Today I am really excited to make cream cheese pancakes. I haven't had them in a few days. I don't think I've tried making them with the 1/3 fat cream cheese either. It has less carbs compared to the full fat. I found this wonderful recipe on a blog that I love, I Breathe... I'm Hungry... The only alteration was swerve instead of splenda. The original recipe is here.
I've picked up a few low carb tips in the last 6 weeks The Land of Lakes heavy cream has 0 carbs, so does the Horizon brand. Hot sauce and mustard don't have any carbs. I bought low sugar ketchup and it is actually good. The Ken's ranch is also low carb. I'm sure I will keep learning new things and choosing favorite brands. I just ordered some Now brand erythritol. Until now I have only had swerve, and I love it. I'm curious to see how the Now brand does though. It should be here tomorrow thanks to my amazon prime membership. I did learn that the Smuckers sugar free jelly with truvia has maltitol which is a sugar alcohol that is not so great. I won't be getting that again. I don't need blackberry jelly this morning because I will be having the real thing.
I am going to be putting some whip cream and blackberries on these babies. I haven't had whip cream from a can in a while, and I'm excited to try the extra creamy variety. The recipe for cream cheese pancakes is pretty easy. I'm all out of swerve at the moment, so I won't be sweetening these, but it will be okay since I'm adding whip cream and berries.
Later I'll be making chicken alfredo zoodles. This time I'll be using summer squash instead of zucchini though. It will be a new experiment, and I'm excited to see how it will turn out.
I've picked up a few low carb tips in the last 6 weeks The Land of Lakes heavy cream has 0 carbs, so does the Horizon brand. Hot sauce and mustard don't have any carbs. I bought low sugar ketchup and it is actually good. The Ken's ranch is also low carb. I'm sure I will keep learning new things and choosing favorite brands. I just ordered some Now brand erythritol. Until now I have only had swerve, and I love it. I'm curious to see how the Now brand does though. It should be here tomorrow thanks to my amazon prime membership. I did learn that the Smuckers sugar free jelly with truvia has maltitol which is a sugar alcohol that is not so great. I won't be getting that again. I don't need blackberry jelly this morning because I will be having the real thing.
I am going to be putting some whip cream and blackberries on these babies. I haven't had whip cream from a can in a while, and I'm excited to try the extra creamy variety. The recipe for cream cheese pancakes is pretty easy. I'm all out of swerve at the moment, so I won't be sweetening these, but it will be okay since I'm adding whip cream and berries.
Later I'll be making chicken alfredo zoodles. This time I'll be using summer squash instead of zucchini though. It will be a new experiment, and I'm excited to see how it will turn out.
Cream Cheese Pancakes
Ingredients
2 eggs
2 oz cream cheese
1 tsp swerve
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Directions
Put all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Let rest for 2 minutes so the bubbles can settle. Pour 1/4 of the batter into a hot pan greased with butter. Cook for 1-2 minutes until golden, flip and cook 30 seconds-1 minute on the other side. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Serve with whipped cream and fresh berries.
Nutrition
1 Batch of only the pancakes - 280 calories, >2 carbs
2 eggs
2 oz cream cheese
1 tsp swerve
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Directions
Put all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Let rest for 2 minutes so the bubbles can settle. Pour 1/4 of the batter into a hot pan greased with butter. Cook for 1-2 minutes until golden, flip and cook 30 seconds-1 minute on the other side. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Serve with whipped cream and fresh berries.
Nutrition
1 Batch of only the pancakes - 280 calories, >2 carbs
The pancakes turned out great! I added a little bit of almond milk to my coffee. It is basically 0 carb. It's unsweetened vanilla from Blue Diamond. The berries were wonderful, and I'm glad to report the extra creamy Reddi Whip was delicious. It's so hard for me to not overdo the whip cream, but I was able to control myself this morning. My carb count is a little bit up this morning, but I don't have any carbs planned for lunch. I'm eating leftover fajita chicken, flax crackers, and cream cheese.
I decided to check out the new Whole Foods in town. I also needed swerve, and I couldn't wait until tomorrow for the NOW erythritol. I really wanted to make this pie. I stumbled upon this method by accident. I was making half of a keto chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I forgot to add the swerve. I was going to throw out the chocolate chip "muffins" then I decided to crumble them up, add the swerve I forgot and 2 tbsp of butter, and then bake a pie crust. It worked great. I put in a peanut butter cheesecake type pie on top of my crust. I decided to do that again, but I halved the peanut butter pie recipe. It is extremely rich. I'll include the recipe for the cookies and pie. I found the recipe for the filling here, and I used a chocolate chip recipe from the wonderful blog ruled.me. His cookies are great by themselves too.
Chocolate Chip Cookies/Crust
(It only takes half of this recipe to make the pie crust)
Ingredients
· 2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
· ½ cup unsalted butter
· 2 large eggs
· ½ cup powdered erythritol
· ½ cup dark chocolate chips (3 Ghirardelli squares)
· ½ tsp salt
· ½ tsp baking soda
· 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, and erythritol.
3. In another bowl, melt butter and mix in vanilla, chocolate chips, eggs, and walnuts
4. Mix wet ingredients into the dry until a dough forms.
5. Scoop out 1 tbsp of dough per cookie and place onto a cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges have turned golden brown.
7. Remove from oven and transfer to a stable cooling rack to avoid crumbling. They firm as they cool.
8. Let cool for 10-15 minutes, then enjoy!
Cookie nutrition - 147 calories, 2.7 net carbs
Pie crust
Crumble half batch, add 2 tbsp of butter, cook at 350 for 12 minutes
Ingredients
· 2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
· ½ cup unsalted butter
· 2 large eggs
· ½ cup powdered erythritol
· ½ cup dark chocolate chips (3 Ghirardelli squares)
· ½ tsp salt
· ½ tsp baking soda
· 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, and erythritol.
3. In another bowl, melt butter and mix in vanilla, chocolate chips, eggs, and walnuts
4. Mix wet ingredients into the dry until a dough forms.
5. Scoop out 1 tbsp of dough per cookie and place onto a cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges have turned golden brown.
7. Remove from oven and transfer to a stable cooling rack to avoid crumbling. They firm as they cool.
8. Let cool for 10-15 minutes, then enjoy!
Cookie nutrition - 147 calories, 2.7 net carbs
Pie crust
Crumble half batch, add 2 tbsp of butter, cook at 350 for 12 minutes
Peanut Butter Pie
Ingredients
Directions
It is best to cut this pie directly out of the freezer and store in the refrigerator. Serve with whipped cream.
Nutrition
10 servings if halving the filling – 283 calories, 4.5 carbs
10 servings with whole filling – 420, 6.5 carbs
I probably licked the spoon way too many times to actually deserve a piece, but I still have to eat one. The hardest part will be waiting until after dinner.
- 6 oz. 1/3 fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3/4 c. erythirtol, powdered
- 1 c. creamy natural peanut butter
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 c. whipping cream, whipped and sweetened
Directions
- Once crust is thoroughly cooled, mix the cream cheese and powdered erythirtol well until thoroughly blended.
- Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla, salt, & whipped whipping cream.
- Mix until well blended and same consistency.
- Pour into cooled cookie crust and freeze for at least 2 hours.
It is best to cut this pie directly out of the freezer and store in the refrigerator. Serve with whipped cream.
Nutrition
10 servings if halving the filling – 283 calories, 4.5 carbs
10 servings with whole filling – 420, 6.5 carbs
I probably licked the spoon way too many times to actually deserve a piece, but I still have to eat one. The hardest part will be waiting until after dinner.
Zoodles
I really love my spiralizer. I bought it a couple of weeks ago after we made zucchini pasta for the first time. I am really glad I got one. It's so fun and easy. I opted for the 4 blade, and I couldn't be happier.
Dinnertime!
I liked the squash, but I think I like zucchini more. I tried out an Italian seasoning for the chicken and it worked well. I used equal parts of thyme, rosemary, oregano, and basil. I added 1/2 teaspoon of each to a tablespoon of olive oil and coated the chicken. I grilled it on medium heat until it reached a temperature of 165. I flipped it after 8 minutes and flipped again after 5. With the addition of the pie I may have gone a little over calories and carbs. I didn't really count the licking of the spoon, so hopefully that wasn't too much. I also ate what my son had on his pie plate which was most of it. I had about 1400 calories and 28 carbs, but that's okay with me. The pie was worth it! I am going on a vacation tomorrow, so I don't know how that will turn out. Hopefully I will come in under calories and carbs the next 3 days.