Monday, October 15, Menu and Thoughts!!!

OK, my friends are asking for recipes and menu lists. So I'll post here. The only problem is I feel like I am cooking ALL DAY every day and there are still flops! Oh well, I am just trusting it will get better!

Breakfast - the family had leftover pumpkin pecan muffins, and I had low-carb Caveman French Toast, basically French Toast batter by itself. Coffee. MMM.
Lunch - LOTS of leftovers. Hubby and I had salad with steak strips on top, while kids had ham deli slices and cheese, as well as raw veggies. No dip.

...

Dinner - Paleo burger buns (MUST work on these, they were dry, but I think it's because I used emergency storage dried eggs. Hmm), grilled burgers, and Ginger-Garlic Cauli-Rice from http://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/08/recipe-ginger-garlic-cauliflower-rice.html.

What took me so long today? All the baking! I made the Paleo bread that was posted here before at http://satisfyingeats.blogspot.com/2012/01/easiest-bread-ever.html, plus I made the burger buns rather than just using lettuce leaves. I also took the flop flax bread I made and fried it up as French toast sticks right before the kids went to bed. This has got to stop though! I am so tired of cooking!

Chocolate Biscotti the Low-Carb Paleo Way

I happen to LOVE chocolate, and I happen to miss it often.  I can't often have it without a dose of insulin or a prick of the finger, so I find myself thinking twice before choosing to indulge myself one of my loves.

When I ran across this post on how to make a Paleo chocolate biscotti, I was happy for others, but sad for myself because I noticed that the main sweetener and texture provider was none other than half a banana.  That would be enough for me to have to consider taking a shot before indulging in any biscotti.

So I ruminated over my options:  (1) just make it with banana and take the shot, (2) consider what other options were fat and sweet replacers and use one of them.  I know that mashed banana and applesauce are often used for beaten egg, and so I figured beaten egg could possibly be a substitute for one of them.  Oil is too, as well as flax meal, but oil doesn't provide the beefiness that egg does and flax meal still has carbs, though not as much as banana.

I opted to use an extra egg in place of the half banana called for in Curlygirl's recipe.  I still had to sweeten up the batch to make the biscotti worth considering.  Solution!  I had recently purchased some Sweet Leaf stevia drops in several flavors.  I had decided to replace the raisins in the original recipe with raspberries, since any time I can get berries, it provides the antioxidant boost.  Raisins just provide a spike in blood sugar, bad for a diabetic like me.  So I decided to add the chocolate raspberry stevia drops to the chocolate raspberry batter.  VOILA!  Magic goodness.

The bonus was I tested my blood sugar about an hour and a half later, and it was virtually unchanged from the biscotti!!!  SCORE~!

Here it is.  My batch made about six three-inch biscotti, so I guesstimate there to only be about 6-7 carbs apiece.

2 eggs - beaten
1T almond meal
1T almond butter
1/8c raspberries (adds antioxidants, but use another fruit of choice for variation)
1/3 cup mixed nuts (Almonds, pecans and walnuts work well.  I also added cashews and shredded coconut.)
1.5T unsweetened cocoa powder (you can see how dark mine turned out, but the flavor was right on.  Any less would be too little.)
10-12 drops liquid stevia (I used chocolate raspberry, but change things up for variation!)
1 ml dropper almond extract

You could see how the variations on this recipe are as endless as your imagination.  Use your favorite fruits, add vanilla and cinnamon instead of cocoa, use pumpkin puree in the place of one of the eggs.

Put in greased medium sized bowl (I used corningware 1 serving bakeware). Microwave for 2 min. You could probably bake this at 350 for 20 min, but I have not tried it. Remove from bakeware. Slice. Enjoy!

Primal-friendly Carb Snacks

My diabetes means I need some snacks on hand that are suitable for the Primal diet, but quick to prepare and portable, too, for those times I have to be out and about.

- LARAbars - store-bought and homemade
- Fruit of all types - fresh, dried, homemade fruit leathers
- Avocadoes - a little harder to eat on the go
   - Desserts made of avocadoes
   - Guacamole!!!  MMMM!!!
- From Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals, the protein balls right in the front of the book
- Anything with Medjool dates