Low Carb Christmas Cookies - A HUGE Success woohoo!

'Tis the season to be baking,
         yum yum yum yum yum, yum yum yum yum!!!

To add to the fun I have already been having during this pregnancy (I havn't been a very good incubator), I was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes. There goes my traditional holiday baking....all my recipes are out, and I've asked my relatives who usually send me some of my favorite homemade Christmas treats to please refrain from doing so this year.

Seeing as how I am a very festive person and Christmas is my favorite time of year, I had to make the best of this situation and compromise.

So I started pouring over websites, low carb recipe books, talking to local nutritionists, and asking friends for pointers, and I came up with a list of about 6 potential low carb cookie candidates. I made 4 out of the 6 - 3 were a huge success (almost as good as 'the real thing'), 1 (low carb shortbread) was a total flop and ended up in the garbage (I couldn't even stand the smell of the latter recipe). I HAD to have shortbreads, though, one of my absolute faves growing up.....I have enough will power in me to abstain from eating them (especially with my delicious low carb options), and who am I to deprive my little girl of one of my fondest memories as a child....making shortbreads with my mom....so I made the real thing.

I apologize for the lack of pics, I usually like to show my recipes step by step, but I was in a baking frenzy, and at 33 weeks gestation I was lucky to be able to get my baking done let alone stop and take photos along the way. Thank goodness I have my mom here to help me!! Mom's are the best!! Here are the recipes:

Recipe #1 : Low Carb Chocolate Chip Cookies (I would definately repeat this recipe)

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups Splenda
1-1/2 teaspoons dark molasses
2 large eggs
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup vanilla whey protein powder
1/4 cup oat bran
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces sugar free chocolate bar, chopped into small pieces (I used 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips - they're actually not that bad carb wise, and 1 1/2 cups is far less than 12 ounces)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I prefer walnuts)
~3/4 cup soy flour*

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a non-stick baking mat.
Beat together butter, Splenda, and molasses until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, stir together ground almonds, vanilla whey protein powder, oat bran, baking soda and salt.
Stir almond flour mixture into butter mixture until blended.
Stir in nuts and chopped chocolate bars.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto preparted baking sheets (I semi form into balls and drop by hand).
Flatten with palm of hand (I don't do this).
Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden.
Allow to cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet then remove to wire racks to cool (I cooled them on the baking sheet for about 15 minutes then placed them in a cookie can).

*Having alot of past experience with choc chip cookies, and after reading some of the comments on the website about this recipe, I know that if a choc chip cookie dough is too wet, the cookies will flatten out. I felt this dough was far to wet, so I added soy flour and kneaded the dough until I felt it was the right consistency and dryness.....I guage it by how much it sticks to your hand, and you should be able to somewhat form the dough into a crude ball and drop it onto the parchment without it sticking too much to your hand.

These are DELICIOUS, and  I don't even have to say "They are so worth the carbs!!"...I'm in heaven....onto the next successful attempt:


Recipe #2: Sugar Free Almond Spice Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups ground almonds
1/2 cup splenda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
Beat eggs and vanilla together in a separate bowl.
Add wet to dry ingredients. Knead with hands.
Form into 1 inch balls, then flatten with palm or thumb and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes at 325.
Store in airtight container or they will dry out.

This recipe has few ingredients, and is therefore simple (major positive in my book), AND it is SOOOO GOOD!! (and suagr FREE to boot)

Onto the 3rd successful recipe:

Recipe #3: Low Carb Brownies

Ingredients:

2⁄3 cup (160mL) all-purpose flour
2⁄3 cup (160mL) SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated
1⁄3 cup (80 mL) cocoa
1 tsp (5 mL) baking powder
1⁄4 tsp (1 mL) salt
1⁄3 cup (80 mL) soft margarine
2 eggs
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla
1⁄3 cup (80 mL) unsweetened applesauce
1⁄3 (80mL) cup chopped walnuts (optional - not optional for me!! The walnuts are so good in these)

•Combine SPLENDA® Granulated, flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside.
•In a mixer bowl, beat margarine eggs and vanilla for 1 minute.
Add applesauce and beat just until blended.
•Stir in flour mixture and nuts just until blended.
•Spread evenly in greased 8-inch (20 cm) square pan.
Bake at 350°F (180°C) for about 15 minutes or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean.
•Cool on rack
•Store in covered container in refrigerator (*This is a MUST, I didn't do this and they grew mold in just 2 days, hence their absence in the pic).

These were yummy too....shame I didn't refrigerate them

Last and least :(

Recipe #4: Low Carb Shortbread Cookies 

Ingredients:

1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour (I used soy flour, which may have been factor #1 that lead to my failure with this recipe)
1/2 cup (125 mL) unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup (60 mL) SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated
2 tsp (10 mL) finely grated lemon zest (I used lemon extract - potential factor #2 leading to failure)
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
2/3 cup (160 mL) unsalted butter, cool but not cold
•Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

•In a food processor, pulse flour, coconut, SPLENDA® Granulated, lemon zest and salt. Break butter into pieces and pulse until dough comes together (dough will be soft). Shape into a disc, wrap and chill for at least 2 hours. (I didn't do in food processor, which may have resulted in the coconut being too coarse, another one of the aspects I didn't like about how this recipe turned out - and potential factor #3)

•On a lightly floured surface, knead dough once or twice until pliable. Roll out to just shy of 1/4-inch (7 mm) thickness and cut out into 2-inch (5 cm) cookies of desired shape.

•Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, just until bottom edges start to colour. Cool cookies on baking tray before removing.

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days or a month frozen.

I tweaked this recipe quite a bit which may have led to my failure....perhaps I would try this recipe again, following the directions a little more closely next time.






I know many people prefer not to use artificial sweeteners, and I have used one in all of these recipes (sucralose is safe during pregnancy as it does not cross the placenta). So as a lower than white sugar carb alternative, one could refer to the glycemic index and choose a natural sugar alternative with a lower GI than white sugar. 


Well, that's all my baking for this year folks (except of course for my mandatory apricot cakes for my husband and my great uncle - refer to an earlier post)

Here's wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season......

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST IN 2011!!!!!

XOXOXOXO

Crispy Breaded Orange Chicken

 This is a recipe I took from a Weight Watchers book, and it is absolutely delicious!! My hubby and daughter loved it, I'll definately be doing this one again and again!

Ingredients:

4 skinless boneless chicken thighs (I did 5)
1 cup cracker crumbs
3 tbsp grated orange zest
2 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 small onion finely chopped (or 1 shallot)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper



Mix salt, orange juice, and dijon mustard in a small bowl

Mix onion, cracker crumbs, orange zest, and black pepper, and spread out on wax paper




Prepare a non stick pan with cooking spray

Organize an "assembly line"



Dip chicken thighs in  the mustard mixture coating all sides

Dredge chicken in cracker/orange mixture. Press into the mixture to make sure it sticks well. Coat all sides with cracker mixture and place in prepared pan



Bake at 350F for 20 minutes, turn chicken pieces over and continue baking until cooked through, or for another 20 minutes approximately

Prepare some side dishes. I prepared baked sweet potatoes and grilled zucchini and wax beans. This meal was DELICIOUS!!

Bon Appetit!



Now if I could only enjoy a nice glass of vino.....ummm......not much longer to go, only another 7 weeks or so til new babe arrives!!

Hearty, Warming Chicken and Peanut Soup

I'm not feeling so well these days, therefore bland foods (ie. not fried, low sodium, low spice) that are nutrient rich, have been my focus. There have been alot of boring, low in flavor, non-blogworthy baked lean meats with sides of plain steamed veggies and steamed rice, in our diet. My poor hubby has been pouring hot sauce over just about everything I cook lately trying to add some pizzaz and flavor to his plate. Oh well, at least this is a temporary situation....I don't think I can take much more of this myself!!

Moving on to this soup recipe...the veggies and peanuts give this soup heartiness and a beautiful flavor combination.

Ingredients:


1 skinless boneless chicken breast diced
1/2 turnip (or rutabaga) peeled & diced
1 parsnip sliced
2 carrotts sliced
1 onion diced
2 stalks of celery sliced

1 carton low sodium chicken broth
1cube McCormick Chicken Boullion

Water to top up periodically throughout cooking
1/2 cup raw unroasted peanuts (an afterthought, I felt the dish needed more protein, I won't do this again as the red color in the peanut skin darkened the chicken peices and the broth, which I thought looked rather unappealing)

Add chicken broth, water, and dry chicken stock to a large pot filling it to 2/3 full

Bring to a boil (taste and add more stock if too bland)

Add chicken pieces and let boil until cooked (about 10 minutes)

Add veggies and let boil over medium heat for 2-3 hours, add H2O as needed to top up.



There you have it, simple and delicious, my favorite combination ;)

Chicken Ball Soup

I'm concocting today. Still on a soup kick, I decided I wanted to try something a little different....I knew I wanted a clear broth soup, but I didn't feel like a heavy soup with alot of veggies, and boring chunks of meat, etc. so I decided to go with a chicken ball in a soup. Here's how it went...
Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
1 stalk celery
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1 egg
approx. 1/2 cup bread crumbs
white pepper
salt
dried parsley and basil
Knorr Chicken Stock
Rice Vermicelli


Puree chicken breasts, egg, onion, garlic, & celery in a food processor. Stir in white pepper, parsley, basil, and salt, and add bread crumbs to thicken enough so that mixture can be formed into balls.



Bring approx. 6 cups of water to a boil.

Form chicken mixture into balls and drop into boiling water. Reduce heat to med-high and let boil for approx. 15 minutes. Top up with boiling water if necessary.



Add 2 tbsp. Knorr chicken stock to the broth.



Break up vermicelli into shorter strands, boil in a separate pot until fully cooked, drain, place in bottom of bowl, and pour soup over top.




Serve and enjoy!!

This actually turned out to be very good. I may have added some sesame oil or soya sauce to the balls for a little added flavor, but I was going for something light and mild, and this recipe accomplished it! :)



Cheers!!

Zucchini Soup

I love fall. Walks outside in the crisp fresh air, admiring nature's color palette, knowing winter and with it the cozy feeling of being snowed in, curling up watching movies inside all day in your jammies, and days outside sliding, skating, building snowmen and snow forts, and having snowball fights are just around the corner.

I'm in the mood for a warm-you-up, healthy, quick, easy-to-make soup. My zucchini soup fits the bill perfectly. I love it because it's hot, delicious, and mild - the latter being very important to me lately as along with the 3rd trimester comes heartburn city...everything I eat, almost, gives me 10/10 heartburn. Oh well it's soooo worth it in the end!!

This recipe is ridiculously simple, and equally yummy.

Ingredients

7-8 medium sized zucchini diced
1 spanish onion chopped
1 carton low sodium chicken broth
Water as needed to increase volume
Dry chicken stock to taste (I try to use sparingly to reduce the sodium)
2 tbsp finely chopped basil (I skipped this today - yup, heartburn)
Shredded cheese (asiago, swiss or mozzarella work well)

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Throw everything into a pot




Boil for 20-30 minutes, top up with water as needed



Puree with an immersion blender, skim foam off top




Pour into a bowl, top with shredded cheese, and serve! Yep that's all folks. Ummmm! So good.



This soup is also delicious served cold in the summer!

Jig's Dinner - A Newfoundland Tradition

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all!!! Ummmm....this calls for some quality time in the kitchen, quality time with family and friends, and my traditional holiday dinner - Jig's Dinner!


Jig's dinner is a traditional meal still commonly served on Sundays and holidays in many regions around my home province of Newfoundland, and in the homes of Newfies abroad like myself!! :)

Jig's dinner is quite a large production, and is typically comprised of a combination of Roasted stuffed turkey or chicken, or roast beef, and boiled dinner.

I just love preparing Jig's Dinner. There's something about donning one of the many homemade aprons from my mom, being home working in the kitchen all day, following in the footsteps laid by my mother, grandmothers, great grandmothers etc. over the decades, enjoying quality time with my family, and enjoying the warm atmosphere of my home as the aromas of the turkey roasting in the oven and the jig's dinner on the stove fill the air. It warms the cockles of my heart and fills me with joy! :)

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Phase 1: Roasted Stuffed Turkey:

1 5-10 kg turkey (1 - 1 1/2 lbs per person)
1 chopped onion
2 McCormick's Chicken Boullion cubes
Salt and Pepper


Make Dressing: (referred to as stuffing by "mainlanders")

6+ cups of breadcrumbs (done in a food processor using old bread or rolls, I usually accumulate bread over the year by keeping the heels of loaves, and I use any unused burger and dog buns leftover from the summer bbq season)
1 large finely chopped onion
1 cup melted butter/margarine
Water as needed to moisten so that stuffing can just be formed into a ball with little crumbling
4-6 tbsp Savory*

*The savoury is unique to eastern Canada. In Newfoundland, it's grown at Mt. Scio farm in St. John's. Other farms on the east coast also grow it. I cannot find the same type of savoury anywhere outside the east coast (except at NF stores). I've purchased savoury in ON at supermarkets and at the Bulk Barn, but it doesn't have the same taste or texture as the east coast savoury at all, so I stock up on this whenever I go home, or else I have someone back east send me some in the mail :) thanks mom ;)

Spray a roasting pan with cooking spray (this will really help with the clean up later)



Sprinkle the chopped onions and crumbled boullion cubes around the outer perimeter of the pan



Remove the wrapping from the turkey and rinse the inside and outside of the turkey

Remove the bag of organ meats from the inside of the turkey (or it may be hidden under the pope's nose lol - I once forgot to look here for the sack, and cooked the turkey with it left in, it was pretty funny to find the little bag of organs left inside when I was carving the bird)

Place turkey in the pan

Stuff the turkey with the dressing, cover opening with a piece of foil tucking edges inside the opening

Bind the legs with twine

Sprinkle top of turkey with salt and black pepper

Add water to pan so that 1/4 - 1/3 of the turkey is submerged



Cover the roasting pan



Roast at 350F until a meat thermometer registers 180F in the breast

(Baste turkey and check water level periodically throughout cooking to ensure it doesn't go dry)

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Phase 2: Boiled Dinner:

Ingredients:

Salt Meat**
1 large head of cabbage quartered
2-3 turnips peeled and cut in semi-circles (I didn't do turnips today)
Carrots peeled (# as necessary)
Russett potatoes peeled (# as necessary)
Sweet potatoes (optional in addition to or instead of turnip - my husband hates turnip, my family loves it so I usually do both)
Turnip greens {the tops of the turnips-can be purchased frozen at NF stores, but we're out of luck if we want fresh turnip greens outside NF :( I couldn't get any for today}
Peas Pudding***
Lassy Duff**** (or blueberry duff) (optional - I did lassy duff today)

**Salt meat (pickled beef or salt riblets) can be purchased at Loblaws supermarkets. I commonly use the Naval beef which comes in a bucket of brine, and has a picture of NF on it








Condiments usually served with Jig's Dinner:
Sweet mustard pickles
Pickled Red Beets
Bread and Butter Pickles
Gerkin Pickles
Jellied Cranberry Sauce


Trim as much of the fat from the salt meat as possible


In a large boiler filled approx. halfway with water, boil the salt meat for an hour or so, then pour off about 2/3 of the water, top up with fresh water (to remove some but not all of the salt)

While desalting the salt meat, prepare peas pudding and duff.

***Peas Pudding

The night before, place approx. 1 1/2 cups of split yellow peas in room temp. water and let soak overnight. Transfer the soaked peas into a pudding bag (cheesecloth bag open at one end like a pillowcase). Tie top of bag tightly with string, leaving room in the bag for peas to expand. The pudding must cook with salt meat for approx. 4-6+ hours. The salt meat water infuses the pudding, and makes a BEAUTIFUL flavor.


****Lassy Duff

Ingredients:


1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp all spice
1 cup Crosby's Fancy Molasses




Mix by hand (do not use electric mixer for duff batter)

Dissolve 1 tsp baking soda in 1/2 cup HOT water

Add to ingredients and mix

Add 1/2 cup melted butter and mix





Add 3 cups flour and mix



Add 1 cup chopped dates and 1/4 cup raisins and mix



Transfer batter into a pudding bag and tie at the top with string leaving room for duff to expand.



Once the water has been changed on the salt meat, add the pudding bags and bring to a boil again, let boil for approx. 3 hours to give the puddings a head start as they take longer than the veggies to cook. Top up the pot with water as necessary....let the AROMA production begin UMMMMMMMM!!!!

Add carrots  and turnip to pot at least 90 minutes before turkey will be finished

Add cabbage and sweet potatoes about 45 minutes before turkey is ready


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TIME TO SERVE!!

When turkey is cooked, set on serving platter, remove foil that had been covering the dressing, place back in oven on low heat to keep warm while preparing the boiled dinner, cover with foil so it doesn't dry out

Make Gravy: Pour the drippings into a tall slender vessel and skim as much fat from the top as possible. Transfer into a sauce pan, bring to a boil, add 2-3 dashes of gravy browning, bring to a boil and thicken with flour thickener (in a container with a tight lid, add 1/2 cup cold water, 1/2 cup white all purpose flour, shake aggressively to ensure there are no lumps, pour gradually into boiling drippings stirring constantly until desired thickness is reached), reduce heat




Before thickening give gravy base a taste test, adding the thickener may dilute the flavor, so you may need to add some dry chicken stock for flavor (the gravy base should be quite flavorful because again, the thickener dilutes it a bit)

Remove boiler from stove (by now it shuld have been boiling for approx. 6 hours)

Fish out salt meat, and all vegetables and pudding bags, and place each in their own serving bowl/platter

Place cabbage in a collander sitting in a bowl and let drain. Chop the cabbage and place in a serving bowl

Mash turnip and sweet potato (not together) with butter, smooth with a spoon and sprinkle top with black pepper

Mash russett potatoes with butter and milk, then whip at high speed with mixer, smooth top over with a spoon for presentation

Peel back the peas pudding bag, dumping peas pudding into a bowl, mash peas and stir in approx. 1/3 cup of butter, smooth top with spoon and sprinkle with black pepper.




Peel back the lassy duff pudding bag taking care not to break the duff. Place the duff on a serving plate, and slice into 1/2" slices. The duff is not a dessert for most people, it is served on the dinner plate and eaten with gravy along with the meat and vegetables

Present the spread, and ENJOY!!!!




I hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!
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