Clean Eating Apple Sauce Oatmeal Pancakes

Hello, all! Happy President's Day (aka parent teacher conference day for me)! I've been dying to write about the clean and yummy breakfast I made yesterday! My son had been asking for some pancakes, since we were out. I typically make a large batch and freeze the remainder. That makes busy mornings super easy, and since he's a growing boy, then it's a healthy quick snack for him. In the past, I tend to stick to making protein pancakes or waffles. Alas, I am out of vanilla protein powder so I just went with what I had. Welcome, Applesauce Oatmeal Pancakes! These are totally gluten free, sugar free, and dairy free. And if you follow the 21-Day Fix nutrition plan like me,  then each pancake is one yellow.

Clean Eating Apple Sauce Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Gluten Free Oat Flour
• 2 tbsp Truvia or Xylitol
• 1 tbsp Baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Cinnamon
• 4 Egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups Almond milk (unsweetened vanilla is my favorite)
• 1/2 cup Unsweetened apple Sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat your skillet. I find that medium heat is the best.
2. Mix dry ingredients together.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with apple sauce. 
4. Add almond milk in to the egg mixture.
5. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter on to the preheated, oiled skillet. (I use either a non stick cooking spray or a teaspoon of coconut oil).

Top your pancakes with whatever you want, or leave them naked. My son loves REAL maple syrup, or he likes them plain. I like adding almond butter or some mashed berries. Enjoy!

Breakfast: My Top 5 Picks

 

Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day. If I could eat breakfast for each meal with out feeling guilty, then I would certainly do it. Breakfast is also "the most important meal of the day," so I guess I'm lucky to love it so much! If you aren't convinced that breakfast is the most important meal, then here's a way to understand it. Breakfast is just what is says, breaking the fast. Your body has just undergone hopefully a 7-9 hour fast while you were sleeping. We have learned that "fasts" can actually slow our metabolisms. Of course you can't and shouldn't eat while you are sleeping - rest is essential to your health. But you should eat breakfast within an hour of waking up. Some have the misconception that skipping breakfast will help cut their caloric intake for the day, but it actually does more harm than help. Aside from slowing your metabolism, skipping a meal will also increase your risk of overeating throughout the day. Not to mention, you're body and brain can't function as well without the nutrients it needs from breakfast. Can a car run without gas? Of course not! So, why should you expect that your body can run without the fuel it needs?

If you are in a breakfast rut, or think that a bowl of Lucky Charms will be the breakfast cure, then here is a list of my top 5 breakfast picks. Enjoy!

1. Blueberry Almond Oats
 

 

Oatmeal cooked in unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or water), topped with almond butter, ground flax, and blueberries.

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or 1 cup of water)
• 1 tb almond butter
• 1 tb ground flax
• 1/3 cup blueberries

2. Cran-apple Oats

Oatmeal cooked in unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or water), topped with almond butter, ground flax, sliced apples, and dried cranberries.

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or 1 cup of water)
• 1 tb almond butter
• 1 tb ground flax
• 1/2  sliced apple, (cooked to soften, sprinkled with cinnamon)
• 1/2 - 1 tb dried cranberries

3. Banana Peanut Butter Oats
 

Oatmeal cooked in unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or water), unsweetened cocoa mixed in, topped with peanut butter, ground flax, and sliced banana.

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or 1 cup of water)
• 1 tb almond butter or peanut butter
• 1 tb ground flax
• 1/2 sliced banana
• 1 tb unsweetened cocoa

4. Breakfast Protein Quinoa
Quinoa cooked in unsweetened vanilla almond milk, cinnamon, vanilla shakeology and egg whites, then topped with any of the above choices.

• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 cup almond milk 
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 egg whites 
• 1 scoop vanilla shakeology

5. Breakfast BET

  This is a bit like a BLT, but with egg instead of lettuce.  Toast with turkey bacon, scrambled egg whites, and tomato. You can load it up like a sandwich, or like pictured below. Also try adding salsa or avocado.

• 1-2 slices gluten free toast
• 2 egg whites, scrambled 
• 1 slice turkey bacon 
• 1/2 sliced tomato 

Gluten Free, Clean Snickerdoodle Cookies

One of my favorite holiday treats is the Snickerdoodle cookie. It doesn't even have any peanut butter in it, but goodness gracious I love them! Maybe it's the cinnamon and subtle sweetness? I'm not sure, but the snickerdoodle is a bit of amazingness baked up in a delicious cookie. Enough said. :) We've been snowed in with the "winter storms" that are moving across the country. Suddenly, I got a craving for snickerdoodles. My son is a huge fan of the cookie, so I had my sous chef at my side! 

Gluten Free, Clean Snickerdoodle Cookies

Ingredients

Cookie:

• 1⅓ cup oat flour
• 5 tsp truvia baking blend
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp  baking powder
• 2 tb coconut oil
• 1 tsp  vanilla
• 4-5 tb unsweetened vanilla almond milk 

Cinnamon/Sugar Coating:

• 4 tsp truvia or coconut sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 380 degrees.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together (oat flour, truvia, salt, and baking powder).
3. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, adding milk only as needed (I added about 4 tb). The batter should be moist, but not sticky.
4. Let the dough sit for a few minutes to allow the oats to absorb some of the moisture.
5. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together on a plate.
6. Spoon the dough and form each piece into a ball. There will be about 10 total.
7. Roll each ball in the cinnamon/sugar mix until lightly coated on all sides.
8. Place each ball on a cookie sheet. Use a spoon to flatten into a cookie shape.
9. Bake for 10 minutes and cool for five minutes on the baking sheet.

Best 2013 Half Marathons per Self Magazine

I was reading this Self Magazine article and it really struck me! Running a half marathon is such a growing experience in its own right, but can you imagine running a half marathon on the Great Wall of China?! I'm still trying to wrap my head around even the notion of that experience. There were multiple locations mentioned in the article, Indianapolis, Great Wall, China, Miami Beach, Los Angeles, New York City, Montreal, Oslo, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

Indianapolis
OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon

Great Wall, China
Great Wall Half Marathon

Miami Beach
Allstate Life Insurance Miami Beach 13.1 Marathon

Los Angeles
The LA Marathon

New York City
Allstate Life Insurance New York City 13.1 Marathon

Montreal, Canada
Oasis Rock 'n' Roll Montreal Marathon & Half-Marathon

Oslo, Norway
Rock 'n' Roll Oslo Half-Marathon

San Diego
Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon & Half-Marathon
to Benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Las Vegas
Zappos.com Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon & Half-Marathon

I've never seen the Great Wall, but that would be BEYOND fascinating. I have visited Norway before and it is beautiful! I've never seen more vivid and beautiful colors. 

What would be your favorite half marathon destination?

• P90X - Shoulders and Back session at 4:30 am! :::yikes:::
• Running - 3 miles 1% incline, 30 min (to be done tonight!)
• P90X - Ab RipperX (to be done tonight!)

Breakfast

• Cranberry Almond Oatmeal aka my new (again) favorite :) I couldn't wait to go to sleep last night so I could have it for breakfast. Sad, but true.

• Tropicana Trop-50 (not a favorite of mine, I think I'll stick to a cleaner juice from now on) mixed with Arbonne Digestion Plus (LOVE!)

Lunch

• Arbonne Protein Chocolate Shake, mixed w/ PB2

Dinner

• Arbonne Protein Chocolate Shake, mixed with PB2 

Snack

• Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt with blueberries

Udi's Product Review

As this is my first Thanksgiving sans gluten, I had been pretty nervous about how to approach the meal planning. Then, a couple weeks ago I got the best little package from Udi's. The company graciously sent a huge pack of full value coupons for me to review their products. Udi's opted to send the coupons in lieu of packing the foods (which need to be frozen) in dry ice, which is not so environmentally friendly. (Good call, Udi's!) I was then prepared to attack my holiday menu, and what is prepping without a little taste-testing?

There are several stores around my area that carry the brand, so the kiddo and I set out. All in all, we came back with pizza, cookies, bread, rolls, buns, and muffins. My freezer is packed - enough said. :)

We are a roll-loving kind of family, so when I saw that Udi's had some, I quickly snatched up the Whole Grain Seeded Dinner Rolls. These are loaded with chia, sunflower, and flax seeds. I added a shmear of butter, and the pure goodness just melted in my mouth. I knew these would be perfect for our holiday dinner!

My resident picky-eater is the Kid. He was quite skeptical when I made him a PBJ on Udi's Gluten Free Whole Grain Bread. We've tried a few gluten-free breads in the past that were very hard/brittle, and Udi's was soft, just like its gluten-full counterpart. I think I actually got an "oh my gosh!" after the his first bite. Out of the mouths of babes, right? That's when I decided the Whole Grain Bread needed to be used for our Thanksgiving dressing and stuffing. In our family, we are pretty serious about stuffing/dressing. (Dressing is cooked outside the turkey, stuffing is cooked inside the turkey.) We make both, because there's never enough! As long as I can remember, my mom always had a traditional recipe for her stuffing. Our family enjoyed this recipe year after year. I'm beyond happy that I can carry on this tradition, and I can actually eat the dressing! Thanks, Udi's!

Snickerdoodles are by far my favorite cookie. Admittedly, I was unsure about a frozen, gluten-free cookie; I've only had a gluten-free snickerdoodle from a local bakery. I was beyond pleased with Udi's cookie. Honestly, the package was opened with a few cookies missing before we even made it home. I cannot say whether I devoured cookies in the car, or not. I will say, I had to tell the kiddo to quit eating all my cookies. Yes, my cookies. :) Udi's Snickerdoodle Cookies are now a staple in the Piece, Love, and Peanut Butter household. Now, my plan is to use these cookies to make a crust for my cheesecake. Perfect!

We picked up a few other Udi's products, that clearly were not for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and would not even have made it that long in my house. :) The Three Cheese Pizza was crispy, with melty-cheesy-goodness! I love a crispy crust and the box had topping suggestions to help personalize your pizza. Am I the only one who is enamored by companies that put little messages and suggestions on their packaging? Anyhow, through this I realized I had chicken breast strips in my freezer. Those immediately went on my half of the pizza (the Kid usually eats his plain). It was great and perfect for a lazy night.

I'm not usually a HUGE granola fan - I'll add it to yogurt, etc. A package usually lasts me quite a while. At Whole Foods, I picked up a bag of the Gluten Free Vanilla Granola. Holy moly! To be honest, I have been munching by the handfuls on this stuff. It doesn't even quite make it to a bowl of almond milk or yogurt. I've added it to my oats a few times, to give my breakfast a little crunch and kick. It was a perfect bowl of hot vanilla-y crunchy oats. :)

Udi's has a ton of products that would be perfect for holiday festivities or lazy days (perhaps to recover from holiday cooking?). Between the French Baguettes,  Cinnamon Rolls, and Classic French Dinner Rolls, there's plenty of choices for you and your guests for a gluten-free holiday season.

I bet your hungry reading this, because I am from just writing it! :)

Back to Training

I've had a bit of a hiatus lately from the blogging world. I've been having problems with Blogger allowing others to view the blog and an illness in the family. As of lately I've REALLY got in to reading food blogs, more specifically, healthy and clean eating blogs. I've found the most WONDERFUL inspirations. My favorite thus far is for oatmeal. OK, well 2 favorites. I only have a picture of this morning's breakfast, though! It is SUPER simple.

Almond, Cherry, Banana Oatmeal

1 cup of quick cook oats cooked in water or almond milk
1 tsp of dried cherries
1 TB of almond butter (I used crunchy, this time)
1/3 of a banana, sliced

It was AWESOME! I've discovered almond butter in the past few months and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Oatmeal is my "thing," now. Since I've learned that I don't have to do the "prepackaged flavors," it has opened up a new world! I've even had oatmeal for my snacks or dinner. :) I can't stress enough how much I love it.

I've started training again for a half-marathon. I'm bound and determined to complete this, injury-free! :) I couldn't wait to start training so I ran a couple of times this weekend. I've been doing some Beach Body programs the past few months. I really enjoy them, but it's nothing like running trails! :) Fueling my body and runs right now is the foremost thing on my mind. Expect to see lots of food posts!!