Whole Wheat Waffles with Caramelized Apples and Peanut Butter

Whole Wheat Waffles with Caramelized Apples and Peanut Butter

Whole Wheat Waffles

Ingredients

2 large eggs
1 ¾ cups Almond or coconut milk
¼ cup Olive Oil
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat your waffle iron.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, almond milk, olive oil and honey until well combined.

In a separate bowl mix together the cinnamon, baking soda, flour, baking powder, and salt. 

Add wet mixture to the dry and whisk together just until the large lumps disappear.

When the waffle iron is hot, dab it with a little olive oil and then ladle some batter onto the center of the iron. Follow the instructions that came with your waffle maker to know how long it should be cooked (mine takes about 3 - 4 minutes each).

Keep waffles warm until you finish cooking all of them.

Top with Caramelized apples and a scoop of peanut butter!

Caramelized Apples

Ingredients

• 2 Apples sliced thin
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 Tbsp Pure Maple Syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Add coconut oil to small frying pan and let melt.  

Add apples, cinnamon and maple syrup to coconut oil and allow apples to cook and brown in the pan, stirring frequently until soft.  

Remove from heat and let sit until read to serve. 

Vegetable Egg Cups

This week I'm trying to switch things up a little bit with my meal plan.  Gord and I are trying to reduce our dairy consumption so rather than Greek Yogurt and berries for breakfast we needed to find another protein filled breakfast option for the week.  Eggs are the easy option however our mornings are already rushed so making eggs up every morning isn't really gonna work!  Just too much going on.  Plus I'm not usually ready to eat until I get into work.  So we decided to give Vegetable Egg Cups from the Fixate cookbook a try!  

We have been using the cookbook for several dinner recipes and have loved every recipe we have tried so far. But I am honestly not a huge Egg eater so I wasn't too sure how these would go over.  

Luckily I have a toaster oven in the office which made it possible to reheat them for a few minutes.  I also topped them with pesto to help things along.  (not perfect but better than cheese which is usually how I can get through eggs).  

In the end I quite enjoyed my little breakfast and might even consider going pesto free next time!  

21 Day Fix Cookbook FIXATE - Vegetable Egg Cups

Serves: 6

21 Day fix portions: 1 Red (2 egg cups)

Ingredients

• 12 Large Eggs
• 1 Cup Chopped Bell Peppers
• 1 Cup Chopped Mushrooms
• Sea Salt and Pepper to Taste
• 2 Green Onions, Thinly Sliced
• 12 Tbsp. Homemade Salsa
• *These are the ingredients as listed in the book. I omitted the green onions as we didn't have any on hand and topped mine with a bit of pesto instead of salsa. 

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375.
2. Crack eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk until fully combined.
3. Add mushrooms, bell pepper and onions to the eggs and mix well.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste (optional).
5. Coat the muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. (I used silicon muffin cups which made the egg cups slide right out!)
6. Evenly divide the mixture between the 12 muffin cups.
7. Bake for 15 minutes - 20 minutes (a toothpick inserted into the muffin should come out clean) (Mine took about 22 minutes)
8. Top each egg cup with 1 tablespoon of Homemade Salsa (pg. 85 of Fixate Cookbook)

Make Fitness Your Business

I'm kicking off an AWEOME EVENT starting tomorrow!  Will you JOIN ME?

Join me in a Private Facebook group an an exclusive 5 day event where I'll walk you through what coaching is all about.  

Who makes a great coach?
1. People who are self motivated. 
2. ANYONE who is driven to be successful. 
3. Individuals who want to live their healthiest life. 
4. ANYONE, I mean any age, size, or gender can be a coach!  
5. Someone who has ever felt like they were meant to be more or do more with their life!

There is no pre-determined stereotype for success.  Success happens when you are passionate about what you do, and in this case it is helping other people start and succeed on their health and fitness journey!

If you want to be that person for someone else than I'd love to hear from you!

This a no strings attached, no pressure group.  You can check out my daily posts and connect with me through a message if you are interested in joining my next new coach training group!  


Click here to request to join my group. 

FYI:  I will message you before adding you to connect so once you request to join please expect a message from me.  (Facebook can be strange sometimes and not show you messages of non-friends so feel free to add me as a friend or I'll add you so we can chat!)

If your not on Facebook you can connect with me by emailing to crystalpfitnessfood@gmail.com 

**This is only for non coaches**

Mixed Berry Morning Muffins

Yesterday morning was eggs for breakfast and we used up every last one!  So this morning when I started a batch of muffins for breakfast I realized that I would need to borrow an egg.  Luckily we have awesome neighbours and they even delivered before I could send Asher next door!  

This batch made 12 regular sized muffins and 16 mini muffins for the kids.  I've used my Aunty Janes crackle berry muffin recipe as the base for a few of my recipes and just tweaked it to make it healthier by using coconut oil, honey and whole wheat flour in place of white sugar, white flour and butter.  But they always turn out amazing and you would never know they were "healthier" than the original.  

The batter is nice and thick so use your judgement and add in extra milk as needed to smooth it out while stirring.  

Mixed Berry Muffins

Ingredients 

1/3 cup coconut oil

3/4 cup honey

1 egg

1 tsp pure almond extract

8 Tbsp milk

1 cup full fat Greek yogurt

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup raspberries

1/2 cup blueberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 375

1. Mix together coconut oil, honey, egg, almond extract, milk and yogurt pressing the coconut oil on the side of the bowl to smooth out or you can soften it in the microwave before adding in the honey. 

2. In a medium bowl mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.  Mix until combined. 

3. Add dry ingredients into the wet mixture and stir until combined.  Don't over stir. 

4. Add in berries and mix in. 

5. Grease muffin tin or line with silicon muffin cups.  

6. Fill muffin cups with batter and bake for 20-22 minutes. 

Fudgy Avocado Brownies

Not only do avocados add a boost of healthy fats, they also intensify the flavor of chocolate and make these brownies ultra rich, and decadent. These gluten-free treats are so fudgy and moist, you won’t even remember how healthy they are!

Did you know know there was a difference between "CocOA" and "CacAO"?

Yep there totally is and for a long time I've been a bit confused about the difference in the spelling and wondered what if any difference there actually was between the two.  

So heres the deal...

Even though CocOA and CacAO come from the same bean there is a fairly big difference between the two and how they are processed. 

Basically one is the Raw version of the other.... CacAO is Raw and CocOA is Roasted.  

CacAO (pronounced: kuh-KOW) is the purest and rawest form of a cocoa bean.  

Cacao is not roasted.  CacAO is made from removing the cacAO beans from their pods (which grow on cacAO trees), and then fermenting them.

The beans are then cold-pressed to remove the cocao butter or fat from the beans and then dried.  

Cacao powder does look almost exactly the same as cocoa powder, but none of the nutrients, antioxidants, and enzymes have been cooked out, therefor the overall nutrition of the cocoa bean remains intact in Cacao powder.  

CocOA takes it a step further – it gets roasted at really high temperatures. Keep in mind heating any plants kills a lot of living enzymes (ie. minerals/vitamins/healthy stuff) in the plants, just think about what an over cooked broccoli looks like when it's been steamed way too long..... This means that cocOA has much less of a nutritional value than the raw cacAO stuff does.

Of course CacAO is the healthier and therefor more expensive choice but just like anything else once you understand the value in paying a little bit more and getting a better product it becomes a no brainer to choose the nutrient dense option!  Right?  Right!

Ok back to these Gooey Brownies......

Blend up your Avocado in the food process or you can mash it in a bowl, whatever works for you!  I recently acquired a ninja blender, food processor and I'm telling you it makes baking a breeze!  Loving it!

Now add in your CacAO mixture and just look at that batter!  I can tell you I scraped that bowl it was SO good!!!  Pretty sure I'd make the batter on it's own minus the egg and just eat it with a spoon..... it was that good!

Now after you bake it in the oven and it's nice an hot you can either leave it as is or top it with a few dark chocolate or dairy free chips.  Let them sit for 3-5 minutes and then spread them over the top of your brownie.  

Look and that beauty!  Now the hard part.... you have to wait for it to cool before you cut into it.... well at least wait 30 minutes to let it settle a little bit.  

Fudgy Avocado Brownies

Cooking Time: 36 min.

Yield: 16 servings, 1 brownie each

Ingredients

1 medium ripe avocado, mashed

¼ cup extra-virgin coconut oil

1 large egg

½ cup pure maple syrup

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

¾ cup cacao powder

½ tsp. Himalayan sea salt

¼ cup almond flour

⅓ cup dark chocolate chips (optional to top with)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. Grease a 8 x 8-inch baking pan with coconut oil. Set aside.

3. Combine avocado, coconut oil, egg, maple syrup, and vanilla extract in a food processor; mix well. Set aside.

4. Combine cacao powder, sea salt, and Almond flour in a medium bowl; mix well.

5. Add cacao powder mixture to avocado mixture; blend in food processor until combined. 

6. Scrape batter into prepared pan; spread to make even.

7. Bake for 33 to 36 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

8. Once baked top hot brownie with chocolate chips and let melt 3-5 minutes, spread with icing spatula until smooth. 

9. Cool for an hour before removing from pan. Cut into 16 squares.

21 Day Fix Portions: 1/2 Yellow 2 Spoons

Homemade Food Processor Pizza Crust

We had a Valentines pizza party at home with the boys tonight! Asher wanted to watch the karate kid so we rented a movie (very rare for us) and I made homemade pizza.  I've been experimenting with making pizza dough in my food processor using the dough hook and the last few batches have been tasty but haven't risen all that well.  I was pretty sure the water I was using was a bit too hot so I made sure to use just warm water and the result was perfect pizza dough!  

I mix it all up in the food processor and then let it rise in a covered bowl for an hour.  My trick to getting it to rise is to turn on the oven and let it preheat to 350 then turn it off and put the covered bowl into the oven leaving the door slightly open.  Let it rise inside the oven for the full hour or more.  

We actually went out and came hope to perfectly risen dough.  Yes!!  

For the boys, I rolled out the dough and cut it into large hearts since it's valentines day weekend. The size turned out to be perfect for them to hold and eat but smaller hearts would be cute too!    

You could top them with anything you like but my kiddos wanted plain cheese/ham pizzas so that's what they got! Asher picked out some natural ham which I cut into slices and then cut out with a smaller heart shaped cutter.  He actually picked the ham hearts off and ate ;)

Put them into the oven at 450 for about 7-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.  

Tip:  Save any left over pizza crust because it works great for making a few mini doughnuts!  After dinner I made the boys heart shaped strawberry mini doughnuts too, stay tuned for the recipe this afternoon. 

This crust works great but I also have a recipe on the blog for a Bread Machine Pizza Dough which is awesome if you want to put it all together and run out the door or if you set a timer you can leave for the day and the dough will start to mix and will be ready in time for you to arrive home and make pizzas!  That's a great Friday treat after a long work week.  

Homemade food processor pizza crust

2.5 tsp dry active yeast

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp honey

1/3 cup warm water 

1/4 cup olive oil 

2 cups whole wheat flour or half whole wheat and half Pizza flour

Place yeast, salt, honey and water in processor and blend with dough blade for 10 seconds. 

Add in oil and flour,blend until dough is smooth. Transfer dough to lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour. 

Note: If you use Pizza or Pasta flour for half or all of the dough recipe your dough will be stretchier and easier to work with.  This time i used half and half and it turned out great!  

Chocolate peanut butter overnight oats

I haven't really gotten on the over night oats train until now because I assumed you ate them cold (yuck). But I've since learned you warm them up before you eat them and then top them with delicious things! 

So of course for my first crack at it I had to use peanut butter! Since I had just made a big batch of homemade peanut butter I couldn't resist. I decided to add in some cocoa and a little honey! Yum 

In the morning I just opened it up and put it into the microwave for 1.5 minutes to heat and thicken it a bit more. It was the perfect consistency! 

Now you could eat it completely plain (not really plain since there is peanut butter and chocolate inside) or you can add whatever toppings you like. Fruit is a great option and bananas would be perfect on this. But it's the end of the week here which means we are low on everything fruit and veg! So I wisked together some peanut butter and maple syrup for a quick peanut sauce and sprinkled a few chocolate covered chia seeds on top! Super peanut butter and chocolate-y!! 

Chocolate peanut butter overnight oats

Ingredients

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup milk of your choice

1 Tsp cocoa

1 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp Homemade peanut butter 

Mason jar with lid 

Directions

Add all ingredients to jar, shake it up and put in the fridge over night. 

Microwave 1-1.5 minutes when ready to eat. 

Topping

Ingredients

1 Tbsp homemade peanut butter

1 tsp maple syrup

Directions

Wisk to make into peanut butter sauce 

Chocolate covered chia seeds (optional) 

Clean Cheat Day Peanut Butter Bars

This is an easy and awesome clean cheat recipe that you can make and eat in less than 30 minutes!  I made these a few weeks ago and posted them to my Facebook page and so many people liked them I figured I better do a blog post too!  I've had it drafted up for a while now and just keep skipping past it!  But better late than never!  

I topped mine with banana slices but you could totally leave them off too.  I just thought they looked WAY cuter with a little banana slice on each and it helped me to make sure I was cutting the portions just right too!  

These peanut butter squares are not too sweet but just enough sweetness to make you feel like your having a treat while still staying on track towards your goals.  Gord and I are following the 21 day fix meal plan and workouts so we are trying to stick as close to the meal plan as possible.  These are fix approved and count as 1 Yellow container if you are following the plan too. 

Makes 16 servings, Each serving is 1 

21 Day fix Portions: Yellow and 2.5 TSP

Peanut Butter Bars 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all natural smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup raw honey (or pure maple syrup)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
1/2 tsp baking soda, gluten free

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Lightly coat 8×8-inch baking pan with spray. Set aside
3. Combine peanut butter, honey, extract, eggs, and baking soda in a large bowl; mix well
4. Evenly spread batter into prepared pan. Smooth top with a spatula. Top with sliced banana if desired. 
5. Bake 20 to 23 minutes. Squares may be a little soft when coming out of the oven, but they will continue to cook.
6. Cool. Cut into squares.

Blackberry Apple Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal

Gord and I have been obsessed with baked oatmeal for several weeks now. We have been alternating making the Cranberry Apple Baked Oatmeal and the Peanut Butter Apple Baked Oatmeal every week but I was inspired by some blackberries I had in the freezer this week! 

Baked Oatmeal is great to pack ahead for the week, I just warm up at work or on the go in the morning and pair with Greek yogurt! Makes a satisfying and healthy breakfast. 

If your following the 21 Day Fix, we measure out 1 yellow container of oatmeal and 1 red of Greek yogurt. 

Blackberry Apple Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 2 cups steel cut oats
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup black berries or other mixed berries, fresh or frozen
• 1 Apple chopped
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups milk - cow’s milk, soy milk, almond milk, or whatever you prefer
• Plain Greek yogurt (optional for topping)

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease an 8x8 pan with coconut oil.
2. Mix together the oats and boiling water in a bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes. 
3. Mix together baking powder, cinnamon, and sea salt. 
4. In another bowl whisk together the egg, maple syrup, and vanilla. Mix until well combined, then mix in the milk. Pour over the oats and stir to combine. 
5. Add cinnamon mixture into oats then toss in berries and apples. 
6. Pour into greased baking dish. 
7. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the top turns gently golden and the edges are bubbling merrily away. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving. Top with fresh Greek yogurt.