It is HOT right now. And my favorite thing to eat in the summer when I am warm is watermelon. So I decided to make a refresher using NuNaturals Collagen! 🙂
The ingredients are SO simple, this is barely a recipe. The only thing you need to remember to do is freeze some watermelon and banana.
First, I blended the watermelon and banana with a splash of coconut milk. I continued to add the coconut milk until it was a smooth almost daiquiri-like texture. Then I added the collagen and blended it a little more so it would be evenly incorporated. Enjoy!
Okay, before I start I must admit that granola is EXCELLENT for it’s general uses like parfaits. Here are some shots of me using Hunt & Gather Granola on parfaits, yogurt bowls, smoothie bowls, or as cereal:
First off- all of these treats were freaking delightful. When I was recently talking with the mastermind behind H&G we discussed different ways to use granola (other than the perfectly delightful pictures seen above). Here are three uses for granola that aren’t a parfait, smoothie bowl, yogurt bowl, or cereal:
Fruit and Kale Salad
I don’t know about y’all, but I am OBSESSED with the Panera Strawberry Poppyseed salad. It is my jam. I wanted to make something similar to that with ingredients I had on hand. The final product was AMAAAAZING! Here are the ingredients:
2 cups of kale, chopped
1/2 cup diced mango
1/2 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup sliced cucumbers
1/2 cup Hunt & Gather’s Banana Bread Granola
1/4 cup dried pineapple slices
Dressing: 1/3 cup maple syrup, splash of apple cider vinegar, splash of lemon juice, tbsp of olive oil
To assemble salad, make dressing in a jar so you can shake it to emulsify. Add all remaining ingredients to the bowl (other than H&G granola and pineapple slices). Let the salad sit for about 5 minutes, then top with the H&G amazingness and serve. 🙂
Banana Pancakes
This recipe came about because we had some WICKED ripe bananas and I had no interest in turning on the oven to make banana bread (Texas summer, y’all). So I mashed a very ripe banana, then added a bit of kodiak cake mix, water, and cinnamon. I kept playing with the ratios until it was a pancake consistency. This made two servings of two pancakes. Then I pan-fried another ripe banana with a drizzle of honey and sprinkle of cinnamon. The pancakes were topped with the fried banana slices and Hunt & Gather’s Banana Bread Granola.
Recipe Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas (one for mashing one for slicing and frying)
1/3 cup Kodiak cake mix (add more if consistency is too watery)
1/3 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon (half for pancake batter and half for frying banana slices)
1 tbsp Honey
1/3 cup Hunt & Gather’s Banana Bread Granola
To assemble: I put two pancakes on each plate. Then I topped them with the fried banana slices and granola. You can add cool whip or whipped cream on top of you wish. The ripe bananas were so sweet that we didn’t need to add syrup to these.
SO good!!!
Peach Cobbler
I wanted to use the busy bee granola on my peach cobbler. Initially I thought about using the granola as part of the crumble I baked in the oven, but I was worried that the BEAUTIFUL flower petals would lose their vibrant color when heated up. Instead, I spooned the warm peach cobbler into bowls, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and put the busy bee granola on top. Delightful!
Thanks for reading. If you haven’t tried Hunt and Gather’s granola yet, here’s where to find it. My favorites right now are the rainbow granola and the red velvet. But even while typing that I’m not sure I can leave out busy bee or Mexican hot chocolate or banana bread… maybe collect them all like Pokemon cards?
Well, “nooch” is a word I never thought I’d use. It is shorthand for Nutritional Yeast, an ingredient I played with briefly years ago when on the Paleo diet. I used it in a few recipes that called for it, then literally never bought it again. Nothing against the stuff, I just didn’t make too many recipes that called for it. Man, dear readers, how things have changed… 🙂
Nooch Popcorn
When NuNaturals shared they were making their own, I asked for some to try out in recipes. And, per usual, they delivered (I should add that it is also ON SALE right now. No, they don’t pay me. Ha!)
I guess I should say that the nooch shared the stage with Everything but the Bagel seasoning. This is basically the song where (inexplicably) Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson fought over the same girl. In the end we all win, really.
Tahini Nooch Kale Salad
I also used nutritional yeast as part of a salad dressing! I used kale here because it stands up well to bold dressing choices. This delish dressing concoction was made using lemon juice, tajini, nooch, garlic, soy sauce, and a bit of apple cider vinegar. Because this dressing was SO flavorful, there were only two other ingredients: kale and ribbons of rainbow carrot. Both from Farmhouse Delivery. Obviously. 🙂
Keto Broccoli Fritters
My final recipe using nutritional yeast also provided me an opportunity to use up some broccoli I had laying around. Occasionally, as a CSA box gal, there’s a rando ingredient who needs some friends. This week it was broccoli. So I made these fritters using almond flour, nutritional yeast, egg, and broccoli pulsed in a food processor.
On my next attempt I would replace the almond flour with regular flour or wheat flour. The flavor of these was great, but they were a bit dry. Not your fault, nooch. The dang almonds did us wrong. 🙂
What’s Next?
I would like to make Keto Fried Chicken using nutritional yeast in the future. I’ll report back on how that goes, as well as the decidedly not Keto fitters I make on round 2.
This shake has EVERYTHING: oats, protein, deliciousness, cinnamon, cocoa powder… come on now! Why have I been hiding this from you? (No, really… I am asking you because I am at a loss.)
I have lived in many-a-homes. This recipe has travelled with me since I lived in Michigan with my adorbs hubster. Here’s a pic of our last day at that house and what we looked like in 2013:
Side bar: the woman who took this pic was the obligatory “nosy neighbor” in every movie ever. She asked us how much our house sold for and where we were going before taking this picture. I just wanted to set the scene for you here. 🙂
Anyways, back in this adorbs house I came across this recipe on Pinterest. It was absolutely delicious and I told everyone on Facebook, because I think Instagram was new and I did not have Twitter. So I told who I could, okay?
I updated this recipe for y’all by adding 2 tbsp of NuNaturals Collagen. While this recipe was already delish, it did not really have much protein. I liked the flavor as is, so I didn’t want to add a protein powder and screw that up. This was the ideal solution! Here’s the gang taking a group photo before I assembled:
All you do is take every ingredient except the frozen banana and let it soak overnight together like a little pool party. Then you blend the soaked oat mixture with the frozen banana and enjoy! Today is super busy so this is the perfect lunch time treat! Full disclosure, I am literally drinking this as I type. It is a delish treat that makes working through lunch seem manageable (I am not working through lunch because this is not my job, but I imagine it would be good on a day where I was swamped and had to).
I mentioned last week that I am trying out keto recipes. I am not a keto gal, but I like a challenge and NuNaturals products work well for Keto lifestyles. Last week I made a no-bake cheesecake. This week I decided I wanted to make a keto chia seed pudding with matcha powder. Look at this majesty:
Keto Trifle made with Chia Seed Pudding, Vanilla Collagen Pudding, and Berry Gelatin
1 tsp matcha bloomed in hot water
1/2 cup milk of choice
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 packet of NuNaturals Stevia
Once the matcha was mixed in with the hot water, I let it cool a bit then added almond milk and chia seeds. I poured this into two dessert cups. Then it chillaxed in the fridge while I made some pudding.
1 packet of Vanilla Pudding (stevia sweetened- no sugar)
2 tbsp NuNaturals Collagen
1.5 cups milk of choice
I put these three ingredients in my kitchenaid mixer and “lett’r whirl” for 2 minutes. PUDDING! This was spooned on top of the chilled chia pudding (now solid because it was in the fridge).
Finally, I wanted to make some gelatin as a top layer. I forgot that it is super hot when you make it and I did not want to melt the other layers. So this was cooled in two separate dessert cups and added to the top at the end. The ingredients for this layer (more like a little hat):
1 tbsp NuNaturals gelatin
1 cup raspberries
2 cups water
NuNauturals Vanilla Syrup (to taste)
I bloomed the gelatin in 1/4 cup of the water. The rest of the water, raspberries, and syrup were heated on the stovetop until it started to boil. I then removed it from the heat, added the bloomed gelatin, and whisked it until everything was incorporated. Finally, I strained the gelatin into a cup. Each little gelatin circle had a strawberry slice. So fancy, y’all.
Protein Pudding and Jell-O Coupe
I had extra pudding and gelatin, so I made a lightened up version of one of my favorite childhood desserts. We used to get dinner at this place called The Forge. They sold red jello with whipped cream as a dessert and, in spite of the fact that this seems like a hospital dessert, I wanted it every damn time. Don’t ask kids why when it comes to food cravings (or me in general, TBH). I made a lightened up version of this using the leftover ingredients.
First, I poured the leftover gelatin in two coupe glasses. Then I added diced strawberries. These sat out until they were at room temperature, then they were placed in the refrigerator (I also did this for the strawberry “hats” shown above).
I chilled these four bebes in the fridge. The littler ones are the “hats” on top of the chia pudding trifles. I put those back in the refrigerator to work on my homage to the Forge dessert. I spooned a mixture of the leftover pudding and cool whip on top of the gelatin layer. This was decorated with a little whipped cream cloud and 1/2 a strawberry.
Look at this elegant leftover feast:
I am going to attempt a baked keto espresso cheesecake for next round… stay tuned!
I wanted to dabble in the keto recipe game. I am not a keto person because bread is life, but at the same time I know some people have had success with this and they need desserts too, dang it!
The next few weeks I plan to share some keto recipes using NuNaturals sweeteners, MCT oil powder, Gelatin, and Collagen.
First up? An EASY dessert for two. This took longer to write up than it did to make. I wanted a no-bake option and decided cheesecake would be a delish treat for me to test out (for you, dear readers… I am selfless).
This recipe uses collagen and sweeteners. Here’s my IKEA directions (pictures only), followed by the recipe card.
I would like to add, for the record, that I used a tbsp of that little bowl of butter. Just in case you thought a full bowl of butter was used for these two baby cheesecakes… 🙂
Recipe Card
What’s next on the keto train? I am looking at a espresso cheesecake that is baked, as well as some chia puddings and maybe brownies? Time will tell…
Why, hello dear readers! I am (once again) sharing a trick my cousin Nikki taught me long ago- you can use leftover holiday candy and PUT IT IN PANCAKES! I showed you how to do that with a waffle for my Galentine’s Day post. Today, I will show you how to sneak some delish leftover candy into some protein muffins.
Collagen Protein Muffins
The muffins in this recipe are featuring ingredients from both Kodiak and NuNaturals. They also showcase the various baking items my mom sent our way! Check this out:
How cute is that latte covered in easter sprinkles!?
I digress… I used the bunny ears, sprinkles, baking cups, and mini eggs in this recipe. I also modified Kodiak’s recipe on the box (below) and cut it in half as well because there are just two of us. It made six muffins.
I used the following for six muffins:
The only sort of finesse to this recipe was mashing the banana separately and adding it second to last. The Collagen from NuNaturals added some extra protein and the NuNaturals vanilla syrup added a subtle sweet note. The last item was the crushed mini eggs. I put them in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Here are some process pictures:
You may have noticed that the adorable eggs (bottom left) looked wicked sad when they were baked (second from left on bottom). Since chocolates are baking duct tape, I just plopped a NEW egg on top of the baked eggs whilst they were cooling. And added bunny ears. I also ate the ugliest one so it did not feel bad about missing the photo shoot. It was delightful.
Easter Picnic Fun
Speaking of “delightful,” I promised to share how our Easter picnic went! Well, we had to change plans a bit. The Easter Bunny got my husband a Covid Vaccine! So we moved the picnic to Saturday…. which was rainy. We decided to eat our meal in the house and enjoy our dessert on the back porch with our cat Champion (he’s allowed out on a leash… yes, you read that correctly).
Here’s the delish Easter spread (I was able to do open-faced Grinder sammies since we were at home, so that was a plus!).
The bottom left is our “Easter pic” we sent to family while waiting for Jon’s vaccine appointment. The right is proof of our porch picnic, where we ate cakecicles and Champ mostly sniffed the air suspiciously.
If you want to know more about these ADORBS cakecicles we enjoyed, here are a few pics and a reel I shared of the process on Instagram!
As you can see on the pic on the left, there were some “happy accidents” as Bob Ross would say. So instead of painting happy little trees over them I covered the cracks with white chocolate and sprinkles, which is basically a baker’s version of… say it with me…. bakers’ duct tape.
Happy Easter if you celebrate! Happy Peanut Butter Egg season if you don’t!
XO,
(I don’t know what is scarier- carrying a purse with the carpet pattern from The Shining so close to a topiary bunny or admitting to the masses that I exclusively eat black jellybeans… they are the best jellybean.)
I am sharing some NuNaturals recipes on Mondays to start the week off on a healthy note. I do NOT like artificial sweeteners (aka Aspartame). They make food taste terrible. Stevia, on the other hand, is very tasty and comes from a plant! NuNaturals makes stevia products, which I have been buying for quite some time. My pals over at NuNaturals sent me some collagen to try, so I have been using it in several recipes.
This one is by far the prettiest.
I really enjoy the BRIGHT smoothies on Instagram. If you’re making recipes “for the ‘gram,” this one is for you. I purchased some Dragon Fruit puree from Whole Foods and it makes smoothies as bright as a highlighter! Perhaps more importantly, this was a delicious meal as well.
To be frank, I feel like I should be wearing organic and sustainable yoga clothes whilst drinking this out of a coconut shell. This smoothie bowl is next level perfection. I know you want to have one now, so I’ll share the deets.
Here is an overhead of the smoothie bowl plan:
This plan was amended slightly. The nuts were savory (I forgot they were spiced) so I did not use those. I had enough texture with the bee pollen, chia seeds, and fruit. I also decided to put some Mike’s Hot Honey on it. Why not, right? Anyways, here’s the recipe “as the chef intended” before those subs were made:
You can certainly add greens to this recipe to get more nutrients in, but that will dull the color of this smoothie. And if you’re going for a full-on Instagram picture lewk, skip the greens. Eat a salad later while you edit your pictures. 🙂
Upcoming recipes include an upgrade to a Starbucks drink using NuNaturals MCT powder and BAKING using NuNaturals syrups. Kinda pumped, not gonna lie.
I am a HUGE fan of NuNaturals. My cafe (which is actually an expresso machine I use in my home) exclusively flavors lattes with NuNaturals syrups. My favorite is their Chocolate Mint syrup, but there are several delish flavors to choose from!
I was sent a box of products to try from NuNaturals, which include some syrup flavors I want to put in spring recipes (perhaps a chai carrot cake?). They also sent some powdered MCT Oil and Collagen. I decided the first recipe I would make would be using the Collagen, since I was looking for a quick protein-heavy treat and their collagen literally landed on my doorstep!
Here’s the recipe card (I make the recipes in this format so I can share them on my Instagram Stories and save them as highlights so I can easily access them ASAP):
I also made an Instagram Reel I made for this! Check it out.
I made these in the evening and my husband was playing video games in another room. When he finished this little buddy was waiting for him! He prefers a high-protein snack in the evenings, so he was PUMPED when this had protein from the Greek yogurt AND collagen. Each tbsp of collagen has 6 grams of protein and mixing it in didn’t change the consistency or flavoring. 🙂
He was also surprised at the bite the vanilla ginger syrup had! I used one packet for this entire recipe, so it was just a little flavor boost on the top. We were on a one way trip to Flavorpalooza.
I am going to share a new recipe or tweak to someone else’s recipe each week. Let me know if you have any suggestions or requests!
PhD & Patisserie 