The Holistic Gym Rat

Easy Pumpkin** Protein Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 scoops (½ cup) vanilla protein powder (I use a plant based blend)
½ cup coconut flour 
¼ cup chocolate covered almonds
1 ½ tsps baking powder 
1 tbsp maple syrup

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Combine baking soda, coconut flour, and protein powder in a medium sized mixing bowl. 
Stir in the pumpkin puree and maple syrup until fully combined.
The mixture will have the consistency of your average muffin batter but will be way more moist due to the pumpkin puree. Not to worry, it'll still bake, they're just gonna take longer than your average muffin…

Line a muffin tray with paper baking cups.

Fill each cup halfway with batter, pause, jam in a couple chocolate covered almonds, then pour some more batter on top until it's reached the top of the tray.
Top with more chocolate covered almonds ;)

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes 👍 

Other potentially scrumptious add ins…
For flavour:
1 tsp Almond extract
2 tsps Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Nutmeg 
1 tsp Cinnamon 

For binding/moisture:
1 Egg
2 tbsps chia seeds

For funsies…
Swap out chocolate covered almonds and try:
Dried cranberries 
Chopped nuts (recommend cashews or walnuts)
Chocolate chips (white, dark, or milk)
Butterscotch chips
Shredded coconut 

**I'm sorry but it's October so it's time to embrace the 🎃

Bean Frittata 😋
 
Ingredients:
3 eggs
¾ cup eggwhites
4 oz pork loin (cooked)
½ cup black beans
⅓ cup cheddar/mozzarella cheese
¾ cup chopped bell peppers
1 cup chopped kale or spinach
2 tbsps chopped onion
1 tsp pink salt
2 tsps garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp black pepper
2 tsps butter or olive oil

Meal prep time!

Heat up your butter or oil over medium heat in a large fry pan.

Add in your chopped onions and veggies and sauté for 2 minutes.
Add in the chopped pork loin* and beans.
In a separate bowl whisk together your eggs, eggwhites, and spices.
Pour the egg mixture in, evenly coating all your veggies, then top with your shredded cheese.

Cover the pan and let the whole thing cook for at least 15 minutes or until the center is fully cooked.

If you have an oven safe pan, I recommend using it for this recipe. Cook everything at 375 for around 18 minutes.

*You can also substitute any prepared meat you have. I've used steak, ground beef, chicken thighs or breasts, and turkey slices. All tasted great 😋

If I have time to eat at home I'll portion this into 4 slices and have 1 slice with some toast, avocado and salsa.
If I'm on the go, I'll take half of it with me :)

Date and Walnut Loaf

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped dates
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup boiling water
¼ cup coconut oil
¾ cup granulated sweetener (regular sugar or any low carb granulated sweetener works 👍)
1 large egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
¾ cup oat flour
¾ cup almond flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp pink salt
1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350° F
Grease a 8x5 inch loaf pan and set aside

In a medium-sized bowl add the dates, baking soda, and boiling water. Allow the fruit to soak for at least 10 minutes, do not drain.

In a large mixing bowl beat together the oil and sugar for 30 seconds. Then mix in the egg and vanilla.

Stir in your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt). Here, the batter will become crumbly.

Pour the liquid and dried fruit mixture into the batter, mixing until well combined.
Then add your walnuts to this batter.

Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes cover the loaf with aluminum foil and continue to bake another 15-25 minutes depending on loaf pan size.

Remove the loaf from the oven and allow the bread to cool.

The loaf tastes better and better with each day. I think the sugar from the dates soak into the flours of the bread and improves the texture and flavor even more 😋 

Coconut orange muffins (GF, low carb, dairy free)

Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour
1 cup coconut flour
⅓ cup oat flour
½ cup shredded coconut 
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp pink salt
1 cup granulated sweetener (ex's: erythritol, granulated monk fruit, Swerve brand… regular granulated sugar also works 😉).
1 tbsp orange zest
½ cup (melted) coconut oil 
½ cup milk (almond, cashew, rice, soy all work just fine 👍)
2 large eggs
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice 
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Instructions:
In a large bowl, sift together your baking powder, shredded coconut, flour, and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine sugar and orange zest. Work the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until evenly combined. Here, the sugar will feel kind of like wet sand. Whisk in your oil, milk, eggs, orange juice, and vanilla extract until well combined. 

Next, pour the sugar mixture into the flour mixture and stir until there's no more streaks of flour.

Some FYIs…
When you work the zest into the sugar with your fingers, versus just mixing it in, it releases the oil which adds more flavor.

Bringing your eggs and milk to room temperature beforehand helps incorporate them fully into the batter.

If you have a food processor and gluten free oats, boom you got your own GF oat flour.

Enjoy 🤗 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with just having a regular old chocolate chip oatmeal cookie…

However, a lot of my clients do express interest in a lower carb/calorie/fat version.

I get it.

We don't want to admit it but many of us have some goals tied up in our aesthetics and if that's you, a macro friendly cookie is a good buddy to have around ;) 

INGREDIENTS:
3 tbsps coconut oil (melted in microwave 👍).
1 cup granulated swerve sweetener*
2 large eggs
½ cup plain greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pink salt
½ tsp cinnamon
1 cup oat, almond, spelt, kamut, coconut, rice or whatever flour suits yo fancy ;)
1 cup protein powder (usually = 3 scoops/servings)**
¾ cup whole rolled oats
1 cup dark chocolate chips***

INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease with cooking spray.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the melted coconut oil, yogurt, and eggs together, then set aside.

In another bowl, sift together the chocolate chips, spices, and flours/various powders 😆 Depending upon which ones you chose, be extra careful that there are no clumps.

Combine dry ingredients into the wet. I recommend picking up the bowl of dry ingredients, sprinkling it into the wet, mixing, then pouring in more, mixing, until it's all thoroughly combined.

Scoop the cookies into balls (about 2 tablespoons each) and place a couple inches apart on the baking sheets.
Bake at 375 degrees for around 15 minutes. 

*you can also use regular brown sugar or another granulated sugar free option. There's so many brands these days. Pick your poison ;)

**After using a whey casein blend with this recipe for years I switched over to plant based options. I find pea protein bakes best, closely followed by a casein blend. Remember to lower your expectations. If you're nervous about it tasting too "protein-y" and your macros are forgiving enough that you can use the extra carbs, just opt for whatever flour you know will agree with your digestion 👍 

*** I either use dark chocolate chips or a reduced sugar option like Lily’s chocolate chips :)

One of my favourite forms of protein (SAUSAGES 😁) and one my favourite forms of carbohydrates (noodles) tossed up with with some spinach, peppers, and olive oil 🤩👌

What can I say? Well lubed cylindrical nutrients are ze shiiitt 😅

cpt **krice 😘

What do you bake for a lovely lady who can't do most nuts and seeds, gluten, eggs, or butters??
Oh yeah and definitely no sweeteners 😆 

Ingredients:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
⅓ room temperature water
⅓ cup brown rice flour
⅓ cup coconut flour 
⅓ cup walnut flour (put raw walnuts in food processor and pulse it out ;p)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
Combine all your flours together ensuring there's no clumps. Stir in your water and oil. Combine well until the mixture is the consistency of thick muffin batter. 
Place your cupcake papers into whatever size muffin pan you're using, then pour in your muffin batter being careful to not overpour. The muffins will rise maybe 2 centimeters while baking.
Place muffin pan on your middle oven rack and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes. 
25 for minis, 30 for biggies  ;)

 … Happy belated birthday mom 🌸💚🎉🎈

My mom really struggles with all of the typical allergies (processed sugars and flours, gluten, soy, eggs, etc.) but her guts got a reeeeaaaaaal hard time processing very rich foods (ex: nut butters) if it's not combined in the correct proportion with a soluble fiber that doesn't irritate her intestinal tract (example: brown rice flour).

Basically small proportions of high quality ingredients that I know she can tolerate in small amounts is the only way she can enjoy the things she's not allergic to, like walnuts :)

Once the strategy was laid out, these were incredibly simple to bake!
Next time imma play around with another seed nut combo for funsies.
An allergy-friendly base that might work for you is oil, water, your choice of nut flour, and then if you can I recommend sweetening with either organic stevia or raw organic honey or maple syrup. 

;)

West coast wonderland ❤❤❤🤗🤗🤗😘😘😘 thanks for another adventure mi Amigas ;)
ksj .gervais

To my 10 year old self ❤

Stop waiting for your thoughts to be one concise sentence.

Stop waiting for focusing to be less challenging.

Stop waiting for people's expressions to be clear.

Stop waiting for conversations to be less threatening.

Stop waiting for instructions to be less confusing.

Stop waiting for the challenge to fade.

Stop waiting for perfection.

Stop waiting for yourself to be better.

Stop waiting to forgive yourself.

Happy 25th Birthday Sarina ;)

Here's a carbalicious meal to soak up all ze alcohol 😘😘

Ingredients:
2 tbsps olive oil
3 cloves garlic (peeled, chopped)
¼ cup white onion (diced)
⅓ cup sliced black olives
¾ California frozen veggie blend (carrots, cauliflower, broccoli)
1 can diced tomatoes 
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 tsps each of: dried basil and  dried oregano
1 tsp each of: dried thyme, dried rosemary, and dried marjoram
8oz extra lean ground beef (For a meat sauce)

Instructions:
Heat up 1-2 tbsps of olive oil in a pan over medium heat.
Add in your onions and garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes to soften. (Now is a good time to open up your canned tomatoes. Also, if you're making a meat sauce, add your ground beef now so it has time to cook).

Add in your frozen veggies, canned tomatoes, olives and spices.
Stir and let it all simmer for a minimum of 15 minutes to let all the flavours do their thing ;)

We kept our chicken separate for this recipe, but between the 3 of us we ended up splitting two 6oz breasts. 

Garlic bread:
I just bought a fresh loaf of French bread, toasted it in the oven, then placed the slices in a bag, added garlic powder to the bag and then SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE ;)

Also, I softened a bunch of peeled garlic cloves in a pan (so you could smush them on the bread 🍞 😋).
Then melted la buerre 🧈 in a separate pot so you can control how much of that lovely greasy grease you want hitting your intestines 👌

Soooo good. Smushable garlic = 🤩🥰🤸‍♀️

What do you like in your omelet?

3 eggs
Kale, bell pepper, onions
Cayenne, pink salt, ketchup

Basically 😋²