Keto Chile Rellenos

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This was quite an adventure to make. My partner was kindly given some peppers at the community garden by a fellow gardener. My sister gave me a fab Mexican cookbook some time ago that I love and I watched a video of an amazing woman cooking chile rellenos on a wood stove in Mexico. Both inspired me. I hope you’re inspired too!

Recipe at the bottom!

Step One

Roast 8 chillies over an open flame and place in a sealed container to sweat and cool off, then peel skin off carefully; cut down the centre and remove seeds. Work carefully though, they are fragile.

Step Two

Make a ground beef filling and red sauce

  • BEEF FILLING:
  • 4 tblsp oil
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 2 tblsp dried oregano
  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 1/2 cup beef stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • Later, you’ll add a bit of the drained tomato juice from a can of roasted tomatoes

Heat the oil, add onions, herbs and spices, crumble in ground beef, add stock and simmer very gently while making the red sauce

  • RED SAUCE (heavenly…)
  • Broth of 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 tsp saffron, 2 red chillies, 2 smoked dried chillies 1 1/2 cup water, simmer until smoked dried chillies are soft
  • Blend up 1 large tin roasted tomatoes (add drained juice to ground beef), 1 onion, 9 cloves garlic, 1 cup of broth, the softened chillies (definitely not the cinnamon sticks and seeds from softened chillies!)
  • Pour red sauce into a pot, warm up gently adding salt, 1/4 cup each keto sugar and olive oil, bring to a simmer

Have ready:

  • 2 cups grated cheese
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • ASSEMBLY OF CHILE RELLENOS:
  • butter a cast iron dish
  • Heat oven to 350⁰F
  • Gently fill each chilli with beef filling, don’t overfill
  • Top each rellenos with sour cream
  • Heap on grated cheese
  • Drizzle over olive oil
  • Sprinkle with oregano
  • Bake 20-25 minutes or until cheese is bubbling
  • SERVING:
  • place a generous serving of red sauce onto plate
  • Lift rellenos out carefully and place on top of red sauce
  • Garnish with fresh cilantro
  • Serve with sliced avocados
  • Side dish options: cauliflower rice, roasted squash, shredded lettuce

It takes some effort! I roasted the chillies the day before. I’m convinced they were easier to peel the next day out the fridge. But totally worth it! Also, you’ll have leftover ground beef and sauce, a win!

Chaffles: Brie, persimmon and basil with keto maple syrup

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I like unusual flavour combinations and in my pre-keto days a favourite summer treat was to eat waffles from a place called Waffle Window. There was always a line. This sweet/savoury waffle was my favourite but the Loaded Berry Waffles were amazing too.

This recipe makes 8 servings. I feel if I’m making Chaffles or Waffles, none of this 2 or 3 only business! The Waffle maker I have makes Chaffles the size of your palm anyhow. One mess for more and they freeze well too.

  • 2/3 cup almond flour
  • 1 cup grated mozzarella
  • 1 tblsp fine xylitol sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tblsp cream cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence

In a large mixing bowl

  1. Add all dry ingredients
  2. Mix in wet
  3. Blend well
  4. Heat the Waffle maker well
  5. Place 2 heaped tblsp batter onto Waffle machine
  6. Spread out batter
  7. Cook about 2 to 2 ¹/² minutes or until to your liking
  8. Keep warm for serving
  9. Add your favourite toppings!

My toppings: a slice of Brie, drizzled keto maple syrup, fresh basil, scoop of persimmon (about 2 tblsp) and sour cream.

Picking persimmons.

Toasted Keto Muesli

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Ingredients:

  • 2 cups oat bran
  • 3/4 cup chia seeds
  • 1 cup flaxseed, ground
  • 1 cup coconut flakes
  • 1 cup flaked almonds

Method

  1. on a baking tray toast the almonds, add to mixing bowl to cool
  2. I set the oven to 400F, set a timer to 3 minutes and keep checking and stirring when I toast nuts or coconut
  3. then toast the coconut flakes on the same tray, add to bowl to cool off
  4. When the coconut and almonds are cool add the oat bran, chia and ground flaxseed
  5. Place in a sealed container and store in fridge

I usually add 1tbls of collagen and 1 tsp of calcium powder when I mix my muesli with unsweetened almond milk.

Top with berries and yogurt, or have plain. I also have a keto honey flavoured syrup I add and sometimes a sprinkle of toasted (unsalted) peanuts for extra crunch and drizzle of cream.

Calcium and collagen added to my breakfast bowl, then some almond milk!

Such a gorgeous fragrant mix … with all the toppings it’s delicious.

A real splurge and keto no-no … some apple which I miss so much!

Gingerbread Fruit Bake

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I never had fresh berries so for this recipe I used a few plums. They were not quite ripe either! Anyhow, the gist of this recipe is to bake your fruit in butter while you prep the batter. Add the light scone-like topping, flaked almonds, more spices, bake and you’re done! Delicious with a cup of coffee and topped with whipped cream.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups berries or fresh fruit of your choice to cover the base of your baking dish
  • 3 tblsp butter
  • 1 large casserole dish
  1. Turn your oven on to 375⁰F
  2. Add the casserole dish with the butter to heating oven, to melt the butter
  3. Meanwhile, wash fruit and slice as you please removing seeds if you’re using fruit other than berries
  4. Remove hot dish from oven, run butter around sides to grease the sides or use a pastry brush, place fruit in as you please and return to oven while you prepare the batter.

Batter:

  • 6 tblsp soft butter
  • 1 cup brown keto sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • 1/2 cup low carb flour
  • 1 tblsp ground psyllium husk (optional)
  • 1 tblsp baking powder
  • 4 tblsp ground ginger
  • 4 tblsp maple keto syrup or your choice of syrup
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup flaked almonds
  • 2 tsp gingerbread spice
  1. Beat the butter and keto sugar together
  2. Beat in the eggs one at a time
  3. Add the flour, baking powder and spices
  4. Lightly beat together
  5. Add the sour cream (if you need to add more sour cream add until like a light scone dough) and syrup
  6. Remove the dish from the oven with the cooking fruit, spoon over dough
  7. Smooth out dough
  8. Top with flaked almonds and gingerbread spice or allspice
  9. Bake at 375⁰F for 35 minutes
  10. When removed from oven drizzle over more keto syrup, optional
  11. Serve with whipped cream or Greek yogurt

Keto Chicken Mayonnaise

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One of the quickest throw together meals for leftover chicken or a handy tin of shredded tuna (which I’m not a big fan of) is shredding a chicken breast or two, adding mayonnaise, a few other diced ingredients and seasoning. I like my Chicken Mayo’ to be chunky, have some tang and a little bit of crunch. If you want some sweetness for those non-keto members of your household, sliced grapes or small dices of firm yellow peaches or apricots are delicious too. A splash of curry powder for a spicier version is also good!

  • 2 chicken breasts,shredded or diced
  • 1 large pickled cucumber, diced
  • 1/4 cup diced spicy peppers or red bell peppers
  • 6 radish diced
  • 1 small onion or 2 shallots
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 cup keto mayonnaise
  • Ground salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp onion or garlic powder
  • Optional: 1/4 tsp curry powder
1. Dice or shred the chicken
2. Add the chopped veggies
3. Stir in the mayo and seasonings
4. Refrigerate until ready to use
5. Serve on keto bread or piled on top of a salad

Yes, this is Keto Bread! We’re lucky enough to have a local bakery that makes it. It makes a decent slice of toast too!

Here are a few of the beautiful tomatoes we’ve been enjoying this summer. My sweetie’s veggie garden was incredible this year! Only the butternut is not from his garden.

Spiderwebs in the morning. Sunbeams in the afternoon.


Lastly, an APOD photo of our beautiful world.





*Wordpress has changed their format to a really dreadful and unintuitive new edit and create version. I’m limping along on the old which is maybe intentionally not working well … another way to push users onto the new version, I’m guessing. Apologies for any glitches that may pop up here.

Spiced Keto Muffins with orange zest

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I’m beginning to think this is the only muffin recipe I’ll be using for a long while, just varying the flavours and types of nut flour I use. These are fresh out the oven to break an 8/16 fast since late lunch yesterday. Delicious slathered in butter. Just butter! I’m also convinced my favourite keto sugar is the brown version in the image below. Absolutely NO aftertaste, coolness and really tastes good. I’m not sure how I’ll bake keto sponge cakes in future, but honestly, it’s 100% the best flavour.

What we’ll be doing here – melting the butter/sugar mix gently on the stove; mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and in another bowl mix cream/nut milk/buttermilk with eggs and orange zest. Make sure to check you have some spices handy, I used a few or you can just stick with cinnamon. There are some optional things you can leave out, it will absolutely work without the optional add in’s. Makes 1 dozen muffins. Here we go:

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Keto Danish Pastries with Strawberries

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If you have some fresh berries and ingredients for fathead dough, then you have the basic ingredients to make this recipe. The process is in three stages. First the filling, which is basically like a light cheesecake filling. Next you mix the dough and while it’s baking you make a quick glaze. This was my first time baking these and it took me a little longer than it should. Next time I will have everything prepped and be more organised. I literally decided to bake these on the fly today when I saw the strawberries needed to be eaten. Here goes!

Filling

  • 1x 8oz cream cheese package
  • 1/2 cup ground white keto sugar (if it’s too granular it’s not pleasant)
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tsp vanilla essence
  • zest of a lemon (an orange would be good too if you don’t have lemons)

Beat all the ingredients well together.

Dough:

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Quick Radish Keto Pickles

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We have radish, lots of radish! My sweetie has been harvesting his prolific crop of French Breakfast radish. It’s the perfect balance of sweet at first crunchy bite, then peppery with a mustardy overtone. What do you do when you have an abundance of veg – make pickles of course!

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Tender Buttermilk Chicken Curry with Summer Veg

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We’ve had a cool start to summer, it’s been more of an extended spring. I’m not complaining as it meant I could make a late seasonal curry with some local farm chicken.

I tried slow roasting one of these chickens, but the good outdoor life made them strong, tough and healthy, just like chickens should be! Tasty but a tad chewy!

In South Africa we call these chickens “scratchy fowls” meaning they have had a free happy life, scratching in the fields for bugs. Nothing happier than the a vision of a happy scratching fowl roaming free!

So, as buttermilk tenderises chicken meat beautifully,

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