Irish Soda Bread Rolls - Up Close and Personal Sized

What would you say if I told you that I came up with a way for you to have your very own personal size loaf of Irish Soda Bread...simply in the size of a "roll" instead? Can you imagine how cute they would be sitting on your breakfast table where everyone could grab their own? Or...if you wanted to take a walk on the wild side, you could even split it in half and make yourself an "Irish Soda Bread Egg Sandwich." Pull out your muffin top pan because we're making Irish Soda Bread Rolls!

Well, to all you Irish Soda Bread lovers...let me introduce you to your very own mini version of Irish Soda Bread Rolls. Hubby and I actually split one in half for our dessert this evening and enjoyed it with a bit of softened butter and cup of coffee. It was delicious! Check out the photos and recipe below. The only modification to my original Irish Soda Bread recipe is the addition of 1 extra teaspoon of coconut flour which makes them a tiny bit sturdier without drying them out. Enjoy!

The "mother ship" sits in the background while the "babies" are cooling off.

Hubby and I split one to share for dessert this evening. It was delicious!

Irish Soda Bread Rolls

Ingredients:

2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons Swerve Sweetener (or other granular sweetener)
2 tablespoons diced chilled butter
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
1 1-ounce box of raisins, finely chopped
2 teaspoons coconut flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 large egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 6-well nonstick muffin top pan.

In a medium bowl, add almond flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sweetener, and whisk until well combined. Using a pastry cutter/dough blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk in xanthum gum. 

In a small bowl, toss chopped raisins with coconut flour until lightly dusted (this keeps raisins from sticking together); stir raisins into dry mixture.

In a glass measuring cup or small bowl, add buttermilk and egg and lightly beat. Make a well in center of dry mixture; pour wet mixture into dry ingredients and mix together with a rubber spatula just until dough pulls together into a soft ball. 

Using a 4-tablespoon size retractable scoop, divide dough evenly among the six muffin top cavities. Shape mounds of dough into balls with hands lightly dampened with water. If desired, use a sharp serrated knife to score the top of each roll with "X-shaped" slashes. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Rolls are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

          

Baked Coconut Custard w/ Chocolate Chips - Low Carb & Dairy Free

Check out my dairy free Baked Coconut Custard that I enjoyed as my dessert today. I heated it up in the microwave until warm and then topped it with some Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels (also dairy free) and they became nice and melty on top of the warm custard. It was so good.

I made the baked custards a couple of days ago and have also enjoyed them for breakfast topped with sugar free syrup. I simply can't decided whether I like them better for breakfast or for dessert...so obviously this is going to require more experimentation and testing so I can determine for sure.  ;-)   Enjoy!

Irish Soda Berry Bread - Grain Free

This morning we awoke to another bright and beautiful sunny day here. It's already 60 degrees at noon (which would have been 11:00 yesterday before we moved our clocks forward this morning). They say we will reach 70 degrees today.

Yesterday I decided to make a slightly different version of my "original" Irish Soda Bread. Since I made my original version last March, I have received several messages, posts and emails from folks that don't like raisins and wondering if they can make it without them. Well, the answer to that is yes...it can be made without raisins, if preferred. But, I also decided it could easily be made with other dried fruit in place of the raisins, too. So, I finely diced a few tablespoons of a combination of dried blueberries and dried cranberries which are raisin-like in texture. So, other than making an "Irish Soda Berry Bread" version by adding dried berries, I increased the coconut flour by 1 teaspoon. I sliced and enjoyed it this morning with my breakfast and it was AMAZING!

I made an omelet for Sunday brunch this morning using some diced uncured Italian Fiorucci Abruzzese salami. I diced 4 small slices (the diameter of a regular slice of pepperoni) and browned it in a skillet to render the fat, much the way you would use bacon. I added some diced red bell pepper and sliced green scallions and sauteed a few minutes and then set it aside while I made my omelet. I made a 2-egg omelet. I added some diced BellaVitano Gold Cheese to it that I picked up at Costco (it's a strong, nutty, cheddar-ish flavored cheese I had tried a sample of while shopping there a while back). It was perfect in my little omelet along with the salami, peppers and scallions. I served a few slices of my Irish Soda Berry Bread alongside my omelet. It was so delicious. I snapped a few photos of my omelet and berry soda bread along with the recipe for it. Enjoy!

  

Irish Soda Berry Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons Swerve Sweetener (or other granular sweetener)
2 tablespoons diced chilled butter
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
3 to 4 tablespoons dried cranberries or blueberries, finely chopped
2 teaspoons coconut flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 large egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease an ovenproof skillet.

In a medium bowl, add almond flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sweetener, and whisk until well combined. Using a pastry cutter/dough blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk in xanthum gum. 

In a small bowl, toss chopped berries with coconut flour until lightly dusted (this keeps them from sticking together); stir berries into dry mixture.

In a glass measuring cup, add buttermilk and egg and lightly beat. Make a well in center of dry mixture; pour wet mixture into dry ingredients and mix together with a rubber spatula just until dough pulls together into a soft ball. Shape dough with hands lightly dampened with water into a rounded loaf and transfer to a lightly greased 10-inch cast iron or oven proof skillet, baking sheet or cake pan. Use a sharp serrated knife to score top of loaf with "X-shaped" 1/2-inch deep slashes. 

Bake until golden brown, about 32-35 minutes. If bread begins browning too quickly, lightly tent with a piece of aluminum foil. If additional browning is desired, reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake an additional 5 to 7 minutes longer. Bread is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes; carefully transfer bread to a wire rack to cool. Slice and serve with butter or jam at room temperature, or lightly toast sliced bread in a 350 degree F oven for a few minutes.

          

Quick Barbecued Chicken & Superfood Salads

Today turned out to be a gorgeous day. We made it up to 60-ish degrees and it was bright and sunny all day for a change. Rather than run our usual errands today, we decided to stay home and take it easy. Hubby has been fighting the virus I had (notice I said "had") all week long. He's on meds now and I am trying to stay healthy and not get it back again from him! I had mine for 7 weeks, which is about 6 weeks too long if you ask me! I'm hoping his will be much shorter and that I don't catch it again.

I did a bit of baking this afternoon and will post that tomorrow. This evening, I just made simple grilled chicken for dinner. I had a couple of chicken breast halves in the fridge that needed to be used. I grilled them and basted hubby's with Sweet Baby Ray's Sauce and basted mine with sugar free Nature's Hollow Honey Mustard Barbecue Sauce that I bought from Amazon a while ago but had never tried. It wasn't bad and is nice to use in a pinch, but I'll be honest, I prefer my own homemade barbecue sauce; I just wasn't in the mood to make it for just 2 pieces of chicken this evening. I don't mind making a batch of barbecue sauce when our weather is consistently warm and we are grilling frequently and I know it will be used, but the weather here has been sketchy where we went from snow yesterday morning to spring-like weather today. I served big Superfood Salads (that I buy from Costco) alongside our chicken. It was a quick and easy meal and it reminded me how much I really miss grilled chicken. I snapped a few photos below. If you want to check out my recipe for my homemade barbecue sauce (it's easy too make and pretty awesome), click on this link here: Sweet & Spicy Chipotle Barbecue Sauce. Enjoy!

My piece is the one in front with sugar free sauce

   

Easy Baked Coconut Custard - Low Carb, Dairy Free & Great for Breakfast

This morning we awoke to a bright, beautiful, chilly morning. Believe it or not, we actually had snow yesterday morning. It didn't last long but was quite a surprise for a March morning. I actually snapped a photo of a robin sitting in one of the snow covered trees in our backyard looking around as if it was in shock at what it was seeing!

This morning I enjoyed a super delicious and different kind of breakfast. So many of us low carbers are frequently looking for something to eat for breakfast other than yogurt or eggs. While I have several delicious low carb biscuit, bread, donut, muffin, coffee cake, and bagel recipes available...I am always looking for other alternatives. Last night I didn't feel like cooking dinner, so hubby just picked up Chinese for dinner on his way home (I had steamed chicken with vegetables without sauce and added my own Tamari). While he was doing that, I actually whipped up quick and easy individual baked coconut custards to be enjoyed as either dessert OR breakfast. I had one of them warm for dessert last night that I topped with a tablespoon of dark chocolate chips to soften and get melty. It was delicious! But, this morning, I had one for breakfast warmed for a minute or so in the microwave and drizzled with sugar free maple flavored syrup. It was AMAZING! How is THAT for a breakfast containing a little over 1 net carb??? Each custard had about 7.3 grams of fat. For those of you that are LCHF (low carb high fat)...you can bump the fat up a bit with a nice little pat of butter melted on top. WOWZA!

For the milk part of the custard, you can use cream, half and half, almond milk or coconut milk. I actually used Silk's unsweetened cashew milk that is rich and creamy. It made an amazing rich dairy free custard. I used 6 whole eggs in my custard. If you prefer it a little less eggy, simply reduce the eggs to 5 eggs instead. I added a few tablespoons of unsweetened coconut to give the custard a little texture and chew and it was the perfect amount.

Each custard cup contains approximately 1.2 net carbs each, 7.3 grams fat and less than 1 gram of sugar (.76), 5.8 grams protein and 102 calories each. Check out the photos and recipe below. Enjoy!

Take a peek inside after the first scoop...rich and creamy

Baked Coconut Custard - Dairy Free

Ingredients:

3 cups unsweetened cashew milk (I used Silk brand) 
3 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
6 eggs
1/2 cup granular Swerve Sweetener
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Dash of cinnamon, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease six 6-ounce custard cups or ramekins.

Combine milk and coconut and heat just until hot but not boiling. In a saucepan, heat approximately 2 quarts of water until it just begins to simmer.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, sweetener, salt, and vanilla. Add hot milk mixture and whisk until combined. Divide custard mixture evenly among custard cups/ramekins. Top with dash of cinnamon, if desired. Create a water bath (Bain-Marie) by placing custard cups in a large rectangular or oblong baking dish. Carefully fill baking dish with the with hot water until it comes about half way up the sides of the ramekins or custard cups.

Bake in the center of oven for approximately 45 to 50 minutes, or until custard is just set and jiggles very slightly in the center or a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. After removing from oven, carefully remove custard cups from water and cool on wire rack. Serve warm or cover cups and refrigerate about 2 hours to serve chilled. Store in refrigerator.

*Note: Cream, half-and-half, coconut milk or almond milk can be substituted.

         

Easy Slow Cooker Mediterranean Chicken - Low Carb

This evening we had Slow Cooker Mediterranean Chicken for dinner. It was so simple to make. I actually placed it in my crock pot last night and cooked it overnight and then allowed it to cool off and popped it in the fridge before going to work this morning. I simply reheated it for dinner this evening. The chicken was melt in your mouth tender. I used boneless skinless thighs but you could substitute boneless breasts if you prefer. You could also use bone-in chicken pieces. There are only 5 ingredients in this quick and easy meal. It is tender, moist and flavorful. It would be great served over zoodles but is also good served as is in shallow bowls topped with a bit of grated cheese and fresh parsley. I find the sun-dried tomato pesto in my local grocery store. I really liked Mezzetta's, but there are other good brands, too. I use oven roasted tomatoes packed in oil that I find at Costco; I like using those instead of canned tomatoes because they don't make the dish so juicy and are more concentrated in flavor. You could easily substitute sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil instead if preferred, but I'd reduce the amount by about half since they are more intense in flavor. I snapped a few photos below as well as included the easy peasy recipe. Enjoy!

It's as easy as layering the ingredients in the crock pot like this

Slow Cooker Mediterranean Chicken

Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (or boneless chicken breasts)
3 tablespoons sun-dried tomato pesto
2 to 3 tablespoons capers
1 cup drained quartered artichoke hearts (packed in water or oil)
1/3 cup oven roasted tomatoes packed in oil (or 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes)
Pinch red pepper flakes, optional

Directions:

Place chicken in bottom of a 5 to 6 quart crock pot. Spoon and spread pesto over top of chicken. Add capers, artichoke hearts and tomatoes. Season with red pepper flakes. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. 

      

Brinner...otherwise known as "Breakfast for Dinner"

This evening I had planned on grilling chicken for dinner since it turned out to be such a warm day. It actually made it up to 63 degrees today. After I got home from work though, I decided that I really wasn't in the mood to grill. Instead, I decided to keep it quick and simple and use some of the prepared foods I had leftover (namely the Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti and Brussels Sprouts Hash w/ Wild Blueberries that I made over the weekend). I also had leftover meatloaf from last night but wasn't in the mood for that again. So, I made scrambled eggs with cheese, turkey sausage, leftover "hash" and biscotti along with a cup of "hot chocolate" made with cashew milk and Scharffen Berger cocoa powder (it's extra deep and dark). It was a delicious, quick and easy meal. I love having breakfast for dinner. I snapped a couple photos below. Enjoy!

      

Greek Style Meatloaf w/ Eggplant, Spinach & Feta - Low Carb

Happy March! It was a dark, cold rainy day here today and we only made it up to about 44 degrees. We are supposed to get a couple of 60 degree days this week and then a chance of another winter storm later in the week. Winter just doesn't want to let go. This evening only one of my sons came for dinner because the other one came for dinner last night instead since he had things he needed to do today.

We ran our errands to Costco and did our grocery shopping this morning. I picked up a 3-pack of organic ground beef at Costco so I could make meatloaf for dinner. My older son went skiing in North Carolina over the weekend so I'm sure he is ready for some warm comfort food! I decided to make a big Greek Style Meatloaf. I've made one before (click here: Greek Style Meatloaf) that included chopped spinach and feta, but this evening I wanted to kick it up an extra notch. I actually diced up a small to medium sized eggplant and sauteed it with onions and fresh garlic until tender. I also lightly sauteed some fresh baby spinach and chopped it up. I combined the eggplant mixture, spinach, feta, Parmesan, Greek seasoning and some oven roasted tomatoes packed in oil with about 3 pounds of the lean ground beef. It smelled wonderful as it baked in the oven. If you don't care for eggplant, you can easily omit it. For the guys, I cooked and mashed some red skinned potatoes and also fixed baby peas and carrots to go along with their meatloaf. For my side dish, I used my little julienne peeler to make a tri-colored medley of zucchini, yellow squash and carrot; it's the perfect little gadget when only making one or two side dish servings. Everyone was happy. I snapped a few photos of my low carb Greek Style Meatloaf w/ Eggplant, Spinach & Feta below as well as included the easy recipe. Enjoy!

Fresh out of the oven

Ready to pop into the oven

Greek Style Meatloaf w/ Eggplant, Spinach and Feta

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided (more, as needed)
1 small diced onion
1 diced small to medium sized eggplant (about 1 cup diced raw)
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 cup water
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 pounds lean ground beef
3/4 cup cooked chopped spinach, drained
1/4 cup chopped oven roasted tomatoes packed in oil, optional
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons Greek Seasoning (I used Penzey's)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large skillet or pan with lid, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add diced eggplant and additional olive oil, as needed. Saute for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt, to taste. Add water; cover and reduce heat to medium and cook eggplant until soft, about 5 to 7 minutes. Uncover and add minced garlic and cook uncovered until remaining liquid or moisture has evaporated and eggplant is tender, about 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside and let cool. 

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, eggplant mixture, spinach, tomatoes, feta, Parmesan and Greek seasoning. Shape into an oblong loaf. Place in baking pan or casserole dish. Bake approximately 1 hour 15 minutes, or until done. Let sit for about 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. 

*Note: 2 to 3 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil can be substituted for the oven roasted tomatoes, if desired.