Lemon Bars with Cream Cheese

Hi everyone.

I've been wanting to make lemon bars for so long, but I never found a recipe that ticked off all my criteria. For a recipe to be Stevie Friendly, it needs to be

- easy and no fuss
- not drenched in bad fat or loaded with sugar
- not take to long because you know I have no patience

and

- it must not make a mess of everything because I hate, hate, HATE doing dishes.

So, I simply decided to dive in, head first, and create my own lemon bars.
And I'm so happy I did.

Ingredients:

For the base:
150 gr flour
100 gr soft coconut butter (normal butter is fine too)
A pinch of salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cold water
1 tsp lemon juice

For the filling:
3 tbsp low fat cream cheese
2 eggs
2 tbsp liquid sweetener
Juice of 1 lemon
100 gr flour

Way to do it:

1. We start with the base. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and stir with a spoon to combine. Add the coconut butter and use your hands to 'melt' it into the mixture. It will become very crumbly and dry. Add the lemon juice and water and use that liquid to form a dough. Roll the dough into a ball, put it in cling foil and let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. Now we make the filling. Add the cream cheese, eggs, liquid sweetener and lemon juice into a bowl and whisk until combined. Add the flour and make sure there are no lumps left. It will be very liquid but don't worry, that way our crust will soak it all in. Leave it into the fridge until you are ready to use it.
3. After the crust has rested for 30 minutes, take it out and line a baking tray with baking paper. Roll out the dough and bake in a pre-heated oven on 180degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes.
4. Take the baking tray out and pour the filling over the crust. Bake again for another 10 minutes.
5. Take out of the oven and let them cool before you cut them. Transfer to a plate and they are best if you keep them in the fridge.

And these people, are no fuss, no muss, deliciously low sugar Lemon Bars.

I must admit, you can't call these low in fat...compared to stuff you would buy in the store yes, but not to other stuff you can find on my website. However, I did use coconut butter and some sources say it's the 'healthiest' butter there is. But it's still butter off course, this isn't a perfect world :-(

It was my first time making these, so it's still a work in progress. Next time, I'm going to add some cacao powder to the base and I'll prob add some more lemon juice because in my opinion, they could be a little more sour.

Keep checking back for new recipes and let me know what you think.

Enjoy
xx

Chocolate cake with avocado and banana

May I just say...wow! If I was a religious girl, I would thank the lord. Instead, I'm going to thank nature for blessing us with the combination of chocolate and avocado.

We have to get serious...you can't make a decent cake without butter. It just wouldn't taste right. So if ever we want to indulge, we'll have to settle for a little bit of fat. NOW, that's so not true anymore! Substituting butter with avocado is genious, delicious and healthy. Avocado is fat, yes, but good fat!

If you are looking for a chocolate cake that won't make you feel like a cheater, then look no more. Yummy, rich, healthy and a definite hit with the entire family...my chocolate cake with avocado and banana.

And oh, did I mention this cake is so easy to make?

 

Ingredients:

 

2 ripe avocados
2 ripe bananas
3 eggs
3 tbsp liquid sweetener
100 gr almond flour
100 gr dark cacao powder
100 gr of assortment of nuts (I used almonds, peanuts and cashew)

Way to do it:

1. Cut the avocado's in two and spoon out the flesh. Add with the mashed bananas in a bowl and stir.
2. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth.
3. Add the remaining ingredients (liquid sweetener, almond flour and cacao) and whisk again.
4. Finally gently fold in the nuts.
5. Transfer to a baking tin lined with baking paper and bake for 35mins in a preheated oven at 180degrees C.
 

Let the cake cool before you take it out of the baking tin. You don't need to top the cake with any icing, it's packed full of flavor and it's very moist. However, adding some maple syrup or honey can never go wrong.

A good movie, a cup of great coffee in my new favorite mug (I got it at a second hand store and I'm just so in love with it.) and some home baked deliciousness. Yes...my life is pretty perfect.

Some of you may have already noticed, I'm a baker who loves simple and easy recipes. I don't like to huff and puff in my kitchen and I definitely don't like doing the dishes. So, you can expect many more recipes like this chocolate cake with avocado and banana, easy, yummy and healthy.

If you want to make a cake lower in carb, leave out the bananas and add a little more almond flour. I promise you, it'll taste great. Now if only I would stop myself from taking another piece....

Enjoy and till next time,
xx

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Hi Everyone,

I'm back with my first cake recipe so read on if you enjoy delicious jet low carb desserts!

It was my birthday on the 8th of march and for a dinner celebration on the 9th at my family's house, I really wanted to indulge in a nice dessert. One I could share with the entire family but that didn't leave me feeling like a cheater. Therefore, I took out my favorite cakes cookbook (this one, an old one but so good with many lovely and easy recipes) and adapted it to a low carb successful formula.

I hope you like it. This makes a very dense cake so you probably won't need to eat more than one piece.

Ingredients for 1 cake:

100gr almond flour
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
3 big eggs
2 tbsp sweetener (or to your taste)
60gr dark chocolate
60gr ground coconut
a couple of drops vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder and salt to match it

175g cream cheese
15ml Amaretto
2 tbsp sweetener (or to your taste)
2 tbsp soft butter

How to do it:

Preheat over to 190 degrees C.

Separate the whites from the yolks and beat the whites stiff.

In the bowl with the yolks add the sweetener, melted chocolate, coffee powder, baking powder, vanilla essence, ground coconut and almond flour.

Gently fold in the egg whites. This will give the cake it's height and make your dough more moist.

Bake for about 25minutes at 190 C. Check while it's cooking because all ovens are different.

Afterwards let the cake cool and in the meantime we can make the filling.

Mix the cream cheese with the sweetener, soft butter and add the Amaretto.

I would suggest putting it in the fridge to harden. This will make the smearing a lot easier.

At this point you could add some extra topping. I didn't because the cake is moist enough. But anyways, here's the ceipe if you want to do it.
You'll need:
120gr soft butter
3 tbsp sweetener
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk

Whisk the butter in a bowl to loosen it up and make it creamy.

Add the sweetener, vanilla extract and cocoa powder.

The egg yolk is optional but I would suggest you use it. It gives the topping a nice glaze.

Now it's time to assemble the cake.

Cut your cake in half horizontally, making two nice flat discs.

Generously add the cream cheese filling and put both halves back together. Don't push them down, you want the extra height.

Finish with the optional topping. You can decide wither you want a thick layer on top or if you want to wrap the entire cake in chocolaty goodness. It's your cake so do as you please.

And there you have it. A wonderful yet low carb choclate cake for the entire family to enjoy. The carb amount on this one is higher than my other recipes, but hey, It's my party and I'll indulge if I want to.

Till next time,
Enjoy
xx

Almond Macadamia Cookies

Hi Everyone,

I'm back with a new recipe!
After my hazelnut cookies really did the trick of keeping my sweet cravings in check, I decided I needed more! I made another batch of cookies because I love how they are so low in carb and I don't have to feel bad for indulging.
My cookie routine: I have one in the morning before my meals with a nice cup of strong coffee and in the evening, I have another one (or two...) with some lemon tea and really, it doesn't even feel like I'm dieting.

Ingredients:

2 large Eggs
150 gr butter
a tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp sweetener (or to your taste)
200 gr Almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
60gr Macadamia nuts, chopped

How to do it:

Preheat over to 190 degrees C.

Separate the whites from the yolks and beat the whites stiff.

In the bowl with the yolks add the vanilla extract and butter.

Add the sweetener and mix again.

Add the baking powder,salt and almond flour.

Gently fold in the egg whites. This will give your cookie it's height.

Finally, gently stir in the chopped nuts

Divide the dough evenly into about 15 little heaps of dough and place them on a cookie sheet. Make sure they are far enough apart because they will spread out a little. Bake for about 12 minutes at 190 C for soft cookies, go to about 17 minutes for crunchier ones.

Afterwards let them cool before you move them to a plate.


Depending on how big you make them and which ingredients you use, this entire recipe contains about 17gr of carbs. So that's about 1,2 gr of carb per cookie!

Leave them overnight because I found the taste and texture is better the next day.

Note: You can also add some white chocolate chunks but I couldn't find any with reduced calories. Now I found some on so I'll be back soon with some white chocolate creations :D

Note 2: For added yummyness, you could smear the top of the cookies with some low sugar jam. Only do so right before you're about to eat them because otherwise, they will make the cookie too mushy.


Enjoy
xx

Hazelnut Cookies

Ingredients:

2 large Eggs
150 gr butter
a tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp sweetener
120 gr Hazelnut Butter (you can use peanutbutter if you prefer)
1 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
40gr of Stevia dark chocolate chunks (try and find the one with the less carbs, I found mine in a bio shop)

Way to do it:

1. Preheat over to 190 degrees C.
   
2. Separate the whites from the yolks and beat the whites stiff. In the bowl with the yolks add the vanilla extract and butter.
3. Add the sweetener and mix again.
4. Add Peanut butter and mix till well combined.
5. Add the baking powder and the salt. Then you add the chocolate chunks
6. When your batter is done, gently fold in the egg whites. This will give your cookie it's height and yummyness
7. Divide the dough evenly into about 15 little heaps of dough and place them on a cookie sheet. Make sure they are far enough apart because they will spread out a little. Bake for about 15 minutes at 190 C

Afterwards let them cool before you move them to a plate.

Depeding on how big you make them and which ingredients you use, this entire recipe contains about 20gr of carbs. So that's about 1,5 gr of carb per cookie!

Enjoy
xx