Author: Bill Hutchison

Low Carb Christmas Cake

Ingredients:

  • 100g Coconut Oil (0g carbs)
  • 1/4 cup (50g) Natvia Sweetener (0g carbs)
  • 3 tsp Cinnamon (3g carbs)
  • 1 tsp Nutmeg (1g carbs)
  • 1 tsp Almond Essence (1g carbs)
  • 4 Large Eggs (3g carbs)
  • 200g Almond Meal (10g carbs)
  • 60g Crushed Almonds (2g carbs)
  • Zest of 1 Orange (~13g) (2g carbs)
  • 15g Slivered Almonds on Top (1g carbs)

Directions:

  1. Mix together melted coconut oil and sweetener until fluffy
  2. Mix in cinnamon, nutmeg, and almond essence
  3. Mix in eggs one at a time, mixing between eggs
  4. Stir in the almond meal
  5. Stir in crushed almonds
  6. Stir in orange zest
  7. Pour / scrape into parchment paper lined 20cm / 8″ round cake pan, or a 21cm x 11cm (9″ x 5″) loaf tin
  8. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Depending on the brands of ingredients that you choose then the entire cake comes out to 23g of carbs, or about 3 grams each if you cut the cake into eight slices. I use Woolworth’s brand Almond Meal, which is only 4.9 grams of carbs per 100 grams.

Low Carb Lemon Blueberry Scone

Ingredients

  • 630 g Almond Flour (32g carbs)
  • 2 tsp Baking Soda (0g carbs)
  • 1/4 tsp Salt (0g carbs)
  • 1 Lemon Zest (1g carbs)
  • 4 Large Eggs (3g carbs)
  • 3 tbsp Maple Syrup (40g carbs)
  • 2 tbsp Lemon Juice (One lemon squeezed) (1g carbs)
  • 1 cup (150g) Blueberries (17g carbs)
  • 4 tbsp Chia Seeds (2g carbs)

Directions

  1. Mix together the dry ingredients
  2. Stir in lemon zest and wet ingredients
  3. Fold in the blueberries
  4. Use your hands to form 20 round scones on parchment paper lined baking tray
  5. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes at 170C

Using pure maple syrup and Woolworth’s brand almond meal makes scones of about 5 grams of carbs per scone.

4-Ingredient Low Carb Almond Crackers

These biscuits are both gluten free and low carb.

Ingredients

  • 400g Almond Flour (20g carbs)
  • 2 Large Eggs (1.5g carbs)
  • 1 tsp Salt (0g carbs)
  • 2 tbsp Chia Seeds (1g carbs)

Directions

  1. Mix dry ingredients together
  2. Add eggs and mix until it looks like a dough
  3. Flatten 1/2 dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper until it is about 1/16″ thick
  4. Bake at 180C for 12-minutes

This cracker is a great base for other crackers if you add other herbs and spices, for example:

  • Rosemary & Garlic
  • Garlic & Parmesan

This recipe makes two trays of crackers, which I cut into 6×6 or 36 crackers. Using Wooworth’s Brand Almond Meal / Flour this makes biscuits with about 2 grams of carbs per 6 x cracker serve.

Low Carb Donuts

I have not tried these yet, but the look delicious, and I need to try them sometime …

Mix
1/4 cup baking cocoa (sugar free)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda. (I was out so I used baking powder. Ha! You do what you can.)
4 eggs
1/2 cup coconut oil
3 Tbs sugar-free maple syrup

Bake 15-18 min at 350 degrees

Glaze:

A handful of Lily’s chocolate chips and some coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl and nuked them together for about 30 seconds. Then I stirred in about 5-6 drops of stevia.

Voila! Low carb chocolate donuts WHILE maintaining healthy blood sugars.

Thanks to the “Let Me Be 83: My Dude with Diabetes” Facebook group for this one, I can’t wait to try them out …

Here is a direct link to the recipe.

Alternative for Mixed Spice

I was making a low carb carrot cake for my son’s birthday and the recipe called for mixed spice. It’s the first time I’ve made a recipe that called for mixed slice, and add such I didn’t have any in the kitchen.

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The alternative that I came up with using is to use cinnamon and nutmeg in a 2:1 ratio, so 2 parts cinnamon to 1 part nutmeg in place of mixed spice.

Using this alternate for mixed spice turned out pretty good, and the gluten free, lactose free, low carb carrot cake was a winner for our son’s 14th birthday…

All About Lactose Intolerance

Milk or Cream in Cooking

Best alternative for milk or cream for cooking is coconut milk or coconut cream, just need to watch out for additives in the milk or cream. For use in soups, almond milk could be a good substitute.

Lactose Free Cheese

Finding lactose free cheese is important, and something that I thought we would have a lot of problem finding. I’ve been learning a lot of cheese, especially aged cheeses, is naturally lactose free.

So aged cheeses, like Cheddars, Colby, Jack, Swiss, and Parmesan contain zero grams of lactose. (source)

A good way to check the lactose content, if it is not listed separately, is to look at the sugar content of the cheese. Generally speaking, a lower sugar content means lower lactose. Lactose will be listed in the cheese in the sugars line.

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Some cheese and milk, like Liddells lactose free cheese, actually have added lactase enzyme to break down the lactose to make it more digestible. Lactase is an enzyme that is naturally produced in our small intestine, but for people with lactose intolerance, there is either not enough, or none being produced. Artificial lactase is most often extracted from yeast and from molds (source). The effectiveness of added lactase tends to vary from person to person in alleviating their lactose intolerance symptoms.

Other food ingredients that may contain lactose:

  • Milk Powder
  • Milk Protein
  • Milk Solids
  • Nonfat dry milk
  • Whey
  • Whey solids or protein

Sources:

What is the Ingredient “Flavour”?

What is Flavour Ingredient

Recently we were looking more closely at the food labels in our pantry, and at what ingredients are there. For health reasons we have been attempting to eat more naturally, and have a better idea of what is in our foods. While looking at many of our canned goods and sauces we came across the rather bland ingredient of “flavour”.

That was rather non-descript, so I decided to contact the company that makes one of the canned items in question, and this is the response that I got:

The flavour used is of synthetic origin.  The actual profile of the flavour cannot be disclosed as it is proprietary information.

I was shocked to be honest!

It was always my understanding that we were supposed to be told about what was in our foods, I did not know that companies were allowed to put “secret” natural or artificial ingredients in food that we eat!

Amazingly it seems that the rights of companies to maintain their “proprietary information” is greater than our rights as consumers to know what we are putting into our bodies. We aren’t even allowed to know if the “flavour” or “flavouring” is natural or artificial in origin. Apparently there are over 2000 secret man-made flavour additives that don’t need to be identified by name or number. So while I have been trying to avoid numbered ingredients, the innocuous label of “flavour” has slipped by me.

The Food Intolerance Network has a great article about Flavours and Flavour Enhancers that goes into a lot more detail.

In the future our family will be avoiding the ingredient “flavour” or “flavouring”.

Photo credit: Margarine via photopin (license)

Using Psyllium Husks in Gluten Free Baking

Xanthan and Guar Gum is a common addition to Gluten Free baking to make up for the lack of binding that comes from the lack of gluten. Both Guar and Xanthan Gum can be difficult for some people to digest, and can lead to bloating and digestive problems.

A natural replacement for Xanthan and Guar Gum can be Psullium Husks. Finding the correct ratio for the replacement of the Gums for Psyllium Husks has always eluded me, until I read The How Can It Be Gluten-Free Cookbook Volume 2.

Here are the ratios that the book recommends:

  • Baked Goods (except drop biscuits) – 2 tsp Psyllium Husk to replace 1 tsp Xanthan or Guar Gum
  • Drop Biscuits / Cookies – 5 tsp Psyllium Husks to replace 1 tsp Xanthan or Guar Gum

Woolworths Macro Psyllium Husk

One Pot Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients:
  • 2 x tbsp Olive oil
  • 2 1/2 cups beef broth
  • 1 x jar pasta sauce
  • 250g spaghetti noodles
  • 1 x medium diced onion
  • 500g ground beef, veal, turkey, or chicken
  • 1 x clove minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Directions:
  1. Heat up olive oil in deep saucepan over medium heat
  2. Brown beef and onion for about 10-minutes unless onion is transparent
  3. Add minced garlic and cook for one more minute
  4. Add beef broth and pasta sauce, stir through and bring to a boil
  5. Add the pasta noodles
  6. Cook until noodles are cooked
  7. Add parmesan cheese and stir through

Slow Cooker Beef or Lamb Curry

Ingredients:
  • Cooking Spray
  • 3 x diced sweet potatoes
  • 500g diced lamb or beef
  • 2 x diced medium onions
  • 1 x 400g can of tomatoes w/ juice
  • 2 x cloves minced garlic
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 x beef stock cube
  • 2 tbsp Keen’s Curry Powder
  • 150 g spinach
  • 2/3 cup plain yoghurt
  • 250g peas
Directions:
  1. Spray slow cooker bowl with cooking spray
  2. Add sweet potatoes, meat, onions, tomatoes and juice, garlic, water, beef stock cube, and curry powder to the bowl and stir it all together
  3. Cook on low temperature for 7-hours
  4. Add the spinach and yoghurt to the slow cooker bowl and stir through
  5. Cook for another 25-minutes
  6. Add the peas to the bowl and stir through
  7. Cook for a further 5-minutes

Serve curry over steamed rice.