Another Meal Plan Monday

I skipped a week of meal plans but that's alright because my meals weren't blog worthy anyway.  We took a last minute trip to be with family so our plans got re-arranged and we at out a lot.  This past week I was wrapping up the in-line skating unit with the 3rd and 4th graders at our elementary school.  I also had a long overdue lunch with a friend and the Thanksgiving lunch with my daughter.  A busier week than normal, where I'm not at home during the day, leads to easier meals.

Monday:  Stir fry-  I love this recipe from Erin.  It's simple and full of flavor.  I start with her recipe and then add water chestnuts, baby corns and frozen veggies to make it more of a stir fry.  Don't forget the cashews because that is what makes the dish.  Also, to keep the recipe on the lighter side, start with a small amount of sauce and add more if you need to.

Tuesday: Google how to cook a spaghetti squash.  For the sauce, brown Italian Seasoned ground turkey and add your favorite pasta sauce.  One of my favorite simple recipes for Fall//Winter because the squash goes down in price.

Wednesday:  Easy pot roast in crock pot. Cut up some carrots and potatoes and put them in the crock pot, trim fat off of roast and place it on top of vegetables, sprinkle roast with one package of Lipton onion soup mix and water.  Cook on low 8 to 10 hours.  (I used the recipe on the back of the onion soup box)

Thursday:  Skinnytaste Crock pot taco chili

Friday:  lightened up kale and potato soup

Saturday:  tortilla soup-recipe coming soon!

Brinner:  the usual scones, eggs, fruit and breakfast sausage

As I share these recipes with you, I'm realizing that they aren't as "clean" as they could be.  I'll be working on finding new easier recipes that are using less processed and canned items.  It's been really good for me to write these meals down and see a pattern.  I'm thinking that it will be helpful to me, especially in the next few months, to write down what I eat for breakfast, lunch and snacks as well.  Now I'm off to prepare for Thanksgiving.  Have you lightened up some Thanksgiving recipes?  I'd love to hear about them.

lightened up kale and potato soup

No pictures here today.  I need to get over the fact that I am not a food blogger so my pictures will never do a recipe justice!  Just take the pictures, Kristen.
Anyway, the other night while meal planning, I got the crazy craving for kale and potato soup.  I'd seen other recipes out there and decided it would be great for our new cooler weather.  But most of the recipes out there call for heavy cream and bacon.  I needed something a lot lighter than that.  I actually found a recipe using milk instead and when I went to cook everything, realized that I had not saved it on the Ipad!  This lead me to create my own recipe and it actually turned out pretty good.  I have to note that I think my homemade chicken broth was the reason it tasted so good.

Ingredients:
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 package of JennieO Italian seasoned ground turkey
4 cups of homemade chicken broth
10 fingerling potatoes or about 4 red potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup of 2% milk
4 cups of kale, with stems removed and torn in pieces

First, saute the onion and garlic until browned and tender.  Add the turkey and brown until done.  Add chicken broth to the pot and bring to a boil.  Add potatoes and simmer until they are tender.  Add milk and heat through.  Add kale and cook for a minute or two or until it is wilted.  Season with salt and pepper as desired.

The next time I make this, I'll experiment on adding some corn starch to thicken up the soup a bit.
Enjoy!

Quick and easy Miso Soup

It's getting cold around here and you know what that means.  Soup!  We enjoy this quick and easy soup for lunch.  Everything you need for this soup is in the picture except for the chow mein noodles that we add for a little crunch.

2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 or 3 green onions, chopped
2 carrots chopped,
1 1/2 cups of purple cabbage (optional), chopped
tofu
Miso Easy, mild and/ or chili flavored

-In a pot, heat 3 cups of water and the veggies until all vegetables are cooked.
-Add 2 Tbsp. regular miso and 2 Tbsp of chili miso to the pot and stir.  (You can play with this combo to make it spicier or more mild)
-Add tofu and let sit for a minute to allow it to heat up.

*Serve with a few chow mein noodles

{This recipe serves two}


Note:  We usually have celery and carrots on hand but not purple cabbage.  When I buy the cabbage, I chop the whole thing up and then freeze flat it in one big bag.  Then I just grab what I need out of that bag and put the rest back in the freezer.  If you look closely, the cabbage in the picture is still frozen.

Meal Plan Monday and a T25 update

This was a crazy week!  Daddy was out of town for a few nights and I was on my own.  I contemplated not even posting about our meals but then I thought about how I want to be honest and intentional with this blog so below is the real deal.  Here are the recipes (or in this case non-recipes) and how the week went down.

Monday:  I had Bible study in the morning and then spent too long on a lunch date so I ran out of time to get to the store.  Note to self:  Shopping on a Monday is not a good mix.  Instead of rushing through meal planning and then rushing through the store, I decided to get Chick-fil-a for the fam after piano practice and wait until to the next day to prepare.  I thought I was choosing the healthy salad at Chick-fil-A.  I did not.  Maybe it's just me and the fact that I rarely go through the fast food lines anymore, but I got all flustered and in a hurry and I didn't take the time to choose what I really wanted!  Lesson learned.

Tuesday:  Tortellini soup

Wednesday: Daddy was still out of town so we had leftover soup and whatever else we could find.

Thursday:  Good ole pork chops, peas and carrots, and this rice:

Friday:  My sister and her family came in town so we cooked up a large batch of chicken fajita meat.  I used greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  But we still had the refried beans and rice!  My total comfort food.  

Saturday:  Leftover fajita meat. It was such a blessing to have easy dinners this weekend so we could get a major project done.  Our garage is cleaned out and organized and that makes me very happy.  

Sunday:  We spent the day with friends and ate lunch and dinner at their house.  I enjoyed the food they had there but the best part was holding their brand new baby.  Welcome to the world little Decker!  

I would give myself a C on healthy and clean eating this past week.  I drank my Shakeology every day except one so I know I got the good stuff.   However, I really need to focus on better choices and planning for my other snacks.  For lunch, instead of my quinoa salad, I simply toasted a piece of Ezekiel Bread and topped it with cucumber, grape tomatoes, kalamata olives and a little purple onion and feta cheese.  Top it all with some balsamic vinegar for added extra flavor.  

I finished up the Alpha phase (first month) of Focus T25 and now I'm on to the Beta phase.  I'm REALLY enjoying the shorter workouts.  They go by fast and you are moving fast throughout the whole thing.  It's taking me a while to get used to not having any breaks but sometimes I just pause the video to catch my breath and start up again.  I've found that if you wait too long, by the time you've caught your breath, they have moved on to something else.  So I pause because I don't want to miss anything and I want to get the most out of the 25 minutes that I am working out.  

What have you been eating lately that it simple and easy to get you through a challenging week?

November Beachbody Excitement~Give and Recieve

Can I just tell you that I'm so proud to be a part of the Beachbody family?  And even more so this month.  Just when I think things can't get any cooler, they come along with this month's promotion.  It's called Give and Receive and it comes in two parts.  

Part 1:  "Recieve":  Whenever someone buys a challenge pack this month, they will receive a $20 dollar coupon to apply to a future purchase.  That would be like getting Results and Recovery formula, the after workout liquid gold, for about half off. * 

Part 2:  In the second piece of the promotion, “Give”, Beachbody is proud to partner with Feeding AmericaTM, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity. For every challenge pack purchased or Shakeology order processed (on home direct) this month, Beachbody will give $10 to Feeding America. That equates to a $10 donation for every Shakeology HD order and a $20 donation for every Challenge Pack sold. 

Here's a short 2 minute video about it!

There is no limit to the amount Beachbody will donate and they've promised a minimum of $250,000 with a goal of $1,000,000.  Can you help us reach this?  Each $1 donated provides 9 meals secured by Feeding America, so together, we can provide over 2,250,000 to America’s hungry.  more information about Feeding America, or if you’d like to make a donation yourself, please visit www.feedingamerica.org/beachbody.

*Coupon Terms: When your customers or enrolling Coaches purchase a Challenge Pack in November, they’ll receive a $20 coupon towards a future minimum purchase of $30 or more on TeamBeachbody.com! Coupons will be emailed to the address on file within 7-10 business days of the Challenge Pack purchase for customers and new Coaches and on or around December 11 for sponsoring Coaches. Hurry, coupons expire on April 1, 2014! Coupons may not be used on certain products - see official promotion rules here.

Meal Plan Monday

I want to share my meal plan from last week with you.  It has its imperfections but done is better than perfect right?  In the future, I hope to incorporate more breakfast and lunch options.  I'm pretty boring in these areas so just know that I typically eat oatmeal for breakfast and Mediterranean quinoa salad for lunch.  Snacks for the day are almost always Shakeology.

So without further ado, Dinners were:

1. turkey burgers

2. cauliflower/potato soup

3. crockpot chili

4. zucchini noodles with red sauce ~ Use a julienne peeler like this to make the "noodles" and saute them in olive oil with a little garlic and minced onion.  I made these for my husband and me because the kids were eating hot dogs for Halloween with the neighbors.

5. "Brinner"(Breakfast+Dinner) ~ scrambled eggs, homemade scones, fruit, breakfast sausage

6. Cilantro lime rice w/ black beans

7. Stuffed Pepper soup (I didn't get around to making this this weekend.  I'm thinking of adding it to next week.)

Enjoy!

Currently

finishing up the first phase of Focus T25, my latest workout program

learning from the Smart Success videos from Chalene Johnson

cooking homemade chicken broth (after seeing a horrible video about "natural" flavors)
tending to poison ivy on my boy
listening to Just a Fool by Christina Aguilera
crushing on these workout tops

via

missing this place