Apple Cinnamon Protein Waffles

After finding out my family had a waffle maker, I knew I absolutely had to try my hand at some protein waffles.  You know, just to switch it up a little bit from pancakes practically every morning! :)  I did a little research looking at a bunch of different waffle recipes to see what the difference would be between making a waffle and making a pancake.  The first time I tried it did not turn out well at all!  The batter was way too runny, so I added a little more flour the second time.  This worked like a charm.  My dad even tasted these and liked them.

Ingredients:
1/4 c. gluten free rolled oats (Any kind of plain oats would work.)
8 T. liquid egg whites
1/4 c. fat free small curd cottage cheese
1 T. unsweetened almond milk
1 scant t. baking powder
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. Stevia in the raw or any other natural sweetener
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
2 T. coconut flour (I started with just one, but again it was too runny.)
1/4 c. natural unsweetened applesauce

I blended everything together in the single serve smoothie container on my Ninja.  I would suggest if you are using this type of instrument that you start with the liquid ingredients then add the dry ingredients, so it mixes up better.

Grease up the waffle maker with some cooking spray and pour in your batter.

Be careful when pouring into your waffle maker.  I had never used one before and wasn't exactly sure how much to fill it.  I ended up over filling it the first time, causing an overflow when the waffle started cooking.

Once I got it right, my batter filled my waffle maker about twice, which gave me about eight waffles roughly the size of the ones you get in the freezer section of the grocery store.  Stack them high and top with whatever you want.  I topped mine with some calorie free Walden Farms Pancake Syrup.

Macros for entire batter (which served just little old me):
440 calories
6 grams of fat
40 grams of carbs
9 grams of dietary fiber
10 grams of sugar
52 grams of protein

This were delicious, but with the higher calorie amount and delegation of macros, I would suggest to eat these as breakfast on a higher carb day, like leg day!

Jazzy's Chickpea PB Cookies Take Two

I loved the flavor of these cookies the first time that I made them, but I knew they didn't turn out right.  In Jazzy's description of the procedure for making the cookies, she said they should hold their form as balls, but my batter was a lot more runny.  I figured this was most likely due to the fact that I used reconstituted chick peas rather than canned ones like the recipe called for.

Therefore, I had to try them again with the correct ingredients this time!  And guess what?!  They turned out absolutely amazing!  Even my brother said they tasted good, and he usually does not like my healthy cooking.

Here are the ingredients again.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. no salt added canned chick peas/garbanzo beans
1/2 c. natural peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter and Co. Smooth Operator which is delicious!)
1/4 c. honey (I used Nash Brothers Organic Rain forest Honey.)
1 t. baking powder
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. butter extract (Initially I couldn't find this in my local grocery, but you may substitute it for another 1/2 t. vanilla extract.)
About 8 T. organic dark chocolate chips

The first time I made these, I blended everything in the extra large food processor bowl, but this time I decided to use the smaller bowl-in-bowl feature of my Ninja to really get the blade through the mixture.

Blend all of the ingredients up, except the chocolate chips.  When it is blended, it should be thick and kind of fudge like.  I disassembled everything, including the blade, and mixed in the chocolate chips.

Then I used my little scooper for portion control and scooped them all onto greased baking sheets.  I got about 28 cookies, but you could almost use half a scoop, smash them down and make double that.  Jazzy was right they do hold the ball form, so if you wanted to make them look more like cookies, I'd smash them down and lessen the baking time.

Bake at 350 F for about 10 minutes.  If you smash the cookies flatter, you probably won't need as much time to bake.

These babies were absolutely amazing with some Peanut Butter and Co.  Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter on top as well.  Oooey gooey amazingness!

Macros per serving (makes 28 cookies):
69 calories
3 grams of fat
9 grams of carbs
2 grams of dietary fiber
5 grams of sugar
3 grams of protein

I cannot wait to make these again!

Update and Birthday Countdown

Here it goes, this is my very first non-recipe post.  Don't worry there will be an Apple Cinnamon Protein Waffle post soon to follow, as well as a second take on the chickpea peanut butter cookie balls!  In the Meet Jennifer section of my page, I mentioned that I have tendinitis of the patella in my knee and have been seeing a physical therapist.  I was also put on an anti-inflammatory medication for obvious reasons; however, I had a bad reaction to the medication and ended up gaining about eight pounds in three weeks.  This was very upsetting for me as I have been working very hard to lose weight and keep it off.  I went off of the medication by choice a couple of weeks ago and have almost dropped the weight back to where I was prior to my injury.

Also because of my injury, I was unable to complete my regular workouts, but my last day of physical therapy was yesterday!  I got the okay from my doctor to start amping up my workouts and trying some of the things I was doing prior to my injury.  I am unbelievably excited to do this!!

Some of you may know that my birthday is this month.  I turn 23 on June 21, and I decided that now was a great time to get really strict with myself for the next two weeks to be as fit as possible for my birthday.  I am hoping to spend my birthday weekend in Virginia with the boy, and I want to be able to feel good and eat cake without feeling guilty!  I am only human!


So my plan for the next two weeks is to eat the majority of my carbs at breakfast and keep my protein intake higher.  In looking at macros, I'll be roughly 35-45% carbs, less than 20% fat, and 40-50% protein for my daily intake.  This also means that most of my recipe blog posts will be snacks and breakfasts.  What else is new, right?  If you are familiar with the fitness world, I am basically in prep mode with my diet, which means my lunches will mostly consist of grilled/baked chicken, brown rice and dark green veggies and dinners will be grilled/baked chicken and dark green veggies.  Delicious.  Simple.  Healthy.  However, eating practically the same thing every day can get boring, and I would only suggest eating this way for a short period of time.  I think the longest I have ever gone in this way was a couple of months.

There are many new opportunities coming my way right now, and I am so excited for what the future holds.  Despite being super busy, I will never forget about my health!

Thanks for reading!!

Jazzythings's Black Bean Brownies

Oh look another dessert recipe!!!  Have I mentioned that I have a ridiculous sweet tooth?  'Cause I do!  I have tried another Black Bean brownie recipe that turned out absolutely disgusting and have been wanting to try another one, so when @jazzythings posted her version on Instagram, I knew I had to try it.  I'm still not completely sold on the black bean brownies and will continue to experiment with them but crumble these up in a little bit of Plain Greek yogurt and you have yourself a pretty amazing snack!  I tested them out on my coworkers too, and everybody said nothing but good things.  Although they may have just been being nice! lol

Ingredients:
1 can (15 oz.) low sodium black beans
1/3 c. melted coconut oil
2 whole eggs (I didn't have any whole eggs, so I used liquid egg whites.  I would suggest using whole eggs though.)
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. coconut sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. baking powder
1/3 c. oats
Pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

To begin with, drain and rinse your black beans really well.  I swished mine around under the faucet in a strainer until the water ran clear.  Jazzy processes everything together at one time, but I thought that the biggest problem with the black bean brownies I made the last time was that the black beans didn't process enough.  Therefore, I processed the beans by themselves first before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Combine all of the ingredients until smooth.  Pour into an 8 x 8 pan that has been sprayed with cooking oil.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean!

Macros per square (makes 16):
105 calories
5 grams of fat
15 grams of carbs
3 grams of dietary fiber
8 grams of sugars
3 grams of protein

No Bake Healthy Cookie Dough Bites

This week I'm working the overnight shift at Kohl's, and normally during this shifts there is a lot of really delicious but bad for you foods that I can smash on all night long.  I didn't want to shatter all of my progress in two nights; therefore, I decided to make my coworkers and me some healthy snack alternatives, which ended up being delicious and not healthy tasting at all.  This recipe seemed to be everyone's favorite, and I even had a coworker ask me for the recipe at the end of the night!
These could not be any easier to make either.  I got them off of @youngnhealthy on Instagram.  If you're like me you have a deep love for raw cookie dough.  I even like the dough better than the baked cookie, so when I saw her recipe for no bake cookie dough, I had to try it!

Ingredients:
2 c. almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Almond Meal/Flour.)
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. sea salt
1/4 c. coconut oil (solid but still soft--I heated mine up in the microwave very briefly.)
1 T. honey
2 T. almond butter (I didn't have any almond butter, so I used Peanut Butter and Co. Smooth Operator PB.)
2 t. pure vanilla extract
Dark chocolate chips (I love the Sunspire 42% organic cacao chips and used about 4 T.)
You can also add some Stevia if it's not sweet enough for you.  I did not add any though.

Place all dry ingredients (almond flour, baking soda, and salt) in  a food processor and process briefly until combined.

Next, add all of the other ingredients EXCEPT the chocolate chips and process again. Once the ingredients were all processed, I pulled the blade out of my Ninja and stirred in the chocolate chips.

Place dough in freezer for 15-20 minutes to firm it up.  I only left mine in for about 15, because I got impatient and anxious to try it!  I would suggest leaving it in for the full 20 minutes, because mine was kind of crumbly when I was spreading it out.  Spread dough out on wax paper or a cookie sheet.  The original instructions say to roll it out with a rolling pin, but I just pressed it flat with my fingers a little bit, since I was going to be rolling it into balls anyway.

I used my handy dandy scooper again to get a good serving size and molded the dough into small balls.  It was very crumbly and didn't roll in my fingers very well, so I molded them into balls more or less.

Store in the freezer or refrigerator.  I left mine in the freezer.  They were delicious, but I wish they were a little bit less crumbly.  I have heard of using Greek yogurt in the ingredients, and I may try that next time.  It seems like that would be a good addition to combine everything.  Plus it would add a little more protein to the macros!

Macros per bite:
108 calories
10 grams of fat
5 grams of carbs
2 grams of dietary fiber
3 grams of sugar
3 grams of protein