Friday, January 21, 2011

Mmmm...Chocolate Cookies! ( #lowcarb )

Today my 21-month-old grandson and I made cookies. I don't measure anything but I'm fairly certain that the amounts given will be very close.

1 stick butter
1/3c xylitol
2/3c granulated splenda
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3T baking cocoa
1/4c polydextrose
2 scoops vanilla protein powder
1/2c whole oats
1/2c unsweetened coconut
1c almond flour
1/2 pkg. sugar-free chocolate chips

Beat the first 3 ingredients together until smooth and fluffy. Add next 2 ingredients and beat to blend. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Dough will be quite stiff; if it isn't, add a little more almond flour.

Drop by walnut-sized portions onto greased baking sheet, dipping spoon into water between each portion, then flatten with a fork, dipping fork into water between each portion. These will not spread, so you can put them fairly close together. Bake @ 350F until done. I used a baking stone, and they took 16 minutes. You will have to adjust your time if you are using a baking sheet.

These are a very heavy dense cookie that go really well with coffee or milk, and they are very filling. I got 52 cookies in my batch.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Lovely Supper (recipe) #lowcarb

Having some trouble with this, just too much cooked cabbage, but I WILL make this again, it was just lovely!

I made this in a great big deep electric fryer. It is really REALLY big. I could have also made it in a dutch oven, though, I think, on the stovetop.

olive oil
1c grape tomatoes
1 daikon radish, diced
2 medium yellow onions, diced
1 can chicken broth
1 can tomato paste
1# mild ground sausage
2 head napa cabbage, cut finely
sea salt to taste

Heated olive oil in the fryer, then added grape tomatoes, salted them, and stirred while they heated until they popped; removed from pan.

Added the onions and daikon to the hot pan, salted, and cooked until onions were translucent; pushed to one side, cooked the sausage in the other half, crumbling as it cooked.

Added tomato paste, stirring to coat sausage, onions, and daikon, then added the chicken broth and stirred together. Flattened out the contents of pan, then piled the cabbage on top and covered the pan; left it to cook on medium-low heat for 30 minutes, until flavors melded and cabbage got soft.

Tossed it all together and and served.

It was AMAZING!

(How am I doing on my eating, you ask? Just fine :). Back to my low carb eating, dropping weight like crazy (that side effect of my surgery won't last forever!), trying to get used to yerba mate but after my first 2 cups I had more energy than I've had in forever...also seems to decrease my appetite, I think? I'll keep trying to like it - kinda tastes like stale cigarette smoke to me but I won't give up until I'm pretty sure it's just not gonna work out between us.)