Rawmesan Collard Greens Chips

You've heard of kale chips, but have you heard of collard greens chips? Same concept different leafy green and equally delicious. These little chips curb my salty crunchy cravings without weighing me down or bloating me up.

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. 

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. 

Tuna Melt Crispibread

I like Sunday afternoon lunches simple, fast, and yummy. I usually try to whip something up quick right after church and don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen on my day of rest. My chicken salad was one of these Sunday meals. When we got home from church this past Sunday I pureed some leek and potato soup into a nice puree and heated it on the stove. I had a huge craving for a melted tuna sandwhich. As luck would have it we didn't have ANY gluten free bread or wraps. I still had some Orgran Toasted Buckwheat Crispibread left over from my Amazon order so I decided to use that instead. All three of us loved it! Roxy did too because Isabella "shared" some of her lunch with our dog. I am also pleasantly surprised how nice the photos turned out. To be honest canned tuna looks like cat food. You may never admit it, but I know you feel the same way.

My New Favorite Snack: Apple Cottage Cheese

Photo by Brooklynn

I snuck in some "me" time yesterday while my Bella was napping. Maybe its all the Downton Abbey I've been watching, but I decided I needed to have some tea time with my me time. Hot tea always floods my mind with memories of my growing up days with my grandma. She still to this day always has a  kettle of tea on the stove no matter what the season.  I decided to have my afternoon snack with my tea and its my new favorite go to snack  as of late. Simple and delicious it has a great balance of protein, carbs, & fat.

Zip Zing Wow Chicken Salad

I hate mayo. Some how I managed to fall in love with chicken salad during pharamacy school having lunch with my good friend,Angie, at a local lunch cafe,Higher Ground. We ate there a few times a week and this place made the best chicken salad made with cream cheese and sour cream. I would eat it in a wrap with mozzerella cheese warmed just till the cheese melted and topped with tomato. Mind you this was before my gluten free clean eating days. I finally came up with a clean and tangy chicken salad that I love and I hope you will too. By the way I've missed you. I haven't blogged the last two days due to working two late nights and a row. I just have this void when I don't blog. Maybe because I just love it so much. Sharing my recipes and thoughts.  Speaking of thoughts, I would love to know what yours are. Leave me a comment on this post, tweet me @LeanGourmet, or connect with me on my  facebook   page. Talk to you soon!

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

Chic Chick Peas

The humble chick pea or garbanzo bean has become a real staple in my gluten free diet. According to Nutritiondata.com just 1 cup of cooked chick peas has 15 grams of protein, 12 grams of fiber, no saturated fat, and provides 26% of your daily value of iron! These legumes have class. I had never had chick peas or hummus until college. Rich and I used to eat at this little hole in the wall place called The Mediterranean Deli and Bakery in West Palm Beach, Fl. They have the best middle eastern food in the city! One of my favorite dishes there is the chickpea salad and they make their own hummus which is to die for.
I started roasting chickpeas this past winner to have as a protein snack. I also enjoy  them on top of salads, soups, and stews. It is a great grab and go snack!

Roasted Chick Peas

4 cups of cooked chick peas ( learn how to make them from dried beans here)
2 TBS grapeseed or olive oil
1 tsp of sea salt
2 tsp of ground fancy paprika

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed backing tray with parchment paper. Mix all your ingredients in a large mixing bowl then spread the chick peas on top of the parchment lined baking tray. Spread the peas out evenly so they're not crowding each other. Now depending on how crunchy you want your peas to be you will roasting them 30 minutes to 1 hour. Be sure to turn the peas with a spatula every 15 minutes and watch that they do not burn. Burnt chick peas can crack your teeth and are impossible to eat.

Don't my Chick Peas look so Chic in my Weck Jar?

Today's Workout Blip:

Today I had a sense of power as I hit the gym. I am on week 4 of my  Get in Shape Girl Bikini Plan. This is the longest I've stuck with an outlined plan and am thrilled with the results thus far. When I posted last Monday about my Chest/Back workout I mentioned that I really wanted to go for it with my decline pushups this week. I did! I maxed out at 30 reps circuit 1, 25 reps circuit 2, and collapsed at 27 reps on round 3. I also ramped up my burpees. I decided to do my second and third sets of burpees on one leg! I posted a video below of what it looked sans the sandbag the  trainer is jumping over. Give it a whirl!  For today's cardio I performed the prescribed 22 minutes of high intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT has intervals of low intensity and high intensity work periods. For example I did 5 minutes of warmup and  cool down at the end of my HIIT on the treadmill and sandwiched in between that was were 1 minute periods of sprinting followed by 1.5 minutes of jogging. Here is a HIIT workout you can try. You repeat  the  high and low intensity intervals back to back then cool down with a light jog. One of my dear girlfriends wants to know exactly what my workouts look like. I am sorry to say that I can not divulge that info on this blog as I had to pay for my plan and that would do a disservice to my lovely virtrual trainer Kyra. However, I will continue to share snippets of exercises and if I perform a workout or circuit that I create on my own I will post it. 

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