Meatballs Roma and Italian Focaccia

Tonight's "Multiply Meal" was Meatballs Roma, a tantalizing Italian style meatball topped with a touch of tomato sauce. They make the house smell divine while they are cooking as the scents of garlic and oregano waft through the air.

For sides, I added green beans topped with some tomato sauce and cheese. Those were easy, since I used canned beans and simply zapped them in the microwave. The salad was the bagged variety this week, so leftover vinaigrette topped that. All that was left was the desire for a garlic bread. It smells too good if I make it for the carby boys and not the rest of us. So, I decided to experiment with making a Focaccia that would fit within our carb limits. My first attempt looked great, had excellent texture, but lacked the garlic taste I was looking for. Here is my starter recipe:

Low Carb Focaccia Bread

1/4 cup flax meal
1/4 cup pecan meal
1/4 cup protein powder (I used vanilla, having seen other recipes use it for savory baked goods)
1/8 cup soy flour or other flour substitute
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup water
2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix well. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes to thicken up. Line a small cake pan or toaster oven pan with parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan, spreading until even. Bake at 350 degrees until browned on the top. Mine took about 15 minutes. Cut into breadstick strips. Serves 8.

These looked great, and were soft and puffy. Unfortunately, the garlic and herbs did not come through as strongly as the sweetness of the protein powder. If you have an unflavored protein powder, this recipe is probably fine as is. If you want double duty from your vanilla protein powder, however, plan to add more flavoring. To counter the sweetness, I melted one tablespoon of butter, and added a teaspoon of garlic powder and another 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning. I topped the cut bread sticks with the butter mixture and then with a touch of cheese. These, I toasted in the toaster oven. Much better!

You may choose to do as I did, and add more flavoring to the top, or you could add more garlic and herbs to the original batter. I think it would also be good to leave the garlic out entirely, and add more sweetener and cinnamon. That would make a treat very similar to the cinnamon sticks at pizza places. After you melt some butter over them, that is.

If you have any focaccia sticks leftover, they would be great cubed and dried slowly in the oven for use as croutons.