Lemon Coconut Cookies

I've been trying to find ways to incorporate lemon into the cashew cookie recipe I've been experimenting with. So one day I just Googled Lemon Cashew Cookies. There were many results but my interest was piqued by the one from joyfulabode.com. The problem was it was a raw recipe and I do not have the patience to wait eight hours to have my cookie. I can barely wait for it to cool before tasting.

So I had to adapt it to my cashew cookie template. It took awhile before I had all the ingredients and since I'm doing NaNoWriMo (to find out more check out my blog, Excuse To Be Crazy For 30 Days) I told myself that if I reached 20 thousand words by tonight, I would make the cookies. I did so I did.

First of all, these cookies smelled really really good. Like macaroons. And they tasted really really REALLY good. I'm pretty proud of them. They might not be as low carb (I didn't do the carb count, sorry!) but it has no flour and sugar and it tastes like a real cookie and that's good enough for me. I even asked our turkey, Percival to report on how good these cookies are. Come in, Percival!

Percival the Turkey: What am I supposed to say?

Me: Tell them how good the cookies smelled while baking.

Percival the Turkey: The cookies smelled REALLY good while baking.

Me: That was convincing.

Percival the Turkey: You're welcome.

 

Lemon Coconut Cookies

(Adapted from this recipe at joyfulabode.com)

Ingredients

100 grams cashews

Scant cup of dessicated coconut *

4 Tablespoons Splenda, granulated **

10 scoops Stevia powder ***

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Juice of one lemon

1 egg

dash of vanilla extract

Ingredient notes:

*Basically, I poured the cashews into a one cup measure and took note of how much it was. Then I just used the same amount of coconut.

** and *** My cookies turned out really sweet, which I like. My suggestion would be to add a little bit of sweetener of your choice and taste the dough BEFORE adding the egg.

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Using a food processor or a hand blender, grind cashews and coconut together until coarse. In a mixing bowl, blend the cashew and coconut mixture with the sweeteners, baking powder, lemon juice and extract. Make sure that there are no lumps and everything is mixed in well. Taste. If it's not sweet enough, adjust your sweeteners.

3. Add the beaten egg into the mixture and stir until blended. Spoon mixture onto prepared cookie sheet. I divided the dough into 12 but you can make these smaller to get more cookies with lower carb count apiece.

4. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or until the edges are brown. Remove from oven and cool. Enjoy.

 

 

Crustless Peanut Butter Pie

The curse of living in the province is sometimes you don't find ingredients you need, or even like. Take for example, heavy whipping cream. I've been using the Nestle All-Purpose Cream for anything cream-related and while it's good, I still feel like I'm not really getting the good stuff. Like the ones I see on TV in cooking shows. So when I found Anchor whipping cream at the grocery, I begged The Hubby to buy it for me. I realized too late, meaning after getting home, that the cream was going to expire three days from getting it. Oh no!

So I looked for recipes online that will help me use up an entire liter of whipping cream. And I stumbled upon this Peanut Butter Pie recipe and I decided to make it today. I tweaked it a little bit and made it crustless and sugar free, of course. Where's the recipe you ask, well here it is:

Crustless Peanut Butter Pie

Original recipe here

Ingredients

2 (8 oz) cream cheese

1 1/2 Cup No Sugar Added Peanut Butter

1 1/2 Cup sweetener equivalent (I used all Splenda, granulated)

1 1/2 Cup Whipping cream

2 oz Chocolate bar of your choice (I used 85% Cocoa)

Directions

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the first three ingredients until well incorporated. I don't know if it was because  the peanut butter didn't have a lot of oil but this was really crumbly and dry.

2. In a separate bowl, whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. once mixed well and there are no more white streaks from the cream, pour into a pie plate. I used a square glass dish, probably 8 x 8 inches big. Spread evenly.

3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 10-second increments. You can use a fork to drizzle over the pie or put the melted chocolate in a sandwich bag, snip the end and drizzle.

4. This is the hardest part. Chill the pie in the fridge for at least four hours. Hard, I know. But it's worth the wait. Slice and serve. Enjoy.

11/08/10

Flax bread with butter (and SF jam) and lemonade

 

 

Fried Chicken with BBQ sauce and sliced cucumber drenched in sour cream and onion Pepsi Max

Cucumber Sandwich

I've been jonesing for a cucumber sandwich for a while now and when the Top Chef Just Desserts episode last week was about tea parties, I knew it was fate.

So I made flax bread, this time using the focaccia-style recipe from about.com which you can find here. This is the second time I made this recipe. The first time didn't really turn out well because I added other herbs and parmesan cheese to the recipe. It made the  bread taste fishy. I know, that's weird, right?

But this time, I stuck to the recipe. It turned out great.

For the cucumber sandwich, I simply sliced cucumbers thinly and let it dry on paper towels. Then I spread butter on one slice of bread, spread  and then I mixed softened cream cheese with a bit of cour cream and onion powder. I spread that mixture over both slices of bread. Then I layered the cucumber slices. I made probably three layers.

It was just as I imagined it to be. Very refreshing, very light and fresh. I felt like a lady.

11/07/10

Cucumber sandwich on flax bread with Crystal Lite Raspberry Iced Tea

 

Dinner from Andok's Chicken: Four sticks Pork BBQ, Pork sinigang, Chopsuey and Half a wing of fried chicken

Accountability

I fell off the wagon. It was slow at first, a bite here, a chip there. I'll have just a bit of rice. Some corn chips won't hurt me. But it gradually snowballed until yesterday for my nephew's tenth month birthday, I had two servings of noodles, two slices of cake and ice cream. I was consciously cheating. It wasn't mindless. It wasn't me alone in a dark room surrounded by high carb foods and the voices in my head telling me to eat, eat eat. I was with my family, socializing and destroying the healthy eating I had done for months before.

October was really bad for me. It was my birthday and we went on a trip. It was a one-week cheat that turned into a whole month of conscious cheating. I don't know why I did it. I am not sure. Maybe I thought five months of being good deserved a treat, a reward. But my reward should be that my jeans are sliding off and my tummy is flat. I was noticeably irritable, too and always napping. The signs were there but I ignored them.

It stops today. Today is another day and I will take it one day at a time. It won't be easy to wean myself off of the carbs I consumed yesterday but I will try. For accountability, I would take pictures of everything I eat. This way I can keep a visual food diary and review my day. This way it won't be conscious cheating that I forget after a few minutes. I would have proof that I can keep going back to.

Wish me luck. Again.

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwich

 

Happy National Sandwich Day!

I just saw this trending on Twitter and I'm reading a book by Sarah Addison Allen called "The Sugar Queen" where one of the characters bought a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. Since I read that the sandwich has haunted me. All I can think about is this sandwich! What would it taste like? How's the texture gonna be like? I figured the author just made this up but apparently it exists and even Rachael Ray had a version of it. So I decided to take this on because it sounded good and because I really want to and it's National Sandwich Day! I may be a day late but who's counting?

So I doubled the OMM recipe and used American sliced cheese and fresh tomato. Cooked it the way I would a grilled cheese sandwich. It's really nice. The tomato gives it a nice refreshing taste. I probably should've used more cheese or a more matured cheese like colby or cheddar but I was too lazy to slice them. Still yummy though. :)

How many times have I mentioned sandwich in this entry?