"Chili" Keto Sin Carne

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I'm only calling this "Chili" because the idea was based on Chili. This has no tomato, no beans, no meat. So it's hard to call it Chili. It has almonds, walnuts, cauliflower, coconut "milk", mushrooms (I love Shiitake), spices..... (and, though it doesn't taste a thing like chili, I really think it came out good)

I started with a 10 ounce bag of organic almonds. I put it in a pot of spiced (and salted) water (I have my spice mix, but you might want to choose spices to your own liking). I boiled the water and added the almonds. I cooked it on simmer with the pot covered for about an hour and a quarter. While the almonds were boiling, I steamed a bag of frozen cauliflower and a bag of frozen riced cauliflower. I also sauteed up a lot of shiitake mushrooms (I used frozen and rehydrated dehydrated) in olive oil with a bit of spice mix and salt.

When the cauliflower was really soft, I put it in the blender with one cup of unsweetened coconut "milk" and 1 1/2 cups of the spiced almond water. I added some more spice mix, and a teaspoon each of lion's mane mushroom powder, reishi mushroom powder and kale powder. It needed to be blended a few times (because of the thickness) but when you blend it all together, it's the sauce.

When the almonds are done, drain them, add the sauce (some may be left over), 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and the mushrooms (as much as possible -- I can't imagine there'd be a way there would be too many mushrooms). Mix, eat and enjoy (just don't expect it to taste like chili). The mushrooms add a meaty taste.

Ketogenic Crackers, Vegan Edition

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So, as you may recall, I started on a ketogenic diet. This is a high fat, low carb, sort of medium protein diet. I've been experimenting -- being vegan on this diet is a challenge, but, then again, life as a vegan is a challenge. 

I joined a FB list of other people doing the Ketogenic Mamba, trying to balance what they need to do with making sure they are in ketosis (I check my urine every morning like I did many years ago when I was on Atkins to see if I'm in Ketosis).

So someone asked about something crunchy and someone put up a recipe for keto crackers. It included eggs and cheese, so I decided to try a vegan version. This is what I came up with:

1 cup almond flour
1/8 cup chopped walnuts (almost as fine as the flour)
1/4 teaspoon my spice mix (choose your favorite)
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon lion's mane mushroom powder
1/8 teaspoon pink (Himalayan) salt
1/8 smoked paprika
1/8 cup ground chia seeds (instead of eggs)
1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast (cheesy)
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut (or other non-dairy) "milk"

I mixed together all the dry ingredients and then blended in the coconut milk. It made a nice dough and I rolled it out with a rolling pin between two pieces of parchment paper and cut it into rectangle and put up to bake for 15 minutes.

They came out delicious.....

My Version of a Vegan Ketogenic Breakfast

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Back when I was in my teens and 20s, I was quite fat. I tried just about every diet on the market and one of the diets I tried was the Atkins diet. But, then again, this was before I became a vegetarian. It wasn't that difficult to keep on the Atkins diet as an omnivore. I lost a lot of weight in the first couple of weeks, but when the pounds stopped coming off, I lost interest in marinaded steaks and crispy chicken skin. And, quickly, the weight came back.

Fast forward X years. I've been a vegetarian now for 40 years, 28 of them as a vegan. And, while I did lose quite a bit of weight since then (about 80 or so) I still have about 30 or 40 or so pounds I'd like to drop (and I'd like my waist measurement to get below 35") so I still try to figure out how to improve my diet, how to lose weight.

Right now, I'm on a diet similar to Atkins in that it is low in carbohydrates. But the Ketogenic Diet is high in fat.

So, I was watching the Dr. Oz Show and they were discussing the Ketogenic diet and one of the women told of her breakfast. Since I started eating my version of this "Granola", I've, Thank G-d, started doing better.

I am currently eating Walnuts, Almonds and Macadamia nuts. So I buy containers and bags of Organic nuts in these three varieties, take each container and process them in the food processor to get chopped nuts. I take 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup each of chopped almonds and macadamia, 2 Tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut, 1 Tablespoon chia seeds, 1/4 teaspoon powdered stevia, and sometimes I add one or more of these: 1/4-1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, grated zest of 1/2 lemon, 1/4 teaspoon powdered vanilla. I mix this all together and add enough of either coconut "milk" or a vegan (the one I have now is almond based) liquid yogurt. I mix it all together and let it sit a bit before eating.

I also discovered that Bengal Spice (Celestial Seasonings) with a bit of stevia (1/8 teaspoon) and a Tablespoon or so of vegan "half and half" makes a great breakfast drink (and wind down at the end of the day drink).

BTW, I went to the Stop and Shop tonight after my last tutoring student. I bought out the last two containers of organic walnuts. I got to talking to the woman who was in front of me on line and I told her why I bought the walnuts (I needed them for breakfast). I also wrote down the name of my blog so she could "Google" it -- so I hope she finds this blog....

Added 1 7 2018: I started making a hot version of this -- put all the ingredients into a small-medium pot with a good cover -- cover the pot and put it on the lowest flame possible for about 10 or so minutes then let it sit another 10 or so minutes. Add the chia AFTER you cook the rest.

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

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I was at one of our local health food stores today where I met a young woman named Monet (sorry if I spelled that wrong). Somehow, we got to talking about us both being vegans and I mentioned that my diet was even more limited. She asked me what I ate for breakfast and I told her that lately I've been eating a Blueberry Breakfast Cake.

I started making the Cake after I began by using this recipe for Blueberry Breakfast Scones, but I started getting too lazy to make the batter into scones, so I use a loaf pan (lined with unbleached parchment paper).

I start with 1/2 an 8 ounce jar of organic unsweetened peanut butter (I like crunchy), 1/2 cup of pea protein (unsweetened, unflavored), 1 teaspoon powdered stevia, and flavoring, like vanilla (1/2 teaspoon powder) or grated organic lemon rind (from about one lemon), for example, 1/2 cup of (unsweetened) coconut milk (or almond, soy, cashew milk) and 1/2 cup almond "flour". I mix it all together. Then I add 1 cup of frozen, unsweetened organic blueberries. (Sometimes, I add 1/4 cup chopped walnuts.) Adjust the consistency with more coconut milk (if it's too stiff) or almond flour (if it's too loose). Pour it into a loaf pan (lines with parchment paper) and bake at about 300 to 350 degrees from 20-30 minutes. Check after about 20 minutes to see if it's "done" and bake more if needed.

I put it in the refrigerator and cut off a "slab" every morning -- sometimes I warm it in the oven (for a few minutes at about 250 degrees) or eat it cold. Hope you like it.

Half-Cup Blueberry-Maple-Walnut Pancakes

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I had a craving for pancakes the other day. I don't know why, I just did. And, recently, when my alternative care medical practitioner put me on a very restrictive diet (not much more than the diet I was already one, but some things I hadn't been eating were allowed) he did permit me peanut butter (which I love) and berries. Since I'm allergic to strawberries, that, in my mind, meant blueberries and blackberries.

So I decided to try my hand at pancakes. I started with my 1/2 cup (hence the "Half-Cup" in the name) and took 1/2 cup of pea protein and 1/2 cup of almond "flour" (meal). To this I added 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, 1/2 cup blueberries (plus a few blackberries -- both were frozen), 1/4 teaspoon each vanilla powder, stevia powder and maple extract. I then added 1/2 cup (chunky) peanut butter and 1 cup (or two 1/2 cups) almond "milk". I blended it all together.

I took a parchment lined cookie sheet and spooned out the batter into rounds (the first day I had 4, the second day I had 7 and today I have 9). I put them in the oven -- this took some figuring out -- the first day, I put the temperature on 400F and left it in for 17 minutes (it got at big scorched), yesterday I put it in at 400F for 15 minutes (a bit less scorched). Today, I started at 350F and left it 13 minutes, then another 5 and then another 5. And that seems to work....

Wheat (Grain) Free Kishka

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I decided to make some easy to eat food to put in the freezer for later on. So I was thinking yesterday about how I could make vegan kishke that I could eat with my current "nuts, non-starchy vegetables, pea protein, herbal tea, stevia" and pretty much nothing else diet. I realize that people who are allergic or sensitive to nuts can't eat most of these recipes, but I can't eat much of anything else.

Anyway, I made some "flax eggs" [note added 4/22/2020: if you, like me right now, can't eat flax, you can substitute ground chia seeds cup for cup, or should I say 1/4 cup for 1/4 cup]-- 1/4 cup ground flax seeds with 3/4 cup of (filtered) water -- and whirred it together in a food processor -- then I added 1- 1 1/2 cups loosely measured coarse shredded carrots (I used a mix of three different colors of carrots) and whirred some more. Earlier, I had minced up 4-6 cloves of garlic (I leave the garlic for 1/2 hour before I cook with it) then, after about 15 minutes, I sliced up 3 scallions, greens and all and sauteed them in a tablespoon red palm oil (you can use coconut oil also) with 1 1/2 teaspoon of my spice mix (I use a mixture of many spices that I mix myself) and 1/8 teaspoon (or to taste) pink or sea salt. I also soaked a handful of dried mixed mushrooms (broken into smaller pieces) and strained them and put them in with the scallions. After the half hour of waiting was up, I added the garlic.

After the scallions, mushrooms and garlic cooked through and cooled a bit, I added them to the "flax eggs" with the mushroom soaking water. I whirred it around and put it in a mixing bowl. To this, I added 1/2 cup each of unflavored pea protein, almond "flour" (meal) and hazelnut "flour" (meal). I mixed that all together (with a spoon and my hands as needed).

I put the "dough" into parchment lined aluminum foil and rolled them like a tube and twisted the ends (parchment paper inside the foil) and baked them at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

High Protein Vegan Cake

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I was energetic in the kitchen yesterday and decided to make a cake with pea protein. I often make sweets with stevia and pea protein (I don't like to have smoothies/vegan shakes every day and even if I wanted to, I can't on Shabbat and Jewish Holidays). Yesterday, I even did a spread sheet of the nutritional breakdown of the base recipe.

This is the recipe for a base cake -- you can add all sorts of things for the flavor -- vanilla (the cake I made yesterday was vanilla spice -- I put in 1 teaspoon of powder vanilla, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon each ground coriander and ground cloves and 1 teaspoon -- equal to about 4 cups of sugar in sweetness -- powdered stevia [when it comes to stevia, different types sweeten differently, so my advice is to get used to the sweetness of the stevia you use and adjust to taste]), you can try cacao powder for chocolate (with or without cacao nibs to simulate chocolate chips), lemon (using lemon juice and/or grated lemon rind/zest), fruit in general (frozen blueberries work nicely), nuts (pecans and walnuts are probably best, almond would probably work also), etc.

Cake Base recipe:

1/4 ground fax seeds (whirred in the food processor with 1 cup filtered water) = "flax eggs"
2 cups Unflavored Unsweetened pea protein powder
1 cup each Almond and Hazelnut meal/flour (or any combination of nut meals to equal 2 cups)
2 Tablespoons Cashew (or other nut) butter
2-3 cups Cashew (or other non-dairy) "milk"
Flavor ingredients (including Stevia) -- see above

Add the Cashew butter to the "flax eggs" and whir until blended. Put the protein powder and nut flours in a bowl, add the flavor ingredients, "flax egg"/nut butter mixture and Cashew "milk" and mix (with a mixer or a spoon) until all ingredients are blended in and the batter is "cake batter" consistency. Put it in an 8" square pan (I line mine with parchment paper so it comes out easily) and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees (check at 45 minutes and then every few minutes after that).

Table of nutritional information:

Serv size	Calories	Fat grams	Sat Fat grams	Carbs	Protein
Entire Cake	2485	150	11	70	222
1/16 Cake	155.3125	9.375	0.6875	4.375	13.875
1/8 Cake	310.625	18.75	1.375	8.75	27.75

I try to get around 30 grams of protein per meal, if possible, so I like the 1/8th of the cake -- I put on "icing" -- which I made from cashew butter, stevia and cashew "milk" and a bit of vanilla (1/4 teaspoon), and cinnamon (also 1/4 teaspoon) -- about 1/3-1/2 jar of cashew butter and "milk" until I get the consistency I want. (I whir it up in the food processor -- my food processor has a place on the cover where I can add liquids without stopping and opening the cup)

I'd love to hear from anyone who tries this how the base recipe works with different flavor additions.