In Search of Comfort Food

So the last couple of weeks have had me craving for some comfort foods, and when trying to keep low-carb, that can be tough.  So this post is all about low-carb coping.

Low Carb at the Movies

Some friends have been doing weekly movie nights at their house - and all our friends head over to watch classics.  If you're in a social movie scenario where everyone is eating popcorn and traditional movie theatre candy (think Twizzlers, Junior Mint, M&Ms and Milk Duds), its hard to just sit empty handed.  I think I fairly effectively solved this with pork rinds -- And the Bake'nets spicy ones or the BBQ flavor ones are the best. (Not a huge fan of the non-flavored ones.)  You get the crunch/junk food of popcorn, and if you do the spicy ones, you'll have to pace your consumption because they're HOT.  And of course for the chocolate, Russell Stover makes a very wide assortment of sugar-free chocolates.  But a little goes a long way with the sugar alcohols - (not just calories-wise but the laxative effect of the sugar alcohols). Atkins even has some sugar-free M&Ms but I've not tried them yet.  (However, Atkins' chocolate caramel nut chews are almost as good as Snickers and are portioned appropriately).  The only word to the wise:  Get your exercise early to make sure you have the calories for junk food!

Costco's deli sold the curry
prepared with chicken & peas.
But they sold the sauce by itself too.

Cold Weather Curry

On a particularly stressful day, on one of those freezing cold-snap days we had in early March, I had zero desire to cook and every desire to feed my face with something unhealthy and comforting.  I couldn't come up with a single food that I could dine out that met that criteria, but I had bought some Maya Kaimal Chicken Coconut Curry at Costco on a whim.   Their 5 oz serving has 6 g net carbs, and only 150 calories.  I did not think that the serving size was enough, so I bumped it to 7.5 oz and served on steamed broccoli.  I prefer my Thai-Panang curry as far as coconut curries go, but takes some time and is a lot more calories, but this definitely meets the "don't want to cook" need and is pretty good for 'fast'.  It also goes well with cold days.

St. Patrick's Day Savory Cabbage

This week as St. Patrick's day is approaching, I've seen a ton of recipes for corned beef and cabbage with potatoes.  I had also seen a pin on Pinterest for a cabbage and kielbasa skillet dish - and figured it might satisfy comfort, St Pats and still convert to low carb.  Costco again for the rescue:  they had  2.5 lb pack of roasted garlic Kiolbassa for about $8, and with cabbage at about $0.70/head, this is not just comfort food, but super cheap and way easy.  Not doing this like a regular recipe, since the ingredient list is short, and the steps are few.

Heat a skillet with about .5 tbsp of olive oil.  Chop 1.5 lbs of kielbasa into 1/4-1/2" coins and brown in the olive oil.  Remove the sausage, but leave the oils, and add about 2 tbsp of butter to the skillet.  While that's melting/reheating, chop your cabbage head (removing the solid 'heart').  Sauté the cabbage in the oil/fat, and add salt & pepper to taste, and add the kielbasa back in at the end.  This makes 4 very gigantic portions (probably 6 healthier sizes) of about 560 calories, and 11g net carbs.  I was positively stuffed after eating this, so it's definitely bang for your buck.

Dining Out

I have opportunities to eat out a lot with friends, and so I've gotten pretty good at navigating restaurant menus.  My favorites are Mexican - my 'go-to' is a plate of fajitas, without the beans rice or tortillas.  Once you dump sour cream and guacamole or cheese on your meat and veggies, you have something super satisfying.  At Chipotle, which is easy and fast, I do the bowl, with steak (or carnitas when they have it), fajita veggies, cheese, sour cream on the side (maybe yours doesn't but without some control, the line workers at Chipotle will absolutely SMOTHER the dish with sour cream), and lettuce and the 'fresh' salsa (called Pico de Gallo where I come from).

Salads also are a common go-to.  Cobb Salads have good protein from the egg, and chicken (and get the plain ranch and avocado if you can), just skipping the croutons.  Caesar salads with salmon, shrimp or chicken is a favorite too.  Nearly EVERY menu has one of these types of options.  And for fast-food, Panera salads are the best.

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals, but only because I love omelets. If having a breakfast out and I can't sit down and order an omelette, Panera winds up being a go-to.  They have a few power 'bowl' breakfasts that hit it well.  The steak bowl has strips of steak, avocado, tomato, and poached eggs.  For 270 calories and 3 net carbs, its a winner.

Last, Red Robin has lettuce wrapped burgers (any burger on the menu wrapped in lettuce instead of bun), and you can get steamed broccoli in place of the fries.  I may have to have this today while I'm out - sometimes you just don't want a salad but cheese-y bacon-y goodness is always welcome.  The guacamole bacon burger on lettuce wrap is not low-cal, but its a pretty good size portion - and at 772 calories but only 8 net carbs, you can feel pretty good about it. (Add another 3 net carbs for the broccoli).

Mocha Ice Cream (Custard Style) Low Carb & Gluten Free

So another week under the belt under the new low-carb lifestyle and I can say it's going really well.  (9.4 lbs to-date, although it's much slower going this week).   I am now to the point where I forget or don't need to snack, and my hunger has more or less abated.  My snacking/sweet tooth is mostly there when I'm bored (so this is habit, not need), or after dinner.

At a dinner party earlier this week (where I brought my own dinner and dessert to make sure I was prepared), the hostess asked us, in honor of Lent, to name one thing we couldn't live without.  I couldn't decide between ice cream and coffee.  To be fair, I have been without ice cream now for 2 weeks, but I canNOT give up my coffee in the morning. So it got me thinking that it was time to dust off my recipe for Mocha Ice Cream.  I won't be able to eat it for a few days ((1) it takes a full day to make and (2) tomorrow night I have my BlueStem/Julep dinner that I've been planning for months and I will go off-plan for the meal without guilt.  But what that means is I need to be extra vigilant against extra calories and carbs this weekend and probably Monday-Tuesday, too, so I can recover and not undo all my good work, plus (3) the next couple of days is showing highs in the Teens -- gross.), but its Saturday and I'm home and have all the ingredients, so why not!?

This recipe is a custard style - which means it has tempered egg yolks - and it's meant to be churned in an ice cream machine.  So if you haven't already, put the basin in the freezer.  My favorite recipe is an adaption of Martha Stewart's Vanilla Custard Ice Cream Base.

Not pictured:  Instant Coffee Crystals - they're in the
measuring cup with the coffee.

Her recipe calls for 1 cup of Whole Milk and 1 1/2 cup Heavy Cream.  The idea here is that a little bit of non-fat liquid helps the ice cream freeze with the right soft texture.  Since I'm making coffee flavored ice cream base, I am using a half cup of coffee (leftover from this morning) and 2 cups of Heavy Cream.  I'm replacing her vanilla bean with a tablespoon of Bourbon - it adds a bit of Vanilla Flavor to give the custard the full flavor without carbs, but also helps the ice cream stay soft since the liquor doesn't freeze. I replaced the sugar 1-for-1 with Xylitol.  I use Xylo Sweet -- See my last post on the health benefits and origin of Xylitol. And then I added 1/3 cup of cocoa powdered (Unsweetened) for the chocolate.  And to make sure the coffee flavor comes through, I added a tablespoon of instant coffee crystals.

UL: Whisking the eggs, sugar and salt
UR:  Bringing Cream mix to temperature
Bottom:  Tempering the egg mixture

Ingredients  -- Serves 6  (about 4 oz each) - 1 serving is 415 calories and 4 net carbs.

• 1/2 cup coffee
• 1 tbsp instant coffee crystals
• 2 cups heavy cream 
• 1/3 cup Cocoa Powder (unsweetened)
• 6 large egg yolks 
• 3/4 cup Xylitol
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 tbsp Bourbon 

Directions 

1. Combine coffee, cocoa, coffee crystals and cream



UL: Whisking the egg mixture
UR: Prepping the ice bath
LL: Checking for thickness (Done!)
LR: Cooling off in ice bath





2.  in a medium saucepan. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally; remove 
3. from heat. 
4. Whisk together egg yolks, Xylitol, and salt in a large bowl.
5. Gradually whisk in half of dairy mixture. Pour egg-milk mixture back into pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. 
6. While this is thickening, prepare your ice bath.
7. Pour custard through a fine sieve into a bowl set in a larger bowl of ice water; Let cool, stirring occasionally.   
8. Once cool, stir in the Bourbon.
9. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour. (I put a piece of saran wrap down onto the custard to keep it from forming a skin or absorbing refrigerator odors. (Custard base can be refrigerated up to 2 days ahead.)
10. Add to your ice cream machine and churn based on your machine's directions.
11. Freeze at least an hour, but let it sit out about 15 minutes before serving.  It will become harder if you freeze longer, but always give it 15 minutes before serving to be easier to scoop, and allow the flavors to be at their best.

Saran prevents a skin from forming in the fridge	Yummy Creamy Goodness	Prepped for Freezer Makes about 25 ounces

Back from hiatus -- Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies (Sugar-Free, Low-Carb)

Ok, back on this low-carb bandwagon after a very long hiatus wherein I gained back what I lost by eating ice cream at every opportunity.

I've been back for a week, and I'm down 7 lbs.  I know this is the first-week-effect and is mostly water weight, but I'll take it.  Its gratifying to see the scale move early in the process and it allows me to power-thru the carb withdrawals without losing steam.  I would have thought by now I would've done the keto flu thing - but either it happened abbreviated-ly late on Day 2 (had a terrible headache that went away when I drank some chicken broth), or I feel so generally poorly (and have gotten used to it) that I don't notice the difference.  Or the worst is yet to come.  I hope it's not the latter 2.

Garmin VivoSmart

To help kick-start the weightloss process, I splurged on a Garmin VivoSmart fitness tracker.  It combines the fitbit functions of step counting, calorie counting (based on steps), and sleep tracking, with a heart rate monitor (for use during exercise that may not track well as steps - like weight lifting or yoga or swimming), with some smart-phone bluetooth integrations that allow automatic syncing with the app, syncing to MyFitnessPal, and notifications (such as text messages, phone calls, FB messages, other alerts, etc.) that display right on the wristband.  It also has a touchscreen and comes with a countdown that buzzes my wrist if I've not walked 200 consecutive steps (about..) within the last hour and displays "move" to remind me to get up and move.   Other than yesterday, I've beat it's ever-growing step goal each day.  So I feel like that's a win.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies (Sugar-Free/Low-Carb)

So to the food part: I'm back in the kitchen experimenting.  This weekend, for Valentine's day, I'm watching the almost-5-year old daughter of some friends of mine. The last time she stayed with me, we made Nestle Tollhouse cookies and she requested that this time we make cookies again.  So, to make sure we made something that I could have, to offset the sheer quantity of sugar she had yesterday at her school's valentine's day party, but still fulfill the cookie-making requirements, I did a massive search on the interwebs for the perfect sugar-free, low-carb, chocolate chip cookie.  The one I found on Temple of Adventure had loads of positive comments from folks who had tried them, so that's the one I determined we were going to make.  They turned out beautifully - and while the texture is not like a regular flour-based cookie - think somewhere between muffin and lofthouse, they taste AMAZING.

Now if you're not prepared to do sugar-free/carb-free baking, this is going to get expensive quickly, and you're going to have to probably find a specialty health-food or alternative-food store to find some of the ingredients unless you have the most massive and well-stocked grocery store.  I found almost all of these things at my local Hy-Vee (the really big one in Gladstone on Englewood), but I had to supplement by going to Green Acres market in Briarcliff.  About $60 later (phew!) I had all the ingredients (but no fear, the next time I make these, its only a few ingredients that I'll need and no specialty ingredients).


The recipe uses almond flour instead of regular flour.  Xanthan gum acts as the thickener and provides the chewyness that would be missing from not having any gluten in the flour.  But, Xylitol is the star ingredient here.  Xylitol allows the sweetness without the carbs, and because it's a sugar-alcohol instead of a sugar, it is slowly absorbed from the digestive tract, and does not cause rapid rises in blood glucose.  Therefore on most low-carb diets, sugar-alcohols like xylitol don't count towards net carbs.   Word to the concerned:  I thought Xylitol sounded like some kind of franken-food and I'm a little leery of putting unreal foods in my face so I did some homework. Turns out Xylitol is found naturally in a lot of fruits, vegetables and the bark of some trees and has some cool health benefits as an alternative to sugar.  From the Xylitol.com website:

Because it can’t be utilized by bacteria in the mouth (like sugar can), xylitol doesn’t promote tooth decay, so dentists and nutritionists alike encourage the use of xylitol due to its unique and clinically proven dental benefits.  In addition, the caloric impact of xylitol is typically about 40% lower than other carbohydrates, making it a healthy addition to any low-carb diet.

So without further ado, my version of this recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies (Sugar-Free, Low-Carb) 
Makes about 36 cookies (I made mine a bit big, so it only really made about 30.)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz 1/3 fat Philadelphia cream cheese, softened 
• 2 Tbsp salted butter, softened 
• 1 Tbsp natural peanut butter, I used Woodstock Organic for the lowest net carbs. 
• 1 cup xylitol – I used Xylo Sweet 
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 
• 3 large eggs 
• 1/4 tsp course sea salt (I used unsalted butter, so I doubled this). 
• 1/2 tsp Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 2/3 cup Bob’s Red Mill almond flour/meal 
• 1 scoop (1/3 cup) vanilla whey protein powder (I used a packet from Jay Robb.) 
• 1 bag (about 1.3 cups) Hershey’s sugar free chocolate chips 

Directions:

1. Bring the cream cheese, butter and peanut butter to room temperature, and then whip them with a hand-mixer or stand mixer ‘til they’re well incorporated and a bit fluffy. 
   
2. Once fluffy, beat in the extract and the xylitol. This is the baking equivalent of creaming the sugar. 
   
3. Next step, add the eggs in and beat, one at a time. 
4. In a separate bowl, mix together your dry ingredients – the salt, xantham gum (this makes the cookies chewy since we’re not using real wheat flour with gluten), baking powder, the almond flour and the whey protein. Be sure to use a fork or whisk to get rid of any lumps from the almond flour. 
5. Add the dry ingredients in batches to the wet batter and mix thoroughly.
6. Add the chocolate chips and mix well with a spoon. 
   
7. Put the batter in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up (for the proteins to start absorbing the wetness) while preheating the oven to 350.
8. Line a baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper and work quickly to scoop out cookies.
9. Bake 15 minutes til the edges get a bit crispy (they may not get real crispy on silpat). (Don’t worry the cookie will be very soft and chewy).  Again, I made my cookies a bit big, so they actually baked for 18 minutes. 

   

   You can kind've see the browning around the edges

10. Let the cookies sit on the sheet for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
11. When you store, you’ll want to store in the fridge (cream cheese), and probably store with a sheet of wax or parchment paper between as they will stick together.

The nutrition for 1 cookie (if your batch makes 36): 97 calories, 1 net carb.