February 2020 – Cape Coral-Fort Myers Personal Training & Nutrition Coaching

February 17, 2020March 10, 2020

Healthy Eats: Chickpea Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

If there are cookies being made there is not a chance I didn’t try the dough. In fact, given the choice, I’d rather have the dough than the cookies any day! It took me a few batches of my Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookie Bars before it dawned on me that the yummy dough could be left raw and divided into equal portions. So now that’s what I do, I make a few batches of the cookie bars for the whole family then a smaller batch of just dough for me and the kids since my husband has no interest in the dough! Guys, the kids go nuts for both the cookies and the dough. It’s a sneaky way to get some healthy proteins from the garbanzo beans and the pea protein instead of hot dogs, chicken fingers, and pepperoni. I know I can’t be the only mom who struggles with getting my kids to eat the healthier things in life!

This dough has the same ingredients as the cookie bars, minus the baking powder, and the same simple process to put it all together. And since there are only pasteurized egg whites and no whole eggs, this is safe to eat uncooked! Here’s how this dough comes together:

Ingredients:

1 cans of Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed
1/2 cup of natural peanut butter
1/2 cup of pasteurized egg whites (we buy these in the carton)
2 servings of pea protein powder (we buy Naked brand and use 4 total scoops to get the 2 servings)
3 TBSP mini chocolate chips
2 TBSP cup agave nectar

In a large food processor add the drained and rinsed beans, peanut butter, pea protein powder, agave nectar and baking powder. Pulse until starting to combine then drizzle in the egg whites until a nice thick dough forms. If there are some small chunks of the beans left, that’s fine, they end up tasting like peanuts! The dough will be thick so you may have to scoop some into a bowl before you can lift out the blade and empty the mixing bowl completely. Then use your hands or a strong spoon to fold in the chocolate chips. Divide the dough into 6 portions of approximately 3.75 oz each. Store in small containers and keep refrigerated.

The macros are the same whether it’s dough or cookie bar! This Chickpea Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough has 300 calories, 20 g of protein, 30 g of carbs, 13 g of fat per serving. Again, you should end up with six servings.

We’ve been making healthy food taste oh so good since 2008. Try our recipes, they will not disappoint even the most discerning palette.

*The exact portions will vary per person. Contact us for more details on your portions and macronutrient breakdown per meal/per day! There is no need to guess at how you should eat – let us help you eat right for your body type and goals!

February 17, 2020February 17, 2020

Healthy Eats: Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookie Bars

Do you love the classic peanut butter/chocolate chip combination? I know I do and I always have. How about cookies? Could you eat your way through a pan of homemade cookies? I can and I always could! So what if we made the cookies a complete meal with good carbs from chickpeas (garbanzo beans) instead of flour, good sweetness from natural peanut butter and agave nectar instead of white sugar, and healthy protein from egg whites and pea protein powder? We knocked this recipe out of the park. These Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookie Bars are sweet, filling and satisfying. Here’s how to whip them up…

Ingredients:

2 cans of Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) drained and rinsed
1 cup of natural peanut butter
1 cup of pasteurized egg whites (we buy these in the carton)
4 servings of pea protein powder (we buy Naked brand and use 8 total scoops to get the 4 servings)
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large food processor add the drained and rinsed beans, peanut butter, pea protein powder, agave nectar and baking powder. Pulse until starting to combine then drizzle in the egg whites until a nice thick dough forms. If there are some small chunks of the beans left, that’s fine, they end up tasting like peanuts! The dough will be very thick so you’ll have to scoop some into a bowl before you can lift out the blade and empty the mixing bowl completely. Then use your hands or a very strong spoon to fold in the chocolate chips. Use your hands to press into a 8×11 pan. Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes depending on oven. You do not want to over-bake these, they will be dry. If baked just right they should be a little soft like a perfect cookie bar!

Cut the bars into 12 equal portions. I just eyeball it and try to get as close as possible. I have eaten for breakfast, lunch, post workout, snack, etc. They are great anytime of the day and ooohhh so delicious with a cup of coffee. Here’s the numbers we’re working with for your macros: 300 calories, 20 g of protein, 30 g of carbs, 13 g of fat. I hope you enjoy my Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookie Bars as much as I do. If you’re more a fan of dough than cookies, see my recipe edits to just enjoy the dough!

Healthy food can taste great too and we know how to do it! Try our other tasty healthy EATS by clicking here.

February 10, 2020February 10, 2020

Healthy Eats: Partially Plant Based Macro Nutrition

There is a food movement picking up steam and it’s called plant based eating. It seems I get asked almost daily what I think about plant based nutrition. For two fitness professionals (my husband Justin and myself) who have followed macro-based meal planning for nearly a decade, we personally took an interest in the concept and wondered if it would be possible to reduce animal based proteins and still live by our macro-based nutrition plans? For years we thought there was no way we could eat enough protein from plants and beans to still “hit our numbers”. We couldn’t imagine a meal plan that didn’t feature chicken and turkey as it’s main protein sources. Could we add more plant based proteins, healthy seafoods, etc. and reduce animal based proteins?

Aside from growing tired of chicken, pork, and turkey, we had some plant based inspiration from two documentaries. We were a little late to the game, watching 2008 documentary Food, Inc. just last year in 2019. This movie examines the US agricultural business and claims that the food is unhealthy and produced in a manner harmful to our environment and abusive to both people and animals. To say we were turned off from livestock would be an understatement. We had already had our issues with chicken texture, quality, taste, etc., but to see how they are raised, kept and slaughtered was really icing on the cake. Of course there was still the issue of how could we possibly eat enough beans to hit our protein needs? So next, at the end of 2019 we watched the incredibly popular 2018 documentary The Game Changers which follows elite athletes not just surviving but thriving on plant-based nutrition. For years we’ve thought only protein from animals could sustain muscle mass but now our wheels started turning that maybe plant based alternatives could at least partially serve our protein needs and allow us to reduce/eliminate livestock.

So shortly after Christmas 2019 we decided to 86 chicken, pork and turkey from our macro-based weekday cooking. Trust me that was a lot of our everyday eating. If you look through my recipes on my Healthy Eats blog there are many that feature these proteins. So for the past month and a half we’ve filled our protein macros with bean pastas, tofu, fish/seafood, lentils, chickpeas, eggs, grass-fed beef/bison/elk, and nuts. I know we aren’t the first to coin the term “partially plant-based” but it really is how we are eating now. We focus more on the quality of food and less on the quantity of meat. We’re developing yummy recipes that go beyond just beans and allow for us to still live within our macro-based nutrition. Soon, we’ll have a “partially plant based” recipe section to compliment our other clean eating recipes so you too can dabble in the nutrition that has us feeling great.

We are by no means suggesting everyone should boycott chicken, pork and turkey but for us it just felt like it was time for a change. It’s only been about a month and a half with these changes in place so are we stronger, leaner, healthier? Well it’s hard to answer that because we were already in a good spot health wise. We’ve kept lean physiques for years with our macro-based nutrition. We eat clean and train mean all week long then we live life to the fullest on the weekends. We love to have fun with our family & friends which includes delicious eats and drinks on the weekend. So for us it wasn’t about losing weight or even growing muscle; for us it was about changing the quality of our macro intakes. So far so good. We feel well fed, the food is yummy, and workouts have by no means suffered, you could even say they’ve been better fueled.

We are now more informed and better educated on the concept of plant-based eating. You could certainly go full plant-based and still live by a macro plan. For us, partially plant-based is where we are most comfortable but who knows, we could go “all in” at some point! Stay tuned for recipe inspiration…