Protein Power Pancakes

Pancakes are one of my favorite things to make on the weekend. All week, I try to have a healthy breakfast - a protein smoothie with berries and spinach or Greek yogurt. On the weekends (especially now that the wedding is behind us) I like to do something slightly indulgent. Or at least pretend to be indulgent.

Truth be told, these pancakes are hardly indulgent (except for the chocolate chips I snuck in some of them). The secret, protein packed, ingredient is quinoa. But instead of whole, cooked, quinoa like I used in these muffins, I ground the dried quinoa into a flour. Genius, right? I can't take credit. I got the idea off of Pinterest (of course).

And making quinoa into a flour couldn't be easier as long as you have a blender or food processor. I used our Magic Bullet blender and it took only 15 seconds. 

Once the quinoa is ground, it can be used in place of flour for almost anything. The very nutty and distinct quinoa flavor is still there, so if you are not a fan of the quinoa flavor, then I wouldn't recommend these. However, if you like quinoa and are in the mood for a hearty and healthy pre-workout breakfast, these are for you!

Enjoy!

Chai Spiced Pumpkin White Chocolate Muffins

I have noticed recently that my pumpkin muffin recipe that I posted last year has been getting some renewed interest on Pinterest. So I thought I would update and jazz up my pumpkin muffin for this Fall with a few extra spices and some white chocolate chips.

I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin spiced things (which I have mentioned here before). But ironically, I LOVE chai spice, which is really pumpkin spice with a few extra spices - cardamom and all spice. The chai spice isn't overwhelming and definitely compliments the pumpkin flavor.

One reason I love using pumpkin in baked goods, despite my aversion to pumpkin spice, is because it helps make things a wee bit healthier. The pumpkin adds a lot of moisture without having to add any oil or butter (like I use in my other muffin recipes). I also used almond milk and Greek yogurt (a staple in my standard muffin recipe), which also eliminates any additional fat. Of course, you could make these even healthier by eliminating the chocolate chips, but if you do so, I would suggest adding 1/4 cup extra sugar to the batter, as the batter itself is not overly sweet.

The muffins are perfectly moist and delicious, with just the right amount of spice and flavor!

Whole Wheat Crepes

For some reason, crepes have always intimidated me. To me, they were the high maintenance and delicate sibling of the pancake. Maybe it's because they are French. The French are high maintenance and delicate, right?

 

(Sorry if you are French and I offended you. If it makes you feel better, Americans are fat jerks.)

As usual though, I have to try to make crepes a little bit healthier. I did find one recipe that was SUPER healthy. Like it used bananas and oats and agave. I am not going that far. I just used whole wheat flour, egg whites, and almond milk. It definitely made them a bit lighter, but not taste like grainy bananas. Unless you like grainy bananas.

 

What I found in making crepes, is that you really want your batter to be pretty thin. If it is the consistency of pancake batter, then it needs to be thined out. Other than that, its really not that easy to mess up crepes.

 

It also helped me to watch a couple YouTube videos. Seeing other people make them helped my confidence and lessened the intimidation. I also didn't try to be fancy and flip them like a pro. I used my fingers and flipped them over. There was no one around to judge my lack of flair and none of my crepes ended up on the floor.

 

 

The amazing thing about crepes is that they can be filled with anything. I love crepes filled with Neutella and strawberries. These crepes are filled with vanilla Greek yogurt, strawberries, and bananas then topped with blueberries. If B were around when I made these, I would have filled his with eggs, bacon, and cheese...like a little crepe breakfast burrito.

And if you are wondering, the plate featured above can easily serve 2 people. But I ate all four because I am a fat jerk.

What is your favorite crepe filling??

Linking up with Weekend Shenanigans, This Weekend I, The GFC Collective, Less Laundry More Linking, Share It Link Party, Taste of Tuesday, Google Friend Conect, The Pin It Party, Pinterest Power Party, Style Sessions, Trend Spin Linkup, I Feel Pretty, What I Wore Wednesday, Random Wednesday, Wildcard Wednesday, Three-fer Thursday, Tucker Up, GYB Networking Party H54F, That Friday Blog Hop, #backthatazzup

Cherry Almond Quinoa Granola

While browsing the cereal aisle at the grocery store I stumbled upon quinoa granola by Kind. Quinoa granola? Mind = blown.

I did a bit more researched and realized that quinoa granola isn't all the different from normal granola, except that there is quinoa instead of, or in addition to, oats. So this recipe was a pretty easy adaptation of my normal granola recipe.

I replaced half of the oats in my normal recipe with uncooked quinoa. I minimized the use of sugar, by using maple syrup in addition to honey.  And to increase the almond flavor, I added in almond extract.

Once everything is good and mixed up, I dumped the mixture onto a baking sheet and packed everything down. I baked the granola at 300 degrees for 15 minutes, and then lowered the temperature to 250 and baked for another 20 minutes. I also like to just leave the granola in the oven after I turn it off so that it dries out a little bit more.

Once it cooled, I broke it into chunks and stored it in a plastic bag. That's when I added the cherries. I didn't want to bake the cherries, so if you add in any fruit, do so at the end.

I spent most of the past weekend snacking on this granola. Either on it's own or on top of Greek yogurt for breakfast. I feel like granola can sometimes a bit calorie dense, and store bought varieties have a ton of sugar, so this is a fairly good alternative. The quinoa also provides a different textural dimension, as well as a nutty flavor.

If you are adamantly opposed to the taste of quinoa, then this is not for you. But if you still want to make this recipe, just 3 cups of oats instead.

Linking up with  Weekend Shenanigans, This Weekend I, The GFC Collective,
Less Laundry More Linking, Share It Link Party, Taste of Tuesday, Google Friend Conect, The Pin It Party, Pinterest Power Party,  Style Sessions, Trend Spin Linkup, I Feel Pretty, What I Wore Wednesday, Random Wednesday, Wildcard Wednesday, Three-fer Thursday, Tucker Up, GYB Networking Party H54F, That Friday Blog Hop, #backthatazzup,