Tuesday, October 3, 2017

My No-Breakfast Plan

I first came across the idea of a no-breakfast plan in a book called, I think, 'Fit for Life.' Much of the advice in the book wasn't good, but ever after I read it I felt free to skip breakfast if I wasn't hungry or was too busy to be hungry.

And then recently I read of the idea of Intermittent Fasting. Which can be the same thing as the no-breakfast plan. And I've been doing it most days ever since.

I have read many things about the benefits of IF, but there is one thing they don't mention: it saves money. By going from 3 meals to 2, you can save on your food purchases. Since ketogenic diet food is often pricey, and you can't pick some up at the local food bank, this will help you support your healthy living plan even if you are low-income.

Also, it saves the stress of making breakfast, eating breakfast, and cleaning up after breakfast. It really feels like you have less work to do.

Intermittent Fasting is not some new fad. The book illustrated above was written in 1900. I've picked up my own copy from Amazon.com --- it's available as a reprint, or from ManyBook.net for free in ebook form.

By sticking to Intermittent Fasting until lunchtime, and eating keto when I do eat, I've lowered my blood sugar from scary-high to almost normal. I've gone into ketosis, as I can see when I test my ketone level using my Ketonix breath ketone meter. And I've lost 6 pounds in about a week.

Contrast this to keto-alone. A couple years ago, I was doing keto every day, and my nephrologist was fussing at me because I wasn't losing weight. I tried to explain that since I was post-menopausal and diabetic, weight loss had become much harder. She thought that was just some lame excuse. I don't think she knew anything about diet other than to fuss at people who hadn't lost weight when she told them to.

She also responded to me saying I was doing low-carb by handing me a sheet for the 'DASH' diet and told me it was government-approved. She was an immigrant, maybe in India saying 'government-approved' would make people eager to switch diets. I did try to follow DASH a little but my blood sugar went up since it was a diet which provided no help in dealing with the actual problem of diabetes--- carbs.

So--- Intermittent Fasting works for me. And I now have enough energy in the mornings that I can keep busy and not miss having breakfast.

When I eat at my mom's house, she worries if I don't have breakfast. So, I make a cup of tea for breakfast. This seems to reassure her.

Tea also works when I am doing intermittent fasting at home. The ritual of making a cup of tea in the morning is soothing. A good replacement for the breakfast habit. And it seems to control my appetite. If I am feeling hungry in the morning and have a cup of tea, I feel very little hunger afterward, or the hunger goes away altogether.

I have to point out that I'm talking about plain tea. No milk, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners. That may be hard for people who are used to taking their tea with additives. But I've been drinking plain tea all my life, the way my mom and grandmother always did. You can not only endure it, you can come to prefer it that way.

What if your first morning of Intermittent Fasting is too hard, and you eat something by 9 am? Well, don't worry. Maybe the next day you can hold out until 9:30 or 10 or 11. I initially set 'lunchtime' at 11 but I'm trying to shift to 12 currently. Intermittent Fasting gets easier the longer you do it. I've gone to 2pm before eating some days without getting crazed with hunger.



Monday, October 2, 2017

Recipe: Coconut Cream/Milk Flatbread or Pancakes, Pizza Crust

Updated 1-27-20  What if you are keto and want to eat a sandwich? I used to use Healthy Life brand 'low-carb' breads but they were about 6 grams of carbs per slice and contained grains. So eating 1 slice lead to eating more and going off low-carb.

This is a recipe for low carb flatbreads that are good for making sandwiches. I shared this recipe on my other blog before, but I keep working on it and, hopefully, improving it. It's gluten free, and dairy free unless you add the cheese mentioned below or the whey protein powder instead of the egg white protein powder. I now also add ground nuts (nut meal, nut flour) to cut down on the protein amount--- if you are nut-sensitive, just omit that and use 1/4 cup of the protein powder.

1 Tbsp EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil (0 g carbs, 0 grams fiber, 0 grams net carbs)
3 (large) eggs (each: trace carbs, no fiber, trace net carbs)
3/4 cup coconut cream or full-fat coconut milk (cream: 12 g carbs, fiber 4 g, net carbs 8 g: milk: 4.8 g carbs, 0 fiber, 4.8 grams net carbs)
1/8  cup [1 and 1/2 Tablespoons] ground pecans or ground walnuts  (pecans: 1.9 g carbs, 1.3 g fiber, 0.6 net carbs; walnuts: 1.4 g carbs, 0.7 g fiber, 0.7 g net carbs)
1/8 cup unflavored egg white protein powder or whey protein powder (mine was 0 carbs, check label)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt or Vege-Sal or Herbamare (sea salt seasoned with veggies)

Preheat oven to 425 F.
Add ingredients to a mixing bowl and use electric egg beater to beat it for 2 minutes. 
Use olive oil pan spray on your Yorkshire pudding or muffin top pan. Then, add about a 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil to each depression in your pan. Pour 2 Tbsp of batter in each depression in the pan.
OR use a 6.5 inch cast iron frying pan--- use the pan spray and olive oil as above. Use about 1/2 cup batter to make something in the shape of a low-carb tortilla.

Bake about 10 minutes in a metal YP pan and 12 minutes in a ceramic YP pan. Metal pans are better as they brown both sides. For a cast iron frying pan, try 12-14 minutes. Keep an eye on them and don't let them get too brown.
Let them cool down in the pan. If you own/are owned by cats, find a place for them to cool down where the cats can't get to it--- I use the metal racks in a disused oven or a shelf in a cabinet. 
If you are using a small oven and can only get 1 muffin top pan in, DON'T pour the second pan until just ready to bake. 
I mostly use these flatbreads warm, so I make sure not to let them get browned in the baking--- I prefer them a touch under-done, and I also eat the flatbreads cold as a sandwich sometime.

YIELD: will vary based on the size of your eggs (farm-fresh eggs can range from peewee to bigger-than-jumbo in size.) I got 26 Tbsp of batter last time I made it.

SERVINGS: 2 pieces of the bread from a YP or muffin-top pan, 1 of the larger tortilla-sized flatbreads (fold in 1/2 for sandwiches.) 

STORAGE: put in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, or a freezer bag in the freezer. Write the DATE on your bags!!! Heat the flatbreads for eating in a 325 F degree oven for about 5 minutes or until the butter melts. Or heat a minute or so in a George Foreman grill. Yes, you can heat them from frozen quickly--- they are thin. (And delicate. Which is why you will want to MELT the butter on to it and not try to spread it.)

EQUIPMENT: 
For the small flatbreads you will need a Yorkshire pudding or muffin-top pan. I like the Tala brand, which at the moment I can only get from Amazon . uk. They delivered it to the US okay, though.
For the large flatbreads you will need one or more cast iron frying pans of about 6 and 1/2 inches in size. Since the flatbreads need to cool in the pan you will need multiple frying pans in the desired size. Since I only have the one, I will have to get more cast iron frying pans soon.
I also bought a 2 Tbsp measure from Amazon. I think it was meant for measuring coffee into a coffee maker? Anyway, it's great for measuring batter into the YP pans. 

VARIATIONS:
CHEESE BREAD: I put about 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese in each depression in my muffin top pan, and then pour in the batter. This is a tasty version of the bread and one I like--- I just shredded the cheese for a batch this morning. (I also buy pre-shredded cheese for this purpose.) But of course if you don't eat dairy you should avoid this option. You can also add the cheese after you have made some flatbreads, add a bit of butter and heat in the oven or George Foreman grill. You can make a grilled cheese sandwich that way--- with bacon bits or bits of cooked ham if you like (and aren't keeping kosher or halal.)
MARKING THE FLATBREADS: if you make some salt-free or dairy-free and some with salt/dairy, sprinkle some sesame seeds, poppy seeds or caraway seeds on the top of the flatbreads before baking to mark the different kinds.
PANCAKES: Heat your flatbreads with butter or coconut oil, and a bit of sugar-free maple syrup or else cinnamon and stevia powder or Swerve. 
PIZZA CRUST: Add the low-carb pizza toppings of your choice and heat. If the toppings need some extra cooking you may need to cook them before adding them as toppings so you won't get the crust too brown.
PASTA: An old Atkins recipe book used a similar recipe, cut up to serve as pasta. I made 'mac and cheese' this way once.
NUT BUTTER SWEET ROLL: I add about 1 Tbsp nut butter or peanut butter, a bit of butter, sprinkle with cinnamon, and add Swerve, usually brown-sugar Swerve. Heat in 325 F degree oven until butter & nut butter melt, fold in 1/2 and eat. 

WARNING: If you are addicted to the carbs in 'real' bread, this will not satisfy your carb cravings. Just stick to your strict Keto * Low-Carb for a while--- that's the way to stop your addiction and the cravings.




Sunday, October 1, 2017

Broth of Life -- bone broth from a powder

I love bone broth, and I know it's good for me. I can even have a cup of bone broth when I'm fasting (according to The Complete Book of Fasting.) I really try to have a cup of bone broth every day.

But--- making a batch at home takes two days. And it's hard to buy soup bones around here. And sometimes, as in last year when I was sick for about a month, I just can't do it.

When I was visiting Bob Martin's blog I saw an ad for Broth of Life dehydrated organic bone broth. I went to Amazon.com to purchase it. And saw it was 31.99 for a 1.6 ounce jar. But I bought it anyway, in the chicken broth. You can also get lamb or beef broth.

When I got it home and made my first cup, it was bland and watery, even though I added Himalayan pink salt (1/4 teaspoon.) And the powder did not dissolve all the way. So--- I read the directions. It said one teaspoon of the broth powder to 100 ml of water. So I tried measuring the water.

100 ml isn't much. I poured out 200 ml and turned  the measuring cup around to find it was only 3/4 of a cup. So I guess 1 teaspoon is not enough for a full cup.

Because of the undissolved powder bits this morning I soaked the broth powder in the water for 15 minutes, then heated in the microwave. Even though I stirred a lot, there were still a few undissolved bits. Tomorrow I think that I will soak it in HOT water for 15 minutes and see how this goes. But the 1/4 cup of salt was the right amount. A little less than the sodium amount in grocery store broth powder. But it tasted salty enough.

Even so, Broth of Life has its place. What if I get sick again? The broth powder is expensive but at least it isn't too much of a trial to make a cup of broth with it.

I think homemade bone broth is better, though. I just used up the last quart of bone broth I had in my freezer so it's time to make more.  But when I run out of my Broth of Life I'm sure I will buy another jar of it.

NOTE: it is recommended by many authorities, when you are first going on keto or on Atkins Induction, or when you are fasting, if you don't feel that great (keto flu) you should drink a cup of broth. But grocery store broth powder is dreadful, full of additives you don't want. Better to get Broth of Life, or make your own.