Losing Weight Improve Your Waistline

low carb

More Low Carb Baking

by Leave a Comment

Once you get over the initial fear or general unease with baking then it becomes a lot easier. So after baking low carb bread a couple of times I thought it was time to try out some other recipes.

One I had spotted that caught my eye was this one for bread buns. It looked quite simple and apart from separating the eggs, which is not something I’ve ever had success doing, it seemed like I’d be able manage it.

To deal with separating the eggs I got an actual egg separator. The KitchenCraft one was cheap and functional.

Yes I know I am a little addicted to kitchen gadgets and some of the stuff I’ve bought over the years is pointless. I’ll admit that. But in the case of the egg separator I feel like it’ll get some usage. You simply break the egg into it and then let gravity do the work. You can of course encourage it a little, but it’s a lot less messy than trying to separate eggs manually.

Anyway ..

The recipe for the bread buns was pretty simple. So I made a batch yesterday. I had to extend the baking time a little bit but apart from that I stuck to the instructions.

The final product worked out pretty well and goes well with a bit of butter

Poached Eggs With Low Carb Bread

by Leave a Comment

When I’m at home I generally stick pretty closely to a low carb diet. I like eggs for breakfast, but I’ve never liked poached eggs without bread. They just don’t “work” without some kind of bread to soak them up. Of course unless you have low carb bread that becomes a bit of a “catch 22”.

At the weekend I got to spend a bit of time in the kitchen and baked some low carb bread. It worked out very well, though I realise that I probably should have made more!

Bread with a little butter and poached eggs makes for a simple, yet very tasty breakfast. I’ve had it the last couple of mornings, but will have to bake more bread if I want it again tomorrow!

There’s no reason to completely forego the tasty experience of eating carbs while still avoiding them 🙂

Low Carb Easter Eggs

by Leave a Comment

It’s that time of the year when the shops fill their shelves with Easter eggs.

If you’re on a low carb diet, however, it’s impossible to be loyal to your diet and indulge in “normal” easter eggs.

Sure you can have *some* chocolate when you’re on a low carb diet, but you need to choose chocolates that are way higher in cocoa solids than the average. So you need to be looking for chocolates with 70% or more cocoa solids. Of course the more cocoa solids in the bar the more bitter it’ll be. Anything above about 80% is going to be really really bitter in my experience and while it’s fine to use it to cook with it’s quite hard to eat it.

However there are places where you can get easter eggs that are designed to be low carb or even keto friendly.

From my research, which is far from comprehensive, there seem to be two if not three paths you can go down:

  • very high cocoa solids, which will mean the carb count will be very low, but the taste is going to be really bitter
  • something with alternative ingredients, so the taste should be more palatable overall
  • cheat a little and opt for chocolates that are fairly high in cocoa solids, but aren’t as bitter. The downside to that will be that the carb count will be higher than you’d normally take..

So what is out there?

A UK company is producing a 100% cocoa solids egg. Yes, that does exist!

The “absolute black” egg is made without dairy products, sugar or anything else other than cocoa solids.

Here’s the breakdown in terms of carbs etc:

Full details on their site here.

CiaoCarb make a chocolate egg that uses a combination of ingredients but ends up with about 8g carbs per 100g, so similar to our 100% cocoa solids version, though probably a lot less bitter.

I’m not sure which Irish sites, if any, sell the CiaoCarb, but it’s available via Amazon UK.

If anyone comes across other low carb options let me know via the comments!

Low Carb Parsnip Fries

by Leave a Comment

For the last couple of months I’ve been making low carb celeriac fries semi-regularly. They go really well with pretty much any dish that you’d serve fries with. But I wanted to try some of the alternatives to celeriac – apart from anything else not all shops stock celeriac.

So how about parsnip fries?

It turns out that parsnip fries are a good substitute to celeriac (as is turnip, though I haven’t tried that yet!). 

I made my first batch of parsnip fries last night. 

I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s essentially the same process as with the celeriac fries. The only real difference being that the physical shape of parsnip is quite different, so you need to peel them, top and tail them and then slice them up. 

I used similar seasoning as I would with the celeriac fries and baked them in the oven for about 25 minutes. You’ll need to be careful as some of the smaller chunks can end up getting burnt, which isn’t exactly tasty!

The end result was pretty damn good, so it’s definitely something I can try again in the future.

As you can see from the photo above some of the fries ended up a bit burnt, but overall it worked out pretty well.

I served the fries with some nice low carb pork schnitzels and it was all very tasty!

Low Carb Crumble Experiment

by Leave a Comment

When you’re eating low carb you’re used to simply not eating certain food. 

However over the last couple of days I got an overwhelming yearning for crumble. I *love* crumble. It’s always been one of those desserts that I really like both to make and to cook. 

So can you create a crumble without getting an overload of carbs?

The answer is a qualified yes. Yes, you can create a low carb crumble topping. The bit that’s going to be a little more of a challenge in terms of keeping your carbs down is the choice of fruit.

When you’re making a “normal” crumble you essentially make a shortbread style topping using butter, flour and sugar. Obviously the sugar is out, though you can replace it with an alternative sweetener (admittedly I didn’t in my experiment yesterday and simply did without). The flour has to be swapped out for a lower carb alternative such as almond flour or coconut flour, or a combination of both. 

The one where you still have the issue with carbs that you can’t entirely avoid is in your choice of fruit for the filling. Apples are out. Berries, however, are much lower in carbs and can make a viable alternative. 

Low carb crumble before being baked in the overn

The filling for a crumble is usually your fruit gently cooked with a bit of sugar and water. To go lower carb you can swap out the sugar for some natural honey.

So how did the experiment work out?

Personally I was happy with it. It can definitely be improved on, as I’d like a crunchier and more toffee like crumble, but it was very good.

Here’s a shot before I started to demolish it:

low carb crumble

I served it hot with some Greek style yoghurt, which worked out to be a very nice combination. I would have used cream, but I was out of it! (Odd for me, since I use cream so much in my cooking)

Low Carb Celeriac Fries

by 1 Comment

Having chips (fries) with meat is something that you can’t do easily if you want to stick to a low carb diet. Potatoes, as I’ve said repeatedly, are simply not on the menu. While you can do a fantastic cauliflower mash it’s simply not the same as a portion of fries.

So what are your options?

There are quite a few sites devoted to the low carb or keto lifestyle, so there are plenty of bloggers sharing their recipes. It’s just a matter of finding the alternative to potatoes that works for you. Some of the recipes I came across would give you a nice “side”  but they wouldn’t come close to replacing the consistency of fries.

I ended up going with celeriac for mine, but apparently turnip is a good option too.

Celeriac is *not* a pretty vegetable. It really does look ugly:

Celeriac or celery root

Making fries using celeriac isn’t complicated. You just need to treat the celeriac as if it was an oversized potato!

celeriac fries
Print

Celeriac Fries

A low carb alternative to French fries for anyone on a low carb or keto diet

Course Side Dish
Cuisine American, International, Low carb, vegetarian
Keyword celeriac, keto, vegetables, vegetarian
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 2
Calories 40 kcal

Ingredients

  • 1/2 head celeriac You'll have a better idea of the quantity you need once you've sliced up the celeriac after cleaning it.
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp mixed herbs Don't be afraid to add more
  • 1/2 tbsp paprika

Instructions

  1. Trim the celeriac removing the roots. Depending on the size of the celeriac and how many people you're making this for the quantities will vary

  2. Heat the oven to about 180 centigrade (around 400 fahrenheit)

  3. Peel the celeriac like with a potato peeler and then slice it into chips

  4. Spread the fries on a greased baking tray and season with the herbs and paprika

  5. Once the oven has heated transfer the fries to it and cook for 20 to 25  minutes. You should probably turn or shake the baking tray a few times while cooking to make sure that they're cooked through and don't burn.

  6. Serve as you would French fries or chips. 

  7. Bon apetit!

Recipe Notes

I used mixed herbs with paprika. You could easily use any other combination of herbs and spices that would go well with potatoes - the end result is very similar in consistency to potatoes, so you can treat it almost identically.

 

In terms of carbs celeriac is pretty good. It’s about 9g per 100g, so the amount you end up with obviously depend on how much you eat.

Low Carb Chicken Tenders

by Leave a Comment

Over the weekend I dropped into my favourite local butcher and picked up some bits and pieces, including the pork that I used for making the pork schnitzels. While I was there I got some chicken breast, but I didn’t have any firm plans for it. This evening I didn’t feel like doing anything terribly elaborate, so I thought I’d try my hand at doing low carb chicken tenders. If you can do schnitzels using almond flour, why not other “breaded” meats and poultry?

Chicken tenders are basically just strips of chicken in a bread. Once they’re breaded you can either fry them, deep fry them or, as I did, do them in the oven.

If you want super mild, yet tasty, you could simply use some herbs and a bit of salt and pepper, but if you want to give them a bit more “kick” there’s no end to the combinations of herbs and herb mixes you can use.

low carb chicken tenders
Print

Low Carb Chicken Tenders

A simple low carb take on comfort food

Course Dinner, Snack
Cuisine American, International, Low carb
Keyword almond flour, chicken
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 2
Calories 300 kcal

Ingredients

  • 50 g Almond flour You might need more
  • 1 medium egg
  • 2 tbsp Cajun spice mix or mixed herbs with cayenne pepper
  • 2 breasts chicken
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C

  2. Slice the chicken breast into strips. Relatively thin strips are better.

  3. Beat the egg in a bowl

  4. Mix the herbs and other seasoning together with the almond flour in another bowl or plate.

  5. Dip each chicken piece in the egg and make sure it's well covered, then transfer it to the dip with the herbs and flour. Coat each piece of chicken well. Transfer the dipped chicken pieces to a baking tray which you've either lined or greased.

  6. When the oven is ready transfer the prepared chicken to it. Cook the chicken for 20 - 25 minutes. The chicken pieces should be turned at least once.

  7. Serve with your favourite dip or with a bit of salad.

  8. Enjoy!

And no, you can’t really taste the almond! If you’re completely new to low carb cooking then you might notice a slight difference in the taste compared to more “traditional” flour mixes, but I don’t think it’s noticeable.