The Cook & The Coach Blog

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

1/16/2018

I know some people that begin to drive heave if they are threatened to eat a brussel sprout. A couple are in my immediate family. Growing up my mom on occasion would make them but they were usually either steam or boiled with some butter on them. Although I could probably stomach that now, at the time it was one of the most disgusting flavors. The smell was similar to what a Band-Aid smells like and I could only imagine what they taste like.

Had my mom prepared sprouts this way, I'm guessing there would have been a 50/50 chance that I would have actually eaten them. I mean they are still green and green food in our house was immediately met with rejection, unless it was Jello. That stuff was delicious! Just don't ruin it by putting fruit in it!

The process of roasting brussels is pretty straightforward. One key is making sure you start with fresh brussels not the frozen version. If you get the frozen ones, they will be more apt to just steam and bring you and I back to that Band-Aid flavor and smell. So start fresh! Then all you need to do is trim a little bit of the chewy stem off of them if there is some. We like to half or quarter ours from there depending on the size. You could roast them whole but they would take a LONG time so that's not advised. Once you halve them, spread them out evenly on a baking sheet. Drizzle with roughly 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil per pound of brussels. Season generously with salt and I like a little pepper also but not always.

Once seasoned, put them the oven that was preheated to 425. Depending on the size they should take anywhere from 20-30 minutes and I like to stir them half way through. What you are looking for is for them to start turning slightly brown if not black. In the cooking world that's called carmelization! Do it! They aren't burnt, they are perfect that way. It will bring out some of the natural sugars that are in a plant that is inherently bitter and if prepared poorly can taste like Band-Aids!

Try it this, I bet you will like brussels for the first time! Or at worst you won't hate them.

Want to take this next week off from planning your own Healthy Meals? Let us do the work for you! Follow the link below and we will give you are 5 Day Meal Guide for free!

Pumpkin Spice Protein Pancakes

11/1/2017

It wouldn't be fall if we didn't throw a pumpkin recipe at you. Since we love pancakes here you go! We've been making a variation of these pancakes for the longest time. However the texture on those other ones just wasn't quite where I would like it when it comes to a pancake. So just a couple little tweaks and we have this new one which I think will be our go to pancake recipe for a quite some time.

If you are wondering what the hell the broccoli is doing in the picture, I thought this was a pancake recipe, you aren't the first one to think that is a weird combo. This combo is a great a solution for a number of people that we work with on a regular basis. Two staples that people usually fall short of on a daily basis is protein and veggies. Why not start your day with a healthy dose of both?

Why are protein and veggies important? Particularly for people trying to lose weight these two things will likely be your biggest help in seeing measurable progress in a short period of time. By getting adequate protein, 20-40 grams, per meal you will fill yourself with bulk but with lower calories. Same goes for the veggies, due the high fiber in veggies you are adding bulk without adding calories. It's because of this that you are able to eat to the point of being full all while staying in a calorie deficit.

If you are curious how much protein and fiber you should specifically be eating head over to our Calorie Calculator page and submit some information and I will get you a customized plan to let you how much of each you should be eating. This will be based on your size, activity level, and your goals.

Otherwise enjoy the heck out of these pancakes, we sure did!

Macronutrient Information

Calories: 95
Protein: 10.9 g
Fat: 4.4 g
Carbs: 3.5 g
Sugars: 0.9 g
Fiber: 1.6 g

Ingredients

1/2 can of pumpkin pie filling, roughly 3/4 of a cup plus a little bit
3 eggs
3/4 cup of unflavored whey isolate protein powder
1 tsp vanilla extract (omit if using a vanilla protein powder)
3/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup almond flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Dash of ground clove
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt

Directions

Add the wet ingredients, pumpkin, eggs, almond milk, vanilla to a bowl or blender and mix to combine. We like to use our Vitamix to mix these in.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. I've found different flax and almond meals tend to absorb liquid at different rates. You may need to a little more water or almond milk to an appropriate consistency. What you are looking for is something that easily pours and spreads out on a griddle.
Heat a griddle to medium heat or 300 degrees if you have an electric one like us. Spray with a nonstick spary, we use a coconut oil variety.
Pour batter onto griddle making about 4" pancakes. With this recipe you should get about 10 pancakes out of 1 batch.
Enjoy!

Counting Macros 101

9/22/2017

Curious what the process of tracking your macronutrients entails. We would like to give you an idea of the process along with the benefits and pitfalls.

Video Highlights
Counting macros: What is is all about? 0:07
How to you calculate your macro and calorie needs? 1:13
Who is counting macros good for? 5:17
Who isn't it good for? 7:00
Two camps to losing weight... 9:14
Incorporating treats 13:38

Hope that helped you understand tracking macros a little better. There is so much with tracking macros that you just learn through doing. If you feel like you want to start tracking your macros. Head over to our Calorie Calculator, input some personal information then submit the form at the bottom of the page and I will respond with a personalized macro plan for you.

GET A FREE MACRO PLAN

Deconstructed Egg Roll

7/30/2017

One food that I have yet to find since going gluten free is a fried egg roll...they just don't exist out in restaurants and we didn't opt for the RV with the deep fat fryer. We've had a number of our challengers post in our accountability groups about creating different versions of this dish. I finally got around to make some myself and have to say it hit the spot.

We were a little spoiled too, since the two days before this my aunt picked most of the veggies that went in this dish straight out of her garden. Fresh cabbage, fresh carrots, and fresh onions!!! The only thing we added to the dish was some red pepper, garlic and the pork. Oh and a few spices and some asian sauces!

Ingredients

1 pound pork sausage
1 small onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 large carrots, sliced
3 tbsp minced garlic, roughly 3 cloves
4 green onions, sliced
1 small head of cabbage, grated or sliced, roughly 5 cups
1 inch of ginger, minced or 2 drops of ginger essential oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup tamari, coconut aminos or low sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp coconut nectar or brown sugar (optional)
1 tbsp siracha (optional)

Directions

In a large skillet or dutch oven add the sausage and cook over medium heat until cooked through.
Remove sausage from the pan leaving the drippings behind. Add the carrot, bell pepper, ginger, and onion and cook for 8 minutes until carrots begin to soften and onion is translucent.
Add garlic, cook for 2 more minutes.
Add the cabbage along with all the other ingredients, cook over medium heat for 5 minutes stirring frequently.
Cover, and reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes stirring once or twice.
Serve and eat as is if you are wanting a low carb meal or you can serve over the top of some prepared rice. Garnish with a little cilantro and enjoy!

Gluten Free Turkey Meatloaf with Savory Mushroom Sauce

1/13/2017

Meatloaf... it was a staple in our house growing up! My mom would always make it with beef and slather on the ketchup sauce on top. It was actually quite tasty, except for the onions. I despised onions when I was a kid. Not the flavor as much as the crunch that you would occasionally get from one that wasn't cooked enough.

Times have changed quite a bit! The breadcrumbs that you would normally add to meatloaf would now make me breakout in a rash. The high fructose corn syrup in the ketchup, yeah... we are just going to avoid that if we can. That's the backstory on how this recipe got created.

I suppose with mushroom sauce this maybe is closer to the salsibury steak that we would occasionally have in our tv dinners. No matter what you call it, I hope you call it delicious! We certainly enjoyed it!

Ingredients

Meatloaf

2 1/2 lbs of ground turkey
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp grassfed butter
1 cup of mashed sweet potato
3 eggs
2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Savory Mushroom Sauce

3 cups sliced bella mushrooms
2 tbsp grassfed butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tbsp sherry wine
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 -1 cup water or broth
1 tsp galic powder
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp red chili flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Meatloaf

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a skillet saute the onions in butter and season with salt and pepper. Cook until it they become slightly caramelized.
In a large bowl combine the other ingredients along with the cooked onion. Make sure to not throw your hot onions on top of raw eggs otherwise you end up with scrambled eggs. Either mix the eggs or onion into the meat first.
Once everything is thoroughly mixed transfer to a large baking dish or loaf pan. We used a 6" x 9" baking dish and it fit right up to the top!
Bake for one hour or until the inner temp gets to 170 in the center of the meatloaf. The ends cook faster.
Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.

Savory Mushroom Sauce

In the same skillet you cooked the onions, add butter, oil and mushrooms and cook over medium heat until the mushrooms have reduced in size and started giving off some liquid.
Add the sherry wine and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the tapioca starch and stir until the starch dissolves into the liquid in the pan. Add 1/2 cup of water or broth and stir until well incorporated. You should have a gravy-like texture at this point.
Add in the remaining seasonings and stir occasionally.
The sauce will take 15 minutes or so to make. You can start cooking it when your meatloaf has a few minutes left to cook. Feel free to add more water to the sauce if the texture starts getting too thick. The longer you cook it the thicker it will get.
Once your meatloaf has rested, cut and serve with a spoonful of the sauce over the top. We enjoyed it with some grilled asparagus and side salad! Hope you enjoy and let us know if you try it.

Bacon Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Orange and Pecan

12/20/2016

We are creatures of habit. When we find something we like we don't change. Brussel sprouts and the way we prepare them is a prime example. Our normal preparation is clean, cut, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and roast in the oven. If we are feeling crazy we might add a little bacon, balsamic or galic. I've learned to not mess with Laura's brussels!

This past weekend we did a Chrismtas dinner with my side of the family and my mom had found some beautiful brussel sprouts. I've tried exposing to my family to brussels before and other than my mom and sister in laws haven't had much luck. So I figured what the heck let's try something different in the hopes they will try it. It got a couple more to try but I don't know if I turned them to be brussel fans.

This recipe was simply inspired by what was in the kitchen. We had brought some fresh pecans home from Texas. We had an orange that we didn't eat on our flight up to Minnesota and I had saved some bacon grease from our breakfast that morning!

The orange definitely livened the dish up quite a bit and pecans added a nice texture contrast, so I would say this is a win and we would love to hear what you think if you make it yourself.

One variation you could certainly try would be to add bacon to the dish. We didn't since we had it for breakfast that morning. But if you wanted to, just chop and cook the bacon in your skillet until the fat is rendered out, remove the bacon and start the brussel sprout process listed below. Then just re-add the bacon pieces the same time as the pecans.

Ingredients

1 lb brussel sprouts, cleaned and halved
2 tbsp of bacon grease
1 orange, zested and juiced
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 tbsp of vinegar of your choice, we used red wine because that is what we had but balsamic probably would have paired better
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Clean and prep your brussels
In a large skillet, add the bacon grease over a medium high heat.
Add brussel sprouts and cook for 10-15 minutes until they begin to carmelize. You will need to toss them frequently to keep from sticking.
After brussels are carmelized add the zest, juice of the orange, and vinegar, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir once or twice during this time.
Add the chopped pecans and toss with brussels over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until the brussels are cooked the whole way through.
Season with salt and peper and serve!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

10/10/2016

I don't know why I don't always have a batch of this soup in our fridge. So good!!! Five years ago I would have laughed at you if you would tell me that soup can be an entire meal. I guess I was used to terrible canned soups or the tiny cup of soup that you get at restaurants. Oh how the times of changed.

Now my view of soup is basically it is liquid salad! Seriously though if you make a good soup it should resemble a salad. So if you don't like to eat salad, I suggest you try soup instead. This version of chicken tortilla soup is loaded up with veggies, quality protein, and of course some amazing chicken stock.

When I make soup I love to make a huge batch because it tastes better the next day! Feel free to scale this recipe up or down but it makes about 6 large bowls of soup. Also as a little bonus here is a how I like to make my chicken stock at home which is super simple.

Homemade Chicken Stock

Ingredients

5-6 pound whole chicken
1/2 pound chicken feet (optional but not really but this is where you get all that amazing gelatenous goodness!)
2 large carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, smashed
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dry thyme
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Water

Directions

We use our pressure cooker if you don't have one you could do this in a stock pot or even in a slow cooker. It will just take longer.
Put your chicken and all your vegetables in your cooking vessel along with 2 cups of water. If you using a pressure cooker you will need to cook for approximately 45-60 minutes depending on how big your chicken is. Similar on a stove top and multiple hours in a slow cooker.
After the chicken is cooked, remove it from your pot. You can let it cool or if you are tough feel free to dig right in and start removing the meat from all the bones. Add the bones back into the pot that still has the vegetables in it.
Set your meat aside for later and discard the skin and gristle.
Add the remaining seasonings and ingredients and fill up your pot with water. We have a 6 quart stockpot and this amount of vegetables and spices works well with that amount of liquid.
Pressure cook for 2-3 hours depending on how much time you have. If you are using a stovetop or slow cooker you are looking at more like 24-48 hours.
After cooking, strain it so you are just left with the liquid, store in the fridge for up to a week.

Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb of shredded cooked chicken meat
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
0-3 jalepenos, seeds removed
2 tbsp of minced garlic
4 cups of pureed tomatoes
4 cups chicken stock
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp smoked paprika
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Garnishes/Toppings

Green Onion
Cilantro
Corn Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt
Hot sauce

Directions

In a large pot add the oil, then add the onion, peppers and garlic and cook over medium heat for 8 minutes or until softened.
Add tomatoes and stock to the pot along with spices and bring to a boil.
Reduce to a low, add the chicken and simmer for minimum of 15 minutes or up to an hour.
Your done, add with some of your favorite toppings and enjoy!

Flank Steak Salad with Parsley Vinaigrette

8/30/2016

Ladies if you need a way to get your husbands to eat a salad, start with this one. I mean what guy doesn't like steak, then you combine that with mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese, it's a win! The asparagus and tomatoes are there as a way to sneak in some more veggies! The dressing is super simple and adds a fun punch of flavor. It's crisp, it's herbacious, it's delicious.

We would love to know if you try this one out! Leave us a comment below. If you love it don't forget to Pin It so you can save it for later!

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients - Makes 3 salads

6 cups of of mixed greens or spinach
1 lb of flank steak, grilled and sliced
1 1/2 cups of dry mushrooms, sauteed
1 1/2 cups of asparagus, grilled and cut into 1" pieces
1 1/2 cups of cherry tomatoes, halved
6 tbsp of gorgonzola cheese

Dressing Ingredients

1 cup fresh parsely
1/4 cup white wine vineager
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1-2 tsp minced garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Season the steak and asparagus with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill until the steak is medium rare- medium and the asparagus is soft but still has a little crunch.
Sautee the mushrooms in a skillet with a little olive oil or butter.
For the dressing, all all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high for 20 seconds or until the everything is well combined.
Put your salad together, 2 cups of greens on the bottom, then layer 1/2 cup of each of your veggies; mushrooms, asparagus, and tomatoes, top with your sliced steak. If you've never cooked flank steak make sure you slice it perpendicular to the grain of the steak.
Top with 2 tbsp of cheese, dressing, and some extra fresh parsley if you still have some.

Classic Lemon Vinaigrette

8/25/2016

One thing we really encourage a lot of our clients to work on is to be more veggies, especially greens. One of the easiest ways to get more greens in is to eat more salads. We love our salads, and try to it one 5 days a week. We aren't just talking about a little side salad with dinner. We are talking full on, stuff my face and stomach salad that is loaded with greens and veggies. We see a lot of people that grasp that concept which is awesome, but then they douse all those quality veggies with some low quality salad dressing.

A couple of tips if you do buy store bought dressings;

Avoid "Low Fat" dressings! Low fat usually just means high sugar or as one of my favorite memes out there states, Low Fat = Chemical Shit Storm!
Try to find dressing with fewer ingredients. Most salad dressings should contain a vinegar and an oil and maybe some seasonings. Avoid artificial colors, sweeteners, and flavors.
Avoid veggie oils, canola and soyben are the big ones used in cheap dressings. These easily oxidize and will likely cause inflammation in your body. Not to mention most canola is genetically modified.

Sound like a lot of work to follow those rules? Well the easy solution is to buy some of those base ingredients and keep them on hand so you can make your own dressings. Here is a simple one to get you started.

Ingredients

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp raw honey
Season with salt and pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients other than the oil in a blender and mix until well combined.
Drizzle the olive oil in slowly over the course of 30 seconds while the blender is running.
Serve over your salad, and store the extra in the fridge. This should be enough dressing to last an entire week at least.

If the idea of eating more veggies and cleaning up your eating sounds like something you would be interested in, we will be hosting a special group on Facebook in a little over a week. The group will revolve around having a salad a day for week. We will provide recipes like the one above and some more tips on how to put together an amazingly healthy salad. If you are interested click on the image below and RSVP.

Paleo Cream of Asparagus Soup

5/18/2016

This dish was totally inspired by leftovers. To be honest a lot of the meals we make are throw together at the last minute. We try our best to just keep healthy ingredients in our fridge, freezer and pantry. Then I (Dan) find inspiration either from Pinterest, Google, a random cooking show or something I've made before to dictate what we eat. I'm not the most creative person when it comes to other things, but food, that's my jam - pun intended!

Seriously this soup was so easy to make and you could easily scale it up if you wanted to make it for a larger group. Like most soups the key to flavor is using a flavorful broth/stock and letting it simmer for a long time. I recently made up a batch of chicken stock in our pressure cooker. Homemade stock makes a huge difference in my opinion both in flavor and quality of ingredients. I probably need to write up a post about our stock recipe. Very simply we just add water, old chicken bones, carrot, celery, onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, apple cider vinegar, peppercorns and a little salt into our pressure cooker. We pressure cook it for about 3 hours and it turns out great!

We hope you enjoy this soup! We always love to hear if you try out our recipes, so if you give it a try, drop us a comment on the post or shoot us a message.

Ingredients

1 cup of asparagus, we used leftover grilled asparagus. You could use raw
1 can of coconut milk
2-3 cups of broth depending on how thick you like your soup, we used chicken but if you wanted it to be a vegan dish you could use veggie broth
1 tbsp onion powder, or you could use 1 small onion diced - we were out
2 tsp garlic garlic powder, you could use 2-3 cloves of garlic, I was on a powder kick since I didn't have onion
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of olive oil

Directions

If you are using whole onion and garlic, saute that first in a saucepan with a little olive oil for a few minutes to soften.
If you are powdered onion and garlic, add everything to a saucepan and simmer for 30 minutes.
Add all the ingredients to a blender, be careful if you have a blender that isn't vented that you remove the top circle piece and cover with a towel. The steam needs to come out somewhere otherwise you have a huge mess and potential burns.
Return the blended soup to the saucepan and simmer as long as you would like. We simmered for about 22 minutes. I know that because I did my 22 Minute Hard Corps workout.
At this point season if needed. We needed a little more salt and I added some more broth because it had reduced a little too much.
Drizzle with a little olive oil and enjoy!

Lemon Ginger Shrimp and Zoodles

5/5/2016

Citrus and summer go hand in hand in my book. I know it isn't technically summer yet but the weather in South Alabama has felt like it is the middle of August. I'm sure if you were to talk to locals they would tell you how great the weather has been. For this Minnesota boy it's a different story. Temps were in the 80's everyday and the humidity was above 90% everyday. That's hot!

Being in South Alabama we had the benefit of getting some really good shrimp and it was cheap. This has definitely been one of the things that I've enjoyed about traveling so far, local food! Getting to eat food that was picked, farmed or fished recently is so fun and adds so much more flavor. We've tried to take in local markets wherever we are and get some fresh veggies and proteins, then fill in the gaps with some food from the big box stores.

I made this while in Gulf Shores, Alabama and it was super light and perfect for a warm day. We hope you enjoy it!! If you have a shellfish allergy you could easily leave out the shrimp and do a piece of baked whitefish.

Ingredients

3/4 lb of raw shrimp
1 large carrot cut into matchsticks
1 red bell pepper cut into matchsticks
1 medium onion cut into matchsticks
3 garlic cloves, minced
1" piece of ginger, peeled and minced
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup broth of your choice or water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 small zucchini cut into zoodles using spiralizer
1 tbsp dried parsley or 1/4 cup of fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prep all of your veggies ahead of time. Once you start cooking it goes pretty quick.
In a wok or large skillet add the oil then carrot, onion, pepper, ginger and cook for 5 minutes or until the onion starts getting a little translucent.
Add the garlic, parsley and shrimp and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Stir regularly.
Add broth, lemon juice, zoodles and toss for 2 minutes until everything is coated and the zoodles start to soften.
Season and serve! There will likely be some liquid in the bottom of the pan, feel free to drizzle your food with this or let it be.

Hearty Miso Soup

1/28/2016

We have started making an effort to clean out our cupboards and freezer as we prepare to move out of our house and into a 300 sq ft motorhome. That means we will likely be making a lot more soups. I had a coworker/chef once tell me about the concept of "Mustgo Soup." When he was making soup for the day he would look in the cooler and see what was about to go bad and that must go in the soup. I love that about soups in that they can be so versatile and there really aren't that many rules. Just throw it all together with a delicious broth and there you go.

This miso soup was super tasty and a ton of flavor. I will say that I scaled back the amount of miso from what we used, it was a little much in my version. In case you've never used miso it is a fermented soybean paste that you can find at most grocery stores in the refrigerator section. I like to shop at our local Asian grocery store, so they have an entire section of it, super easy to find! This is the kind we bought, Miso Paste. I definitely recommend splurging for organic when it come miso since it comes from soy. It ensures you aren't consuming GMO soy which is what you find in any non-organic soy products for the most part. Another miso trick is because it is a fermented food, meaning it contains live probiotics which are super healthy for your gut, you don't want to add miso to boiling soup otherwise it will kill those probiotics. I've also found it easier to separate out some of your broth and add to the miso paste to make a slurry before adding it back to the soup. It will mix in that much better.

Hope you enjoy this soup.

Ingredients

3 medium carrots, cut into bite size pieces
1 onion, diced
1 1/2 lbs of chicken breast cut into bite size pieces (could sub tofu if you want to be vegetarian)
4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 15 oz can of chickpeas, liquid drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can of full fat coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce
1/2 of a 1.76 oz package of Wakame seaweed, roughly 1/4 cup when dry
6-8 cups of chicken stock or veggie stock
1/4 cup white miso
Juice of 1 lime

Directions

Add your coconut and sesame oil to large pot or dutch oven over medium heat.
Add in your carrots, onion, and chicken and cook for 5 minutes, then add garlic and cook until chicken is cooked through.
While all of that is cooking soak the Wakame seaweed in 2 cups of water. You'll want to soak this for 5 minutes roughly, you'll be surprised at how much it expands.
Add all the remaining ingredients except the miso and simmer for 15 minutes.
In a small bowl add your miso paste and ladle in about 1-2 cups of liquid from your pot to make a miso slurry. Kill the heat of your burner at this point and add the miso back into the pot. Also add in the lime juice at this point too.
ENJOY!!!

Drunken Zoodles

9/2/2015

Who else loves Thai food??? Yeah I could pretty much eat it everyday. I love the flavor profiles of sweet, salty, sour, and spicy...it's just so good! The noodle dishes are probably my favorite when we go out to Thai restaurants. My go to's are Pad Thai, Pad See Ew, or Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles). Given my new intolerance of gluten, I am a lot more cautious when it comes to ordering food at restaurants. I know most asian noodles are made from rice flour, but I guess I just have trust issues, especially when you add the sauce in on top of that. For example I had no idea soy sauce had wheat flour in it, prior to becoming allergic to it...and most Asian kitchens use soy in everything...so it just makes me a little nervous!

With all of that, I decided to try to recreate a Drunken Noodle dish to ensure that it is 100% gluten free. It's not a perfect representation of the authentic dish but it was pretty tasty.

Ingredients

1 pound of chicken breast cut into 1/4" thick slices
2 cups chopped broccoli
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp chili oil (This isn't 100% necessary)
1 tbsp tapioca starch (corn starch works too)
2 medium zucchini cut into 1/2" wide strips
1 cup rough chopped thai basil, if you can't find thai basil regular will work

The Sauce

1/4 cup Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Coconut Aminos
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp sriracha sauce, can add more or less depending on your spice tolerance

Directions

In a hot wok or large fry pan add the coconut and chili oil until it is moving around the pan freely. Add the chicken, broccoli, and bell pepper. Cook for 4-5 minutes over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook for another minute.
Add the tapioca or corn starch and toss to coat the chicken and veggies evenly.
Add the sauce to the wok and cook for 3-4 minutes until it heats up and begins to thicken.
Add the zoodles to the wok and toss. Cook for 1-2 minutes until they are heated through. If you let them cook too long they will begin to give up their water and you will have a soupy, watery mess of a sauce.
Add your basil, toss and serve!

Download Recipe Card for Drunken Zoodles

Grilled Romaine and Steak Salad

5/4/2015

If you are a man's man and the only way you would ever eat salad is if it was grilled and has red meat, this is the salad for you. No man would or should ever be ashamed of eating a salad like this.

The idea for this salad totally belongs to a former coworker of mine, Eric Simpson. He is the executive chef and at the golf club I used to work at and was always coming up with super tasty food. Recently I was back out there with some family and someone ordered his version of this salad and it just looked tasty. I actually never tasted it but just got a look at it so I'm not sure if the flavors are similar but the main ingredients are close, I think.

This salad would totally be an awesome everyday dinner salad throughout the summer. The smokey char from the romaine pairs perfectly with freshness of the avocado and tomato. The blue cheese rounds it and will help it earn it's spot in your weekly meal rotation. Hope you enjoy this salad.

Ingredients

20 oz of sirloin steak, cut into 1" cubes
2 heads of romaine lettuce, cut in half
2 avocados, cut into small pieces
3 medium tomatoes, seeds removed and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup of diced shallot
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp olive, divided
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

If you are using wood skewers to cook the beef, you will want to soak those in water a couple hours before you plan on cooking.
Same time you soak your skewers, 2-3 hours before cooking, add your cubed beef, 1 tbsp of olive oil, paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper. Toss thoroughly to evenly coat all the pieces. Cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.
In another bowl, add your chopped avocado, tomato, shallot, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Toss lightly so as to not turn your avocado into a mash.
Drizzle the remaining olive oil on the cut side of the romaine heads.
If you are cooking your beef on skewers, time to do that. Make sure to not put too many pieces on each skewer, you want a little space in between pieces so that they cook all around.
Your ready to grill. The beef will take roughly 6-10 minutes depending on how hot your grill is and how often you open it. The romaine will take around 5 minutes to get some nice char marks on it. Depending on the size of your grill, if you need to do it in batches, do the steak first, then romaine.
Assembly is super easy, just flip your romaine so that the flat side is up, top with the avocado/tomato mixture, add steak, then top with some crumbled blue cheese to your liking. You have a restaurant quality salad done at home in less than 30 minutes.

Download the Recipe Card for Grilled Romaine and Steak Salad

Chicken Roasted in Coconut Milk

3/30/2015

I found this on Pinterest and made this when Dan was out of town a few years ago but haven't made it since. I've told him about it...and raved about it...but he thought it sounded weird so we never tried it again! UNTIL last night :)

We buy whole chickens at Costco because they're so cost effective and delicious. We then stick them in the freezer to use at a later date. Earlier this week Dan took one out of the freezer and was going to throw it in the crockpot, but then forgot about it...which gave me the perfect opportunity to cook something for him for a change! Plus, it gave me a chance to prove him wrong and show him that this is actually a delicious way to cook chicken. Win-win!

Here's the original recipe: Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk

It's pretty simple...but here's what I did:

1. Preheat the oven to 375

2. Season the chicken with salt/pepper. Brown the entire chicken in 3 tbsp of butter & 2 tbsp of coconut oil. Brown one side and then use a tongs to flip it and brown every side

3. Put all these ingredients into the dutch oven with the chicken.

1 can of coconut milk (do 2 cans if you can, I didn't have a second one so I used an additional 1/2 c of almond milk)
1 tbsp lemon juice (didn't have any fresh lemons for the zest)
1 cinnamon stick
2 tbsp of minced garlic
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tbsp of dried sage

4. Bake for 90 minutes

Wa-lah!!

I also figured I'd throw in this sweet picture...just because.

A boy and his dog. They're so sweet!!

Homemade Corned Beef with Nitrates, OH MY!!!

3/11/2015

We are one week away from everyone's favorite holiday, St. Patrick's Day!! Ok, that might be a stretch. After green beer the thing that screams, "Let's Celebrate!" is corned beef...am I right?? It's funny that corned beef and more specifically corned beef and cabbage is synonymous with St. Patrick's Day even though in Ireland it really isn't a staple dish. They actually serve bacon and cabbage, which is definitely not a bad alternative. Corned beef was substituted by Irish immigrants when they came to the United States. You can thank me for your food history lesson later. .

Last year was the first year where I decided to make corned beef from scratch. I thought we would have people over for St. Patrick's Day, eat some beef and drink some beer. I hadn't done a lot of research into how to actually make it, so a couple days prior to wanting to serve it, I went out and bought some brisket, thinking you just need to add some pickling spices to it as you cook it. I was a little shocked when I found out that the curing process actually takes 7-10 days depending on the size of your brisket. Oops...

Well that didn't stop me from making it. I just had to procure (no pun intended) some unique ingredients that I wasn't able to just walk into a regular grocery store and pick up. The two ingredients that I had to order online were juniper berries and saltpeter. Saltpeter is another name for potassium nitrate. Yeah, I added potassium nitrate knowingly to food that I was going to eat.

Before you go and call the nitrate police, I would suggest you read this article from Chris Kresser, The Nitrate and Nitrite Myth: Another Reason Not To Fear Bacon. The following stat is from his article which he gives reference to and I thought it was a pretty big eye opener.

It may shock you to learn that one serving of arugula, two servings of butter lettuce, and four servings of celery or beets all have more nitrite than 467 hot dogs. (2) And your own saliva has more nitrites than all of them!

Assuming you are eating fairly healthy, there is a chance you are consuming a decent amount of nitrate rich vegetables. Numerous brands, like Applegate, have cashed in on the fear of nitrates by providing meat products that are branded "No Added Nitrates." I wonder if we should start demanding nitrate free celery. Sounds kind of silly right? The funny thing about companies that claim to have "nitrate free" or "uncured" products is that a majority of them use celery powder to "naturally cure" their products. If you look at Applegate's bacon there are asterics after the saying "No Added Nitrites or Nitrates." Those asterics direct you to a statement that says "Except for those naturally occurring in sea salt and celery powder." It doesn't say how much of those ingredients are added but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they are adding those things to essentially give you the same product as the rest of the bacon on the shelf. I will give Applegate credit for using pork that hasn't been treated with hormones or antibiotics.

There is one problem that has been linked to nitrates is if they turn into nitrosamines. I learned about this by reading an article at Authority Nutrition, which links to some research study abstracts. If you want to read it, click here. If nitrates are exposed to high heat (350 degrees and up) during the cook process than some of those nitrates will turn into nitrosamines. This goes for all nitrates but when was the last time you grilled some celery?? The way to safeguard your bacon, ham, and hot dogs is to cook them at lower temperatures. If you are grilling hot dogs in the summer time don't cook them until they are charred. With your bacon, cook it at a medium to low heat. With your corned beef, cook it slow in a slow cooker or dutch oven.

I hope this has made you think twice about the fear of nitrates in your food. If you want to make your own corned beef, I say go for it. You might be a little late for St Patrick's Day this year, but in my opinion any day of the year is a good day for corned beef. The recipe I used comes from Alton Brown and the Food Network website. The only thing that I changed was that I followed the curing instructions that were on the saltpeter container that I got rather than using the 2 tablespoons that he recommends.

Broccoli Sprouts = Cancer Fighting Superfood

2/19/2015

Superfood is a buzz word in the health world these days. Eight years ago as a single guy if you would have asked me what my definition of superfood was I probably would have told you anything that is super cheap or super easy to prepare. So frozen pizza and hamburger helper would have fallen into that category.

Oh how the times have changed. Now I look for every effort to search out real superfoods and add them to my diet. I recently heard about broccoli sprouts and the amazing health benefits that they have. So I had to do a little research and find out all about them.

Basically a majority of the health benefits that would classify broccoli sprouts as a superfood stem back to one compound in it, sulforaphane. Sulforaphane is an antioxidant that has been shown to eliminate cancer causing free radicals, reduce inflammation, help your heart health and reduce your chance of diabetes. [1] Not a bad resume for a plant that is only a few days old!

Here's the "super" thing about sprouts versus the broccoli that you buy in the grocery store. With sprouts you are eating the whole plant including the the roots, not just the trimmed up pretty part that you see on grocery store shelves. The average pack of sprouts that you would buy in a grocery store has around 4,000 sprouts, that is 4,000 future heads of broccoli!!! Also with the sprout the you get anywhere from 10-100 times the amount of antioxidants that are in the adult plant if eaten within the first 7 days. [2] Sulforaphane tends to peak in the broccoli plant around the 3 day mark and begins to decline after that point. So eat them early and eat them often.

Sprouts can easily be added to salads as I did with my salad pictured above. You can also juice them and still get a lot of the benefits from the sulforaphane. We also recommend adding them to your smoothie or shake.

Don't take this post as a reason to avoid regular broccoli because there are still tons of health benefits from the adult plant too. Vitamins like vitamin A and C and minerals like magnesium, calcium, iron, and magnesium increase as the plant ages so we still encourage you to eat mature broccoli also. We would still consider regular broccoli pretty darn super too!

Let us know how you use your sprouts or if you are planning on trying broccoli sprouts.

References

http://sproutpeople.org/sprouts/nutrition/science/#broccolibrain
http://livingmaxwell.com/sulforaphane

Maple Bacon Turkey Meatballs

1/15/2015

I'm not sure if there is anything better than the combination of maple and bacon. If you disagree, you are wrong!!! Laura spotted someone else post about making a meat ball with these flavors so when she wants food I feed her. I have to say these turned out pretty fantastic and even though they are loaded with bacon and maple syrup they are still a pretty healthy meatball. Hope you guys enjoy!

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs of ground turkey
6 strips of bacon, chopped
1/2 a large onion
1 tbsp garlic, minced
3 cups spinach
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1/4 bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 tsp red chili flake
Salt and Pepper to taste

Makes 20 2 oz meatballs

Directions

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
In a skillet, add chopped bacon and render out the fat and until the bacon is crispy.
Remove bacon from the pan, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the onion, garlic and red chili flake and cook over medium heat until onion is tender.
Add spinach and cook and cook through, it will shrink a lot so you can add in batches if your pan isn't large enough.
Transfer, bacon, turkey, onion, garlic, and spinach to a large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients. When you are adding the egg try not add it on top of the hot bacon or onions so you don't end up with scrambled eggs. Mix together using a metal spoon.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
One trick to keep the meat mixture from sticking to your hands is to get them wet with a little water. Its not perfect but it helps. Roll out your meatballs into whatever size you like. I did 2 oz balls and made 20 meatballs. Place on baking sheet.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until their temp hits 180 degrees.
Pair with a pasta or maybe just a little BBQ sauce or you can do like I did and just hit them plain.

5 Ways to Battle Your Sugar/Carb Cravings

8/5/2014

I've found personally that one of the quickest ways to feel better and lose weight is to cut out your simple carbohydrates. The two places that these sneak into your diet is in the form of sugar or processed grains. I have pretty much eliminated these from my diet and have seen some amazing changes. When I do eat them now, it's amazing how they make me feel. I usually end up getting a headache and feel an energy crash within about 2 hours. I'm not a trained nutritionist but I'm pretty certain this happens due to a massive spike in my blood sugar, which then causes spikes in insulin. In the long term, this can lead to what is called insulin resistance...which in a lot of people will lead to weight gain and possibly type 2 diabetes.

So here are my top 5 tips for reducing your intake of sweets and those simple carbs that come in the form or pizza, pasta, and breads.

1. If you struggle with a sweet tooth, the first solution is to just flat out go cold turkey and get all things sweet out of the house or work setting. Knowing when these cravings typically come on is key to knowing when you need to distance yourself from sweets. Do you enjoy something sweet after meals or late at night? These two used to be my triggers and ice cream was my solution. Going cold turkey was my method when I first cut sweets out of my diet. Now I can regulate much better because I know to listen to my body. My sweets now are usually dark chocolate, so a much healthier alternative. If you are like me and struggle with the will power to say no, going cold turkey and eliminating these simple carbs from your pantry is probably the best way to avoid them.

2. If the cold turkey method isn't doable due to family or coworkers that aren't on the same journey as you then my second solution is to substitute. If you know you crave something sweet after a meal, and the candy dish at work is close by, bring a piece of fruit with you. Fruit is a great natural sugar, and although it still needs to be consumed in moderation, if the option is a chocolate chip cookie or an apple, well that this a pretty easy choice. I'm even a fan of dark chocolate, but make sure it is at least 70% cacao.

3. The substitution path also works great with your refined grains, pizza, pasta, white rice. Making substitutions to whole wheat pizza dough or a cauliflower crust, using whole wheat pasta, brown rice instead of white, or even better would be quinoa instead of rice. If you like your baked goods you can even go as far as using almond or coconut flour. These flours usually tend to be easier on a person's digestive system.

4. PLAN, duh you knew this one was going to be in here right. We talk about this so much....not because we can't think of better things but because we truly know this is the best way to stay on track and not be thrown off by temptations. When planning your day or week out, actually decide ahead of time where you will have that cookie or ice cream. Plan your meals out so that you don't get caught off guard. When we get caught off guard we usually resort to something easy and quick like a drive thru or picking up a pizza. This also goes for when you know you are going to be in tempting situations. If you are going out to eat with friends or happy hour with coworkers, do a little research beforehand! Pick out the dish you know you should get so that you aren't tempted to order other options when you scanning the menu for the first time in the restaurant.

5. Give in! Yeah you heard that right. I think one of the best ways to stay sane while living a healthier lifestyle is to indulge. By indulge, I don't mean that you should go on a massive sugar/carb binge. I mean go ahead and have something from time to time that would normally be a little off limits. You better make it GOOD too, don't just grab a Snickers bar, pick a nice dessert at a restaurant, go to Coldstone and get some ice cream, but keep it to the smallest size. The first half of a treat always tastes better than the second half anyways. If you don't believe me on that, consciously think about that next time you eat some sweats. Have some pizza, but go out for some nice fancy pizza, wood-fired, thin crust style pizza. If you are thinking, didn't he just say that we should go cold turkey? Then how does this fit in? The key here is making the decision to indulge a planned one and also one that is not convenient. So in order to get that ice you need to hop in the car, drive 2 miles, and wait in line to get it. If will power is an issue the key is to keep these things at an inconvenient distance from you.

I hope you can put at least one of these strategies into place immediately if you are one to struggle with simple carbs. Honestly I believe if people were to greatly limit these types of food, we wouldn't have the obesity epidemic that we do in this country!

Avocado Tuna Salad and Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

6/26/2014

This salad and salad dressing is a staple in our house. Both are super delicious, full of good fats and so satisfying. We make this salad dressing in batches and just keep it in the fridge to use whenever. I highly recommend you get into making your salad dressings so you can control what goes in it. If you read the ingredient lists on a lot of the store bought salad dressings you are going to find a lot of added sugar and preservatives. You won't need preservatives with this dressing because you are going to want to eat all right away.

With this particular salad, I dressed the greens, topped it with the tuna salad, added some chopped yellow bell peppers, and then finished with a sprinkle of paprika. Feel free to add any of your favorite veggies to it.

Avocado Tuna Salad

Ingredients

1 can of tuna packed in water
1 avocado
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dry tarragon
1 tbsp capers, chopped
1 tsp liquid from caper jar
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Scoop out your avocado into a bowl, add a 1/2 tsp of salt and lemon juice. Using the back of a fork mash the avocado until it is a creamy consistency with maybe a few chunks left in it.
Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix together.
Serve on top of a bed of your favorite greens or use to make a tuna melt, or just eat plain it's delicious no matter what you do!

Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Braggs liquid aminos or low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions

Add all your ingredients to a blender and blend for 30 seconds until it emulsifies.
Transfer to mason jars or anything you have around and store in the refrigerator.

Mediterranean Lasagna with Eggplant Noodles

6/16/2014

No offense to my mother but I decided to try to tweak one of her best recipes to give a little more of a Mediterranean flare. So instead of your traditional Italian lasagna I hopped around the Mediterranean region, from Morocco with tumeric, coriander, and cinnamon to Greece with the kalamata olives. The big change more than the spices that are used in this recipe is that you use eggplant in place of pasta. To be honest I could barely tell the difference using the eggplant versus the noodles.

So if you are anywhere on the gluten sensitivity spectrum this would be a great substitution for you. Feel free to tweak as needed to suit your tastes. If you don't like as much spice cut back on the chili flakes. Laura doesn't like olives so I just added those as a garnish at the end but you are olive eaters I would recommend mixing it directly into the sauce. Hope you enjoy this one, we sure did!

Ingredients - Sauce

For the Sauce

1 lb ground turkey or beef
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1- 2 tsp red chili flakes
2 roasted red peppers, with skins removed
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1 7 oz can of tomato paste
1 tbsp tumeric
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp parsley
1/4 balasamic vinegar
1/2 cup kalamata olives, chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

For the Ricotta mixture

1 15oz container of Whole Milk Ricotta
1/2 cup shredded parmesean cheese
2 tsp basil
2 tsp parsley
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper

Additional Ingredients

2 medium eggplant
1 lb shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup shredded parmesean
Fresh parsley for garnishing

Directions

Begin by roasting your red peppers and egg plant. To roast the peppers place in a 450 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes until skins are lightly charred. If you can't get them to stand on end you will want to rotate at least once during the cooking process. Remove from the oven and seal in aluminum foil to allow the steam to soften the skins so they are easier to remove. Allow them to sit for 15 minutes or so then remove the skins and seeds trying to keep as much liquid as possible. Transfer to blender or food processor and blend into until smooth.

To roast the eggplant you will first want to cut them into 1/2 strips. You can use a mandolin or if you have good knife skills go ahead and rock it out that way. You will need roughly 18 slices to put your lasagna together. Once you have them cut into slices, layout on a sheet pan, driizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the same 450 degree oven. Rotating once halfway through.
While your veggies are roasting feel free to start making your sauce. To do this you will begin by sauteing the onions for 4-5 minutes in a little olive oil, then add your meat, chili flakes and garlic and cook until meat is browned.
Drain any extra grease from the pan, then add the remaining ingredients including your pureed red peppers, and simmer for 25-30 minutes.
While your sauce is simmering you can mix together all the ingredients for your ricotta mixture and set aside.
So to put your lasagna together you will layer the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan with eggplant, than top with 1/3 of the sauce mixture, 1/2 the ricotta mixture, and 1/2 of your shredded mozzarella.

6. Repeat another layer of eggplant, sauce, ricotta, and
mozzarella. On the final layer, add the eggplant, sauce and
parmesean.
7. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes until cheese on
top is slightly browned. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.
Then garnish with fresh parsley. ENJOY!

Stuffed Leeks

2/27/2014

#‎weirdvegwednesday‬ was a pretty tasty creation this week. I’ll admit that we don’t love every new vegetable that we try…but when we started this, our goal was to step outside what we were comfortable with when it came to trying to new food.

This week we made Stuffed Leeks. It was a play on manicotti but without the pasta and it was DELICIOUS. I took the tubes from the leeks and stuffed it with a chicken sausage. The sauce is lemon, caper, tomato, leek sauce. Garnished it with some parmesan and parsley.

“You can learn a lot about a person by the food that they eat. Are they willing to take chances? Will you try new things and step outside of your comfort zone?” ~ An excerpt from Dan’s ebook that he hasn’t written yet ~

Chicken Sausage

Ingredients

1 lb boneless chicken thighs
4 strips of bacon
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 egg

Directions

Cut chicken and bacon into medium chunks that will fit into your grinder. Try to use chilled meats as they will grind better.
Run the chunks of meat through your grinder, collecting in a large bowl.
Add remaining ingredients, and mix together.
Or you can buy your own sausage, but that is just boring and too easy.

Tomato, Leek, Lemon, Caper Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup leeks, chopped
1 cup tomatoes, diced or 1 15 oz can
2 garlic cloves, diced
2 tbsp capers, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

Heat a pan to medium high, add olive oil. Add leeks and cook for 3 minutes.
Add garlic and capers, cook for 1 minute.
Add lemon juice and white wine vinegar, cook and let it reduce for 2 minutes.
Add tomato and cream, cook for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Assembling Stuffed Leeks

So when you get your leeks you will want to cut the a 4 inch section from the bottom. In order to get the leek “tubes” push in the middle of the leek. Make sure you push towards the green side of the leek as it is the wider side and it will come apart easier.

You should be able to get 8-10 tubes from 3 large leeks. Once you have separated, clean the tubes by rinsing. Make sure you set aside the interior of the leek, as you will use that with the sauce. Make sure you clean this part of the leek also as leeks tend to be very sandy. Once you have your leek tubes, fill each with your sausage mixture. You should have enough sausage for 8 or so stuffed leeks.

Arrange all of your stuffed leeks into a baking dish and top with your sauce. Bake for 35-45 minutes until sausage is cooked through. Garnish with some paremesan and chopped parsley.

Fluffy Coconut Pancakes

6/5/2013

Who doesn’t LOVE pancakes? I used to eat so many of these as a kid. I still love them but I really don’t love the bloated, full feeling you get from all the sugar and carbs….you know what I’m talking about. There are healthy alternatives out there and it’s been pretty fun to find them and try them out. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your box and try something new!

This is another one that I found on Instagram via @spoonfuloffit…and it’s spectacular. Go check out her website for some great recipes, workout routines and fitness inspiration: http://www.spoonfuloffit.com. AND just because I like to share what I love go check out @amandamclark on IG (http://clarkpharm.blogspot.com/). She has perfected these pancakes and done so many variations you won’t know what to do with yourself

Here’s the coconut flour that I bought off of Amazon a few months ago. It’s low in carbs, high in fiber and low in calories!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons coconut flour
3 egg whites
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 tablespoon of non-fat Greek yogurt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon vanilla or coconut extract
pinch of salt
Stevia to taste Optional: unsweetened coconut flakes and chia seeds.

directions

1) Heat a pancake griddle or pan to medium heat
2) In a small bowl, add the coconut flour, baking powder, salt, and Stevia
3) Add the 3 egg whites, almond milk, vanilla and Greek yogurt to the dry ingredients
4) Mix up the batter really well. It will take a bit of stirring because the coconut flour has to soak up all the moist ingredients. It will be really thick…that’s ok. The thicker the better. You’ll want to cook on that side with the cover ON until the tops of set completely. Flip and cook for 15-20 seconds.
5) I like to cook them in a little coconut oil but you don’t have to!
6) ENJOY with REAL maple syrup!

About Us

Dan and Laura Suedbeck have embraced an entrepreneurial lifestyle. They are constantly challenging the status quo and challenge others to do so too. They believe that you don't always have to change your situation, sometimes you just need to change the lens you view the world through. Their focus is helping people find purpose and passion with their lives all while getting healthy. Click here to find out more about them.

Contact Us

Affiliate Disclosure
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service