Heart Shaped Low Carb Pancakes

Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day! I hope you treated someone special (ahem – YOURSELF) to a delightful meal and some fun. I made my littlest valentine heart shaped coconut flour pancakes – even my picky eater will eat them!

Here’s the basic recipe for low carb, high fiber coconut flour pancakes. It’s very flexible and I frequently play with the amounts.

• 2-4 TB coconut flour (my recipe usually calls for 2 but depending on the brand, you may need up to 4 TB to thicken the batter)
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• A few drops of maple extract or vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of each: baking soda, salt
• about a teaspoon of lemon juice (for acidity to react with your baking soda)
• few drops of liquid stevia, or other sweetener of your choice
• If needed, 3 TB milk or non-dairy milk (using Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour you may need additional moisture, using Let’s Do Organic I didn’t need any additional moisture as the batter was too wet.)

Mix and cook over medium heat. For other variations on coconut flour pancakes, check out the Pancake category.

And thank you Smoothie Girl for the much appreciated valentine!

xoxo,

Allie

Attention Shoppers: Skinny is on Sale!

Actually I’m not a fan of skinny. I saw a skinny woman at the gym yesterday and I wanted to grab her and feed her lots of wholesome, calorie-rich food. And a couple of Krispy Kremes…

My day yesterday went like this:

• 5 am wakeup
• Coffee, work, eat, make homemade healthy granola bars for daughter (all before 7 am)
• Daughter rejects granola bars as yucky. Hubs loves ‘em.
• Get kid and husband to school/work – dash to teach spinning across town
• Burn 700 calories
• Off to Target for friend’s baby registry, visit Grandma who can’t remember how to turn on her tv
• Visit mom – help her sort through 300 pounds of frozen beef (this is Idaho after all), eat, brine turkey breast for dinner, clean house, paint walls, catch up on computer/desk work
• Have a few bites of lemon poppyseed vanilla bean cake and “tapioca” chia coconut strawberry pudding.
• Shower by 1 pm, eat again, clean house, walk dog for  1 1/2 hours swinging by bus stop to pick up the kidlet
• Have tuna mashed with chipotle sauce on top of one of Averie’s crackers. (Very yummy!) BTW, my picky eater approves her Vegan Slaw Dressing (although I don’t use sugar to sweeten it)
• Cook dinner (homemade quasi-healthy turkey nuggets, sautéed cabbage and apples and spaghetti squash), family night (dancing, playing Nintendo together, reading bedtime stories).
• Discover dog ate entire open bag of yacon syrup/stevia meringues. Thank heavens I don’t cook with xylitol for that very reason, otherwise he’d be dead… FYI, xylitol is toxic to pets.
• Have cocktail with Daddy (okay, only half before I pass out around 9 pm. Do I know how to party or what?!)

And that was my day OFF work! I’ve gone back to work. Yes, actual gainful employment because baby needs a brand new pair of shoes. Don’t we all need a little more money? Good news! iHerb just let me know that they’re putting everything on sale! And if you use my code, you help support wacky shakedom and low glycemic, gluten-free baking experiments.

Now through Monday, February 28, enjoy an extra 6% off every product iHerb carries.
That's 6% savings on top of quantity discounts and low shipping rates (or free UPS Ground for orders over $40.00).
This discount, which may be combined with other online discounts, will be seen in the shopping cart after you sign in.

If you haven’t ordered from them before, you can use code HOB128 to save $5 off your first purchase. This is very cool. Why? Well as for me, I’m now allergic to dairy (including VANILLA WHEY PROTEIN) so I’ve been playing with pea protein (like a pea flour that works great in baking or savory applications like soup or dips, Life’s Basic’s Vanilla protein which is great for puddings or desserts, stevia which is great for everything, or just a multi-vitamin!

Now I’ve got to start the day all over again. I hope that you are well, healthy, happy and still having fun in the kitchen!

Stevia Giveaway Winners!

Thank you all for playing the “Creative Comment” game. You guys cracked me up. Wow, making anyone work for free stevia drastically cut down the comments… But, we got some fabulous entries.

Each winner will receive (1) box of NuStevia Packets, 50 ct. Box,  AND one (1) bottle of NuNaturals Vanilla Stevia Liquid, 2 oz. bottle.  The vanilla stevia will rock your morning coffee.

The NuNaturals Stevia Giveaway winners are:

Nikki, Deb, Scott and Lauren!

Nikki

It was a dark and dreary night *cue thunder* and the lovely Nikki was up in her room choosing an outfit for work. Shirt after shirt, skirt after skirt tried on and discarded with an ever growing horror... Each outfit looks more sausage-like than the last *cue shriek of terror!!!*
*scene change: small dank bathroom with concrete floor and 1 bare flickering lightbulb* Nikki stares in aprehension at the evil machine on the floor in front of her, trying to work up the courage to stand on it. Finally she slowly steps one foot, then the other on and as the digital numbers climb ever higher Nikki closes her eyes, afraid to see the truth.
Dun dun DUUUNNNNNNN!!!!
To be continued.... *cue evil laugh*

Deb

There once was a girl named Deb
Who spent too much time on the web
She loves her sugah.
She loves her dairy
But it makes her mushuga
When she's not light as a fairy.
So her holiday trip
Was a massive slip
As nary a calorie
was turned away.
So now she will get back to smoothies and Hugh Jasses...
Things that she knows will work
For the masses
Even if it drives them berserk.

Scott

Drinking dairy,
Oh so scary!
Now with Stevia,
I'm less queasy-a!

Lauren

Wheat is no treat
so going out to eat is no easy feat
On the contrary,
I can have dairy
but it only harmonizes
when my body when it's unpasturized
But all is well
because I think vegetables are swell.

Props to Amanda, Natalie (great Haiku!) and Heather (lovely food photography) and everyone else who stopped by! While the four get stevia, you all get eternal fame and gold star stickers. I wish I could add more winners.

Scott, I don’t have contact info for you. Everyone, you’ve got a few days to get back to me with your shipping info. Please email me pimpmyshake (at) live (dot com)

Now that you have stevia, what do you do with it? NuNaturals has recipes on their site and an offer for free samples that you should check out.

Thanks again everyone! Hope this made your day a little sweeter.

Protein Noodles

As I’ve given up whey protein, I’m exploring the possibilities of pea protein.

I googled “Pea Protein Recipes” and discovered pea protein noodles. Wow. There are some desperate/creative people out there in the universe. Being desperately creative myself, I got crackin’. And kneadin’.

This recipe is just my first attempt at tweaking the one I found. It’s hardly perfect, but I’d thought I’d share an in-progress protein noodle with you. My goal is to reduce the protein powder and up the chickpea flour, which is a low glycemic bean flour that I adore.

PROTEIN PASTA (2-4 servings)

• 1/2 cup Pea Protein Powder (plus some for dusting)
• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup chickpea flour
• Three large eggs
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• optional: pinch of xanthan gum

Mix eggs in with a bowl. In a food processor, mix dry ingredients and then add egg mixture and olive oil. Add water as needed, tablespoon by tablespoon.

Knead together for 2-3 minutes.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and allow to sit for 30 minutes at room temp.
Remove dough from plastic and roll out to about the thickness of a dime with a rolling pin.
Using a sharp knife or cookie cutter, slice into thin ribbons. (I think this dough is tough enough to even handle a pasta machine). Dust with pea protein as needed.
Place cut pasta on a lint free, clean towel for 15-20 minutes to dry.
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a rolling boil.
Add the past and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally so the noodles don't stick together.

Drain or remove with a slotted spoon and enjoy them hot!

 

Boil, boil, toil and trouble. With a hefty pinch of salt.

Drizzle with olive oil and parmesan or butter and salt.

This is not something you would serve to your Italian grandmother nor will you find it in a Mario Batali restaurant, but it’s fun to make faux food noodles. It’s like edible playdough and frankly we all know children eat playdough daily.

I beg of you. Do not decide to cut this dough into rounds and skillet fry. The resulting frisbee will have a high protein content, but it better left to chasing around the yard than chewing. And chewing. And chewing.

I turned leftover noodles into a protein udon of sorts. Noodles softened in broth, sprouts, a poached egg, ginger, pea sprouts and scallions. They need to be reboiled or simmered to soften them again because they get very dry in the fridge.

And one last thing, have you entered my NuNaturals Stevia Giveaway yet? There’s still time!

Thai Coconut Bread Pudding with Vanilla Cardamom Cream - Low Carb

FIXED: fixed the link so you don't have to hunt down Blogger for the recipe.

Low carb Thai Coconut Bread Pudding with Vanilla Cardamom Cream? You're kidding, right?


Sometimes, someone else does it better. A LOT better. So here's Carolyn's from All Day I Dream About Food amazing creation.

By the way, you'll need stevia for this recipe. Have you entered my giveaway yet? No? Get crackin'!

New Stuff and a NuNaturals Stevia Giveaway

I’ve been on a spending spree. Not just for Christmas loot but at the grocery store. Look at all the fun new products on sale! Earth Balance Soy Free was on sale at Wally World as well as Silk’s new PureAlmond Unsweetened, so I nabbed both. Quinoa porridge, topped with a spoonful of buttery spread and some almond milk with breakfast. Yummers.

Silk refuses to let Almond Breeze sneak past them in the market, so they’ve lowered their calorie count to 35 calories per cup. I think Idaho water has at least that many calories per cup – note to self, must install water filter.

I mentioned a while ago that I’m now allergic to dairy. Sigh. This means no more Fage Greek Yogurt. No more delightful cottage cheese creations. No string cheese. No delicious whey based protein ice creams. No reason to live. I suppose inundating one’s system with whey protein for so long takes a toll. If you use a proteins supplement regularly, make sure you rotate your protein sources! This has made it very difficult for me to get enough protein. I buy free range/organic meat and eggs which are pricey and a girl can only eat so much tuna before she sweats mercury bullets into a toxic puddle on her yoga mat.

On a positive note, that means I get to branch out and explore the vegan proteins on the market, finally try coconut milk yogurt and spend a ridiculous amount of time on GoDairyFree.org

Here’s my latest fun from iHerb: protein and probiotics. (BTW, you can get $5 off your first order if you use my code HOB128). Since it’s the start of a new, fresh year, I’d like you to start this year off a little wiser. Here’s your daily lesson in consumerism: when buying probiotics online and you scout a deal (see photo above), note the servings per bottle before purchasing. Mine contained 7 capsules instead of the 90 servings in the other bottles.

Life’s Basics still rocks and now that I’m joining the ever popular dairy-free clique, LB is my BFF. It makes a great breakfast cereal mixed with almond milk, berries and a bit of quinoa or amaranth.

Pea Protein from NOW Sports was a new purchase for me. I decided to jump in headfirst to try it for the first time by putting a scoop into my seaweed soup (I can hear Smoothie Girl gagging – but January is all about detox). It’s unflavored protein, which should go well with my mermaid flavored broth, right? Yes ladies and gentlemen, it was just fine. It has the texture of flour so I can already foresee that it’s going to rock the protein baked goods in my kitchen and even mixes well into broths and soups.

But now the best part – The Giveaway! The excellent folks at NuNaturals will award multiple products to FOUR (count ‘em, 4! Wahoo!) of my readers. NuNaturals has recipes on their site and an offer for free samples that you might also want to check out. While you’re at their site printing recipes, might as well take advantage of code:  BLG228, to receive a SPECIAL DISCOUNT of  15% off your TOTAL ORDER.

 

Each winner will receive (1) box of NuStevia Packets, 50 ct. Box,  AND one (1) bottle of NuNaturals Vanilla Stevia Liquid, 2 oz. bottle.

The contest will be open to Continental U.S. residents ONLY and sorry, no P.O. Boxes.

This starts now and will be open until Monday January 31st. Instead of choosing the winners fairly at random, I’m going to select the 4 most creative responses. Make sure you leave an email address so that I can contact you if you’re a winner, otherwise your hard-earned stevia goes to someone less funny and creative than you!

Ready? It’s a multiple choice, so pick a topic or make one up. Are you sensitive to dairy or other foods? How does your body respond to sugar? Just fine or does it trigger binge behavior? Did you gain weight over the holidays? If so does the weight bother you or are you confident that it will drop off effortlessly now that the holidays are over?

Extra points for haiku or sonnet format.

NuNaturals Stevia Free Samples

Thanks to NuNaturals, you can have a sweeter 2011.

If you live in the continental US (sorry folks in Maui and Anchorage – you’ve got too many whales to watch to be bothered with self addressed stamped envelopes…), send away for some FREE SAMPLES of NuStevia Packets.

How? Send a SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED, # 10 envelope to:

NuNaturals , Inc.
2220 West 2nd. Ave. # 1
Eugene, OR 97402

Free? That’s a pretty sweet deal.