LCHF Fathead chicken and camembert Pie

There are some things you figure you will never eat again when you change to a LCHF way of eating.  

Pie was one of them for us!

That is until I decided to experiment a bit.  

I first tried doing some pizza type scrolls but they failed and fell into flat little parcel type things.  kids thought they were ok but I wasn't at all happy with how they turned out.  

The first time I tried making pies with the fathead dough I blind baked the dough thinking it would work better that way. 

They were ok but by the time the insides heated up the 'pastry' was overdone making it tough and chewy.

This time I hit the motherload and they turned out beautifully. 

You can do traditional microwave dough or no nuke dough to make these. 

I found some cute little single pie dishes at kmart, they are non stick but I figure it isn't something I would use often like a fry pan so won't matter too much. Alternatively you can make one large family size pie in a dish of your choice.

The dough turned out quite light, held together perfectly.  I made spare for lunches and they held their shape in the fridge for two days, without breaking up or getting soggy.

Ingredients:

1 portion of the fathead dough

500gr chicken thigh diced

1med onion

3 cloves garlic

1tbs chopped chives

3/4c cream

S&P

1/2 small wheel camembert (or brie)

Method:

Finely dice onion and garlic and fry in butter or coconut oil until golden.  Add chicken and fry until all cooked through.  Pour in cream and simmer gently until it starts to thicken.  Season with chives, S&P and any herbs you like really.   

Put aside in fridge to cool mixture.

Preheat oven to 200c

While mix is cooling make your dough and roll out between baking paper to 3/4cm thickness for pie base.  

Grease pie dish and line with 'pastry'.   When chicken mix is cold add to pie dish and top with slices of cheese.  Roll out more pastry to put on top.

Bake for approx 20min until really golden.

Let rest out of oven for a couple of minutes before serving.

Thank me later :)

Microwave FREE LCHF Fathead pizza Dough

We love pizza.  I mean who doesn't right!
I am sure most LCHF peeps have seen the recipes for fathead pizza, the one where you melt your mozzarella into a molten lava mess IN A MICROWAVE!
Yeah, all well and good until your microwave decides to chuck a hissy fit and curls up its freakin toes.  Which didn't bother me overly as I know they aren't great for your food. BUT, pizza.......

Sooo, how to make a fathead pizza without making nuclear lava.

Looks amazing doesn't it and I tell you it is better than regular pizza bases!  The proof being that my fussy kids even agree with me.

You will need a food processor of some sort to make this.  I have a bellini but you don't need to be so flash :P

Ingredients:

1.5c mozarella grated

1c almond meal/flour

2tbs cream cheese

1tbs dried oregano

1tsp baking powder

1tbs psyllium husks

S&P

1 egg

Method:

Preheat oven to 200c

Place all ingredients in your food processor and blend well.  It should form a soft but not too sticky dough.  If it is too sticky add a bit more almond meal and blend again to combine.

Form dough into two balls.  Between two sheets of baking paper roll out into a disc about 1/2cm thick.  

Bake until golden brown.

I generally do a double mix so there is leftovers for lunch the next day

Once nice and golden (about 10-15min)

Remove from oven and let cool slightly.  Then pile on your toppings of choice and pop back in the oven to cook the top.

Be warned these are pretty awesome and also pretty filling so a little goes a long long way.

Food tips for the holiday season

How did you go with christmas?  Did you eat all the food!  What did you eat?

We pretty much stuck to our LCHF lifestyle and shared it with my parents who came for the day.

It is the second christmas we have done this way and it is much easier than people think.

I have found over the past two years that the best thing when it comes to food is to keep it simple.  A hard less to learn as I waste heaps of money on recipe books I flip though, ooh and aah then never use.  If I were one for new year resolutions I think I would have to make one pledging never to buy another recipe book LOL

The holiday season is renown for entertaining and it doesn't have to be difficult or high carb.

I have shared some of my tips for the season below and hope you find them helpful

1. The thing with most foods is that they are unnecessarily sweetened.  Seriously, you can go without many sweeteners in things.

Make a custard from scratch and use high fat ingredients it really doesn't need sugar,  I use Quirky Jo's custard recipe and never put in the sugar and it is awesome!  As with most grain free cake recipes too.  This is my current fave from Traditional Cooking School but OMG!  3/4 of honey!  They've gotta be kidding right!  What I do is instead of using the honey I use stevia sweetened (avalanche) hot choc mix as the cocoa portion of the recipe and stevia sweetened choc chips.  This keeps the cake sweet enough without being totally over the top.

2. Go for savoury over sweet.  This is especially good if you are entertaining people who aren't into eating how you do.  Assuming they aren't vegan then go to town with the cheese platter.   Make some dips (don't buy expensive full of crappy seed oil dips), mash a couple of avocados with some chilli, garlic, lemon juice and seasoning, or whisk some herbs into cream cheese.  Seed crackers are awesome or make some seed bread for cheese and dips. Both tasty and LCHF/paleo.  Remember filling up on high fat will leave you satisfied for a lot longer than filling up on carbs.

3. Planning ahead is the third tip.  If you are caught short you will be able to stick to what you believe in and stay healthy.  I find if I am short of time then I am more likely to bad poorer choices food wise so I like to know that I have stuff I want to eat available. I have a well stocked pantry with nuts, seeds etc, I stock my freezer with good quality meats. And look for mark downs at the supermarket, cheese lasts quite a while, cream and butter can both be frozen too.  If you are in Launceston I recommend Casalinga or Conmurra Meats.  The latter deliver weekly to your door, grow and butcher their own grassfed meat and is really well priced.  At Davies Grand Central you can find a great range of LCHF products too.  Last year I wrote the Launceston Shopping Guide for LCHF 

4. Go seasonal.  Berries. Need I say more really LOL  Tis the season and all that.  I love summer berries.  We don't do much in the way of fruit (read:don't eat it really) for 10 months of the year but come summer we love berries.  The kids will occasionally have mango, watermelon and cherries too but I tend to stick to berries and occasional cherries.  We are blessed with some great local PYO (pick your own) farms or you can pop down to Laun Harvest Market and grab some.  We were very lucky to win a berry box from Paleo Providore that was delivered two days before christmas so we chowed on berries for christmas.  I also freeze berries for smoothies, cool treats and cakes.

At the end of the day it is about enough the company of others. 

 It doesn't have to be a banquet, a few good foods that are filling is the way to go rather than masses of rubbish.  And, don't beat yourself up if you have something not on a list.  

This is a way of life, it isn't a competition or a test so you can't fail or cheat.