Stellar Path

Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

In my quest to do a healthy low carb diet, I have been on the search for some good, tasty, and healthy low carb recipes. There are some great webpages out there, but one thing I have found across the board is that they frequently call for ingredients that I don’t have access to.

One common ingredient used in these recipes that I cannot purchase around here is almond flour.

I decided to make a simple substitution, and so far, the two things I have made with this simple substitution have been amazing.

I’ve been using flax seed meal, which has about 10 grams of net carb per cup. In addition, flax seed is an immensely healthy food, containing plenty of fiber, omega 3 fatty acids, and antioxidants. I just put my flax seed in a coffee grinder, grind it on the “fine” setting, and it makes a nice flour substitute. It gives a slightly nutty flavor that reminds me of wheat, but I enjoy wheat and nuts, so it’s a wonderful find for my current low carb diet.

I’ve made a few different things with it, and I’ll be posting recipes pretty regularly for the next few weeks. Some are modifications of other recipes I have found in cookbooks or online, and others were made entirely from scratch by Tina and me. Please enjoy!

My first recipe was made to combat my sweet tooth. I was craving cobbler, and that was what led me to come up with the idea to try flax seed meal as a flour substitute.  I had frozen blackberries on hand (picked locally, so they were 100% organic), which I placed in a 9″ baking dish that I had greased with butter.

I wanted to make the berries a little sweeter, so I sprinkled them with just a little bit of splenda.

In a measuring cup, I melted 1/2 cup of butter.  To this, I added 1/4 cup of splenda, 2 eggs, 1 cup of heavy cream, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  I blended this with a fork, and then I tossed in 1/2 cup of flax seed meal and mixed it together until it made a doughy-like consistency.

At this point, I dropped it on the blackberries in the baking dish.  I spread it as evenly as I could, which wasn’t that easy with the sticky consistency, but I was still able to completely cover the berries.

At this point, it went in the oven at 375 degrees for twenty-five minutes.  One thing to be aware of – it did not change color in the slightest as it was cooking.  I took a photo of it after I pulled it out of the oven when it was done, and it literally looked just like this photo of it raw.  I had planned to cook it for fifteen minutes, but it was still quite damp.  Twenty-five minutes seemed to be about right.

When done, I cut it into fourths, put it in a serving bowl, and topped it with whipped cream made with heavy cream and splenda.

The taste was amazing.  This was definitely a wonderfully sweet, fruity cobbler.  If you don’t like the flavor of wheat, you probably won’t like this, as the flax meal to me tasted like it had been made with wheat flour.  However, I like that taste, and it was amazing.  But even Tina, who hates wheat, said she thought the sweetness of the berries and the whipped cream made it taste really good.  She described it as more nutty than wheat-y, so I guess it’s somewhat up to interpretation.

Don’t be mistaken – this isn’t a fluffy, white flour cobbler like grandma makes.  However, for someone on a low carb diet, this thing was AWESOME.  It will definitely be made again.  Obviously, other fruit could be used in this.  I used blackberries because that’s what I had on hand, but I think I may try making some with blueberries, soon.  I think peaches would be great as well.

Total net carbs fora serving of the dessert, if you eat 1/4th of it, was about 4 grams.  To me, this was most definitely worth 4 grams.

Another recipe will be coming tomorrow.

I love to cook, but I have yet to post a single recipe on this blog.  That is changing, starting right now.  It is my goal at the moment to post a new recipe once a week, along with photos and our review.  I have to be honest.  I only want to post a recipe if it turns out incredible.  I made a vegan apple and banana pie the other night, which I’ll post about here in a few days, and while it was okay, I doubt I’ll make it again.  It just wasn’t amazing.

However, what I am going to post about today WAS amazing.

I’m calling them Turkey Shell Frittatas.

To make twelve of these frittatas, you will need:

12 thin slices of deli-style turkey meat

4 eggs

2 T. skim milk

Salsa

½ cup of shredded cheese

Any optional veggies, etc., you wish to add to them (I used baby spinach.)

To start with, take a cupcake pan and spray each cup with cooking spray.  Coat it good; these aren’t fun when they stick.  And while you are doing this, go ahead and turn the oven on to 350 and get it preheated.

Take a slice of turkey lunch meat, the thinner the better, and place it in each cup, kind of like a cupcake liner.

In a separate bowl, scramble your four eggs and season to taste.  I threw some milk in with mine so they wouldn’t be as tough after baking, but the milk is entirely at your discretion.  For spices, I went pretty simple – coarse ground salt and black pepper and some chives.

Place a teaspoon or so of salsa in the bottom of each turkey “shell.”  On top of the salsa, pour in about one and a half or so tablespoons of your egg mix.  Just try to distribute it evenly across all twelve turkey shells.  Add your optional veggies (I placed a single leaf of baby spinach in each of mine – I think a cherry tomato would be good in there, too) and then sprinkle a bit of cheese on top.

Bake for roughly ten minutes (or until the cheese is melted and the egg is cooked all the way through.)

Using a large spoon, scoop your turkey shells out, serve, and enjoy.

As far as our review… these were awesome!  I’ve made a lot of recipes, and a great number of them ended up with this review.  “Meh… it’s not bad… but I probably won’t make it again.”

Tina and I both decided, “We are definitely going to make this again.”

We made some of ours with Tomato Basil Chutney and Roasted Red Pepper instead of salsa.  I preferred the salsa; Tina slightly preferred the Roasted Red Pepper and wants me to mix it with the salsa next time.  Neither of us cared for the Tomato Basil Chutney.  It was far too sweat.

However, it was still amazingly good.  There may be only three on that plate, but we both ate six.

There are a lot of variations you could do with this, too.  You could use a different lunch meat (we’ll probably do ham next time), you could do just egg whites, etc.  It’s pretty versatile, really quick, and surprisingly good.