OMG It's OMM!

(Oh My Goodies It's One Minute Muffin!)

This recipe is so simple and has been around for so long that it's been tweaked twelve ways to Sunday and I have to confess that I do not know who created this recipe first. How I wish I was the person who woke up one day, sat up and exclaimed, "By George I've got it! I will make a one minute muffin that doesn't use any flour at all and all low carbers will enjoy!" I seriously do.

When I got my flax meal (ground flax seeds) sample from FlaxAsia, I knew that the first thing I would make is the OMM. I had always wondered if the hype was worth it. So I made the recipe as is and I was blown away! It was delicious and looked, tasted and FELT just like a real muffin, like it was made with high carb ingredients. The texture is what I really loved.

When I made it again, I tweaked it a little bit to make it sweeter. Here's the original recipe with the italized text my tweaks.

One Minute Muffin
Ingredients
1/4 c flax meal
1 packet Splenda or equivalent sweetener *I used 3 packets because I wanted it to be a sweet muffin
1/2 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon *I added more, didn't measure though
1 beaten egg
1 T butter

Directions
1. Mix dry ingredients well. Add wet ingredients and mix everything well.
2. Pour into a microwave-friendly container. I just bought these cute shaped silicon muffin cups and I was able to make two "muffins" with just this recipe. Some people would use a square or circle-shaped container.
3. Microwave on high for a minute. Pop the muffin out of the container, don't worry it is quite sturdy and will not crumble.
4. Enjoy. I mixed cream cheese, Splenda and a little butter and put that on top. You can also just slather butter on top or plain cream cheese or sugar free jam (if you use SF jam it won't be Induction-friendly anymore).

Ready for some food porn?


Naked muffins... they taste just as good but why pass up an excuse for frosting?


Cute muffins


Look at that texture! It's very bready and sturdy and chewy!

LC Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Ever since I saw an episode of Barefoot Contessa in which Ina Garten makes these luscious looking peanut butter and jelly bars, I've been wanting to give it a try. However, the price for jellies here in the Philippines is ludicrous! And since I didn't grow up on PB&J sandwiches, I didn't really know what jelly flavor goes well with peanut butter.

I remember asking my husband this question and he suggested grape jelly. He said it makes the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We were able to find Smucker's concord grape jelly but I still wasn't able to make the recipe. Then I decided to go low carb. It seemed as if all hope was lost.

Until my awesome mother-in-law sent sugar free Smucker's concord grape jelly (in addition to all sorts of low carb goodies) and I just knew I had to try to convert this recipe to low carb.

Using the cookie recipe I made a few weeks before, I managed to recreate my own low carb PB&J bars. Hubby prefers jelly to be spread on top of the cookie after baking but I find that the jelly when baked with the cookie made it chewier. So it's up to you, really, however you prefer it. I didn't make the cookie batter too sweet because I expected the jelly to make up for it. For me the sweetness was just right.



Low Carb Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Ingredients
2 cups peanuts, finely ground (you can roast this beforehand but I used raw)
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened peanut butter
3/4 cup Splenda, granulated or whatever sweetener you prefer
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar free jelly

1. Mix the first six ingredients until well blended. Grease pan with butter. I used an 8"x8" pan.
2. Pour the cookie dough into the pan and press it down until evenly distributed.
3. Stir the jelly until spreadable and no longer gelatinous. Pour on top of peanut dough and spread evenly.
4. Bake at 350 degrees until the jelly bubbles up and the sides pull away. I would suggest baking it longer than that as the sides with its crispiness were my favorites. If you prefer chewier cookies, you can take it out as soon as the sides are brown.
5. Let cool and slice into squares. I sliced this into 16 squares but you can definitely make it smaller if you want.

No Bake ChocoNut Cheesecake

My hubby says this is the best cheesecake I've ever made. No pressure. It's not really my recipe as I just followed the no bake cheesecake on the Knox box. But I think the crust made this cheesecake even better.

No Bake Choconut Cheesecake

Ingredients
For Crust
1 1/2 cups of peanuts, if using raw roast first
1/2 cup Splenda, granulated
1/4 cup butter
2 oz dark chocolate
1 T butter

Directions
1. Grind peanuts until fine. Mix Splenda and butter. Pour onto prepared pie pan and gently push the crust mixture and until the bottom of the pan is covered. Place pan in freezer.
2. Chop dark chocolate and then put in microwave safe bowl with 1 T butter. Heat for 30 seconds, pausing every 10 seconds to swirl.
3. Take crust out of freezer. Pour the melted chocolate onto crust. Using a rubber spatula, spread the melted chocolate until the entire crust is covered thinly. Put back in freezer or fridge.

For Cheesecake Filling
2 8oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 cup Splenda, granulated
1 package Knox gelatin
1 cup boiling water

Directions
1. Beat cream cheese with vanilla until there are no lumps and cream cheese is smooth.
2. Mix Splenda and gelatin in a bowl and then add boiling water. Stir to dissolve gelatin.
3. While beating the cream cheese and vanilla, pour the gelatin mixture gradually. Mix for a few seconds.
4. Take crust out of the fridge and pour the filling in. Let set in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Since I had some sugar free toffee squares, I chopped them up and just sprinkled over the crust before pouring the filling. Although it gave a nice crunch, the cheesecake doesn't really need it since the crust is so good.

As you can probably tell this is not for an every day treat. Make it for a special occasion and invite people so you don't eat the whole thing by yourself.

Let's Eat Out Tonight!

One thing that scared me about doing low carb was eating out. My hubby and I love going out for dinner (and lunch and snacks and basically anytime we don't feel like cooking)and this scenario gave me the heebie-jeebies:

Waiter: So what will it be?
Me: (Peruses the menu) Hmmm... Are the chicken wings battered before deep frying?
Waiter: (Looks bewildered) What do you mean... battered?
Me: Dipped in some flour-egg thingy before frying.
Waiter: (Scratches head) I think so...
Me: (Sighs) Alright... Does the chopsuey sauce have cornstarch in it?
Waiter: (Looks even more bewildered) Yeeesss...
Me: (Sighs again) Can I get the Texas Rib that has NOT been marinated?
Waiter: (Gets a little angry now) They're ALL marinated...
Me: (Resigns) I want something that has NO starch, NO sugar and LOW CARB!
Hubby: (Imitates the great Marjorie Dawes) How about dust? Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? (Watch here)

But after venturing out into the world of high low carb eating a few times, I now have peace of mind. It is easy to make safe, delicious choices. I'm lucky to live in the seafood capital of the country because there IS always something that I can eat that's not dripping in sauce or drowned in gravy.

My favorite restaurant for low carb eating is Coco Veranda, a bar and grill restaurant right on the beach. The view is great and service is excellent. Here's what I ordered at a recent visit there (forgive the pics, taken with iPhone)



Steak (skip the side dishes or give it to hubby)


Lechon Kawali (Deep Fried Pork)


Shrimp Kinilaw (Ceviche)


Boneless Bangus (Milkfish) stuffed with onions and tomato, wrapped in cabbage and cooked in coconut milk

So don't be afraid to eat out. There's something quite liberating about finding a restaurant that caters to your LC WOE. Just remember to ask the right questions, don't be embarrassed or feel like you're being a pain in the you-know-what. This is your WOE. You have every right to know what's in the food you're going to put in your mouth. Most of all, you're paying, so you better get what you want.

Happy (LC) eating!

What do you think about the new layout? Is it too obvious that I love pink?

Burger Love Affair

If there's one thing I crave a lot since going low carb, it's burgers. I find myself just constantly thinking and drooling over burgers.

Luckily, my hubby makes the most awesome burgers. All he does is make patties out of pure ground beef (half a cup per patty) and then fry in a pan with no oil (the beef is pretty fatty) with a sprinkling of salt.

Trust me. This is so good and so simple. So he makes six to eight patties at a time with 1 lb of ground beef and we keep them in the fridge. Then when I want to have one I reheat it with some butter and top it with a whole lotta stuff.


Bacon Mushroom Melt
With sautéed onions and mushrooms, bacon and cheese


DOUBLE Bacon Cheeseburger
Two patties with bacon and cheese


BLT + OC
Bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and cheese


Pizza Burger
Tomato paste, Italian seasoning, tomato, onion, olives and cheddar cheese

"I-Can't-Believe-This-Isn't-Cheating" Cream Cheese Balls

You might think I'm exagerrating but I'm not. Whenever one of these cream cheese balls touch my lips, my brain sends out an alarm: CHEATING! CHEATING! CHEATING! But I, of course, know that the nerve endings in my brain are just spazzing out from the deliciousness that my tongue is experiencing.

I first met these balls whilst reading a thread on LCF about what to do with 18 blocks of cream cheese. Since my hubby hoardes Philly cream cheese blocks like it's going out of style (but seriously, we don't find them so easily in our neck of the woods so hoarding is a great idea, moreso because of this recipe). “didi” posted,“Keto Balls! They can live in the freezer.” Followed by the link to the recipe.

Now... Keto balls sounded... vile, like something you'd find living in the socks you wore to the gym once and forgot to throw into the washer because it managed to crawl BY ITSELF under the bed only to be found when you were looking for your flip flops. It sounded nasty and gross. But since I like living on the edge, I clicked the link. And boy was I happy to be the adventurous clicker that I am. Because this recipe is anything but vile or nasty or gross. It is divine and easy and oh-so-good you'd forget, your brain will actually forget, that it's LEGAL.

You may find the original recipe here. The one below is a double batch and with a minor tweak.


See the lovely flecks of green from the pistachios?

Ingredients

Cream cheese, 2 (8 oz) blocks
Unsalted butter, 2 sticks or 1 cup
Splenda, 1 cup
Nuts of your choice (I used ½ cup of pistachios)

1.Make sure the cream cheese and butter are at room temperature. This will make it easier to mix. With an electric mixer, blend the cream cheese and butter well. Add the Splenda and mix some more.
2.For the nuts, I chose to incorporate them into the mixture rather than cover the balls. I only had ½ cup of pistachios that I crumbled and crushed into smaller bits, not powdery though. I gently folded the nuts into the mixture.
3.Refrigerate for at least an hour.
4.Scoop the mixture onto a cookie sheet lined with cling wrap or parchment paper. I used my small ice cream scooper which can hold 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon. Then I stuck toothpicks into the little balls before putting the cookie sheet into the freezer. You can certainly roll after scooping, but I didn't want to deal with the mess. I made about 30 balls with this batch.
5.After freezing, transfer the cream cheese balls into a covered container and keep in the freezer.

Just a couple of notes: I have recently gotten sensitive to sweeteners and the 1 cup of Splenda used here is too sweet for me. Next time I will use less Splenda, maybe start with half a cup and take it from there. Second, make sure you use UNsalted butter so that the flavor of the cream cheese remains the star of the show. Third, with the nuts this is obviously NOT for Induction but you can just omit the nuts and I bet it will still taste good and you'd feel like you're cheating. Lastly, didi is right. These will live in the freezer... but not for too long. I have to constantly remind myself that I can only have one ball a day. So thanks to didi for linking this and to MandyM for posting the recipe on LCF.

Summery Vegetable Salad

Pretend you're me and it's a rainy Sunday afternoon so you left the confines of your bedroom for the first time since you woke up to rustle up a meal. You open the refrigerator door, one hand on your cocked hip, give the contents a once over then close the refrigerator door. You do this two more times before letting out a big dramatic sigh that implied, “Okay, I give up! The contents of the fridge won't magically change every time I open it, so I'll just make a summer vegetable salad (even though it's raining)!” So you gather all the ingredients and proceed to make the following salad.

Ingredients

Vegetables**
Broccoli
Sweet bell peppers
Cucumber
Onion (optional)

Meat**
Chicken breasts, cooked
Bacon strips, fried til crispy

Dressing
Mayo, 3 to 5 tablespoons
Lemon juice from one lemon
Splenda, 1 packet
Salt and black pepper

**Basically anything in your fridge that you need to use up before it gets too squishy**

1.Prep the veggies. Since you're me, you steamed the broccoli until they were a little soft, but not too soft, crisp tender is the term you're looking for. Slice the bell peppers and cucumber into thin rings. See the remaining half of the onion you used to make something you forgot about a couple of days ago? Dice it up.
2.Prep the meat. Roughly chop the left over chicken breasts that your hubby fried for dinner two nights ago. Crumble up some of that bacon, too.
3.Make the dressing. Add all the ingredients you THINK make up a decent dressing and mix them all up, making sure you dip your pinky in a few times to gauge the taste. Add salt and pepper if you must.
4.Toss the salad. Put everything in a big bowl and armed with two plastic ladles, toss the vegetables, meat and dressing until everything is lightly coated with the dressing. Refrigerate until serving.
5.Serve to sick hubby.
6.Accept compliments.

Now stop pretending to be me and you make this salad.

Low Carb Philly Cheese Steak Pizza

There are a lot of things I missed when I started doing low carb. But then I started reading an amazing blog by an equally amazing woman. There I found recipes upon recipes of the things I thought I could never have again. One of them was pizza. I was so glad that pizza hadn't gotten on that bus and left me standing by the highway in a swirl of dust. Cleochatra's Cauliflower Pizza Crust looks just like the real thing. She even turned them into bread sticks! Bread sticks!!!

So when my hubby insisted to have pizza for the nth time, we decided to look for cauliflower. Alas, the poor quality produce that Gaisano Mall's grocery provided left us empty handed. Weeks passed with still no cauliflower and I thought pizza had really gotten on that bus.

Then another recipe made our pizza dream come true. The recipe can be found in a thread at LowCarbFriends.com and was thought up by NancyElle.




We used 2 cups mozarella cheese and 1 cup cheddar cheese. We had trouble flipping the pizza because it stuck to the tin foil. Next time we'll just bake it on the cookie sheet, no more foil.

For the toppings, hubby made cheese steak by cooking sliced beef tenderloin, onions and sliced bell peppers until everything was cooked. He seasoned with salt and garlic powder.

After the crust baked, I spread cream cheese on top and then distributed the cheese steak topping evenly over it. Shredded mozarella was sprinkled on top and we turned on the broiler and left the pizza under it until the cheese melted.

This was really as amazing as we imagined it to be. Depending on how you slice it, you can get up to 12 servings. I used a cookie sheet so the pizza was rectangular. This is quite filling too.

And before I go to sleep tonight, I will open our refrigerator door and peek inside just to check if the pizza is there. Just to be sure it's not going anywhere near that bus.

Next in line... bread sticks!!!

Peruvian Style Beef Steak

What do you do when you text your beloved husband what he wants to do for dinner and he replies, "It's up to you, honey!"? I type the only thing I can think of that's not frozen into Google and look for a recipe. So I typed beef tenderloin and got lots of results. I settled on a version of Peruvian beef steak but of course, I did it my way. I added bacon because well bacon makes everything better!

This was really interesting because it reminded me of the Tagalog Bistek, which I love. The vinegar replaces the kalamansi juice and makes it a tad sweet. I didn't mind the sweetness factor; it was just unexpected. This would be great with cauliflower rice but I just had it by itself. I only had four pieces but it's quite filling.

Peruvian Style Beef Steak
*Adapted from this recipe. Serves 4-6.

600 grams beef tenderloin, sliced into serving pieces

3/4 c white vinegar

3 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 stick butter, more as needed

1 onion, sliced thinly

2 small tomatoes, seeded and sliced thinly

3 strips bacon

1/4 t cayenne pepper, optional

salt and pepper



1. Mix soy sauce and vinegar in a bowl. Marinate the beef pieces for at least an hour.

2. Cook bacon until slightly crispy. Remove from pan, cut into 1/2 inch strips and set aside.

3. Add a little bit of butter into the pan. Fry the beef pieces until browned and cooked. Reserve the marinade. Set aside the beef pieces.

4. Add more butter as needed into the pan, saute the onions until translucent. Add the tomatoes. When the tomatoes are soft, add the bacon strips. Saute until bacon is heated through. Add the beef pieces.

5. Once the beef is heated through, pour the marinade into the pan. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper, if using. Let it reduce uncovered.

6. Serve.

Chicken Wings

Not too long ago there was a thread on LowCarbFriends that introduced me to the awesomeness that is chicken wings. Unable to control my craving for something I have never made before, I urged my hubby to buy some chicken wings so we can make our own.

Now my hubby loves BBQ sauce but unfortunately for me I wasn't able to find a low carb recipe (I have found one since then that I'm going to try next time)so he made his own high carb BBQ and I just mixed a tablespoon of Emeril's Creole Seasoning mix and some Splenda into soy sauce and dipped the deep fried chicken wings right after they got out of the fryer. My chicken wings did not look as good as his but they tasted great (his tasted awesome but they're PURE EVIL!) and I will gladly make them again. YUM!

Full Day

Today was my first full day with no rice or bread or any refined sugars. For breakfast I had scrambled 3 eggs and put 2 tablespoons of cream cheese in while it cooked. It was delicious! And I had leftover veggie dish from last night.
For dinner my hubby made beef stew with lots of vegetables like corn, peas, string beans, carrots, onions and tomatoes. It also had potatoes but I didn't eat any of it.
I felt fine all day, a little tired in the afternoon. It also doesn't help that my knee and right leg in general still hurts when I walk too much.
All in all I would call this day a success. Woo-to-the-hoo!