Loving earth vanilla powder

Happy New Year, everyone!

I'd like to start the new year with  a recommendation for a brilliant product!
You may have noticed that several of my recipes call for something called vanilla powder. It is exactly what it sounds like: Pure, ground vanilla. Until now I have been unable to find it anywhere in Australia. I have probably asked about it in ten health food stores, and they have just looked at me weirdly. Iherb doesn't stock it either. I found it on a UK website called gojiking, but somehow I never got around to order it. I had just resigned myself to always having to bake with that icky, sugary-laden vanilla-paste from my local Woollies. I once found a vanilla essence that was just vanilla and alcohol (no sugar), but I wasn't too impressed. Of course, I could just use vanilla-pods, but firstly I'm too lazy to scrape out the seeds, and secondly, they cost a fortune in Australia. But, one morning I saw this Aussie supermodel on a TV-show sharing a cake-recipe where she used ground vanilla. She said it was from loving earth, which I found out was an internet store after some googling. VOILA! I ordered it, and a couple of days later I had the parcel at my door step.

This is how it looks like:

Now, it wasn't cheap: This 75 gram container was around 20 dollars (if I remember correctly). But, you only ever use a teaspoon, so it will last forever! What I like about baking with real, ground vanilla, is that you get these little black vanilla grains that makes your ice-cream etc look really gourmet-ish. Plus it tastes yum, and that it's organic doesn't hurt! Use in teas, coffees, smoothies - and of course all your low-carb treats.

I can not recommend this product highly enough for your low carb baking. 

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.