Pumpkin Protein Donuts

I whipped up some pumpkin donuts for dessert tonight and to have for a quick breakfast tomorrow because I have to be into work at 6:30AM! Not exactly the most ideal way to start off Christmas Eve, but I only have 2 more days of working at GNC so I'm trying to make the best of it. These are a perfect way to start off the morning. Unlike regular donuts, they're high in protein, gluten-free, grain-free, and no refined sugar. I had 3 for dessert tonight and I'll probably have the other 3 in the morning. I'll take these donuts over one 300-calorie donut from Dunkin any day!

Ingredients:

-3/4 cup pumpkin puree

-1 scoop vanilla protein powder (cinnamon flavored would be good too)

-2 tbsp almond flour

-1/4 cup egg whites

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

-1/2 tsp maple extract

-1/2 tsp baking powder

-1/4 tsp baking soda

-1/2 tsp cinnamon

-1 tsp pumpkin spice

-stevia to taste (I used 3 tbsp baking stevia--I prefer sweeter baked goods)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet ingredients in another. Then combine wet into dry. Spray a donut pan with non-stick spray and pour the batter into each donut well, making 6 donuts. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring them out of the pan. 

These could also be made into muffins, but they would just need to bake longer. I topped a few of mine with maple glaze (mixture of sugar-free maple syrup and coconut flour), and they also taste delicious with peanut butter, greek yogurt, or as is!

Nutrition Information (for 1 out of 6 donuts): 54 calories, 1.5g fat, 3g carbs, 1 g fiber, 7g protein

Healthy Gingerbread Cookies

Whenever I'm really stressed out from school, I always find myself in the kitchen. Besides working out, baking is the one thing that always makes me feel better. It makes no sense because I'm putting off all the work I have to do, which will just make me even more stressed out, but taking a break never hurts! So tonight is one of those nights--I'm just a few days away from being done with my first semester of grad school, so naturally instead of working on the paper worth 30% of my grade, I baked some cookies. At midnight...on a Saturday night. Totally normal. They're similar to my healthy snickerdoodle cookies recipe, but in the spirit of Christmas being 2 weeks away, I came up with a gingerbread version. I seriously can't get enough of gingerbread lately! Just like my other cookies, these are paleo, vegan, and gluten-free.

Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1/4 cup baking stevia (or honey or agave)
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 tbsp unsweetened vanilla almond milk, or milk of choice
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp each of nutmeg and ground cloves (I didn't measure any of the spices, this is just a guess)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine almond flour, stevia, baking soda, spices and sea salt in one mixing bowl. Mix the coconut oil, milk, and molasses in a separate bowl. Then pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. Form the dough into balls about 1 tbsp big. Then place on the baking sheet. Flatten each dough ball slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes. They will be very soft when they come out of the oven, so let them cool for a while before transferring them from the baking sheet. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Recap

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and ate a ton of delicious food! I was extremely thankful that my family was able to celebrate Thanksgiving back in our house because we were unsure if we were going to be able to. Long story short, we had a house fire back in March and had been living in a trailer for over 8 months while our house was being redone. The date for us to move back in kept getting pushed back so I had my doubts that we'd be celebrating Thanksgiving in the house. By some miracle, we were able to move back in about a week before! I was most excited about our new kitchen. I'd say my sister and I broke it in quite well--we literally spent all day preparing healthy variations of your typical Thanksgiving dishes. They came out amazing so I wanted to share some pictures!

One of my favorite things that we made was a healthy stuffing that had brussel sprouts, butternut squash, apples, pecans, and dried cranberries.

My absolute favorite dish that we made was a sweet potato casserole. I can't even describe how amazing it tasted! It had a sweet maple flavor and it was topped with a cinnamon oat crumble. I'm so upset that we ate it all already!

Finally, we made a healthy vegan apple pie. It only had a few ingredients: whole wheat pastry flour, coconut oil, apples, cinnamon, and stevia. It was a bit of a challenge to make this, but it ended up tasting great!

I didn't get pictures but my sister made honey and roasted garlic baked brie. I'm not a big cheese person so I didn't think I was going to like it, but it actually was delicious!

My thanksgiving plate! Normally I don't really like Thanksgiving food, but after getting into cooking a lot more this past year I finally was able to make some dishes that I really enjoyed. I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in food that day, but indulging every once in a while is actually a healthy thing to do! I overheard some girls in the gym locker room talking about how they were going to have to do excessive amounts of cardio after Thanksgiving was over. I laughed to myself because that's ridiculous. One day of unhealthy eating is not going to make you gain 5 pounds or hurt your fitness goals. And depriving yourself of food that you love ultimately leads to unhealthy eating behaviors. It's all about having a healthy balance. I struggled with this for a while but I finally found it. I'm eating whatever I want, working hard and lifting heavy in the gym, and I'm healthy and happy which is all that matters. For anyone struggling with finding a balance, Jennifer Lawrence has the perfect advice: