particular favourite of mine. The dressing helps protect the avocado and keep it from discolouring in my lunch box.

This week I made a variation of the Vinaigrette recipe from The Ketogenic Kitchen cookbook.

The original recipe called for whole grain mustard but I only had Dijon!

1 clove garlic
8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp black pepper
Pinch of salt

I whizzed all the ingredients up in my mini food processor and bottled the tasty results. This will keep for about a week in the fridge.

I find this is a handy way to add apple cider vinegar to my daily diet.

Note: the amount pictured here is double the recipe above

Not so bullet proof!

August 1, 2017August 1, 2017Leave a comment

In 2016, I qualified as a Certified Banting Coach. When one of my clients asked me what I thought about Bullet Coffee, I had to confess that I had never tried it. I am strictly a black coffee drinker, no sugar, no sweeteners. I like it ‘unadulterated’ – plain and simple.

Using coffee as the mechanism to inject extra healthy fat into my diet simply did not appeal. I am more drawn to buttery, cheesy scrambled eggs with spinach and bacon.

However, it’s a popular Banting/LCHF breakfast staple so a while back I decided to finally give it a try!

I used two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of coconut oil per the Real Meal Revolution cookbook with an Americano made on two shots of Nespresso.

Confession time..,

I’m not a huge fan of the flavour of coconut so that did not work for me. I think I would need to reduce or remove the coconut oil to make this palatable for me. The texture was fine though so if I tinker with it and try adding some other ingredients like high cocoa solid chocolate it might appeal to my taste buds better.

For now though…it’s a thumbs down for me!