LCHF almond crumbed chicken with blue cheese dressing

My big two kidlets are away with their dad at the moment so I am cooking just for me.  

(if you don't count the bazillion bottles I seem to make)

This is a wondrous thing for a few reasons.

I get to eat what I want!

I can eat when I want.

I never hear negative feedback prior/during or after the meal

Very little washing up.

More for me :)

Don't get me wrong, I do miss them but this is a treat!

This meal was worthy of it's own post it was so amazing

I have been wanting to have a go at crumbing chicken but wasn't sure how it would go without the regular flour/breadcrumb combo. 

I was kinda making it up as I went and hit the jackpot..

If you make it let me know what you think.

INGREDIENTS (serves 2)

Chicken

6 chicken drumsticks (or any pieces you like really)

1/4c buckwheat flour

1 egg whisked with 2 tbs milk

3/4c of almond meal.  (I ground my own almonds but not too fine as I like texture)

Blue Cheese Sauce

1/4c blue cheese

3tbs sour cream

1tbs mayonaisse

1tbs lemon juice

pinch of salt

Coat chicken in flour then the egg mix.  Roll in almond meal and refrigerate for at least 30 min.  

I find this firms it all up and stops the crumb falling off when cooking. 

I oven baked mine but you could fry in coconut oil just as easily.

Pop on lined oven dish and bake at 200c for around 30min or until completely cooked through.

These released just enough juices/fat to help the almonds roast up and become crispy golden and totally delicious.

You could serve with anything you like.  I chose a salad with freshly pod peas, avocado, olives, fetta and greens.

Topped with the blue cheese sauce.

For the sauce pop all ingredients into a blender and blitz until combined, it is that easy.  

Trust me this sauce is amazeballs!

I also had enough for steak the following night.

Please let me know what you think :)

Sugar Free Raw Cacao icecream

Heaven in a tub!

This ticks all the right boxes I tell you!

High fat

Protein

Calcium

Flavour

Comfort

I know you can make ice-cream without a custard base, thermomix/bellini or an icecream maker but I choose to use these so just humour me OK!

My custard base is a standard one I have always used but I started to think I probably didn't need to add sugar.  

I WAS RIGHT!

This totally works without any added sugar.

 Custard Base  

250ml full cream milk (I used Jersey raw)

2 eggs

50gr arrowroot (cornflour would work too)

50gr raw cacao powder

Put all ingredients into your jug with the measuring cup off.

Speed 3, 100c for around 10 min.

Scrape down sides and if it isn't thick enough cook for another 5 min.

I found it took 15 minutes to reach the thickness I wanted.

For the stove top you can do exactly the same but whisk your ingredients together first before heating.  Be sure to use a double saucepan or a bowl over a pan of water.

Once this is cooked you will need to chill for a few hours.   I poured it into a large tub so it wasn't too thick a layer and sped up the cooling process.  

I also put it in the deep freeze for an hour to start.  You don't want it to freeze totally at this stage, just chill down.  Ideally you can leave in the fridge overnight.

Now for the yummy part

Once it is chilled then you an add your cream.  You will want 250ml of cream.  Whisk this into your custard mix.  If you don't have an ice-cream maker/churn then I suggest whipping the cream lightly before whisking it in as this aerates it a bit and makes it lighter.

For the churn just whisk in and pour into your churn following the regular instructions.

For freezer made, whip your cream, then fold into the custard mix and freeze.  You can pull it out of the freezer as it starts to firm up but this really isn't necessary.

And lastly

EAT THAT GOOD STUFF!!!

Egg white clouds

After a facebook discussion on what to do with egg yolks I thought I would do a post about egg whites!  Makes complete sense doesn't it LOL  I had actually made icecream for the kids and had five egg whites left and no idea what to do with them.

I really had no idea what I was doing but wanted it to be sugar free.  First thing is to turn your oven on to 200c.

I started with the egg whites obviously and I whipped them until they formed stiff peaks.  Make sure your bowl is clean, give it a wipe out with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice is always a good trick and a teensy pinch of salt.

 Once the eggs were stiff I added about 4 drops of stevia and a tsp of raspberry essence.

I then folded through 1/4c of desiccated coconut and 1/2c of almond meal

Blob (french cookery term) spoonfuls onto a lined baking tray.  It doesn't matter how close as they don't expand.

Bake for about 15min or until the edges are starting to colour.

These won't crisp up or look overly pretty because they have no sugar in them.  They are very light and tasty and the kids were happy with them.  

Bare in mind they won't keep well so need to be eaten within a day or so. 

Perfect for P5 too.

Experimental icecream

The kids wanted ice cream, I had 500ml of pure cream in the freezer so figured why not.  In the past I have made it with sugar as per most recipes but decided to stick to our changes and try to avoid that.  I only use good quality pure cream from Ashgrove Cheese and rather than waste the goodness of that I wanted to add other good ingredients.
Rather than using the regular caster sugar I have used coconut sugar, you could also use rapadura or stevia if you wanted.  I have also used the changing habits cacao wafers.  These are 100% raw cacao before the cacao butter is extracted, sugar free, rich and creamy!  This was the first time I had used them since buying them and I must say I was impressed.  Okay, I may have dunked a finger in the mix to test :P

Obviously this isn't a good recipe for phase 2, sorry.  Just know I am being tortured too :)  However, for loading it would be awesome and if you don't react to dairy you could have in phase 4 and phase 5 without a worry.

Ingredients:
5 egg yolks
1/4 coconut sugar
1/2c changing habits cacao wafers
500ml cream

Method:
In a small dish whip 400ml of the cream until it is very thick and put aside.

In a double saucepan combine egg yolks and coconut sugar.  Put over heat and gently whisk until the mixture starts to thicken to ribbon consistency.  DO NOT stop stirring or you will end up with sweet scrambled eggs!  Once this happens add the cacao wafers.  Keep stirring until melted then remove from heat and stir in the remaining 100ml of cream.

Fold in half of the whipped cream at a time and when all mixed through place in the freezer for around 8hrs or into the ice cream maker, which is what I did.  It took about 20min until it reached a good thick consistency then I transferred to a container and put in the freezer.

This has won a big thumbs up from the kids, I know they were doubtful as the wafers are relatively bitter.  They were  very surprised that it was sweet, chocolatey and creamy without too much effort!

Who would have thought it could be so easy and healthy.  Go! Go, have some now!

For more information on the cacao wafers visit the Changing Habits website.