I've changed my mind...about changing my mind. (Expanded recipe collection at Kitchen Cheetahs now modified)

This is an update on this post I made a while back...

I am removing some very tasty (although "naughty") recipes from Kitchen Cheetahs. The white flour/white sugar recipes have found a new home. 

Please visit my new blog: beauteandthefeast.blogspot.com for recipes for my:

 Magleby's Incredible Chocolate Cake
Perfect Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
Copy Cat Tiger's Milk Bars
Positively Evil Cinnamon Rolls
The Best Amazingly Chocolaty Texas Sheet Cake
German Puff Pancake
Superior Chicago-Style Cheesecake
Super Moist & Easy Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
Garlic Parmesan Bread Twists (Pizza Factory Copy Cat Recipe)
Moist Mississippi Mud Cake
Best Moist Banana Bread
Elegant Orange Blossom Crepes

AND MUCH MORE...

I will also be posting articles about beauty, aromatherapy, mind stuff, and more. I have been contemplating this move for quite a while. Both blogs will be active and I hope you enjoy them.

This is the previous post below:

*****

Kitchen Cheetahs will focus solely on Healthy Clean Eating.

I know I originally said that I would not post any recipes containing white flour or white granulated cane or beet sugar on Kitchen Cheetahs.

Enjoy the sweetness of life.

I changed my mind. I may change it back. I'm not sure yet...

Me, contemplating...

I thought about having a "NICE" blog (Kitchen Cheetahs) and a separate "NAUGHTY" blog for the OTHER recipes. You know the ones...sinfully delicious, hopelessly tempting, sugar-laden... foods on most people's NO-FLY-ZONE list.

Well, You get to make your own food decisions. I'm not here to tell you what to do.

After much contemplating, I decided I want all our treasured recipes on one blog. I trust you can sort through this growing recipe collection and find what fits you best at this time. And times change. Our dietary choices evolve as we do.

This food lifestyle blog has something for everyone at any stage of life.

I have noticed in my almost 2 months of blogging on Kitchen Cheetahs, that people are looking more at the traditional and familiar recipes than they are at the 'healthiest' raw food ones. My recent posts for my BEST Easy Spaghetti Sauce recipe and my Copy-Cat Costco Rotisserie Chicken Salad recipe are good examples of this.

Our favorite protein-packed bean sprout mix.

It also appears that 'healthified' versions of favorite familiar recipes are great as long as they don't cross over the line of being too weird tasting (as in, don't call carob chocolate).

I get it. Our comfort foods are the foods we were raised on, not that we don't ever get adventurous with our palate, we do. It's just that we generally get cravings for those foods from our childhood, something to think about as we are feeding our own young and growing children.

My daughter who has learned to eat healthy from a very young age.

I believe there is a time and a place for everything.

I also believe in moderation in all things.

I feel that if I take great care of my body on a daily basis, there is room in my life for an occasional piece of Texas Sheet Cake, chocolate mousse, buttery garlic Parmesan bread twists, or chocolate chip cookies, real ones.

I am fortunate in that I do not have any allergies to foods or otherwise. I am blessed with good health and I am very grateful for it. I choose to educate myself and live a healthful life. It has been my personal decision to occasionally partake of those foods some people label as evil or fattening. I decided not to feel bad about that.

 I do not think it is healthy to lay guilt trips on yourself. 

Make your choice and then ENJOY your choice.

There is to be joy in life.

If you decide the choice you made doesn't work, make another choice.

  Choose wisely.

Kitchen Cheetahs will still focus on delicious healthy foods and provide you with better alternatives. We continue to experiment in our test kitchens and look forward to sharing our discoveries with you. It is easy to find the types of foods you are looking for here.

Kitchen Cheetahs has several food categories to choose from, like:

Gluten-Free
Sugar-Free
Dairy-Free
Nut-Free
Low-Carb
High-Fiber
Raw-Foods
Vegan
Paleo
and more...

Kitchen Cheetah's goal is to provide the BEST recipes. PERIOD


Your comments and feedback on this topic will be appreciated. Tell us what you want to see more of.

Thank you,

 Leila.


Meet Moki, our health conscious mini dachshund...

Moki is hoping for one of his favorite treats: RAW CARROTS! (He loves the bean sprout mix too.)

Zzzzzzz

"What's that you say?"

"Your'e putting White Flour and White Sugar recipes on THIS blog?!"

"Yes Moki, I am. People can listen to their own inner body wisdom. We have no need to worry."



Author, Leila (and Moki).

The Best Chicken Bake - Gluten-Free Goodness in a Pan! (And our Favorite G-F Bread)

The Best Chicken Bake!

This will become one of your favorite go-to dinners... 

This chicken is juicy and so full of flavor. It's also very easy to make. It is made all the time in our homes, and it makes great leftovers too.

I want to eat some right now...but I'm busy blogging. Grrr, where is the kitchen fairy when you need her?

We recommend pre-brining the meat before making this dish, but if you don't have time for that, don't let that stop you. Brining does make a more tender, juicy, flavorful meat, and results in less shrinkage however.

This dish can be served with practically any sides. It is one of those staple recipes that you and your family will love! You can keep it a low-carb meal by serving it with deep green leafy salads topped with sugar and starch-free salad dressings. You can alsoserve it with fresh steamed vegetables like asparagus, green beans almondine, artichokes and garlic butter sauce, sauteed summer squash...

Juicy and perfectly cooked flavorful chicken.

The Best Chicken Bake Recipe:

4 to 5 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, trimmed of visible fat. Rinse well and pat dry
1 T. olive oil
Onion powder
Garlic powder, optional
Italian herbs
Fresh ground black pepper
2/3 to 3/4 c. high quality full-fat real mayonnaise
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese (or a mix of Parmesa, Romano, and Asiago cheeses)
1 c. "Against The Grain" gluten-free fine baguette crumbs


Method:

Optional: First brine the raw chicken about 1 hour in 1 cup water with about 1 T salt dissolved into it. I like to seal the brining meat in a Zip-Lock bag, with the air removed. Rinse the brined meat thoroughly 3 to 5 times to get rid of all the extra salt, or the meat will be too salty.The chicken will shrink less when cooking if you brine the meat first.

Spread 1 T. olive oil onto sides and bottom of a 9" x 12" heavy baking dish. Sprinkle the oiled dish lightly with onion powder and Italian herbs.

Pound the chicken breasts with a mallet until about 2/3-inch thick. All breast meat should be as evenly thick as possible for even cooking.

Snuggle the pounded chicken breasts side by side in the prepared pan to form an even layer.

Sprinkle lightly with a little more onion powder and Itallian herbs and grind on black pepper.

Top the chicken breasts with the full-fat mayonnaise, using from 2/3 to 3/4 c. total. Spread onto the chicken, like frosting a cake with a modest amount of frosting. (We don't recommend reduced fat mayonnaise, we do not think it turns out as well.)

Grind the "Against The Grain" bread crumbs in a food processor to a fine crumb.

Mix 1 cup of the bread crumbs with 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese ans mix together. You can try other gluten-free bread crumbs, but if you do, use 1 cup crumbs to 1 cup cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes, or until breast meat just reaches 150 to 155 degrees F.

Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes before cutting into.

Serve hot.


 Photos of the process:

Pound chicken with a pounding mallet.

Place chicken in pan coated in oil and seasonings.

Top Chicken with more seasonings.

This is the amount of mayonnaise we like on the chicken.

Here the chicken is frosted with mayo.

The proportion of bread and cheese that we like.

Make the gluten-free bread crumbs.

Pulsing the bread in a food processor to make the crumbs.

The finished bread crumbs.

Before baking the chicken.

A finished batch of baked chicken.

A close-up of the crispy edges.

Another batch after baking the chicken. Looks good, huh?

Chicken Bake or Chicken Cake...That is the question.

Here is our favorite brand of baguettes, Against All Grain from The Gluten Free Gourmet:

Our Favorite brand of Gluten-Free Baguettes, used for the crumb coating.

The G-F Baguette label.

The G-F Baguette ingredient list.

This is my dad ready to dig in! See the Quinoa Tabouli Salad recipe shown HERE.


Enjoy,

Leila & Nancy.

Crazy Good Low Carb Pancake Recipe - Gluten free, Sugar Free & FLUFFY!

We nailed it! We now offer you the recipe for the best wheat-free pancakes on the planet. I kid you not my pretties.

Amazing 'healthified" light & fluffy Low-Carb Pancakes!

My mom and I had a lot of fun working together on this one. We are very synergistic when we collaborate together. We mind meld and stuff, it's great.

She teaches me, and she tells me I teach her too. But personally, I think I only teach her stuff that's a variation of the stuff she first taught me. She may disagree on that point, however, I ask you this:

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

I can answer that one, "The Chicken".   Not that my mom is a chicken.

My point is, I am very grateful for how my mother has raised me and for what she has taught me. I feel she is woven into my very fabric. She still teaches me the most amazing things (like what makes the best flour substitutes, or how to make a heart-calming herbal tincture, or insights on the power of personal prayer). Happy Mother's Day again mom!

Anyway, the chicken came first. Because of my mom, you can now make the best healthy pancakes ever.

The ingredient list is a very creative one. We use several types of "flours" to get the flavor and texture of these pancakes right. Remember, we are professional food formulating maniacs, along with being gluten-free specialists and sugar-free specialists. I say this because I want you to know that we have done more than our fair share of formulating this kind of thing. You get to benefit from our years of trials, and years of learning about the properties of the newest healthy raw materials. Cool, huh?

For you, we wanted to create variations that use ingredients that are readily available to the consumer. This narrows our list of cool (and healthy) ingredients substantially. We have tried many variations and proportions with several different ingredients, and this is where we arrived.

We are excited to share this recipe with you because the recipes we found "out there" were not what we were hoping for. (See my Pancake Bedtime Story post) They were rubbery, way too eggy, soggy, spongy, slimy, gritty, heavy, mushy, bitter, fell apart, contained sugar, Were starch-laden, tasted like yucky protein powder, or otherwise weird tasting and weird textured. I'll skip breakfast, thanks!

But now, we can all enjoy light and fluffy guilt-free pancakes, and our family won't pull faces and run away hungry.

It is worth the effort to acquire all the ingredients we list here. If you have already been cooking with gluten-free, low-carb, paleo, or sugar-free recipes, you will already have most, if not all the ingredients for this recipe. You can even make this mix in bulk. We will post a bulk pancake mix recipe later, so please check back soon.

Benefits of this pancake recipe:

Tastes amazing!
Low carb
High fiber
Sugar free
Gluten free
High protein
Curbs cravings
Aids in weight loss
Helps blood sugar levels stay even
Good for athletic training
Can make dry pancake mix in advance
Can make pancakes in advance and freeze them


First get out all your ingredients first and pre-weigh them (weighing is best for consistency), or you can just measure them until you get yourself some good kitchen scales.

Again, putting together this dry pancake mix is SO worth the effort. When you are ready to make some pancakes, all you do is add some water and egg. They are easy to mix up, easier to cook, and the easiest to e-a-t.

Your kitchen will smell wonderful as these cook. You and your family will feel satisfied for a long time after you eat these pancakes. They are high in fiber and high in protein too. These are also helpful for those who are aiming to slim down. They even taste great with just butter and no syrup. Most fake pancakes have to be drowned in syrup to be at all palatable.

See the next version of pancakes we created, Buttermilk Pancakes, HERE. 

We hope you enjoy this recipe for years to come!



Low Carb Pancake Recipe:

Makes 4 medium sized pancakes (serves 2).

Dry Mix Ingredients:

13.0 grams (2 T.)  stirred coconut flour
11.0 grams (2 T.)  oat bran flour (finely ground)
11.0 grams (2 T.)  white almond flour (lightly packed)
8.0 grams (1 T.)  Hi-Maize brand resistant starch from National Starch **
4.0 grams (1 T.)  whey protein isolate
3.0 grams (1 T.)  psyllium husks (flakes, not powdered) ***
3.5 grams (1 t.)  gelatin powder (like Knoxx brand plain gelatin)
4.0 grams (1 t.)  Table Top Sugar Blend (or 1 1/2 t. of a 50:50 mix of erythritol and xylitol) ****
1.2 grams (1/4 t.)  BioSalt or sea salt
2.8 grams (1/2 t.)  baking powder
0.9 grams (1/4 t.)  konjac powder
0.9 grams (1/4 t.)  Wheat Bread Flavor Powder, optional (a proprietary flavoring for GF breads *)


Wet Ingredients:

1 medium egg
1/2 c. cool purified water


Method:

In a small mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together very well and set aside.

Preheat a 12-inch or larger non-stick skillet to 350 degrees (medium heat). Oil pan with coconut oil.

Whisk the egg until emulsified.

Add the water to the egg and mix together.

Add the egg mixture to the dry mix in the mixing bowl and blend together until there are no lumps.

Immediately pour all 4 pancakes into the prepared skillet. Let them cook without shaking the pan.

The pancake batter quickly becomes thick, so they will not bubble like thinner pancakes do to indicate when to flip them over. You'll need to peek at the bottoms, and flip them when they turn nicely brown.

Cook the other side until they are golden brown and spring back in the center when lightly touched.

If you did not cook all the pancakes at once, do not stir the batter down. Just portion it with a food portioning scoop (an ice cream scoop)

onto the oiled skillet. You may gently pat down the batter a bit with wet fingers. Again, do not shake the pan to settle the pancakes or they will be misshapen.

Enjoy with butter and a good sugar-free syrup or preserves.



Notes: 

*  "Wheat Bread Flavor Powder" is a proprietary flavor my mother created for all gluten free bread-type products. It is not available to the public (unless we get a large amount of requests for it...).

** Honeyville grain carries the HiMaize Resistant starch. This ingredient is not absorbed like regular starch and is a wonderful ingredient for low carb, gluten free baking. You can use up to 25% HiMaize in your flour blends to cut carbs.

*** If you do not have the 1 T. psyllium husk flakes, substitute with 1 teaspoon psyllium husk powder. The texture will not be quite as bread-like, but it is still good.

**** You may substitute Lakanto white sugar substitute for the tabletop sugar blend called for.

Looking for bubbles in these cooking pancakes is not an indicator of pancakes being ready to flip. Check the bottoms for doneness.

Lower heat is needed for cooking these pancakes, compared to regular starch-filled pancakes. Too high a temperature will burn the outsides before the insides are cooked through.

Grind the oat bran until very fine, unless you want more texture to your pancakes.

Making these pancake with just liquid egg whites is not a good idea. They won't act like, look like, or taste like pancakes at all.

Mixing in an additional t. dry egg white protein powder resulted in rubbery, eggy pancakes. Don't do it.

Using less oat bran flour results in a pancake with compromised texture. We do not recommend less than 2 T. oat bran flour for this recipe.

The added gelatin makes a nice, flexible pancake, nearer to a wheat-like texture.

Whey protein isolate is higher in protein and has mush less lactose in it than whey protein concentrate, and usually the lactose-intolerant can eat it in this recipe.

Shaking the pancake batter in the skillet will result in flattened pancakes that may also run together. Just pour them, or portion them with a food portioning scoop (ice cream scoop). If the batter has thickened a lot, gently pat the pancake batter down a tiny bit with wet fingers.


Tip: 

I doubled the recipe because all I had were extra-large eggs. I used 1 extra-large egg.  It worked fine, although the 2nd batch of pancakes were more ragged looking because the batter had thickened up and I did not pat the batter down with wet fingers. Not the end of the world, they still turned out great!


Photos of the process:

Mix the dry ingredients together first.

Whisk the egg then add in the water.

Add the egg mixture to the dry pancake mix.

Mix until no lumps remain.

Using a food portioning scoop to measure out each pancake, without deflating the batter.

I flipped the pancakes with an unusual amount of grace... Not.

A nice fluffy stack of pancakes.

That was so good! :)

Enjoy!

Leila & Nancy.

New Ingredient Arrivals for Gluten-Free Baking!

My mom sent me an early birthday present and it arrived yesterday...

Organic Coconut Flour, Ultra Gel, and Hi-Maize Resistant Starch for my birthday.

What does a foodie hope to receive for their birthday? Probably exotic dark chocolate made from Hawaiian cocoa beans.

What does a nerdy food-formulating foodie dream of receiving for their birthday? Stay tuned and I'll tell you.

If you have been following our blog, Kitchen Cheetahs, you know that we have been happily working on creating delicious and healthy low-carb pancakes. I have needed some additional ingredients to create the high level of success we are seeking. My mom and I exchange ideas continually, and share our experiments and progress. We think this is fun. Being the observant person that she is, she soon announced that my early birthday present was on it's way. Cool beans! She gives the best gifts.

Soon to my door, what should appear? A big bag of coconut flour, clear Gel, and more! 

I love her gift because my whole family will benefit from it. I will be able to make great tasting bakery and breakfast items that will support my family in a healthy way. I will be able to make pancakes that my whole family will enjoy, that at the same time, work for my husband and I in our goal of healthy low-carb eating.

We here at Kitchen Cheetahs, are also pleased to be able to share the up and coming recipes with you. We want to support you in your healthy ways of eating too.

I am very excited over what my mom sent me:

Organic coconut flour

Ultra Gel

Hi-Maize Resistant Starch

Organic coconut flour is a must-have for low-carb, gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo baking. It is a very important component in healthy flour blends. It's very high in dietary fiber, healthy fats, and is very low in carbohydrates. Honeyville Grain sells organic coconut flour in 25 pound bags. Package it in smaller air-tight bags and seal in a 6-gallon food storage bucket for long term storage. It will last a long time this way. Coconut flour is  recommended in a book called The 100, by Jorge Cruise, and is promoted in other books like Grain Brain, Wheat Belly, as well as several paleo cookbooks.

Ultra Gel is another cool ingredient used for instantly thickening hot or cold foods. I like to use it to make sugar-free jams and sauces. It can also be used to add body to frostings. It is also available online through Honeyville Grain.

Hi-Maize, by National Starch - I have been wanting resistant starch for low-carb, gluten-free baking. Why resistant starch? Because your body does not absorb it like it does normal starch. That means it is much lower in carbohydrates! It can be used to replace up to 25% of the flour used in a recipe. It has a neutral taste and gives a great texture to baked goods. It is a trade secret for gluten-free, low-carb formulating. Now you know. A particular brand of resistant starch that is available to the public is called Hi-Maize, made by National Starch. It is made from corn. Our family do not have issues with corn and plus, this product has been purified. There is resistant tapioca starch too, but it is expensive and not readily available. You can order Hi-Maize online from Honeyville Grain. 

Organic coconut Flour

Ultra Gel

Resistant Starch by National Starch.

Hi-Maize 260 is the trade name of the resistant starch.

I'm now set to mix, bake, and explore.

Happy Baking!

P.S. Make sure you check out this post for great low-carb pancakes!

Leila.

Light & Fluffy Vanilla Microwave Jiffy Cake - Amazingly Sugar-Free & Gluten-Free

This is a special recipe. 

If you have been looking for a healthy 2-minute microwave cake or muffin recipe, this is it. 

Not only is this cake amazingly light textured, it is also gluten-free, sugar-free, low-carb, high fiber, dairy-free, starch-free, and chemical-free.

Basic Vanilla Jiffy Cake with Sugar-Free Chocolate Ganache Topping.

Vanilla Jiffy Cake

There are some recipes out there that use almond flour and/or coconut flour, but they are generally heavy, dry, and not convincing. It is highly unusual to have a tasty sugar-free, gluten-free, and low-carbohydrate recipe in one.

You're welcome :)

I purposely pared this cake/muffin recipe down. It is like a blank canvas, ready for you to unleash your creativity on.

I'm thinking, pumpkin-spice, applesauce cake, lemon-blueberry, sugar-free chocolate chip frosted with sugar-free chocolate ganache... I will be posting a almond-poppy seed muffin recipe next, using this recipe as the foundation. Check back soon.

This recipe is also a work in progress. Don't get me wrong, it's great as it is, but our recipes continually evolve here at Kitchen Cheetahs. We already have many variations, but I wanted to provide you with a basic recipe that is easy to make at home, with ingredients easy to source.



For a grain-free version, you may omit the oat bran flour and chia flour and use 1 T. golden flax seed meal instead. Note that the taste of the flax meal will be noticed in this recipe, since there are no spices or other strong flavors to mask the taste.

We like to make multiple batches of the single-serving dry cake/muffin mix and individually seal them in small zip-lock bags. When the munchies hit, grab 1 bag of dry mix and add the wet ingredients, mix, microwave, and enjoy!

This Jiffy Cake generously serves one. My daughter and I usually share one. An added benefit of this cake is that it is quite filling, and staves off cravings for hours. This cake isn't full of empty calories either, so it makes a great meal or snack. We like these low-carb Jiffy Cakes a lot, as they help with carb cravings when you want to slim down.




Basic Jiffy Cake Recipe for One Jiffy Cake:

Dry Ingredients:
3 T. (24 grams) white almond flour (Honeyville is a good brand)
2 T. (18 grams) coconut flour (we like Wilderness Family Naturals brand)
2 t. (6 grams) oat bran flour
1 t. (2.50 grams) chia seed flour
1 T. (15 grams) erythritol (or Lakanto's granular zero-cal sweetener)
1 T. (14 grams) xylitol
1 T.  (11 grams) IMO powder (or inulin powder)
1/2 t. (2.50 grams) baking powder
1/8 t. (0.40 grams) lecithin powder
heaping 1/16 t. (0.50 grams) sea salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 large egg, at room temperature (about 50 -51 grams)
1 t. (8 grams) vegetable glycerine
1/8 t. (1 gram) stevia glycerite, to taste
2 T. (28 grams) warm water
2 T. (26.50 grams) warmed deodorized coconut oil
1/2 t. (2.50 grams) real vanilla extract


Method:

Pre-grind your chia seeds into a fine flour using a small seed/coffee mill.
Grind together all the dry ingredients so that the sweeteners are powdered into the mix.
Store dry mix in an air-tight container until ready to use.

To make one Jiffy Cake:

In a 2-cup microwave safe baking container, whisk the egg until blended.

Add the other wet ingredients in the order listed and mix to combine.

Place the container of batter off-center in your carousel microwave and cook on high for 2 minutes, uncovered. The center should just spring back when touched.

Let cake cool in the microwave 3 minutes.

Remove from microwave and invert cake onto a plate, if desired, and cool 3 more minutes.

If you are not going to eat the cake right away, cover the cake to prevent it's drying out.



Photos of the process:

Get all your ingredients out.

A seed mill and good scales are helpful to have.

A small casserole dish (with vented lid) for cooking the cake in.

Measuring the dry ingredients.

I move each ingredient to the opposite side as I use it, so I don't forget where I'm at in the recipe.

The coconut flour I used.

Grind the dry ingredients together in 2 batches.

Do not grind until mixture heats up or it will clump.

The finished dry cake/muffin mix.

Crack the egg into the baking dish then mix in the rest of the wet ingredients.

Mix the dry mix into the wet mix until lump free.

Place the baking container off-center in the microwave so it will cook more evenly.

Let the cooked Jiffy Cake cool in the microwave for about 3 minutes.

Remove cake from microwave and let cool another 3 minutes.

The finished vanilla Jiffy Cake.

Cover the cake if you are not going to eat it right away

The cooled cake is ready to frost.

Here is a sugar-free chocolate ganache frosting.

Dig in!

Look at the light texture and moist crumb...

Hard to believe that this is a guilt-free treat, huh?

O.K., I'm going to go eat this now.

Enjoy,

Leila & Nancy.