Lowcarb Strawberry Pie

For a while now, I've been craving pastries (never mind me, I have a very sweet tooth), Nothing much could be done about it since I was still expecting my baking products. However, they've now arrived and since then, I've spent almost every waking moment in the kitchen, trying out new recipes and experimenting with others. I can tell you that I am seriously having a blast!!! Today, I had a slice a lowcarb strawberry pie and it was delicious. I had to improvise and change up some of the ingredients from the original recipe found on most sites. This recipe takes time, so it's best to make the pie crust on the previous night. 

How to Make the pie crust
Ingredients:
21/2 cups of almond flour (you can mix it to be 11/2 cups of almond flour and 1 cup of coconut flour) i mixed mine.
1 tbsp of psyllium husk powder
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of stevia (optional)
1 cup of cold butter
4-6 tsps of very cold water
1 egg (for glazing)

Preparation:

In a food processor, combine 1 cup of almond flour, 1/2 cup of coconut flour, psyllium husk powder, salt and stevia until well mixed.

Add cold butter, cut into small cubes to the flour in the processor, pulse until they begin to form a dough.
Add remaining 1/2 cup of almond flour and 1/2 cup of coconut flour, process again until the mixture becomes crumbly (the dough breaks up to tiny bits).
Transfer mixture to mixing bowl, add 4 tsps of ice or very cold water, press mixture together until it forms a dough. If it is still falling apart, add 1-2 tsps of ice water and press until it's a well formed dough
Divide in two equal parts, press to form a flatter, round dough like a discus shape. Wrap in a plastic or ziploc bag and store in the fridge for about an hour.
After an hour, bring out of the fridge and allow it thaw for 5 minutes.
Starting heating up the oven to 350 degrees.
Roll out dough into a flat circular shape, fold in half and transfer to a pie pan. Now this part is a little tricky, because almond flour is unlike the regular wheat flour, it may begin to fall apart, don't give up, just transfer all the pieces into the pan and knead/press against the pan until it covers the pan to the edges.
Fold in any excess flour at the edge of the pan and crimp the edges.
Place pan in the freezer for five minutes.
Bring out of freezer, use a fork to create holes at the bottom to prevent the dough from rising. Also line dough with aluminium foil and add some grains of rice or beans to weigh it down.
Bake for 5 - 10 mins until it becomes a golden brown.
Remove from oven, remove aluminium foil with the grains, Glaze dough with egg and bake for 2 -3 minutes.
Bring out of oven, allow to cool for 5 minutes and refrigerate till morning.


How to make the filling
Ingredients:
2 cups of Strawberries - chopped
2 -3 tsps of stevia powder
1tbsp of lemon juice (got mine from freshly squeezed lemons)
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tbsp of almond flour (optional)

Preparation:
Chop strawberries to desired size, add stevia and flour and place over medium heat.
When it begins to release its juice, add lemon juice and vanilla extract
Cook until it is bubbly, turn off heat.
Transfer the pie and serve with whipped cream

N.B*** Bring pie crust out of the fridge before you start the process of making the filling. If you like it hot, you can microwave for 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

Don't forget to holla back when you try this out.

Keto Almond Pancakes

When on a ketogenic diet, especially for many Nigerians who are so used to eating high carb foods, what to eat is always a big problem. We end up eating more protein than fats and inadvertently starving. (This is a topic for another day). 

This blog was created to help people better understand what a ketogenic diet is - all about it, and also to share recipes that can be easily replicated by anyone, again with emphasis on Nigerians. Charity they say begins at home, right? 

I, like so many people love pancakes and most times we have to give it up for keto. You can't imagine my joy when I stumbled upon a recipe for keto pancakes, tried it and it actually worked out perfectly. I just couldn't wait to share it with you, so here it goes. I tweaked it a  bit though, (the ingredients in brackets).

Meanwhile, I've never been a ''pancakes and syrup'' chic. I just doesn't do it for me, it just has to be eaten with eggs.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of Almond flour

1/2 cup of flaxseed meal

1/2 cup of coconut milk

4 eggs

4 tbsp of coconut (or olive) oil

2 tbsp of butter

2 tbsp of erythritol

1 tbsp of coconut flour

1 tsp of baking powder

Spices: 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and nutmeg each (optional)

pinch of salt

Preparation:

In a mixing bowl, add almond flour, flaxseed meal, erythritol, salt and baking powder.

Mix well with all ingredients are well combined.

Break eggs into the mixed dry ingredients and mix well until well mixed.

Add coconut oil and coconut milk and mix well again.

Now add the coconut flour and spices and mix again.

In a pan over medium heat, add coconut or (olive) oil and/or butter and allow to melt.

Using a medium scoop spoon, add pancake batter to the pan.

When the top starts to bubble, flip pancake over and cook the other side.

When it's cooked, remove from pan.

Enjoy the best way you love to eat your pancakes...

Give it a try and don't follow to let us know how it turned out. 

You can subscribe to the blog for emails on latest posts. You can also follow us on social media for more recipes on the go.

Facebook Page: Health Managers (@healthrisksmanagers

IG: @healthrisksmanagers_ketoklinic

Twitter: HR_managers

BBM Channel: C002CB86B

Cheers......

Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet

For a lot of people, starting the ketogenic diet is usually for one reason - weight loss. It has become presumably, the "easiest" diet the yields the fastest results. Easiest in quotes because it isn't as it seems and definitely not as hard as a lot of people make it out to be. Today, I give many more benefits of the ketogenic diet. However, I will explain a few theories concerning glucose. 

• Glucose is useful in the synthesis of cholesterol.
• Excess glucose in the body is stored as fat.
• Glucose pulls water with it wherever it goes. This is obvious in the amounts of water been released during the process of glycogenolysis.
• Finally, Glucose is energy for our good body cells, but also for the bad ones like cancer cells.

Now to the benefits;

• Weight Loss - This is obvious. The less carbs you eat, the more energy you'll need. The body will have no option but to burn fat to ketones for energy.

• Blood Glucose Stabilization - When you eat less carbs and as a result, require less glucose for energy, your blood glucose levels stabilizes. This also reverses type 2 diabetes mellitus as you require almost no insulin for glucose absorption. What happens in type II DM is that there is insensitivity to insulin produced by the pancreas.

• Controls Dyslipidemia - When you go for a lipid profile testing, they check for triglycerides, LDLs (low density lipoproteins), HDLs (high density lipoproteins) and total cholesterol. In layman's terms, it is expected that only the HDLs which is good for the heart should be above normal, while the remaining which are bad for the heart should be low or normal. In dyslipidemia, the reverse is the case. As you begin to eat less carbs, less triglycerides and cholesterol are form and with intake of more saturated fat, HDLs go up and LDLs go down.

• Reduced Blood Pressure - Most of the time, the cause of hypertension is attributed to elevated cholesterol levels and high intake of salt which is said to also increase blood volume by increasing water retention. Remember I stated earlier that wherever glucose goes, so does water and also that glucose is necessary for the formation of cholesterol. Reducing carbs intake, reduces the amounts of cholesterol in the blood and also reduces blood volume. These processes cumulatively lead to a reduction in blood pressure.

• Controls Metabolic Syndrome - This is explained in the above points. Metabolic syndrome is a syndrome composed of abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance with elevated blood glucose and dyslipidemia.

• Improved fertility - Studies have shown that overweight and obesity are associated with poor sperm quality in men and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) in women. However, these have also been shown to improve with as much or as little as a 5% loss in body fat. There have been numerous testimonies to back this up.

• Decreased Menstrual Cramps & Premenstrual Syndrome - I'll tell you my story, every month, I dreaded the time of the month. I started planning towards what pain medications to take before it came. Two days to the day, I'd have severe headaches and bloating, these, I took as normal "premenstrual syndrome" signs. When the period does come, the pain was excruciating. Started the ketogenic diet and one month into it, no headaches, bloating and most importantly NO PAIN!!! and it has been so for months now.

• Better Oral Hygiene - One very important cause of tooth decay (dental caries) is SUGAR! Sugar from high carb foods left in the mouth for bacteria to act on. This is a personal experience. I don't have food hanging in my teeth anymore.

• Mood Stabilization - Studies have shown that ketosis stabilizes neurotransmitters in the brain like serotonin and dopamine thereby improving mood.

• Controls Epilepsy - This is a well established fact since the 1920s. I guess because ketosis stabilizes the brain neurotransmitters or maybe because high glucose and fluid retention causes the minimal cerebral edema (brain swelling) which doesn't go down well with seizures.

• Shrinking of Cancer Cells & Fibroids -  Fibroids are a benign form of cancer. Cancer ass stated earlier are fed by glucose, restricting glucose in your diet starves these cells and shrinks them. Note** I haven't said it is a cure.

• Healthier Skin - There have been reports of improved skin conditions and less acne with the ketogenic diet.

• Increased Physical Endurance - Running on glucose, leaves you exhausted and needing more glucose each time you exert yourself. When you become stable on the ketogenic diet, you won't get easily exhausted as your source of energy will be ketones not glucose.

• Improved Mental Focus - Believe it or not, the brain can work just as good if not better with ketones. No need for constant sugar refill and no constant fatigue.

• Reduced Sleep Apnea - This is a common complication of overweight and obesity, and as weight loss ensues, sleep apnea improves.

• Decreased Joint Pain & Stiffness - Explained by weight loss

Other possible benefits may include:

• Suppressed appetite
• Parkinson's disease
• Alzheimer's disease

These benefits are awesome right? However, there are a few side effects of this diet and that comes in the next post. 

Stay tuned....

Keto Leaf Cabbage Moimoi

As promised, I give you the recipe to the leaf cabbage moimoi posted on our Instagram page (@healthrisksmanagers_ketoklinic) yesterday. I know it's coming late, but better late than never. This meal is so delicious and it taste just as good as the regular bean moimoi (pudding).

Recipe for moimoi:

Ingredients:

1/2 of a medium cabbage

3 sausages

4-6 eggs

2 tbsps of olive or coconut oil

1 small onion

1 tsp of garlic - minced

1 tsp of ginger - minced

3 fresh peppers

1 tatashe

1/4 cup of ungrounded crayfish or 2 tbsps of grounded crayfish

1/8 tsp thyme

salt to taste

Moimoi leaves

Preparation:

Cut off leaf stalks, wash leaves and hang it out to drain.

Cut up cabbage, onions, garlic and ginger & blend smooth.

Pour mixture in a cheese cloth and train out water

Blend sausages until smooth

Also blend crayfish, fresh pepper and tatashe together with as little water as possible till smooth.

Mix the drier portion of the cabbage mixture with the blended sausage and pepper sauce until well combined.

Add eggs and olive oil, combine well, then add thyme and salt and mix well again.

Roll up the moimoi leaves into a cone shape, fold the tapered end backwards to avoid spilling the contents.

Scoop in the mixture using a large spoon, fill it just half way up.

Fold the upper part of the cone backwards to seal it up

In a pot over medium heat, place the stalks of the leaves already cut out with 1 leaves and 1 cup of water.

Gently place the filled up moimoi leaves into the pot, cook for 40 - 60 minutes.

When well cooked, bring out of the pot and allow to cool a bit, unwrap and serve.

Recipe for tomato sauce

Ingredients:

3 medium sized tomatoes 

1 small onion

Shredded chicken or any meat (optional)

1/2 medium sized green bell pepper

salt and dried chili to taste.

1/4 tsp of garlic - minced

1 tbsp olive oil

Preparation:

Cut up tomatoes, onion and green pepper longitudinally.

In a saucepan over medium heat, add the olive oil and allow to heat up.

Stir in onion and garlic, stir until onion becomes translucent and the aroma of the garlic n onion are released.

You can add the meat at this point and fry for 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes, salt and dried chili, fry for 2 - 3 minutes,until the excess water in the tomato begins to dry out.

Turn off heat and add green peppers, cover for 30 secs, then uncover and serve with the moimoi

Try out this recipe and enjoy the meal and don't forget to tag us when you do.

cheers....

Nigerian Style Keto Boeuf Bourguignion

The first time I heard about this dish, I was watching one of those chef movies. As most Nigerians would act, I waved the word aside and continued watching the movie. I'd rather watch the romance than break my head trying to figure out the meaning of two words or how it could be made when they didn't show the recipe step by step in the movie. Many months later, while surfing the web, I stumbled upon a short recipe for the so called "boeuf bourguignion" that was all the rave in the movie. You wouldn't believe what my reaction was! I thought "this is the regular method in which I cook all meat, just without the carrots, mushrooms and bacon". With this little information, I got a confidence boost and decided to check out the full recipe.

All of the recipes started with frying the bacon to get the fat and then searing/frying the beef in the fat before cooking. Also, after reading the recipes, i felt like the meat would end up been way to soft for my palate. This didn't sit well with me, as I know it wouldn't with many Nigerians. 90% of Nigerians if not more, like their beef well done and not too soft. This is because we learn to cook meat before frying and not the other way around. Continue reading to find out how I made my mind blowing boeuf bourguignion.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

Beef cut into bite-sizes

2 small beef or chicken franks cut into bite sizes

Button mushrooms cut into bite sizes

4 tbsp melted Butter 

2 small carrots sliced in small circles

11/2 cups good red wine 

1/2 medium green pepper

2 medium onions (chopped into tiny bits)

1 clove of garlic

6 fresh tomatoes (blended smooth)

5-6  fresh pepper or 1 tbsp dried cameroun pepper

1/8 tsp of dried thyme

Beef stock

1/2 tsp of minced ginger

2 cubes of knorr seasoning

salt to taste

Preparation

In a pot or pan, over very low heat, add chopped meat, 1 of a chopped onion, 1 tsp of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp of minced ginger, 3 blended tomatoes, knorr cubes, pepper, thyme and salt to taste.

Allow to heat up until it produces its own fluid and starts to boil in it.

Add 1 cup of red wine, allow to cook until beef is tender. (You can add a little water at a time so the beef doesn't get burnt before it becomes tender). Also, this water forms your much needed beef stock.

While cooking the beef, if you bought the dried mushrooms like I did (easier to store), then you'd need to soak it for 2 minutes in hot water to become tender. 

Drain the water from the mushrooms, place in a pot, add some water just enough to cover the surface, add 1/4 of the second onion, 1/4 tsp of garlic, salt, pepper and thyme to taste.

Cook till tender and almost all the fluid is dried up.

In a saucepan, melt butter and fry the beef until if well browned and crispy, Bring out and place on a plate. Do the same for the mushrooms and sausage separately and place on a paper towel in different plates.

Next, fry the onions and 1 tsp of garlic in butter until soft, ( I really don't like burnt onions). Add the carrot and fry till soft.

Stir in the fried beef, stir-fry for about a min or two. 

Pour in the beef stock, remaining red wine and blended tomatoes. (These fluids shouldn't cover the beef, just about three quarters of the beef).  Cover the saucepan and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.

Uncover the pan, add the mushrooms and sausage, stir for 2 minutes.

Turn of heat, add green pepper slices, mix and cover the pan for a minute.

Serve with cucumber pasta.

You can cook your meat before hand and store in your freezer to make the process easier. 

This meal is truly delicious. Believe me, you just have to try it.

Cheers

Keto Radish French Toasts and Eggs

So, people have been churning out recipes upon recipes of ketogenic meals for Nigerians to try out for some time now. Problem is the ketogenic diet is a lifestyle that is still new to us in Nigeria and certain foods are alien to the typical Nigerian. The latest of such inventions was "fried radish in coconut oil. First, let me start by saying what we have readily available in Nigeria is the white radish that looks like parsnip.

So, I joined a ketogenic group on facebook a few weeks back, they are quite supportive and a lot of the members seek advice on what to eat, others share recipes, some watch, like, comment or bypass, as for the rest, I can say. It is in this group I first heard of "cucumber garri and cucumber rings". I didn't bother to try out the "cucumber garri", the story of the cucumber rings will follow shortly. Anyway, That is where I also saw "fried radish" described as yummylicious. I immediately went and got some from the market. Two days later, someone else had tried it and described it as disgusting, in her words, it tasted like raw cocoyam. She was furious with the inventor.

Since I already bought mine, I couldn't very well throw them away without giving it a shot. I set out with so determination to get it right and It came out well..... tolerable but i wont describe it as yummy. But the truth is this is absolutely not meant for the typical Nigerian palate. I will still give you the recipe incase you decide to try it out and of course to my non- Nigerian readers, who knows? It could tastes so great.

Ingredients:

1 large-sized radish

1 Egg

3 tablespoons of butter or coconut oil or olive oil

Pinch of salt, pepper and thyme to taste

Preparation:

Cut up the radish into potato chip sizes

Place in a saucepan or cooking pot, over medium heat, add water to the cover the radish, add salt and cover the pot.

Allow radish to cook till soft.

In a small bowl, break in eggs, add salt, pepper and thyme, whisk all together.

When radish are soft, drain out water.

Melt butter or put oil in a saucepan.

Mix cooked radish and egg mixture together.

Fry the radish till golden brown.

Serve hot with eggs ( I liked them better hot than cold).

Stay tuned for more recipes, information on the ketogenic diet and my experiences on this journey. You will soon read about my experience with fried cucumber rings which i called " cucumber french toast".