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.

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