Whole 30 Day 2

I was so glad I had leftovers to take for lunch because I was running late as usual this morning. I'm never really late, I just have no extra time for dilly dallying. And by dilly dallying, I mean eating breakfast and packing my lunch.

Breakfast- banana, black coffee

Lunch- leftover spicy sausage "pasta" from last night

Dinner- sweet potato hash (recipe follows)


                               Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 lb ground beef (I used some grass fed 90% lean ground beef I got from Publix)
2 green onion stalks, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder


Now this is nothing fancy, by no means. This is simply, "I'm hungry and I don't want to cook something that's going to take forever to get in my belly" dinner. Satisfying nonetheless.

1) Melt about 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a large skillet. You want enough oil to coat the bottom of the skillet. The point is to basically pan fry then to get a little crunch. Add the diced sweet potatoes and stir to coat them in the oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat to medium and continue to fry, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

This smells amazing, btw

2) Once potatoes are tender, remove from skillet with a slotted spoon. Now, my ground beef was extremely lean so I left the remaining oil in the skillet to cook it in. If you are using a fattier cut, I'd drain off all but a tablespoon of oil. You gotta have some fat! Add ground beef and seasonings to skillet.Cook ground beef over medium heat, until no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Drain. 

3) Add potatoes back to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally until thoroughly heated, 5 minutes.

Heatin' on up

4) Top with the green onions and serve!

Voila! 30 minute dinner

This was definitely a starter recipe. I didn't have much on hand to add to this, but a Mexican version would be good with jalapenos, cumin, cilantro, chorizo! The possibilities are endless! Ahh that will be a post here soon, me thinks. Welp, that about wraps it up! Day three meals and recipes coming up soon..

Whole 30 Day 1

I started the year off by doing a whole 30 for the month of January. I dropped 15 pounds, my sinuses cleared up noticeably,  and it really wasn't that difficult.  Well, if you're into cooking, meal planning, and food prep, it wasn't difficult! That's about the only con to this "cleanse", "diet" whatever you want to call it. You have to get creative unless you like eating salads and chicken everyday. Anyway, I didn't document the first go around mostly because I wasn't sure I was going to last the 30 days. I started another one because I felt I needed a spring cleaning, so to speak.
            In preparation for my work week I went ahead and made some "emergency" meals. Something I could grab when I was short on time, or didn't have anything planned. I had slow roasted a mojo seasoned pork shoulder in the crockpot earlier in the week, so I mixed that with some roasted sweet potatoes and onions and froze individual portions. The pork shoulder I found at my local Publix already pre seasoned. Now, I'm sure it's probably not totally whole 30 approved, but that's all I had on hand and I wanted to start the following day regardless. So here is my complete Whole30 meal plan, day by day.


                                 Day 1
Breakfast- banana, black coffee

Snack- roasted cauliflower "hummus" with carrots

Lunch- roasted sweet potatoes and pork

Dinner- spicy sausage "pasta"(recipe following), salad



Spicy Sausage Pasta

Ingredients:

Aidells chicken and apple sausage (2 links)
2 medium zucchini
1/4 c coconut milk, full fat. ( just the creamy part)
1 can of tomatoes
1 can of green chiles, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
sliced green onions (optional, for garnish)
2 small tomatoes, chopped (optional, for garnish)


1) Preheat your skillet to medium heat, add a good swirl of extra virgin olive oil. Add your sausage and sauté until nicely browned, about 5 minutes.

Nothing wrong with this..

 2) Slice zucchini into thin slices. I like to use my vegetable peeler for this, perfect zucchini strips.

No fancy equipment needed!

3) Add the cans of tomatoes and green chiles to the skillet with the sausage. Give it a good stir.

The making of yumminess..

4) Go ahead and add the zucchini strips in. Stir and saute' for a few minutes until the zucchini softens slightly.

Nice color

5) Stir in the coconut milk. I used closer to a 1/2 cup just because I wanted it really creamy :) Go ahead and add any spices you are using.

Coconut milk really makes this

6) Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 10 minutes to let flavors meld and sauce reduce.

Cover it up!

7) Add whatever optional garnishes you prefer and serve! I highly recommend the chopped tomatoes though. It really added some brightness.

You won't even miss the cheese!

Oh my yum this was good. Super satisfying. Really didn't feel like I was eating "diet" food. I was inspired by this dish from this awesome recipe I was making the hubs for dinner. Now I want you to know I resisted this cheesy goodness and strictly ate my version. Pretty proud moment for me considering cheese is one of my biggest weaknesses...

Seriously. Try this recipe.

And that wraps up day one for me! Stay tuned for day two recipes.

Soup and Hearts

        Fall has finally come to Florida! Woke up to a brisk 63 degrees this morning. We had to break out the sweaters! So I have taken my blogging outside to enjoy this beautiful day, the humidity is low, the sky is blue, and I'm off work today!

There's a tiny patch of leaves changing color!

       Whenever there is a chill in the air, I just crave soup. We love soup in my family. My mother has been known to make a "leftover soup" where she just basically throws a bunch of leftovers from the week in a pot and it always turns out delicious. I didn't really end up with leftovers this week so I decided to make a "whatever you have in the pantry and fridge" kind of soup. I've had a jar of artichokes hanging out in the pantry for over a week that have been begging me to make something out of them. Also, I had some fresh spinach that was on the verge of needing to be thrown out, so why not make a spinach artichoke soup? I had contemplated making a dip, however to make a good dip you really need cream cheese and alas, I was all out. The end result was actually really good considering the smorgasbord of ingredients I threw together. And of course, I had some leftovers to take to my mama:)
 
                                       Spinach Artichoke Soup

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1tbsp butter
2 small onions (or one medium one); chopped fine
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 12 oz jar artichoke hearts, drained and lightly rinsed if marinated; roughly chopped
2c fresh baby spinach, or thawed, drained frozen spinach
2c chicken broth or stock
1 tbsp flour
dash of salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 jar alfredo sauce
1/4 c half and half or heavy whipping cream ( or you could also use milk)
1c mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 c parmesan cheese, shredded

1) Add the oil and butter to your pot over medium high heat

Butter and olive oil..the magic combination

2) Once butter is melted, add onions. Stir and cook 3-5 minutes or until onions are translucent.

Buttered onions, yum

3) Once the onions are good and ready, add your garlic.

Silly garlic, get in that pot

4) Cook and stir onions and garlic 1-2 minutes. Add the whole 2c of spinach. (it looks like a lot, but it wilts in no time) Cook spinach mixture just until it wilts, 3-5 minutes.

I was pretty impressed with the steam in this picture..

5) Add the chopped artichokes and sprinkle the 1 tbsp flour and seasonings on top. 

Get in my belly

6) Cook 2-4 minutes, just until the mixture starts getting a little thick. Add the 2 cups of chicken broth.

Starting to look like soup!

7) Reduce heat to medium low, cover and let simmer 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Longer if you can, but I was starving and wanted it done as soon as possible!

8) Add the half jar of alfredo sauce and the half and half. (here's where the cream cheese would have been awesome, but sometimes you just got to use up those half jars you got lying around!)

My favorite part, when it gets creamy...

9) Let that incorporate together to heat everything back up, then add both the cheeses. Stir for about 1-2 minutes to let the cheese melt nicely together.

10) Taste, and adjust to your liking. I ended up adding a few dashes of red pepper flakes, but I have to have a little spice on everything! The alfredo sauce really helps adding some dimension of flavors without having to doctor it up too much.

11) Turn off the stove and cover the soup, let stand for 5 min just to merry the flavors together. Serve warm with a little extra parmesan on top. I also am a cracker fiend so I added those too, after I took the picture.

Doesn't get better than a hot bowl of soup

And there you have it! A nice warm bowl of comforting soup reminiscent of spinach artichoke dip but you get to eat it with a spoon! And as an added bonus, you also get to clear out your fridge without having to throw any food away. Which is just not something we do. I have seriously found about a tablespoon of tomato soup in a tiny tupperware container in my mom's fridge. Her response? "Well, I might need it for something.." Indeed, mother. 

And Hearts..

This is where the "and hearts" come into play. Food, yes you will always be my one true love, however there's always room for some DIY! The other day I managed to squeeze in time for a quick little project. Tinted major jars! This was probably my very first pin. I adore mason jars, and loved the idea of tinting the ones I already have instead of buying already made ones. Gives you bragging rights...Earlier in the day I had finally made a trip down to my local Lowe's to buy two brackets and a shelf. ( I thought this was the most genius idea until my mother informed me it's been around forever)
And of course I thought to myself, a perfect place for jars! This site was the easiest one I  found.

It actually turned out right the first time!

And just in case anyone wanted to see, here is also the finished shelf with the jars (which are in fact, not mason jars, but an artichoke, olive oil, and two baby food jars)

I put a tea light in one of the baby food jars:)

Also, the shelf gives me a space to put baby's super creepy Easter picture...that Easter bunny was straight out of Donnie Darko.


                                                        Sea Salt Texturizing Spray

Let me just start by saying how much I love salt spray for the hair. I have tried many brands, name brand and not so name brand, but I feel like this homemade one is the best. Being a licensed professional, I would probably be shamed for saying that, but hey, at least I'm honest! I have what I like to call "lazy waves". It definitely needs a little help. This salt spray gives me soft, beachy waves. Your results may vary, but this is the one that works best for my hair.

The original recipe, which can be found here calls for a water based pomade. I left this out as I did not have any, however, I don't think I would use it in there if I did have some. Pomade tends to be heavy, which might weigh down fine hair. Now, let's make some waves!


Ingredients:
1 tsp sea salt
1-2 tbsp leave in conditioner
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
spray bottle ( I stock up on these at the dollar store)
hot water

Easy Peasy

Add first three ingredients into your spray bottle. Fill bottle 3/4 of the way with hot water. Shake vigorously until ingredients are incorporated. Just remember to shake every time before you use it just to prevent the salt from settling. I find it works better on damp, not soaking wet hair. Just spritz, scrunch and go! I will post before and after pictures once I finally put some makeup on...You would never know I'm in the fashion industry when I'm off work.

Happy Tuesday everybody! 

Fish and Hearts

Ah fish sticks. Is there anything better? Yes. Homemade fish sticks! The thing about these particular ones are the texture. Most homemade fish stick recipes I've tried are still basically pieces of fish breaded and baked or fried. But traditional frozen ones are made of "minced" fish. Well, one day it hit me. What if i "minced" the fish in my food processor? Voila! The magic happened! Tasted just like the frozen ones except a million times better! And isn't that the point of making something homemade? To say my son is a picky eater is an understatement, but he will ask for these. The best part is they can be made in about 30 minutes.

    Now because my son is a picky eater, I made these with very little seasoning. I would in no way say they are bland, but this is something you can play around with to suit your personal tastes. If you want to try this gluten free, I would suggest using coconut flour. I haven't tried it yet, but I will update when I do.


   I paired these tonight with a tartar sauce I found here.

                             Homemade Fish Sticks


Ingredients:

1 frozen cod filet, thawed
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
1/4 tsp salt ( or to taste)
1 1/2 c. Cornflake crumbs (I just process these in my food processor, before the fish obviously)


1) Preheat oven to 375; line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spray with cooking oil. Process corn flakes until they resemble bread crumbs.

The secret to the crunchiness! 

2) pulse the fish in the food processor until it turns to mush.

Making our own "minced fish"

3) Take the minced fish, roll and flatten into fish stick like patties. Thoroughly coat your patties in the cornflake crumbs. There is no need for egg, or any other binder as there is enough moisture in the thawed fish to get a nice breading to stick. Also, my son is allergic to eggs, so, there ya go.

4) Transfer your fish sticks to your foil lined cookie sheet. Spray with a little more cooking spray on the top.

Mmmm crunchy deliciousness...

5) Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 9 minutes. Flip fish sticks over, spray with a little more cooking spray. Pop back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes. Let cool slightly. Serve with tartar sauce, ketchup, or anything your heart desires!

Finished for baby's plate

And that's all there is to it! I hope you try these and love them as much as baby and I do :) And hey, you know exactly what's in them! Happy Monday everybody!