Paleo protein bites

So these are addicting... I must say... Very healthy though so it's all good!! Part of the reason I made this is my never-ending appetite since I started lactating... It's just rediculous... But this awesome snack isn't just for nursing mothers!! This one packs a man-sized punch of protein and a hippie sized portion of fiber and goodness! :) 

It all started with a Pinterest post... Which I can't get to since Pinterest won't let me log in. So I can't even give'em credit. Oh well. I changed it so much this one is definitely an original recipe!! (Stupid Pinterest....)

This recipe can be made into bars, bite-sized balls, or a crumbly mess you eat like nuts. (My personal favourite)

This is just to show you what I used. Nothing fancy. (And I ended up not using the dates since mine got too thick). The only thing from a health food store is my protein powder (and if you aren't avoiding dairy and soy you can buy this stuff anywhere too). Everything else is superstore (loblaws) or bulk barn. That bottle of vodka is actually home made vanilla. (I had to use store bought though, because this batch of vanilla is still infusing till December... I like it good and strong!). But I encourage you to make your own vanilla! It's just vanilla beans (Costco or bulk barn) and vodka. Cut your beans in half length-wise and put them in the bottle. Give it a shake every few days or weeks and use it 2 months later. 

ITS NOT TOO LATE TO MAKE SOME FOR CHRISTMAS!

Anyway on to this recipe! This makes a great breakfast in a hurry, work out recovery or a great carry-me-till-supper snack! It's awesome for preventing cravings. 

First you need to choose a healthy nut butter. I love using almond butter for cooking. If you have to use something unsweetened anyway, may as well make it one of the healthier ones out there! If you can't have nuts use sunflower or sesame seed butters. These are also healthy options.  I like to buy mine from bulk barn because they keep it churned and you don't get that oil slick on the top that is always in the grocery store containers of natural nut butters. I also like to make fresh nut butters in my blender when I have time, energy and nuts. Either way I store it in the fridge and that seems to prevent separation in the butter. I hate trying to stir that stuff up since the almond butter is so dense. And you want to save all that omega three oil cause it's good for you!! I always spill it trying to stir it in. 

So use 1 cup almond butter and 1 cup maple syrup. You could use honey here if you don't have access to maple syrup, however I tried this with honey and didn't like it. The honey taste was very over powering. I didn't enjoy it. Perhaps agave nectar or another natural syrup would work if you don't have maple syrup. 

Anyway, warm those two up a bit so you can stir them together. At first they don't mix well and it almost looks like the almond butter will stay as little curds in the maple syrup but keep stiring and it turns into a nice smooth paste!

Next I added my fine powders. 3 tbsp cacao powder (this is an un-processed cocoa that has more antioxidants and less caffeine or allergins like dairy and soy). You can use cocoa too or even carob powder. And 2 scoops of protein powder. I don't think I would normally add this since there is plenty of natural protein from the almonds, but I just happened to have this vegan organic sprouted grain and legume based protein that is raw and fantastic ( vita health... Check it!)

Stir this up and gaze longingly into that fudgy bowl. Take a big spoonful and eat it guilt-free my friends! (Ok... It's still got calories... But at least they are smarter calories!)

Next come the oats. I used three cups but I would do more like 2-2 1/2 next time since I like adding extra seeds and nuts. You will need to mix with your hands at this point as if you are making hamburger patties. It's fun. Take another bite! :)

Next add 1-1 1/2 cups of extras. I used some 71% coca chocolate chips from superstore (in their gluten free aisle), sunflower and pumpkin seeds. If I hadn't used so many oats I also would have added 1/2 a cup of hemp seeds instead of 1/2 a cup of oats. A bit more protein there too. You can also add flax meal or chia seeds for more protein power!  This is a very flexible recip that way!

Now you can choose how to end yours. You can press it into a pan like this, chill it and cut it into bars. 

Or you can make it into little patties/balls for smaller portions,

Or (my personal favourite) just throw the crumbly mess into a ziplock in your freezer and take out a cup full when you want a snack to munch on!

There you have it! I love this one because it is so flexible and open to interpretation! I added 2 tbsp of brewers yeast to mine for an added antioxidant punch and because it supposedly boosts a mother's milk supply. This kid's gotta eat you know!! 

Paleo Protein bars-balls-bites-bits

1 cup natural almond butter

1 cup maple syrup (or honey, but it is a strong flavour in this recipe)

2 scoops protein powder (optional)

3 tbsp raw cacao (or cocoa)

2 Tbsp brewers yeast (optional)

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups healthy add-ins (seeds, nuts, fibers, brans, meals , raisins, dark chocolate etc...)

Heat syrup and butter until warm and mixable. Stir together. Add cocoa, protein (if using) and yeast (if using). Stir together. Add oats and mix with hands when it gets too hard to use a spoon.  Choose add ins and add to mix. (I used sunflower/pumpkin seeds and dark chocolate chips). 

Option 1: press into baking dish, chill and cut into bars

Option 2: form into balls or patties and chill

Option 3: pour crumbly mix into a container and use as desired. 

Store in an air tight container in the fridge or freezer. 

Dairy free whole wheat apple pie

So there are sort of two things you can take away from this blog post: 1) a nutritious pie crust recipe 2) my method for making pies. 

Pie is one of those things where... Who uses a recipe? So often that leaves us young'ens questioning how to put a decent pie together. Well thanks to some early teenage curiosity, I have actually been making pies for years already and had plenty of trial and error!

This pie crust recipe was a simple attempt to health-ify a very unhealthy pastery. I prettymuch always just use the recipe on the tender flake box, however that makes six crusts!! I only need two, and it's some very annoying math to divide the ingredients. I admit, I have always hated pie crusts... Dry and flaky... Yuck. No thanks. Hand me a soft juicy cinnamon bun if I have to consume that many calories!! Despite this hatred, I have been complimented countless times on the flakiness of my crusts. I actually enjoyed this crust myself. The men I served it to "prefer a more traditional crust". ...but who wouldn't complain about all whole wheat crust? So it's kind of optional with this recipe. There's still some good methodology here you can take away even if you don't need or want a healthy pie crust! (And seriously the tender flake recipe is dinamite all on its own). 

So to make the crust you put two cups of flour (white or whole wheat or any combination of the two) in a bowl with a tsp of salt. Stir that up. I used all whole wheat cause I like fiber... :)

Add 3/4 cup coconut oil (or lard if you are serving picky eaters... I find the coconut oil actually makes a flakier crust, though you can taste it in this recipe... Which I like personally). It also makes biscuits way flakier FYI. And you can't taste it in them. 

Cut in the coconut oil with your pastery blender (looks like a potato masher only it has long blade-like pieces instead of a flat masher). 

It should start to look like this (coarse oatmeal)

Next comes the tricky part. 

Crack an egg into a small bowl and beat it very well. It should all be one color, no whites floating in there, and the yolk well incorporated. 

Put roughly 1 1/2 tbsp egg into a liquid measure. (I did three scoops with a measuring tablespoon cause it is impossible to actually fill the spoon. The egg slips out... So I did three half-full tbsp). Add a tbsp of vinegar to the measure, then top off with cold water to make 1/3 cup of liquid total. I used apple cider vinegar simply cause that's what I had on hand, but normally I would use plain white vinegar. 

Stir this into the dough, eventually using your hands to make a dough 

Here is where some method comes in. Pastery is always flakier if it goes into the oven cold. However with coconut oil you can't simply roll out the dough once it is chilled. The oil gets quite solid in a fridge. 

So I roll it out while it's warm and put it in the fridge pre- assembled

Your bottom crust is very forgiving, since it is about practicality vs appearance. Roll it out approximately then start patching here and there with the bits that hang over. 

Steal a bit from your top crust portion if needed. The top generally doesn't need to be quite as big anyway, since it goes on a bit flatter. 

Cover your crust with Saran or waxed paper and put something inside it to hold the paper in place (not necessary for Saran. This is just to prevent it from drying out in the fridge)

Next roll out a big round circle  of dough for the top half between waxed paper. Put this in your fridge flat. If you bend it in half it will just brake when you try to straighten it later, leaving you with a big seam down the centre of your pie. No one wants that.

While your crusts are chilling pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees. 

Now start peeling them apples. 

I swear by Granny Smiths for pie. The apple really does make the pie. If you use the wrong apple you will have apple soup instead of apple pie. You want a good firm apple that will hold its shape and add a bit of tartness. I hate eating granny's raw but they are still the best in a pie. Second choice would be macintosh. 

The next methodology part is how you cut your apples. The smaller the pieces, the less likely you will be to make soup instead of pie! So cut them small! I know wedges look pretty but they also make things watery. 

I start by quartering my apples, then coring them. 

I take each quarter and cut it into four slices. 

Then I cut the slices across into four sections again.  16 pieces from each quarter. So quite small!

Next mix up your thickener/spice/sweetener. You can play a bit here. This makes a nice sweet pie. If you like yours a bit more tart, use less sugar. You can use whatever spices suit your fancy too. I used 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup white flour, 1 tbsp corn starch. The flour and corn starch are thickeners. This is a maximum thickening amount I would use for a six apple pie. It makes a nice pasty filling. Not at all watery but not dry either. If you like your pies to be more juicy you can tweak this to your liking. I am just a bit paranoid about making pie soup...

Now you are ready to pull your crusts out of the fridge. Start with your bottom crust, leaving the top in the fridge.

Put two tsp of your mixture into the bottom of your crust and swirl it around to cover the bottom evenly. 

Mix the rest into your apples directly. 

Now put your apples into the shell. You want them to be nicely heaped for aprettier pie. I used six apples and this is quite a shallow pie plate. You may need to use more depending on your pie plate.

 Cover the apples with your top crust and pinch the edges by pressing your thumbs into the dough. Then cut slits into the top of the dough for steam to escape. You can make a heart, a face or just boring old lines like this one. 

Next generously brush your pie with the remaining egg mixture. It's okay if it puddles like this. It'll all soak in leaving a nice glossy finish. 

I sprinkle the top with cinnamon and sugar after I egg it.

When I bake a pie I always put a pan on the rack below incase the pie gets juicy and needs to drip somewhere. I don't like  cleaning my oven...

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes to get a browning on the crust. Then turn the oven down to 350 for 40-60 minutes depending how firm you like your apples. 

And that's it!! It's just that easy. 

Whole wheat coconut oil apple pie

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup coconut oil 

1 1/2 tbsp beaten egg (reserve remainder for egg wash)

1 tbsp vinegar (white or apple cider)

Cold water to make 1/3 cup of liquid

6-8 Granny Smith apples

2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup white flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp cornstarch

Combine flour and salt. Cut in coconut oil with a pastery blender. In a liquid measure, combine 1 1/2 tbsp egg, 1 tbsp vinegar and enough water to make 1/3 a cup of liquid. Add liquid to dry ingredients and mix well. Knead on counter and divide into two parts (one slightly larger for bottom crust is fine). Roll out bottom crust and place in pan. Cover with Saran and refrigerate. Roll out top crust between waxed paper and refrigerate flat. 

Meanwhile peel and chop apples. Combine the cinnamon flour sugar and corn starch and toss with apples, reserving 2 tbsp to sprinkle on your bottom crust. 

Remove bottom crust from fridge and sprinkle 2 tbsp of the sweetener-thickener into it. Top with apples and then top crust. Pinch crust shut and cut some air vent holes in the top. Brush with remaining egg yolk.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes and then turn the oven down to 350 for 50-60 minutes. 

Cool and serve!

Lovely lactation cookies: breast cancer awareness tribute

So this is my tribute to breast cancer awareness! I found a recipe for lactation cookies (for all my lactating mammas!). Hey! Who doesn't want an excuse to eat cookies guilt free!?  Unfortunately the recipe I found had two cups of sugar and a cup of butter and a cup of chocolate chips... So... I couldn't just leave it alone!!

What makes it a lactation cookie?

Two things... Oats and brewers yeast. You know how some people say to have a beer to increase your milk supply? Well it's the brewers yeast in there that does the job! So why choke down a beer (and risk all the alcohol/breastmilk controversy) when you can just buy the stuff at bulk barn for a few cents and make some cookies!?

If you don't feel like being healthy, you can invent your own lactation cookie by just adding two rounded tablespoons of brewers yeast, and some activated flax meal to your existing oatmeal cookie recipe... But my blog is on the healthier side so naturally I have a nice healthy alternative for ya!!

(What a great way to keep your husband away from your cookie stash eh? "If you eat these, you will grow boobies dear"... 'Nuf said!) - I guess you could always get him to do the midnight feeding if he eats all your cookies... 

Anyway! Our story begins with a successful trip to bulk barn. I got about a cup of brewers yeast for 1.80. Not expensive stuff! It's in the spices aisle. 

Here are all my ingredients! Mostly normal stuff. The weird additions are easily attained or substituted if you don't like them.

- palm sugar: coconut tree sap, dehydrated. An awesome brown sugar substitute cause it is nice and Carmel tasting. It has roughly half the sugar content of normal sugar and your body digests it slower so you won't get the same sugar spike as regular sugar!

- coconut oil: a Margerine/butter substitute. Also known to aid in lactation so in my opinion it should be part of your recipe! I buy mine at Costco. You can also get it at any health food store and usually at grocery stores now too cause it is getting more popular. 

- brewers yeast: no replacing! This is a critical ingredient. Just cause you didn't know about it doesn't mean it's hard to find. Bulk barn is 20 minutes from anywhere in the city I bet... (I won't put money on that cause I didn't even google map that). Anyway, this stuff actually has other health benefits other than lactation (but your husband need not know this). This is the left-overs from breweries after they are finished... Beer-ing the stuff. (That's the technical term) so in addition to making you into a cow, you get some awesome amino acids too!

Protein powder: optional. I use garden of life's vegan organic sprouted grain and legume protein (sounds crazy I know. The nice lady gave me a sample, so I bought some). I get it at vita health. Only add this if you already like using protein powder in your diet. Totally not necessary. 

Ground flax: not pictured... You can buy flax anywhere and grind it up in your coffee grinder. You can buy it pre-ground at many grocery and health food stores as well. I have a vitamix dry blender so I blend mine that way. In this recipe you activate it by adding it to some water and letting it sit for a while. It basically turns to sludge but this is some of the healthy oils coming out, and then into the cookie!

And the rest of the stuff is pretty straight forward. 

Step one 

Mix your flax seeds and water and let them sit on the counter for 3-5 minutes, till they get sludgy like this picture. 

Start by creaming the coconut oil and palm sugar together. Coconut oil should be a solid at room temperature. If it's not, you need air conditioning, or  you bought a highly refined product and not natural unrefined coconut oil. This makes it easy to use as a butter or lard replacer. Coconut oil has too many health benefits to name, but I challenge you to google it for yourself! Make the switch!!

Next mash up your banana and stir it in there. Then add your eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla and flax sludge. 

Your batter will resemble oatmeal at this point cause the coconut oil solidifies in the liquid a bit. This won't affect your final product at all. 

Next mix your dry ingredients including brewers yeast (pictured above) and add them to the wet mix.  (I actually substituted 3/4 cup almond flour for the wheat flour. I would do more next time since it is such a stiff batter and doesn't need the gluten from the flour to stick together). 

Your batter will be quite thick. I had to switch to a wooden spoon to actually stor the oats in there

Now is the fun part: pick your one cup of extras! I suggest something sweet like dark chocolate, raisins or craisins since the banana is a sugar substitute from the original recipe I saw.  But you could add seeds, nuts, flax, chia, hemp etc... Coconut... Whatever your heart desires!

I added cranberries since thanks giving is right around the corner... And they help fight off infections, and I have a cold :)

Pan-em up (nice and close together. They don't spread much). And bake them at 375 for 10 ish minutes!

Then enjoy!! (Yes I ate all six of these after I took the picture). I got about 60 small cookies in total

Lactation cookies

Ingredients

1 Cup coconut oil (Costco)

1 Banana

1 Cup coconut sugar**

4 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp flaxseed meal**

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3 Cups oats**

2 generous Tbsp brewer's yeast**

Optional:

1 scoop plain or vanilla protein powder

1 Cup add ins ** (add something sweet like cranberries or raisins since I cut out some sugar)

**Bulk barn sells it

Directions

Preheat oven at 375 degrees F. Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes. Cream coconut oil and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, then add banana mashed up.  mix well. Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the sugar mix. Beat until blended. Sift together dry ingredients, except oats and add ins.  Add to wet mixture. Stir in oats then extras.  Scoop or drop onto baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment or silpat. The dough is a little crumbly, so it helps to use a scoop.

Bake 375 for 10 minutes. 

Cranberry oatmeal coconut muffins

I went grocery shopping the other day and lo-and-behold, fresh cranberries!! Who can resist? (I did... Cause I have about 4 bags in my freezer... Still! T'is the season!)

I found this recipe on this site:

http://www.eatgood4life.com/2011/11/cranberry-and-oatmeal-breakfast-muffins.html

and decided to health-ify it even more than it was! This recipe is awesome for fall, easy to personalize and makes an awesome healthy breakfast! (I have a feeling you could omit the flour or at least replace it with oat flour to take out most of the gluten. They were dense enough that something could be removed)

My first change was (obviously) to coconut oil and coconut palm sugar.

If this is your first time reading my blog, know that I only use a health food if I can get it at Costco or bulk barn. These aren't hard-to-find ingredients I am working with here! 

In this case, my palm sugar is from bulk barn (it is made from the tree sap as opposed to coconut sugar which is from the flowers: resulting in a tree that will not make coconuts because all it's flowers are gone). Coconut palm sugar has a much much lower glycemic index than sugar, while giving a nice brown sugar flavor). This means it has less calories, a little less sweetness, and your body digests it slower than refined sugars, which helps your body to use it for energy as opposed to fat-storage. 

and my coconut oil is from Costco. It's so cheap there, and once you start replacing all your fats with it you go through the stuff very fast! I won't even get into the health benefits of coconut oil because there are so many. It's suffice to say its an excellent omega 3 and lots of people eat several tbsp straight-up coconut oil a day for medicinal purposes alone. Yes it has calories, just like any other fat, but they are the kind of calories your body needs, unlike other fats. 

I creamed these together, and added an egg, then the mashed banana and vanilla. 

I decided to use coconut milk since I was using coconut oil. Coconut milk is awesome for baking because it is thick and creamy while being dairy free!

Once this was done, I added all my dry ingredients. 

I decided to add some healthy extras since I increased the amounts of coconut oil, milk and cranberries. I added 1/4 cup extras (ground chia and hemp seeds) and 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (bulk barn). 

Sometimes when I bake with coconut oil or milk, I just add in some coconut too, so that the coconut isn't an unwanted flavour, but a feature. This works really well even with breads and cakes if you just sprinkle a bit on top right before baking. Then people know they will be tasting coconut, if you are wary of offending un-expecting taste buds. By this point, the batter resembled cookie dough more than muffin batter.

 I decided to add an extra 1/2 cup cranberries (2 cups) because of this, since oats keep on soaking up liquids.  Honestly after baking them, I think you could cut out half the flour if you wanted to. They tasted great as is, but if you are looking for a flourless recipe this would be easy to eliminate it in. (Blend up half a cup of oats into a flour and you are good to go). You could also just add more moisture (such as an extra banana, then eliminate the sugar all together)

Anyway!! I then put it into greased muffin tins (I have an olive oil cooking spray from Costco that I always use, even in paper liners so they never are hard to peel)

Then baked them! This recipe makes 1 1/2 dozen, so if you only have 12-er muffin pans, put about a tbsp water in each empty tin for even baking. I don't actually measure this though. 

And there you have it! A great dessert, snack, breakfast or freezer muffin! Guilt free and good for you!

Cranberry oatmeal coconut muffins

INGREDIENTS:

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1  organic egg

1/3 cup coconut oil 

1/3 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup coconut palm sugar (or brown sugar)

1 cup whole wheat flour. (Or 1/2 C oat flour)

1  3/4 cup quick rolled oats

3 tsp baking powder 

1/4 cup healthy add ins (ground chia, flax, hemp seeds etc...)

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut

1 1/2-2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (not dried craisins)

Pinch of cinnamon

Cream oil and sugar. Add egg and mix. Add mashed bananas and vanilla. Mix well. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, healthy add-ins, and coconut, and mix into wet ingredients. Stir in cranberries, and divide batter into 18 greased paper-lined muffin cups. 

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes and enjoy! (Careful the cranberries will be hot!)