Sweet Potato Zucchini Muffins – Makes 12
Dry Ingredients: Wet Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour ½ cup honey
1 cup white whole wheat flour ½ cup brown sugar (or agave nectar)
3 tablespoons cinnamon ¼ cup safflower oil (or canola oil, or olive oil)
1 teaspoon baking soda ½ cup applesauce, no sugar added
¼ teaspoon baking powder 3 eggs
2 scoops vanilla protein powder 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoon flax
¼ teaspoon salt Approx: 1½ cup grated zucchini (Basically 2 medium zucchinis)
Approx: 1½ cup peeled and grated sweet potato (Basically
2 small sweet potatoes)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease muffin tin.
2. Sift dry ingredients together in large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, beat wet ingredients until combined.
4. Mix grated potato and zucchini into wet ingredients.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet and fold to combine. Be sure you don’t stir too much! Otherwise your muffins won’t be fluffy!
6. Fill muffin pan. Bake 20-25 minutes. (Until toothpick comes out clean.)
*Sometimes I’lll cut down even more on the sugar, and after I pour the batter in the pan, put
a little swirl of honey on the top. Mmm… Muffin tops…
Delicious Potsticker Dumplings
1/2 head of Napa cabbage
1 tablespoon salt
1 pound fresh ground pork (or you can even substitute with ground turkey!)
1 bunch green onion, chopped
1/4 cups soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons ground pepper
2 eggs, beaten
2 packets round dumpling wrappers (most brands have 30-45 wrappers per package)
vegetable oil, if you’re going to fry them!
Directions:
1.Cut Napa cabbage into thin strips (cut crosswise). Toss in a large bowl with salt and let sit for 5 minutes. Wring out water from cabbage and dump the remaining water.
2.Combine in a large bowl: cabbage, ground meat, green onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper, and eggs. Mix and mash ingredients together with your clean hands.
3.Now you’re ready to make your dumplings! Set up your dumpling wrappers, a small bowl of water, and lightly flour a cookie sheet or try to place the finished dumplings. Place a small spoonful of filling in the center of each wrapper. Using your fingertip, trace the outside edge of each wrapper with water. Fold the wrapper into a half-circle and pinch the edges together to seal the filling inside. Place on your tray, and start on your next dumpling!
4.Heat a skillet on high until very hot. Add enough oil to coat bottom and sides. Place dumplings in a single layer to line the skillet. Take a step back as you pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the skillet and let the dumplings sit in about a ½” of water.
5.Cover and cook until the water is absorbed. To get the dumplings out, remove the lid, and replace with a plate as a cover. Turn the skillet upside down (careful, it’s hot!), and scrape the dumplings out with a spatula.
Homemade Energy Bars
3-1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup light syrup
2 scoops (each scoop is about 4 tbsp.) protein powder – I used vanilla flavored; any flavor will work
1-1/2 cups nonfat dry milk
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 egg whites
1/4 cup juice – I use orange/banana/pineapple juice; orange juice is fine
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped dates (you can use dried cranberries, raisins, and chopped nuts, if you prefer)
1-1/2 bananas, mashed
Directions:
1. Thoroughly mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Mix all wet ingredients in another bowl
3. Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix together thoroughly
4.Put spoonfuls on the waxed paper (or just use non-stick spray on cookie sheets if you prefer) and form into bars (I use a plain table knife for doing this.) Spreading the spoonfuls out a bit as you put them on the paper makes this much easier.
5. Bake at 325°F for approximately 15 minutes or until the bottoms of your bars are golden brown
When they’re done, take them out of the oven and let them cool. (NOTE: the bars will be a bit soft when you remove them from the oven; when they cool they’ll firm up.)
