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Keto Paleo Low Carb Granola Recipe (sugar free)

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This is great as a cereal, whilst bigger pieces give you an amazing snack bar. The recipe originally comes from Wholesome Yum. 

It takes about 10 minutes to make and approx. 15 minutes cooking time. A serving of cereal is a quarter cup. 

Ingredients 

  • 1 cup of Almonds
  • 1 cup of Hazelnuts
  • 1 cup of Pecans 
  • 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
  • 6 tbsp of Erythritol (I find 3-4 tbsp enough)
  • 1/2 cup of golden flaxseed meal 
  • 1 large Egg white
  • ¼ cup of solid butter (alternatively, coconut oil or ghee) – melted
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Notes

  • You can use a mix of any nuts you have in; it is worth using hazelnuts as they give a good crunch. 
  • I use a 2/3 cup of the seed mix we have in.
  • I use Arla lactose-free butter spread

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (163 degrees C)
  2. Line a large baking sheet, or two smaller ones, with parchment paper. (I used a single baking tray (15.7inches x11.3 inches x1inch), with a silicone baking mat)
  3. Pulse the almonds and hazelnuts intermittently, until most of the nuts are chopped into about ¼ or ½ of their full size. (alternatively, if you don’t have a food processor, you can do this by hand)
  4. Add the pecans; pulse again, stopping when the pecans are in large pieces. Pecans are a softer nut so don’t over-process them. 
  5. Add the seeds, erythritol and golden flaxseed meal. Pulse just until everything is mixed well. You need lots of nut pieces and want most of the seeds still intact. 
  6. Add the egg white to the food processor. Whisk together the melted butter and vanilla extract in a small bowl and pour that into the processor too.
  7. Pulse a couple of times, mix from the bottom of the processor towards the top with a spatula, then pulse a few more times.
  8. Repeat as needed until everything is coated evenly.
  9. Avoid over-processing. At the end of this step, you will have a combination of coarse meal and nut pieces, and everything should be a little damp from the egg white and butter.
  10. Press the mixture out on the lined baking sheet(s) – ¼ to 1/3 inch thick
  11. Bake for 15-18 minutes until light brown especially at the edges.
  12. Leave to cool completely until breaking into pieces. Store in an airtight container.
  13. Enjoy!!

Notes:

  • Don’t over-process. I like my granola chunky, so I do steps 5 -9 by hand, just mixing them thoroughly in a bowl.
  • You don’t need a food processor to make this; doing this by hand might give you more control over the consistency. 

Seed Crackers

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These are a healthy, nutritious snack which are low carb. They have a real crunch and can be used to scoop up savoury dips such as guacamole, hummus and spicy black bean dip.

The recipe is taken from a Dr Mercola recipe called Carson’s Crackers which I have adapted to use this seed mix from Holland and Barrett Make up a mix of your favourite seeds.

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 3/4 cups of mixed seeds – not chia seeds
  • 1 teaspoon Himalayan salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of onion granules – optional
  • 1 tablespoon mixed dried Italian herbs or any herb mix

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C (fan assisted one).
  2. Mix the seeds, salt and additional seasonings together in a bowl.
  3. Beat the 3 eggs together and mix into the seeds until combined.
  4. Spread the seed mix onto a large flat baking tray lined with either baking sheet or a silicone mat. Use a spatula to spread the seed mix out on the tray, you want them crisp so make a thin even layer. We make these so often we bought heavy baking sheets and silicone mats. It makes the whole process quicker and easier.
  5. Bake for 15-18 minutes until crunchy and crisp; if not leave it in on warm until completely dry.
Seed Crackers with guacamole

We store the crackers in containers at room temperature for up to a week but they never last for a week. Don’t try to cut them just break the crackers up into the size you want. Pointed is handy for scooping up dips.

Low carb multi-seed bread

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I am exploring a low carb diet with healthy fats to help my IBS. I enjoy Holland and Barrett’s Omega Sprinkle Seed Mix on quite a few dishes. They make this recipe easier.

https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/holland-barrett-omega-sprinkle-seed-mix-60081621

This is the sort of bread that you can toast, add crunchy peanut butter and plum chia seed jam and not feel cheated. It has bite and texture. The recipe came from the Low Carb Program 40-day challenge. I have adapted it to give it a firmer structure.

Ingredients

7 eggs

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

115g Butter, melted. I use coconut oil

35g sunflower seeds

40g Pumpkin Seeds

Instead of the two seeds above, I use 80g of the H&B Omega seed mix.

20g Chia Seeds; I double this as it gives a better structure and helps prevent all the seeds sinking to the bottom.

200g very finely ground almonds.

1 tsp Baking Powder

0.5 tsp salt

1 Tbsp of sesame or poppy seeds to sprinkle on the top of the loaf before baking.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C (fan); 350F/320F (fan)

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat for 2-3 minutes on high. Here, I’ve started to add 0.5 tsp of GF Xanthan Gum as this adds to the structure and density of the beaten eggs. I left this out once and all the seeds sank to the bottom.

Mix the Olive Oil with the melted butter or coconut oil and add to the eggs. These are added a little at a time like making mayonnaise. The oil mix is warm which helps to thicken the egg mixture. This can take 4 minutes and it should end up thick and creamy so that the beaters leave a trail that stays.

Mix in the remaining ingredients except the Sesame or Poppy seeds. I carry on using the food mixer to do this; the seeds should appear suspended in a thick cream.

Scrape the mixture into a loaf tin that is base-lined with parchment paper and scatter the top with the Sesame or Poppy seeds.

Place the bread in the pre-heated oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove when an inserted skewer comes out clean. Let the loaf cool for 10 minutes before turning out of the tin.

Once cool, slice the bread into 12-16 slices. I prefer thinner as it crisps up better when toasted. Then either freeze it and use it when wanted, or place in a container in the fridge.

It can be used like any other bread; it makes great toast and croutons for salads.

Let me know what you think.

Growing my own salad

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I saw a James Martin programme earlier this year and he had a guest from the Patchwork Farm Growing Communities in Hackney. They grow salad leaves on patches of land in North London. They grow a wide variety of salad leaves organically and practice crop rotation throughout the years

This inspired two of us to start something similar initially in two raised beds. We currently have a great crop of leaves including Radicchio (Pallas Rossi), Mizuna and Kmatsuna Samurai which is similar to mustard and cabbage leaves; this last one can be used in stirfry and salads. We also have tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, herbs and courgettes but they are not as far on as the salad leaves. We use organic compost and feed.

It was nice to go into the garden and cut some of each leaves for tonight’s salad.

The leaves were used in a chicken salad with homemade low carb croutons and a simple dressing made of 3 parts extra virgin olive oil, 1 part apple cider vinegar, a teaspoon on Maille Dijon mustard and seasoning. I had a side of steamed sprouts and broccoli.

Now we need to plan our next salad leaves crops. Its going to be a challenge getting that right so we have continuous leaves across the seasons. Does anyone have any ideas?

Update July 2019

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Sorry it’s been a while since I blogged. I spent most of May in America on a therapy visit. I saw my speech and language therapist in Boca Raton, Florida. We stayed in Lighthouse Point and I love Florida; I’m working on getting family to buy a house there. It was such an eye-opener in terms of it being a well-established community. The food was good and it felt like there was a Starbucks on every corner; maybe it’s because we put them in the sat nav! The coconut milk iced vanilla lattes were an essential part of the day as were the Wholefood’s (WF’s). deli sandwiches. WF’s have a new GF white sandwich loaf which has a great texture and is a large slice just right for proper sandwiches. I’m not sure anything else had improved since the Amazon takeover, in fact, it seems to have lost some of its style and product range. The easy availability of grass-fed meat is good.

My speech and language therapy visit was very beneficial as I have a new programme that is helping me make progress. It’s challenging but that’s good. I have lots of new strategies around fluency and accuracy of sounds.

The weather in Lighthouse Point was sunny, hot and steamy followed by warm rain and then it was fresh and clean. That climate made me feel well. Eating breakfast outside every morning was a good start to the day.

Then we travelled to Las Vegas which after the classy environment of Lighthouse Point was a bit of a culture shock or rather, lack of it. We flew in with a group of party people going to the Electric Daisy Festival. The disappointment was the weather as it was described by locals as ‘unseasonably’ cool. This is Nevada where the heat usually envelops you. It was cloudy and rained too – just like UK.

Anyway I was there to see my Vision Therapy Doctor who is great. My glasses prescription and prism lens were updated and I have a great programme with increased variety. I really enjoy it and it’s going well.

Since coming back my IBS has flared up which has been time consuming and hard going. I have been working on changing my diet. I’ve accepted that large steaks, much as I love them, are hard for me to digest. Yesterday I had coconut yogurt with homemade cherry compote and mixed seeds for breakfast, chicken salad with home made dressing and low carb croutons for lunch and chickpea curry with basmati rice for dinner. I’m loathe to go totally vegan but I have to admit that my gut feels better – not quite so volcanic. I still enjoy a gin but I have it with coconut water which doesn’t upset my stomach.

The updates, recipes and reviews will start again now as I am feeling better. It’s good to be back.