Hey, pumpkin loving people! I’m back with a new recipe for protein waffles made with pumpkin tastiness for you. It’s only been 2 years since my last recipe here at Healthy Green Kitchen…and that one featured pumpkin too. This is all normal, right?!
I promise I eat things that don’t involve pumpkin. Sometimes. Hahaha.
Seriously, though…right now I am working on making a return to sharing recipes here a real habit that sticks. For the first time in a very long time: I do actually miss blogging!!!! And I really do promise I won’t only make things with pumpkin from here on out.
Since I last popped in here with a new recipe, a lot of things changed. The biggest one? I got a job as a nutrition coach for Stronger U Nutrition ;) The job keeps me super busy! So: no more time for obsessing about cooking and writing and photos like I used to do when blogging here before.
But I do still cook a lot- just with more awareness about how what I make aligns with my current goals for my health and body composition- and I do want to share more of what I make here. So here’s the deal with the waffles. They are super easy to make, and maybe you even already have many of the ingredients in the house. If you want to use any pre-made pancake/waffle mix, I bet you can do that and use 1 cup/120g of it (and take out the dry ingredients listed below), but these will taste a bit different and macros will vary depending on the brand of pancake/waffle mix you use. You’ll need a waffle iron, for sure: I have this one. And if you don’t have a waffle iron? I bet you can turn this recipe into pancakes instead.
I put the macros for the waffles with the ingredients I used into the recipe below, but please know that the very best thing to do if you want to dial in the accuracy of any recipe you make is to input all ingredients in My Fitness Pal’s recipe creator yourself. If you cook/bake a lot and you are working on fat loss or any other goal related to food intake, it’s really the way to go so you can know exactly how what you want to eat fits into your nutrition plan.
I like to eat these waffles plain and cold because that’s how I eat my breakfast most days. It sounds like sadness, but it’s just reality: on most days I eat between coaching class at the gym and my own workout, so I eat things like this much of the time. If you want to eat these warm, go for it! And you can add all the regular waffle-y toppings if you like, but be sure to track the macros for anything you add if tracking macros is your thing. Light butter and low carb syrup will keep the macros/calories on the lower side. I bet peanut butter would be super good but watch the fat, my friends.
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September 2019 Update
I was eating a Greek-inspired rice bowl with chicken in it for dinner tonight and I recalled that I had a similar recipe here on the blog from way back when. I easily found it, so I decided to write up a few updates.
Since my husband and I both pay attention to our macros/calories these days (macros are more my focus/calories are more his, by the way), we eat a lot of chicken breast at meals. Chicken breast is such an awesome way to get protein with very little fat, and it’s so easy to flavor in so many ways. So yeah, we eat it a lot!
I got my husband a sous vide cooker for Father’s Day this year, and just about every Sunday he cooks enough chicken to last us for most of the week (he finishes it on the grill for a short time after it’s done cooking in the sous vide). If you saw my instagram post from last week, you know I did a big shop for spices and spice mixes at Kalustyans in NYC. So my husband made chicken with three different spice mixes today, and we’ll be eating the chicken in meals for the next few days.
Tonight I used the chicken he coated with Kalustyan’s Shawarma seasoning (similar to this one on Amazon.com). I put the chicken on top of rice with sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, red peppers, a few kalamata olives, chickpeas, and Cedar’s tzaziki sauce for a dressing. Very similar to the recipe you see here but less fat because the chicken isn’t marinated in an olive oil based marinade and because tzaziki sauce is low fat compared to the tahini-yogurt one in this recipe.
When I originally wrote this post, it was in partnership with a rice company called Della. You are welcome to use any rice in the recipe, of course (I use Jasmine rice for just about everything, tbh), and to lower the carbs in this recipe, you can use cauliflower rice or just eat over salad greens instead. I left off the feta (didn’t have any in the house…boo) which further lowered the fat content but as far as cheeses go, feta’s not so bad in terms of fat if you don’t use much, and it’s a nice addition, for sure.
Macro/calories for a rice bowl like this will vary greatly based on how much rice, how much chicken, and how much of things like olives and dressing you use. So I am not going to share the macros/calories of what I made for me, since your needs may be different from mine! For what it’s worth though, I used about 3/4 cup cooked rice, 2.5 ounces of cooked chicken, 1/4 cup canned chickpeas, 3 kalamata olives, 1 serving of tzaziki, and plenty of chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, and red pepper. I always weigh out all of my additions on a food scale when I add to my bowl, then I know exactly what I am eating, and that it fits my food plan for the day.
Original post is below the line!
I’ve been eating a lot of rice-based dishes ever since the folks from Della Rice asked me to be part of their #CreateAStir campaign. Della’s 5 different kinds of rice make it really easy to create delicious meals with balanced macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fat) so I’ve been going a little nuts with different combinations (recall my Jasmine Rice Bowl with Pan-Fried Tofu). For the rice bowl/stir you see here, I used their Arborio rice and topped it with garlic and lemon-marinated chicken, a simple Greek-inspired salad, and a tasty tahini dressing.
I like the amount of garlic in the recipe I’m giving you below, but if you are a garlic fiend, you may use more. If you marinate the chicken a bit in advance for the best flavor, then cook it and make the salad and the dressing while the rice is cooking, this Greek Chicken stir can be ready in about 20 minutes. It makes a great quick lunch or dinner!
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September, 2019 Update:
Oh hey there! So I was THIS CLOSE to taking my blog down after years of inactivity BUT I changed my mind. Instead I decided to start cooking from it again, and make post/recipe updates when I do.
So many things have changed since I started writing this blog but one thing that’s stayed the same is I still love to cook and bake. This bread recipe was an old fave and I was so happy to make it again last week after pretty much forgetting the recipe was here on HGK.
Being a nutrition coach now, I am extremely conscious of the macronutrient content of what I eat, and I ask all my clients to be super conscious of it, too. So I used the recipe creator in My Fitness Pal to figure out the macros of this bread and here’s what I came up with:
The recipe makes 2 loaves and in the recipe, I give a range for the maple syrup and the butter. I used the smaller amounts this time around (1/8 cup butter and 1/4 cup maple syrup) and if you cut each loaf into 12 slices, then here are the macros per slice:
Calories: 142
Protein: 5.6g
Carbohydrates: 28g
Fat: 2.8g
It’s super important to be accurate with portion sizes when tracking macros. So the very best thing to do if you want to dial in the accuracy is get the total macros in the recipe by inputting all ingredients in MFP’s recipe creator as you go, weigh both loaves when finished, and then weigh each individual serving to determine the macros based on how that compares to total weight of both loaves. This sounds more complicated than it is, but if you cook/bake a lot and you are working on fat loss or any other goal related to food intake, it’s really the way to go so you can know exactly how what you are eating fits into your nutrition plan.
As I go through and update some of the recipes here in the future, I plan to offer suggestions for how to make my recipes more friendly to macro-based diets when appropriate. With this bread recipe, though, I am not going to offer up any addition changes other than adjusting the amount of maple syrup and butter. It’s bread, after all, and good bread has a lot of carbs…simple as that. If your carbs are limited, this recipe probably isn’t for you; if your carbs are on the higher side, go for it!
ps As a nutrition coach for https://strongeru.com/, I help people figure this macro stuff out each and every day. If you want to find out more about my coaching and our program, please let me know. You can contact me at winnieATstrongerufitDOTcom.
While I’ve definitely become a devotee of the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day
technique in recent months, this recipe for soft oatmeal bread is still among my absolute favorite yeast bread recipes.
I learned the method for making this bread, which utilizes leftover cooked grains, from a fellow named Jeff Basom. Jeff was the chef at Bastyr University when I was a naturopathic student (and his bread was so good that some of his recipes appear in the book Feeding the Whole Family: Cooking with Whole Foods
by Cynthia Lair).
I love making bread with cooked oats (you could also use cooked brown rice, millet, or quinoa) because it is a great way to use up leftovers, it adds additional nutrients, and the resulting loaf has a lovely soft and chewy texture. Because you need to ferment the oats and some of the flour overnight, be sure you plan accordingly when making this recipe. It’s not hard to make…it just takes a little time.
Soft Oatmeal Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
Ingredients for the oatmeal starter:
* 2 cups cooked oatmeal (you can make this on the stove or in the microwave with 1 cup oats and approximately 2 cups water)
* 2 cups water (or 1 cup water and 1 cup milk)
* 1/8-1/4 cup softened organic butter
* 1 tablespoon sea salt
* 1 tablespoon dry yeast
* 1 cup organic all-purpose unbleached flour or whole wheat flour
Ingredients for the bread:
* 1/4-1/2 cup pure maple syrup (use the larger amount for a sweeter bread
* approximately 6-7 cups organic all purpose unbleached flour or whole wheat flour
Directions:
Preparation of the starter:
Mix oatmeal, water, milk (if using), butter, salt, and yeast in a blender and then pour into a large bowl. Add 1 cup of flour and mix well: it should resemble a thick gruel. Cover the bowl with a damp towel or plastic wrap and leave for 12-24 hours at room temperature to ferment.
Preparation of the bread:
1. After the 12-24 hours, mix the sweetener into the starter dough. Stir in 2 cups white or wheat flour.
2. As you add the remaining 4 cups of flour (more or less), the mixture will become too difficult to stir by hand, so you can either mix it in Kitchen Aid mixer with the bread dough hook, or you can use your hands to knead in the flour in the bowl. When most of the flour has been incorporated and the dough is no longer sticky, transfer it to a floured surface.
3. Knead the bread dough for 10-15 minutes more or until dough is soft and springy. Wash and dry your mixing bowl and spread with a little butter. Place dough into the bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
4. When dough has risen sufficiently, punch it down. Remove from the mixing bowl and divide the dough into two equal portions. Knead each ball a bit more and then place your dough into two bread pans, or shape as you like (I usually make mine into round/oval shapes) and place on lightly buttered cookie sheet. If you want to make smaller loaves instead, go ahead. If you make 2 loaves, they will be pretty large, so you could make 3-4 smaller ones instead.
5. It will take about 45-60 minutes for the loaves to approximately double in size, so you should preheat the oven to 350°F. about 30 minutes into this rising.
6. Slash the top of each loaf 3-4 times with a serrated knife (or make a criss-cross pattern, like I did) and then place in the oven. Bake anywhere from 25-50 minutes, depending on the size and shape of your loaves. The bread is done when golden brown and a tap on the bottom of each loaf makes a hollow noise.
7. At this point, it's probably very hard to wait, but allow your bread to cool on a wire rack for about 30 minutes before slicing. If you baked your loaves in bread pans, allow them to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to the rack. If you don't wait for the bread to cool, it will have a gummy texture when you slice it (and you'll probably end up ruining the lovely appearance of your loaves).
Serve with a couple of pats of organic butter, some raw honey, or your favorite all natural jam or marmalade; or use it to accompany a soup or as a sandwich bread…it’s wonderful no matter how you choose to eat it!
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