We focus on your experience, and on the treats and food we serve. We offer food designed to fuel the most demanding back country tours, skiing and snowboarding trips.
This Christmas we prepared Keto (read more about the Ketogenic Diet) treats but wanted to explain why we have decided to offer this kind of snack option, and provide our background and experience so you can see why we like it! We also included a couple recipes further down so you can try making some of these delicious snacks yourself! We were also asked to post them by our guests since they liked them so much!
As anyone in our inner circle can tell you, my dear husband, Back-Country Sled Guide Lorne Alcock (aka Dewey) has spent a good portion of his life suffering asthma attacks, eczema, psoriasis and a host of other health problems.
He would feel good for a period of time and then suddenly he would be sick, (seemingly) without a namable trigger. For many years there were no real clear answers as to what the cause was, and over-time he became so accustomed to the suffering that he accepted it as his normal way of life.
January 2012 was rock bottom for him…
Despite repeated visits to the clinic and to the Emergency room at Queen Victoria Hospital; Revelstoke’s medical community had little to offer by way of answers. He chewed Reactin and Claritin like they were candy and, several times a day, inhaled the strongest steroids available on the market. Nothing helped. It was going on three weeks and, in spite of his doctors’ best efforts he could not draw a full breath. A 60% lung capacity was highest he scored.
He arrived at a point where ascending the single flight of stairs at Base Camp Guest House was a challenge, and any sort of Snowmobiling (or Back-Country Guiding) was completely out of the question. He lay on the couch, coughing and wheezing, and struggling to draw a full breath in the middle of sledding season, in the best snow year in recent memory.
As the snow piled up, his friends would text him, and his answer was always the same, “sry bud, 2 sick”.
Guests of the neighbouring businesses of Revelstoke’s Upper West Side, would hammer the throttle as they headed for the Boulder Mountain West Trail Entrance, and each time they did, he would catapult from his position on the couch to check out their machine as they went ripping by. He would manage to catch a glimpse of them disappearing around the corner, before collapsing back in a fit of uncontrollable coughing and wheezing brought on by the sudden movement.
For an avid out-doorsman and Back-Country Guide, this was a real life version of the 7th circle of hell.
What we didn’t know at the time, was that like kryptonite to Superman, the innocuous sesame seed was poison to the mighty Dewey. Certain foods, like, wheat, dairy, corn, peanuts, shellfish, eggs and soy, are known to cause a reaction in a higher percentage of the general population then many other foods…. these we knew to look out for, but sesame? What the actual F?
As the wife of Dewey (and the only person who shops for groceries, or does any sort of food preparation in the house) it is solely my responsibility to not poison my husband; and in January of 2012 I failed miserably. I was buying warehouse packs of Sesame Snaps (the kind with the honey) and carting them home to my poor, precious Dewey to munch on between meals. Little did I know that I was the sole cause of his distress.
At this point in the story one might reason that, yes, the wife was bringing home poisonous food for the husband. She might have known better… or figured it out sooner. But on the other hand, who eats warehouse packs of ANYTHING? 1 or 2 packages maybe, but warehouse packs?
And the answer is Dewey.
Dewey eats warehouse packs of things. If the wife orders a half side of beef, or a whole bison, or a Berkshire pig, Dewey will work his way through it in the same amount of time it would normally take an entire family of four. Dewey, would admittedly eat the ass out of a rotting moose carcass if someone would douse it with a little BBQ Sauce and sear the outside.
But I digress.
The moral of the story is that we watch what eat eat around here and come up with creative ways to feed Dewey the foods he enjoys (like these Base Camp Guest House Keto Christmas Treats), without landing him in the hospital.
We like him. And especially like him when he’s doing what he does best, which is Braaping around in the Revelstoke Back-Country, picking gnarly lines and finding the best snow for our out-of-town guests.
After 37 years of “medical experts” prescribing medication to mask the symptoms, we have dietary changes for the WIN!
Dewey has tossed all of the puffers and pills and creams that he no longer needs. Costco sized boxes of Reactin and Claritin have become a thing of the past and his lungs serve him at 100% capacity, 100% of the time.
Revelstoke Cabins and Base Camp Guest House Keto Christmas Treats
Coconut Bottom
2 Cups Shredded Coconut
or 1.5 Cups coconut Manna from the Jar
1 Cup Almond Flour
1/4 Cup Coconut oil, Melted
1/2 tsp Pink Salt
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Can Coconut Cream
Your favourite Sweetener
To keep it ketogenic, I used Powdered Monk Fruit and Yacon Syrup to taste. (Coconut Sugar, Maple Syrup or honey would be great!)
Chocolate Top
1/4 Cup Cacao Butter
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Powdered Monk Fruit Sweetener
Alternative: Coconut Sugar, honey, maple syrup
1/2 Cup Powdered Coco
1/4 Cup Whole Pecans
- Roast the Pecans in the Oven (325F for about 10 minutes) They burn fast so keep an eye on them as not all ovens are the same temperature.
- Add the “Coconut Top” Ingredients to a Food Processor with an S Blade. Blend until the consistency is mushy but thick enough to shape with your hands.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. Dump “Coconut Topping” ingredients onto the sheet and working with your hands, press together and shape into bite size squares. (I find it faster to roll a small amount into a ball and then form it into a square.
Too Runny? Add more Almond Flour. Too Thick? Add more Coconut Oil.
- Chill squares in Freezer.
- Add all ingredients for the “Chocolate Top” (except the powdered cocoa), to a small sauce pot. Melt on a low/med heat.
- Once Melted, whisk in the powdered cocoa and reduce heat to the lowest setting to keep warm.
- Remove “Coconut Top” from freezer and spoon a small amount of melted chocolate onto each one.
- Press a pecan into the chocolate and return to the baking sheet.
- If there is leftover chocolate you can pour it over top of the pecans …or use it in your morning coffee … or eat it straight from the pot, which is what might happen at my house.
- Chill to set the chocolate and then Enjoy!
These little treats are best kept cold. They are a great winter when you’re ready to come back to our log cabins after a cold winter’s day. Just one note, they can be a little too melty to bring to a beach.