Shaman

Low carb almond cake

This is a yummy cake that folks on low carb. diets and/or celiac disease can enjoy. It takes about an hour to bake, and about 20 minutes to whip up the ingredients. Here’s the list of ingredients:

• 2 cups almond flour (Also called almond meal)
• 1/2 cup granola (oats will also do)
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1 cup Eggbeaters
• 1 cup Splenda (If you use sugar-free syrup, use 1 1/2 cups)
• 1 stick of low-fat margarine
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 tablespoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons vanilla flavor
• 1 granny smith apple - 1/2 chopped fine, the other 1/2 cut into long, thin slices
• 1 tablespoon apple essence (Use a sachet of sugar-free apple cider powder as a substitute)

Start by combining all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix them well. Grease a baking dish with some margarine and coat the greased sides with some almond flour. Place the baking dish in a pre-heated oven at 350 F for about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the baking dish and keep aside. Slice the margarine block into quarter-sized pieces and add to the dry ingredients. Add the 1/2 cup of finely chopped apple pieces, along with a cup of the Eggbeaters and blend the ingredients with a spatula. Using a hand blender, combine all the ingredients into a homogeneous mixture. Add the vanilla and apple flavoring and continue to hand blend on low for about 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the dough to the baking dish, decorate the top of the wet dough with the thinly sliced apple slices and bake in the oven at 350 F for an hour. Allow the cake to cool down. Cut into slices and enjoy.

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Grilled vegetables with fresh pesto, and sauteed mushrooms with fresh tapenade

In other news, I finally managed to take apart my Canon 550EX flash and figure out what was wrong with it. A quick trip to Radio Shack, and it is back to working as good as new. The photographs above are testament to that. Hacking with a soldering iron feels good.

Update: Here are the recipes for the appetizers.

For the grilled vegetables, feel free to use frozen veggies. Thaw a bunch of veggies on a skillet heated to medium-high and coated with some olive oil.  Turn the veggies over from time to time till they are done. Sprinkle some salt and a pinch of freshly grated pepper.

For the pesto, here are the ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 a teaspoon of  grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon  freshly grated pepper
• A pinch of salt

Pulse the basil and the pine nuts in a food processor, constantly dribbling the extra virgin olive oil. Once a coarse paste is formed, add the garlic, Parmesan cheese and the grated pepper, along with a pinch of salt and continue to pulse till the pesto is done i.e. the mixture becomes a coarse paste. Add more EVOO depending on how thick you want the pesto to be. This makes about half a cup of fresh pesto.
For the mushroom sauté,  follow the instructions in my earlier blog post. Scroll down to the section on the sauteed mushrooms.

Here’s a simple Tapenade recipe:

•  1/2 a cup of pitted olives, finely chopped
• 1/4  cup of capers, with the brine washed off
• 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil
• Two to three sun-fried tomatoes (this is my touch), finely chopped
• A teaspoon of lime juice
• A teaspoon of vinegar
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of freshly grated pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a container, close the container and refrigerate for two to three hours. Serve as a dip, or with toasted bread slices, or a spread. Use within two to three days, and store unused portion in the refrigerator.

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Stuffed green peppers

For me, stuffed green peppers bring back memories of childhood. Mom used to whip up a batch whenever the family got together for a special lunch, which was usually on a Sunday. I decided to make them this past weekend. They are great on a cold, winter day, and make a healthy meal for the family. Mom’s original recipe called for a potato, onion and green pea stuffing. I decided to make some changes and went with an amalgamation of vegetables for the stuffing, and added a side of sauteed mushrooms.

The ingredients:

• 2 whole green peppers, with the top and seeds removed and cleaned
• 1/2 a cup of zucchini and squash slices
• 1/2 a cup of onion slices
• 1/4 cup of steamed edamame beans(you can use lima beans instead)
• 4 medium white mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup of carrots, sliced
• A stalk of green onions
• A stick of string cheese (you can use mozzarella instead)
• A pinch of paprika
• A pinch of lime juice

Clean the green peppers first. Wash them well, remove the top and the seeds.

Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 400 deg F for about an hour, turning them at the half way point. Check on them often, because you don’t want to overcook and burn them. Once they are done, you can optionally peel the skin from the green peppers. I prefer to leave them on.

For the stuffing, combine the vegetables in a sauté pan with a teaspoon of olive oil and cook on medium heat.

Add the garlic and ginger paste, along with a pinch of salt and stir well. Cook the vegetables for about 20 minutes. You still want them to be crunchy and al dente.

Spoon the stuffing into the peppers. Top the peppers with a few slices of string cheese.

Broil the peppers at 350 deg F for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese melts and begins to brown.

Remove from the broiler and plate.

Sauté the mushroom slices in a pan with a pinch of oil. Make sure that you cook the mushroom slices only on one side, so they retain some moisture.

Plate the mushroom slices and sprinkle some fresh pepper on them.

Sprinkle some lime juice on the green peppers before serving.

You can also add some color and flavor by adding some chopped green onions.

I like to top them off with a pinch of paprika too.

So there you have it. Stuffed green peppers with sauteed mushrooms. A healthy and tasty meal on a cold winter day.

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Low carb. chocolate fudge pudding with almond cake and strawberry jello

The sugar-free jello is 0 carbs.
The recipe for the almond cupcakes is here (3.5 grams carb.)
The sugar-free chocolate fudge pudding is the typical Jello recipe (2 cups of cold low-fat milk). For this dessert, there’s 1/2 a cup. The milk has 6 grams of carb., and the pudding mix has about 8 grams of carb. (Nutrition label can be found here) for a half cup serving depicted above. Net. carbs work out to about 15 grams.

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Grilled tofu with vegetables in adobo sauce

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