Low carb Christmas food ideas

The Best Low Carb Christmas Pudding Ever …. Well probably !

No I don’t drink 'Carlsberg' but I guess the play on words is quite similar ? However, I do think that for YOU out there who are following a low carb high fat lifestyle this Christmas Pudding recipe is one to be recommended. Of course each to our own, but isn’t choice an amazing thing !

The slightly worrying aspect of posting this is -  I’ve just realised that Christmas Day is just under six weeks away - I don’t know where the year has gone, but it‘s certainly flown by.

I pity Father Christmas and his Elves who are so busy getting everything ready …….. well so my grandchildren tell me.  

Hope you all enjoy the Christmas Pudding.


Ingredients:
100 grams ground almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon of melted butter
2 tablespoons of double cream
100 grams of lowcarb thawed frozen fruits. Blueberries, blackcurrants and strawberries.
60 grams of 90-95% cocoa dark chocolate
Two tea spoons of cocoa powder
One large shot of brandy
A handful of almond flakes and broken walnuts Extra thick cream

Method:

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Melt the butter, use a Pyrex jug, add the eggs, cream, and fruit. Add the dry ingredients and mix. Pour into a medium size Pyrex mixing bowl. Microwave in a 700watt for 5 minutes. Turn out upside-down onto five layers of kitchen paper on a flat plate. Zap in micro-wave for a further two minutes. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl standing in a saucepan of boiling water. Pour over pudding and serve with a scoop of extra thick cream. Serves four

Hope you all enjoy the Christmas Pudding more ideas coming soon.

All the best Jan

Sounds perfect! Looks gorgeous thanks.

Lowcarb trifle

Not many weekends left for Christmas gift shopping. The car parks will be full with queues to get parked and shoppers tempers getting frayed around the edges. Of course there are those of us who are just gliding through with all the gifts bought and wrapped, cards written and posted …….. but that is some one else not me I hear you say. Whatever you still need to do, I’m sure it will get done and in the meantime here is a good recipe that may help with your Christmas Food Ideas.

A very tasty low carb trifle, it’s quite a favourite with us and the family. Why not give it a try and see what you think.


Ingredients: Serves 6-8
100 grams of ground almonds
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon of melted butter
2 tablespoons of double cream
A pack of frozen lowcarb summer fruits
300ml of extra thick cream
A handful of toasted flaked almonds
2 x 12.5 grams of instant jelly crystals

Method:
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Melt the butter, I use a Pyrex jug, add the eggs, double cream, then add the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 6" microwave proof dish. Microwave in a 700watt for 3 minutes. Allow to cool and break up the sponge into small pieces.
Layer up in a Pyrex bowl ( 7" wide by 4" deep ) the fruit, and sponge. Pour over the low carb raspberry liquid jelly and allow to set. Cover the top with extra thick cream and toasted flaked almonds.

All the best Jan

Christmas Day and Boxing Day sorted - thanks Jan x

Ohhhh Xmas pud yummm sorted but l WILL be having some proper xmas cake l love it and dont give a stuff about carbs for a treat :-D

I love trifle! My trifle is quite similar except it has rum in it

Black forest gateau

Thanks for your comments another nice Christmas recipe.




Ingredients:
100g ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon of melted butter
2 tablespoons of double cream
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
100 grams of pitted black cherries


Method:
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
Melt the butter I used a Pyrex jug, add the eggs, cream, then add the dry ingredients and mix. Pour into a 6" microwave proof dish. Microwave in a 700watt for 3 minutes. Allow to cool and cut in half. Spread on extra thick cream and 100 grams of pitted black cherries. Serves four.

All the best Jan

Seriously now do I have to wait til Christmas? Jan are you going for the '12 puddings of Christmas'?
I'm drooling now.

Mrs Vimes wrote:Seriously now do I have to wait til Christmas? Jan are you going for the '12 puddings of Christmas'?
I'm drooling now.

Thanks Mrs V

Look out for tomorrow's low carb idea ...... it may even be a savoury one

All the best Jan  

May have to give the trifle a go  I usually make it with ewelinas lemon sponge as a base, it's good but not great so look forward to it

I am having this tonight and it occurred to me that this would be great as a Christmas dish too.  Good for people who love vegetables, but don't get on well with root veg.



PROVENCAL TIAN

"The arrangement of the vegetables in three colorful stripes makes this a piece de resistance, although you can just throw it all in haphazardly without affecting the flavor. The recipe makes a generous quantity - leftovers are lovely to eat cold as a salad."

Butter, for greasing baking dish
1 red bell pepper, cored and sliced into rings
1 1/2 cups vine or plum tomatoes, sliced
1 1/2 cups zucchini, sliced in 1/2 inch rounds
14 oz artichoke hearts, drained and halved
1 1/2 cups eggplant, sliced in 1/4 inch rounds
1 1/3 cups fennel, sliced
1/2 cups good-quality black olives
4 bay leaves
7 oz fresh goat's cheese (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE DRESSING:
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
A handful of fresh basil, shredded
2 tbsp capers
1 tsp salt, or to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a wide rectangular ovenproof dish.

Aim to alternate each pair of vegetables with one another: Place the red bell pepper and tomatoes alternately in one red stripe across the top of the dish, and the zucchini and artichoke hearts in one green stripe across the bottom. Arrange the slices of eggplant and fennel in the middle.

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients and spoon almost all the mixture over the vegetables as evenly as possible. Brush every exposed surface with the remaining dressing. Season with plenty of pepper and garnish with olives and bay leaves.

Roast for 45-50 minutes, until the vegetables are soft, sizzling and well-browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and crumble the goat’s cheese, if using, over the surface. Serve warm or cold.

Makes 8 servings

Per serving: carbs: 6 g protein: 9 g calories: 180 fiber: 3 g fat: 13 g (saturated fat: 6 g)

Adapted from source: Low-Carb Vegetarian by Celia Brooks Brown

Click here to view: http://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_6/2012/OCT/2688.html

What a lovely recipe idea and the colours just make it look more inviting and delicious. Many thanks for posting this idea ......I'm flying up to your's for dinner tonight    

Reckon it's a Christmas  and all year through recipe winner  

All the best Jan

Well better late than never .... I did say I'd put up a Christmas Savoury idea and here it is......makes a lovely starter.
Of course it doesn't have to be Christmas to enjoy this dish, why not try it out and then enjoy it again over the Christmas Break    
More recipe ideas coming soon .....





Serves two

2 large portobello mushrooms
2-3 tablespoons feta, crumbled
1 ripe tomato, finely chopped
1 small purple onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano (or other herbs), finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon vinegar (any variety)
Freshly milled black pepper

Idea and photograph taken from the excellent Christopher James Clark blog full instructions and more great photographs can be found here http://www.christopherjamesclark.com/blog/roasted-portobello-w-feta-and-tomatoes-recipe/

All best Jan

Room for more pudding?  

Chocolate and raspberry tipsy cake



Take your favourite low carb chocolate cupcake.  Prick the top of the cake a couple of times with a fork.

Drizzle 1 tsp of Chambord black raspberry liqueur into the holes.

Serve with vanilla flavoured whipped double cream and fresh raspberries.

(The liqueur is about 2g carbs per tsp)

Avocado Sevenfold wrote:Room for more pudding?  

Chocolate and raspberry tipsy cake



Take your favourite low carb chocolate cupcake.  Prick the top of the cake a couple of times with a fork.

Drizzle 1 tsp of Chambord black raspberry liqueur into the holes.

Serve with vanilla flavoured whipped double cream and fresh raspberries.

(The liqueur is about 2g carbs per tsp)

Yummy!! A boozy cake with vanilla cream...making me hungry right now for it-never mind christmas!!

Cheers

Paul

Oh what a great recipe idea .....many thanks Avocado Sevenfold.

It sure looks like a delicious LCHF Christmas to me  

All the best Jan

These are absolutely the easiest chocolate to make. All it takes is 3 ingredients and 20 minutes. And I love the combination of sweet, salty, chocolaty, and crunchy. They remind me of chocolate covered pretzels. Salted chocolate almond haystacks are a perfect gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free treat for the holidays.

I don’t take the time to make chocolates often. But I came up with this quick and easy method when I had sliced almonds left over from my cinnamon raisin paleo granola. Toasting the almonds brings out the flavor. And the heat from the toasted almonds melts the chocolate chips. Just stir, drop onto a tray, and sprinkle with salt.

The most important thing to remember about this recipe is to watch the almond slices while they’re toasting. I mean it — don’t leave the kitchen. The slices are so thin they will go from nicely toasted to burnt in about two seconds. I found this out the hard way. If the almonds start to smell like burnt popcorn, you’ve left them in the oven too long.

Check out this and other great low carb food ideas here. http://cookeatpaleo.com/salted-chocolate-almond-haystacks/

They look good. Love almonds, salted or plain and choc makes them sound fab. Might try hazelnuts as they are another favourite.

Here’s another delicious way to incorporate liver into your diet, particularly if you don’t want to eat simple, pan-fried liver. Your kids will eat this too! Would make a great Christmas day starter with a mixed salad I reckon.

Yet another fantastic food idea from the Nutritional Grail website which is here. http://www.christopherjamesclark.com/blog/walnut-olive-liver-pate-recipe/#more-3959

Definitely on our must make list. Truly great low carb food.

Ingredients

125 grams of desiccated coconut un sweetened.
100 grams of ground almonds
55 grams golden flax seeds ground
4 beaten eggs
2 table spoons of sugar or sweetener of choice: see note below.
1 table spoon of baking powder
1 table spoon of cinnamon
1 table spoon of ground nutmeg
1 very large slug of Grand Marnier
half a cup of water
third of a cup of melted butter

I also add broken walnuts and almond flakes

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another bowl. Add the wet to the dry and mix thoroughly. Bake for about 50 minutes at gas mark 7 or 200 in an electric oven. A little tip is to check it at around 45 minutes, by taking it out of the non stick tin, I line my tins with a long strip of baking paper, which makes it very easy to remove the cake from the tin. Cut it in half to check it has cooked right through. If not, back in the oven for a bit longer. I reckon the cake is less than 5 carbs for a nice thick slice.

Please note! If you are using aspartame/acesuflame sweetener, remember to reduce the heat to no more than 170 degrees. Above this and you end up with a truly awful taste and no sweetness.

Sorry if this seems a bit of a simple Christmas idea - but I see 'Sprouts' as the quintessential Christmas dinner veg. Brussels sprouts are thought to have been cultivated in Belgium in the 16th century - hence the name. Although they're related to cabbage - they even look like a miniature, compact version - they have a sweet, nutty flavour, which some people can find bitter. They grow in multiple rows along a thick, central stalk.

Brussels sprouts are at their best over the winter months, coming in to season in October and lasting through until March. It's always best to choose the best you can. Plump, bright green heads (the smaller, the sweeter) with tightly packed leaves. If you can buy them still attached to their long central stalk, so much the better - they'll keep fresh for longer that way.

Prepare them:

If the sprouts are still on the stalk, twist each one off, trim any loose, yellow or damaged leaves, wash, then trim the base. Some people cut a cross in the base to make sure they cook evenly but with smaller ones it's not necessary, as it can cause them to go mushy. Larger ones can be cut in half.

To boil, put into a pan with some salt, cover with boiling water, bring back to the boil and cook, covered, for 5-10 minutes. They take 5-10 minutes to steam.

To stir fry, halve or slice finely and cook for about 10 minutes. Sprouts cook very quickly, and if overcooked are quite unpleasant, so test them regularly by piercing with a knife.

Store them:

In a dark, cool place or the fridge for four days.

Cook them - differently:

How about ......Stir fry oil with onions and ginger; add cooked chestnuts at Christmas; boil until al dente (firm to the bite), then quickly pan fry with diced pancetta and chopped garlic.

....With thanks for additional info at BBC Good Food ....

You may have variations on this theme - please share. Thanks.  

Bon Appetit

All the best Jan

Thanks Jan. I think they are one of my all time favourite veggies. I'd quite happily live on sprouts and asparagus - yum!

>.>.>.>.

Sprouts and asparagus - great vegetables. But we are quite spoilt for choice.

My sister and family very often serve up to 13 different vegetables over their Christmas Family get-together........something for everyone's likes and tastes. They also like the three meat roasts !

Is your favourite Christmas Day meat Turkey or will you be serving up something different?

All the best Jan

PS I will be putting another Christmas Vegetable Recipe idea up later - keep tuned folks      

For us it will be slow roast shoulder of pork, on the bone, cooked until you can pull the pork apart with forks, no knife necessary. Great crackling after 7 hrs in oven too!
Roast spuds and parsnips for those who can eat them and celeriac roasted too or I might do those white turnips which like swede seem to be ok and not high carb. Braised red cabbage, sprouts ( I love em), carrots and roasted shallots.
Smoked salmon to start, good with a dollop of creme fraiche to which lemon juice, black pepper and fresh chives have been added,  and a low carb creamy pud to finish, not sure what yet - no one likes Christmas pud so it is not missed. Cheese and celery for those who have room!

I highly recommend...




...You try these as a quick cheat for Christmas dinner,97% pork,low carb and I tested these the other day and they're dead good!!!  

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=280304506