Cereal – A Family Favorite!

Posted in Ketogenic Diet, Recipes by ten40s

Everyone of Autumn’s brothers and sisters love cereal, and it’s also her dad’s favorite nighttime snack 😉 . Because most cereals are not all that nutritious, we try to limit cereal to once a week. Almost always the number one requested item for a birthday breakfast is Cinnamon Toast Crunch…not exactly a health food! 🙂

Autumn, however, can have have cereal on any day of the week – due to this yummy chocolate cereal from The Charlie Foundation/Keto Cook created by – once again, the infamous Dawn Martenz.

You will find the recipe for a 3:1 ratio here: http://ketocook.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/chocolate-breakfast-cereal-handout.jpg

You can raise the ratio by using cream instead of almond milk. We also use cream so that Autumn can add in some fruit. I have, at times, modified this recipe to make a “cinnamon toast crunch” cereal as well.

Here are the items we use in making it:

Mix ingredients as directed in recipe. We make a “10 times” batch so we have quite a bit of dough that we separate onto 3 parchment lined cookie sheets:

You need to be watchful of the taste testers:

Then place another piece of parchment paper over the dough and roll out thin :

It actually works better to roll it out on the table/counter than on the cookie sheet:

Then “score” each pan of dough into bite-size pieces:

After they are all done baking, we break the pieces up and measure all the cereal:

Then we divide that number by however number batches we made. Although we make a “10 times batch” we often divide by nine due to people taking “snitches” of the batter and losing a bit in making it. We then store each amount into its own separate plastic baggie:

We store all the bags in one container and keep it in the refrigerator….so we can just pop out a bag for breakfast…not just for birthdays…but any day!

Keto Joy!

Raspberry Chocolate-Bar Parfait

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet, Recipes by ten40s

This was the second treat featured on our Valentine’s Day Page:

Yes, it is that amazing!

You need three things for this recipe – One bar of “Skinny Chocolate” (click here for recipe), raspberries (fresh or frozen), and cream.

(See “Recipe Tab” for exact measurements)

First, measure ratio amount of cream and whip:

Next, add sweetener of choice:

Finally, break you bar of “Skinny Chocolate” into small pieces:

Next, Layer the whip cream, raspberries and chocolate bar into a glass:

And then….

Stand back and admire the scrumptious fruit of your work!!!

Keto Joy!

Berry Stylin’ with PB & J!

Posted in Ketogenic Diet, Recipes by ten40s

There are probably more carbs in one traditional peanut and jelly sandwich than what are allowed in an entire week on the keto diet – BUT that doesn’t keep Autumn from enjoying one! This recipe once again comes from Dawn Martenz’ Keto Cookbook. We just quadruple the recipe and bake it in a pan instead of putting into muffin cups, although when we first started the diet we always used muffin cups – do what works for you!

Here are the ingredients for the bread/muffins:

(Click on “Recipes” tab for exact measurements.)

You can with use either Whole Ground Flaxseed Meal or Golden Flaxseed Meal.

Measure out all ingredients.

This shows 2 quadruple batches. Put in 35 degree oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes

Once cooled, cut the bread into small squares and weigh the entire amount:Weigh the entire bread amount and then divide by 4 to get weight for 4 individual portions. Measure that individual amount out and place into a small ziplock bag:

Place all your bags in a container and store them either in the refrigerator or freezer. Whenever you are going to make a sandwich just take a bag out to thaw for a bit before using.

Ok, so when you are actually ready to make a good old peanut butter and jelly sandwich, here is what we do:

Measure out the peanut butter and butter and mix together:

Then spread it evenly on your bread – although Autumn often licks quite a bit from the spatula before it makes it on to the bread 🙂

Then measure out your fruit. A note here: You can use whatever fruit you like – just check your amounts in the ketocalculator. You will see a picture here of measuring out blueberries. However, she often takes raspberries and stirs them up with a pinch of stevia to make a jelly – see the very first picture at the top of this post. You can use either fresh or frozen berries.

And its Keto Joy PBJ ala blueberry style…

Or Raspberry style!

Keto-Joy stylin’ all around 🙂

If it’s Christmas…There Must Be Chocolates!

Posted in Ketogenic Diet, Recipes by ten40s

Well…there must be chocolates AND “Reese’s” peanut butter cups any time of year! I’m back at home and – yikes – all of Autumn’s chocolates are gone, which means my chocolates are gone too! We must have our delectably delicious chocolate treats for Christmas! I think I actually got these recipes out of “The Keto Kid” by Debbie Snyder and just made a few tweaks. They are so good…I actually could eat half the batch while I am stirring it in the pan – even before it hardens! So whether you are a keto kid or just want to enjoy some low carb treats – you will love these!

Here is what you need for the chocolates (Click on the “Recipes” tab for exact measurements):

Measure out the correct ratio of your ingredients, put every thing in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil – whisking constantly.

Chop up your nuts a bit and add to the pan of chocolate and stir:

Next, we place a little bit of chocolate in mini-muffin cups, but you could pour it into any type of mold or pan and divide as you would like. (If you are making “Reese’s” peanut putter cups you will want to set aside some of the chocolate mixture – see recipe directions further down on page.)

We then put this tray in the freezer to harden – it only takes a few minutes. Once frozen, we place in a storage container and keep them in the freezer.

Now, for the peanut butter cups, you will need:

Simply stir together your ratio of butter, peanut butter, sweetener of choice and a pinch of salt, if desired. Because had it on hand, I sometimes have added a few drops of Bickford peanut butter flavoring – but it is not necessary for the recipe.

We then put a small portion of that mixture into each cavity of a candy mold – we make 20 “cups” with this recipe:

We then put these in the freezer to harden just a bit, then take them out and press your thumb in the middle to make a small indentation. Now, I have spent the last 10 minutes looking for the picture I took of making indents with my thumb and can’t find it! But, I am sure you can figure it out :). Next, fill the “indents” with some of the chocolate from the “Chocolates” recipe from above:

Once they are all filled, place in freezer to harden. Once firm, take out and remove from molds. You can then either freeze them or…

…eat them! Let that chocolate just melt in your mouth! Definitely Keto-Joy!!!!

Apple Spice Doughnut Bites…Yes, Donuts!

Posted in Ketogenic Diet, Recipes, Resources by ten40s

This recipe comes from Dawn Martenz’s blog at ketocook.com. Dawn is the author of “The Keto Cookbook.” This is the cookbook I mentioned in both the video and under the “Resources” tab. As I have stated before – we lived in this cookbook; it was the foundation for everything we made when we first started out on the diet. There is soooo much good information on her blog, so make sure you check it out!

You could add a bit of pumpkin pie spice to these to give these a “Thanksgiving Flavor.”

http://ketocook.com/2012/09/22/apple-cinnamon-doughnut-holes/

It’s Sunday, so…..

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet, Recipes, Uncategorized by ten40s

…That wonderful smell must be chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven!

Chocolate chip cookies are to Sundays what pizza is to Fridays….Mainstay Yum!

Warm chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven are the one food that EVERYONE in our family of 11 (and counting) agrees are absolutely the best food life has to offer (well almost :)).

So of course we had to find a recipe for Autumn as well – and we did! Sometimes she will have these along with a chocolate or vanilla shake or chocolate milk!

Here is what you will need (Click on “Recipes”tab for exact measurements):

Weigh and combine all ingredients in small dish:

Put dime size amount of batter on parchment-lined cookie sheet:

Place in 350 degree oven for about 6-8 minutes depending on your oven:

And serve up! That is once again…Keto Joy!

Ice cream shakes and chocolate milk – everyday!

Posted in Home, Ketogenic Diet, Recipes by ten40s

When I first inquired about the ketogenic diet, a nurse told me, “It is really hard, you have to drink cream on the diet.”

And that is considered hard? 🙂

Let me just say that I would like to indulge in as much cream as Autumn gets to enjoy!

Autumn often has ice cream shakes several times throughout the week, but almost always on late Sunday afternoons because all her siblings love a big batch of Jamocha shakes for….dinner! We eat a late lunch so the shakes are a late dessert/dinner 🙂

(If Autumn is having “milk” with one of her meals, she just measures out the needed amount of cream, adds a little water and some chocolate stevia drops for a delicious chocolate milk.)

These are the ice cream shake ingredients (Click on “Recipes” tab for exact measurements):

First, measure out your cream and unsweetened coconut milk, then blend it on high until it is no longer runny.

This is what it will look like. Now it doesn’t look like there is much there, but just wait!

Next you add ice cubes and frozen coconut milk cubes.

We have never hooked up our icemaker so they are standard ‘ice cube tray” size. I pour the coconut milk in the tray and freeze them (then store them in ziplock bag), so we always have frozen cubes on hand. The plastic bag contains 3 frozen coconut milk cubes and 3 ice cubes. For some reason the blender (even though it is a Vitamix) does not blend smaller amounts well, so I crush the cubes up with that good old meat mallet before adding them to the blender.

Then measure your cocoa and sweetener of choice. Today, Autumn wanted to have a chocolate raspberry shake..yum..delicious..so we added some Sweetleaf drops. Add a dash of salt, and blend all the yumminess together!

Pour into a favorite festive glass..and….

Enjoy that cream!!!!

Sometimes we have chocolate chip cookies to go with them….and Autumn does too. I will post that recipe soon!

Wonderful Wednesday Waffles

Posted in Home, Recipes, Uncategorized by ten40s

Well….Wonderful Waffles any day of the week!

The wonderfully, warm, maplely, aroma when these are “baking” in the waffle iron inevitably brings one of my kids…then another and another….into the kitchen saying, “Yum that smells so good, what are you making?” but alas…they are only for their Keto- sister Autumn to enjoy – oh, the benefits of being on the diet! This recipe comes from The Keto Cookbook listed under resources. We quadruple the batch, several times over, and then freeze them so they are ready to have on hand whenever you want to serve up, well… “Wonderfulness” 😉

Here are the ingredients you will need (See “Recipe Tab” for exact measurements)

The first thing you need to do is measure out how many pecans you will need. You then “grind” them until they are into very small pieces. We have tried using a blender, but for some reason pecans just don’t grind well. We put the nuts in a double plastic bag and get out the good old meat mallet (works great when you can’t find a hammer as well 🙂 ) and start pounding away. To save time, we “pound” a big batch of nuts at a time. This only takes a few minutes and some of the kids think its fun. Any extra nuts you have, store in the fridge – which is where we keep all of our nuts to keep them fresher longer.

Next beat your eggs, and add a bit of maple flavoring – or any other flavoring you might like. Bickford Brands is the brand that Debbie Snyder recommends in Keto Kid. Then add the rest of your ingredients, stir it up and pour into waffle iron.

Depending on your waffle iron they will cook for about 7-8 minutes – and your house will smell so good!

After these are cooled we wrap each one in its own bag and then put them all in a large freezer bag and into the freezer they. They are then ready when you are. When it comes time to eat one, we top it with whip cream (don’t let anyone discourage you by saying you have to use a lot of cream on the diet – I only wish I could enjoy as much as my daughter does!) and berries. Measure your cream, beat it up, add a bit of your preferred sweetener…

Spread it on…yum…

measure your berries…

top that waffle….And ENJOY a bite of wonderfulness!

Monday’s Breakfast – Peanut Butter Cookies, Apples and Dip

Posted in Home, Recipes by ten40s

I asked Autumn this morning what was for breakfast and she said “Mom, I always have peanut butter cookies on Monday.”

So I got out the camera and started taking pictures!

I had a mom call me several weeks ago asking some questions about the diet. She had seen a picture of Autumn eating peanut butter cookies on my FB page asked me for the recipe. She had not started the diet yet and was just trying to go “low-carb with her son. When I started to write out the recipe for her, I realized that if you have never made a keto-recipe it would be hard to explain the size of how things look – thus was another reason to start the blog to show people what a keto meal/dessert looks like:

Here are the ingredients you need: (See “Recipes” tab for exact measurements)

Now, when you mix these up all you need is a small cup – yet you will end up with 16-18 “mini” cookies:

A tip when adding egg: Typically you only need a few grams of egg in a recipe. Mix an egg in a small food storage container and then pour just what you need into your recipe and store the rest in the fridge.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together and then place a “dime-size” amount of batter per cookie on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 7 minutes. We have a convection oven so oven times may vary.

These cookies can be made as a “snack” but this recipe has “apples and peanut butter” added to it to make it more of a meal. While the cookies are baking, add together the peanut butter, butter, coconut oil and a bit of stevia and stir. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature so we put a little in a metal measuring cup, heat it up on the stove to melt and then measure it into the batter.

When we first started out in the diet we were at a 4:1 ratio. And although at that ratio you don’t get a whole lot of apple, they are still tasty! The picture here is a 2.5:1 ratio. The key is to cut the apples thin so there are lots of slices to go with all the cookies 🙂

Here is what the cookies look like after baking:

And here is what it looks like all together – Autumn loves to dip the apples and the cookies in the sauce!

Of course I forgot to take a picture of her eating them this morning, but here is one from her birthday breakfast – Yum Yum!

Cheesecake Berry Crunch – simply yumifiable!

Posted in Home, Recipes by ten40s

Cheesecake Berry Crunch is not only one of Autumn’s favorites, but a family favorite as well!

This is a heavenly blend of raspberries, blueberries, pecans and cream cheese – all mixed together it tastes like raspberry ice cream – only better!

This recipe actually comes from the book Trim and Healthy Mama by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett. I will be doing a post about this book in the future. The book has nothing to do with seizures BUT it tells you everything on how to be a Trim Healthy Mama, which helps you have lots of energy when you have 8 kids and your youngest starts having seizures! I tweaked the original recipe a bit by changing the almonds to pecans because pecans have a higher fat ratio.

Put your ratio of ingredients in a small blender or use a hand blender with attachment (which is what we use), and then blend. (See “Recipes” tab for exact measurements.)

Then pour into a dessert type glass. Autumn and her sisters have fun going to Goodwill to find wonderful crystal stemware for serving up desserts. When doing the keto-diet, “presentation’ of a meal or dessert can really add to the joy of eating it! 🙂

Then it is time for…

Keto Joy!