Few Recipes for Your Healthy Enjoyment

I was going to post a brand-new recipe blog today (including Vitamix goodies), but I found an older-ish unpublished blog in the mix... how did I let this slip by? Ooops.

So here ya go... three recipes with a mix of sweet and savory (all gluten-free of course)....

GF & Grain-Free Pumpkin Muffins with Nut Butter Spread
I'm obsessed with pumpkin and this one is so quick & easy to make! About 88 calories per muffin (not including nut butter)...

1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup raw almond butter
4 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 zucchini, shredded
1 cup pumpkin, pureed from can
4 eggs separated
5-7 packets stevia, or sweetner of choice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

Heat over to 350 degrees
Mix egg yolks and almond butter until well blended. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until stiff then add to yolk mix. Then add almond flour, zucchini and pumpkin. Mix. Add spices and rest of ingredients. Mix well.

Put batter into greased muffin pan and cook for ~30 minutes at 350.

Nut Butter Spread: Any nut butter will do, but I prefer either Justin's Honey Almond Butter (or any of his nut butters mmmm) or my own concoction: Mix a few tablespoons of peanut flour (I use Trader Joe's brand) with water and Greek yogurt, keep mixing until it's a creamy consistency.

After muffins cool, spread on top, in the middle or just eat a spoonful with each bite of muffin :)

*Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of these, but you can imagine what a brownish muffin would look like lol :)

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GF Salmon & Black Bean Burgers with Avocado
This one is super easy and I just randomly came up with it one night when we didn't have any fresh meat to cook...

Canned salmon (omega-3 enriched preferred)
Eggs (omega-3)
Canned black beans (or fresh if you prefer)
Garlic Salt
Basil
Oregano
Dried chives

Directions: For every can of salmon, add one egg and 1/4 cup black beans. My recipe had three of each and that made about 6-8 burgers. If you're using canned black beans, make sure to rinse well and slightly mush them up; don't add beans that are too "wet." Add seasonings (you can be flexible and add as much or little as you want, or even throw in more stuff).

Mix all ingredients with your hands and form into balls, then slightly flatten those out and place on pan or grill. Don't make the burgers too big or they might fall apart. Cook on low heat about 5-8 min each side.

Once done, pile on the slices of fresh avocado and enjoy with or without a bun!

Note: I eyeballed everything on this recipe and didn't keep track of measurements, cook time, etc, so just have fun with it and experiment! Hopefully yours turn out like this:
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GF & Grain-Free Zucchini Nut Bread (Paleo-Friendly)
*Note, this recipe is floating around many gluten-free blogs, so it is not an original of mine and I'm not taking credit for it, but it's worth sharing...

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 c almond butter
2 zucchinis, shredded (2 small or one large)
4 eggs, separated
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
3 tbsp coconut flakes
2 tbsp agave
3-5 packets stevia, or sweetner of choice
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
optional: 1 tbsp cacao powder (or cocoa powder)

Directions: Heat oven to 325. Grease a 5x9 loaf pan. Or two pans*

In a large bowl beat the egg yolks until light yellow (~2 minutes). Add the zucchini, almond butter, almond meal, salt, agave/stevia, spices, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and mix until well blended.

In a clean bowl whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.

With spoon, add egg white mix into the zucchini mixture. Fold until no more streaks of white appear.

Pour into the prepared pan and cook for 45–50 minutes until browned and puffy on top and firm in the center. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan, discard parchment and allow the loaf to finish cooling on a rack.

*Instead of making one big loaf, I used two pans and made two smaller loaves so the pieces were similar in size to a hearty piece of biscotti. Perfect little snack that last 2x as long :)