Normally, I skip right past all the talk and go to the recipe. But DON’T do that with this one!

Toasting the noodles in oil not only brings out a beautiful flavor, but when you drain the noodles much of the starch drains with it…meaning a smaller spike for blood sugars! And often it helps to regulate BGs for almost a week! It is one of our families favorites and we make it just like this recipe.

Growing up my mom would buy carob covered raisins and they never lasted long… so I wondered if my nephew could eat them 🙂

Recipe adapted from Carob chocolate chunks

Ingredients

• 1 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup Carob powder
• 3 Tbsp coconut nectar (low glycemic sweetner)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

• Melt coconut oil over a very low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in carob, sweetener, and vanilla. (If you heat over too high of a heat or don’t remove from the heat, the coconut oil will separate from the carob when cooling. You can still eat it, but it won’t be as smooth.)
• Pour mixture into a parchment covered pan (bigger the pan, thinner it will spread out and quicker it will cool)
• Place in refrigerator or freezer until solid. Remove from pan, and cut into chunks of desired size with a good, solid knife.
• Store in a cool place such as the fridge until ready to use.

Notes: Poured on wax paper, froze fast! With the pot empty, added almond milk to make “chocolate milk” for Italian sodas for my nephew! And My T1D could eat these and his blood sugars remained steady! Oh yeah!

Because it’s interesting! History of carob 🙂 https://www.timesofisrael.com/going-carob-the-healthy-chocolate-substitute/amp/

from JDRF email with only ONE change

~6 carbs each

Ingredients

¼ cup brown sugar or coconut sugar

2 tablespoons oil or butter

1 tsp of psyllium husk (trust me!)*

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 egg

2 cups almond flour

½ tablespoon baking soda

¼ tablespoon salt

⅓  cup chocolate chips (I used dark)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix ingredients in a large bowl. Make ~24 small cookies on a non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Let cool and serve.

*Note: I made two batches and added ground pysillium husk to the already mixed ingredients and the cookies stayed firm and crumbly, like most low carb breads. When psyllium was added to the wet ingredients….miracle! The dough was wetter, but still formed in cookie scoop. The psyillium softens the dough and spreads out the cookies during baking, changing almond flour from edible to Awesome! Psyllium is one of my favorite discoveries with nut flours. It acts like gluten in baked goods, like breads. But be sure to drink enough water with it!

Great Dip but too many chips leads to high blood sugars so I often make the enchilada version below.

Cheesy Artichoke dip for a 9×13 pan

Ingredients:

• 2 pkg cream cheese, heated to soften

• ½ cup mayonnaise.

• 1 can Artichoke hearts in water, drained, chopped

• 1 Tb Lawry’s garlic salt

• 1 Tb dried minced onions

• ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

• ¾ cup Cheddar cheese, grated additional cheese sprinkled on top

In a bowl, warm cream cheese for a minute in microwave or until easily mixed with spoon.

Drain and chop artichoke hearts. Mix chopped artichoke and mayonnaise into warmed cream cheese.

Add garlic salt, minced onions and grated cheeses. Mix well and move to sprayed 9×13 pan. Sprinkle with additional cheddar cheese.

Cook uncovered @ 350 until heated through and starting to brown, about 30 min.

*Can also add spinach or chopped cooked chicken/ turkey

**Can be used as enchilada filling. Save some dip mixture to spread over top of enchilada pan. Cook covered to retain moisture.

Notes: My son asked for this every week for his lunches for awhile. He saw when eating low carb he had more energy to be more active. In fact, this is what he ate at his birthday dinner just a month before being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He’d never had it before but loved it and couldn’t stop eating it! I just thought he had good taste…

Peanut butter cookies from peanuts. Healthy, right?

Well, I unknowingly put a friend in the hospital with these…

There was this amazing couple in our complex and they loved babysitting our adorable girl, which only made us like them more. I wanted to make healthy peanut butter cookies and found out you can use pureed peanuts and sugar and flour, maybe it was egg… anyway, I cooked the recipe fully, invited them over and we had cookies!

Now here’s the rest of the story, unbeknownst to me, he wakes up feeling very, very sick that night. It was way too much nuts and fiber, if you know what I mean..and he already had an intestinal issue, so it was a really bad combination. But what did I know? I was just trying to be a good neighbor!!

And remember how I said they were amazing neighbors?

They didn’t want me too feel bad and didn’t tell me until years later. He’s fine now, but I may never live that one down…

Cook 1 minute in Inspant pot done

Dry cooked quinoa for 15 carb cereal (what?)

Make classic crispy treats!

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350°. Spread 1/2 cup cooked quinoa on parchment paper or baking mats on baking sheets and cook until dry. Stir every ten minutes so it doesn’t burn. Once cooled, place in glass container (yes, this is important) on counter for a week…if they last that long. I’m off to make crispy treats with them.

Adapted from t1everydaymagic. It is a fantastic site for those first diagnosed. Their stories are candid and so helpful in moving through this new world of words, routines and foods!

Pizza muffin cups (nut free) (or pizza rolls if you prepare dough differently, see notes below)

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1½ cups + ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
¾ cup sunflower flour
1 egg, beaten
Garlic powder, to taste

Toppings can include:
Chopped pepperoni or sausage or BBQ chicken:

½ cup cooked, chopped chicken
2½ tablespoons barbecue sauce
¼ small red onion, thinly sliced
Fresh cilantro, to garnish (optional)

HOW TO MAKE IT
Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 8 cups of a 12-cup muffin tin (or line a baking pan in parchment.)
Place cream cheese and 1½ cups mozzarella cheese in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 1 minute, stir, then heat for an additional 30 seconds.
Add sunflower flour, egg, and garlic powder to cheese mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined. 

Cup or roll? (It’s a wet dough)

Cup

• Divide dough evenly between the 8 muffin cups, pressing into the bottom and up the sides of the cup. Make sure to leave an indentation in the middle of each cup to allow room for the filling. Using a fork, poke a few holes in the bottom of the dough in each cup.
• Bake dough for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
• In a small bowl prepare toppings. Cut meats, or mix cooked chicken and barbecue sauce. Divide evenly between the 8 muffin cups (approximately 1 tablespoon per cup).
• Top each cup with approximately 1 tablespoon of mozzarella cheese.
• Bake for an additional 8 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, then remove pizza muffins from tin. Top with cilantro if desired.

Or Roll

• Place half the dough on a silicone mat and place another mat/parchment paper on top. Roll between mats/paper until thin rectangle.
• Add toppings to one side and roll dough up over toppings then push down to seal the toppings in. Cut off excess pastry, slice to desired size and move to parchment covered pan. Repeat until dough is gone. Roll out remaining dough and repeat. Can sprinkle with onion flakes or sesame seeds (opt)
• Cook at 400 for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Notes:  I really struggled to get these out of the muffin tins, but I also forgot to pre-bake…so maybe that makes a difference. I prefer the sausage roll method.

*Serve with pizza or marinara sauce for quick meals or snacks 

**Can substitute for almond flour as that is the original recipe.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Serving Size: 1 pizza muffin (rolls are about 1/2serving= half carbs)

Calories 168, Carbs 7, fiber 1g, fat 12g, protein 11g

Thanks to primalyogi for this!

1 cup sunflower seeds (hulled, roasted)

Turn on food processor and add seeds in and pulse to be quickly pulverized. When powdery flour consistency, turn off the food processor. “Sun Flour” can be used as substitute in recipes, like this one for pizza cups!

If you accidentally over-mix and it turns mealy, no worries. The seeds released natural oils and it can easily be turned into sunbutter.

Add tsp oil, pinch salt and if desired, a little sweetner. Mix in food processor until smooth peanut butter consistency. That’s it!!

And much better than when I made homemade peanut butter and unknowingly put a friend in the hospital with the cookies… And no, it wasn’t from nut allergies.