Light and Crispy Vanilla Protein Waffles

We adapted this recipe from paleOMG.com and it is amazing, especially for being healthy! We put maple syrup, almond butter or sugar free jam on top. I love waffles!

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• ¾ cup applesauce
• 4 eggs, whisked
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup tapioca flour (or arrowroot powder)
• 1/4-1/3 cup coconut flour (you could also use vanilla protein powder)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Whisk together applesauce, eggs, vanilla extract, and coconut oil.
2. Add tapioca flour and whisk until combined. Then add protein powder and whisk again to combine. Lastly, add baking soda, cinnamon and a pitch of salt and mix well.
3. Pour batter into the waffle iron (greased, if needed) and cook until crispy. Maybe my waffle iron is really hot but they cooked pretty fast for me. They are darker than most waffles. Repeat with the rest of the batter. My batter made 6 round waffles.
4. Top with favorite toppings!

Yields 5-6 round waffles

Protein Pancakes

We LOVE pancakes and waffles in our house! Who doesn't? But I always feel guilty when my two little boys are eating pretty much a fried cake with sugar on top for breakfast and occasionally dinner...
We were at a cabin with friends and one of the couples there made protein pancakes for breakfast. They told us they were much better for you then regular pancakes and they were really good!
We converted this recipe given to us by our friends for protein pancakes (after much trial and error) into a paleo friendly (if you are okay with dairy), even more healthy pancake with nothing bad in it. Everything in it is good for your body and provides many nutrients.

These are incredible by the way... I don't think I could ever go back to regular pancakes. We make them almost every day.

 Protein Pancakes

This recipe is for 2-3 people, I usually double it when I make it.

3 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
1/4 almond flour
1 T ground flaxseed
1 T ground chia seeds
2 T of unsweetened finely shredded coconut
2 T coconut oil


Mix all ingredients. Use 1/4 cup to measure out size of pancakes. These cook a lot longer then regular pancakes... it's hard to burn them so that's nice.
We top them with real maple syrup. Yum yum!
Also they refrigerate and heat up very well. So I always double the recipe and save leftovers.

Where do I go to make photo books online?

About for the last year I have been making photo books on snapfish.com and I absolutely love it!! It is easy to use, looks very cute and professional, and pretty inexpensive. I made my wedding book on there and my sisters and cousins. I have also made about 10 other books of family photos. It is the really the best way to scrapbook and display your family pictures. They are doing a special right now to where you can order a photo book up to 40 and free shipping for $29.99. All the ones I have made have been 20 pages and I always ran out of space at the end.  Forty pages really makes it worth it!
If you set up your own account you can view my latest photo book here:
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/projectshareewelcome/l=7697253025/p=4685281398718618081/g=15079151025/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

www.snapfish.com!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

I have been a little obsessed with these smoothies lately... They are soooo good, healthy and filling! I use these as breakfast or midmorning meal. Well, really I think I have had these for dinner too so they are great anytime of the day. They have a lot of texture to them which I really like. I also like the nutty texture and taste the ground flax seed gives.

Paleo Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie 

1 cup chocolate almond milk
1/2 cup frozen spinach or large handful of fresh spinach
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (this makes it more fluffy)
1 frozen banana (if you don't have frozen thats alright)
1 large spoonful of natural peanut butter or powdered peanut butter works great as well
1 T or more of ground flax seed
1 T or more of chia seeds
(or 2 T of Spectrum Essentials Decadent Blend of Chia and Flax Seed with Coconut and Cocoa)
1 cup of ice

Put in blender and mix until ice is all broken up. Enjoy!!

-Kira

Paleo Banana Berry Smoothie

Paleo Banana Berry Smoothie 

(with spinach, chia seeds, and flax seed)

We have been making a lot of smoothies lately! They are just soooo good and you are getting all the great benefits of spinach, chia seed and flax seed with really noticing. I also love that my 1 year old will drink a whole cup or two of it! This is the only way I can get him to eat green stuff!

Be sure to get ground flax seed. I just learned regular flax seed will go straight through your body without digesting so you aren't getting all the health benefits of it. You can use regular chia seeds if you would like, I just like the ground chia seeds more.

1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 frozen banana or a regular banana (the frozen banana gives it a smoother texture)

1 cup frozen mixed berries

1/2 cup frozen spinach or large handful fresh spinach

2 large scoops honey greek yogurt

1 tbsp ground flax seed

1 tbsp ground or whole chia seeds 

Put in blender and turn on! Be sure all the berries are broken up before turning off.  If it is too thick add more almond milk.

This is enough for 2 people.

Enjoy!

-Kira

Chocolate Eclairs

These are amazing! I started wanting them for every birthday when I was younger. My grandma Youngstrom always told me she was excited to come to my parties because she knew I would be having Eclairs. 

 I doubled the recipe when I made it and it made 26.

 Be sure not to under cook them or they won't poof up how they are supposed to

Eclairs (makes 12-14)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

4 eggs

In a medium sauce pan melt butter. Add water; bring to boiling. Add flour and salt all at once; stir vigorously. Cook and stir till mixture forms a wall that doesn’t separate. Remove from heat; cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating with a wooden spoon or beaters after each addition for 1 to 2 minutes or till smooth. Drop batter by heaping tablespoon 3 inches apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Remove from oven: split, removing any soft dough inside. Cool on a wire rack.

Custard filling:

1 cup sugar

1/2 flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 cups milk

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a medium saucepan combine sugar, flour and salt; gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Beat eggs slightly, add a little of the hot custard to the eggs before adding to the saucepan. Add egg mixture to saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Cook and stir two minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. This can also be done in the microwave! Microwave everything without the eggs yet for about 3 min; stir, 2 min; stir, 1 min; stir until thick. Then added eggs and microwave again and add vanilla when done.

Chocolate Frosting:

4 cups Powdered sugar

1/2 cube melted butter

1/3 cocoa

dash of salt

1/2 tsp

1/4 cup milk or just until it is the right consistency 

Beat ingredients in large bowl, add milk at the end until its the right consistency.

Fill eclairs with custard and frost with chocolate frosting! Store in refrigerator.

This was one of the first years I didn't have eclairs as my birthday "cake" but my brother had them
so I got eclairs and strawberry rhubarb pie!

Angel Food Cake with Raspberry Whipped Cream Topping

Angel Food Cake with Raspberry Whipped Cream Topping

It was a favorite Grandma Youngstrom’s dad!

One box of Western Family angel for cake mix (the Western Family Brand doesn’t overflow in oven)

Make and bake angel food cake according to package directions

1/2 pint of whipping cream, whipped with powdered sugar and vanilla

(be sure to use powdered sugar so the cream doesn’t separate)

1/2 bag of frozen raspberries or fresh if you’d like

Stir raspberries into whipped cream and frost your cake with it!

Very simple, amazingly delicious and used for many Jim Youngstrom Family birthday parties!

That whipped cream frosting is just too good to resist!