The UnDiet Weight Loss Guide » April 2014

Monthly Archives: April 2014

High Protein Recipes

CC Cucumber Mint Salad

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CC as in “cottage cheese” which I like to use in place of yogurt when I’m looking for a super low carb meal.

This salad is a spin off from a cucumber raita which is commonly served in India as a condiment to cut the heat of the spicy dishes on the table. My salad has more cucumber and less yogurt than a traditional raita. In fact I’ve subbed in cottage cheese for the yogurt because it has much fewer carbs than yogurt, 6 net carbs versus almost 17.5 for plain yogurt! If that’s not a reason for a low carber to switch to cottage cheese then I don’t know what else to say to convince you. I’ve used cottage cheese in place of yogurt in salad dressings, smoothies, puddings … with great success.

Be sure to use 1% cottage cheese, that’s the sweet spot for less carbs. Nonfat cottage cheese tastes so bad that it’s not even worth going there.

I’ve also experimented with the carb counts using sour cream and crème fraiche in place of some and even all of the cottage cheese, thinking that it would reduce the carb count  even further and both substitutions actually RAISED the net carb count!

This salad is fabulous as a sauce for steak or chicken as well as fish. If you’ll be serving this recipe as a sauce instead of a salad, dice the veggies instead of chopping them.

This salad can be prepared anywhere from 2 hours to 1 day ahead.
Ingredients:
2 large unpeeled English hothouse cucumber, halved, seeded, chopped
1 cup 1% cottage cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ rounded teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions:
Wrap chopped cucumber in a kitchen towel and squeeze to eliminate some of the liquid.

Puree cottage cheese in a blender. Place remaining ingredients in a bowl. Pour cottage cheese over salad and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

 

Cucumber Cilantro Raita

Simply substitute cilantro for the mint.

4 servings = 5 net carbs per serving with 1 cup Greek yogurt
4 net carbs per serving with ½ cup Greek yogurt

Recipes Starches

Honey Flaxseed Bread

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Is flaxseed the new miracle food? That’s a big claim to live up to, yet this tiny little seed provides 3 incredible benefits for your diet. Dr. Oz highly recommends a daily dose of flaxseed as a great source of fiber, omega-3 and lignans which reduce the risk of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. And if all that isn’t enough to get you on the flaxseed wagon, flaxseed  has been known to reduce hot flashes. Go flaxseed!

I’ll take any opportunity to get some flaxseed into a meal. I’ll sprinkle it into fruit smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt, and bread is a great way to get lots of flaxseed into your diet.

I prefer golden flaxseed as it has a much lighter flavor. Don’t buy pre-ground flaxseed. Grind it yourself in a coffee grinder or a blender. Flaxseed starts to degenerate as soon as its exposed to heat and air so a bag of pre-ground flaxseed sitting on a shelf in a grocery store is not an option for me. Besides it’s super easy to grind it yourself.

This recipe makes one loaf. You can of course double the recipe if you’ll be serving a lot of bread this week, or set aside one loaf after the first rise, wrap it in plastic and freeze it. Then when you’re ready to bake it up, thaw it at room temperature or in the fridge, do the second rising in the loaf pan and bake it up. So much easier than making the entire recipe twice.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup flaxseed

1-3/4 cups lukewarm water

1 tablespoon honey

2 1/4 cups whole grain flour, whole wheat, white whole wheat, pumpemickel, or rye

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 package (2-1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast

Instructions:

In food processor grind flaxseed into a coarse meal. Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir water and honey until honey is dissolved, or pulse in food processor. Sprinkle in yeast; let stand until yeast bubbles, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 cup flour, salt and ground flaxseed. With a wooden spoon, stir vigorously in the same direction until batter is smooth or pulse in a food processor. Alternatively, mix dough in a stand-up mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.

Gradually stir in 1 cup flour until mixture becomes too difficult to stir comfortably. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding only enough of the remaining bread flour to keep it from sticking, until dough is smooth and elastic, 10 to 12 minutes. The dough will be slightly sticky.

Lightly oil a large bowl. To save on dishes if I’ve mixed this in a bowl rather than a food processor I use a spatula to scrape out as much of the dough as I can into an oiled loaf pan, then oil the bowl. Place dough back into the bowl, turning to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let rise in a warm place such as the top of a television set or the refrigerator on in the sun until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours.

Lightly oil a loaf pan. Punch dough down. Flatten into a disk and tightly roll the dough into a log. Place seam-side down in loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until dough comes over the top of the pan, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake bread for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 20 to 25 minutes, or until bread is pulling away from the sides of the pan. Turn bread out onto a wire rack and cool completely before slicing. Although I have to admit I can never resist cutting off the ends to eat as soon as the loaf is cool enough to handle.

Beverages Dessert Fruit Kid Friendly Living Food Neutral Recipes Vegetarian

More Fruit Smoothie Recipes

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Basic Fruit Smoothie Instructions:

Place ingredients in a blender – a food processor won’t give you a smooth puree, an immersion blender will work, but not as easy as a counter top blender.

 

Mixed Fruit

1 frozen banana
2 cups mixed fruit
1 cup fresh fruit juice

 

Papaya – Nectarine

1 papaya, peeled, seeded, cut into chunks
1 medium nectarine, pitted, cut into chunks
1 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup nondairy milk

 

Creamy Pineapple

I prefer this shake made with dates, almond extract and orange juice, and no rum extract. But that’s me, you may love it without dates and with rum extract. When I make this drink for guests I make it how I like it, and pour it into glasses for some of my guests. Then I add the rum extract for the rest of my guests, and viola! everybody’s happy.

1/2 pineapple, cut into chunks
1 banana
1/4 can coconut milk(there is a light version that most supermarkets carry in the Asian foods section which I think tastes watery, but you can boost the flavor with coconut extract)
3 dates, chopped (or 2-3 tablespoons honey, date or maple sugar)
(almond extract )
(rum extract)
(juice from 1-3 oranges)
 

Creamy Pineapple Berry

This is a variation of our Creamy Pineapple Smoothie

1/2 pineapple, cut into chunks
1 banana
4 large strawberries, tops removed
1/4 can coconut milk(there is a light version that most supermarkets carry in the Asian foods section which I think tastes watery, but you can boost the flavor with coconut extract)
3 dates, chopped (or 2-3 tablespoons honey, date or maple sugar)
almond extract, optional
rum extract, optional
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

 

Raspberry – Watermelon

2 cups seeded watermelon, cut into chunks
1 cup raspberries(fresh or frozen)
1 cup ice cubes or 1/2 cup fresh apple or pear juice
2 tablespoons date or maple sugar

 

Creamy Almond

2 bananas
1 apple, cored & peeled
1/4 cup almond butter
dash of sea salt
glug of vanilla

 

Coconut Orange Cream

4 oranges, peeled, sectioned, membrane and seeds discarded
1 banana
2 cups coconut milk (if you use light coconut milk, bolster the flavor with coconut extract)

 

Tropical Cream

Grind to a fine crumb in blender:

1/2 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
1/2 cup date pieces

Add and blend until pureed:

1 tablespoon vanilla
(1/4 cup honey)
1 cup fresh orange juice
2 bananas
2 cups sliced peaches, peeled, fresh or frozen

 

Recipes

Take the Boring Out of Tortilla Chips

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Chips and salsa anyone? Ho-hum. Been there, done that. I like the ease of serving up a bowl of tortilla chips with a satisfying dip however I balk at commercial chips which are either deep fried or if they’re fat free they tend to taste like cardboard. And then of course, chips and salsas are so overdone that I want something a little more interesting to eat myself, to serve to my family or to share with friends at a party.

Let’s start with the chip itself. It’s so easy to make your own low fat, low calorie tortilla chips. Once you see how easy it is you’re going to regret every bag of chips you’ve ever bought.

 

Baked Chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stack whole wheat tortillas, corn tortillas or pita bread rounds on a cutting board. Use a sharp chef’s knife to slice into wedges. Spray or brush a cookie sheet with oil. Place chips on the cookie sheet in one layer. Spray with oil and sprinkle with salt. You can even sprinkle on some taco seasoning, cumin, cayenne pepper or ground coriander if you want a little variety.

 

Melon Salsa

Ingredients:

1/2 honeydew melon, diced
1 cantaloupe, diced
1/3 jalapeño, diced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, diced
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
16 ounces chunky salsa

Instructions:

In large serving bowl mix all ingredients.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. If your salsa is too watery, drain it in a sieve or coffee filter lined colander until it’s the consistency you want.

 

Beyond the Border

Even though tortilla chips are a classic Mexican side dish, you can nudge them across the border and serve them up with toppings that are Greek, Italian, Indian … When you think of them as corn chips that helps to know what to pair them up with. And if you’re working with whole wheat tortilla chips then even more possibilities are opened up to you.

Smoky Eggplant Dip

This dip works well with both corn chips and whole wheat chips.

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplants

3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chipotle pepper in adobe sauce
1 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons aged sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grill the eggplant until soft, about 25 to 30 minutes. The skin will get wrinkly and the eggplant will start to collapse. Let cool slightly, cut each eggplant in half, and scrape out the flesh with a large spoon into the work bowl of a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Scrape the mixture into a serving bowl.

 

Creamy Basil Dip

Ingredients:

1 cup basil pesto
1/4 cup (2 ounces) gorgonzola, at room temperature
1/4 cup (2 ounces) mascarpone, at room temperature

Instructions:

Heat the pesto over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan or heat until hot but not bubbling in the microwave. Remove from heat and whisk in the gorgonzola and mascarpone until well blended. Pour the dip into a serving bowl and serve with whole wheat chips.

 

Sweet Onion Nachos

Instructions:

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive or nut oil
1 cup of onions, diced
½ cup of goat cheese, grated
1/4 teaspoon agave nectar, honey or maple syrup
A pinch each salt and pepper

Instructions:

Preheat broiler.

In a medium-sized pan, melt the butter and oil over medium heat. Add onions and let them cook for a few minutes, until they’re a light tan color. Stir in sweetener.

Spread the chips in a single layer in several pie plates or one cookie sheet.

Spoon the onions over the chips. Sprinkle the goat cheese over the onions and place under the broiler for a minute or two until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.

Remove from the oven and serve.

 

Parsley White Bean Dip

This dip works for both corn and whole wheat chips.

If you don’t have cannellini beans you can use any white bean such as garbanzo, lima or soy beans.

Ingredients:

1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil, plus 4 tablespoons
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley
salt
black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor. Puree until the mixture is pureed. Taste and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a small bowl.

Variations:

Substitute fresh basil, dill or mint for the parsley.