Thanksgiving Prep

Our typical Thanksgiving feast involves the standard fare - turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, beans (green and brown), salad, fruit, and lots of desserts. 

This year, our first year of diabetic holiday festivities, we have to rethink our approach. Most desserts are out, most of the rolls, brown bean, corn, and mashed potatoes.   This does not leave a lot.  As a result, Kaya and I have begun experimenting with replacements and new recipes for the holiday season. Here is a short list of what we have been working on and planning on for our first major holiday.

Mealtime:

• Turkey, of course
• Ham
• Sweet potatoes - we are going to replace the marshmallows on top with Walden Farms marshmallow creme (no carbs), and brown sugar replacement
•  Green beans with almonds
• Broccoli with garlic butter
• Salad with light dressing
• Paleo bread/rolls

Desserts:

• Sugar free reeses peanut butter cup cookies
• Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies - low carb low sugar
• Low carb spice cupcakes - with pumpkin cream cheese topping
• chocolate fountain with fruit and cookies for dipping
• sugar free pie - not sure what type yet. 
• sugar free cool cheesecake.

I think that is it for now.  We will have to play with a lot of Kaya's numbers as it looks like she will not have a pump in time for Thanksgiving, but I am hoping we can still make it an awesome day for her. Top it off with  Holiday decorating, and it will be great regardless! 

I hope all of you are enjoying the start of your holiday planning! 

Coconut Almond Shortbread

For this recipe,  we took a low carb recipe off the internet and made it our own with almond and coconut flours.  Coconut flour is great because it is SO high in fiber!  You can top it with a jelly or apple butter if you like, or cinnamon and sugar (or the sugar substitute of your choice) if you like.

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1/2 lb) butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
1/4 cup trevia/Stevia sweetener
1 cup almond flour
3/4 cup coconut flour
1/8 cup whole wheat flour
1/8 cup all purpose flour

Blend butter until soft, add sugars and blend until smooth. Add flours, blending until still dough forms. Press into greased 9 X 13 pan. Sprinkle top with coconut and sliced almonds and press into dough. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. They turn out perfectly sweet and crispy. So Yum.

Total Carbs: per 1.5 x 1.5 cookie = 9.  Recipe should make between 24-28 cookies.

Grilled Pork Roast with apricots and cranberries

The idea for this came from The Diabetic Bible, but I modified it for my needs. Here it is:

Ingredients:
2 lb pork roast
1/2 cup white wine
dried apricots and cranberries (1/2 cup each - divide in half)
1/2 tsp each of ginger, ground cloves, and Chinese All Spice
foil wrap

For glaze:
1 tsp corn starch

Place roast on large piece of foil, and place on a grilling tin. Stab roast a few times with a fork. Pour wine over roast. Sprinkle on ginger, cloves, and all spice.  Add 1/4 cup of apricots and cranberries.  Wrap up in pocket format and put on grill. Grill at 400 degrees for about an hour, or until internal temps reach 165 degrees. Pull from grill and let rest for about 10 minutes.

Glaze:
Remove roast from foil. Pour juices and fruit from foil into small pan. Add remaining apricots and cranberries. Turn on medium heat. Mix cornstarch with a bit of water and pour into pan to thicken juices. Remove from heat and pour over the roast. Cut into 8-10 slices and serve.

Carb count: 10 carbs if you eat the fruit with your serving, 0 carbs if you don't!  YUM!

We had it with mashed sweet potatoes and peas. You can also roast it in the oven, or use your slow cooker.  No pictures, sorry. We ate it too fast!

Peanut Butter Cookies

This is another one Kaya found. Mind you, she is making 98% of all these recipes herself. I am around to make recommendations or help is she is stuck with something, but otherwise she is in the kitchen all by herself. She is 12 and an aspiring artistic chef.

These cookies are soft but yummy. Try baking them for an extra minute or two to make them a bit crispier.

1/2 cup sugarless/ natural chunky or smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup Splenda or Stevia
2 tbs agave nectar
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup chopped pecan, almonds, peanuts, or hazelnuts, if desired.
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 tbs almond flour or processed almond meal
1 tbs macadamia nut flour (optional - processed oatmeal works well too, or whole wheat flour, but this will change the carb count a bit)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375. Mix well all ingredients in order and drop onto greased cookie sheet by teaspoonfuls (you can also use parchment paper). Bake about 10 minutes (I recommend 11-12) or until set but not hard. Be careful not to burn!!  If making 10 cookies - 3.8 carbs per cookie.  If making 16 cookies, 2.4 carbs per cookie.

Modified Wilton Butter Cream Icing (no carbs)

Ingredients:
1 cup Crisco shortening (we used butter flavored, but the recipe calls for white for ease of coloring the icing)
1 tsp of vanilla, almond, or butter extract
7-8 tsp of water or milk (if you use milk, you will add carbs to the frosting)
1 lb (about 4 cups) Sugar Free Powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
(we left out the 1 tbsp of meringue powder)

Cream shortening, water (or milk), and powdered sugar. Add extract and pinch of salt. Mix together until creamy. Makes about 2.5 cups of icing.
Carbs: 0 per serving
Calories: 200 per serving (if you use all of the frosting on the cake - that's A LOT of frosting! )

Powdered Sugar for frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup Splenda or Stevia
1 tsp corn starch

Place Splenda or Stevia and corn starch in food processor. Process for one minute until texture is similar to powdered sugar.

This makes one cup of powdered sugar.

Sugar Free Flourless Chocolate Cake!

While Kaya does not have celiac's disease or need a gluten free diet, less wheat means fewer carbs which means Kaya can have more carbs where she wants.

Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour/mean or  pecan meal (or two cups pecans processed in food processor)
1/3 cup Cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
4 eggs or 1 cup egg substitute
1 stick or 1/2 cup butter (or butter substitute), melted
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup ergthritol or other sweetener (we use Agave nectar)
1 cup equal to sugar of Stevia or Splenda
1/2 cup water.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 or 9 inch round or spring form pan (I recommend the spring form pan. Great results).  Put all dry ingredients together in food processor and process again until well blended.  Add wet ingredients and process again. Once all is well blended, pour into pan and bake.  Start checking for doneness with toothpick at about 25 minutes. Once toothpick comes out clean, pull out of oven and let cool. Frost with sugar free icing. Cut into 8 slices.

Cake calories: 334 per slice
Carbs: 2 per slice

Michelle's Awesome Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

OK, so I make these divine cookies that I modified from a basic Chocolate Chip cookie recipe off the back of a Nestle's bag.  It turns out, they aren't just good cookies, they are great cookies.  Great is too little a work - wonderous? miraculous? the best cookies on the face of the earth?  Yes, they have been called all of these.  But right now, they are also called "off limits" to my 12 year old Type 1 diabetic daughter, who is a chef in the making.  Her diagnosis has turned her desire to be a pastry chef into a desire to make dessert creations EVERYONE can eat.  My cookies were our first experiment.

Michelle's NEW Awesome Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:
(Warning, there is a lot of blending/processing of items to make them lighter or more fine)
Preheat oven to 350 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Ingredients:
7/8 cup of butter (margarine or the like works just fine)
5 tbsp Agave Nectar
3/4 cup  Splenda (or preferred sugar replacement)

Blend all these items together in mixer until smooth.

Add:
1/4 cup egg substitute or 1 egg
1 tsp vanilla


Mix  together.  

Add to egg and sugar mixture:
1 1/2 cups almond flour (or almond meal - In a blender/processor, blend to make it more fine)
1/8 cup of  regular flour
1/8 cup of whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda (add an extra pinch for added lightness to the cookies)

Mix together.

The add:
1 1/2 cups of oatmeal, blended until fine.

Mix together.

Finally add:
1/2 cup of chopped/blended chocolate chips (I just use Nestle in the yellow bag!)

Mix together.  To make 30 cookies, drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet right away, and bake in oven for 12 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on the parchment, then move cookies to cooling rack with a metal spatula. They are a bit fragile, so they may crack or break a bit. I need to figure out something to help them bind just a bit better. but taste and texture wise - this works!

Your carb count?  The original recipe had 19 carbs per cookie.  This new recipe?  7.4 carbs per cookie!  (if I did my math right, lol! )  Enjoy!

Cheesecake!

Say it isn't so!  Cheesecake for a diabetic? It is like anathema to the idea of any special diet.  However, this non-baked, light cheesecake is divine.  While I am still tweaking it (I would probably try a table spoon of agave nectar or applesauce for a bit more sweetness), this was more than passable.  I don't have the calorie content, but for those who do carb counting, each slice has 15 carbs - if I did my carb count is correct (adding up all the carbs and dividing by serving size).   Let's begin!

Crust:
9" pie pan        
1 1/2 cups of walnuts (you can do pecans, but I don't have the carb count for that)
3 tbsp of softened (almost melted) butter (earth smart butter works fine!)
2 tbsp of Splenda (or Stevia)

Mix all ingredients together and press into the pie pan. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes.  Let cool.

Once the pie crust is cool, begin working on the cheesecake.

Cheesecake:
1   package (8 oz) of Neufchatal cheese (or 1/3 less fat cream cheese) - softened
1/2 cup   splenda/stevia  (feel free to add a table spoon of agave nectar or applesauce to adjust sweetness)
1 tsp vanilla extract (or raspberry or strawberry extract for a flavored cheesecake - YUM)
1   8 oz (smaller tub) of fat free Cool Whip

Mix the cheese and sugar replacements together until smooth. Add the vanilla and mix.  Fold in half of the tub of Cool Whip until the entire mixture is smooth and well mixed.  Spoon mixture into pie pan and smooth top. Add the remainder of the Cool Whip to the top of the mixture and place in refrigerator for a half hour.  Cut into 8 slices and enjoy!