BERRY AND CREAM CHEESE HOTCAKES

These yummy hotcakes are straight from The Real Meal Revolution book. I used the frozen berries from Woolworths SA because we don't often get fresh blueberries here. I just picked out the blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, using only the blueberries. I also added a little xylitol because I felt like something a little more sweet (naughty!). 

I used Philadelphia cream cheese which I warmed up a bit in the microwave so it wasn't rock hard and could spread easily.

Enjoy!

Serves 4 - 5

½ cup almond flour or ground almond

½ cup coconut flour

1 ⅓ cups ricotta 

¾ cup milk

1 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp xylitol (optional)

4 eggs, separated

pinch of salt

180g of fresh or frozen blueberries

50g butter

200g cream cheese

fresh berries

mix the flours, ricotta, milk, baking powder, yolks, xylitol and salt using a food processor or blender, then mix the blueberries in

whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and fold into the mixture in two batches

Warm a pan on medium heat, melt the butter and fry the hotcakes in batches of three, using about 2 tablespoons of batter each.

Top each hotcake with cream cheese and fresh berries, serve hot

COCONUT CRUST PIZZA

Sorry I've been so scarce... I was trying to think of a good excuse but there isn't one! To make up for it I'm going to give you a recipe for something that everybody craves at some point... pizza!

Now this isn't some crappy cauliflower and cheese pizza crust, (who wants to eat a floppy, chewy crust?), this is the real deal, or as real as it gets. Make sure to keep your base super thin - mine was a bit to thick this time and didn't crisp up as well as it normally does. Still yummy!

Makes 1 large pizza (I usually halve ingredients)

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 cup milk (full fat)

3 medium eggs

2 teaspoons garlic powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 clove garlic (crushed)

½ tablespoon rosemary (chopped)


Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

In a bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients (coconut flour, garlic powder, baking soda and rosemary) and set aside.

In another larger bowl, beat eggs, milk, and crushed garlic together.

Begin gradually adding your dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bowl and mix until well combined. The consistency will be more like a batter than a dough.

On a baking paper lined tray, pour your batter into whatever desired shape. Make it as thin as possible without there being any holes - this will help ensure a nice crust. 

Place in oven and allow to cook for about 10 minutes or just until crust forms.

Remove from the oven and flip over carefully.

Place back in oven for an additional 10 minutes or until crust is just turning golden brown.

Take it out and put what ever toppings you want on, then back into the oven until nice and crisp.

Please note these oven times are just a guideline - my oven is seriously sketchy so I don't really trust it and I go by how the pizza looks. So keep and eye on it!

LOW CARB BANANA BREAD

This banana bread is amazing. That is all.

BANANA BREAD

3 ripe bananas, mashed

⅓ cup butter or coconut oil, melted (I used butter)


5 eggs


2 tbsp honey


1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup coconut flour

⅓ cup ground almond

¼ cup  ground flaxseed

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp cinnamon


preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease one loaf pan.

in a medium size bowl combine bananas and melted butter, mixing thoroughly. Add eggs, honey and vanilla. Whisk until eggs are combined.

in a small bowl add remaining dry ingredients, stirring lightly. Combine gently with wet ingredients

transfer batter to greased pan and bake for about 45 minutes. Bread is complete when toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

remove bread from oven and allow to cool in pan for about 5 minutes until transferring to wire racks to continue cooling.

SHOULD YOU BE DRINKING THAT?

So many people think that alcohol is packed with carbs - not true! Of course there are certain drinks that are carb loaded, but there are also many that you can get away with. Now I'm not promoting drinking or anything, but if you're going to have one make sure you're making the right choice!

Wine 150ml - a small glass

Dry Red and Dry White - about 3,8g of carbs. It's a pretty good choice, whew! Within white wines your Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are a little lower at about 3,2g, and Chenin Blanc a little higher at 5g.

Champagne is nice and low at 2,8g.

Spirits - a shot

Most are carb free! There is a common misconception that they are full of sugar. The sugar breaks down to form ethyl alcohol, or ethanol, which is a zero-carb liquid. 

Whiskey - 0g

Tequila - 0g

Gin -0g

Scotch - 0g

Rum - 0g

Vodka - 0g

Brandy - 0g

Cognac - 0g

Jagermeister - 11g - don't bother.

Beer - 330ml

Beer is bad! At almost 13g of carbs per drink it's a killer

Light beer is good, well actually only Castle Lite. That sits at 2g so very low. Be careful of other light beers - Windhoek is light in alcohol but is about 10g of carbs a beer. You might as well be drinking the real thing.

Cider - 330ml

Another bad one - Savanna Dry is 13g, and Lite is 12g, so pretty much the same. 

Hunters Extreme is a shocker - at 25g per bottle, you're just drinking bread.

Mixers

I'm not even going to bother typing them out they are so terrible - no sodas, no juice, no tonic and no dry lemon! (but just so you know a coke is 39g!)

Now obviously the diet sodas are low carb, but they are so toxic for your body that you should not even go there.

The only fizz that you can expect in a mixer is a soda/sparkling water.

Lastly a few notes:

1. Alcohol is burned before fat in the body, so it can cause a stall in some people

2. Be careful about the food choices you make when under the influence - you can still have that cheese burger without the bun!

3. Be aware of hidden carbs in flavoured spirits

4. Your tolerance for alcohol will be lower after a few weeks of Banting, so slow down a bit.

If you want to check out any other drinks you might find them on Fat Secret.

Enjoy! (Responsibly)

CRUNCHY COOKIES

Oh my word. I finally got around to making these delicious biscuits that are Low Carb and High Yumminess! Man, that sounds cheesy but it's true. They are perfect for a quick fix with a cup of coffee (and no I didn't eat ALL the cookies on the plate - the pic would have looked a bit boring with only two though!).

I found this coconut flour recipe online that I tweaked a little. You're not really supposed to have too much honey if you're Banting (just 1 teaspoon a day) but I tried these biscuits with Stevia and I can't deal with that taste. If you're only having a cookie or two then the honey really shouldn't be a problem... just don't go eating the whole lot! The same applies to the chocolate chips. I used Lindt 85% dark chocolate. The higher the cocoa percentage the less sugar in the bar. Keep an eye on the cookies in the oven because they can burn quickly.

COCONUT AND ALMOND COOKIES

3 tbsp coconut flour

1 tbsp ground almond

2 and ½ tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp honey

½ tsp vanilla essence

a pinch of salt

2 tbsp 85% dark chocolate chips

heat the oven to 180°C

mix all the ingredients except the chocolate chips in a food processor.

stir in the chocolate chips until they are evenly distributed

roll into little balls on a lined baking tray and squash with a fork

bake in the oven until browned, about 10 minutes.

they will crisp as they cool.

LOW CARB BREAD

It's been a month of living on on low carb high fat diet and things are going pretty well. I have lost about two and a half kilograms so I'm feeling great about that! I can't say that it's been the easiest month. I do miss potato, and crackers, and chips, and chocolate and TOAST! Man I would give anything for a slice of toast. So, this brought me to the whole low carb bread making process...

It's been really difficult finding all the ingredients in Maun, but luckily the in-laws came up for a visit from South Africa and bought me the stuff. I set to work making what will now become known as 'The Most Expensive Bread In The World'. I worked out the cost of a loaf at between R50 and R60 (a normal brown loaf in Maun is about R9) and I don't know if I love bread that much anymore.

It wasn't particularly hard to make, but my oven only has two temperatures - blazing hot or warm - so it was quite hard to know how long to put it in for. I first made The Real Meal Revolution Carb Free Bread. What a flop. I did everything perfectly, and when I took the loaf out of the oven it looked incredible - it had risen nicely and looked like a normal loaf of bread - and it smelled amazing! Within a minute, though,  the whole thing started to sink and it became this short, fat brick of a loaf. It was also incredibly eggy. Not at all what I imagined it to be. Apparently it's because I mixed it too vigorously and the air bubbles inside were too big, thus collapsing when it cooled. Moving on.

I then went online and found this version which has worked out quite nicely, also a bit of a brick, but it tasted much nicer. I am going to play around with the recipe and hopefully I can make something in the future that resembles a normal loaf a bit better. Remember to cut it before you freeze it otherwise you will never get a knife through.

LOW CARB BREAD

½ cup coconut flour

½ cup ground flaxseed (use a coffee grinder to grind the seeds)

½ tsp baking powder

6 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp honey

pinch of sea salt

½ cup coconut oil, melted

butter for greasing


Preheat the oven to 180 and grease a loaf tin with the butter

sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well

add the eggs a little at a time until well combined

add the honey and coconut oil - the mixture thickens a bit with the oil

pour the mixture into the loaf tin and pop it in the oven on the middle shelf for about 40 minutes until the loaf is cooked through. You can test this by spiking it with a very sharp knife - if it comes out clean it's done.

Remove the bread from the tin and cool on a rack. It crisps as it cools