The godsends

Almonds are my new best friends. I have already embraced almond milk as a LOOOOOOW carb substitute for regular milk. I've talked about the almond milk cocoa but then I made low carb pudding with almond milk using jello sugar free pudding mix. Considering the sugar free pudding has like 7 grams of carbs using nonfat milk (which usually has 15 grams of carbs per 8 oz), it must have next to no carbs using almond milk (2 grams of carbs per 8 oz). While the pudding doesn't set well using almond milk, it's the consistency of creme anglaise. And that's a huge plus.

After scouring the diabetes message boards, I've found a new friend in almonds - almond meal. This is not surprising since Nigella uses almond meal quite regularly in place of flour. Almond meal is just ground up almonds that have been pulverized to the consistency of cornmeal. While the fat content is fairly high, the carb content is like next to nothing when you use Splenda. It can be used for any kind of batter. Last night I made a almond meal chocolate cake with Splenda and it tasted awesome. I loved the nutty flavor and I loved the texture of the almond meal. This "decadent" dessert was topped with the runny vanilla pudding. A total of 6 grams of carbs for the whole shebang. And this was a decent sized slice of cake.

Here's the recipe:

1/4 C almond
1 T Cocoa Powder
1/4 t Baking Powder
5 Packets Splenda


2 T Melted Butter
1 T Water
1 Egg

In 2-Cup Pyrex baking dish blend well top ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder, splenda). Add water, melted butter and egg. Blend thoroughly with fork. Microwave on high 2 minutes or until knife comes out clean. You may need to microwave it a bit more but that shouldn't be a problem. For additional cooking, microwave in 30 second increments. Cool a bit.