Healthy Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes (Soy, Dairy & Gluten-Free)
Try this heart-healthy soy, dairy and gluten-free pumpkin pancake recipe that tastes so deceivably good, you won’t believe they are healthy!
February is that time of the year when love is in the air and hearts are all a flutter! Not only is it centered around love because of Valentine’s Day, but it’s also American Heart Month! Some of the top ways to keep your heart health in check is by exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet to help you maintain a healthy weight, lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misconception about healthy food tasting bland and boring. I know when most people think of heart-healthy foods, pancakes are not usually the first foods that come to mind. Well, that all changes now!
Some of my favorite recipes to make in the kitchen are pancakes that taste so deceivably good, you won’t believe they are healthy! You may already have many heart-healthy ingredients in your pantry and not even know it.
Here are some heart-healthy ingredient that I love:
Coconut oil like the cold-pressed unrefined organic coconut oil from Kelapo has many amazing health benefits and tastes delicious! It contains Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) which are digested much quicker than any other fats. MCT’s are absorbed directly in the liver, provide sustainable energy throughout the day, and promote weight loss by helping to increase metabolism. Studies have also shown that supplementing with coconut oil daily can increase HDL (good cholesterol) and reduce belly fat!
Read: 4 Healthy Cooking Oils You Should Be Using In The Kitchen
Dark Chocolate is bursting with flavor and full of antioxidants which help to prevent your body from being damaged by free radicals from toxins in our everyday environment. Also, eating moderate amounts of flavanol-rich dark chocolate can lower blood pressure, improve blood flow to your heart and brain, and has a blood-thinning effect, which can benefit cardiovascular health.
Nuts are not only delicious and make a deliciously healthy snack, but they are also great for lowering LDL (bad cholesterol), one of the top offenders for causing heart disease. Nuts are full of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats which directly lower bad cholesterol, Omega-3 fatty acids that prevent dangerous heart rhythms that can lead to heart attacks, fiber which helps to keep you full while lowering cholesterol, Vitamin E which may help keep your arteries plaque-free which can lead to heart attacks and other heart complications, and L-arginine which may help to improve the health of your artery walls making them flexible and less prone to blood clotting.
Eggs are a perfect food to eat any time of the day! Sadly they were once vilified because of the high cholesterol content in the yolks, but studies have shown that the cholesterol from eggs does not have an adverse effect on blood lipids. They do, however, include many nutrients including protein, antioxidants vitamins B12 and D, riboflavin, and folate, which may help to lower the risk for heart disease.
Pumpkin is a great low-calorie, high-fiber food to add to your diet and especially while baking! They are a good source of vitamins and minerals, especially beta-carotene, vitamin C, and potassium which have all been linked to fighting heart disease.
Dark Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes (Soy, Dairy & Gluten-Free)
Makes 3-5 small pancakes
2 Tbsp Almond flour
2 tsp Coconut Flour
½ Tbsp Kelapo Coconut Oil plus ½ Tbsp for the pan
2 large eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pumpkin spice
1 Tbsp honey or stevia to taste
dash of baking soda
Optional ingredients:
chopped almonds, walnuts or pecans
Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Mix all wet ingredients together in a separate bowl, if coconut oil has hardened then microwave for about 20 seconds until liquid. Once both bowls are mixed, combine into one bowl and mix well.
Set your stove to medium to medium-low heat, preheat the skillet or pancake pan. Once the pan is warm, toss in a half Tbsp of Kelapo extra virgin coconut oil or coconut oil spray to coat the pan. Pour the batter into the pan, makes about 3-5 small cakes, cook pancakes for a couple minutes on both sides until golden brown, flipping once. Top with maple syrup, coconut oil or almond butter. Bon Appétit!
What are some of your favorite heart-healthy ingredients to cook with?
This post has been updated and was originally posted as a guest post on Kelapo Coconut Cooking Oil’s blog in 2014
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Healthy Air Fryer Chicken Tenders (soy, dairy & gluten-free)
Are chicken tenders healthy? Not so much. Even though you get the protein benefits, they are often deep-fried. But with this healthy air fryer chicken tender recipe, you can still enjoy your tenders in a healthy way!
Coming from the south, I grew up on fried chicken but since going soy and dairy-free plus limiting my gluten intake, I haven't had much room in my life for fried chicken. Not to mention it doesn't do my waistline much good since I mostly try to eat in a way that keeps inflammation low because too much inflammation can cause weight gain and also prevent you from losing fat. I surely don’t need any help in that department!
Fried foods in general are a very high inflammatory food because of the unhealthy cooking oils used to fry the food. I’ve been eating this way for about 11 years so I really haven't missed fried foods much and on the rare instance when I do, I will have a fun meal out on the weekend and then go back to my healthy way of eating the next day.
But over the last couple years, the air fryer has made it much easier to enjoy fried-style foods but without the added fat and oil that comes with deep frying. I mostly use my air fryer to make vegetables like yellow squash during my weekly meal prep but it’s been fun to make healthier French fries and “fried” chicken tenders.
A couple months back, I found these panko style gluten-free rice crumbs from Trader Joe’s. Since then, I've been trying to perfect my gluten-free panko air fryer chicken tender recipe seasoned with everything bagel season. It’s a really simple recipe that you can really make your own depending on your personal taste since you can season any way you want!
For this recipe, I have not included exact ingredient amounts for the crumbs and seasoning because the amounts will really depend on how much chicken you are using. I normally get a bag of the frozen chicken breast tenders at Trader Joe’s and thaw out 6-12 and make them in 1-2 batches.
You don’t want your chicken to be crowded inside the air fryer so you should space them out that way they get nice and crispy. This is why I will usually do 2 batches if I am using more than 6 tenders.
Also, my air fryer is a 6 Qt. size so it can fit a good amount of food at one time but if your air fryer is smaller than that, you might have to do several batches depending how much chicken you make at once.
Gluten-Free Healthy Air Fryer Chicken Tenders
Ingredients:
6-12 chicken breast tenders
1-2 eggs
Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Rice Crumbs
Salt and pepper
Everything bagel seasoning
Cayanne pepper
Garlic powder
Instructions:
In a bowl, scramble 1 egg about 6 tenders or use 2 eggs if you are making 6-12 tenders.
Spray the bottom of your air fryer pan with olive or avocado oil and set to the side.
In a separate bowl, mix the TJ’s rice crumbs, garlic, cayenne pepper, everything bagel seasoning or any other seasoning combo of your choosing. Go heavy on the seasoning to make sure you have enough to cover all of your chicken!
Use either thawed chicken breast tenders or get chicken breast and cut them into strips. Salt and pepper the raw chicken, then dip chicken into scrambled egg, flip it a couple times to cover it really well.
Then dip the chicken into crumb mixture, roll several times to cover them well with the mixture.
Once coated with crumb mixture, add the chicken to the air fryer pan, salt lightly, add additional everything bagel seasoning, and spray the top of chicken lightly with olive or avocado oil.
Set air fryer to 400° and cook 5-6 minutes per side. Internal chicken should reach 165° and the outside should be crispy and lightly browned.
Get ready to enjoy some deliciously healthy, dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, NON-deep fried tenders! 😍
As an added bonus, when you are craving some chicken and waffles like Chris and I were this weekend, you can make this healthy version paired with some protein waffles and coconut whip topping and feel pretty dang good about yourself after!
