Low Carb Almond Flour Pancakes

"I made these this morning and was quite surprised how they turned out, quite well acually. Its so funny when you do things only one way and never expect an alternative to be as successful" .

The meal

I had loads of almonds so I blanched and ground them. I did not get the fine flour that I liked it was quite damp and clumpy, so I dried the grounds in the dehydrator for a while and then ground again. My blender is a reasonable one but I am sure that a model that is made for milling would give much better results .The other option is buy Almond flour milled for cooking(specialty shops) or Almond meal from the supermarket. So what I did to get a better batter was when I added the wet ingredients I let the blender run awhile longer to smooth it right down to avoid grittiness, oh and ill do a nutritional profile for them and update for those wanting to know fats carbs and protein .

Almond Flour Pancakes

1 1/2 cups of almond flour

4 egg whites

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup reduced fat coconut cream(or substitute with milk or rice milk )

pinch of sea salt

sweetener

vanilla extract

2tsp of cold pressed oil of choice (olive,coconut)

1/2 plus of water enough to bring to a nice consistency

Variations: grated apple or fruit of choice to add for a fruit pancake

also can be made as a savoury pancake.

blend all but the water then add until you get desired batter

Note

when adding fruit such as grated apple cook these on a lower heat for longer and due to the added texture they are fragile so make sure they are quite set before you turn.

Day 6 fructose free

Well its day six already and I am feeling the symptoms of withdrawal mostly the desire for something sweet especially my raw balls see picture, I pretty much have been bounding with energy but so need a sweet treat! I never was a big sugar eater and steered away from it whenever possible, but I did eat enough of it to cause me problems. Things like the occasional muesli bar,birthday cakes and party food, a glass of soft drink, a bowl of ice cream, honey and maple syrup on my oats and I guess I need to count those times also at work with jam on scones and biscuits dunked in my tea. This was never ever a daily or even weekly thing I am over weight but can only imagine how heavy I would be if I ate all these foods on a daily basis.

sugar free cooking: Last night I poached some gorgeous quinces with just a little water and dextrose, to add more sweetness I used Natvia. I served mine with coconut cream (dairy free)and they were just divine. Nearly anything I cook except for meat, I eat raw to try balance it out I guess as I do have a hint of guilt when I do cook those precious beautiful live foods.

Chocolate

Last week I made my own chocolates with raw cacao butter, coconut oil, raw cacao powder and sweetener. I need to perfect my chocolate making skills (tempering) so I can get the desired texture that I like.

Kids

well the kids are not liking the changes. I now insist they use the dextrose on their cereal which is usually weetbix or oats they still want to drink soft drinks and Milo apart from restricting them from these I will need to find an alternative or make a fructose free substitute.

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Re organising!

Well the last few days I have been abuzz with a new found mission. I have been re reading David Gillespie's book Sweet Poison. I bought this book over a year ago started a sugar free diet and then just I just fizzled off a bit after diving deeper into the Raw Food world which contained a lot of fruit dried fruit agave syrups maple syrups and honey just to name a few and along the way learned a hell of a lot more about food and its impact on human health. I Also have been trawling the internet and viewing numerous videos one in which just blew me a way (see post above). So my process is getting rid of all the sugar laden products that I so rejoiced in using for my family and even when I was raw fooding and preparing my raw foods. Like agave, maple syrup,coconut palm sugar and honey which were the most used items by me and used lots of, no wonder my weight just wont not budge my metabolism is comatosed (more on that later).

Sugar/fructose food Ditch list

Cereal bars

cereals- fruit loops, nutrigrain, sweeten microwave porridge

soda stream syrups

soft drinks

Sugar - white, brown, castor, icing

milk drinks-flavours- milo, ovaltine, hot chocolate, syrups.

sauces - tomato, bbq, sweet chilli

spreads- nutella, jams, conserves

Ice cream

sweetened yogurt

this is just to start. The pantry is getting a make over, noo longer will it be bulging and me struggling to keep all the nasties in when I open the door. I already have 2 shelves of the pantry filled with all my healthy stuff, vitamins, super foods, seeds nuts, jars of this and packets of that and I am proud to say that I only had to remove 3 items from my shelf the rest of the pantry was out of site out of mind, which was very shameful.

update: I just went home for lunch today and ditched a few items he he!! more room more room for the good stuff!

whats In!

well I have filled a jar with dextrose(glucose) to use instead of table sugar yes this is a carb but it does not have fructose which is the ' toxic'partner of table sugar (sucrose) and any baking I do will incorporate this. I also will increase the fiber intake for myself and children by adding to drinks, foods and recipes. The hardest thing to do is convincing the kids to drink only water or if they must milk. I will try and make a raw choc drink maybe with dextrose, raw cacao and some form of natural flavours I need to get hold of some vanilla powder. My biggest tackle is snack foods, they eat little if none of raw veg or fruit, they are so used to processed junk mostly white bread and spreads. Ill keep you up dated with any thing I find or make. as for the white flour I have replaced with spelt grain and will bake my own breads which I know will be fructose free. Did you know that Fructose gives bake goods the nice brown that we see. its listed as sugar of course so what I need to is think fructose when I see sugar certainly if there is no clarification on what type. think sugar then always think 50% glucose- 50% fructose.

Easter

well the Easter assault was a upon me before I had finally made a decision to abstain. So in a last desperate attempt to reduce the amount of sugar intake with chocolate. I made some of my fructose free chocolates. I also reduced the amount of chocolate I bought and even found some sugar free eggs and rabbits made by Macro at woollworths sweetened with malitol.yes this is a sugar alcohol but the body does not recognise it as a sugar. I also baked fructose free mini cup cakes by baking with dextrose and not sucrose (refined fructose is my main concern) and made some ginger bread biscuits to try and lighten the load. So I guess in a sense It was a success for our first Easter of drastically reducing the chocolate binge. Last year the children got over 6kgs each of total chocolate given by myself and family. How horrifying!!Thank Goodness the last year of self education on nutrition is finally swinging into action.

Saving my family

Hello and welcome to my blog where I am free to speak on what I believe I can do to improve my life and those of my family, I hope you enjoy.

Please note!: although I may state that a recipe/product is free from certain products/substances this may not be the case in what you, yourself use. Always read packaging and check on line for more information.

So to put it simply today is the day I call it quits! quits on the number one item on my hit list SUGAR!. Its made me fat, it continuously seduces me, wreaks havoc and then leaves making me feel depleted, and then craving for more. I get irritable, moody in fact aggressive!, I have at times got the shakes and swinging from high to low. Well no more. It's controlling my life, my family and especially my two youngest boys who are now overweight and have turned into nectar feeding sugar tubbies hovering around for their next hit. Chocolate, cereal, Milo, Nutella, food bars, puddings, ice cream, jellies, biscuits its just never ending. I tried once before and failed but this time I am determined to win and create a lifestyle that I hope will improve the quality of life for my family saving them from future illnesses like diabetes, obesity, cancer, auto immune disorders just to name a few. There is more and more evidence emerging on the dangers of sugar and in particular fructose which has been a huge part of our lives even when we were not aware of it. It is added to almost everything that is manufactured. I have come to the point in my life when I just cringe when I walk through the glass doors of any supermarket and all I can do is observe as I watch consumers doing what they do best consuming products designed to get you hooked and coming back. The everyday supermarket is licensed DRUG dealer Taking you're hard earned cash allowing you to choose your poison and leave . It has taken me years of reading, asking and searching to find out answers thank goodness to the dedicated people out there who spend huge amounts of their time gathering, researching, writing and sending out the messages of the dangers of not only sugar but other questionable substances that have found their way into the human food chain. I really wish I knew what I know now so I could have protected my children from the addictive toxic food industry . My ultimate goal is to create a community growing and thriving on their own grown food, connecting with this earth and truly living on food designed for humans.