Meal Prep Monday - More Pumpkin Muffins and Black Bean Burgers

Happy Columbus Day! Kind of a weird holiday to celebrate, but I'm pretty happy to have the day off work anyway.

(Image Source)

Since I knew I didn't have to work today, I put off a lot of picture taking and blog post writing until this morning. So today's blog post is up a little later than usual. Sorry! I know the anticipation must have been killing you :)

Breakfast

Something about the terrible cold and rainy weather we are having just makes me want to bake things. I usually like to find a recipe to use as a starting point, just so I know that whatever I make will at least work to the point of the batter not exploding or something. But when I was googling to find a close approximation of what I wanted to use to make these muffins, I couldn't find anything. So I am going to call this my first almost completely original baked goods recipe. And, surprisingly, it actually made delicious muffins!  

Gluten Free Pumpkin Apple Quinoa Muffins

Recipe:
(one muffin)

Calories: 132 | Fat: 6 g | Cholest: 11 mg | Sodium: 82 mg | Carbs: 17 g | Fiber: 4 g | Sugars: 6 g | Protein: 4 g

1 cup cooked quinoa

1/2 cup gluten free steel cut oats 

2 tbsp coconut flour

4 tbsp chia seeds

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup canned pumpkin

6 tbsp egg whites

1 egg

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup applesauce

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup raisins

1 small apple, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix dry ingredients

Mix in wet ingredients, then fold in raisins and grated apples

Pour batter evenly into greased muffin tins

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the center of muffins is firm

Makes 18 muffins

These muffins are a little more dense and filling than last week's recipe. The quinoa gives the muffins a nice nutty flavor, and the shredded apple also adds a little more sweetness. I think I still prefer last week's recipe, but this is a nice change-up and is, of course, still really good warm with melt-y nut butter. But really, what isn't?

Protein

I still have some of Skinny Taste's Skinny Italian Spinach Meatballs left from last week, so I decided against making any more meat this week. Instead, I prepped a batch of The Lean Green Bean's Sweet Potato Quinoa Black Bean Burgers. 

I managed to follow the recipe almost exactly for once, just leaving out the cranberries (because I forgot to buy some) and subbing coconut flour for chickpea flour. They were a little crumbly and a few fell apart, probably because of the coconut flour substitution. Still tasty though! But quinoa burgers are usually tasty, despite what Bud Light would have us believe...

Sides

The BF made stew last week we had a bunch of left over potatoes, so I chopped and baked those with a little olive oil and Mrs Dash. I also boiled some broccoli and made extra quinoa for quick weeknight sides.

Workouts

I have been seriously slacking on the Fitness Blender 4 Week Fat Loss Program for Busy People so I decided to redo Week 2 and try to really follow the rest of the calendar.

Monday: Fitness Blender Workout Plan #8, 2 rec league volleyball games

Tuesday: Fitness Blender Workout Plan #9

Wednesday: Fitness Blender Workout Plan #10

Thursday: Fitness Blender Workout Plan #11, coed rec league volleyball

Friday: Workout Plan #12

Saturday: Flag Football

Sunday: Rest