Tag Archives: Recipe

Sugarfree Zevia Protein Muffins, with beets! (and other options)

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As promised, here is a fun Zevia muffin or bread recipe from www.zevia.com! The original recipe on their website used Cola, but since I prefer Dr. Zevia, that’s what I used.  Adding the cola to the ingredients makes a fizzy “concoction” in your mixing bowl, that my 8 year old son thought was WONDERFUL! The recipe suggests opening the soda early, so it’s not so fizzy, but all that fizzy action was the fun part for us!:) We had a great time making this. Go to the link above for the ingredients and directions, and here are my suggestions and what I used:

I prefer to make grain-free recipes if possible, so I used almond meal that I buy at Trader Joes. Almond flour or another gluten free flour may have given it a slightly better texture, but they were still good with almond meal.

I did not have enough protein powder at the time, and they still turned out fine. I used a stevia-sweetened vanilla whey powder.

We made both bread and muffins, and I think the muffins turned out slightly better. Only, don’t use cheap paper baking cups like I did, because they stuck to the bread, which ashamedly, did NOT prevent us from eating every bite (yes, we scraped the paper to get every last bite, I admit it.)

BEST PART: I had an organic beet I wanted to use up, and since the recipe offered that as an ingredient option, I said “heck yeah, we’re usin that beet!”

Well, that’s what makes this the perfect Halloween baking experiment for all of you mad scientists out there! It turned the ingredients a beautiful dark red, (like blood, Halloween, get it?) and when we added the fizzy soda, it was a bubbling cauldron of bloody red goo (insert evil laugh here)! Look at all that awesomeness below!

Now, that bloody red color changes as it bakes (unfortunately), but it was fun while it lasted! So, here’s my full confession: while the beet made it super fun and a really cool color, it wasn’t sweet enough, so I would suggest using the applesauce or banana OR you could add frosting like I did in the picture below! (it was stevia sweetened cream cheese frosting). If you don’t have ingredients (or time) for frosting, you could always add honey on top instead. I especially love www.cloisturehoney.com ‘s whipped cinnamon honey! O MY Amazing!

My last bit of advice would be to make sure you chop/process your beets small enough, if that’s what you use for this. I left a few chunks, and it wasn’t my most favorite bite when I found them:) If you are a huge beet lover, then by all means, leave the beets chunky!

I loved the way this recipe offered so many options, so it has the potential to taste many different ways, depending on what you use. Chocolate chips and pecans would be a nice addition, if that works for your family. If you try this, I hope you have as much fun as we did making it! And please let me know how it turns out, since there are so many varieties possible! Happy Halloween! Enjoy!

Please go to this post  to enter the GiveAway for FREE Zevia! They generously offered TWO free 6packs to the winner, so you can drink some and cook with some! Check out the Zevia website for all kinds of recipes for no sugar foods and drinks.

Encouraging Health,

Organic Eater

Blender Pancakes

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Taste is Trump.: GAPS Blender Pancakes.

I made these this morning, like many weekend mornings in the last few months. They are awesome. They’re my favorite grain free pancake recipe because it all goes in the blender, then I pour the batter from the blender. Couldn’t be easier. Seems like I’m all about sharing the “easy” recipes with you guys:) I guess that’s because it’s GOT to be easy for me to like it! And because one of my goals here at OE is to encourage everyone that cooking healthy food is not difficult!

I use her exact recipe, so go to the link and print it. Notice her disclaimer that a regular blender MAY not work on almonds. I used my Blendtec. Here are my other tips:

1. you don’t HAVE to soak your almonds. I have used soaked raw almonds and I have used raw almonds out of the bag. Didn’t seem to make a difference. Her blog should have more info as to why you do want to soak them for better nutrition,  if you plan ahead well enough. That’s not usually me.

2. keep the heat on medium,  the butter can scorch easily. Use grass-fed butter if you can, or organic. At the least, use real butter rather than a processed oil fake butter tub of gross. (hey Dana, why don’t you tell us what you really think of imitation butter!!??!) IF you need convincing on using grass-fed butter see this page. If you are vegan, well, I just remembered this recipe has yogurt in it, so I suppose you won’t be making this one anyway…. Oh! Wait! There is almond milk yogurt now. And you can use the coconut oil to fry them instead of butter. Oh, you’re all set!   Update: I forgot about the eggs since the recipe wasn’t right in front of me:).  Vegetarians would eat these, but vegans won’t. Sorry, I tried.

3. the batter will thicken as it sits. The first batch may be a bit thin but they will still taste great, don’t worry. After the batter gets thicker you may need to do this: after you pour a “blob” of batter onto the pan, take a spoon and spread it out a little. If you leave them too thick, they won’t cook properly.

4. I like to add some almond extract if I have it.

5. To make these an extra special treat, you can add chocolate chips, but don’t blend them. Add at the end. Same for blueberries or other fruit that is in season. We used blueberries today and they were heavenly.

6. Use REAL maple syrup, (grade B is more nutritious) not the fake stuff. I’m sure Aunt Jemima was a wonderful person, but she makes some crappy syrup (Hey Dana, why don’t you tell us what you really think about fake syrup?!!?). It makes no sense to go to the trouble of making these awesome pancakes and then top them with high fructose corn syrup. You simply defile these healthy pancakes by doing so. Do not defile the pancakes.

7. I also added  a few pecan pieces on top of my blueberry pancakes today. Brilliant.

8. this recipe makes enough for my hungry family of 4, with plenty of left overs, which we love.

9. In her recipe she also tells us that if you leave out the sweetener and vanilla, these can be used like pieces of “bread” to make pizzas or sandwiches. I can’t wait to try that!

REMINDER: chocolate chips and maple syrup are not on the Maximized Living “Advanced Plan”. They are a rare treat after weight goals have been attained, or if you’re a healthy kid who gets pancakes on Sundays like mine do! We eat healthy breakfasts all the other days, but Sundays are always a treat breakfast because it’s our favorite day of the week!

Enjoy! We surely did! In fact, hubs had all the leftovers for dinner tonight!:)

Encouraging Health,

Organic Eater

Smoothie pics & basics

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Smoothie Ingredients

Some of the awesome stuff I put in my organic smoothies!

I also have a link for you at one of my favorite blogs, Crunchy Betty. She is so funny and entertaining (when not covering a serious topic), and she has a great post about green smoothies there. Her post includes how green smoothies benefit your skin! I would definitely agree with that! I’m sure I will link to her site often, since she has tons of great recipes for homemade beauty and cleaning products.

Green Smoothie

Even “green smoothies” aren’t always green, but this one sure is! What you throw in the blender can make a big difference in what color results. For example, blueberries always change the color.

greens (swiss chard)

This is the main ingredient of a green smoothie, greens! Either “real” or powder form. This is the main source of the healthy goodness in a green smoothie. This particular green is Swiss Chard and it has a very mild flavor (easily hidden). Spinach seems to be the #1 easiest one to hide. If you’re a newbie, start with spinach.

I will post smoothie “recipes” (it seems strange to even call them that because it’s just a bunch of stuff in a blender:) under my Recipes Page. For now, the basics for what you need are listed in the “comments” (see comment balloon at top of post, from ME to ANGELA). Let me know if you have questions on this before I can get those recipes posted where they belong.

Encouraging health,
Organic Eater
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