Spinach Strawberry Banana Pancakes: 80 Day Obsession Approved Recipe

P A N C A K E S 

I kid you not.. they’re always nostalgic to me.

Comfort & soul food right on a plate!!

Pancakes mean:

My favorite meal

{besides tacos, of course}

They mean family time 

They mean late night dinners

They means slow Saturday mornings

I didn’t want to skip one of my favorites for 13 weeks straight during this program we’re following {read about 80 Day Obsession here}, & lucky for me, hubby found a solution!

>> Spinach Banana & Strawberry Pancakes <<

I know, I know..

GREEN pancakes.

You can't help but stop & stare, right?

And probably also wonder, "are they any good though?"

The fun coloring you see in these photos is 100% natural - from all the healthy & delicious ingredients inside of these EASY to make pancakes!

You ready for the deets!?

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup strawberries

1/4 cup kodiak cake mix

{Or you could use another protein pancake or waffle mix, I'm sure. I used a half serving!}

1/4 banana

2 eggs

1 cup raw spinach

DIRECTIONS:

..here's how seriously easy these are.

Grab ALL dem ingredients.

Dump them in the blender.

Blend until you get a SMOOTH, green "batter."

Pour the mixture into 3" pancakes on a hot griddle.

{use coconut oil spray to grease the griddle just in case!}

Be careful if you step away - these cook QUICK.

Don't be alarmed by the brown coloring, it won't affect the taste!

Flip & finish those suckers.

Top with a bit of nut butter & or fruit.

CHOW DOWN!

This recipe is for ONE serving & makes about 6 pancakes.

For my friends working through 80 Day Obsession or any of the Beachbody programs that follow a variation of the "fixate" meal plan, one serving of these pancakes {with nut butter} counts as:

1 Red + 1 Yellow + 1 Purple + 1 Green + 1 TSP

Fudgy Chickpea Brownies: 80 Day Obsession Approved Recipe

Whoever said you can't have tasty things & be on a meal plan..

Well, bless their hearts.

And I hope they find this recipe!

I myself found this delicious concoction from FIXATE (via Beachbody on Demand) when I was hunting for an approved goodie to eat for our "refeed" day during 80 Day Obsession.

Some or none of that might make any sense to you..

First of all, my husband & I are working through a 13 week program called 80 Day Obsession, read more about what it is HERE.

Secondly, at the 6 week mark in this program, we get a day called REFEED.

It's an opportunity to eat some approved goodies to boost our glycogen before leg day. And we get them every other week from week 6-13! Whoop whoop!!

What did we have on our first refeed day??

Well, I had FOUR of these brownies & a cheeseburger with half a bun.

Sounds pretty amazing, right?

Well it was.

ANYWAYS.

Back to the recipe!

I know my Instagram & Facebook followers have been ITCHING for this ever since I posted a picture last week on my stories & wall.

I mean, don't these look awesome?!

*insert drooling emoji*

And YES.

They're made of chickpeas.

But guess what?

They're also made with chocolate..

Plus the mix is blended into oblivion.

So you can't freakin' tell!

Seriously.

Okay, enough teasing.

Here it is.

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FUDGY CHICKPEA BROWNIES

Ingredients:

1 15 ounce can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained & rinsed

1/4 cup of unsalted butter

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of pure maple syrup

2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 pinch of himalayan sea salt

1/4 cup of semi sweet or dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9x9 inch baking dish with parchment paper & lightly coat with spray.

In a blender or food processor, combine chickpeas, butter, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, cocoa powder & salt. Blend until smooth.

Add in chocolate chips & mix by hand.

Spread batter into lined dish.

Bake for 25-28 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean from the center.

Cut into squares & enjoy!

*This recipe makes 12 servings.*

So you get more than just a bite or two, but not probably the slice you'd normally cut yourself from a brownie dish.

FYI:

For anyone following the portion fix system, one serving counts as a yellow container!

______________________________________________

So whether you're on meal plan or not - of course make sure you factor it in if needed - you've gotta give these bad boys a try!

When the first meal of our refeed day came where I got to eat these - I put the baby down for her nap, heated these up & ate with a teaspoon of natural peanut butter. OH - with a fork. In silence. At the table.

You better believe I took all the necessary steps to enjoy them.

And for the left overs, I quickly wrapped them up & put them in a freezer bag. I'm definitely going to be enjoying these again in 8 days!

Let me know what you think, friends!

Carrot Bread Muffins: 80 Day Obsession Approved Recipe

Some of you know that my husband & I recently started a new program that we're a little over 5 weeks into.

Details on our 80 Day Obsession progress (4 week photos/results!! woowoo)

& WHAT the program is coming to the blog SOON.

Well, a HUGE part of this program is the nutrition plan - not just the WHAT to eat, but the HOW MUCH & even the WHEN to eat it.

Our first meal of the day is a little after 5am & we've gotta have some sort of veggie, grain & protein combination.

That's EARLY for a full meal, right?! So I'm sure you can see the appeal of finding some winning recipes to try!

For the first few weeks, we were chowing down on egg + spinach muffins with toast & peanut butter OR turkey bacon with cut broccoli (yes, I'm serious) with oats & peanut butter. Some days it just felt like a LOT to eat so early. Other days, it was fine but we were still becoming eager for a little variety in our mornings.

Enter THIS recipe - which we saw many variations of online, but found our own little sweet spot combination that we INHALED this morning at 5:15 & decided was going to be part of our regular meal repertoire!!

Shout out to my hubby, Nate, for making them.

You da best, boo.

So whether you're on a regimented meal plan also, are simply trying to find another healthy breakfast or snack OR maybe you're desperately needing to sneak veggies into food for your picky kids or spouse - you're going to want to give this recipe a spin.

CARROT BREAD MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup carrots

(roughly 10 large baby carrots)

1/4 cup rolled oats - uncooked

2 eggs

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

(you could also throw in some clove, dried ginger or pumpkin pie spice!!)

*optional sweetener: truvia, stevia, agave or honey to taste*

(we used baking truvia to sweeten ours & stay on track with our meal plan!)

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease muffins tins or miniature loaf pans.

(I use coconut oil baking spray).

Combine ingredients in blender & let it run until SMOOTH.

Pour mixture into muffin tins or mini loaf pans.

(One serving of this mix will "fill" 4 muffin tins OR 1 mini loaf pan)

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out of the center clean.

Remove from pan or tin & allow to cool on baking rack, before storing in fridge.

Why hello, beauties..

Oh! I can't forget!

Here's a little serving suggestion that takes this RIGHT over the top.

We added 1 teaspoon of natural, crunchy peanut butter to the top of our warm muffins before serving with a dash or three of cinnamon! Holy smokes it decadent.

{this is me literally eating my breakfast in bed this morning}

Y'ALL.

This was seriously so good. 

Simple, naturally "sweet", light & YUMMY!

And if you're working through the same program as us, it will likely fit ONE of your meal plan options to a T. For us, it's our pre-workout combo!!

For my friends following the Beachbody fixate meal plan, here is the container breakdown for 80 Day Obsession and 21 Day Fix:

Each serving is 1 red 1 yellow 1 green 1 teaspoon.

FYI, we made 6 total servings of this at one time & refrigerated them in our portions so all we have to do is heat, drizzle with PB & eat - so that's 24 muffins at once!

BULK PREP APPROVED!

*be realistic & open minded when you taste these the first time, friends. remember that these are very healthy muffins & taste really yummy. BUT, don't be expecting carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting when you bite in. Ha!*

Give this recipe a try & let me know what you think

+ if you make any awesome substitutions, share!

ENJOY!