Keto Sauces or How To Make Meals Specials

August 7th means there is lovely basil growing in my garden. That means Pesto! This year when we planted our garden, I planted the basil which I bought from a farmer at the farmers market like the other plants in our garden like eggplant, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, red bell peppers, a stevia plant, some broccoli, a yellow squash and a zucchini. We have two small gardens, big enough to grow all of the plants we bought from our favorite farmer from the market. The 6 basil plants made it into the smaller of the 2 plots, which is next to a large arborvitae tree, which cast a shadow over the garden all but a few hours a day. Little did I know that the shade was exactly what the basil wanted to grow full beautiful bushes of basil!

I should call this blog What to Do with Bushes of Basil!

The easiest way to stay happy on the ketogenic diet is to have easy sauces on hand in the fridge to add to any meal to create a gourmet meal in a few minutes. Here are two such Easy Sauces:

Butter Pesto and Curry/Garlic Mayo

Butter Pesto:

2 ounce chunk of Parmesan cheese

Cut into 1/2 inch chunks and put in food processor and chop with metal blades until grated. Add:

2 cups walnuts and process

Add:  3-5 large cloves of garlic, process

Add: a little salt, generous freshly ground black pepper, loosely fill  processor bowl with freshly picked basil

Pour over 1/3 cup olive oil.

Taste Pesto then correct seasoning.

Next add 2-3 ounces high quality butter, process until smooth.

Ideas: use as dip for turnip or eggplant fries, spread for low carb crackers, add to zoodles.

Curry/Garlic Mayo

It's my basic mayo recipe with curry seasoning and garlic added and it tastes divine!

Place in blender: 1 egg

                            1 teaspoon salt

                            2 Tablespoons apple Cider vinegar

                            1 Tablespoon Curry Powder

                              4 large cloves garlic

Start blender, I use a combination of either olive oil, MCT oil, avocado oil .  I used 1/3 cup each.

While blender is turning at high speed slowly pour oil until you've poured the whole cup and the mayo forms into thick goodness. This curry mayo is great on burger, as a veggies dip, also good for eggplant or turnip fries and makes an awesome salad dressing.

I like to have sauces like these in my fridge. They are very easy to make and will last for a few days. They are great for potlucks and  make any meal super special!

Fresh Basil picked from our garden

Organic Walnut Halves​

Fresh Cloves of Garlic

Pesto with Raw, Local, Grass-Fed Butter

Butter Pesto

Zoodles, Local, Grass Fed Ground Beef, with Butter Pesto

Low Carb Anniversary or the Anniversary of Saving my Life

The fourth edition of Diabetes Solution, by Dr. Richard Bernstein from 2011, still well worn and loved.

June 2nd is the day I celebrate. Many type 1 diabetics celebrate the day they were diagnosed. Well, way back 46 years ago nobody took notice of a day in April, or even the year. I had to retrace that I remember going back to school and talking with my friends in US History class to figure out the year, 1971.​ But 25 years later, after living with type 1 diabetes, on my own,  1 shot a day, and eating no sugar, ever, I was sick with unknown complications. 

This may very well be the painting that I was modeling for, but we will never know. A funny thing memory is. 

These complications were not on any List of Diabetes Complications, so how was I to know? Chronic tiredness, frozen shoulders, frozen hips, general body stiffness and a little depression. My friend, Liza Green, also a type 1 diabetic and also with frozen shoulder, mailed me a copy of an article by Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, published in Diabetes Health,. The article was all about how Frozen Shoulder is a complication of diabetes! I received the article sometime in May of 1996. At the end of the article there was a coupon for two cassette tapes of Dr. Bernstein explaining his method of blood sugar control. I sent off for it right away!​

Thanks to Scotty Millay King for having these tapes and mailing me copies, since I had lost mine years ago. Scotty King was then the editor of Diabetes Interview, later named Diabetes Health. 

On June 1st, 1996  received the tapes. At the time I was posing for a painting in my back yard as my husband was painting me. See picture. I set the tape player on the table and we both listened intently, knowing my life was going to change drastically. At the time I was fighting going on more than 1 shot a day. I was trying to figure out a way to heal type 1. Going on more shots would mean I was giving up the idea of healing. But I had been sick for a long, long time and didn't have any idea how to get better.  

We listened to both tapes. There was enough information for me to get started. The very next day I started low carb, 30 grams of carbs a day and two new kinds of insulin and 5 shots a day. This is where my memory gets fuzzy. I'm not sure how I got new insulin,  must have called my naturopath for these insulins, Ultra Llente and Humalog  were available without prescriptions, I don't remember, but I know I began the Dr. Bernstein plan on my own, aided only by my husband, on June 2, 1996.

The frozen shoulders took a lot longer, with lots of physical therapy, but all the other complications cleared up as if by MAGIC. Truly! I was happy, cheerful. My children almost didn't recognize me. All my stiffness, depression and other frozen and painful joints disappeared. I was a new person.  

My first edition of Diabetes Solution. Well worn and loved. 

That was 21 years ago today.

Diabetes Solution by Dr. Bernstein was published in 1997 and I remember I bought it right away.

The first 7 years went by, my A1c's went between 4.9 to 5.3,  After 7 years I thought about how I had wanted to heal, it was 2003 and I heard about the healing power of the raw vegan diet, so I decided to embark on another new diet chapter of my life. At first the raw diet looked promising.  I was able to lower my insulin requirements, after fasting, so I'd be hopeful. Then my insulin requirements would climb and my blood sugars would be all over the place, up high and then low. I quit testing, I quit having my A1c done. I had so much hope I really would heal, I just kept fasting, getting colonics, losing weight. All my friends were warning me, but I thought I was doing great. It took 7 years of this roller coaster for me to realize that I was completely out of control. So on January 1, 2010 I rededicated myself to health and following Dr. B's plan.

Still posing and doesn't that look like Diabetes Solution on the table? 

This time after 7 years of being a vegan I decided if I was going to eat meat, it would come from local farms that treated their animals well. And that my vegetables would also be locally raised, as would my eggs, butter and cheese. That's where I am today.  

Latest a1c: 5.7, little higher than I would like, but I look forward to improvement

Latest eye exam shows no diabetic damage.

My health is great. I am a youthful 62 years old with 5 grandchildren and a bright, happy future. 

Out running to to improve my A1c! 

Zero Sugar Chocolate Cookies and Me, the Health Researcher

I just realized last night that my job title for the past 40 years is Health Researcher. It's true and the realization made me happy.  When I graduated college in  1976 after having been diagnosed with type 1diabetes in 1971 at the age of 16, I started reading texts on health and healing. This was the first time in my life that I didn't have to study what other people wanted me to study so I could make good grades. So the first thing I started reading were books on herbs, diets, fasting, supplements, and healing. These books and authors told of healing nearly any condition or sickness known to man. Not so much about healing type 1 diabetes, and it seemed to me, everything else but. 

So I used the associative theory of mathematics, or maybe the if/then principle and surmised  "if a healthy lifestyle and natural therapies can heal this then, why couldn't they heal type1 diabetes?"

I spent the next 40 years experimenting on myself with natural therapies. I won't go into detail here, but basically I figured that illness couldn't live in a 100% healthy body. And I believed it. And between babies, and children and life I did a lot of reading and experimenting on myself and actually the whole family, trying my best to discover the way to health and healing. I'm still at it. 

I'm still experimenting and I'm still healing and believing in healing. 

My latest experiment is with Meditation and Belief and the Power of Thought. And that will be a later blog when I get some results. Stay tuned. 

This year marks 46 years of a type 1 diabetes diagnosis. 

Recipe: 

Zero Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies  about 2 grams carbs per cookie

preheat oven 350 f

line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

1 1/2 cup almond flour

1/4 teas. Baking powder

1/4 teas. Baking soda

1/2 teas Himalayan salt

1 teas. Vanilla extract  

1 egg

2 ounces room temperature butter

1/2 cup Pyure, an organic stevia /erythritol blend

1/3 cup Lily's Chocolate Chips

presently I don't have a mixer so by hand I whipped the butter, egg, sweetener, and vanilla extract until creamyish  

then I stirred in the dry ingredients until well mixed

then I added the chocolate chips

I made 23 balls, weighed each on .65 ounce, then flattened with the bottom of the 1/4 cup measuring spoon.

These were baked for exactly 12 minutes in my preheated oven. 

They spread a little, but that just makes them look homemade, right? 

These figure at about 2 carbs each cookie.

Ant here's what I have to say about treats and Erythritol. Even the pure stuff made by the health food companies, their erythritol is made from corn. At this point in history I don't really trust corn, is it GMO, is it not GMO? Is it Sugar? What is a sugar alcohol? Some people get the runs from eating it. It makes some people's teeth hurt. My conclusion, I try not to eat it very often. I do have to take a little more insulin to eat these cookies. They are fun to make, and they make other people happy. But do they make me happy. I know it's a lot harder to predict my blood sugar when I eat treats, so I try to have treats for special occasions. 

Thanks for listening!😘 

My MCT Oil Mayo and My Testimonial

My MCT Oil Mayo and My Testimonial

I was at an Herbal Festival and I got to talking to one of the vendors. She was selling natural lotions and said most of her products were for pain relief. This got me thinking and I blurted out that "Since I changed my diet 7 years ago I have no more pain, and come to think of it my skin is really soft with no lotion!" I told her I don't eat grains, I eat really low carb and high fat, saturated fat mostly. Then she asked if I had read Mark Sisson's book, Primal Blueprint. Oh yes! That one and many more about this diet I'm on.

      I started low carb 21 years ago to help with my blood sugars and type 1 diabetes. My health improved dramatically and I realized I wasn't eating grains. So this low carb diet was naturally grain free and gluten free! This woman at the herbal fair quoted Mark Sisson as saying, "the worst evolutionary mistake man ever made was planting cereal grains." I agreed.

Seven years ago, though, I started eating the ketogenic diet which includes higher fat and fewer carbs. This change teaches your body to burn fat for energy, including your own body fat as well as dietary fat.

    This conversation had me thinking. Was the ketogenic diet really working for me?

      I had read Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution 21 years ago and had started low carb and intense insulin management, meaning 5 shots a day of two different types of insulin. A fast kind and a slow kind. And I started testing my blood sugars several time a day. The shortest history possible. After 7 years, I decided to try the raw vegan diet to heal type 1. I was doing it as low carb as I could, but after 7 years of Raw, I realized the healing wasn't going to happen, so I graduated to eating as close to 100% locally sourced farm food as I could. As in, if I had to eat meat I would avoid factory farmed meat and buy from ethical farmers. Soon after I started this "locavore" thing, I read about the Ketogenic diet and it's healing abilities, and so added more fat, mostly in the form of saturated animal fat from these beautiful animals.

During the raw vegan diet I had put on about 10 pounds and developed painful knees, which I was led to believe are just the result of aging.

After I started with animal products, locally sourced of course, and more fat, I put on a few more pounds, which I was reminded was just because I had gone through menopause. I never liked blaming anything on age, I wasn't very happy!

I've always been thin, long legged, it's just the genes. My body is lean. But now I weighed 15 pounds more than what felt comfortable on my frame. I made a few adjustments and gradually the pounds came off. I don't really want to get specific because we all have our hang ups with certain numbers. The important part was that I feel better at my new weight, which happens to be the weight I have been for most of my life and I had nothing to do with my age.

On the ketogenic Diet:

1. My skin is soft and supple
2. My joints all feel good, supple and pain free
3. My blood sugars are the best they've ever been
4. I am healthier and younger feeling than before.

I'm sure there's more but that's good for now.

MCT Oil Mayo

The first several times I made this oil it caused too much of a good thing, if you how what I mean, or I spent too much time on the potty, so now I make the mayo half MCT oil and half another kind of fat/oil.

In your blender place:

1 yard egg

2 T. your choice Apple Cider Vinegar, lemon juice, or lime juice

1 t. salt, your choice, I usually use Himalayan pink salt

At this time you may add seasonings of your choice

Now while blender is going high speed slowly pour:

1cup oil, I use 1/2cup MCT oil with 1/2 cup olive oil or bacon fat, or butter, or lard or duck fat or coconut oil.

Pour all the oil/fat until it becomes Mayonnaise.

Possible seasoning;

Curry Garlic: add 1Tablespoon curry seasoning and 5 cloves garlic

Spicy salad dressing: 1 teas paprika, 1 teas garlic granules, 1 teas chili garlic salt or other seasoning pepper.

Russian dressing: 2 teaspoons paprika then add 3Tablespoons dill pickle relish at the end

Ranch dressing: measure 1/2 cup mayo and 1/2 cup sour cream then stir in tiny bit of stevia, 1teas onion granules, 1/2 teas garlic granules, 1/4 teas mustard and other herbs of your choice.

Here your creativity rules, as long as you have the basic recipe.

Serving suggestions

As dressings on a salad, over sautéed veggies, as a dip for meats or fish or veggie fries, like turnips or radishes or eggplant of course. 

Have fun!

Blender Hollandaise

As you guys must know I am a lover of good butter. The best you can attract to yourself. I live in the land of enlightened farmers or small farms or Southern Maine, where I can source raw butter from Maine or New Hampshire farms. Yes, I realize I am blessed, but ask around at health food stores or your like minded foodie friends, you may find enlightened farmers among you.

Years ago I made real Hollandaise sauce, the kind you cook on the stove whisking forever, till your wrist feels like it's going to fall off. If real Hollandaise is what you want, we'll look elsewhere. If it can't be done easily and quickly you won't find it on this blog. So, probably 35-40 years ago I found blender Hollandaise in a who knows, a magazine? I made it a few times and then it went into hibernation while I went vegetarian, vegan, low fat or whatever form I lost my mind. So when I found my mind again, I knew I had to recreate Blender Hollandaise! I figured I'll just make it like mayonnaise, but use butter and lemon. Butter and lemon are the necessary ingredients to the taste of Hollandaise.

-melt 1 cup of the best butter you can find, that is 8 ounces, very low heat, carefully so it doesn't get too hot!

-In the blender place 1 whole egg

-2 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

-1 teaspoon salt

Blend

-slowly, slowly pour the melted butter while the blender is still going on high speed

There you have it. This Hollandaise will be spoonable onto your favorite veggies or meat. If you have any leftover you can put it in a jar in the fridge for a few days. It will get solid but when you put a spoonful on warm food it will melt nicely!

Try it on: asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, burgers, steak, fish, shrimp, or anything you want to taste ridiculously amazing!

Low Carb Zero Sugar Pleasure Brownies

​There's just something about a brownie, right? So when I saw the Jessica Seinfeld Guilty Pleasure brownie recipe in Parade Magazine, I knew I had to transpose it to low carb as in:

Low Carb Zero Sugar Pleasure Brownies

This brownie recipe is easy and quick, if you gather the ingredients first, it really should only take maybe 40 minutes from thought to finish to eating.

-First break 3/4 cup pecans into small pieces and toast in a dry cast iron skillet for a few minutes.

-Then spread butter or I used bacon fat, whatever you've got on the bottom and sides of an 8 inch square pan, then lay and pat down a piece of parchment paper with enough hanging out two sides so you'll be able to pick up after it bakes.

-Melt 1/2 cup butter in medium saucepan, you'll be using this saucepan to mixup the whole recipe!

-Stir in 1 cup Lily's Chocolate Chips and

1 Tablespoon Dandy Blend then let this sit for 2 minutes

-Whisk in or stir

3/4 cup Truvia or other low carb sweetener

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup Almond Flour

1/4 cup cacao powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder and

1/4 teaspoon salt

-Fold in toasted pecans

Scrape batter into prepared pan and spread with spatula. Place on middle shelf in the oven at preheated @ 350 to bake for about 30 minutes, check at 25 by touching the top, it should feel set. Cool in pan on a wire rack, then lift out by the parchment paper ends and cut into 16 squares. I like to cut these squares across so they are like bars. As the brownies cool they will get light and crispy with surprise fudgey bits inside! Yum!

Me enjoying my brownie on the go! 

Even cut in half, these brownies are so, so satisfying!