Banana Protein Cakes

I am always looking for a new way to incorporate overly ripe bananas into recipes; they are a natural source of sugar, flavor, vitamins, and minerals. Today, inspiration hit! I only had 1 lonely brown banana; not enough for cookies or muffins. But! What about... PANCAKES! So I whipped up my protein pancake recipe (blogged on here from earlier days) and I smashed a banana into it. The verdict: fluffy, delicious, soft pancakes come straight down from heaven and into my belly. With the friendliest macros a girl ever could hope for! Here is the recipe! PS flavor combo ideas at the end!

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana
1/2 c. pancake mix *
1/4 c. nonfat Organic Milk
1/4 c. liquid egg whites
1/4 c. ground oats *
1/2 scoop Slap Whey Isolate Protein *
Shake of cinnamon


Directions:
Mash the banana. Pretend that banana is your arch enemy. Rawr. It's suffeciently smashed. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Warm griddle. Spray griddle. Make pancakes. I used a soup spoon, and made my pancakes more silver dollar size (~2 spoonfuls). 

Servings: 3 - I made 6 silver dollar pancakes, deciding 2 pancakes would be a serving.
Macros per serving: 154 cal
Fat: 1 gram (WOOOO!)
Carbs: 25 grams (Fuel the Gainz!)
Protein: 9 grams (Mmmm)


Flavor combo ideas: I added some chocolate chips to my batch... who's surprised? No one. I also used the Slappy Birthday flavor protein because it's a good base but you could use any of the flavors (Vanilla, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Cinnamon Swirl, or Strawberry Slapshake) depending on where you are taking the flavor train to.
-Dark Chocolate & Coconut
-Vanilla & warm berries
-Chocolate PB combo
The options are endless, get creative!


* I only use SLAP protein; it's clean, delicious, and it bakes fantastically. It doens't clump or get funky. Need some slap? Head to Weslap.com to pick some up and use LTIPFIT at checkout for a discount!
* Benders has protein pancake bases but all gluten free and other options. Kodiak cakes is protein packed also. Or you can use bisquick, or any other form of pancake mix you prefer. Just be aware it might change the macros a little bit.
*Ground Oats: I take old fashioned oats, I put them in my ninja, I grind to flour like consistency. I like using "oat flour" (as I call it) because it sucks up a lot of excess fluid, adds a bit of health to the meal, and helps control macros. Again, if you want to play around with the recipe, be my guest!

Baked Apple Bombs

Fall has arrived! Which means pumpkin everything! Not exactly. Let's not forget the other delicious things thoughts of fall conjure; apples, cinnamon, cider, honey. I  bring you: baked apple bombs! 

WHAT? Yes. This idea literally came to me on the fly today. I was meal prepping my steel cut oats and quinoa when I started thinking I really wanted to try breakfast quinoa. So I mixed the quinoa and oats! Then I added some honey and cinnamon. "This would be delicious with apples" and then BAM! It would be delicious in the apple! So I scooped out the middle of some apples. 

I took the innards and mixed that into my oat/ quinoa mixture and then put it all into the apple. I loaded it with a 1/3 c of mixture. 

Bake them around 20 minutes; the apples will be warm and soft! It's like apple pie, for breakfast. 

Macros: 1 apple filled bomb 

Calories: 259 

Fat: 2.5 g

Carbs: 56 g

Protein: 5.5 g 

These are carb heavy, full of healthy carbs! Great way to start your day!! 

Black Bean Brownies

So first I brought you the "blondies" made with chick peas and now I bring you "brownies"!! ... Are they yummy? I ate four before writing this. And I despise beans of all kinds. But they're good for you. And I LOVE dessert. So of course I had to try these! 

They're brownies, that I baked in tiny muffin cups... They are like brownie cupcakes! 

Ingredients: 

-1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained 

-2 eggs 

-1 tbsp canola oil 

-6 tbsp cocoa 

-2 tsp baking powder 

-1/2 tsp baking soda 

-3 tbsp sugar free syrup 

-1 tbsp vanilla extract 

-Pinch of salt 

-1/2 c walnuts 

-1/4 c mini chocolate morsels 

Directions: 

-preheat oven to 350 degrees 

-use a food processor to mix everything EXCEPT the walnuts and chocolate chips 

-make sure to scrape the sides so all is mixed uniformly! 

-fold in walnuts (or any nuts) and chocolate chips 

-you can bake in muffin tins, or as typical brownies! Bake 15-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. (15 minutes for tiny muffins!) 

Macros: (per tiny muffin size) 

Calories: 72

Fat: 4 g

Carbs: 7 g

Protein: 3 g

Keep in mind, beans are a healthy fat! And if this is the only way I'm going to eat them... Game on! 

Variation ideas: use hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, almonds, etc or even no nuts. Try different flavored morsels; white chocolate, mint, peanut butter, butterscotch, etc! 

These are quick to make and I had everything right in my pantry! Easy, delicious, and nutritious! 

I food processed the beans first to make sure they weren't whole anymore and then added everything else! 

Shrimp Fra'diablo

I don't usually like spicy... But this was delicious. First thing: get a Vegetti, it's $10 at target, Walmart, online, etc. The vegetti makes "noodles" from veggies. I used zucchini for this recipe- delicious! 

Bear in mind I didn't cook this expecting to blog about it, I just tossed it together so no measuring was done! Cooking can be fun; enjoy it! I also don't have the exact macros BUT I can assure you it's healthy mix of protein, carbs, fats, and vitamins/ minerals. Using zucchini as the "noodles" is a much healthier substitute to pasta. 

Ingredients: 

-3 small zucchini (if you want leftovers, this made 3-4 servings. Just making it for yourself you can probably get away with 1!) 

-shrimp 

-spaghetti sauce 

-olive oil 

-red pepper flakes 

-fresh garlic 

-butter 

Directions: 

-spray a skillet, add the vegetti noodles. Sautée "noodles" with chopped fresh garlic, some butter, and a sprinkle of lemon and top with 2T of olive oil. Stir occasionally. 

-in a separate pan, toss shrimp with red pepper flakes (more flakes- more FIYA!) 

-give the zucchini noodles ~10 minutes and then add some spaghetti sauce (any kind you like!) 

-Toss noodles, sauce, and now spicy cooked shrimp in a bowl and devour! 

Pumpkin, Pecans, and Chocolate Chips, oh my! Protein Muffins

Are you noticing a trend? I love chocolate. I love pumpkin. I love delicious. I'm also on the flexible diet called IIFYM (if it fits your macros) so protein everything, because gainz! 

Pumpkin is similar in baking to using mashed ripe bananas or applesauce. It's healthier, the baked good is amazingly moist and soft, with flavor burst. Ripe bananas allow you to use less processed sugar. Applesauce and pumpkin can replace eggs or liquids for some recipes. 

Lesson over. Recipe time! 

Ingredients: 

2 c kodiak protein pancake mix 

1 c Nonfat organic milk 

1 egg 

1/2 c brown sugar 

1/4 c softened butter 

1 c purée pumpkin 

1/4 pecan pieces 

2 oz choc chips 

Cinnamon 

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Mix everything in a bowl till uniform. 

Fill muffin tin (greased or muffin cup lined)  3/4 way full. 

Bake 12-14 mins or until golden brown and a knife comes out clean. 

Eat. 

Recipe makes12 muffins. 

Macros: 1 muffin 

Cal: 159

Fat: 5.3 g 

Carb: 23.6 g

Protein: 6.6 g 

Want more protein? Use 1 scoop of Slap Nutrition cinnamon swirl protein powder. Play around with what you mix in. 

-- banana walnut muffins 

-- apple pie muffins 

-- banana chocolate chip muffins 

-- lemon chia muffins 

Macro friendly, now go get creative! 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Protein Cheesecake

HOLY. DELICIOUS. I think I have outdone myself. This cheesecake is amazing. And this recipe is 100% my own creation, because that's what being a chef is all about. Prepare yourself. Ready? Ok here you go: 

Ingredients: 

1 egg

1/2 c egg whites 

8 oz nonfat cream cheese 

8 oz pumpkin (1/2 a regular sized can)

2 scoops Slap Cinnamon Swirl Whey Protejn

2 c plain nonfat Greek yogurt 

1 oz mini choc chips 

1 tbsp Truvia 

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. 

Spray cake pan. 

Blend all those ingredients up until smooth. 

Bake 30 mins, then increase heat to 300 degrees and bake an additional 40 minutes 

Let sit 1 hour or until fully cooked before flipping onto a plate. 

Refrigerate. Eat the whole cake. It's macro friendly. 

Macros: 8 servings 

155 cal/ serving 

Fat: 1.5 g 

Carb: 13.8 g

Pro: 20.4 g 

Enjoy!! 

"Blondies" ... Macro friendly!

So who doesn't love dessert?! Know what I don't love- the artificial ingredients and high fat content. So I sucked it up and decided to give this chick pea/ garbanzo bean dessert stuff a try. I'm pleased. The cookie dough needs work so hold, please, while I eat this batch and tweak the next one! 

Blondies though were pretty on point. 

Ingredients: 

15 oz (1 can) garbanzo beans

1/2 c jiffy whipped creamy peanut butter 

1/3 c walden farms syrup

**can use regular syrup but macros will be different** 

2 tbsp. honey 

1/4 tsp baking powder 

Splash of vanilla extract 

2 tbsp. semi sweet chips- I used Mini 

Directions: 

Drain and rinse beans 

In a food processor, beat up those beans. 

Add all other ingredients except chocolate chips! Process. 

Transfer dough to a bowl, fold in chocolate chips.

Place in a greased 8x8 pan. 

Bake at 360, 25-35 mins. Edges will become golden brown! 

Cool, cut, eat. 

Macros: 6 servings 

~186 calories 

Fat: 10 g

Carbs: 20 g

Protein: 7 g

Enjoy! I'll be playing with this recipe too in an attempt to make it higher in protein :)