leanKitchen » Breakfast

My favorite Breakfast Muffins

leanKitchen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:27:37 +0000

So these are the most WONDERFUL muffins:

Mix in a bowl:

1 c. shredded zuke/squash
2/3 c. applesauce
1/3 c. agave or maple syrup
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

In a separate bowl mix:

1 c. almond flour
1 c. gluten free pancake mix
1/2 c. flax meal
1 tbsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 pinch salt

Add dry ingredients to wet, mix well, and drop into well-sprayed (non-stick spray) mini or regular muffin pans. You can also do a couple of bread tins.

Bake at 350 for about 15 ish minutes, or ’till a toothpick comes out clean and you’re done! Beautiful, delicious, and supportive MUFFINS!

If you want to add nuts, blueberries, raisins, whatever, fold 1/2 cup in at the end before baking and ENJOY!

The Bee’s Knees Fresh Fruit Bruschetta

leanKitchen — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:30:51 +0000

Today, the power and beauty of the internet brings you a guest blogger from Hamburg, Germany! Carla writes another food blog called The Bee’s Knees Kitchen.

When Carla first wrote, and sent me the link to her site, I was immediately intrigued by the beautiful, colorful pictures. Seriously, I’m not sure which I’m more impressed with, her food or her photography.

Here’s what Carla had to say about her site:

Guten Tag, I am Carla Aguas, the creator behind the Bee’s Knees Kitchen, the raw food blog aimed at discovering healthy, simple recipes to satisfy your sweet tooth and hungry belly!

The Bee’s Knees Kitchen is a blog I started in February 2010 to chronicle my adventure into the raw food world. My objective was to find healthy meals and desserts that use the same basic ingredients and were easy to prepare.

As a former Oregonian living in Germany and food addict, I wanted to be able to share my recipes with family back home and it blossomed from there. I come from a family of foodies and I take my inspiration from foods I recall from my parents and being raised in such a bountiful place as the Pacific Northwest.

I know that my raw food diet is my lifestyle but my recipes transcend the boundaries of ‘raw’ culture and are pure bliss. My food appeals to all of your sense without even realizing that you are being held to “raw” standards. Fresh produce is continually my main inspiration, and I am persistently searching far and wide for desserts and meals to appease my varied palette. Please visit my blog, create, comment and share a more nutritious way of eating that doesn’t sacrifice the flavor or beauty of what food should always be!

Alright, so what was the recipe that Carla won me over with??

The Fresh Fruit Bruschetta!!!

Without Further ado, here’s Carla’s recipe!

After being home in the States and experiencing the Pacific Northwest spring weather for the first time in over 6 years I forgot how absolutely beautiful it is! The flowers and trees are in fuller bloom than here in Germany and it was wonderful sitting in the yard taking in all the floral smells and fresh green air. Living in city centers for the past 7 years, I can truly appreciate what a treasure this is! So while I was home enjoying the luxury of having Whole Foods around the corner, and seeing all the fresh organic seasonal produce, I had the inspiration to make a full fruit treat. Theses Fresh Fruit Bruschettas are refreshing and sweet with a small twist of lime flavor. They are so beautiful and appealing looking and not to mention healthier for you and these are so versatile that they can be served as a starter, breakfast, dessert or snack!

Fresh Fruit Topping

1 c Strawberries, cubed

1 c Kiwi, cubed

1 c Mango, cubed

10-12 Blackberries

Gently mix all the fruit in a bowl and set aside.

Cucumber Baguette

1 Cucumber

Cut the cucumber vertically into 1/4 inch thick slices. This will create 10-12 slices depending on how long the cucumber is.

Agave Citrus Dressing

1 tbls Lime juice

2 tbls Agave Nectar

Lightly mix the lime juice and Agave Nectar in a bowl being sure to give it an additional stir before serving.

To assemble, plate the cucumbers and top with 2 tbls of the Fresh Fruit Topping. To keep the blackberry in place cut a toothpick in half and stick the half into the center of the Fresh Fruit topping and gently push down the blackberry on the toothpick. Drizzle the Agave Citrus Dressing over the top of the Bruschettas and sprinkle with Lime Zest.

Makes 10-12 Bruschettas

Beautiful!!!

With a dollop of Greek yogurt, this could even count as a gorgeous, supportive breakfast.

Thanks so much, Carla!

Pistachio Cashew Almond Butter

leanKitchen — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:15:44 +0000

Happy St. Patty’s Day, folks!

I was thinkin’ it’d be really awesome to figure out some green breakfast for my readers, and NOT the typical green eggs. I happened to see my friend Kristen’s facebook status yesterday, where she was making her own almond butter. I thought, hmm…I could do pistachio butter on green apples for a nice natural, supportive green St. Patty’s Day breakfast.

Well, standing in the grocery store I saw two options: whole pistachios, or Planter’s Pistachio Lovers Mix (which combined cashews, almonds, and pistachios). And while I love my leanKitchen.com readers, I do have a life outside the site, and shelling an entire bag of pistachio’s was not something I wanted to do last night; besides, LOST was on!!

So I grabbed a 6 oz. canister of the Pistachio Lovers Mix, and some green apples. When I got home, I dumped the canister of nuts (they were salted, if yours are not, put a little sea salt in) into my food processor:

Getting Ready for Nut Butter

Next, turn it on, and let it go for 5-10 minutes, until smooth like the consistency of natural peanut butter. The oils within the nuts will make it creamy enough. It’s done when it looks like this:

Cashew Almond Pistachio Butter

I sliced a nice, tart green apple and served it on that!

Nut Butter with Apples

This is an AWESOME breakfast or snack, and kids will definitely love this one! It’s a great way to get some natural, homemade foods into them, and they LOVE it!

This is the perfect way to start your St. Patty’s Day!!

This recipe will work with any nut…and, as Kristen says, “Nut butters are two ingredient’s- nuts, and salt”

The Mexican Scrambler

leanKitchen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:49:44 +0000

So about 6 months ago, I rejoined bootcamp. I had taken an epic digger moving out of my old house and into my new one. Anyone who knows me on moving day knows one thing for certain, and that is this: I am not a force to be reckoned with! I am 1. cranky, 2. miserable, 3. particular, 4. bossy and yes, 5. a smidge on the OCD side. I HATE MOVING, and everyone knows it. But this last April, I moved into my new house. I secretly wish I could have been on the watching end, as I stood there barking out orders like a little drill Sargeant, telling everyone where they were to be (and when to be there), turned on my heel, walked out the door with a ginormous box in my arms, and proceeded to slip off my porch and go, over tea-kettle, down a flight of stairs. The huge box in my arms went sailing across the lawn, and everyone simply stared at me. I had blood pouring down my arm, and the irony of it- me marching out the door after giving orders about how careful everyone was to be with my belongings- it just seemed so amusing that I could do nothing but lie on the ground hysterically laughing. No one really dared say anything, but I was officially given a time-out, and you know, it made moving day a lot more pleasant for everyone involved. So why, you ask, did I just tell that random story? Well, it’s because it’s the reason I had to take a couple of months off from bootcamp.

Just before we found out my mom was sick, I e-mailed Ben to ask if I could come back soon, as I was nearly healed up. He told me yes, and, by the way, I was in a class full of new people, and he’d made me a leader of a team for a fat loss challenge. I decided then and there I wasn’t letting my team lose (they were already at a disadvantage without a leader!) and started eating breakfast. I had never ever eaten breakfast before. And seriously, I started dropping pounds like it was my job!

This is one of the concoctions I came up with:

I first chopped onions, peppers and mushrooms, and, using spray oil, sautéed ‘em up till the veggies were the texture I like.

Cookin' the Veggies!!

” The way I like” is when the peppers are vibrant, crisp, and green, the onions are crispy but a bit translucent, and the sliced mushrooms have a nice dark brown color to them.

I then added one whole egg and cartoned egg whites (equivalent to about 3 egg whites), scramble, and topped with a handful of cheese.

Mexican Egg Scramble

So, you ask, how does the story end? Well, I’ve got a killer scar on my right arm, not to mention a perma-bruise that won’t go away, but on a positive note, my team won the challenge, I lost tons of fat, and I attribute it all to eating breakfast!!

(…and yea, those fat-blasting workouts help, too.)

Another rendition of the Pumped-up Pumpkin

leanKitchen — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:16:13 +0000

So as you’re all aware, I was not a big fan of the Pumped-up Pumpkin from the Warp Speed Fat Loss Plan. But I kicked it up a notch, toned it down, sweetened it up, and now, it’s a delectable, enjoyable dare I say, palatable treat.

Well I played around with it some more, and came up with something else – the Pumped up Pumpkin Shake!

The Pumped-up Pumpkin Shake

The original version asked to put this together in a bowl:

1/2 c. Cottage Cheese

1/4 c. Canned Pumpkin

2 tbsp. Chopped Pecans

2 tsp. Cinnamon

1 Dash Cloves

Well, I added a bit of vanilla protein powder, and omitted some of the cottage cheese, mixed in about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water, blender, and ended up with this DELICIOUS, smooth shake. IT IS DEFINITELY a keeper!

Pumped-up Pumpkin Shake

One Raspberry Cafe Mocha Latte- COMIN' RIGHT UP!!

leanKitchen — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:23:51 +0000

So us caffeine-heads who’ve embarked on the Warp Speed Fat Loss these past couple weeks have been unable to drink coffee for the past ohhh ten days or so, unless of course we drink it black. Since black coffee is too acidic for my stomach, and just downright unappealing, this becomes a problem. This makes for caffeine headaches, irritability, and without creating an immense list or going into too much detail, in a nutshell, our families begging us to drink coffee again.

I needed to integrate coffee back into my life, and I needed it STAT!

Upon getting a tip from Deveney from Moo92 that she mixes her chocolate protein powder with coffee, I made my Chocolate Covered Raspberry Shake, and in place of the water from that recipe, I put a cup of brewed coffee into the mix (I omitted the spinach, though, and left the nuts, frozen berries[they give it a frozen drink type-feel, like it was blended with ice cream] and chocolate Prograde Meal Replacement) and a couple of ice cubes. After whisking it around for a couple of spins with my immersion blender, I ended up with a CAFFEINATED and AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS, creamy, sweet and delicious coffee drink…

Mmmm

..with NO additives! NO sugar, no creamer, no milk, no artificial sweeteners. Just a supportive, warp speed-friendly coffee buzz. YAYYY!

Oh, how I’ve missed you. <3

Creamy Bubbly Caffeine Perfection

Chocolate Covered Raspberry Shake

leanKitchen — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:39:56 +0000

This is what I had for breakfast this morning. How DELICIOUS does this look ???

Chocolate Breakfast Shake

Bubbly Creamy Delicious Perfection

Chocolate Protein powder (2 scoops), 1/4 c. raspberries, 1/4 c spinach, 2 tbsp. almonds.

Blend with 1 cup or 2 of water (depends how thick you want it) and some ice if you like…and ENJOY!

The Pumped-Up Pumpkin

leanKitchen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:48:40 +0000

Alright so the pumped up pumpkin is not my favorite. I was excited at first about it, given that, at first glance, it looks a lot like some delicious pumpkin dessert (that probably was responsible for the additional 2.5 % body fat that I acquired over the holidays). But it tastes very sharp and cinamonny, and the cloves were pretty intense…and I like the flavor of cloves. If I’m gonna be eating this 12 times, I need to do something to love it.

Soooooo …yeah I can’t just choke something down, though some people I know can.

So the Pumped-Up Pumpkin consists of:

1/2 c. Cottage Cheese

1/4 c. Canned Pumpkin

2 tbsp. Chopped Pecans

2 tsp. Cinnamon

1 Dash Cloves

Add all the ingredients together in a bowl.

So here’s what mine looked like:

Pumped up pumpkin

I’m not gonna lie; no matter how I took a picture, or from what angle, I just couldn’t make this look appetizing. Sorry.

But, I could make it TASTE more appealing.

See, to me, this needs to taste like dessert. By omitting a little cottage cheese, and adding a little vanilla protein powder, it sweetened it without adding anything off-limits.

And NOW? Tastes like the Holiday dessert that put me in this shape to begin with.

YUM!!!

Day 1 Warp Speed (with Berries n' Cream)

leanKitchen — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:04:25 +0000

So yeah I pretty much love the Warp Speed, though I am finding myself in little pickles with my frame of mind. I drove all the way to Dunkin’ Donuts yesterday morning for my coffee, only to get there and realize, unless it was black, I wasn’t drinking it. Dunkin’ D’s coffee is pretty potent, so unless it was diluted with something, I knew I’d be doing jumping jacks at my desk later. Trying to avoid such a scene with my coworkers, I opted to head back to the office instead, and go with a couple of cups of green tea with no additives.

Anyone else feel like they’re detoxing??? Or is it just psychosomatic?? I swear I have a headache that won’t go away (could absolutely be from lack of caffeine though), and I feel a tad on the crankier side. Not too hungry though, except I ate my afternoon snack a little earlier than I should have, and ended up with a late dinner and hungry in between. I’ll have to space it out a bit better next time.

Anyway, I had a super-yummy snack yesterday I wanted to share. Easy and quick, too:

1/2 c. Greek Yogurt (plain or vanilla)

1/4 c. raspberries

2 tbsp. coconut milk

Here’s what it looked like

Berries n' Cream

and heres what it tastes like

Apple-Berry Leathers with my Soulmate

leanKitchen — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:51:02 +0000

Do you believe in Soulmates? And in love at first sight?

Cheesy as it sounds, it happens. That dreamy feeling, as though you’ve finally found exactly what you’ve been missing your whole life. You wake up thinking about it, hardly able to wait for the next time you can be together, the feeling of not being able to imagine being in another place more perfect than the one you’re in when you’re with your Other Half?

Until suddenly, without warning, some time passes, and you’re bitterly disappointed to find that the sparkle has become a bit more lackluster…and you find yourself spending less energy and less time…your “other half” just isn’t what you had originally thought..

…and you find yourself packing it away to the back of your cabinets.

Unless you really, really love that shiny new toy. It has something about it that’s different, more exciting, and, you find yourself falling farther and more hopelessly in love. It is then that you realize, you’ve found your Soulmate.

I found my Soulmate.

OK, fine I’ve got a couple.

One is in the form of the shiny, candy-apple red KitchenAide Mixer that has a permanent home on my countertop. That one, while very attractive, the looks are not what attracted me to it; it’s the personality. It gives me experiences I didn’t even know were possible. It’s helped me figure out methods of doughs and cookies, breads, and confections. It encourages me to push my comfort level, and helps me be a more well-versed and well-rounded person in the kitchen. I love and appreciate my Mixer for helping me gain these qualities.

My second soulmate…well, that one was gift-wrapped under the tree for me. He and I have more of a ”love at first sight” relationship. Smitten from the moment I laid eyes on it, we’ve been inseperable from the get-go. My beautiful, beautiful new love, my 12-tray food dehydrator.

I have been crazily out of the house for the past couple of days, but I did get a chance to play around a bit on Christmas and the day after, and got to experiment with a fun new recipe…my kids love it, and so do I.

Watch how I make fruit leathers in this video:

And the results? Perfect : )

Fruit Roll perfection! (And the kid is pretty perfect, too!)

Oh and a couple of tips:

1. This is not a fully supportive food alone- add a handful of nuts for a supportive snack, or a chobani yogurt and shred some of the leathers on top, or eat on the side.

2. While the variety and combinations are fun, try to keep the ones you eat as berry, and apple concoctions. Use other fruits minimally, or keep it to straight-up, unsweetened applesauce.

3. The edges of the leathers tend to dry first, so keep the edges thicker with the fruit sauce you spread, and the inside thinner, so they come out even. Otherwise, you’ll end up with edges that crack (too dry) and middles that are still not done. You want the leathers to be pliable but not wet, bendy without cracking.