baked camembert (i used goats cheese camembert)

WINNER! BANTING! LCHF!

I was inspired to baked some cheese to go with our delicious crackling crumbed chicken breasts (going full fat all the way!!!!)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 camembert
• Olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, sliced
• fresh thyme
• 8 dried cranberries
• 2T macadamia nuts chopped

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 180*
• Put the cheese in a small oven safe dish, and cut small slits through the top half of the cheese (just deep enough the put your sliced garlic into)
• put the sliced garlic into the slits
• top with thyme and cranberries
• drizzle olive oil all over
• bake for 15-20 minutes
• Top with macadamia nuts and serve

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blueberry jam

WINNER! BANTING! LOW CARB!

I saw something similar and thought, so easy peasy! Why haven’t I made this before?!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup frozen blueberries (or fresh if you can get)
• 1/4cup xylitol
• 1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS

• Heat a small pan to medium
• Add berries and stir around until starting to get all defrosted and juicy
  
• Mix the xylitol and the water in a cup
  
• Add to the berries
  
• Simmer for 5 minutes
  
• Reduce heat to low and leave for about half an hour, until the berries have really broken down
• Blend and bottle
  

banting lasagne

WINNER! BANTING! LCHF!

I grew up making pasta with my mom, rolling out the dough, making the noodles. I’ve always loved how therapeutic dough is. So I’ve really missed that since I started banting, and wanted to try make something similar. While this dough doesn’t knead, or go through a pasta machine, it does make good pasta.

INGREDIENTS for dough

• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups ground up almonds
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 t xantham gum
• pinch salt

DIRECTIONS

• Whisk the eggs
• Mix the dry ingredients together
• Add the eggs into the dry mixture
  
• Mix into a dough ball and cover with clingwrap (I don’t think this is necessary but I wanted to do it like normal dough!)
  
• Cut off about 1/4 of the dough and roll it out between 2 sheets of clingwrap  until thin
• Use as you would with normal lasagne
• Bake for +- 20 minutes and serve!

Chocolate crepes

WINNER! BANTING! Low carb!

I got this recipe off the loseit magazine website www.loseit.co.za, and just made it a little more practical (i.e. using cup measurements and simplifying the directions!)

INGREDIENTS (makes 2 crepes)

• 2 eggs
• 1/8 cup water
• small pinch salt
• 1/4 t bicarb
• 2t xylitol
• 2t coco powder
• 1/8 c coconut flour
• butter for greasing pan

DIRECTIONS

• Whisk the eggs with the water, add the rest of the ingredients and beat until smooth
• Heat a pan medium hot and grease by adding 1 t butter and allow to melt
• Pour half mixture into pan and swirl around into crepe
• Cook for about 2 minutes then flip and cook for about another minute (until cooked) – then lift it out onto a plate
• Repeat with greasing pan with butter and then add remaining batter and cook as above
• Serve with cinnamon, xylitol, lemon juice and fresh strawberries !

chilli popper inspired chicken breasts

WINNER! BANTING! LCHF!

I was inspired by my chilli popper post to make some chilli popper chicken! All the goodness of the chilli poppers but substantial enough for dinner

INGREDIENTS (per person)

• 1 chicken breast, butterflied = cut almost in half (don’t cut through the breast)
• 1T jalapeno slices
• 1/4 chevin goats cheese / 1T feta / 2T cheese
• 3 rashers bacon
• toothpicks
• salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 180*
• Season the chicken breast
• Put the cheese in the chicken cavity, then the jalapeno slices
  
• Roll up and wrap in the bacon rashers
• Seal with toothpicks
• 
• Place on a greased oven tray and back for +- 20 minutes
• Heat a frying pan to medium/hot
• Fry the chicken breast for a minute on each side until the bacon is crispy
• Serve with a salad / veg
• YUMMMMY

bacon wrapped chilli poppers

WINNER! BANTING! LCHF!

I LOVE chilli poppers, with quite a passion! Queue this – which I have made when I’m entertaining (and possibly made for just me 😉 )!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 jar whole jalapenos (or even better, the ones that have already been sliced in half)
• 1 chevin goats cheese / 1 small packet feta
• 1 packet bacon (streaky works best)
• toothpicks

DIRECTIONS

• preheat oven to 180*
• if you bought whole jalaponos, slice them in half length wise
• stuff the middle with the goats cheese / feta
• wrap in a rasher of bacon, securing with a toothpick
• Place on a greased baking dish and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the bacon is crispy
• Serve with sour cream or home made tomato/chilli sauce

choc chip biscotti

WINNER! BANTING! LCHF!

I made some biscotti a while back and lost the recipe, and then I found it again, with a few tweaks, this was delicious!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 and 3/4  cups of blitzed to flour like consistency macadamia nuts or almonds
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 t bicarb
• 1/4t salt
• 1/4 cup honey OR xylitol syrup (to make, heat 1/4 cup xylitol with 1/8 water until xylitol has dissolved, then boil for about 2 minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool)
• 1t vanilla extract
• 40g dark chocolate, cut into little chunks

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 180*
• Mix the dry ingredients together
• Add the syrup/honey and vanilla extract
• Mix well
• Add choc bits
• Wrap into clingwrap and compress it as much as possible into a log shape
  
• Unwrap from clingwrap and put on a baking sheet (I use a silicone baking sheet – if you are using a normal sheet, grease beforehand)
  
• Bake for 15 minutes
  
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for 1 hour
• Cut log into biscuits
• Reheat oven at 140*
• Bake for 15 minutes
• Crack oven OPEN and leave to sit for an hour, then take out of oven to cool again
• One more time –
  • Reheat oven at 140*
  • Bake for 15 minutes
  • Crack oven oven and leave to sit for an hour, then take out of oven to cool again
• Serve!
• 

gluten-free pizza base

WINNER! gluten-free recipe! (NOT banting)!

I know this isn’t banting, because of the potato starch. But it’s not that much potato starch really 🙂

ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 cup macadamia nuts or almonds (blitzed to flour like consistency)
• 2T potato starch
• 1t salt
• 1T yeast
• 1T honey
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1.5t apple cider vinegar
• 1T egg whites
• 1T olive oil

Directions

• Preheat oven to 35*
• Combine the yeast, honey and water into your big mixing bowl, stir together and leave to activate for +-5 minutes
  
• Combine the apple cider vinegar, egg whites and olive oil in a bowl and mix well
• Add the potato starch and macadamia nut flour to the big mixing bowl
• Add the vinegar, egg white, oil mixture to the big mixing bowl
• Stir well for about a minute
• It will be very wet, don’t panic!
• Put a damp cloth over your bowl and pop it somewhere warm (I put it in the oven) to rise for about 75 minutes
  
• Spread over a silicone baking sheet (which I placed on top of my pizza stone)
• Get it as thin as possible, and then bake at 250* for about 6 minutes (keep an eye on it)
  
• Remove from the oven, top with desired pizza goodies, and pop back into the oven until the cheese has melted
• Slice and serve!
• 

xylitol… but is it natural?

off the beaten path here

So I’ve been hearing some rumblings about xylitol, and decided to really look into it.

Is it natural? Is it a chemical? What’s the deal?

The truth seems to be that while xylitol is an organic substance found occurring in nature, it is a processed product. So all the  xylitol we buy is is “produced by the industrialised process of sugar hydrogenation.   In order to hydrogenate anything, a catalyst is needed, and in the case of xylitol, Raney nickel is used which is a powdered nickel-aluminum alloy.” (ref http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/xylitol-not-as-sweet-as-its-cracked-up-to-be/)

Sadly, most xylitol is made from GMO corn, so be on the look out for Birch Xylitol if you can – at least you’ll be avoiding GMOs… Remember, if you have too much, xylitol can have a laxative effect. And it is toxic to our pets 😦

That being said it does have it’s virtues – it doesn’t raise your blood sugar levels like normal cane sugar does, and it’s good for your teeth!

Personally, I’ll keep having a spoon in my coffee in the morning, but it’s good to be more informed about what we’re eating.

According to their websites:

• Sweet Nothings xylitol is made from the corn cob
• MojoME xylitol is made from the birch trees

References

• http://www.sallyanncreed.co.za/site/Xylitol.htm
• http://www.sweetnothings.co.za/about-xylitol/
• http://www.mojome.co.za/shop/xylitol-sweetener/
• http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/xylitol-not-as-sweet-as-its-cracked-up-to-be/
• http://www.naturalnews.com/043857_xylitol_artificial_sweeteners_digestive_distress.html