Day 4 Meal Plan

Breakfast - 7:00 AM

• Chocolate Chip/Raspberry Pancakes
• Chicken Andoulie Sausage
• Alexx's Cocoa

Some days it's nice to just look at the cookbook and say, "It's Wednesday, Day 4 - it's chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast today" and some days I just want to create an omelet out of what is leftover from last night's dinner.  So don't feel tied to the seemingly structured approach to this cookbook.  You can definitely change things up when you feel like it, and know that I do too.  But if I ask Alexx on ANY day - "What would you like for breakfast?" you can be assured he will respond, "Chocolate Chip pancakes!"  And this is from someone who never cared for pancakes.

Really?  Pancakes for a lo-carb diet?  Yes, because remember, I use almond flour instead of wheat flour. And these pancakes are tried and true (with the Alexx taste buds) and I would match them against any IHOP pancakes that are reported at 720 calories, 103 net carbs, 23 g fat, and 20 g protein for 4 pancakes. The key is a little goes a long way.  By adding just 3 dark chips per pancake, Alexx gets a hit of great chocolate that satisfies his craving for chocolate and my using dark chocolate chips he gets the advantage of anti-oxidents to boot!

I use my little blender to mix the egg, oil, and milk and then stir it into the dry ingredients.  If you make these ahead of time, you will need to add some liquid before pouring the batter on the griddle.  I just add about a tablespoon of water so the nutritional value doesn't change.

Chocolate Chip/Raspberry Pancakes

Ingredients:
Mix in the small blender:
4 Tablespoons almond milk
1 egg (any size is fine - if not a large just add enough water to make 1/4 cup.
1 Tablespoon grape seed oil

In a separate bowl mix:
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tablespoons raspberries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Need 14 dark chocolate chips

Mix the liquids and solids together gently and pour onto a heated and greased griddle.  (I use about a teaspoon of coconut oil to a griddle heated to 375 degrees.)
Make four pancakes with the batter and bury 3 chocolate chips into each pancake.  When bubbles begin forming on the pancake (approximately 2 minutes), flip the pancake.  Let the pancake cook for at least another minute or two before sliding it onto the serving plate.  Top with a few raspberries and a couple chocolate chips for garnish.  Serve with  1 tablespoon organic butter and 2 tablespoons sugar free syrup.
3 pancakes of the 4 it makes (I eat the 4th for my breakfast):
Calories: 472; Net Carbs: 17g; Fat: 45 g; Protein: 8 g

The breakfast also includes a cup of Alexx's cocoa and a Chicken Andoulie Sausage.  Yes, it clearly makes a happy way to start this chocoholic's day despite being a diabetic.

Nutritional Information for the full breakfast:
Calories: 409; Net Carbs: 27g; Fat: 31 g; Protein: 19 g

 Lunch - 12:00

• 2 oz Cheese divided
• 6 oz Ham slices
• 1 slice nut bread

     By now you know we enjoy going to the local Farmer's Markets for fresh produce, eggs and meat.  But what I forgot to mention is the fabulous array of goat cheeses that we have found in our travels.  There are all kinds of reasons to eat goat cheese over cow's milk cheese, such as it is lower in saturated fat and higher in protein as well as lower in calories than cheese from cows milk.  But frankly, we love the taste of it!  Besides making a good lunch, I love serving goat cheese and crackers with a drink before dinner.  Depending on the aging process, goat cheeses vary so if you try one and don't like it...try another.  The vendors at the Farmers Market usually have samples available.  In Montrose, UT, we found a wonderful vendor that had a 6 month aged cheese that was more like a Parmesan texture, a blue cheese, and a soft cheese.  I could easily have bought all three, but due to the expense we just opted for the soft cheese as it works best for spreading on crackers or bread.
     For the meat and cheese portion of the meal, I just spread the cheese in two Hormel's Natural Choice turkey or ham slices and roll them up.  They are easy to eat and a perfect complement with the bread.

     So this is a quick lunch and easy to prepare if you have made the nut bread and brownies in advance. Neither of them take long and they both are quite delicious.  I have made the nut bread with zucchini, pumpkin, and squash depending on the time of year.  My sister uses zucchini and adds raisins.  Alexx doesn't care for raisins and doesn't need the added sugar, so I skip them.  I know people who have tried this with carrots too, but again, the glucose value in carrots is too high for Alexx.  I tend to like the texture of the bread best when I use acorn squash or pumpkin.  

     The key is to roast the vegetable yourself instead of buying canned.  The flavor is richer and the texture is better - plus there are no additives in fresh vegetables.  (I quickly cook the squash in the microwave.  I buy the smallest size I can find and cut the gourd in quarters.  I place the quarters upside down in a microwave safe pan with 1/4 inch of water.  Microwave for 15 -20 minutes until you can easily stick a sharp knife through the skin.  Scrape the pulp away from the skin and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.  It usually will make about a cup and I can make two loaves of nut bread with it.  If I don't have enough squash or pumpkin I use pure applesauce to fill in.)

Nut Bread/Muffins

Dry Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. soda
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. mace
• 1/4 tsp. stevia (I use Truvia)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Wet Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup roasted acorn squash or pumpkin
• 1 Tablespoons organic blue agave nectar
• 1 Tablespoon sugar free maple syrup
• 3 large eggs beaten
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls until evenly blended.  Combine the wet and dry ingredients in one bowl and mix with a large fork just until blended.  Do not over mix. (I like to use a Foley fork to do this instead of a mixer, but the wet ingredients can be mixed in a bullet blender before mixing with the dry ingredients.)  Line a small loaf pan with parchment paper and grease with coconut oil. (You can also use muffin cups if you prefer.  It will make approximately 10 muffins.)  Bake the loaf for 35 minutes or the muffin cups for 25 minutes. (Sometimes I double the recipe and do both muffins and a loaf.  The muffins freeze well.)  Serve the bread after it has cooled at least 30 minutes but is still warm.  Add a pat of organic butter if you wish.
Nutritional Info:
Calories: 236; Net Carbs: 4.9g; Fat: 21.2 g; Protein: 7.5g

Nutritional Info for the full lunch: Calories: 563; Carbs: 11; Fat: 40; Protein: 42

Dinner - 6:00 PM

• Salad
• Cajun Chicken Lavosh
  
• Best Brownie 

Perhaps the hardest food item for Alexx to relinquish has been pizza.  Actually, he hasn't given up trying to find a pizza that doesn't spike his sugar.  We have found a few - Grimaldi's New York Pizza and Paul Newman's frozen pizza are two we have discovered. I have tried to make homemade pizza with gluten free crusts and cheese crusts, and just about everything I could think of, but none of them satisfied his taste for pizza, until we tested Lavosh cracker bread as the base for his pizza.  Bingo!  It doesn't spike his sugar and the topping is exactly what he loves.  So now we have a dinner "pizza" that he can count on every 15 days which makes him very happy.  And when we are fortunate enough to land in a town that has a Grimaldi's he also get's to indulge then!  (There actually are quite a few and they seem to be opening more of them around the country.)  The key to making the lavosh is finding the cracker.  It's usually in the international foods section of the grocery story, but sometimes it's in the bakery.  You just need to ask.  If the grocery store doesn't carry it, you might find a Mediterranean market that carries it.  This is the one I find most often: 

It has three crackers to a package and each one makes a large "pizza" that is usually enough for dinner and lunch the next day or an evening snack.  The cracker keeps well, but if you don't think you will use all three within a month, then you might want to invite the neighbors over!  It's a great party meal!

Cajun Chicken Lavosh

Ingredients:

1/2 lb chicken breast

1/4 cup olive oil separated

2 T lime juice

1 tsp jalapenos

salt

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1 cup Havarti cheese

1 cup Swiss cheese

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 cup chopped green peppers

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons cooked and chopped bacon

Directions:

Mix 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons lime juice and 1 tsp jalapenos with salt and chicken breasts.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.  Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to a skillet and saute marinated chicken breasts until slightly pink inside.

Layer remaining ingredients on lavosh in this order: Mozzarella, Havarti, Swiss, onions, peppers, Parmesan and bacon.  Drizzle olive oil over the top.  Bake at 475 degrees for 15 minutes and edges of lavosh are browned.  Serve immediately.  This keeps well in the refrigerator for lunch and snack leftovers.

Nutritional Info:
Calories: 515.4; Net Carbs: 24.5g; Fat: 34.4g; Protein: 24.8g

Best Brownies - from Elana's Pantry Blog

I have tried many different brownie recipes and adapted many as well. But none have been as good as the recipe I found from Elana's Pantry.  I change her recipe only in the area of the sugar and chocolate so I can reduce the carb count.  She uses regular chocolate and honey but I have used substitutes.  Grain free brownies can often be dry.  These are not!  They are moist every time and topped with a bit of no-sugar-added ice cream they have become one of Alexx's favorite desserts.  (Dreyer's mint chocolate chip is his favorite but he only gets about 2 tablespoons to keep the carb count down.) They freeze well so I can always have some on hand.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces creamy roasted almond butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugarfree maple syrup
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup dark cacao powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup sugar free chocolate chunks

In a large bowl, blend almond butter until smooth.  Add eggs, agave, maple syrup, and vanilla.

Blend in cacao, salt and baking soda, and then the chocolate chunks.

Pour batter into a 9x13 baking dish.  Bake at 325 degrees for 25-40 minutes.  Makes 24 brownies.  I freeze them in 6 packages of 4.  (When I'm in the RV I make 1/2 the recipe and use my small baking pan.)
Nutritional Info per brownie:
Calories: 199; Net Carbs: 7.8g; Protein: 4.1g

Nutritional Info for the full dinner:

Calories: 1,430; Carbs:74*; Fat: 99; Protein: 66
*This is a very high carb count for a typical meal for Alexx, but for whatever reason, this meal does not raise his blood sugar more than 15 points for the meal.  So we keep it on the list as a special meal - he loves it so and the numbers don't always tell the whole story.

Snack - 10:00 PM

Alexx only needs to eat something light to get his pills down at night.  Smoothies fit this bill quite easily.  I like to use whatever I have on hand, but I also always have frozen fruit available in case the refrigerator is low on fresh fruit.

In a small blender add and pulse:

1/3 cup Diet Cranberry Juice

1/3 cup Almond Milk

3 frozen strawberries or 1/4 cup frozen berries

1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast

1 Tablespoon flaxseed oil or meal

2 ice cubes

Nutritional Info for this single serving:
Calories: 180; Net Carbs: 6.1g; Fat: 14.8g; Protein: 4.5g

Nutritional Information for the entire day:

Calories: 2,582; Carbs: 121; Fat: 185; Protein: 131

18.12% Carbs - 62.26% Fats - 19.62% Protein