Featuring guest authors; crafting tips and projects; recipes from food editor and sleuthing sidekick Cloris McWerther; and decorating, travel, fashion, health, beauty, and finance tips from the rest of the American Woman editors.

Note: This site uses Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Monday, April 1, 2019

#COOKING WITH CLORIS--AUTHOR TRACY COOPER-POSEY COOKS UP GUILT-FREE MUFFINS & CHOCOLATE GRAVY

Tracy Cooper-Posey makes a return visit today, this time to share a recipe. Tacy is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than 100 romantic suspense and historical, paranormal and science fiction romances in which random acts of crafting and cooking sometimes take place. She’s addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and chocolate, sometimes taken together. In her spare time she enjoys history, Sherlock Holmes, science fiction and ignoring her treadmill. An Australian Canadian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a former professional wrestler. Learn more about Tracy and her books at her website where you can find her free four book Starter Library.

Guilt Free Muffin & Chocolate Gravy
I’m thrilled to be back on Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers today to tell you about a simple recipe I use a lot.  Actually, it’s two recipes and both take under five minutes to prepare, from the moment you start retrieving ingredients to the first spoonful.

Keto Mug Bread
This is such a useful recipe! It takes one large coffee cup, a few staple ingredients and three minutes to make. It’s a “bread” that is gluten free, low-carb, and incredibly versatile.

In the past, I’ve left out the sugar substitute, and added a tablespoon of a sharp cheese (Parmesan works really well), to make a savory bread that is great for sopping up gravy, or as a substitute dinner roll. I’ve also used it as a fast solution for when I don’t have time to make proper low-carb burger buns. I’ve sliced this mug bread in half and put the burger on it – it’s a bit moist, but it works.

Unfortunately, the bread doesn’t toast all that well.  It’s a bit too eggy for that.  But slicing it and toasting it will warm it up so you can eat it hot. And the bread will store in the refrigerator for a few days (but you’ll eat it before then).

If you’re following a Ketogenic diet to lose weight, limit how often you make and eat the bread—it does have almond meal in it, which adds calories. However, it will not kick you out of ketosis, so when you really have to have a hit of something sweet, this version below, topped by whatever low-carb/no sugar sweetness appeals to you (fresh berries and whipped cream for example), is the perfect way to kill the cravings.

Ingredients:
2 T. almond flour
1 T. Swerve/Erythritol or other keto-friendly sugar substitute.
1 egg
1 T. good quality oil
1/2 tsp. baking powder*

*Make sure your baking powder is fresh and new.  Older baking powders lose their ability to raise ingredients and this recipe will flop without it.

In a large coffee cup, toss the almost flour, sugar and baking powder.

In a smaller cup, break the egg and add the oil.  If you want to add wet ingredients like vanilla, add them here. With a fork, beat the egg mixture until well blended.

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients.  Mix with the fork until they’re just combined.

Cook on high in microwave for 30 seconds, then turn the cup. Cook for another 60 seconds.

Remove, turn the cup over a plate and tap the bottom.  The bread will plop onto the plate.

Chocolate Gravy
This recipe is also gluten free, low-carb and very keto friendly.  Unlike the mug bread, you could indulge in this every day without guilt, for it contains high quality fats and other goodies. If you eat sugar regularly, you will find this chocolate gravy not nearly as sweet as you are used to. For keto and low-carbers, though, the sweetness is perfect.  It will stop your chocolate cravings in their tracks, guaranteed.

This recipe makes a lot of gravy  (well over a cupful).  Eaten on its own, the quantity is fine. As a muffin topping, it will cover at least two muffins.

You can also cut down on the coconut milk to make the gravy into a stiff smoothie.  Or add extra milk to make a thinner consistency for a glaze, or beverage. I’ve also substituted the coconut milk for canned coconut milk (the stuff that comes with the solidified cream at the top), and that makes a thick, almost cake-like chocolate that you could almost use as frosting on a cake.  (It’s also damn good to eat straight out of the blender cup.)

This is a simple recipe that can be tweaked in dozens of ways, limited only by your imagination.  For example:  Add a few drops of peppermint or spearment essence for a chocolate mint version. 

Ingredients:
1/2 - 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk*
1 heaping T. sugar-free cocoa powder
1 heaping T. keto-friendly sugar substitute (Swerve or other)
1 T. Collagen powder (optional – but a great side benefit, health-wise)
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence
Pinch of sea salt or pink Himalayan salt**
Whole avocado, peeled and pitted.

* See notes about coconut milk, above.  I use the prepared milk found in the milk fridge at the supermarket, not the tins of coconut milk.  It keeps the cost down.

** The pinch of salt makes a huge difference. Try this for yourself. Make a batch of gravy without the salt, then make a batch with the salt.  You’ll be astonished at how it brings out the flavor.

Pour the coconut milk into a blender or bullet mixer cup. Add the avocado meat to the cup. Dump the rest of the ingredients to the cup. Blend.

Degree of Solitude
A Scandalous Scions Romance, Book 9

The man she once loved is now a monster she doesn’t know.

Catrin and Daniel love each other, but Daniel refused to further their relationship for fear of curtailing Catrin’s intellectual and personal freedom, and dooming her to a life of domestic servitude as his wife.  Yet their lives remain entangled.

When Daniel is shot in the face during a family rescue in Algeria, he brutally severs the ties between them and removes himself to a remote village in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Catrin travels to Wales in a last bid to resolve their differences, but the terrifying man she finds there is not the Daniel she once knew…

This book is the ninth book in the Scandalous Scions series, bringing together the members of three great families, to love and play under the gaze of the Victorian era’s moralistic, straight-laced society.

No comments: