I found this nifty little chart the other day (click to enlarge). It shows how many pounds you can lose by just changing one small habit. For instance, drinking a glass of water versus a can of soda can lead to a 15 pound weight loss in a year. Pretty amazing! So put that soda down, stop super sizing, and get off your booty! Small changes lead to big results.
Last week I was flying solo in the parenting department. I’ve lectured you before on the importance of prepping meals or ingredients ahead of time. This time I figured I should practice what I preach. In the past I’ve been really bad about not eating breakfast at all when don’t have my partner in crime to help assist with the morning craziness. But, I feel like a hypocrite, so I decided to break that cycle. This breakfast dish is an easy go to, quick breakfast for those busy mornings.
I came across these little babies on pinterest. I have now made them twice and have tweaked the recipe to my liking. They are so delicious, healthy and easy. They reheat well, and give me a much needed protein boost in the morning. I ate them with half of a whole wheat english muffin topped with smart balance butter, and half a grape fruit. The meal was perfectly balanced with carbs and protein. Leaving me satiated till my mid morning snack.
They may look fancy but they are super simple. They would even make a great addition to a weekend brunch. Make them, you won’t be sorry!
1 lb Turkey Bacon
1 dozen eggs (preferably organic)
2 tablespoons green onions, or chives, minced
about a 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste
Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Line each cup of a muffin tin with foil (or you will never make this again). Make sure the foil is higher than the cup. Make a circle with the bacon and drop it in each muffin cup, it will overlap itself. Crack each egg into the bacon circle. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto each egg cup. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until the white is set. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of cheese. Sprinkle each cup with green onions. Enjoy hot! (Of course I enjoyed mine with a generous amount of tabasco. Hey! It boosts your metabolism!).
At the end of a long day of school drops offs, pick ups, housework, volunteering, soccer and tennis, I love entering my kitchen for a bit of stress relief. My reprieve is cooking. Making a delicious, healthy meal is just as fun as eating it. Granted, I’ve been doing it a long time and have my flow going. But, even when I had no clue what braise really meant, I still found the kitchen to be therapeutic.
Kitchen gadgets make cooking even more fun. I recently acquired a new one. It was love at first sight. I first spotted this darling on another food blog. I admired the curves and lines, and kept going back to fawn over the green beauty again and again. I told my husband, “If you ever need a gift idea for me, this is it!”. I showed him where to buy it on Amazon. Then I waited. He didn’t take the hint. The green beauty didn’t arrive on my doorstep. Then, something better happened. Amazon local deals had my beautiful green goddess on sale for half price, for one day! That was it. Within 5 minutes, it was bought and a few days later I had her in my hands. I bet you want to know what it is by now. What I have been gushing over. You will probably think I am strange for obsessing over this tool, but here it is…
If you are looking for the proper wording for this bad boy, it is a vegetable processing device. In simpler terms, it makes veggies into noodles. I have chopped vegetables trying to get them to resemble noodles, only getting an o.k. result. The results you receive with this bad boy are perfect. There are two blades, one for angel hair type noodles, and one for wider noodles. In this recipe I used the angel hair blade, but it really doesn’t matter. I piled my plate as high as I wanted, because everything in this recipe is good for you. So go ahead and stuff yourself silly with this dish.
Oh and by the way, the price is even lower than what I bought it for on Amazon now. For $6, this —–> 
Now for the recipe:
1 lb boneless chicken thighs, visible fat trimmed, cut into 1 inch strips
1 Portobello mushroom cap, cut into 1 inch strips
1/4 sliced brown onion
6 asparagus spears, snap woody bottom off and cut into 4 pieces
1/2 cup bruschetta (click for recipe)
2 zucchini, cut into pasta like noodles (you can use a knife, it just won’t be uniform)
salt, pepper & garlic powder for seasoning
olive oil
Pre-heat broiler. Cover a cookie sheet with foil. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder and put on cookie sheet. Broil for 7 minutes.
While chicken is broiling, sprinkle mushrooms, asparagus, and onions with salt and pepper and saute in 1 tsp, of olive oil over high heat for 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside.
Put another 1 tsp. of oilve oil in saute pan and saute zucchini for 3/4 minutes, moving constantly. Add in bruschetta, saute for another 2 minutes. To serve divide the zucchini noodles, veggies, and chicken into to bowls. Serve hot
“Vinegar is a traditional folk remedy long valued for its many health benefits. Recent research shows at least three ways in which the traditional healers were on the right track at least when it comes to weight loss. A 2006 review article in the “Medscape Journal of Medicine” concludes vinegar may have a role in blood sugar control and appetite suppression. Other studies show vinegar may also promote weight loss by preventing fat accumulation through its impact on insulin secretion”.
By adding organic vinegar into your daily routine it can aid in your weight loss and health goals. Just make sure it is organic and has the ‘mother’ abundantly floating in it.
Eat more fiber: It helps keep you full longer. Foods that are high in fiber include fruits, vegetables, nuts, cereals, legumes, and whole-grain breads and pastas.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love cauliflower rice. I make up recipes so I can eat the fluffy, antioxidant filled wonder. The recipes I make to go with it are healthy and usually saucy, flavor packed creations. This recipe is no exception. One of my best friends was coming over for dinner with her kids. I had not seen her in a while and knew she jumped on the healthy eating bandwagon. I also knew she had not had cauliflower rice before. I wanted to give her the best introduction to my other best friend.
I scanned the fridge for a protein. After weighing my options I grabbed the organic pork tenderloin I found on sale the other day. Now that I had a protein base, I looked for some veggie friends to introduce the pork to. I decided on a colorful array of red cabbage, red onions, zucchini and carrots. Next, I needed to come up with a sauce to marry the pork, veggies, and cauliflower rice together. I bathed them in a sweet, salty, spicy mix of soy sauce, agave, red chili peppers and a little corn starch to bind their marriage together. This marriage was made in heaven. After the first bite, my friend looked at me and said, “This is going on your blog, right!’. It now is.
2 lbs pork tenderloin, cut into strips about 1 1/2 inches long, 1/2 inch wide
1 cup red cabbage, sliced in strips
1 cup red onion, slice in thin half moons
1 zucchini, cut in half moons
1/2 cup baby carrots , cut in 1/3s
1 garlic clove, minced
sesame seeds for garnish
Click here for the cauliflower rice recipe
For the sauce:
4 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons agave nectar
3 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon chili flakes
Pre-heat your broiler on high. Season the pork strips with salt and pepper, put on a foiled lined cookie sheet and spritz the top of the meat with olive oil. Broil for five minutes.
While the meat is broiling, make the sauce. Mix together all the ingredients and set aside.
Make the cauliflower rice. (see recipe link above)
In a large saute pan, heat 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil (or olive oil) and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Add all of the veggies and saute for 2 – 4 minutes. The veggies should be crisp but edible in this dish. Add the garlic in and saute for another minute. Add the meat and the sauce in. The sauce will seem thick. Use the chicken brother a half cup at a time to thin out the sauce to desired consistency. It should be a thick syrup consistency. Serve immediately over the cauliflower rice. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
Don’t forget to share the recipe with your best friend!
When my husband travels I really don’t like making a huge dinner. But, I still have to feed myself and two voracious boys. The problem lies in the dishes. I despise making a great dinner with every pan in the kitchen and then having to clean it up too. The husband and I have a symbiotic kitchen relationship. I cook, he cleans. It’s a match made in heaven. Every now and then I will get a dirty look when he sees the mess I made, but one bite into dinner I am usually forgiven (I seem to get away with a lot when it comes to food).
Back to the topic at hand, an easy clean up, healthy dinner. The boys and I had just come home from their tennis lessons and it was getting late. As you may have seen I made a ton of shredded chicken the other night. I still had a small amount. Then I saw the portobellas. An idea conjured in my tired head, and boom, portobella bbq chicken pizzas were thrown together in a matter of 5 minutes.
The clean up entailed a chefs knife, cutting board and throwing away the foil that covered the baking sheet. Oh, and if you are wondering if my 4 and 6 year old ate them, the answer is no. I like them to eat carbs at dinner. I popped a frozen, organic, multigrain, 3 cheese pizza into the oven, and roasted some broccolini for them and myself.
They devoured their entire pizza and tiny trees, while I inhaled mine. Showers were taken, books read, kisses given and lights out. For them at least. A mommy’s day doesn’t end till she gets to watch her Real Housewives of _________. Wait, I don’t watch that nonsense. I meant, not until I finish reading the latest epic novel pertaining to global warming. Yeah. That’s it.
Makes 1, but can be doubled easily
1 large portobello mushroom, cleaned and stem removed
1 tablespoon of bbq sauce
1/4 cup shredded chicken
a few thinly sliced red onions
1 heaping tablespoon reduced fat mozzarella cheese
1/2 tablespoon chopped cilantro
dash of red pepper flakes (optional as garnish)
Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray the bottom of the mushroom cap (the round part) with olive oil (preferably with a misto*, not the chemical laden non-stick sprays). Turn over the mushroom cap so that the bottom side is up. Sprinkle a little sea salt over the mushroom. Spread the bbq sauce on the inside of the cap. Then add the chicken, then the onions, then the cheese. Bake the mushroom till the cheese is melted and starting to brown. Take out of the oven and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve immediately.
“Think of your stomach as a fire, and if you continually add a little bit of fuel to it, it’ll keep burning stronger than if you throw a large amount on a smoldering flame. Likewise, after exercising, the fire will be roaring and burn up what is thrown on it faster”. – (Author unknown)
My favorite type of recipe is a healthy, fast, versatile one. By versatile, I mean, one that has ingredients that can be used in many different meals during the week. Taking the time to figure out recipes that are symbiotic, is worth the time it takes to plan.
This recipe starts with lean chicken breasts that are cooked via crock pot in a delicious red chili sauce. The chicken is then shredded and can be used for a multitude of dinners and lunches. Really, the delicious possibilities are endless. Pictured at the left, is a mouth-watering chicken tostada. The shell is spritzed with a fine mist of olive oil, then baked at 350 for 10 minutes, flipping once. I layered it with 1 tablespoon of a clean (no chemicals added) store-bought guacamole, the featured chicken, tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of cheddar jack cheese and pickled red onions. Seriously, you HAVE to try pickled red onions if you haven’t. Not only are they extremely easy to make, they are D-LISH-US! AND you can reuse them later in the week on a chicken lime cilantro burger.
This recipe makes a lot. So be prepared to use it in several meals, or freeze a portion for a later date.
(adapted from a Bon Appetit braised pork recipe)
3 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 large new mexican dried chilis
2 tablespoons agave
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 large onion, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 can Tecate beer
Place chilis in a medium bowl. Add enough boiling water to cover, and set something on top of the chilis to weigh them down in the water. Keep submerged for 30 minutes or until softened. Drain chilis and puree in blender with 1 cup of the soaking liquid. Put all the ingredients, including the red chili mixture, in the crock pot, except chicken. Mix well and then add chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or until the chicken will shred easily. Shred with two forks and add back the cooking liquid till the chicken is moist again.
Use the shredded chicken to make the tostadas above, or chicken lettuce tacos, chicken taquitos, pulled chicken sandwiches, quesadillas on wheat tortillas, inside of an omelet, I could seriously go on and on. If you think of another great use put it in the comments below!
