Cake Roll by Low Carb Kitchen Productions

I like to post good recipes of others and good low carb sites when I find them.  I'd like to introduce another great low carb site that I've been getting some great recipes from.  It's called Low Carb Kitchen Productions. I love her video channel on YouTube as well.  I've been subscribed to her channel for some time and have enjoyed her videos. I just watched her do this recipe for a cake roll that looks pretty good.  I think I'm going to give it a try. The recipe is on her site, and here is the video...

Merry Christmas!

Sorry I have been absent on my blog posts lately.  Dealing with fatigue and just stuff that life brings.  But through all I'm thankful for the Christmas promise!  The promise that God would send His Son to come and bring salvation, and to those who receive that salvation that He would come again for them!  In my own life, that promise has gotten me through much and I always find joy this time of year in the hope it gives.

No new recipes to share today. But I want to share our new member of the family with you. We went to celebrate Christmas with my family in Wisconsin last weekend and brought home a new baby!  He's about 12 weeks old, and his name is Chester, and he's brought a lot of life into our home.  He's a beautiful little tabby.

He discovered the Christmas tree this morning

We lost our two beloved older cats this year, Patches our calico in April, and Goldie our 19 yr. old gold tabby in August.  Our house seemed empty without a cat.  I didn't think we'd get another since with no cats we discovered my husband's asthma also went away.  All those years it was the cats!  But my husband is a true cat lover and neither of us could resist taking Chester home with us last weekend when we saw him and cuddled with him for awhile as he sat on our shoulders purring.  He showed up on my nephew's patio door, meowing to come in and get warm.  They took him in but could not keep him because he did not get along with their cat who was terrorizing him.  Yes, my husband is again having allergy problems but I guess he thinks Chester is worth it.  We'll just have to find a way to deal with it I guess.  

So maybe soon I'll get back to "normal" and start doing some recipes.  Our Christmas dinner was roast beef, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, green beans and bacon, and a sugar free jello with raspberries.  I made cut out Christmas cookies for all but me, and rather than low carb them I made myself some peanut butter fudge and my mint chocolate chip cookies which hit the spot.  We had a quiet Christmas celebration with our three sons, remembering in our hearts the one who we lost 3 years ago who was not with us.  Life goes on, and His promise brings the reason to go on.  And He blesses us with new things to brighten our days.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a blessed New Year!

Ginny

Spiced Nuts

Found this video on YouTube for spiced nuts from the Food Network by Alton Brown.  I made them yesterday but used Brown Sugar Twin and Splenda for the sweetener, 1/4 tsp. of Cayenne pepper instead of 1/2 tsp. and upped the cinnamon to 1 tsp. cuz I love cinnamon.  I unfortunately burned mine! Watch carefully at the end because they can burn fast, but in spite of burning them they are still delicious!  I was munching on them today.  Very addicting!!!  I am going to make some more to take with this weekend when we visit family in Wisconsin for a Christmas party.

Christmas Cutout Cookies (not gluten free, sorry)

Since I can remember my Mom always made these for Christmas, and when I had my own children I of course made them for my family.  I would make up a tray for each of my 4 boys and lots of different color frostings and sprinkles for them to decorate them and we'd all have our own plate and lots of fun decorating as well.  It was one of my favorite Christmas traditions.  So then came diabetes and low carbing and I had to find a way to low carb my favorite cookies at Christmas, because it was tradition!  Now I have a new challenge... low carb and gluten free as well, which these are not I'm afraid.  I came up with this recipe last year and they turned out so good that all my family enjoyed them and you really could not tell they were not the real thing.  I made a chocolate frosting to go on them as well.  So I'm posting this recipe from last year for all you out there who are not worried about the gluten, but I'm going to have to either come up with a gluten free version this year or use the cookies to do some testing to see how allowing it back in my diet  affects me now.  Maybe it'll be a good time for a test! Ha!  If I do come up with a good gluten free version I'll let you know.


                    

* Exported from MasterCook *

                      Low Carb White Cutout Cookies

Recipe By     :Ginny Larsen
Serving Size  : 32  
Categories    : desserts

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
  1/4     cup  Splenda
  2        tablespoons  diabetisweet Sugar Substitute-White
  2        tablespoons  xylitol
  1/2     cup  shortening -- (or butter)
  1        egg
  1/2     cup  half and half -- (or kefir if you have it)
  1        teaspoon  baking powder
  1/2     teaspoon  salt
  1        teaspoon  vanilla
  1        cup  almond meal -- (blanched is best)
  1/4     cup  carbalose flour
  1/4     cup  wheat protein Isolate 5000
  1/4     cup  oat fiber
  1/4     cup  flax meal, Golden

Mix sweeteners, shortening, and egg and blend well with electric mixer.  Slowly add in half and half with baking powder, salt, and vanilla and mix well.

Add flours and mix with wooden spoon until it makes a stiff dough.

Refrigerate overnight or for several hours

Flour a surface for rolling out dough.  Roll out half of dough at a time, and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.  I just used regular flour for rolling my dough out.  It's such a small amount that I don't think it will be significant.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 10 min. or until done.  Don't let them get too brown.

Frost with chocolate butter frosting

                    
* Exported from MasterCook *

                   Sugar Free Chocolate Butter Frosting

Recipe By     :Ginny Larsen
Serving Size  : 38  
Categories    :

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
  2         ounces  unsweetened chocolate
  1/3      cup  butter -- softened
  1 1/2   teaspoons  vanilla
  2        tablespoons  cream
  1        cup  Splenda
  1/2     cup  diabetisweet Sugar Substitute-White
  1/2     cup  xylitol

To make powdered sugar: put sweeteners in a blender and blend on slow speed for a few seconds, stir around with table knife, blend, stir, etc. until it has the consistency of powdered sugar.

melt chocolate in the microwave, 30 seconds, and then stir, 15 seconds more until it is melted.

When cooled a bit, with an electric beater, beat together with butter.

Slowly add the powdered sweeteners, vanilla, and cream and beat until it is smooth and creamy.

This will frost about 38 christmas cookies, or a cake.

Description:
  "I usde a mix of sweeteners and powdered them in my blender to make this from a butter frosting recipe."
                                    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Servings: 37 Calories; 3g Fat (47.2% calories from fat); trace Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 5mg Cholesterol; 17mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fat.

NOTES : 0 net carbs per serving!





Description:
  "made from the same recipe handed down by my grandmother and mother, which I adapted to low carb"
                                    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving: 66 Calories; 5g Fat (59.6% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 7mg Cholesterol; 57mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

NOTES : 2 net carbs per cookie
with frosting, add 32 calories, but 0 carbs

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the first of Christmas Cookies I've made this year, and I hope to find more good ones to share.  This was inspired actually by a recipe on allrecipes.com.  It looked so good that I knew I had to find a way to low carb it!  It actually wasn't too hard to do.  So this recipe is low carb and gluten free.

                      

Low Carb Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Serving Size  : 16    

2         cups  almond meal, blanched

1/2      cup  Splenda -- granulated

1/2      teaspoon  baking soda

16       packets  Truvia (or 2/3 cup equivalent to sugar)

1/4      cup  butter -- softened

1         egg

1/2     teaspoon  mint extract

6        drops  green food coloring

5        squares  Lindt 85% Cocoa Bar -- chopped into small pieces

Mix almond meal, Splenda, Truvia and baking soda together in a medium bowl.   Mix in softened butter, egg, mint extract, food coloring, and stir and mix well until it forms a soft dough.  Stir in chopped chocolate bar.

Measure 1 TB. of dough, roll into a ball in your hand, and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Should make 16 balls.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  Let cool on pan.  Serve.

                                    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Per Serving: 110 Calories; 12g Fat (70.7% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 19mg Cholesterol; 74mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Fat.

NOTES : 2 grams useable carbs per cookie