Wayward Knitting

Low Carb (Keto) Parmesan and Rosemary Ham Muffin Recipe

 

Great for portable breakfast or a little snack, or in our case, brunching at the park.

 

Makes 12 muffins.

Preheat oven at 400.

• 5 eggs
• 8 oz of parm (I used Parmesan Gouda, a soft young cheese from Trader Joe’s), grated
• 2 oz of rosemary ham
• 1 ½ stick of butter (melted)
• Diced dried onion (I eyeball this)
• ⅔ c. of coconut flour
• ½ tsp of baking powder
• 1 TB of flax meal
• 1 TB of olive oil
• ¼ tsp of cayenne pepper (or to taste)

Pinch of salt and pepper.

 

Microwave the butter, let it cool so it doesn’t cook the egg.

Squeeze out moisture of the ham.

Tear ham into small bits.

Mix wet ingredients and and dry ones separately.  Fold in the dry mix slowly to the wet.

Butter the muffin tin well.

 

Bake on the mid to lower rack for 13-15 minutes, watch for golden brown tops and crisp looking sides.

 

Allow to cool and shrink 15 min before removing from muffin tin.

 

Excellent treat, great bread crumb texture.  Low carb, fast to bake.  Helpful for me and my friends who are trying a ketogenic diet.

Also, somewhat Paleo modified if you are having some dairy.

Microwave Paleo Sandwich Bread

Sometimes you just want a sandwich.  Also, if you're like me, you can't handle all the tapioca and potato starch that is in the commercially available gluten free bread.  Desperation is the mother of invention, at least for me.  Enter the microwave Paleo sandwich roll.  It's wheat free, dairy free and low carb.  Winning!

Microwave Paleo Bread

I used a soup bowl.

3 TB almond meal

1 TB coconut flour

1 TB flaxmeal

1 egg

1 TB cashew butter

2 TB olive oil

pinch of salt

1/4 ts of baking soda

Mix, pat, cover with wet paper towel, microwave for 1 minute.  (For me, I prefer to set microwave power to level 7, microwave 1 min and 20 seconds.)

As it cools, it will shrink.  Then turn over onto a board and let it cool and slice.  Some people toast it on a pan to get it crispy.  I don't bother.  I just stack on some rosemary ham, baby kale, smoked gouda and mayo with mustard.  All done.  Took less than 5 minutes total to get it all done.

It is substantial enough you can hold it in your hand and eat it like normal.  However, it's probably more floppy feeling than a normal dinner roll.

Here's what it looks like out of the microwave:

 

It's still a bit soft to touch but not fragile.  The egg and cashew butter are pretty good binding agents.

Chocolate Cherry Acai Berry Smoothie - Perfect

I took a break from my kale smoothies today to return to my objective acai berry smoothie recipe experiment.  Today's was fantastic:

1 package frozen acai berry (Sambozan)

1/2 c. frozen organic blueberries

1 c. frozen organic cherries

1 banana

12 oz organic almond milk

4 oz coconut milk 

3 T raw cacao powder

Blend in vitamix.  Drink happily.

I was sharing this recipe with my friend and she suggested some raw unfiltered local honey would make it even more magical since I use all unsweetened items above.  

As always after starting the day with acai berry, I feel energized and it also acts like a bit of an appetite suppressant for me as well.

 

Happy New Year and a Green Smoothie Recipe for You

Kale Citrus Sunrise (Green Smoothie) for Jess

This is perfect for winter, taking advantage of California’s plentiful citrus during this time of year, as well as giving you tantalizing tropical imagery and smells when prepping.  You don’t have to be a raw vegan or hard core juicer to enjoy this.

 

Makes about 40 oz.

Fill your Vitamix with:

• 3-4 oz organic dino kale (it about 2 handfuls)
• 2 oz spring mix or herb mix (just under 2 handfuls)
• 4 oz of frozen pineapple
• 1 small lemon (Cut it and peel it and omit seeds, rind, and pith, using pulp and juice for the mix.)
• 1 peeled organic orange (I segment it too to remove seeds)
• 16 oz water

 

Tropical smoothie variant – for sweetness and a creamier texture, I also add frozen mango chunks, about one cup.

Hit the auto setting on your fancy Vitamix, or if you have an older one, puree for a long time, maybe 90 seconds, check for texture and then keep going if necessary.

Ingredients - purchased and readily available at Trader Joe's.  I manage to get organic greens and citrus for the smoothie (the lemon comes from my tree) but haven't found a convenient source for organic pineapple or mango.

Green Smoothie Recipes - too yummy not to share

Kevin's Cool Smoothie:

3 c. water

1/2 head green lettuce, washed, about 8-12 leaves

5-8 frozen strawberries

20 fresh mint leaves (no stems)

Blend in the Vitamix - magical.

J's Green on the Beach Smoothie:

3 c. water

1/2 head green lettuce, washed, about 8-12 leaves

1 yellow peach, ripe, sliced and pitted

10-15 chunks of frozen mango

10 mint leaves

5-10 ice cubes

Blend in the Vitamix, takes a while to get all the frozen mango chopped up but makes a thick, luscious green smoothie, about 40-48 oz.

All smoothies are raw, vegan and I use organic produce.

Acai Berry Smoothies - a winner

Day 3's recipe was a winner.  2 servings:

2 packs of pureed frozen acai berries, unsweetened
16 oz unsweetened almond milk
1 punnet of organic fresh blueberries
ice cubes

more berry-like, better color, lovely almost chocolately taste.  Thumbs up on this variation.

Acai Berry Smoothies - continued

Day 2
1 package frozen acai berry puree unsweetened
10 oz unsweetened, almond milk
ice cubes
1 white nectarine

delicious, mild.

Amazingly enough, good enough energy boost I can forego coffee.

Something Must Be Done - Objective Acai Berry Recipe Experiment

I wanted to learn more about the Acai berry but with the exception of like 2 articles, nearly everything online is advertising crap.  Apparently Rachael Ray and Oprah and Dr. Perricone have endorsed this berry so the ads just harp on endlessly.  Since I pay for this blog and I do not allow ads on it, I decided, "Something Must Be Done." 

Day 1 - Green Smoothie Meets Acai Berry

1 pack Samazon frozen unsweetened Acai berry puree (purchased at Whole Foods). 
1 ripe banana
2 cups coconut water
5 organic romaine leaves
1 organic dino kale leaf.
ice cubes
yields about 32 oz.

Result - delicious, cool, refreshing.  Even my meat-eating husband liked it.  I had it for dinner, he had it for his dessert.
Negatives - can't taste the coconut water, next time I'll just use water, and it's an ugly brown color because green and purple together is not pretty.

Unexpected benefit - 16 oz was so satisfying that I had lost my craving for the sweets I had purchased.

The berry puree was cheaper than I thought it would be since the dried stuff is about $40 for 8 oz.  I think the Whole Foods freezer section sold the frozen acai berry puree in packages of 8.  However, since most of the online recipes tell you to use 2 packages at a time, that could get a little spendy.

For tomorrow, I think I may try 2 packages of berry puree and blend it with almond milk to see what I get.