Blackberry-Coconut Smoothie

Click to enlarge

I’ll be glad when blackberries are in season.  I have been craving one of these.  I can get blueberries, so perhaps I can substitute.  This is a wonderfully refreshing afternoon treat or even a dessert!  It is not suitable until the nuts and seeds rung of the Atkins OWL carb ladder.  It is perfectly OK for Paleo-Primal folks. The sweetener I used has no carbs, so if you use one with a bulking agent, you will need to add in those carbs to the numbers below.   Of course, you can always add protein powder to this if you wish, but be sure to add in those carbs to the stats below.

INGREDIENTS:

6 T. coconut cream (this is NOT cream of coconut bartenders use, which has added sugar & carbs)

3/4 c. blackberries

½ c. water

about 3/4 c. ice cubes

Your preferred sweetener to taste

DIRECTIONS: Put everything in the blender and let ‘er rip until all is smooth and ice is no longer in chunks.  The coconut cream will thicken it adequately.  Pour into a glass and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 1 smoothie which contains:

193 cals, 24.5 g fat, 13.4 g carbs, 6.7 g fiber,  6.7 g NET CARBS, 1.5 g protein, 16 mg sodium

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Berry Bites

Strawberry Breakfast Bites

Last year I made hubby a cake for Valentine’s Day.  This year I think I’ll resurrect these tasty morsels.  If you don’t have the Nordicware pan I used, you can use any mini-muffin pan you have, they just won’t have the flower shapes.  These were so easy to make and so good my husband just couldn’t stop grabbing another and another.  I enjoy mine with my with morning coffee.  Or sprinkle them with powdered sweetener and serve them as a lovely sweet with an afternoon cup of tea.   These are suitable once you get to the berries rung of the Atkins Phase 2 OWL carb ladder. They are also OK for most Keto diets.

NOTE: If you are gluten free, use all gluten-free mix, as my Einkorn mix is not gluten free.

INGREDIENTS:

4 large eggs, beaten

¼ c. Jennifer Eloff’s Gluten-Free Bake Mix

¼ c. my Einkorn Bake Mix (or more Jennifer’s mix for gluten-free)

1 c. frozen strawberries, drained and chopped (or other berries if you like)

2 T. erythritol

2 T. Splenda, granulated

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1 T. + 1 tsp. coconut oil

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º. Melt coconut oil in your mini muffin baking pan and brush 24 slots well with oil.

Beat the eggs in a small mixing bowl.  Add the bake mix.  You can use any low-carb bake mix you prefer.  Add sweeteners, vanilla and chopped berries.  Fold all together until smooth.   Using a 2 T. measuring cup, spoon batter into mini muffin pan slots.  Right is the Nordicware pan I used.

They will be nearly full to the brim.  Don’t worry, Mine didn’t overflow in the pans, although they do temporarily rise above the top like a soufflé…..and then fall a bit when done and cooled.

Pop into oven and bake for 16-18 minutes or until risen and firm in the center.  Remove, cool a couple minutes and with knife tip, lift them out and serve while warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 24 Berry Bites or “mini muffins”, each contains:

32.3 cals, 2.4g fat, 1.55g carbs, 0.37g fiber, 1.18g NET CARBS, 1.67g protein, 16 mg sodium

Einkorn Blueberry Crumble

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I’m having some back issues of late.  Can’t stand up for very long, so my time-consuming baking efforts will likely wane for awhile.  But I have a kitchen island with comfy bar chairs and I can sure sit and cook, have the hubs put the pan in the oven and pull it out when it’s done!  I don’t need any assistance with eating my fair share though.  😉

My husband pointed out today we had a carton of blueberries at the back of the fridge so I decided to make some sort of simple crisp or crumble fruit baked dish.  My husband set the oven, greased my baking dish and rounded up the ingredients from my pantry (bending and stooping is an issue, too). I was able to do most of the rest, with the added help of regular heavy doses of ibuprofen all week long.

This was my first time using Swerve® sweetener and I was at a loss there.  It didn’t have any funny aftertaste sampled on my finger, nor in the final crumble dish that I could detect.  It is worthy of further experimenting in my opinion.  Just followed the info on the back of the packaging and it came out pretty close to my taste preference.  But honestly, it wasn’t quite sweet enough with 2 Tbsp. and I have therefore adjusted the recipe below for what should be better next baking.  The crumble topping was successful and the final dessert came out quite tasty.

Blueberries are a little higher in carbs, so if you are still in the Induction phase of the diet, use strawberries or raspberries instead. To lower carbs further, omit the Einkorn flour totally.  I simply adds a nice flour taste and pastry texture that almond flour alone can’t do.   🙂  This recipe is not suitable until you have reached the nuts and berries level of Phase 2 Atkins.  It’s a little high carb for Keto diets.  This is not suitable for Primal-Paleo plans.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. fresh blueberries

3/4 c. Jennifer Eloff’s Splendid Gluten-Free Bake Mix (or other low-carb mix)

2 T. Einkorn flour

3 T. Swerve® sweetener (or equivalent sweetener to equal 3 T. sugar)

2 T. oat fiber

1 large egg

3 T. butter

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Rub butter lightly on a 6″ square baking dish and set dish aside.  Put rest of the butter in a medium bowl.  Add all the dry ingredients on top of the butter.  Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal.  Add the egg on top, beat it with a fork and slowly work it into a dough with the dry ingredients.  Using a fork or your fingers, crumble the dough evenly on top of the fruit.  Pop into preheated 350º oven and bake for about 20-23 minutes or until lightly browned on the top.  Slightly cool and enjoy warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 4 servings, each contains:

240 cals, 18 g fat, 20.25 g carbs, 7.12 g fiber, 13.13 g NET CARBS, 13 g protein, 46 mg sodium

Blackberry-Coconut Smoothie

Click to enlarge

This is one of my oldest blog recipes but still a favorite smoothie at our house.  Very refreshing and a wonderful summertime treat or dessert!  Just made some last night in fact.  This recipe is not suitable until the nuts and seeds rung of the Atkins OWL carb reintroduction ladder.  It is perfectly OK for Paleo-Primal folks as well. The sweetener I used has no carbs, so if you use one with a bulking agent, you will need to add in those carbs to the numbers below.   Of course, you can always add protein powder to this if you wish, but be sure to add in those carbs to the stats below.

INGREDIENTS:

6 T. coconut cream (this is NOT cream of coconut bartenders use, which has added sugar & carbs)

3/4 c. blackberries

½ c. water

about 3/4 c. ice cubes

Your preferred sweetener to taste

DIRECTIONS: Put everything in the blender and let ‘er rip until all is smooth and ice is no longer in chunks.  The coconut cream will thicken it adequately.  Pour into a glass and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 1 smoothie which contains:

193 calories, 24.5 g  fat, 13.4 g  carbs, 6.7 g  fiber,  6.7 g  NET CARBS, 1.5 g protein, 16 mg sodium

Cherry Strudel

Who doesn’t like strudel?  I’ve used my Mozzy Dough to make peach strudel, so I’m trying a cherry version now.  I like the peach better; my husband always prefers cherry anything.  This dessert/breakfast option is not suitable until you are at Phase 2 Atkins or near goal weight due to the flour in CarbQuik mix.

 

INGREDIENTS:  

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough

1 can red cherries (water pack)

liquid sweetener of choice to taste

3/4 tsp. glucomannan powder

1 tsp. coconut oil (to oil pan, or omit and use parchment paper)

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Oil 8″x 12″ pan (or thereabouts in size) with coconut oil or line with parchment paper, your choice.  Stats below include oil on pan.  Make up the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions.  Press kneaded dough evenly into pan all the way to edges.  In a small bowl, stir glucomannan into cherries with liquid.  If you use xanthan gum instead to thicken your filling, you will have to heat the filling to a boil, then simmer and allow to thicken under heat to desired thickness.  Heating is not required for glucomannan to thicken……..just time.  When glucomannan is dissolved into cherry liquid and well-distributed, set aside for 10 minutes to thicken up.  Then spoon cherry filling down the center of dough lengthwise.  Gently lift one side of the dough up and over the cherry filling to the middle of the strudel.    Lift remaining side of dough up and over the filling, slightly overlapping the edge of the first flap of dough and set it down gently.  Press the dough seam lightly with fingertips.  Pop into 350º oven for about 20 minutes or until browned to your liking.  Cool slightly and cut into eight 2″ slices.  I like mine served warm, but we both think this dough is slightly improved when served at room temperature.  🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes eight 2″ slices, each contains:

163 cals, 11.77g fat, 12.56g carbs, 5.68g fiber, 6.88g NET CARBS, 10.5g protein, 197 mg sodium.

 

 

Coconut Crust Fruit “Pizza”

CoconutFruitPizza

This is a very old recipe of mine I modified so it is now suitable for Atkins low-carb.  It’s a pretty dessert that impresses company and yet it is so easy to make!  You make the crust a day ahead and put it all together right before serving.  The crust is very dense (not at all crumbly) and is  easiest eaten with your hands just like pizza rather than a fork!  This recipe is not acceptable for Atkins Induction, but you can enjoy it once you get to the nuts and seeds level of Atkins Phase 2 OWL.  Softening 1-2 oz. cream cheese and blending into the whipped cream is a good variation for this.  But that is not calculated in the nutritional info below.

My favorite version of this dessert is one made with fresh peaches and a few drops of almond extract added to the whipped cream.  Sooooo good!

VARIATION:  Use sliced fresh peaches, use raspberries, use blueberries.  You can also add softened cream cheese to the creamy filling and reduce the whipped cream for a firmer, richer filling. 🙂

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

1  c. unsweetened coconut

1/2 c. chopped almonds

1/3 c. Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener)

2 ½ T. low carb bake mix or almond flour (or 1 T. coconut flour)

2 egg whites lightly beaten with a whisk until frothy

1 tsp. almond extract

TOPPING INGREDIENTS: 1 c. heavy cream, 1T. s/f syrup like DaVinci or Torani and 1 pt. fruit.   Alternately you can use only 3/4 c. whipping cream and fold in 1/4 c. softened cream cheese if you like.  You will need to recalculate stats below if you do that, however.

DIRECTIONS: Line a pizza pan with foil.  Grease with butter a 9-10″ circle.  Combine all crust ingredients in a bowl and stir well.  Using fingers, spread and press firmly the coconut crust mixture into a 9-10″ circle on a greased sheet pan.  Bake at 325º for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on a wire rack.  Refrigerate overnight.

The day you want to serve, place crust on flat cake plate.  Whip cream with a splash of vanilla and sweetener of your choice (I like coconut or vanilla DaVinci sugar free syrup).   Spread whipped cream evenly over coconut crust and top with raspberries, sliced strawberries or if on the fruit rung of OWL, this is good with thinly sliced peaches.  Chill for an hour and then cut into 8 wedges and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 8, each serving (using strawberries) contains:

273 cals, 25g fat, 12g carbs, 5.1g fiber, 6.9g NET CARBS, 5g protein, 43 mg sodium

Chocolate Blueberries

Chocolate Blueberries

Chocolate Blueberries

There’s no law says you have to do chocolate covered STRAWBERRIES for your special occasions.  Other berries (or pineapple chunks) will work, too!  Today, I had big, plump blueberries in the fridge and wanted something sweet.  🙂

This recipe makes a pretty big batch of the chocolate sauce, around 1¼ cups, so I’m providing the per teaspoon nutritional info.  One teaspoon will definitely coat 1 blueberry, maybe even two.  This recipe is suitable once you reach the berries level of Phase 2 Atkins or for Keto diets as well.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS. She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try. Even a few of my recipes are in each of the 5 volumes! Order your set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

INGREDIENTS/NEEDS:

Some toothpicks

Fresh blueberries (pick the biggest ones in the carton)

Half lemon, orange or apple (for toothpick serving post)

1 c. sugar free chocolate chips

1 square unsweetened baking chocolate

¼ c. melted butter

1 T. coconut oil (or 1 T. more butter)

6 drops liquid Splenda or other liquid sweetener to taste

DIRECTIONS:  First, push a toothpick through the number of large berries you want to make.  Push through the stem scar but not quite all the way out the top.  Lay them aside until the chocolate sauce is made.  Set the lemon half cut side down on your serving plate and set aside.

CHOCOLATE SAUCE:  In a small saucepan, melt the butter and coconut oil in a double boiler over medium heat or use a makeshift double-boiler, where you put your saucepan down in a skillet of 1″ boiling water (that’s all a double boiler really is anyway).  Add the square of chocolate and melt slowly in the hot melted oil/butter.  Add the chocolate chips, stirring constantly so the chocolate will stay smooth.

ASSEMBLY:   Take each berry pick and dip the berry just deep enough into the chocolate sauce to coat the berry.  Lift carefully straight up and let it drip, rolling to even the chocolate as evenly as you can get it.  When it appears to be stopped dripping, carefully poke the berry pick into the lemon half.  Repeat for all berries.  It will take about ½ tsp. chocolate sauce to coat each berry. Refrigerate any leftover sauce for future use on more berries or for a chocolate shell coating for vanilla ice cream bars.  Pop the plate into the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes so the chocolate can harden.  When the chocolate is hard to the touch, ENJOY!  These should pretty much go from fridge to mouth or they will melt, so it’s not really a good party food siting around on a buffet table.  They are best served right from the fridge.

VARIATIONS:   Big fresh strawberries, pineapple chunks, or orange segments with outer skin/membrane removed.

NUTRITIONAL INFO (sauce only):  Makes about 1¼ cups sauce (20 T.= 60 tsp.).  Each tsp. should coat 1-2 berries.  The berry will add another 0.2 net carbs.  Each teaspoon of sauce contains

19 cals, 1.79g fat, 0.55g carbs, 0.21g fiber, 0.34g NET CARBS (the blueberry adds 0.2 g additional net carbs, so one berry treat has 0.56 NET CARBS total), 0.2 g  protein

 

Strawberry German Pancake

Strawberry German Pancake

Who says you have to make stuffed, savory dishes with spaghetti squash?  Instead make a fluffy dessert pancake!

This is my low-carb version of a very old recipe my Mom used to make with peaches.  Mine has less egg in it than is typical (I’m not too fond of eggs). This came out delicious and my husband, who dislikes all things I serve him with spaghetti squash, could NOT tell it was even in this creation!  Don’t ya just love when you can fool someone’s taste buds that way?  🙂 Unable to find my old recipe, I just started without one.  I first cooked the squash and forked out 1 c. of the threads for this recipe, storing the rest in the freezer for another use.   Then I started throwing things on top of that into the bowl.   Sometimes the ingredients just click!  🙂  This is not suitable until the berries rung of the OWL ladder.  Anyway, I think you’ll like this should you decide to give it a go.

VARIATION:  Use fresh peaches and sugar-free peach jam instead of the strawberries. (will be higher carbs however)

INGREDIENTS FOR PANCAKE: 

1 c. cooked spaghetti squash threads

1 oz. cream cheese

2 T. butter, unsalted

2 beaten eggs

1½ pkt. Truvia sweetener, or equivalent sweetener of your choice

2 tsp. DaVinci Vanilla sugar-free syrup (or ¼ tsp. vanilla extract)

2 T. golden flax meal  (or 2 T. almond flour, or 1 T. coconut flour)

1 T. sugar-free strawberry preserves

3 oz. sliced strawberries

WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING:  1/3 c. cream, whipped.  Add 1/8 tsp. vanilla & 3 drops liquid sweetener. Stir.

DIRECTIONS:  Microwave on HI a seeded spaghetti squash half cut-side down in ½” water for 13-15 minutes.  Fork out 1 c. of the threads into a mixing bowl.  Store the rest in your fridge or freezer for another use.  Preheat oven to 350º.  While squash threads are still hot, mix in cream cheese and butter to melt.  Stir well.   Add eggs, sweetener, DaVinci syrup, flax meal and sliced strawberries.  Stir well.  Pour into buttered pie plate or quiche dish.  If you prefer a perfect circlar appearance, pour into buttered individual 4″ round mini pie/cake pans.  Bake at 350º for about 20-25 minutes (only 15 min. for smaller round ones) or until center is set.  Remove and cool almost completely (top layer cannot be even warm really, but bottom one will still be) or the whipped cream topping will melt and be a runny mess, spoiling visual appearance greatly.  Cut into quarters and carefully lift 1 quarter out onto each of 2 serving plates.  Spread half the strawberry preserves on each in a thin layer.  Place another quarter of the pancake nicely on top and top with half the whipped cream topping.  Serve at once and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 2 servings each containing:  (calculated using flax meal):

356 calories, 29 g  fat, 12.5 g  carbs, 4.85 g  fiber, 7.65 g  NET CARBS, 10.5 g  protein, 217 mg sodium

 

Tarte Tatin

Gluten-Free apple Tarte

Holidays always make me remember desserts my mother loved to serve at this time of year.  The well-known French apple Tarte Tatin is one of those.  My low-carb version has a much thinner cake layer than is typical of this famous dessert.  My husband and I really liked this conversion.  I serve mine with a dollop of whipped cream on top.  I apologize for the photo quality, but this picture was taken with my very first digital camera, in the evening when natural light just isn’t there.  I’m going to have to bake this again and get a prettier picture next time.  But the photo can’t take away the fact that this recipe is absolutely delicious!  If you decide to give this one a go, you’ll be glad you did!

VARIATIONS:  Although Tarte tatin is only made with apples, this basic concept can be made with strawberries or raspberries and carbs will go down.  Pear or peach slices also do well in this but carbs will go up with those choices.

This recipe is not suitable until the higher carb fruit rung of the Atkins Phase 2 OWL carb re-introduction ladder, as you approach Maintenance.  This dessert would be acceptable for a Paleo-Primal liefstyle provided you substituted REAL honey for the sugar-free honey and subbed in REAL maple syrup for the Cary’s sugar-free maple syrup called for below.

Our latest three volumes of LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS cookbooks are calling you.  Volume 8 and Volume 9 are almost exclusively comprised of my recipes!  Included in both editions are a few tasty new creations of my dear friends George Stella and Jennifer Eloff.   Volume 10 is hot off the press with more delectable goodies.  Early orders can be delivered by Thanksgiving.  EARLY BIRD SECRET SALE!!  Special pricing and limited-time free shipping so hurry and place your order today.  You can order these or any of our cookbooks at https://amongfriends.us/Secret-SALE.php.  When you purchase our books, we would sure appreciate you stopping by Amazon to leave a review at this site

INGREDIENTS:

For the Apple filling:

4 T. total unsalted butter or ghee

11 oz. apple, peeled and sliced thin (I used 1 large JonaGold)

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

2 T. sugar-free maple syrup (I used Cary’s)

¼ tsp. grated lemon zest

For the bottom Cake Layer:

½ c. almond butter

2 T. coconut milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 T. sugar-free honey (I buy at Walmart)

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ c. almond flour

1 T. coconut flour

¼ glucomannan powder (for best texture)

DIRECTIONS:  Grease bottom and sides of a non-stick tarte pan with 1 T. of the butter and set aside.  Melt remaining 3 T. of the butter in a non-stick skillet.  Add cinnamon, nutmeg to the skillet and stir.  Add sliced apples and saute them for 3-4 minutes until apples begin to soften.  Turn off heat. Using a fork or small tongs, remove apples and layer them in the bottom of the tart pan.  You should have enough apple slices for a single layer of apples in a standard tart pan.  with the help of a spatula or heat-proof rubber spatula, scrape out and drizzle any buttery juices left in the skillet over the apples.  You don’t want to wast any of that rich flavor.  Grate lemon zest over the apples and finally drizzle the maple syrup over the apples.

Now to make the cake.  Preheat oven to 350º.  In a medium bowl, measure out the almond butter.  Add the coconut milk, imitation honey and stir with a rubber spatula until fairly smooth. Add the vanilla and beaten eggs.  Beat a minute or two to achieve a smooth liquid batter.  Measure the almond flour on top, then the coconut flour and finally the baking powder.  Beat with the spatula until smooth.  Evenly pour the cake batter over the apples, gently coaxing it out to the edges of the pan.    Pop into 350º preheated oven for about 20 minutes.  This does not rise very much and it will be completely dry to the touch in the center when done. Toothpick test will come out clean at the center.  Remove tart from the oven and cool for awhile.  While still a little warm, invert your serving plate over the tart pan or pie plate and using two hands, holding tightly, flip tart pan and serving plate over and the tart should fall neatly onto the serving plate.  Gently re-place any apples that may have stuck to the pan.  Cut into 8 slices and serve with sweetened whipped cream if desired.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 8 servings each contains:  (does not including any whipped cream topping)

235 calories, 19.5 g  fat, 11.6 g  carbs, 2.76 g  fiber, 8.94 g NET CARBS, 5.1 g  protein, 125 mg sodium

Cherry Mini Bites

Yet another tasty use of my versatile Mozzy Dough recipe and a great way to use up half a can of opened lite cherry pie filling.  The hubs and I have been super strict, ultra low-carbing (under 20 NC a day) since the 1st of September.  We decided to treat ourselves tonight with something sweet.  These  took  a mere 35 minutes to make, start to finish.  I have a 24 slot non-stick mini-muffin pan that turned out to be perfect for this amount of dough and filling.  These come out to be 1.9 net carbs per piece, so an occasional indulgence like this can break the diet monotony without breaking the proverbial “carb bank”.  🙂  These are suitable for Atkins Phase 2 and beyond and most Keto diets.

Our last two LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS cookbooks, Volume 8 and Volume 9 are almost exclusively comprised of my recipes!  Included in both editions are a few tasty new creations of my dear friends George Stella and Jennifer Eloff.   EARLY BIRD SECRET SALE!!  Special pricing and limited time free shipping so hurry and place your order.  Or you can order these or any of our cookbooks at https://amongfriends.us/Secret-SALE.php.

When you purchase our books, we would sure appreciate you stopping by Amazon to leaving a review at this page.

INGREDIENTS: 

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough

½ can Lite Cherry Pie Filling

VARIATION:  Use other lite pie filling, like blueberry or what you make up from scratch with other fruit.  Another variation would be to dot each crust with 1/2 tsp. cream cheese before adding the fruit topping.  You will need to calculate numbers again if you do that. 

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Make a batch of the Mozzy Dough.  After kneading the ball of dough until smooth, break off 1″ balls of dough and press one ball into each of the 24 slots of mini-muffin pans.   The “bowls” of dough will be quite shallow in the pan slots.  Spoon just 2 cherries (with dab of filling) into each slot neatly.  Pop into 350º and bake for around 15 minutes or until the “crust” is lightly browned around the edges.  Remove, cool 1-2 minutes and lift out with knife tip onto serving plate.  ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 24 Cherry Bites, each contains:

67 cals, 5.1g fat, 3.61g carbs, 1.71g fiber, 1.9g NET CARBS, 4.5g protein, 95 mg sodium (in cheese)

Peach Streudel

This was the first really sweet think I’ve made in a very long time and it came out soooooo good!  You can lower carbs on this dessert by using raspberries or strawberries, but the peaches and nectarines are just so beautiful right now, I just had to make something with them before the season ends.  This recipe is not suitable until you are well into Phase 2 OWL of Atkins.

Many more delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own copy of our cookbooks  LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  Volume 8 is almost exclusively comprised of my recipes with some new George Stella and Jennifer Eloff creations.  Order your books from Amazon  or our direct order site: amongfriends.us/order.php.

If you’ve already purchased a copy, I sure would appreciate your taking a moment to stop by and leave a review of any recipe you’ve tried:  https://www.amazon.com/Atkins-friendly-Wheat-free-Sugar-free-Gluten-free-Cookbooks/dp/099829974X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523112817&sr=1-1&keywords=Low-Carbing+Among+Friends+Volume-8

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Mozzy Dough (substituting 2 T. sweetener of choice for the garlic/onion powders)

2 large peaches, sliced

¼ c. sugar equivalent of your favorite sweetener

2 T. unsalted butter

1½ tsp. ground cinnamon

OPTIONAL:  1 tsp. vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Line a large baking sheet with parchment and set near your workspace.  Make the recipe of Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions, substituting in 2 T. sweetener for the garlic and onion powders.  If using the vanilla, add it to the dough with the beaten egg.  Press or roll the dough out nearly the length of a 17″ pan, right on top of the parchment paper.  Spread it out about 9″ wide.

I did not peel my peaches but you certainly can if you prefer.  Lay the peach slices down the length of the center of your rectangle of dough, slightly overlapping them.  Leave a little dough uncovered ant the two ends of the strudel dough for closing up.  Sprinkle on the ¼ c. sweetener of choice (I used erythritol).  Sprinkle the peaches with the cinnamon and dot the length of the band of peaches with the butter.  Using the parchment to help you lift the dough, fold one long side of the dough up and over the peaches gently.  Repeat that process for the other long side of the dough, slightly overlapping them if possible.  Gently pinch the ends and long seam of the strudel dough together with your fingers so the peaches and juice won’t ooze out during baking.  Although this next step is not necessary, using the parchment again to assist, I gently rolled my filled strudel so that the seam side was down on the parchment for baking.

Pop into preheated 350º oven and bake for about 18-20 minutes (watch closely as ovens vary).  Remove and with a paper towel, blot away any oozed butter or juices along the edges for a nicer presentation.   Slice into 6 servings and serve warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 servings (cutting into 8 will also lower carbs).  A slice 1/6 of the strudel will contain:

305 cals., 24.3 g fat, 15.45g carbs, 7.41g fiber, 8.04g NET CARBS, 18.25g protein, 376 mg sodium

Peach Puffs

These are only three bites each, but boy are those three bites ever GOOD!  The hubs really loved these and I thought they were quite nice, too, and not too sweet!  Most of my readers know I’m not a big sweets eater.  I noticed a lonely can of juice-pack peaches in my pantry after lunch today and knew I had half a recipe of my Mozzy Dough already made up in the fridge.  A light-bulb moment for sure.  I popped out my muffin top pan and created these tasty treats.  Only 84 calories each and 1.79 net carbs.  I made the mistake of choosing powdered erythritol for my cinnamon topping and it clumped even after sifting, so next time I’ll use exclusively granular erythritol for my topping.  These are suitable once you get to the fruit level of Atkins carb reintroduction Phase 2.

Many more delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own cookbooks from LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS, Volume 8, by Jennifer Eloff, Chef George Stella of Food Network fame, and myself.  Volume 8 is almost completely comprised of my recipes! But George Stella and Jennifer Eloff are also including several tasty new delights to try in this latest Volume 8! You’ll LOVE these delicious recipes, so order yours (Volume 8 or ANY of our cookbooks) from Amazon  or our direct order site: amongfriends.us/order.php.  For a limited time, there is free shipping if you order 2 or more cookbooks on the same order.  Remember, they make GREAT birthday or holiday gifts!  If you’ve already purchased a book, take a moment and drop by the our Amazon page and  leave your personal review on the latest book.  Inquiring minds want to know. 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 recipe my Mozzy Dough (omit garlic and onion powders)

6 slices canned peaches, sliced laterally in halves, making 12 long pieces

2 T. granular erythritol (or equivalent sugar sub of choice to equal 2 T. sugar)

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 T. butter

1 T. additional granular erythritol + 1/2 tsp. cinnamon for topping

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Make the Mozzy Dough per that recipe’s instructions.  Divide the large ball of dough in half and refrigerate or freeze as you won’t be using all of it here.  Divide your remaining dough into 12 equal balls (about 1 T. of dough each) and press each ball with your fingers into the slots of a muffin-top baking pan.  If you don’t own one, use a parchment lined baking sheet and press the balls of dough into 2½” flat rounds of dough.  Take each peach slice and slice it length-wise to make 12 thinner pieces of peach.  If you don’t do this, most canned peach slices are too bulky to wrap in such a small bit of dough.  Lay a strip of peach down the center of each ring of flattened dough.  Sprinkle the teaspoon of cinnamon down the awaiting peach slices.  Dot each of the 12 peach strips with a very small dot of butter (about 1/4 tsp.).  Sprinkle 2 T. erythritol total evenly down the 12 peach strips.  Now you’re ready to “wrap” them up.

Using the tines of a fork, lift each flap of dough over the peach strip, pinching the dough slightly together to form a crude seam.  This is tricky, but perfection isn’t required and I WAS able to seal each.  I then pressed the seam with the back of the fork as well.  Pop pan into hot 350º oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Stir the additional 1 T. erythritol and cinnamon in a cup and sprinkle atop each puff.  Remove puffs from the pan with a knife tip or spatula, plate and serve warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 12 puffs, each one contains:

83.2 calories, 7 g fat, 3.63 g carbs, 1.84 g fiber, 1.79 g NET CARBS, 4.5 g protein, 94.4 mg sodium

Blackberry-Coconut Smoothie

Click to enlarge

This is one of my oldest blog recipes but still a favorite smoothie at our house.  Very refreshing and a wonderful summertime treat or dessert!  Just made some last night in fact.  This recipe is not suitable until the nuts and seeds rung of the Atkins OWL carb reintroduction ladder.  It is perfectly OK for Paleo-Primal folks as well. The sweetener I used has no carbs, so if you use one with a bulking agent, you will need to add in those carbs to the numbers below.   Of course, you can always add protein powder to this if you wish, but be sure to add in those carbs to the stats below.

INGREDIENTS:

6 T. coconut cream (this is NOT cream of coconut bartenders use, which has added sugar & carbs)

3/4 c. blackberries

½ c. water

about 3/4 c. ice cubes

Your preferred sweetener to taste

DIRECTIONS: Put everything in the blender and let ‘er rip until all is smooth and ice is no longer in chunks.  The coconut cream will thicken it adequately.  Pour into a glass and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 1 smoothie which contains:

193 calories, 24.5 g  fat, 13.4 g  carbs, 6.7 g  fiber,  6.7 g  NET CARBS, 1.5 g protein, 16 mg sodium

Strawberry Shortcake

My husband came home yesterday with the prettiest carton of ginormous strawberries.  I quickly pulled out an old standby cake recipe and made a classic strawberry shortcake.  Nothing says summer like strawberry shortcake!  Before you get bent out of shape when you note the net carbs below, please bear in mind these are quite large, like the muffins in a minute (MIM’s) we all know and love.  I don’t think there’s any way I could eat but half of one of these.  In fact, outside of the desired photographic impact of a whole one here for my website, I plan to always slice these laterally and use half a cake and only 1 oz. berries for each serving.  But of course, portion size decisions are up to you.  You know YOUR appetite and YOUR family better than I.  This dessert not suitable until the grains rung of OWL.

Sometimes I like to puree a few berries with a tablespoon or so of water, a couple drops of sweetener and red food coloring to make a sauce to moisten the shortcake before placing the sliced berries and adding the whipped cream.  If you do this, any additional pureed berries on top are not included in the nutritional info below.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Individual Vanilla Cake

4 oz. sliced strawberries

½ c. whipped heavy cream

2-4 drops liquid Splenda

½ tsp. vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º, grease 2 individual cake pans or 2 jumbo muffin cups.  Make Individual Vanilla Cakes per that recipe’s instructions.   Cool before attempting to remove from pans or slicing laterally.  Slice berries and place atop each serving.  Top with whipped cream sweetened to taste with the ½ tsp. vanilla added.  Garnish with a whole berry if desired.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 2 whole shortcakes.  Each contains:   (If serving half portions, which is all I can eat, halve the numbers below)

387 calories, 32.2 g  fat, 22.2 g  carbs, 11.765 g  fiber, 10.45 g  NET CARBS, 18.45 g  protein, 560 mg sodium

 

Berry Bites

Strawberry Breakfast Bites

These tasty 2-bite morsels are a slight variation of my Strawberry Egg Puffs recipe.  Make a batch of these for your honey for Valentine’s Day!  If you don’t have the Nordicware pan I used, you can use any mini-muffin pan you have.  These were a cinch to make and so good my husband just couldn’t stop.  They are delightful with morning coffee.  Sprinkle with powdered sweetener and serve them as a dessert with afternoon tea.   These are suitable once you get to the berries rung of the Atkins Phase 2 OWL ladder. They are also OK for most Keto diets.

NOTE: If you are gluten free, use all gluten-free mix, as my Einkorn mix is not gluten free.

INGREDIENTS:

4 large eggs, beaten

¼ c. Jennifer Eloff’s Gluten-Free Bake Mix

¼ c. my Einkorn Bake Mix (or more Jennifer’s mix for gluten-free)

1 c. frozen strawberries, drained and chopped (or other berries if you like)

2 T. erythritol

2 T. Splenda, granulated

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1 T. + 1 tsp. coconut oil

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º. Melt coconut oil in your mini muffin baking pan and brush 24 slots well with oil.

Beat the eggs in a small mixing bowl.  Add the bake mix.  You can use any low-carb bake mix you prefer.  Add sweeteners, vanilla and chopped berries.  Fold all together until smooth.   Using a 2 T. measuring cup, spoon batter into mini muffin pan slots.  Right is the Nordicware pan I used.

They will be nearly full to the brim.  Don’t worry, Mine didn’t overflow in the pans, although they do temporarily rise above the top like a souffle…..and then fall a bit when done and cooled.

Pop into oven and bake for 16-18 minutes or until risen and firm in the center.  Remove, cool a couple minutes and with knife tip, lift them out and serve while warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 24 Berry Bites or “mini muffins”, each contains:

32.3 cals, 2.4g fat, 1.55g carbs, 0.37g fiber, 1.18g NET CARBS, 1.67g protein, 16 mg sodium

Strawberry German Pancake

Strawberry German Pancake

Strawberry German Pancake

Who says you have to make stuffed, savory dishes with spaghetti squash?  When I opened the refrigerator this morning, two things called to me: a cut spaghetti squash half and a few remaining red strawberries in the carton.  It immediately brought to mind a couple of very old recipes I made in my pre-low-carb days.   I wondered how I might low-carb it?  Then it came to me.  I’ll make a fluffy dessert pancake!  So that’s what I did!

This is my low-carb version of a very old recipe my Mom used to make with peaches.  Mine has less egg in it than is typical (I’m not too fond of eggs). This came out delicious and my husband, who dislikes all things I serve him with spaghetti squash, could NOT tell it was in this creation!  Don’t ya just love when you can fool someone’s taste buds that way?  🙂 Unable to find my old recipe, I just started without one. I first cooked the squash and forked out 1 c. of the threads for this recipe, storing the rest in the freezer for another use.   Then I started throwing things on top of that into the bowl.   Sometimes the ingredients just click!  🙂  This is not suitable until the berries rung of the OWL ladder.  Anyway, I think you’ll like this should you decide to give it a go.

VARIATION:  Use fresh peaches and sugar-free peach jam instead of the strawberries. (will be higher carbs however)

INGREDIENTS FOR PANCAKE: 

1 c. cooked spaghetti squash threads

1 oz. cream cheese

2 T. butter, unsalted

2 beaten eggs

1½ pkt. Truvia sweetener, or equivalent sweetener of your choice

2 tsp. DaVinci Vanilla sugar-free syrup (or ¼ tsp. vanilla extract)

2 T. golden flax meal  (or 2 T. almond flour, or 1 T. coconut flour)

1 T. sugar-free strawberry preserves

3 oz. sliced strawberries

WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING:  1/3 c. cream, whipped.  Add 1/8 tsp. vanilla & 3 drops liquid sweetener. Stir.

DIRECTIONS:  Microwave on HI a seeded spaghetti squash half cut-side down in ½” water for 13-15 minutes.  Fork out 1 c. of the threads into a mixing bowl.  Store the rest in your fridge or freezer for another use.  Preheat oven to 350º.  While squash threads are still hot, mix in cream cheese and butter to melt.  Stir well.   Add eggs, sweetener, DaVinci, flax meal and sliced strawberries.  Stir well.  Pour into buttered pie plate or quiche dish.  If you prefer perfect circle appearance, pour into buttered individual 4″ round mini pie/cake pans.  Bake at 350º for about 20-25 minutes (only 15 min. for smaller round ones) or until center is set.  Remove and cool almost completely (top layer cannot be even warm really, but bottom one will still be) or the whipped cream topping will melt and be a runny mess, spoiling visual appearance greatly.  Cut into quarters and carefully lift 1 quarter out onto each of 2 serving plates.  Spread half the strawberry preserves on each in a thin layer.  Place another quarter of the pancake nicely on top and top with half the whipped cream topping.  Serve at once and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 2 servings each containing:  (calculated using flax meal):

356 calories, 29 g  fat, 12.5 g  carbs, 4.85 g  fiber, 7.65 g  NET CARBS, 10.5 g  protein, 217 mg sodium

 

Hungarian “Apple” Pastry

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

This is the dessert I am making for Christmas this year.  It’ll just be the two of us and my husband’s brother visiting from up around Dallas.

When I was in high school in Kansas, my best friend (also named Peggy) often had me over for dinner (we were neighbors).  Her mother was a former stage actress from Budapest who married an American Army officer after WWII.  To say Peggy’s mother was a good cook would be a gross understatement.  Dinner at my friend’s house was quite the culinary experience, and as my parents were also well-versed in gourmet cooking, I felt my ability to judge really good food was well-honed by this age.

This wonderful apple dessert was Peggy’s mom’s signature dessert.  We fell in love at first bite.  It has since become a family favorite holiday dessert offering.  I have now reworked it for a low-carb lifestyle, using an entirely different crust.  I have also low carbed the filling.  The original recipe is made with all apples, a few raisins and the original crust had 1c. sour cream!  To be more authentic, you could go ahead and use sour cream for the cream called for in my pie crust below without much of a hike in carbs.  🙂  I have omitted the raisins entirely as they add so many carbs.  I use mostly chayote squash, with only one apple for flavor impact.  These bars definitely improve in flavor on day 2 as the rum mellows considerably overnight so I like to make them the day before I plan to serve.

Just for the heck of it, I worked up the nutritional numbers for this made with 5 small apples and no chayote squash and provide that info below for anyone interested in making this with all apples.  Doing so ups the carbs approximately 2 carbs per bar, which isn’t that bad a price for all apples, really.  Holidays are supposed to be “special occasions”, non?  🙂  Today I plan to make this with all apples, as it’s Christmas once again.

I hear zucchini makes a wonderful apple sub, but the unpredictability of its moisture content in a pastry worries me greatly, so I haven’t tried that in this recipe.  As it is consumed hand-held a soggy crust can’t be tolerated for hand eating.  I absolutely do not think this recipe would be good with ALL chayote squash, so I will never go down that road for this favorite.

This dish is not suitable until late in Atkins Phase 2 OWL due to the rum and apples.  I store my bars in an airtight container in the bottom of my fridge.  To be honest, they don’t usually last long enough to worry about freezing!  I’ve never frozen any of my low-carb pastries, so I don’t know how they’d freeze.

Chayote Squash (also called mirletons)

Chayote Squash (also called mirletons)

INGREDIENTS:

2  recipes Peggy’s “Flour” Pie Crust   (for gluten free, use your favorite gluten-free pie crust recipe)

1/3 c. granular Splenda (or equivalent sweetener of your choice)

2 chayote squash (or zucchini) , peeled and sliced ¼-3/8″ thick

1 small delicious apple (2½” diameter), peeled and sliced ¼” thick

3/4 c. pecans, chopped

2 T. rum

1 T. fresh lemon juice

lemon zest of 1 lemon

3/4 c. granular erythritol (or equivalent sweetener of your choice)

2½ tsp. cinnamon

3 egg whites, beaten to frothy/soft peaks

DIRECTIONS:   You need a 8½” x 11½” baking pan for this recipe.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Make the double recipe of pie crust dough per that recipe’s instructions, adding the 1/3 c. Splenda to the mixture.   When pastry is kneaded into a solid ball of dough, form a log and break apart into 60% and 40% (bottom crust takes a little more dough than the top crust).

BOTTOM CRUST:  Take the larger piece of dough, shape in a rough log and place between two pieces plastic.  Roll out dough into a rectangle the size of the pan’s bottom plus the depth of the sides.  Dough will be fairly thin but still manageable.  The dough must be large enough go up the sides of the pan completely to the top and over the edge in order not to fall when baked.     Peel top plastic off carefully and fold in half/lift pastry into the pan.  Adjust pastry to fit.  Carefully remove second piece of plastic and fit pastry well into the walls and corners of the pan without tearing.  Allow pastry to lay over the top edge of the pan to “hold on” and not fall inward during baking.  Prick pastry with a fork at 2″ intervals to avoid it bubbling up during baking.  Bake for 10-12 minutes in a preheated 350º oven just begins to lightly brown.  Remove and cool while you make the filling.

FILLING:  Peel and slice chayote squash and microwave covered on HI for 8-10 minutes until soft.  Peel apple and place in bowl with chayote. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl with electric hand mixer until thick (thick and frothy/soft peaks).  Add nuts, rum, lemon juice and zest, erythritol and cinnamon to the apple/squash mixture and then fold in the beaten egg whites until the fruit and nuts are well-moistened.  Using a rubber spatula, scrape the filling into the half-baked crust.  Spread as evenly as possible, pushing up into corners of pastry.  Level the apples and squash pieces so no pointy bits are sticking up as they may tear the top pastry.  I’ve had that happen before.

TOP CRUST:  Roll the remaining ball of dough between the two plastic sheets, rolling it into a rectangle just a tiny bit larger than the top of the pan. Peel off top plastic and fold up/lift gently onto the filling, being sure the edges are fitting over the bottom crust.  Crimp the top crust onto the bottom crust with your fingers to seal it well.     Pop into hot 350º oven for about 22-25 minutes or until golden brown on the edges and done in the center.  Dough will be a tiny bit soft but dry to the touch.  It will look like the final product below/right when done.  Cool completely before slicing and refrigerating.

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NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 24 bars, each contains:

Click to enlarge

     Hot from the oven

74.14 cals, 6.43g fat, 7.1g carbs, 5.33g fiber, 1.77g NET CARBS, 2.68 g  protein, 61.33 mg sodium

FOR THE CURIOUS:  With all apple filling, using 5 small 2½” apples:  93 calories, 7.5g fat, 10.06 g  carbs, 6.36 g  fiber, 3.7 net carbs

Strawberry Pie

SstrawberryPie

Strawberries are in season!  Make your family one of these delicious strawberry pies!  I like to use xanthan gum to thicken up a fruit filling, but chia seeds or glucomannan will also do that job for you if you prefer.  And with the xanthan gum, it doesn’t go watery on you and ruin the crust overnight in the fridge!  My hubby’s reaction was  “This is like REAL pie!”  But it’s low-carb all the way folks!  This recipe is not acceptable until you reach Atkins Phase 2.  Keto dieters can have this if the carbs will fit into your daily limits.  For those that find this crust too high in carbs, I have other pie crust recipes that are quite a bit lower in carbs than this particular Nutty Pie crust.  Click the “Pie Crust” category on the right side of the page to check out my lower carb crusts.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in the cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

INGREDIENTS:

1½ pints strawberries, stemmed (reserve 1 large whole berry for center decoration)

1 “Nutty” Pie Crust, baked

1 c. water

Sweetener of your choice to taste

Red food coloring (optional)

More liquid Splenda or Stevia to taste for whipped cream topping

Dash vanilla

1½ c. heavy cream

xanthan gum (1/8-¼ tsp.)

DIRECTIONS: Put 5 berries into a food processor or blender.  Slice remaining berries into a  medium bowl.  Add the 1c. water to the berries in the blender/processor and puree until smooth.  Pour this mixture into in small saucepan and heat over medium heat.  Add Splenda and quite a few drops red food coloring and stir, repeating until you get a nice red glaze color.  When it comes to a slow boil, lower heat to a slow simmer and begin dusting with xanthan gum, stirring well between additions, allowing it to thicken.  Will take several additions to get glaze thick enough.  When satisfactorily thick remove from heat and pour over sliced berries. Stir well to coat all berries and pour into baked, cooled pie shell.  In clean bowl, whip the whipping cream.  When nice and thick, add a dash of vanilla and your preferred sweetener to taste.  Spread topping over berries and decorate center with whole berry, or fan slice it and spread the layers out a bit.  A couple of fresh mint leaves (if you grow mint) placed aside the berry looks lovely.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 8, each serving contains:

198.3 calories, 16.8 g  fat, 14.9 g  carbs, 8.14 g  fiber, 6.77 g  NET CARBS, 5.2 g  protein, 80 mg sodium

Cherry Topping

Shown on Einkorn Vanilla Cake

         Shown on Einkorn Vanilla Cake

I keep a couple cans of Oregon® Red Tart Cherries (water pack) in my pantry at all times.  The hubs likes cherry desserts.  Cherries are fairly high in carbs, so I can’t join him in such desserts very often.  But for a real treat or special occasion we sometimes make a cherry topping for vanilla cake (as shown above), for spooning on vanilla cheesecake, for brandy-laced Cherries Jubilee over vanilla ice cream (a favorite dessert of mine) or for when I make my Black Forest Cake on Valentine’s Day.   This only takes a few minutes to make, too!  this topping is not suitable until you are at Atkins Pre-Maintenance or Maintenance or have reached the final rung of the carb ladder (higher-carb fruits) of your carb re-introduction process in your Ketogenic diet.  Clearly if you are Primal or Paleo, you need to use some other sweetener and perhaps a chia gel made with the cherry juice to thicken.

INGREDIENTS: 1  14.T oz. can of red tart cherries (water pack)

2 T.  erythritol (or sweetener equivalent to 2 T. sugar)

1 T. granula splenda (or other sweetener equivalent to 1 T. sugar)

¼ tsp. xanthan or guar gum to thicken

DIRECTIONS:  Using a small saucepan, stir all ingredients together gently.  Place over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring, until it slightly thickens.  Remove and allow to cool on the counter. Spoon over your cooled cheesecake, ice cream or cake and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 5 servings if you spoon the topping over desserts.  But up to 8 servings, obviously, if you spread the topping onto an 8″ cheesecake and then cut into 8 slices.  I’m providing numbers for the entire recipe and you’ll need to divide the numbers below by the number of servings you get/serve. Also be sure to add in the carb count for the cake, ice cream or cheesecake you serve this on!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  This entire batch of topping contains:  (Determine your per serving carbs based on how many servings you get for your particular application.

98 calories, 0.0 g  fat, 23.3 g  carbs, 4.0 g  fiber, 19.3 g  NET CARBS Remember, this number is for the entire batch!  1.5 g  protein, 16 mg sodium

Crumble Topping

photocat

I love working with oat fiber.  It brings to low-carb baked goods what flour used to bring, a flour-y taste and flour-y texture.  This tasty crisp made with apple was just DELICIOUS!  I had 4 Gala apples I had bought for my husband (that he wasn’t eating)  that were going to go bad and were really past the crisp, eating stage.  So this is how I used those up!  My typical apple filling:  4 peeled, sliced apples tossed with a few tablespoons of water, a sprinkle of xanthan gum tp thicken, 1/4 c. Splenda or erythritol, along with a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.  Pour into non-stick pan or baking dish and dot with 2T. butter.

I made the crumble topping below and sprinkled HALF the crumble mixture over the fruit.  I zipped the other half up in a baggie and freeze for another use. Will keep frozen for 1 month. This is not Induction friendly, so wait until you reach Phase 2 of Atkins to enjoy this.  To make this MUCH lower carb, you could instead use peeled, grated jicama, sliced zucchini or chayote squash for half, or even all the apples in this, but cooking time will increase if you do.

Many delicious low-carb recipes like this can be at your fingertips with your very own cookbooks from LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS, by Jennifer Eloff and low-carb friends (me included).  Chef George Stella also brings you a wealth of delicious recipes you will love!  Order yours TODAY! from Amazon  or our direct order site: http://amongfriends.us/order.php.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. CarbQuik baking mix (or other low-carb bake mix)

½ c. (45 g) oat fiber (DO NOT use high carb oat flour! Not the same thing!)

2 T. cold butter

pinch salt

1/4-1/2 c. water, added slowly

1-2 T. granular erythritol

OPTIONAL:  ½ tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Into a medium bowl, measure out bake mix, oat fiber and salt.  Stir.  Using a fork, cut in the cold butter until crumbly and well incorporated into dry ingredients.  Slowly add 1/4 c. water and work in with fork.  Add more water by tablespoons, stirring after each addition until mixture begins to hold together into pea-sized clumps. When all appears to be mixed well, spoon out half the mixture into a ziploc bag and freeze for future use.  Using fingers, crumble the remaining topping onto your fruit crisp filling mixture.  Bake at 350º for about 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is browned nicely.  Serve hot or cold.

NUTRITIONAL INFO FOR TOPPING ONLY: Recipe makes enough for TWO 9″ round pans of apple or berry crisp. I get 4 servings from a 9″ pan.  (8 total servings in both pans).

Total recipe contains:  374 calories, 47g fat, 75.7g carbs, 67.7g fiber, 8 NET CARBS, 24g protein

1 single serving of topping (1/4 of 1 pan) contains: 45.5 cal, 3.1 g fiber, 9.5 g carbs, 8.5 g fiber, 1 NET CARB, 3 g protein

FOR THE CURIOUS: 1 Serving with apple filling made as described above:  219 calories, 18g fat, 39.4 g  carbs,  20.3 g  fiber, 19.1 g NET CARBS, 6.4 g  protein.  Yes, it’s really high carb using real apples, so you might prefer to cut the majority of carbs out and use berries or apple substitutes like jicama, chayote squash or zucchini in your filling!  Just sayin’ that most of the carbs here are in the filling, not the crumble topping. 😉

Quick Danish

Click to enlarge

Blueberry version

This is a wonderful new way to use my Peggy’s Sliced Bread recipe! TIP:  I keep some sort of plain, unflavored low-carb sheet bread cooked and at the ready in a gallon Ziploc bag in my refrigerator at all times, so making this for breakfast takes about 10 minutes total!

I took a piece of my Peggy’s Sliced Bread (linked above), sliced it laterally into two thinner slices and filled it with a delicious thickened pineapple filling with a smear of cream cheese.  Doused with cinnamon.  Nuked it on defrost for 20 seconds and man, oh, man, was it ever good!  A little carby as I had no berries in the house today, but REALLY good if you can afford the pineapple carbs when you get farther along in your weight-loss journey. Net carb counts for other fruits provided below.

If using other fruits, you will want to use some other DaVinci syrup (vanilla or appropriate berry flavor) or use other sweetener of your choice with 2-3 T. water added to compensate for the syrup’s water. This is not suitable until the grains rung of OWL.

You can sure pull the carb count down using other berries.   As you can see, I have explored several varieties of this Quick Danish.  By the way, this reminded me very much of pineapple upside-down cake, just without the cherry.  But that could be remedied on special occasions! 🙂  With a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top, this would make a lovely, easy dessert for unexpected company!  If serving on black/dark plates, for visual impact, I would dust the plate with powdered sweetener/erythritol along with the cinnamon.  Of course, you can use any plan-suitable bread you prefer over the bread I used, but you wil have to calculate your nutritional info from scratch.

Click to enlarge (Pineapple Version)

Pineapple Version

PINEAPPLE VERSION (right) :  Slice the bread laterally into 2 thins slices and place 1 on a plate.  Set aside.  Place in a saucepan ¼ c. crushed pineapple, juice pack (I didn’t drain), ½ T. unsalted butter, dash cinnamon, dash xanthan gum, 2 T. Davinci Pineapple sugar-free syrup (or sweetener to taste).  Heat, stirring until slightly thickened.  Remove. Spoon half onto the slice of bread on the plate.  Top with 1 T. softened cream cheese (sweeten if you like).  Place the second thin slice of bread on top and spoon on the rest of the fruit mixture.  Warm a few seconds in the microwave on defrost and serve while hot.

Click to enlarge (blackberry version)

Blackberry Version

BLUEBERRY or BLACKBERRY VERSION:  Mash 2 oz. berries with a fork in a saucepan with 1-2T. water, pinch of stevia + 2 drops liquid Splenda and a sprinkle of xanthan gum to thicken.  Cook on medium heat a couple minutes until thick.  Slice bread laterally and place 1 thin slice on a plate.  Spoon half the berry mix onto it.  Top with about ½ T. cream cheese. Placed second half-slice bread and add remaining berries to top and dot with cream cheese.  Mmmmm.   this recipe is not suitable for Atkins Induction.

NUTRITIONAL INFO (for the pineapple version, the first one I made):  Makes a single serving which contains:

256 calories, 21 g  fat, 16.2 g  carbs, 3.7 g  fiber, 12.5 NET CARBS, 8.5 g  protein, 243 mg sodium

Strawberry Version:  Use 3 medium strawberries sliced:  5.3 NET CARBS

Blackberry Version:   Use 1/4 c. frozen blackberries: 7.3 NET CARBS

Cherry Version:  Use 1/4 c. canned tart cherries:  10.9 NET CARBS

Blueberry Version:  Use 1/4 c. fresh blueberries: 7.6 NET CARBS

Curried Fruit and Sweet Potatoes

Click to enlarge

I’ll just say right up front that this holiday recipe is probably the highest carb recipe on my website.  Now I’m glad I have that unpleasant admission out of the way.  During the holidays, I’m willing to scrimp on carbs elsewhere so that I can enjoy a dish my entire family associates it with holiday feasts.  This dish was a favorite of my Dad’s and continues to be a hit with guests whenever I serve it.  Ways you can lower carbs a bit here:  ditch the maraschino cherries and use fresh; ditch the sweet potatoes and use chunks of fresh pumpkin.

This side is a lovely complement to roast turkey, baked chicken, roast duck, goose and other game meats as well.  I usually use Sharwood’s or Sri Lankan curry powder, but any brand will do here.  If you’ve never had curried fruit, I’m certain you’re in for a treat with this. This is not suitable until the “higher-carb fruits” rung of the Atkins OWL carb re-introduction ladder or when you have reached the Pre-Maintenance or Maintenance phase of the plan.

INGREDIENTS:

2 T. unsalted butter, melted

1 T. curry powder

Sweetener of choice to equal 1/4 c. sugar

½ tsp. maple extract

1 T. erythritol (or 1 packet stevia)

6 pear halves, natural juice pack, drained & cut in half

4 slices pineapple, natural juice pack, drained and cut into thirds

6 oz. nectarine or peach, sliced (I don’t peel)

10 maraschino cherries (or fresh, pitted)

5 oz. sweet potato, peeled (or fresh, cooked pumpkin chunks)

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Peel sweet potatoes, cut into medium-size chunks and boil in sauce pan for 4-5 minutes only. You just want to half cook them.  Alternately you can use fresh pumpkin chunks instead to lower carbs.  Drain and set aside.  While they are boiling, melt butter in baking dish in oven.  Remove and stir in extract, curry powder and sweeteners. Slice nectarine into the butter/curry mixture.  Add pear quarters and pineapple pieces.  Add whatever cherries you’re using next (pit them if using fresh).  Last add the partially cooked sweet potatoes.  Toss gently with a large serving spoon so as to get some of the seasoned butter to coat each piece.  Pop into a 350º oven and bake for around 35-45 minutes, tossing the fruit in the sauce once during baking.  Serve hot with your favorite roast fowl or game.  Leftovers reheat nicely (I dot with more butter when re-heating).  You’ll be glad to know this dish is one of those that taste even better the second time around!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 6 servings, each contains:

124.8 calories, 4.15 g  fat, 22.32 g carbs, 3.23 g  fiber, 19.09 g  NET CARBS, 1.13 g  protein, 16 mg sodium

Crumble Topping

Click to enlarge

I love working with oat fiber.  It brings to low-carb baked goods what flour used to bring, a flour-y taste and flour-y texture.  This tasty crisp made with apple was just DELICIOUS!  I had 4 Gala apples I had bought for my husband (that he wasn’t eating)  that were going to go bad and were really past the crisp, eating stage.  So this is how I used those up!  My typical apple filling:  4 peeled, sliced apples tossed with a few tablespoons of water, a sprinkle of xanthan gum tp thicken, 1/4 c. Splenda or erythritol, along with a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.  Pour into non-stick pan or baking dish and dot with 2T. butter.

I made the crumble topping below and sprinkled HALF the crumble mixture over the fruit.  I zipped the other half up in a baggie and freeze for another use. Will keep frozen for 1 month. This is not Induction friendly, so wait until you reach Phase 2 of Atkins to enjoy this.  To make this MUCH lower carb, you could instead use peeled, grated jicama, sliced zucchini or chayote squash for half, or even all the apples in this, but cooking time will increase if you do.

Many delicious low-carb recipes like this can be at your fingertips with your very own cookbooks from LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS, by Jennifer Eloff and low-carb friends (me included).  Chef George Stella also brings you a wealth of delicious recipes you will love!  Order yours TODAY! from Amazon  or our direct order site: http://amongfriends.us/order.php. DISCLAIMER: By personal choice I do not accept payment for this book promotion. I promote them because they are great cookbooks anyone would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. CarbQuik baking mix

½ c. (45 g) oat fiber

2 T. cold butter

pinch salt

1/4-1/2 c. water, added slowly

1-2 T. granular erythritol

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Into a medium bowl, measure out bake mix, oat fiber and salt.  Stir.  Using a fork, cut in the cold butter until crumbly and well incorporated into dry ingredients.  Slowly add 1/4 c. water and work in with fork.  Add more water by tablespoons, stirring after each addition until mixture begins to hold together into pea-sized clumps. When all appears to be mixed well, spoon out half the mixture into a ziploc bag and freeze for future use.  Using fingers, crumble the remaining topping onto your fruit crisp filling mixture.  Bake at 350º for about 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is browned nicely.  Serve hot or cold.

NUTRITIONAL INFO FOR TOPPING ONLY: Recipe makes enough for TWO 9″ round pans of apple or berry crisp. I get 4 servings from a 9″ pan.  (8 total servings in both pans).

Total recipe contains:  374 calories, 47g fat, 75.7g carbs, 67.7g fiber, 8 NET CARBS, 24g protein

1 single serving of topping (1/4 of 1 pan) contains: 45.5 cal, 3.1 g fiber, 9.5 g carbs, 8.5 g fiber, 1 NET CARB, 3 g protein

FOR THE CURIOUS: 1 Serving with apple filling made as described above:  219 calories, 18g fat, 39.4 g  carbs,  20.3 g  fiber, 19.1 g NET CARBS, 6.4 g  protein.  Yes, it’s really high carb using real apples, so you might prefer to cut the majority of carbs out and use berries or apple substitutes like jicama, chayote squash or zucchini in your filling!  Just sayin’ that most of the carbs here are in the filling, not the crumble topping. 😉

Einkorn Blueberry Crumble

IMG_5056.JPG

I’m having some back issues of late.  Can’t stand up for very long, so my time-consuming baking efforts will likely wane for awhile.  But I have a kitchen island with comfy bar chairs and I can sure sit and cook, have the hubs put the pan in the oven and pull it out when it’s done!  I don’t need any assistance with eating my fair share though.  😉

My husband pointed out today we had a carton of blueberries beginning to dry out a bit at the back of the fridge.  So I decided to make some sort of simple crisp or crumble fruit baked dish.  My husband set the oven, greased my baking dish and rounded up the ingredients from my pantry (bending and stooping is an issue, too). I was able to do most of the rest, with the added help of regular heavy doses of ibuprofen all week long.

This was my first time using Swerve® sweetener and I was at a loss there.  It didn’t have any funny aftertaste sampled on my finger, nor in the final crumble dish that I could detect.  It is worthy of further experimenting in my opinion.  Just followed the info on the back of the packaging and it came out pretty close to my taste preference.  But honestly, it wasn’t quite sweet enough with 2 Tbsp. and I have therefore adjusted the recipe below for what should be better next baking.  The crumble topping was successful and the final dessert came out quite tasty.

Blueberries are a little higher in carbs, so if you are still in the Induction phase of the diet, use strawberries instead. To lower carbs further, omit the Einkorn flour totally.  I simply adds a nice flour taste and pastry texture that almond flour alone can’t do.   🙂  This recipe is not suitable until you have reached the nuts and berries level of Phase 2 Atkins.  It’s a little high carb for Keto diets.  This is not suitable for Primal-Paleo plans.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own cookbooks from LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS, by Jennifer Eloff and low-carb friends. Chef George Stella also brings you a wealth of delicious recipes you will love! Order yours TODAY! from Amazon or our direct order site: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not accept payment for book promotions. I do so because they are GREAT cookbooks anyone would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. fresh blueberries

3/4 c. Jennifer Eloff’s Splendid Gluten-Free Bake Mix (or other low-carb mix)

2 T. Einkorn flour

3 T. Swerve® sweetener (or equivalent sweetener to equal 3 T. sugar)

2 T. oat fiber

1 large egg

3 T. butter

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Rub butter lightly on a 6″ square baking dish and set dish aside.  Put rest of the butter in a medium bowl.  Add all the dry ingredients on top of the butter.  Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal.  Add the egg on top, beat it with a fork and slowly work it into a dough with the dry ingredients.  Using a fork or your fingers, crumble the dough evenly on top of the fruit.  Pop into preheated 350º oven and bake for about 20-23 minutes or until lightly browned on the top.  Slightly cool and enjoy warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 4 servings, each contains:

240 calories

18 g  fat

20.25 g carbs, 7.12 g fiber, 13.13 g NET CARBS

13 g protein

46 mg sodium

 

 

 

“Apple Pie” Pastries

Apple tortilla Pastries (2) Apple Tortilla PastriesThese tasty apple pastries can put these together in around 30 minutes!  Of course, if you use a low-carb homemade pastry dough in lieu of the commercial low-carb tortillas, the carb count can be pulled lower.  But if you want dessert fast, the ready-made tortillas are nice to keep around for such occasions.  You could also make these with fresh sliced peaches or nectarines.  These are very good on day two, so you can make a lot.  I would not recommend freezing them, however.

This recipe is not suitable until you are closer to Atkins Maintenance or are already to your  goal weight.  the tortillas have real flour and grains are the very last food you are allowed to add back after Induction.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS. She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and other wonderful cooks to bring you a wealth of recipes you will love! Some of my low-carb creations appear in each of the 5 volumes! Order yours TODAY! from Amazon or our direct order site: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: By personal choice, I do not accept payment for this book promotion nor for the inclusion of my recipes therein. I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

INGREDIENTS:

3 Mission Carb Balance whole-wheat tortillas, cut in halvesCalaba Squash

6 oz. peeled calaba squash or Mexican zucchini pictured above (or peeled green zucchini)

5 oz. peeled apple, sliced 3/8″

3 T. unsalted butter, melted

½-3/4 tsp. cinnamon

2 T. granular Splenda (or equivalent sweetener of choice)

Optional: 1 T. more melted butter + mixture of 1 tsp. erythritol and a dash of cinnamon to sprinkle on top.

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Slice the zucchini 3/8″ thick.  Melt 3 T. butter and saute zucchini squash and apple slices until nearly tender.  Stir in sweetener and ground cinnamon and remove from heat.  Cut tortillas in half.  On parchment or a silicone lined baking sheet, form cones with each tortilla half and place seam side down on the pan.  Fill with 1/6 the filling with a small spoon.  Melt remaining 1 T. butter.  Brush each pastry with the butter.  Mix on a paper towel the erythritol and cinnamon.  Spoon 1/6th of it over the top of each pastry.  Pop pan into oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until just lightly browned.  Remove from oven and serve hot.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 apple pastries, each contains:

127 calores

8.73 g  fat

10.98 g  carbs, 5.06 g fiber, 5.92 g  NET CARBS

1.83 g protein

112 mg sodium

 

 

Pineapple-Butternut Hand Pies

Pineapple-Butternut Hand PiesPineapple is way to high in carbs to use much in desserts on a low-carb eating plan.  However, if mixed with something a little lower in carbs, like winter squash, you can end up with a dessert a low-carber can enjoy once in awhile.  The crust here is Jennifer Eloff’s Miracle Dough, slightly modified with the addition of a bit of sweetener for this dessert application and a little oat fiber as well.   I made the dough recipe into 5 7″ empanadas or hand pies, so the carb count, although still lower than a conventionally made hand pie, is still too high unless you are near or at the final Maintenance phase of the program.  A possible solution, would be to make smaller pies, 10 little empanadas, to halve the carb count.  These came out delicious and are easily held in the hand.

Pineapple Butternut Hand Pies

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS. She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and other wonderful cooks to bring you a wealth of recipes you will love! Some of my low-carb creations appear in each of the 5 volumes! Order yours TODAY! from Amazon or our direct order site: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: By personal choice, I do not accept payment for this book promotion nor for the inclusion of my recipes therein. I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

1 large egg, beaten

2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

2 T. unsalted butter

1 T. Splenda® or equivalent sweetener of choice

1 c.  Jennifer Eloff’s Splendid Gluten-Free Bake Mix (or other low-carb bake mix)

1 T. oat fiber

FILLING INGREDIENTS:

Half a 2# butternut squash, cooked (1 c. mashed squash)

1 c. pineapple chunks (water pack), drained and coarsely chopped

Liquid sweetener to equal 5 T. sugar (no carbs in the liquid variety)

2 T. more butter

Few drops vanilla (optional)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:  Make the filling first.  Slice butternut squash in half lengthwise.  Microwave on HI for 12 minutes, cut-side down, in a dish of shallow water.  Scoop out seeds and mash flesh.  Place 1 cup squash pulp in a bowl.  Add chopped pineapple, liquid sweetener, cinnamon and vanilla (if using).  Taste and adjust for sweetness preference.  These are Mexican style empanadas and therefore not be as sweet as you may be used to.

Make dough next. Melt cheese along with butter in a medium glass bowl on medium setting of your microwave.  Takes 3-4 minutes, stir and check couple times as it heats.  You don’t want to over cook, but merely melt it.   Remove bowl carefully as it will be very hot.  Sprinkle bake mix over the cheese.  Sprinkle Splenda® and oat fiber on top next.    Add beaten egg last. Now, using a fork, work dough into a smooth clump of dough until ingredients appear to be uniformly blended.  Switching to a rubber spatula as it begins to bind together works nicely.  When it forms a contiguous ball of dough, turn out onto plastic wrap on your counter.  Top with second sheet of plastic and roll out with rolling pin to about 3/16″ thick or typical piecrust thickness.  Preheat your oven to 350º.

Construction:  If making 5 larger hand pies, I used a 7″ mini pizza pan to cut out my circles of dough.  A small saucer would also work.  If making 10 small pies, I would suggest using a 4″ ramekin, large drinking glass or large cookie cutter to form your circles of dough.  Lay one circle of dough onto the corner of your baking sheet lined with silicone sheet or parchment paper.  Fill circle with 1/5 of the filling (or 1/10 for the littler pies), placing the filling only on half the circle of dough.  Don’t get filling too close to the edges or it will ooze out during baking.  Dot filling with 1 tsp. butter.  Fold other half of dough over filling and crimp edges decoratively with a fork.  Repeat for remaining pies.  Pop into 350º oven and bake for 20 minutes (smaller ones may take less time).  Watch these, as the dough with all that cheese, over browns quickly if you get distracted at the “almost done” designated time.  Just saying, as I did that very thing and way over-browned my first trial working with this dough recipe (and it was only over 3 minutes).

 

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 5 large hand pies, each contains:  (for 10 small pies, halve these numbers)

389 calories

27.8 g  fat

21.28 g carbs, 3.92 g fiber, 17.36 g NET CARBS   (8.68 net carbs for the smaller pies)

24.64 g protein

288 mg sodium

 

Blackberry-Coconut Smoothie

Click to enlarge

Blackberry Coconut Smoothie

This was so refreshing it will be a wonderful summertime afternoon treat or even a dessert!  It is not suitable until the nuts and seeds rung of the Atkins OWL carb ladder.  It is perfectly OK for Paleo-Primal folks. The sweetener I used has no carbs, so if you use one with a bulking agent, you will need to add in those carbs to the numbers below.   Of course, you can always add protein powder to this if you wish, but be sure to add in those carbs to the stats below.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented chefs to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

INGREDIENTS:

6 T. coconut cream (this is NOT cream of coconut bartenders use, which has added sugar & carbs)

3/4 c. blackberries

½ c. water

about 3/4 c. ice cubes

Your preferred sweetener to taste

DIRECTIONS: Put everything in the blender and let ‘er rip until all is smooth and ice is no longer in chunks.  The coconut cream will thicken it adequately.  Pour into a glass and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 1 smoothie which contains:

193 calories

24.5 g  fat

13.4 g  carbs, 6.7 g  fiber,  6.7 g  NET CARBS

1.5 g protein

16 mg sodium

 

Strawberry Pie

SstrawberryPie

I like to use xanthan gum to thicken up a fruit filling, but chia seeds or glucomannan will also do that job for you if you prefer.  And with the xanthan gum, it doesn’t go watery on you and ruin the crust overnight in the fridge!  My hubby’s reaction was  “This is like REAL pie!”  But it’s low-carb all the way folks!  This recipe is not acceptable until you reach Atkins Phase 2.  Keto dieters can have this if the carbs will fit into your daily limits.  For those that find this crust too high in carbs, I have other pie crust recipes that are quite a bit lower in carbs than this particular Nutty Pie crust.  Click the “Pie Crust” category on the right side of the page to check out my lower carb crusts.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in the cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: By personal choice, I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

INGREDIENTS:

1½ pints strawberries, stemmed (reserve 1 large whole berry for center decoration)

1 “Nutty” Pie Crust, baked

1 c. water

Sweetener of your choice to taste

Red food coloring (optional)

liquid Splenda® or stevia to taste for whipped cream topping

Dash vanilla

1½ c. heavy cream

xanthan gum (1/8-¼ tsp.)

DIRECTIONS: Put 5 berries into a food processor or blender.  Slice remaining berries into a  medium bowl.  Add the 1c. water to the berries in the blender/processor and puree until smooth.  Pour this mixture into in small saucepan and heat over medium heat.  Add Splenda® and quite a few drops red food coloring and stir, repeating until you get a nice red glaze color.  When it comes to a slow boil, lower heat to a slow simmer and begin dusting with xanthan gum, stirring well between additions, allowing it to thicken.  Will take several additions to get glaze thick enough.  When satisfactorily thick remove from heat and pour over sliced berries. Stir well to coat all berries and pour into baked, cooled pie shell.  In clean bowl, whip the whipping cream.  When nice and thick, add a dash of vanilla and your preferred sweetener to taste.  Spread topping over berries and decorate center with whole berry, or fan slice it and spread the layers out a bit.  A couple of fresh mint leaves (if you grow mint) placed aside the berry looks lovely.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 8, each serving contains:

198.3 calories

16.83 g  fat

14.91 g  carbs, 8.14 g  fiber, 6.77 g  NET CARBS

5.24 g  protein

80 mg sodium

Quick Danish

Click to enlarge

Blueberry Quick Danish

I discovered a wonderful new way to use my Peggy’s Sliced Bread recipe!  NOTE:  I keep some sort of plain, unflavored low-carb sheet bread cooked and at the ready in a gallon Ziploc bag in my refrigerator at all times, so making this for breakfast takes about 10 minutes total!

I took a piece of my Peggy’s Sliced Bread (linked above) this morning, sliced it laterally into two thinner slices and filled it with a delicious thickened pineapple filling with a smear of cream cheese.  Doused with cinnamon.  Nuked it on defrost for 20 seconds and man, oh, man, was it ever good!  A little carby as I had no berries in the house today, but REALLY good if you can afford the pineapple carbs when you get farther along in your weight-loss journey. Net carb counts for other fruits provided below.

If using other fruits, you will want to use some other DaVinci syrup (vanilla or appropriate berry flavor) or use other sweetener of your choice with 2-3 T. water added to compensate for the syrup’s water. This is not suitable until the grains rung of OWL.

You can sure pull the carb count down using other berries.   As you can see, I have explored several varieties of this Quick Danish.  By the way, this reminded me very much of pineapple upside-down cake, just without the cherry.  But that could be remedied on special occasions! 🙂  With a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top, this would make a lovely, easy dessert for unexpected company!  If serving on black/dark plates, for visual impact, I would dust the plate with powdered sweetener/erythritol along with the cinnamon.  Of course, you can use any plan-suitable bread you prefer over the bread I used, but you wil have to calculate your nutritional info from scratch.

Click to enlarge (Pineapple Version)

Pineapple Quick Danish

PINEAPPLE VERSION (right) :  Slice the bread laterally into 2 thin slices and place 1 on a plate.  Set aside.  Place in a saucepan ¼ c. crushed pineapple, juice pack (I didn’t drain), ½ T. unsalted butter, dash cinnamon, dash xanthan gum, 2 T. Davinci Pineapple sugar-free syrup (or sweetener to taste).  Heat, stirring until slightly thickened.  Remove. Spoon half onto the slice of bread on the plate.  Top with 1 T. softened cream cheese (sweeten if you like).  Place the second thin slice of bread on top and spoon on the rest of the fruit mixture.  Warm a few seconds in the microwave on defrost and serve while hot.

Click to enlarge (blackberry version)

Blackberry Quick Danish

BLUEBERRY or BLACKBERRY VERSION:  Mash 2 oz. berries with a fork in a saucepan with 1-2T. water, pinch of stevia + 2 drops liquid Splenda and a sprinkle of xanthan gum to thicken.  Cook on medium heat a couple minutes until thick.  Slice bread laterally and place 1 thin slice on a plate.  Spoon half the berry mix onto it.  Top with about ½ T. cream cheese. Placed second half-slice bread and add remaining berries to top and dot with cream cheese.  Mmmmm.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented chefs to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: By personal preference, I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

NUTRITIONAL INFO (for the pineapple version, the first one I made):  Makes a single serving which contains:

256 calories

21 g  fat

16.2 g  carbs, 3.7 g  fiber, 12.5 NET CARBS

8.5 g  protein

243 mg sodium

Strawbery Version:  Use 3 medium strawberries sliced:  5.3 NET CARBS

Blackberry Version:   Use 1/4 c. frozen blackberries: 7.3 NET CARBS

Cherry Version:  Use 1/4 c. canned tart cherries:  10.9 NET CARBS

Blueberry Version:  Use 1/4 c. fresh blueberries: 7.6 NET CARBS

 

Strawberry German Pancake

Strawberry German Pancake

Strawberry German Pancake

Who says you have to make stuffed, savory dishes with spaghetti squash?  When I opened the refrigerator this morning, two things called to me: a cut spaghetti squash half and a few remaining red strawberries in the carton.  It immediately brought to mind a couple of very old recipes I made in my pre-low-carb days.   I wondered how I might low-carb it?  Then it came to me.  I’ll make a fluffy dessert pancake!  So that’s what I did!

This is my low-carb version of a very old recipe my Mom used to make with peaches.  Mine has less egg in it than is typical (I’m not too fond of eggs). This came out delicious and my husband, who dislikes all things I serve him with spaghetti squash, could NOT tell it was in this creation!  Don’t ya just love when you can fool someone’s taste buds that way?  🙂 Unable to find my old recipe, I just started without one. I first cooked the squash and forked out 1 c. of the threads for this recipe, storing the rest in the freezer for another use.   Then I started throwing things on top of that into the bowl.   Sometimes the ingredients just click!  🙂  This is not suitable until the berries rung of the OWL ladder.  Anyway, I think you’ll like this should you decide to give it a go.

VARIATION:  Use fresh peaches and sugar-free peach jam instead of the strawberries. (will be higher carbs however)

You can have many more tasty low-carb recipes like this at your fingertips with your very own copy of the Low Carbing Among Friends cookbooks by Jennifer Eloff and a group of very talented low-carb internet cooks.  Check out their Facebook page for a sampling on what awaits you in these books.  Order yours today at Amazon or here: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

I accept no remuneration for this promotion nor for the inclusion of my recipes therein. I promote these books simply because they contain amazing low-carb recipes you’ll want to try.

INGREDIENTS FOR PANCAKE: 

1 c. cooked spaghetti squash threads

1 oz. cream cheese

2 T. butter, unsalted

2 beaten eggs

1½ pkt. Truvia sweetener, or equivalent sweetener of your choice

2 tsp. DaVinci Vanilla sugar-free syrup (or ¼ tsp. vanilla extract)

2 T. golden flax meal  (or 2 T. almond flour, or 1 T. coconut flour)

1 T. sugar-free strawberry preserves

3 oz. sliced strawberries

WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING:  1/3 c. cream, whipped.  Add 1/8 tsp. vanilla & 3 drops liquid sweetener. Stir.

DIRECTIONS:  Microwave on HI a seeded spaghetti squash half cut-side down in ½” water for 13-15 minutes.  Fork out 1 c. of the threads into a mixing bowl.  Store the rest in your fridge or freezer for another use.  Preheat oven to 350º.  While still hot, mix in the cream cheese and butter to melt.  Stir well.    Add eggs, sweetener, DaVinci, flax meal and sliced strawberries.  Stir well and pour into buttered pie plate or quiche dish.  Bake at 350º for about 20-25 minutes or until center is set.  Remove and cool almost completely (top layer cannot be even warm really, but bottom one will still be) or the whipped cream topping will melt and be a runny mess, spoiling visual appearance greatly.  Cut into quarters and carefully lift 1 quarter out onto each of 2 serving plates.  Spread half the strawberry preserves on each in a thin layer.  Place another quarter of the pancake nicely on top and top with half the whipped cream topping.  Serve at once and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 2 servings each containing:  (calculated using flax meal):

356 calories

29 g  fat

12.5 g  carbs, 4.85 g  fiber, 7.65 g  NET CARBS

10.5 g  protein

217 mg sodium

314 mg potassium

Coconut Crust Fruit “Pizza”

Coconut Crust Fruit PizzaThis is one of my old recipes that I simply modified so it would be compliant with the Atkins low-carb eating plan.  It’s so good I thought I’d post it again today as we’re moving into berry season.  It’s a pretty dessert that impresses company and yet it is so easy to make!  You make the crust a day ahead and put it all together right before serving.  The crust is very dense (not at all crumbly) and is  easiest eaten with your hands just like pizza rather than a fork!  This recipe is not acceptable for Atkins Induction, but you can enjoy it once you get to the nuts and seeds level of Atkins Phase 2 OWL.  Softening 1-2 oz. cream cheese and blending into the whipped cream is a good variation for this.  But that is not calculated in the nutritional info below. My favorite version of this dessert is one made with fresh peaches and a few drops of almond extract added to the whipped cream.  Sooooo good!  This crust shaped deeper in a pie plate, works for chocolate pies and cream pies as well.  It is a VERY sturdy crust. VARIATION:  Use raspberries, or blueberries instead.  If closer to goal, you can even use thinly sliced mango or peaches.  All versions are DELICIOUS!  You can also add softened cream cheese to the creamy filling and reduce the whipped cream. That makes it more like a cheesecake.  🙂

Many more delicious desserts await you in the best-selling Low Carbing Among Friends cookbooks by Jennifer Eloff and a group of extremely talented chefs, including George Stella!  Here’s a sampling of recipes you’ll find in them:  http://www.facebook.com/LowCarbingAmongFriends.  Order yours from Amazon or here:  http://amongfriends.us/order.php DISCLAIMER:  By personal choice, I receive no remuneration for this promotion.  I do so simply because these are GREAT cookbooks!

CRUST INGREDIENTS: 1  c. unsweetened coconut

1/2 c. chopped almonds

1/3 c. Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener)

2 ½ T. low carb bake mix or almond flour (or 1 T. coconut flour)

2 egg whites lightly beaten with a whisk until frothy

1 tsp. almond extract

Optional:  3 oz. softened cream cheese

TOPPING INGREDIENTS: 1 c. heavy cream, 1T. s/f syrup like DaVinci or Torani and 1 pt. fruit

DIRECTIONS: Line a pizza pan with foil.  Grease with butter a 9-10″ circle.  Combine all crust ingredients in a bowl and stir well.  Using fingers, spread and press firmly the coconut crust mixture into a 9-10″ circle on a greased sheet pan.  Bake at 325º for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on a wire rack.  Refrigerate overnight. The day you want to serve, place crust on flat cake plate.  Whip cream with a splash of vanilla and sweetener of your choice (I like coconut or vanilla DaVinci sugar free syrup). I always add a dusting of glucomannan powder to my whipped cream when I need it to “firm it up” for things like this, but a sprinkle of dehydrated coconut milk powder will also firm up the whipped topping.  If doing the variation with cream cheese, I would add at this point and stir well. Spread whipped cream mixture evenly over coconut crust and top with raspberries, sliced strawberries or if on the fruit rung of OWL, this is good with thinly sliced peaches.  Chill for an hour and then cut into 8 wedges and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 8, each serving (using strawberries) contains:

273 calories

25 g  fat

12 g  carbs, 5.1 g  fiber, 6.9 g  NET CARBS

5 g  protein

43 mg sodium

Chocolate Blueberries

Chocolate Blueberries

Chocolate Blueberries

There’s no law says you have to do chocolate covered STRAWBERRIES for your special occasions.  Other berries will work, too!  Today, I had big, plump blueberries in the fridge :).

This recipe makes a pretty big batch of the chocolate sauce, around 1¼ cups, so I’m providing the per teaspoon nutritional info.  One teaspoon will definitely coat 1 blueberry, maybe even two.  This recipe is suitable once you reach the berries level of Phase 2 Atkins or for Keto diets as well.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS. She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try. Even a few of my recipes are in each of the 5 volumes! Order your set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

INGREDIENTS/NEEDS:

Some toothpicks

Fresh blueberries (pick the biggest ones in the carton)

Half lemon, orange or apple for your serving “holder”

1 c. sugar free chocolate chips

1 square unsweetened baking chocolate

¼ c. melted butter

1 T. coconut oil (or 1 T. more butter)

6 drops liquid Splenda or other liquid sweetener

DIRECTIONS:  First, push a toothpick through the number of berries you want to make.  Push through the stem scar but not quite all the way out the top.  Lay them aside until the chocolate sauce is made.  Set the lemon half on your serving plate and set aside also.

CHOCOLATE SAUCE:  In a small saucepan, melt the butter and coconut oil in a double boiler over medium heat or use a makeshift double-boiler, where you put your saucepan down in a skillet of 1″ boiling water (that’s all a double boiler really is anyway).  Add the square of chocolate and melt slowly in the hot melted oil/butter.  Add the chocolate chips, stirring constantly so the chocolate will stay smooth.

ASSEMBLY:   Take each berry pick and dip the berry just deep enough into the chocolate sauce to coat the berry.  Lift carefully straight up and let it drip, rolling to even the chocolate as evenly as you can get it.  When it appears to be stopped dripping, carefully poke the berry pick into the lemon half.  Repeat for all berries.  It will take about ½ tsp. chocolate sauce to coat each berry. Refrigerate any leftover sauce for future use on more berries or for a chocolate shell coating for vanilla ice cream bars.  Pop the plate into the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes so the chocolate can harden.  When the chocolate is hard to the touch, ENJOY!  These should pretty much go from fridge to mouth or they will melt, so it’s not really a good party food to sit around for long on a buffet table.

VARIATIONS:   Big fresh strawberries, pineapple chunks, or orange segments with outer skin/membrane removed.

NUTRITIONAL INFO (sauce only):  Makes about 1¼ cups sauce (20 T.= 60 tsp.).  Each tsp. should coat 1-2 berries.  The berry will add another 0.2 net carbs.  Each teaspoon of sauce contains

19 cals, 1.79g fat, 0.55g carbs, 0.21g fiber, 0.34g NET CARBS (the blueberry adds 0.2 g additional net carbs, so one berry treat has 0.56 NET CARBS total), 0.2 g  protein

 

Berry Bites

Strawberry Breakfast Bites

These tasty 2-bite morsels are a slight variation of my Strawberry Egg Puffs recipe.  These were a cinch to make and so good my husband just couldn’t stop.  These would be a tasty Valentine’s Day treat for your family.  🙂  They will be delightful with morning coffee or sprinkle with powdered sweetener and serve them as a dessert with afternoon tea.   These are suitable once you get to the berries rung of the Atkins Phase 2 OWL ladder. They are also OK for Keto diets.  Primal and Paleo followers will want to use only almond flour or coconut flour and change the sweetener, but are do-able I think.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS. She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try. Even a few of my recipes are in each of the 5 volumes! Order your set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I am not paid for this book promotion nor for the inclusion of my recipes therein. I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

NOTE: If you are gluten free, use all gluten-free mix, as my Einkorn mix is not gluten free.

INGREDIENTS:

4 large eggs, beaten

¼ c. Jennifer Eloff’s Gluten-Free Bake Mix

¼ c. my Einkorn Bake Mix (or more Jennifer’s mix for gluten-free)

1 c. frozen strawberries, drained and chopped (or other berries)

2 T. erythritol

2 T. Splenda, granulated

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1 T. + 1 tsp. coconut oil

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º. Melt coconut oil in your mini muffin baking pan and brush 24 slots well with oil.

Beat the eggs in a small mixing bowl.  Add the bake mix.  You can use any low-carb bake mix you prefer.  Add sweeteners, vanilla and chopped berries.  Fold all together until smooth.   Using a 2 T. measuring cup, spoon batter into mini pan slots.  They will be nearly full to the brim.  Don’t worry, Mine didn’t overflow in the pans, although they do temporarily rise above the top like a souffle…..and then fall a bit when done and cooled.

Pop into oven and bake for 16-18 minutes or until risen and firm in the center.  Remove, cool a couple minutes and with knife tip, lift them out and serve while warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 24 Berry Bites or “mini muffins”, each contains:

32.3 calores

2.4 g  fat

1.55 g  carbs, .37 g  fiber, 1.18 g  NET CARBS

1.67 g protein

16 mg sodium

Einkorn “Apple” Cobbler

Apple-Squash Cobbler

“Apple” Cobbler

We low-carbers can’t afford to eat a lot of higher-carb fruit, especially if we are on the beginning of our weight-loss journey.  But once we have increased our daily carbs a bit, we can enjoy the occasional treat with fruits other than berries.  I find that if you mix a high-carb fruit with a lower-carb “disguising” vegetable, like a mild squash, one can trick the palate into thinking you’re eating the  real McCoy :).  This little cobbler is a perfect example of that.  We both LOVED this cobbler!  The flavor was truly amazing.

I learned early on in my Atkins journey that Baked Spaghetti Squash tastes almost exactly like apples, with nearly the exact same texture, too!  When I tried this cobbler creation, I decided to add some real apple and see if I could keep the carbs low enough.  I also decided to use my latest Einkorn Flour Pie Crust.  As you can see by the per serving carb total below, this dessert is a wee bit higher in carbs than most of mine.  HOWEVER, if you use only one apple and use my “Flour” Pie Crust recipe rather than my Einkorn Pie Crust, you can drop the per serving count to a more “palatable” 6.82 net carbs, which isn’t bad at all for a pastry dessert with real fruit in it.

This absolutely delicious recipe is not suitable for Atkins Induction but is OK once you reach the final high-carb fruit rung of the Atkins carb-reintroduction ladder.  Keto followers should make the alternate version suggested above for lowering carbs, and use the “Flour” Pie Crust and 1 less apple if you want to try this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

½ spaghetti squash (mine was 9″ long and yielded 4 c. threads)

2 medium apples, grated or sliced (I used Delicious apples)

3 T. unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/3 c. erythritol (or preferred sweetener to equal 1/4 c. sugar)

2 pkts. stevia

3/4 c. water

Dash of xanthan gum (or 1 tsp. chia seeds)

1 recipe Einkorn Pie Crust  (or my “Flour” Pie Crust for lower carbs)

DIRECTIONS:  Cook the spaghetti squash cut side down in ½” water in a dish in your microwave for 13 minutes.  Remove, cool and fork out the threads into a large bowl. The exact amount isn’t crucial, but the stats below are based on 4 cups of threads.

Grate the apples.  I find that cut in half and grated cut-side down, the grating process sort of peels the apples for you.  🙂  Now is a good time to preheat your oven to 350º.  Add the grated or sliced apple to the bowl of squash threads.   Melt the butter and drizzle over the fruit-squash mixture.  Add the cinnamon, sweeteners and water.  Dust the xanthan gum or chia seeds over the surface and stir well.  Pour into a buttered baking dish.  I used an 8×11″ rectangular ceramic dish.

Make the pie crust according to the directions for that recipe (linked above). Chill the dough 30 minutes.  Remove dough from refrigerator and roll between 2 sheets of plastic to the approximate shape of the dish you are making.    When you have rolled the crust slightly larger than your dish, remove the top plastic and gently lift the bottom sheet up over to the cobbler dish and flip the crust onto the cobbler filling.  Push or crimp the edges of the dough up into to the dish and poke a few holes in the top of the crust with a fork randomly to allow air to escape.  Pop into a 350º oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until the crust is dry to the touch in the center and golden on the edges.  Serve warm.  Leftovers store nicely in the refrigerator and reheat in the microwave quite nicely.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 8 servings If baked exactly as written, each serving contains:

195.4 calories

14.7 g  fat

18.6 g  carbs, 7.88 g fiber, 10.72 g NET CARBS  (only 6.82 NC using just 1 apple & the “Flour” crust)

6.05 g  protein

202 mg sodium

Quick Breakfast Danish

Blueberry Quick DanishI discovered a wonderful new way to use my Peggy’s Sliced Bread recipe!  Fruit Danish!  Or at least a cross between that and a fruit-topped pancake type breakfast. 🙂

I keep some sort of plain, neutral low-carb bread at the ready in a gallon plastic bag in my refrigerator at all times.  That practice makes creating this for breakfast a snap!   Try all of the variations as they all came out delicious!

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS. She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try. Several of my own creations appear in each of the 5 volumes! Order your set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or our direct order site: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: By personal choice, I do not accept payment for this book promotion nor for the inclusion of my recipes therein. I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

INGREDIENTS:

1 slice Peggy’s Sliced Bread (per person being served)

Fruit or berries of your choice (specific ingredients and amounts noted below)

Small dollop cream cheese (about 2 tsp. per serving)

GENERAL DIRECTIONS: Take a piece of my Peggy’s Sliced Bread, slice it laterally into two thinner slices.  Dab 1 tsp. cream cheese on top of 1 slice.  Fill with a little fruit topping.  Douse with cinnamon for apple, peach or pineapple varieties.  Place second thin slice of bread on top and repeat.  Nuke it on defrost for 20 seconds and man, oh, man, is it ever good!

Some versions are a little carb-y.  What can I say….fruit is carb-y.   Net carb counts for some fruits and berries provided below.  Those early in OWL phase should stick to the berry versions.

If using other fruits, you will want to use some other DaVinci syrup (vanilla or appropriate berry flavor) or use other sweetener of your choice with 2-3 T. water added to compensate for the syrup’s water. This is not suitable until the grains rung of OWL.

You can sure pull the carb count down using berries rather than the higher carb fruits.   As you can see, I have explored several varieties of this Quick Danish.  By the way, this reminded me very much of pineapple upside-down cake, just without the cherry.  But that could be remedied on special occasions! 🙂  With a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top, this would make a lovely, easy dessert for unexpected company!  If serving on black/dark plates, for visual impact, I would dust the plate with powdered sweetener/erythritol along with the cinnamon.  Of course, you can use any plan-suitable bread you prefer over the bread I used, but you wil have to calculate your nutritional info from scratch.

Click to enlarge (Pineapple Version)

Pineapple Quick Danish

PINEAPPLE VERSION (shown  right) :  Slice the bread laterally into 2 thins slices and place 1 on a plate.  Set aside.  Place in a saucepan ¼ c. crushed pineapple, juice pack (I didn’t drain), ½ T. unsalted butter, dash cinnamon, dash xanthan gum, 2 T. Davinci Pineapple sugar-free syrup (or sweetener to taste).  Heat, stirring until slightly thickened.  Remove. Spoon half onto the slice of bread on the plate.  Top with 1 T. softened cream cheese (sweeten if you like).  Place the second thins slice of bread on top and spoon on the rest of the fruit mixture.  Warm a few seconds int eh microwave on defrost and serve while hot.

BLACKBERRY VERSION (BELOW)  OR BLUEBERRY VERSION (TOP OF PAGE):  Mash 2 oz. berries with a fork in a saucepan with 1-2T. water, pinch of stevia + 2 drops liquid Splenda and a sprinkle of xanthan gum to thicken.  Cook on medium heat a couple minutes until thick.  Slice bread laterally and place 1 thin slice on a plate.  Spoon half the berry mix onto it.  Top with about ½ T. cream cheese. Placed second half-slice bread and add remaining berries to top and dot with cream cheese.  Mmmmm.

Click to enlarge (blackberry version)

Blackberry Quick Danish

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented chefs to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

NUTRITIONAL INFO (for the pineapple version, the first one I made):  Makes a single serving which contains:

256 calories

21 g  fat

16.2 g  carbs, 3.7 g  fiber, 12.5 NET CARBS (pineapple is pretty high in carbs)

8.5 g  protein

243 mg sodium

132 mg potassium

Made with 3 medium strawberries sliced:  5.3 NET CARBS

Made with 1/4 c. frozen blackberries: 7.3 NET CARBS

Made with 1/4 c. canned tart cherries:  10.9 NET CARBS (another high carb fruit)

Made with 1/4 c. fresh blueberries: 7.6 NET CARBS

Peach “Coffeecake”

Click to enlarage

I had 4 doughnuts leftover from the batch I made this week and decided to use up some peaches I had on hand this morning for a lovely quick breakfast “coffeecake”.  This could also be created with leftover muffins, biscuits or neutral-tasting low-carb bread slices.

I wasn’t very hungry, but did give in and taste this.  It was delicious and I will be using this recipe to use up both leftover donuts as well as fruit that is getting riper than one cares to eat whole.  It tasted every bit as good as the pic makes it look!  This is not suitable until Atkins Pre-maintenance or Maintenance (the higher carb fruits rung of the OWL carb ladder).   This could also be made with blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, grated apple, sliced pears or sliced plums.  Of course, the carb counts for the other fruits will require you to recalculate the net carbs.

INGREDIENTS:

4 my plain cake donuts

3 small ripe peaches (1½-13/4″ diameter), sliced thinly

3 T. butter

1 T. erythritol or granular Splenda

Sprinkle of pure stevia

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:   Preheat oven to 350º.  If not already made up, bake the donuts by that recipe’s instructions and cool. Slice 4 of the donuts in half laterally and place int he bottom of a non-stick cake pan, non-stick tart pan or greased baking dish.  Top with the sliced peaches, evenly.  Sprinkle on the sweeteners and cinnamon.  Dot with the butter evenly.  Pop into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes so the peaches slightly cook.  Serve warm.

NOTE:  You can substitute 4 small slices any low-carb bread for the donuts, but be sure to sprinkle some of your preferred sweetener on top of it if you make that change.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 4 servings, each contains:

217 calories

17 g  fat

19.42 g  carbs, 10.2 g  fiber, 9.22 g  NET CARBS  (could be lower using berries instead of peaches)

6.22 g  protein

112 mg sodium

Individual Strawberry Cobbler

Individual Strawberry Cobbler (using Lets Do Organic coconut flour)

Individual Strawberry Cobbler (using Lets Do Organic coconut flour)

This delicious dessert recipe actually makes two individual cobblers in a jiffy!  A few slightly cooked, sweetened strawberries and a little batter spooned on top and 20 minutes later, Strawberry Cobbler!  You could make these instead with simmered blackberries, raspberries or blueberries.  This is suitable once you reach the berry level of Phase 2 Atkins carb ladder.

VARIATIONS:  Substitute blueberries or blackberries for the strawberries.  You may have to add more sweetener for blackberries if they are very tart.

More delicious low-carb sweets can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented chefs to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

INGREDIENTS:

6 large strawberries, sliced

¼ c. water

your favorite sweetener to taste (I used 2 T. erythritol)

1/8 tsp. your favorite thickener (I used xanthan gum)

2 T. oat fiber

1 T. coconut flour (I used Let’s Do Organic)

1 T. unsweetened, unflavored whey protein powder

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. glucomannan powder

2 T. heavy cream

2 T. water

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Slice berries and place in small saucepan with the 1/4 c. water, sweetener,  and thickener (if using). Bring to boil and lower to just a simmer and cook just until they begin to soften.  While the berries simmer, measure the dry batter ingredients into a small bowl and stir to blend.  With a fork, stir in the cream and water and stir until all is mixed well.  Spoon half the berries equally into 2 small ceramic baking dishes (mine were 6″x 3″ ovals).  Next spoon half the batter atop each dish of berries, avoiding it touching the edges of the dish. Pop the dishes into 350º oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Serve warm.

NOTE:  Different brands of coconut flour can produce widely varied results in batters and doughs.  Many low carb cooks out there are already well aware of this somewhat annoying phenomenon. Switching from Let’s Do Organic to Honeyvillegrains coconut flour on third baking today, produced a much thicker, almost pie dough mixture (not spoonable at all) that could be spread out with your bare fingers, crumbled on or rolled between plastic sheets.    The resulting dough, I chose to press in my hands and lay over my berries (using  the Honeyvillegrains coconut flour).  It cooked up as shown below.  It tasted exactly the same as the one above. A little more water and cream would have probably made this batter a little more like the one above and spoonable.  I just did this to show you the dramatic variances between coconut flours.  It’s one of the reasons I don’t like to cook with it very much, other than in combination with other “flour” substitutes, where it won’t be in the driver’s seat on flavor, texture or moisture balance.  Some brands soak up moisture THAT much worse than other brands and you just have to compensate with either liquid or egg in the recipe until your dough/batter is the proper consistency.

Click to enlarge

Using Honeyvillegrains coconut flour.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 2 individual cobblers, each contains:

140.5 calories

10.7 g  fat

13.2 g  carbs, 8.6 g  fiber, 5.1 g  NET CARBS

3.9 g  protein

7.4 mg sodium

 

Apple-Pear “Cobbler”

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

I’m trying to clear out some canned fruit my husband brought home from the store.  Personally, I prefer to use fresh fruit is such desserts.  Quite frankly, I’m tired of the cans taking up precious space in my pantry, so I whipped up a little cobbler this afternoon.  I’m experimenting with lupin flour http://www.lopino.com/product/21  in baked goods as it is very low in carbs.  I took my usual recipe for Paleo Pot Pie topping https://buttoni.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/paleo-pot-pie/ , halved the recipe and made it with half lupin flour today (rather than all almond flour as I usually do).  This quick dessert was quite good with no odd flavor in the topping from the lupin flour.  I believe this new flour (for me, at least) has potential in regular pie crusts as well.  I know where I’ll be experimenting next.  🙂

This recipe is not suitable until the final rung of the Atkins OWL carb ladder  due to the higher carb fruit in it, as well as lupin flour being a legume.  You could substitute blackberries in this recipe for considerably fewer carbs, but like I said, I’m trying to get rid of some canned fruit in my pantry.

CAUTION:  Lupin beans are technically a legume that is closely related to peanuts.  If you have a peanut allergy, there have been reports of some peanut sensitive people reacting negatively to lupin beans.  I have discovered I am very allergic to it and will not be doing any further baking with it.

FRUIT FILLING INGREDIENTS:

1  15-oz. can pear halves, sliced (water pack)

1  20-oz. can apple pie filling (no sugar added)

1 T. unsalted butter (to grease dish and dot over the fruit)

1 tsp. erythritol (or dash of your favorite sweetener)

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

TOPPING INGREDIENTS: 

1 T. melted butter

1 beaten egg

¼ c. almond flour

¼ c. lupin flour (or ¼ c. more almond flour)

1 T. coconut cream or coconut milk

1 T. oat fiber (I order mine here: http://www6.netrition.com/cgi/advanced_search.cgi )

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º. Lightly grease a pie plate or baking dish with butter.   In a medium mixing bowl, add the pie filling, sliced pears, erythritol and cinnamon and stir.  Pour into greased dish and dot with the rest of the 1st tablespoon of the butter.  Make the topping by melting the butter in a glass bowl.  Beat in the egg with a fork.  Add the coconut cream and finally all the dry ingredients.  Blend well with the fork and evenly dot the top of the fruit with small blobs of the dough.  Pop into preheated 350º oven for about 20 minutes or so, until the topping is lightly browned.   Eat while still warm.  ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 servings, each contains:

140 calories  (higher with all almond flour)

8 g   fat

15.87 g  carbs, 5.02 g  fiber, 10.85 g  NET CARBS (slightly higher with all almond flour)

4.1 g  protein

<10% RDA all macronutrients

Tarte Tatin

Gluten-Free apple Tarte

Holidays always remind me of desserts my mother loved to serve at this time of year.  The well-known French apple Tarte Tatin is one of those.  My low-carb version has a much thinner cake layer than is typical of this famous dessert.  My husband and I really liked this conversion.  I serve mine with a dollop of whipped cream on top.  I apologize for the photo quality, but this picture was taken with my very first digital camera, in the evening when natural light just isn’t there.  I’m going to have to bake this again and get a prettier picture next time.  But the photo can’t take away the fact that this recipe is absolutely delicious!  If you decide to give this one a go, you’ll be glad you did!

VARIATIONS:  Although Tarte tatin is only made with apples, this basic concept can be made with strawberries or raspberries and carbs will go down.  Pear or peach slices also do well in this but carbs will go up with those choices.

This recipe is not suitable until the higher carb fruit rung of the Atkins Phase 2 OWL carb re-introduction ladder, as you approach Maintenance.  This dessert would be acceptable for a Paleo-Primal liefstyle provided you substituted REAL honey for the sugar-free honey and subbed in REAL maple syrup for the Cary’s sugar-free maple syrup called for below.

INGREDIENTS:

For the Apple filling:

4 T. total unsalted butter or ghee

11 oz. apple, peeled and sliced thin (I used 1 large JonaGold)

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

2 T. sugar-free maple syrup (I used Cary’s)

¼ tsp. grated lemon zest

For the bottom Cake Layer:

½ c. almond butter

2 T. coconut milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 T. sugar-free honey (I buy at Walmart)

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ c. almond flour

1 T. coconut flour

¼ glucomannan powder (for best texture)

DIRECTIONS:  Grease bottom and sides of a non-stick tarte pan with 1 T. of the butter and set aside.  Melt remaining 3 T. of the butter in a non-stick skillet.  Add cinnamon, nutmeg to the skillet and stir.  Add sliced apples and saute them for 3-4 minutes until apples begin to soften.  Turn off heat. Using a fork or small tongs, remove apples and layer them in the bottom of the tart pan.  You should have enough apple slices for a single layer of apples in a standard tart pan.  with the help of a spatula or heat-proof rubber spatula, scrape out and drizzle any buttery juices left in the skillet over the apples.  You don’t want to wast any of that rich flavor.  Grate lemon zest over the apples and finally drizzle the maple syrup over the apples.

Now to make the cake.  Preheat oven to 350º.  In a medium bowl, measure out the almond butter.  Add the coconut milk, imitation honey and stir with a rubber spatula until fairly smooth. Add the vanilla and beaten eggs.  Beat a minute or two to achieve a smooth liquid batter.  Measure the almond flour on top, then the coconut flour and finally the baking powder.  Beat with the spatula until smooth.  Evenly pour the cake batter over the apples, gently coaxing it out to the edges of the pan.    Pop into 350º preheated oven for about 20 minutes.  This does not rise very much and it will be completely dry to the touch in the center when done. Toothpick test will come out clean at the center.  Remove tart from the oven and cool for awhile.  While still a little warm, invert your serving plate over the tart pan or pie plate and using two hands, holding tightly, flip tart pan and serving plate over and the tart should fall neatly onto the serving plate.  Gently re-place any apples that may have stuck to the pan.  Cut into 8 slices and serve with sweetened whipped cream if desired.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 8 servings each contains:  (does not including any whipped cream topping)

235 calories, 19.5 g  fat, 11.6 g  carbs, 2.76 g  fiber, 8.94 g NET CARBS, 5.1 g  protein, 125 mg sodium

Curried Fruit and Sweet Potatoes

Click to enlarge

I’ll just say right up front that this Holiday recipe is probably the highest carb recipe on my website.  Now that I have that unpleasant admission out of the way……….this dish has been a favorite of mine and my mother’s for many, many years.  Despite its higher carbs, I do plan to make this for Christmas or Thanksgiving this year.    To low-carb the original recipe, I switched to artificial sweeteners, maple extract for a brown sugar flavor, and slightly reduced the amount of fruit.  If you ditch the maraschino cherries (which are very good in this) you will save 2.8 net carbs per serving; if you ditch the sweet potatoes, making it just a curried fruit dish, (the potatoes were not in Mom’s original recipe), you will save an additional 4 net carbs per serving.  Your decision there.  Fresh cherries would be a better option, of course, but I had none tonight so I just  used the maraschino cherries we keep around for mixing drinks for visitors.  You can also use chunks of fresh, cooked pumpkin to pull the carbs down a lot on this dish.  This side is a lovely complement to roast turkey, baked chicken, roast duck, goose and hooved wild game as well.  Tonight, I used a Sri Lankan curry powder, which is “hotter” than my Sharwood’s brand, but it was delicious!  If you’ve never had curried fruit, I’m certain if you like the taste of curry powder, you will absolutely love this dish!  This is not suitable until the “higher-carb fruits” rung of the Atkins OWL carb ladder, when you have reached the Pre-Maintenance phase.

INGREDIENTS:

2 T. unsalted butter, melted

1 T. curry powder

20 drops liquid sucralose (or 1/4 c. granular)

½ tsp. maple extract

1 T. erythritol (or 1 packet stevia)

6 pear halves, natural juice pack, drained & cut in half

4 slices pineapple, natural juice pack, drained and cut into thirds

6 oz. nectarine, sliced (I don’t peel mine)

10 maraschino cherries (or fresh, pitted)

5 oz. sweet potato, peeled

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Peel sweet potatoes, cut into medium-size chunks and boil in sauce pan for 4-5 minutes only. You just want to half cook them.  Alternately you can use fresh pumpkin chunks instead to lower carbs.  Drain and set aside.  While they are boiling, melt butter in baking dish in oven.  Remove and stir in extract, curry powder and sweeteners. Slice nectarine into the butter/curry mixture.  Add pear quarters and pineapple pieces.  Add whatever cherries you’re using next (pit them if using fresh).  Last add the partially cooked sweet potatoes.  Toss gently with a large serving spoon so as to get some of the seasoned butter to coat each piece.  Pop into a 350º oven and bake for around 35-45 minutes, tossing the fruit in the sauce once during baking.  Serve hot with your favorite roast fowl or game.  Leftovers reheat nicely and this dish tastes even better the second time around!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 6 servings, each contains:

124.8 calories, 4.15 g  fat, 22.32 g carbs, 3.23 g  fiber, 19.09 g  NET CARBS, 1.13 g  protein, 16 mg sodium

Peach Cobbler

Click to enlarge

Peach Cobbler

This quick cobbler is made from canned, no-sugar-added peaches.  The pastry goes together real easily and you can be enjoying deliciously sweet cobbler in no time.  I find that even though these peaches are artificially sweetened, they are not, like most canned fruit, sweet enough for me using them straight out of the can.  Therefore I add a packet of Splenda or Stevia to the fruit every time.  That hasn’t backfired on me YET.  The peaches may vary from can to can, brand to brand, so do a taste test on YOUR peaches to decide if you want to add that additional packet of sweetener (or more, or none). You can substitute ¼ tsp. xanthan gum for the glucomannan powder as your thickening agent if you prefer.  This recipe is not suitable until the advanced fruits rung of the OWL ladder of Atkins, in pre-maintenance.  The crust is taken from KevinPa’s pie crust recipe, for those familiar with his baking prowess.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in each of the 5 volumes! Order your set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I am not paid for this book promotion nor for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

FILLING INGREDIENTS: 

2  14.5-oz. cans no-sugar-added peaches (packed in water)

¼ tsp. cinnamon

Pinch nutmeg

½ tsp. glucomannan powder

1 packet stevia or Splenda

2 T. unsalted butter (plus 1 T. more to grease the baking dish)

CRUST:

1 c. + 2 T. Carbalose flour (use Jennifer Eloff’s Gluten-Free Bake Mix for a gluten-free version)

6 T. resistant wheat starch (use arrowroot powder for gluten-free)

½ c. + 1 T. palm shortening or butter

¼ tsp. salt

¼ c. ice cold water

DIRECTIONS:  Drain the liquid off just ONE of the cans of peaches (unless you like your cobbler super juicy.  You will want the juice from the second can in this recipe.  Grease the bottom and sides of an 8″x11″ baking dish with 1 T. softened butter.  Set aside.  In a medium mixing bowl, mix the peaches, peach juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, stevia and glucomannan powder (or xanthan gum).  Stir well and pour into buttered baking dish.  Dot with the 2 T. of butter.  Preheat your oven to 350º.

For the crust, in a mixing bowl, measure out the dry ingredients and add the butter or palm shortening. Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut the shortening into the flour to break it up until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal and the shortening is well-blended.  Slowly add the water, a little at a time and begin to stir into a solid dough.  Do not overwork the dough.  When you can form it into a single ball, it’s ready to roll.  I have two sheets of plastic I use for rolling out dough, but two pieces of any plastic wrap will do.  Moisten your counter top so the bottom piece remains still while you work.  Place dough on the bottom plastic and cover with a second sheet of plastic and roll the dough slightly larger than your baking dish. Lift the top piece of plastic off the dough gently and lifting up the bottom sheet of plastic, invert the dough onto your cobbler (folding the dough in half helps to lift it).  Trim off the excess dough about ¼-½” beyond the pan edges and crimp the edge inward so that it is entirely inside the dish.  Decorate the top with any surplus dough if you like.  I like to roll it again and cut out leaves and a representation of the fruit in the filling to dress up the tops of cobblers.  This time I also took a pastry brush and dipped into some watered down food coloring for added effect.  I sprinkled erythritol onto the cut-out peach as well.   Pop into preheated 350º oven for about 25 minutes or until lightly golden on top.  Cool slightly before attempting to dip up.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 6 servings, each contains:

330 calories

26.3 g  fat

21.27 g  carbs, 13.17 g  fiber, 8.1 g  NET CARBS

1.23 g  protein

108 mg sodium

Quick Danish

Click to enlarge

Blueberry Quick Danish

I discovered a wonderful new way to use my Peggy’s Sliced Bread recipe!  NOTE:  I keep some sort of plain, unflavored low-carb sheet bread cooked and at the ready in a gallon Ziploc bag in my refrigerator at all times, so making this for breakfast takes about 10 minutes total!

I took a piece of my Peggy’s Sliced Bread (linked above) this morning, sliced it laterally into two thinner slices and filled it with a delicious thickened pineapple filling with a smear of cream cheese.  Doused with cinnamon.  Nuked it on defrost for 20 seconds and man, oh, man, was it ever good!  A little carby as I had no berries in the house today, but REALLY good if you can afford the pineapple carbs when you get farther along in your weight-loss journey. Net carb counts for other fruits provided below.

If using other fruits, you will want to use some other DaVinci syrup (vanilla or appropriate berry flavor) or use other sweetener of your choice with 2-3 T. water added to compensate for the syrup’s water. This is not suitable until the grains rung of OWL.

You can sure pull the carb count down using other berries.   As you can see, I have explored several varieties of this Quick Danish.  By the way, this reminded me very much of pineapple upside-down cake, just without the cherry.  But that could be remedied on special occasions! 🙂  With a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top, this would make a lovely, easy dessert for unexpected company!  If serving on black/dark plates, for visual impact, I would dust the plate with powdered sweetener/erythritol along with the cinnamon.  Of course, you can use any plan-suitable bread you prefer over the bread I used, but you wil have to calculate your nutritional info from scratch.

Click to enlarge (Pineapple Version)

Pineapple Quick Danish

PINEAPPLE VERSION (right) :  Slice the bread laterally into 2 thins slices and place 1 on a plate.  Set aside.  Place in a saucepan ¼ c. crushed pineapple, juice pack (I didn’t drain), ½ T. unsalted butter, dash cinnamon, dash xanthan gum, 2 T. Davinci Pineapple sugar-free syrup (or sweetener to taste).  Heat, stirring until slightly thickened.  Remove. Spoon half onto the slice of bread on the plate.  Top with 1 T. softened cream cheese (sweeten if you like).  Place the second thin slice of bread on top and spoon on the rest of the fruit mixture.  Warm a few seconds in the microwave on defrost and serve while hot.

Click to enlarge (blackberry version)

Blackberry Quick Danish

BLUEBERRY or BLACKBERRY VERSION:  Mash 2 oz. berries with a fork in a saucepan with 1-2T. water, pinch of stevia + 2 drops liquid Splenda and a sprinkle of xanthan gum to thicken.  Cook on medium heat a couple minutes until thick.  Slice bread laterally and place 1 thin slice on a plate.  Spoon half the berry mix onto it.  Top with about ½ T. cream cheese. Placed second half-slice bread and add remaining berries to top and dot with cream cheese.  Mmmmm.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented chefs to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

NUTRITIONAL INFO (for the pineapple version, the first one I made):  Makes a single serving which contains:

256 calories

21 g  fat

16.2 g  carbs, 3.7 g  fiber, 12.5 NET CARBS

8.5 g  protein

243 mg sodium

Strawbery Version:  Use 3 medium strawberries sliced:  5.3 NET CARBS

Blackberry Version:   Use 1/4 c. frozen blackberries: 7.3 NET CARBS

Cherry Version:  Use 1/4 c. canned tart cherries:  10.9 NET CARBS

Blueberry Version:  Use 1/4 c. fresh blueberries: 7.6 NET CARBS

 

Individual Blackberry Cobbler

IndividualBlackberryCobbler

I’m trying to come up with individual servings of many of my dessert recipes and today’s experiment was blackberry cobbler for one.  It’s the high fiber from the oat fiber and flax in the crust that pulls the carb count down to a respectable per serving number.  One who has reached the grains rung of OWL can enjoy this wonderful dessert!   For anyone interested, a full recipe of my pie crust will make 4 individual cobblers and you would have to quadruple the filling ingredients if you wanted to make four of these at one time.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in the cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection.

INGREDIENTS:

3 oz. fresh blackberries

1 oz. (2 T.) water (or juice from frozen berries if using frozen)

5 drops liquid Splenda (or equivalent)

2 T. erythritol (or equivalent sweetener to equal 2 T. sugar)

3/4 T. unsalted butter

¼ tsp. xanthan gum (or your favorite thickener)

¼ recipe of my “Flour” Pie Crust

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Make pie  crust per that recipe’s instructions.  Divide crust dough into 4 equal parts.  You will only need 1/4 of the dough for this individual cobbler.  Freeze the rest in a sandwich bag for up to 2 months for either a small 9″ pie or three more of these individual pies/cobblers.   Roll crust between two pieces of plastic wrap to a circle slightly larger than your ramekin.   My ramekin pictured above is 4¼” in diameter and I rolled dough into a 5″ round.  Next, butter your ramekin with 1 tsp. butter or coconut oil.  In a small bowl, lightly toss the berries with the water, Splenda, erythritol and xanthan gum.  Pour into greased ramekin. Dot with the butter.   Remove top plastic from dough and lift dough, centered onto the ramekin.  Push it gently down over the berries.  Fold the edges of the dough inward and pinch snugly against the wall of the ramekin.   Place ramekin on oven-proof pan and bake in preheated 350º oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden.  I like to serve cobbler while it is still slightly warm.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:   Makes 1 serving which contains:

274 calories

24.7 g  fat

26.8 g  carbs, 21.5 g  fiber, 5.3 g NET CARBS

7.88 g protein

165 mg sodium

Blackberry Cobbler

Click to enlarge

Blackberry Cobbler

My husband requested a blackberry cobbler today, when I told him I had a half of bag of frozen berries to use up.  I made him a fairly small pan of this tonight using my “Flour” Crust.  This recipe only has 5 small servings because blackberries are quite high in carbs.   I’m pleased with my first low-carb cobbler attempt.  Just the right amount of fruit, liquid and sweetness.   And it got even better overnight.  This recipe is not suitable until the berries rung of OWL.

More delicious low-carb dessert recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. frozen blackberries (no sugar added)

½ c. water

½ c.granular Splenda

½ c. + 2 T. erythritol

1/3-½ tsp. xanthan gum (or your favorite thickener)

2 T. cold butter

1 recipe Peggy’s “Flour” Pie Crust

DIRECTIONS:  Make up the pie crust per that recipe’s instructions.  You will need 1/2 of the dough for this small cobbler.  Freeze the rest of the dough in a sandwich bag for up to 1 month for some other use.  Set dough aside while you prepare the filling.

Preheat oven to 350º.  Put the Splenda, erythritol and xanthan gum in a small mixing bowl and stir.  Add berries and water stir well.  Butter a 5×7 baking dish  and add berry mixture.  Dot with the 2 T. butter.  Roll pastry out between two pieces of plastic to slightly larger than your dish size.  Peel off the top plastic, lift pastry in middle by lower plastic and fold/lift to put over fruit.  Center the pastry over the dish.  Slowly peel of remaining plastic.  Fold excess crust edges inward and crimp against the side of the dish to prevent bubble-over during cooking as much as possible.     Pop into a 350º oven and bake until lightly browned, which will take about 3o-35 minutes.  Partially cool.  I think this is best served warm.  🙂

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 5 servings, each contains:

140 calories

10.82 g  fat

16.72 g  carbs, 9.04 g  fiber, 7.68 g  NET CARBS

3.22 g  protein

 

Hungarian “Apple” Pastry

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

When I was in high school in Kansas, my best friend (also named Peggy) often had me over for dinner (we were neighbors).  Her mother was a former stage actress from Budapest who married an American Army officer during WWII.  To say her mother was a good cook would be a gross understatement.  Dinner at my friend’s house was quite the culinary experience, and as my parents were quite into gourmet cooking, I felt my ability to judge good food was well-honed by high school.

This wonderful apple dessert was like her signature dessert and it has since become a family favorite holiday dessert.  She gave my mother the recipe and I have cherished it ever since.  I have now reworked it for a low-carb lifestyle, using an entirely different crust.  I have also low carbed the filling.   The original recipe is made with all apples, a few raisins and the original crust had 1c. sour cream!  To be more authentic, you could go ahead and use sour cream for the cream called for in my pie crust below without much of a hike in carbs.  🙂  I have omitted the raisins entirely and have made mine with mostly chayote squash, with only one apple for flavor impact.  These bars definitely improve in flavor on day 2 as the rum mellows considerably overnight.

Just so I would know for myself, I worked up the nutritional numbers for making this with 5 small apples and no chayote squash and provide that info below for anyone interested in making this with all apples.  Doing so ups the carbs approximately 2 carbs per bar, which isn’t that bad a price for all apples, really.  🙂  For the holidays, I will definitely make this with all apples.  But the chayote/apple combo wasn’t bad and I would consider doing it this way again.

I hear zucchini makes a wonderful apple sub, but its moisture content in a pastry worries me a little, so I haven’t tried that apple sub yet.  I absolutely do not think this would be good with ALL chayote squash.

This dish should not be enjoyed until late in Atkins Phase 2 OWL due to the rum and apples.  I store my bars in an airtight container in the bottom of my fridge.  To be honest, they don’t usually last long enough to worry about freezing!  I’ve never frozen any of my low-carb pastries, so I don’t know how they’d freeze.

Chayote Squash (also called mirletons)

Chayote Squash (also called mirletons)

INGREDIENTS:

2  recipes Peggy’s “Flour” Pie Crust   (for gluten free, use your favorite gluten-free pie crust recipe)

1/3 c. granular Splenda (or equivalent sweetener of your choice)

2 chayote squash, peeled and sliced ¼-3/8″ thick

1 small delicious apple (2½” diameter), peeled and sliced ¼” thick

3/4 c. pecans, chopped

2 T. rum

1 T. fresh lemon juice

lemon zest of 1 lemon

3/4 c. granular erythritol (or equivalent sweetener of your choice)

2½ tsp. cinnamon

3 egg whites, beaten to frothy/soft peaks

DIRECTIONS:   You need a 8½” x 11½” baking pan for this recipe.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Make the double recipe of pie crust dough per that recipe’s instructions, adding the 1/3 c. Splenda to the mixture.   When pastry is kneaded into a solid ball of dough, form a log and break apart into 60% and 40% (bottom crust takes a little more dough than the top crust).

BOTTOM CRUST:  Take the larger piece of dough, shape in a rough log and place between two pieces plastic.  Roll out dough into a rectangle the size of the pan’s bottom plus the depth of the sides.  Dough will be fairly thin but still manageable.  The dough must be large enough go up the sides of the pan completely to the top and over the edge in order not to fall when baked.     Peel top plastic off carefully and fold in half/lift pastry into the pan.  Adjust pastry to fit.  Carefully remove second piece of plastic and fit pastry well into the walls and corners of the pan without tearing.  Allow pastry to lay over the top edge of the pan to “hold on” and not fall inward during baking.  Prick pastry with a fork at 2″ intervals to avoid it bubbling up during baking.  Bake for 10-12 minutes in a preheated 350º oven just begins to lightly brown.  Remove and cool while you make the filling.

FILLING:  Peel and slice chayote squash and microwave covered on HI for 8-10 minutes until soft.  Peel apple and place in bowl with chayote. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl with electric hand mixer until thick (thick and frothy/soft peaks).  Add nuts, rum, lemon juice and zest, erythritol and cinnamon to the apple/squash mixture and then fold in the beaten egg whites until the fruit and nuts are well-moistened.  Using a rubber spatula, scrape the filling into the half-baked crust.  Spread as evenly as possible, pushing up into corners of pastry.  Level the apples and squash pieces so no pointy bits are sticking up as they may tear the top pastry.  I’ve had that happen before.

TOP CRUST:  Roll the remaining ball of dough between the two plastic sheets, rolling it into a rectangle just a tiny bit larger than the top of the pan. Peel off top plastic and fold up/lift gently onto the filling, being sure the edges are fitting over the bottom crust.  Crimp the top crust onto the bottom crust with your fingers to seal it well.     Pop into hot 350º oven for about 22-25 minutes or until golden brown on the edges and done in the center.  Dough will be a tiny bit soft but dry to the touch.  It will look like the final product below/right when done.  Cool completely before slicing and refrigerating.

More delicious low-carb desert recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented chefs to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or here: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  Makes 24 bars/servings, each containing:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

74.14 calories

6.43 g  fat

7.1 g  carbs, 5.33 g fiber, 1.77 NET CARBS

2.68 g  protein

61.33 mg sodium

40% RDA copper, 22% iron, 29% manganese

FOR THE CURIOUS:  With all apple filling, using 5 small 2½” apples:  93 calories, 7.5g fat, 10.06 g  carbs, 6.36 g  fiber, 3.7 net carbs

Strawberry German Pancake

Strawberry German Pancake

Strawberry German Pancake

When I opened the refrigerator this morning, two things called to me: a cut spaghetti squash half and a few remaining red strawberries in the carton.  It immediately brought to mind a couple of very old recipes of mine, pre-low-carb days.   I wondered how I might low-carb it into something for a late breakfast.  BINGO, I’ll put the pancake and pie recipes I was thinking about together to create something new.  So that’s what I did!

This is my low-carb version of my old German Pancake recipe, although mine has less egg in it than is typical (I’m not too fond of eggs). This came out delicious and my husband, who dislikes all things spaghetti squash, could NOT tell it was in the dessert I served him for brunch!  Don’t ya just love when you fool someone’s taste buds that way?  🙂 Unable to find my old recipe, I just started without one. I first cooked the squash and forked out 1 c. of the threads for this recipe, storing the rest in the freezer for another use.   Then I started throwing things on top of that into the bowl.   Sometimes the ingredients just click!  🙂  This is not suitable until the berries rung of the OWL ladder.  Anyway, I think you’ll like this should you decide to give it a go.

VARIATION:  Use fresh peaches and sugar-free peach jam instead of the strawberry flavor theme. (will be higher carbs)

You can have many more tasty low-carb recipes like this at your fingertips with your very own copy of the Low Carbing Among Friends cookbooks by Jennifer Eloff and a group of very talented low-carb internet cooks.  Check out their Facebook page for a sampling on what awaits you in these books.  Order yours today at Amazon or here: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

I receive no remuneration for this promotion nor for the inclusion of my recipes therein. I promote them simply because they contain amazing recipes you’ll want to try.

INGREDIENTS FOR PANCAKE: 

1 c. cooked spaghetti squash threads

1 oz. cream cheese

2 T. butter, unsalted

2 beaten eggs

1½ pkt. Truvia sweetener, or equivalent sweetener of your choice

2 tsp. DaVinci Vanilla sugar-free syrup (or ¼ tsp. vanilla extract)

2 T. golden flax meal  (or 2 T. almond flour, or 1 T. coconut flour)

1 T. sugar-free strawberry preserves

3 oz. sliced strawberries

WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING:  1/3 c. cream, whipped.  Add 1/8 tsp. vanilla & 3 drops liquid sweetener. Stir.

DIRECTIONS:  Microwave on HI a seeded spaghetti squash half cut-side down in ½” water for 13-15 minutes.  Fork out 1 c. of the threads into a mixing bowl.  Store the rest in your fridge or freezer for another use.  Preheat oven to 350º.  While still hot, mix in the cream cheese and butter to melt.  Stir well.    Add eggs, sweetener, DaVinci, flax meal and sliced strawberries.  Stir well and pour into buttered pie plate or quiche dish.  Bake at 350º for about 20-25 minutes or until center is set.  Remove and cool almost completely (top layer cannot be even warm really, but bottom one will still be) or the whipped cream topping will melt and be a runny mess, spoiling visual appearance greatly.  Cut into quarters and carefully lift 1 quarter out onto each of 2 serving plates.  Spread half the strawberry preserves on each in a thin layer.  Place another quarter of the pancake nicely on top and top with half the whipped cream topping.  Serve at once and ENJOY!

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 2 servings each containing:  (calculated using flax meal):

356 calories

29 g  fat

12.5 g  carbs, 4.85 g  fiber, 7.65 g  NET CARBS

10.5 g  protein

217 mg sodium

314 mg potassium

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake

Yet another use for my Individual Vanilla Cake recipe.  Before you get bent out of shape when you note the net carbs below, please bear in mind these are quite large, like the muffins in a minute (MIM’s) we all know and love.  I don’t think there’s any way I could eat but half of one of these.  In fact, outside of the desired photographic impact of a whole one here for my website, I plan to always slice these laterally and use half a cake and only 1 oz. berries for each serving.  But of course, portion size decisions are up to you.  You know YOUR appetite and YOUR family better than I.  This dessert not suitable until the grains rung of OWL.

Sometimes I like to puree a few berries with a tablespoon or so of water, a couple drops of sweetener and red food coloring to make a sauce to moisten the shortcake before placing the sliced berries and adding the whipped cream.  If you do this, any additional pureed berries on top are not included in the nutritional info below.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in her cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe my Individual Vanilla Cake

4 oz. sliced strawberries

½ c. whipped heavy cream

2-4 drops liquid Splenda

½ tsp. vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º, grease 2 individual cake pans or 2 jumbo muffin cups.  Make Individual Vanilla Cakes per that recipe’s instructions.   Cool before attempting to remove from pans or slicing laterally.  Slice berries and place atop each serving.  Top with whipped cream sweetened to taste with the ½ tsp. vanilla added.  Garnish with a whole berry if desired.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:    Makes 2 whole shortcakes.  Each contains:   (If serving half portions, which is all I can eat, halve the numbers below)

387 calories

32.2 g  fat

22.2 g  carbs, 11.765 g  fiber, 10.45 g  NET CARBS

18.45 g  protein

560 mg sodium

 

Strawberry Pie

SstrawberryPie

I like to use xanthan gum to thicken up a fruit filling, but chia seeds or glucomannan will also do that job for you if you prefer.  And with the xanthan gum, it doesn’t go watery on you and ruin the crust overnight in the fridge!  My hubby’s reaction was  “This is like REAL pie!”  But it’s low-carb all the way folks!  This recipe is not acceptable until you reach Atkins Phase 2.  Keto dieters can have this if the carbs will fit into your daily limits.  For those that find this crust too high in carbs, I have other pie crust recipes that are quite a bit lower in carbs than this particular Nutty Pie crust.  Click the “Pie Crust” category on the right side of the page to check out my lower carb crusts.

More delicious low-carb recipes can be at your fingertips with your very own set of Jennifer Eloff and friends’ best-selling cookbooks LOW CARBING AMONG FRIENDS.  She has collaborated with famous low-carb Chef George Stella and several other talented cooks to bring you a wealth of delicious recipes you are going to want to try.  Even a few of my recipes are in the cookbooks! Order your 5-volume set TODAY! (also available individually) from Amazon or: http://amongfriends.us/order.php

DISCLAIMER: I do not get paid for this book promotion or for the inclusion of my recipes therein.  I do so merely because they are GREAT cookbooks any low-carb cook would be proud to add to their cookbook collection

INGREDIENTS:

1½ pints strawberries, stemmed (reserve 1 large whole berry for center decoration)

1 “Nutty” Pie Crust, baked

1 c. water

Sweetener of your choice to taste

Red food coloring (optional)

More liquid Splenda or Stevia to taste for whipped cream topping

Dash vanilla

1½ c. heavy cream

xanthan gum (1/8-¼ tsp.)

DIRECTIONS: Put 5 berries into a food processor or blender.  Slice remaining berries into a  medium bowl.  Add the 1c. water to the berries in the blender/processor and puree until smooth.  Pour this mixture into in small saucepan and heat over medium heat.  Add Splenda and quite a few drops red food coloring and stir, repeating until you get a nice red glaze color.  When it comes to a slow boil, lower heat to a slow simmer and begin dusting with xanthan gum, stirring well between additions, allowing it to thicken.  Will take several additions to get glaze thick enough.  When satisfactorily thick remove from heat and pour over sliced berries. Stir well to coat all berries and pour into baked, cooled pie shell.  In clean bowl, whip the whipping cream.  When nice and thick, add a dash of vanilla and your preferred sweetener to taste.  Spread topping over berries and decorate center with whole berry, or fan slice it and spread the layers out a bit.  A couple of fresh mint leaves (if you grow mint) placed aside the berry looks lovely.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 8, each serving contains:

198.3 calories

16.83 g  fat

14.91 g  carbs, 8.14 g  fiber, 6.77 g  NET CARBS

5.24 g  protein

80 mg sodium

Crumble Topping

Click to enlarge

I love working with oat fiber.  It brings to low-carb baking what flour used to bring, a flour-y taste and flour-y texture.  This tasty crisp made with apple was just DELICIOUS!  I had 4 Gala apples I had bought for my husband (that he wasn’t eating)  that were going to go bad and were really past the crisp, eating stage.  So this is how I used those up!  My typical apple filling:  4 peeled, sliced apples tossed with a few tablespoons of water, a sprinkle of xanthan gum tp thicken, 1/4 c. Splenda or erythritol, along with a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.  Pour into non-stick pan or baking dish and dot with 2T. butter.

I made the crumble topping below and sprinkled HALF the crumble mixture over the fruit.  I zipped the other half up in a baggie and freeze for another use. Will keep frozen for 1 month. This is not Induction friendly, so wait until you reach Phase 2 of Atkins to enjoy this.  To make this MUCH lower carb, you could instead use peeled, grated jicama, sliced zucchini or chayote squash for half, or even all the apples in this, but cooking time will increase if you do.

INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. CarbQuik baking mix

½ c. (45 g) oat fiber

2 T. cold butter

pinch salt

1/4-1/2 c. water, added slowly

1-2 T. granular erythritol

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Into a medium bowl, measure out bake mix, oat fiber and salt.  Stir.  Using a fork, cut in the cold butter until crumbly and well incorporated into dry ingredients.  Slowly add 1/4 c. water and work in with fork.  Add more water by tablespoons, stirring after each addition until mixture begins to hold together into pea-sized clumps. When all appears to be mixed well, spoon out half the mixture into a ziploc bag and freeze for future use.  Using fingers, crumble the remaining topping onto your fruit crisp filling mixture.  Bake at 350º for about 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is browned nicely.  Serve hot or cold.

NUTRITIONAL INFO FOR TOPPING ONLY: Recipe makes enough for TWO 9″ round pans of apple or berry crisp. I get 4 servings from a 9″ pan.  (8 total servings in both pans).

Total recipe contains:  374 calories, 47g fat, 75.7g carbs, 67.7g fiber, 8 NET CARBS, 24g protein

1 single serving of topping (1/4 of 1 pan) contains: 45.5 cal, 3.1 g fiber, 9.5 g carbs, 8.5 g fiber, 1 NET CARB, 3 g protein

FOR THE CURIOUS: 1 Serving with apple filling made as described above:  219 calories, 18g fat, 39.4 g  carbs,  20.3 g  fiber, 19.1 g NET CARBS, 6.4 g  protein.  Yes, it’s really high carb using real apples, so you might prefer to cut the majority of carbs out and use berries or apple substitutes like jicama, chayote squash or zucchini in your filling!  Just sayin’ that most of the carbs here are in the filling, not the crumble topping. 😉

Coconut Crust Fruit “Pizza”

CoconutFruitPizza

With fresh fruit in season right now, there’s no better time to enjoy an old high-carb recipe of mine I modified to make it suitable for Atkins low-carb.  It’s a pretty dessert that impresses company and yet it is so easy to make!  You make the crust a day ahead and put it all together right before serving.  The crust is very dense (not at all crumbly) and can even be eaten with your hands just like pizza rather than with a fork!  This recipe is not acceptable for Atkins Induction, but you can enjoy it once you get to the nuts and seeds level of Atkins Phase 2 OWL.  Softening 1-2 oz. cream cheese and blending into the whipped cream is a good variation for this.  But that is not calculated in the nutritional info below.

My favorite version of this dessert is one made with fresh peaches and a few drops of almond extract added to the whipped cream.  Sooooo good!

VARIATIONS:  Use sliced fresh peaches, use raspberries, use blueberries.  You can also add 4 oz. softened cream cheese to the creamy filling and reduce the whipped cream for a firmer filling. 🙂

CRUST INGREDIENTS:

1  c. unsweetened coconut

1/2 c. chopped almonds

1/3 c. Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener)

2 ½ T. low carb bake mix or almond flour (or 1 T. coconut flour)

2 egg whites lightly beaten with a whisk until frothy

1 tsp. almond extract

TOPPING INGREDIENTS: 1 c. heavy cream, 1T. s/f syrup like DaVinci or Torani and 1 pt. fruit

DIRECTIONS: Line a pizza pan with foil.  Grease with butter a 9-10″ circle.  Combine all crust ingredients in a bowl and stir well.  Using fingers, spread and press firmly the coconut crust mixture into a 9-10″ circle on a greased sheet pan.  Bake at 325º for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on a wire rack.  Refrigerate overnight.

The day you want to serve, place crust on flat cake plate.  Whip cream with a splash of vanilla and sweetener of your choice (I like coconut or vanilla DaVinci sugar free syrup). I always add a dusting of glucomannan powder to my whipped cream when I need it to “firm it up” for things like this, but this is not absolutely necessary if you don’t have any.  Spread whipped cream evenly over coconut crust and top with raspberries, sliced strawberries or if on the fruit rung of OWL, this is good with thinly sliced peaches.  Chill for an hour and then cut into 8 wedges and serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Serves 8, each serving (using strawberries) contains:

273 cals. 25g fat, 12g carbs, 5.1g fiber, 6.9g NET CARBS, 5g protein, 43 mg sodium