Choco Squares Flax Cereal

Cereal for breakfast is a real miracle on the ketogenic diet.  For one, if you are not a morning person, it means getting an extra 30 minutes of sleep when you have morning commitments because it is storable and easy to put together morning-of.  It also means a break from scrambled eggs.  For Tristan, it is a real treat.

My fruity flax loops recipe was a big hit with Tristan and the blog as well (although still a dearth of comments!) based on views, but it was exhausting to make.  This recipe rectifies the labor-intensiveness of the last recipe by making a sheet of squares and utilizes the greatness of double cream to make the perfect breakfast!

Ingredients:

Cereal:

80 g ground flaxseed

30 g egg white

25 g melted butter

5 g Cadbury's cocoa

4 g truvia

50 g water (approximately)

Milk:

75 g Alpro unsweetened almond milk

50 g double cream (50.5% fat)

Combine ground flaxseed, egg white, melted butter, cocoa, truvia, and water in a bowl, mixing until combined.  You may need more or less water based on climate (from my experience).  Use the amount you need for the dough to be fully moistened but still a dough-like consistency.

Spread the dough thinly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  The easiest and least messy way to do this is to spread it between two layers of parchment paper.  Oh the wonders of parchment paper!

Using a butter knife, score lines into the dough, making squares.

If you want to be done in a hurry, bake at 350 F (175 C) for about 20 minutes.  Be aware that if you want it crunchy, you run the risk of over-toastiness!  The more patient among us should give it a try baking at 150 F (65 C) until crispy which will keep away any chance of burning, but be high enough to fully cook the egg in the dough.

Serve with cream/almond 'milk'.

fat:  81.9 g, protein:  20 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  3.6:1 (heck yeah!)

Note:  Despite chocolate being a pretty strong flavor, the overwhelming taste here is still flax.  If you can afford more carbs or a lower ratio, you can try adding more cocoa - no promises!  I also tried using cinnamon and vanilla as the flavor instead of cocoa, which Tristan liked equally well (still tasted like flax) so a good alternative for someone who doesn't like chocolate - like me!

Protein Powder Pancakes

My recipe for Cinnamon Crepes is pretty low in protein, so I wondered what would happen if I added protein powder to the batter.  Adding more protein to the recipe meant I would need more fat as well, so I also added some butter to the batter.  What I got seemed a lot like pancake batter.  It cooks up thicker for a heartier version of the breakfast.

Ingredients:

Pancake Batter:

28 g cream cheese

52 g egg (about one)

12 g protein powder

22 g european butter

0.5 g cinnamon

5 g truvia

10 g european butter

50 g heavy whipping cream (40%)

5 g walden farms pancake syrup

Warm up your cream cheese until softened, or use room temperature cream cheese.  Mix well with the egg.  Add the protein powder, melted butter, cinnamon, and truvia.

Heat a skillet over medium low heat and add remaining 10 g butter to the pan.

Pour batter onto pan into three evenly sized pancakes.  Cook until bottoms are starting to brown and are stable enough to be flipped.

Leave pancakes to cool at room temperature or in fridge.

Whip the cream until stiff.

Spread the whipped cream in between the layers of pancakes leaving a dollop on top.  Spoon over 5 g of pancake syrup.

fat:  62.7 g, protein:  19.8 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  2.8:1

Variation:  If you don't want to your pancakes with whipped cream or quite so much whipped cream, you could always add that cream to a coffee instead and enjoy them with just a modest amount of pancake syrup.

Samantha's Favorite Breakfast

We've done a lot of bacon and eggs combos.  Tristan tends to like to grab bits of any ingredient in the kitchen and throw them into breakfast in one skillet, but I am a flavor purist.  I want to savor the taste, individually, of each food.  

Ingredients:

30 g  or 2.5 slices thick cut bacon

50 g white mushrooms

105 g or 2 eggs

10 g heavy whipping cream (40%)

23 g bacon fat

9 g european butter

20 g heavy whipping cream

decaf coffee

Fry up the bacon to your liking and reserve the bacon fat.  If you are not using american bacon, you will not have the copious amount of bacon fat left in the skillet.  To achieve similar results, increase the butter to the necessary amount of fat and fry the bacon in some of this butter.

Cook sliced mushrooms in bacon fat/butter.  Salt to taste.

Scramble eggs with 10 g whipping cream.  Cook in remaining fat that has not been soaked up by the mushrooms.  Make sure you allow the fat to cool a bit so that you do not fry the eggs immediately.

Use remaining 20 g of cream in a creamy decaf coffee.

fat:  63.6 g, protein:  23.9 g, carb:  3.1 g

ratio:  2.4:1

I was never much a fan of scrambled eggs, but whipped with cream and lots of butter and bacon fat, these are delicious!

Scrambled Sausage and Eggs

Believe it or not, but you can actually get sick of bacon.  The ketogenic diet can do that to you.  When that happens, this breakfast is such a yummy respite.

Ingredients:

Scramble:

55 g breakfast sausage

15 g green onion

20 g european butter

100 g eggs (2)

10 g heavy whipping cream (40%)

Creamy Coffee:

50 g heavy whipping cream (40%)

1-2 mugs of decaf coffee

Brown the breakfast sausage in a pan over medium heat with chopped green onion, breaking into smaller pieces.  The values used here are for Owens brand of breakfast sausage, but when we're on the road we look for any brand which shows "0" for carbs, and some of these have even more fat or less protein.

Whip together the eggs and cream and add to the pan with the butter turning heat to medium low.

Cook until eggs are done to your liking.  If you use salted butter, then it doesn't even need seasoning!

For creamy coffee, simply add the cream to the amount of decaf coffee you prefer.  Tristan didn't like coffees before, but now that they're full of cream, he quite enjoys them.

fat:  65.8 g, protein:  25.1 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  2.3:1

Because a lot of the fat in this meal comes from the cream in the coffee, it means your breakfast isn't so greasy, which is also really nice.

Fruity Flax "Loops"

Cereal is one of Tristan's big 'misses' on the ketogenic diet.  I had seen a few different keto breakfast cereal recipes floating around the internet, but each had their drawbacks.  For instance, a paltry child's handful of brightly colored fruit loops might taste nice, but they would never satisfy as a meal, nor contain enough protein for an active adult man.  Instead, I combined the best of every recipe I found, along with a couple of twists of my own.  The resulting cereal has a very 'healthy' flax taste to it, but according to Tristan, is my most ingenious creation yet!

The other upside to cereal is that it doesn't need to be kept cool, and the hours of advance preparation aside, can be put together very quickly the morning it's eaten.  Good news if you're packing up a campground!

Cereal Ingredients:

28 g european butter

2 g truvia

2 g sugar-free jello powder (strawberry banana)

10 g raw egg white

15 g vanilla soy protein powder

43 g ground flax seed

1/3 C water

'Milk':

50 g heavy cream (40%)

50g unsweetened almond milk

Melt butter and add all other remaining cereal ingredients.  The 1/3 C of water makes the batter easier to work with, but does not need to be precise, whatever works for you and your climate!

Pour batter into a plastic baggie and cut off one of the corners.  Remember, the size you cut from the corner dictates how much comes out when you are piping.  Bigger holes go faster!

If you are going for loops, pipe into loop shape.  However, if you are making a big batch like I was, you will quickly end up saying f*ck loops, you're getting blobs!  I promise that blobs taste just as good as loops, so give your hand a break if you need to!  Stick to about 1/2 inch in size.

Bake at 350 F for about 15 minutes.  Time will depend on size.  They should be crunchy and golden when ready.

Serve with the cream/almond 'milk.'

fat:  63.4 g, protein:  24 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  2.4:1

Variations:  I chose strawberry banana jello flavor which gives it a nice banana smell when it is baking. In the end, flax is the overwhelming flavor, but if you want to try other jello flavors, go for it!  Our protein powder is all the way from a Holland and Barrett in the UK and the lowest carb option was vanilla soy, but I imagine any protein powder should work, just make sure it is low on the carbs!

Cinnamon Crepes with Whipped Cream

I had been promising Tristan pancakes after we bought some Walden Farms pancake syrup (our only successful purchase that day which I shall leave to Tristan to blog about). My intent was to make American style pancakes, or try to, but in a moment of unprepared desperation, I settled for a simpler crepe recipe I nicked off the Internet.

It wasn't strictly keto by our standards, so after a little trial and error, I got a sweet breakfast or an equally nice dessert. It's low on protein, so if its breakfast it could be paired with a carbless, preferably fatty, protein or just the right breakfast before lunch at a steakhouse!

Ingredients:

53 g or 1 egg
28 g cream cheese
0.5 g cinnamon
10 g European butter
60 g 40% cream
5 g truvia
5 g pancake syrup

Microwave or otherwise heat cream cheese until soft and whip together with egg.

Add cinnamon to egg and cream cheese. This is quite a bit of cinnamon, so you could also reserve some to dust on top at the end.

Heat butter in nonstick skillet over medium-low heat.

Pour batter into skillet to desired size and flip when it looks firm enough to handle and bottom is lightly browning. I recommend roughly dividing in thirds to make 3 crepes.

Once they have all cooked, place in refrigerator to cool. This is necessary to prevent them from melting the whipped cream you now have time to make.

Combine cream and truvia and beat using an electric mixer until fluffy and spreadable but be wary of over beating. It is easier to make a larger batch of this which you can save for later sweet treats.

Layer your crepes and whipped cream with whipped cream spread between each crepe, reserving a dollop of whipped cream on top.

Last, lightly drizzle with the teaspoon of syrup.

Fat: 47.6 g, protein: 10 g, carb: 3.1

Ratio: 3.6:1

by Samantha

Mexican Chorizo and Avocado Scrambled Eggs

I mentioned having avocado at every meal right?  Yep.  The perfect way to mexi-fy breakfast, add Mexican chorizo and avocado.  Around these parts, this would all get wrapped in a flour tortilla to make a 'breakfast taco' and if your diet allows it, certainly give it a go, but it is equally delicious as a stand alone dish.

Ingredients:

55 g chorizo - we used HEB chorizo gringo

10 g 40% (heavy whipping) cream

120 g (about 2.5) eggs

30 g butter

50 g chopped avocado

Mexican chorizo is a spiced sausage.  Cook this first on medium heat in a frying pan squeezing it out of the casing and crumbling it in the pan as you cook.  It releases a lot of fat, so no need to add any to the frying pan.

Whip the next 3 ingredients together in a bowl.  Whip in the butter by melting it, then allowing it to cool so that it does not cook the eggs.  I find this helps incorporate as much fat into the eggs as they can take.

Once the chorizo has cooked, lower the heat and add the eggs scrambling with the chorizo.  You can throw the chopped avocado in the pan at the last minute or just top your scramble on the plate.

fat:  62.3 g, protein:  23.1 g, carb:  3 g

ratio: 2.4:1

Notes:  Chorizo can be very carb-y, so check the label of the brand you buy.  We found the HEB brand to be lowest of our options.  Also, this meal is quite greasy.  It is unclear to me if nutrition labels include the rendered fat in this case, so it may actually have more fat, but our attitude is the more fat the better anyway!  (It took me a couple of very greasy scrambled eggs for me to realize this about bacon.)