If you have read my last few posts, then you know that Drew and I gave up carbs for Lent. Almost all foods have a few grams of carbohydrates in them at least, so it is impossible to completely give up carbs, but we are trying to stay away from the biggies — flour, oats, cereals, pastas, potatoes, etc. The last few days have been pretty hard, I won’t lie. I now realize that I might be slightly addicted to carbohydrate-rich foods. This diet is easier to handle when we cook completely at home, but it is really hard when eating out. It is hard to tell the waitress that you can’t have all the carbs that come with your meal (that you will be paying for anyway!). Try eating Chinese food with no rice!

Anyway, after a few days of fighting off carbs, I got smart. Why not try some virtually carb-free substitutions for the foods we love? After a little internet research, I’ve found tons of recipes for low carb breads, biscuits, pizza crusts, etc. These 40 days of Lent might not be so bad after all.

For breakfast this morning, I tried a recipe I found for low carb gluten free biscuits and they turned out delicious! They are slightly different that your typical flour biscuit. They have a more similar texture, density, and slight taste to cornbread. Although a little bit fluffier than cornbread. They are also more like drop biscuits.

Behold:

One regular flour biscuit has roughly 28 grams of carbohydrates. Want to know how many these low carb biscuits here have? 2.5 grams per biscuit! Those are some serious carb savings!

Here is how you make them:

Low Carb Gluten Free Biscuits
original recipe from here.

Makes four biscuits.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted organic butter or nonhydrogenated shortening
1 cup plus two tablespoons of finely ground blanched almond flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
2 egg whites

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

1. Cut cold butter or shortening into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until butter is in pea sized chunks.
2. Chill mixture in fridge 5-10 minutes. The colder your butter is, the fluffier your biscuits will be.
3. Separate egg whites from yolks. Whisk egg whites in a bowl for 20 seconds or until no longer stringy and gloopy. You want them to be slightly foamy.
4. Remove mixture from fridge and whisk in the egg whites. The dough will be extremely runny with chunks of the almond mixture.
5. Pour into well greased muffin cups (edges stick really badly, so make sure they are definitely well greased) and get it in the hot oven before the butter softens.
6. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

They taste great plain, with butter and honey, or with jam. Visit the original recipe here for garlic cheddar, parmesan herb and sweet cinnamon variations.