Month: January 2016

Low Carb Protein Waffles

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IMG_1831After a post-christmas catch up with one of my best friends, I learned that she had been given a waffle maker for Christmas! I couldn’t resist organising a waffle making date to try out something new. Anyone who doesn’t have a waffle maker…firstly buy one (like I am going to) or you can use this recipe to make a stack of low carb pancakes.

These were utterly delicious. I topped mine with total 0% fat free greek yoghurt, a handful of blueberries, sprinkle of freeze dried raspberries, and flaked almonds. I finished the waffles with The protein works zero syrup in dark chocolate flavour. Because they are so low carb I could get away with one even on a low carb day!

Ingredients

  • 60g Almond Flour
  • 60g Vanilla whey protein powder
  • 2 tsp Baking powder
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tbsp Egg white (equivalent to the white of one large egg)
  • 1/2 tsp Stevia
  • 50ml Almond milk

Method 

  1. Heat up your waffle iron, or pancake pan if using the recipe for pancakes.
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
  3. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture, and crack in the egg, add egg white and stir in.
  4. Slowly add milk a bit at a time, for the waffles you may not need the whole 50ml as the texture of waffles is usually a bit thicker than pancakes.
  5. Pour mix into the waffle maker or make pancakes.

MACROS per waffle: 116kcal/ 6.6g Fat/ 3.2g Carbs/11.7g Protein

My Top 10 Low Carb Saviours

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IMG_1563I wanted to do a little post outlining some of my real life savers when it comes to low carb dieting. I am currently carb cycling, so have had to figure out meals and snacks that I can incorporate into my diet on the trickier to manage low carb days.

So heres my top 10

1. Josephs Pita Bread

These have appeared all over my instagram, the small pita breads which I order contain under 7g of carbs each, meaning I can easily have 2 for lunch. I use them stuffed with scrambled egg for breakfast at the weekend, I fill them with chicken for lunch, and they even make a great low carb alternative to a burger bun.

2. Rice Cakes

I buy Kallo Organic Lightly salted wholegrain low fat rice cakes. These are a decent size and with only 6g of carbs they are great with a bit of peanut butter, or marmite for a handy snack.

3. Eggs 

Eggs are AMAZING on a low carb diet. Eggs have under 1g of carbohydrate per egg on average. Omelettes turn a bunch of vegetables into a hearty meal, a poached egg will fill out your dinner plate and is delicious ontop of Quinoa. Boiled eggs sliced up on a rice cake make a fantastic snack, and scrambled in a josephs pita make a great weekend breakfast.

4. Bare Naked Noodles

These things are like magic. 0.1g carbohydrate per 100g of noodles is utterly bizarre. These noodles are delicious, super filling, and make a fantastic stir fry or alternative to pasta.

5. Fage Total 0% Greek yoghurt

With 4g of carbohydrate per 100g this yoghurt is a breakfast life saver, topping my protein pancakes with it, or having it on its own with zero syrups for flavour is just fantastic, I even mix in my favourite protein powder to make breakfast more exciting and protein packed.

6. Josephs Wholewheat Torilla wraps

These wraps contain 10.63g carbs per wrap, and one really is enough to complete a meal. Fantastic for lunch with chicken and avocado for a healthy easy to make meal. For a bigger dinner I have a couple of wraps, use fage total 0% greek yoghurt to replace sour cream, and make healthy home made fajitas.

7. Courgetti 

With only 2g carbohydrate per 100g you can easily use courgettes to make a meal feel more satisfying. You can pick up a spiraliser for around £15-£25 and that is one kitchen gadget that wont sit around gathering dust. If I can afford the carbs I will have half courgetti half wholewheat spaghetti, and if not Courgetti alone makes a truly satisfying stir-fry.

8. Quest Bars

The holy grail of the protein bar. The flavours are fantastic, and with between 3-4g net carbs, the rest of the carbs coming from fibre, they make a welcome treat. My top tip is to pop it on a plate or bit of kitchen towel and microwave for 10-15 seconds just until the centre of the bar starts growing.

9. Sugar-free Jelly 

I buy Hartleys Sugar free jelly in sachets, and make up either one big bowl or I have my own mini pots. You can buy it ready in pots but that is slightly more expensive. Make sure you get the sugar free version. This is the best snack when your struggling for something sweet, less than 10kcal per portion, and under 0.5g carbs.

10. Ezekial Bread

This bread is harder to find, but can be bought on Muscle food. Its a whole grain bread with 15g carbs per slice. Higher than the josephs pita breads, but really tastes like a proper satisfying slice of bread. You couldn’t even tell that it had zero sat fat and was high fibre.

Chocolate Orange Berry Brownies

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IMG_1111So sat at home the other evening, both my boyfriend and best friend started on the ‘bake me something’ tirade. I call it a tirade but it doesn’t take much persuasion to get me in the kitchen trying out a new idea. Sometimes these things I throw together don’t work so well, and other times possibly they work too well…remember to only have the one!

My best friend is allergic to nuts and coconuts, so in order to please them both chocolate is the way to go. I made some incredible gooey brownies last week but they contained coconut oil so they were a no go for this evening. I love testing myself and creating things within diet restraints so really I was in my element.

This recipe makes 9 decent sized brownies.

Ingredients

  • 40g Cocoa powder
  • 40g Chocolate Orange whey protein (could replace some of the water with the juice from an orange and use plain chocolate whey)
  • 25g Brown Rice Flour
  • 4 tbsp Agave
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 tbsp Baking Powder
  • 3tbsp Egg whites (equivalent to the whites of 3 large eggs)
  • 150ml Warm water
  • 2 tbsp Waldens farm chocolate sauce
  • 1/2 tsp Xanthum Gum
  • 25g  Dark chocolate chips
  • 1 tbsp Freeze dried strawberries and raspberries (stolen from a box of cereal)

Method 

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/ gas mark 4, and line a brownie tin with baking parchment.
  2. In a small bowl whisk up your egg whites and keep to one side.
  3. In a mixing bowl combine the cocoa powder, protein powder, brown rice flour, baking powder, xanthum gum and pinch of salt.
  4. Make a well in the centre of  your mixed dry ingredients and add the agave, waldens farm chocolate sauce, egg whites and water, being careful to add the water one bit at a time.
  5. Finally add the chocolate chips and freeze dried fruit, tip into the prepared brownie tin, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

MACROS (per brownie): 88Kcal/2.1g Fat/13.4g Carbs/5.1g Protein 

VitaFiber Cookies

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IMG_0504These are a REAL game changer. I discovered VitaFiber was for sale at Musclefood I couldn’t help myself but add it to my usual delivery of lean meats. VitaFiber is a low calorie sweetener which is the ingredient in Quest bars that gives them there distinctive texture, and insane low net carb count! It is super low calorie at 4kcal per gram, and are 90% fibre. When it arrived I could hardly contain myself and got straight into the kitchen and begin trying things out. I have SO much more to do with VitaFiber and have already begun practicing new recipes which once perfected will appear on the blog. This is just a very simple cookie recipe, more biscuit like texture if I’m honest, they tasted fantastic and really take on the flavour of what ever protein powder I added. The only downside is its pretty tricky to make more than one at a time…probably for the best eh. Anyway so many endless flavour combinations and possibilities. Here is a basic recipe that you can adapt with anything you like! How exciting.

Ingredients

  • 18g VitaFiber
  • 10g Chocolate whey protein powder
  • 5 chocolate chips (yes 5 not 5g)

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4.
  2. Mix the VitaFiber and protein powder together until they form a sticky dough.
  3. Roll the mix in your hands into a ball and gently flatten into a round disc the size and thickness you roughly would want your cookie to be, and place on baking parchment on your baking tray.
  4. Place the chocolate chips onto the top of the cookie and bake in the oven for 8 minutes, allow to cool and enjoy

MACROS: 79Kcal/ 1.5g Fat/2g Net Carbs/8g Protein

Alternatives: Chocolate orange protein with chocolate chips; Vanilla protein with freeze dried raspberries and white chocolate chips; Chocolate peanut protein with a dollop of peanut butter and chocolate chips; Chocolate protein with dark chocolate zero syrup from the protein works and dark and white chocolate chips; Vanilla protein with ginger and cinnamon; Chocolate protein with freeze dried cherries and added cocoa powder.

The possibilities are literally endless.

 

 

Blueberry Protein Pancakes

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IMG_0412 (1)I’ve finally cracked it. A simple easy to make thick fluffy pancake recipe with low carbs low fat and high protein! Hurrah!

I love pancakes, I really miss them dieting but I have just never found I could make protein pancakes a success. Finally I have got the hang of it and I today on high carb day I majorly indulged in these!

The recipe makes 2 small sized pancakes, depending on your diet or not diet as the case may be you can easily double this up and have 4 for breakfast.

Full macros for these are listed below but I thought for a more accurate idea I would show you that for the plate of pancakes pictured (high carb day for me) of 4 pancakes topped with yoghurt, fruit and The protein works zero maple syrup.

MY PLATE: 432Kcal/42g Carbs/6g Fat/ 53g Protein 

Ingredients

  • 20g Oats
  • 40g Cottage cheese
  • 15g Vanilla whey protein powder
  • 4tbsp Egg whites (equivalent to the whites from 4 large eggs)
  • 1/2 tsp Baking powder
  • 20g Blueberries (can be omitted or replaced with alternatives)

Method

  1. Keeping the blueberries to one side, blend all ingredients together either with a hand blender, or I use my nutribullet.
  2. Heat up your pan with coconut oil (I use to 1 kcal spray version) and once your pan is hot ladel on 1/2 of the mix nto the pan. Then quickly drop 4/5 blueberries ontop of your pancake.
  3. As the batter bubbles up and bubbles pop slide a thin spatula underneath the pancake and flip to cook both sides.
  4. Serve and eat warm from the pan!

Serving suggestions: blueberries, raspberries, lemon juice, fage total 0% fat greek yoghurt, waldens farm syrups, the protein works zero syrup.

MACROS per pancake (with blueberries): 103Kcal/ 1.4g Fat/ 9.9g Carbs/12.6g Protein 

MACROS per pancake (without blueberries): 97Kcal/1.4g Fat/8.4g Carbs/12.5g Protein

 

 

Gooey Chocolate Brownies

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IMG_0267I hate to toot my own trumpet but these were amazing. I developed a Vegan Chocolate cupcake recipe for someone and the result was so gooey and brownie like and so simple replacing egg and butter with olive oil. It made me think about how I could create something similar with protein and coconut oil instead of the olive oil. What resulted was something spectacular.

 

 

Ingredients

  • 50g Cocoa
  • 70g Chocolate whey protein
  • 50g Brown rice flour
  • 40g Coconut sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 30g Coconut oil
  • 160ml warm water
  • Vanilla extract to taste
  • 4 tbsp The protein works Dark Chocolate Zero Syrup
  • 50g Dark Chocolate chips
  • 1/2 tsp Xanthum gum

Method 

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4
  2. Line a Brownie tin with baking parchment.
  3. Melt your coconut oil in the microwave and mix into your ingredients, adding the warm water and chocolate chips last.
  4. The batter will be quite wet so don’t worry that is how it is supposed to be.
  5. Bake for 20/25 minutes and allow to cool before slicing into 12 squares and enjoying.

MACROS: 99kcal/ 4.7g Fat/ 9.4g Carbs/4.7g Protein

Matcha Chocolate Protein truffles

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IMG_0006Little bit more experimentation with Matcha going on. What with all its wonderful anti-oxidant and metabolism boosting properties, I would be mad to not try and include it in more things. It also brings a great flavour to bakes.

This time I was focusing on creating a very LOW carb treat. I began carb cycling this week as phase 4 of my diet, so I wanted to make something so low carb that I could still incorporate a treat into my diet that fitted my macros. SUCCESS!

 

Ingredients

  • 80g Natural Peanut Butter (I use Muscle Foods)
  • 30g Vanilla Whey protein powder
  • 1 tbsp Unsweetened Almond milk
  • 25g Ground almonds
  • 5g Matcha Green tea powder
  • 20g TPW Zero Syrup Dark chocolate flavour (could replace with other flavours or Walden farms)
  • 20g Dark chocolate chips
  • 10g Chia Seeds
  • Cocoa Powder to dust

Method

  1. Such a simple method, just add all the ingredients into a bowl making the last ingredient the almond milk, and just add enough to form a dough.
  2. Roll the mix into 12 balls and roll each ball into cocoa powder.
  3. Leave to chill and enjoy!

MACROS: 78Kcal/ 5.3g Fat/ 2.8g Carbs/ 5g Protein