Chocolate Chip PB cookies. Low carb/THM style!

These cookies are just a quick tweak of my regular white flour choc chip recipe. They can easily be made dairy free using the palm shortening.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies  (S for THM)

2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1 T coconut flour
1/2 cup defatted peanut flour

2 sticks of butter (or 1 cup palm shortening for df)

3/4 cup Erythritol
Stevia to taste

1-2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Dark choc chips (i used about 1 cup for the whole batch)

Cream butter or palm shortening with Erythritol and Stevia. I used NOW brand extract... about 1/4 tsp. Just taste and see what works for you. 
Add eggs and vanilla and cream until light and fluffy. Mix all dry ingredients into the butter mixture, and then add chocolate chips. I like to refrigerate here for a bit to harden up that butter (if using) a bit, but if you are desperate for a cookie now, go ahead and make a dozen right away! 
 
Bake at 325 ish for 8 mins or until golden brown on the bottom. They will continue baking while cooling.

These will make approx 2 1/2 to 3 dozen cookies. 

This recipe is lower carb or an "S" dessert if you are following the Trim, Healthy, Mama Plan.....but I have not figured out the nutritional info for it yet. Leave me a comment if you do figure them out! 

Enjoy! 

3 years must be a record!

I havent blogged here in 3 years. Some things have not changed, and some have. I am almost sure I wont be consistently blogging again, but I am going to try!

I am looking forward to getting some posts back up to share. Soon.

Update on Homemade Soap

I gotta tell you, I am loving the homemade soap that I made with my friend, Kristi.  It really has made a difference in my skin! I can definitely tell that its improving the texture, look, and even clearing it up my skin a bit! I dont need to use anything else on my face, no moisturizer, nothing. I also ran out of soap the other day,while I was in the shower , I grabbed the baby's "natural" baby wash instead to use on my face, and it made my skin tight, itchy and red. Needless to say, I am using homemade soap on all the kids now, instead ;)

Gonna be making some more today and I am sooo excited!
Have a great day :)

Low Carb Noodless Lasagna

I tweaked a few recipes I found online and came up with this. Its really good. You dont even notice the noodles are missing. I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce last week as part of a bulk cooking session because I knew I wanted to make this. I also made one pan with noodles for my family the same night. Add a salad on the side and you have a great low carb meal!

So these pics were taken AFTER I dug into it, so not the best but I wanted you to see what it looks like as opposed to NOT having a picture LOL I made it into layers, just as I would regular lasagna. One layer of meat sauce, one of ricotta mixture.

Recipe: (makes an 8x8 pan)

Ricotta mixture:

15 oz carton of ricotta cheese
2 eggs
approx 4 oz of  mozzarella cheese

Mix all together and set aside.

Meat Sauce:

1lb of ground beef (I use grass fed sirloin)
whatever spaghetti sauce you use and however much you want LOL
Mix those together and put a layer on the bottom of your pan

Next layer with some of the ricotta mixture
and repeatt again with the meat sauce
Add the final layer of ricota and then add about 4 more oz of mozzerella and a bit of parmesan cheese to top it off.

Bake at 350 for about 40-50 mins and let cool a bit before serving. (I let mine overcook a little hence the reason the cheese is a bit dark, but that doesnt bother me.)

This makes generous portions, so can even be frozen in individual servings for meals later. I decided that since I had some busy days ahead of me that I would just leave it out in the fridge to eat for several meals.

Enjoy!

Almond Power Bars

So I found this recipe online the other day and was stokedddd! I haven't shared this here, but I am on a low carb diet, well most of the time, and need to eat in a way that keeps my blood sugar steady. I do fail quite often with this way of eating, but have been trying for the last couple of months to stay on it for the health benefits as well as the obvious- losing weight (lost almost 20 lbs so far!).

One thing that always causes me to slip up is my sweets. Gotta love em', but they don't love me ;) I almost have to have something sweet everyday or its torture. Not really, but close. I am leary of artificial sweetners, but will drink a diet Dr. Pepper if I am so inclined (and the headache that comes after is pretty crucial). I really prefer to eat a natural diet from things that God has made, since I know that is probably the best for me..I mean duh, He is the one who knit me so wonderfully in my mother's womb, so why would I listen to some moron person who tells me to eat foods low in fat, laced in chemicals over a yummy steak? Crazy!

Oh the Almond Power Bars!! YES! They are YUMMY and easy to make! I found the recipe HERE!







So of course, I tweaked the recipe a little, but not really alot...dont think it needed it at all..but I only had butter (*used all my coconut oil on my granola) and used all honey instead of the maple syrup since its lower in carbs per tablespoon.

Here's what mine looked like.....ahhh so good! I am going to cut them in little, tiny pieces and savor one each time I get a craving for something bad. I havent figured the carb content yet, but will update this post when I do. I am also thinking of trying this with peanuts next time because peanut butter and chocolate rocks!




Enjoy!!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Baked French Toast

Can you say that title really fast?

So I am in love with this recipe. I found a couple of baked French Toast recipes online last week after trying to find a solution to my busy Sunday mornings. I cook a big breakfast, since our church service runs into lunch time, but it can be overwhelming to do that plus get 4 kids ready...not to mention that I try to at least shower before church ;)

Anyways, all the recipes sounded good, but some seemed to have too much sugar, some not enough flavor...some too many eggs..you get the idea. So anyways, I concocted something pretty darn good and thought I would share it. This will be made the night before and baked in the morning or you could totally assemble this early on in the day and have for dinner. I'd do it.

So first I made an "Egg Bread" in my bread machine...any kind of bread will do. Just make sure its a heartier type bread. If you want the recipe, leave me a comment and I'll post it for ya.

So take your bread, cut it into cubes and put it into a well oiled or sprayed 13x9 pan like this (just put about half of it in there, your gonna make two layers):

Once you've done that, you add whatever fruit/s you happen to have on hand. My local Sprouts had an awesome deal on blueberries last week, so I stocked up! So after you add the fruit, you just strategically or not so strategically place dollops of cream cheese around.  Then put another layer of your bread and then more fruit and cream cheese till your out of both. I used a pound of blueberries and 8 ounces of cream cheese in mine. You don't have to be that drastic, if you dont wanna  :p

So after you've done that, take 6 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of milk, some vanilla extract we like alot) and a 1/2 cup of maple syrup  (not that yucky high fructose stuff either...reallllll maple syrup or use the other stuff at your own risk ;p) Mix it all up and pour evenly over the bread/ fruit mixture. Smoosh it all down really good into the pan so everything fits.

Stick this in the fridge overnight or for at least 6 hours or so for all the liquids to be sucked up by the bread. Then when you are ready to eat it, stick it into a 350 degree oven covered until the last 10 minutes or so (mine baked for 30-40 mins) so that the maple syrup in the recipe can get the bread sorta carmelized. I sprinkled mine with a bit of cinnamon when I pulled it out of the oven to rest for about 10 mins too.

Pour on a little more syrup and you are ready to go!

Enjoy!!!

And she finally sews something useful....

Yup, I did it. Finally. My machine cooperated and I was actually able to whip something up in a couple of hours today.
I have issues. I get bored and impatient very quickly...especially with crafts but this one was instant gratification. It was very easy to put together, and it helped that I found an excellent tutorial for beginners....this blog really had great step by step directions.  

For those of you who dont know what its called, its a Taggie blanket. This site sells them for a small fortune. I have lots of flannel on hand (for those diapers I am supposed to be sewing) and bought a few yards of coordinating ribbon. The total for this blanket was under $3.00 for me. Seems like a good deal, eh?

And here is the finished product!

Is this for me?

Oh, straight to the mouth, just like everything else when you are 7 months old :)

 Now that is what its for! Thanks, Mom.

Just another thing crossed off my list of to do's for July, but this one was far more rewarding than the rest. The closet just doesnt smile at me the way she does :)

Until next time..