I personally have been on a low carb diet for health reasons for since early 2018 I’m not in it to loose weight, – even though it’s started like that. I wanted to shed a few pounds and found low carb diet is a quick enough solution for that.

So started eating cucumber and greens and maybe plain chicken, cheese and it was acceptable for a few weeks til the extra weight disappeared and started to notice significant changes in my health, in my everyday life, like I would wake up fresh and ready for the day ahead, I mean I WAKE UP because before then I would doze of in the night from extreme exhaustion but never had a proper sleep, I use to get out of the bed feeling like ready to collapse from tiredness.

So first and well noticeable benefit of blocking carbs/ sugars/ gluten out of life was the sleep I finally had and as the result of a good night sleep I had a lot more energy and I enjoyed my life.

Second and probably the best result was that my thyroid stopped playing up. I had an overactive thyroid which would swell up to a point when it was difficult to swallow food ( that’s how it started symptoms wise, I thought I had something stuck in my throat, it was difficult to send down the food) then bloating disappeared as well as my reflux . The dark circles vanished from under my eyes and I looked 10 years younger ( according to my fiancé). I felt so much better. I felt physically and mentally well after no longer consuming sugar and carbohydrates or preservatives…

BUT and there is that ‘BUT I was HUNGRY FOR SWEETS ALL THE TIME.’

…and I don’t mean I was craving sugar but I was craving desserts, not even too sweet stuff but cakes and breads and cookies and buns and chocolate and so on and so on.

Back to the struggle I faced in low carb baking…

 

• Hard to find ingredients
• Difficult to succeed with results
• And then, life hit me that craving even harder.

It was then when I got pregnant with my second daughter (another vote for low carb diet as I couldn’t conceive for over a year before that), the cravings got on the top of me and every time I had something, which I’d say, the baby wanted and it wasn’t low carb or sugar free or artificial ingredient free, I instantly felt how badly all of it used to affect me. Making matters worse, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes  and then I really wanted all the cakes I couldn’t have. So trust me, I feel your pain so I decided to put the apron on and started to adjust low carb recipes or KETO recipes to make them suitable for my taste or dietary needs.  I am not on strict KETO, I don’t watch my macros, I go with my gut feeling , literally.

 

I eat what makes me feel good, I eat fibre, I eat healthy fats, I eat prebiotic and anything that satisfies my sweet tooth and supports gut health in the same time.  And so, the idea came to me to share my recipes and product to like minded (like dieting) people around me. I started to sell my cakes, buns and breads occasionally at markets or people can come and collect from my home. I began as a HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) registered home baker and absolutely love meeting and chatting with my customers. It’s  brilliant to get instant feedback, when I offer little tasters at fairs and you see the surprise on your customer’s faces as I’m sure they have similar experience just like I had with some sugar free products.  When they read my little sign beside the tasters I offer saying…

 

• Sugar free
• Gluten free
• Low carb/ KETO
• No artificial sweeteners
• No artificial colouring
• No preservatives

But made with…

• good healthy fats
• Dietary fibre
• Natural sweeteners
• prebiotics and LOVE.

Suitable for Coeliacs, Diabetics, anyone following Keto diet or just wants to cut out sugar or preservatives.

People in general expect my products to taste like sandpaper, I guess?
But I love seeing the surprise on their faces, when they realise these actually taste like the “real stuff” 🥰.

I wanted to get these healthy bakes into Your kitchen, but I had to realise I just wouldn’t have the time and I’m sort of geographically limited too, so came up with a solution for you. I have created a dry versatile sweet mix, a versatile savoury dry mix a spicy mix, and a KETO Bread mix for your home use, to make your “free from” baking easier and more enjoyable. Simply by changing your wet ingredients you can create a handful of different sweet or savoury treats to your own taste. Since I wrote this I have expanded my product range, and I’m now happy to a say that, you can also buy the ingredients that are hard to find within Ireland, like sweeteners, fibres that are essential for low carb baking. Please visit the webshop to browse from the mixes and other ready mix products. Click here

 

So you will find recipes for confectionary products and you can also find The Best Free From versatile SWEET base mix and versatile SAVOURY mix and recipe ideas how to use them for sponge cake, cup cakes, swiss rolls, waffles, pancakes, cookies, pie crust and to make your bread rolls, wraps, bagels, crackers or pizza crust. I am working on more recipes to use these dry mixes with, to make your home baking an easier task and give you enjoyable, tasty and most importantly, healthy home made foods to put on your table .

 

I’m going to give you as much information as possible about the ingredients I use and links to find them. Conversion charts, nutritional value information and any interesting facts, I have gathered in the past years. I would invite you to my social media pages so you can get daily ideas and please leave a comment below if you have any suggestions for recipes or ingredients you like to see here.

 

Thank you, & all the best,

 

Timea Kovacs.