Sugar Free Chocolate Fruit Dip

This dip is easy and delicious!  It will solidify slightly to cold fruit to make a bit of a chocolate shell.   You may notice it is the same recipe as the Chocolate Delight Recipe posted earlier.  The difference is you are dipping it in fruit before it solidifies.  Click here to see the Chocolate Delight recipe!

1 TB milk or cream

1/4 cup Splenda (I use Ideal Sweetener in place of Splenda)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa

On the LOWEST HEAT possible, warm the milk (or cream) and add sweetener.  Stir until the sweetener is dissolved.  

Add the coconut oil and stir until melted.  DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL.  After the coconut oil is melted, add the cocoa and stir until well blended. 
KEEP HEAT ON A VERY LOW SETTING.


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Serve with fruit.

Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake

This is a quickie no-bake-cheesecake to make.  It's light and fluffy and screams of spring.   I actually made my own sugar free whipped topping, and even still the whole thing took less than 30 minutes to whip together.  I made it a day ahead of time to serve a group of friends coming over for coffee and dessert the following evening.

Crust:
1 1/2 c. almonds
1/4 c. vanilla whey protein powder
1/4 c. butter, melted

Cheesecake:
16 oz. light cream cheese
1/2 c. Ideal sweetener, Splenda, or Truvia (slightly less amount if you use Truvia)
6 oz. light lemon jello
1 c. boiling water
2 1/2 c. sugar free cool whip
raspberries



Crust:
Preheat oven to 350.  Using a food processor with the S-blade, grind the almonds until they have a consistency of cornmeal. Add the protein powder and butter;  pulse to combine well.  Turn out into a pie plate or a spring form pan that you've sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and press firmly and evenly into place, building up on the sides.  Bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until edges are starting to brown lightly.  Remove from oven and let cool.

Cheesecake:
While the crust is baking, mix together cream cheese and sweetener.  Set aside.  Combine jello and boiling water.  Stir until dissolved and let cool.  When Jello has cooled, add cream cheese mixture.  Mix very well.  Stir in Cool Whip.  Pour into cooled crust.  Let cool for at least 2 hours prior to serving.  Top with raspberries.

Corn Casserole

Corn usually gets a bad wrap because it is a high starch, high glycemic vegetable.  However, when eaten in moderation and balanced with protein, it can complement any low-glycemic/low carb lifestyle.

16 oz. frozen corn
5 strips bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
2 eggs
1 packet Truvia
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3/4 c. grated cheddar cheese

Beat eggs until light and fluffy.  Add sugar.  Stir in corn, 3/4 of the bacon, salt, pepper and cheese.  Put into sprayed casserole dish and top with remaining bacon.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until set.

4 servings, each with approximately 5 carbs and 12 gms of protein.

St. Paddy's Day Delight

I made a themed dinner to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with my family. Dinner included: Rainbow Cauliflower, Protein Packed Potato Clouds, Cheese "Gold", Geen Eggs and Shamrock Ham, and a Rainbow Coconut Flour Cupcake.  To read my journal entry about this meal, click here.  Below are the recipes I used to provide a low-gylcemic/no sugar-low starch celebratory dinner.

Rainbow Cauliflower
1/2 bag frozen cauliflower
1 c. water
7 small bowls (I used measuring cups)
food coloring

Put cauliflower in pot with the water.  Steam cauliflower until tender.   Drain the water into the 7 small bowls.  Add a few drops of food coloring into each bowl for each color of the rainbow.  Put a few flowerets into each bowl of food coloring and let sit 5-10 minutes.  Serve immediately, or reheat when ready.

Protein Packed Potato Clouds (or Mashed Protein Potatoes)
I don't typically serve mashed potatoes at our house, but my husband loves them and, quite honestly, has been missing them.  I modified the traditional recipe to lower the glycemic index of this former staple and can now feel okay about offering them on special occasions.

1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and quartered
water to cover them
2 scoops "Regular Flavored" whey protein
1/2 cup half and half
2 Tb. butter

Boil the potatoes in water until tender.  Meanwhile, mix the whey protein with the half and half until smooth.When potatoes are tender, drain. Add the milk mixture and the butter and mash by hand.  Add more half and half until desired consistency.

Rainbow Coconut Flour Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

½ cup butter, melted

½ cup milk

8 eggs

¾ cup sugar equivilant (I use Ideal Sweetener, but you can use Truvia or Splenda.  Note that Truvia does NOT have a 1:1 sugar equivilance.

¾ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

¾ cup sifted coconut flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder

7 bowls

Food Coloring

Mix butter, milk, eggs, sweetener, salt, and vanilla.  Combine coconut flour with baking powder and

whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Pour batter evenly into 7 bowls.  Using the food coloring, add a few drops of each color to create the colors of the rainbow.  Stir.  Starting with purple (which is opposite what I did, but wish I would have!), pour 2 TB. of colored batter into each muffin tin.  Use a spoon or a toothpick to even out the color.  Continue with each color, ending with red on top.  Bake at 350 degrees F

(175 C) for 20-25 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool and frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese

1 egg

1 TB. coconut flour

1/4 c. sugar equivalent (again, I use Ideal sweetener)

Beat cream cheese with egg, coconut flour and sweetener until well blended.

Chocolate Granola Bars

This entry is from Jamie's blog, This Lunch Rox.  She makes healthy lunches fun for her kids.  It's a great blog to read.  Recently, she posted this recipe for Chocolate Granola Bars.   These turned out awesome and look exactly like they do in the picture below.  They only take about 5 minutes to whip up and no baking is required.

1/4 c. sugar free Hershey’s chocolate chips
1/4 c  natural peanut butter (make sure there's no sugar listed on the ingrediants.  You can also use almond butter, sunbutter or another nut butter)
1/4 c.  milk (or unsweetened almond milk)
1 c. oats
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbsp Sweetener (I use xylitol, but you could use agave syrup, truvia, etc…)
2 Tbsp Other Dry Ingredients (flax seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, nuts, protein powder, etc…)
1 Tb. baking cocoa
Directions:
Melt the first three ingredients together in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring and checking
Then add the oats and the additional ingredients, stir to combine.  (You want this mixture to be somewhat dry.  If it’s not dry enough, add more oats one tablespoon at a time.)
Press mixture into bars or balls.   I have a small rectangular plastic container I line with wax paper to form the bars.  You could use an 8×8 pan for thin bars, or smaller pan if you want thicker bars.  Simply pour the “batter” into a pan lined with wax paper.  Spread batter until even and put in refrigerator or freezer for 10 minutes, or until bars have set up.   Slice into bars.  When we’re home I store the bars in the freezer and pull them out for lunches as needed.

Shamrock Shake

I love love LOVE Shamrock shakes and fall of my diet plan EVERY YEAR because of them.  Not this year!  I made up a recipe for a low carb (no sugar low starch) Shamrock Shake.  And it's DE-LISH-IOUS! If I may say so myself.

1 scoop vanilla whey protein
1/2 t. mint extract
1 packet stevia
about 6 ice cubes
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
green food coloring (optional)

Blend in blender till smooth.  If you have time, put in the freezer for 2-3 hours before serving.  Then blend again till smooth and creamy.

Peanut Butter Cookies

I was going to wait until I had a picture to post with these (the first batch got devoured before I took any pictures), but I'm out of my brown sugar substitute and just can't wait to post these delicious treats.  I really love this recipe because of it's simplicity.   You probably have all the ingredients you need already in your pantry.

By the way, this is another recipe that my family ate, no, engulfed, without any issue.  One more thing, this is also gluten free.

Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup natural peanut butter (no sugar added)
1 cup equivalent brown sugar substitute (I love Ideal Brown Sugar, but Splenda would work, too)
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350.  Ina large mixing bowl, cream together the peanut butter, brown sugar, egg, baking soda and vanilla.  Spoon by rounded tablespoons onto parchment paper lined cooking sheets.  Use your fork to flatten, making those traditional peanut butter cookie crisscross marks.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, longer if you like your cookies crispy.

Ranch Dressing

The more I try to make recipes without using any premade sauces or mixes, the more I realize that most of these items are a breeze to make anyway.  It's a real pleasure to me to be able to make things that my family enjoys without processed items, added chemicals, or added sugars.  Todays example was Buttermilk Ranch Dressing.  It's a piece of cake and totally worth it.  It's even low fat!  (Should I even mention money saving???)

1 cup low-fat sour cream

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried chives

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon guar gum

Blend together and store in the fridge.  It's delicious and I doubt anyone would ever know it wasn't store bought.   

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I tried these last night and wasn't sure how they'd turn out.  The absolute stamp of approval is if my food-fussy 4 year old will like it.  Well, she loved it!  Guess that makes it "kid approved."  These are a great addition to a brunch.  Packed with protein, with approximately 100 calories and 2 grams of carb per full size muffin, these are definatley on my "can" list. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
10 eggs
3/4 cup equivilant sugar subsitute (my favorite is Ideal Sweetener)
1 t. salt
3 T. lemon extract
1 c. sifted coconut flour
1 t. baking powder
1 T. poppy seeds

Blend together butter, milk, eggs, sweetener, salt, and lemon extract.  Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps.  Stir in poppy seeds.  Pour batter equally into greased muffin pans. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until knife insterted into cener comes out clean.