Pancake MANIA!!!

Buckwheat Baby Cakes

I have a thing for pancakes. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you will notice a flapjack recipe usually appears at least once monthly. I am a carb queen.

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 I love to start my day with sweet hot cakes. One of the down sides of this blog is I don't have one place with all my  recipes. I find it frustrating trying to locate old posts; "what was the name of that dish?" I decided I am going to be re-posting some of my recipes by category to make recipes easier to find. Click on the caption link under each pancake picture for the recipe.

Banana Blueberry Griddle Cakes

The Perfect Breakfast Muffin (gluten free & Paleo inspired)

 

My family consumes a truck load of eggs on a weekly basis. Rich and I were discussing this during the course of the past week. Our egg consumption has increased from a dozen over a few weeks to a few dozen over a week. This is in large part due to our gluten free diet and clean eating habits. Thank God eggs are not terribly expensive. These days the cost of all food has sky rocketed. I began thinking back to my childhood egg consumption. My mom or dad would make scrambled eggs maybe once a week on the weekends; otherwise it was cold cereal, toaster strudel, or a bagel and out the door I went to school. My diet now is a far cry from the convenient carb filled goodness of elementary school yesteryear. Despite the change of eating habits my love for baked morning goods has not left me.  I whipped these muffins up one morning spurred by the desire for something soft and slightly sweet to sink my teeth into. 

Rosemary & Maple Turkey Patties

I went into this New Year with such hope, joy, and anticipation. Then my dishwasher broke on January 1,2013. The joys of home ownership just keep multiplying!

Greek Yogurt Pancakes & FAKE protein "treats"

When I started on my health journey many moons ago I tried all kinds of funky "healthy" recipes. Typically in weight training magazines or on websites you are bound to come across recipes that require an addition of protein powder to baked goods like cookies, biscotti, and pancakes. If you have ever tried this type of recipe you may agree with me it activated your gag reflex. Am I the only one? I once made these diet oatmeal raisin cookies from a popular diet cook book. It was the summer of my sophomore year of college and  my high school friend, Garrett, was over visiting. He dubbed these nasty little creations as "cookie chunks." They were huge chunky balls of cardboard; a poor excuse for a cookie.
These days I avoid recipes of this nature. It is just not natural. Though I try to eat and bake in a healthy manner I demand my food taste good not just pack a nutritional punch. Who wants to eat a cardboard textured cookie chunk anyways?

Today's recipe is a crepe like pancake. It contains a cup of low-fat Greek yogurt. A cup of this yogurt contains 24 grams of protein. Be for-warned these are not Grandma's fluffy flapjacks the texture is "different."

Chocolate Chip Coconut Muffins (gluten free)

Today's recipe is based off of the Spunky Coconut's Easy Blueberry Muffins. The blueberry muffins are so good, but it is way past blueberry season. Though I do love my frozen organic blueberries from Costco. I don't buy them often as they are very pricey. I had Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips and some shredded unsweetened coconut on hand so into the muffin batter they went.

These muffins were incredibly tender and moist. Just look at that crumb. Don't you wish you could swipe that gorgeous muffin off my plate? I thoroughly enjoyed it after I shot photos. Reminder to self: do not take shots of yummy gorgeous food for blog while hungry!

Chocolate Chip Coconut Muffins (gluten free)

4 beaten eggs

2 TBS of melted ghee

2 TBS of extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp of liquid stevia

1/4 cup of honey

1/3 cup of tapioca flour

1/3 cup of coconut flour

1/2 tsp of sea salt

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/3 cup of Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate chips

1/3 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin well with coconut oil. Beat the eggs, ghee, oil, stevia and honey in a medium size mixing bowl with hand mixer. Add in flours, sea salt, and baking powder. Blend with mixer until combined. Stir in chips and coconut with a spatula. Bake for 20-23 minutes until browned. Makes 10 muffins.

Berry Kefir Smoothie

One of the things I loved about college was my roommates. Unlike some people, I never had a nightmare roommate experience. I ended up dorming with some pretty awesome, inspiring, level headed ladies those four years of college.  I only lived by myself in grad school while I was working on my Doctorate of Pharmacy. I lived with Julie my junior year of undergrad. Julie was a senior, an accounting/finance major, meticulous, and still is one of the best people I know.  Julie was awarded for being the "Outstanding Graduate" for her major the year she graduated. We were very different in many ways. She stayed up late and I was in bed by 10 pm. She is a vegetarian. I love meat. She is super organized and on top of her game. I was a huge procrastinator in undergrad (it is still an area I am working on.) Our desks were next to each other in the living room of our apartment; I wish I had a picture of her desk versus mine. It would get my point across no words needed. 

Pumpkin Seed Spice Bars

I had attempted to make pumpkin bars a couple of weeks ago and they flopped. I made Harvest Apple Bars instead. They were good, but I still wanted to come up with a pumpkin bar recipe. This recipe is a great breakfast bar and not overly sweet with some spice. I buy my pumpkin seeds from the bulk bin section of my local Publix Greenwise grocer. This bar was perfect with a cup of chai tea for this blustery rainy day.
Hurricane Sandy is sending tons or rain and wind this morning. This storm is being dubbed a "frankenstorm."  I am praying that it is not as bad as the weatherman is predicting for my Northern friends.

Anytime Muesli

I came up with this Muesli recipes at 11:30 pm last Friday night. I couldn't sleep and I had the munchies! One of my favorite pre-gluten free world breakfast's was Bob's Red Mills Muesli.  It is one of their products that is not gluten free. I would mix it in with yogurt or milk with fresh berries for breakfast in the morning. It was daily quick breakfast I had a lot in pharmacy school.  This version is just as good with way less sugar.

Harvest Apple Bars (gluten free)

It is the first day of October. My favorite month. The leaves peak with their fall color in my hometown of Pennsylvania in October. I was supposed to be bringing you a pumpkin recipe today. In my mind pumpkin is all that is fall and besides I LOVE everything pumpkin. Pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin carving, pumpkin seeds...you get the picture. I am crazy about this gorgeous gourd. 

Chocolate Coconut Almond Granola

I don't buy boxed cereal often. It is just SO pricey and gluten free cereal selection is limited compared to the conventional options. I do shop sales and use coupons when I can. However, the way we eat there just aren't coupons for things like lean ground turkey meat and coconut oil. So I save where and when I can and in other ways. When is the last time you saw some wholesome gluten free granola on sale and with a coupon at your local grocer? Me neither! Often store bought granola is loaded with sugar which is a no-no for this mama. I have taken a liking to making my own homemade granola. I posted my Simple Crunchy Granola recipe two months ago here. I had this idea to create a chocolate granola for the last two weeks. I didn't have it in me to batch cook this past Sunday after working all weekend, but I mustered enough energy to  come up with a new chocolate granola recipe which I think you will enjoy as much as we do! Its chocolaty goodness harkens childhood memories of dare I say Coco Puffs or Count Chocula? All those kids went coo-coo for Coco Puffs because of all the refined sugar and God knows what else in that cereal.

Apple Pie Smoothie

This morning I woke up and had to whip up breakfast fast! I had to be at work  early and needed to eat and get my workout done pronto. I received these delicious Macintosh apples in my organic produce delivery last week and have been enjoying them immensely.  Now that fall is officially here ,well not really in South Florida,I just pretend the palm tree frawns change color like the leaves do up north. I miss autumn in Pennsylvania SO much every year. Nostalgia got the best of me this morning so I created this great breakfast shake invoking memories of warm apple pie coming from my Grandma's oven on crisp fall days.

Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal

This is my third baked oatmeal recipe on the blog. You could say I'm slightly obsessed with this recipe. I absolutely love to eat it this way every morning.  I've had carrot cake on the brain lately. My  29th birthday is less than a month away and it is my favorite cake! This is not a rich as the real deal carrot cake, but it is sweet enough for breakfast and wholesome enough to power you up for the day.

Will you Muffin Me? Apple Cinnamon Muffins (gluten free&dairy free)

I love my Blueberry Streusel Muffins and I woke up at 5 am yesterday with a hankering for muffins. I didn't have any blueberries or raisins, but I had this perfect lonely golden delicious organic apple in the crisper drawer in the fridge begging to be used. This recipe is almost identical to the blueberry recipe with a few minor changes. It is gluten free and dairy free. I used blonde coconut sugar as the sweetener which is a natural sugar derived from the blossoms of the coconut tree and has a low glycemic index. A perfect recipe for the strike sugar September initiative.

Counter Top Oatmeal

There are some days or nights( yes I make this as my late night snack too) that I just don't want to boil a pot of water to make my oats. On these days I make my "counter top" oatmeal. Its so easy and doesn't take more than 5 minutes!

Zen Peach Smoothie

I woke up this morning STARVING. That little run yesterday must have jump started my metabolism. It is days like these that I don't want to wait for breakfast. My body needs to eat now. I have been wanting to create a smoothie with silken tofu to break away from using protein powder. I thought it would be very "zen."

Zen Peach Smoothie

1 peach peeled, pitted and sliced ( or 1 cup of frozen peach slices)

1 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1/3 cup of silken tofu

1/8 tsp of liquid stevia ( or less to taste)

1/4 tsp of vanilla extract

Ice ( use less if using frozen peaches)

Place all ingredients into Blendtec or blender and process until smooth. I topped my smoothie with a dash of nutmeg.

Let's Connect!

You can now follow me on pinterest and twitter @LeanGourmet. Also on the sidebar of the blog you can sign up to have the blog emailed to you. I have a facebook page too!

Until next time stay strong and carry on!

Brooklynn

Dessert for Breakfast:Peach Cobbler Baked Oatmeal

I can still remember those hot summer days swimming  in my grandparent's pool with my cousins and siblings. Pap and Nana had a huge in ground pool enclosed by a fence in the back yard surrounded by their garden and orchard trees.  I remember one Sunday afternoon the whole family was over for swimming and a family barbecue. The peach tree was brimming with fruit. My Uncle Kenny got out a ladder and picked a bunch of fresh ripe peaches. My mom turned those gorgeous peaches into a lovely peach cobbler. 
Last week my husband, Rich, had picked up a huge crate of peaches last week, and I couldn't help but think back to this pleasant summer memory. One of my favorite and older recipes on this blog is my baked oatmeal.  With cobbler on the brain and a love for sweet breakfasts I created this lovely fruited breakfast treat for this week.

Nana & Pap with all their Grandkids. Miss you Nana.

My guilty pleasure:Waffle Stick Dippers & Kitchen Retail Therapy

So I got this email. For this waffle stick dipper pan.

Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins (gluten free, dairy free)

 I am upon the 1 year anniversary of living a gluten free life style. It is almost impossible to believe. This year has been an incredible amout of trial,error,learning, and more error. I have been "glutened" by myself or by another party on accident a handful of painful times. The first gluten free blog I started reading after learning my plight was The Gluten Free Girl. She is a fabulous writer and describes some gluten free foods "as more a texture than a taste." My first trip to Whole Foods to explore the world of gluten free gourmet was a sad disappointment as far as finding substitutes for my beloved ezekiel bread, muffins,bagels, & cereal. I found a lot of the packaged products to be loaded with sugar, starches, and carbs. I ended up leaving the store with just produce, some various protein sources, and quinoa. Thus began my quest to discover and create delicious, wholesome gluten free foods. I kept getting good reports and thumbs up for the gluten free fair that I was creating in my kitchen and this blog was born.
Today's recipe is a celebration of this milestone; it will literally be a party in your mouth. This muffin is light, fluffy, has a delicate crumb topping, and is moist. Did I mention it is gluten free? If you've thrown in the towel with gluten free baking give this recipe a go. Let me know what you think!

Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins (gluten free, dairy free)

Muffins

1 cup of brown rice flour ( I use Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 cup of potato starch (I use Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 cup of blanched almond flour ( I use Honeyville Farms)

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 cup Blonde Palm Sugar

1 TBS baking powder

1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 cup of blueberries, defrosted if using frozen

1/4 cup of chopped walnuts

1/3 cup refined coconut oil melted

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 eggs beaten

1 cup of cashew milk or coconut milk

Streusel Topping

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup Blonde Palm Sugar

2 TBS of brown rice flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1&1/2 TBS refined coconut oil melted

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a muffin tin well. I use a food grade rubber silicon muffin tray and lay it on top of a regular steel muffin tin to give it support. I grease it well and my muffins come out easily once cooled.

Prepare streusel by mixing all the ingredients for topping in a bowl mixture should be course and moist, but not wet. Set aside. Mix brown rice flour through sea salt in a large mixing bowl with whisk. Place blueberries in a separate bowl and add 1 TBS of flour mixture to the berries and toss. This keeps the berries from sinking in the batter.

In a third bowl mix oil, vanilla, eggs and milk then pour into dry flour mixture and stir well to combine then add in berries. Load muffin tray with batter and top with streusel topping. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and test with a toothpick in your biggest muffin; if it comes out clean they are done!

Today's Workout Blip:

Today's workout from my Get in Shape Girl Bikini Plan worked shoulders and triceps plus I did my 35 minute step mill workout. The funniest and one of the challenging exercises from today was crab taps. I lost my balance several times and had to perform 20 reps for 3 sets each. Here is a demo below from you tube.

Let's Connect!

You can now follow me on pinterest  and twitter @LeanGourmet. Also on the sidebar of the blog you can sign up to have the blog emailed to you. I have a facebook page too!

Until next time stay strong and carry on!

Brooklynn

Buckwheat Baby Cakes!

I have always loved breakfast. I have always loved pancakes. My freshman year of college IHOP had all you could eat pancakes for $4.99. Rich and I were friends at the time and I was invited along with the gang to the couture dining experience at The International House of Pancakes or IHOP. Well as the story goes all the guys decided to have a pancake eat-off contest. And oh yes I joined too! And I won! I out ate 6 college guys. I ate 13 IHOP pancakes fully loaded with syrup and butter. I even rotated the different flavors of syrup between plates of cakes. Needless to say I didn't eat pancakes for months! I know my parents hoped that I applied that steadfast iron will to my studies and not just pancake eating contests.

Those glory days are behind me and I stick to reasonable sized portions; see the picture above? Just kidding. I eat like 2 maybe 3 on a good day. Enough about me and onto today's recipe Buckwheat baby cakes. Did you know that buckwheat is not "wheat" at all ?! Me neither until  a year ago!  It is a "nutritional giant"that grows wild in Asia and rhubarb's cousin. My first experience with buckwheat pancakes was at the tender age of 8 or so on a family snow skiing trip. Mom made them. I hated them. Somehow through the years I've developed a taste for buckwheat. It is definitely a distinct taste of its own. On first bite it may not be true love, but give it another go. After all second chances are a beautiful thing don't you think?

topped with Tap n' Apple butter, honey, and sliced almonds
photo by Rich

Buckwheat Baby Cakes

1 cup of buckwheat flour ( I use Arrowhead Mills Organic Buckwheat flour)

1 cup of all purpose gluten free flour mix ( add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum if not in mix)

2 TBS rapadura or coconut sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

2 eggs separated

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

2 cups of buttermilk ( I use Saco; I mix the powder in with dry ingredients and add the water with eggs/oil)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 apple grated

Mix buckwheat, g-free flour, sugar, baking powder, sea salt, and cinnamon ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and set aside. Next separate 2 eggs. Place whites in a bowl and beat with mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside. Combine yolks, oil, vanilla, and buttermilk and add to flour mixture. Fold in whipped egg whites and then add grated apple.I grated my apple with a cheese grater.

Preheat griddle and oil it. Pour batter onto griddle and flip cakes when edges are set and tops have bubbles. Enjoy!

Today's Workout Blip:

I may have been silent the last few days on the blog, but I've been knocking out my workouts for week 5 of my Get in Shape Girl Bikini Plan  the past 2 days. I griped about Monday's pull ups exercises in the last post. I surpassed my own expectations and managed 2.5 reps the first set and 1.5 reps set 2 and 3. I did the remaining reps assisted with the machine to get a total of 10 reps. My trainer Kyra recommended that I practice an additional 1 or 2 times a week following my workout for that day. I really want to get to 12 full reps unassisted pull ups by week 8! I also did a new exercise per the plan that I love stability ball pike + pushups. This exercise will work your mummy tummy for sure! I really felt it in my lower abs and believe me after baby that is a difficult area to tone up. Give it a go and keep your core tight and strong while performing this exercise.

Let's Connect!

You can now follow me on pinterest  and twitter @LeanGourmet. Also on the sidebar of the blog you can sign up to have the blog emailed to you. I have a facebook page too!

Until next time stay strong and carry on!

Brooklynn

Simple Crunchy Granola (gluten free)

 Here at the Lean Gourmet Kitchen we are serious aboutbreakfast. I mean just look at that face; nothing gets between us and breakie!

Today’s recipe is crunchy, slightly sweet,and just like us a little bit nutty (sshhh don’t tell the neighbors!)  I found this recipe for this delicious homemade granola out of magazine in 2009. Since adopting a gluten free diet I have found that store bought gluten free granola is expensive, overly sweet,and lacking in protein.

What I love best about this recipe is you can “shop” your cupboards and use what you have and adapt it to your taste and own preferences. Simply use this recipe as a guide and get creative!

Simple Crunchy Granola

2 cups of gluten free rolled oats

1 heaped cup of unsalted raw nuts ( use a combo if youlike)

¼ mixed seeds ( I love chia, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower)

¾ cup unsweetened shredded coconut ( I’ve made it with orwithout, both ways are good!)

1 tsp of ground cinnamon

5 TBS of maple syrup or honey

3 TBS of grapeseed oil or virgin coconut oil

1&1/2 cups of dried fruit ( use small pieces as large chunks of apricot and prunes become rock hard!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Don’t skip the parchment paper your granola will stick and burn to the panL . If you have been following my blog I suggest you buy stock in the stuff asI use parchment paper frequently. In a large mixing bowl toss the oats through cinnamon together until combined. Then drizzle the honey or maple syrup and oil over the granola and stir until well coated. Spread granola out on parchment paper lined pan ( don’t worry I haven’t forgotten the fruit!) and bake for  25 minutes or until golden brown and toasted.Then remove from oven and stir in your dried fruit. Cool and store in an airtight container. It should stay fresh for about 2 weeks if its not all gone by then! We enjoyed our granola with cashew milk; yes you read that right and you can find out how to make cashew milk here.

For my granola feature in this shot I used hemp hearts, chia seeds, almonds, raisins,& walnuts.
I didn’t have any coconut so I omitted it in the granola that is pictured.

Hey Mickey! She likes it she really really likes it!

Today's Workout Blip:

I worked out at home yesterday and thus skipped my incline treadmill workout. So today I did a little combo and performed incline HIIT; oh Lord! I found this workout from PBfingers.com and pinned it here.

Let's Connect!

You can now follow me on pinterest  and twitter @LeanGourmet. Also on the sidebar of the blog you can sign up to have the blog emailed to you. I have a facebook page too!

Until next time stay strong and carry on!

Brooklynn