Tag Archives: pre workout

Cold Brew Coffee

| 2 Comments | Beatty Protocols, Beverages, Recipes

One of my favourite things to do is listen to Podcasts. I’ve always enjoyed listening when driving or walking the dog, but especially since becoming a mom since my time available for learning has plummeted. Podcasts let me consume content while doing something else! The Balanced Bites podcast is one of my favourites, and it was also the first place I learned about Cold Brew Coffee (a popular brand in the USA is a sponsor).

Fairly early into my coffee journey (I started enjoying a cup daily midway through high school. I blame my parents! lol) I realized iced coffee was amazing. But my favourite was a super sweet fake dessert iced coffee from Starbucks – so not super ideal for health. Then one VERY HOT summer working on a rooftop restaurant in Toronto, I started drinking plain ol’ iced coffee with some milk and sugar. I quickly learned that the best results came from brewing an espresso, chilling it and then turning it into iced coffee – that way it wasn’t watered down like when you brew coffee and try to chill it quickly with just ice! But it also took forethought.

Fast forward to this summer, where my coffee obsession is fairly high (this time I blame the baby. Ha!) and it’s hot. I’m often heading out in the morning when I want my second coffee, and can’t stand drinking hot coffee on a hot day. I tried to make an extra pot in the morning and chill it for later, but it doesn’t usually happen. That’s why DIY Cold Brew entered my life.

Cold Brew Coffee is exactly as it sounds. Coffee that’s been brewed cold, instead of with hot water. There are many reasons for the rise of Cold Brew Coffee – with the most common being the smooth, rich flavour it has combined with the less acidic feeling in the stomach. I like it because it takes 1 minute to prep and allows me to have iced coffee all week! Here’s how:

Homemade Cold Brew Coffee

1. Measure out ¾ cup of organic, fair or direct trade coffee (why direct trade?), ground on the coarsest grind setting you have. I’m sure a high powered blender would work if you don’t have a  coffee grinder. Fine grind = bitter coffee, so make sure it’s coarse! Coarser (like with a mortar and pestle coarse) is better than fine any day!

                                    

2. Dump coarse-ground coffee grinds into a 1L jar.

3. Add 3 cups of filtered water to the jar. It can be cold or room temperature. Secure lid and place in fridge for 12-24 hours. (Note, after making this once, I no longer measure the water because I know that the jar is almost full with the water and grinds combined!) 

4. After desired length of brew (I like 18-24 hours best), remove from fridge, strain into another jar and voila – you’re done! Coffee for the week, or a few days if you are sharing with someone.

Keep in mind that cold brew is MUCH higher in caffeine. So enjoy smaller servings and/or water down with water, ice and your desired milk (I like full-fat coconut milk or grassfed cream). I also like to sweeten with a touch of maple syrup!

My favourite way to enjoy cold-brew is:

  • small cup, filled with ice
  • ½ cup cold brew
  • ¼ cup water
  • 2-3 tbsp coconut milk
  • 1-2 tsp maple syrup

You can also heat up cold brew and enjoy it like a normal cup of coffee! I do this on Crossfit mornings, when I want cup of coffee fast, and don’t want to wait for it to brew. I can have a delicious cup of coffee ready to go in less than a minute!

Are you an iced coffee drinker? Or are you a purest and only enjoy a cuppa joe hot. Share your favourite way for enjoying this delicious vice in the comments below!

 

Banana Muffins

| 6 Comments | Apps, Snacks & Sides, Beatty Protocols, Breakfasts, Recipes, Treats

Banana muffins are my favourite. When I was little I used to always ask my mom to make “na-na muff-uffs”, which unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) means that’s still what we call banana muffins in my parents house! They may or may not have a home movie of 2.5 year old me baking “na-na muff-uffs” at my fisher price kitchen one Christmas morning…

Banana Muffins - Grain Free Dairy Free - Amanda Naturally

Typical nutriton educators call muffins “cupcakes without the icing”, which is mostly true. Take a carrot muffin for example. Many people choose carrot muffins over chocolate chip, because they’re healthier! Would you choose carrot cake over chocolate cake for health reasons? No! Because you know it’s still cake! What ingredients are typically found in a cake? White flour, white sugar, eggs, butter and baking soda. And a muffin? Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking soda, oil… Same recipe, slightly different ratios.

Banana Muffins - Grain Free Dairy Free - Amanda Naturally

There are a lot of “healthy” muffin recipes out there, but usually the focus is all about reducing the fat and cholesterol by eliminating the eggs and any oil that may be involved. Since we know that eggs have been wrongly demonized and that fat is crucial for health, suddenly those “healthy muffin” recipes are even worse than the original! White flour + white sugar + no nutrients. Well that screams diabetes in the making. Yowza!

Banana Muffins - Grain Free Dairy Free - Amanda Naturally

Even I cannot deny how convenient muffins are. They are easy to grab for a quick pick-me-up, or a breakfast if you don’t have time to make a real one, or to throw in your kids lunch bags. So instead of saying all muffins are off limits, why not change the ingredients to make them work for you, instead of against? I was on the hunt for a recipe that did just this and was thrilled when I stumbled across this one over at The Spunky Coconut. Real, nutrient-dense ingredients that are full of health-promoting vitamins, minerals, fat and protein. This was a muffin I could get behind. 

Banana Muffins - Grain Free Dairy Free - Amanda Naturally

Of course I had to tweak it a bit – since that’s what I do! I didn’t have applesauce, so I subbed an extra egg and it worked great. I also started adding lemon juice and zest, because lemon blueberry is an awesome flavour combo. Then recently, I had a client request a banana muffin for her kids. Most grain-free, dairy-free banana muffins rely heavily on almond flour and/or nut-butter. Since all schools are nut-free in Ontario, that wasn’t going to work. So I used the shredded coconut/egg base from the blueberry muffin recipe as my inspiration. I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as I do!

UPDATE (July 2016): I now throw all of the wet ingredients into my blender instead of mashing by hand. It eliminates the need for super ripe bananas (which are great, but I don’t always have them on hand, so yellow banana work too now) and your eggs don’t have to be room temperature either.

UPDATE: (May 2017): I no longer add maple syrup! I forgot to add it a few times and didn’t even notice the difference. This makes me especially happy because my 9 month old loves these muffins now and I feel great about giving her these!

Banana Muffins - Grain Free Dairy Free - Amanda Naturally

 

Banana Muffins (grain free, dairy free)
Serves 12
An old-fashioned banana muffin made without gluten, grains, dairy or sugar! Paleo and vegetarian!
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
45 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
45 min
Ingredients
  1. 6 eggs, brought to room temperature
  2. ½ cup coconut oil, melted
  3. ¼ cup honey or maple syrup (optional, I don't add it anymore)
  4. ½ tsp vanilla extract
  5. 2 cups mashed bananas
  6. 1 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
  7. ½ cup coconut flour, sifted
  8. ½ tsp sea salt
  9. ½ tsp baking soda
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tin with silicon liners.
  2. Combine wet ingredients in a bowl. (or add to a large blender, this eliminates the need for super ripe bananas or room temp eggs)
  3. Combine dry ingredients in another bowl.
  4. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix really well. It will thicken up after a few minutes.
  5. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop a generous serving into each muffin liner. They don't rise a lot, so fill them up to the top!
  6. Bake for 30 minutes, or until set and slightly golden.
  7. Let cool and enjoy!
Notes
  1. It is important to have the eggs at room temperature so they don't cause the coconut oil to solidify. If you don't have time to leave them out, simply place them in a bowl and cover with hot tap water for about 10 minutes, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
  2. These muffins freeze really well so I always make a double batch and freeze half.
  3. You could totally turn these into cupcakes by adding dairy-free chocolate chips and icing!
Amanda Naturally http://www.amandanaturally.com/
Banana Muffins - Grain Free Dairy Free - Amanda Naturally

Do you have a favourite snack from your childhood that you’ve ‘healthified’? Share in the comments below!

Egg Muffins

| 8 Comments | Apps, Snacks & Sides, Beatty Protocols, Breakfasts, Recipes

Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally

When I sat down to write this post I promised myself I wouldn’t get up on a soapbox. But then I remembered my recipe was based on eggs. Whole eggs. Including the delicious and nutritious yolk. And out my soapbox came! My apologies in advance if you are already on the egg yolk train – skip to the bottom for my recipe for Egg Muffins. If you’re on the fence about animal fat, or simply want to understand how we got into this messy situation where eggs went from being a daily staple, to the most toxic food ever, and then back to health food again, keep on reading!

Eggs are an amazing food. They are jam-packed with nutrients such as B vitamins, protein and healthy fat. Unfortunately these poor little guys have been vilified by inappropriately designed studies that associate dietary saturated fat and cholesterol with elevated levels of systemic cholesterol and heart disease. The primary study (from the 1960’s) responsible for this nonsense was designed as such:

Rabbits were fed varying levels of cholesterol dissolved in a peanut oil medium. Observe.

There is SO much wrong with this I get angry just thinking about the damaged lives this ridiculous study caused. The three main issues I have with this study are:

  1. Rabbits are herbivores. They don’t eat animal products and are therefore not designed to digest, absorb and utilize the nutrients that come from animal products. (Unlike humans who use cholesterol to make sex hormones, vitamin D and our brain!)
  2. Peanut oil is an omega-6 (pro inflammatory), polyunsaturated fat that is very susceptible to oxidative damage. When unsaturated oils become oxidized (damaged), they become free radicals which steal electrons from unsuspecting cells and DNA, turning them into free radicals as well! This vicious chain reaction wreaks absolute havoc on the body!
  3. Saturated fat wasn’t even used!! 

Arrrgghhhh.

Ok, let’s get down to brass tacks. In 2010 the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (read: the royalty of nutritional medical literature) did a meta-analysis of the current literature. What that means is they looked at every published article on saturated fat and if there is an association with cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke. This is their conclusion:

“A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.”

There you have it folks! Saturated fat is not the devil! Bacon, butter, eggs, ribeye steaks – suddenly back on the table!!! Now I don’t know about you, but I would have thought this news would spread like WILDFIRE. Why didn’t it? I don’t have the answer for you, but I would be willing to bet there were certain establishments that could stand to gain from squashing this delicious piece of data…

Side note: anyone else LOVE the implication that the garbage vegetable oils we’ve been using in lieu of real fats may be causing damage?

So, the good news is, eggs and bacon are back in, egg-white creepy liquid in a carton and “facon” is out! (fake + bacon…see what I did there?) Just one caveat – animal products, especially ones containing fat, are only as healthy as the environment they are raised in. Choose grass-fed, pastured or organic meat please!

Gracefully steps off soapbox…

Fried eggs and bacon (or breakfast sausage), over sweet potato hash browns, is one of my absolute favourite breakfasts! We pretty much have that every single Sunday, except for the occasional batch of plantain pancakes (stay tuned for that recipe). But unfortunately not every day is Sunday. Alas, if only we could brunch every day. So instead, I eat Egg Muffins!

This recipe is my go-to for a quick, nutritious, savoury breakfast. I’m partial to savoury breakfasts these days, but if you’re jonesing for a sweet breakfast instead, check out my Coconut Milk Parfait. A few of these make a great pre-workout snack or meal; a delicious lunch for kids at school; the perfect snack for busy mama’s; and simply the best breakfast for taking in to work! You can eat these cold or reheat them and they last up to a week in the fridge. I usually make a double batch because I know we’ll eat our way through 1 dozen in only a few days.

Egg Muffins
Serves 6
An easy grab-and-go breakfast, lunch or snack. Great for bringing breakfast to work, back to school lunches and quick snacks for busy moms!
Write a review
Save Recipe
Print
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
20 min
Total Time
35 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
20 min
Total Time
35 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 long skinny sweet potato, roasted
  2. 6 extra large eggs (increase to 7 or 8 if eggs are smaller)
  3. ¼ cup full-fat coconut milk
  4. 1 tbsp cooking fat (bacon grease, butter, lard, tallow, coconut oil)
  5. 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  6. ¼ cup onion, diced
  7. ⅓ lb ground meat (or leftovers)
  8. ⅓ cup leafy greens
  9. sea salt
  10. pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line muffin tin with silicone liners.
  2. Slice a roasted sweet potato into 12 slices. Place in bottom of muffin liners.
  3. Combine eggs, coconut milk, sea salt and pepper. Whisk. Distribute egg mixture evenly amongst silicone liners.
  4. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp cooking fat in a pan over medium heat.
  5. Add garlic and onion. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
  6. Add ground meat, sea salt and pepper. Cook through. (If using leftover meat, omit this step.)
  7. Divide ground meat evenly amongst egg.
  8. Add greens to the same pan. Sautee briefly until wilted. Approximately 2 minutes. Add to egg cups.
  9. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until egg is set.
Amanda Naturally http://www.amandanaturally.com/

Line muffin tin with silicon liners, slice pre-roasted sweet potato and place in bottom of liners. 

Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally  Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally  Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally

Crack eggs into bowl, add coconut milk, sea salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Distribute evenly amongst silicone muffin liners.

Egg Muffins - Amanda NaturallyAdd garlic and onion to pan. Sautee for a few minutes. Add ground beef and cook through.

Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally   Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally  

Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally

Divide meat equally amongst egg-filled muffin liners. I used approximately 1 tbsp ground meat per cup. Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally

Sautee veggies in the same pan. Add to muffin cups and bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes.

Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally  Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally

Egg Muffins are done cooking when they are slightly firm to the touch and they start to pull away from the sides.

Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally   Egg Muffins - Amanda Naturally

 

So tell me – what’s your favourite way to eat eggs? Share in the comments below!

 

Copyright 2014 Amanda Naturally | Design by The Nectar Collective