Sip Blueberry-Mint Lemonade and nibble on strawberries while cooking up the rest of the brunch.

Low Carbers might want to choose Equal instead of Sweet 'N Low for the Blueberry-Mint Lemonade, The Tropical Fruit Bowl and the Creme Fraiche Dip as it has a less bitter taste. The aspartame in this one meal won't compromise your weight loss. Now before you all start complaining at the high carb counts for some of these dishes, this menu isn't intended to be low carb. On The UnDiet it isn't necessary to count or limit carbs, but since we do separate Proteins from Starches many low carbers come here for recipes, so I'm working to provide carb counts to make those recipes more usable for you all. And hey, you can always skip the lemonade and the fruit dishes and enjoy the Nutty Fruit Pancakes and Protein Crepes.

Vegetarians please substitute soy products for the meat called for in these recipes. I intended to write a seperate vegetarian menu but I ran out of time. Oh well - next year.

Blueberry-Mint Lemonade

10 carbs per cup when using Equal or equivalent sweetener. 33 carbs per cup when using unrefined sugar or honey.

Puree 1 pint blueberries with the juice from 5 lemons. Pour puree into a fine sieve set over a bowl. Discard pulp or save for your next fruit smoothie. Add 1½ cups Mint Syrup and 2 cups cold filtered water.

Mint Syrup

Bring 1 cup unrefined sugar, or 1/2 cup honey, and 2 bunches fresh mint, cut into 2-inch lengths, and 2¾ cups water to a boil over medium heat. Cook until the sugar/honey has completely dissolved, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Let stand 30 minutes. Pour into a fine sieve set over a bowl, and discard mint. This syrup can be refrigerated for up to 2 months.

Strawberries with Creme Fraiche Dip

10.5 carbs per 1/2 cup of strawberries + 1.65 for the 1/8 cup dip you'll use with the Fruit. This carb count depends on using Equal or an equivalent sweetener. If you use honey or Sucanat the carb count for the dip will be 9, with maple syrup 13.

The sugar may not dissolve at first, so let the finished dip rest 10 minutes then stir again.

In a small bowl, mix

1 cup creme fraiche or whipped heavy cream

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup unrefined sugar or 1/4 cup honey or pure maple syrup

This is enough dip for 4 cups of fruit.

Nutty Fruit Pancakes

Low Carbers should use soy flour and ricotta cheese which are lower in carbs. Use any Fruit or nut; the slight differences in carbs, when spread out over the entire recipe are minimal. This recipe makes 19 pancakes which contain 3 carbs each (each pancake should use 1/4 cup batter).

You can mix up this batter the day before and refrigerate until it's time to get out the griddle. If you don't have nut oil, you could use canola oil, you just won't have the rich flavor that the nut oil gives these pancakes.

Puree

6 eggs (or 3 whole eggs and 4 whites)

1 cup dry cottage cheese or ricotta cheese

1 cup fruit (chopped or sliced bananas, sliced and drained strawberries, drained blueberries, drained raspberries, drained boysenberries, chopped or sliced and drained peaches, chopped apples)

1/2 cup soy flour

1/2 cup toasted, chopped walnuts or pecans

1/4 cup nut oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cook both sides on well oiled medium hot griddle or saute pan.

Top with:

• real maple syrup with butter
• UnDiet Whipped Cream with roughly mashed berries folded in
• Banana Applesauce
• Brown Butter Syrup

Tropical Fruit Salad

28 carbs per cup when using honey, 25 carbs when using Equal or equivalent sweetener.

Place all fruit in a medium bowl.

1 cup honeydew melon scooped into balls with a melon baller

4 kiwis, peeled and sliced or scooped into balls

2 cups grapes

3 oranges, peeled and separated into sections with membranes removed

Mix 1/4 cup liqueur of choice, 2 tablespoons honey, and 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice. Pour over fruit mix. Refrigerate for two hours or overnight. Add 2 sliced bananas and toss lightly. Garnish with whole fresh mint leaves.

Fat Free Protein Crepes

1.5 grams carbohydrates per crepe. No need to adjust the carb count if you're using or not using the fresh herbs.

Fill these crepes with your choice of fillings - your own recipe or try the UnDiet crepe fillings.

2 cups soy flour

2 cups soy milk

2 egg whites or 1/4 cup liquid egg substitute

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

black pepper (optional)

1/4 cup fresh chives, parsley, cilantro, or finely diced onions - or 1 teaspoon of your favorite spice combination such as Italian, Mexican, Chinese 5-Spice ...

Blend the above ingredients with a fork or whisk, in a blender or food processor. Cover and let rest for at least 2 hours. It is absolutely necessary that you let the crepe batter rest for this period of time or it will just taste like scrambled eggs.

Melt enough:

butter

over medium high heat to coat bottom of small non-stick skillet. You can let the butter brown which I like to do as it gives a nice color to an egg-white crepe. Pour in just enough crepe batter to lightly coat the bottom of the skillet.  When top of crepe is dry slide the crepe off onto a plate. If using immediately keep the plate covered with a towel to keep the crepes warm.

Round out the menu with turkey bacon or turkey sausage.

F R E E Step By Step Weekly E-mail Weight Loss Program

TIP: type the word "recipe" after your search criteria, i.e. "chicken recipe" instead of just "chicken".

I love this search engine so much that I've almost abandoned my cookbooks. It's so much easier to just type in what I want and be given a page full of links to new recipes than to have to search through several cookbooks.