300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes (61 page)

Yield:
4 servings of 2 halves, each with 12 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 10 grams of usable carbs and 9 grams of protein.

I adore
pink grapefruit
, and since I've gone low-carb, it tastes really sweet to me! Grapefruit is higher in carbs than berries are but still pretty okay: 1/2 medium grapefruit has 10.4 grams of carbohydrates and 1.4 grams of fiber, for a total of 9 grams of usable carbs. If you'd like to spiff up that grapefruit a little, you could sprinkle it with Splenda, or as many people have suggested to me, Brown Sugar Twin. Personally, I drizzle my grapefruit with 1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses, which adds 1 scant gram of carbohydrates. I love the warm brown flavor of the molasses contrasted with the cool, sharp flavor of the grapefruit.

Broiled Grapefruit

This is a classic sort of recipe.

1/2 grapefruit

1/2 teaspoon butter (optional)

Splenda

A touch of blackstrap molasses, if you like

Ground cinnamon (optional)

Loosen the sections of the grapefruit by running a sharp, thin-bladed knife around each one. Sprinkle with the sweetener of your choice, plus cinnamon if you like, and broil a few inches (7.5 to 10 cm) from the flame for 10 minutes.

Yield:
1 serving, with 10.4 grams of carbohydrates and 1.4 grams of fiber, for a total of 9 grams of usable carbs from the grapefruit. Splenda has 0.5 grams of carbohydrates per teaspoon. Blackstrap has 1 gram of carbohydrates per 1/4 teaspoon—and it's so strong-flavored you won't want to use more than this!

Melon is a great low-carb dessert, and it's very nutritious. If you'd like to fancy it up a bit, sprinkle it with a little lime juice mixed with Splenda and ginger to taste or top it with the
Fast Strawberry Orange Sauce
(see
page 331
)—but it's really a fine dessert as-is.

• 1/8 of a medium
cantaloupe
has 8.4 grams of carbohydrates and 0.8 grams of fiber, for a total of 7.6 grams of usable carbs.

• 1/8 of a medium
honeydew
has 9.2 grams of carbohydrates and 0.6 grams of fiber, for a total of 8.6 grams of usable carbs.

• 1 cup (173 g) of frozen
melon balls
has 8 grams of carbohydrates and 0.7 grams of fiber, for a total of 7.3 grams of usable carbs.

• 1 cup (150 g) diced
watermelon
has 11 grams of carbohydrates and 0.8 grams of fiber, for a total of 10.2 grams of usable carbs.

• One medium-size
nectarine
has 11.8 grams of carbohydrates and 1.6 grams of fiber, for a total of 10.2 grams of usable carbs.

• One medium
peach
has 11.1 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 9.1 grams of usable carbs.

• One medium
plum
has 13.1 grams of carbohydrates and 1.5 grams of fiber, for a total of 11.6 grams of usable carbs.

• 1 medium fresh
fig
has 9.6 grams of carbohydrates and 1.6 grams of fiber, for a total of 8 grams of usable carbs.

Speedy Low-Carb Peach Melba

This is a short-cut, no-sugar-added version of a very famous dessert—and it's scrumptious! You can use fresh peaches in this, if you'd prefer, but unlike the frozen ones, you'll have to peel and slice them, which may take you over the 15-minute time limit.

2 cups (500 g) frozen, sliced, no-sugar-added peaches

1/4 cup (60 ml) lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon orange extract

1/2 cup (12 g) Splenda

1 cup raspberries—(125 g) fresh or (250 g) frozen with no sugar added

4 tablespoons (28 g) toasted slivered almonds (optional)

Don't bother to thaw the frozen peaches. Put them in a microwaveable bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons (28 ml) of the lemon juice, the orange extract, and half of the Splenda, and pour it over them. Cover (I just lay a plate on top) and microwave on High for 5 to 7 minutes or until tender right through.

While the peaches are poaching, put the raspberries, the remaining 2 tablespoons (28 ml) of lemon juice, and the remaining Splenda in your food processor with the S-blade in place. Pulse a few times until everything is puréed together.

When the peaches are done, divide between 4 small serving dishes and divide the raspberry sauce between them. Sprinkle each dish with a tablespoon (7 g) of almonds, if desired. Serve.

Yield:
4 servings, each with 17 grams of carbohydrates and 4 grams of fiber, for a total of 13 grams of usable carbs and 1 gram of protein. Add the optional almonds and each serving has 19 grams of carbohydrates and 5 grams of fiber, for a total of 14 grams of usable carbs and 3 grams of protein.

This also has a mere 68 calories, every one of them nutritious.

Low-carbohydrate chocolate or other sugar-free candy
. This stuff gets better all the time and is now widely available. Since sugar-free candy is polyol-sweetened, it does technically have carbs in it, but the amount that most of you will absorb will be quite low. Still, both because of the possibility of more carb absorption than the labels let on and because of possible gastric distress, go easy, okay? My husband and I will often split a 1.5 ounce (43 g) sugar-free dark chocolate bar for dessert; this strikes me as plenty.

Sugar-free cocoa
, made from mix. Read the labels on all the brands available at your grocery store—in mine, Swiss Miss Diet is the lowest in carbs, at 4 grams per cup (235 ml).

No-Sugar-Added Ice Cream.
The no-sugar ice cream is pretty darned good. My favorite is the brand called Dreyer's in the West and Edy's in the East, but Breyer's also makes one, and my grocery store even has a house brand of no-sugar-added ice cream. This stuff does still have usable, absorbable carbs in it—the lactose in the milk it was made from—so go
easy.
A “serving” is 1/2 cup (70 g), not a half a carton! The carb counts vary some, so
read your labels.

No-Sugar-Added Ice Pops.
The Popsicle company makes a sugar-free variety, and they're among your lowest-carb prepared desserts—just 3 grams per pop and only 15 calories. So if you're a Popsicle fan, your dessert problems are solved! They're available in two assortments, either orange, cherry, and grape or the new tropical flavors, Caribbean fruit punch, Hawaiian pineapple, and tropical orange.

No-Sugar-Added Fudge Pops.
No-sugar-added Fudgsicles taste just like the Fudgsicles of your youth—really, they do. Looking at the Popsicle company Website, they say these have 19 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber per serving, which sounds like you're going to get a prohibitive 18 grams of carbs. But 3 grams are “sugar alcohols,” aka polyols, so you can subtract them out, too, leaving 15 grams. Then you take a look at the “serving size”—which is two pops, not one. So if you eat one pop—which is what I'd be likely to do—you'll get 7.5 grams of usable carbs. And
that
fits into your low-carb diet!

There are also store brands of sugar-free fudge pops around; I know that Kroger—the biggest grocery chain in the United States—has one. Make sure to read the labels to find the true usable carb count and don't forget to look at the serving size.

Sugar-Free Gelatin.
It takes more than 15 minutes to make gelatin, if you count the chilling time, but Jell-O, for one, makes prepared sugar-free gelatin in plastic cups with peel-off tops; look for them under the name “Jell-O Snacks.” If you like gelatin, this could be a handy item to keep in the pantry.

Sugar-Free Instant Pudding.
Mix this with half heavy cream, half water to eliminate half of the carbs that using milk would add. If you do this before sitting down to dinner and set it in the refrigerator to chill, it should be at least passably thickened by the time dessert rolls around. According to my calculations, using the sugar-free instant pudding I have in the pantry, this would come to 8 grams of carbohydrates per serving.

Smoothies are hugely popular, super-quick both to make and to consume, and it's easy to load in a meal's worth of protein. I wrote a smoothies book, but sadly several of the ingredients I used most in that book have since disappeared from most markets. So I thought it would be nice to include a selection of smoothies in this book. One of my best discoveries in recent years has been that cottage cheese makes great, creamy low carb smoothies, so I've included it in several of these recipes.

Mexican Chocolate Smoothie