Tag Archives: GF

protein, recipe

Pizza Meatballs

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So I had all this string cheese in the fridge and had to come up with a way to use it up. String cheese isn’t great on quesadillas because it’s the wrong shape. Plain string cheese is a boring snack. I think melted cheese is just so much better in texture and flavor. This recipe was born from my love of melted cheese, pizza, and ground meat. I hope you like it too!

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Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground turkey
1/2 cup old fashioned oats, ground in a food processor
1.5 tsp dried basil
1.5 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
6 slices salami or pepperoni, finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks of low fat string cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and cut string cheese into bite sized pieces:

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2. In a mixing bowl, combine all remaining ingredients and smush together with clean hands.

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3. Wash your hands and using wet fingers, make a ping pong ball sized meatball. Gently press a piece of cheese into the inside of the meatball and re-form.

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4. Place the formed meatball on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat with all the remaining meat and string cheese pieces. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the meatballs are no longer pink inside and the cheese is melted.

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5. Serve the meatballs with your favorite marinara sauce on a hoagie roll, over spaghetti, or atop zucchini noodles!

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recipe, treats

Paleo Mocha Pound Cake

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Remember the watermelon cake I made a few days ago? The coconut whipped cream I frosted the cake with was sooo good! I didn’t want to throw the leftover whipped cream away, so I set my mind to baking a coconut flour cake to go with it! The inspiration came from Paleo Spirit. My cake is not nearly as beautiful or quite as “paleo.” The changes I made include swapping 2 eggs for egg whites, the maple syrup for stevia, and 1/2 cup coconut oil for applesauce and plain greek yogurt. I’m glad the cake still turned out rich, moist, and delicious!

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Ingredients:
2/3 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
20 packets stevia
4 eggs
6 tbs egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c coconut oil, melted
1/4 c plain greek yogurt
1/4 c unsweetened applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. Whisk eggs and egg whites in a stand mixer. Add remaining wet ingredients to the eggs and mix to combine.

3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and combine on low speed. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Whip the batter on high speed for 1 minute to make it fluffy.

4. Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

5. Allow to cool and frost with coconut whipped cream.

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It’s yummy unfrosted too!

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Enjoy with a cup of coffee! 1/4 of a loaf (1/8 of total recipe) is 166 calories, 9 g protein, and 5 g fiber when served unfrosted.

breakfast, recipe

Turkish Eggs Menemen

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Ever since Colby and I visited a friend of ours in Istanbul last December, I’ve been dreaming of menemen. Menemen is a special dish consisting of eggs cooked atop of simmering vegetables. We ate it for breakfast almost every day there and felt very spoiled to have such a flavorful meal each morning. I figured the sauce must take hours to cook, so I never thought to recreate the dish at home. Now that I realize it takes less than 15 minutes to make, I’ll be enjoying it a lot more often!

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Ingredients:
1/2 green pepper, seeded and diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 large tomato, diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbs olive oil
2 eggs (or 1 egg + 3 egg whites)
Salt, pepper, and fresh parsley as seasonings

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add onion and green pepper to the hot oil. Sauté until tender.

2. Add diced tomato and garlic. Continue to stir until the tomatoes break down.

3. Top the bubbling mixture with eggs and allow the eggs to cook a bit.

4. Gently fold the eggs in with the vegetables until cooked through.

5. Season with salt, pepper, and parsley.

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protein, recipe, vegetables

Spinach Artichoke Chicken Dip

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This dip is made healthier by putting the cheese where it has the biggest impact on flavor- the surface! Cheese mixed into casseroles and dips doesn’t taste much different than yogurt or milk. Inside the dip, you’ll find a heaping portion of veggies, reduced fat cream cheese, greek yogurt, and a flavor boost from shredded chicken and Sriracha!

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Ingredients:
8 oz package of frozen chopped spinach
14 oz can of artichokes in water
2 oz cooked or canned chicken breast, shredded
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
3 oz low fat cream cheese
1/4 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt
1 tsp Sriracha sauce
Salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup shredded lowfat mozzarella (or parmesan)

1. Thaw the spinach in the microwave and squeeze out all the excess moisture. Drain and chop the artichoke hearts. Drain the shredded chicken, if using canned. Set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil. Sauté the garlic in the hot oil for about a minute before adding cream cheese and yogurt. Stir until melted. Add sriracha, spinach, artichokes, and chicken. Stir to coat and heat through. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Transfer the dip to a small baking dish and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Broil for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

4. Serve with raw vegetables or flatbread for dipping… Or just eat it plain! Check out the nutrition facts for 1/4 of the recipe:

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With that much protein in so few calories, this snack will fill you right up!

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protein, recipe, vegetables

Paleo Spaghetti

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Yesterday was a rainy day that begged comfort food- a perfect day for Spaghetti! I was excited to try out this great Italian spice blend, Spezia 11, from a tasting party last weekend. This fresh, handmade blend of herbs and seasonings is delicious on chicken, flatbread, meatballs, vegetables, and just about anything needing Mediterranean flair.

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The herbs made my spaghetti sauce outstanding!

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Ingredients:
1 summer squash, spiralized
1 tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
6 oz ground turkey
2 tbs Italian seasoning (such as Spezia 11)
1/2 cup sugar-free marinara sauce (such as Victoria’s White Linen Marinara from Costco)

1. Sauté the onion and bell pepper in olive oil until softened. Add garlic and sauté for a minute more. Set aside.

2. In the same pan, brown to ground turkey. Once no longer pink, add the Italian seasonings. Add the sautéed vegetables back in. Stir in the marinara sauce and heat until bubbling.

3. Serve over lightly sautéed or raw summer squash. This sauce is great on regular spaghetti or zucchini noodles too!

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breakfast, recipe

Apple Protein Pancakes

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When we were younger, my sister and I used to visit our family in Poland during summer vacation. My grandmas would buy us ice cream bars at the zoo, chocolate and candy at the store, and bacon flavored chips on road trips. They compensated for the junk food by cooking wholesome, healthy meals for us. I wrote down a lot of my grandmas’ recipes back then. This version of apple pancakes is my gluten free, high protein adaptation of the breakfast she sometimes made for us as kids to make sure we were eating fruit. These little pancakes are really just apple slices in disguise!

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Ingredients:
2 Granny Smith apples
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 tbs coconut flour
1/3 c milk
1/4 c plain greek yogurt
1 egg (or 3 egg whites)
1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Slice the apples horizontally into 1/4″ thick slices.

2. Combine all remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk together to make the pancake batter. If it seems too thick, add a little bit more milk.

3. Pat each apple slice dry before dunking in the batter and frying on a lightly greased pan or griddle.

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These pancakes are tasty served plain or with a sprinkle of powdered sugar!

The nutrition info is based on 1/2 the recipe- one whole apple with 1/2 the batter. I used egg whites, nonfat greek yogurt, and skim milk for the calculation.

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recipe, starch

Sweet Potato Curly Fries

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Remember the awesome Spiralizer I used to make zucchini noodles? It has a different blade you can use to make curly fries! I decided to try it out on sweet potato. Here’s a great recipe you can use to get crispy oven fried sweet potato fries instead of mushy or burnt ones.

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Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato, scrubbed
2 tbs canola or olive oil
Seasonings (about 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp garlic powder)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spiralize the sweet potato or cut into uniform slender wedges.

2. In a large ziplock bag, toss the sweet potato pieces with oil and seasonings to coat well.

3. Spread the fries in a single layer on a large baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Keep them as spread out as possible, or else they may steam instead of baking which will result in mushy fries.

4. Bake in the top rack of the oven (any lower and the fries may burn) for 20-25 minutes, flipping once.

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recipe, snacks, treats

Plantain Chips: Sweet and Salty Style

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I started out making regular plantain chips, but the plantain I used was a little too ripe. What a fortunate mistake! I ended up thinking of this delicious twist on the salty snack.

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Ingredients:
1 plantain, preferably yellow
Salt
Peanut butter
Chocolate chips
Coconut oil cooking spray (Trader Joe’s)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel and thinly slice plantain. Place slices on a baking sheet lined aluminum foil and sprayed with coconut oil cooking spray.

2. Most the plantain slices with coconut oil spray and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 8 minutes, flip, and bake for 5-8 minutes more or until they are golden.

3. While still warm, place one chocolate chip on each plantain slice and smear a tiny bit of peanut butter to each one.

Oh.My.Goodness! These were an unexpectedly tasty treat. It’s hard to beat the flavor combination of chocolate, peanut butter, and salt on plantain!

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breakfast, protein, recipe

Sweet Potato Protein Pancakes

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These pancakes are the BEST! They’re ridiculously easy to make, are super high in protein, and gluten free. The batter is just right for light, fluffy pancakes!

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You see? Perfect!

Ingredients:
1 medium sweet potato (150 grams)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
3/4 cup egg whites
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)

1. Prick holes in the sweet potato and microwave until tender, about 3-5 mins.

2. Once the potato is cool, peel it and place it in a blender or food processor. A small one like the Magic Bullet works well.

3. Add the egg whites, protein powder, cinnamon,and baking powder. Pulse until a smooth batter forms.

4. Heat a lightly greased skillet or griddle. Make a test pancake by pouring about 2 tbs of the batter on the pan. Once bubbles start to form, flip the pancake.

*If it seems too runny, add more protein powder to the remaining batter. If it seems too thick, add more egg whites. If the bottom is too dark, turn down the heat. If it’s not golden, turn up the heat!

5. Make the rest of the pancakes. Serve them with maple syrup, almond butter, bananas, or whipped cream!

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These pancakes are pretty legit! I thought all those egg whites would make them taste eggy, but that wasn’t the case at all. Only 340 calories and a whopping 44 grams of protein in the whole recipe! Share them or eat em all yourself :)

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