Tag: holiday baking

Yummy Food!

Dessert Oops!

Many of you have your Christmas baking in full swing by now. And if you don’t…you may be just a bit panicked. After all, Christmas is in just three days!

Three days?!

Wasn’t it just a couple weeks ago when the memes started floating around about the Christmas countdown? It was still in the nineties here…and the Christmas mood was still months away for me.

To say the Christmas season snuck up on me this year is an understatement! But here we are. And delicious food is just one of the items that comes to mind.

Every Christmas, our family grew up with See’s Fudge. I’ve probably posted on here before about it. It’s just that big of a deal for our family. My mother’s mother made it, my mother made it, and I’ve made it every year since I married.

Until last year…when I quit eating refined white sugar. Last year I thought I’d miss it dreadfully…and I missed it a bit. This year, I don’t miss the cloying sweetness of it, but just the thought. I won’t be making it this year. I don’t want the ingredients in the house, but I miss having it for the holiday season, and the little gift canisters I made for family and friends. At some point I want to try a version of it without the white sugar and condensed milk. I have other options to use. But it probably won’t be before summer arrives!

So all that said…I stumbled upon something else that is just as good in my opinion, and I’m going to share it with you all!

Once again…I am NOT a food blogger, or keto-recipe guru. So I don’t have the calorie, sugar, and carb information listed. I don’t particularly worry about all that. But for those of you that need to keep a watch, I do apologize for not having that information.

A recipe I have loved is from this site that I follow. https://mymontanakitchen.com/poodle-doodles/

I have made these many times now, and our family loves them. I have to say I’m a bit lazy when it comes to shaping them, so I always double the recipe, and put it into a 9×13 pan. I place it in the refrigerator while I melt the chocolate and coconut on the stove, (I don’t have a microwave, by choice,) and then I smooth on top. They are wonderful! This recipe does have all the calorie, carb, etc. information that you need if you follow the above link.

This past Sunday, our church was having their Christmas celebration. We had a meal after our morning services. The theme was to be Mexican and Canadian dishes. The ladies did a wonderful job of decorating! Very festive. I made chicken enchilada’s, potatoes, and I tried a dessert.

I spent some time researching Canadian desserts. One that kept appearing in the top ten was the Nanaimo Bar which “is a tremendously sweet, no-bake layered bar cookie from Canada made almost exclusively of packaged ingredients.” Every time I looked at a recipe for this bar, the ingredients for the bottom layer were very close to the above recipe I shared. I thought, why not try to make the bars sugar free? I did, and they were fantastic! I was actually shocked that they turned out so well on the first try.

My version of a sugar-free Nanaimo Bar.

Don’t they look yummy?

I have to say, I have not ever had the original version of this bar. I don’t know if it tastes similar. I just know this was delicious! If you want to give this a try for your holiday baking, here you go:

Make the Poodle Doodle recipe that I shared above. I doubled mine to fit into a 9×13 pan. Chill in the fridge while you mix your second layer.

In a bowl, mix together with beaters:

6 ounces softened cream cheese
6 ounces softened butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar-free sweetener, I use Swerve
1 Tablespoon cream, you can add a bit more if you want it thinner to mix and spread
11/2 teaspoons vanilla

You want it to be frosting consistency. Spread this on the first layer, put in the fridge while you make the coating which is in the original recipe shared above. Again, I doubled the chocolate chips and coconut. I melt my chocolate and coconut on the stovetop until it is nice and smooth. Pour over the top of the second layer and smooth evenly. Work quickly because the cooled second layer will harden your chocolate. I use an offset spatula. If it glops, it still tastes wonderful! As a side note, I use Bake Believe chocolate chips. I’ve come to almost prefer them over Lily’s Chocolate Chips. They are always readily available at our Walmarts here in Kansas.

Now all you have to do is enjoy! My husband and I have had them every day this week for breakfast with coffee for a little dessert after our omelets. If you make this, let me know what you think!

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Yummy Food!

Best Oatmeal!

For almost four months now, I have chosen to not eat flour or sugar. I have also stayed away from too many carbs in the form of potatoes, and other starchy vegetables. I still eat dairy, and protein in the form of meat. I have felt much better. Many of my aches and pains are gone, and I am starting to sleep better as well.

All of those items are huge benefits for me. I know I have lost inches over this time. Clothes are fitting better, and I am able to wear some clothing I couldn’t. I no longer weigh myself. It was becoming an obsession, and was too debilitating for me when I didn’t lose, or I gained…again!

Because I began this journey back in the middle of August, I wanted to get a good handle on it before the holiday season began. I knew I also wanted to find some alternatives to the traditional holiday baking. At one time, before five children, and not much time, I loved to bake. Cinnamon rolls from scratch, brownies, and cakes I decorated. I didn’t use mixes. After children, so much of my time was spent cooking meals, that desserts really took a back seat, and cinnamon rolls were a rare treat. I also didn’t want that much sugar sitting around for us all to consume. 

I have been thrilled to find several sites/blogs that have wonderful recipes. They have almost anything you could think of made with no flour or sugar. The recipes are great for many kinds of diets out there, keto, gluten-free, dairy-free, and Trim Healthy Mama to name a few. I have mostly concentrated on the dessert side of things because that was what I was missing. But now I’m ready to try some other goodies. In this post I’m going to include two links to two sites I use frequently, but there are many others. I want to give a huge shout-out to these women that spend the time working on these recipes so people like me can make them. 

For Thanksgiving this year, I stayed on my plan pretty well. I didn’t have that bloated, miserable feeling of past years. I tried one bite of the stuffing my father made, and the same for the mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and green bean casserole my daughters made. I ate turkey, spinach made with cream cheese and topped with cheese, sweet pumpkin casserole, cranberry sauce, and vegetables with cheese and bacon. For dessert I had pecan pie topped with whipped cream, and pumpkin roll. And I didn’t feel left out, or wanting anything. 

Last night, while drifting in and out of sleep, I was thinking about oatmeal. I know, kind of crazy. Especially for me, since I haven’t eaten it much lately. It was one of those items I had to eat as a child, and made probably too much for my own children. With the oatmeal thinking came the memory of the cranberries in the fridge from Thanksgiving. And then I remembered the sweetened condensed milk there as well. This is the result of those thoughts last night:

 

Our youngest and I enjoyed this for breakfast this morning, and it was delicious! Even better than I imagined in my dreams. Here is the recipe with the two links for the cranberry sauce I made for Thanksgiving, and the sweetened condensed milk that I made for the pecan pie. No processed sugar needed, and I think it tasted even better.

Enough prepared oatmeal for you or two, or more. Top with cranberries and sweetened condensed milk to taste, or for your diet.

https://joyfilledeats.com/cranberry-sauce/

https://mymontanakitchen.com/3-ingredient-sweetened-condensed-milk-thm-s-low-carb-sugar-free/

I also wanted to include another site that I frequent a lot. This is where I got the recipe for the sweet pumpkin casserole. One of our youngest granddaughters loved it!

https://mrscriddleskitchen.com/sweet-pumpkin-casserole/

Again, thank you ladies for some great recipes! I’m looking forward to trying a few more for Christmas. And now I know how to make the best oatmeal!

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