300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes (60 page)

I didn't put in a lot of work on dessert recipes for this book for a simple reason: If you're scrambling for time and need to get everything on the table as quickly as possible, you're not going to take an extra 15 minutes to make dessert! And if you're the sort of person who simply hates cooking, you're probably going to put your limited efforts into the main meal, not the dessert.

I also live in the hope that you're working on breaking the sweet habit and are making desserts an occasional thing, rather than a daily (or even twice-daily) inevitability. That being said, you might want a little something extra at the end of your meal from time to time. Here are a few ideas for fast low-carb end-of-the-meal treats:

Strawberry Crunch Parfait

In their book
The GO-Diet
, Drs. Goldberg and O'Mara explain that plain yogurt has far fewer carbs than the label would indicate because most of the lactose in the milk has been converted to lactic acid by the yogurt bacteria. Accordingly, they say that we can count just 4 grams of carbohydrates per cup (230 g) of plain yogurt. Reading this, I added yogurt back to my low-carb diet, and it's never caused weight gain or rebound hunger for me, so I think Goldberg and O'Mara are right! This recipe is so versatile—it makes a great dessert, a phenomenal quick breakfast, or a delicious and nutritious snack. Enjoy!

3 ripe strawberries

1 tablespoon (1.5 g) plus

1/4 teaspoon Splenda

3/4 cup (173 g) plain yogurt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons (13 g) Cinnamon Splenda Nuts, chopped a bit (see
page 323
) or 2 tablespoons (16 g) Gram's Gourmet Flax 'n' Nut Crunchies (Vanilla Almond or Cinnamon Toast flavor) or other low-carb commercial granola-like product

Cut the green hulls off your strawberries and slice them thinly into a dish. Sprinkle them with 1/4 teaspoon of the Splenda and stir.

Combine the yogurt with the vanilla extract and the remaining tablespoon (1.5 g) of Splenda, stirring well. Spoon over the strawberries. Top with the nuts or Flax 'n' Nut Crunchies and devour!

Yield:
1 serving. Using the
GO-Diet
'
s
carb count of 4 grams of carbohydrates per cup (230 g) of plain yogurt, this has 12 grams of carbohydrates and 3 grams of fiber, for a total of 9 grams of usable carbs and 10 grams of protein.

Fast Strawberry-Orange Sauce

This is especially nice for spiffing up a simple dessert for company, using up strawberries threatening to go bad in the refrigerator, or just because it's Tuesday.

1/2 cup strawberries—(73 g) fresh, or (123 g) frozen with no sugar added, thawed

1 tablespoon (1.5 g) Splenda

1/4 teaspoon orange extract

Assemble the ingredients in a food processor and purée. Serve over sliced melon or sugar-free ice cream or stir it into plain yogurt.

Yield:
About 1/3 cup (85 g), or 3 servings, each with 2 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 1 gram of usable carbs and a trace of protein.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Wow. All I can say is just wow. If you only try one dessert recipe from this book, make it this one.

1 pound (455 g) frozen unsweetened strawberries

1 1/2 cups (355 ml) heavy cream

1/4 cup (6 g) Splenda

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Put everything in your food processor and run it until the strawberries are ground up. This may require prying a strawberry off the blade a few times! The strawberries freeze the cream, and you get really, truly ice cream with an insanely great strawberry flavor. Keep in mind that if you have some left over, you can store it in a snap-top container in the freezer, but because of the lack of sugar it will freeze rock-hard. Take it out of the freezer a good half an hour before you want to eat it to let it soften a bit.

Yield:
6 servings, each with 236 calories, 22 grams fat, 2 grams protein, 10 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams dietary fiber, and 8 grams usable carb.

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

This is my de-carbed version of a recipe that's been going around the internet. You are now never more than five minutes from low carb chocolate cake; use this power responsibly! By the way, this has enough protein to make a good breakfast, and it's quick enough for a school morning. And you thought you couldn't get your kids to eat a good breakfast.

3 tablespoons (45 ml) coconut oil

2 tablespoons (14 g) almond meal

2 tablespoons (16 g) vanilla whey protein powder

3 tablespoons (45 g) erythritol

1 tablespoon (5 g) cocoa powder

1 pinch salt

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

3 tablespoons (45 ml) half and half

Put the coconut oil in a big coffee mug you've coated with nonstick cooking spray and nuke it just until the oil is melted—maybe 30 seconds at 60% power. You just want it liquid, not hot enough to cook everything else.

Remove the mug from the microwave and measure everything else into it. Use a smallish whisk to mix it up until the batter is smooth—be sure there are no pockets of dry stuff anywhere and that it's all well-blended.

Put it back in the microwave and cook for three minutes on full power. It'll rise above the edge of the mug but should be solid enough not to spill.

When the three minutes are up, pull it out, let it cool a few minutes, tip out on a plate, cut in two, and enjoy.

Whipped cream or sugar-free vanilla ice cream would be nice with this, but we ate it as-is, and it was moist and yummy.

Yield:
2 servings, each with 335 calories, 28 grams fat, 18 grams protein, 6 grams carbohydrate, and 12 grams usable carb.

5 Minute Gingerbread Mug Pudding

Having made the
5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake,
I thought I'd try gingerbread. It came out quite moist, more like a steamed pudding than a cake, but I rather liked it that way, and the flavor was great. So here it is.

3 tablespoons (45 ml) coconut oil

2 tablespoons (14 g) almond meal

2 tablespoons (16 g) vanilla whey protein powder

2 tablespoons (30 g) erythritol

2 tablespoons (3 g) Splenda

1 pinch salt

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 pinch ground cloves

1 pinch ground nutmeg

3 tablespoons (45 ml) half and half

1 egg

Put the coconut oil in a big coffee mug you've coated with nonstick cooking spray and nuke it just until the oil is melted—maybe 30 seconds at 60% power. You just want it liquid, not hot enough to cook everything else.

Remove the mug from the microwave and measure everything else into it. Use a smallish whisk to mix it up until the batter is smooth—be sure there are no pockets of dry stuff anywhere and that it's all well-blended.

Put it back in the microwave and cook for three minutes on full power. It'll rise above the edge of the mug but should be solid enough not to spill.

When the three minutes are up, pull it out, let it cool a few minutes, tip out on a plate, cut in two, and enjoy.

This is even yummier with a scoop of sugar-free vanilla ice cream. Just try feeling sorry for yourself!

Yield:
2 servings, each with 342 calories, 28 grams fat, 18 grams protein, 8 grams carbohydrate, 1 gram dietary fiber, and 7 grams usable carb.

Figs with Gorgonzola

It doesn't get any simpler or more elegant than this.

4 fresh, medium figs

1/4 cup (30 g) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

1/2 cup (40 g) chopped walnuts

Slice the figs in half, spread each half with a tablespoon (8 g) of Gorgonzola, and sprinkle with 1/2 tablespoon chopped walnuts.