Low Carb Sugar Free Paletas de Coco!

    No other dessert evokes more memories of childhood for me than Paletas de Coco. I can clearly remember the sound of the bells as they inched closer to my house - the old man pushing the ice cream cart was the highlight of my day during the hot summers. I'm not a cook/baker by any means, but being on a low carb diet kind of forces you to get creative in the kitchen. I've been trying out different dessert recipes - most failures, until it dawned on me that I should try and makeover my all time favorite ice cream bar. The original recipe is super simple just three ingredients, but the main component was sweetened condensed milk which is basically a sugar BOMB. Then I remembered a post by Beeb over on Lowcarbfriends where she made SCM from table cream. Once that part was figured out the rest was easy peasy. Thanks, Beeb!

~*~*~Low Carb Paletas de Coco ~*~*~

What you'll need:

1 can Media Crema Table Cream (Threw the can out before I got the measurement, pretty standard though)

2/3 Cup Sweetener (I used Swerve which is basically Erythritol but measures cup for cup like sugar)

2 Tb Unflavored Whey Protein powder (I only had vanilla on hand so that's what I used)

1/2 Tb Vanilla

1 can 13.5-15oz can Coconut milk 

Unsweetened coconut shreds (optional)

*Optional add ins - Mango, Pineapple, Guava

Combine the first 4 ingredients and simmer over medium heat until it thickens - Takes a few minutes. To this mixture add the can of coconut milk, again simmer until slightly thicker another few minutes (It doesn't get super thick so don't go on thinking you need to cook it for a long time) Remove from heat and allow to cool about 10 minutes. Add as much or as little of the coconut shreds to the mixture as you like. Pour into molds and freeze.

These are very rich and creamy. Next time I will try the "Light" coconut milk from Trader Joes and see how I like them. That will shave off about 10 carbs from the total count.

Approximately 4.75 net carbs per bar

Right after I added the coconut milk

I was able to fill 4 traditional molds and 3 Rockets!

Get your Swerve on Peeps!

    I ordered some Swerve about two weeks ago and received my package last week, and since then I've been thoroughly enjoying it in my coffee and tea. Swerve is an Erythritol based sugar alternative that measures cup for cup like sugar. It is the closest thing I've found that tastes like sugar in my coffee. It's damn expensive about $12 bucks a pound, but having now tried it in my coffee I can't go back to the liquid sweetener I was using. I plan on using it sparingly but I did want to try and bake with it. I decided to make cinnamon sugar cookies and boy did they come out yummy. Because it is Erythritol there is still that slightly cool taste to the cookies, but these were still really good and held up very much like a real cookie. No, I'm not going to put Toll house out of business with these. I may call it a cookie, but I've yet to come across a LC cookie that came close to tasting like anything made with actual flour. If you're like me and the "white stuff" is off limits these end up being a decent replacement.

  Now, I am by no means a baker. So if you're looking at this recipe and wondering Why did she add that? or Why did she do that in that quantity? I can't answer you. All I did was find a basic sugar cookie recipe and tweaked it. There is no rhyme or reason to my recipe I just used what I had on hand. If anyone has suggestions to make it better, please let me know (And No, use flour and real sugar is not a helpful suggestion) :p

 

Low Carb Cinnamon Sugar Cookie

• 1 Cup Blanched Almond Flour (I used up some Bob's and some I got from nuts online)
• 2 Tbsp Vanilla Whey Protein Powder
• 2 Tbsp Coconut Flour
• 3/4 Cup Swerve (or equivalent sweetener of your choice, original recipe called for 1 cup but I thought that would be too much. These were still pretty sweet may use even less next time)
• 1 stick soft room temp butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 room temp egg
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1 tsp cinnamon (or as much or as little as you want, I may have added a bit more can't remember)
• 1 tsp xanthan gum (If you don't have this, it may still be okay not sure if it's necessary or not. I added it because I had it - remember no rhyme or reason!)
• About 1 Tbsp Swerve and 1/2 tsp cinnamon for rolling your cookies.

I got about 18 cookies out of this. Approximately 1 Net carb per cookie.

  Cream butter and sugar. Once blended add egg and vanilla. Combine all of the dry ingredients in another bowl (Make sure to mix it up so the different "flour"/powders are all distributed evenly)Add about half of the flour to the creamed butter and mix, add second half and mix until all is well blended. Put the dough in the fridge for about 20 minutes (It's too sticky otherwise). When ready take the dough and roll into balls, dip one side of the ball into the sugar/cinnamon mixture and place other end on your cookie sheet - flatten ball with the palm of your hand. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, but watch carefully after about 8 minutes they go from cooked to burnt pretty quickly. 
   
    I baked my first batch for about 10 minutes, the edges were nice and browned but the middle stayed somewhat soft. My next batch I kept in for about 12 minutes and the whole top was browned. I prefer the taste of the first batch because it was a bit soft and crunchy. You will probably want to taste one right out of the oven like I did and they will be really soft and you'll be like WTF?! but put them on plate and check back in about 10 minutes and they'll have firmed up nicely. This is when they tasted the best about 15 minutes after I took them out of the oven. The next day they were good, but that "cool taste" oh so familiar with Erythritol baked goods was much more prevalent.

Yummy, yummy yogurt!

   Greek yogurt is all the rage right now. For good reason – it’s all kinds of good for you.  I was never a real big yogurt eater before, but since low carbing and my limited options I’ve started eating it again. When I first tried Greek yogurt I nearly puked. It tasted like I was eating really thick sour cream – don’t get me wrong I love me some sour cream, just not for breakfast. I tried to like it: added fruits, nuts, peanut butter, syrups all kinds of different things looking for that awesome combination that tasted like store bought yogurt. Not until I found Nature's Hollow SF spreads did I find that perfect culmination of yum. 

Here’s what I do: 

Take 1 heaping ¼ cup of Greek Yogurt (I use Full Fat or 2% Fage whichever I can find) I Tbsp. of SF jam (Usually Strawberry or Mountain Berry) and because I like my yogurt fairly sweet I add 1 drop of EZ-Sweetz (Liquid Splenda) and voila! Yummy sugar free yogurt. From here you can add fruit, nuts, chocolate whatever your little heart desires. 

You can find Nature's Hollow Jam at Sprout Markets or online at netrition.com

EZ Sweetz you can find on Amazon.com

                                          Easy Peasy Breakfast....