This iced matcha latte is a refreshing drink for those hot summer days – full of good nutrients to keep you going!

By now you’ve probably realized that I’ve hopped on the matcha bandwagon in a big way.  I mean, look at my matcha latte, my chocolate matcha slice and my matcha chocolate turmeric cups that I’ve published in recent months.  But let me bring this iced matcha latte to you, because it’s just a little bit different.

This came about when I was looking for something to eat or drink mid-afternoon.  You know, when those munchies attack you?  But I wanted to stay away from anything sugary, knowing that it would lead to wanting to eat copious amounts of cookie dough, or ice cream, or something else.  And I’ve realized that any drinks I have should contain both protein and fat to make me feel satiated.  And this iced matcha latte has all of the above.

Simply almond milk and matcha (obviously), but with the addition of some collagen peptides (for protein) and almond butter (for good fats).  I’ve tried this with coconut butter, with tahini and even with an avocado and they all taste good.  But my favorite is with the almond butter.  Add some ice.  Blend away and you’re good to go.

So give this iced matcha latte a go and let me know what you think!

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Iced matcha latte

(Paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, keto, no added sugar)

Prep Time 5 minutes

Servings 1

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tsp matcha powder
• 1 scoop collagen peptides
• 2 tbs almond butter
• 1/2 cup crushed ice

Instructions

1. Blend all ingredients except the ice to combine well.

2. Add the ice and blend until desired consistency is achieved.

3. Drink immediately and enjoy!

Bagels, baked in the oven, low-carb and dairy-free.  Totally awesome for any toppings you desire!

I’m gradually going through all the typical bread-y type things and converting them into things that my special snowflake stomach can deal with, such as bread, pizza crust and English muffins.  Well, now my friends, let me introduce you to some bagels.  Baked in the oven, rather than fried.  And with no added sugar at all, these low carb bagels are perfect for most special diets, including the ketogenic diet that I experimented with making cookies for recently!

The recipe for these bagels originally came from another site at My PCOS kitchen and it seemed like these were one of the only keto bagel recipes that didn’t include some sort of dairy ingredients, so I leaped at the opportunity to give them a go.  Following the recipe (mostly) came up with some really nice savory bagels, due to some onion and garlic powder I added in there.  And then I wanted to experiment a little more.  So I took out all the savory bits and just left them as is.  And also tried some with adding some cinnamon and raisins in there – also without any additional sugar – but I liked them too!

So this recipe is pretty forgiving in terms of ingredients.  Now, in terms of shaping – well, you can try to shape them by hand (which I did on the first go around), or you can use a donut-shaped pan (like I did for the photo).  The donut pan gives more, smaller bagels, while the free-form ones are as big as you want them to be.  Just a tip for the unwary – if you want to cut them in half, make sure you shape them taller, rather than wider.

But please feel free to give these baked bagels a go – I love them and hope you do too!

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Baked bagels

(Paleo, keto, gluten-free, dairy-free, no added sugar)

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup blanched almond flour 205g
• 1/4 cup coconut flour 30g
• 2 tbsp psyllium husk powder
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 egg whites
• 2 eggs
• 4 tbsp refined coconut oil
• 3 tbsp unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F and prepare donut pan with cooking spray or baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine the wet ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk and set aside for a few moments.

3. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl with a whisk.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Add 5 tbs of boiling water to the thick batter and continue mixing until completely combined.

5. Divide mixture into 8 equal balls and either roll out by hand into logs, joining the ends to make a circle, or fill into donut pan.

6. Place the trays into the oven and bake for 23 minutes or until golden brown.  Allow to cool slightly prior to removing from pan.

7. Bagels keep well in the fridge, or freezer for up to 7 days.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from https://www.mypcoskitchen.com/dairy-free-keto-bagels-2/

Read about my experiments with 0 calorie sweeteners and cookies – and what I thought of the end results!

By now, you probably have heard of the ketogenic diet.  Where you focus on high fat, low carb foods to encourage your body to burn fat for energy, rather than carbohydrates.  Many people have found great benefits on this diet, with claims of curing cancer, improving cognitive abilities in people with autism, and lots of claims for weight loss.  You can read more about the keto diet here if you’re interested.

Now I’ve always been a little skeptical of this diet – I struggle with the concept of cutting out fruit due to the high carb content.  Now, I know that you can manage to have fruit on the keto diet, if you’re careful about when and at what time you have it, but I haven’t ever really wanted to look at this as a viable way of eating for me.  Until this year.  When I have gained a significant amount of weight due to weird hormone issues that I won’t go into!  But when both my doctor and a nutritionist friend recommend increasing the amount of fat that I eat, and lowering the amount of carbs, I started to listen.  Also, a few people at church have recently started the keto diet and I wanted to bake something for them.

So I started investigating natural 0 calorie sweeteners – and two of them were highlighted in almost every place I looked.  Stevia and erythritol came up trumps every time as a natural 0 calorie, low carb sweetener for keto baked goods.  And I went to my local grocery store and bought one of each – thinking that I would make the same recipe with each of them and see which one I liked the best.

Using my flourless peanut butter cookie recipe as a basis (i.e. 1 cup peanut butter, 1 egg, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking soda), I set out to see which 0 calorie sweetener would taste the best.  Mind you, I used almond butter instead of peanut butter, because that’s what I had in the pantry at that time!  And I did look at the equivalent amounts of each of them to mimic the appropriate amount of ‘normal sugar’.

And here’s the results:

The Stevia cookies looked like cookies.  Pretty similar to what I’ve seen many times over in my kitchen.  The Swerve (erythritol) ones spread out a lot more and were quite crumbly.  But it all came down to the taste.

• The Swerve cookies tasted ok.  Not great, but ok.
• The Stevia cookies had this serious metallic taste.  I couldn’t even eat one bite of them.  And Grant was the same – he actually spat it out into the trash when he tried them.  And he’s tried some interesting combinations of mine previously, so that’s saying something!

And then I had some really bad stomach cramps that night as well.

So let me just say that I may experiment a little more with 0 calorie sweeteners to try to help out the ladies at church, but I’ll take it a little easy … for my stomach and taste buds to recover!

Have you had any experience with 0 calorie sweeteners?  Let me know which ones you’ve tried and liked in the comments below!

Until next time, enjoy cooking at home (with or without 0 calorie sweeteners!)

Sarah