meal planning and weekend recap
Last week’s Sunday food prep madness really helped us out last week in both eating out less and making better food choices, so I decided to take it a bit further and actually plan meals for the week. We usually go to the grocery store on Sunday and just plan on what we are going to eat that night then we buy a few staples and sort of wing it for the week. Sometimes this strategy works and sometimes we eat out way more than we intended. So here are the meals I planned for the week. I left breakfast and snacks out of the meal plan because we generally have that department covered.
Meals of the Week
Monday
lunch- curried tuna salad over mixed greens
Dinner- homemade lentil soup & kale
Tuesday
lunch- leftover lentil soup & kale
dinner- I am going to attempt to recreate The Vegan Bowl from Bridgeport Brewery. This delight contains sweet potatoes, black beans, kale, and tofu dressed in a spicy cashew sauce. I might use broccoli instead of kale. We shall see where the wind blows me.
Wednesday
lunch- curried tuna salad over mixed greens
dinner- sun dried tomatoes, broccoli, mushroom, onion and parmesan frittata & greens
Thursday
lunch- left over frittata & greens
dinner- wing it- use up any left overs in the fridge
Friday
lunch- left overs or green smoothie
dinner- out
Saturday
lunch- green smoothie or cobb salad
dinner- out
Grocery list
To prep for the week, I boiled a few eggs, chopped & bathed veggies, and made a batch of peanut butter protein cookies, so healthy snacks are easy to get after.
Weekend Recap:
It has finally happened. I am the proud owner of this lovely beast. I ordered it on Tuesday and I received it on Friday with free shipping. I love Fitness Zone. I also love this bike. I took him for his maiden voyage yesterday. I was dripping with sweat after 6 minutes. Best decision I have made in a long time.
Another good decision, going out to dinner with these two amazing peeps:
We went to Paadee. This might be my favorite restaurant in Portland. If you live in PDX and have not been, I highly suggest going. If you visit Portland, I would say this restaurant is worthy to make “the must go to list.”
I was so obsessed with my eats that I never got any pictures of them. I did finally get a picture with the husband. We are not very good about getting our pictures taken.
I am not sure what is going on with Kentucky-claw-like bangs. Pretty.
Other eats consumed:
greek yogurt, flaxseed, pumpkin, and Nature’s Path heritage oats cereal
A batch of peanut butter, protein cookies were made
Bridgeport’s infamous Vegan Bowl left overs with a little added spinach
last night’s grill fest. Buffalo burger, sweet potato fries, roasted broccolini, and steamed dragon tongue beans.
washed down with a little red wine
I hope summer never ends.
I am off to hang out with Mr. Tour De France.
Happy Monday!
kitchen domination
I had my first kitchen domination in our new abode. This was the first time I have put this oven to use and I almost burned the house down in doing so. Apparently, the drawer below the oven heats up at the same rate as the oven (I have never had an oven do this before) and a paper instruction manual resided in this very drawer. We are down an instruction manual and the house smelled lovely for a good 2-3 hours, but other than that all went swimmingly.
After bathing the fruits and veggies, I began the domination:
I have been craving granola lately, but I did not want to pay $8 for a bag of it and the gluten-free oats were on sale for $4.50, so homemade granola became my first domination task.
Easy, peasy gluten-free granola:
The Goods:
- 3c gluten-free granola
- 1/3c raw honey (melted)
- 1/3c coconut oil (melted)
- 3/4c raw walnuts
- 3/4c raw cashews
- 1/2c raw pecans
- 2T ground flaxseeds
- 20-25 liquid stevia
- 1/4t sea salt
- 1t cinnamon
- 1/2t nutmeg
- dash of ground cloves
- 2T pumpkin puree (you can leave this out)
How to:
- pre-heat oven to 300 (don’t burn your house down)
- combine all ingredients in medium size bowl
- put mixed medley on a parchment lined baking sheet
- bake for 15-20 min stirring every 5 min
After the granola was completed I moved on to baking some brown bread
I have made a version of this bread before and posted it in skinspot’s newsletter and I also made it in muffin form. However, this fella was a little different than both of those.
I bring you grain-free, spice bread. This bread does not look the prettiest, but I assure you he is delish. I adapted the recipe from this recipe at Eat the Cookie.
The Goods:
- 2c (packed) almond flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 spiced hemp protein powder (you could also use any vanilla or regular flavored protein powder)
- 1c pumpkin puree
- 1/4c molasses
- 1/4 c maple syrup
- approx 20 drops of liquid stevia
- 1/2t baking soda
- 1t cinnamon
- 1/2t nutmeg
- 1/4t ground cloves
- 1/2t sea salt
How To:
- pre-heat oven to 350
- line 9×5 loaf pan w/ parchment paper or grease w/ coco oil
- combine all ingredients in medium size bowl
- pour medley into loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes
I enjoyed a slice of this delight this morning for breakfast alongside a little coconut yogurt and berries.
This bread is awesome. It is like good-for-you cake.
After the bread was done, I tried my hand at making raw date balls.
Sadly, these were a fail. They taste pretty good, but they are hideous and really sticky. I will modify and post a recipe for them someday.
I decided that I was donezo with the sweets and moved on to steaming all of the veggies, so we could have veggies on hand for a few days;
And that concludes this week’s kitchen domination.
On a different note, every Tuesday for the past three Tuesdays, I have had the pleasure of having Abby White kick my fanny. Abby is the personal trainer, yoga instructor and holistic health coach over at Bliss Holistic Health. I cannot express what a great inspiration Abby is. First of all, she looks amazing, so she definitely walks her talk, but more importantly her breadth of knowledge on fitness and nutrition is unreal. If you live in Portland, I highly recommend working with Abby. She is shaking up my fitness routine and I couldn’t be more tickled about it.
In other thrilling news, we got a patio set. Woot! However, we are back to traditional Portland weather, so it may be a few days before we get to enjoy ‘er.
I am off to walk the pug.
Happy Monday!
Grain Free Spice Muffins
In my kitchen domination post on Monday, I mentioned the recipe for grain free, protein packed spice muffins. These muffins are similar to a spice bread I made not so long ago, but the recipe for that was only shared with those who read skinspot’s letter of news. Side note: if you want to be a part of this very elite club, sign up here. However, I switched up the recipe a bit for two reasons: 1. I wanted muffins instead of a loaf (hate the word “loaf”) of bread to aid in portion control. 2. I needed to find a use for the Amande yogurt that I purchased, because I am not a huge fan of it on its own.
And with those very important facts, I bring you the recipe. This recipe was adapted from Elana’s Pumpkin Pie Muffins.
The Goods
- 1c almond flour
- 1/2c vanilla spice protein powder- you could use any vanilla protein powder
- 1/2c pumpkin pie puree- you could also use regular pumpkin puree
- 1/2c Amande- you could use Greek yogurt, coconut yogurt, unsweetened applesauce, or 1C of pumpkin puree instead of the 1/2c mentioned above.
- 1/3c molasses- you could also use maple sryup, but it would lose some of the “spice”
- 2eggs
- 1/4t sea salt
- 2T coco oil
- dash of cloves
- 1t cinnamon
- 1/2t nutmeg
- 1/4t ginger
- 1/2t baking soda
- 1t vanilla
How to:
- preheat oven to 350
- grease muffin tins with coco oil, or line w/ paper liners
- combine all wet ingredients in a large size bowl
- combine all dry ingredients, including spices, in a medium size bowl
- add dry ingredients to wet
- disperse batter among muffin tin
- bake for 30-35 min
yummmm
On a different note: I discovered a new snack.
Baked sweet potato + 1/2c 2%Greek yogurt+ 1T ground flax= pure bliss
Burt got to clean up the Greek yogurt container. Who needs a dishwasher?
Please note that Burt brings all goods back to his apartment (aka the gray fluffy monster).
get after it
And with that, I am off. Happy Wednesday!
kitchen domination
Last month the husband and I added up how much we spend at the grocery store and dining out and it wasn’t pretty. Food is definitely where the majority of our funds go, so in an effort to stretch our grocery store purchases and eat out less, I went a little nuts preparing eats for the week. I am also hoping that my prepping will aid in the loosening of my ever tightening pantalones.
Here’s what happened:
First up: a crust-less broccoli quiche.
Recipe:
The goods:
- 1 large broccoli head (chopped)
- 1 leek (chopped)
- 2 garlic gloves (chopped)
- approx. 14 mushrooms (chopped)
- 4 organic eggs
- 4 organic egg whites
- 2T feta
- 1.5t Ghee (butter, evoo, or coco oil will also work)- this is for sautéing veggies
- coco oil for pan greasing or whatever oil you so desire
- 1/8t garlic salt (to taste)
- 1/2t tumeric
- dash of black pepper
How To:
- pre heat oven to 325
- grease 12″ pie pan
- heat ghee in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft. Stir in garlic, mushrooms, broccoli, salt, pepper and turmeric and continue cooking until soft.
- in a large bowl whisk eggs & egg whites together. Add broccoil mixture and stir to blend. Scoop into prepared pie pan.
- Bake in preheated oven until eggs have set, about 35-40 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Next up:
slow cooker, salsa chicken.
I have seen this recipe (if you can call it a recipe) on other blogs and cooking websites, unfortunately I cannot remember what ones.
How To:
- line 3 (or however many you desire) chicken breasts on the bottom of slowcooker
- pour entire jar of salsa over chicken breasts
- set slow cooker on low for 4-6 hours or high for 3-5 hours
- done
The chicken turns out superb and it couldn’t be easier. We ate some of it last night on top of a kale salad. Unfortunately, no photo was snapped.
Moving on…
eggs were hard boiled:
After a night of soaking, chickpeas were cooked. Dry chickpeas from the bulk section are so much more economical, but I always fight the purchasing of them because of the soaking required to use them. However, it just isn’t that hard. At 11:00 on Saturday night I put a cup of dry chickpeas in a bowl and covered them with room temperature water then went to bed. Why do I struggle with this?
I froze half of this batch, so next week all I will have to do is thaw. Again, why do I fight this process?
Next up:
Two sweet potatoes were baked. So easy: clean potatoes, wrap in tin foil, stick in oven or in toaster oven at 425 for 40-50 min depending on size. This process does not even require clean up.
Because I have a hearty sweet tooth, I needed to make sure I had some appetizing desserts on hand.
Behold grain-free, protein packed, spice muffins:
Stay tuned: Recipe to come this week.
The Man Piece’s Birthday is today. Happy Birthday Man Piece (Aka Keith)!! In lieu of his day of birth, he requested peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies. I obliged. I made these delights with the ingredients I had on hand which meant, they ended up being gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and egg-free. They still turned out pretty darn good. I should know because I think I ate my weight in dough and the Birthday boy seemed to enjoy.
Stay tuned: This recipe is also coming your way this week.
Burt also had one helluva Sunday. After using up the remainder of the sunflower butter in the above creation, Burt got to help in the jar cleaning process.
Very good at his job. Very good.
2 things I am not proud of
{source}
1. I just goggled “bachelor spoiler.” I do not know what crawled up my knickers. I don’t even watch the damn thing. Well, I sorta do, but that is not really important. I honestly could not tell you what I learned via this very intellectual search. I was so bored two sentences into the article, I stopped reading. If the picture on the website is any indication, then I think I know the answer. I will sleep soundly tonight.
2. I have had 7 of these little darlings. Six were consumed before 10:00 AM. At 9:30 last night I got a wild hair up my fanny and decided to make these grain-free sesame cookies from Elana’s pantry. I know I am on this blog way too much. I pretty much followed her recipe except I used grass-fed butter for the grape seed oil and maple syrup for the agave. I cannot tell you how amazing these cookies are. I have about 7 cookies left and it is taking every last bit of strength I have to not eat them.
I am off to study for my first Integrative Institute for Nutrition exam. I wonder if there is a question on there on how to control a cookie addiction? Deep thoughts
devil
Happy Wednesday!
meat madness
pardon my blog hiatus, these things happen from time-to-time.
Here is recap of what has been happening in ma neck-o-the-woods
Sunday we had breakfast at one of my favorite breakfasts spots in Portland, Cloud Seven Cafe.
I got Petunia’s Pies & Pasteries gluten-free, vegan spice cake. I do not know what they do to their baked goods, but they are beyond delish. I can’t stop thinking about this gem. I will be recreating.
Coffee made this gem even better
And so did this guy- despite the fact he is currently perusing Mr. iPhone.
After breakfast we ran a few thrilling errands that involved Keith getting new work shoes and me getting a sassy, green blouse. We also hit up the grocery store, so I could get my cook on for the duration of the day.
I had the ambition to make oodles of eats that worked with the Live Fit program.
I made Jamie’s Apple Cinnamon Protein Bars. I would show, you a picture, but I forgot to take one. And they are not very good, so I am thinking the garbage disposal might be dining on them in the near future.
I also adapted her Turkey Meatloaf Muffins. They turned out swimmingly and they make a superb salad topper.
Here is my version of the meat muffins.
- 2lbs ground, organic, grass-fed buffalo
- 2 egg whites
- 1 whole egg
- 2T ground flax
- 2t dried mustard
- 2t black pepper
- 1t chipotle pepper spice
- 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
- 1 small onion (finely chopped)
- 2.5 celery stalked (finely chopped)
- 2 carrot sticks (finely chopped)
How to:
- Pre heat oven to 375
- grease muffin tins with coconut oil
- mix all ingredients together in med-lrg bowl
- roll mixture into balls and place in muffin tin. Muffins are about the size of a tennis ball
- bake for 40 minutes
makes 15 muffins.
After the meat muffins were in the oven, I decided to try my hands at roasting a whole chicken. I saw a recipe for a roasted chicken with prunes and olives on Carrots-n-Cake and thought it looked so dang good, I saw it again on Elana’s Pantry while sleuthing for soup recipes, so I decided I must give it a whirl. I followed Elana’s recipe to the tee and it was the best chicken I have ever had. My love with Mr. Chicken is slightly amazing given, I sincerely considered giving up meat after preparing the fella. I definitely shed a tear or 7. I wish I was joking. I am a bit of a nutball. If you can get past any emotions that might come up in the prep of roasting a whole chicken, they really are super easy. I know, I am an odd duck.
Mr. Chicken was consumed on a bed of welcoming spinach and roasted brussel sprouts
And with that, I am signing off.
Happy Tuesday!
lentils and muffins
good times with both.
On Sunday, I made Angela’s lentil soup and I am thrilled to the gill that I did so. The only changes I made were: I used less curry, but added cumin & turmeric. I also added more water (only because I cooked all of the water out of it) and a titch of hot sauce. I also did not puree a portion of the soup simply because I did not want to wash the blender. After the soup was finished, I piled it a top a bed of welcoming kale. This soup is so filling and tasty, not to mention, so dang easy and full of good-for-you nonsense.
On sunday I also had a hankering for muffins, so I decided to put one of my many protein powders to work. I bring you gluten-free, protein-packed, spice muffins:
To be perfectly honest, these were not my finest creation. They are a little too dry. I think this could be rectified with coconut oil, grass-fed butter, or an overly ripe, mashed banana. Next time…
I am sharing this recipe with you in hopes, that with your tweak of choice, they will be divine. I may, or may not ,make these again. Honestly, I have a hard time making anything twice only because I get a silly little rush out of seeing how new recipes turn out. I know, I am bonkers.
The Goods:
- 3/4 cup Teff Flour
- 3/4 cup Millet Flour
- 3/4 cup Tapioca Flour
- 3 scoops (or 1/2 c) Vanilla Egg White Protein Powder. ( I used Vitol’s Egg White Protein Powder you could use any protein powder you like. This protein powder is sweetened with stevia, so it helped to make the muffins sweeter, if you powder is not sweetened, I would add additional sweetener)
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Nutmeg, Ground
- 1/4 tsp Cloves, Ground
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp Organic Vanilla Extract
- 2 tbsp Molasses
- 2 tbsp Pure Maple Syrup
- 1.5 cup Unsweetened applesauce
- 2 eggs
How To:
1. preheat oven to 350
4. mix all ingredients with a hand mixer
5. fill muffin cups 3/4 full with mixture
6. cook for 15-20min (depending on how full you actually fill the muffin tins)- remove when toothpick runs clean
7. allow to cool for 5 min
apply butter, nut butter or any other topper.
Enjoy with wild Abandon!
peanut butter and jelly cookies
I promised protein packed cookies and I am here to deliver. I must warn you, they are not that protein-packed, but whatever. These dudes are gluten-free, low in sugar and pretty darn tasty. I was inspired by Abby’s thumbprint cookies, so this recipe is adapted from her lovely creation. Abby already healthfied them and I just tweaked them a wee bit.
Here is what I did:
Ingredients:
- 1 medium Banana
- 1/2 cup Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
- 1/2 cup Classic Organic Smooth Peanut Butter
- 1 large Egg White
- 1/2 cup Teff Flour
- 1/4 cup Oat Flour
- 1/4 cup Stone Ground Whole Grain Millet Flour
- 50 g Protein Shake (Powder)- I used Vital Whey
- 1 tsp Organic Vanilla Extract
- 1 2/5 g Sea Salt
- 1 tsp All Natural Baking Soda
- 1 tbsp Molasses, Blackstrap
- 4 tbsp Fig Butter
- Preheat oven to 350°F. line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In one bowl, whisk together flours, protein powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
- In another bowl, mash banana with a fork then combine peanut butter, sugar, and egg white until there are no lumps. One could use an electric mixer or wooden spoon.
- Add the flour mixture (in small increments) and stir (or mix) until combined.
- Form dough into 1-inch balls, place on baking sheet 1 inch apart.
- bake for 7 -10 minutes on sheet.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes. After cooled, make an indentation in the center of each cookie with your thumb. Fill each indentation with about 1⁄2 teaspoon of jam/preserves.
Presto
muffin numero duex
Yesterday I shared the sweet muffin recipe that I made on Sunday. Today, the savory variety is coming your way.
Introducing flax, egg, & rosemary muffins:
I got the idea for this recipe from a Oxygen Magazine.
This recipe calls for ground turkey, which I did not have and it only called for 1 egg. I had four eggs that needed to be used up, so I modified the recipe to look like this.
The Goods:
- 4 medium Eggs
- 1/2 cup Organic Flax Seeds Ground
- 1 medium Sweet Potato
- 2 tsp Rosemary, Fresh
- 1 2/5 g Sea Salt
- 3 Raw Garlic Cloves
- 1/4 cup mozzarella Cheese
- 1/8 tsp Ground Black Pepper
Back on track
I have been fully enjoying myself this holiday season. After a couple of weekends that have included late night eats of french fries, and white Russians (who under the age of 65 orders this drink?) followed up by lovely Sundays of indulgent breakfasts and pizza dinners, I am feeling less than svelte. Imagine that. I had the baking itch yesterday and instead of scratching said itch, with the cookie recipe I have been dreaming of, I opted to create protein packed, gluten-free muffins. I made two batches of muffins: one savory and one sweet. Today I bring you the sweet version.
After sleuthing the internet for a good-for-you muffin recipe, I didn’t find what I was looking for, so I used a this recipe for pumpkin banana bread from hungry, hungry hippie as my inspiration then I modified based on the flours I had on hand, my lack of banana and wish for protein and here is what I got….
gluten-free apple, pumpkin, protein muffins:
Mr. Muffin topped with a smudge of coconut oil
The goods:
- 1/2 large Apple- I used an Organic Opal, which err on the sweeter side. You could also use 2/3c unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tbsp Chia Seeds
- 1 cup 100% Pure Pumpkin Pie Filling- you could also use canned pumpkin and add a 1T of maple syrup, agave or honey.
- 1/3 cup Organic Coconut Oil
- 1 tbsp Organic Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Cinnamon Ground
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg, Ground
- 3 scoop Vanilla Egg White Protein Powder- you could use any protein powder you have on hand. This protein powder has stevia in it, so if your protein powder does not have a sweetener added, you may want to add a little depending on how sweet you like things.
- 3/4 cup Teff Flour*
- 3/4 cup Millet Flour*
- 1/2 cup Tapioca Flour*
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 2/5 g Sea Salt
* if you do not have these flours on hand, you could use 2C of gluten-free all-purpose flour. If gluten-free is not a goal, use 2c whole wheat or spelt flour.
How to:
1. pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. grease or line muffin tin with non-stick papers
3. puree 1/2 of large apple in food processor or 1 whole medium apple. puree until smooth use or 2/3c unsweetened applesauce
4. mix all wet ingredients together in a medium size bowl
5. add dry ingredient to wet ingredients. stirring slowly
6. when all ingredients are mixed throughly, equally scoop mixture into 12 regular muffin cups
7. bake muffins for 20 minutes
Ta Da!
The infamous Opal apple used in this recipe. If you can get your fingers on one of these gems, you must do so. They are delish.
protein powder used in the muffs
Nutrition Info:
the deets
Hope this helps you enjoy the holiday season with a little less gluttony. 
Off to walk the pug. Happy Monday!
