sugar free

GF SF Pizzookie + Ice Cream

Hey, y’all. 🙂

I’m feeling better. Last week was super rough. Initially I was supposed to only have 2 procedures but then ended up needing a 3rd one on Friday. The pain was unbearable at times but I seem to be turning a corner now.

If you’re following along on Instagram you already know this but if not…I ate super bland and comfort type food for the first few days and then Saturday tried cheese shell tacos.

Oh my gravy, y’all that was so good. Y’all know I make cheese chips all the time. I’ve been making those since the first time I tried Low Carb eating back in ’08. But I never tried turning them into taco shells.  So much wasted time. 🙂

Anyway, through everything I’ve stayed completely on plan and I’m kinda proud of that too. 🙂

🙂

So today was my half bday. 😉

Even Omaha Steaks ‘noticed’ and offered me some kinda 1/2 off birthday combo. 😉 I didn’t buy it but thanks, OS. 🙂

We’ve been doing the whole half bday thing for a couple years now. Last year I went out to my fav Mexican place but this year I didn’t feel like that at all.

I had to have a treat though and wanted it to be 100% on plan.

So…

First I made a 1/4 of this elana’s pantry chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I used butter instead of shortening. Swerve (doubled amount) in place of coconut sugar, and chunks of this chocolate bar I make weekly. 🙂 Mixed. Shaped and into icebox overnight.

😉

Then I made a half batch of 3 ingredient no churn ice cream

If you’re not familiar with that…the regular recipe is 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 2 cup heavy cream and vanilla.

Well sweetened condensed milk is not really keto friendly so I searched and found this recipe (scroll down to the bottom of the page for the recipe).

I made a half batch. Subbed Splenda for the Swerve because it crystalized like crazy.

AND I made it in the microwave instead of on the stove. I didn’t feel like messing with anything like that for hours. 🙂  In my microwave it took about 8 minutes to cook down by half. I kept checking every 2 minutes.

It reduced by half but didn’t really thicken until I added the xanthan gum but once I did (and it rested) it was perfect. Obviously not sticky sweet like regular condensed milk but the taste was great.

Sorry I don’t have pics of any of these stages but I’m just now feeling better and didn’t feel like messing with the camera while prepping all of this.

So then I used the Vitamix to whip the cream and vanilla. Then gently mixed in the condensed milk by hand.

Put it in the freezer overnight.

Then today had one of the best keto things I’ve made yet. 🙂

The cookie wasn’t quite that dark…that pan is an aqua / teal blue…something is off with the pics.

The ice cream did freeze solid and needed plenty of counter time to become scoopable but it got there. I want to do some research to see if I can add something else to it to keep if from freezing solid for next time. I’ve seen people add a tiny bit of vodka to their homemade ice cream before. Maybe that would help.

I don’t know but I’ll have to come up with something because I can’t imagine ever paying for another sugarfree ice cream. This is too easy to make and taste wise a million times better.

This week is early voting for local elections in Texas.  Maybe wherever you call home too, non-Texans.  Get out there and make a difference NOW, y’all.  Don’t sit around waiting for 2018 – 20.  Do something NOW and start at home in your own communities. 🙂

That’s all for today.

Y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

 

Orange Cake 100 days and Birthday Wishes

Hey, y’all. 🙂

First…Happy Birthday to Sister B. The best sister a girl could wish for.  I hope you have an awesome day.  🙂

So…

I did it, y’all. 🙂

100 days.

No grains or sugar for 100 days and no dairy for 50 days. 🙂

I’m pretty proud of myself. It’s been rough in some ways but super zen in others.  It was the weirdest thing.  I didn’t have any inner debate with myself over trying this.  In late August I really did just wake up one day and say to myself “enjoy Labor Day and then you’re doing this grain free  / sugar free thing for a while”.  There was no way I could have given up the dairy right from the start.  It’s what got me thru that first month.  But I’m so glad I eventually tried getting rid of it too.

The whole point of trying this was to try to help my autoimmune inflammation. It’s helped a lot but I’ve just got so much of it raging in my body that it’s going to take a lot longer.

I’m planning to stick with this for as long as I can.  Hopefully this is now a lifestyle change but I learned a long time ago to never say forever.  It’s a one day at a time kind of thing and today…I am still all in.  🙂

Before / current. Before was August and current was this weekend.

Logo from the shirt in the current pic.  You can never have too many y’all Christmas shirts.  😉

Remember that caramel I wrote about last week? That’s what it looked like in action.

I read about this orange cake where you boil 2 oranges for 2 hours then..

Throw the whole oranges peel and all (chopped into chucks) into the food processor and process to mushy.

Add 2 cups almond flour, 4 eggs, 1 – 2 cups sugar (I used xylitol), 1 heaping tsp baking powder and process til well blended.

Bake at 350* for about 45 minutes.  I glazed it with a ghee / xylitol reduction.

It’s kind of pound cake-esque. I loved the flavor and the texture was good but I did have a reaction to the acidic oranges.  If not for that I’d totally make this again sometime.

In that caramel post I wrote about using Ideal brand xylitol / splenda sweetener.  I switched over to this for the cake along with some added liquid splenda and that’s going to be my new mix.

Quick side note…a reader reached out and wanted to know how I can claim to be staying below 25g carbs / day when using xylitol. The answer to that is that I don’t count sugar alcohols at all. I’ve tested my blood sugar after eating them and they have zero effect on me. For example an hour after a piece of that orange cake my blood tested at 80.  Two hours after it tested at 78.  (I’m not diabetic but someone in my house is so I just used their testing machine to test it out. I also did it when I decided to allow the occasional potato.)  Anyway…that’s just how my body works.  You have to know your own body before you decide not to count sugar alcohols.  As I’ve said many times though…you do you and don’t worry about me.  🙂

Ok that’s all for today. Hope y’all are having a great week. 🙂