Sugar Free Nutella

Holy nut butter!

After missing Nutella but a bit jaded after my past less success at making it I’ve decided it is time to try again.

And now I’m really that I did. It’s actually a lot easier than I had made it previously. 

Firstly you’ll need a hot oven and will need to roast about a cup or two or blanched hazelnuts and half the quantity of blanched almonds.

Once the nuts have gone slightly golden you’re ready to start.

You do need a strong blender or food processor… this is quite a heavy job so if your food processor is a small hand held one this might  not work.  That was the mistake I had made before. 

If your blender can handle crushing ice cubes then it’ll be fine for certain. 

Anyway now just throw the nuts into your processor (in batches if needed). Then let it start to crush.

Once the consistency is close to more of a paste add in some some pure dark cacao and sweetener. Then leave it to get crushing until it is a more silky texture. You will want to taste along to make sure it’s as chocolaty and sweet as you like it to be.

Once all that is done your done! Now enjoy!!

Chicken Zoodles

Oh zoodles… I love you.

Now that it’s getting colder outside I find that I want to have warm meals more and more. They’re cozy and comforting.

Plus I’ve been around a lot of people eating pasta lately and decided that it was time for zoodles. 

This is a simple and fast zoodle meal that is perfect if you don’t feel like spending ages cooking and making a sauce.

Flavor wise feel free to get creative and add on!

What you’ll need :
100 grams diced chicken
160 grams zoodles
5 cherry tomatoes cut into fours
Olive oil
2 mushrooms sliced
Garlic powder
Mixed Italian dried herbs
Optional – goat cheese

In a bowl prepare your zoodles and sprinkle over some olive oil. Mix it through.

In a non stick pan add some olive oil and get it warm. Add the chicken and tomatoes at the same time.  This will allow time for the tomatoes to get soft and saucey & the chicken to absorb some flavor.

Add some garlic powder & Italian herbs.

Once the chicken is nearly cooked add in the mushrooms and let them soften as well.

As soon as the chicken  is cooked add the zoodles and cook them through the chicken for about 3-4 minutes. You’ll want them to soften but not get mushy.

That’s it! Sprinkle on some cheese and you’re ready to eat…

Nutritional information :
About 6 net carbs
350 calories

Toufons

I’ve decided to go ahead and create a new food… toufons! What are toufons? Tofu croutons!

One of the things a lc person can miss in a salad are croutons, let’s not lie. Those crunchy little bites.. yum right?  So I wanted a lc version. 

Easy.

Take your tofu and dice it into smaller cubes.
Grab a non stick pan and add some oil – due to the high heat I opt for coconut, but feel free to use what you like.

The pan and oil needs to be hot…really hot. Now throw in the tofu and toss it around. You need to just let it sit in the oil from time to time to let it golden and the  toss again.

Once they are golden go ahead and add some herbs or garlic powder to give it whatever taste you’d like. 

Easy right?

To get the best healthy choice go for organic tofu – especially if you are living in the USA.  What you don’t want is gmo packed tofu for so many different reasons.

Tofu Stir Fry

Today was my first full meat & dairy free day… and it was surprisingly easier than expected. And I feel good… but I guess it helps that I love tofu.

Something you’ll find fairly often in Asia is a tofu stir fry, and they are lovely!

Since I’m also watching my sodium at the moment I’ve decided to go for a soy sauce free stir fry… and it is possible. 

The great thing about making a stir fry is the thing that takes the longest is your veggie prep, cooking time is actually very fast.

I’ve got a great spice bottle of Thai 7 herbs which has no added sugar. It’s got all the herbs and spices so it packs in the flavor. This also cut down my prep so I didn’t need to chop garlic or onions. 

It was a long day and lots of traffic so by the time I got home I wanted fast… the faster the better.

I also used my virgin coconut oil which adds a lot of flavor.

What you’ll need :

140 grams pak choi 
4 mushrooms
3 cherry tomatoes
120 grams firm tofu (organic! )
Herbs
Chili flakes
Virginia coconut oil

In a hot non stick pan throw in some dived tofu and let it get crispy tossing the pan around from time to time.

Slice up your veggies…

Once the tofu is golden on the outside throw in the veggies and add the herbs. Keep tossing everything around for a couple of minutes.

Done and ready to eat when your veggies are softened.

Add half an avocado if you want a bit of creamy texture.

All in all about 5-6 net carbs and 350 -400 calories

Spinach and cauliflower soup…

More important is that this soup was awesomely yummy! And wow… is it filling!!! Full of good nutrients which is by far the most important.

Overall it took about 5 mins to prepare and about 20 mins to prepare so a relatively fast meal.

I like soup and it’s odd that I don’t make it more.  But I’m on this veggie kick now so more soups to come.

To make sure to get enough fat I added fried mozzarella 🙂

What you’ll need:
100 grams of spinach
100 grams of cauliflower
20 grams full fat cream cheese
Water
Stock (veggie or chicken)
75 grams (about half a ball) full fat mozzarella

Fill a pot with some water – about 2 -3 cups.
Throw in the cauliflower and part of a stock cube. I only cooked for myself so I used less than 1/4.

When the cauliflower is soft add in the spinach… leave till wilted. Then take a hand blender (or an actual one) and blend the soup. Add in the cream cheese and then blend some more. Leave to boil.

In a non stick pan add a tiny bit of oil and then throw in the mozzarella peeled a bit. Swirl it around until it melts flat. Leave it be on a high heat until it gets crispy…

Now your soup should be ready… pour it into a big bowl and add your now crispy cheese!

5 net carbs and 300 calories… not too bad!

Soft &gooey egg salad

I’ve decided this week to go on a mini eggfast. I say mini because I am not going to follow the pure eggfast where you eat nothing but eggs and fats leaving out all veggies.  I can’t handle three days without my veggies. Same with my quest bars….so it’s a mild version. 

So what am I doing? I am eating eggs, just eggs as meals. And of course since I’m a massive egg lover this is not much of a challenge.

Tonight I decided to go for a simple salad that is packed with flavor and veggies. I love a colorful plate!

I added cream cheese to give it that richer creamy flavor that goes so well with avocado.

What you’ll need:
2 small mini romaine heads with the ends chopped off
3-4 snack tomatoes cut in quarters
1 or 2 mini orange peppers sliced
3 medium eggs soft boiled
20 grams (about a tablespoon) of cream cheese
1/2  small avocado
4 pecan nuts roughly crumbled
Cayenne pepper powder
Paprika powder
Italian dried herbs
1/2 tablespoon olive oil

In a bowl or plate shred your lettuce and top over the rest of the veggies. Add the soft boiled eggs and just enjoy!

Nutritional information:

About 400 calories and 4 net carbs depending on your portion size

Flax Crackers

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Ok let’s all be honest, crackers and cheese are just the best.

Don’t get me wrong, I love cheese just on its own but somehow they just go great on a cracker or bread.

Husband and I decided that instead of cooking for Valentine’s Day that we would just set up a mini cheese feast. And I wanted to put them on something.

So I made my flax crackers. They are one of the easiest things possible to make and the variations are up to you.

For the most basic ones all you need is 1 cup ground flax
1/2 cup water

That’s it.

You just spread it on a wax paper or flat sheet. Pop it into an oven at 200 C and leave it there for about 20 -30 minutes.

Easy right?

Now for flavor you just can choose if you want to make them savory or sweet. Personally if I make the savory version then I’ll make it with garlic powder, salt and Rosemary then rasp in some Parmesan cheese.

Around Christmas time a sweet version with cinnamon and sweetner tastes great!

Flax has virtually no net carbs thanks to its very high fibre content however, be aware that calorie wise these are very high. So as with all things don’t over do it. Lol.

Peanut butter cups

Reeces pieces used to be one of my biggest food addictions.  I could just keep eating them… chocolate and peanut butter just belong together.

Working with chocolate seemed intimidating to me at first but I just had to try it out.

I’ve actually posted this in my post about chocolate nut clusters. But I just think it deserves to have its own special space.

The taste is so good! I am so glad I can finally have peanut butter cups again but now without all the guilt. In fact, since both low carb and high fat it is actually totally guilt free. Sometimes life is good 🙂

What you’ll need:
85% or above pure chocolate * about half a bar it really depends on how many cups you want to make.
Sweetener of your choice if you don’t like bitter chocolate (personally I love it)
Home made peanut butter or 100% pure peanutbutter

To melt the chocolate you’ll need a shallow pan filled about half way with water and a ceramic bowl to put in the middle of the pan where you’ll do the melting. The water needs to get to about boiling point and then turn down the heat. Add in the chocolate to the bowl and stir it around.

In a few ramekins put in a cupcake liner. Just make as many as you’d like.  I don’t make too many at one time.

Once the chocolate has melted and you’ve sweetened *optional* it’s time to make the cups! Yay!

Firstly just spoon in a thin base layer of chocolate. The thickness is totally up to you. Now spoon in about half a teaspoon of peanutbutter in the middle and try to spread it out a bit but not all the way to the edge. Just try to get it fairly smoothed out.  Now cover this with another layer of chocolate.  Done!

Just pop them into the fridge and let harden for about one to two hours depending on how thick you’ve made them.

Now just enjoy some guilty free goodness!

Chocolate cream cheese pancakes

I love pancakes – thin crepe like or nice and fluffy, I love pancakes.
So since it’s Sunday I decided to have a bit of a treat.

I recently made fluffy American pancake style ones so this time I wanted to go with the thinner version.

The other great thing about this recipe in particular is that you can easily just whip it up on a whim. I did 🙂

Let’s get pancaking!

What you’ll need:
60 grams of cream cheese
1 tsp baking powder
1-2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Sweetener of choice
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 medium eggs

To make the mixture all you need to do is add all the ingredients into a mixing bowl or jug. With a mixer beat it up for about a minute or two till the mixture is well mixed and fluffy. Taste it and adjust it to your liking before start cooking. This is the fun part!

Take a medium sized pan and warm some oil or butter, personally I prefer butter.

Once the pan is hot turn the heat down slightly and pour in some mixture. The pancake is pretty flat so you can flip it fairly quickly. I wait till it bubbles a bit and flip. Bake it on the other side for less than a minute.

Your pancake will be flatter but should have a cakey texture.

I topped mine with a bit of peanutbutter or my lc nutella.

Enjoy!

It makes about 5-8 pancakes depending on the size you want. The entire thing is about 3 net carbs and 400 calories. Not too bad 🙂

Easy Gooey Chcolate Souffle

Because Mondays are hard enough I feel I deserve a treat just at the fact that I made it through the day in one piece.

What better treat than to make a souffle.

This has to be the easiest thing to make and its ready so quickly so you can make it on a whim 🙂

Indgredients:

2 egg whites

1 or 2 tsp Splenda (basically to your liking)

about 1 Tbsp Pure Cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or more if you like it a bit stronger)

small block of 90% lindt chocolate

How to make it:

In a bowl carefully crack open and seperate the egg whties.

Take a fork or a whisk and start beating the egg whites till they are quite frothy. At this stage slowly start to add in the spenda and cocoa powder – but slowly! Make sure to beat the egg white along the way and add the dry indgredients little by little.

Make sure to keep beating the egg whites all through the process.

Once the egg whites and mixture loos smooth but airy put the mixture into a container that will go into the oven.

I use a small coffee mug.

Put this into the oven which is preheated at about 210C and let it cook for around 8-10 minutes or until its not too wiggly.

I’ve never really worked out the macros for this, but I’d assume 1nc? maybe 2?