Low Carb Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Made this for Thanksgiving. The crust was amazing, such a good analog for a graham cracker crust both in texture and a little bit in flavor. I used an amalgamation of a few different recipes, this is just what worked best for me.

Keto/Low Carb Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Crust:

1c pecan cookie pieces

1c almond flour

4T melted butter

1-3T cinnamon (I like it heavy on the cinnamon)

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly and press into a pie plate evenly using the under side of a measuring cup. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, let cool 30 minutes before filling.

Filling:

12oz cream cheese

7.6oz (1 can) table cream

15oz pumpkin

sweeteners of choice to taste, I used:

1/2c Swerve

20 drops stevia (I used vanilla creme)

3 pumps torani pumpkin pie sugar free syrup

spices of choice, I used:

2T cinnamon

1/2t ginger

1/2t nutmeg

1/2t allspice

1/4t cloves

Mix table cream, cheese, and sweetener(s) until smooth. Incorporate pumpkin and spices. Pour into crust and cool in fridge 6 hrs or overnight, or freezer 2 hours if you’re in a rush.

Next time I make this, I'm going to use a half teaspoon of gelatin constituted in the Torani syrup for five minutes, and then blend it in during the sweetener adding stage. I was a little less than thrilled with how the filling sagged after the first slice was cut, and I think a little gelatin would help consistency without taking away from flavor.

Keeping this around in the fridge has kept me from doing too much in the way of cheating at all the holiday events and parties we have goign on.

Chai Latte Panna Cotta

I was diagnosed with PCOS in March. Since then, I've been eating a ketogenic diet, so all of my foods have become laced with alternative sweeteners, sugar alcohols, stevia, and lots and lots of fat. I'm down two stone so far, which is the most I've ever lost in my life, and I'm totally okay with it. It's still just weird and not yet to the "this is so awesome all the time" place in my head.

Gelatin seems to be such a good ingredient that I wasn't eating a lot, certainly not for as much as I miss the jigglers of my youth. I recently discovered it again, and it's taken some adjustment to get the ratios right, but I think I have it down. A client brought me an iced tea flavor that was nice and viscous and lightly sweetened, but it was a little plain. I would've brewed the tea stronger, maybe added some lemon, or steeped lemon in the strong tea. I immediately thought of a coconut panna cotta I'd made the week before, with less gelatin and a little more liquid, that was pretty tasty, and how tasty it'd be if I combined the two into a chai latte flavor.

2 cups water
1/4 cup water, in a small bowl
1 can full fat, no sugar added coconut cream
2 packets gelatin
1 family size tea bag
1 bag cinnamon spice tea
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 thumb size piece of ginger, sliced thin
5 drops vanilla liquid stevia
erythritol to taste (I started with 1 tbsp of Swerve brand granulated)
spices to taste - (I used whole star anise, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, cloves, and allspice, but fennel seed, black pepper, pink pepper, etc would all be good)

Bring the two cups of water to a boil, add the tea bags, spices, and ginger, and leave to steep. If necessary for the type of gelatin, add the packets of gelatin to the 1/4 cup water to let it start gelling. Once the tea has steeped dark enough (to taste it should be very strong, I left it for just over ten minutes), strain the tea into a bowl over the gel, and whisk or stir until well mixed. Add the coconut cream, vanilla extract, and sweetener(s) of choice, mix well, and pour into molds, ramekins, or container of choice. Let it set in the fridge at least four hours.

Mine separated into a tea level and a coconut cream level, but it's all tea flavored, spicy, refreshing, sweet, and delicious.

I'm going to try sweet tea flavor and give it a little heavy whipping cream and lemon juice, a ginger tea flavor with just a ton of steeped ginger, and a maple flavor, and most definitely pumpkin spice in the fall. Nom nom nom!

No Pants June

I have all these dresses. Love them, but didn't wear them frequently enough. It was necessary to figure out which ones I like, what it would take for me to wear them more often, and which ones my closet could maybe do without. How could one achieve this? Well, like everything else in my adulthood, it turned out the right answer was by force. I decided not to wear pants out of the house for the month of June. Dresses, skirts, tunics with leggings (only did that one twice) were all acceptable. I wore yoga pants once to get a facial and hit Costco, and shorts once for a trip to IKEA, but those were my only "cheats".

My wardrobe is basically color blocking. Greens, blues, reds, pinks, purples, black/grey, and very little in the way of print. Pairing a teal or turquoise with just the right red is a religion. Color blocking is just my whole jam.

I discovered three things:

1) The more tropical the print, the more colorful, splashy, and bright, the more I wanted to wear it.

2) I don't care who sees my legs. My ankles and my stretch marked backs of my knees have always been a source of shyness. I thought I would be more self conscious or conscious of the fact that my fat girl bike shorts were showing, but I didn't even care a little bit. Apologized for flashing everyone and moved on.

3) I love jeans.

A+ experiment, highly recommend.