Smoked Salmon Ball

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
16 oz. can of red Salmon, drained
1 bunch of green onions, minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
dash hot red pepper sauce
chopped nuts or parsley

directions:
Mix all ingredients except nuts or parsley.  In small bowl lined with plastic wrap, chill mixture until firm.  Shape into a ball.  Remove plastic wrap.  Roll in nuts or parsley. Serve with crackers or chips.

Applesauce Cake

 I opened a huge number 10 can of applesauce for my boys as a part of last nights dinner.  So then I needed to use it up.  I found a recipe for applesauce cake and made one for them and altered a few things to make one for me. So I started with a bunch of almonds and put them in my bosch with the blades.  Then I ground it into a finer flour with my handy dandy mill.  The recipe called for 2 Cups of flour so I substituted 2 Cups of almond flour which has about 6 carbs per cup instead of 40 carbs per cup in the white flour.  The only other substitution I made was using Splenda instead of the Brown Sugar. The square pan is the Low Carb cake and the round one is for everyone else.  I am thinking I can freeze the cake and eat it a bit at a time.

 

For cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (Substitute Almond Flour)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar (Substitute Splenda)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs (Add one more egg)
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup walnuts (optional), toasted (see Tips), cooled, and chopped

For frosting

• 5 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup confectioners sugar (Substitute Splenda)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter an 8- or 9-inch square cake pan.

Make cake:

• Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
• Beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in applesauce. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just combined, then stir in walnuts (if using).
• Spread batter evenly in pan and bake until golden-brown and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then invert onto a plate. Reinvert cake onto a rack to cool completely.

Make frosting:

• Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy. Sift confectioners sugar and cinnamon over cream cheese mixture, then beat at medium speed until incorporated.
• Spread frosting over top of cooled cake.

Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad is one thing I have missed over the last two months and now I don't have to any more!  This Pasta is Dreamfields pasta.  You can buy it at Albertsons and it only has 5 digestible carbs per 3/4 cup serving.  I am thinking this can be a great filler in recipes when it calls for rice or other starches.

The recipe I use for Pasta Salad is.
Pasta
Olives
Cucumbers
Cheese
Broccoli
Cauliflower
or any other low carb cheese or vegetable
Add Italian Salad Dressing and top with Parmesan Cheese.

Cheese Cake

I wish I had taken a picture of this.  When I make it again I will do just that.  Next time I will make cupcake sized portions that I can freeze and take out whenever I feel the need and top with strawberries. There is no crust for this cheesecake but you can make a low-carb crust by using ground almonds, butter and Splenda.  FYI about 30 almonds equal three carbs.

-24 ounces of softened cream cheese
-1 Cup extra-fine whole milk ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese that has been processed in the food processor
-1/2 Cup Sour Cream
-1 1/2 Cups Splenda
-1/3 Cup of Heavy Cream
-1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
-1 Tablespoons Fresh lemon juice
-2 eggs
-3 egg yolks

Spray your Springform pan or I used a glass round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Set aside.  In a shallow roasting pan big enough to fit the cake pan, pour about 1-inch of water and place it on the center rack of the over to preheat.

In a bowl of the electric mixer, beat softened cream cheese, ricotta, sour cream and Splenda on low speed for about 1 minute until well blended.

In a separate bowl, using a wire whisk, mix heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, eggs, and egg yolks until blended.

Turn the mixer on medium speed, and slowly pour the egg mixture into the cream cheese mixture. Beat just until blended and then turn off; be careful not to over-whip

Pour batter into the greased pan.  Place pan into the heated water bath.  Bake for 15 minutes, and then lower the over temperature to 275 degrees.  continue baking for 1 1/2 hours or until top is light golden brown and cake is pulling away from the sides of the pan.  Turn the oven off when finished cooking and leave the cake in the over to cool for 3 more hours.  This will keep the cake nice and tall.  Then remove cake and refrigerate before serving.  Serve Chilled with Strawberries.

This time may vary if you do the cupcake sized cakes.  Just experiment and let me know how it turns out in the comment section.

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil spray for greasing baking pan
• 1 cup soya powder
• 1 cup almonds, finely ground
• 1 cup granular sugar substitute
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 medium zucchini, coarsely grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8x 4 loaf pan generously with oil spray; set aside. In a large bowl whisk together bake mix, ground almonds, sugar substitute, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a medium bowl, whish together oil, eggs, zucchini and vanilla extract. Mix zucchini mixture into dry ingredients until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 45 minutes until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing loaf from pan. With a serrated knife, cut into 18 slices for serving.

2.5 Net carbs per slice.

Cheese soup

Cheese Soup

5 cups chicken broth
1 package of California blend vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots)

While this is coming to a boil

make a roux of 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup butter (cook until it starts to turn brown)
cut up 8 oz. of Velveeta into cubes

Add your flour/butter slowly stirring well
Add the velveeta and stir until it melts

Add pepper if you like.

I serve it to my family in bread bowls. Of course, I go without the bread.
Yummy!

Meat and Celery Soup

For lunch today I made some delicious soup.  Spike keeps thinking about going on this low carb diet with me but just can't quite commit.  He gets what I get for lunch and if he wants to indulge himself in more carbs he has to get his own ;)  He was pretty satisfied with this soup though

Swanson Chicken Broth doesn't have any carbs in it so it is a great start to any soup.  Just dice up the celery and chicken or pork.  I had some left-over pork chops so I used those.  Put then in a pot together and add about 2 table spoons of butter and bring it to a boil.  Soups On!

To balance out the lunch I had some sugar free Jello. No carbs there and had a can of diet Shasta Grapefruit, mmmm, my favorite.

Sour cream beans

2 pieces of bacon
1 can of green beans
1 plop of sour cream
8 or 10 chunks of cheddar cheese

Fry the bacon and remove from pan. Put the drained green beans into the pan. Add in the plop of sour cream and the cheese. Stir it around and put the lid on until the cheese melts. Break up the bacon and add it back into the beans. Stir one more time.

Strawberry Sorbet

Here is another recipe for those of us who are cutting down on carbs.  I am thinking this would be a great replacement for when the rest of the family is eating ice cream.  Just put a lite topping on this and is should be great.

Sorbets are such a fantastic dessert.  They are quick and easy to make, fairly healthy (for a dessert), and are a great ending to just about any meal.  This sorbet had a great texture – very fruity, smooth and not too icy.  I did not strain out the seeds because I like them, but you certainly could if you want an even smoother texture.   Kind of a strawberries and cream thing going on – yum!  The only thing I will change next time will be to make a double batch, as the original recipe doesn’t yield much more than a pint and I like to make more than that at once.

Strawberry Sorbet
Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
3/4 cup sugar Substitute Splenda here
1 tsp. kirsch (optional)
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Directions:
Slice the strawberries and toss them in a medium bowl with the sugar and kirsch, if using, stirring until the sugar begins to dissolve.  Cover and let stand for 1 hour, stirring every so often.
Puree the strawberries and their liquid with the lemon juice and salt in a blender or food processor until smooth.  Press the mixture through a strainer to remove the seeds if you wish.
Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Chocolate Roll Cake

I got online and found a flourless recipe for a chocolate roll cake. I figured if I substituted the Sugar it called for with Splenda and the chocolate chips with splenda and cocoa powder and butter, then all would be well.

It is better than I ever hoped for. Now I can have my chocolate fix without any added carbs, except for the little bit of carbs in the Lite Whipped Topping.

Here is the recipe if anyone wants to make it. My boys even liked this better than the Brownies that I made them.

No Carb No flour No sugar Chocolate Cake

For Cake Layer

6 oz chocolate chips (Substitute ¼ C butter, 6 T Cocoa powder & 6 T Splenda)

4 tablespoons water

6 large eggs, separated and at room temperature

2/3 C Sugar (substitute 2/3 C Splenda)

¼ tsp. salt

1 Table spoons Cocoa Powder

Filling

Lite Whipped Topping (this has 1 carb per Tablespoon)

Make Cake Layer: Preheat over to 350. Oil a 15 X 10 shallow baking pan and line bottom lengthwise with a large piece of wax or parchment paper, letting paper hang over ends by 2 inches.

Melt butter with water and then add the 6 Tablespoons of cocoa powder and 6 Tablespoons of Splenda. Stir until smooth.

Beat yolks, 1/3 C Splenda and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thick and pale. Fold in warm chocolate mixture until blended. Beat whites with cleaned beaters until they just hold soft peaks. Gradually add remaining 1/3 C Splenda and beat until whites just hold stiff peaks. Fold on third of whites into melted chocolate mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.

Spread batter evenly in baking pan and bake in middle of oven until puffed and top is dry to the touch, 15 to 18 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack. Cover top with 2 layers of damp paper towlels and let stand 5 minutes, then remove towels and cool completely. Loosen edges with a sharp knife.

Sift about 1 tablespoon cocoa powder or splenda generously over the top of cake layer and overlap 2 layers of wax paper lengthwise over cake. Place a baking sheet over paper and invert cake onto it, gently peeling off wax paper lining. (Don’t worry if the cake layer breaks; it will hold together when rolled.)

Spread Lite whipped topping evenly over the cake. Put a long platter next to a long side of the cake. Using wax paper as an aid, roll up cake jelly roll-style, beginning with a long side. Carefully transfer, seam side down, to platter, using wax paper to help slide cake. The cake might crack but will still hold together.