Chickpea Crepes With Smoked Salmon

Apparently I'm on a bit of a crepe kick. Probably because they are the only vaguely bread like food I can have on this elimination diet. 

This time I went savory with chickpea flour crepes, pesto, and smoked salmon.  The fella and I were both really surprised by how delicious I was able to make these while still keeping them hypoallergenic.  The crepes themselves were ridiculously easy and a nice compliment to the salmon.  The pesto which I used pumpkin seeds in instead of pine nuts rounded out the flavors nicely.  Best of all this recipe is totally weight loss phase friendly for the French Diet.  Since it involves bean flour you can put whatever you're in the mood for in these.  So go crazy!

Since I'm only cooking really simple foods that don't usually require any sort of recipe I'm going to try to stop neglecting this blog so badly and just post pictures of my food to prove that I really am eating well while on such a restrictive diet.  We'll see how long I can keep up that promise.

Chickpea Crepes 

1 cups chickpea flour (easily found in Indian groceries)

1 1/4 cups water

dash of salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

Whisk together all ingredients.  Heat a large non stick pan over medium heat.  When hot, spray with cooking spray and drop 1/4 cup of the crepe mix into the pan, quickly sliding around  the pan to spread out the crepe as thin as possible.  Cook for 30 seconds.  Flip and cook for 90 seconds on the other side.  Repeat with the rest of the crepe batter.

I topped my chickpea crepes with a handful of spinach, a slice of avocado, some sprouts, a drizzle of pesto, and a couple pieces of smoked salmon.  This would also be amazing with cream cheese or creme fraiche, smoked salmon, watercress, and cucumber.  (Someone eat that version and tell me all about it since I will never be able to.)

Rice Flour Crepes with Blueberries and Coconut Whipped Cream

I haven't been posting much lately because I haven't been eating much of interest.  

See the ridiculous thing is I'm a foodie with serious food sensitivities.  Figuring out that gluten was causing me problems helped out my digestive issues a lot.  Getting rid of dairy made me feel a lot better too.  However there were still things that seemed to be causing me problems and even after keeping a food diary, seeing a nutritionist, an allergist and a gastroentrologist I still couldn't figure out what was making me ill.  Unwilling to "just live with it" as all but one of my doctors advised I decided to take the next step and go on an elimintation diet.

The people over at Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen had one that seemed reasonable so I'm giving it a try.  Eating nothing but green smoothies for a couple days, giving up chocolate, coffee and alcohol and eating only the simplest of unseasoned foods has not been easy.  But after my body got over the initial shock I felt better than I ever had before.  If eating green salads and brown rice with lentils and nothing else was going to get rid of my unending digestive woes I was willing to do it.

At this point I've added in a few foods without any issues so I do have some variety in my diet.  So far I have sadly discovered citrus, cinnamon and parsnips are all problem foods for me.  So as this goes on I'll be healthier and feel great but my diet is getting more and more restricted.  In order to not let thoughts like that get me down I spent the afternoon plotting out a dessert that I could eat on this diet.  Something other than me peeling a mango and eating it like the crazy sweet-food starved person I am.  

Out of that I came up with this recipe for these vegan hypoallergenic rice crepes that fit with the strict parameters of the first phase of the elimination diet.  They are so amazing you would never guess they are missing things like eggs, dairy, wheat or sugar.  I went crazy and made some dairy free whipped cream as well since I was craving it but the crepes though simple are great without anything but your choice of fruit.  The fella and I enjoyed ours with blue berries while sitting out on the porch and enjoying the warm sunny evening.

Vegan Rice Flour Crepes 

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

2 tablespoons hot water

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon agave nectar

1 1/4 cup homemade rice milk

In a very small bowl mix the ground flax seeds with the hot water and mix well.  Allow mixture to sit undisturbed until it becomes very sticky.

In a medium bowl mix together the remaining ingredients until well incorporated then add in the flax seed mixture.. Your mixture will be very a little runny and gritty. 

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat and gently grease it with cooking spray. When the pan is at temperature add 1/4 a cup of the crepe mixture to the pan and agitate the pan to roll the mixture around the bottom making it as thin as possible. Cook the crepe for one minute then flip and cook for a 1 1/2 on the other side.

Repeat with the remaining mixture, being sure to stir the crepe batter before putting it in the pan as the heavy rice flour will quickly sink to the bottom of the bowl in the time it has taken you to make the preceding crepe.

Blueberry Filling

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 teaspoon agave nectar

Place both ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat and allow to simmer until the melting berries turn into a thin syrupy mixture.

Coconut Whipped Cream

1 14-can full fat coconut cream (the kind that separates out)

1 tablespoon melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon agave nectar

Place a metal bowl and the beaters for your electric mixer in the freezer.  Open the can of coconut milk and place in the refrigerator until the solid part of the coconut milk solidifies a bit more and is easier to skim out of the can.

After about 10 minutes remove the coconut milk from the fridge and place the solid mass floating on the top of the can in the frosty bowl that was in the freezer, leaving behind the liquid part of the coconut milk to use for other purposes.  Add the coconut oil and agave nectar to the coconut milk and return the bowl to the freezer until the mixture becomes mostly solid but not frozen through.  This will take awhile, probably between 30 to 90 minutes.  Check it often.

When the coconut mixture is stiff, begin beating the mixture with the cold electric beaters.  You will get both some soft peaks and some cold ice creamy textured bits during this process.  It won't exactly be "real" whipped cream but its so delicious it won't really matter.

Gluten Free Banana Cardamom Bread

Photo by Steve Apps of The State Journal.

This bread is a cover model.  Seriously, it was all over the local paper on Friday.  

I had no idea when the article was going to be printed so I didn't get a chance to warn people to keep an eye out for it.  So in the ennui filled late hours of the afternoon when they were both probably hiding from work in separate break rooms both the fella and my friend Tim texted me nearly the same sarcastic message.  "There's a great article on going gluten free in the paper you should look at."  

And there I was in the paper.  Well not technically me, more like my bread.  Even Lindsay who wrote the article isn't sure why there are three pictures of bread and no pictures of me in  the print article.  I guess the bread was just more photogenic than me.  Le sigh.  Given how great the pictures of my baking came out I'm thrilled they got all that attention though.

This loaf doesn't technically fit in with the French Diet considering the higher GI flours and the bananas but for the weight maintenance phase it would be a nice breakfast bread.  The diet aside, this bread is surprisingly good,  I made it and even I was blown away.  

The fella had this great recipe for a banana cardamon loaf he used to make when we were first dating so when I needed an idea for another bread recipe I decided to use that recipe to reverse engineer it into a gluten free version.  And it worked out really nice.  Gluten free it isn't quite as fluffy but since it's a desserty bread it doesn't interfere with the enjoyment of it at all.  Smeared with a little honey the fella and I really enjoyed nibbling on it with Lindsay and her fella literally seconds after the photographer got done with it.  It smelled that good we couldn't resist any longer.

Gluten Free Banana Cardamom Bread

2/3 cup warm water (temperature around 110 is best)
1 teaspoon yeast
1 generous pinch of sugar

3 cups Bob Red Mill Baking and Biscuit Flour blend
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
2 very ripe bananas well mashed

arrowroot or tapioca starch to flour work surfaces
1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Put the warm water in a small bowl.  Whisk in the yeast and sugar and let stand about 10 minutes or until it turns bubbly.  If the water doesn't become frothy it means the yeast isn't active and you need new yeast or the water was too hot or cold to activate it so try again.

Stir together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  When well combined add in the yeasty water, honey, and bananas.  Gradually incorporate the mix into a soft dough with a wooden spoon and your fingers, adding a little more water if necessary to get a dough like consistency that isn't too dry and crumbly. 

Dust a cutting board or very clean counter with arrowroot or tapioca starch (you don't want to add anymore flour to the dough, you want to use a sticky starch that won't dry out the bread for this purpose).  Knead the dough for a minute or so until it is sticky and well combined.  Return it to the bowl and cover with a damp dish towel to allow to rise for about 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

After it has risen, remove the dough from the bowl back to the dusted work surface and divide into three equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a short fat oblong shape and braid the three together.  Place the dough on a greased baking sheet and loosely cover with plastic wrap.  Let stand until it rises a little bit again.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Brush the dough with a bit of water and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake for 10 minutes then lower temperature of oven to 400 degrees.  Cook for a further 15 minutes or until the loaf is browned and sounds hollow when tapped.

This will be a very dense dessert like loaf of bread and is best served with a little honey or raspberry jam.  Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator. 

Sorrel Quiche

It's CSA season again.  That means its spring (yay no more snow!)  And it also means weekly confrontations with vegetables you have never seen before.  Sorrel? Ramps? Nettles? Say what?  I find it extremely exciting to hunt down recipes for these new vegetables, its like a treasure hunt than ends in a great meal.

This year the fella and I weren't able to go for a CSA since we'll very likely be moving out of state in the next couple of months and didn't want to abandon our box of veggies halfway through the season.  Instead the fella has been enjoying going to the farmer's market each Saturday and playing a little game called "stump Emily with wacky produce."  The star of the first episode of this little adventure was sorrel.  It's in a lot of French recipes but what do you do with it when you have a grocery bagful?  That's a very good question to which I answer; quiche!

But if you're on my site you're either on a low carb diet or just enjoy my typo ridden recipes and I'm gluten free so how do you make a tasty crustless quiche?  In this case covering the bottom of the pie plate with goat cheese worked out nicely as a crust substitute.  In fact this recipe was just all around fabulous and easy.  If you don't have sorrel go for spinach.  And if you're avoiding cow milk cheeses here is a fun tip: ground raw cashews taste very similar to Parmesan so it's a great thing to sprinkle on quiche or pasta without the unpleasant lactosey side effects.

Sorrel and Goat Cheese Quiche

5 ounces chevre

3 cups sorrel, coarsely chopped

1 handful scallions, chopped

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups soy milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 handful ground cashews (or Parmesan cheese)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread goat cheese (or any strong flavored cheese) in the bottom of a well greased pie plate.  Cover with chopped sorrel and scallions. Beat eggs, salt and milk together. Pour over greens. Sprinkle with ground cashews. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Modified from this recipe right over here.

Coconut Flour Bread

This is literally the easiest bread recipe in existence.  The hardest part about it is finding the coconut flour to cook it with.  Coconut flour I must warn you is not cheap.  I think a pound was $12 at my local grocery store.  But it is worth it for the experience and to try a totally new flour.  Coconut flour is ridiculously high in fiber and about a 45 on the glycemic index so it is perfect for this diet.  I really enjoyed having a bread that was different than anything else I've ever baked, it's naturally sweet and has a crisp outside and tender chewy middle that makes it have the mouth feel of toast without actually requiring a toaster.

Actually a word of warning on that issue, unless you have a very narrow toaster, because this makes such a tiny loaf the bread, it will just fall in the toaster never to be heard from again.   So if you want it warm just stick it in a warm frying pan for a minute or so to get warm.  Another thing, grinding up unsweetened coconut you already have at home will not make coconut flour no matter how finely you grind it.  Believe me I've tried and I haven't figured out how to fake it with out lumpy horrible results so this is one case where I'm going to have to advise you to suck it up an pay full price at the store for it.  You won't be sorry you did. 

Coconut Flour Bread

6 eggs

1/2 cup melted coconut oil 

1 tablespoons agave nectar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup coconut flour 

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a small buttered loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. 

From the Nourishing Days blog.

Homemade Rice Milk

Now that I figured out how to make it myself I can't believe I've spent so much money on buying not so tasty rice milk in the store all these years.  To get an aseptic container of gluten free sugar free rice milk I was paying $2 or more a week.  Which isn't too bad considering how much a similar sized bit of organic hormone free dairy milk would be.  But I have left over rice at home all of the time and I'm obsessed with making everything myself so I figured there had to be a more cost effective way to enjoy rice milk.  Turns out there is and  it couldn't be easier.

Surprise surprise all rice milk is made of is rice and water and a bit of vanilla makes things more palatable.  So why continue spending money on non-dairy milk products in the store that will lead to you throwing away extra cardboard containers in the land fill when you can do it yourself?   If you have five minutes and a blender you have no excuse to not do it.  It's ridiculously easy.

Homemade Rice Milk

1 cup warm brown rice
4 cups warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla

In order to get milk and not rice sludge it is important that the water and rice are warm, not boiling but heated through.  Place all the ingredients in the blender.  Just in case the water is too warm, place the lid of the blender on an angle so air can escape when you start the blender, then cover the top of the blender with a towel in case anything splatters. 

Start the blender on a medium speed and allow it to whir for 5 minutes.  You may have to run your blender for a minute at a time, agitating the mixture periodically.  When you have a uniform constancy in the blender pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a storage container (I keep mine in left over yogurt containers.)  There will be pulp from the brown rice in the sieve, try to force as much liquid out of it as possible.

T

This is what you want the pulp of your rice milk mixture to look like coming out of the blender after the liquid has all been forced out.  If it's any courser than this put it back in the blender for another minute or so.

Allow mixture to cool then store it in a well sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.  Make sure to shake the milk before each use as the contents settle.

Cranberry Flax Seed Breakfast Muffins

 

Until this weekend breakfast had me stymied.

Gluten free bread is tough enough to make on it's own and calls for all sorts of esoteric ingredients like xanthan  gum or tapioca starch.  Unfortunately those celiac friendly starches that mixed together in perfect combinations emulate the dreaded but nicely sticky gluten in wheat are insanely high on the GI index and therefore a Montignac  no no.  And all the recipes for low fat, high fiber breads that would be Montignac friendly were too whole wheat dependent to modify for the gluten free.

This just wouldn't do.  So I spent a week searching the internet and all the gluten free cookbooks I could find for a solution.  It didn't exist so I gave up on bread and thought about other tasty breakfast options, something that wouldn't need yeast and would still be tasty while still being really dense.  Enter muffins.  Gluten free muffins would be much more forgiving than bread.  So I combined my original Montignac bread recipe with a vegan sorghum flour fruit muffin and hoped for the best.

I took all the fatty ingredients and most of the sweetener out of this recipe from the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen and started adding back liquid in the form of skim yogurt, hoping that the old vegan trick of using flax seed as a binder and egg substitute would work.  And it did!

If I hadn't just told you these were healthy you would never know it.  They made the house smell amazing and it took all the will power I had to wait until breakfast to try one.  That morning the fella and I sat with our muffins, wide eyed with the tastiness of my creation.  I was so excited to have one I got out of bed at 7AM on my day off to partake in one.  I'm that big of a food nerd.  But I was not disappointed, these heavy little fruit packed chewy muffins are worth getting up early for.  The only thing that will make these muffins any better is baking them with fresh blueberries once they are back in season.

I fear however that this muffin success has gone to my head, I now have the desire to do all sorts of other combinations with this basic recipe.  Ginger pear.  Fig lemon.  Now that I know it works the fella is going to have an endless array of breakfast muffins to look forward to.  The poor guy, he has such a tough life.

Cranberry Flax Seed Breakfast Muffins

2 cups sorghum flour

2 tablespoons arrowroot

1 1/ 2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/ 2 teaspoon salt

1/ 2 teaspoon cardamom

1/ 2 cup applesauce

1/ 4 cup agave nectar

3/ 4 cup yogurt

2 teaspoon vanilla

1 orange zested

2/ 3 scant cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1/ 2 cup flax meal

2 cups fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Well oil a 12 cup muffin tin or line with paper muffin cups.

In a large bowl mix together well the sorghum flour, arrowroot, baking soda, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, salt and cardamom.

In a separate medium bowl whisk together the applesauce, agave nectar, yogurt, vanilla, orange zest, orange juice.  When combined stir in the flax meal and let mixture sit for a couple of minutes until the flax meal has thickened and absorbed some of the liquid. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix together.  Add the cranberries and gently fold together.  The batter will be lumpy and thick, the consistency of a heavy banana bread or oatmeal, if it's too wet add a little flax meal, if too dry add a bit more orange juice.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin, filling each cup to the top.  Bake for about 20 to 27 minutes or until slightly browned on the top and able to pass the tooth pick test.  Remove muffins from tin to cool completely.

Serve with a little sugar free jam and a small bowl of fat free yogurt with berries for a perfect low fat/high carb Montignac breakfast.

Modified and made Montignac friendly from a recipe at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Scones

While getting ready to host a wine tasting party this upcoming weekend I've been shuffling through all the bookmarked recipe ideas I have saved to see what weird and wonderful snacks to make. In the process I've been finding recipes I've been remiss in not yet posting.

I made these scones months ago for our house warming party. They were delicious. So delicious in fact no one even noticed they were gluten free which is a compliment when you can trick wheat eaters into making yummy noises over something sans flour. But shame on me for taking so long to tell you about them. They were easy, had a nice chewy consistency and took care of the scone craving I had at the time. Now that I rediscovered this recipe I might have to make them again tonight.

Gluten Free Double Chocolate Scones

2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 chopped dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl mix almond flour, salt, and baking soda together. In a separate medium bowl mix the coconut oil, agave nectar, and eggs together until blended. Add cocoa powder to wet ingredients. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well. Briefly stir in dark chocolate.

Place 1/4 cup of batter onto parchment paper lined baking sheet or silicone baking mat. Repeat for each scone and space about one inch apart. Bake 12 to 17 minutes or until scones pass the clean toothpick test.

Original recipe from Celiac Chicks blog.

Quinoa Oatmeal

The first time I cooked with quinoa I was shocked that something so tiny, with the consistency of sand and the tendency to find its way into every nook and cranny of the kitchen could be so tasty. It's an interesting little grain well suited in both sweet and savory dishes. For people cutting back on carbs its also a great whole grain substitute for in recipes that call for things like white rice or couscous. And I'd be lying if I didn't mention that half the reason I've been so keen in it lately is that it's really fun to say.

Quinoa has also helped me solve one of my biggest complaints on this diet: boring breakfast. I can only do the whole grain cereal or whole grain bread with low fat yogurt and fruit so many times before I'm tempted to trade meals with the dog. Enter quinoa oatmeal. Fulling and versatile. I make a big batch at the beginning of the week and eat off it whenever I'm in the mood. It's good hot or cold. Sweetened with fruit and agave nectar or salty and crunchy with cashews.

Technically this recipe only works for the maintenance stage of the diet but it would be just as good without the dried fruit, perhaps adding in some other spices to give it a kick instead. I've also started making it with half milk and half water for the liquids as the full milk makes it a little too porridge like for me in the summer. You can do whatever you want to the quinoa to make it suit your tastes but you'll want a little sweetness and some flavor added in or it can be a bit too bitter.

Quinoa Oatmeal

1 cup quinoa
2 cups milk

1/3 cup dried fruit
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon agave nectar

Place quinoa in a sieve and rinse well under cold water. Tip the quinoa into a saucepan and add the milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for 5 minutes.

Add fruit and cinnamon then simmer for 8-10 or until all liquid is absorbed.

Stir in agave nectar. Serve topped with fruit or cashews and milk.

Grain-Free Lemony Almond Pancakes

All the pictures I took of this lovely breakfast are horrible blurry because I was too busy making yummy noises and doing the happy I love my life dance to take a good picture. These pancakes were out of this world. The impromptu blueberry and agave nectar sauce only made things better. I don't think I stopped fawning over them the entire time I was gobbling them down. The fella is the best one ever for making these lovelies.

The rich crunchy almonds and flax seed contrast nicely with the citrus and they create a great texture. You would never know that they are grain free. Add in a blueberry syrup and this is the breakfast of champions. Even the dog loved her couple bites of them. You can see how stunned she is over getting to eat some of the best pancakes ever.



My only pointers to you are that if you decide to use dairy instead of soy milk that you add it towards the end as you probably won't need to use the full amount called for in the recipe as regular milk is much runnier than soy. We ended up with pancakes that had some structural integrity problems because of this. We also didn't have any bean flour and ended up grinding some oats as a substitute which probably didn't help the batter stay together. They were still outstanding and you can bet we will be making these again, next time I'll invest in some bean flour to see what a difference it makes.

Grain-Free Lemony Almond Pancakes

1/2 cup natural almonds (raw or lightly toasted)
1/4 cup finely ground flax meal

2/3 cup plain or vanilla soymilk (if using regular milk you won't need as much liquid)
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1-1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup chickpea flour (I used finely ground oats as it was the only comparable thing in my kitchen)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

In the bowl of a food processor, whir the almonds and flax until you have a very fine meal the texture of coarse cornmeal. There should be no large pieces of almond visible.

Add the milk, agave, oil, lemon zest and lemon juice and whir again. Allow to sit while you prepare the dry ingredients, or at least 2 minutes.

Heat a nonstick frypan over medium heat (I use cast iron). Add the remaining ingredients to the processor and whir just until blended.

Pour a small ice cream scoop or 2-3 tablespoons worth of batter onto hot pan and cook for about 3-4 minutes, until bubbles appear and then pop on the surface of the pancakes and the edges look dry. Gently flip and then cook another 2-3 minutes on other side. Keep cooked pancakes warm while you continue with the rest of the batter. Makes 8-10 small pancakes.

Original recipe from Diet Desserts and Dogs Blog.

Truffled Eggs

Reading Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr Latte as well as her column Eat, Memory in the New York Times Magazine has convinced me to try ingredients I would have never considered before. She's one of those food writers who I would read a novel length narrative about nothing but advice on boiling water. Her voice is just that riveting though often a tad more vapid than I would like at times. She borders the literary and the chick lit rather heavily, but everyone needs simple guilty pleasures. A person needs something to rest her brain on between bouts of Nabokov and Kafka.

After learning the vast difference between brown and French lentils for her Single Girl Salmon I trusted her taste enough to try some other things. This recipe combines two of them; truffle oil and crème fraiche.

Crème fraiche is a thick tart step above plain yogurt and adds a fabulous creaminess to whatever it's included in without adding a heavy flavor. In a lemon risotto the crème fraiche gives the simple crisp rice a sinful tongue coating cream that made me under stand the often tossed about phrase “better than sex” for the first time. It was the best risotto of my life and the first day I can have carbs again I'll be making that risotto while waiting for the artichoke Glass Nickel pizza I'll also be ordering.

Once while having extra crème fraiche around the fella insisted we treat ourselves to a $14 bottle of truffle oil to make the other recipe Hesser kept going on about that called for both. I was dubious about it. Surely it was just scrambled eggs with a weird oil I would never use for anything else slathered on it. Wrong. It is so much more, Hesser knows her stuff. These eggs are heaven in a skillet and oil only brings things to another level.

I treated myself to this super easy egg concoction this morning along with a left over chicken breast and it set a wonderful tone for the day. Still don't know what else to put the truffle oil on but it really made my day. It's so decadent that while I'm eating it I don't feel like I'm sitting in a chilly duplex in the Midwest while wearing sweat pants on my only day off.

Truffled Egg Toast


1 teaspoon of butter
3 eggs
2 teaspoons crème fraiche (1 tablespoon plain yogurt works in a pinch)
truffle oil for drizzling


Melt butter in tiny skillet over very low heat. In bowl whisk together eggs and crème fraiche. Season with salt. Pour into skillet and use whisk to stir making sure to cover entire bottom surface of pan with heating.


When eggs form soft curds and are loose but not raw (about 10 minutes) spoon out onto plate. Drizzle with oil. Let set a minute or so before eating.


The original recipes calls for eating this on a thick toasted slice of country bread which I highly recommend.


Original recipe from Amanda Hesser's Cooking For Mr Latte.

Montignac Bread

Tomorrow night I'm having some friends over to share in the joy that is my obsessive cooking habit. Should be a great time. And to make sure I get to enjoy it I planned ahead and roasted the vegetables and garlic tonight so I'm not slaving away in the kitchen all evening tomorrow while everyone else gets into the wine. Added plus I even had good company to keep me from going crazy trying to figure out the recipes. I do enjoy some girl talk to pass the time so thanks for that you know who you are.

While the oven was on I also finally got around to making some acceptable bread for breakfast. We've been eating Kashi and soy milk all week because I just haven't had a spare moment to bake. And that's been about as delicious as chowing on whole grain wheat crumbs first thing after waking up.

Breakfast is the only meal of the day where bread is allowed so I'm planning on enjoying it from here on out. Hopefully this bread is as tasty as it smells unfortunately I can't tell you just yet because I would break all the rules eating bread at near midnight.

I can tell you it looks very yummy and is quite dense. So if nothing else it will do a very good job at filling us up until lunch comes around. And almost anything tastes fabulous with sugar free jam on it so I'm optimistic.

Montignac Bread

3 cups of stoneground wholegrain wheat flour
1 cup of rolled wholegrain wheat or oat flakes
1 cup of crushed oat kernels (I used flax seed)
3 teaspoons of baking powder (I substituted 3/4 tsp baking soda and 1 1/2 tsp cream of tarter)
1 teaspoon of salt
3 cups of milk (I used one cup plain yogurt and 2 of milk)

Preheat the oven for 390. Stir the dry ingredients thoroughly together in a large bowl. Add the milk and mix well. The dough should be moist. Pour the batter into a large bread pan and let it bake for about 55 minutes. This makes a very dense bread that will not rise much at all.

Original recipe from a message board I've since managed to lose.