Almond Butter & Bananas…a Two-for-One

The lovely peeps over at Whole9 just posted on Facebook “Eating unweighed/unmeasured Paleo foods does not mean *unlimited* Paleo foods.”  So true. Which is probably why my first go at eating Paleo last year didn’t work out so well.  I thought eating Paleo meant eating as much as I wanted of anything that was considered Paleo.  Funny how you don’t really lose the lbs when you are eating your weight in bacon.

And in the last month or so as I have transitioned back to the Paleo way of eating (this time keeping track of calories), I have rediscovered almond butter – specifically Justin’s Maple Almond Butter.  It is like candy to me – so much so that I’ve put myself on restriction.  Seeing as I ate basically an entire jar in a week (I know – disgusting and yet oh so yummy at the same time), I’m now restricting myself to almond butter on weekends only.  *sigh*  It’s for the best.  One shouldn’t eat a jar of almond butter a week and expect to maintain their weight.

But with that said, I had fun finding new ways to eat my beloved almond butter!  Besides straight out of the jar or with apple slices (which were really just acting as spoons to get the almond butter in my bellay)…I have 2 yummy recipes to share.  These are *treats* and should not be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as much as you (ahem, I) want to.  🙂

First up: Paleo Pancakes!

Who doesn’t want pancakes on a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning?  I found this recipe at a new favorite blog: The Paleo Project and you can find her original recipe here.  Since I was making pancakes for 1, I adjusted her recipe as follows:

Ingredients

• Paleo Project recommends coconut oil to grease the pan, I used butter.
• 1 banana
• 1 Tbsp almond butter (I used my beloved Justin’s Maple of course)
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Mash up banana
2. Add egg & almond butter
3. Mash up real good
4. Pour onto greased pan over medium-low heat (you don’t want the pan too hot or it will burn), carefully flipping after a couple minutes.
5. I topped it with maple syrup but you could use fresh berries or other fruit or butter or topless (teehee, I’m 12).

I think I cooked them 2-3 min per side – this is right before I flipped it…

Final product – this recipe actually made 3 decent sized pancakes (the 3rd one was still in the pan) – this picture is of a dinner plate.  Since I cooked it in butter, it didn’t really need to be coated again.  I did drizzle some maple syrup on there, but they were pretty sweet as is and didn’t really need anything.  I figured the calories to be approximately 270 cal for all 3 pancakes.

Next up: Almond Banana Muffins (no picture – they weren’t super pretty, not that the pancakes were, and I think I was so busy eating them, I forgot to snap a pic).

This recipe is originally from Multiply Delicious‘ Almond Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Here’s what I did.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup almond butter (my beloved Justins Maple of course)
• 1 cup almond flour
• 3 bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• t tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp honey

I added the last 2 ingredients cuz they just sounded good.  Multiply Delicious adds chocolate chips which I did not have any so simply omitted.  But I bet they would be a yummy addition!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. In bowl mash up the bananas then add the rest of the ingredients until mixed real good.
3. Pour batter in greased muffin pan.
4. Bake for 20 min.
5. Enjoy!

Makes 12 yummy muffins.  I figured the calories to be approximately 150 cal/muffin.

And with that – I’m taking an almond butter break 🙂