A Pursuit of Healthy

If you are looking for a super simple, healthy and delicious side dish, I have one for you! These quinoa patties are full of flavor and nutrients. We love them and pair them with all kinds of main dishes....fish, grilled chicken, etc. I really like to make them with steamed broccoli because I always have some in our fridge, but you could also use cauliflower or carrot cut into a small dice. I steam the veggies until they are tender-crisp so that there is still some crunch and texture. Here is what you'll need to makes these....


Yea that's right, 5 whole ingredients!! Recipes don't get any easier then that! Try them and let me know what you think. Here's the recipe...

Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa Patties

Prep Time: 20 min. | Total Time: 35 min. | Makes 12 Servings

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package instructions, cooled
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped broccoli cooked (steamed, roasted, etc.)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 egg

Preparation Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray.

Add all the ingredients to a medium bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. Divide the mixture between the cups of the muffin tin, and press down to pack it in firmly.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.


Nutritional Information (Calculated for 12 servings):

I've had a lot of people ask me about my weekly meal prep process so I thought I'd write a nice gigantic blog post on how/what I do! Keep in mind, this is by no means THE way to plan and prep meals and there may be a better way for you to do it, but it's a well-oiled process that I've developed over the past couple of years and works really well for us. The reason behind doing it? It saves me SO much time, and keeps us eating healthy all week. If I have a fridge full of healthy, prepped, pre-washed, chopped and ready to go foods, we are far less likely to eat out on a whim. We don't have those conversations during the week of "what's for dinner" and then scrambling to figure out what we can cook with what we have. This makes my life so much easier, and I think it will help you too. So here it is....

Sunday is my day. It's the day that I get spend at home getting all of my prep done for the week. While I'm drinking my morning coffee, I grab my laptop and plan out our meals and make up my grocery list. I plan our weekly meals based around what we already have (which I keep track of in my pantry/freezer inventory...have I mentioned I have a little OCD?), what's on sale at the various grocery stores I have available to me, and what produce is in season. These are the meals I planned for us this week:
On the schedule I list the meal next to the day, then list all the ingredients with a note about where the recipe can be found (in which cookbook, the link to the online source, etc.). Yes this is a lot, but it works. I print off the sheet and put it on our refrigerator. If I'm at the gym or get home late and need Luke to start dinner, he can and doesn't wonder what we're having or what all he'll need, it's all spelled out. Again, it works for us!

In addition to dinners, I'll plan what to have available for lunches and snacks. Planning out lunch is probably the most important to me. If I have made up meals in the fridge that I can grab as I run out the door, I'll make good food choices and won't run down to the hospital cafeteria and eat crap. This week I'm grilling a bunch of chicken and roasting sweet potatoes, along with prepping a bunch of fresh veggies, and making a skinny chicken salad for something different. For snacks, I'm going to make our usual chocolate peanut butter protein balls and also some apple cinnamon bars. Breakfast is easy because we almost always eat the same thing (oatmeal, eggs, avocado and fruit) and the only prep required is chopping up strawberries.

After I have our meal schedule planned out, I make my grocery list and compare it to the sales that my local grocery stores are having so I know where to find the best deals. I'm lucky that I live in a metro area because I have so many stores in my area and I'm able to shop around. This weekend I went to Hy-Vee and Whole Foods. I almost always go to Hy-Vee because I like the quality of their produce. I would buy absolutely everything I could at Whole Foods but the budget doesn't allow that right now. But they do have good deals and certain things that I like to get there, so I make an exception. Here's my grocery list:


I put a dot in front of the produce that I want to be sure to buy organic. I follow the "Dirty Dozen" list to know which is best to buy organic and basically it boils down to anything that you eat with the skin or peel still on. There are a couple things that once I got to the grocery store I decided I didn't really need, so you won't see a couple things on the list below. Here's how I did...

Whole Foods
Tri-color Quinoa (16 oz) - $7.39
Organic cane sugar (32 oz) - $3.79
365 Fire-Roasted Diced Tomatoes - $1.99
365 Panko Breadcrumbs (8 oz) - $2.69
Organic green leaf lettuce - $1.99
Organic baby carrots - $1.67
Organic local strawberries - $5.99
Organic gala apples - $3.77
Organic red grapes - $8.66 ($2.17/lb.) - I hate breaking up the bunch so I just take what's in the bag, oops
Organic red potatoes (5 lbs) - $5.99
365 Frozen Bagged Chicken Tenders (2 lbs) - $8.99

Total: $52.92 before tax and bag refunds


Hy-Vee
Cottage cheese - $2.89
Sliced water chestnuts - $0.88
Slivered almonds - $1.89
Unsweetened applesauce - $1.79
Fage plain Greek yogurt - $4.69
Boneless skinless chicken breasts (4) - $15.96
Broccoli - $2.49
Bananas - $1.33
Avocados (4) - $4.00
Lemons (2) - $1.76
Red cabbage - $1.76
Red onion - $1.11
Yellow squash (2) - $1.75

Total: $42.30 before tax and bag refunds


I spent a little more than usual, but there are quite a few things that we'll use multiple times (chicken, quinoa, sugar, Greek yogurt, applesauce, vinegar) so I may not have to buy them next week.

The first thing I do when I get home is wash all the produce. I have a produce wash that I make up in a Mason jar and keep in the fridge. To make it mix together 2 cups water, 1/2 cup vinegar and juice of 1 lemon. I fill my sink with cold water and add about 1/2 cup of the produce wash to it and mix it around. The produce then soaks for about 5 minutes, usually longer because I lose track of time. After they soak, I cut up what needs to be cut up and pack it all away.


For our lunches, I grilled 3 of the 4 packages of chicken and roasted 4 large sweet potatoes. The potatoes are super simple, I cut them into bite-size pieces and toss them with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and spread them out into one layer on a baking sheet. I roast them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, tossing them halfway through. After it's all cooked, I separate them into containers for every day of the week. Our dinners this week didn't really require any prep ahead of time other than cutting up some veggies, so I didn't have anything else to do.

That wasn't too bad was it? In about an hour I had made lunches for both of us for the week, snacks, and gotten all of our produce washed and chopped. I think that hour of my life is a fair trade for eating well all week. I hope you give it a try and formulate whatever plan works best for you and your family! I'll post my plan as often as I can to help give you ideas. Happy planning!

**Tip: It's SOOOO much easier (for me) to start this whole process with a clean kitchen. I make sure the night before I do all of this that the dishwasher is loaded and ran, counters are clean, the stove top is scrubbed and everything is in it's place. When I wake up Sunday morning I just unload the dishwasher and everything is ready for me to get moving!

This little cookies are so amazingly delicious, you'll fight yourself not to eat a dozen as soon as they come out of the oven! The strawberries from my grocery store and farmers market have been so good this year that I buy a ton, and end up having to freeze -half of them, so I've been looking for good, new strawberry recipes to try and stumbled across this one. I have had strawberries in cake or ice cream or dessert bars, but never in a cookie! Why is that?! It's amazing! They're so springy!

Strawberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep Time: 20 min. | Cook Time: 15 min. | Servings: 24

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped fresh strawberries
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1-2 tbsp. flour
5 oz. white chocolate chips


Preparation Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Pour fresh lemon juice over chopped strawberries, drain them after a few minutes. Whisk together 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.

Beat butter with sugar and cream cheese until it's light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Gradually add flour mixture and mix until it's well combined. Stir in white chocolate chips.

Sprinkle strawberries with 1-2 tablespoons flour, toss them until all strawberries are coated with thin layer of flour and then stir them really gently into the batter.

Drop heaping tablespoon of batter onto pan leaving an inch space between. Set the cookies in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes before baking. After refrigerating, bake 13-15 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Let them cool a few minutes in the pan then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.


Confession: The first time I made these, I used frozen strawberries. They were strawberries that I had bought at the farmers market then had cut up and thrown in the freezer in a Ziploc. I just thawed them, drained them really well and folded them into the batter. I thought they turned out just fine. I also did not refrigerate them before baking, I just didn't have the time. They were very soft and doughy though, so I'm thinking that the quick chill in the fridge would have helped out that situation. The cream cheese makes these so moist and the white chocolate is a nice change from the traditional semi-sweet chocolate chip. Give them a try, I know you'll like them!

Yep, another hummus recipe. Can you tell what I'm into lately? Luke and I love hummus, and now that I'm comfortable making it myself, I'm happy to try out all kinds of variations to save some money at the grocery store. This particular recipe we ate alone with veggies and pita chips and also in wraps. It's amazing in any form!

Southwestern Hummus 

Ingredients:
1 (16 oz.) can Garbanzo beans, drained
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice from 1/2 lemon (sorry forgot it in the picture)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tbsp. roasted red pepper

Preparation Instructions:
Blend all ingredients in the food processor until you reach the desired consistency. Enjoy!

*Note: I would maybe add 1/2 tsp. of cayenne next time. We don't mind a little spice to our food.

Simple as that. Isn't hummus amazing? Sorry I was too busy digging into the food processor bowl to put the hummus in a pretty bowl and stage a picture. Basically it looks just like any other hummus just slightly redder. Deeee-licious!

Adapted from this recipe.

Here's everything you will need. Note that I used a chocolate protein powder. I did this because I like to add a little more protein to our diet wherever I can. It keeps me full and fuels my workouts. The original recipe I adapted this from called for cocoa powder instead, which is totally fine if you'd rather use that. Another note, any other type of nut butter can be used instead of peanut butter. I like Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter because listed under ingredients is: peanuts.....that's it! You could also make these with almond butter, sunflower butter, the sky's the limit. Play with whatever you like!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls

Prep Time: 15 min. | Cook Time: 0 min. | Makes 20-25 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup quick oats (or any kind of dry oatmeal you want to use)
2/3 cup toasted unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/3 cup honey or agave nectar
1/4 cup chocolate protein powder
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract

This recipe made 22 balls for me (there are 20 in the picture because the husband and I had to sample them to make sure they were just right!) and when I put all the ingredients into my calorie counter the nutritional content was this (per ball):


This was my lunch and snacks yesterday. It was my first day back to work since finishing up my 12 week transformation with my trainer. It wasn't hard for me to make the right choices as far as good nutrient-rich foods, but having a carb with my lunch felt odd and I got really bloated in the afternoon. So much so, that I'm thinking of continuing my no carb (or at least very low carb) lunch and dinner. We'll see. Remember carbohydrates are very important for our bodies and our energy levels, I'm not bashing carbs here, just limiting the amount and the type that I eat. I had a turkey club wrap (deli smoked turkey, a strip of bacon, lettuce, baby spinach, tomato, homemade ranch mayo all on a whole grain tortilla), veggies with hummus and a couple small slices of sharp cheddar cheese. The fruit (strawberries, blueberries and red grapes) were my morning snack, and the protein balls were my afternoon snack. They were the perfect afternoon snack too because I was getting a sugar craving just as it was time to go grab those little babies from the fridge. Perfect! All in all not a bad day, but I think it was too much, I was really pretty full.


Wondering what in the world chia seeds are? Ground flax, huh? Check back in later this week and I'll give you some info on these awesome super foods!