Pumpkin Muffins

I love fall and I love pumpkin. And I love these muffins. I originally got the recipe from a friend of mine at the Primal Kitchen, but after I moved, I lost my copy of the recipe, so I had to improvise. Here's what I did, and they came out delicious. Mmmm. Seriously, they are so yummy. I could eat these muffins every day.

Measure and mix the dry ingredients:

• 300g almond flour (2.5 cups)
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2t baking powder
• 1t cinnamon
• 1/2t nutmeg
• 1/2t cloves
• 1/2t ginger

Add the wet ingredients and mix until everying is combined:

• 3 eggs
• 84g honey (1/4c)
• 200g pumpkin puree (about half a can of the smaller can size, 1 3/4 c)

Pour batter into greased muffin tins. I don't use paper liners because they tend to stick to the muffin too much and then I lose half of the delicious tastiness... or I look like fool scraping the muffin bits off of the paper with my teeth...). Bake the muffins at 325F for 23-25minutes.

Red Velvet Pancakes

Even though I think red velvet is just the most recent food trend and I'm sure that in a decade everyone will make fun of it like they do about fondue (which I also love!!!), I still really love the craze. I tried red velvet pancakes for the first time at a local restaurant and immediately became obsessed. However, $15 for a stack of brightly dyed pancakes just seems wrong, especially when yummy pancakes are so easy to make at home. So, here's my version: not healthy at all, but requested multiple times by the pancake-hating hubby, so they must be good :)

Red Velvet Pancakes

1 c flour

1/3 c sugar

1/8 t salt

1 t baking soda

2 T cocoa

1 c buttermilk

2 T melted butter

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1 T red food coloring

For Frosting

4oz cream cheese

1/4c powdered sugar

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together in a searate bowl. Slowly add the wet into the dry, mixing until just incorporated.

Cook like standard pancakes, but at a lower temperature so the sugar doesn't burn. I cooked mine over medium-low heat for about 2 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, beat the frosting ingredients together until smooth. To serve, spread a thin layer of frosting between three pancakes, cut the sandwich in half, and add a dollop of frosting and some toasted pecans on top to garnish.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Buffalo wings are one of my favorite things to eat, but they are
terrible for you! I found the idea for this recipe in the Best 30
Minute Recipes cookbook from America's Test Kitchen, but they use blue
cheese dressing and fried chicken strips. Instead, I used chicken
breasts and light ranch dressing. It is so delicious and very simple
to make!

Buffalo Chicken Salad
(2 servings)
4 c salad greens
2 carrots, chopped
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 c Frank's Original Hot Sauce
1 1/2 t brown sugar
1 t cider vinegar
1/2 T butter
4 T ranch dressing

Spread the lettuce out between 2 plates, and sprinkle half the carrots
over each.

Cut the chicken into 1/2-inch pieces and cook in a skillet sprayed
with nonstick spray until it is no longer pink. Mix in all of the
remaining ingredients except the ranch dressing, and stir until the
sauce is combined and evenly coats the chicken.

Scatter half the chicken on top of each salad, and top with 2 T of
Ranch dressing. Mmmmm!

A veggie rice substitute

Instead of pouring my curry over rice tonight, I sliced up a zucchini
with the French fry attachment on my mandoline. Then I steamed it in
the microwave for about a minute, and had an excellent rice
replacement. And it takes much less time to cook than rice, too.

Protein Waffles

I made these this morning with my new supply of gemma pea protein powder. I've mentioned before how I really like this kind of protein powder for baking with, because it's really floury in texture. It's nasty in shakes (chalky and thick!) but great in baked goods. It does absorb more liquid than flour, so if you use it, you'll probably need to increase the liquid ingredients a little, or add some extra water. In the waffles, I actually couldn't tell that they were protein-y and not just regular waffles.

So, here's the recipe:
Protein Waffles
Makes 4 waffles, 163 Cal, 4g fat, 17g carb, 13g protein

1/2 c flour (60g)
1/2 c gemma pea protein powder (40g)
1 T cornmeal
pinch of salt
1/4 t baking soda

3/4c skim milk + 1/2 T vinegar (to make sour milk)
1T butter, melted
1 egg, separated
pinch of cream of tartar

Preheat your waffle iron. Mix the milk and vinegar together and set aside to sour while you prepare everything else. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Separate the egg, and beat the egg white with the cream of tartar until stiff. Add the egg yolk and melted butter to the milk mixture and combine. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Spray the waffle iron with nonstick spray, then spoon batter into it. I cooked mine for about 3 minutes, but your iron may be different.

MMMM!

Zucchini Lasagna

Another pasta-less idea, using veggies instead of noddles, this time
inspired by the March/April issue of Clean Eating magazine. I changed
the recipe a little to make it less soupy. If you like this, you
should try spaghetti squash instead of noodles, too.

Nutrition: 235 Cal, 6g fat, 17g carb, 29g protein (based on my tomato
sauce)

1 lb ground beef, browned and rinsed
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 small onion, diced
3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/4" thick
1 jar spaghetti sauce ( I used Trader Joes Organic with Mushrooms, 25oz)
2 c low fat cottage cheese
1 egg
3oz mozarella, divided and shredded

Cook, drain, and rinse the ground beef and set aside. While the beef
is browning, steam the zucchini slices until soft, about 3 minutes.
Set the slices aside and let them cool slightly.

Spray your pan with non-stick spray and sauté the onion until
translucent, then add the garlic and cook for one more minute. Mix in
the beef and the whole jar of tomatoes sauce.

In another bowl, combine 1oz shredded mozzarella cheese, the egg, and
the cottage cheese.

Gently squeeze the steamed zucchini to remove excess water, then layer
1/3 of the slices on the bottom of a 9x9 pan. Spread half of the
cheese mixture over the zucchini, then add half of the sauce mixture.
Make another zucchini layer, followed the another cheese and sauce
layer. Finally, layer the remaining 1/3 of the zucchini over the top,
and spread the rest of the shredded mozzarella over everything. Bake
for about 30 minutes, until the cheese on top is melted and slighly
browned. Mmmmm.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

One of my favorite cookies is a bar cookie that my mom made when I was
a kid. They are an oatmeal and peanut butter bar, covered with a layer
of melted chocolate chips. Mmm! I love love love those cookies!

I decided that I should try to healthy them up, since a stick of
butter and 2 cups of sugar in the recipe means you can only have one
bite if you're trying to be good :( Now, I'm not going to lie: the
following recipe is tasty, for a protein bar, but it's not even close
to being as yummy as the real thing. I do like them, though, and they
will satisfy my chocolate-peanut craving for now :)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
Mix together:
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c splenda
1/4 c apple sauce
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 egg white

When the above are combined, add:
1/4 c almond meal
1/2 c old fashioned rolled oats
2 scoops protein powder (60g total)
1/8 teaspoon salt

Mix until everything is well-combined. Pour into a greased 9x9 pan and
bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes. Don't over bake them or they'll be hard
and yucky. It should be just barely set, but not dry.

Spread 2 oz (4T) of chocolate chips over the top of the hot bars and
let them melt for about 10 minutes. Spread the melted chips over the
top of the bars with a knife. Allow them to cool completely (if you
can wait...hehe). I cut them into 8 bars. Mmmm.

Nutrition: 160 Cal, 7g fat, 1g sat fat, 17g carbs, 9g protein

Spaghetti Squash....for spaghetti!

Just in case you haven't tried this yet, you should: spaghetti squash instead of actual spaghetti. Yep, just put it right under your regular spaghetti sauce or whatever you usually put on your pasta. It's a perfect way to add another serving of veggies to your meal and to eliminate a huge portion of starchy, processed, insulin-spiking carbs from your meal.

It's super easy to make. Just cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and strings, and bake it at 400F for about an hour. Let it cool enough to handle, then scrape out the innards with a fork. It naturally forms noodle-like strands as you scrape it. And, it has practically no flavor of its own, so it doesn't add or detract from the flavor of your sauce.

I consider this to be a pretty much perfect sub for pasta. Especially compared to other carb-less options like Shiritaki noodles (yuk, yuk, yuk!!).

Protein Bar Secret Ingredient

I've tried tons of homemade protein bar recipes, and usually they're kinda dry and weird tasting and definitely not as delicious as a brownie, which is what I'd really prefer to eat. But I recently found a new, magical ingredient that makes protein bars taste more like real, live cookies/brownies/bars, etc, and less like crumbly, weird protein smash: gemma protein! It's new (I think), and is extracted from peas. DO NOT make the mistake of using this for a shake - it is chalky, powdery, and nasty! BUT, because it is so much more like flour than whey protein, it works extremely well in protein bar recipes and gives it that magical, flour-based consistency. I got mine from TrueProtein.com, where it is super cheap (one of the most affordable forms of protein powder out there). I have found that you need to add more water - about tablespoon per scoop of protein to make the recipes suitable moist. Just fair warning. If you try it, let me know what you think!

World's easiest omelet

This takes less than 5 minutes to cook and comes out perfectly every
time.

Spray a small frying pan with non-stick spray and turn on the heat to
medium low. Add 1-2c of veggies of your choice (I always use spinach
and sometimes throw in other stuff too), 1/2c egg substitute, and top
off with some sliced cheese. Now cover the whole thing, set a timer
for 4 min, and come back when it beeps. Fold it in half and slide it
onto your plate. Mmmmm.

Favorite Healthy Cookbooks

I was looking in my cookbook cupboard yesterday, and I saw a whole section dedicated to "healthy" books. I thought I'd share my favorites here.

Eating for Life: This was my first healthy cookbook, and is still one of my favs. I love that each recipe isn't just a recipe, it's a whole meal. Bill has already planned out your veggies and carbs along with the main dish. It makes planning dinner really easy. Plus, every single one of the dinners in the book are delicious. Seriously, every one.

The South Beach Diet Cookbook: This is a newer one of mine, but has some really yummy recipes, too. I like that it has lots of photos of the food (but not every dish is pictured, boo). There are lots of yummy side dishes in here.

The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook: I love all the photos in this book, and the simplicity of most of the recipes. Tosca is so fun, too. Her personality really comes across in this, which is funny, since it's a cookbook. :)

Green Smoothie

I was surprised at how delicious this smoothie I made up was, so I had to write the recipe down. It's actually purple when you make it, but it has spinach in it so....green.

1/2c water or green tea (I used water + packet of green tea to go mix)
1 scoop strawberry protein powder
1/2c cottage cheese
1/2c frozen blueberries
1c baby spinach leaves (next time, I'll probably use more, you can't taste ANY spinachy flavor at all in this!)
1t flax meal
4-5 ice cubes

Blend it. mmmmmm.

Iced Coffee Recipe

My hubby got me hooked on McDonald's Iced Coffees, which are delicious! ....well, usually delicious, but totally depends on who makes it because I don't think I've ever had two that tasted the same. So, that's annoying. Plus also, if you're trying not to eat lots of crap, then a creamer- and sugar- laden mystery beverage isn't going to work out. So, I decided to make my own. I've tried a few different combinations recently, but tonight I finally hit upon the perfect recipe. Seriously, it's so delicious I never need to get a McDonald's one again.

Put 1/4c fat free half and half in the bottom of your glass, then add 1 rounded teaspoon of instant coffee and 2 rounded teaspoons of splenda. Mix it up. Fill the glass up to about 3/4 with ice, and add water to fill it up. Swirl and drink up. Yummy yummy yummy!

I found this recipe a while ago, and loved it. I have since found the wonderful site where I found it is down, so I wanted to copy it and preserve it for all enternity.

Caro’s BBQ Ranch Chopped Chicken salad:

For those of you who’ve been to a California Pizza Kitchen restaurant, I was OBSESSED with the CPK Original BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad–the version below is huge, filling and NOT a calorie bomb!

268 cals, 26g carb 28g prot, 7g fat (2g sat), 6g fiber

Dressing:
2 TBSP Just 2 good ranch
2 TBSP Kraft Low Carb BBQ Sauce

1/6 head iceberg lettuce, chopped into ½ - ¾ inch pieces
1-2 cups spinach, chopped into ½ - ¾ inch pieces
1 green onion, chopped
2 TBSP yellow corn (canned or frozen, thawed)
2 TBSP black beans (canned, drained)
1 TBSP parmesan cheese - you can sub shredded fat free chedder if you prefer!
3 oz chicken breast, cubed/chopped into ½ inch pieces
1 roma tomato, chopped

Toss all the ingredients with the dressing and serve.

Spicy Chicken Soup

So I was thinking something along the lines of a tortilla soup for this, but it came out somewhat less tortilla-soup-y than I had imagined. Still really really yummy, though. And the whole thing took like 5 minutes to make.


Saute until translucent:
1 T olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion, chopped

Add and cook for one more minute:
1T cumin (more or less to taste)
2t red pepper flakes (more or less - I added a bunch, maybe as much as a tablespoon)

Mix in and simmer for ~15min:
8oz frozen corn
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
2-3 cups chicken broth

After simmering, remove the chicken breasts, dice, and return to the soup. Yummy!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2c peanut butter
1/2c splenda
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1/4c rolled oats
1/2t baking powder
1/4 cup egg substitute

Process everything in a food processor until smooth and blended. Roll into balls and bake at 350 for about 10 min. Makes 6 good-sized cookies.

Per cookie: 162 cal, 11.5g fat, 7g carbs, 10g protein

Mock Cheesecake!

So easy and yummy...

1/2c fat free cottage cheese
1/8t vanilla
1T splenda

Mix in blender or food processor until smooth. Eat by itself or with graham crackers and fruit.

Chocolate Peanutbutter Mouse

1/2 c fat free cottage cheese
1t cocoa powder
1/2T peanut butter
1T splenda

Blend in a food processor or blender. Makes nasty fat-free cottage cheese tasty!

Chocolate Protein Cereal

I've been eating this for breakfast a lot. It's a lot yummier than it seems. It looks funny, though, so no pic.

Chocolate Almond Protein Cereal
301Cal, 8g fat, 30g carbs (4g fiber), 29g protein

1/3c dry old fashioned oatmeal
1 scoop chocolate protein powder
1 T almond meal
1/2t cocoa powder (not hot chocolate mix!)
1t splenda
1/2c milk

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a cereal bowl. Add the milk, stir well, and gobble it up. There are obviously a lot of variations that could be done with this. Changing the flavor of protein powder, using other nuts or ground flax seeds, adding dried or fresh fruit....

Day 1 of the 100 Challenge

I joined Pink Dumbbells, a fitness community for women who lift weights today. I signed up for the August Challenge/check in to keep me honest. There's something about having to tell other people about what I'm doing that makes me stay more honest.

Today was a great day of new recipes. I've been lurking on some Nutrisystem forums and have found some interesting recipes that fit into my eating plan. I tried this bread pudding recipe this morning with my protein pumpkin bread. Yummy!!

And for dessert, I made up a batch of vanilla protein ice cream. It came out a bit lumpy, but I think more mixing before the freezing step would help. Here's the info:

Protein Vanilla Ice Cream
4c skim milk
3 scoops vanilla protein powder
1/2 packet of unflavored gelatine (that's 0.125oz)
1 egg white
1t vanilla extract
3/4 c splenda

Heat 1 c of the milk in a sauce pan until just boiling. Add the gelatine and mix until it dissolves. Mix in (well!) the protein powder. (This is the step that needs work: I'm going to use the immersion blender next time) Add the egg white and mix again. Add this to the remaining 3 cups of milk, vanilla, and splenda. Chill until very cold. Pour into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions. This makes 4 VERY generous servings. 175 Cal, 2g fat, 15g carbs (og fiber), 24g protein.

August 100 Challenge
Deductions: -0
Score: 100

Workout: Shape it up!

Foods: 1512Cal, 44/38/18
b- protein pumpkin bread pudding
s1- 1c yogurt, 1/2c raspberries, 2T TJs low fat granola
l- sbd frozen pizza
s2- protein frappachino shake + 1oz pita chips
d- pork tenderloin, 1/2 sweet potato, 1c broccoli
s3-protein vanilla ice cream