Eat, Drink & Be Atkins Compatible

Anyone that's tried a diet will soon enough probably hit some kind of "plateau"  where the weight loss stops. Even if it's not for an extended period, it's still disheartening - so it's important to try and look at the causes and figure out whether you're sticking to your diet plan as closely as you should be.

In the case of Atkins and low carb diets there are various reports that caffeine and artificial sweeteners (namely Aspartame) can contribute to a slow down in weightloss. Certainly when I hit my plateau recently, both those things were still in my diet - probably in raised quantities because I was drinking as a replacement to eating.

Cutting out the caffeine is easy, but cutting out Aspartame is much harder, when natural fruit drinks are out of bounds and most soft diet drinks contain it. However sucralose based sweetener is ok, so the challenge is on to find diet drinks that contain that rather than Aspartame. 

So far my search has thrown up two very palatable options:

• Tesco Diet Dandelion & Burdock
• Tesco Diet Cloudy Lemonade

I thoroughly recommend both drinks and I'm pleased to report my plateau is on the move again :-)

"Low-carb" muffin recipe

I’m really excited to present this recipe - particularly useful for anyone on a low-carb (low carbohydrate) diet such as Atkins. I’ve adapted it (read “improved”) from a recipe I found on a low carb advice website. The measurements given there were in "cups" (is that an American thing?) which seems wholly unscientific and destined to lead to potential failure - I have at least 5 or 6 cup sizes in my cupboard. So, I applied a bit more science and experimentation to come up with some measures that are more accurate.

The recipe is based on "almond flour", sometimes known as "almond meal": though basically it's ground almond. I never knew you could bake with it, but if these come out as they are meant to for you, like me you'll realise you can indeed bake very successfully with almond instead of wheat/flour!

Some notes on modifications to original ingredients

• The original recipe contained salt. After trying it, the cakes were way too salty, so I have eliminated the extra salt. What’s more - I find that when on a low carb regime, I’m far more sensitive to salt. If you want to add it back in, so be it.
• The original recipe suggests that liquid sweetener is preferred - whether this really makes a difference or not, I'm not sure - as these muffins come out just fine with granulated sweetener. Personally I just go for what's simple. 

Ingredients:

• 200g Ground Almond (this is basically your flour)
• 100g dessicated coconut (this is optional - I add it to add sweetness & I like the texture. I think it's worth it!)
• 35g butter - I find regular butter too salty (esp. on Atkins) so I used Tesco "Soft Spread"(which says "perfect for cakes" on the side! - and I agree)
• 4 medium eggs
• 10g of sucralose-based sweetener - e.g. Splenda (though Tesco do their own brand for almost 1/3rd the price) - remember that 10g of this type of sweetener is basically equivalent to 100g of normal sugar. 
• 75mls lemon juice (or you can use water, I guess, but for best flavour go with the lemon)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Flavourings/Optional (I add all off these)

 

• half to 1 capful of orange natural extract 
• half to 1 capful vanilla flavour 
• a sprinkling of something like chopped orange/lemon peel which you can buy in small tubs

Of course, you can vary the flavours and quantities to suit your own taste

Instructions

• pre-heat the oven to a temperature 350F / gas mark 4 - 4.5 / 180C
• thoroughly mix all dry ingredients
• thoroughly mix in all wet ingredients
• spoon into the tin and bake - cooking time 15 - 20mins (if done in a mincepie/yorkshire pudding/muffin tray) - e.g tray with 12 individual portions

The recipe above is perfect to make 12 small muffins.
 

If making 12, I estimate the carbohydrate content of each muffin to be approximately 2.2g based on the manufacturers' measures on the raw ingredients and the respective proportions