Chocolate Torte with Cream Cheese Frosting

Sometimes you gotta try a lot of recipes before you get a good one. This was the first chocolate brownie/baked type of thing that was actually tasty. Usually they're gritty, bitter, and dry. Not these. These were rich, smooth, sweet, and fudgy. This recipe comes from All Day I Dream About Food, a wonderful blog.

Chocolate Torte/Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake Ingredients:
7 oz. unsweetened chocolate (not cocoa)
14 Tbsp. butter (1 and 3/4 sticks) or coconut oil
1 and 1/4 c. Swerve (erythritol)
5 eggs

Frosting:
1 stick of butter (8 Tbsp.)
8 oz. cream cheese (1 brick)
1/4 c. heavy cream or almond milk
1/4 c. sweetener (I used some sugar free drink syrup (DaVinci brand) so I didn't have to worry about solids)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Over medium low heat, melt butter in a saucepan. Add chocolate slowly and stir continuously until melted. Add the Swerve slowly while mixing.
2. Set aside to cool. Once the pot is cool enough to touch with your hands for an extended period of time, whisk in the 5 eggs one at a time.
3. Grease an 8 inch pan and line with parchment paper (or grease mini muffin tins or silicone muffin cups). Grease parchment paper.
4. Cook at 375 F for 25 minutes.
5. Let cool on cookie rack.

Melt butter and cream cheese together in microwave and stir. Add vanilla and sweetener. Add heavy cream or milk. Whisk/beat until smooth. Spoon over hot cupcakes/torte or chill and pipe onto cooled cupcakes/torte.

Low-Carb Cocktail Sauce

Cocktail sauce is the sort of thing that gets bought, used a bit, and then the bottle sits in the fridge for 3 months... I picked up some shrimp at BJ's, and since Alex absolutely loves chilled shrimp with cocktail sauce, I was gonna get some sauce at the store. I turned the bottle over and curiously glanced at the carbs. I let out a little yelp. 16 grams of carbs for 2 tablespoons!!! Holy crap! So we get home and he pulls up a recipe for some homemade sauce. We used reduced sugar ketchup. Aim for about 1-3g carbs per tablespoon. 

1 c. low sugar ketchup

4 Tbsp. horseradish (not the creamy sauce, just the ground root)

dash of Worcestershire sauce (we used A1 in a pinch)

1 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar (optional), ours tasted fine without

Mix it all up and chill or serve immediately. Tastes just like the store bought stuff without all the corn syrup....

Coconutty Cream Pie (No eggs)

COCONUTTY CREAM PIE

This coconut cream pie was very dense and coconutty. The dried coconut soaked up a lot of  the coconut milk. It was very good though.

Crust:
1 oz. shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 c. coconut flour
2 tsp. Swerve (an erythritol sugar substitute)
1/4 c. coconut oil, unrefined (shortening-like consistency)

Mix all ingredients well and press into a pie pan. Bake crust at 350 F for 10 minutes.

Filling:
13.5 oz. can full fat coconut milk
5 oz. shredded unsweetened coconut
8 oz. full fat cream cheese
1/4 c. Swerve
1 tsp. xanthan or guar gum

Mix coconut milk and shredded coconut and let sit for about 5-10 minutes. Mix in remaining ingredients. Pour into crust and bake again at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until golden grown around the edges.

Toast 2 oz. shredded unsweetened coconut on a small pan either in the oven or in a toaster oven. Sprinkle over pie when it's done baking. Cool in fridge. Serve with whipped cream and/or Carb Smart Vanilla ice cream.

Wegman's Squash Boats

These squash boats are a recipe from Wegmans. They are a huge hit with customers and are already fairly low carb. I cut the squash thinner so I have a better ratio of toppings to squash; and so they cook faster. You can use zucchini or yellow squash. I know that hummus isn't super low carb, but you only have to use a smear of it for each squash slice.

2 goldbar squash or zucchini, sliced lengthwise
~7 oz. basil pesto
1/2 c. roasted tomatoes, chopped
3/4 c. hummus (I used roasted red pepper, original recipe calls for Lemon Dill Hummus)
8 oz. feta cheese (I used mediterranean blend)
butter or oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil or butter a baking pan. (You can put down a silpat mat first if you want)
2. Lay out squash slices on pan. Smear on the hummus evenly on all slices.
spread pesto evenly on top of the hummus.
3. Place a few pieces of chopped tomatoes on each slice. Sprinkle on feta cheese. Top with black pepper if you want and drizzle with a bit of oil. Bake for 15 minutes.

If you want to grill these, you can:
Slice the squash only in half and scoop out the seeds in the middle with a spoon. Oil and grill flesh-side down until heated. Flip over, add toppings, and let sit until toppings are all melty and delicious.

Breakfast: Crepes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese and Strawberry Sauce

Breakfast: Crepes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese and Strawberry Sauce

I recently started getting sick after I eat eggs. Scrambled, panfried, whatever, they make me feel like hurling. Eggs are the best thing to eat for breakfast when you're following a low-carb lifestyle, so I felt utterly stuck when it comes to breakfasts. One day I was craving a sweet breakfast, so I made this fruity, creamy "crepe" using a thin, low carb tortilla that I get from Wegmans. It's very delicious, but I'd suggest having a side of bacon with it to keep you satisfied for longer.

Serving size: 1

1 Tumaro's Low in Carb Wrap (multi-grain has only 4g net carbs per tortilla)
2 oz. (1/4th brick) cream cheese
2 packets splenda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3-4 fresh strawberries, sliced
1/4 c. Marzetti sugar free strawberry glaze (optional)
1 tbsp. Kerrygold butter

1. Melt the butter in a pan large enough to fit the tortilla.
2. In a microwavable bowl, mix cream cheese, splenda, and cinnamon and microwave until cream cheese is soft and stir-able.
3. In another bowl, combine sliced strawberries and glaze and warm in microwave until strawberries are soft.
4. Fry the tortilla in butter on both sides.
5. Place the cream cheese mixture down the middle of the tortilla.
6. Pour about half of the strawberry glaze on top of the cream cheese mixture. Fold both sides of the tortilla towards the center and remove from heat. Plate.
7. Pour remaining strawberry glaze on top.
8. Top with whipped cream if you want. Serve with a delicious side of bacon. Enjoy. :)