Protein Pancakes with light berry drizzle

Protein Pancakes

1/2 C rolled oats (preferred NOT quick oats)

1 C whole wheat flour

1 scoop Blendfresh protein powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

Blend the above ingredients together to mix in a Wildside jar.  Then add to the jar;

2 C very warm water

1 Tbsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 scoop Blendfresh Red (optional)

Blend until it makes a smooth batter, you may add a little extra water if it's too thick.  You can pour straight from your blender jar onto a hot griddle.  I like to use a cast iron skillet (it adds trace amounts of iron to your foods) with coconut oil on it to keep food from sticking.  Watch for my post on coconut oil and why it's so good to add it to your recipes.  This recipe makes 12 hearty pancakes.  Two will be very filling, so the recipe easily serves 6 people.

Light Berry Drizzle (syrup)

1 1/2 C fresh (or frozen) raspberries

1 Tbsp maple syrup

Add the ingredients to your Blendtec Twister Jar if you have one.  This makes a smaller batch and you can use the Twister lid as a spatula to scrape down the food that hits the sides of the jar.  Pour it straight onto pancakes.  This is about the right amout of berry syrup for three people.  Some of the people at my table prefer maple syrup and so I make a small batch so I won't have any left over. 

If you double or triple the recipe, you can make this in a regular blender jar.  (It will be too small of a batch to gain speed in a large jar if you are just making a single batch).  If you are making a larger batch, you can use the hot soup setting and the blender blade will spin so fast that it actually uses friction to heat the syrup and you can serve it hot over the pancakes.  Yum!  If you are thinking about getting a better blender with some of these cool features click here.

This is the Blendtec Express Pro (see the led screen says "Gibbs Fam"?!).  It is holding the smaller Twister jar used to make the berry syrup.

Pumpkin Muffins - the first ever Recipe Card!

I don't know about you, but I started out with a file box of recipe cards, just like my mom did.  Then I graduated to a binder (or several!) to collect my favorites.  Then finding a recipe turned into typing a search into my favorite recipe website and if it looked really promising, printing off a recipe.  

Well I have been getting nostalgic lately for the old fashioned stuff like quilts and hand made furniture.  No wonder vintage is back with a vengeance!  We all want to be connected to our traditions.  So, to pay homage to the recipe card box, I'm going to post my "recipe cards" as I share my favorites.  Maybe they will make it into your recipe card file too.  

I have a new Blendtec blender (which I LOVE) and I've never made muffins in a blender before now, but this took just seconds and I was the hero.  I am all for quick and easy when it comes to dinner prep!  Warm soup and fresh muffins - how can you beat that for a rainy night?  I adapted this recipe to my own style (more healthy, but still very tasty).  It also has a lot of fiber, which goes nicely to keep you satisfied with a light meal like soup.

As a side note, I love the Orange Fruits and Veggies Blend by Blendfresh.  If you aren't familiar with it yet, it's a powder made of 12 fruits and veggies dried at low temperatures to protect their nutritional value and enzymes, and then powdered so they won't spoil.  It makes it easy to add extra plant nutrition to your foods.  For example, the bottle of Orange has carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash, banana, mango, pineapple, acerola, apricot, peach, yellow bell pepper, lemon and orange in raw, whole food powder form.  But the beautiful thing is that while you and your family will enjoy all the benefits of added vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and fiber, no one will even taste it!  Awesome ;)

If you'd like to learn more about or purchase any of the whole food blends from Blendfresh, just click www.blendwithjenn.com to learn or shop.

In case you can't see my old fashioned recipe card graphic above, here is the text version of it.

Pumpkin Muffins

In your blender jar combine and blend 20 seconds:

1 C canned pumpkin          2 C buttermilk
3 eggs                                1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt                             1/2 t baking soda
1 tsp baking powder           1 t cinnamon
1 T coconut (or other) oil    1 C oats
1 T (optional) Blendfresh Orange Fruits & Veggies Blend

Next add:
1 C flour and pulse 4-6 times.

Pour into 12 muffin tins and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

The Secret to Getting the Most from your Green Smoothie

Green smoothies have become a popular way to get more fresh fruit and veggies and all their wonderful parts into our diets.  If you aren't sold, you should try one!  As if more produce wasn't reason enough in itself, when we do this we are sneaking in all the fiber, extra water and phytonutrients that come with them for very minimal effort.  My kids have grown up associating a glass like this with sweet deliciousness instead of "yuck,green!".

 TIP:  If you have a hard time with the color, try putting it in a colored cup and drink with a straw, or just add blueberries for a lovely shade of purple every time.

Unless your veggies are fried or coated in a not-so-good-fat dressing, we want LOTS of them in your diet. Making smoothies is one easy and creative way to quickly put the raw, fresh version straight into your body. 

 My recipe:  I use a full size blender filled with about 2 cups of water, a big handful or two of greens, some ice or frozen fruit to chill and then top off with fresh fruit.  The secret ingredient I like to add to make the most of the iron in my greens is coconut milk.  

I buy it in a liter box from Costco (I like the So Delicious brand).  Doesn't that just add extra fat calories you ask?  It does, but coconut fat is special - medium chain fatty acids like what is in breast milk - good for the human body; joint, skin, hair, brain, etc.  That in itself is a topic for another day. 

So yes, I want to add coconut oil to my diet as a supplement, but specifically with my greens?  Absolutely!  Part of what makes them green is the iron.  Quick story - during my pregnancies I suffered from a mild case of anemia, which means lack of iron in the blood.  In real life that means there weren't enough little molecules  roaming around my bloodstream to carry the oxygen fast enough for me.  For example, if I stood up too quickly my brain would take a quick brake (the little oxygen was going to my muscles instead), and my vision would go black, hearing would temporarily disappear, and if I was lucky I could steady myself on a chair or a wall until it returned in a few seconds, or feel my way down to the floor without fainting.  That's a fun side note, and hopefully one you have never experienced, but the point is that ABSORBING the iron from my diet was very important for my body.  It is for most women in general.   

Greens are a great source of iron - more on that is coming.  And according to a Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry research article "iron utilization and iron absorbtion was greater in diets in which the fat was supplied as coconut oil".  A stimulating read to be sure, but the point is that you'll actually use the iron from your diet better when combined with coconut oil.  So why not pack one more punch in that smoothie?  Yay for good fats!

So take a risk and try it out.  My bet is you'll enjoy the creamy texture it adds and you'll feel good about your food choice all day!

ps-
If you love medical data and studies here is the link of the article - enjoy!
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf60198a036

No-Guilt No-Bake Cookies

This recipe was developed as a way to get more amazing coconut oil into my body. I’ll do a separate post on the benefits of it, but this cookie helps me not miss traditional treats so much while I am preparing for competition. LOTS of fiber, and only good stuff in it!

In a glass measuring cup barely melt 3/4 Cup coconut oil, and add 1 tsp vanilla, stir.

In a big bowl combine and stir together;
1/2 Cup cacao powder (I like raw, you can use any chocolate powder)
1/2 Cup almond flour
1/2 Cup Coconut flour
1/2 Cup quick oats
1/2 Cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
1/2 tsp salt

Pour the wet into the dry and mix. Drop by spoonfuls or into a mini tart pan and freeze 10 minutes. These are best cold. Makes 12. Try to share them!  If you don't have almond or coconut flour, they are great to add to your pantry and start experimenting with - worth the risk of trying something new!

This recipe is vegan, gluten free and raw (if you use GF/raw ingredients), and high in fiber.