Tag: tofu

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Blueberry Burst Breakfast Muffins

Blueberry Power Breakfast Muffins
Blueberry Power Breakfast Muffins

Need a portable breakfast to jam out of the house quick in the morning? These vegan high protein blueberry burst breakfast muffins are filling and wholesome, with delicious berry sweetness. 8g of protein per muffin, with low sugar.

I created this recipe for my athletes who follow a vegan diet (or do not tolerate dairy). Ensuring adequate high quality protein intake is critical. Instead of milk or other dairy, these muffins use tofu (yes, tofu!) in the base. Soy is an all-star source of plant protein. It’s lean, contains adequate concentrations of all essential amino acids, and is relatively well digested and absorbed. Even if you don’t care for tofu, you will like these muffins. The tofu is blended down, and then combined with flavorful almond flour, oats, pancake mix, banana, and juicy blueberries to create the batter.

Notes about the recipe

A high power blender is required for this recipe (I use a Vitamix). Make sure the tofu is extra firm variety, and add any water in the tofu package into the blender.

Blended Tofu

Blending down the tofu takes a bit of patience at first. Crumble it as much as possible as you add it to the blender. Start on low power and gradually increase speed; scrape down the sides and mix with a spoon as many times as necessary until it blends uniformly. If needed, add 1 tbsp. water to help the process. Once able to blend smoothly for 30 seconds on high speed, add banana, cinnamon, and baking powder. An additional 1 tbsp. of water may be needed after adding these ingredients to be able to mix on high again. The mixture should look like the picture at left – it’s very thick, but pourable.

The banana and blueberries provide very light sweetness to the muffins. If you prefer sweeter, add monkfruit or other sweetener to the blender mixture when you add the baking powder. Be sure to save some blueberries to place on top of each muffin for some extra sweet bursts! Optionally, sprinkle on a few oats (or chopped nuts) for a little bit of crunch.

For baking, I used a metal 12-well muffin pan lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Baking time may vary if you use a silicone muffin pan. The muffins popped out easily after cooling for a few minutes.

Will this recipe work with other fruit? Absolutely! Some other suggestions are raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries (but in pieces).

For meal prep

Blueberry Power Breakfast Muffins

I recommend prepping these blueberry burst breakfast muffins on Sunday for busy weekday mornings. Cool the muffins completely before storing in an airtight container in the fridge. They will keep for 5-6 days. While they taste good cold, I prefer them zapped in the microwave or toaster oven. Pair with a portable plant yogurt cup, and you’re out the door with a delicious breakfast.

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Southwestern Chili & Pepper Dippers

Southwestern Chili

This comforting one-pan southwestern chili & pepper dippers recipe is a hearty family dinner and a friendly part of your meal-prep arsenal.

This chili is proof-positive that great tasting comfort food doesn’t need to be loaded down with extra fats. It’s rich in flavor (and protein)!

I love to eat chili with chips but find the empty calories from chips don’t satisfy me. The pepper dippers are higher protein, lower fat, and a lot more robust for chili scooping capability. The red pepper paste (see link in recipe) adds an almost cheesy taste to these chips and with only three ingredients, they are very easy to make. Greek yogurt makes a surprisingly good base for the dough. Note that it does not work with regular yogurt (too much moisture).

We want this chili to be thick and with minimal liquid so look for a fresh pico de gallo salsa or a jarred version where you can drain out extra liquid. Likewise, use of lime powder instead of lime juice helps keep the chili from being watery.

Lean ground beef or chicken are great alternatives for the meat, as is Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) crumbles for a plant-based option. If you don’t care for black beans, pinto beans are a good substitute, with near-identical macros.

Look forward to getting your feedback on this Southwestern Chili & Pepper Dippers recipe! Please share on socials or with a friend if you enjoyed it.

If you are looking for some directed, custom help to meet your physique goals, please contact me.

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Sweet & Spicy Tofu

Ready to learn how to fuel your goals with the right mindset and plan?

A simple Chinese stir fry-inspired dish packed with protein and veggies.

When my taste buds need a break from chicken and turkey breast, pork, and lean cuts of beef, I use opportunity to explore new recipes with other protein sources. This recipe uses Tofu (a complete protein and an excellent option for vegetarians and vegans) and collagen* as the main protein sources. If you are not a tofu fan, this dish would also work great with chicken or pork.

Firstly, the tofu. It’s important to use extra firm so it doesn’t fall apart during cooking. Typically a tofu stir-fry dish calls for fried tofu which is deep fried in soybean oil and triples the calories:

Instead, I “fake fried” the tofu in a pan with a light spray of canola oil to give the exterior a crisp texture. The end result is nicely browned cubes that aren’t greasy and are ready to absorb the glaze.

  • Before “frying”
  • After “Frying”

For the glaze: A common way to thicken a glaze or sauce is to add corn starch. Rather than corn starch (carbohydrate), I instead used collagen protein which provides the same result but instead adds additional protein. It’s a great substitution; collagen is flavorless and readily absorbs into water. It seamlessly mixes with the other ingredients in the glaze.

Hoisin sauce and chilli sauce can be purchased at all major grocery stores, although it is usually less expensive at the Asian grocery stores. You can adjust the level of heat by adding more or less chili sauce. The recipe keeps it mild, I usually add more as I eat it.

Chinese eggplant and the peppers.

Finally, a note about the veggies. I used Chinese eggplant because it contains slightly less water than the more commonly found large ones to reduce the risk of over-steaming and sogginess. Eggplant is a high fiber food and contains some great micronutrients. It also happens to be an amazing sponge for flavors, win-win! For the peppers, you can use any color – I just happened to have a red and orange in the fridge. Green would change the flavor a bit, but not in a bad way.

Sweet and Spicy Tofu Eggplant

Makes: 4 servings

Per Serving: 256 kcal, 26g Carbs, 20g Protein, 8g Fat

Ingredients:

  • 2 Chinese eggplant, chopped into bite sized pieces
  • 2 bell peppers (any color), chopped into bite sized pieces
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 425 g (15 oz) extra firm tofu
  • 40 g collagen protein
  • 60g (3 tbsp) hoisin Sauce
  • 30 g chili paste
  • 3 tbsp water
  • 6-8 mists of canola oil spray

Instructions:

  1. Cut tofu up into approx. 3/4″ cubes
  2. Mist large skillet or pan (flat bottom) with canola oil spray and place in the tofu cubes.
  3. Turn heat to medium-high and allow the tofu to cook for 6-7 minutes, or until the bottom side turns golden brown. Flip the cubes and repeat the heating process until all sides are golden. Remove tofu from pan and set aside.
  4. In a small bowl, thoroughly stir together hoisin sauce, chili paste, water, minced garlic, and collagen powder to form the glaze. Set aside.
  5. Lightly spray the skillet again and add the chopped veggies. Heat on medium high for 12-14 minutes, or until veggies are tender and you see the eggplant turn slightly translucent. Stir up the veggies every minute or so to ensure even cooking. Try not to let the pieces stack on top of one another to ensure that they all cook through. Here is what they should look like after cooking:
  6. Turn heat to low. Add tofu back to the pan then add the glaze. Gently fold all ingredients together until the glaze coats all of the pieces.

This dish goes great with either white or brown rice.

I enjoy coming up with new recipes for myself and to meet my client’s needs. Please let me know if you’ve given this a try!

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* Meats, whey, casein, and egg protein are excellent complete protein sources. A complete protein source must contain all nine of the essential amino acids – the amino acids that or bodies can’t produce on their own and we must get from our diets. Soy and hemp are also complete if you are looking for plant-derived alternatives.

However, collagen is an incomplete protein- it lacks one of the nine essential amino acids (tryptophan). Further, its amino acid profile is skewed towards glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline which is not ideal if you are looking to sustain and grow more muscle. If your diet is primarily based on the complete sources mentioned above, there is no harm incorporating collagen into your diet…..it will help strengthen your nails, hair, skin, and joints.

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Protein Packed Spring Rolls

These spring rolls are an awesome treat and store very well in the fridge – great for meal prep and eating throughout the week. I make these when I know I’m going to be very busy. I love them because they don’t require a microwave, are super portable for on-the-go eating, have a nice variety of textures and flavors, and have great fiber content from the veggies.

The best reason to give these a try is that they highly macro adjustable. If you want more protein in a certain meal, load in more chicken and/or tofu and reduce carbs by eliminating the rice noodles. Here are two examples with similar calories but adjusted protein and carbs.

I’m huge on habit formation. Preparing these rolls together with your family is a great opportunity to create a social experience and reinforce healthy dinners. You can make them assembly line style as a team. 🙂

For these spring rolls, you will need:

  • Rice paper wrappers and rice noodles (can be found at most regular supermarkets, I got these at the local Vietnamese grocery store)
  • Cooked chicken breast, cut into thin slices
  • Bean Curd (firm tofu) – cut into thin slices
  • Thin sliced carrots and cucumber
  • Romaine lettuce (other types work too) cut into strips

Cook the chicken breast in a pan and season with salt and pepper, then cook the rice noodles as directed (they cook super fast). Next, cut up the carrots, cucumber, lettuce,chicken and tofu into strips.

After all the fillers are prepped, fill a pan larger than the wrapper with warm water, then take one wrapper and soak for 5 longish seconds. Wrapping tightly takes a bit of practice, but the rice wrappers overall are surprisingly forgiving. Lay the soaked wrapper on a cutting board and lay in your desired fillings in a strip in the middle. Leave a bit of space at the bottom of the wrapper for folding. Fold up the bottom first. Then start rolling from one end, slightly packing the filling as you go so it doesn’t squish out or create too loose a roll. Keep rolling all the way to the other side; the stickiness of the wrapper will adhere it to itself, creating a nice seal.

If I’m watching calories closely, I use sriracha or chili sauce (minimal to zero calories) for a dip. For a Thai flavor, a low cal option is to mix peanut butter powder such as PB2 with some chilli sauce and water, with a small pinch of ground ginger to taste.

After you try them, let me know what you think! I’ll be posting more adjustable macro recipes soon.

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