Mixed Berry Baked Breakfast Cobbler with Greek Yogurt Topping

The Mixed Berry Baked Breakfast Cobbler is one of my all time favorite breakfast bulk recipes because in a lot of ways it's almost like dessert for breakfast.  Over the last year I have coordinated a lot of Challenge Groups around Clean Eating in combination with the 21-Day Fix portion control macronutrient counts in mind.  This has led to a lot of research on Clean Eating recipes, and how to modify their ingredients to appropriately meet particular macro counts with each serving.  I came across the idea for this recipe from The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook, but totally revamped it so it could be applied to the 21-Day Fix portion control plan.

This meal is a great way to start breakfast, for several different reasons. First off, it has carbs, fruits, and proteins, which means that your going to feel satiated longer, have sustained energy over time, and you'll reach a large amount of marcros in one swoop. Secondly, this recipe is on the sweet side, so if you're someone who misses sweets while you're trying to eat clean, this recipe will help you satisfy some of those cravings.

Mixed Berry Baked Breakfast Cobbler

1 Protein, 1 Fruit, 1 Carb, 1 Seed

(Makes 4 Servings)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1 cup 1% Milk
• ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Slivered Almonds
• 1 ½ cup Fresh Strawberries, sliced
• 1 ½ cup Fresh Blueberries
• 1 large MacIntosh Apple, unpeeled, grated
• 4 packets Stevia

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 9 x 9 baking dish with non-stick spray.

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. If you are preparing this the night before, don’t add the liquid ingredients such as milk and grated apple until the morning.

3. Place mixture in baking dish and bake uncovered for 45 minutes.

GREEK YOGURT TOPPING

(1 Serving)

• ¾ cup Plain Fat-Free Greek Yogurt
• ½ tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 packet Stevia

Mix all ingredients together and top cobbler with your yogurt mix.

A few things to note about this recipe; if you're someone who prefers to use agave, maple syrup, or cane sugar, you're more than welcome to.  I would suggest using about 2 tablespoons of any of those in place of the Stevia. Also, you can control how sweet you want the recipe.  I'm someone who really enjoys sweet food, so I put 1 Stevia per serving of oatmeal, as well as the yogurt topping, but feel free to decrease the sweetener to your taste.  Lastly, the Greek Yogurt Topping recipe is for one serving, so if you want to bulk it in order to have enough for each serving, you need to quadruple the recipe.  I prefer to make it fresh every time I heat up the oatmeal bake, but if you're more successful being totally prepped, you should just plan on making enough for each serving of oatmeal bake. I feel like this is an amazing recipe, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Maria

Strawberry Protein Pan-Crepes

I had recently told my father that I eat Fat Free Greek yogurt with all sorts of weird stuff, in all sorts of weird ways.  He asked how.  And how do you answer that question when you use it for pancakes, and cupcakes, quiches and all sorts of other strange things. Yogurt?  Yup.

This recipe was born out of a an idea that came from one of my favorite dessert websites to reference (although there are many other recipes available on there), Dashing Dish.  I highly suggest you check it out and see what you can find.

My version, however, was brought to life by mixing my vanilla protein pancake recipe with the idea of a crepe.  

Instead of make one big pancake, I divided the mixture into two thin pancakes and used them as crepes.  And because that wasn't yummy enough (sarcasm), I took a heaping tablespoon of Fat Free Greek yogurt, a tablespoon of Fat Free Cream Cheese some Stevia, and four strawberries and threw them in a food processor until it was pureed.  I then filled the "crepes" with the mixture, rolled them, and drizzled the remainder of the puree over the top, and garnished with some freshly sliced strawberries.  More calories?  Yes.  Yummier?  Most definitely, YES! 

The Protein Pancake:  It's Limitless Awesomeness

Right now, I am walking a thin line in regards to nutrition, and where Protein powder fits in.  I know it's advantages, however, I also know that it's definitely not a whole food.  How do I know this?  The twenty-five ingredients that are listed on every single protein powder container, whether it's "natural" or not.  Some days though, I want a protein pancake.  I don't want to chug down a protein shake, haphazardly enjoying the semi-sweetness and it's mix with tasteless water.  I want the advantages of using a protein powder, with the texture of food.  For the love of food, I just want something to chew!!!  Anyway, that's where this, and several other protein pancake recipes came from.  I'm not sure where I initially got the first recipe, it may have been Oxygen Magazine, but I've modified several different times, to fit whatever food craving mood I'm in.  

For this particular recipe, I started with one scoop of vanilla protein powder, three egg whites, and a heaping tablespoon of Fat Free Greek Yogurt.  I whisk it all together until it forms a pancake batter texture.  I then pour it in a sprayed pre-heated 9 in. pan, cook one side, and then flip, and cook the other.  A little warning though, it will still be lose on top when you go to flip it, so be careful you don't fling batter all over your stove.  

For the topping I just took a quarter cup of frozen blueberries, two tablespoons of water, and a tablespoon of Stevia and heated thoroughly in a saucepan.  I mashed it all up to make a Blueberry Syrup, and then enjoyed with a dollop of FF Greek Yogurt on top.  

Modifying the Recipe

Sometimes I use chocolate protein powder, and put bananas in the batter, then cook the pancake.  I usually eat that recipe dry.  On a side note, I used to use Sugar Free Pancake Syrup, until I became super crazy about reading labels, and then decided, I'd rather eat it with nothing at all, or make my own fruit sauces.  You make whatever choice works best for you and your lifestyle!

Below is a Strawberry Shortcake version I've made with vanilla protein powder, a splash of vanilla extract and fresh diced strawberries thrown directly into the batter.