Broccoli Soup

Two things drove the need for this post, a) I realised I haven't been having any veggies apart from at dinner, which don't get me wrong makes for some very huge dinners but it's always worth spreading it out a bit, and b) it was snowing in London today Yes I know it only snowed for 5 minutes, but it was still there there and made the air cold enough for soup.

Normally when the need for soup in my life arose I would plump for New Covent Garden Thai chicken, which I thought would be less carby than it actually is (15g a serving), but instead I came up with this being that I had both cream and broccoli in the fridge.

Ingredients(enough for 4 portions)

1 Garlic Clove

1 tsp of olive oil

50g Onions

400g Broccoli Florets

Enough chicken/vegetable stock to just cover the florets.

100ml Double cream

1.Roughly chop the garlic clove and the onion.

2.Fry the garlic and onion lightly in olive oil

3.Add the broccoli and enough chicken stock to just over the ingredients.

4.Boil gently for as long as it takes to go mushy, you don't need to have it on a high boil, just enough to heat and get the broccoli cooking.

5.Take the pot off the boil and blend the broccoli into the stock with a hand blender.

6.Add 100ml cream right at the end and blend again.

7.Salt and pepper to taste.

The first time I did this it was a lot thicker than the one in the picture, this time I added too much chicken stock making it too watery for my liking, so be careful with your amounts.

Nutritional Information

Calories 184 kcal

Fat 15.6g

Carbs 4.3g

Fibre 2.8g

Protein 6.5g 

and a whopping 67% of your vitamin C for the day.

Pro Tip:

Fry some pancetta or bacon lardons to sprinkle over the top instead of crutons.

Battered Pork Balls

On Saturday I look myself off keto and consumed bagels, yum yums what is it about Sainsburys yum yums, I swear they are like crack  and chocolate. All of which I have consumed separately since starting keto and had no adverse reactions. However in combination they have turned into the foods from hell and left me writhing in pain, and downing water like I'm sitting in the middle of a desert in the vain hope the pain will go away for the last two days. Serves me right for eating the things that made me fat in the first place.

After that lovely image, I knew what I needed, I needed something carby that wouldn't aggravate me and was tasty. I had some pork left over from my roast and a craving for Chinese, so I decided to make my own battered pork balls.

Ingredients (makes two servings )

150g Diced pork (I used cooked, but you can use raw and just increase the frying time)
1 large egg- lightly beaten in a bowl
15g Ground Almonds
15g Grated hard cheese (I used the Sainsburys basics version)
10g Hogbites pork scratchings (If you use Mr Porkies pick the crunchiest scratchings)
Enough olive oil to coat fill your pan about 1 cm deep.

1. In separate bowls have the egg lightly beaten, the almonds, and the grated cheese mixed with the crushed pork scratchings.
2. Dip each chunk of pork in the egg, then almond meal, then the cheese mixture. Put to one side.
3. Repeat until all of the chunks are coated.
4. Heat the oil in the pan on a low heat until just before it starts spitting.
5. Gently place the coated chunks in the oil with space between them.
6. Leave to fry for 3-5 minutes before turning them over, best done with tongs.
7. When the balls have browned and started to go crispy on the outside remove them and shake off the excess oil onto kitchen towel.

Nutritional Information (per serving)

Calories 316 kcal
Fat 19.2g
Carbs 0.9g
Fiber 0.6g
Protein 33.7g

Pro tips:

• This coating works well with chicken too, I use it to make chicken dippers with some reduced sugar ketchup.
• You can miss off the pork scratchings if you don't want the extra calories, but I like the extra crunch they give.

Cauliflower Mash

This particular side dish has become a regular in my meals since starting keto, having something that is easy to make, lasts four dishes and tastes amazing is always a plus in my book. Weirdly enough considering how much I love cauliflower mash I was never a huge fan of mash potato. I would eat it when it was there, but I would never go out of my way to make it, far too lazy for that! I had seen a few recipes floating around of cauliflower mash, but it took about three tries for me to settle on one that works every time and has the same consistency as mashed potato.

Ingredients

1 large head of cauliflower, break the florets up as small as possible and remove the main stalk. (roughly 400-600g)
500 ml Chicken stock- either make your own or use a knorr stock cube (lowest carbs)
30g Butter
30ml Double cream

1. Bring the cauliflower florets to the boil in the stock. Leave simmering for 10-15 minutes, until you can break them up with the flat side of a knife without effort.
2. Drain the stock away and return the pan to the heat to dry the cauliflower. Be careful to move the cauliflower around to prevent burning.
3. Melt the 30g of butter into the dried cauliflower, mix in and blend with a hand blender.
4. Once the cauliflower is completely blended add 25-30ml of cream and mix in.

N.B. The amount of cream you need varies wildly. It is very easy to make this dish too wet, so add the cream in small amounts until you get the consistency you want.

Nutritional Information (per portion)

Calories 113 Kcal
Fat 9.6g
Carbs 3.1g
Fibre 1.8g
Protein 3.8g

Pro Tip: Put a couple of portions in a bowl, cover in grated cheese and put in the oven until the cheese has gone slightly crisp. Completely Yum!

Spicy fajita beef

Now I am a farmers daughter, and every couple of years my Dad raises a cow for beef and it goes in the freezer, a freezer which I raided last time I was home for some stewing steak, mince and steak steak. This week I got to my last packet of beef, which was also accompanied with a desire for fajitas and spicy food, and so this dish was born.

I served it with the cauliflower mash I made at the beginning of the week, and some black pudding. It may also have been a fridge clear out day.

Ingredients

150g Beef Stewing Steak
40g Red onion (roughly half) cut into strips
5g Discovery Fajita Mix
1 tsp of Olive oil

1. Heat the olive oil and lightly fry the red onion, you don't need much oil since stewing steak is quite fatty.
2. Add in the fajita mix and beef thoroughly coat the beef in the mix as it browns.
3. Let the beef cook occasionally shaking the pan/stirring the beef so it doesn't stick.

Nutritional Information

Calories 192 Kcal
Fat 4.9g
Carbs 4.9g
Fiber 1.4g
Protein 32.9g


Pro Tip: This dish works great with Bell peppers, I'd normally use a quarter of a yellow and red pepper, just add it in with the beef.

Beef Stew

One of my favourite winter dishes is beef stew with mash and loads of gravy, obviously normally I'd use flour to make the gravy but at 8g carbs per tbsp it just isn't worth it. I have tried this recipe using Xanthan Gum but had a horrible reaction to it (which is quite common so be warned), but ended up using cornflour for this version since you don't need much to make a properly thick gravy.

Ingredients( 4 servings)

500g Beef stewing steak

500ml water (hot)

1 vegetable stock cube

100g or 1 large onion, roughly chopped.

5g Cornflour dissolved in enough water to make a paste

1. Brown the beef steak in a casserole pan with the onions, it shouldn't need any extra oil as stewing steak is quite fatty.

2. Add the water and crumble in a stock cube. Stir the stew to make sure the cube has dissolved enough.

3. Add the cornflour paste to the stew and stir bringing the pot to the boil.

4. Leave the stew to simmer for 30-45 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent catching.

N.B. Cornflour is notorious for clumping if it is added incorrectly, hence why it needs to be stirred with a little bit of water before adding.

Nutritional Information

Calories 378 kcal

Fat 22.6g

Protein 39.8g

Carbs 3.7g

Pro Tips: 

Add some yam cake if you want the feel of vegetables in your stew, it just adsorbs the flavour of the dish.

Omit the onions if you think nearly 4g carbs is too much it halves the carbs listed.

Tuna, pesto, 'pasta'

Welcome to the world of Shirataki noodles, I hope you will become firm friends because I sure as heck love them. I love keto, I love the effects and how it makes me feel, but sometimes I just want a bowl of pasta. When those cravings strike; rather than cook anything else which would just leave me unsatisfied and wanting to cave more, I wiggle down to China town and pick myself up some Shirataki noodles. Yesterday I found this, the Tofu kind, which comes in various different forms, fettuccine, spaghetti, and macaroni. For the low low price of £1.49 a packet I can get my pasta hit and keep keto.

Ingredients

1 packet of tofu shirataki noodles (thoroughly washed under water, ignore the smell!)
1 can of tuna in brine
20g Basil pesto
20g Mature Cheddar (grated)

1.Having thoroughly washed the noodles in water until the smell is gone, dunk them in boiling water and keep them at a rolling boil for 3-4 min. You cannot overcook these noodles, ever, it's impossible.
2. Drain the noodles and return them to the pan and heat.
3. Add the tuna, and the pesto. Mix on the heat to warm the pasta.
4. At the end add the grated cheddar and mix in, keep on the heat to melt the cheese if you wish.


Nutritional Information

Calories 318 kcal
Fat 15.2g
Carbs 1.7g
Fiber 2.4g
Protein 42.9g

Pro tip: this can also be done with chorizo and chicken if you fry the chorizo/chicken together before hand and add them right at the end with the cheese. Yummy!

Chorizo side dish

So today I went on a trip to China town and took the opportunity to raid the Japanese shop for Shirataki noodles (which you will see in a later post), and also picked up some Konjac, which comes in a block and is sealed in with some slightly suspect smelling water and I had no idea what to do with it. After a quick bit of Googling I found that Konjac is what Shirataki noodles are made from, is nearly entirely fiber and comes in a block to be used for stew, lasagne, and side dishes. It has no flavour of it's own and will take on the flavour of what you cook with, and what I chose to cook with was chorizo. Since I have got a bit sick of boiled broccoli, it served as my vegetable with dinner.

Ingredients

60g Shirataki Yam cake (make sure you thoroughly rinse in water before doing anything)
10 Chorizo slices
1tsp Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
A sprinkling of cheddar cheese

Firstly tear up the yam cake don't cut, tearing it enables the pieces to soak up all the lovely flavour and season with the salt and pepper.
Cut up the chorizo slices.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and as it starts to bubble throw in the yam.
Fry the pieces on their own for 1 minute before adding the chorizo.
Fry the chorizo and yam together until the chorizo goes nice and crisp.
Grate a small amount of cheddar over the top.

Nutritional Information

Calories 229 kcal
Fat 19g
Carbs 2.3g
Fiber 1g
Protein 11.3g

Pro tip- to reduce the calories fry the chorizo lightly first and then add the yam, removes the need for oil.

Bullet Proof Coffee

My utmost apologies for the photo of a cup of nearly drunk coffee, (however pretty the cup!) it is a testament to how tasty bullet proof coffee is that I forgot to take a picture at the beginning of the cup. I shall aim to take a better one tomorrow.

For those in the know, bullet proof coffee is an amazing, tasty, silky drink which ups your fat content for the day and gives you tonnes of energy. It originated here but given that I'm a poor student and still without a coffee machine my version is slightly different.

Ingredients

10g Unsalted butter (preferably organic grass fed, countrylife/kerry gold is great for this)

10g Coconut oil ( available from whole foods, the internet or a your local West Indian shop will stock it)

400ml Coffee (I use Sainsbury's instant because that is what I have in the cupboard)

1 tsp liquid sweetner (optional)

Make your coffee in the normal way, add the butter, coconut oil, sweetener and blend with a hand blender/ smoothie maker/ a really good whisk until you get a nice frothy head on it.

Half of you will now be recoiling in horror that I just suggested you put butter in coffee, but try it first. I hate anything in my coffee normally, but this is exactly what I needed in the morning so I skip breakfast and keep my calories for dinner. Mess with the ratios all you like, but this was perfect for me to drink without feeling like I was greasing my entire body for the day.

Nutritional Information

Calories 161 kcal

Fat 18.2g

Carbs 0g

Protein 0g

And this is what a full cup looks like: they don't stay full for long!

Chocolate Biscuits

I absolutely hate throwing anything away which could be useful, so made these chocolate square using the egg yolks left from my attempts at bread making (I will get that recipe to work soon promise!), and also because having slices of chorizo with my morning coffee just doesn't feel right, these are perfect as a morning biscuit, the base for a dessert or for a treat because you need a chocolate hit. They are half way between a cake and a biscuit, and came out quite thin. I might try making them thicker next time to see if I can get a more brownie like result.

Ingredients (makes 12 chocolate squares)

9 egg yolks
130g Sainsburys unsweetened dessicated coconut (ground into a fine powder)
40g Unsweetened cocoa powder
3tsp Liquid Sweetener
1tsp coffee granules dissolved in 1tbsp of hot water
5g Granulated Splenda


Line a baking tray with baking parchment and set the oven to 150 C/ 300 F. Whisk together all the egg yolks in a bowl, then add the powdered coconut, cocoa powder and liquid sweetener and continue whisking. At this point the mixture should be really dry and thick. Add the dissolved coffee and whisk the mixture until it is sticky. Pour the mixture onto the baking parchment and smooth out to about 1cm thickness  using a plastic spatula. Sprinkle the splenda on the top of the mixture and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, leave to cool on a baking rack and cut into squares.

Nutritional Information (per square)

Calories 122 kcal
Fat 11g
Carbs 1.4g
Protein 3.6g
Fibre  2.4g

Salmon mousse roll ups

Now this post was meant to be about bread, but I made the bread and it was a complete disaster, apparently I haven't got that recipe down yet.

So instead this recipe was born, based my love for smoked salmon, the fact it is currently on offer in Sainburys and also because I stole the recipe from my sister yesterday after I had the most amazing smoked salmon at Shaka Zulu.

Ingredients (makes enough mousse for 4 sets of 5 rolls)

150g Cream cheese
120g Smoked Salmon trimmings or honey roast salmon flakes (I buy the basics smoked salmon packets)
1/4 of a lemon's worth of juice
Cracked black pepper

1 layer of smoked salmon for wrapping

Mix together the cream cheese and smoked salmon trimmings. Crack in the black pepper and add the lemon juice and mix that in. Separate the layer of smoked salmon into separate strips, put a teaspoons worth of the mousse in the centre of the strip and roll it up.

I love this dish, and it will become one of my favourite lunches I'm sure, and will probably replace the smoked salmon casing with lettuce or I will be bankrupt before too long.


Nutritional Information (all rolls)

Calories 295 kcal
Fat 22g
Carbohydrate 1.6g
Protein 22.8g

Flaxseed Pancakes

Flaxseed has got to be one of tastiest things I have discovered since starting keto, and a lazy Sunday morning called for an extra special brunch: flaxseed pancake with bacon, a fried egg and cheese. The pancake is massively versatile, you can top it with an egg and cheese, just with cheese, replace the salt with splenda for a dessert or make it the night before and pop it in the toast the following morning and cover it with marmite for a quick breakfast.

Ingredients

15g butter  (I prefer country life but other brands work just as well)
20g Linwoods milled flaxseed
1 medium egg
A pinch of salt

First melt the butter in the microwave, then add the flaxseed and salt mix together, before stirring in the egg you should get a fairly thick mixture. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and just before it starts to bubble pour in the mixture, let it cook for a while and then flip it over.

If you want to add the bacon and egg I leave the pancake sitting on the side while I fry the bacon in the same pan, then finally the egg. That way you don't waste any of the fat or the flavour that you have from the butter.

Nutritional Information (just for the pancake)

Calories 318 kcal
Carbs 0.8g
Fat 31g
Protein 10g
Fibre  4g

Cheese crisps

One of the most common gripes with Keto is what to have as a snack which doesn't need refrigeration (bacon bits) and doesn't cost an arm and a leg (almonds). These crisps are my answer to that, and ridiculously simple to make.

Ingredients

Sainsburys basic cheese cheese slices (or the lowest carb per slice you can find)

Place a cheese slice on baking paper and microwave on high for 1 minute 10 seconds, or until crispy. Peel off and allow to cool before breaking into pieces.

I normally find 2 is enough, and makes a keto packet of crisps to keep in a bag/office/cupboard for when a craving hits.

Nutritional Information (for 2 slices)

Calories: 94 kcal

Carbs: 1.4g

Fat: 7.6g

Protein: 4.6g