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)