Hi friends! I know, it's been forever since I have posted here. The truth is......perhaps you should sit down.....1.I was given a tablet, and as much as I absolutely love it for checking on people all day and for use in homeschooling, I can't do blog posts on it....yet. (still figuring it out). 2. We purchased, in my dear hubby's words, a crappy house, and it has needed a LOT of TLC. I painted the entire interior of the house by myself. I cleaned by myself. I worked on flower beds and yard by myself. In other words.... so exhaustingly busy. ( I actually just invented a word!) Add to that, said dear hubby changed jobs, became a first lieutenant chaplain in the Texas Army National guard, and came home one day with a completely new diet! May I just take a moment to breathe? I'm getting tired all over again just writing this stuff. Oh, and let's not forget that we went to Bolivia the last week in January! That was glorious, but sent my poor body for a loop afterward.
I am loving my new (crappy) house and my girls are happy, too. You see, we had been crammed into a 2 bedroom townhouse with no yard for 3 years. It was a good place and served its purpose in our lives, but it was time to stretch a bit. We now have 3 bedrooms and more space. My 2 youngest girls still share a room, but I have it divided with one of those magnificent Expedit shelves from Ikea. So, they think they have their own rooms, and we have peace among the Mohicans. I have torn apart the kitchen and put it back the way I like it. It's very French country......by necessity. The cabinet doors were all formica on particle board. They were all swollen with grease, and moisture, and I don't want to know what else, so I removed them and painted the cabinets. I hung curtains in front of the lower cabinets, so that I am at least allowed a little bit of disorganization! Those who have seen the pictures know that I picked a dark yellow for most of my house. It is a happy color, but also it reminds me of Bolivia. That makes me even happier to be reminded of our other home.
On to the diet. We've recently done a lot of study (mostly hubby) on the ketogenic diet. Basically it is high fat/no carb. Ah, although we already had a really healthy diet, we still ate a lot of carbs. I had no idea how many until we cut them out. I've planned so many meals saying, "Oh we could have some rice, no that's carbs. Or we could have some potatoes, no that's carbs...." And on and on I go until I find an acceptable substitute for carbs. Oh my goodness, this has been so tough! Can I say, though, for the first time since having 3 babies I am losing weight. Yay! (Of course it could be from working myself to the bone on this house..) heehee. So anyway, my creative juices have kicked in and I am working on recipes for our new diet that will agree with the taste buds and also be healthy. Can I tell you I am missing chocolate cake for some odd reason? Ok, enter my new Nutella cookie dough cheesecake! Cheesecake is an excellent recipe for no carb and no sugar eaters! With this recipe you also get my low carb sugar free cookie recipe, too. A twofer!
Cookies!
1 stick of butter softened (it really is good for you folks)
1-1 1/4 cups xylitol or stevia (they are even better with a drop of molasses or something dark and sticky)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix those together until nice and smooth
1 cup almond meal
1 1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix again and add some chocolate chips that you like. If you are just making cookies, drop by teaspoon on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350*
If you are making the cheesecake, you need to add some Nutella (or a low sugar/no sugar kind) to the cookie dough batter and set some aside.
Cheesecake!
Crust
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1/4 cup xylitol
1/2 stick of butter melted
Mix that together and press into your cheesecake pan
Filling
3 packages of cream cheese softened
3 eggs
1 cup stevia (I use the Stevia in the Raw kind that is cup for cup the same as sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream
Mix together until smooth and pour over crust. Put little drops of cookie dough on top and smoosh them into the cheesecake batter. Bake at 325* for 50 minutes. Since it's a cheesecake, it has to jiggle on top when you check it. Bon Apetite!
