Breakfast Meatza

This recipe isn’t mine. I wish it was though as it is a genius idea! I got this recipe from Paleomg.com who has TONS of amazing Paleo meal ideas including sweet stuff!!! I used regular pork sausage, white potatoes and didn’t use garlic or bacon because I was lazy. Bell peppers and mushrooms would make a great addition to this meal as well! Scrambled eggs could be used as a topper if you don’t like eggs over easy 🙂 Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
1 lb sausage, pork or bison
7 eggs (1 as a binder and 6 to top Meatza with)
3 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder

DIRECTIONS
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees

*Mix 1 egg and breakfast sausage together in a 8×8 baking dish and press it down until it’s evenly spread across the bottom of the dish.

*Bake in the oven 10-15 minutes or until you start to see fat rising to the surface.

*Meanwhile, cook potatoes and onion in skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

*When sausage is cooked, top with potatoes and spread evenly. Crack 6 eggs over potatoes and season with salt and pepper.

*Place back in the oven for 8-10 minutes until eggs are cooked to your liking. The eggs will go from uncooked to overcomes quickly so keep you eye on them!

*Let cool and enjoy!

Clean Banana Bread

I’m pretty sure I’ve earned some vacation time or at least a date night with all the awesome things I’ve cooked today! Delicious crock pot stew AND banana bread! I baked the banana bread this afternoon and there’s only 3 pieces left 😭 I’m seriously contemplating eating the rest after everyone goes to bed!! It’s that’s good.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3-4 ripe bananas
1/2 cup coconut or olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

*Mash bananas in a mixing bowl then add the rest of the wet ingredients. Mix well.

*Mix in dry ingredients and blend until smooth.

*Fold in optional add-ins such as coconut, walnuts or chocolate chips.

*Pour mixture into a prepared loaf pan and bake for 30-45 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

*Let cool and enjoy!!

Makes one loaf.

Clean Crock Pot Beef Stew

This was a HUGE hit at my house this evening…hubby had FOUR BOWLS!! I’m proud and pleased to say the least 😀

INGEDIENTS
1 1/2 lbs stew meat
3 potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups beef broth
2 10.8 oz bags of mixed vegetables
Whole wheat flour
Fajita seasoning, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste
Onion powder, to taste
Meat tenderizer

DIRECTIONS
*Brown stew meat and season with fajita seasoning (or salt & pepper) and meat tenderizer.

*Put meat in crock pot along with potatoes, vegetables and broth.

*Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-8.

* When meat and potatoes are cooked through make a paste to thicken the broth. Using the whole wheat flour and broth from the crock pot, slowly add broth into the flour until it reaches a glue like consistency. Add the mixture to the crock pot and stir. I had to do this step several times in order to get it thick enough to our liking!

*Season stew with garlic and onion powder and more fajita seasoning until flavored to your liking.

*Serve with cornbread or bread and butter.

Cheat Meal: Verde Chicken Enchiladas

So these Kraft meal kits have been tempting me for several grocery trips just because they look soooo easy (and I’m a sucker for enchiladas lol). But I knew that they were gonna be crazy bad for me 😭. I finally picked one up and realized that the ingredient list isn’t really all that bad!! There were a few things I couldn’t pronounce and didn’t recognize but I feel like this wasn’t a too unhealthy meal! Especially if you go light on the cheese 😉. My 1 year old loved them and so did my hubby so I’m pretty pleased at the turn out.

Confession: until today, I hadn’t bought groceries in TWO WEEKS. Which is why I haven’t posted anything new in FOREVER. Me and the baby have been eating random mixes of food and the poor hubby (sarcasm!!) has been eating out while he’s at work. I held out for my Bountiful Basket which I was suppose to get on Saturday but guess what? They moved locations and I missed the pick up time so by the time I got to the new location everybody and my basket was gone. Was I pissed? Oh yeah!! So I had to brave the store this morning with my 1 year old to get stocked up! I have several new recipes I’m gonna post so keep your eyes open!! 👀👀

Clean “Hamburger” Steaks with Mushroom Gravy

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve kinda been in a slump lately. I have not felt like cooking or cleaning the past few days so we’ve been eating leftovers or cereal or whatever I can heat up in the microwave I do really well cooking full blown dinners every night and then one night I just can’t do it. So this is the first REAL dinner I’ve made in a whole week. Feel honored ya’ll! I know my family did tonight LOL. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 3/4 cup onions
• 1 lb extra lean ground beef (or turkey)
• 1 lb extra lean ground turkey
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs. I used whole wheat
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg white
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp tomato paste 

DIRECTIONS

• Saute onions in oil over medium heat until golden brown, about 5 minutes.
• In a large bowl, combine half of the onions, ground beef, ground turkey, bread crumbs, egg and egg white, 1/4 cup beef broth, salt and pepper.
• Shape into 8 oval patties.
• In a large deep skillet over medium heat brown both sides of patties. Set aside on plate.
• Add mushrooms to skillet, season with salt and pepper and saute 2-3 minutes. Return patties to the skillet.
• In a small bowl, blend flour and remaining broth until smooth. Mix in remaining onions and tomato paste.
• Pour over meat and mushrooms in skillet.
• Cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

*This recipe is not mine but I’m not sure where I got it from! I searched Pinterest, my boards and recipe book aaaaand nothing  

Monster Meatloaf

 

I got the original recipe for this meatloaf from Jamie Eason on bodybuilding.com (link below) for some different seasoning ideas because i was getting pretty bored with my normal meatloaf recipe My meatloaf is pretty delicious but sometimes I’m in the mood to step outside of the box! This meatloaf is made healthy with ground turkey, oats, egg whites and some veggies. I did my own personal spin on this one as I was 1. feeling too lazy to chop veggies and 2. I didn’t have all the ingredients (3lbs turkey, ketchup, green peppers)…oops! So my adaption is below along with the link to the original. Hope you enjoy! http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-easons-livefit-recipes-monster-meatloaf.html 

INGREDIENTS

• 2lbs lean ground turkey
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp thyme 
• 3 egg whites
• tomato paste for topping

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray
• In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together until mixed well.
• Spoon into baking dish and smooth until even.
• Spread tomato paste evenly over the top of meatloaf.
• Bake for 1 hour.

Blueberry French Toast Casserole

I LOVE french toast. And I LOVE casseroles (I’d make an awesome old lady lol) what 23 year olds do you know that adore a good casserole?? I rest my case! Anywho, the one thing I don’t like about french toast is dunking bread in nasty, slimy egg mixture and cooking and assembling…I’m pretty lazy. So this is all that good, yummy taste but without the yucky prep! I got this recipe from The Gracious Pantry and am excited to check out more of her awesome recipes! Link to original recipe here

INGREDIENTS
6 cups cubed, whole grain bread
8 egg whites (could use 4 whole eggs)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups fresh blueberries

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together egg whites, almond milk, honey, both extracts and cinnamon in a large bowl.

Put bread into an oiled 9×13 baking dish and pour liquid mixture over it. Let sit 30 minutes or until all parts of the bread has been saturated.

Mix in blueberries and bake for 45 minutes or until there isn’t any liquid left.

No Noodle Lasagna

My life is a constant battle between my love of carbs and having a normal sized stomach. My stomach is super sensitive to most things so anytime I can substitute noodles or pasta for something healthier, I get super excited! This lasagna recipe uses grilled zucchini and eggplant in place of lasagna noodles and honestly I don’t even notice them missing!
This is also a pretty versatile recipe. Skip the ground turkey to make it vegetarian and/or use tofu mixed with Italian seasoning in place of cottage cheese and mozzarella to make it vegan! Ta-da!! The perfect lasagna recipe for everyone 🙂

INGREDIENTS
1lb ground turkey
1 45oz jar of spaghetti sauce
15 oz cottage cheese
1 large egg
1 12oz bag grilled zucchini
1 12oz bag grilled eggplant
Garlic powder
Fajita seasoning or salt and pepper
Italian seasoning
Mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large skillet, brown ground turkey and season with garlic powder and fajita seasoning to taste. Add spaghetti sauce to pan and combine.

While meat is cooking, mix together cottage cheese and egg in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with fajita seasoning.

In a baking dish, spoon a small amount of sauce into the bottom of the pan. Layer zucchini, cottage cheese mixture, and sauce. Repeat the next layer with eggplant. Keep repeating layers until all ingredients are used up ending with sauce on top. I usually get 2 layers! Sprinkle top layer of lasagna with mozzarella, garlic powder and Italian seasoning.

Cover pan with foil and bake for 45 minutes then uncover and bake for another 15 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

I used frozen zucchini and eggplant that has already been grilled (to take the water out of it) out of convenience.

If you choose to use fresh, slice vegetables into long strips with a mandolin, layer strips onto paper towels and sprinkle with salt. After 10 minutes, blot water from zucchini and eggplant, flip over and salt the other side. Blot with paper towels then grill slices to take extra water out.

That’s a lot of extra work huh? The first time I made this I used fresh zucchini and this step alone took me about an hour. EXHAUSTION. Needless to say I didn’t make this again until I found already grilled zucchini and eggplant in my freezer section at HEB. But don’t let the extra work scare you away! Try this recipe and I promise you won’t be let down! And leftovers the next day are awesome 🙂

Quick and Easy Chili

I felt like something warm and cozy for dinner again tonight (maybe I can force fall into coming early this way?? :D) and chili was on my menu plan this week so I went with it! I feel kinda guilty posting this recipe because its sooo easy and people usually take their chili recipes pretty seriously…but not this girl! I’m all about cheap, fast and easy recipes that are healthy and still taste amazing. This one is so easy, it’ll blow your mind 😉

INGREDIENTS
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (with chilis for added heat!)
1 28 oz can black beans (organic, low sodium)
1 28 oz can pinto beans
1 28 oz can kidney beans
1/2 cup diced onion
Chili powder
Cumin
Garlic powder
Fajita seasoning or salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot cook ground turkey and onions until done. Season with fajita seasoning to taste.

Add canned items to pot and stir to combine. Add chili powder, garlic powder and cumin to chili until desired taste is achieved.

Turn heat to low and simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chili is great alone or served with chips and cheese or cornbread!

Serves 4 people

Blew your mind didn’t it?!

Easy Roasted Chicken and Veggies

I haven’t been feeling too well the past few days and as a result my poor hubby has had to eat gas station food while he’s out working 😦 I still wasn’t back to my usual self today so I needed something fast and yummy that wasn’t too time consuming on the preparation end. This one pan meal is all of the above! Triple win! I usually use a 4 pack of chicken thighs (super cheap!) but HEB was out and all I could find was a 2 pack of ginormous bone-in chicken breasts. So use whichever kind of chicken you have on hand or prefer.

INGREDIENTS
2 bone-in chicken breasts
3 large potatoes, peeled
5 carrots, peeled
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Seasoning of choice for chicken (I used mrs.dash lemon pepper seasoning)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Cover a baking sheet in foil and lay chicken breasts in middle of sheet.

Chop potatoes and carrots into larger chunks and place around chicken.

Drizzle olive oil over veggies and chicken. Season veggies with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Next season chicken with Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper Seasoning.

Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Pierce chicken with a knife…it’s done when juices run clear.

This is great with steamed green beans!