Toasted müsli, LCHF style

I am SO glad I found this recipe, as well as finally finding he time to make it! Because this is the best müsli I have ever eaten.  It’s so healthy as well, without any of that nasty sugar the store-bought toasted müslis are full of.  And of course, it’s low in carbs as well. 

Ingredients

1 cup almonds

1 cup walnuts

1 cup hazelnuts

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup linseeds, whole

1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup water

½ cup coconut oil

5 tablespoons erythritol (or other sweetener), plus more erythritol for tossing

Cardamom

1 teaspoon salt

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Roughly chop walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds and transfer to a large baking bowl.  Add seeds and the shredded coconut, stir.  Then add salt and sweetener. Pour over oil and water and stir well. Spread mixture on a baking tray, there’s no need to use baking-paper underneath.  Sprinkle more erythritol on top, along with some cardamom (if desired). Put the tray in the oven, without stirring at this point in time. Bake for 15 minutes in the middle of the oven. Then remove tray, stir thoroughly to prevent burning. Add another layer of erythritol, then bake for another 15 minutes before stirring again. Repeat process every fifteen minutes, with or without adding cardamom. I think I got 4 layers with sweetener, and chose to add cardamom on two of those layers. The baking-time was roughly 1 hour to make a crispy, golden müsli. Depending on your type of oven, it may take a bit more or less. I reduced the temperature down to 160 degrees C towards the end.  Guess what I’ll be having for breakfast tomorrow –  and probably for the rest of the week  :-D

Enjoy! 

Thanks to Caroline on www.fotballfrue.no for inspiration. I have made a couple of small changes, and "australianised" the recipe somewhat using cup-measures. 

LCHF picnic

Spring is here in the Southern Hemisphere!!! I love to head for the beaches this time of year, and pack lots of goodies for a picnic. Living in the Brisbane-area I'm so lucky to have all the wonderful beaches in Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast within day trip-distance, so I'm planning for lots of nice picnics this season :-D

Here are some tips for what to pack for a LCHF picnic:

- Different cheeses
- Olives
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Carrots (depending on your "carb-budget)
- Strawberries
- Salami
- Ham
- Chicken-wings
- Dips (make your owns, or choose some that are low in sugar)
- LCHF almond sesame crackers, see the recipe below

My friend who doesn't eat LCHF had brought some fruit as well (in case you were wondering what the bananas are doing in a post about low carb picnic-suggestions)

Almond sesame crackers

These crackers have become a favourite of mine. They are perfect for breakfast, and also work nicely with a cheese-platter and some wine. I’ve been having them for breakfast quite frequently the last couple of months. Three of these with some brie and butter on, and I’m full until way past lunch-time.  I found the recipe at Linn’s blog, www.linn-sin-verden.blogspot.com.

Ingredients

250 ml ground almonds (or if you ground your own, use about 200 ml of whole almonds)

100 ml sesame seeds

2 eggwhites

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sweetener, I use erythritol

2 teaspoons psyllium husk fibre

Procedure

Heat oven to 180 degrees C.

Combine all ingredients in your mixer and mix for half a minute or so.  Then form round balls which you then squeeze flat on a baking paper.  Moisten your hands with water beforehand;  it makes it easier to form the crackers.  This recipe gives me 8-9 “breakfast-sized” crackers, but if you are making these to have with wine and nibblies, they can be made smaller as well. They also taste nicely with some sea-salt tossed on top right before they go in the oven.  Bake for 20 – 25 minutes depending on size.

Enjoy! 

This is how my breakfast looked like one morning. I had actually been a bit  too optimistic with the amounts of food on my plate, I couldn't finish it all... 

Moussaka

I used to love moussaka as a child, but for some reason I had totally forgotten about this yummy, Greek dish. But last week I came across a recipe for low carb moussaka on a Norwegian blog that I follow. I was tempted, and of course I had to try it. I can highly recommend trying this recipe, but be aware that it's not exactly fast food! So make sure you save it for a day you're not in a rush. I think I spent 3.5 hours in the kitchen - partly because the sauce went a bit pear shaped, and I had to do it  over again (only the sauce-part of it, luckily...). Traditional moussaka calls for potatoes in addition to eggplant. But this recipe here contains only eggplant, so it should be a perfect LCHF meal. 

For the eggplant base you need:

2 eggplants

Salt

Pepper

Butter for frying

Slice the eggplants as thinly as possibly, and place them on paper towels on the kitchen bench top. Cover the slices generously with salt. (The salt draws out a lot of water from the eggplants, and prepares them for frying). Let sit out for half an hour, and then wipe off the water that has gathered on top of the eggplant slices. Sprinkle the eggplant slices  with salt and pepper after taste, then fry in generous amounts of butter. When the slices are nice and brown, spread them out in a medium sized baking tray. This now forms the bottom of the moussaka. 

Next, make the minced meat filling, which will go on top of the eggplant.

Minced meat-filling:  

500 g minced meat

2 red onions

4 cloves of garlic

2 teaspoons cinnamon (ground)

4 bay leaves

1 can of tomatoes

4 tablespoons tomato paste

200 ml red wine

2 teaspoons oregano

salt

pepper

Chop the red onions and the garlic finely.Fry this in some butter in a frying pan. Then, remove from frying pan and place in a saucepan. Brown the minced meat, then add this to the onion mix in the saucepan. Now add the rest of the ingredients in the list above. Reduce on low heat. Then, remove the bay leaves, and pour the minced meat mixture on top of the eggplants in the baking dish. 

Next step is to make a cheese-sauce which will go on top of the minced meat. (Beware! This is the step where I messed up...)

Cheese sauce:

500 ml full fat milk

3 tablespoons full fat cream

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon nutmeg

4 eggs

250 g grated cheese

Salt 

Pepper

4 bay leaves

Beat eggs until fluffy.

Boil the milk together with cream and butter until it has thickened a bit. Then add the beaten eggs to the mixture while constantly stirring. Add the spices to taste. Finally, add the grated cheese, and stir, briefly, until even. Then add this cheese sauce on top of the meat-sauce. 

Note: The first time I think I stirred to much, and it all separated into one yukky fatty phase and one aqueous phase... But the second time I was quicker, and it went ok. 

Bake on 190 degrees C in the middle of the oven for about 45 minutes. 

Serve with a Greek salad, and enjoy! I made the salad with cherry tomatoes, red onion, olives, feta cheese and some store-bought tzatziki. 

The two of us got at least three meals out of this generous recipe. 

I found this recipe on the very inspirational blog fotballfrue.no 

Birthday cake

It was my birthday a few weeks ago, and naturally I wanted birthday cake! Last year I treated myself to some Cheesecake Factory, because those cakes used to be among (my MANY sugary) favourites. That birthday cake  must have been my one and only "sugar incidence" last year... Many people find that once they are off the sugar, the ''white poison'' doesn't quite taste the same. This wasn't the case for me though! I had one piece, then another one, and I was in heaven! However, those next few days was much less divine for me... I felt like I was climbing up the walls, desperately craving more sugar and cake, like a former drug addict thinking she'd have just ONE more shot of heroine, then totally falling off the wagon... I stayed strong though, knowing it would pass, and finally I got over it. But that incidence made me realise just how strong an effect sugar has on me, and that having sugary cakes just isn't worth it - not even once per year... This year, therefore, I baked a sugar-free LCHF cake. This way I can have my cake and eat it too, without the post-sugar blues and cravings.


Cecilie's pink low carb baking bible (www.fristendelavkarbo.no) once again came to my rescue, with this divine raspberry and chocolate mousse  creation. It took a few hours to make, but was so worth the wait!


Crust:
5 eggs
100 ml erythritol
5 tablespoons  cocoa
4 tablespoons coconut flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon psyllium husk
50 g melted butter


Use a spring form measuring about 22 cm, and grease it with butter or coconut oil.
Beat eggs and erythritol until very fluffy. Combine cocoa, coconut flour, baking powder and the psyllium husk in a baking bowl. Sift  the mixture into the eggs. Then stir in melted butter.
Bake in the middle of the oven on 175 degrees C for 25 minutes.
Let the crust cool while you make chocolate mousse and raspberry mousse as per the instructions below. Then add one layer of chocolate mousse and then a layer of raspberry mousse on top of that. Decorate with a tray of fresh raspberries.


Chocolate mousse: 
200 ml cream
200 g 70 % Lindt chocolate
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
4 tablespoons erythritol, the icing sugar kind


Melt the chocolate in a non-stick pan. Let cool a little.
Whip the cream and put it in the fridge.
Divide the eggs. Beat the egg whites stiff together with the "icing sugar" erythritol. Whip the egg yolks lightly and combine them with the melted chocolate.
Fold the chocolate mass carefully into the cream. Lastly, carefully fold the egg whites into the combined chocolate + cream mass.


Raspberry mousse: 
300 g frozen raspberries
5 tablespoons erythritol
300 ml cream
3 leaves of gelatin


Defrost berries, and combine with erythritol using a hand blender. Remove the seeds from the berry puree by pouring it through a sieve (using the back of a spoon to "force" it through, as the puree is quite thick). I repeated this a couple of times to get rid of as many as possible of the seeds.
Place the gelatin leaves in cold water. Heat up a small amount of raspberry puree in a pot, then squeeze the water from the gelatin leaves and dissolve them in the heated raspberry puree. Now add this into the rest of the raspberry puree (which is cool)
Whip the cream and carefully fold it into the raspberry puree, little by little.


Enjoy!


The tablespoon measure used is the 15 ml size

LCHF breakfast rolls

My favourite Norwegian low carb blogger, Lena Beatrice on  www.lenabeatrice.net has written her first cookbook. Through the last year and a half I have found so much inspiration on her amazing blog. So of course I had to get her book! This amazing author personally mailed me the book all the way from Norway to Australia! Even with a very nice dedication and her autograph! Lena has lost 45 kgs following LCHF, and - like myself - she has found LCHF the solution for staying slim for life!

What I love about her cooking - and her book as well - is that the recipes are simple: Just yummy everyday foods with ingredients you can find in most food stores.

I thought I'd share her recipe for breakfast rolls: They are a bit oopsie-like and SO yummy. Enjoy!

4 egg whites
25 g almonds, grounded
25 g sunflower seeds, grounded
25 g linseed
25 g sesame seeds
1 teaspoon  baking powder
1 pinch of salt

Beat the egg whites stiff. Carefully turn in seeds and almonds. Use a spoon and place into four little piles on a baking tray covered in baking paper.

Bake on 175 degrees at the bottom shelf of the oven for around 20 minutes.

Winter is coming

Here is a sign that winter is just around the corner in the Southern Hemisphere.

My coconut oil has gone rock solid when stored in room temperature! 

For most of the year it stays a liquid when stored in my pantry in sunny Brisbane... 

Perfect LCHF breakfast

This has been my breakfast on most days this week:
Nannah's LCHF  crispbreads with a thick spread of organic macadamia nut paste that I found at the West End Market a couple of weeks ago. Of course, no breakfast of mine is complete without a large mug of coffee with cream. The jar of macadamia butter is quickly running out, so  I guess  I'll have to head for the markets this weekend as well!

Nannah's crispbreads

Nannah has been active on a Norwegian low carb forum for years, and she is wellknown for her amazing recipes. Her low carb crisp breads are a hit among Norwegian lowcarbers. This recipe is so good that it deserves to be made available for the English-speaking world, so I decided to post it here on my blog. Nannah has now started a low carb blog, where she posts recipes and photos of all her wonderful LCHF food creations. Have a look at it here, and use google translator: 

http://hanseloggretel.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/nannahs-knekkebrd.html

200 g sunflower seeds 

50 g linseed

50 g sesame seed

50 g natural bran

2 tbsp (the 15 ml size) psyllium husk fibre

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tbsp erythritol 

500 ml water

Stir ingredients together.  Let the dough sit for 10 minutes for the psyllium husk to swell. Spread the mass on two baking trays covered with baking paper. Use a pizza wheel to divide into squares.  Bake on 160 degrees C for 1 hour 10 minutes, both baking trays in the oven at the same time. Let the trays switch place twice during the baking time, as well as turning the trays around once. 

Each crispbread should have less than 1 grams of carbohydrates (based on 32 plates)

The crispbreads tastes wonderfully when served with some butter and cheese. Can be eaten for breakfast, snack or even lunch.

LCHF chocolate chip cookies

I had bought 100 grams of 70 % Lindt chocolate for Easter, thinking that I would make LCHF chocolate eggs. But then I figured that I would probably just eat them all in one go, so I decided to make something where I could ''dilute'' the chocolate a bit. I settled on chocolate chip cookies from this wonderful baking book that I found on the West End market a couple of weeks ago:

I made a few changes to the recipe, for example swapping brown sugar for erythritol, as well as using half the amount suggested in the book. Here is my version:


1∕2 cup butter
1∕2 cup erythritol (the finely ground, icing-sugar-type)
5 eggs
1  teaspoon vanilla
1∕8 teaspoon salt
1 1∕2 cup dessicated coconut 
100 g 70 % Lindt chocolate 
1 cup coconut flour


Make chocolate chips from the dark chocolate. Mix together butter, erythritol, eggs, vanilla and salt. Stir in chocolate chips, coconut flour  and dessicated coconut. Drop batter in spoon-sized mounds on a sheet of baking paper. Bake on 190 degrees C for 15 minutes. Makes 20-25 cookies.


Note: The dough was a bit dry and crumbly. For a smoother dough, perhaps it could be worth trying to add a bit more butter or perhaps an extra egg. However, the crumbly dough didn't affect the end result - the cookies were divine and their texture improved further after a day in the fridge. 

LCHF breakfast smoothie

Having this nutrition-bomb of a smoothie on your front-veranda is such a fabulous way of starting a day. I found the recipe on my new favourite blog www.densyvendesans.wordpress.com and only changed it slightly. 

1 tbsp linseed

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

1 tbsp dessicated coconut

80 g frozen raspberries

100 ml cream 

50 g cottage cheese

50 g Greek yoghurt 

(NB! The tablespoon measures I've used are all the 15 ml kind, which should equal an Aussie dessert spoon)

Combine the seeds and coconut in a blender and blend for a few seconds. 

Add the rest of the ingredients into the blender and blend untill smooth. Add some milk if it's too thick.  (I had to add some, but don't know the measure exactly)

Serve in a tall glass with a couple of ice cubes. This nutritious and KJ dense smoothie kept me full for six hours straight. 

LCHF waffles

If I’ll be honest, sometimes it sucks having to follow an eating program where you have to make most foods from scratch. It’s all about planning if you want to succeed, and I’ll admit that I can be a bit slack in the planning-department. I have all these good intentions, but I still sometimes wake up, not having a clue what to have for breakfast or lunch. There’s no way I can buy anything in the café at uni, because it’s all heavily laden with starch and sugar. I’m not a morning-person at the best of times. But Friday I really had to force my eyes open when my alarm clock rang because I was so exhausted after a long and hard week. I didn’t feel able to put two thoughts together until I had finished my ginormous jug of coffee with cream. I opened the fridge, and found nothing exciting. I didn’t feel like cooking anything, and there was my partner just popping two pieces of bread into the toaster, and his brekkie was ready. Oh, how tempted I was to do just that! But after half an hour of procrastinating and slowly waking up, I suddenly found a solution to both my lunch and brekkie-problem: Low carb waffles! Waffles are perfect, because you can just make a big batch and have several days in a row. (If you have the time to make them, of course) I decided not to do the 30 minute drive to uni, but have a day of home-study, so even though I had such a slow start I still ended up with a productive morning. 

So, my advice to anyone, including myself, following a low carb way of living is: Planning, planning and planning! That way you’re not faced with making impossible decisions on mornings when you are walking around comatose and just wish you could sneak back into bed and pull the covers over your head. ..

The recipe that came to my rescue was by amazing blogger Cecilie from www.fristendelavkarbo.no, and her amazing pink baking-book by the same name (unfortunately not available in English - yet)

4 eggs
4 dessertspoons of erythritol
1 tub of full fat sour cream
100 ml almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 dessertspoons psyllium husk
Cardamom and/or cinnamon after taste

Let the batter stand to swell for a few minutes before baking  in a waffle iron. The waffles get quite thin, but very tasty. 
Serve for example with blueberries on. Enjoy! 
(Makes 10-12 waffles)

Lasagne

Different versions of pasta recipes have been going around the Scandinavian blogosphere for a while now, and today I decided it was time to try it out. I was a bit sceptical before I started and found it a bit hard to believe that a ‘’pasta’’ based on eggs, cream-cheese and psyllium-husk could actually taste like the real thing. But it did! At least when it was combined with loads of yummy pasta-sauce and cheese. Previously I have been using zucchini in stead of pasta sheets. That tastes quite alright as well, but this recipe here really had that lasagne-feel that I had been missing.

Pasta:

3 eggs

100 g (softened) Philadelphia cheese

50 ml (15 grams) psyllium husk

Beat eggs and Philadelphia cheese. Add psyllium husk. Let stand to thicken for around ten minutes. Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Place the pasta mass onto the baking paper, and place another baking paper on top of it. Use a rolling pin to spread the mass into quite a thin layer. Then bake on 150 degrees C for 10 minutes, with the baking-paper still on top. Then remove the top baking paper and part into little squares resembling lasagne sheets. Let it cool down.

Sauce:

500 g minced meat

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 jar of tomato paste

1 1∕2 jar of cottage cheese

Spices (I used salt, Trocomare, pepper and oregano)

Grated cheese

Brown the mince and add garlic, onion, tomato paste and spices. Let simmer for a few minutes. Place half the mince into an oven safe tray. Then add a layer of lasagne sheets followed by a layer of cottage cheese. Now comes a second layer of minced meat, then lasagne sheets and cottage cheese. Finish with a layer of sprinkled cheese and bake on 200 degrees C for 30 minutes. Serve with a salad.

I got the inspiration from www.ingridsblogg.no, who again has found inspiration from www.fotballfrue.no I also found a similiar pasta recipe on www.lilalife.no. 

Tip: Instead of lasagne sheets, you can actually use the recipe to make tagliatelle. Then you first sprinkle the cooked pasta mass with some olive oil (avoids clumping), roll the cooked pasta mass up, and cut it thinly using a knife. For a photo, see http://www.matblogg.net/2012/02/03/er-det-pasta-mon-tro/ I haven’t made it yet, but it will definitely be my next project. 

My favourite stir fry

YUM! This is the best stir fry I've ever made! All thanks to Ingrid from  www.ingridsblogg.no, who shared this wonderful recipe.(I've found so many delicious recipes and tons of inspiration on her blog). The recipe makes an enormous portion, so I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's dinner :-D


Here it goes:

600 g chicken fillets
oil
about 1\3 cup of soy sauce
1 tsp. green curry
1 1\2 tbsp fish sauce (Squid brand)
2 tbsp chilli sauce
1 can coconut milk
1\3 of a ginger
1 chilli with seeds removed
2 cloves of garlic
1\2 bag of cashew nuts (approximately 125 g)
1 bunch of broccoli
1 tray of ready chopped carrots and beans
1 tray snow peas
2 capsicums
1 can of baby-corn 
1 red onion


Chop broccoli, capsicum and read onion. Add baby corn, snow peas, carrots and beans. Heat oil in the wok and stir-fry the veggies in three portions to avoid the wok going cold. Then remove the veggies and stir-fry the chicken. Chop the garlic and the chilli and grate ginger. Roast the cashew nuts slightly, then quickly fry garlic, chilli and grated ginger. Then add in the meat, stir, then add all the veggies. Now it's time to add the soy sauce, fish sauce and the chilli sauce and let it sit in the wok for a couple of minutes while stirring. Add coconut milk and the green curry. Let simmer for 5-8 minutes, then serve. 


Voila! So healthy and so yum! 

LCHF and the environment

A low carb diet is often criticised for being bad for the environment. Do I agree with this statement? Yes and no. Like with  most other topics, I feel that there isn't a black and white answer to this. First of all, I don't think my meat consumption has increased much, if at all, after I started a low carb lifestyle. But, in general my consumption of animal produce has gone a bit up: For example, I have scrambled eggs on most mornings. In my life b.lc. (life before low carb) I bought max 1 packet of eggs each month. An increased egg production can be bad for the environment, and definitely for the poor hens that are spending their life as egg-producing machines in tiny cages. But our eggs come from happy, Australian backyard hens that get  to roam around in plenty of space outside every day of the year, get treated really well and are fed food-scraps from the family that owns them. Even the cartons we get the eggs in are reused: When we have eaten the eggs, we take the cartons back to the family and get our new portion of eggs in the same ones. I believe that since my low carb way of life leads to me using more eggs in my cooking, the least thing I can do is to make sure all my eggs comes from a source that's both good for the animals and for the environment.

Another thing about my low carb lifestyle is that I drink less milk than I used to and use more cream in the cooking. It's a wellknown fact that the production of cream is a lot more resource-consuming than milk. However, the amounts of cream that I use are quite small, and I reckon that when I'm not buying litres and litres of milk, at least I am saving the environment all the milk cartons. 

Saving of packaging materials is a big plus for the environment with a low carb lifestyle: A true LCHF'er goes past all the aisles in the super market devoted to packaged cookies, crackers, potato chips and sugary drinks like juices and sodas. An average Aussie's consumption of all those items should add up to quite a few truck loads per year I can imagine. I feel that by not consuming any sodas or juices and the other items I can do quite good things for the environment. 

When we are talking about cookies, chips and other convenience food, there's another important point to mention: Palm-oil. A lot of processed food that's a no-no for a low-carber contain palm oils. I've seen the plantations on Borneo where they cut down the rain-forest to grow palms for palm-oil extraction - and it's a tragic sight... Needless to say, chopping down vast areas of pristine rain forest is not a good thing for the environment. I would estimate that I get minimal amounts of palm oil through my diet these days, so in that regard I'm doing good things for mother nature.

This next point may not be as relevant for Aussies as for us Scandinavians though: In Norway most fruits have to be imported from the opposite side of the planet, or grown in energy-intensive greenhouses. I eat very little fruit now, so at least if I were back home I would be doing a great thing for the environment. In Australia we are so lucky to have such opportunities for producing fruits and veggies locally. A great thing we can do to weigh up for our ''low carb sins'' is to try and eat only stuff that is in season in our local communities. 

It's been claimed that the earth could never sustain all it's inhabitants consuming  low carb foods. Therefore it follows that eating low carb is an egotistical act. Yes, it's true about the sustainability I think. BUT I don't believe that everyone on the planet needs to or should eat low carb. We are all such different individuals with different genetic make-up, metabolisms and levels of activity. I believe every one of us would benefit from cutting out all sugar and sugary drinks from our diets. And that everyone benefits from choosing nature-rice  instead of more refined products. But ''extreme low carb'' is perhaps only necessary for people who are obese or have ''unfortunate'' genetic make up, like myself. As well as people that have a range of other health-problems where cutting sugar and starch has proven beneficial. But then again, a larger percentage of people following low carb principles could lead to less diabetes and obesity in the first place...

What do you think? Is a low carb lifestyle bad for our planet? Or, perhaps you've got examples of other aspects of low carb eating that are actually good for Mother Earth?

Blueberry muffins

Even though I'm normally happy with my three (large) main meals, it can be practical to have a snack handy. Last weekend I baked these yummy blueberry muffins:

4 eggs

4 dessert spoons erythritol

vanilla extract after taste (I use a sugar free brand)

1 tsp baking powder

100 ml coconut flour

100 ml cream 

100 ml of blueberries 

You can use any kind of berries, and change the quantity after taste. 

Whip eggs and erythritol fluffy. Then add coconut flour, vanilla and baking powder. Lastly, whip in the cream, then add the blueberries.Scoop into muffin trays using a spoon. 

Bake on 175 degrees C in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. 

The recipe is from the delicious baking-book by Cecilie who has the blog  www.fristendelavkarbo.no  

I REALLY hope her book will be available in English soon!