Garage Gym Snacks

So, Josh sent out an email to a whole bunch of clients who have been asking for some ideas for healthy snacks.  The problem is, he has never actually made any of these (with the exception of pancakes) and sent out ingredients lists, but no instructions!  He's on the right track, they are delicious, and are all very low in carbohydrates because of the use of almond flour and other substitutes to white flour. 
I have been procrastinating very badly with posting, as you can see my last post says Merry Christmas : )
So, to catch up, Happy New Year, Happy MLK day, Happy Valentines Day...
Lets get to the recipes!

My all time favorite:

Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake
(courtesy of FastPaleo.com with a couple changes- check them out for a ton of great recipes, or follow them on facebook for daily recipe posts!)

Cake:
1/2 C Coconut milk
2 eggs
1/4 C honey (preferably raw & local)
1 tsp vanilla
2 C blanched almond flour
1/2 C Arrowroot powder (found at Wegmans, Tom's Natural Foods, or here.)
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg (optional)

Swirl:
2 Tbs Cinnamon
1/4 C coconut oil or butter
3 Tbs honey

Topping:
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 325. In separate bowls combine dry and wet cake ingredients. Pour wet into dry and stir to combine. Pour into coconut oil or butter greased 7x9 baking pan (I use one that is 5x8, I think 7/9 will make it too thin)
Combine swirl ingredients and dollop onto cake (soften coconut oil in microwave, but not quite to liquid.)
Using a knife, swirl in topping.
Optional: add chopped nuts
Bake 30-35 min or until toothpick comes out clean.  (The middle of mine have always been gooey because the coconut oil settles in the middle. Even if I bake the crap out of it, the outside is dry and the middle still pretty moist. It tastes better that way anyways as long as you know the egg is cooked.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe is found on the back of the Honeyville Almond Flour bag, but they give credit to Elana's pantry, which is my FAVORITE gluten free recipe website.  One change I make is to replace the agave nectar with Maple Syrup because there is a lot of conflicting information on agave and the refining process. A good local Grade A Maple Syrup is as about as natural as you can get. Still, used in moderation as any kind of sugar can spike your insulin and be counter-productive to weight loss goals.

2 1/2 cups Blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup of dark chocolate (choc chips can totally ruin the lower carb beauty of these cookies, I smash up a Ghirrardelli 86% chocolate bar which has very low sugar and it tastes great.)

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.
Mix wet into dry.
Drop about tablespoon sized balls onto parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes.

Variation (experimentation that came out pretty good!)
Exchange chocolate for 1 cup chopped pecans and add 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg to the dry ingredients.  Reminds me of keebler pecan sandies : )

Pancakes
Although not a snack or dessert, it is still a treat! Just make sure you eat a good source of protein with these (eggs or breakfast sausage). Also, we have only made this whole recipe once and it lasted us several days. We usually cut it by half or even a quarter for just the 2 of us.  These are not like your Aunt Jemima's! Two pancakes have a lot of almonds in them and they are really filling.

3 cups almond flour
1/2 cup whole milk or coconut milk
8 eggs (another reason we cut the recipe so much)
1/2 cup of melted butter or grapeseed oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt

Make pancakes as usual! Just go easy on the Maple syrup on top if you are watching your carb intake.  They are pretty good plain with butter.

Brownies!
This recipe I had actually forgotten about its been so long since I've made it, but it is really good.  I got it from http://www.whatifeedrory.blogspot.com/ I'm so glad Josh reminded me of this recipe because I haven't been to her blog in a long time and she's got a lot more good stuff to try!

1 cup raw almond butter
1 egg
1/2 cup Maple syrup (subbed for agave)
1 Tbs vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Optional: Add 1/2 cup 85% dark chocolate bits (cheaper to smash a candy bar than find good dark choc chips)

Blend almond butter and egg. Add maple syrup and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Add remaining ingredients.
Grease 8" or 9" round pan with butter or coconut oil.
Spoon in batter and bake at 350 for 20-25 min.

Happy baking!