Keto Chocolate Cookies

Being on a high fat, low carb diet means that you can sometimes get cravings for baked goods that are off limits.  Luckily I've found some great recipes for keto-friendly goodies and I happened to have all the ingredients on hand the other day when I was having my cookie craving so I threw them together real quick, popped 'em in the oven and was happily munching on cookies in less than an hour.  The original recipe calls for chocolate chips which was the only thing I didn't have on hand, but next time I make these I will definitely be adding those for some additional gooey goodness.

Keto Chocolate Cookies

(makes 12-18 cookies. recipe via peace love and low carb)
Ingredients: 
1 cup natural creamy almond butter
2/3 cup confectioners erythritol (I use this brand)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons peanut butter powder
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon melted salted butter
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/ Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

2/ In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond butter, erythritol, cocoa powder, peanut butter powder, eggs, butter, water, vanilla extract, and baking soda. Using an electric hand mixer, mix until all ingredients are well combined. It will be a very thick dough. Fold in the chocolate chips.

3/ Form the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch balls. This will produce 12 good sized cookies. You can make them smaller to yield more cookies.

4/ Place the cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. At the 9-10 minute mark, remove the cookies and press them down to keep them from getting to big and cake-y.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place on a cooling rack to allow the cookies to cool before eating.

Keto Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

Dan and I have been attempting Keto since last summer.  Well, I should say Dan has been pretty successfully doing Keto, and I have been... not.  But I finally feel like I have mental and physical energy to focus on my own health and am diving back in!  For those who have no clue what Keto is, the readers digest version is: Your body runs on glucose and ketone bodies, but will default to glucose when it's present.  Ketone bodies are created from fats, so if you reduce the glucose you consume and increase the healthy fat, your body switches to running off of fat.  So real basic: eat fat = burn fat.  When your body is running on ketones, it's said to be in "Ketosis" hence: Keto.  Anyway, in such a carbohydrate and sugar heavy culture it can be hard to switch to a high fat/low carb diet, so something like Keto ice cream can help not feel sad about the carbohydrates I'm craving.

I was skeptical that this would be actually as tasty as normal ice cream because usually substitute foods are like a sad version of the original, but this stuff is actually amazing.  I was pretty excited to make ice cream because it was the first time I used my ice cream bowl and mixer for my Kitchenaid mixer!  If you have a Kitchenaid, you can find the ice cream attachment here! 

Keto Cookies + Cream Ice Cream

makes 10 servings (recipe via ruled.me)
 

INGREDIENTS FOR COOKIE CRUMBS:

3/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup erythritol (I used Swerve)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbsp. softened coconut oil
1 egg, room temperature
Pinch of salt

MAKE THE COOKIE CRUMBS:

1/ Preheat your oven to 300°F. Take a 9 inch circular cake pan (or similar sized pan), and grease with oil, or line with parchment paper.

2/ Into a medium bowl, sift your almond flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, erythritol, and salt then whisk until there are no lumps.

3/ Add the vanilla extract and coconut oil to the bowl and mix until batter forms into crumbs.

4/ Add the egg and mix everything together until the cookie batter begins to stick together.

5/ Dump the batter into your prepared pan and press the batter down with your fingers until it evenly covers the bottom of the pan.

6/ Pop it in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the center of cookie bounces back when it's pressed.

7/ Once it's done, take the pan out of the oven and let it cool.

8/ Now that the cookie has cooled, crumble the cookie into small bits. Set aside.

INGREDIENTS FOR ICE CREAM

2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup erythritol
1/2 cup almond milk, unsweetened

MAKE THE ICE CREAM

1/ In a large bowl, blend the whipping cream with a Kitchenaid or electric mixer until stiff peaks form.

2/ Add vanilla extract and erythritol, and whip until thoroughly combined.

3/ Pour in the almond milk and blend mixture until it re-thickens.

4/ Transfer cream mixture to ice cream maker bowl and churn until ice cream begins to hold its shape. If you're using the kitchenaid mixer, make sure you only use the churning attachment on the "stir" speed.  Churn for about 20 minutes.

5/ Once you've been churning for 20 minutes or so, gradually pour the cookie crumbles in while the ice cream maker is churning to evenly mix the crumbles into the ice cream. Churn for 5-10 more minutes, until the cookie crumbles are mixed throughout.

6/ Once all of the cookie crumbles are incorporated, transfer the ice cream into a freezer-safe container.  You can serve the ice cream right away if you want a softer texture, or if you want it harder, put it in the freezer for an hour or two. Mine gets too hard in my freezer, so I have to take it out and put it in the fridge for a bit to let it soften up. 

Makes 10 servings. Each serving comes out to be 289.9 Calories, 28.9g Fats, 3g Net Carbs, and 4.6g Protein.

ENJOY!

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Strawberry Mango Lemonade Popsicles

I got these popsicle molds a few years ago and have rarely used them but this time of year when the days get hotter, I get really excited about making homemade popsicles and ice cream.  I like the idea of homemade popsicles and being able to keep the amount of sugar in them pretty low.  With there being lemonade in these ones they are pretty sweet but not overly sweet.

Jack is teething with some new molars right now so I wanted to make something icey that he could chew on and he really likes these.  I'll probably try to make some other ones that are less sugary for him instead, but the texture is perfect for him to chew!  Maybe this summer will be the summer of the popsicle!

Ingredients (makes 6 popsicles):
2 Cups Mango Lemonade
3 Strawberries
1/2 Banana
1/2 Cup Strawberry Banana Coconutmilk Yogurt

In a blender, blend everything together and then pour into your popsicle molds and insert the top with the sticks. Put them in the freezer and wait!  I usually wait overnight but I'm sure a few hours would do the trick.  Enjoy your summer frozen treat!

Eating Plants/Animals

Somewhat, seemingly, randomly, food has become a pretty forefront subject in my life.  Lots of things converging all at once, urging me towards a deeper thinking on food.  I feel like there are ebbs and flows in my life when it comes to considering eating habits.  I was quite conscious of it back when we were members of a CSA in Tacoma.  Then again, when we did Whole30.  Recently there have been various things that have all come into my life regarding food.  I got Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.  Dan mentioned wanting to pursue a vegetarian lifestyle. My good friend recommended the Jeong Kwan episode of Chef's Table on Netflix.  And I'm super conscious of what I'm eating right now because I'm breastfeeding and trying to increase my milk supply so that I, in turn, can nourish our son. 

Living in Alaska actually triggered a return to lazy, lax thinking and acting in regards to food.  For one thing, Alaska isn't the mecca for community supported agriculture or small, organic farms in the same way that Western Washington was.  While there are some prolific farms in Alaska during our short summer, winters are a bit of a food wasteland in terms of local, organic, sustainable produce.  And really, to live sustainably, regarding foods, in Alaska means eating in the way the native peoples of Alaska do.  Lots of hunting, foraging, and fishing.  And lots of storing up for winter.  The produce here is expensive and goes bad quickly.  It comes from thousands of miles away.

There's also the psychological issues, for me at least, that come with living back in the house I grew up in, and feeling the pull back to eating how I used to eat growing up.  And we obviously eat with my parents relatively frequently, at least once a week, and while my mom has occasionally wanted to shift towards a vegetarian lifestyle, it's hard to make that shift when not everyone in the household feels the same way, and you're the one who does most of the cooking.

So, there's the table with the cards, so to speak.  But despite the barriers, having the support of my partner in pursuing a vegetarian, and maybe vegan, lifestyle is so crucial.  In one way, it's just a nice accountability.  Having someone else helping you remember the choice you made, and supporting one another to continue making that choice daily.

I know a lot of meat eaters find vegetarians annoying.  I've been an omnivore almost my whole life, and even wrote an article for my college newspaper opinion column about how vegetarians aren't more compassionate than meat eaters after a friend posted a status stating as much.  But here's the deal.  I was defensive because, well, she was right. Every day I eat meat I choose to be an active participant in cruelty to animals.  And as someone who loves animals, some with a fierceness I didn't know possible (I'm looking at you Dusty, goddamnit), that choice to eat animals came with a lot of purposeful forgetting.  Forgetting the origins of the slab of meat on my plate.  Forgetting the intelligence and sentience of the creature whose torture and slaughter I invested in when I made that meat purchase as the supermarket.  

I've come to realize that one reason I've avoided confronting the issue of vegetarian vs. omnivore is that once I open the door to vegetarianism, it asks me to confront other lifestyle choices.  If I'm committed to changing my diet for ethical/moral reasoning to do with animal welfare, then I also must address the issues regarding human welfare in the clothing manufacturing industry.  If I'm committed to changing my diet for sustainability/environmental reasons, I also must confront the issues of fast fashion's contribution to pollution.  If you've been around the blog for a while you remember my commitment to buying only secondhand, vintage, or ethically/sustainably manufactured clothing that I made a few years back.  I've been pretty good about it until recently, mostly with buying clothes for Jack.  Damn you, Target, and your cute baby clothes.  It's hard when you're excited about your kid and want to get him all the cute things.  You push out of your mind that commitment you made.  And with myself, I don't buy a lot of clothes anymore since I'm not a fashion blogger like I used to be, posting outfits daily.  My wardrobe is a fraction of what it used to be back in my heyday of style blogging (and a lot of it is in storage in Washington right now, since I couldn't fit into much of it being pregnant last year).  But I recently shopped at Forever21 and H&M and I'd be lying if I didn't feel the twinge of guilt knowing that I was fulfilling a selfish desire for some new, postpartum clothes on the backs of the people who were exploited to make those clothes. 

So really, for me, it's a bigger commitment than just not picking up meat at the grocery store or restaurant anymore.  It's a question that cuts through the bullshit of doublethink and willful ignorance and forces me to confront the things I engage in everyday and how those actions affect my world.  The world I live in, and the world I will have to one day hand down to my son.  And beyond that, it's modeling the values that I want to pass on to my son as well.  Valuing other humans, animals, and the planet more than my own selfish desires and appetites.