Banana Almond Pancakes

Today's yummy breakfast:

1 medium banana smashed
1 xl egg
2 TBSP Almond meal
Dash of salt (optional)

Mix together and pour on a medium-low heated pan or griddle coated with either non-stick spray or butter (not too much butter or they will be soggy). Cook as you would pancakes. Note they will not really bubble up like pancakes do so watch for them to start to become solid to flip.

Paper Bag Popcorn

Who doesn't love popcorn and a movie?  What I don't love is transfat and chemicals in bags of popcorn.  Even "organic" and "natural" popcorn use unnecessary oils and "natural flavors."  

The amazing thing is you need none of these things to make popcorn.  All you need to do is buy plain popcorn kernals, put 3 tbsp of the kernals in a paper bag, fold it over, put 1 staple in it (i was afraid to do this but had no problems), and turn on the snack size popcorn setting on the microwave.  (If you do not have a small popcorn setting, then put in the microwave until the pops slow down).  

Then open up the bag and you have popcorn. It's really that simple.  If you want, you can top with some REAL pasture butter and salt or some cheese. 

Friday's Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Fries

 Preheat oven to 425F.  Take a Butternut Squash and slice it down the middle.

 If the bottom part has nothing more than seeds, cut off the seeded part and discard.  For larger squash, you may be able to scoop out the seeds and still have a decent amount of flesh left to use.  Then cut the skin off and either use a slicer or cut into rectangle slices.  I got this slicer for $10 and it makes the process much easier.

 Then peel and slice a sweet potato.  Again, super easy with a slicer.

 Then I put it all in a gallon size ziplock bag and added about 1 tsp or 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and about 1/4 a tsp of salt and shook it up to coat the "fries"

 I then put foil on a baking sheet and sprayed with an olive oil nonstick cooking spray.  (if you don't spray these will stick, use either an olive oil spray or you can use a brush or papertowel and lightly spread olive oil around so that they don't stick)

Then bake at a 425F until crispy.  (Butternut squash may not get very crisp, they will be more soft)

Breadless Meatballs & Sauce

This was my first attempt at making pasta sauce and breadless meatballs.  And, it came out AMAZING!

First, add about 1/4 a cup of extra virgin olive oil to a large pot and then add about 3/4 - 1 cup of chopped onion and 5 TBSP garlic (we LOVE garlic so you can add less if you want).  Simmer.

Then I added 2 jars of tomatoes, one was plum tomatoes and one a regular jar (you could use 2 cans of whole tomatoes), about 2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp organic honey, a bay leaf.  and cook for 1/2 to 2 hours on low heat.

Then begin preparing the meatballs.  I began the same way by adding about 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil to a frying pan and adding in about 1/4 cup of onions and about 2-3 tbsp garlic. 

I added 2 omega 3 eggs, and 1 cup of grated cheese (like you put on pasta) to a bowl.

Then I added the contents of the frying pan and about 2 pounds of extra lean ground beef.  I also added salt, basil and oregano. 

Then I mixed it all up to a uniform consistency and formed balls.

Then I again added about 1 TBSP to the frying pan and fried the meatballs on all sides.

Then back to the sauce:  I added a can of tomato paste, dried basil (this was also from my garden), oregano, & pepper.  I also dumped in all the meatballs.

I then cooked on very low heat for several hours.  It needs at least 30 minutes, but the longer the better,  just keep the heat really low and keep stirring to not burn the bottom. 

Last Night's Dinner

Broil flounder for like 3-5 min on on side flip and coat with paste made from butter, olive oil, garlic, and grated parmesean (amounts don't matter as long as its like a paste), and then broil for 3-5 more minutes. On the side is shrimp stirfry (a frozen stirfry bag for the veggies) cooked in sesame oil. All I have to say is YUM for this meal.

Dinner and breakfast for the work week

My family decided that they HAD to have pizza tonight so I had leftover salmon and asparagus.
Then I baked some eggs for breakfast - 2 cups egg whites, 8 omega 3 eggs, 1 cup of spinach, and prob 2 cups of portabella mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and sundried tomatoes. I then sprinkled a little parmesean cheese on top and baked at 350 for 25 minutes. Ill divide this by 4 and probably be stuffed!
I'm now defrosting 5 chicken breasts to cook up for the week too.
I'm chugging a water bottle and then will likely relax with a glass of wine and read some more of "the perfect 10" diet. (I'm reading it bc it was free on amazon this week)

Southwest Lunch & Snack

 

First, I added a tiny bit of EVOO and a few spoons of garlic (because a few spoons of garlic goes in about everything in my house) to a cast iron skillet and added some sliced chicken breast, I then covered it with cayenne pepper, chilli powder, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, and some homemade hot sauce (made & jarred in from my  my husband's garden from scotch bonnets, chillies, tomato, etc. - tabasco sauce can be a substitute, but mine my husband's is HOTTER)

 I then made some salad dressing from 1 TBSP EVOO, 2 TBSP red wine vinegar, 1 TSP lime juice, and about 1/4 cup of cilantro (mine was grown in the garden and then frozen).  I also added some salt and pepper and then stirred it up.

I put about 4 cups of baby lettuce blend (included baby spinach), about 8oz (estimated) of chicken breast, 1/4 cup of black beans, 1/4 cup of white & yellow corn, 1/2 an avocado, and maybe 1/4 a cup of diced red onion.   I've found it to be a tasty mix, it even seems a bit sweet to me, go figure.  

MyFitnessPal says my concoction is 598 calories, 58 grams of protein, 30 grams of fat, and 30 grams of carbs with a whopping 15 grams of those being fiber.  Don't forget that fat is almost all coming from the olive oil and avocado :)   I'm splitting this as my Lunch and Snack.

Last Night's Dinner

 Bacon

 Veggies

 omega 3 eggs

 Mix together

Baked for 20-25 min at 350.  I used 6 pieces of bacon and 8 omega 3 eggs for the egg pie.  I ate 1/4 of this.  This definitely put my carb cravings at bay.  The only bad thing is that it made me go over my calories by 157.  I did better with protein today at 122 grams.  I'd like to get a gram per weight.

Chili

2 lbs ground beef - I use 93% lean
2 medium onions or 1 large onion sliced
1 28 oz. can of Italian peeled tomatoes
6 oz. can of tomato paste
1 cup of dark beer
splash of beef broth
2 16 oz. cans of dark and light kidney beans

A diced green pepper
3 tbsp minced garlic
salt, oregano, chili powder, crushed red pepper, Tabasco sauce, & other peppers to taste

 Brown the meat with the onions

 Dice a green pepper

 Dump the rest of the ingredients in a crokpot and cook on high for 5 hours - can cook longer.

Eat

MyFitnessPal says my cup of chilli is 333 calories, 32 grams of protein, 8 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs with 7 of those fiber.

Step By Step of My Green Eggs w/ Veggies

Here are some step by step pictures of my green eggs, since it may seem strange when you try to make it.  I had these for breakfast again.  <3 

 Pan full of veggies

 Blended spinach, egg white, & omega 3 egg

 How it looks when dumped in the pan

 Scrambled

Then sprinkled with cheese

What's Cooking? Quick and Easy Crockpot Stew

This morning, I took my older daughter food shopping and she helped me pick out some food.  One of the meals we picked up was some quick and easy stew.  Working, gym time and kids leaves little time for packing lunches and making dinner, so crockpot meals that can be eaten throughout the week are life savers.  

 So, here's what I got:
3 lbs stew meat
3 bags of stop & shop stew vegetables (carrots, celery, onions, potatoes)
stop & shop all natural beef broth

other ingredients:
jar of tomatoes from my garden, you can use a 15oz can of chopped or whole tomatoes

I added a tiny bit of brown rice flour like 1/8 cup and salt and pepper in a gallon zip lock bag and coated the meat.  I then browned the meat in a large frying pan and then dumped into the crockpot.  I dumped in the tomatoes.  I defrosted the frozen vegetables a little and dumped the potatoes in the crockpot and the rest of the veggies in my blender - I blended on my salsa setting to make small chopped vegetables because I like my stew like mush.  If you like chunky vegetables in your stew you can skip this step.  Then I added to the crockpot.  I also added a good amount of minced garlic - also a preference.  Then I added a little - maybe 1/4 a cup of the beef broth, normally I would add more but the frozen veggies instead of fresh make it a little watery.  I scoop some excess water off the top from time to time as it cooks on high all day.  I usually make my stew with fresh veggies - but its cheaper (especially in the winter) and easier right now!