I’m not ready for Thanksgiving to be over. Seasoned with sage and garlic, this healthy turkey cranberry hash uses riced cauliflower as the base with a bit of crunch from almonds and celery. This dish takes very little time to make and is great for meal prep!
Cauliflower is a staple food in my diet. It is awesomely versatile – on it’s own it has little taste, but readily absorbs other flavors while cooking. Just as importantly, it has an outstanding micronutrient profile with high a content of dietary fiber, Vitamin C, K, and folate.
Frozen riced cauliflower is sold at all major grocery stores, Target, and Costco. I keep a stock in my freezer for whipping up quick meals – all it takes is about 5 minutes in the microwave. If you have the time, you could also buy fresh cauliflower and rice it yourself.
Regarding the macros, I set up this recipe for 20 g of protein, 10 g of fat, and 13 g of carbs for a total of 220 Calories per serving. It is readily adjusted to your needs:
Increase/decrease protein by adding more or less turkey
Increase/decrease fats by modifying the amount of almonds
Increase/decrease carbs by modifying the amount of cranberries
All of the thanksgiving flavors, without the bread, sugar, and extra fats 🙂 This is healthy turkey-cranberry hash uses riced cauliflower as the base. Great for meal prep and makes great use of leftovers! Macros are adjustable to meet your needs.
Please let me know if you tried this recipe!
If you are looking for some help to manage your health and fitness through the holidays, and transition to healthier habits, please reach out.
Deliciously sweet baked apple stuffed with high protein oat vanilla maple filling. Amazing flavors with a fraction of the sugar and fat!
This is a great snack to get an apple pie a la mode flavor fix with lower calories, while also getting dose of protein. This beautiful treat is delicious direct from the oven or cold. These apples are also highly portable – I’ve been packing them in Tupperware this week as part of my meal prep to snack on after a workout. Half of one of these apples is only 150 Calories.
Honeycrisp apples were used here, but any variety will do. Size and type may impact the baking time; you want the apple to still be a bit firm after cooking.
Given the apple already has a relatively high amount of carbs, I used a minimum amount of rolled oats in the filling mixture – just enough for taste. Steel cut oats also work great if you prefer those.
For the fats I incorporated sunflower butter, however almond butter also works nicely. The addition of hemp hearts adds a delicate nutty flavor and some texture to the filling. Crushed toasted almonds or walnuts would be a great substitute if you don’t care for hemp hearts.
For protein, Trutein Vanilla was used. For the cinnamon, adjust the amount to your liking. After baking, the core is dense and cake-like. The additional filling placed on top of the apple makes it really decadent and its a great dip for the “lid”/top slice.
Given that apple has plenty of natural sugar, to keep the sugar lower I used Walden Farms sugar-free pancake syrup in the filling and also drizzled on top of the apple after baking. Traditional maple syrup or pancake syrup also works if you don’t like the taste of artificial sweeteners (however it will add additional calories).
Enjoy!
High protein baked apple with warm vanilla maple filling.
Give this recipe a try and let me know how it tastes!
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Friends don’t let friends eat nasty chicken! This is a fast, simple method to cook juicy chicken breasts – perfect for weekend meal prep.
Chicken breasts are a staple in my diet, so I make sure they taste good. They are high in protein, lean, and relatively flavor neutral so can be spiced up in almost any combination imaginable.
They are one of those foods that are super delicious when prepared well, but can also be a rubbery or dried out nightmare if not done right. I don’t like eating things that taste like tires, so I went on a mission to identify a fast, failsafe way to cook chicken tenderloins and breasts.
This chicken comes out MOIST, every time. The best part is that you don’t need to turn on the oven or stove…. it’s all about the George Foreman tabletop grill! Using a batch style process, you can cook 1-2 lbs of chicken breasts in less than 30 minutes. I like to use breast tenderloins as it saves me the step of butterflying whole breasts.
In this example, I use just salt and pepper for seasoning however you could use just about anything. I keep a supply of this chicken in the fridge and eat it throughout the week. I usually throw it on lettuce, toss on cooked vegetables, or put in soup. It also makes great chicken salad.
You Will Need:
1-2 lbs of chicken breast tenderloins, or butterflied chicken breasts, fridge temperature
Cutting board
1 extra large bowl
1 piece of aluminum foil
Tabletop grill, such as the George Foreman grill
Canola spray oil
Cracked black pepper and sea salt
Instructions
Lay out the chicken on the cutting board while the grill heats up
Add salt and pepper to the top side of the chicken
Chicken on the grill!
After 4 minutes of cooking
Place cooked chicken in bowl
Cover bowl with foil immediately
Before starting, ensure your chicken is not frozen. It should be cold, at refrigerator temperature. If you are using full size chicken breasts, butterfly them first.
Step 1: Plug in your tabletop grill and allow it to heat up. Do not spray any oil on the grill just yet.
Step 2: Take your chicken out of the fridge and lay out the pieces on a cutting board.
Step 3: Add salt and pepper on the top face of the chicken, amount to your liking.
Step 4: When your grill reaches temperature, lightly spray the top and bottom grill surface with oil.
Step 5: Place your chicken tenderloins, (salt and pepper side down), onto the grill. The size of my grill let’s me cook 6-7 tenderloins at a time.
Step 6: Sprinkle salt and pepper onto the top side of the chicken pieces, amount to your liking.
Step 7: Close the grill, cook for 4 minutes
Step 8: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Remove your chicken pieces from the grill and place them into the large bowl. Immediately cover the bowl with the aluminum foil.
Step 9: Set the bowl aside, and repeat the entire process again for your remaining chicken, making sure to transfer each batch to the bowl and re-covering with the foil immediately after.
NOTE: allow the entire covered bowl of chicken to come to room temperature on the countertop before transferring to a storage container and putting in the fridge. This resting time ensures the chicken stays juicy. Note that the bowl will contain some extra juices, which you can also dump into the storage container and use when you eat.
Enjoy and let me know if you tried out this method!
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This time of year is full of opportunity to devour decadent treats laced with butter, cinnamon, sugar, and pumpkin. I’m as basic as everyone else when it comes to pumpkin spiced EVERYTHING… and the seasonal cravings have officially kicked in.
It’s so easy to put on a few pounds over the holidays enjoying a myriad of goodies; this year I made a reasonable promise to myself that I would maintain weight by being more mindful so as not to have to start the new year losing the same five pounds AGAIN. One way I’m helping myself is to home bake treats that capture the fall flavors I’m craving but with lower sugar and fat. This prevents me raiding the seasonal bread and cookie section of Trader Joe’s. 🙂 So, I’m swapping pumpkin spice lattes and scones for these homemade high protein pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls and my absolute favorite – Zero Carbon Coffee Sumatra espresso.
This is a great healthy swap. I’ve made a comparison between these Pumpkin Spice Rolls and a Starbucks Pumpkin Scone. For the same amount of food (2 of these rolls versus one Starbucks Scone), you save just about 200 calories, more than half the carbs (a whopping 40g of sugar!), and 15 g of fat. Plus, you get an additional 22 g of protein to keep you full.
These rolls are not overly sweet. If you wanted to make them sweeter, you could add SF vanilla syrup to the icing, Swerve Brown sugar substitute, or more real brown sugar (adds cals).
Per Roll (6): 153 kcal, 14 g Carbs, 13 g Protein, 4g Fat
Per Roll (10): 97 kcal, 9g Carbs, 8g protein, 2.3g fat
Ingredients:
For the Dough:
90 g Kodiak Cake pancake mix
20g white flour
60 g fat free Greek yogurt
20 grams reduced fat margarine (I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter- Original)
40 g pumpkin puree
15 g brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
2 tbsp sugar-free vanilla syrup
1/4 tsp baking powder
For the Filling and Frosting:
70 g fat free Greek yogurt (I used Fage 0%)
60g Neufchatel Cheese
40 g Trutein Vanilla protein powder (order here) use code modus20 at checkout for 20% off
15 g brown sugar
4 tbsp sugar-free vanilla syrup
1.5″ Tall Rolls before frosting
3/4″ Tall Rolls before frosting
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F and place parchment paper onto a baking sheet.
For the dough: in a large bowl combine Kodiak cakes mix, flour, pumpkin spice, and baking powder. Stir until thoroughly blended.
In a separate small bowl, combine pumpkin puree, dough Greek yogurt, I Can’t Believe It’s not Butter, brown sugar and SF vanilla syrup. Blend thoroughly using a hand mixer.
Add wet mixture to dry mixture and blend thoroughly with a hand mixer. Dough will be a bit sticky, form it into a ball and set aside.
For the filling and frosting: in a separate small bowl, mix together Greek yogurt, Neufchatel cheese, protein powder, brown sugar, and sugar free vanilla syrup. Mix on high for 30 seconds until whipped. It will be very thick. Set bowl aside.
Lightly flour a cutting board and place your dough ball on it. Using your hands and a rolling pin, gently roll out the dough into a rectangle. Flip the dough over after every few passes and flour it as needed to keep it from sticking to the cutting board and the rolling pin.
After you have the dough flattened out to roughly (7.5″ x 8.5″). Cut into 6 equally sized horizontal strips for large rolls, or 10 for small.
Take your filling/frosting and apply a very thick coat to the top of each strip, then loosely roll up each strip. Use only 3/4 of the mixture, reserving the remainder for frosting after baking.
Place rolls onto parchment paper. 1.25″ rolls: bake for 18 minutes. Check them at about 16 minutes by sticking a toothpick into one of them. They are done cooking when the toothpick comes out clean. 0.75″ Rolls: bake for 15 minutes. Check them at about 14 minutes by sticking a toothpick into one of them. They are done cooking when the toothpick comes out clean.
Allow rolls to cool to room temperature, then place the remaining icing on top.
I hope you enjoy this recipe, let me know if you tried it out. It definitely helped with my pumpkin cravings.
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A simple Chinese stir fry-inspired dish packed with protein and veggies.
When my taste buds need a break from chicken and turkey breast, pork, and lean cuts of beef, I use opportunity to explore new recipes with other protein sources. This recipe uses Tofu (a complete protein and an excellent option for vegetarians and vegans) and collagen* as the main protein sources. If you are not a tofu fan, this dish would also work great with chicken or pork.
Firstly, the tofu. It’s important to use extra firm so it doesn’t fall apart during cooking. Typically a tofu stir-fry dish calls for fried tofu which is deep fried in soybean oil and triples the calories:
Instead, I “fake fried” the tofu in a pan with a light spray of canola oil to give the exterior a crisp texture. The end result is nicely browned cubes that aren’t greasy and are ready to absorb the glaze.
Before “frying”
After “Frying”
For the glaze: A common way to thicken a glaze or sauce is to add corn starch. Rather than corn starch (carbohydrate), I instead used collagen protein which provides the same result but instead adds additional protein. It’s a great substitution; collagen is flavorless and readily absorbs into water. It seamlessly mixes with the other ingredients in the glaze.
Hoisin sauce and chilli sauce can be purchased at all major grocery stores, although it is usually less expensive at the Asian grocery stores. You can adjust the level of heat by adding more or less chili sauce. The recipe keeps it mild, I usually add more as I eat it.
Chinese eggplant and the peppers.
Finally, a note about the veggies. I used Chinese eggplant because it contains slightly less water than the more commonly found large ones to reduce the risk of over-steaming and sogginess. Eggplant is a high fiber food and contains some great micronutrients. It also happens to be an amazing sponge for flavors, win-win! For the peppers, you can use any color – I just happened to have a red and orange in the fridge. Green would change the flavor a bit, but not in a bad way.
Sweet and Spicy Tofu Eggplant
Makes: 4 servings
Per Serving: 256 kcal, 26g Carbs, 20g Protein, 8g Fat
Ingredients:
2 Chinese eggplant, chopped into bite sized pieces
2 bell peppers (any color), chopped into bite sized pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
425 g (15 oz) extra firm tofu
40 g collagen protein
60g (3 tbsp) hoisin Sauce
30 g chili paste
3 tbsp water
6-8 mists of canola oil spray
Instructions:
Cut tofu up into approx. 3/4″ cubes
Mist large skillet or pan (flat bottom) with canola oil spray and place in the tofu cubes.
Turn heat to medium-high and allow the tofu to cook for 6-7 minutes, or until the bottom side turns golden brown. Flip the cubes and repeat the heating process until all sides are golden. Remove tofu from pan and set aside.
In a small bowl, thoroughly stir together hoisin sauce, chili paste, water, minced garlic, and collagen powder to form the glaze. Set aside.
Lightly spray the skillet again and add the chopped veggies. Heat on medium high for 12-14 minutes, or until veggies are tender and you see the eggplant turn slightly translucent. Stir up the veggies every minute or so to ensure even cooking. Try not to let the pieces stack on top of one another to ensure that they all cook through. Here is what they should look like after cooking:
Turn heat to low. Add tofu back to the pan then add the glaze. Gently fold all ingredients together until the glaze coats all of the pieces.
I enjoy coming up with new recipes for myself and to meet my client’s needs. Please let me know if you’ve given this a try!
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* Meats, whey, casein, and egg protein are excellent complete protein sources. A complete protein source must contain all nine of the essential amino acids – the amino acids that or bodies can’t produce on their own and we must get from our diets. Soy and hemp are also complete if you are looking for plant-derived alternatives.
However, collagen is an incomplete protein- it lacks one of the nine essential amino acids (tryptophan). Further, its amino acid profile is skewed towards glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline which is not ideal if you are looking to sustain and grow more muscle. If your diet is primarily based on the complete sources mentioned above, there is no harm incorporating collagen into your diet…..it will help strengthen your nails, hair, skin, and joints.
Refreshing and packed with protein, healthy carbs, and micronutrients, this bowl has a deep berry flavor.
I see tons of amazing smoothie bowl pictures on Instagram, but they seem very calorie dense. Along with a juice concentrate base and more fruit on top, they are usually loaded with granola, heaps of nut butter, and chocolate. Great for tasty-looking pictures, not so great if you are looking for a treat that is in line with your protein goal and being mindful of overall calories. In contrast, this bowl is a high protein alternative, gets you a nice serving of veggies and fiber, and keeps additional carbs and fats as optional toppings. I love this as an after workout meal.
These spring rolls are an awesome treat and store very well in the fridge – great for meal prep and eating throughout the week. I make these when I know I’m going to be very busy. I love them because they don’t require a microwave, are super portable for on-the-go eating, have a nice variety of textures and flavors, and have great fiber content from the veggies.
The best reason to give these a try is that they highly macro adjustable. If you want more protein in a certain meal, load in more chicken and/or tofu and reduce carbs by eliminating the rice noodles. Here are two examples with similar calories but adjusted protein and carbs.
I’m huge on habit formation. Preparing these rolls together with your family is a great opportunity to create a social experience and reinforce healthy dinners. You can make them assembly line style as a team. 🙂
For these spring rolls, you will need:
Rice paper wrappers and rice noodles (can be found at most regular supermarkets, I got these at the local Vietnamese grocery store)
Cooked chicken breast, cut into thin slices
Bean Curd (firm tofu) – cut into thin slices
Thin sliced carrots and cucumber
Romaine lettuce (other types work too) cut into strips
Cook the chicken breast in a pan and season with salt and pepper, then cook the rice noodles as directed (they cook super fast). Next, cut up the carrots, cucumber, lettuce,chicken and tofu into strips.
After all the fillers are prepped, fill a pan larger than the wrapper with warm water, then take one wrapper and soak for 5 longish seconds. Wrapping tightly takes a bit of practice, but the rice wrappers overall are surprisingly forgiving. Lay the soaked wrapper on a cutting board and lay in your desired fillings in a strip in the middle. Leave a bit of space at the bottom of the wrapper for folding. Fold up the bottom first. Then start rolling from one end, slightly packing the filling as you go so it doesn’t squish out or create too loose a roll. Keep rolling all the way to the other side; the stickiness of the wrapper will adhere it to itself, creating a nice seal.
If I’m watching calories closely, I use sriracha or chili sauce (minimal to zero calories) for a dip. For a Thai flavor, a low cal option is to mix peanut butter powder such as PB2 with some chilli sauce and water, with a small pinch of ground ginger to taste.
After you try them, let me know what you think! I’ll be posting more adjustable macro recipes soon.
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