I wish I could be like those of you who eat the fish bones.  With my baby steps and fish, this was too big a leap for me.  Guess that is what happens when you buy cheap fish, right?

If John cleans out the canned salmon and makes the patties, I might try them, but right now that can is sitting in the fridge.  😀

It snowed overnight and I woke up to this:

It was a heavy wet snow, too.

Amazingly enough, though, the sun came out and it got to about 40 degrees and melted a lot of this, including the snow on the roads. They were pretty dry by afternoon – which means getting my bike out tomorrow is a real possibility!  Woo Hoo!

Anyway, I don’t think I have ever written down my coconut flour waffle recipe, which is what I had for breakfast today.  This is a gluten free recipe and if you use a baking powder with no cornstarch – it is also grain free!

It really is almost the same as the protein pancake recipe, but using coconut flour instead of oats.  Now one thing to note with coconut flour – you cannot just change it measure for measure with other flours.  It is very absorbent and you really can start with half the amount.

Coconut Flour Waffles

The trick with this recipe is to be ready to go as soon as you blend the batter. If you let it stand, it will get too thick.  So, preheat the waffle iron and get the nonstick spray ready.

Serves 1.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 14 grams of coconut flour (2 tablespoons)
• 1/3 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

In a mini blender, blend all of the ingredients until smooth.  If you have to do it by hand, blend all the ingredients except the coconut flour until smooth, then mix in the coconut flour.

Liberally spray the waffle iron, both top and bottom.  Pour in the batter. You may need to spread it a bit, but it will spread mostly from the weight of the iron, so don’t worry too much.

Cook for several minutes until you can lift up the waffle iron without the batter sticking to it. Now these waffles don’t get crisp. They remain somewhat soft, so I use a spatula to roll them off the iron onto the plate.  Top as you would like!

Nutritional info:  Calories: 196; carbs 13 grams; fiber 6 grams; fat 7 grams;  protein 19 grams.  This is based on using 1% cottage cheese.

As you can see, I love to top mine with blueberries.  Surprise, surprise.

** This recipe can be a bit finicky depending on the moistness of your cottage cheese, so you might want to add a teaspoon or 2 of water if your batter is too thick.

Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies – gluten free!

I was sent this recipe by reader Katy – thanks!  Not sure of the source on this. These use my beloved coconut flour!  Very easy to make and just a few ingredients.  Don’t you love those type? I cut it in half so I wouldn’t have too many cookies in the house.

I also used mini chocolate chips for more surface area ratio in the cookies, I also changed the amounts of the add ins.

Ingredients:

• 66 grams coconut flour (1/2 cup)
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 54 grams mini chips (1/3 cup)
• 28 g (1/4 cup) dried coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone sheet.

In a small bowl, mix the eggs and melted butter with the brown sugar, vanilla, and salt.

Sift the coconut flour into the wet mix (to prevent lumps):

add in the mini chips and coconut.

Stir well to combine.  It may seem really liquidy at first, but remember coconut flour is super absorbent.

I let my bowl sit for several minutes and voila – dough!

Use a spoon, drop rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheet.  I got 14 out of this mixture, but you can do whatever size you want.

My thumb is there for size purposes, although I could also be giving an A-Okay sign if you like.

Bake at 375 for 14 minutes until the tops are lightly browned.

Nutrition per cookie (with 14 per batch):

132 calories, fat: 6.8 g, carbs: 15.5 g, fiber 3 g,  protein 2.5 g

These are very tasty and moist.

Thoughts: You can probably lighten these up with using egg whites.  Maybe applesauce instead of butter, but that would give a more cake-like texture.  I think I would also try chilling the dough and the rolling it into balls, then flattening the balls before baking.  The dough stayed in the exact shape I dropped it into on the cookie sheet.

Let me know if you try these do any changes to the recipe and I can add it here.

Enjoy!

I have been playing with the recipe over the weekend and since it involves my beloved coconut flour, I was smitten right away.

I slightly adapted this recipe from Smoothie Girl.  It is quite tasty and very moist.

• 2 egg whites (or 56 grams of liquid egg whites, 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 cup pumpkin
• 14 grams (2 Tbsp) coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix all of the ingredients really well in a microwave safe baking dish.  It should be small, on the order of 4 inches or so – like this:

I like the flat-bottomed dishes so it cooks evenly, but you can use whatever.

Put all of the ingredients in a small bowl:

Mix really well.  You will need to mash it with a spoon to incorporate the coconut flour (unless you sift it, which I am not inclined to do).

Spray your cooking vessel with nonstick spray and spread in the batter.  smooth it out evenly as that is the shape it will come out in!

Again, my hand is in there for size reference.

Pop in the microwave for 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 minutes.  This will depend on the size of your bowl.  You want it cooked through to the middle.

Let cool for a couple minutes (or heck, a long time if you want).

I topped mine with coconut butter and a bit of peach jam:

This comes out very moist and not rubbery like a lot of microwave protein cakes are.  It is the coconut flour.  That magical ingredient!  This is lightly sweet.  Deb makes hers with stevia, I think, but I don’t do sugar substitutes as most of you know.  So it’s real maple syrup for me!

Stats for the entire cake:  Calories: 168

Fat: 2 g

Carbs: 30 g

Fiber: 9 g (!!!)

Protein: 11 g

If you use 1 egg instead of the egg whites, up the calories to 200 and the fat to 7 grams.  I use the egg white version when I want to top it with fat (hello coconut butter!).

This lasted me for the whole morning when I added my 2 cups of coffee.  The coconut flour soaks up a lot of liquid in the tummy 😀

By the way, I found a better price on coconut flour on Amazon.

Azukar Organics Natural and Organic Coconut Flour, 16-Ounce Bags (Pack of 6) This is 6 one-pound bags for $18.37 – sweet!  Guess who has 6 bags in her new pantry now