Folks, we have a star on our hands.
This is a mixtape of the greatest hits, from the viral favorite Double Chocolate Muffins to the sleeper hit Zucchini Bread to the force of nature that is anything single serving. It’s the stuff dream are made off, conveniently ready in a mug and featuring an absurdly large portion size for only 170 calories and 11g net carbs all while packing 29g protein. TWENTY NINE.
Insanity.
While we’re talking life changing food-related revelations, allow me to introduce you to the newest addition to my kitchen family.
Cold press juicing is a wonderful concept, as it provides you with a boatload of fresh fruits and veggies in a form that is easy to consume (conveniently drinkable), nutritionally dense (there’s no pasteurization or processing that would damage any nutrients), and delicious (hopefully). Especially because my mom is in chemo and *cough* hates eating her veggies, this seems like an ideal setup.
That being said, for as good an idea as it is, I d.e.s.p.i.s.e traditional juicing. It comes with no less than a laundry list of deal breakers for me.
First off, the cleaning. Yikes. There’s no way juicer designers didn’t intentionally make this difficult. There are so many parts and somehow all of them manage to get dirty with juice refuse out the wazoo. It’s almost impressive. And of course none of it is dishwasher safe. Because that would be too easy.
I’ve been known to make things in the microwave instead of on the stovetop because I’d rather risk radiation exposure than clean a pot. Hi my name is Kelly and I have very solid priorities.
But it’s okay! I’m putting dishwasher safe everything on my St. Patrick’s wish list. Because I’m making that a thing. It’s a worthy cause.
Also I’ve never been much of a Tetris champ, so putting together the 7+ illogically designed pieces every time I want a glass of juice doesn’t jive with me.
Then there are the ingredients and the literal making of the juice. Yikes 2.0.
It hurts my heart and my wallet to shell out the $$$ for organic fresh produce when I a) don’t know what I’m doing and b) end up throwing most of the fruits/veggies out in the form of juice pulp. As a future business student, I’ve decided this is not a sound investment. (Please enjoy this picture of my mom holding juice and wearing a Wharton hat! After all, she’s a very photogenic lady.)
Plus, juice recipes usually say one carrot or one apple without taking into account how big the piece of produce is or the significant variation in how effective different machines are at extracting the juice, thus altering the ratios and potentially making the juice a lot worse than the concoction of the original recipe developer.
Or worse yet, I’ll decide to freestyle with a juice which is NOT a good idea and has ended well a total of zero times. This is not the time for my creative juices (tee hee) to flow.
Needless to say my juicer and I parted ways after the first date. (It’s not me, it’s you.)
Enter Juicero, the new cool kid on the block.
Simply put, this gem is Keurig for juice. The company delivers fresh packs of organic, pre-chopped, pre-portioned produce every week. Then you simply put a pack into the juicer, hit a button, and in a few minutes you are rewarded with a glass of fresh juice. With exactly zero cleanup! NONE. It’s nuts.
Also I have to tip my hat to these people: their green juice is absolutely fabulous. Even my veggie-challenged mom agrees, which is the highest praise possible.
How you make a glass of straight vegetables (no fruit!) so delicious, the world may never know. It was actually our favorite of all the juices we got to try. I don’t understand it but it makes me really happy.
And if that’s not enough, this juicer hooks up to the internet and syncs with the Juicero app on your phone. It’ll send you a notification after you press a pack telling you to enjoy your juice. It also gives you specific information about what’s in the juice, details about the ingredients, nutritional information, and where the produce came from. I kid you not, you can scan the QR code on each pack and it’ll tell you exactly which farm the produce came from. What a world.
I like this because it makes me feel a part of the NASA of juice. And who wouldn’t want that?
I tried to press a pack that was out of date because I didn’t plan ahead but hate wasting, but the juicer wouldn’t let me. I think this is really thoughtful! Eating rotten produce, especially raw, can be really dangerous, so it’s nice to feel like the company has your back. Thanks for saving my stomach from my penny-pinching ways!
Disclaimer: although I was provided with the machine and a month’s worth of packs, I’m not getting paid to say any of this. I’m just very impressed with these people! Mom thinks so too.
My mom and I did Juicero’s Healthy Habit Reboot challenge for five days, and we were both very impressed by how it turned out. We’ve been trying to cut down on caffeine so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to go a few days without coffee.
Drinking juice every day was anything but a chore, and neither of us had caffeine withdrawal headaches! I think it was because we had a drink we both enjoyed to replace coffee, and the nutrients in the juice felt much more nourishing (and dare I say invigorating) than your regular morning cup of joe. We would definitely do this again!
Although this recipe is technically a zucchini bread so it’s filled with, you know, zucchini, you can actually use juice pulp instead! You can use it from any kind of juice for whatever flavor you want. Single serving pineapple bread? Carrot? Pomegranate? Veggie? Lots of possibilities!
If you’re using Juicero, just cut open the pack when you’re done pressing it and measure out the pulp before stirring it into the batter. Do make sure that you like juice pulp in stuff. Because if you don’t like eating juice pulp, this won’t be an exception. Now you know.
Just as a heads up, I also didn’t include any veggie in the nutritional information. Juice pulp has next to no calories because it’s just fiber, and a few tablespoons of zucchini has almost no calories.
This zucchini bread is the perfect dessert or snack, but it’s also a completely acceptable breakfast. Just sayin’.
Nutritional Breakdown
Calories
1 scoop protein powder (100) + 2 tablespoons erythritol (0) + 1 tablespoon coconut flour (20) + 1/4 cup applesauce (25) + 1 egg white (25) = 170 calories for the whole darn thing
Net Carbs
1 scoop protein powder (3g) + 2 tablespoons erythritol (0g) + 1 tablespoon coconut flour (2g) + 1/4 cup applesauce (6g) + 1 egg white (0g) = 11g net carbs for the whole darn thing
Protein
1 scoop protein powder (22g) + 2 tablespoons erythritol (0g) + 1 tablespoon coconut flour (1g) + 1/4 cup applesauce (0) + 1 egg white (6g) = 29g protein (!!) for the whole darn thing
- * 1 scoop vanilla protein powder*
- * 2 tablespoons erythritol
- * 1 tablespoon coconut flour
- * 1 teaspoon baking powder
- * ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- * ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- * pinch salt
- * ¼ cup applesauce
- * 1 egg whites (or 1 egg's worth of egg replacer)
- * ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- * ¼ teaspoon molasses
- 3 tablespoons grated zucchini (or juice pulp if you like!)
- Grease a large mug and set aside. You can either cook this in the oven or in the microwave; if you are using the oven option, preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a small bowl, combine protein powder, erythritol, coconut flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and mix until uniform.
- Add the applesauce, egg white, vanilla extract, and molasses and stir until completely combined. Stir in grated zucchini and pour the batter into the prepared mug.
- Cook on high in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Make sure to use a large mug (bigger than you think you need!) because the batter expands a lot while cooking. Keep a watch on it to make sure the batter doesn’t overflow. Take the mug out after 1 minute 30 seconds and inset a toothpick into the center to see if it comes out clean. If not, keep cooking in 15 second intervals, checking with the toothpick in between each interval. Microwaves vary a lot in cooking powder, so this is to figure out exactly how much you should cook the cake so it is perfectly done (not too or too dry). You’ll only have to do this the first time you make it so you get a sense of how long it takes in your microwave. Then you’re ready to make this many more times as it becomes a regular in your recipe arsenal—like it has in mine. 🙂 Once the toothpick comes out clean, you’re ready to eat!
- Bake in the oven at 350°F for 23-27 minutes. Mine took a surprisingly long time to cook, but I would start checking at 23 minutes with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. Cooking times vary quite a bit with the kind of protein powder you use, so just keep an eye on it and take it out as soon as it passes the toothpick test. Devour.
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