Tofu Dip/Spread, Almond Sponge Cake, and Chocolate Chip Hi Carb Cookies

I'm going to post a brand-spanking new and a medium new recipe today, along with an old one. The first, a Tofu spread, I came up with out of sheer frustration at the cracker spreads available commercially. With the exception of Boursin light, every other one I found was largely fat, with varying amounts of carbohydrate and a tiny amount of protein. I've got these great bran crackers and I'd really like to eat them with a nutritious and delicious spread. Peanut butter works, too, but is somewhat high in carbs. Tofu, on the other hand, is a real natural for creating a spread or dip, and is relatively low in fat, really low in saturated fat, and has a lot of protein with little carb. You just have to add more flavor to it, since it shares that bean-like characteristic of sucking up any flavor you put in it and never letting it go.

Lime and Ginger Tofu Spread

(This ends up soft and creamy, like a dip, but will stay on top of a cracker when you put it there, provided you don't tip it too much)

Ingredients:

Extra-firm Tofu, 1 package
1/4 - 1/3 cup lime juice
Medium sized fresh ginger root (adjust amount used to taste)
8 packets Splenda
4 green onions, sliced

Directions:

Drain the tofu and wrap in papertowels. Set in collander to drain for about a half hour and change papertowels as needed to get as much moisture out of it as possible. Peel and shred the ginger root. Squeeze the shredded ginger root to extract as much juice as possible. (Alternative: peel the ginger and put it through a juicer) Put all the ingredients in a food processor and process until creamy.

This is excellent on things like wasa bread, and raw veggies like broccoli, cucumber and snow peas. And I came up with it all on my lonesome!

The next recipe is one from the Atkin's calender Tara gave me a year and a half ago. I've had to alter it a bit, but I think it's easier to make. The current version uses almond flour, but you can make it with carbalose. The carbalose will have more fiber, but less protein. If you use carbalose, remember to spoon it loosely into the measuring cup and not pack it down--otherwise you get too much and it wrecks whatever you're making.

Low Carb Almond Sponge Cake

(works great for Passover)

Ingredients:

8 Jumbo eggs, separated
1 cup Splenda
1 tbsp lemon peel (better fresh)
2 tbsp lemon juice (ditto)
1 cup almond flour

Preheat oven to 350 F. Put wax paper in the bottom of a 9-10" springform pan. Put the yolks, 1/4 cup of the Splenda, lemon peel and lemon juice in a small bowl and beat until thick, creamy and lemony yellow in color. Whisk together almond flour and the rest of the Splenda in a separate bowl. In a third bowl (did I mention that this makes a lot of dirty dishes?) beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the yolk mixture, then add the yolk mixture to the rest of the whites. Fold together. Sprinkle the almond mixture onto the eggs in small batches and gently fold into the eggs until all almond mixture is uniformly mixed in. Pour the batter into the springform pan and bake for 30 minutes. Cool upside down on a rack when done. Carefully remove from pan when it reaches room temperature.

This goes great with fresh berries and whipped cream, or with fruit sauce and whipped cream. Alternatively, you can mix 1/2 cup of so of dark rum with 4 packets of Splenda and drizzle onto the cake. Whip up 1 pt of heavy cream with 1/4 cup Splenda and pile on top of the cake. Garnish with fresh berries.

Or you can just eat it plain!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

(derived from the apocryphal Mrs. Field's recipe that made the rounds in the '80's.)

Cream together: 2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups brown sugar

Add: 4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Mix in separate bowl: 3 cups flour
5 cups oatmeal (grind in a blender or food processor until like flour)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda

Combine both mixtures.

Add: 24 oz chocolate chips
8 oz finely grated milk chocolate

Drop by tablespoonful onto the greased sheet.

Bake at 350 F 11 minutes.

You will note this is NOT a low carb recipe. I can't see any way to make it one, either, without turning the cookies into ginormous sugar alcohol gas bombs.