Strategies for Christmas

[viviennem]

WhitbyJet, do you have a recipe for cheese straws? my weakness and my downfall

And would you substitute almond flour for conventional flour in savoury recipes?

For the calorie-counters amongst us - a standard supermarket-type sausage roll has 100 calories an inch :shock: . For some reason I've always remembered that fact, from Slimming Club many years ago - yet another failed weight loss attempt :roll: :lol:

Viv 8)

 

[WhitbyJet]

Viviennem - yes I use almond flour for sweet and savoury recipes, sometimes a mix wqith coconut flour or ground flaxseed, it depends what I am baking.
For example the crust for the low carb quiche is wonderful for a steak pie!! Although I only put the pastry on top. The pie doesnt tast of marzipan either, dont worry :lol:

 

[chocoholicnomore]

Thanks for the advice Whitbyjet. I am drooling reading your post :lol:

Do you have recipes for those lovely sounding home made choccies and turkish delight? I would really like to try making them for Christmas.

While reading your posts about types of flour, I wondered if you could give me advice as you sound an expert in home cooking and baking. I usually bake basic things like sponge cakes, fairy cakes, fruit scones, apple pies, doughnuts to name a few. I thought now that I am diabetic I would have to give them all up. Is it just a matter of swapping the type of flour used and using sugar substitute or is it not as simple as that?

Thanks for any advice

Marina

 

[WhitbyJet]

chocoholicnomore - WHOA, hold on, yes you can bake lots of goodies replacing sugar with sweetener, flour with almond flour or coconut flour or a mixture of them, but best not every single day.
Anyway, here are truffle recipes, they are very easy to do, also have a look in the thread Chocolate Paradise
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=23840&hilit=paradise

Marzipan truffles with chocolate coating

500 g ground almonds

250 g Zsweet or to taste/or use your preferreed choice of sweetener

2 egg whites

few drops of lemon juice

vanilla if liked

dark chocolate (at least 70%) to cover

Mix together almonds and sweetener, add egg whites, one at a time, add lemon juice. Please note you might not need the second egg white, maybe you only need half of it, you want a firm paste.Knead the paste well. It may seem a little too dry to begin with, but it soon will aoften.

Let the paste cool a little, then shape into balls. Melt dark chocolate in a bowl placed over a pan with just slightly simmering water, dont overheat! Use toothpicks to dip marzipan balls into the melted chocolate. .
Leave to cool until rhw chocolate is completely set.
http://lchf-bloggen.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... trekk.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hazelnut Chocolate

200 g dark chocolate (at least 70%)

50 g butter

1 cup cream

2 cups hazelnuts

Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl placed over a pan of slightly simmering water.. Stir in the cream until you get a smooth paste.

Add the hazelnuts and pour it all onto a tray or tin lined with baking parchment. Put in the fridge until the next day.
Cut chocolate into cubes, store in a cool place.

http://lchf-bloggen.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... ----------

Orange Truffles
(you can use other flavours instead of orange, use coffee or cognac, whiskey, any liqueur, cinnamon or even chilli)

200 g dark chocolate (at least 70%)

1 cup whipping cream

finely ground rind from 1/2 or one orange

sweetener of your choice

cocoa powder

Heat the cream and chop the chocolate, add the chocolate to the cream, do not overheat, stir until you have a very smooth mixture, there you are, you have now made ganache.

Grate the peel from an orange. Make sure you only grate the orange. If you get some of the whites you will get an unpleasant bitter taste that you do not want in your truffles. Add orange peel to the chocolate mixture and stir well. Place mixture in refrigerator for a couple hours.

Roll small balls of chocolate mixture and and then roll balls in cocoa powder. This is a really messy job (you are warned). Store covered in a cool, dry place.

http://lchf-bloggen.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... rfler.html


As for cakes, you can make muffins, spnonge cakes and ogher goodies by using almond flour, but not doughnuts, you can make cheesecakes, etc, there is no reason to miss out on sweet treats.

Bear in mind that these goodies are meant as treats only, they are low carb, but you need good allr round nutrition, meat, poultry, fish, vegetaboles, eggs, berries, cheese, some dairy products, nuts.

Eating sweet treats every single day wont re-educate a sweet tooth.

 

[WhitbyJet]

viviennem - for you:

Cheese straws low carb version

60g parmesan, finely grated
60g grated almonds
45g cold butter diced
salt and freshly ground pepper
you can add 2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary, or caraway seeds, or paprika powder, or chilli powder or freshly ground black pepper, whatever you fancy

Preheatg oven to 200 degrees

Mix all ingredients together quickly, shape into q dough ball, leave for 30 mins in the fridge to cool.

Then rooll out dough to about 1 / 4 inch thickness and cut out with cookie cutter or with a knife to cut strips/straws.
Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

 

[Serena51]

whitby jet - I am an avid fan of your great recipes but can I ask that you post them in the recipe section as well, I think newbies would love them but they might miss out otherwise.

I hope you won't think I am speaking out of turn, keep 'em coming....

Jane

 

[WhitbyJet]

Serena - I have copied the recipes into the low carb section, viviennem suggested this thread could be made into a stickie, maybe it should also be in the low carb section?

Btw - if anyone is clicking through the links in my posts and spots a recipe/photo that appeals, I am happy to translate, send a PM.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

My strategy for Xmas is the same as usual.





To spend as little time as possible at the mother in laws :wink:

 

[WhitbyJet]

:lol: :lol: Sid Bonkers, she cant be that bad, can she? Hope you have a wonderful time anyway x

 

[storm]

I usually try to escape relatives by keeping my blood alcohol level at 90% proof

Guess i cant do that anymore

 

[Grazer]

I usually try to escape relatives by keeping my blood alcohol level at 90% proof

Guess i cant do that anymore

Because? I will!

 

[Terminator 2]

My strategy for Christmas Day? same as but smaller portions, ditto for New Years Day.

I usually try to escape relatives by keeping my blood alcohol level at 90% proof

Guess i cant do that anymore

I'll have a tipple or two for you

 

[daisy1]

Easy for me, I'll be working.

My sister used to be a nurse in a big London hospital. She always volunteered to work on Christmas day as it was so much fun in the childrens' ward - she found it was the best day of the year. She was much appreciated by others who preferred not to work that day. This was before she had a family.

As for me, I have two days off for Christmas, being a bit careful but not too much and being a little careful with the portions, so as not to do too much damage, without testing so as not to spoil it, and one day for New Year. Soon after comes my birthday so I do the same. Unfortunately, I have to have my HbA1c soon after Christmas

 

[viviennem]

I've organised my HbA1c for just before Christmas, Daisy - though it would be interesting to see what the holiday does to it. I'm not going to go mad, but I shall have a few treats, as stated above.

I shall even have a Toblerone - but I'll have a miniature rather than a giant size, and eat one triangle each day.

Viv 8)

 

[daisy1]

Unfortunately I can't choose the dates of my HbA1c tests. It does help me to keep my eating reasonably under control during these tempting moments though :thumbup:

 

[clearviews]

Left behind the Northern Hemisphere 40 years ago. For a while my mother continued to cook Christmas Dinners as we were used to. Then one year she said that it was ridiculous heating up the house on a scorching hot day and the weather made us less inclined to sit down to a roast. Always an adventurous cook she made a cold Indonesian fish platter with cold roast pork and turkey and salads.
I will be endeavouring to serve a feast of seafood selections from our local area with oysters, prawns and lobster. Likely to have a joint of pork and a ham. My veggie garden is already bursting with salad veggies and I have picked the first cherry tomatoes already. I can make a delicious low carb trifle using diet jelly, an almond meal cake replaces the sponge, plus macarpone cheese and some of my home grown mulberries I have frozen plus there are strawberries, raspberries and blueberries coming on.

Some icy cold low carb beers and a crisp low carb white wine to offer visitors and neighbours, a walk along the beach with two dogs to see what the recreational fisherpersons are bringing in or take our kayak out for a paddle. Our hot tub will be turned down to cool so we could have an envigorating dip there if we feel like it.
Don't feel the need to buy in anything I normally don't eat because it is Christmas as there are so many superb options for a trully stuning table of treats that do no harm.
Bring it on!!

 

[Grazer]

I really want some mince pies. I've got a great low carb pastry now (using soya) but what do I use for a low carb filling? Help! Please!

 

[viviennem]

It's possible to make your own mincemeat, though I've never done it. Try the BBC recipe section - or just google Christmas mincemeat. You'll still have the carbs from the dried fruit, but you can use (eg) granulated Splenda instead of sugar.

Another way is to get a jar of shop mincemeat, and use it half-and-half with chopped apple. Or even chopped apple with the home-made.

You can also put a good slug of brandy in if you make your own!

I'll bet WhitbyJet has a low-carb mincemeat recipe :wink: I'll have a look around too.

Viv 8)

 

[WhitbyJet]

As viviennm already said, you can make your own mincemeat just not using the sugar, you dont have to worry about suet, its 0 carbs. You can buy a lower carb mince meat from Avidlite, it still has 54g carbs per 100g, but you dont use that for just one mince pie.
Make up a lovely pastry with almond flour, as per the quiche recipes, and you will have a lowish carb mince pie, only need pastrry for the bottom, dont need a lid, just top with a decent dollop of brandy cream.
Or buy ready made pies, check the labels some have less carbs than others, take off the lid and replace with brandy cream.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

I really want some mince pies. I've got a great low carb pastry now (using soya) but what do I use for a low carb filling? Help! Please!

I had a mince pie yesterday Grazer lovely it was :thumbup:

No idea what it did to my bg levels as I didnt test it, but I dont think one mince pie a couple of times a year is going to do any lasting damage is it.