One berry, two berry

Pick me a blueberry…
Under the bridge and over the dam
Looking for berries, berries for jam!
~Bruce Degen, Jamberry (1983)

Oregon’s Willamette Valley bursts with wonderful things to eat all summer long. We are so fortunate to live here. Every year, the kids and I go off on U-pick adventure, mostly for blueberries. We freeze them by the gallon for winter oatmeal toppings, muffins and pancakes. But I mostly make jam, normally at least 5 dozen 8-oz and 12-oz jars. We always have the makings for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, although our consumption fell off greatly in the last year between Nora’s diet and Anders’ newfound love for hot lunch. This year we had around 2 dozen jars left by summertime, so I only made about 15 fresh jars of blueberry jam last week.

August 6, 2010. This is what a jam-making day looked like 2 years ago, pre-keto.

I feel like there is a homesteading pioneer woman (or a squirrel) inside of me, urging me to put aside enough food for winter. My family might not make it through the cool rainy days here in Oregon without my homemade jam to provide us with vitamin C and lift our spirits. It would have felt wrong to not make jam this year, so I took Anders out picking with friends for a day to gather all of the blueberries, and a few blackberries, to make our jam. Nora stayed home that day because surrounding her with blueberry bushes and not allowing her to eat them would be cruel and I did not want to closely supervise her (although she is amazing about not eating things). Anders is a super-picker and between the two of us, we can get enough blueberries for several batches of jam in a few hours of picking.

Nora stirring the berries for her jam.

Nora has been enjoying the fresh and frozen berries with meals (4 or 5 at a sitting), but I wanted I could make her some jam too. I always use a low-methyoxyl citrus pectin (brand name Pomona’s Universal Pectin, but I buy it in bulk at our co-op). It is sugar-free, preservative-free and uses calcium as the bonding agent, so recipes do NOT require sugar to gel (unlike typical pectin products). Instead of sugar, you add a bit of calcium citrate to the recipe (comes in the box or also available in bulk). Seemed like I should be able to make Nora some sugar-free jam, but I hit a roadblock. I couldn’t find any definitive nutrition information on the pectin. I saw references to it as a form of soluble fiber, but without specific numbers I did not feel comfortable factoring it into a recipe.

I went for the other jam option that I’ve heard about but never tried: gelatin-based freezer jam. It’s keto-genius! Berries are already low-carb when eaten alone, but for gelatin jam you add in a substantial amount of water and gelatin is all protein. No added carbs, and the carbs in the berries get diluted in a larger volume of food. The final product has fewer carbs-per-weight that the berries themselves, with all of the flavor and satisfaction of eating jam just like everyone else. Win-win-win!

And another big win–it’s easy and can be made in batches that store for a long time in the freezer. The only caveat is that once opened, you have to keep it refrigerated and use it fairly quickly (I would guess 1-2 weeks) because it does not have sugar to act as a preservative. Divide it into small containers–I used 8 oz jars. This goes for all low- or no-sugar jams like my usual homemade versions, so we are accustomed to using our small jars quickly. And your keto kid will like it so much, it won’t hang around long.

Nutrition information for 1 full batch (524 g) of mixed berry gelatin jam. Divide all amounts by 524 to get the per-gram breakdown and see blog post for calculations. Nutrition information from www.caloriecount.com

Mixed Berry Gelatin Jam

70 g Blueberries
70 g Strawberries
70 g Raspberries
70 g Blackberries
1 envelope Knox Unflavored Gelatine
1 cup cold water

In a large saucepan, crush berries. They will break down more as you increase the temperature. Add water and gelatin, mixing well. You can add any no-carb sweetener to taste.

Over medium heat, slowing increasing temperature, bring mixture to boiling while stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes.

Finished jar, after an overnight in the fridge.

Pour into jars, allow to cool and then cover. If you leave it out at room temperature it will take a long time to gel, so don’t be discouraged if it’s very liquid for some time. Put in the refrigerator overnight and it will be the right consistency in the morning.

Can be stored in refrigerator for 1-2 weeks, or frozen.  It is not shelf-stable unless you process in a hot water bath (which I normally do for pectin jam), so keep this in the freezer for long-term storage. I would suggest stirring before using a new jar, as the fibrous skins and bits fall to the bottom.

Perfect jam consistency!

Per gram nutritional breakdown:
Total carbs: 0.058 g
Fiber:  0.021 g
Net carbs: 0.036 g
Protein: 0.02 g
Fat:  0.002 g

Per 10 gram serving:
Total carbs: 0.58 g
Fiber: 0.021 g
Net carbs: 0.37 g
Protein: 0.2 g
Fat: 0.02 g

 

 

Just compare that to berries alone: Raspberries are great at 0.056 net carbs per gram, and the jam beats them by 0.02 g net carbs. Blueberries have the most carbs, at 0.12 g net carbs per gram of blueberries, four times more carbs than the jam. I know, seems like small gains here, but cutting a bit more carbs means a bit more yummy food to eat. The ease and convenience of having the jam in the freezer or fridge meets all of my criteria for top Nora foods.

Now, to make a truly keto food: mixed berry cream cheese. I overshot the ratio here at 4.25:1, so it can be put atop a lower-ratio baked good and balance out for a perfect ratio treat. You could decrease the ratio by adding more jam or omitting the coconut oil. I’m always trying to sneak in coconut oil because Nora gets 15 g spread out throughout the day and I get tired of mixing it into other things at mealtime. This will be a regular breakfast food, containing 1 gram of coconut oil per 10 g serving.

Nutrition facts for 1 batch of mixed berry cream cheese. See blog post for per serving break down. Nutrition facts from www.caloriecount.com

Mixed Berry Cream Cheese

140 g Primrose cream cheese (adjust your nutrition facts for the brand that you use)
20 g coconut oil
50 g Mixed berry jam (above)

Mix with a hand mixer and serve!

Note that I also show the nutrition label for 1 full batch here so that you can see the fiber content. I calculate the per-gram and per-serving values with net carbs, but if I break it down into smaller servings in the recipe analyzer that I use, the fiber line gets dropped because it is so small.

 

Mixed berry cream cheese

Per gram nutrition information:
Total carbs:  0.025 g
Fiber:  0.005 g
Net carbs: 0.02 g
Protein:  0.052 g
Fat:  0.31 g

Per 10 g serving:
Total carbs: 0.25 g
Fiber: 0.05 g
Net carbs: 0.2 g
Protein: 0.52 g
Fat: 3.1 g

 

Good stuff. I love batch cooking. Nora loves jam and cream cheese.

As I have said before, efficiency is life. But that isn’t really the most important part of this food story. The most important part was finely expressed by Voltaire: “Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.”

And talk about the necessity of eating. Food is good medicine, quite literally for our keto-kids.

I scream! You scream!

[Everybody now!] We all scream for ice cream!

Guess what! Ice cream is primarily made out of a main ingredient in the keto diet–heavy cream! Yay! And now the sad news: to be scoopable, the way ice cream should be, it needs sugar. That’s right, the big no-no. So how to make keto ice cream? This is where I have most read and enjoyed learning about food science. This blog entry should be called, “my mediocre attempts at making keto ice cream that Nora loves anyway.”

Harold McGee’s epic tome, On Food and Cooking, gives my favorite description of the pleasures of cream:

We value cream above all for its feel. Creaminess is a remarkable consistency, perfectly balanced between solidity and fluidity, between persistence and evanescense. It’s substantial, yet smooth and seamless. It lingers in the mouth, yet offers no resistance to teeth or tongue, nor becomes merely greasy. This luxurious sensation results from the crowding of the fat globules, which are far too small for our senses to distinguish, into a small volume of water, whose free movement is thus impeded and slowed. (p. 27-28)

Ice cream is a dish that manages to heighten the already remarkable qualities of cream. By freezing it, we make it possible to taste the birth of creaminess, the tantalizing transition from solidity to fluidity. (p. 39)

Doesn’t that make you want a perfect pint of ice cream? “To taste the birth of creaminess”…it doesn’t get any better than that. And now the science part:

Plain frozen cream is hard as a rock. Sugar makes it softer, but also lowers its freezing point (the dissolved sugar molecules get in the way as the water molecules settle into ordered crystals). (p. 39)

Sadly, I do not own this book (hint hint). I had it on hold at the Corvallis Library for 2 months before I got it, then could not renew it after my time because someone else had it on hold. This is a book originally published in 1984 and updated in 2004. Come on people of Corvallis, you’ve had 8 years to check it out. That says something about this town.

Armed with this knowledge, I moved on to making ice cream with a little help from our friends. Our friend Cora made some keto raspberry ice cream for Nora a few months back and we found out about the “hard as a rock” property. It was tasty, like raspberries and cream, but was solid. I put a butter knife through the side of a plastic container trying to chisel some out. It had a ratio of about 15:1 because she used cream and not many raspberries, so I hoped that the next attempt with many more berries to provide some natural sugar would be a bit softer, Harold’s predictions notwithstanding.

Last month we received an ice cream machine as a gift from our dear neighbors, Connie and Kevin. That gave me my chance to try ice cream for Nora and put some of my food science learning to work.

Raspberry Frozen Greek Yogurt Popsicle

The first recipe was a raspberry frozen Greek yogurt. I decided that Harold knew best, so trying something less conventional might yield better results. Greek yogurt has lots of protein and a decent amount of fat, but few carbs. Protein is also a key ingredient to finessing the texture of ice cream and I was hoping that enough protein would be a recipe for success.

The result was tangy with the flavor of Greek yogurt and had a lot more raspberries than the original recipe, so it was very tasty. But it still froze fairly solid.  If we let it thaw just enough we could give it a quick stir and get an ice cream-like consistency, but thaw too much and it was liquid. Alternatively, I froze it as popsicles. The only problem is weighing the amount of yogurt in each pop and keeping track of each one. But Nora managed to eventually eat the whole batch enthusiastically, about 20 g at a time.

Nutrition facts for 22 g of Raspberry Frozen Greek Yogurt. Nutrition analysis by www.caloriecount.com

Raspberry Frozen Greek Yogurt
200 grams raspberries (about 1.5 cups)
Pinch salt
340 g (1.5 cups) Traditional Plain Greek Yogurt
114 g (0.5 cups) English Double Devon Cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

The nutrition facts are for 22 g, which is about 1 popsicle. You can see that 1.3 carbs is quite a bit at once and it has a 2:1 ratio, so this would have to be paired with other things in a snack to balance it out. It’s not ideal, but yielded fairly good results.

My next attempt was based on a recipe by David Lebovitz, chef and author of The Perfect Scoop. Ice cream expert! I wanted a mint ice cream recipe made with real mint, thinking that I could get great flavor without carbs. This one is the ticket, from his blog: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/05/mint-chip-ice-cream-recipe-chocolate/

I made his version and a Nora-version. Oh my, was it wonderful. It calls for 80 g of mint leaves, which is a lot (believe me, I have a gram scale). I only had about 20 g in my garden that I could harvest, but a little went a long way in this recipe.

It’s a 2-day process, but I was able to follow the recipe once while making 2 versions with a little planning. I used half-and-half instead of whole milk, but otherwise did everything in the recipe EXCEPT adding the sugar: steeped the mint leaves in hot half-and-half and cream, then cooking in the egg yolks according to the recipe (below and at the link). Then I reserved some of the mixture for Nora and added a bit of her Cytra, which is sweetened with saccharine. I then added sugar to the portion for the rest of us while it was still warm so that the sugar would dissolve. Adding the sugar at the end did not affect the quality of the regular version, and I didn’t have to make the recipe twice. Then the mixtures must cool overnight.

Nora's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

The next day, I froze each version in the ice cream machine. Here is where I saw the importance of sugar firsthand. I put Nora’s version in first. The machine has a frozen bowl to chill the mixture and a rotating arm that scrapes it off the side of the bowl and mixes it so that large ice crystals are not able to form. When I make Nora’s ice cream in the machine, a thick icy-cream layer builds up on the side of the bowl that the rotating arm can’t scrape away. The portion in the middle freezes more like regular ice cream, so I stop the machine, scoop out the middle part, and then wash off the inside of the bowl.

If I am as quick as possible, the bowl is cold enough to make the sugared version immediately after, but just barely. When ice cream made with sugar goes in the machine, it is soft as it freezes and the machine can easily scrape the sides. It takes a lot longer to freeze, as you would expect from the additional sugar which lowers the freezing point of the mixture. Having 2 portions of the same recipe with and without sugar really demonstrated the point.

Nora licks her bowl clean. She spilled some on her shirt, and she tried to lick that too!

The grand finale of this recipe is the “chocolate chips.” I would have never thought of this if not for the Lebovitz recipe. I used a Green & Blacks 80% cocoa dark chocolate bar. Higher cocoa content means less sugar, hence fewer carbs, in the chocolate. Measure out the amount you will put in the keto ice cream (it only takes a few grams, at 0.28 carbs per gram of chocolate in those bars). It melts nicely in a small silicone pinch bowl in the microwave. While the ice cream is in the machine stirring, drizzle in a stream of melted chocolate. It freezes in tiny threads as it hits the cold ice cream. Mmmm, that’s something special. I did the same on some of Nora’s raspberry ice cream another time to give her a little chocolate on top. What a treat.

This ice cream was fabulous. The infusion of real mint leaves gave it an herbal minty quality. Next time I will try to use even more mint. I held back on the sugar so it was not overly sweet. I will definitely make this again, for all of us, when my mint patch recovers.

Nutrition information for 50 g of mint ice cream. Note the different serving size--do not compare directly with other ice cream recipes here. And note that chocolate is not included. Nutrition analysis from www.caloriecount.com

Keto Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
240 g (1 cup) Organic Valley Half and Half
480 g (2 cups) Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream
Pinch of salt
85 g (5 large) egg yolks
80 g (2 cups packed) mint leaves

In a medium saucepan, warm the half-and-half, 240 g (1 cup) heavy cream, salt, and mint. Once the mixture is hot and steaming, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for an hour to infuse the mint flavor.

Remove the mint with a strainer, then press down with a spatula firmly to extract as much mint flavor and color as possible. Once the flavor is squeezed out, discard the mint.

Rewarm the infused milk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, then slowly pour some of the warm mint mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

Cook the custard, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. If using an instant read thermometer, it should read around 170ºF (77ºC). Immediately stir the mixture into the remaining 240 g (1 cup) cream, then place over an ice bath until cool.

Refrigerate the mixture thoroughly, preferably overnight, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

From: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/05/mint-chip-ice-cream-recipe-chocolate/

The nutrition information above is ONLY for the mint ice cream. The ice cream alone has a ratio of about 7:1, and only 0.7 carbs in a 50 g serving! You can add enough chocolate to reduce the ratio to the desired level. In the future, I will calculate the amount of chocolate I want to add per serving, measure that amount, then melt the chocolate in a silicone pinch bowl (be sure that your bowl is completely dry, as any water in the melted chocolate will cause it to seize and ruin the pourability). Pour the chocolate in threads on the serving of ice cream, stirring as you go. Wa-la, you have chocolate chips in your ice cream!

The last ice cream experiment was of the blueberry variety. It was a simple recipe, but turned out quite different than the rest.

Nutrition information for 3.5:1 Blueberry Ice Cream. Analysis provided by www.caloriecount.com

Blueberry Ice Cream
405 g (2.8 cups) fresh or frozen blueberries
720 g (3 cups) Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream
305 g (1.25 cups) whole milk

In addition to these ingredients, I again used Cytra to sweeten the mixture a bit, but you can use any no-carb sweetener you choose. Mix the sweetener in while you crush the berries. Then mix well with the cream and milk (I used a food processor). Then freeze in the ice cream machine.

Like the mint ice cream, I made it side-by-side with a sugar version and it turned out very differently. First, when I crushed the blueberries with sugar for the traditional recipe, the blueberries turned that keep purple-blue that I would expect from the blueberry skins. When I made Nora’s version, the Cytra did not extract the color from the blueberry skins in the same way. The mashed berries looked more green-gray with flecks of dark skin. I have not looked up the food science interaction that causes the color change in the presence of sugar, but I would love to know the secret.

Blueberry Ice Cream, 3.5:1 ratio

As with the mint ice cream recipe, Nora’s non-sugar version formed a thick frozen layer on the outside of the ice cream machine bowl. The sugared version did not do that. And the final product was quite different. Nora’s version froze absolutely solid. I have to chisel it out of the bowl to measure it, or melt it enough. If I chisel it out and mash it up, it has a very dry crystal quality about it, not at all creamy. It’s not unpleasant, but it is not like ice cream either. If you click on the picture to get a larger version, you can see that texture. It also melts quickly, so getting it in as fast as possible is key, although Nora takes care of that herself and licks the bowl clean!

Thus far, I’ve learned that cream alone does not make ice cream. Harold is right–how could I ever have doubted him. Taking sugar off the table, the recipes that included more protein were far more successful than the blueberry ice cream recipe, which was mostly cream and berries. I added whole milk there in order to get some of the milk protein, sugars and solids, but it was not enough to make a difference in the texture.

The custard-type ice creams that include egg yolks are a better bet, but also require a 2-day process because the egg yolks have to cook, then cool down enough to make the ice cream. It’s a plan-ahead endeavor, but the quality of the final product makes it worth it. I will also experiment more with Greek yogurt to see if I can get some better results. But this is all academic to Nora. If it’s called ice cream, she’s thrilled to have it.

Back to our Local Ocean!

Corvallis is a fabulous place to live. Then add the ability to drive to the Oregon coast in 1 hour, or hike in the coast range or the Cascade mountains on a day trip, and it’s darn near the best place to live in the country, in our opinion. One of our favorite ways to beat the summer heat (for the few days that it visits us in Corvallis) is to go to the coast, which is guaranteed to be 20 degrees cooler. But a coast trip is a good idea any time to play on the beach, hike, eat some seafood and ice cream…although that has all changed during these 6 months on the diet.

Although this picture is 2 years old, it is Nora's typical beach performance art. She has a primal sand worshiping instinct, particularly after sunscreen is applied..

Our family tradition has been to stop by Local Ocean for dinner on our way home from the beach, then let the kids fall asleep in the car. But we have avoided a coast trip with Nora until today because we weren’t ready to navigate real restaurant eating on the diet. Anders MUST have the fish and chips and Nora ALWAYS had the crab cakes. It’s a given that she can’t order the crab cakes on the diet, so we needed another plan.

Our day started with the usual beach packing: extra clothes, beach toys, sunscreen. While Ted was gathering those supplies, I was preparing Nora’s food. I baked a few items, like PBJ cookies, that are a delicious self-contained 3.5:1 ratio, for easy snacking on demand. I also packed cheddar crackers, which is another recipe from the Keto Cookbook that is a 4:1 ratio. I promise to post a round-up of tested Keto Cookbook recipes soon. Lunch was packed in her lunch box for the car ride. Snacks packed separately for later. Dinner portions that we were bringing in a small cooler with ice for later.

I calculated dinner knowing that we would visit Local Ocean. After looking at the menu online and thinking through the options, I decided that crab was the safest choice. They have cooked crab meat at the fish counter and whole crab on the menu. I also thought that it might deflect Nora’s desire to have crab cakes if she stated her preference. I calculated everything that she would eat and tried to allot her as much crab as possible in the meal, which ended up being 30 g, or a little less than 2 legs from the dungeness crab, small guys caught right in the Newport bay. We ordered the 1/2 crab; market price, $19, wowza. Talk about luxury diet. I sacrificed myself and shared it with Nora, along with a cup of soup, instead of ordering a meal. Woe is me! 🙂

Nora holds her prize: the clawed crab leg at Local Ocean!

We told the waitress when we ordered that Nora had a special diet for epilepsy treatment and that we brought some food from home. As I expected, she said that their policy does not allow outside food, but she asked the chef and they decided it was alright. We were prepared to take our order to-go and sit out on the bayfront if necessary, but it was a cool and cloudy day and we preferred to eat indoors. I would hope that all restaurants are as accommodating when parents explain the situation, but I do understand that they are operating under the health code guidelines. I made a point of thanking the waitress when we were leaving and she shared that her nephew has epilepsy which is controlled with medication, but that he also cannot drink soda or other sugary things. I found that very interesting, possibly through trial and observations other epileptics notice that smaller diet changes can affect their seizure control. Anyone else aware of this? Do doctors discuss this with patients? We had not heard anything about it until we started researching explicit diet treatments.

And, wouldn’t you know it, she dropped a big chunk of her pre-weighed butter on the floor while she was eating. We had our scale along for measuring her crab, so we measured the lost bit and asked the waitress if she could bring a pat of butter. They don’t keep packaged pats of butter on hand and only serve garlic butter, but she was able to locate a block of frozen butter and cut off a bit for us. We are so thankful for her understanding and resourcefulness. Now we like Local Ocean even more!

Nora enjoying her homemade crab cake, al fresco. Yes, she dressed herself. And yes, those are leg warmers on her arms. It was her rebellion against my suggestion that she put on a jacket in the morning before we left.

And knowing that Nora likes crab cakes, I have twice made the crab cake recipe from the Keto Cookbook.

The first time I didn’t follow the cooking procedure as directed. I simply mixed the egg whites with the crab (I did use the canned fancy white lump crab meat suggested by the recipe, but could calculate it with fresh cooked local crab as well). I put it in the skillet and formed it into a patty while the egg cooked. The kids went crazy for those crab cakes! I will be making them often. Anders generally eats the same main dish as Nora, as do the rest of us if appropriate (I can’t eat much egg, so this recipe is out for me). It’s a good way to test whether a recipe has staying power, simplifies dinnertime, and helps Nora feel included. The rest of us just don’t add the extra butter or cream to our meal, and we add more veggies.

The second time I followed the recipe’s procedure. I used “Just Whites” powdered egg white (they should go back to marketing and re-consider that product name), whipped the egg whites into stiff peaks, folded in the oil and crab, then fried it in patties. It held together better while going into the pan, but it poofed up then fell as the air came out during frying. They ended up as flat oily slabs. Nora still devoured it, but Anders preferred my “mistake” method and I would have to agree. I also tried using the ring portion of a mason jar lid as a mold in the skillet to maintain the shape. That will be a good strategy going forward with the un-whipped egg whites, but I will oil the ring well to keep the crab cake from sticking to it.

The crab cake recipe is quite simple, as adapted from the Keto Cookbook.

Nutrition information for Crab Cakes. Analysis from www.caloriecount.com

Crab Cakes
20 g Crown Prince Fancy Natural Crab Meat
15 g egg whites
9 g olive oil

Mix together and fry in oiled skillet on medium-high heat.

Makes 1 crab cake, 44 g. The portion in the Keto Cookbook is too big for Nora, so I scaled it down. This is a 2.3:1 ratio, so round out the meal with other sides to achieve the desired ratio for the meal. Our family is not at all fond of mayo, so Nora generally will have plenty of butter on a flacker or her high-fiber tortillas to boost her fat for the meal.

Nora’s Birthday! Raspberry cheesecake, cupcakes and frosting!

Just after spring officially turned to summer, we celebrated Nora’s 4th birthday. Everything has been going well for Nora these past few weeks and we are all transitioning into summer mode.

Nora’s birthday morning started with an experimental special treat: Cytra jello. I’m not a jello fan myself, and I doubt that I have ever made it at our house, but my kids immediately recognized it. Remember that Cytra is the supplement she takes to counteract the blood acidosis that tends to occur on the diet. It’s sweetened with saccharine and colored with red dye #3. Sounds like the perfect match with gelatine, right?

Nora's Cytra Jello Heart

I bought some plain unflavored gelatine because I saw it in several keto-recipe ideas, so I thought I would have some on hand. On the back of the package was their super simple cheesecake recipe, which I decided to use later (see below). The idea was born to sweeten the cheesecake with Cytra, as she takes Cytra everyday anyway. I made a 1/2 portion of the cheesecake, which required mixing a full package of gelatine with Cytra, then using only 1/2 of the mixture for the 1/2 cheesecake. That left me with 1/2 portion of Cytra + gelatine and–ta da! Cytra jello was born, shaped in 2 heart silicone molds. It was a hit and I have had requests for more Cytra jello.

Gelatine has 2 g of protein per envelope, so each heart contained 0.5 g protein, no carbs or fat.

Nora shares a birthday with her buddy Ian, who is 1 year older. Ian’s family invited us over for a birthday buddy celebration. They were very thoughtful to call with the menu so that we could plan Nora’s dinner. She had her first taste of watermelon on the diet (16 g! 3 tiny chunks!), along with hot dog, avocado, and other normal dinner foods. For dessert they made a raspberry cheesecake, a treat that is relatively easy to turn into a keto-friendly dessert.

I made a keto-pumpkin cheesecake recipe last fall, but the texture didn’t quite fit the bill and I wanted a cheesecake that would hold up to a raspberry sauce on top. I looked at other keto-parent blogs and thought I had found a winner, until I serendipitously happened upon the back of the gelatin box, where I found their “It’s-A-Snap Cheesecake” recipe. The ingredient list was so simple that it was almost perfect without modifications, and because it was no-bake I didn’t have to gamble with texture outcomes by adding more fat. With all of the other birthday prep I was ready for simple.

Nutrition information for 1 serving of No-Bake Raspberry Cheesecake. Nutrition information from www.caloriecount.com. 8 servings.

No-Bake Raspberry Cheesecake
(8 servings)
1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatine
1 cup boiling water
336 g (12 oz) Primrose cream cheese (re-calculate nutrition with your brand)
113.4 g (4 oz) English Double Devon Cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
120 g raspberries

Mix gelatine into 1 cup boiling water, adding any no-carb sweetener to your taste (or equivalent to 1/2 c sugar. We used 1/2 Cytra packet.). Stir until gelatine completely dissolves, about 5 minutes.

Beat together cream cheese, double devon cream, and vanilla in a large bowl with mixer until smooth. Slowly beat in gelatine mixture.

Pour into shallow glass dish and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

Nora at the end of the table with her cheesecake, and b-day buddy Ian with candles on the big cheesecake!

Raspberries can be used fresh on the top, mashed and cooked down, or cooked down from frozen. We also added a bit of Cytra for sweetness as well. Next time I might try to add some gelatine to the raspberries then pour over the firm cheesecake, so that each serving is more equally distributed. Just remember to count the gelatine in the recipe, as it adds protein.

 

Makes 8 servings with nutritional information in side panel.

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Nora dug into her cheesecake and loved it! She was almost done with her generous piece before the rest of us got our cheesecake in front of us. Then it was so great, she licked the plate! She was allotted every one of those carbs, so she can get them into her any way she knows how.

I am not a fan of the no-bake cheesecake, so next time I have the energy I will try the more traditional version adopted from another keto-parent blog.

(click on pictures to enlarge)

I am sure that all keto-parents spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for special events because special events are always bound up with special foods. Now that we have our keto-kid as the center of her special event, my goal was to showcase her special food for all of her special people at her birthday party for her friends. My hope was to make her feel normal for a time. When we talked about cupcakes, she said, “do you mean I’m not on my diet anymore?!?” But this time I said, “no honey, you are still on your diet, but now everyone will get to share your special foods!” Although we still had whiny requests for another cupcake, that’s normal. There were no tears today because she had a cupcake that looked the same as everyone else’s cupcake. Little did she know that hers tasted just a little different.

When I made cupcakes for the party, I started by making a double batch of Nora’s Raspberry-Coconut Cupcake batter. I weighed out 6 cupcakes for Nora and baked them up in the special princess cupcake liners that she picked out. Then I added a little sugar back to the batter and cooked up cupcakes for everyone else, in different cupcake liners. Wow, it goes so fast when you don’t have to weigh the batter that goes into every cupcake!

I used the same procedure to make the frosting. First, mix it up perfectly according to the keto-version recipe and frost Nora’s cupcakes. Then mix some powdered sugar back into the rest of the frosting and do the rest. Although Nora’s cupcakes are pretty good on their own, other kids are accustomed to sweet cupcakes. I didn’t want other kids rejecting them for lack of sweetness. Actually, Anders rejected his because he thought it was too sweet! He has never had a sweet tooth (although he seems to be part fruit bat), and now that he doesn’t eat many sweetened foods he can taste the difference.

Many of Nora’s regular foods were on the menu: Hazelnut-Applesauce Mini-Muffins (baked into 16 g mini-muffin liners–that batter works great for measuring), Flackers, cheddar cheese, string cheese, rotolini, PBJ muffins (without added butter for everyone else), raspberries, mini-peppers, seaweed snacks, Macadamia Monster Mash, avocado, carrots, celery, cream cheese, and turkey/ham/cream cheese roll-ups (although I made those on standard tortillas because Nora was not having any, and her low-carb tortillas are expensive!) We pre-measured Nora’s lunch and brought it ready to put on her plate.

The theme was a fancy tea party luncheon, so I bought some mismatched fancy tea cups at a second-hand store along with some linen napkins and doilies. I had a fancy lace tablecloth from home that we put on the picnic table at the park. It looked to be a fancy affair, but it was the best of all worlds–fancy kids, fancy dishes, fancy food, and all fun and games at the park!

The pink cupcakes were also a hit. I found some sparkly pink sprinkles made from gum arabic and food coloring, rather than sugar. My research indicated that gum arabic is almost entirely fiber, so it should have no impact on her diet. I sure hope so. I put just a bit of sprinkles on top of her cupcake. So cute, but not sweet.

I realized at the beginning of the party that we had candles but not matches! Of course, none of us smoke and had no easy way to make fire. It was also fairly windy, so instead of running home for matches we piled on several fancy toothpicks with a crown and a few fairies. Nora asked about the candles but quickly got over it and dug into the cupcake!

Nutrition information for 1 Raspberry-Coconut Muffin. Recipe makes 18 servings. Analysis from www.caloriecount.com

Raspberry-Coconut Cupcakes
(makes 18 cupcakes)
56 g Bob’s Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
84 g European-style butter
300 g (6 large) eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
60 g Thai Kitchen Organic Premium Coconut Milk
1/8 c water
36 g raspberries

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F degrees.
Combine the coconut flour, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, mix the butter with a hand mixer until fluffy, then add the eggs, vanilla extract and coconut milk and mix until well combined. Add water after the mixture begins to thicken. Let rest to allow the coconut flour to absorb all the liquid.
Add the dry mixture to the wet and blend well.
Spoon 30 g batter  into regular cupcake liners or silicone molds.
Push 2 g of broken up raspberries into each cupcake.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until firm.

Nutrition information for 20 g of Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting. Analysis by www.caloriecount.com

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
(Makes 10 servings of 20 g each)
30 g Thai Kitchen Organic Premium Coconut Milk
88 g Primrose cream cheese (substitute your brand and re-calculate)
71 g European-style butter
8 g raspberries

Blend all ingredients until smooth. I wanted to put 20 g of frosting on each cupcake, so I took my recipe and adjusted the number of servings to get 20 g each. If you divided this on to 18 cupcakes, it would be 11 g of frosting each. You can adjust as you like. The nutrition information is for 10 servings of 20 g each.

The cupcake with 20 g of frosting has a ratio of 2.96:1. With a 1/2 tablespoon of cream with tea, it’s perfect for Nora, at a 3.53:1 ratio (she’s at 3.5:1).

We found this fabulous 3-tier cupcake display that captures the spirit of Nora. If you can’t quite read it: “I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world.” With the cool pig-tailed girl riding her bike with her legs flying out! That’s our Nora (except maybe she would say, “I could RULE the world!”).

New Keto Resources & PBJ Muffins

One month ago, I was in Portland and met with Nora’s dietician. Afterward, this analogy came to mind:

Your family is driving in a remote forested area when your car breaks down. It’s cold, you don’t have much food, you don’t have cell phone reception and you have not seen signs of civilization. But you survive. You stay together. You ration your food. You start to burn your tires for warmth. Eventually you get desperate and one of your party strikes out to find help. After only a few hours, your emissary triumphantly returns to tell you that there is a Super 8 motel right over the ridge. Not great digs, but it’s food and shelter!

Now, that is a touch dramatic, but going into the keto diet was a bit like being lost in the woods. We have been doing pretty damn well, if I do say so myself. But that day in Portland, I learned so many details from the dietician that were never communicated to us. Better yet, I found out about The Keto Cookbook. It is written by a parent and a dietician, with form letters for daycare, emergency room/hospital visits and TSA (not that I plan to fly with Nora anytime soon)! Best of all, it is full of beautiful photos of the lovely recipes, all 4:1 ratio meals. This morning Nora and I browsed the pictures of all of the wonderful foods she could have on her diet. Many of the recipes are similar to things that I already make, and more than a few will probably not be appealing to her at the table, but just the chance for Nora feel like her diet was fabulously on display for her perusal was worth the $20.

How did we get lost in the woods? Nora’s dietician and I had that conversation during my visit. We went into the diet kind of “backward.” We tried less restrictive forms of diet therapy first. We experimented with feeding her Low Glycemic Index foods on our own before things got really bad. After the November hospitalization for the 24-hour EEG, we decided to try the Modified Atkins Diet before the Keto diet. Then we found that as we increased her fat ratio, she had better seizure control. We also found that we lost seizure control if her carbs were not carefully distributed throughout the day. So we inched closer to the keto diet by finding out what worked best for Nora. What we found out that the traditional keto diet works very well for Nora, although she still gets good seizure control at a lower ratio and a little more relaxed schedule. Because we eased into it, we didn’t have the hospitalized diet initiation that is standard procedure, so we did not have a full keto training as most families do. We learned on our own as we went, but that meant we were out on our own, unsure of even the questions to ask sometimes. It was not until after the last breakthrough seizures (going on 6 weeks ago!) that we talked about inching even closer to the traditional Keto diet and learning about the gaps in our knowledge.

But things have been going well, so a month passed between my last meeting with the dietician and finally ordering the Keto Cookbook. In that month, we have wrestled with adding other supplements like carnitine and dealing with the blood acidification issue. Now that we were getting comfortable again in a routine that works, I guess I had the energy to try new recipes and resources.

The Keto Cookbook is a great resource, but it’s not the Ritz. I started by reading and implementing their section on kitchen tips and tools to make life easier. We have a lot of the necessary equipment already, but not everything. I had resisted getting silicon bakeware until now because it just kinda creeped me out. Today we had a big shopping trip and I went all out–silicone muffin cups, more little rubber spatulas and pinch bowls, and yes, a teddy bear pancake pan. Anything to make cooking easy or food appealing and fun. Nora and I spent most of the day on my bike going to stores to find the things we wanted, and she got to help pick out the shapes and colors that would hold her food.

The 2-person paper muffin cup technique.

I used the muffin cups today and was quite pleased. Silicone cookware has a few real benefits for the keto diet. It does not absorb fat or liquid, so the amounts that are measured and cooked end up in the food, then in the kid. They are also rigid, so I can put each muffin container on the scale, tare it, and fill it with the correct amount of batter. Every muffin will be the same. Cora and I tried to accomplish that with paper muffin liners recently, with marginal and at times hilarious results. She had the idea to use a pastry bag to fill the muffin liners, but the liners were not strong enough to hold the batter alone on the scale. She would put a liner on the scale and spot it while I filled it to the right weight, then she would deftly transfer it to the muffin tin. We lost a few and it was incredibly labor and time intensive. The silicone is going to save a lot of time and effort. It already has.

Today I made Nora the “PBJ Cookies” recipe from the Keto Cookbook, and learned a thing or two about how to use the book.

First, I still had to enter the recipe into the online recipe analyzer that I use. The cookbook assumes a 4:1 ratio and reports only the calories and carb content of the recipe. I would have to go through some algebraic gymnastics to calculate the protein and fat content of the recipe, although it could be done with the known information. Nora is also on a 3.5:1 ratio, so I can adjust the recipe to reach her ratio. In addition, we use different brands of peanut butter and other products, so I have to use the nutrition information for  the ingredients that I will use. The cookbook gives me a good starting place, but it is not all done for me. That is also how the recipes on this blog should be used for other families. This is all a DIY guide.

I analyzed the PBJ cookie recipe last night, anticipating that I would make it today. Nora and I spent several hours biking around town on our cookware errands, and by the time we got home I was tired and she was ready for a snack. I put the recipe together and got it in the oven as fast as I could. Because the cookbook specifies individual meals and snacks, not batch-cooking, I assumed that I would give her the whole portion. I looked at my nutrition analysis, and it was and appropriate breakdown for a mid-day snack. What I forgot, in my haste, was that I specified 4 servings from the entire recipe in my online recipe analyzer. I forgot that the entire recipe made a 400 calorie meal, not a 100-150 calorie snack. Nora scarfed down all 3 PBJ cookies that I made, then I realized my mistake–instead of having about 1 g carb, she got 3 g carbs total! Luckily, that didn’t push her past 10 carbs for the day yet. It was more like she had an early dinner so everything was ok, but I had my moment of panic. I realized that I was relying on the book rather than thinking it out for myself and I was tired and in a hurry when I made and served her. No harm, no foul today, but a lesson to keep in mind.

The PBJ Cookie recipe was a hit, although the “cookie” was more like a muffin, topped with a peanut butter plus butter “frosting” and a few strawberry bits for the “jam.” I was able to make 2 more batches of the recipe, this time measuring the muffins into 4 equal portions so that they can be used as snacks. Here’s my take on the recipe, adapted from the Keto Cookbook.

1 PBJ Muffin with topping. Adapted from The Keto Cookbook. Nutrition analysis and information from www.caloriecount.com

PBJ Muffins

37 g egg (whip well first then measure)
20 g macadamia nuts, ground
11 g canola oil or walnut oil
5 g Bob’s red mill flaxseed meal
8 g Strauss European Butter
8 g Adams 100% Natural Peanut Butter
12 g strawberries

Measure the egg, ground macadamia nuts, oil and flaxseed meal. Mix well. Measure 18.5 g of batter into each of 4 muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Mix butter and peanut butter. Frost each cooled muffin with 4 g of the mixture.

Slice the strawberries into small pieces, placing 3 g of strawberry on each muffin.

Enjoy!

Each muffin has:
0.7 g net carbs
2.3 g protein
10.6 g fat
1 g fiber
3.53:1 ratio

If your child needs a higher ratio, increase the butter and decrease the strawberry per muffin until you reach the right ratio.

Raspberry Scones

A labor of love. Emphasis on labor.

The ketogenic diet relies on a precise measurement of macronutrients. So any recipe that results in clumps of food, particularly carby food, is a bit dangerous. I worked very hard to make sure that each scone was uniform and consistent. I will describe my process and tell you what I learned about baking for my keto kid.

This recipe is adapted from Candice’s Low Carb Recipes (blog moved to new site 4/13): http://tmstrevival.wordpress.com/). She is a baker by trade and successfully lost weight with a low carb diet, which she continues. One general lesson I have learned is to take the process seriously. When it says to use frozen butter, use frozen butter, not softened butter. We are trying to re-create baked goods that are judged by their resemblance to their carby parentage. Sometimes it takes a little extra attention to detail to use materials with a vastly different make-up to make a high-quality product.

Raspberry scones

1/2 cup (56.8 g) Bob’s Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour, divided into 6 Tbsp and 2 Tbsp
1 tbsp (10 g) Golden Flaxseed (whole)
2 teaspoons (10 g) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1.5 g) salt
6 Tablespoons (85.2 g) unsalted butter
60 g unsweetened raspberries
3 large (150 g) eggs
1/3 cup (80 g) Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream
1 teaspoon (4.2 g) pure vanilla extract

In large bowl mix 6 Tablespoons of coconut flour, flax, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl mix cream, eggs, and vanilla with a fork until all combined. Set aside.

Cut in FROZEN butter into your coconut flour mixture using your hands or a pastry blender until a course meal texture. I broke my pastry knife some time ago and have not replaced it. I used one of my hand mixer beaters to squash the butter into the flour and also used my hands. You can see the size of my course mixture.

Slowly add *almost* all of your liquid egg and cream mixture either mixing with hands or fork. Mixture will be runny. Add your extra 2 Tablespoons of coconut flour now and mix until thickened. Let it sit for a few moments and it will thicken as the coconut oil absorbs the liquid.

I calculated the recipe with only the batter, not the berries, and came up with 400 g of batter. Therefore it could make 20 scones of 20 g of batter each. However, after weighing the dough for each scone, I only had enough to make 18 scones of 20 g of batter each.

With each 20 g of dough that I measured, I then measured in 3 g of raspberries. Now I had 23 g of raw scone material for each one.

Here is an example of one imprecise measurement that I encountered in the overall recipe. Because the recipe calls for mixing in almost all of the wet ingredients, some of the mass is left out of the dough. I felt confident that at least I knew how much was in each scone, particularly how much raspberries were in each scone.

Place each measured dough ball on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and put them in the freezer for 20 minutes.  Try to do this process rather quickly and efficiently, because you will want them to stay cold. Next form the dough into triangles. Nora knows that scones are typically triangle shaped, and presentation is as important as taste to her. After shaping, place dough in the freezer for 20 minutes again.

Preheat oven to 425F. Brush the scones with remaining liquid cream/egg mixture.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Let cool. Here’s the interesting food science part. Remember that I put 23 g of scone batter and berries into each one. When I weighed them after baking, they were 19 g each, and quite uniformly so. What happened? 4 g of steam came out during baking and cooling. That’s not very much water overall, but it matters when we are weighing and serving our keto kids, depending on how sensitive your kid is.

From all of this I learned that when I put my ingredients into the recipe analyzer, it simply smashes it all together and divides by the number of servings. It is very accurate for raw things, like B^3 and Macadamia Monster Mash. But it does not consider cooking and the loss of steam, and therefore the loss of mass. Note above that the nutrition label says it is a 23 g serving, but in the caption to the nutrition label I note that it is a 19 g scone. Tricky. I have not calculated this for my other baked recipes. For my purposes I think that they are close enough because we are not using the strictest version of the keto diet, but I plan to ask our dietician if they consider these things when they make recipes. Maybe it’s close enough that it is within the margin of error.

As hard as we try, there is measurement error in everything that we feed our kids. We weigh portions out, but we did not churn the milk into butter or determine the meat-to-fat ratio in that slice of bacon. We have to watch out for the places where large and significant measurement error could creep in, particularly in the carb department, like a scone that gets 6 g of raspberries and another that gets 2 g of raspberries if the recipe was made in the standard way of mixing and baking it all together, then cutting it up.

Now the important part: yum, these scones are good. They got the approval of Anders, his friend Henry, me, and Grandma Sheryl too. They are a great option for any low carb dieter or for someone who is gluten intolerant. Coconut flour is the magic ticket. Even without added sugar and non-sugar sweeteners, they are darn tasty. Nora eats them for breakfast with her 5 g coconut oil mixed with a teaspoon of butter.

On the emotional side, it seems to really help Nora when other people get to share some of her “special” foods. She was so happy when our friend Mara, who is gluten-intolerant, enjoyed the cupcakes that I made for Nora to eat at Anders’ birthday party (I will post that recipe sometime too–when I can do a controlled weighing like this again). She kept offering another one to Mara for the joy of sharing. It helps her to feel a little more normal, while we also remind her that almost everyone has their own food issues for different reasons. Mara can’t eat wheat, I can’t eat eggs, lots of people can’t eat peanut butter, or milk, or cheese, or yogurt. I guess we are all a little bit ~different~.

Cheddar Bread

When Nora first started a diet therapy, we began with the least-extreme diet that has worked for treating epilepsy: the Modified Atkins Diet (MAD). As part of my education, I borrowed the Atkins weight loss book from the library (the man knew how to sell an idea) and several Atkins/low-carb cookbooks. This is a modification of a recipe from one of those sources.

I made it quite a long time ago (which in my world, is 2 or 3 months). Nora requested it again last week, so I made it up for her. She really likes it. I don’t like the taste of the rice protein powder, but my taste doesn’t matter one bit!

Nutritional information for Cheddar Bread. Based on 8 servings. Analysis by www.caloriecount.com

Cheddar Bread

1/3 c (37.4 g) Bob’s Red mill Soy Flour
1/3 c (42.6 g) Source Natural’s Brown Rice Protein Powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp (14 g) Greek Gods Traditional Plain Greek Yogurt*
1 Tbsp (14 g) English Double Devon Cream*
2 tbsp (27 g) olive oil
38 g shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Butter 8×4 inch loaf pan.

Combine soy flour, rice protein and baking powder in a small bowl.

With hand mixer, combine eggs, yogurt, double cream and olive oil until smooth. Add dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Fold in half of cheddar.

Pour batter into pan and sprinkle remaining cheddar on top. Bake 25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Refrigerate.

*The original recipe called for sour cream, and I did make it with sour cream the first time. This time I did not have any sour cream at home, so I substituted and adjusted the recipe. If you want to use sour cream instead, substitute 2 T for all of the yogurt and English Double Cream. Re-calculate nutritional information.

As always, I gave you the brands that I used for each ingredient. If you use a different brand of soy flour or protein powder, you should adjust your nutritional information accordingly. I don’t see why whey protein powder wouldn’t work, but I have not tried it.

Nutrition based on 8 slices, at 30 g each. Nora normally eats a smaller slice, maybe 15 g. But I have found that if I make portion sizes too small in this recipe analysis tool, it will drop small values, like fiber. We both use the fiber number to see the “net carbs” in a food, and to keep track of how much fiber Nora is getting daily. So sometimes my recipes intentionally show larger portions, and I re-calculate based on this info for Nora.

Nora’s typical 15 g serving would be:
0.65 g net carbs
2.35 g protein
4.1 g fat
0.25 g fiber

And I would normally serve with a teaspoon of butter. The bread is not crumbly (hmmm, could it be the fat and cheese?) so it is nice to put a slice in the toaster (carefully) or under the broiler after taking it out of the fridge. Nora really digs the “toast” consistency.

The caloriecount website gave this recipe a B-! That is the highest rating I’ve seen for any of Nora’s recipes. Normally, they get a D. Good points are always that they are low in sugar (yeah) and bad points are that they are high in saturated fat (yeah too). It is interesting to always see how this external “health” and weight loss site views the diet that is so effective for my kid. If only they knew.

Efficiency is Life

Nora needs several supplements everyday, some multiple times a day. It’s tedious to crush tablets and add them to foods on a meal-by-meal basis, so here’s one of my time saving processes to ease the daily grind.

Peanut butter (B^3) and apples (10 g = 1.25 g carbs) is Nora’s morning snack, and nobody better mess with it. It’s also a great fat and supplement delivery system.

First, I make a big batch of B^3 (that’s B-cubed, aka, B*B*B for those not math-inclined). Peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, and butter. Give it a bit of body and fiber by adding some flax:

Nutrition for B^3

Nutrition information for 1 Tbsp B^3 from www.caloriecount.com

B^3
1 cup butter
1/2 cup Adams 100% Natural Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Sunbutter Organic Sunflower Seed Spread
1/2 C Bob’s Red Mill flax meal

Soften by bringing all ingredients to room temperature, then blend well. I am careful not to whip too much air into the mixture, as I measure it by the tablespoon. Of course, it may also be weighed for precision.

I think this completely filled up a quart jar last time I made it. Refrigerate and it will keep a long time. At 1 tablespoon a day, it lasts a while.

The B^3 is now ready to be made into 1 tablespoon servings and loaded with supplements. It’s a great delivery system because the taste of the supplements is masked by the nut butters.

Adding supplements to B^3

Nora gets 1/4 of an adult Centrum every day (her diet does not guarantee her the required vitamins and minerals), 1 tablet of carnitine (an amino acid that helps with processing fats), and 200 mg of folic acid (helps with thinning hair due to the medication). She also gets calcium supplements, but we do not add them here. Any chewable kids vitamins have carbs to make them tasty, so those are out of the picture for Nora. Of course, we can’t expect a 3 year old to swallow pills, so we crush them into a powder with a small mortar and pestle and incorporate them into her food.

I start an assembly line process by measuring 1 tablespoon of B^3 into 4 small dishes. I crush 1 day’s supplement tablets into a powder and add it to each bowl of B^3. That way, she gets a consistent daily dose. I mix in the supplements and put the little bowls in the freezer to harden.

Frozen B^3 + Supplements

When the mixture is hard (it does not have to be frozen solid), I use a melon baller to scoop it all up into a little ball.

Then I put each ball into a container and keep it in the refrigerator. That keeps the mixture solid enough to stay separate, but gets pliable quickly when it is ready to eat.

It is a bit of work, but I love having little balls of B^3 to grab out of the fridge when I’m preparing each day’s meals. Meal preparation is enough of a chore without getting out 3 more supplements to add to Nora’s food. We can put a few week’s worth in the fridge and keep it on hand.

Finished B^3 + Supplements

Productivity is happiness. Maybe that statement is a little too strong. Concentrated tedium is preferable to daily tedium.

 

 

The Keto-Raw-Food-Vegan Diet

This diet has not been challenging enough, so Nora’s now going raw food vegan too.

Happy April Fools Day!

I did find a fabulous hummus-substitute for Nora on the raw food vegan website of some of our favorite musicians, Jónsi of Sigur Rós and his partner Alex. Together they make music and art in Reykjavík, Iceland, and shared some of their raw food vegan recipes on their website. Click on the cool hand-drawn cookbook on the right to “flip” through the recipes. They’ve also made videos to demonstrate their “cooking” techniques (remember–this is raw food). I find it touchingly earnest and adorable somehow.

Macadamia nuts are often used in the ketogenic diet because they have a tremendous amount of “good” vegetable fats and low carbs. And they are totally delicious and cost their weight in gold (almost). I keep them in the fridge to be sure to keep them fresh. Nora has not been a huge fan of eating the nuts themselves, but I’ve tried to get them into her diet in other creative ways, like this.

I like the idea of putting Macadamia Monster Mash in half of a small pepper and broiling some cheese over the top (damn, I forgot about that vegan thing. And that raw food thing). But because Nora is only 3, she still isn’t a big fan of mixing her foods. One day she will appreciate a more complex presentation.

Here’s the recipe (I amended it a bit for Nora’s taste) and video for Macadamia Monster Mash:

Macadamia Monster Mash

Nutrition Information for Macadamia Monster Mash. From www.caloriecount.com

200 g macadamia nuts (about 1 cup, but for the diet I weigh it for precision)
1 tsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/3 c water

Mix in food processor or blender until creamy.

0.5 g net carbs
0.7 g fiber
0.7 g protein
6.3 g fat

The original recipe adds a clove of garlic and salt, which will slightly alter the nutritional information.

Nutritional information is based on a 12 g serving, about 1 tablespoon, but I weigh it on the scale instead of measuring it with a tablespoon.

Served on a flacker or low-carb tortilla, roll a little ball of Madacamia Monster Mash in some shredded cheddar cheese, spread on a slice of turkey and roll it up, or just eat it with a spoon. I’ve also mixed her coconut oil into it for easy serving.

One little sidelight: when I was making the recipe the first time, I realized that although water does not add any macro-nutrients, I need to specify the amount of water that I use in the recipe to get the correct nutritional information per serving. Why? Because the water adds weight/mass to the serving, in a sense “diluting” the other ingredients. A 12 g serving with water has different values than a 12 g serving without water. Details, details.

Hazelnut Applesauce Bread

Yesterday was baking day again, and Nora requested this Hazelnut Applesauce Bread. It’s the 3rd time I’ve made it–a hit! Nora enjoys it for breakfast, topped with a mixture of her morning coconut oil mixed with a bit of butter.

The recipe calls for baking it in a small loaf pan, but I find it a little unwieldy to store and cut in that form so I tried baking it in a wide shallow baking pan instead. It came out nicely. With all of the fat, the edges get kind of browned and crispy. Mmmm.

This recipe is an adaptation of Candice’s Low Carb Almond Flour Applesauce Spice Pound Cake [11/13: her site has moved and that recipe seems to be gone: http://tmstrevival.wordpress.com/]. If you look at her recipes, she always uses Splenda or another no-carb sweetener. We try not to add any of those sweeteners to Nora’s diet. It’s unclear whether they interfere with ketosis for her, and we don’t want to take any chances. I also don’t care for their flavor (they always have a bitter edge to me). I try to choose recipes with naturally sweet and delicious ingredients so that extra sweeteners are not necessary. Nora is not accustomed to sweet things anymore, so this bread (and her other baked goods) taste sweet enough to her. We call it “applesauce bread” for the sales pitch, and the applesauce does add a nice touch of sweetness, with the nutty taste and cinnamon flavors as well. We are going for flavor, not sweetness.

The original recipe calls for almond flour. The first time I made it, I was out of almond flour but had ample hazelnut flour. Did you know that 99% of all hazelnuts grown in the United States come from the the Willamette Valley in Oregon–right here where we make our home? And when you move to Oregon, you learn that hazelnuts are also called “filberts.” Know the local code to find the local deliciousness.

It is possible to substitute any nut flours for these kinds of recipes, but remember to always re-check the nutritional information. To boost the fiber and cut a little more carbs, I also substituted 1/4 cup flax meal for some of the nut flour, which I do with most recipes.

One additional word of caution for keto-families, which applies to all of my recipes with nutritional information: Make sure to re-calculate nutritional information for the ingredients that you use if they are different from mine. I use Bob’s Red Mill nut and seed flours. Check the nutritional information for the applesauce you use and make sure it is unsweetened. If you are grinding your own nut flours (which you can do in a coffee grinder), you can weigh the quantities to be sure of your measurements. I am measuring things in cups here, but as you know that creates more room for error. If you measure according to the recipe, weigh, and calculate based on weight you will get more precise nutritional information for the recipe that you feed your child.

I also use an online recipe analyzer because we don’t use a keto-calculator (we are on a “modified” keto diet without as much rigor as administered by most neurologist’s offices). My nutritional labels are for your reference to determine if you want to try a recipe.

Hazelnut Applesauce Bread

Hazelnut Applesauce Bread. Nutritional analysis from www.caloriecount.com

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
5 large eggs
1/3 cup UNSWEETENED apple sauce
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1.75 cups Hazelnut Meal/Flour
0.25 cups flaxseed meal
1 T Organic Coconut Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease & flour a 8”x4” loaf pan with butter and dust with coconut flour.

In small bowl combine hazelnut flour, coconut flour, baking powder and spices. Set aside.

Beat butter with an electric mixer until fluffy and smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and apple sauce and continue to beat until smooth.

Add hazelnut flour mixture to egg mixture. Mix on low until combined. Then turn mixer up to high and beat until smooth.

Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake at 350°F for about 1 hour or until done. (When I made it in the wide shallow pan, it cooked for about 45 minutes).

Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes then take out and and cool on wire rack. If you don’t take it out of the pan, it will solidify in there and will break if you take it out when cold. There is a lot of butter in this recipe and it does solidify.

Note that 1 serving is 16 g (I cut and weigh each piece of bread). It’s a rather small but dense serving. The recipe creates 48 servings at 16 g each, so it’s wise to freeze half of a loaf because it will get moldy before we use all of the 48 servings (unless the rest of the family is eating it too!)

A 16 g serving contains:
0.7 g net carbs
0.8 g fiber
1.4 g protein
6.2 g fat