Healthy salmon with caramelized apples, scallions plus a lemony cauliflower risotto – 280 calories

Busy week nights sure aren’t an excuse to go for unhealthy fast food. Even tho, it might be tempting since you’re already tired and don’t have much time in the kitchen. This is where this dish comes in. While it needs a little prep it can be done the day before. I store loads of the riced cauliflower in my fridge for example, because it variety of uses is never ending. It’s basically one of the most important components of my morning oatmeal. Later, I’ll also post some cauliflower baked goods.

Well, you can use whatever veggies you feel like for the risotto. I prefer to use my leftovers or whatever I find at the bottom shelf of my fridge. Some healthy and fun combos are legumes, fruits such as apricots, soy beans.. Uh, just grab the delicious goods you have at home and experiment!

However, I strongly recommend using the pairing of lemon and apple. They go really well together and melt beautifully with the salmon. If you don’t have lemons, just use another acidic fruit such as kiwi, cranberries or lime and a sub acid fruit instead o the apple. It could be cherries, peaches, pears or maybe plums? You may experiment a bit and it will still stay quite low in calories since the risotto is very diet friendly (and packed with flavor at the same time!)

The recipe serves 3 persons

3 pieces of salmon filet (360 g)
1 medium sized apple
2 small scallions (20 g)
Spices to taste
1 small sized head of cauliflower (about 500 g)
About ten to twelve mushrooms (120 g)
3-4 inch (7-10 cm) piece leek
1/2 cup or 1 dl dry white wine
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Fresh parsley to taste
1 garlic clove
Sweetener of choice
Vegetable broth

Preheat the oven to 400 F or 200 C. Cut the apples in to wedges, dice the scallions and caramelized them both with whatever sweetener you’re using in a sauté pan over medium heat. Take them off the heat as soon as they start to seem a bit under. Dip the salmon filets in half of the lemon juice and season. Place the sautéd apples and scallions on top and cook in the oven for about 13-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, start making the risotto by ricing the cauliflower. Now this can be done using a food processor or simply grating by hand – the point is to make your cauliflower look like rice. Be careful not to make a mush tho!

Once you’re done with that, cut the mushrooms, garlic, leeks and the parsley. Sauté the leeks and garlic with some herbs or other seasoning. Add the riced cauliflower, parsley, remaining lemon juice, mushrooms, white wine and the broth once your leeks start to brown. Season with salt and pepper, a little sweetener and cook on medium-low heat until all the liquid is gone.

Calories: 280
Fat: 18 g
Carbs: 17 g
Protein: 21 g

Oh, if your macros call for a bit more protein (which mine did), just put together a sauce made on quark, dill and horseradish for an additional 5-10 g protein.

Easy, healthy, guilt free Pavlova for 52 calories and 5 g protein! HEAVEN!

Have you ever made a batch cookies or something and felt like your hormones, your mood or whatevs made you almost eat the whole batch? Well, I feel so every time I bake, even when my hormones doesn’t bother me. The point with low calorie baking is that you should be able to do that, totally guilt free. So today I experimented with an old classic – a beautiful pavlova.

Since the original recipe contains a lot of sugar and cream – I had to tweak it a bit to create a healthy, light and quilt free treat and it came out crazy low on calories. The original recipe calls for whipped cream but it’s a bit to heavy for me so I switched it for low fat, sugar free lemon curd and added some whey powder. The result almost made me cry out of pure happiness, it was awesome.

So, recipe for the healthy pavlova:
4 egg whites (110g or 1/2 cup or 1,2 dl liquid egg whites) at room temperature
1/2 cup or 1 dl sweetener of choice (or less, if your protein powder is sweetened)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or whatever extract you feel like using
A splash of lemon juice
A little lemon zest if you feel like it
2 tsp cornstarch
Beautiful berries for garnish

Preheat oven to 425 F or 120 C and but your egg whites on the stove top on the oven to get them to room temperature if they’re cold. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and add the sweetener little by little, blend well after each addition and blend until glossy and stiff. Then add the zest, the juice and the cornstarch and beat until it holds form. Pipe about 6 meringues on a parchment paper and don’t forget about the dent in the middle of each one.

Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes and then turn off your oven and let them cool inside for another 40-50 minutes. The time may vary depending on your oven and how lucky you’re! Haha! If you feel unsure, just wait until they’re crisp and firm. If they seem soft even if they’ve been in the oven for years, try taking one out and letting it cool for a minute.

While they’re in the oven, start doing your low calorie lemon curd! It may contain a tricky and fairly unknown ingredient, xanthan gum, but trust me – it’s superb if you’re into doing magic in the kitchen and playing with molecular gastronomy.

4 tsp sweetener of choice
1/3 cup or 0,8 dl lemon juice
1-2 tsp lemon zest
1 egg
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 scoop (1/4 cup, 0,4 dl, or 15 g) vanilla whey
A splash of water or two

Stir the sweetener along with the zest and juice in a sauce pan over medium heat until bubbles appear. Whisk the egg lightly in a medium bowl and slowly add the lemon syrup constantly whisking. Add the xhantan gum and the protein powder and put it back on the stove. Turn down the heat to low and whisk until it forms a curd like consistency. Add water if to thick and take it off the stove whenever you’re happy with it. Cool it in the fridge and store the left overs in a air tight container.

Garnish your chilled meringues with the curd and garnish with fresh berries or whatever floats your boat! My macros called for some berries but any semi sour fruit will work just fine.

Macros for one pavlova out of six (including the berries and the curd)
Calories: 52
Fat: 1 g
Protein: 5 g
Carbs: 2,5 g

Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside low calorie gluten free biscuits – 70 calories each

Sundays makes perfect #brunch days. My brother came over and it’s always nice to have someone that’s not on a diet to taste your food because their taste buds aren’t quite messed up. I mean, I’ve been dieting for so long that tasty food is even tastier and that’s of course a great benefit of dieting, haha! Anyhow, since I wanted bread, or something breadish but didn’t liked the idea of eating something store brought and without all them nice macros, I threw together quick protein biscuits for the whole family and guess what? No stone hard or lumpy disaster but rich and moist little babies that won my whole families approval! Most of all, they were packed with digestible carbs, easy and had a crispy outside. Heaven!

Almost 1 cup or 2 dl (200 g) quark or greek yoghurt
2 cups or 4 dl (200 g) dark gluten free flour blend
1 scoop (30 g -1/3 cup or 0,8 dl) vanilla whey
1 T bakning powder
A pinch of salt
Optional seasoning (I recommend cardamon, cinnamon, turmeric and ginger)
A splash or two of dairy free milk
A little apple cider vinegar

Blend all the dry ingredients and add the quark or yoghurt. Stir in a little milk just until your batter forms a dough. Transfer to a floured counter top, kned and roll until it’s 1 inch or 2-3 cm thick. Use a floured drinking glass or cookie cutter to cut circles. This recipe should make about 12 small biscuits. Bake in the oven at 425 F or 210 C for about 15 minutes or until the outside is brown and your home smells like a lovely bakery.

This recipe came out low calorie, high protein and quickly became my new the pre workout power bomb!

Macros for one bun out of 12:
Calories: 70
Fats: 1,6 g
Protein: 6 g
Carbs: 7 g

Buckwheat protein pancake porn – 298 calories

This recipe is so friggin’ nice! I sure love my pancake stacks but when I see improvement my heart skips a beat!

1 egg
1 small or 75 g mashed banana
1 tsp (10 g) quark or greek yoghurt
2 T (14 g) coconut meal
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp (10 g) buckwheat meal
1/2 scoop (15 g) vanilla whey

Blend everything using a blender or food processor and heat your pan on medium low heat. Grease both your pan and your spatula with coconut oil or whatever you feel like using and cook this little babies for about a minute or two or until tiny bubbles starts to appear on each side. They should be a little bit brown when you flip them! I topped of mine with some whey sauce (whey with almond milk) and berries.

This recipe makes 5-6 small pancakes and the whole recipe is:
Cal: 298
Fat: 8
Carbs: 27
Protein: 24

Low calorie pina colada muffins – 59 cal and whopping 6 g of protein each!

How about some coconut pineapple protein muffins? This recipe for these pina colada cupcakes are my true pride and joy. They make me feel like I’m cheating yet they still are gluten free, low calorie and packed with tons of good stuff!

2 scoops (60 g) vanilla whey
1 T (7 g) coconut flour
55 g regular oats (a little bit more than 1/2 cup or 1,6 dl)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Powdered pineapple (optional)
Sweetener to taste
1/2 cup or 1 dl (100 g) low fat cottage cheese
5 g melted coconut oil
Coconut essence
4 (120 g) egg whites
120 g fresh or canned pineapple
5 grams coconut flakes
A pinch of salt
2 T (30 g) unsweetened applesauce

Blend all the dry ingredients (but save some coconut flakes for garnish) and then add all the wet ones except for the pineapple and the egg whites. Use a food processor or blender. Whisk the egg whites lightly in a separate bowl and gently fold them into the mixture. Finely dice the pineapple, cook it on medium temperature in a saucepan with some sweetener and set aside.
Divide your mixture into 13 muffin molds and garnish with the cooked pineapple and the coconut flakes. Don’t worry if they look smallish, they’ll raise in the oven. Bake those babies at 350 F/180 F until slightly brown on top or for about 13 minutes. Tadaaa!

This recipe makes 13 servings and one serving is:
Cal: 59
Fat: 1 g
Protein: 6 g
Carbs: 4 g

Chickpea, avocado and chicken salad – 265 cal

Well, I’m a huge fan of chicken combined with pomegranate seed! You should try it now if you haven’t yet! It’s sure a delish combo! Here’s a recipe for a quick and light summer salad that can be made with whatever you have at hand – the really important ingredients is the chick peas, chicken and pomegranate.

1/2 cup or 1 dl chopped red bell pepper
1 cup or 2 dl (150 g) chick peas
1 huge skin- and boneless cooked chicken breast á 200 g (mine was already marinated)
1/4 cup or 1/2 dl (40 g) pomegranate seeds
1 cup or 2 dl (250 g) chopped cucumber
1/2 (50 g) chopped small red onion
1 medium-sized (100 g) avocado
2/3 cup or 1,5 dl (170 g) halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup or 2 dl (200 g) chopped green lettuce
1,5 T (20 g) green basil pesto
Herbal salt, pepper, parmesan spice, apple cider vinegar and other spices to taste

Finely dice everything and just blend in a huge bowl. Put in the fridge and let the flavors sink in while you do a sauce. I strongly recommend aioli made with quark (greek yoghurt or whatever you have at hand works), honey, one garlic clove and spices.

The recipe makes 3 servings and one serving is:
Cal: 265
Fat: 11
Protein: 19
Carbs: 22