Sofia's take on 'Sweet Potato and Cinnamon Crumpets'

(Photo taken by Sofia)

This is really great breakfast option when you're need a brief reprieve from the usual paleo eggs and bacon. It's not strictly LCHF (because of the sweet potato) but at our house my mum and I have decided it's a once a week Sunday morning special. I also took left overs to university (I'm an honours economics student) - sprinkled some more cinnamon and packed it into my lunch box with some chopped strawberries. Delicious but they will always be best hot out of the frying pan. Check out the list of ideas for LCHF toppings at the end of this recipe and come up with your own to post on our site!

This recipe could not be simpler. I found it on a great website: Low Carb Diet News but have altered it a bit to make it more LCHF friendly.

Total Time to Make: 30 minutes

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 1 small sweet potato
• 2 large eggs
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• Coconut oil
• Dash of salt

Optional:

• Dash of ginger
• Dash of nutmeg (recommended)

Directions

1. Wash sweet potato and peel it. Cut it into small cubes.
2. Steam sweet potato until very soft. You can do this on the stove in a pot with some hot water (this is more time consuming). Or you can do this in the microwave (with a little bit of water, and covered tightly) for about 5 minutes.
3. Using a fork, mash the sweet potato well.
4. In a bowl, whisk eggs with a fork until frothy.
5. Add in the mashed sweet potato and mix well.
6. Add baking soda, cinnamon, salt and any of the optional ingredients. Incorporate all the ingredients into a smooth, well-mixed batter.
7. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.
8. Add just enough coconut oil to cover the bottom. (if you pan is a good non-stick you won't need this much)
9. Drop batter in spoonfuls into the skillet, making a crumpet shape.
10. Cook 2-3 minutes or until cooked. Flip and cook on other side 2-3 minutes.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 for the entire batch.
12. Top with almond butter, fruits or nuts. (be sure to avoid honey & maple syrup)

LCHF ideas for toppings

1. Butter (lots!)
2. Bacon (yes!)
3. Chopped fresh strawberries (or cooked from frozen)
4. Cream (double thick obviously)
5. Fried eggs
6. Peanut butter 

Raspberries, Lightly Toasted Hazelnuts and Crème Fraîche: breakfast (quick and perfect for on the go)

When I was working in an office for years I struggled with a breakfast that I could take with me to eat after going to the gym. Soggy fried eggs and bacon in a tupperware does not appeal to me! This is great for a tupperware and I also regularly eat this at home if I want a break from the daily fried eggs and bacon.

Ingredients:
6 -8 raspberries
15 raw hazelnuts (skin on)
2 big dollops of creme fraiche
1 teaspoon of desiccated coconut

Recipe:
Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C and scatter your hazelnuts on to a baking tray. I usually do far more than needed here as you can store them for all your breakfasts that week and even freeze them. Put them in the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes or until the skins have darkened and are flaking away from the nuts. You do not want to cook them too much, this is why I prefer to do it myself as opposed to buying ready-roasted hazelnuts.

Once the nuts have been removed from the oven place them in a tea-towel and rub them firmly to remove most of the skins. Then allow them to cool before adding them to a bowl (or tupperware) of the fresh washed raspberries and creme fraiche, sprinkle your desiccated coconut on top.

Creme fraiche is very high fat is a more suitable in this recipe than yogurt. You can replace the raspberries with strawberries or other berries.

Olivia's "I'm already sweet enough" extra high fat Chocolate, Pecan and Coffee bites

As a 26 year old MA student much of my life revolves around sustaining study energy. These little high fat rich chocolate treats are perhaps more friendly to the non-LCHF tastebuds than 85%/90% chocolate as they are laced with delicious pecans and ground coffee. The coffee and chocolate combination gives me a second wind when trying to finish off that last chapter of art theory.

Ingredients:
180g high quality 85% chocolate (you can go as dark as you like or as low as 70% if you don't mind the sugar content)
100g unsalted butter (preferably from grass-fed cows)
1 tablespoon of raw coconut oil
15 pecan nuts (you can use more if you like it really nutty)
1-2 teaspoons of ground strong coffee (put less in if you are sensitive to coffee!)

To make the bites: Begin by snapping the pecans in pieces (approximately quarters) into a small frying pan. Place the frying pan on a medium heat and cook the pecans for about 3 minutes or until then start to go dark brown in places, tossing regularly. Once they have been cooked place to one side.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a medium saucepan with all of the butter and coconut oil. Heat these at a very low heat stirring continuously, it is important that the chocolate does not burn. Once the chocolate, butter and coconut oil have melted together turn the stove off and remove half of the mixture and set to one side.

Add the cooked pecans and the ground coffee to the remaining mixture in the saucepan and stir through. Then pour this into a small dish (one that you can use a knife on) and then top this with the other half of the chocolate, butter and coconut oil mixture. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Once you are sure they are set cut them into small pieces and remove from tray. If I'm not demolishing them on my own I usually serve them after a dinner party with fresh strawberries and raspberries to cut through the richness. Due to the high butter content they melt quickly.