I hope you’ve been able to read my past blogs where I told you about the amazing course I’m taking taught by Dr. Annette Bosworth, author of “Anyway You Can” where she saved her dying 70-year old mother, choosing not to do any more chemo but opting for the ketogenic diet. Six years later her mom is not only still alive but cancer free and thriving!! Dr. Bosworth is an Internal Medicine Dr. treating head injuries, trauma and diseases, not to mention her heavy patient load of diabetes, obesity, heart problems and cancer. Treating her mom and researching the keto diet, she began treating her patients in her clinic and realizing she was reversing and even curing diseased patients with this lifestyle. Her book changed my whole outlook on the keto diet because she does such a thorough job of giving a precise continuum of the right way to do keto. She began a support group and continues to believe that the support group is the answer to success because everyone is different and have different results.
We have believed for decades a lot of wrong information like fat makes you fat, raises your cholesterol, causes disease, and we should eat anything but fat. So the food industry supplied us with shelves full of processed, sugar and bad oil-filled carbs. And those carbs, as Dr. Boz relates is like when you start a fire with pine needles, it catches on fire fast but burns out fast so you have to keep adding and restarting. Your body uses that glucose for energy and not only burns fast but you constantly need more for energy. And of course, as you refuel with more carbs, because you feel hungry and tired, you are adding more glucose hence more insulin. However, if you put a log on that fire, it will light slowly but surely and last long. This is how eating fat instead of carbs acts—it satiates, fills you up and once you have more fat than glucose, your body will use that fat to burn as energy. But then the magic starts happening! Sugar, processed carbs and grains cause inflammation; inflammation causes all kinds of disease, not to mention weight gain. When you get rid of those carbs and replace with fat, your body starts to heal and burn fat.
This is so much more than a diet, though you will lose weight. But that’s why I am excited to get my support group going to share all her videos and handouts. She just is a genius about HOW to do it so that you get into ketosis, burn fat and heal. I need YOUR support! It looks like we may need to start out on Zoom, and I’m trying to figure out how to not only host it but show the videos. So I will take any suggestions at LeaveittoLiz@aol.com. Hopefully after we get started, we can meet in person. If you have my cookbook, the Giant Empanadas are very popular. I turned them into keto by completely changing the crust. It makes 10 but when I finished filling them, I had at least half of the meat filling left, which I added a can of tomatoes and jalapenos (or you can use Rotel) and enough beef broth to make a soup. I’m calling it Empanada Soup! Enjoy!
Cheesy Beef Empanadas
Filling:
1 pound lean ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked pepper
Dough:
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup blanched almond flour
½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 large egg
For Filling: In a medium skillet over medium high heat, add the ground beef and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until cooked through. Add the garlic and remaining ingredients. Cook till browned; set aside to cool.
For the Dough: Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Have two large sheets of parchment ready.
In a microwave-safe bowl, mix together the mozzarella cheese and cream
cheese and heat for 1 – 1 ½ minutes until the cheese has melted. Add the
almond flour and mix together until all the ingredients come together.
Knead the dough until smooth, then divide into two pieces. Place one piece
of dough on a sheet of parchment. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to ¼
inch thick. Using a 4-inch round cookie cutter, but out 5 rounds of dough.
Repeat with the remaining piece of dough, you should have 10 rounds in
total. Place about 2 tablespoons of the filling in the center of a dough
circle and top it with 1 tablespoons of shredded cheese. Fold the dough
over to cover the filling and fold the ends inward to seal the empanada.
Repeat with the rest of the filling, cheese and dough. Place the empanadas
on the prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with 1 tbsp.
Water until frotherto make an egg wash. Brustthe empanadas with the egg
wash. Bake for 15 minutes, until the empanadas are golden brown.
Carbs: 4.8
This recipe came from a wonderful “Bake it Keto” cookbook by Jennifer
Marie Garza, edited.