Pumpkin Protein Muffins

I've been working on a Pumpkin protein muffin and I think I've finally found a good combination of ingredients for the perfect, healthy, cold weather muffin. The original muffin recipe that I played around with to come up with my recipe can be found here at Dashing Dish.  As with most of my muffin recipes, this one includes no added refined sugar and it gets its sweetness from honey and dates. It is also classified under the gluten free category and it got two thumbs up from my kids and fellow "health nut" trainers at the gym. So I think we're good!! If you like pumpkin I think you will really like this, and I love that it has a good little dose of protein to it, making it a great pre or post-workout snack. Enjoy!

 Ingredients: 

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Thankful for my fans GIVEAWAY!

As Thanksgiving week is upon us, I am taking a moment to reflect on how thankful I am for my awesome Facebook followers!  What better way to do that than to offer an awesome giveaway for them!!  Therefore, I've teamed up with three amazing companies to bring you a fantastic giveaway this week.  You will have from November 18th through November 23rd to enter and you can come back EVERY DAY for additional entries.  Here's the scoop:

One lucky winner is going to win THREE great items:

1. A GymBoss Interval Timer - so great to have for interval training!  It can be used as a repeating interval timer, countdown timer or a stopwatch.

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Turkey burgers - Southwestern Style baby

• I've been enjoying my Greek turkey burger recipe for awhile now, but decided to switch it up tonight and go Southwestern.  This was a huge hit with the family.  They turned out incredibly moist and flavorful, which can sometimes be a challenge when you are working with turkey breast.  So if you give this one a try, you will not be disappointed I'm sure!!
• 
  
• Ingredients:
• 1.2 pounds ground turkey breast
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic 
• 1/4 cup white onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground red cayenne pepper
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• good sprinkle of salt and black pepper

Directions:

Gently mix the ground turkey together with all of the ingredients listed.  Form into 6 patties.  Drizzle a nonstick skillet with extra virgin olive oil.  Cook the patties on medium high heat for about 7 minutes each side or until fully cooked.  Serve in a bun or bunless......your choice!!

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Chicken Parmigiana meatballs

Recently, I've seen a variety of chicken meatball recipes online.  Of course I had to create my own version, so I opted for an Italian spin.  I'll be working on a Greek version over the next couple of weeks, but for now, here is my recipe for Chicken Parmigiana meatballs.  I hope you give it a try, because this was an absolutely delicious meal the whole family loved!

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Cinnamon Chia Oatmeal bake with Coconut Whipped Cream

I made the kids and I some baked oatmeal this morning.  I adapted the recipe from a new blog I found called, Skinny Mom's Kitchen.  Her recipe looked delicious, so I just made a few changes using coconut oil, coconut milk and added some chia seeds for additional nutrition.  Since I was on the coconut theme, I played around with the coconut whipped cream as well.  Don't like coconut??  No worries!  Outside of the whipped cream, which you could omit, you will find that there is no shockingly crazy coconut flavor to this dish.  It's very cinnamony (is that a word?) and this is a basic recipe in which you could play around with all sorts of flavors.  How about almond flavoring, using a mashed banana rather than applesauce, or adding peanut butter........PEANUT BUTTER, why did I not add that??  The possibilities are really endless.  Play around with it and let me know what you come up with.

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