Baked oatmeal bars

Ooooookay I know I’ve been MIA but I did just have a baby!!! I also prepped a ton if meals so I wouldn’t have to cook this month – which was SUCH a good idea! Every night I have dinner ready in zero time 🙂

I recently had to cut out dairy from my diet since it seems to be bothering the little dude’s tummy. As always, I just want to eat sweet carbs and I was jonesing for those baked oatmeal bars that Quaker makes…soft & chewy….basically an oatmeal cookie. But I’m also needing protein. So I got up and whipped this recipe together and prayed it wouldn’t be gross – lucky for me – it was great! Totally hitting the spot.

Here’s what you’ll need:
A 350 degree preheated oven

Stir together:
2 cups whole rolled oats
1tspn baking powder
1tspn cinnamon
1/4c splenda brown sugar blend (you can use regular brown sugar if you’d like)

Then add:
3 cups liquid egg whites
1tspn vanilla extract
1/4c (or one individual serving) unsweetened apple sauce – I borrowed one from my toddler 😁

Spray a 9×9 pan with cooking spray and pour mixture in. Bake for 50min.

This recipe makes 4 big servings at 25g protein, 40g carbs and 2.5g fat

They are somewhere between a blondie and an oatmeal cookie bar.

Not your grandma’s shepherds pie

We recently bought a bunch of organic beef in bulk and I’m doing my darndest to be creative with it.

I’m also trying to be better about using what I have in the house.

Since my forte is making “something” out of “nothing” I opened my fridge & came up with this little puppy….after a little recipe research on shepherds pie.

I’m currently eating as many carbs as I want so I didn’t make this recipe to out of low carb necessity – I was just using what I had available.

This is a super easy fantastic meal that freezes well & could be a great dinner to take to a family with a new baby. As always, you can sub the protein with ground anything – I like to keep it on the lean side since I want to put my fats towards things like Reece cups! Ha!

Here’s what you’ll need for a 2qt pan (I like to double the recipe cause it’s so easy but this list isn’t for a double batch)
For the Filling:
1 yellow onion, chopped
1lb ground meat (chicken, turkey, beef, lamb…I used 95/5 ground beef)
1 LARGE carrot chopped
1/2 Tblspn rosemary
1/2 Tblspn thyme
2 tspn chopped garlic or garlic powder
1 can tomato paste
1/2 cup chicken or veggie stock
1 Tblspn Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt
Pepper

For the cauliflower purée:
1 head cauliflower, removed from stalk
3 servings fromage blanc 0 or fat free cream cheese
2 teaspoons Greek seasoning
Sea salt
Pepper

Directions:
In a large pot (I use a Dutch oven) spray the bottom and sides with cooking spray and heat on medium/high. Add your onion. Once the onion has browned add your protein, rosemary, garlic, thyme, sea salt & pepper. Then stir like your life depends on it! Or like you want the protein broken into smaller pieces and well mixed with the spices. Nice you’ve browned your protein add your carrots, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce & chicken stock. The let it cook on LOW while you make your purée.

Pre heat your oven to 425

In a separate pot (feel free to use a steamer pot or basket). You will steam your cauliflower until tender. This usually takes about 10-15min max. Once it’s soft, carefully (it’s HOT) put it in either a REALLY powerful blender OR a food processor with the cream cheese & Greek seasoning. Blend until smooth (2min max).

Spray your 2qt baking dish with non stick spray, pour the meat mixture into the base, using a spoon to mash it down evenly. Then pour the cauliflower purée on top, smoothing it with a spatula. Bake for 20 minutes at 425!

Creamy Gorgonzola Mayo burgers with sweet & spicy slaw.

Recently I’ve been watching Pinterest for recipe ideas. I love “cleaning up” a recipe and seeing how close I can come to the original without blowing my macros.

This was a take on a pin I found for turkey burgers and since I only had beef on hand, I adjusted! The original recipe calls for LOTS of extra oil and cheese as well as real brown sugar.

If you’re not keen on “fake” brown sugar use the real stuff but trust me on the added oil (which I omitted from my recipe). You DONT need it. Especially if you’re not using fat free protein. 🙂

I loved these burgers SO much that I’m wondering how I’ll ever go back to my old standby?!

Whatcho sexy self will need for these mouth watering burgers:

For the slaw:
1 head of napa cabbage, sliced into shreds
2 teaspoons diced garlic (I use the pre chopped in a jar!)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 tablespoons Splenda brown sugar blend
1 teaspoon sriracha or hot chili sauce
1 lime, juiced

For the burgers themselves:
1 pound lean ground beef/chicken/turkey (I used 95/5 beef)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 green onions, sliced

For the creamy gorgonzola “mayo”:
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
3 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

directions:
(as a note, I like to make the slaw first and have it sit in the fridge.)
chili garlic slaw
Spray a large skillet with cooking spray & heat over medium heat. Add the garlic and cabbage, tossing well to coat and cook for about 2-3 minutes, continuously stirring. Add the paprika, brown sugar blend and sriracha, tossing well to combine (I like to use kitchen tongs to pick up and turn over the cabbage). Remove the cabbage and place it in a large bowl, adding the lime juice and again tossing well. Place the bowl in the fridge so the slaw can cool completely (unless you’d like it warm, but I love cold slaw on a warm burger, yummm).

In a bowl mix together the ground protein, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic and green onions until just combined. Gently mixed until just combined and form into patties, I like 5oz patties. Heat your grill or a large skillet over medium-high heat and quickly spray with cooking spray. Add the patties and cook until brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side.

For the mayo, you’ll combine the gorgonzola, the yogurt, salt and pepper together in a bowl and stir and mash until combined – refrigerate if you’re still cooking your burgers. Keep in mind you can make the “mayo” early in the day or even a day ahead.

If you’re tight on carbs, plate the slaw FIRST then crumble your burger on top with a serving of the mayo drizzled across like a salad – you have room for a bun, getcha one!!! Toast that puppy and layer on the goodness. You’ll thank me later 😉

Banana bread stuffed french toast muffins

I’ve been following @pbeechie on Instagram for some time and she has some serious cooking skills. Today I was inspired by her banana nut french toast so I actually LEAPT out if bed to make my version.

What your sexy self will need:
Muffin tins
2 slices of bread (I used 35calorie bread)
2 egg whites
2Tblspn ripe mashed banana
Dash of cinnamon
Stevia drops (I used vanilla cream) or stevia packs

For the topping:
1/4c fat free vanilla Greek yogurt
1/2Tblspn sugar free/fat free vanilla pudding mix (dry!)
2tblspn unsweetened almond milk

Preheat your oven to 350

Spray 4 of your muffin tins (you’ll only need 4 if you follow the recipe, you can double it and make 8…whatever you want!)

In a mixing bowl combine your egg whites, cinnamon, 2 droppers on stevia and mashed banana.

Cut your bread into 4 pieces & put it in the bowl to soak up all of the egg white/banana mixture

Place 2 pieces of the bread in each muffin tin, you can press them down in there to make them fit and have a cup shape.

Bake for 13-15min.

While they are baking:
Whisk your 1/4c of Greek yogurt, almond milk and sf/ff pudding mix together. It should be thick, not runny.

Once your muffins are done, pull them out of the oven and let them cool while you make a cup of coffee 😉

Take the muffins out of the tins & plop the yogurt mixture on top.

Eat!

Mmmm yumm.
Macros for the recipe:
20g protein
30g carb
0g fat.

Starving, Stressed, and Stockpiling: A Guest Blog by Kori Propst

I’m incredibly honored to be sharing this guest blog by my mental health coach, Kori Propst.  She has helped me overcome some pretty challenging obstacles in life and when the opportunity arose to have her share her thought and insight on how we mentally/emotionally process eating, I JUMPED at the opportunity!  **disclaimer: for some reason wordpress has changed the formatting of her original post so please bear with me as I correct this!**

Guilt and gluten free Lazy Girl brownies

Typically I’m a “from scratch” kinda girl. I’ve had a number of requests to crest some “partially homemade” treats. This recipe is in response to those requests!!

All you busy moms, this one is for YOU:

What your sexy self will need:
🔸Gluten free brownie MIX (I used Pamela’s – purchased at whole foods)
🔸4 scoops Chocolate protein powder (I used Diet Doc)
🔸92g (two servings) liquid egg whites
🔸1/2c plain, fat-free Greek yogurt
🔸1/8c water
🔸Applesauce

Follow the directions on the package for “apple sauce” brownies, adding in the protein powder and water. Bake!!

Tada!!! I TOLD you it was easy!!! I was a little worried they’d be super dry because the top cooled and seemed hard to the touch, but they were cakey, moist and DELISH. I inhaled two – I had to walk away. Really.

I used an “all edges” brownie pan & got 22 small brownies, each one packed 7g of protein and only 1g of fat! Yay! You can add more egg whites, possible up to 4 – but I hadn’t used this mix before so I wasn’t sure how they turn out. I feel confident they’d be great!

Lazy Girl’s pumpkin protein bread

I’m constantly being asked for quick recipes. “I don’t keep _____ in the house but I want a similar recipe”. So I’m attempting some “semi-homemade” recipes for the peeps who don’t want to fuss with buying ingredients. My only disclaimer is that you WILL need a FEW ingredients but I’ll try to make it a simple as possible.

What your sexy self will need:
1 box Pillsbury Perfectly Pumpkin Cake Mix
4 egg whites
5 scoops vanilla protein powder
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 cups water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Add mix, egg whites, applesauce and 1 cup of the water. Whisk until mixed. If it’s dry add more water but only 1/2 a cup at a time as the apple sauce is moist enough and you shouldn’t need much more than a cup. Pour into muffin tins, bread pan or cake pan. Cook for 20min or until toothpick comes out clean.

I doubled the recipe and made 12 mini loaves. 1/2 a loaf is a serving. Macros per 1/2 loaf: 13g protein 32g carbs 3g fat

Quick & yummy bean salad

Part of being a mom is learning how to make food fast. For some reason kids go from zero to STARVING in 3 seconds and somehow manage to be the clingiest at meal time.

Since I like to keep things like canned beans stocked in the house I was able to throw this together and keep my family from certain death (sarcasm).

What your sexy self will need:
Cans of beans;
I used-
🔸1 can of black beans
🔸1 can of garbanzo brand
🔸1 can of pinto beans
🔸1 can of white beans
🔸1 can or 1 full cup of cooked corn drained & added to mixture
Drain and rinse then well then dump them in no particular order into a big mixing bowl then add the following:

🔸1/2 of a large red onion chopped into small pieces
🔸1 full teaspoon of minced garlic, I used roasted
🔸1/8C chopped sun dried tomatoes
🔸1/2 of a large jalapeño diced (keep or remove seeds depending on how spicy you like your food)
🔸1/8c lime juice
🔸1/8c red wine vinegar
🔸1/8c cholula or your preferred hot sauce
🔸1 tspn paprika
🔸1 tspn cumin
🔸1 tspn thyme

Sea salt & pepper to taste.

Mix well and serve as a side or as an appetizer with tortilla chips! Yum!

Chocolate chip cookie muffins

These can also be made into cookies, I was just short on time 🙂

As always, wet and dry ingredients are mixed separately then added together. I top my cookies/muffins with chocolate chips to ensure each one’s macros are perfect!

Dry ingredients:
🔸56g Beverly Vanilla UMP
🔸56g barley flour
🔸56g coconut flour
🔸52g Splenda brown sugar blend
🔸1tsp baking powder
🔸1/2tsp baking soda

Keep separate: 🔸30g chocolate chips

Wet ingredients:
🔹63g unsweetened apple sauce
🔹1 whole egg
🔹92g liquid egg whites
🔹1/2c unsweetened almond milk

Recipe made 6 muffins, I’d guess it would make a dozen cookies. Macros per muffin: 11g protein, 24g carbs, 4g fat

More brownies?!!

I really need to consider sharing more of my dinner recipes….eh, oh well…here’s another brownie for ya!

I’m still working on making these taste more peanut buttery – and yes, I’ll share that recipe when I master it!!

What your sexy self will need:

Two bowls; one for dry and one for wet ingredients, a 9×9 pan and an oven

Dry ingredients:
🔸87g AI sports nutrition chocolate dream protein powder
🔸42g coconut flour
🔸56g barley flour
🔸22g Splenda brown sugar blend
🔸1tspn baking soda
🔸1tspn baking powder

(Keep separate 🔸31g chocolate chips)

Wet ingredients:
🔹1 whole egg
🔹138g liquid egg whites
🔹35g “Better n peanut butter”
🔹32g Almond butter (can sub for regular PB)
🔹240g unsweetened almond milk
🔹1/2 tspn almond extract

Mix the dry ingredients well. Mix the wet ingredients well. Slowly combine the two & pour into a 9×9 baking dish that’s been sprayed with cooking spray (I line mine with tin foil for easy cleanup)

You’ll have to push the mix into the corners. Then add the chocolate chips evenly across the top (I figured I’d be cutting them 4 across and 4 down).

Bake for 20min and let cool COMPLETELY before eating. 🙂 enjoy!!

Macros per brownie: 6g protein, 9g carbs, 3g fat