Low Carb Pumpkin Muffins

I don't know why the fall season always makes me want to bake and try new recipes, but it does. Tonight I spent a quiet Friday night at my apartment and made another batch of these pumpkin muffins. I made my first batch a couple of weeks ago and they were so delicious I wanted to share the recipe - for others and for myself in the future. I just ate the muffin pictured, paired with pumpkin spice rooibos tea from Trader Joe's.

Ingredient list:

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup canned pureed pumpkin (I used the organic canned pumpkin from Trader Joe's)
• 6 eggs
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 12 pecans for topping

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Oil muffin pans.
2. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients.
3. Mix until well combined (I used a hand mixer). Make sure most lumps have disappeared.
4. Spoon into prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden.
5. Place on wire rack to cool.

Serves: 12

Nutritional analysis per each muffin: 127 calories, 7g fat, 230mg sodium, 11.7g carbohydrate, 3g fiber and 5g protein. 

Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut and Ginger

Tonight I decided to attempt making soup from scratch. It turned out pretty good so I wanted to put the recipe/link here for future reference. Here is the link to the recipe, and I also posted it below. Love this fall soup (actually, I think I like cooking with fall foods the best).

The ingredients I used...the leek and shallot were purchases from the farm yesterday.

The finished product. I forgot about using the unsweetened coconut as a garnish, but sprinkled thyme, salt & pepper on top instead.

2 large butternut squash - halved lengthwise, peeled and seeded

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 leek, white and tender green part only, thinly sliced

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 cup dry white wine

6 cups water

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 thyme sprig

Coconut shavings for garnish, optional

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Set the squash, cut sides up, on a baking sheet. Fill each cavity with 1/2 tablespoon of the butter; season with salt and pepper. Roast the squash for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, until tender. Cut into large pieces.

2. Meanwhile, in a large soup pot, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the olive oil. Add the onion, leek, shallot, ginger and curry powder and cook over moderate heat until lightly browned. Add the wine and cook until evaporated.

3. Add the cooked squash, water, coconut milk and thyme sprig. Simmer over moderately low heat for 15 minutes.

4. Discard the thyme sprig. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with the coconut shavings and serve.

A Lovely Cheese Pizza, Just For Me!

Since I bought tomato sauce at the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make pizza for dinner tonight. I used the recipe for John's Pizza. It was easy to make and amazingly good - tasted even better than Papa John's, Dominos, Pizza Hut, etc. I will definitely be making this again in the future!

Recipe:

CRUST

1/2 cup almond flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

TOPPINGS (I did not use "John's" suggested toppings)

Tomato sauce

Shredded cheddar cheese

Oregano

Parsley

What did I eat for Thanksgiving???

The first question I was usually asked when the subject of Thanksgiving came up - "What are you going to eat since you can't eat anything?" I actually had a delicious and very healthy Thanksgiving dinner - a picture of my plate of food will come in the next post. However, I did want to share the recipes for the two dishes I brought to share.

The first was an apple-butternut squash casserole, from this website. For 4 servings, the ingredients are 1/2 of a large butternut squash, 2 apples (I use organic since they are on the dirty dozen list), about 1/3 of a cup coconut oil, honey and cinnamon (I did not measure the honey or cinnamon). Cut the butternut squash into about 1/4 inch slices, and peel and core the apples. In a baking dish, put a layer of squash, a layer of apples, sprinkle a little cinnamon and drizzle a little honey. Continue repeating this process until the squash and apples are gone. The recipe said to use butter and put cubes of butter on the top layer, however, that is a lot of butter so I used coconut oil instead. I love the taste of coconut oil, and it contains numerous health benefits.

The finished product - I have made this dish twice since Thanksgiving - it is that good!

The second dish I made was a pumpkin pie. The recipe is as follows:

FILLING

1 15 oz can Pumpkin

1 tsp. coconut flour (I forgot to include this, but it turned out fine without it)

1/3 c. honey

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. allspice

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. mace (I could not find this anywhere so I did not use it)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. coconut milk

3 eggs

SHELL

1 1/2 cups of almond flour

1/4 teaspoon of sea salt

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

1 egg

At our Thanksgiving dinner, there was "my" pumpkin pie, and a "regular" pumpkin pie. There were two of us who for sure were only having my pumpkin pie, and everyone else wanted the regular pumpkin pie, but wanted a small slice of my pumpkin pie just to taste it. Well, when people wanted seconds, guess which pie they went for - mine! They like the healthy sugar-free, dairy-free and wheat-free pie better than the one loaded with sugar. I was happy to know my pie was such a hit!

Also, I found out a week ago that all my efforts have been worthwhile. Before I started this diet back in September, I had some blood tests done. One that they did was called the CRP, which is a measure of inflammation in your body. Normal results are less than 5, and mine came back initially at 34.9 = not good. I have been fanatically adhering to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and taking loads of fish oils for the last two and a half months. There have also been numerous people praying for that number to get to less than 5. Well, I had my blood tested again a couple of weeks ago, and by the grace of God, my CRP is now less than 5. It is pretty much a miracle and gives me motivation to continue on this diet. 3 months down, 21 to go :)

Roasted Broccoli and Butternut Squash

I came up with this recipe idea after having something similar at a work training that I was at a few weeks ago. All you need for this is a butternut squash (I just use a half for each meal), some broccoli, olive oil and 2 garlic cloves.

First, cut the butternut squash in half. I then cut the half into fourths. Cover all the exposed squash with olive oil, and then put it in a baking pan in about 1/4" of water. I season is with ground ginger, salt and pepper. Bake it at 350 degrees until it is soft.

When the squash has about 20 minutes to go, I put the broccoli in the oven. I drizzle some olive oil over the broccoli and sprinkle the garlic cloves (I just cut them with a knife - I am sure you could do whatever you want with them - or not use garlic at all) over the broccoli.

Once the squash is tender, I cut it into chunks (it is really easy to cut at this point). Mix in the broccoli and eat up!

Apple Crisp

This is my new favorite dessert - I think it is better than "normal" apple pie. It would be good with a scoop of ice cream, but I have not yet attempted to make ice cream that I can eat.

Ingredients

4 apples

1 tablespoon honey

> topping:

1 stick butter

1 cup almond flour

3/4 cup raw, unsweetened coconut flakes

1/2 cup honey

1 cup ground walnuts

cinnamon to taste

Instructions

1. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9" round baking dish.

2. Peel, core, and thinly slice apples

3. Place half of the apple slices in the baking dish.

4. Drizzle a tablespoon or so of honey over them and then put in the rest of the apples. You should arrange them so they lay pretty flat.

5. Topping: Mix one stick of butter (less what you used to butter the baking dish), almond flour, unsweetened coconut flakes, honey, walnuts and cinnamon. Combine all these ingredients and you should have something the consistency of a good cookie dough. Add more dry ingredients if it feels too squishy.

6. Pat the topping very firmly onto the apples. Press down a bit.

7. With a sharp knife make three parallel cuts in the middle through the topping. (If you don't, the apples will ooze out the sides and mess up your oven).

8. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 minutes.

I just finished a piece of it now...and I could eat another but I am trying to exercise some self control :)

Squash

I have enjoyed "cooking with the seasons" lately, and therefore have been having lots of squash - mostly acorn squash and zucchini.

The acorn squash is very easy. I cut it in half and put half in the refrigerator for another meal. After scraping out the seeds, I put the other half face down in a pan filled with about 1/4" of water and bake it at 400 degrees for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour (until it is soft throughout). When it is done baking, I put walnuts or pecans in the center, along with some cinnamon and honey and that is dinner.

My other favorite is roasted zucchini using this recipe. It just consists of one zucchini cut in 1" slices, coconut oil, paprika, rosemary, fresh garlic and a little salt and pepper. This can also be a meal for me. If I am really hungry, I may have a Lara Bar with it.

I have a butternut squash sitting on my counter and I am going to make a butternut squash-broccoli dish. Or maybe a butternut squash soup that Martha Stewart made on the Today show a few weeks ago.