Breakfast & Brunch

Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple Coconut Butter Drizzle {Pegan-Paleo-Grain Free}

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Pumpkin pancakes

These fluffy and flavorful pumpkin pancakes are made even more delicious topped with a maple coconut butter drizzle. They are grain-free, pegan and paleo friendly, and of course healthy!

What is your go-to breakfast? My weekdays usually begin with an fried egg or two and sliced avocado, but by the time Saturday rolls around I am ready for somethin’ a little different… Something a little indulgent, sweet and celebratory. Enter- Pumpkin Pancakes (which happen to be delicious and grain free). Yes please!!

I have began a journey into a grain free diet, not due to any specific food allergies, but to improve my overall health. I have always loved all things gluten- fresh bread, pasta, fluffy cupcakes, cookies (…I can go on and on..)but when I eat them I can easily over indulge and I find myself feeling hungry not too long after my last bite. I want to enjoy my food but also have it nourish my body, be balanced with protein, healthy fats, and be nutrient dense.

These fluffy babies are made with coconut flour, which is tricky to cook and bake with, but I am slowly figuring it out and have had some recent success. I am so happy to share them with you today! I hope they make your weekend as special as they do mine!

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Pumpkin Pancakes Collage

Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple Coconut Butter Drizzle {Pegan-Paleo-Grain Free}

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup cashew milk
  • 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • dash of Himalayan salt (or celtic sea salt)
  • butter or coconut oil to grease the pan

Drizzle:

  • 3 tablespoons coconut butter
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl- coconut flour, salt, baking soda, spice, and mix.
  2. Add the wet ingredients- eggs, pumpkin, maple syrup, vanilla, and mix into the dry ingredients until smooth.
  3. Let the batter sit 5 minutes to thicken up (should be slightly thicker than regular pancake batter).
  4. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add butter or coconut oil.
  5. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the skillet and cook until bubbles form throughout the pancake, then carefully flip an cook for an additional minute, or until golden brown.
  6. Repeat with remaining batter.
  7. Note- You may need to lower the temperature to medium low (and cook a bit longer) if the first side is getting to dark before the pancake is flippable.
  8. To make the drizzle melt the coconut butter and mix in the maple syrup, pour over pancakes.

Southwest Scramble Lettuce Wraps {Healthy, Gluten Free, Paleo}

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Mexican Breakfast Scramble Lettuce Wraps

Healthy, packed with protein and tons of flavor, these Southwest Scramble Lettuce Wraps will get your day off to a great  start! and you can whip them up in under 10 minutes! am a big fan of lettuce wraps- it’s like eating a taco but without the carbs. Do you love breakfast tacos? I certainly do- having lived in the breakfast taco capital of the world- Austin, TX! I’ve tried all types- chorizo, eggs and cheese, avocado and black bean, steak and eggs, and on and on. I always top them off generously with hot sauce and salsa , so much that I would sometimes turn bright red! I must confess I am officially addicted to sriracha!

I wanted to make a healthy alternative to the breakfast taco- so I removed the tortilla and added a fresh crispy romaine lettuce leaf! These lettuce wraps are so flavorful they don’t need any cheese but you are more than welcome to toss some shredded cheddar or monterey in there if you wish. Nothing is off limits:)

Mexican Breakfast Scramble Lettuce Wrap

Another added bonus- you can whip these up in under 10 minutes, making them perfect for a busy weekday morning, or weekend. It is so important to have a healthy, well balanced breakfast with plenty of protein so you fire up your metabolism for the day. When you eat a high protein breakfast, you will eat less throughout the day and have more energy to power through at work or chasing after your wild and crazy little ones! That is why breakfast is truly the most important meal of the day!

I use palm fruit oil in my skillet when I cook eggs for its health benefits (antioxidant rich, vitamin E..) and high smoke point. For more info on palm oil, and why I use it click HERE.

If you’d like to order organic red palm oil, click HERE, to shop my pantry!

Mexican Scramble Lettuce Wraps Collage

Southwest Scramble Lettuce Wraps {Healthy, Gluten Free, Paleo}

Healthy, gluten free and Paleo, these easy and quick Southwest Scramble Lettuce Wraps are stuffed with scrambled eggs, black beans, peppers and onions, and topped with hot sauce and fresh cilantro!

  • 5 large eggs
  • ¼ cup red and green peppers (chopped)
  • ¼ cup red onion (chopped)
  • ½ tablespoon of palm oil
  • ½ cup black beans (drained and rinsed)
  • 4 large romaine lettuce leaves
  • dash salt and pepper
  • dash cumin (optional)
  • 1/4 cup avocado (chopped)
  • 2 teaspoons sriracha or hot sauce
  • 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
  1. Melt oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
  2. Add chopped onions and peppers and stir for a few minutes until softened.
  3. Scramble the eggs in a bowl with a dash of salt and pepper, you can also add dash of cumin.
  4. Pour the eggs in the skillet and scramble them with the onions and peppers.
  5. Once the eggs are almost fully cooked, add the beans, and stir until the eggs are cooked completely. then remove from heat.
  6. Lay the lettuce leave facing up to make a “bowl”, add scramble mixture, top with avocado, hot sauce and cilantro and serve!

Cookie Dough Stuffed Pancakes {Indulgent & Healthy!} {Gluten-Free&Grain-Free Option}

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ChocolateChip Cookie Butter Pancakes Better1

Do you like eating raw cookie dough? I certainly do. In fact, I think I enjoy it more than the baked cookies! I also love sweets for breakfast, especially on a lazy weekend morning! My go to weekend breakfast is pancakes (not cookies, usually!) with sweet sticky syrup, but I often feel hungry about an hour after I finish my stack. Does that happen to you as well!? Well there is a reason for that- your everyday pancakes are make with empty white carbs leaving you with a brief carbohydrate and sugar rush, but no sustained energy. There really isn’t much in the way of nutrition in a stack of pancakes!

So I am here to save the day! I will let you have your pancakes, and eat them too, (with no guilt and sustained energy!)!!! AND I make them even better by stuffing them with cookie dough-yummy!

Light and fluffy, these grain-free and gluten-free pancakes taste just like the real deal. Then I stuff the pancakes with a nut butter-based cookie dough to give you a healthy dose of protein and healthy fats. Voila- dessert worthy, HEALTHY, WELL-BALANCED cookie dough pancakes!

Also the trick to making the “stuffing” part very easy is thanks to Nagi at RecipeTin Eats. She has a recipe for Nutella Stuffed Pancakes where she freezes the nutella to make it a much less messy endeavor!

These are my fav weekend no-guilt indulgence, and I think they will be yours too!

Why do I use coconut oil and coconut sugar in most of my recipes? Find out why HERE.

You can also purchase the brands I use and view other products I love and recommend HERE.

Here are the basic steps to stuff your pancakes:

1. Combine your dry ingredients. Make a well in the middle and add wet ingredients. Mix, but do not over mix!

ChocolateChip Cookie Butter Pancakes1

2. Smear the cookie dough on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and stick in the freezer.

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3. Once the pancake is cooked most of the way through, add your frozen cookie dough disk, cover with pancake batter, and flip!ChocolateChip Cookie Butter Pancakes3

AND if you like these you will also love my CARAMELIZED SUGAR WAFFLES! Check them out too!

Sugared Waffles3

Cookie Dough Stuffed Pancakes {Indulgent & Healthy!}

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Stuffed pancakes that are so indulgent you’ll never know they are healthy! Also includes a bonus gluten free recipe option!

PANCAKES:

  • ⅔ cup almond flour
  • 2 tablespoons arrowroot flour
  • 2 tablespoons tapioca flour
  • 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 pasture-rasied eggs
  • ¼ cup cashew milk (or almond milk)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil (melted)
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • dash of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of grass-fed butter (ghee or oil of choice for pan)

COOKIE DOUGH MIDDLE:

  • ½ cup of natural cashew butter or almond butter
  • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2-3 teaspoons coconut sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 ½ tablespoons of dark chocolate chips (Enjoy Life Brand, chopped)
  1. Combine the nut butter, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, and chopped chocolate chips, and mix well. You may need to soften the nut butter slightly (microwave a few seconds) depending on the consistency. Or if your nut butter is particularly thick you can add a little melted coconut oil as well.
  2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
  3. Smear 1 tablespoon of cookie dough with a spoon, making a flat disk. You should have about 8.
  4. Place in the freezer to set while you make the batter!

  5. To make the pancakes whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.

  6. Make a well in the center and add egg, luke warm almond milk, and melted coconut oil.
  7. Wisk all the ingredients together, it may be thick and a little clumpy, which is fine, but do not over mix the batter.
  8. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, and add a touch of coconut oil (or coconut oil spray).
  9. Remove cookie dough disks from the freezer and remove them from the parchment paper.
  10. Laddle pancake batter in the skillet (turn temp down to medium- no oil smoking!).
  11. Allow pancake to set and you will see bubbles rising and the pancake with cook through (no wet batter). (*or for the lazy version make two pancakes and layer the cookie dough in between-it will melt between the pancakes, they just will not be officially “stuffed.”)
  12. Check the bottom of the pancake to make sure it is not burning, if so, turn temp down.
  13. Once there is no runny batter on the top, place a cookie dough disk on top and laddle just enough pancake batter to cover the disk, then flip pancake and finish cooking.
  14. If you pancakes are too thick and not cooking through, dilute the batter further with additional almond milk.
  15. Should make about 8 pancakes.

Pineapple Rise & Shine Smoothie Bowl

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Pineapple Smoothie Bowl1

When I think of summertime I think of laying in the sun at the beach, windows rolled down in the car, the smell of flowers and fresh cut grass, and fresh tropical fruit- like watermelon and PINEAPPLE! I love fresh fruit- how sweet and juicy it is when it’s in season, and it’s so good for you too! Pineapple is packed with vitamin C, manganese, thiamin (vitamin b-1), and bromelain which aids in digestion of protein.

For more information on the health benefits of pineapple click HERE. HealthAmbition.com has an excellent article about pineapple’s health benefits and you can read that HERE.

I love to freeze fresh pineapple chunks to use in smoothies during the hot summer months. The result from using fresh frozen fruit to replace much of the ice is a more flavorful, less icey, more smooth, smoothie!

I made this smoothie extra thick, so you can eat it with a spoon and it feels more like a meal than a drink.

Everyone in your family, kids included with love this smoothie! It tastes much like the Pina Colada Julius from Orange Julius- creamy, smooth and sweet, but made with healthy and simple ingredients!

Pinapple Smoothie Bowl2

Pineapple Smoothie Collage

Pineapple Rise & Shine Smoothie Bowl

Healthy pineapple smoothie bowl- vegan, gluten free, paleo

  • ¾ cup frozen pineapple chunks
  • ¼ cup pineapple juice (you can reserve this much juice when cutting up your pineapple or use canned pineapple juice)
  • 1/2 cup of almond milk
  • ¼ cup of full fat coconut milk (the canned kind)
  • 5 + ice cubes
  • a few drops of stevia or maple syrup if needed for sweetness
  • optional- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (whey, or soy/veggie-based, chia, hemp, coconut flakes on top)
  1. Blend all the ingredients in a high speed blender. I use my Vitamix. It has a super high powered motor that blends thick smoothies exceptionally well!

Sweet Potato Fry Breakfast Skillet with Avocado Mash

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Egg & Sweet Potato Fries Skillet

 

I have a confession to make…… I sometimes go to that place, you know, the one with the Golden Arches….. It’s only for breakfast (unless I have a french fry craving!) and I always order an egg mcmuffin and a hash brown. Then what I do next may shock some of you- I put the hash brown IN my egg sandwich! If you haven’t discovered the amazingness of hashbrowns in your eggs you are missing out!

This breakfast skillet is a healthy take off from the  hashbrown egg sandwich.  There is no cheese, no super greasy fried white potato hashbrown, and no bread. This skillet is loaded with sweet potato fries, eggs, avocado mash and hot sauce. It’s super easy to make too!

I use palm oil to fry up my eggs often. I love the taste, and it has a higher smoke point than many other oils, as well as having many healthy attributes. You can read more about palm oil HERE.

Egg and Sweet Potato Skillet Collage

Sweet Potato Fry Breakfast Skillet with Avocado Mash

  • 2 eggs (I use pasture-raised organic eggs- taste the best and the best for you!)
  • 6 or more sweet potato fries (pre-made, or see below)
  • 1 tablespoon palm oil (or olive oil or butter)
  • ½ avocado
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro (chopped)
  • salt and pepper
  • ½ tablespoon hot sauce
  1. Heat your cast iron skillet (I have a personal-sized one that works perfect, but a large one is fine too) over medium heat.
  2. Add the palm oil and distribute it evenly over the pan.
  3. Place your sweet potato fries in the skillet (I just use frozen organic sweet potato fries, but you can just cut up a sweet potato, add a little oil and salt and pepper to make your own- just make sure they get crispy before you crack the eggs.)
  4. Place foil over the top of the skillet to trap some heat and flip the fries occasionally. You may need to increase the heat once they are soft to get them to crisp.
  5. Once they are crispy and brown on the edges crack the eggs over top of the fries and place the foil (or lid) back on top to make sure the top of the eggs cook as well.
  6. Once they are done to your liking, remove from heat.
  7. Mash the avocado and chopped cilantro with a fork and add a dash of salt and pepper.
  8. Top the egg skillet with avocado mash and hot sauce.

 

Birthday Cake Protein Shake {Healthy, Dairy-Free, Paleo}

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This creamy, sweet, and fun Birthday Cake Protein Shake will fuel your morning! Best yet, it's HEALTHY but you'll never know because it tastes just like DESSERT! There is a trick to getting the thick and creamy consistency but there is NO DAIRY!

This dessert-like Birthday Cake Protein Shake is secretly good for you! It happens to be dairy-free and paleo too!

Coldstone Creamery introduced me to CAKE BATTER ICE CREAM, and my life was forever changed! Pre-cake batter ice cream I’d opt for mint chocolate chip or chocolate chocolate chip, but the cake batter flavor has officially made me leave the world of chocolate ice cream behind, and never look back!

Knowing it wouldn’t be a great idea to indulge in cake batter ice cream on a daily basis, I have tried to create the flavor in a variety of healthy ways. I am so happy to say that this thick Birthday Cake Protein Shake is a pretty excellent healthy reproduction of the flavor and festiveness of the original! With two scoops of vanilla whey protein (from grass-fed cattle preferably) this shake has over 20 grams of protein, leaving you full, energized, and satisfied! After you suck this shake down, you may be leaving your chocolate shakes behind as well 🙂

This creamy, sweet, and fun Birthday Cake Protein Shake will fuel your morning! Best yet, it's HEALTHY but you'll never know because it tastes just like DESSERT! There is a trick to getting the thick and creamy consistency but there is NO DAIRY!

**The Birthday Cake Protein Shake has been featured on the Huffington Post! You can see the article HERE!

And if you like this shake you will also love this Cotton Candy Blizzard!!:

Cotton Candy Blizzard3

Birthday Cake Protein Shake

A birthday cake flavored protein shake made from wholesome and healthy ingredients

  • 1 cup of frozen organic banana (chopped into small pieces prior to freezing)
  • ¼-½ cup vanilla almond milk (adjust amount depending on desired thickness)
  • 2 scoops of vanilla whey protein or vegan or paleo protein of choice (no sugar)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 few drops of almond extract
  • 1 teaspoon of maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon sprinkles (optional- but always fun)
  1. Mix all the ingredients in a high speed blender, or food processor, adding more almond milk as neccessary.
Protein Shake

This creamy, sweet, and fun Birthday Cake Protein Shake will fuel your morning! Best yet, it's HEALTHY but you'll never know because it tastes just like DESSERT! There is a trick to getting the thick and creamy consistency but there is NO DAIRY!This creamy, sweet, and fun Birthday Cake Protein Shake will fuel your morning! Best yet, it's HEALTHY but you'll never know because it tastes just like DESSERT! There is a trick to getting the thick and creamy consistency but there is NO DAIRY!