Updated Carrot Cake Recipe

My version of Banting Carrot Cake (revision 2): I've been testing a range of combinations of flours to determine which combo gives one the best possible carrot cake (texture-to-moistness-to-lightness ratios). I think this is the best carrot cake I've ever eaten (pre- and post-Banting) and my duty thus to share. 

My favourite Carrot Cake Recipe Ever

Ingredients:

300 ml Macadamia oil
250 ml greek yoghurt or cream
250 - 300 ml erythritol or xylitol
200 ml almond flour (or pecan nut flour)
75 ml coconut flour
100 ml flaxseed flour (Crede Flax Powder works very well)

125 ml desiccated coconut

500 ml grated carrots (about 4 medium carrots)
200 ml finely chopped pecan nuts
15 ml baking powder
6 ml bicarbonate of soda
15 ml ground cinnamon

5 ml all spice
7.5 ml ginger
2 ml salt
5 large eggs, beaten

Cream cheese icing:
1 packs of full fat cream cheese, room temperature

125 ml cottage cheese

2 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
60 ml xylitol (icing powder)
Few drops of vanilla

whole pecans for decoration (optional)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 170-180°C

Beat together the oil and sweetener until fluffy-ish. Mix in the eggs. Mix dry ingredients and add half to the sugar-oil mixture and mix well. Add the remaining dry ingredients. Add grated carrots and chopped nuts and mix well.

Spoon the mixture into a loose-bottomed tin (20-23cm) or 24 muffin cups. With this recipe I recommend using baking paper to line the tin bottom and sides if you bake it as a cake. It works like a charm. Bake for about 50 minutes, I check from 35 minutes as baking time varies depending on oven type and if you are baking muffins 35 minutes is about right. Allow to cool and whip the cream cheese icing ingredients until fluffy, adding in the sweetener and vanilla. Pipe or spread to decorate. Enjoy!

Foodie weather

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing" - Benjamin Franklin 

Today is really winter. Some super sized cold-front hit the Cape this week and we finally got the hit today. This morning, despite getting up and dressing for running, we opted to bunk. Not so much due to the cold, although it did contribute, but I suddenly realised that it is the last Saturday that we can skip track or running without feeling guilty. From the 1st of July, training will be back in full, committed mode. Not that we did nothing this week, but it was quite pleasant to just go shopping and sort out a few things around the house. All that extra time this morning inspired me to spend some quality time in the kitchen. I thought perhaps, I can do something today that is worth writing about.

Mission: Banting friendly chocolate
Due to the issues I have with many products on the market that claims to be "low carb" or "banting" friendly. Very seldom does one find a product that is truly "real" food only and one can see from the list of ingredients that many product labels are quite misleading if you don't know your stuff. I've really been thinking hard about making chocolate and have held off because I thought it might be hard to get the chocolate "real" and tasty. However, today's weather inspired me to try.

My first attempt this morning was a massive success among my testers. Three of us tested the results and whilst Carl and I eat low-carb all the time, his daughter is a "normal". She however agreed that the chocolates were delightful.

Recipe/Method
Isabel's Banting Chocolates

100 g cocoa butter (or 50g cocoa butter + 50 g coconut oil)
5-6 tablespoons of good quality cocoa powder
3-4 tablespoons of erythritol
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
3 tablespoons of grated pecan nuts (optional, but nice)

Melt the cocoa butter in double boiler (or like me in a metal bowl over boiling water in a pot).
Once molten add the sweetener and stir a bit, then add the rest of the ingredients.
It thickens up a bit but keep it over the hot water until nicely mixed.
I used silicone moulds for my chocolates, but you could just pour it into a sheet out and let it set in the freezer. If you use the sheet principle try keep it about 3-5 mm thickness. It makes a nice rustic type of chocolate if broken. I just stuck in the freezer and then pop them out of the silicone moulds. Happy chomping.

If you used coconut oil, the melting temperature is lower than that of cocoa butter so be careful about leaving it outside the fridge. The 50:50 blend is still ok, but will melt when you hold it in your eager paw for too long. Cocoa butter and coconut oil are both healthy fats, although cocoa butter has the higher melting point, so the two together is a very nice "fat bomb" for runners. Both oils make good chocolate and I plan to keep experimenting with this, but I am pretty happy with the first batches. The desiccated coconut not only adds to the taste but also stretches the pretty expensive cocoa butter a bit. I also added a few drops of peppermint essence to the second batch and it's truly amazing how much it reminds me of peppermint crisp. The crunchiness of the coconut, chocolate and erythritol is magical.

Banting burgers for lunch! That was the next mission for today. 


Making our food from scratch is fun and I always feel like I am getting in touch with  my inner foodie and child when I attempt new things in the kitchen. Low-carbing also gives me a kick, there is some engineering in this way of cooking, but also a lot of creativity. It really focused my mind on cooking real food with fresh ingredients. Today for lunch we had our first burger in more than a year. I took the LC burger to the next level though. I made the patties from scratch (mince 500 g fresh mince, chopped onion, 4 eggs and 2 tablespoons of coconut flour). They tasted great and looked so good. I also made some Banting bread buns and we had the most lovely, luxury burger ever!




My final foodie act for the day was to roast some baby tomatoes in preparation for tomato soup for dinner. While baking the buns for the burgers, I also roasted the tomatoes until properly caramelized and squishy.


Creamy tomato soup recipe

1 can of chopped tomatoes or 2 large fresh ones chopped into chunks
250 g of baby tomatoes (roasted if you can)
1/2 a medium onion, chopped and cooked in butter until translucent
500 to 700 ml homemade broth (chicken broth is my preference)
250 ml cream
Salt, pepper (cayenne is best if you don't mind the bite)

The tomatoes, onion and broth mixture should cook nicely for at least 30 minutes. Add the cream and use a blitz stick to make it into the dreamy, creaminess. The roasted baby tomatoes add a delicious flavour. Sprinkle a bit of feta when serving for extra decadence.Creamy, dreamy tomato soup for dinner! I highly recommend this for a feel good meal. I make the broth from the chicken carcasses from Friday night dinner and store it in the fridge for soup. Packed with healthy minerals.




And thus I hope after all of that, that my "do" today was worth "writing".

Making chutney the LC way

Cooking is one of my hobbies. Just like I don't refer to myself as a "runner" I also don't use the word "foodie" to describe myself either. Yet, I do tend to "design" and "reverse engineer" recipes. I have enjoyed cooking before Masterchef made it trendy for amateurs to cook in the open. I've always been experimental in the kitchen and thus are able to accept failure. What I am not, is a precise cook. Every recipe I try, is tweaked. I may use a complex recipe accurately once to learn a new technique, but I am notorious for colouring outside of the lines of recipes. Cooking is a creative process for me. I love creating things and it's like playtime. Over the last few years, TV chefs have exposed us all to new ideas and concepts so my fairly experimental nature combined with these influences generally added to my fearlessness in the kitchen. Before Masterchef I was unaware of stuff like ice cream makers and fancy puréed veggies! Not having any formal training, I've just been cooking by the seat of my pants and things I've read about. I read recipes for fun, like some people read news articles, I read recipes.  Once I made the switch to LCHF eating, I've also started experimenting with find some alternatives for the things one might miss. I discovered that converting foods we know to real food versions, were often quite fun and easier than one thinks. First off, we don't regularly buy pre-made low-carb or Banting products. I try to make and bake our own food from first principles. Just because inevitably, very few products have no unwanted additives. There are some, but you have to find those and often they are not easy to find. I am not a Banting Purist, but I think all of us that believes eating like this is the right way for them, should take responsibility for yourself, know your reasons for eating like this. This is not a fad diet. Despite the "fadness" associated with it. Always know why you choose to eat certain things and why you avoid others. I have a few fixed rules apart from the obvious carbs, I avoid soya, seed oils, sugar, fructose, maltitol and additives with chemical names you cannot pronounce; I aim to eat carbs only from veggies and nuts. My first principle is to keep it real, and to eat mostly fresh food. Yes it limits "fast food" options, but I have several tactics to make sure we are covered in this regard. I stock the fridge with mini-quiches, cheese, cream and we always have seed crackers and homemade low-carb bread in the house. There are some things we miss. And it's not pasta or potatoes. It's a bit of chutney on the side. I don't trust most "sugar free" products on the market, it is horrifying how often these things have additives from my forbidden list. 

In my previous life, which included sugar of course, I made jam and chutney every year from the fruit from my own trees (a totally organic apricot and peach tree). Once we switched to a low-carb lifestyle, I was a bit at a loss during fruit season, the sheer volume of fruit is astounding. Between Carl and myself we could eat maybe 3-6 peaches each in the season. My trees bear about 20 to 30 kg fruit per season! Not counting the losses (dropped fruit) and my donation to the birds. Just fruit suitable to eat or cook with. We normally strip the tree at some point to prevent wastage. However, it is way too much to eat whilst fresh. My general thoughts on fruit: We eat seasonal berries mostly with the odd peach or melon (low-carb fruits predominantly) and I don't eat them daily. I eat fruit as a treat.  So the obvious thing to do with a fruit tree is to find ways to save the fruit in a sensible manner that allows us to have some access to the fruit later in the year. So I decided to freeze some peaches during the fruit season to give me some time to think on it. I chopped and cleaned and weighed batches and froze the fruit in my freezer, ready for a day of experimental cooking. And this weekend I attempted to convert my traditional chutney recipe to a low-carb friendly version by replacing the sugar with a sweetener. Even though it is dense in fruit sugar, at least it has no "added" sugar. I also did not add raisins as per traditional recipes. Clearly this is not a big challenge, but I was still curious to see how the sweetener and traditional recipe would meld. 

In the pot...

Cooking slowly....

From 1.5kg of frozen peaches, I made my first batch of low carb friendly chutney. I am very happy with the outcome. It tastes delicious. Looks like the real thing. And was pretty easy to make. Happiness. 

If you've never made chutney before, I will include my recipe in this blog. With  my tips and tricks. Chutney is far easier than jam in my opinion, but I do have a few tricks. 

The product, bottled and ready for use.

Isabel's Peach Chutney

(no added sugar)

For my first batch I used xylitol. Just because I had some available to risk on a large experiment. I generally prefer using erythritol. The studies I read confirmed that dogs can tolerate erythritol and if they ingest the sweetener, it usually would be in very small amounts. My understanding is however that xylitol has some impact on insulin and is toxic for dogs. I'd rather be safe in this regard. I do not recommend eating an entire bottle of my No sugar added chutney. This is a condiment, and should be used in this way. As long as one keeps the carb content in mind, I don't think it will do much harm. A spoon-full on a hamburger or as a side to a curry should be just the thing. Basically life is good! 

Here's my recipe, for the sake of completeness. Any recipe will work. Just know, it's been tested and was a great success. Happy cooking! 

Isabel's No Added Sugar Chutney

1.5 kg peaches, chopped into pieces and pips removed
300 g onions, chopped (chunky is fine)
2 small sweet peppers, chopped
400 ml vinegar
350 g sweetener of choice (xylitol or erythritol) or sugar if you don't follow low-carb
5 ml ground ginger
2 ml fine garlic
5 ml chili (paste if you can)
2 ml cayenne pepper
3 ml salt
10 ml garam masala or mild curry powder
2 ml turmeric
2 ml ground cumin

Note on spices: this is just my mixture, it is actually really flexible, less or more spice as per your choice.

Place all your ingredients into a large pot. It works easier if the volume of the fruit and fluids are half of your pot's volume. This makes cooking easier (and less risk of burning). I prefer using a larger pot and the smaller burner on my stove, this helps with heat control. Slow and steady is the secret to a nice colour and preventing burning. Hopefully you have empty bottles and lids in the house...Make sure they are clean, I wash mine on the hottest cycle in the dishwasher then rinse it with Vodka. Especially the lids.

Cook your chutney over a low heat for at least 1 hour, but this is where the judgement comes in. The fruit should be soft and "translucent" in appearance. You can risk a taster to make sure your flavour is in the right area. Once you are happy with the fruit, a quick tip is zap the mixture for a few seconds with a blitz-stick. This helps to thicken the chutney. Some people use thickener and you could also sprinkle a pinch of Xantam Gum powder, but be very careful. It is easy to mess this up. My preference is to thicken it with the fruit. You can also just squish it with a masher, the fruit is soft enough at this stage. Don't over do the blitzing. You still want it to look like chunky fruity chutney.

Let it cook on low heat once you've done your assisted thickening bit. Be careful of splashing and burning, now that the viscosity is higher.

Sterilize your bottles again with boiling water and rinse the lids with alcohol. Set all ready for use. I use a 500 ml plastic jug to fill my bottles. If you are lucky enough to have a jam funnel, use it. I hold the bottle by the neck (with metal tongs) whilst pouring in the chutney into the bottle - over the pot. Slightly less messy. Also once filled, put it down and wipe the top with a clean (vodka soaked) cloth. If your lid is old or you intend to keep your chutney for a while, cut a piece of cling wrap and cover the bottle before putting the lid on. This prevents the lid from rusting. Especially with chutney. For a small batch like this I used about 5 bottles of varying volume (250 to 350 ml) - you can easily use 2 or 3 bigger ones, but I intended to give some away so I use smaller bottles generally for the "boutique" batches.

The best feeling is hearing the lids "pop" as they cool down. I always get a kick out of that! If you don't feel like doing it the "hard way" you can really just put it in plastic containers in your fridge. Should last long, but I would halve the recipe or plan to give some away. It is too much to keep in the fridge as one batch (in my opinion). 

My crazy acknowledges the crazy in you, you, you, and you...

People always say, I've been so busy I just did not get around to doing... I bow to my recent craziness and just have to go "hmmmmmm" whilst rocking gently in the fetal position. It's been beyond crazy busy. Work, life, winter, Comrades training all "crazied" up into the perfect storm. I remember feeling tired and grumpy last year this time, but with the extra training, we've really increased our training load significantly and life, somehow sees your busier than usual and likes to add to the load. I have had very little time to process anything. I hardly have time to think about what I eat. I am not cheating with carbs or sugar, but I am definitely nervously snacking whilst stressing. I've caught myself eating a piece of cheese just because I need to chew to stop my jaw from being clenched. I have and probably always will be a stress eater. I don't have time though to stress about it.
My emotional state is somewhat up and down on top of all this. I don't want to exaggerate but it really  feels like there is a hive of bees in my head, an endless buzzing that just don't stop.
I am an introvert in my zero state, but like many people have to excite myself up to varying degrees of extrovert-ness at work to earn my puny salary. It means that less time to recharge turns mamma-bear into a bit of a time bomb. My detonation trigger is a bit sensitive so I have to tread carefully or I blow myself up. The training definitely took a toll over the past month and I feel mildly guilty for feeling so ungrateful at times. Dammit! On top of all my stress I still have guilt to deal with as well.

So Comrades 2015 is merely 9 days away. My heart skips a beat every time I think about it. My chest is tight and I feel totally unprepared for the whole thing, but it's too late now to really verbalize what we've been through over the past 6 months. If you want to know what it feels like, get of the couch and start training for the next one. Down the rabbit hole we go...

So whilst I am happily biting off heads, making enemies of my friends. family and colleagues I decided to share my "cupcake recipe". My newest low-carb friend is definitely "Coconut Flour". In general, coconut products (flour, oil, flesh) features a lot in my pantry. I love the stuff. Coconut flour however, is a miracle in my opinion.

Toe-to-toe comparison with almond flour at first may seem a bit iffy, but in general (as a rule of thumb baking with almond flour requires a more or less 1:1 replacement of the conventional flour requirement, whilst coconut flour absorbs a lot more fluid and the replacement factor is only 1/3 of the volume). This is how I convert my old recipes. A mix of the two flours gives a very nice texture for cakes, same rule applies.

	1 Cup	1 Cup	0.33 Cup
(grams)	Coconut Flour	Almond Flour	Coconut Flour
Fat	16	56	5
Protein	16	6	5
Carbs	64	24	21
Fiber	40	12	13

Thus if you compare the second and third column, you get a better picture of the carbs your are going to have in your cupcake relative to using almond flour. Basically, don't fool yourself into thinking these flours are "free to use", they come with a carb-price tag, but you can make clever choices. To get back to my original intent, namely to share my cupcake success story, here goes:

Makes 6 cupcakes (who bakes 6 cupcakes??) I double up on the recipe and my favourite is the chocolate version, with chips of 90% Lindt mixed in with the batter. Best right from the oven or let it stand overnight. It just ages so well!

Berry cupcake-like muffins

1/3 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder (I use Sally Creed's)
1 cup of frozen berries
(raspberries or.blueberries work well)
1/3 cup erythritol
(I find 1/3 cup is slightly too sweet for me so fill the measuring cup only about 85-90%, but this is totally up to you)
3 eggs
1/4 high fat cream (heavy cream or whipping cream works; if you are out of those you can use buttermilk plus a bit butter or even cottage cheese very flexible, but the cream is tops)

Instructions:
Mix everything together in a deep bowl until well mixed.
TaDa!

I use Woolies' foil cupcake casings - nice and strong and releases easily. You can fill the casing to almost the top.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees C (test after 15 minutes if set, do not over bake it dries out)

Options:

The Chocolate Cupcake Version

Instead of berries add 3 heaped tbsp of cocoa (don't be shy), and mix away. Easiest recipe ever.
And I make it double.

I also added a few chips of 90% Lindt to each cupcake after I let it stand a while to let the batter thicken, but this is totally optional. Just fun to discover a tiny bit of "crunch" whist eating. The chocolate version is texture wise fantastic. I love it!

If you want to make a child friendly chocolate cupcakes version (not a muffin) - for decoration use the cream cheese icing from the carrot cake (add cocoa if you want chocolate flavour).

Ah Carrot Cake....

Do not judge me please, but despite my total commitment to low-carbing and my conviction to never go back to wheat, I do miss some favourite treats. Cake is one thing I miss - not pasta or bread, just cake. Ever since we discovered "Crave Cakes" via Jackson's Food Market in Bryanston, I've realized that life as a low-carber is not necessarily the same thing as life without cake! But I know one has to be careful of the slipper slope of eating sweet stuff. The sweet addiction can easily creep back into one's life. 

We are precariously close to Comrades 2015, and running mileage every week that can however justify a bit of high calories. So, I've poke around in my favourite recipes and reverse engineered a carrot cake recipe and I am sharing my success! It was divine.

Banting (LC) Carrot Cake

Reverse engineered by Isabel 

Ingredients:

200ml Macadamia oil

200-300ml Erythritol[1]

Flour requirement (total volume 375ml)[2]:

250 ml almond flour

75 ml coconut flour

50 ml flaxseed flour

500 ml grated carrots (about 4-5 medium carrots)

200 ml finely chopped pecan nuts

15 ml baking powder

6 ml bicarbonate of soda

15 ml ground cinnamon

7.5 ml ginger

2 ml salt

3 large eggs, beaten

Cream cheese icing:

1 ½ packs of full fat cream cheese, room temperature

60 ml Erythritol

Few drops of vanilla

10-12 whole pecans for decoration

Method

Pre-heat oven to 170-180°C

Beat together the oil and sweetener. Mix dry ingredients and add half to the sugar-oil mixture and mix well. Add the remaining dry ingredients, alternately with the beaten eggs.

Add grated carrots and chopped nuts and mix well.

Spoon the mixture into a loose-bottomed tin (20-23cm). With this recipe I recommend using baking paper to line the tin bottom and sides. It works like a charm. Bake for about 50 minutes, I check from 35 minutes as baking time varies depending on oven type. Allow to cool and whip the cream cheese until fluffy, adding in the sweetener and vanilla. Pipe or spread to decorate. Enjoy!

---

[1] Erythritol or Xylitol – I prefer erythritol; quantity is to taste (test the batter) I used 200 ml

[2] I replaced the flour based on volume; experiment with different ratios of e.g. coconut, hazelnut, almond flour

Banting friendly baked rainbow cheesecake recipe

Our training group, the Running Junkies, had our year end braai last night. We have quite a few runners in the group that either lives low carb or flirted with the concept. Usually, I am very quiet about my life choice of living low carb, but I am often surprised about how many people are living this way and also hearing about peoples experiences. We had "Banting Friendly" broccoli salad ("faux" potato salad) and I baked my own version of low carb cheesecake for dessert. For the fun of it I made it in rainbow colours - vanilla flavoured.

A photograph of the only slice left after last night's outing to show off the colours.

The recipe has developed from my own test kitchen and so far none of my variations have flopped. The only difference is the density and the fluffiness. This particular version is very light and baked cheesecake remains one of my favourite things. Like whiskers on kittens and rainbows :-)

So by popular demand - maybe that's a bit over the top, but by special request from one or two people in the running group, herewith my version of a low carb, most heavenly dessert, because it is holiday and I love cheesecake.

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 100 ml of almond flour
• 50 ml of desiccated coconut (a little extra for sprinkling on the wet crust is nice)
• 2-3 tbsp of chopped almonds or pecans (finely chopped - optional)
• Melted butter (about 1/3 cup or enough to make a "wet" paste)
• Optional: cinnamon and a little bit of sweetener

For the filling:

• 2 pkg cream cheese, room temperature (Philadelphia is my choice)
• 1/3 cup sweetener of choice - I use Suki or pure Xylitol NOTE: I also start with very little and then add the sweet stuff to taste. My taste buds are very sensitive to sweetness so I tend to be light on the "sugary" taste. My advice is that you taste it and add more or less as required.
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tub sour cream
• 1 tub heavy cream
• 1 tub full cream cottage cheese (smooth)
• 4 Large eggs
• 1 each of liquid food colors (blue, yellow, green, red)

Directions

1. Preheat oven 180°C. Before you get started with the crust, make sure your springform pan is water tight. Do this by carefully wrapping a few layers of foil on the outside of the pan, so water cannot get into the pan. Be careful not to rip the foil or water will get into your cake and ruin it!
2. Mix the dry ingredients for the  crust together (teaspoons of sweetener and cinnamon optional) together in a bowl. Then mix in butter with a soft spatula or your fingers. It is supposed to be very wet don't panic. 
3. Press the wet mixture into the prepared springform pan. It needs to be very thin and requires a bit of patience to get the entire surface covered in the soft stuff.  You can add the extra coconut to the surface to help you with the process, but in the end you should have an even, flat crust.
4. Bake the crust for 10 minutes on a low oven rack - it burns quickly keep and eye on it, it should start to brown. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool while you are preparing the filling mixture. Turn oven temperature down to 150°F.
5. To make filling, cut cream cheese into pieces and add to a mixing bowl - it is easier if the cream cheese is at room temperature - I sometimes spin it in the microwave a few seconds to soften. Whip until smooth, maybe 4 minutes. Then add sweetener, and continue to beat until smooth again, another 4-5 minutes. Next, add vanilla, salt, sour cream, cottage cheese and heavy cream; beat until smooth. Add in 1 egg at a time, beating briefly between each egg.
6. Once the mixture is well combined and very smooth, divide evenly into 6 dishes. Add food color to each dish to get the desired colors. (Red = drops of red, Orange = drops yellow + drops red, Yellow = drops yellow, Green = drops green, Blue = drops blue, Violet = drops red + drops blue). If you feel like a normal cheese cake skip this part and just go straight to pouring the entire batch of the tasty mixture into your pan. 
7. Pour colored mixtures into cooled crust. Start with red filling, and slowly pour it right in the center of the crust. Continue to build the rainbow by pouring the fillings directly in the center. This will create layers so that each slice has some of each color.
8. Place cheesecake into a baking dish on oven rack, and fill baking dish with boiling water about 2-2.5cm up the side of the springform pan.
9. Bake at 150°C in the water bath for 1 hour and 40 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes or until set but still jiggles slightly in the middle. If cheesecake begins to brown on top, cover loosely with foil during last 5 minutes of baking.
10. Turn off the oven, open the oven door a crack, and let the cake cool in the oven for 1 hour. The slow cooling will help it not crack. If you are in a hurry or it cracked already, just put it in the fridge directly from the oven. This usually helps it to set quickly.
11. You can loosely wrap the dish in foil so the foil isn't touching the top of the cake and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. 
12. When ready to remove cake, run a clean narrow knife around the edge of the dish, remove the foil, unlock the spring, and carefully lift off the outer ring.

A cutting tip: use dental floss to pre-cut the cake before serving - you get a clean cut. That is if you don't have one of those fancy cake cutter wire thingy's. Note to self, buy one for myself ;-)

Enjoy!

Keep calm and eat low carb.

Keep Calm and Eat LCHF Chocolate Cheesecake

Many people who start on the journey of removing sugar, and carbohydrates from their diet initially lose a lot of weight and then stall. At this point, most people start researching or questioning their options and we lose our calm. Confusion reigns, because there is absolutely no clear answer, you have to make up your own mind and take a leap of faith to some degree.
I know it feels overwhelming. But KEEP CALM is the best advice I have. The information overload is huge. Doubts and fears are what our media-based society thrives on. It is more newsworthy to state in bold letters: Prof X says Tim Noakes is wrong again. The journalists report on sensation. Just as much as people use media to get their message out, it is very seldom balanced and fair. The balance and fairness factor is up to YOU. So Bant away and keep calm. If you made the choice to change your lifestyle based on health reasons like me, remember that those reasons are still valid and true. Try to avoid the sensation media, don't debate your choice with acquaintances, and even family. People will not change their mind unless they are ready and your debating skills will not make a difference to their state of mind.

So for those tough days, when life gets you down, bake Banting friendly cheesecake and enjoy it smugly while people criticize and argue about our lifestyle :-)

Here's my Choc Cheesecake Keep Calm Recipe

For the base:
125g butter, melted
3 tbls of almonds, chopped
about 1/2 cup of coconut flour (I add to the melted butter until it has the right consistency to press into the base)

For the filling:
2 packets of full fat cream cheese (room temperature)
200 ml cream
1 tub of sour cream (creme fresh)
1 tub of full fat cottage cheese
4 eggs
2 slabs of 90% Lindt dark chocolate, melted
75 ml of xylitol
2 packets of stevia powder (optional)

Prepare a container big enough to fit your pan into. You will bake the cake in a water bath. I double up on a foil cover for my pan, two layers of foil on the outside of the pan to prevent water from spoiling your cake.

For the base I melt the butter and add the flour and mix in the nut bits. I use a round spring form pan and line the bottom and sides with baking paper. Press the buttered flour into a nice uniform base and blind bake at 160degC. The base should just start browning. Remove and let it cool.

For the filling, mix the cream cheese until smooth and creamy, add cream slowly followed by the sour cream and cottage cheese.  Once all is nicely creamy start adding the eggs one by one. Mix the stevia and xylitol in and then slowly pour in the chocolate whilst mixing. It should stiffen slightly.

Pour into your your pan on top of your crust. Then put the pan into the water bath (protected by foil) and then bake for 90 to 100 minutes at 160C.

Take out the cake and put it in the fridge overnight for the best chocolate (mouse) cheesecake EVER.

Enjoy!

   

Jamming

This time of year used to be the time I started thinking about cooking jam and chutney from the fruit my peach and apricot tree delivers. It's been a tradition I've kept up over the past decade. Now jam and chutney has a lot of sugar in it and I even before I cut sugar out of my life, I never managed to eat all the jam I cooked anyway. However, the idea of jam and chutney is to save fruit for later. In modern times, we can access almost any type of fruit throughout the year. So preserving some fruit from a period of bountiful excess is the main reason for making preserves. I've been thinking about the whole preserving thing, even dried fruit of course has it's origins in the concept of preserving some of the goodness for later.

I've tested out the principle of jam without sugar with strawberries and it works well actually. As strawberries are in season now, we bought two large punnets this past weekend, but as strawberries spoil easily, and we only eat about 3 berries a day each, I thought this would make a good experiment.

Homemade Sugar Free Strawberry Jam Experiment

about 1 kg of strawberries, leaves removed, roughly chopped into halves
a splash of water
lemon juice (about half a lemon)
2 tablespoons of xylitol to counter the lemon juice mostly
a pinch or two of Xantam Gum for thickening
a pinch of salt

On a low heat I got the strawberries boiling and let it slowly cook for about 40 minutes, stirring and mashing the strawberries towards the end to breakdown some of the big ones. You can also make it a smooth jam by using a hand blender. I opted for a chunkier version as I intend to use it on our yoghurt instead of fresh fruit. Towards the end I added a pinch of the thickener to make sure it sets a little bit.

One hour later, I had my jam. Not super sweet, slightly tangy on the tongue - which I really like.

It is also great for making ice cream. Natural colouring and flavour for your Banting ice cream.

My ice cream obsession

If you, like me, come from a long history of sugar addiction, you may be thinking that life without desert surely cannot be worthwhile. I love making and eating deserts - pre- and post-low carb living. When I made the choice to remove sugar from my life I thought it was going to be really, really hard, but soon after embarking on this route, I realized that cheesecake and ice cream recipes need no flour and surely sugar is not the thing that makes it fabulous. I longingly thought about those wonderful rainbow cheesecakes I used to bake. Super rich, but not that sweet!

 

The challenge I've put myself for December 2014: To convert the NOT-LOW CARB rainbow cheesecake recipe in these pictures to a LCHF friendly recipe. Watch this space. The crust is easy, to fix, one can just use nuts or a nut flour and butter, sorted. The batter itself is virtually ready for use, it's just deciding how much Xylitol or Stevia one would need. I find that I reduce the "sugar" requirement for all my normal recipes significantly because my taste-buds just don't like sweet stuff that much anymore. When a recipe requires 1 cup of sugar replacement (i.e. Xylitol) - I tend to use 1/3 or less. Especially in ice cream and cheesecakes, I find the sweetness spoils the taste for me. I cannot for example enjoy even the 85% Lindt Dark Chocolate anymore - way to sweet. For me, the 90% is a sweet treat.

The need for sweet stuff dramatically and unexpectedly vanished within the first month of eating like this. Where I used to crave sugary stuff all the time, I suddenly just didn't miss it. And I know, telling you about it won't make you believe it, but it still surprise the hell out of me. I know most addicts fear "going cold turkey", but it worked for me. After 6 months, I don't even like the taste of most sweet things, I find it too sweet and not palatable at all. My sweet tooth is still there and requires management from time to time, but in a different form. I still enjoy a decadent desert every so often. Nothing nicer on a Sunday after lunch to serve, strawberries smothered in whipped cream. I eat fruit as a rare treat. I really had to cut back on the carbs to get my sugar levels stable. I hover between 30 to 50 grams a day and if I want to really buckle down to I should get it down to 20 grams. This may not be true for everybody and really depends on your sensitivity to carbs. Some people can get away with 100 grams or even 150 grams a day! This means some people could eat 1-2 fruit a day and enjoy sweat potato as a nice treat - makes excellent chips, but this is not me. Remember - very sensitive to carbs and no thyroid etc. etc. In order to reduce my carbs below 30 grams a day, I find I have to track my food intake quite carefully. I get my carbs from veggies mostly, but of course some foods like milk, cheese, yoghurt have "hidden" carbs as well. It is also easy to accidentally top up with protein instead of with fat. I also mentioned before, that even though I believe Banting or Low Carb living is right for me, it does not fix one's eating disorders . I have, gotten better at listening to my body. Not just eating a meal, because it is time to eat, this is such a golden rule, but tougher to learn than you think. Especially for me, who lived on 2 hourly snacks (low fat yoghurts, fruit, Provitas) for the past 20 years, just to be able to function properly. Plus i really just like eating.

So for today I thought I'd share a quick and easy ice cream recipe I've "cobbled" together. Ice cream is really hard to mess up, and how you tackle it depends on what your aim is. I have made ice cream that really rivals the best Italian ice cream I've ever eaten. But sometimes you just feel like a quick desert to serve as a treat. I love my ice cream maker dearly, almost as much as My Precious (my Nespresso's nickname). To start, I am opting for an easy one, the more complex, but rich inventions to follow. If you don't own an ice cream maker, don't fret, just put it in the cold box :-) it will be great too.

Isabel's Coconut Milk Strawberry Ice Cream (LCHF)

1 can of coconut milk (I used the Woolworths one, nice quality)
1 packet of Simply Delish  Strawberry Jelly (I feel really guilty about this because normally I make the flavouring from strawberries I cooked into a jam with lemon juice and a spoon of Xylitol, but the idea of this recipe is to show how easy a low carb recipe can be invented)
250-300ml pouring cream (this is to adjust the sweetness, the coconut milk is also quite strongly flavoured and requires some getting used to if you are not familiar with the taste in deserts, I added cream until the sweetness didn't bother me too much)

I mixed in the jelly with the coconut milk, whipped it until frothy and then added in the cream and continued to mix it until frothy. The mixture went into my ice cream maker and 12 minutes later I had soft-serve ice cream that blows my taste buds out of the water. I could eat just that for the rest of the day :-) I estimate about 6-8 servings.

Enjoy!

Cabbage Patch - A simple, but glorious, low carb meal

Ode to cabbage.

I never really cooked with cabbage much, apart from the occasional coleslaw (which btw can be converted to paleo friendly if you make your own mayo).

Recently I visited with my parents and my dad, who's a very converted Bantinger like us (and has lost >15kg already in 5 months) made us this simple but delicious cabbage stir fry. According to my dad, his mom made it for them when they were kids - see the old ways were close to how we were supposed to eat.

 

It is so simple that one actually feels silly for reporting this as a recipe, but heck it is a wonderfully easy, simple meal or side dish that takes all of 10 minutes to prepare.

LCHF Cabbage Recipe

1 cabbage head (medium) or 2-4 baby cabbages sliced into fairly chunky slithers and bits
1 onion chopped
1 tablespoon (or 2) of butter for taste and shine
1 tablespoon (or 2) of coconut oil for frying

Options for protein:
Fried bacon bits
1 piece of (wheat free) boerewors (about 15 cm should be fine), cooked or raw
Mince (left overs works well here, any flavour)

Prepare cabbage and onions, and fry onions until translucent in pan big enough to take all your cabbage. Once translucent add your selection of protein. The boerie meat works well because of the flavours, but any kind of left over protein should be great. Fry together with onions until warm or cooked and add in the cabbage and then the butter. Cook until the cabbage just starts to go limp on edges - stirring the whole time is the best way.

We eat this as a meal, a bowl of cabbage or as a side dish as the veggies. With mince/boerie mince it reminds me of "mince and rice" as a meal.

A tasty, yet simple family favourite.

Good suggestions for carb-free boerie: Woolworths sells a really good one. Couldn't find the link to it on their site but here's a picture of the packaging for the curious ones.

 

PS: PLEASE read all labels when buying food - so many hidden carbs everywhere

Low carbing recipes I cannot live without (1)

Over the years I had gotten really stressed about eating healthy and then came along LCHF eating. Low carb has changed my life, but my "experimental" cook came with me on this journey, I love changing and tweaking recipes. I don't claim to have invented any of the recipes from scratch, except my ice cream perhaps, but I have tweaked many a good basic recipe and use a few on a regular basis. Many friends ask me for these and I love sharing it so here's my thoughts on:

LOW CARB BREAD - it sounds like I've gone to the dark side again, but bread is such a staple for lunch boxes, purely from the logistically aspect. I don't actually miss "bread" but I miss having something to put my butter, cheese, lettuce and ham. Hence my hunt for a solution that is quick to make, keeps well (ours lasts a week in the winter outside the fridge) and tasty of course.

This basic Low Carb Bread, as it makes packing lunches easier for me. I have a hectic job (I know everybody thinks they do, but I really do) and I tend to work at least 10-12 hours a day. So finding an easy lunch to pack is a high priority for me. This bread keeps really well, holds together great and is perfect for making toast. In fact, it is a moist bread so toasts beautifully.

Nutrition value (don't quote me on this, I calculated this from the labels and although it agrees quite well with Apps I've tested, I cannot guarantee it of course):
Full recipe (1 bread): Protein 109g, Total Fat 217g, Total Carbs (including Fibre) 121g, Dietary Fibre 91g (wow) and Effective Carbs 31g
Per thin slice (and you can get at least 20 slices): Protein 5.5g, Total Fat 10.9g, Total Carbs (incl. Fibre) 6.1g and Effective Carbs a mere 1.5g

Even if you ignore the fibre, the carb content is still phenomenally low. You could eat the entire bread and still be ok on your day's total if you were in "maintenance mode" or not as insulin resistant as I am. My goal is to be under 20g of carbs a day (including the one from veggies so I am very strict).

Basic Recipe:
200 grams of flax seed "flower" freshly prepared in coffee grinder
22 ml psyllium husk powder
15 ml baking powder
3 ml salt (I use pink Himalaya salt for the good minerals)
50 grams of Chai seeds (or other mixed seeds if you wish, whole pumkin seeds are great in this recipe)
4-5 eggs jumbo, free range organic etc
250 grams of full fat cottage cheese
50 grams of double cream or Greek yoghurt
50-80 ml of melted butter or coconut oil (optional for success, but increases the fat content nicely)

Preheat your oven and thoroughly spray your baking tin (I use a pyrex glass one), batter sticks easily.
Mix dry ingredients together
Add in eggs and other wet ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon
Bake for about an hour (but doesn't hurt to go a bit longer)

Remove and enjoy. Smells like bread.

Some options to consider:
I've experimented with various flours (mixing almond, pumkin seed meal and flax sead meal together in different ratios). All works well. Flax seed gives the lowest carb content and I prefer the high Omega 3 impact it has. If you use almond and pumkin flower the carb content will increase to between 2-2.5 grams per slice (but this is marginal and depends on how much you like the "whiter" style of bread it gives. I love flax and it is really good for the tummy (fibre). If you know what  I mean.
Although you could go crazy with additions (cheese, nuts, sundried tomatoes), I find the basic bread to be just fine.

The picture below shows a version with mixed seeds and flower base of both flax and pumkin seed meal I ground up in my trusty coffee grinder. 200g of flax meal is surprisingly easy to make. Maybe 4-5 grinds. Quick as a flash.