Plums, Pancakes and Pizza Recipes (No, Not All Together)

If you have been following my (currently non-existent) WIAW posts over the past few months, you would have noticed that I have been keeping it pretty basic with minimal changes week to week. While I usually love mixing it up, because the summer was so busy, I just didn’t have time to think about it and kept it simple by doing what I already knew. From week to week I knew what I needed to buy, how to prep it and what all the macro (fats, carbs and protein) counts would be. It didn’t require much thinking which is how I needed it to be.

But finally (finally!!) things are slowing down a bit and I was inspired to try something new in the kitchen. This week it resulted in two really yummy recipes J Both provide a good balance between protein and carbs, and both can be modified to fit different macros, tastes and preferences. One is sweet and one is more savoury. Enjoy!

Plum and Zucchini Protein Pancake with Vanilla Icing

This recipe is a small twist in my basic Cinnamon Zucchini Protein Pancake. My parents have a plum tree in their backyard. It grows those delicious sweet and sour prune plums. At this time of year, my mom often makes a plum cake, which I love, so I wanted to find a way to recreate those flavours in a cleaner cake. The answer was a plum pancake J

Ingredients (for 1 large pancake):

Pancake:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 20g vanilla whey protein powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
• ¼ cup egg whites
• 40g (about ¼ cup) shredded zucchini
• 60g (about 2) soft prune plums
• 5g walnut pieces

Icing:

• 2 TBSP fat free Greek yogurt
• 1 TBSP vanilla protein powder

Directions:

1. Pit and chop up plums. Pre-heat and spray small frying pan. Add plums and sauté on low heat until soft and slightly caramelized.
2. In a small bowl, mix the oats, protein powder and cinnamon together.
3. Add in egg whites. Mix well. Add in zucchini, plum and walnuts.
4. Pour into the pre-heated, (re)sprayed frying pan. Cook for about 3 minutes, flip, and cook other side for 2 minutes (or until done).
5. To make the icing, stir together yogurt and protein powder.
6. Ice the protein pancake with the icing and serve warm.

 

 

 

I also topped mine with some chia prune jam. It turned out exactly as I expected. The pieces of plum in the cake really tart it up, which goes well with the sweet yogurt icing. I’m thinking of tripling this recipe and trying it out in a loaf pan to see how it slices up. A perfect portable, pre-portioned and prepped high protein and carb snack! It could even be used as a pre- or quick post-gym meal.

 

Quinoa Pizza Bites/ Casserole

This recipe started out as a way to satisfy a pizza craving (while meeting my carb and protein counts for the day). While sometimes nothing but a slice will do, other times, it’s really just the flavors I want. This recipe was a way to combine those flavors (tomato sauce, cheese, garlic and oregano) in an easy to prepare and package way for one of my meals during the week.

Ingredients (for 6 servings):

• 180g (1 cup) uncooked quinoa
• 300g spinach
• 6 TBSP tomato paste
• 1 ½ cup egg whites
• 125g (about ½ cup) dry cottage cheese curds
• garlic powder, oregano and black pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cook quinoa according to package directions. When in doubt, I follow these instructions for quinoa.
3. Wilt spinach in a pan and set aside.
4. In a bowl, mix the egg whites, tomato paste and seasoning together.
5. Add in cottage cheese, cooked quinoa and spinach. Mix well.
6. Drop mixture into sprayed muffin tins or pour into sprayed 9X9 pan.
7. If making muffins, bake for 20-25. If baking in a pan, bake, covered, for about 20-25, then remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes.
8. Let cool and individually portion and package for an easy grab-and-go protein and carb filled meal.

 

This recipe turned out great! My first batch, made into muffins, were a little under seasoned, so I made sure to add more into my second batch, which I baked in a pan. This was delicious and very satisfying as a morning snack throughout the week. Depending on macros and personal tastes and preferences, parmesan cheese can be added to the mixture or melted on top for more flavor. Other “toppings” (like peppers and onions) can also be added into the mixture for different flavors and textures. The variations are endless! I might try a “Greek” inspired mix next time with feta and fresh dill!

And finally, even though I didn’t create this recipe, I had to share! I recently tried this protein and chocolate chip cookie dough brownie and almost died. It was amazing!! It uses a Quest bar, which I have heard a lot about, but haven’t tried out that much. This was a delicious way to eat it though! Mmmm.

XOXO

Jen

New Month, New Week, New Food, New Blog!

Welcome to my blog! Since I intended to start posting months ago, let me catch you up…

I am currently just under 5 weeks (5!) out from my first fitness competition of the season. I competed for the first time in November 2012 at the BCABBA Sandra Wickham Fall Classic in BC in the Bikini division. It was an amazing experience. So amazing, that I wanted to do it again- and I am!

This time, I am aiming for Fitness Model. My training program has changed, my food plan has tightened up and body is getting stronger. I look forward to every opportunity, every day, to push it further and do my best. This blog to share this experience with you J (more on that later).

It’s the start of a new month and a new week (sorta, since Monday was a holiday). For me, that means a new meal plan. I spent the majority of my long weekend planning, prepping and piecing together my menu for the week, balancing my nutritional needs across the day to ensure my body gets what it needs when it needs it. Sunday (in this case Monday) food prep helps me stay on track and saves me so much time throughout the week. Once everything is made and put together, I don’t have to think about it again (until the following weekend at least). Everything is just grab and go. No excuses. #keytosuccess

Everything prepped, cooked, and portion for a week of clean meals.

While I usually stick to fairly simple and similar meal plans week to week, this week I started changing things up to accommodate some of my new food plan requirements (such as eating starchy carbs earlier in the day and pre- and post- workout) and to add more variety to my protein, carb and fat sources. This week, I’ll be sharing what my meal plan looks like and how all turns out. I have either tweaked existing recipes or just fully developed my own recipes to fit my nutritional requirements. And, since I am on a fairly specific everything-is-measured-and-weighed diet, little, if any, taste testing gets done while I cook. So, this week may be full of surprises- good and/or bad. Either way, I’ll be sticking to it though :)

A couple restrictions I have to work with while planning and preparing my meals:

1. I work full time and commute 2.5 hours to and from work. That is a lot of time away from home which means my meals must be mobile. Pretty much Meals 1-4 (1-5 on weight days) must be portable. I need to make food that can be stored in tupperware containers, last in the fridge (or freezer) at least 5 days and can be easily assembled and warmed up.

2. While I do eat chicken breast and some (limited) seafood, I do not eat any other meat (it’s not a moral/ ethical thing- I just don’t like it). I also don’t like ground chicken or the taste of chicken reheated. Sometimes, if the chicken is in a soup, I can tolerate it, but it is hit and miss. This forces me to be creative with varying the sources of my protein to ensure I get enough.

3. Everything must taste good. When preparing my meals, taste/ enjoyability always comes first. I am not going to eat something that I don’t like- no matter how good it is for me. There are soooo many delicious options out there, why eat something you don’t enjoy?? Makes no sense to me. I love food and I love finding ways to put things together so that they not only meet my nutritional needs, but also taste delicious.

So, considering all of the above, this is my #mealplan for the week:

Meal	On the Menu	Just So You Know...
M1: Breakfast	Barley and buckwheat porridge	Adapted from Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet Crockpot Porridge
M2: Snack	Tuna baked with oats and flax on a salad of avocado, spinach and broccoli	Spiced up with a hit of siracha sauce and squeeze of lemon
M3: Lunch	Yam and chickpea chicken curry	Made this concoction up… should be interesting
M4: Snack	Egg whites with steamed veggies and hemp hearts	Too easy to be this good
M5: Pre-workout	Chocolate quinoa pudding	Found this on Chelle Stratford’s Recipe for Fitness blog (which I love by the way)
M6: Post-workout/ dinner	Turkey with rice and beets, served over a salad with Udo’s oil	Easter leftovers (thanks mom and mother-in-law!)
M7: Snack (optional)	Greek yogurt mixed with a half a scoop of vanilla casein and strawberries	My ultimate fav! #cleantreat #favouritething

Can you spot all the proteins, healthy fats and complex carbs? I think I did a good job of mixing things up and fitting it all together, but the week shall tell. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Jen