Mango protein pancakes

Hello munkies! It's Friday morning & I'm pretty damn sore (my lats & biceps are screeeaming - ouchies, hehee). So what better than a stack of pancakes with some of my favourite fruits to make it all better?! I've never tried making pancakes with mango before - it's actually been a while since I've had fresh mango come to think of it. Anyway, moving on.. they were delicious! Of coooourse they were delicious!!! It's mango for crying out loud! Ha! So, here it is:

(By the way this serving is for 2 munkies - for a 1 munkey sized serving just half the recipe)

INGREDIENTS:
For the pancakes
4 medium eggs
1/2 a medium mango
2 tbsp glutinous rice flour (you could definitely substitute this for coconut flour if you don't have any or don't want to use it)
2 tbsp coconut flour
2 scoops of vanilla whey (60g total)
1 tsp baking powder

Ghee, coconut oil or any other oil for frying

For some fruity decoration
2 large strawberries or 3 medium sized.
1 medium sized banana
1/2 a medium mango

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Peel & chop up HALF of the mango in to small chunks.
2. Crack the eggs in to the food processor & blend until slightly frothy.
3. Add the mango & blend until fairly smooth - small lumps are fine.
4. Add the glutinous rice flour, coconut flour, vanilla whey & baking powder to the eggs & blend.
5. Heat the pan to a VERY low heat & add just under a level teaspoon of ghee or coconut oil or desired oil.
6. When the ghee has melted move it around the pan to distribute the liquid evenly, allow the pan to get a little hotter before adding the pancake mixture.
7. Pour desired amount of pancake mixture in to the pan, I poured roughly 4 tbsp of pancake mixture.
8. Leave to cook until bubbles form on the surface, then carefully flip the pancake (it shouldn't fall apart).
9. Leave to cook for a further 20-30 seconds then transfer to a plate to cool.
10. Rinse & repeat steps 5-10.

(Optional) I did this:
Pancake, bananas, pancake, strawberries, pancake, mango. Yummy.

Enjoy munkies! :)

Banana, sweet potato & vanilla protein pancakes with protein chocolate sauce

It's SATUUUURDAY!!! And on Saturdays we always have a healthy dose of pancakes, squats, steak & watch Spartacus. It's just tradition you see.. we wake up later, eat protein pancakes, digest, squat & deadlift our asses off, devour steak & an array of roasted veggies whilst watching Spartacus. It's all pretty good fun.. That said, pancakes do NOT just happen on a Saturday - they happen throughout the week, but yes they ALWAYS happen on a Saturday. These pancakes are wheat free, gluten free & refined sugar free.

INGREDIENTS:

For the pancake batter:
1 medium sized banana
1/2 medium sized sweet potato
2 tbsp coconut flour
2 eggs
1 scoop vanilla whey (30g)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp baking powder
Coconut oil or ghee for frying

For the protein chocolate sauce click here

Things to bear in mind before beginning to make these pancakes:
The pan I used was a small frying pan which made 3 pancakes in total. I also used a food processor to blend the pancake mixture together. So if you have a food processor, I'd definitely recommend you use it. I have whisked it all in a cup with a fork before though - it's just more work & ends up needing a liiiiittle liquid (water or milk/milk alternative) to get it to the right consistency.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Peel your sweet potato, chop it up in to chunks & steam it until very tender & easy to mash. Or you could roast your sweet potato in its skin & scoop out the flesh after, but this will take much longer.
2. When the sweet potato is steamed, allow it to cool.
3. Crack the eggs in to the food processor & blend until combined & a little frothy.
4. Add the 2 tablespoons of coconut flour & blend until combined & smooth.
5. Mash HALF of the banana & HALF of the sweet potato together (the other half of the banana will be chopped up & added later.. & I just ate the other half of the sweet potato with some cinnamon sprinkled on top, but you can do with it whatever you like!)
6. Add the mashed up banana & sweet potato & blend until roughly combined (small lumps are fine & actually give a nice texture).
7. Add the vanilla whey protein powder & the baking powder & blend.
8. Heat the pan to a VERY low heat & add just under a level teaspoon of ghee or coconut oil or desired oil.
9. When the ghee has melted move it around the pan to distribute the liquid evenly, allow the pan to get a little hotter before adding the pancake mixture.
10. Pour desired amount of pancake mixture in to the pan, I poured roughly 4 tbsp of pancake mixture.
11. Leave to cook until bubbles form on the surface, then carefully flip the pancake (it shouldn't fall apart).
12. Leave to cook for a further 20-30 seconds then transfer to a plate to cool.
13. Rinse & repeat steps 8-12 until you have used all of the pancake mixture.

Enjoy munkeys! :)

Super simple, super rich, protein chocolate sauce (3 ingredients!)

Cocoa has an array of benefits, it's pretty damn awesome to be honest. It's rich in anti-oxidants & flavonoids, & can help to improve one's insulin sensitivity, PLUS it makes choooocolaaaate. Yummy. Anyway, this chocolate sauce is so easy to make & it takes next to no time (under 1 minute). Not just for pancakes, oh no no, it can be drizzled or spread on ANYTHING.

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp 100% cocoa powder
1 tbsp chocolate whey protein powder
1/8 cup (3 tbspn) of Koko or other milk alternative.

Things to bear in mind before you begin to make the sauce:
If you want to leave out (or don't have any) chocolate whey protein powder then you may want to add some sweetener or the sauce might be bitter. Either way, you may want to add some sweetener but I think it's sweet enough with the whey.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Spoon the tablespoon of cocoa powder & the tablespoon of chocolate whey in to a bowl & stir.
2. Add the milk or milk alternative & mix (at first it will seem as though the mixture is not binding, but persevere you little munkies & it will begin to form a paste!).
3. If you prefer a thinner sauce-like consistency then you can add another tablespoon of milk to the mixture.
4. Drizzle or spread over anything & everything! Hehee.

Enjoy munkeys! :)

Chocolate protein tart

Hey little munkeys, it's Saturday night & I had originally planned to post the recipe to my protein pancakes we had today pre-squat o'clock! But I made this little beauty this evening & I'm sorry pancake recipe but you've been pushed back & will be posted next in line! Ha!

Woweeeeeeee! This chocolate protein tart took under 15 minutes to make (not including cooling time) - & it was a spur of the moment thing that came out amazingly. Very happy.
So it's game night for Chris & the boys, & I always make some kind of snack/sweet treat for him to nibble on (really it's just an excuse to bake, hehee).. Half an hour before I was thinking about tart crusts, & although I adore my traditional pecan crust - that volume of nuts & dates aren't to be eaten on a daily basis.. healthy foods are not always 'fat loss foods' - everything in moderation & all that jazz. So, back to this tart.. I didn't have much time & I really wanted to come up with a way to make a simple, tasty, less nutty, hopefully crunchy crust & came up with this! Baking intuition baby, never fails.

As this was the first time I had made this tart I didn't plan on taking any pictures (as you may have realised by now I really enjoy sharing lots of step-by-step pictures with you guys..), so there are only some finished product pictures (trust me, I'm sad about that!). But I think that'll just be an excuse to make another version of this tart & share it again with you guys at later date! Ha! I think what I enjoyed the most about this tart, apart from the obvious chocolaty-ness, was the textures. You have the nut chunks in the crust, the chocolate chunks in the tart filling coupled with the mushiness of the fruit & the crunch of the chocolate on top once it has cooled properly. Yummy :)

INGREDIENTS:

For the crust
1 egg
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp honey
70g almonds (think a huge handful)
3 tbsp coconut flour

For the chocolate tart filling
1 egg
1 tbsp coconut flour
1&1/2 scoops of chocolate whey (45g)
100g Green & blacks 70% chocolate
2 medium bananas
5 prunes
3 strawberries

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the crust
1. Crack the egg in to the food processor & blend until fully whisked.
2. Add the coconut flour & almonds, & blend (you want to keep chunks of almond by the way).
3. Add the ghee & honey, & blend until combined.
4. Use your fingers & press crust mixture in to silicone tart tray, if you don't have a silicone tray then make sure to grease your tart tin well (don't worry about washing the food processor at this stage, you'll be using it again in a minute for the tart filling).
5. Transfer the crust to the freezer whilst you prepare the rest of the chocolate tart.

For the chocolate tart filling
6. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 (350 degrees F / 180 degrees C)
7. Crack the egg in to the food processor & blend until fully whisked.
8. Add the coconut flour, 1&1/2 bananas, prunes, all of the chocolate whey & blend until combined & fairly smooth.
9. Now add two thirds of the chocolate (roughly 70g) & blend until small chunks of chocolate still remain.
10. Take the crust out of the freezer & spoon the chocolate tart mixture on to the crust.
11. (Optional) Chop up the remaining banana & the strawberries & spread & place on top of the chocolate tart mixture.
12. Transfer to oven & bake for 9 minutes.
13. Take the tart out of the oven & place the remaining chocolate on top of the tart & transfer back to the turned off oven for 2 minutes to melt.
14. Use a knife or spatula to spread the melted chocolate all over the top of the tart.
15. Transfer to freezer to cool.

Enjoy munkeys! :)

Less mess dark chocolate with roasted almonds!

I don't know about you, but I think nuts in chocolate ROCKS MUNKEY SOCKS (yes we wear socks sometimes..)! It's usually more expensive though - boooo - so I enjoy making my own. The only downside to that is it can cause a lot of mess with the bain-marie & all it's melting messinessss. And sometimes I'm just not in the mood for mess. BUT with this idea the only thing that gets messy is the baking tray or baking paper & spoon! It's super simple & pretty great..

INGREDIENTS:

100g almonds (or any other nut..)
100g 70+% dark chocolate (ooor any other chocolate you'd like..)

Things to bear in mind before beginning:
It would be preferable to use a small silicone baking tray, the one I used is 6x6 inches. If you don't have something like that then no worries(!), you could use a small baking tray & cover it with baking/parchment paper. This prevents the chocolate from sticking once it's cooled.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 7 (425 degrees F / 220 degrees C).
2. Line the baking tray with baking/parchment paper if you don't have a silicone one.
3. Put the almonds on the baking tray & in to the oven for 4-5 minutes or until fragrant.
4. When the almonds are roasted turn off your oven & open the oven door.
5. Break up the chocolate & take out the roasted almonds.
6. Place the chocolate on top of the almonds & put the tray & it's contents back in to the turned off oven.
7. Leave it for about 2 minutes or until all the chocolate has melted.
8. Take the chocolate almonds out of the oven & use a spoon to mix everything around & make sure the almonds are all covered.
9. Sprinkle some cinnamon, sea salt, desiccated coconut or even chili flakes on to your nutty chocolate if you like - I sprinkled some cinnamon on mine.
10. Transfer the nuts to the freezer & leave them there until they have completely cooled, this will take at least 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy munkeys! :)

Egg heaven: the egg bake, the crustless quiche, the frittata.

This little munkey was SUPER hungry after playing on the rings today. Swinging around can be tiring. So I got home & decided that I wanted something quick, easy & scrummy.. what better than eggs..(?) thrown together with some of my favourite foods? Eggs are aaawwesome, & this recipe is an easy way to combine some of your favourite foods into one ultimate dish that you can eat for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner & is ideal for those busy bodies who can take it to work.

The awesome thing about this 'crustless quiche' is that there are no rules, you can literally throw anything in there.. My faaavourite combo is bacon/pancetta, butternut squash, spinach, red onion & feta. AHmaazing. Below I'll be posting a chorizo, sweet potato & feta crustless quiche that I've made a few times & simply LOVE!

INGREDIENTS:

6 whole eggs
30g parmesan
100g feta
1 sweet potato
15 slices (..or more ..or less) of chorizo
1/2 a white onion
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
A sprinkle of paprika

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 (375 degrees / 190 degrees C).
2. Peel the sweet potato & chop it up in to chunks & part steam them until they're a little soft on the outside (around 5-8 mins).
3. Line the baking tray with baking/parchment paper & sprinkle the grated parmesan & chopped onion on the paper.
4. Prepare the feta, you can slice it, chop it, crumble it, completely up to you!
5. Whisk the eggs & leave them aside.
6. When the sweet potato is ready, place the sweet potato, feta, & chorizo on top of the parmesan & onion, in any order you please.
7. Pour the eggs over your fillings.
8. Move your fillings & the egg around to make sure the egg is swimming in every nook & cranny.
9. Season as you wish, I used salt, pepper & sprinkled paprika over the top.
10. Bake for 16-20 minutes mattering on how you like your eggs (note: egg continues to cook for a while after it's been taken out of the oven). I cooked mine for 19 minutes, the edges were firm & the middle a liiiittle soft.
11. Allow to cool for a few minutes, cut up & devour.

(No matter the fillings you choose I would recommend the parmesan & onion sprinkled bottom - a welcomed addition no matter the fillings you use!)

Enjoy munkeys! :)